Today is THE DAY!

Ok... I do this every few months... I do really great at eating healthy and exercising and then something happens (like raining FOREVER) and I become a slacker.

Well, now it is BEAUTIFUL outside and I have no excuses!! So... TODAY IS THE DAY!

I had a water this morning and now I am drinking my ONLY soft drink for the day (I know I don't need a Dr Pepper but if you knew how many times I had to make Ava Grace go back to her bed last night you would understand.)

Right now I am blogging (of course) and catching up on my emails for work and doing laundry.

Are you ready for what is coming next?? Try not to be TOO jealous!

I am getting a massage at 10am thanks to my sweet hubby. Then chilling out, work, then a little more laundry... THEN THEN THEN THEN THEN

I AM GOING TO DO IT!! Me. Outside. 1 Hour Atleast. Walk. Run. Sweat. De-stress. Think.

Then the cycle begins. I am making myself have the HAVE TO mentality. I am not sure about you - but sometimes to get motivated I have to 1)Blog about it and 2)make it a GAME. So the game is... I am going to see how many days I can exercise in a row... How many do you think?

I know... I know... Some "experts" say that you should have one off day atleast... NOPE. Not Me. If I have an off day I will have to make another silly post like this one to get motivated again.

So - Good Morning. Happy Exercising. Cheers to getting SKINNY!!

Marriage

Why does marriage have to be so hard?

Swine Flu

Hi Everyone. My really good friend, Kristia, starting noticing that her little 6 year old boy Forrest was not feeling good this weekend. Saturday he seemed fine and was just a little pink around his eyes but didn't think anything of it because he has allergies really bad. Well on Sunday he was saying that he didn't feel good - so at 6:30pm she checked his temp and it was normal. All he wanted to do was lay down - an hour later she said that his face was really red so she checked his temp again and it had shot up to 103.6!! She called their doc and took him to the emergency room and he tested positive for the Swine Flu. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers!

Also, please pray for Ava Grace. Forrest and Ava Grace played together on Saturday for a little bit. They colored together and shared potato chips. They had a lot of fun but we are afraid she might get the Swine Flu now. Please pray that she doesn't.

She cried more than usual this morning so that made me nervous but she did not have a fever. I called the Pediatrician and they said that it is possible for her to have the Swine Flu without a fever at first and that if she continues to be cranky for me to bring her in to get tested.

I also found out today that there have been 97 cases at the middle school here this year. Is this published somewhere? I didn't realize it was that bad here -

kinda scary if you ask me...

No Sleep...

For the past 3 weeks Ava Grace has been doing GREAT with her big girl bed. We do the whole bedtime routine and then we go potty and then get in the bed and read a couple of books. Then I leave her door cracked and she stays in there and goes to sleep - NO PROBLEMS! It has been wonderful... she has been getting up around 6:30am and coming in our room to get us up...

Well - I am not really sure who she has been talking to... but starting Sunday night she DOES NOT WANT TO SLEEP!! I am not really sure what is going on. We usually put her to sleep around 7:30pm so she is for sure out by 8pm. For the past 3 nights she has not gone to sleep before 9:30pm. We do everything the same and for some reason now she is getting up. She gets out of bed and tells me she needs to potty - she did that twice last night. Then she wants to read "Hush Little Baby" again - then she wants to rock. I did put her on the potty and she just played - then I put her in the bed and she cried. What is going on with her? She was doing so well and then now she is putting off bedtime... last night I ended up laying down with her for a little bit to get her to go to sleep. Then she woke up crying at 3am.

Now... she DID GET SHOTS on Monday. Could she be having nightmares about the shots? I really babied her on Monday so maybe she is just not wanting to be alone... But Sunday night she was WIRED too! I just don't know what it is... We have been having storms and weird weather here lately...

Can strange weather (like LOTS of rain and storms) cause kids to be wired at night? It is almost like she is delirious when bedtime hits... she is not having bad behavior issues... she just doesn't want to go to bed.

Any ideas, thoughts, suggestions, etc would be GREATLY appreciated!!

Just Wanted to Share...

I love this song. It came out when my hubby and I were dating and we decided that it would be our special song... Isn't it amazing how God works?

Talking Nonstop...

My little girl woke up this morning talking non stop. Those of you that know Ava Grace know that she talks alot anyway... but most of the time it is just jibber jabber that you really can't understand. But this morning I could understand her!!

She woke up playing with her Minnie Mouse. She said "Hi Minnie Mouse - Ready to go to school!"... did I hear that right??

Then she got up said - "I wanna eat!" "sit in my seat!" "I want a numa (that means muffin...)"

ok... so I was thinking... this is AWESOME! I can understand her!!

Then after she was done eating she said "All done. I want down."

so she got down and started playing with her babies. She was putting them on her nap mat and telling them to "lay down!" - then she said "You want your blanket? I'll get it!" then she ran and grabbed it off of the table and covered them up.

Then it was time to go and we walked outside and she said "Hold my hand." - so I helped her down the stairs... on the way to the car it started to rain and she said "its raining!"

It is so weird how this happened over night! I know she has been talking to us and everything but that was just one or two words at a time - today she woke up with sentences!!

She hit 2 and it seems like she looks so much older and is acting so much older!! time is going by too fast!!

Have a great day!

Slacker...

I know I know... I have been a serious blog slacker...

So... here is what the last week and a half has been like.

Wednesday before last was Ava Grace's birthday! She had a big day. I made cupcakes for her class at school and they had a party for her. Then that night we cooked dinner and sang happy birthday! It was lots of fun! She looks so much older in these pictures!




Thursday before last AG started running a fever... YIKES... then she started coughing a lot. She kept this all weekend but it remained low grade so we just figured she was getting her 2 year molars. So...

Labor Day we went to the zoo. Daddy, Mommy, AG, and Aunt Caroline. We had a great time! Ava Grace had a lot of fun! She loved the monkey and the bobcat (she kept saying HI KITTY KAT!) Her favorite part was riding the train!!




Tuesday we had to take Ava Grace to her 2 year appointment. They did not want to give her shots since she had been running a fever. So instead we found out that she has the croup. So... she stayed home with me the rest of the day. She went back to daycare on Wednesday since she had not had a fever since Monday.

Thursday she had a note in her cubby from her teacher. SHE PUT HER BLANKY IN HER CUBBY AFTER NAP TIME BY HERSELF! Now that is something to celebrate about! She LOVES her blanket. It goes everywhere with us! She has had it since she was about 6 months old and she is really attached to it. I know we need to start weaning her from it a little bit but I think it is so stinkin cute and it really does make her happy. Anyway - we have been trying to only let her have it when she goes to sleep and also when she is in the car we let her have it too. At daycare she is only allowed to have it during nap time. She has been doing really well with it.

Yesterday we really didn't do much of anything. Ava Grace just played and I prepared for a Kelly's Kids party I had today at my house.

My sister in law just became a Kelly's Kids rep and I love their clothes! They have some really cute things! I wish I could just buy all of it!! We had a party at my house this morning and it was a lot of fun. The kids played and ate lots of muffins (or Numas as Ava Grace says it... she says the "n" before the "m" in the word muffin and somehow NUMA comes out...)

So - the past week and a half has been a little crazy. I am ready to get things back in order around here. Good news is that I just bought a NEW Planner from MomAgenda and it is awesome and I am feeling extremely organized. Also, since I had the party at my house this morning I have fresh flowers on my table and back porch and my house is really clean. Let's see how long that lasts...

Have a great weekend! We are headed to Nana's to watch the game (ROLL TIDE!) and hang out with family. Love love!

Happy Birthday Ava Grace!!

My baby is 2 today!! I can't believe how fast the past 2 years have flown by!!

This past weekend we had a Luau Party to celebrate AG turning 2... It was a success! Everyone had a blast!! The kids had so much fun playing in the water at the splash pad!! Here are some pictures!!



This is a picture of the party favors. They got a coloring book, crayons, bubbles, luau tattoos, flip flop gummies and some other candy!! They turned out really cute!!



For those of you that don't know - Nana does WONDERFUL cakes! She made Ava Grace a Hula Girl cake and it was AWESOME!! We are VERY LUCKY to have a Nana that does such BEAUTIFUL cakes!!


We had fruit and pizza to eat... My fruit was on little flamingo, monkey, and umbrella skewers!! It looked fun!!


Ava Grace eating some YUMMY cheese pizza!!


Ava Grace had a blast playing with her 6 foot flamingo!!



She got so many nice gifts! She wanted to play with each of them right then!!


Nana got her a really cute party hat and shirt to go with her Luau theme!


Ava Grace and Mommy!



Ava Grace playing with Daddy!


This is a cool picture from the party - one of the beach balls was thrown into the air on one of the water spouts...









All of the kids had a BLAST!!

Can't believe my baby is almost 2!

I am a little emotional today... I can't believe my little girl will be 2 tomorrow. I feel like the past 2 years have flown by.

Here are some pics of Ava Grace...


3 DAYS OLD - This picture was taken the day we got home from the hospital.


3 MONTHS OLD


6 MONTHS OLD - She was Christened this day...


9 MONTHS OLD - Mommy giving her sugars on the beach...


1 YEAR OLD - I loved her 1 year pictures...


15 MONTHS OLD - she is learning to eat with a spoon... a little messy but that is what makes it fun!


18 MONTHS OLD - she LOVES playing in the water!


21 MONTHS OLD - my little monkey climbing on her playset!


ALMOST 2 YEARS OLD - this is us at her birthday party this past weekend. (those pics will be posted tomorrow!)