Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Happy

Things that make me happy right now...

Silly family chalk outlines! I wanted to see if Evan was interested in playing with chalk outside. Well, he was not into it yet... but Dan and I had fun :)

Nightly bath routines with my sweet boy.

Reading books and cuddling outside before bedtime.

Cooling off outside in Evan's pool.

Evan doing his homework for school :)

How Evan is obsessed with holding his feet when he sits down.

Holding out the camera to get a self portrait of me and my hubby. I could not ask for a better person to share my life with!

Getting our baby girls room ready for her. This is the super cute bedding we got from our sweet friend!

Evan's new adorable cool Toys Story shoes. They light up when he runs!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Quick Update

Here is a little video I took of Evan learning how to give a "kissy face"! He doesn't do it all the time, but when I caught him on camera, I had to share :)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Evan's First Day of School

Evan had his first day of preschool today. It was hard for Dan and I to leave him, but he did really well. I can't believe how big he is getting! Evan is going to go to school Tuesdays through Fridays from 9:30 until 12:30.

Getting Evan's stuff together the night before his first day.
Evan woke up in a great mood!
After Dan and I dropped him off we went to breakfast and Target.
Evan got a great report from his Teacher, Ms. Patterson. It is going to be a big adjustment for Evan (and me!), but he did very well for his first day :)
Kisses from Daddy when we picked him up at 12:30! He was SO happy to see us.
Mommy and Daddy got him some treats for being so brave today!
My sweet boy taking a nap after a very eventful day. He sleeps in the strangest positions!

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Gender Reveal Party

Dan and I found out the gender of our baby on Tuesday, March 27th. We were so happy to know what we were having, but we decided to keep it a secret and reveal the baby's gender to our family and close friends at fun party the following Saturday. Keeping this secret was so hard for me!

Here are some pictures from our Gender Reveal Party!







Team PINK
Team BLUE
Time to cut the cake!
and... its a GIRL!!!!
We could not be happier :)

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Big Savings!

A friend of mine is always posting on facebook about his amazing savings. I starting thinking, "I could totally do this!" Now I am into couponing and I am addicted! There is a great facebook page, Couponing My Way, that gives directions on where to get the coupons and how to use them to get the most for your money.

I always thought couponing meant you had to get stuff you would never use or things you didn't need. (ie, 12 bottles of mustard) I was wrong. I am on a savings high tonight :) I got ALL stuff I use regularly and needed. I wish I would have started doing this a long time ago!

My total at CVS came to $121.23. I saved $66.60 and I only paid $54.63! That gives me a 55% savings :) Not too bad for my first try!

Here are all the things I got...




I love CVS. I also still have $5 CVS cash to use on my next purchase.

If anyone has any tips or websites they use please let me know!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Weekend

We had a nice weekend spent at home. We stayed in our pjs late and enjoyed not having anything we had to do. Most of the time our weekends are busy and filled with fun adventures and time with family and friends. This weekend I felt like I needed to bunker down and spend some time with my little family. We spend Friday celebrating what would have been my friend Anna's 31st birthday. We sent off a balloon in memory of her and then went home and had chocolate pudding for dessert, her favorite.
I miss Anna and love her so very much!

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Here are some videos from the weekend. Evan loves being outside and he loves his wingbo swing! This is great to help him work on his back strength and have fun at the same time.

I took Evan to the library to pick out an adaptive toy. It is so wonderful that the library has such an extensive selection of adaptive toys for kids to check out.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Lota Love!

Over the weekend Evan worked on his Valentine's Day cards. He used a toilet paper roll to make a heart stamp.

Here is the finished product. I think they turned out so cute! I had to help him a little... but, I love how much more he is using his hands lately!



For a sweet treat, I made cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and a heart shaped Reese's on top. They were delicious. We didn't need all these cupcakes in our house so we shared some with our neighbors and family, who were more then happy to take some off our hands!


Since the weather was cool outside for a change we took the opportunity to drink some hot chocolate. I froze cool whip and used a cookie cutter to make little hearts for the hot chocolate. I love pinterest.com... so many cute ideas :)


Here are some decorations I made for our dinner. We will be celebrating a day late on Wednesday since Dan has class on Tuesdays. It is our tradition to stay in for Valentine's Day and Dan makes dinner for me. I am a lucky girl, he is a really good cook!


Today Evan and I made a heart shaped bird feeder. It was easy to do and Evan enjoyed making a mess helping! Now we just need to find the perfect branch!


My little heatbreaker ~ Happy Valentine's Day!




Friday, January 27, 2012

Evan Update

It has been a while since I've posted on our blog... so I thought I would give you all an update on Evan. Our boy had a birthday on January 2, he turned 3 years old! Evan had a Mickey Mouse birthday party and celebrated his birthday with close family and friends.



Now that he is 3 we had to say good bye to our at home therapy services Evan was receiving through Early Steps. Now Evan is starting therapy through the school system. Evan attends Denim Oaks Elementary, which is right across the street from our house. It is so nice to be able to walk to school with him. He does one-on-one sessions with an occupational therapist (1 time a week), physical therapist (1 time a week), speech therapist (2 times a week), vision therapist (2 times a week), and we have a teacher that comes to our home to work with him each week. Evan has been sick so we didn't start going to classes until today. This is going to be a big adjustment for my little man! He was scared today and didn't want to participate in the activities. I hope as he gets use to his new routine, he will get to know his new teachers, and will hopefully really enjoy school.

Evan is still going to aquatic therapy and he is making great progress. He loves the water and it is such a great motivator for him. I am so gratefully to have the opportunity to get him this type of therapy. Already we have seen an improvement in his eye contact, strength, and he is becoming very vocal when he is in the water!

Evan also goes to additional occupational therapy at All Children's Clinic once a week. One of the things Evan is working really hard on is being able to regulate sensory integration. Even though he gets OT through the school system, we thought this is an area he really needs a lot of attention in. I could not be happier with the facility. The All Children's Clinic is amazing! Here are some videos I took of Evan at the clinic with his therapist, LeeAnn. We love her! I took the videos to show Dan what it is we are working with in his sessions and to have these videos to look back on in 6 months or so and see how much he has improved. Sometime it is difficult for me to see all the changes Evan goes through since I am with him 24/7.


He is the happiest boy in the world!

In January we took Evan to see a doctor in Atlanta at First Step Therapy. We heard about this doctor from one of our family members and they were so excited to tell us about how this doctor had really changed their daughters life. I was really excited to meet with Dr. Sue and seen if she would be able to help Evan. Dr. Sue does non traditional therapies. Dan was more sceptical and not sure, but once we met with Dr. Sue we were both really excited about her working with Evan. We have make the commitment to take Evan up to Atlanta every 2 months for treatments. I think the combination of the traditional therapies he has been getting along with these non traditional therapies will really be great for Evan. My Aunt Barb lives 20 minutes from the doctor's office so we got to spend time with her while we were in town. We also got to go out to dinner with Peter, Sherry, Lauren, and Margaret! It was wonderful meeting them and hearing from Lauren how the therapies she has received though Dr. Sue have really changed her life in just one short year. It was a great trip! We look forward to going back in March.




Random Things that make me smile...
Evan is getting to be such a big boy. He now weighs 30 pounds and is 38 inches tall.

Evan makes a mad dash for the water every time we go to the beach!


Evan falls asleep in the crazies positions! So we started taking pictures of them on his video monitor :)

Crazy after bath hair!

Evan is fearless and loves the swings! Love his expression here.


I love seeing them together! They have a really special bond. Just look at that smile :)


Sunday, December 11, 2011

Loving this time of year!

We have been truly enjoying this holiday season!
Enchanted Tree Lighting Ceremony
The Friday after Thanksgiving we went to Hyde Park for their Enchanted Tree Lighting Ceremony to kick off the holiday season. We meet my friend, Tiffany and her family there. We had a lot of fun eating chocolate from the sweets shop and wait excitedly for Jolly Old St. Nicholas to come an light up the 30-foot Christmas Tree. Yay! It is officially Christmas time!

Deck the Halls
The weekend after Thanksgiving we broke out the Christmas decorations!

Dan is in charge of the outside decorations and last year he surprised me with a giant blow up Christmas Elephant. Ha! We also have some cute light up Christmas trees for our yard. This year we added candy cane solar lights to our walkway. If we keep up this pace our house is going to look like the Griswold's in 5-10 years!!

Cinnamon Applesauce Ornaments
This is a new tradition we started. They are so easy to made and smell AMAZING!

All you need is combine 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup cinnamon together. Then add 2 TBSP of glue and mix well. Once the mixture has formed into a dough ball, remove it from the bowl and place it onto wax paper. Then, with a rolling pin, roll out the dough and cut out shapes. Next you will take your shapes and place them on a cookie sheet and bake at 150 degrees for 2 hours. Then, turn off the heat in the oven and leave the pan in the warm oven for 5 to 6 hours. I just leave mine in the oven overnight.

They make super cute gifts too!

Christmas Pajamas
I bought Evan's Christmas pajamas! I can't wait to see my little boy go to bed on Christmas Eve wearing them.
2-Piece Microfleece Pj's

Santa's Post Office

At every Macy's across the county there is a mailbox to collect letters to Santa Clause. We brought Evan's stamped letter to Macy's addressed to Santa at the North Pole, and drop it into Santa's special mailbox. For each letter recieved there will be a $1 donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, up to $1,000,000.

I just wrote a letter to Santa!


Picture on Santa's Lap
The week after Thanksgiving we went to Citrus Mall to get Evan's picture taken with Santa. It is so nice because there is never anyone in line and we don't have to feel rushed. I was not feeling confident that we would be able to get a good picture of Evan on Santa's lap. Well, we found the trick... Evan was fine as long as I wasn't the one to put him down on Santa's lap! When Dan took him up to Santa he did great!! I love his smile! I posted the picture from last year too... it is amazing to see how much he has grown over the last year!

Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!
We decided this year to get a artificial Christmas Tree. This was a hard decision for we because we love getting real trees, but Evan and my sinus' were really bad this year. The tree we got is beautiful though. The only thing missing was the smell of the tree. So I went out on a mission to find the best smelling Christmas tree spray- it made all the difference! My sister and her fiance, Jess joined us for  a cozy night at home decorating our tree. Every year since Dan and I started dating we decorate our tree with Christmas music playing in the background and with a mug of hot chocolate! Evan is so fascinated with the tree!

We have so much to look forward to in the next few weeks... making and addressing Christmas cards, making Reindeer Food, making homemade cookies for Santa, reading The Night Before Christmas, hanging Santa's magic key on the front door, driving around looking at Christmas lights, watching Christmas movies, counting down Christmas on our Advent calender, drinking lots of hot chocolate, and spending lot of time with with my little family! I LOVE this time of year!!
Dan, Evan and I star in an Elf music video again this year! haha!