Tuesday, December 3, 2013

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Thankful Recap

This year, I participated in the 30 Days of Thankful on Facebook and I'm so glad I did:)  It was wonderful to look at each day and list the things I am most thankful for.  I could list a million things every second, God has blessed me so much!  So often, I get caught up in life and get busy and I forget to stop and thank God for the busy life He gave me:)


Day 1: So thankful for my Heavenly Father and His love for me.

Day 2: So thankful for my sweet husband Nick and how he loves me no matter what!

Day 3: Thankful for Lucas. He is my heart. I love being his mommy:)

Day 4: So thankful for this new little life growing inside me. It is a miracle and I am more than blessed:)

Day 5: So thankful for my daddy. Even though his time on this earth was cut short, he taught me so much. He was so funny and so encouraging and he showed me what to look for in a man. Miss him everyday!

Day 6: So thankful for my mama. She has more strength than anyone I know. She loves, she provides, and she taught me what this wife/mom role should look like. Love her so much and lucky to call her friend.

Day 7: So thankful for my sister. Her laugh and her sweet, caring spirit are contagious. I love her and I love the way she loves my family. She knows me better than most and is truly my best friend:)

Day 8: So thankful for Tim. He loves my mom so much, loves me and Cassie like his own and would do anything for my little family.

Day 9: So thankful for my in-laws. They raised a great man, love me like their own and are crazy about Lucas. It can't get any better than that:)

Day 10: So thankful for my brothers-in-law and sister-in-law. They are so much fun and I love when we all get together!! You are the best aunts and uncles ever!!

Day 11: So thankful for the sacrifice of my grandfathers; especially Ronald Rial who made the ultimate sacrifice and lost his life. We are blessed because of you:)

Day 12: So thankful for my aunts and uncles:) They were a huge part of my childhood, made me the woman I am today, and are a huge part of my adult life now! I wish I saw all of you more often! Love you

Day 13: So thankful for my cousins! I love that all my holiday memories involve you:) I love that I have so many of you:) I miss you and love each of you so very much!!! Emily, Melissa, Russell, Anthony, Cheyenne and Jessica...you too:)

Day 14: So thankful for our church! Bethany has been such a blessing to us over the past year. We have made many friends, love the kids program, and are enjoying being involved in nursery, praise team and security:) we look forward to many more years at Bethany and seeing what God has in store for our little family!!

Day 15: So thankful for my job. The Lord knew just what I needed when He put me at Park Lane. I couldn't be happier:)

Day 16: So thankful for a fun day with my mom and sister:)

Day 17: So thankful for Sunday afternoon snuggles with this Lucas:) it's amazing!!

Day 18: So thankful for our little apartment. It's annoying and small and I'm so ready to have a house again, but it's been good shelter and good fun this year:) It gives a whole new meaning to "thankful for the little things in life"!!

Day 19: So thankful for Janet Ritthaler Smith and our conversations when she does my hair! Looking forward to it this evening:)

Day 20: So thankful for Megan Frazier and all the warm maternity sweaters I have:) Definitely using them right now!!!

Day 21: So thankful for these 17 little children that make me laugh everyday:) Today they were discussing baby names and if it's a girl they came up with "Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Rapunzel, and Flower Pot" and for a boy, "Blake". Haha! It seems they want me to have a girl too:)

Day 22: So thankful for a good doctor visit and hearing the heartbeat:) So amazing!!! Love this little one:)

Day 23: So thankful for my girlfriends. We don't see each other as often as I'd like but I love you all so much and I miss you like crazy!!!

Day 24: So thankful for a dear friend who made my last year in Miami so much more fun! Thanks for asking me to walk with you, loving my family, being so supportive with our move, and helping make our friendship last even though we are miles away! Love you so much and am so thankful for you!!

Day 25: So thankful for my sweet, sweet husband that pulled off the BEST 30th surprise party ever! And so thankful to all my sweet friends and family who gave up some of their Sunday night to celebrate:) and to my awesome mother-in-law for the cake! Missed all of you that couldn't be there as well!!

Day 26: So thankful for a job that allows me 5 days off for Thanksgiving so I can spend it with my family!! Can't wait:)

Day 27: So thankful for the 30 years God has given me on this earth to serve Him. He has blessed me with many things in my lifetime and I know the best is yet to come!!

Day 28: So thankful for all of you that took time to text and post happy birthday wishes yesterday! You all made me feel so special! I had a great day with my boys and my mom:) and today I get to spend time with more family:) love this time of year!!!!

Day 29: So thankful to be feeling baby flutters:) it's such an amazing part of being pregnant. My favorite part:)

Day 30: So thankful that I kept up with these thankful posts. It was so good to sit down everyday and post something I was thankful for! The Lord has blessed me with so much, I could do it every day of the year and never run out of things to write! Lord please help me to not take for granted all the wonderful things in my life and always be thankful for all things big and small.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

It's Been Too Long (again!)

I miss blogging...I do.  I'm not a great writer and I don't pretend that this blog is read by many, but I love to look back and relive all the memories I've recorded on here.

Especially now that I'm expecting Baby #2.  I'm so glad I documented so much with Lucas, so I can go back and read and try to prepare myself for this life change.  This was definitely planned, but it's so completely different than my pregnancy with Lucas!  I don't know what that means, but I'm just happy the baby is healthy:)

I had an ultrasound at 8 weeks with this little peanut and I didn't have one with Lucas until I was 20 weeks, so that was so exciting!  And it eased the worry early this time...I worried about the health of Lucas until I was 20 weeks!  Well, I still worry about his health.

Speaking of Lucas' health, we've had a crazy couple of weeks with Lucas.  He had a fever and a cough, so we took him to the doctor and she prescribed a steroid...not a good idea!  We found out the hard way, his emotional reactions to everything are over the top!  He was a completely different child and it was a little scary.  Thank goodness Nick called the doctor back and explained the symptoms, we got him off of that and back to normal after a few days.  Poor little guy:(

We have new renters now at our house in Miami and they have been very positive about wanting to buy sooner, rather than later:)  So, we are very hopeful!  We are definitely still praying and hope to be in a house of our own before this baby comes at the end of May/beginning of June.

This month, I'm especially thankful for this little apartment.  Even though it's annoying and we have no storage and no space (especially adding two tubs of maternity clothes to the mix), it's home and I'm so glad we have this little place.  It was wonderful living with family, but to have a place of our own has been amazing.  It's taught us to appreciate the small things:)

I plan on doing "bumpdates"every so often...so hopefully the craziness of life will slow down a little!!  But then again, I'm loving every quick minute of it:)

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Crazy, Beautiful Life

I feel like I've been reading posts just like this one the past several days.  Posts about blogging being so sporadic and life being crazy!  It's good to know, we aren't the only ones crazy busy! 

Nick's softball games take up 5 out of the 7 days in our week.  So we only see him on Sundays and Wednesday evenings!  It's been such a hard fall, but we are getting used to it.  I'm so glad for Fall Break to be here because I'll have my husband again:)  Well, until March that is!

School is going excellent for me!  I've left Union and am now teaching in Broken Arrow.  I'm back to Pre-K at one of BA's brand new Early Childhood Centers.  I'm absolutely loving it:)  I feel this is where I'm supposed to be!  This is what I was made for:)
Lucas is right back in the groove of things, loving Mrs. Kelly's:)  He is learning so much!  I pick him up and he's so excited to see me, but then tells me "I had fun at Mrs. Kelly's" and then tells me everything he did that day, who he played with, and what he ate!  It's so cute:)  I love our chats on the way home. 

We go to as many of Nick's home games as we can just so we can see him, so my house has fallen to the backburner.  Well, my apartment...lots of people have looked at our house in Miami, but our realtor says people are just dragging their feet.  Ya'll, we realy need it to sell by December because of financial reasons!  Please pray with us:)

Church at Bethany is amazing!  We are officially members and we are loving every second of it!  Lucas loves his little friends in the nursery and Sunday School, we love our ABF, and I'm loving Praise Team. We are also helping with nursery, security and greeting:)  It's such an amazing place and I'm glad God placed us there!

I'd love to continue my Summer Fun posts and I will...someday!  Until then, I'm enjoying this crazy, beautiful life and my two boys who make it awesome!

Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Summer Fun: Event 2

**Warning: Picture Overload (I'm cramming all my summer events into just a few posts before school starts)**

So, at the beginning of June, we spent as much time as we could with family...in particular, Uncle Cal and Aunt Cassie since baby Boston would be arriving soon!

We swam together at our apartment




And at the water park near our apartment





We made friends with 2nd cousins




 And we ate at Joe's and played golf for Uncle Cal's birthday








Living in the same town as Uncle Cal and Aunt Cassie has been amazing!  We have loved every moment spent together.  We knew things would get crazy once Boston was born, so we are so thankful we took advantage of every moment we spent with them:)

Monday, July 29, 2013

Summer Fun: Event 1

So, now that summer is winding down...I am taking this chance to recap all the wonderful things we've done over the past few months!!

The last day of school, Nick dropped off Lucas at Papa and Nana's, picked me up, and then we met up with my cousin Becky and her husband Dustin for a road trip to Galveston!!!  My oldest cousin was getting married on Sunday and we were going to spend the weekend celebrating her with my cousin Rachel and her husband Sean!

We headed off and stayed the night in Dallas!  We ate yummy Mexican food and spent the evening chatting and laughing:)  Such a great start to the trip!

Lucas started off great too:)  He loves smelling Nana's flowers (why he doesn't have pants on, I don't know?!)


We slept in and headed off for Houston!  We ate a good lunch, sat in traffic forever, went to Target, and then went to the Astros game!  My dad had a goal before he died...to see every major league baseball stadium.  Well, Nick wants to carry on that tradition, so we go to as many baseball games as we can:)  Sadly, Becky got a migraine and had to go to the house, but Rachel, Sean, Nick and I had a great time at the game!!






Lucas also woke up to great breakfast at Nana's:)


After the game we drove down to Galveston to stay at the house Rachel and Sean rented us for the weekend:)  It was so cute!  Becky was feeling better by the time we got back, so we stayed up late again chatting and catching up!  It had been a long time since we were all together!  Too long!


On Sunday, Nick and I woke up early and strolled along the beach.  Down the street was the pier, but we were too hungry to walk all the way down there.  We stopped at a cute little restaurant instead and had breakfast:)


We then all got ready and headed to the beach!  It was awesome!  So nice to relax, read and get a little sun before the wedding:)  A little too much sun for some of us!


 Lucas also had a great evening at Grammy's house for the Buzzard reunion:)  Again, no pants!  Haha:)


**For some reason, it's fuzzy!  But of course he's playing cars!!!

We then headed back to the house and up to Houston for Maradee's wedding!  It was such a sweet wedding with great music, great food and a great couple!  We couldn't be happier for Maradee and Robert.  He's a great addition to our family:)




We woke up Memorial Day and headed home.  It was a short trip, but very sweet:)  We loved our time with cousins and new family!  We need to take a cousin trip every year!!!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Happy Anniversary!

We met seven years ago...


We fell in love that summer...

I took a leap of faith and moved to Miami and we got engaged...

We had the most beautiful wedding...

And the greatest honeymoon...

We set up house together...

Then we added another...

We took another leap of faith and moved to BA...

I've since changed jobs and our house still isn't sold, but I couldn't imagine a more fantastic journey! You make every day fun and exciting and I can't wait to see what happens next! I know this next year will be amazing with you by my side!

 I love you so much!  Happy Anniversary:)  5 down...70 to go:)

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Great Potty Training Adventure

Spring Break 2013 was an important week in our family!  We started potty training.  Lucas turned 2 in January and he'd been talking about it for awhile, so we thought Spring Break would be a good time.  I had 9 days off of work so we could stay home and stay focused and get it done;)

Monday morning we set out his things...it was just like Christmas!  Little Man is obsessed with "Cars" so everything was "Lightning"!  Underwear, pull ups and the potty itself!!


He was so excited!  He looked so cute:)  He even wore his Lightning jammies the night before, so he was all decked out in "Cars"!!!


We built it up really big talking about how he was a big boy and big boys use the potty and not diapers anymore!  He was excited:)  We went about every 15-20 minutes all morning long and every time he peed he got an M&M.  He loved it:)


We had to take his 2 year pictures that morning, so we did put a pull-up on for that because we were at a park for an hour with no restrooms!  Then when we got home, we put them right back on:)  He did awesome!  No accidents!!  We then went to Pryor that afternoon for the next few days and no accident all Monday!!!  He even pooped in the potty Monday evening:)

Tuesday morning he did great too:)  We went to see chicks at Orscheln's, got hot dogs at Sonic and dropped Daddy off at the golf course and no accidents!!  When we put him down for nap, we didn't know what to do?!  Should we put him in a pull-up?  Should we just let him go in his underwear so he'll start to hate it?  We decided to give him a pull-up and we decided we'd deal with that another time.  Maybe over the summer?!

Tuesday afternoon, when I went to pick up Nick from golf, Mimi watched Lucas and he had his first accident!  She said they were on their way to the potty when he couldn't hold it any longer!  Oh well, one accident in two days...not too bad!!!

Wednesday, we went to his first movie, out to eat and had a pretty busy day.  We put him in a pull-up for the movie, but the rest of the time, just one accident all day!  I was so excited, but I also knew that this 3-day potty training thing was officially "over" and he was still having accidents.  I started to get a little frustrated!  But, Nick reassured me it's not 3-days for everyone and we still have the rest of the week and he's doing great...

So, Thursday we had like 3 accidents.  It was rough day, but Friday we made a break through!  We went to Chick Fil-A with some friends.  I decided I would let him play and eat normally and we would just take potty breaks.  I knew we didn't stay home as much as we should've that week, but it was Spring Break and we didn't want to be cooped up.  So, I said to myself "If we can make it through Chick Fil-A with no accidents, I will say we are 'potty trained'".

So, we went to Chick Fil-A, pottied when we got there, pottied halfway through lunch, pottied halfway through play-time, and pottied before we left!  He did awesome!  He went every time and was just amazing:)  I was so excited!  I figured since we weren't at home and he still had no accidents, he wasn't wearing a pull-up and still had no accidents, and he played on the big toy and still had no accidents we could be pretty proud:)  It was such a great feeling!

Lucas and his friend Hudson playing after Chick Fil-A!


Now, it's almost the middle of June and we are still wearing pull-ups during nap and at night, but today was the first accident in probably 2 weeks!  So, I'm pretty happy about it.  I'm not sure what to do during nap and at night, so any tips would be helpful, but overall, I'm pretty pleased about the method we used and he looks so super cute in his undies:)

Friday, April 5, 2013

Happy Love Day

I'm so behind!

Lucas had a lovely set up for Valentine's Day, but I didn't get one picture of it:( Or of Daddy's!

But, I did take a picture of the set-up I got delivered to me at school:)  Nick and I went super simple with Valentine's Day this year!



We went to Sho-Gun for Valentine's Day like we do almost every year!  Lucas has been every year since he's been born:)  Three Valentine's at Sho-Gun.  We go for my cousin Megan's birthday and we spend the evening with the people we love, our family!!

My two favorite boys:)

My little man enjoying the rope surrounding the water:)

My Mom and Sister

Rial girls:)

And my one True love!

So fun!!!  Great pictures:)  Great family:)

Here's a look at the past few years and how much Lucas has changed since that first Valentine's Day!!  And you can see how my hair changes every year;)  Haha!!


 
He's so big now!!  I do love that boy:)