This Weekend...

I have big plans this weekend. Today is Thursday and I'm having a Silpada party tonight. I have a few friends and a bunch of family coming over to party the Silpada way. I love this jewelry, so I'm sure I'll be getting more to add to my collection!! Brian is headed out of town for work, he's be gone until Sunday night. Ahhhh!

Then Friday, I have to get some photographs gathered up and take the kids to my parents house. I'm the most blessed to have my parents nearby that I can call upon to care for my children when I need some me time. So mom and dad are keeping the kids Friday evening to Sunday evening. On my way home from my folks place, I'm going to swing by Flo's to discuss scrap booking stuff. I have never done it and she is taking me and her mother to a retreat in Frisco. I'm so jazzed about this. Finally I've given in to the scrap booking bug.

Saturday, I'm waking up early to get a fabulous Swedish massage and an amazing pedicure and manicure at the greatest day spa in Frisco. I have found a great lady that does a wonderful job with pedicures and manicures, she's a white lady that speaks only English and her name is Amanda. She's very country and I really do like her! Can't wait for my pedi/mani with Amanda. It's an hour and a half long pedi/mani and she does an excellent job. Gotta love that. Then Saturday night I want to rent the Bride Wars movie and veg out in front of the tv watching movies and drinking wine. But I think Patti and Shelly may have other plans for me, which involves dinner and drinks as well. Some point during the day I need to gather up more photos for the scrapbook retreat I'll be attending on Sunday.

Sunday I'll be headed to Frisco from 12-6 for the Ladybug Scrapbook Retreat. I have never done anything creative like this and I'm really excited to finally give in and start the kids new scrapbooks. I have not even come close to finishing Bella's baby book and I haven't even opened up Cooper's. Sad I know, so I'll have a fun day with Flo and her mother Sharon at the retreat. Flo is very, very into the scrapping stuff. And she works at Michael's corporate office, so I'll get some great pointers and she gets a discount.

Sunday, which is May 3, is my 6 year wedding anniversary, and yes, Brian will be home late on Sunday. I gave him the go ahead to go out of town, he had to get this job over with and why not just do it now. I have very mixed feelings, but he's making money and with this economy, we need all we can get. I'm sure he'll fix me a nice dinner next week and we'll have some time together. But after 6 years, I know what to expect. I don't want him to spend tons of money like usually happens, dinner, gifts, flowers, the whole nine yards. We need to save and I'll probably buy something at the Silpada jewelry show anyway. I need a new dress watch, shhh.

So I'm finally getting that weekend I have been thinking about for a while. It's coming at a perfect time. It's going to be a wonderful weekend, just me and the dog.

Cooper's 1st Birthday Party

Happy Birthday Baby Boy!

I love you!

This was April 17, 2009. Cooper's actual birthday morning.

We had Cooper's first birthday party on April 19th, with Major and Cooper sharing birthday weekends, Major's was Saturday and Cooper's was Sunday. I didn't choose a theme until 3 days before, only because I didn't know what to do. Brian's sister Denise made Cooper's awesome cake and we decided on Thursday night to make it a Mickey Mouse party. Denise taught herself a new technique she wanted to try out and like always, it was perfect.

We had a big group of friends and family over to eat, drink and be merry. Cooper was adorable and did a fantastic job for his party. He had no interest in opening gifts, so Isabella happily did the chore for him! She also blew out his candle. She was a great big sister!

Cooper loves sweets, unlike Bella. He ate his cake for a good 45 minutes or so! He loved it. His guest were impressed with his fork skills, he used his fork correctly and it was too funny!

We are such a blessed family. Our friends and family showered Cooper with lots of love and kisses as well as a bundle of gifts. The party was a great one! I'm thrilled that we have such amazing people surrounding us.

Here are a few fun photos of the big boys 1st birthday party! Enjoy!

(as soon as Blogger allows me to upload photos, I will. For some reason it is very temperamental. Sometimes I hate this site.... be back soon!)

Elementary School

I'm so excited I can't stand it! The new elementary school is going in, like today. They started the construction, or land prep for the new school that Isabella and Cooper will attend. We will be walking distance to the school. This is one of the many reasons we chose the community we live in. The school will be called Beverly or Barbara Crawford Elementary (I think, I forgot, something like that). Anywho, the process has started officially today and I'm excited to watch it be built. Too cool!!

Hair Cuts All Around

On Thursday last week Cooper got his first hair cut. He did so well, Ms. Shelly gave him a sucker and he was in heaven! Then today I went back to see Ms. Shelly and she gave me a new spring cut, yes, cut. No longer pony-tail fashion for me, I'll have to actually get up and "fix" my hair. Then after I got Bella from school, we stopped of to get a chop off. Ha! I got her hair bob-ed. She will not let it grow out, she keeps chewing on it and when she's playing outside/inside she gets all sweaty and her hair sticks to her face/head. I have never been one to like ratty stringy hair especially on small kids. When she decides to take care of her own hair and actually brush it and fix it and the such, then we'll grow it back out. But since she won't even let me put it in a pony-tail, its gone!! I have been threatening it for a few weeks that she must get her hair out of her mouth or I would cut if off myself. So I just took her to get it chopped off instead. I am a bit pissed at the salon I take her to. I've been there a hand full of times for bang trims and a tiny half inch off the back, and most of the time they screw it up. So why did I think it would be any different this time? It wasn't and I had the lady "try again" twice. Finally, when her bangs were up to her hairline, I stopped insisting she redo it. She seems to like it well enough, I hate her bangs, I hate that I keep getting them cut!! She has WAY more than bangs as bangs. It's pretty awful, but again until she will fix it herself or let me, it's gonna be that way for a bit longer.

Spring Break 2009 at the Lazy J Getaway

I'm a bit late on this one, spring break was about a month ago. But it was dang fun. Bella, Cooper and I met Michelle, Major, Michael, Mavrick, Mom and Dad at the farm. It was a fun filled week of craziness.We did crafts, went roller skating and a ton of work around to farm land/house. I would love to do a week long visit there once a month. We're gonna try this summer to make it out there a lot more often.

Here are a few highlight photos of our spring break visit.
Michelle and I went to the waste dumping place to dump this trailer full of the first large load of trash from the farm. We worked for a day putting trash of all sorts in this old pickup bed/trailer. Then off the Waste Management to dump it. This was both our first AND LAST trip to the dump. Notice our attire. Yes, I have my boots on and honestly I'm glad I did! This place made morning sickness seem like a bed of roses. We both gagged and swallowed throw up in out mouth, it was the worst smell I have ever smelled in my life. We had to unload the trailer and just throw it out with the rest of the trash in this huge pile of trash. I think she and I were crying from the fumes we were inhaling as well as how damn funny it was because there were these men driving this LARGE trash crushing rigs, these rigs are bigger than my house. And here we are dressed in our farm best prancing about in trash. We were wearing out diamonds in the dump. We had no idea what to expect, and I honestly thought they would pull the trash out of the trailer. We learned a huge lesson. And it was a very smelly lesson learned.

This is Isabella and the boys bounching her on the air mattress.

My Song...

When I had Isabella, I always wanted to sing her to sleep. And the song I choose to sing was 'You are My Sunshine'. But as I tried to sing the song, I was filled with so much emotion I couldn't get the word sunshine out, I would just start balling. So I tried a few other that I could actually remember, but noting worked. So I just made up my own song. It's to the tune of "Where is tumbkin, where is thumbkin, here I am, here I am?" I'm not exactly sure how that song goes, but the tune is easy. So here's the song I made up and it has stuck and everyone in the family knows it.

"Isabella, Isabella, I love you, I love you, Isabella (drawn out), Isabella (drawn out), I love you, I love you."

Then when Cooper was born, I made it "Cooper Michael, Cooper Michael, I love you, I love you". That's what my kids have gone to sleep hearing every night. Isabella sings it to Cooper when he's fussy/mad/upset. And usually he'll just calm down and watch her sing it. It's soothing to both my kids and they know that when I sing that song they are about to go to sleep.

My Diet

Or not so much. I don't call it a diet. It's a change of lifestyle. Meaning, I just eat better, no so much junk. Not I have to confess, I do have one Dr. Pepper. It's a must to stay sane and migraine free. I tried to go without my DP and I could have poked my eyes out, my head felt like it was going to explode. So I have to have my drug of choice, Dr. Pepper!

In the boot camp I'm in, we were given a formula to find out how much calories, protein, fat and carbs we should have daily per our weight, height, style of exercise and the such.

Mine is as follows:
1775 total calories
Out of that 1775 total calories, I should have 356 protein, 39 fat grams and 345 carbs daily. I should not go below 1500 calories a day, if I do that will burn the good stuff, not the bad stuff. It's not that hard to eat the correct calories, but it's become very easy to go below the 1500 calories a day. And I don't want to burn the muscles or the good stuff. I'm really enjoying learning about the proper way to eat, the proper things I should eat and all that good stuff.
I'm down 10 lbs and at least one size, but I have many, many more lbs to go.

OMG... Where Has The Time Gone!!

It has been so long and so much I have wanted to say, but I am just too dang busy. I plan to write tonight one the kiddos go to bed. We'll see. Cooper turns one tomorrow and we have an extremely busy weekend. I have a ton of pictures to post. It seems that every time I try to post a picture it has some sort of stupid error, damn blog. So I'll try again. We've had a busy past few months and a crazy summer ahead, but I love to stay busy and especially with my kids.

Just as fearless as big sister.

He has master the stairs up and down!

The night he started walking, not that impressed. April 7th

Bella in her rain gear from MiMi.

COOPER IS WALKING

I have to post this so I don't forget when it happened. I'll type and post pictures later. 10 days before his first birthday he started walking.

He took 5 steps towards me, then I had him walk again and he took 6 more. Then he walked a few times for Isabella. Bummer, Brian wasn't home. But I called him and told him to rush home.

Yea, he is walking!!!

Good Times!

Yesterday I helped host a baby shower and Brian had the kids for a few hours. It was too cold and windy to play outside, so he brought the fun inside. He blew up the bounce house in the playroom. It is great!

If Cooper's birthday party is too cold to go outside, we'll bring the fun in. I'm glad he did this!