Where did SHE go?!

I know that I already posted today...but I had to do just one more. I was getting ready to go to my mom's house for a family movie night...and a not too unfamiliar moment arose. I thought to myself, "Why in the world can I no longer put together an outfit that doesn't consist of some form of jogging pant and a t-shirt with a sweat shirt over it? And why can't I figure out how to do my make-up anymore?!" This happens a lot when I'm pregnant...just ask Jared. I often wonder where the heck that cute 20 year old blonde girl went that could put an outfit together, always had cute make-up on and could spark up a conversation with any stranger, never a dull moment with her. She's gone. Long gone I am afraid. I can't put an outfit together to save my life. And I forgot how to do make-up. It's the saddest thing. Sure I started having kids at 22... but did SHE have to leave me in the dust!?!?! Having kids doesn't mean you lose your sense of style and you forget how to be cute! But for me however, this happened. This is a picture of me when I was 21:

I want this girl to come back, but maybe put a little sweater on or something because this dress isn't that modest...

Or maybe this girl could come back...she isn't blonde anymore, but she's still cute, and she knows how to dress at least a little bit!

I'm just feeling sorry for my frumpy self today!! I think I will go study pictures of my life before kids and see if I can get a hang of things again...wouldn't that be nice?!

I give up :)

Today is one of those days...although if you are my poor husband, then I don't need to tell YOU that now do I?  My phone is broken AGAIN. Go figure. Who would have thought that a "Go-Phone" wouldn't last very long. You can call me, I can hear you saying "Hello, Hello..can you hear me? Hello." but you can't hear me saying "Yes, I can hear you, but my phone is broken. Sorry." CLICK. It broke on Sunday right before we left Kingwood....which is a whole different sob story itself. We made the mistake of NOT leaving first thing in the morning. So I eventually had to eat something because it was noon and I was starving. I should have just starved. It took us 6 hours to get from Kingwood to Rockwall (not a 6 hour drive on a normal basis). Jared had to pull over about 6 times so that I could throw my life up in a parking lot, a hill made of rocks, a different parking lot, a dirt road, and a sonic cup. I begged him to leave me in the Walmart parking lot in Huntsville. I said I can't do it, I can't be in the car anymore, I am for sure dying. If you haven't figured it out yet, I get horribly car sick while pregnant. I honestly thought i needed to be checked into a hospital. I spent the entire ride with my head in my own lap trying to forget that the car was moving. Eating a disgusting ginger snap....while chugging anti-nausea medicine every 15 minutes (not to exceed an hour...so that didn't help me). It was by far the worst trip of my life. I don't know how to describe it to you other than take the worst case of food poisoning, or the stomach flu, that you have ever had and then go hop into a car for 6 hours. the whole time I hear freaking Dora the Explorer in the back seat and every time I start to cry again sweet baby Jared says "Mommy, what happened? You bout to throw up? You sick? What happened?" Then Jared saying "It's okay Jared, leave mommy alone, she doesn't feel good, she can't talk". So sad. ANYWAYS, that was two days ago and I am just now feeling right again. Back to my bad day. I'm sick of not being able to call my husband because my phone is a peice of junk...or anyone else for that matter. And poor Wylee just would NOT take a nap this morning! I have blankets to finish by Christmas with a massive case of tendonitis hanging over my head and sweet Wylee just crying at the pedal of my sewing machine. After arguing with jared via yahoo chat about my phone...I walk into the living room to find an ENTIRE bag of pop corn smashed all over the living room floor. All over it. I asked Jared what happened and he said he spilled. I said why didn't you clean it up? He said he just couldn't. I said so you decided to dance all over it instead? And he said "yes." SO I vacuumed that up for the next 25 minutes while Wylee just screamed in her room for me to come get her out of jail. Let me back up a little bit....while at Peyton's funeral on Saturday baby Jared took a lovely spill down the stairs out front. It bruised almost instantly but that was it. This morning however there is a nice substance oozing out of the corner of his eye....like he has a blocked tear duct. AWESOME. Dr. Dad is going to take a look at it when he gets home. I feel so bad for him. Anyways, so I keep looking at Jared's eye today and thinking, wow that looks gross, and it came out of nowhere. BUT ALAS! It is 2:39 and both kids are finally napping...and at the same time. I said it once and I will say it again...it is a Christmas miracle! For now anyways. So after this post is finished I will be hopefully finishing one blanket at least and getting a few presents wrapped and under the tree, maybe even getting a SHOWER in at some point (would I be so lucky?)....assuming no one is going to open them when they wake up. We'll see.

P.S. Where is the spell check on this new post editor!?!?! I need it!

Pictures...

I bet you guys would like to see some of the kids lately, huh? Maybe next time! Just playing....well sort of. I will have to get all of our new ones from Jared :) That is if there is anyone left out there still interested in our boring little lives in Fate, Texas! :) Merry Christmas!

Peyton is famous...

...well sort of. Jared sent me an email today with a link in it. A guy that he works with spends some time on a few hunting forums and it seems that Peyton is well known on one of them. I clicked on the link and of course cried when I read about all the people that have never met Peyton but somehow heard his story and have been following his CaringBridge journal. Someone posted the news of Peyton's passing and it was touching to see how many people were touched by Peyton's story without even knowing who he is. I have no idea who first put the post up about him in the first place, but apparently a lot of these people got the number to his prayer pager too and used it often. I did good yesterday, I only cried for part of the day instead of the entire day like I did on Tuesday. We are leaving tomorrow, the funeral is on Saturday. Hopefully it will start to get easier after this weekend....I doubt it, but maybe! I have to remind myself to just pray about it every time I get upset, and let the Lord help me. Not to mention remind myself that Peyton has a lot of work to do up there, and that's the reason he's gone. Because Heavenly Father needed him. I don't blame him. Anyways, here's the link that Jared sent me. It really is neat that perfect strangers have been sending prayers Peyton and his family's way for a while now. I love that.

We will miss you Peyton!

My heart hurts so much this morning. We got news that our nephew, Peyton, lost his battle with cancer early this morning. He was 8 years old. I keep reminding myself that it's a good thing, because now he isn't in pain anymore. Now he gets to live with our Heavenly Father and do his work. And that's a great thing. But I'm still sad, and it still hurts. I am so sad for my brother in law and sister in law, and for my 3 nephews and neice that have just lost their brother. I'm sad for Ruth and Rebekah's kids who will have to deal with the pain of losing a cousin that they are SO close to. I'm sad for Sarah who is on her mission and hasn't been able to spend the same time with Peyton in his last months that the rest of us have. And I am SO sad for his two grandmothers who are probably in a world of hurt this morning. I don't have the right things to say in a situation like this. I am so bad at it that it makes me sick. For the last year and a half I have watched their family handle this with such grace that I have been amazed. I would like to think that if it were Jared and I, I would be able to handle it the same way. I don't think I would though. They have been such a strong inspiration through everything. I'm, not going to spend too much time on this post because I think I said enough, and I could go on forever. I love my family with all of my heart and I'm so lucky to have all of the in laws that I have, and my own family as well. I will miss Peyton so much and I only knew him for a little over 3 years. So rest in peace Peyton, you have been such a strong little boy. We love you Peyton Thomas Ricker!

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/ourpeyton/journal

SURPRISE!!!!!

We found out on Tuesday that I'M PREGNANT AGAIN!!!!!! We were planning for this one, so yes we know how close our kids will be in age....no need to remind us :) And YES we know how expensive kids are, please don't remind us of that either. We are thrilled so let us be! If I got pregnant when I think I did then our due date will be mid to late July which means I will probably have surgery mid july. Sonogram pictures to come!!!!

Scentsy Party!

Okay, if you are reading this then you are MORE than welcome to come! And bring a friend, or two friends! A good friend of mine has just become a Scentsy Consultant so I'm gonna throw her first party. I am SO excited about! I never do anything like this, and I think it's gonna be a lot of fun. I'll have some home made pizza rolls, some dip and chips, and of course a little dessert and punch! Bring your kids if you want to! I have plenty of toys around here lol! Okay, so here are the details....

Date: Thursday, December 3rd

Time: 5:30-7:30 (open house style, come and go as you please)

Location: My House

101 Jerome Prairie

Royse City, Tx

Consultant: Rachel Moore (https://ramoore.scentsy.us/Home)

*Come and check out some of Scentsy's fantastic products with me! There is absolutely no pressure to buy at all! Just come have fun, eat, and hang out! Bring some friends if you want to, and your kids are welcome, too. If you can't make it but you still want to see some of the stuff, I will have a little basket of products that you can come check out when you can.*

My sweet family

I don't know what in the world is going on with me lately....I keep having this overwhelming feeling at random moments throughout my day. They are good feelings, don't worry. But at the same time, I have to just sit down and cry sometimes. It's hard to adjust when you get married. Especially if your like us and you decide to live near one family, and not an equal distance from both. There are adjustments around the holidays that are hard because you both grow up with traditions and neither one is really excited about having to give up theirs. But you do, because that's just what has to happen. I am such a creature of habit. My parents still live in the house that I grew up in because I would just die if they moved. They have asked me a hand full of times if I would be ok with the idea of them moving somewhere else. Absolutely not. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if I never got to go back there. This will be our 3rd holiday season as a married couple. The holidays are getting easier and easier for me, I have adjusted to the idea of going to Houston to spend the holidays with that side of our family. I like the idea. We don't get to see them that much and I really can't wait to go be surrounded by all of my nieces and nephews. There's that overwhelming feeling again...I love them all so much, and I don't know how to tell them. We have 9 nieces and 5 nephews on that side of our family. I am so thankful for all of them, including Jared's 4 sisters, brother and all of their spouses. They are a great family to be a part of. One of our sweet nephews, Peyton, has a tumor on his brain stem. They found it last year, when he was about 6 and half. I won't go into the medical terms, because I don't know them. I can't remember them, I don't understand them. I'm not going to insult him or his family by trying to talk about something that I don't get....but I know this much. It breaks my heart every single day to think about it. He isn't doing very well anymore and I don't really know how to deal with it, other than pray about it and know that I will get to see him again when my time here is over. That is really comforting, when I can actually look at the big picture. But as for right now I have so much regret. I regret that we live so close to my family and we don't get to see the Carruths, the Rickers, the Stocktons, Charite, Sarah, and Rosario often. I haven't gotten the chance to become the aunt to them that I should be. I'm not good at just calling the kids up to have a conversation, I hate that about myself. I don't even know what to say, I regret that. I hate to think that they don't know how much they mean to me and how special they all are to me. All 14 of them. I hope that they know. I hope they don't think I am as crappy of an aunt as I think I am. There are a lot of things that led to me being baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. But the biggest one is Peyton. I made a little prayer, at the time I called it a deal, with God the day we found out about Peyton. We knew that things didn't look great for him and time wasn't really on his side but I promised that I would be baptized if he could just get better. That was so dumb of me, BUT he has been doing well for a long time now, and I'm a member of the greatest church that I have ever known. Watching Robert and Jenna deal with this has taught me more than any class that I have ever been in. The faith that they have is undeniable. Much of my testimony is built on their faith, they know for a fact that they will all be with Peyton again. They are sealed for time and all eternity. And now that I am a member, my family can have that too. I get to be a part of the Ricker family for FOREVER. That's the greatest blessing that I can think of. I love my family and I am thankful for them everyday, even if I am bad at letting them know it.

My first Dress!!

A VERY dear friend on mine needed a dress made of a certain material for a wedding that she was going to....so I said I would give it a shot. Truth be told....I waited until the day that she was coming over for the final fitting before I even started it. Hello diet coke and a no doz! BUT I got it done hours before she came over, and we did the final taking in and letting out, etc. I was so intimidated by this dress. At least she knew what she wanted it to look like. And Hobby Lobby did a $.99 pattern sale, so bingo. I had to get some pattern reading advice from my lovely friend Ashley, and she was a doll....got it all figured out in one morning. Even put in my very first zipper. I am somewhat proud of this little number...I make blankets, not dresses...especially not evening wear :) But from what I can tell it worked out well! So thank you Allyson, for helping me step out of my baby blanket box!!

Allyson is the one in the middle....isn't she GORGEOUS!?

Entrepreneurs :)

I have been getting lots of requests on Facebook lately to "become a fan" of this page, and "follow" this blog....etc.. And I started going through everything and there are a LOT of people that I went to school with that are going down the road of entrepreneurship, as well as myself. It's so amazing to go look at every one's websites and pages and blogs, and see what they have come up with. I never ever in my dreams thought that I would start a business selling custom baby stuff....or any business at all for that matter. So needless to say, I am pretty proud of myself, I stepped out of my box and with the help of some friends and the encouragement from my loving husband and family....Laynie's Sewtique was born. And it's doing so well. I thought I would take a little time out this morning and mention some other wonderful businesses from old friends and classmates....there is QUITE the variety to look at :) ENJOY!

• Ashley (Kroese) Howry- "Blue Cottage Kids", and the blog

Ashley makes the CUTEST little girl dresses and other outfits. She has an ETSY page which is super easy to go shop from (I think there is even some free shipping at the moment)! Ashley likes to keep her stuff super affordable for everyone! I love all the little outfits that she makes for her sweet Emma.

• Leslie (Lane) Cunningham- "Platinum Designs", and the blog...also "Rhino Linings of Rockwall"

Leslie does interior design, party planning, and SO much more!! Spend some time checking out the shop page on her website, she makes BEAUTIFUL holiday wreaths that have a modern twist....not your average plastic flower decor :)

• Anne (Greenhaw) Shields- "Scents of Elegance" (if you don't have Facebook you can't check this link out....but they make yummy smelling candles that I LOVE!!!)

Anne took Scents of Elegance over from her aunt....she, along with her sister Lacey, make these candles themselves and can match almost any scent that you love. They have an awesome line of holiday scents...I'm actually burning Autumn Berries right now and I seriously love it. The candles are so inexpensive as well ($10.00), and they burn for 55 hours!!

• Lacey (Greenhaw) Bacon- "Scents of Elegance"

• Brady Hill- "Brady Z. Hill Agency, Farmers Insurance & Financial Services"

Pretty self explanatory! Send him a message or email though if you have started your own company, he has a great Networking group that meets every Thursday at the Hilton in Rockwall. I haven't been able to check it out yet, but I can't wait until I can.

• Ashley Del Rio- "Icing and Aprons", and the blog

I haven't gotten to taste any of the cakes by Ashley, but I love reading her blog and looking at all the pictures! Everything is beautiful! You need to at least check out her blog.

• Kelly (Nichols) Rucker- "Kelly Rucker Photography", and her healthy eating journal

Kelly's pictures are AWESOME!! There isn't much else to say other than that :) and her healthy eating journal is fun to read!! It seriously has made me watch what I put in my mouth for the past few days. Check it out!

• Christina Depuy- "Little Deities", such cute little hair clips!!

I asked Christina to make Wylee's hair clip for her first birthday outfit...I should be getting it any day now. Her clips are SO original! I fell in love with them instantly! And she is extremely affordable!

• Evan & Katie (Cameron) Kaufmann- "Detail Films", they've done some great music videos, among other stuff!

The Kaufmanns are amazing! I haven't gotten to check out everything that they've done, but recently I have seen a lot about the Wade Bowen music video that they just did. It's awesome!

• Rhea Ortamond- "Rhea's Ice Cream Shop"...coming soon, there isn't a web page for this yet as far as I know, but she did sign a lease!

Check it out...follow it....maybe pass it on?

http://layniessewtique.blogspot.com

Slump-ola

I can't count the days between this blog and the last. Sadly, maybe not that sad depending on how many people actually read what I say lol, I won't be able to say much. I did get caught up on everyone else's blogs that I used to faithfully follow.....Howry Family, you are MUCH better at staying up-to-date, I envy you :). I started a business!! Laynie's Sewtique is in full swing and keeping me just as busy as the kids are. And I love it!! I have 4 more blankets to get finished this week (finished and mailed one yesterday to total 5). And about 5 to do next week, and 4 the week after that. So yes, it's going well so far. I couldn't be happier with it :) I'll have to put pictures of my blankets up next time though, because both kids just woke up. :)

Jaylee's Mankies?

So I have been super busy making blankets, shirts, and onesies over the past couple of weeks. Which is GREAT news! The not so great news is I haven't making too much of a profit off of them, because apparently the stuff is way too cheap. The good news is, my name is getting out there and people are asking about my stuff and my prices, etc. SO, I am trying desperately to come up with a name for my goods. I want to include my kids if I can....which is where Jaylee's Mankies comes from. (JAred&wYLEE)...you get it. And of course, mankies is what Jared has always called blankies around here. So the name makes sense to me. But probably not anyone else if you don't know my children. I don't know if that really even matters, does it? Does it sound stupid? I have no idea. I am not creative when it comes to naming things. Other than our dogs....Candee and Caine. Maybe I should skip the kids and make a name out of our dogs' names..... The CandeeCaine Co. Which has nothing to do with blankets or baby accessories. So that probably wont work out very well. I need input because I am so stumped! Here are a few projects that I have finished up lately....

"You Deserve Platinum Style"...

My blankets are being "Showcased" at the "Platinum Designs" booth (#193) at the Rockwall Aspasians this weekend! So exciting! Now I have to go put together my book and wait for my order forms.....oh yeah, and pray that people like them!! Thank you Platinum!

Miss Mia

An old friend of mine (by old I mean we have gone to school together since kindergarten) had a baby girl about a week after I had Wylee and she asked me to make a blanket for her......soooo here it is!!! Maybe it's not really blog worthy but for now I have nothing else to write about.....

Baptisms and Blessings

I haven't posted in what feels like forever! Since the last post, we went to Kingwood to visit Jared's family and had a GREAT time. Our niece Aimee was baptized and our brand new niece Holli was blessed the next day! The only family member missing was Sarah, but since she's on her mission, I will let that slide. It is so crazy to me that when she comes home in January she will have 3 new nieces and 1 new nephew! 4 new family members and she will have only been gone a year and a half. I can't fathom that for some reason. Maybe because I am from a slightly smaller family...I have two cousins total. And they now have kids so I have 4 second cousins. Jared and Wylee have 16 cousins (that's including Dallas' son Gunner). If I could capitalize the number 16, I would, because that is just an insane number compared to what I am used to. But I love it. My cousins are quite a bit older than me and we really never got to spend a lot of time together so I absolutely love getting to watch our kids grow up with all of their cousins. It's amazing. I think Jared's new favorite person is Sage (Bekah and Matt's oldest daughter). They had so much fun playing together last weekend, it was so cute. Anyways, I have more blankets to make and errands to run so I should probably get off this thing.

Jared swinging on the swing set in our backyard....

Eating some of the delicious lemon birthday cake that big Jared made me for my 25th birthday! (It was soooo good!)

Sweet Wylee girl

Killer side burns.

Mankies everywhere!

Front of Will's blanket....maybe turned the wrong way, I have no idea.

Sienna's blanket

Will's blanket

Jared doesn't want a single thing to do with this blanket.....what a waste!

Jackson's blanket




I finished up 4 more blankies! Lots more to go though!!! Hope my sewing machine doesn't break down ;)

Mankie Time

I just got some of the cutest material with my birthday money!!! I can't wait to make Wylee a mankie out of it!! (Mankies are what we call our blankies around here) Someday if I ever make it big with baby blankets they will be called "Mankies".....I've got some sewing to do! Not to mention the 3 blankets that people have ordered and my dad's 50 million t-shirt blankets :)

**EDIT** So I started the mankie when i laid the kids down for nap time and I couldn't wait till tomorrow to finish it so when they woke up I got them out of bed and did the "what-nots" that get done after nap time and sat them down to play and I finished the mankie up...it is SO cute!!! It actually looks better than it did in my head, but the camera batteries are dead, and Jared isn't home with the good camera yet so you will just have to wait for a picture of it. When I was done I showed baby Jared and he said "Likey the mankie mommy, wylee likey the mankie, too!".....I'm giving myself an A plus for this one!

Bon Voyage!

With Mimi and Papa on their balcony...in Jamaica.

Me, Franci & Brit

Dinner one night...

Dinner the 2Nd night.

Since I FINALLY have our cruise pictures on the computer, I can blog about it!

My Mimi and Papa celebrated their 60Th wedding anniversary on August 5Th, and what they REALLY wanted was for everyone in the family to go on a cruise with them. All 16 of us (minus 5 of the great grandchildren)! We left EARLY Sunday morning, the 2Nd, and arrived in Galveston around 10:30 or 11:00. We dropped off our bags, parked the cars, and made our way to the ship! We were all so excited that while we were boarding the ship someone thought they saw Britanie's luggage on a rack about to be loaded, so like a bunch of rednecks we all ran to the window in amazement. It sounded something like "WOAH look there's Brit's luggage!! Oh my gosh they are about to put it on the boat! Where's my bag!?! Oh no wait....that's not Britanie's bag." Dad said we looked like Jed Clampett and his hill-billy family. It was funny. Here's the itinerary for the week:

Day 1- Fun day at sea (a.k.a. we'll be sailed for quite a while so find something to do)

Day 2- Another fun day at sea!

Day 3- And another fun day at sea!

Day 4- Mimi and Papa's anniversary and we arrive in Montego Bay, Jamaica

Day 5- Cayman Islands!

Day6- Cozumel!

Day 7- Last fun day at sea

Day 8- Get the heck off the boat

So let's go back to day one....about 3 hours after we boarded, ate lunch and checked out rooms and unpacked. Jared, Dallas, Britanie and I decide to go try out one of the pools. We get in the pool and all of the sudden my bathing suit FALLS APART. The only one piece that I have that was slightly too big for me as it is. The lining stayed in place but the outer "shell" I guess you would call it, lost all elasticity known to man. It looked like I had lost about 200 pounds and I had nothing but extra skin to show for it. My butt looked like I had taken a crap in my bathing suit. Nice. We have 6 more days of "bathing suit wearing time" and my suit crapped out after 3 hours. I had brought a couple of two pieces for Britanie since I didn't plan on EVER wearing them again.....ugh. So yes I thought ok I'll wear one of these just for the next two days till I can buy something in Jamaica. I figured, "I've seen a lot worse around here, and in bathing suits a lot smaller then what I'm gonna put on". Jamaica couldn't have come soon enough. Well on day two, the ladies were laying out and guess what....no one told me that the sun was stronger the closer you get to the freakin equator! So my SPF 30 didn't quite cut it. I was so burnt that you couldn't see anything but the halo of my star tattoo on my back (its a pink star). By Wednesday I realized I couldn't take the pain so Jared went to go to the store on the boat to get some highly over-priced aloe. But they weren't open. So he had to go all the way back to Jamaica to get me some even more over-priced aloe. How sweet. Jamaica was nuts. We didn't opt for the taxi drive deep into Jamaica, we settled for the shuttle bus ride to Margaritaville and the "Center City Mall" or whatever it was called. Basically people literally come OUT of their shops to try to drag you back in with them. Yikes. They don't believe you when you say you are broke. The Cayman Islands were SO much better than what we saw of Jamaica! We went to the beach after a few hours of shopping and souvenir buying. Dallas and Jared brought home pockets full of stupid rocks that they dug up with their feet in the ocean. Can't wait to display those little beauties in a jar in the bathroom. Come to think of it, that is probably why Jared wouldn't let me throw away the empty pickle jar Saturday night. Great, that's so classy. ANYWAYS...I forgot to mention that every night when we would get back from dinner and whatever activity that was going on after dinner, I beds would be turned down with chocolates, a list of stuff to do the next day, and a little animal made out of towels! Which takes us back to day 2....before we even got to breakfast Jared accidentally erased all of our pictures on the camera....work pictures, Jared's 2Nd birthday party pictures, and our first day on the ship, which included a picture of the towel seal waiting on our bed. Okay, back to day whatever....we arrived in Cozumel and the water was BEAUTIFUL! I couldn't believe it. It was amazing. We didn't really wanna do a whole lot there so we shopped a little bit and then caught up with mom and dad to get a taxi downtown and shop there and eat some real Mexican food. Okay downtown Cozumel was worse than Jamaica. And I forgot to mention that in the Cayman Islands they don't bother to stop at the stop signs, and I don't think they even have stop signs in Jamaica, people just pull out in front of each other and you honk to say thanks. It was crazy.

Mimi had it set up to where we had seated dinning every night at the same tables with the same waiters which were amazing! The food was so good! I tried duck, lamb, escargot, lobster tail, lobster bisque....I hated all of those things, but it didn't matter because you could just order something else! Dallas and Jared had at least 3 entrees every night on top of their 2 appetizers, salads, and whatever else they wanted, followed by a few desserts. Our waiter was so nice to us, I'm sure we looked like a bunch of fat greedy Americans, lol.

There was SO much to do on the ships and we all had an awesome time. I am SO thankful that we got to go and share that experience with my family. I loved it. I want to go back already. Maybe someday :)

Happy Birthday Jared!

Today is Jared's 2nd birthday! I can't believe he's already two. Two years ago today I never would have imagined the impact that our baby boy would have had on my life. He's so hyper (ALL the time), he loves being outside (especially if the dogs go outside with him), he talks all day long (which I never get tired of), and he already folds his arms during prayer, says Amen at the end, and tells me he loves me every night. He's such a blessing. He has lately decided that he wants to clean up his toys before we go somewhere, not always but sometimes. He has to say bye to each animal in the house before we leave, and sometimes he wants to give each one of them kisses....even the cat, which is sometimes a problem if she's hiding somewhere. Jared is already putting sentences together and he is really starting to make sense....to me anyways. I thought maybe I would use this blog to write a little something for Jared to read when he's a little bit older....

Jared: You're two today!! I've been telling you happy birthday all day long even though you don't understand what I'm saying. Right now your absolute favorite movie is CARS, every time you see a semi on the road you say "I see Mac!"....then two seconds later somehow you see another Mac. I'm pretty sure that your favorite character is Tow Mater, and then Lightning McQueen is a close second. You talk us into letting you take your cars to bed with you every night, and for naps too. You would rather be outside in the 100 degree weather than be inside where it's nice and cool. You LOVE swinging on the swing set in the back yard. Your favorite thing to do is lay stomach side down on the swing and get your daddy to spin you. You also love getting daddy to throw a basketball on the roof of the dog house so that you can both catch it when it bounces off. You made us do that for close to an hour the other day. And you love your little sister so much. You won't remember this, but just recently you have figured out that if she is crying and you hit yourself on the side of the head and say ouchie, it makes her laugh really hard and she usually stops crying. When we are in the car and the two of you are in the backseat together you somehow communicate. I can't figure it out, neither can daddy, but you both sit back there and just laugh at each other...and Wylee isn't even 8 months old yet! You are such a smart little boy and you are very loved by everyone in your life. I can't wait to watch you grow up! Well that's a lie, I would love for you to be little forever so that I could always protect you....but that won't happen. Anyways, happy birthday baby Jared (yes at two I still call you baby Jared and that is acceptable considering I am the one that gave birth to you). Mommy and Daddy love you with all of our hearts!

Anyways, have a good Thursday!

Easter

I didn't know how to put up videos back in April so here is a late Easter video of Gunner and Jared. Jared has no clothes on because during the Easter egg hunt he fell in the mud so we had to change him. Gunner has no shirt on because Jared had no shirt on.

Happy Monday

Since I don't really have anything fun to tell you guys about, I thought I would just put up some random pictures of the kids! Happy Monday! Her hair really isn't as red as this picture makes it look.

Aren't they cute?

This is how Jared takes pictures.....they are never normal.



Baby Jared was relaxing, while watching Days of Our Lives and eating a bowl of grapes....must be nice.

Doing his part to help out around the yard :)

It's been a BIG day for Wylee Ann!

Wylee crawled for the first time today! Well sort of the first time, a few days ago she moved each knee once and each hand once, but I don't count that. Today she crawled to me! We got a video of it but everytime she did it either baby Jared was in the way or a dog was walking in front of the camera, but we got enough of her to where you get the idea. She first started sitting up on her own last Friday (7-10) and then started crawling 8 days later! We are VERY proud! After nap time we decided we would take baby Jared and Wylee to Bass Pro Shop so Jared could look at the big fish through the glass and see the turtles and other stuff. He loves looking at the fish! After that big Jared decided to stop by Claire's and just look into getting Wylee's ears pierced....and we did it! I couldn't watch, so I went around the store with Jared picking up everything that he took off of the racks, but just like that it was done and she cried and cried for about 2 minutes and then she was over it! Baby Jared kept grabbing his ears and saying "Me pretty too", he really wanted his ears pierced and cried when we told him no. He got a sucker instead which seemed just as good to him. Here are some pictures that I took right before bedtime, I don't know how well you can see her earrings in them, they show up really well in the Windows Picture Viewer, though. I think if you click on the picture it might make it bigger, I don't really know. Anyways, that's been our big day! I hope you like the pictures and videos!