My Proudest Mommy Moment

Ok - that title is a bit exaggerated - this probably isn't my proudest mommy moment, but it got me really excited. Deacon has struggled with the straw type cups for a few months now. He will bite the straw, pull it out of the cup, throw it on the floor, and never once figure out how to sip out of it. granted, he drinks from a sippy just fine, but I found this lack of learning a challenge for me. I have been determined to teach him how to drink from a straw. I bought a sippy with a spout that looks like a straw and he figured it out.....eventually. So now every few weeks I get out the straw cup.

But, up until yesterday, he just never grasped it. UP UNTIL YESTERDAY :) Here he is at dinner last night (spaghetti and meatballs all over his face) enjoying his first cup/straw experience. (excuse the red eye)

Could I be a stay at home mom?

i'm not so sure. granted i should not base this conclusion on today. no, not today. today was one of those days where i just want to get in bed by 6pm (which coincidentally is now). deacon is clingy, fussy and very needy because he is still cutting those back molars. i stayed home from work today since the daycare has a rule against kids with fevers. oh wait - did i mention that he is testing me on everything. "what mom, you say i can't touch this cabinet door - hu, funny, i do believe i can, see, yeah, for sure, i can touch it mom - now, what do you think you are going to do about it." i'm pretty sure that is what he has said in his head over and over today. (hold that thought, he is literally opening the cabinet as i type...)

ok, i'm back. now he is putting a foreign object in his mouth while standing on a dvd case, that can't be safe. i think the hard part of today was balancing a teething toddler with my work. i did have to work - i can't work from home without actually working (or can i?). so when i was making calls i prayed that he wouldn't talk or cry. when i put him down for a nap i prayed it would be a long one. it started out promising, until the dogs went nuts and started barking. that would-have-been-great-nap turned into a 30 minute tease for me. then i had to spend the next 2-3 hours trying to get him to fall back asleep. not easy while working.

so yeah, based on today i would say no, i couldn't hang as a stay at home mom. however, today wasn't normal. if i stayed at home, i wouldn't have to work. which means i would have more time for deacon, more time for cooking, cleaning and laundry. so i think for now, i'd say that yes, i would be a good stay at home mom but a bad work from home mom. not that either is even an option for me, or us. but one day, it will be an option and it will be a reality. then i will update this about how great i am doing with staying at home.

for now just take a look at my adorable son:

Our Weekend

well - our weekend consisted of fever, fever and more fever. when deacon gets a new molar he really likes for us to know that he is in pain. i noticed that he was warm friday while he was in daycare and when we got home it was up to 101. he acted fine but just felt hot. that has continued even through the day today.

other than fever it was a nice, relaxing weekend at home. justin and i went to kemah saturday night with mark and his new girlfriend, jennifer. (great name, hu?) :) that was fun, it was nice to get out of the area and have a nice dinner. mark and jennifer were fun company and it was good to get to know her.

tomorrow our house guests go home. i don't know if they are ready to leave though, they seem to really love the couch here. i'm sure they will be glad to see their mom and dad (dustin and kerri) as much as we are.

so - here is to next week - may it go by fast and the weekend last forever. less than 4 weeks now until our cruise!

for the fun of it - here are some pictures from kemah:

mark and jennifer

jus and me

Its Friday...Praise the Lord

do you ever just have one of those weeks that seem to just drag on and on and on and on? you count down the hours until 5pm on friday and when it gets here you feel like you just had a dream come true. ha, that's kind of how i am feeling today. this week has been pretty mundane, nothing great happened, nothing bad happened, its just kind of 'eh'. so, what do i have to look forward to this weekend, well let's see:

friday night: nothing
saturday: nothing
sunday: church and nothing

yep - seems like a great weekend to me. my granny called to see if deacon could come over for a while on saturday, so at least he has plans. while he is gone justin and i may take advantage of the adult time and go to lunch together. we still have our cheesecake factory gift card from the wenzels to use. however, when i looked at cf's menu for dieters my reaction was "seriously, that's all you have to offer that is low calorie?!?!".

this is also our last few days with austin and maddy. we may need to sit remi down and tell him that they are about to leave. he will take it hard, he will be sad, he will even pout, but he will get through this, i know he will. they have all become very close, see below:

remi & austin

left to right: remi, maddy & austin

top to bottom: remi, austin, maddy and me :) - dog pile anyone?

New Year - New Blog

I've started a family blog and wanted to share it with everyone so here you go:

http://familylifein2010.blogspot.com/

I realize most of you only really care about Deacon ;) but I want to talk about me, me, me. Just kidding - I want to talk about all of us as a family. What we do day to day, where we go, the people we are with, etc.

So join us on the new blog - follow along - and COMMENT :)

That's it - I'm tired of being chunky

well, i've been tired of it - no surprise there. i've tried a few quick fix diets, some walking, and some portion control but i haven't stuck to any of it. figures. but now i'm serious (isn't that what we all say when we 'decide' to 'start' losing weight).

i joined a site called myfitnesspal.com and am tracking my calories, water intake and exercise every day. this is day two and i love it! i lost a pound yesterday, coincidence - maybe, motivation - definitely! i am hooked. i love seeing how many calories i have consumed and how many more i get to have each day. i love seeing my water cup overflow with water when i have had my 8 glasses a day and i really love seeing how much my exercising is paying off.

come over - check me out - join the site and lets get healthy together! my username over there is jenn0113, oh, be sure to watch my weight loss to the left of my blog :)

because i hate how fat i look in these pictures - let's consider them my before. these were taken at a friend's wedding back in may, before i started trying to lose any weight:

Call me a slacker

I know - I know - two posts in two months time is really very sad. I'm slacking, big time. But I just assume that no one cares to reading about our day to day mundane lives. I mean really, do you care that I got up at 7 instead of 6 and rushed through my morning routine, got Deacon to class so he could play with his friends, picked him up at 5, sat in traffic until 630, got home, made dinner, ate, bathed Deacon and put him in bed? Because if that is the kind of stuff I should post about then I could copy and paste my entire blog, we are that routine now - and its wonderful!

Just let me know - who reads this blog? I want to challenge everyone that reads to give me a quick comment. I simple roll call type "HERE" will suffice. I'm toying with the idea of starting a new Day to Day Life blog where I would talk about things and events that are coming up for us and how they go and sticking to the strictly baby type blog where you get random updates of my adorable toddler. What would you rather read about?

This should be fun...

its raining here today and i hope it clears up soon. we are going to the wenzel wedding tomorrow and i am so excited! i can't wait to see all their hard work and plan come alive.

we got austin and maddy yesterday. so far they seem to be adjusting to our house just fine. i know kerri is worried about them but they are doing great. they do like to bark at the treadmill when it goes to incline.

so before i start our fun, busy weekend i just want to say a quick prayer for the wenzels and mia.

Lord - thank you so much for dustin and kerri. thank you for their friendship and for what they mean to us. i pray Lord that you will clear the skies for them and dry up this rain and give them a beautiful wedding day tomorrow. i pray for a stressfree day for everyone involved in the wedding and reception. i pray for safe travels for all the guests and wedding party. Father i ask that you bless their marriage, make them fall more in love with each other every day. i pray they never take one another for granted and that they see each other for the blessings they are. i pray that our friendship with them would continue to deepen and we can experience more life together.

Father i also pray for mia. i pray that this year is a great year for her. i pray that you would touch her at an early age, give her a heart for you Lord. i thank you that i have the privilege of being her aunt and watching her grow up into a blooming young girl.

update - here is a picture from the wedding and from the party:

justin, me, kerri and dustin

tommy (cousin in law), susan (cousin), mark (brother), me, deacon and justin

January 2010

our plans this month include a wedding, birthday party and a playdate with two dogs. The wenzels officially tie the knot on saturday, jan 16th - we are so happy for them! while they are on their honeymoon in florida we will have their two furbabies, austin and maddy. remi gets along great with them both and is so easy to manage when they are around. he goes from a clingy, attention needing dog to a playful pup when his friends are around. its so cute to watch the three of them play together.

we also have mia's 3rd birthday party. it was planned for the day of the wenzel wedding but was moved to the day after so we could attend, yay. i did the majority of the planning for her party so i would like to be there to enjoy all my hard work come together. (and i secretly want to rob the pinata candy)

i'm hoping we can keep our activities this month to a minimum. actually, that is my goal for 2010. we have a few big trips planned, which i will discuss at a later time, but other than that i am hoping to keep us home more so we can just relax and spend time as a family. 2009 was such a busy year - plans every weekend, running around town getting from one function to another - talk about stressful, especially when you have to pack a diaper bag for each trip out of the door. ugh, i get worn out just thinking about it.

i hope to get some good pictures at the wedding to post as well as at the birthday party. i'll try to show off as much as the stuff as possible in pictures. more pictures less words makes for an easy to enjoy blog :smile:

until the next time...

its just the beginning

today starts the beginning of 2010. last night we spent the evening with my (jenn) side of the family and our good friends the wenzels. we played video games, had lots of food and watched the fireworks that our neighbors set off. i love times like this - gatherings that are more relaxed and laid back where everyone can just hang out and have fun. this is exactly how i hope the rest of 2010 goes for us, perhaps we started off on the right foot.

although - there was that one thing - well, its kind of a big thing. justin was sick. not like a sniffle here and there but hanging in to party the night away - no, he was 24-hour-stomach-bug-throwing-up-all-hours-of-the-night-sick. bless his heart. he missed it all. he woke up this morning feeling much better and asking for a "do over". i text kerri (mrs wenzel) and told her, so they agreed to come back over tonight and give him another chance to party like its 1999. did i mention how great the wenzels are to us? well, im sure over the next few days, weeks, and months that this post is alive you will get the bigger picture.


for now - i'm off to prep myself for new years eve take two!