What I'm Obsessed With...

I am completely obsessed with this blog: Pinterest Told Me To. I stumbled upon it last summer and my shopping habits have not been the same since. Nordstrom and Loft are now my go to stores. I love how she shows you outfit combinations and makes suggestions that I would have never thought of. If you're not following yet, you should change that now.

Here's the list of must-have's that I've bought or received as Christmas gifts from her site:

• Must have jeans 
• Must have wedges
• Must have white shirt
• Must have leggings
• Sam Edelmen Penny boots (black)
• Stella & Dot necklaces (sanibel pendant & the gold one)
• Sam Edelman leopard flats
• the blardigan
• multiple items from Loft
• fringe scarf
• Frye Melissa Button boots (cognac)
• Kut from the Kloth cords

Yes... I'm obsessed. Anyways, I'm taking a break from online shopping. I've only bought 1 thing in the last week. It's a sparkly glitter dress for our mexico trip. I'm a bit nervous about it but really liked it online. 

One of the best things about the blog is now all the followers are adding #ptmt posts on instagram. I'm happy to report that I've tagged my fringe scarf and blardigan to her collection of photos.

FYI... If you have a kid, have ever thought about having a kid, or simply like being comfy... go order the blardigan (I bought the "cocoa" one) Blardigan 

Happy Shopping... and I'll warn you... it's addicting!

Jackson slept in his bed!!

Jackson slept upstairs in his big boy bed all by himself ALL night last night. This is major news. Jackson has been in our bed for the last year when he ditched his crib. We were at a loss on how to get him back in it. We tried cry it out, we tried getting him to sleep in our bed and then moving him, you name it... We tried it. We eventually gave up and allowed him to rule the king size bed. Over the last month, we've gradually purchased the pieces to create a big boy bed. Last night, we did the bedtime routine upstairs and he fell asleep. When I woke up at 8am and saw him still asleep on the baby monitor I was shocked. He is in a very happy mood this morning. I suppose he's proud of himself :)

Next up on my shopping list is a set of bed rails. The "pillow wall" I surrounded him in is making us all too nervous that he will fall off the bed.

Now to see if night two goes as good  as night one.

It's been soooo long

I took a major vacation from blogging. I can't stand the fact that I let a year of Jackson's life go by without documenting every waking moment. I know some of you are breathing a sigh of relief right now. I'm going to make a conscious effort to be better in 2014. I revamped the layout of all 3 blogs I attempt to maintain. Please note that if you followed the blog before, you'll need to "re-follow" as the domain has changed.

Discipline

Now that Jackson's getting bigger, I find myself thinking about how we will discipline him for the things he does that are wrong. Right now, he's in the tumultuous two's and he's not even had his second birthday. He tests me daily. He throws things. He screams when we don't give him the iPhone with the correct cartoon on YouTube, he hits when he's tired, he can be a real grouch. Yet he can turn it all back to 100% angel in a blink of an eye. I get so frustrated then my heart melts again. I then feel guilty for feeling so frustrated with him. It's a cycle. I am praying for patience. I am honestly going to add that as a prayer every day. I was struck by this verse in the one year Bible today and felt the urge to share it. I never imagined the Bible addressed sparking. I truly need to open my eyes more and rely on the unending truth that God has an answer for every question, doubt, or fear that we may have.

PROVERBS 23:13-14

Don’t fail to discipline your children. They won't die if you spank them. Physical discipline may well save them from death. 

I take it my parents read this verse a time or two when I was between the ages of 5-12 because I vividly remember a few encounters with my father's "church wearing" belt. It's hard to imagine physically spanking Jackson and seeing him hurt from something I've done. I can't deny that I've popped his diaper a time or to when he's acting uncontrollable and flailing body parts in my direction. In those moments I've hated myself for even that small step of action.  No one tells you this stuff when you're expecting. No one tells you the challenging pieces of information. I guess it's one of those things you learn as you go. Learn by praying, reading the Bible and loving on my family.  

Destin 2013

 

Thank you Papa Jack and Grans for letting us go to the beach with you. We had a great time. 

Grandmother Betty

Please keep my husband's family in your prayers. His grandmother went to be with Jesus on Sunday.  She was 87 and it was expected but still very hard on them all. Grandmother Betty always told it like it was. She found my son to be hilarious and always told Brent that he had a "pretty" wife. She made it to our wedding back in 2009 but then began going downhill. She was determined to live to see Brent's son. In doing so, she made her sons bring her to the hospital to see Jackson when he was two days old. I believe she was partial to my sweet husband. It's been a tough day around here and I know the coming days will bring tears and happy memories of the fun times they had growing up with their grandparents.

Teething trouble

Poor Jackson had a rough night last night. He went to sleep in his bed and lasted there about two hours. He woke up crying so I made the mad dash upstairs in the dark to rescue him. When I got to him, he clung to me for dear life. He then proceed to cry and cry and cry for what seemed like eternity. Poor baby is getting a molar and he's not impressed by it at all. Brent finally took his temp around 12:30am and t was 101.7. We gave Tylenol and within an hour Jackson was sweating as if he'd ran a 5k. Around 2am we realized the three of us in one bed would not end well. I took Jackson to his nursery and rocked him until he finally passed out again. He and I then spent the rest of the night in the guest room upstairs. Every hour or so he'd cry out in pain. It was hard to soothe him. I'm hopeful that tonight is better

To top it off, he's got a smashed finger! It looks like a big. Loos blister on the end of his pinky. I have no idea how he did it. I face timed my EMT brother-in-law's to confirm that the boo boo was non-pinky threatening. They assure me that unless the blister continues to swell we will not need to pop it. The thought of poking my sweet boy with a sterilized needle was too much for this mama!

Goodnight all!

Why AdvoCare

If you haven't been under a rock you've noticed that I've had several posts about AdvoCare lately. It's because I'm so excited about my new opportunity and want to share the info with anyone who will listen.

For starters, I was SO skeptical. I wanted no part of this. I wouldn't even go to my best friends mixer because there was no way she was dragging me into this scheme of hers. Fast forward 3 months and the itch got me. I needed to lose 5-10lbs, I needed to break my Dr Pepper habit, and extra money sounded nice. I placed my first retail order (dumb mistake) and did the ten day cleanse and started spark. I was hooked! I had to order more... Only this time I did my distributorship which saved me 20%. I WISH I'd did this WITH my FIRST retail order (that was my dumb mistake).

I'm feeling better, looking slimmer (I'm down 6.5lbs) and have more energy. I want to tell anyone who will listen about this because I'm making $. I'm using products. Things are going good. This isn't a cult, this isn't a fraud MLM, it's a group of nice people who just happen to use direct sales to help those that want to use product make some cash while getting a discount. It's as black and white as that.

If you're even remotely interested, please leave a comment or message me. I'd love to have a friend tell you about how she went from $5 to $30k and is set to hit approximately $86k this year.

You're investment can be as small as $79 (with $50 of free product and an automatic 20%) or as bold as $2100 for $3k of product with an automatic discount of 40%, advisor status, and set to earn back profit of $900 once you sell those products.

I'm so fortunate that I joined under the group I did. Our team leaders LEAD and help you see what it takes to turn this from a discount to extra $ in your pocket bi-weekly. I'm here to help. Here to share. Just ask!

Completed Cleanse :)

Finished the AdvoCare Herbal cleanse and am so pleased with the results. I lost a total of 4 inches and 4 1/2 lbs. I'm now 5lbs away from my target goal but back at pre-pregnancy weight.

If you're interested in the cleanse please check out my AdvoCare page. I'd love to talk to anyone in more detail about my Herbal Cleanse experience.

It's only ten days...and a very easy plan to follow.

If you're interested, please check out my default site: https://www.advocare.com/130143752/

Cleanse update

Day 8 of the cleanse is complete! I wore a pair of dress pants to work today that I haven't worn since before I was pregnant. I was pumped to pull them from my "to small" side of the closet, hold my breath, and then see them button. It's the small things in life, right? I'll give before and after measurements when it's over but I can definitely notice a change in the way my pants fit. The best part is I am enjoying my healthier choices.

I'm back...

I bet you guys thought the blog vanished. Well, it did for several months things around here have been great but hectic. Life's always interesting with a toddler.

I wanted to share something though that I'm currently doing. I'm on day 9 with no Dr Pepper. For me, this is HUGE. I've only had water and Spark. If you haven't tried Spark, you should. It's made by advocare and the fruit punch flavor is delicious. I'm going to a mixer next Tuesday so I can sample all favors. I do not drink coffee so one Spark a day does it for me. It's a powder that you mix in your water. It's safe. I won't go into detail because you can spend HOURS on the net reading about it.

I'm also on day three of the herbal cleanse. I'm a wimp but this has been easy. In three days, I've only made two slight no no's on my diet. I'm continuing to work out 3 times a week. I'm hoping for great results. If I had more time, I would have splurged for the entire 24 day challenge. We leave for Mexico on the day after I finish my cleanse so I opted for the first step of the challenge only.

Now my disclaimer: I wanted to hang up on my friend Jenna the first time she called me about this. I thought "sure... Yeah I bet you feel and look better" but it's true. And she's just passionate about this because its impacting her life so favorably. I decided to sign up to receive a discount. I'm viewing it as a comparison to Costco.

If you're interested, please check out my default site: https://www.advocare.com/130143752/

If you see a product you like, I encourage you to try it. That's all it took for me...trying.

Ill be sure to post ten day cleanse results once I'm finished.

Looking forward to being back in blog land :)

Pumpkin Patch

At the beginning of October we went out to the pumpkin patch in Hayden. I lugged my camera along and boy am I glad I did! I ended up getting some cute pictures of Jackson. I was thoroughly impressed with the pumpkin patch. We will definitely make the trip up there next year. Here's some of my favorites...

After we got home Brent said "you can use one of those pictures for our Christmas card". Not so fast my dear... more to come on the Christmas Card Photo Session disaster.

Halloween

Yes, I realize it's Thanksgiving and this post is about Halloween. I'm THAT behind :( We had way more trick-or-treaters...which was great! Brent kept count. I believe we hit 50. That's a big increase from our usual 4-5 at our old townhouse. Jackson did not trick... he only treated. One little girl who was about 3 months older than Jackson saw his toys and came running in our house. It was precious. She and Jackson just stood there looking at one another. I wish I remembered the parents names... I'm terrible with names. Justin & Jennifer came by and helped us pass out candy too. Charlie got in on the action as well. He loved running straight out the front door to the sidewalk each time we had a visitor.  It was a fun, dragon-filled night. I'll leave you with pictures...

sweet little dragon

 mad little dragon

 my boys

 first family Halloween

 action shot

Happy 12 Months Jackson

A little late but...JACKSON IS ONE!!! What a big boy we have on our hands now. At the time of his first birthday, Jackson would take a few steps but not take off across the room. He had 4 teeth. 2 bottom and 2 top. Jackson is into everything! He constantly wants to climb the stairs or be in the floor with his toys. Jackson doesn't like to sit still or be placed in his car seat. Jackson's having a hard time adjusting to textured foods. He'd prefer to eat baby food. Jackson is down to one bottle a day. This bottle is right before bedtime. I think he could do without it but it seems so crazy to think of my baby without any bottles! I believe we will knock this bottle out by 13 months. I can't believe my baby is 1.

Jackson's one month appointment was this past week. 

Jackson's stats:

31.5 inches tall

25.14 lbs

He's had a cold for the past two weeks and the cold has caused his right tube to clog. I'm hopeful that it clears soon. Jackson really is a special guy. He has his temper tantrum moments already but I wouldn't trade this life as a mommy for anything. We love you little J :)

Jackson's 1st Haircut

Jackson the night before his haircut

Jackson's needed a haircut for the past few months but I did my best to hold out until he was 1. This past Tuesday we gave in and went to visit Mrs. Kimberly. She did a great job with Jackson. I was worried about where to take him. I know most mom's make a big to-do about the first haircut. Brent said "just go get it cut". So here's our big to-do... Pictures :)

getting used to the chair

such a big boy

 "Mom...You see what she's doing?"

 Loves a blowout

 admiring his new clean cut in the mirror

my BIG boy

Thanks Kimberly for being so patient! Brent still says Jackson needs a burr (sp?) I have no idea what style our little guy will eventually have. For now, we will stick to the combover :)

Fall Vacation

Every year that Alabama plays Tennessee (well the last 3 times) in Knoxville we like to go up for the game. We used to stay in a cabin with our tailgate friends but JBT changed that. This year, we spent a few days camping with my grandparents. It was very relaxing. I didn't check my work email one time! Jackson actually went up a few days before us. Yes, I sent my child on vacation and I survived :) He had fun being in the mountains with his great-grandparents.

Family photo before heading to Knoxville

My Papaw has had motorcycles my whole life. As a child, he used to take me all over Hartselle on his. It scared some people half to death but my parents never said that I couldn't go. I'm going to be a bit more protective of Jackson but I did let him ride around the 5mph campsite. My Papaw took his motorcycle and had a special lap belt installed. It was priceless seeing him ride around with his Papaw. He loved it so much that he'd turn from us when we would try to take him off the bike.

When Jackson wasn't on the motorcycle you could find him in his car. He is obsessed with his car. He and I randomly bought it at Wal-Mart one day after school. His teacher pulled me outside and showed me this contraption that he loved so much and I just had to go get him one. Thank goodness I did...

Some of our camping neighbors really took a liking to Jackson. They liked him so much that they gave him their granddaughter's bike helmet. Granted, the helmet was for a much older child than an almost 1 year old. Jackson's head almost filled it up. To that, the nice camper said "He's got a big head". I was like "yes, blame it on his dad." Jackson actually cried when Brent tried to take the helmet off when they went in a boot store. I'm told that Jackson then wore the hat the entire time they were in the store. I wish  I'd seen that.

Jackson also took showers instead of baths on this trip. The adults all used the bath house but little man insisted on showering in the camper. His Papaw gave him baths. It was so refreshing to not do the normal bath routine. I had 6 nights free from the routine. That's like winning the lottery around here!

This picture melts my heart. My little guy loves his Papaw just like I do.

We also took a few family photos. Now I have Brent complaining and Jackson staring at strangers. At this rate, there is no telling what will be on our Christmas card this year.

We have a picture at this exact spot 2 years ago...

If only Jackson was looking...

We had a great time. The only picture I have from the game is on my phone. We were too bundled up to take a camera. Plus, I wouldn't have had any room for it since the seats are all of 6 inches wide in Neyland Stadium. It was nice having a "date" day with Brent though. It was a great, inexpensive Fall get-a-way :) I can't wait until our next mountain trip.

Boo Bash

Our new neighborhood hosted a "Boo Bash" for the families today. I told Brent that we would participate AND meet the other families in our area. Well, we were 1 for 2. We participated but didn't really get to know any other people! epic fail. I must say our Dragon was one of the cutest gremlin's in the parade though. I was very impressed with the event. Each street brought different items and the HOA provided hotdogs and blow up things for the kids to play in. We are blessed to have a park at the entrance of our neighborhood so the shin dig was held there. I  got my workout in today. I'd say we walked a total of 2 1'2 miles from our house, to the parade starting point, back home. The firetruck led the way and Jackson wasn't scared of the siren. MeMe & Pop even swung by to check out our Dragon. It was a fun day :)

Dragon threw a little tantrum when it was time to take off his suit