Thursday Tidbits!

• We've had lots going on this week trying to get ready to leave for a week! We've never been gone this long with Lucas AND we haven't been away from our house and animals for this long in years! Lots to get together! I'm already exhausted and haven't even got into much of the packing yet! O boy!

• I got my new Scentsy warmer in yesterday! I am in love! So pretty for fall!

•  I cannot believe we will be on a plane in 48 hrs and we will be at Disney World in 4 days! Seems like a dream! I can't wait to see all the fall decorations and festivities! 

• My sweet boy on the way to school last week. His headphones (telephones) are loop sided and he has his tiny dalmatian dog in his hand for D show n tell! This age is just the absolute best!

• I'm sure most people around me think I am weirdly obsessed with fall right now and that is mostly true. I know my poor husband is tired of hearing about fall food, decorations, stuff to do, halloween, and all that but I just feel like this in OUR season. We have been abundantly blessed this month and I am just giddy with excitement and joy. Every single day I think about where I was this time last year and it takes my breath away knowing how faithful and good God is. We have had some hard times but the good times are here today and  I am feeling more blessed than I ever have before. So to keep with my theme a another new fall candle that my hubby picked.  

• Found this sweet owl at Hob Lob this weekend. He was the last one and I knew he would be perfect for my couch. He got "welcomed" right away when Cooper chewed his ears nearly off. How does that saying go? "We can't have anything nice"!

• More fall goodness! LOL! Pumpkin Pie! Need I say more.... this and a good fall movie! Ahhh heaven!

• Lucas and George Monday morning. Broke out a long sleeve shirt! WhooHoo!

•  Tuesday night we went to the fair! Yes we are those people. We love the fair! Well I love the fair, Brent tolerates it but ends up having fun while we are there. Lucas loves it of course and had so much fun!

• Lucas will ride anything he is tall enough for and he wants to ride things he isn't big enough for! He loves going high. He is definitely my child with this :)

• But he did get daddy on one 'scary' ride!

• And whats a night at the fair without some carny games. He did really good popping balloons this year!

• Got to see sweet Emmy the other night. She is getting so big!

Lately......

This post is going to be all over the place because that is exactly how life has been lately.

Last month on the 9th we lost Brent's mom to her long hard fought battle to Alzheimer's. Our days have not been the same since. It was an expected loss but so so devastating. I can't even put into words the deep hole we have in our family and in our hearts without her presence. And even though she wasn't herself in those last few months I think most of us are morning her as she was long ago. I am morning her as she could've been. I am heartbroken Lucas won't know her as a grandmother. It shakes me to my core to think about what Brent and his sister don't have and what Lucas will never know. I want to do a full post on her soon but heavy tears fall as I write these few sentences, I am not ready.


Brent has been working a ton right now. The week before his mom went into the hospital he broke his foot as work, which I don't think I ever wrote about. He was off work for a week with that. He was off the next week for our planned vacation to Branson which we for went to spend time with his mom. So since he has been back he's had to be out of town a lot and working long hours. It's always hard but I am thankful for the man he is and how hard he works for us.


We leave for our Florida and Disney trip in 25 days!!!! We so need this getaway and are so excited about it! The planning for it was done so long ago it's weird not to be getting things ready but in the coming weeks I know we'll start making lists and packing up! This will be Luke's first time on a plane and to Disney World of course. He has been to the beach but it was to cold and he was so little this will be like his first time there too! I can't wait to experience all this through his eyes!


On August 7th Brent and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. It was not a good day this year. We spent all day at the hospital and neither of us remembered what day it was until that evening. There were no gifts this year and no dinner out alone but isn't that what being married is about being together in the hard times as well as the good. I am so blessed to get another year with Brent he is everything to me and I love him to pieces!


All that brings me to today. I am happy it's September! I am so happy fall is on it's way! And Halloween is coming! This is my absolute most favorite time of year! I woke up this morning so excited! I made some hot cocoa to drink on the way to work and Lucas pointed out some fallen leaves in our driveway, and everyday we make sure to look at the nursery on the way home to see if they have pumpkins yet. I am so grateful God blesses us with changing seasons. Where we can leave one season behind and begin a new one. And I also can't help but think about where I was in this season last year. So sad, so hurt, so angry but God's promises are always there. I am hopeful that this season will bring us blessings and happiness.

Branson Trip 2012!

*Long post! Tons of pictures, hate me ;)

We had an amazing time on our annual family Branson trip! I was not ready to come home and get back to the daily grind :(

We started our trip on Thursday morning, we all met at the McDonald's in Alma to grab a quick breakfast and so we could caravan up there to arrive at the same time.

Lucas and Lance watching movies on the phone instead of eating! ha! They don't get to see each other much but when they do they are best best buddies, love them!

Once we got to Branson and to the hotel we unloaded all our stuff and then got back in the car to head north to Springfield. We went to the huge Bass Pro Shop and to eat at Lamberts. We had a great time!

The boys checking out all the boats.

After Lambert's we headed back to the hotel to hang out and catch up. The reason we go to Branson on this specific weekend every year is for the car show that is in town. Brent's parents always put atleast one car in the show, some of the others have put cars in before but this year it was so hot I guess no one really wanted to mess with it but we still get to see lots of cars right in the parking lot of our hotel. The best parts of the whole trip are sitting around in lawn chairs, hanging out, letting the kids play, and watching the cars go by. Such fun times! 

 

Thursday night we also walked down the strip to Andy's to get froyo and ride gocarts! Luke loved the carts of course!

Friday we got up and around early and headed to WhiteWater! We had so much fun there and stayed for 4 hours! Brent and I both talked about next time bringing a waterproof camera because we didn't get any pictures of the day :( 

Luke rode all the waterslides he could and had a blast, he is so fun to do things like this with right now. 

We went back to the hotel to catch a nap before dinner.

For dinner Friday night we went down to the landing, which is a big outside mall, and ate at Catina Lorado. Love that place! The best mexican food ever and it's also where we had our reception dinner the night we got married so it's pretty special to us.

At the landing we found a Lego store! We spent a lot of time there before dinner.

Both of my boys had tons of fun!

Saturday we got up and headed back to the landing to Ride the Ducks! I've been looking forward to taking Luke on the duck ride since before he was born!

It was pretty fun, we had awesome weather and a funny guide, I loved hearing some tales about the town.

Luke even got to drive the duck for a little bit!

 

After the duck ride we went to eat lunch at Old Chicago and thought we go to the car show for a bit. We headed back to the hotel and got my father in law's Challenger and headed to the show! We got there and  drove though but never found a place to park so we opted for bumper boats and go carts instead!

Luke rode the go carts with Papaw and I got to ride bumper boats with him! ha! It was fun and we got soaked!

For dinner Saturday night we went to Outback, this isn't the Outback chain that we have in town it's much much better. It was very yummy and Luke ate a ton of steak! After dinner we walked down the way and rode more go carts and went to Andy's again.

Waiting to ride!

Ready to go!

Sunday we got up and went to Steak and Shake for lunch then headed to the fish hatchery on the way out of town.

 

Feeding the fishes!

 

 

 

After the hatchery we headed home. We had such a fun time! Loved spending time with friends we only see a few times a year and spending time with my family. I can't wait until next year!

 

My StayCation

I had such a good time staying home with Lucas last week!
It was so So hard to come back to work yesterday! I had just an awful day yesterday, it was truly a miracle I was able to post something, but I didn't want to forget more than I already had about our anniversary by putting it off.
Luke's first day of "school" was yesterday, during the summer they don't do much "teaching" but during the school year they kick it into high gear! We also had to get up and leave the house earlier than we had during the last few months to get there in time because it was everyone else's first day of school in our town! I was exhausted before we even left the house! Then I had to catch up on everything on my desk at work! Whew, I had a huge headache by 11 am and it stayed with me throughout the day. Awful!
But I got home and relaxed, Brent got home pretty early and we ordered pizza and ate ice cream cones one the deck so it went from a horrible day to a perfect day :) I love when that happens!

Note to self: NEVER try and go into the first day of school/ back at work without a coffee!


So today I started my day off with one of these to insure a good day at work, so far so good!!

Anyways back to my week last week....

Brent started his week in Conway on Monday morning, sigh I miss him so much sometimes. So it was just Luke and I for 3 days straight! I am not going to lie sometimes it was HARD! I love being with my little buddy but I do believe Monday he was seeing how far he could push this whole mommy being with me all day thing. But we made the best of it!


Outside looking at "that moon" with is two suckers (yes I do pick my battles;)


Playing in his room!

Monday we just hung around the house, I honestly don't remember doing anything much.

Tuesday we got up early and went for an oil change which turned into needing a new battery and over $100 and almost an hour later we were on our way to town! I say with a hint of sarcasm, if you couldn't tell! Ha!
I had a few papers to drop off at work so Luke got to my office, he loved it and all the girls loved seeing him. We also met Mema for lunch and that was fun. On our way home we stopped by to see Miss Eviee, I held her for hours! I could hold her all day I think, she is so sweet and tiny! She is still smaller than Lucas ever was! So crazy to me! Lucas was pretty good we only had two incidents where he was trying to "help" and helped a little to hard, but he wasn't jealous at all that I was holding her that long so that made me pretty excited!
After seeing Eviee we went home to get Lucas ready to go to Mema's while I went to his back to school orientation. It was fun getting to meet his new teacher and see how she decorated his new classroom, we will defiantly miss his other teachers but he already loves Ms. Kristen!



Sweet big boy!

Wednesday we hung around the house it was really stormy that day so we went to Wal-Mart early and stayed inside the rest of the day! Ethan and Olivia came over to play in the afternoon and just before they got there daddy made it home so we were excited! Brent took a nap while the kids played and us girls caught up on things! I love getting together with them and chatting and eating yummy food ;)
After they left we had dinner and played!





Thursday I don't remember doing anything special, Brent was in and out during the day and we ate lunch together and spent time with him! I will have to say being at home all day it is so much easier when he was home in the evenings and Lucas got a change of scenery! I went to Wal-Mart that night and got some goodies for our trip the next day!

Friday morning we got up bright and early, picked Mema up and headed to the Tulsa Aquarium! It was two hour drive but Lucas did SO good!



Lucas LOVED it! He was so excited when we got there and loved looking at all the animals!



Lots of "Nemos" to look at!



He insisted I take his picture with this fish ( the one right behind him, ha!)

I love these fish! They were huge much bigger than the ones in the pet stores!

I was kinda sad I forgot my "real" camera but the trusty iPhone didn't let me down.

Having a snack at the aquarium!

We stayed until about 3 (we were trying to hold out for the otter feeding) then Lucas had a meltdown and I could tell we better be on our way!

We headed home without eating lunch because Lucas was sleeping so hard, he was wore out! But mom and I went on an adventure down the old highway home, I thought she was taking me out to the boonies!! But we had fun and got home around 5 just when daddy did! We ate a "funny" dinner as Brent calls it, just a bunch of stuff that doesn't go together! Haha! and called it a night.




Saturday we stayed home and Brent put up Luke's new fan! Then went to town to Best Buy to get me a GPS for all my future outings! Loving this thing! We also went to Hob Lob then to Chick Fil a and to the hospital to visit Mamaw!


Luke's before fan, gold again, surprise surprise!


New fan!

It goes perfect with his Razorback room! He loves it and was so excited! The blades look blue in the picture but they are black.

Sunday I cleaned out my craft room and we organized the garage! I am selling stuff on CraigsList and I donated a bunch too! I am so sick of all the junk!! Plus we had to make room for Brent's new car when that time comes :/ ha!

I had a blast getting to spend some much needed time at home! I can't wait to do it again at Christmas time ;)

Crossing my fingers I can turn it into my full time job one day.... we will see!

Tidbits for Thursday!

*Note this is very random! And I'm going to try and do these once a week.

• First I have to say that I only have a day and half left and I am officially off work for the next week! I am so excited! Luke and I are going to have so much fun! I have a bunch of stuff planned and we are also going to Tulsa to go to the aquarium on Friday!

• Brent is selling his truck and getting a Mustang like this one (I think I got the year model right) anyway, I am pretty excited I was kinda bummed when we sold our last one. Lucas is going to love it! His favorite cars right now are Mustangs and VW bugs he can name both of them in most year models!
  

• I was looking at old pictures last night of myself just a year ago and I am so happy with how much my hair has grown out!! You see I had a lapse in good judgement and went with a short "stylish" do a couple months after Lucas was born and that was a bad bad deal! I'm just not "stylish" enough to pull that off. I much prefer my hair in a long side braid or messy bun. I am thrilled to be getting close to wearing my braid again much to my hubby's dismay ;)

• Last night I felt like I ran into my first "parental judgement situation", it was not fun and my feelings were kinda hurt. I will not be judging any other mommy's in the future. I think we all need to realize kids are all different and they have good days and bad days and we shouldn't look down on a parent because a child is misbehaving or being a little hyper, this is mostly for me to remember.

• Brent's job is going very well (well he may say differently Ha!) I think it has been a great change at our house. Yes it gets hard sometimes when he is gone but all in all it is going great! We do think his impending trip to Pennsylvania is coming up and he will be gone for a month. And while I will be heartbroken and worried most of the time he is gone, I am kinda excited to go up there for a visit! I've never been past Colorado so something new to experience!

• Speaking of Brent's job, so often now when I tell people about Brent's job and that he is out of town and yadda yadda they will say something along the lines of "How awful" or " I don't know how you deal with that" and it really hurts my feelings.

• I got my new Anthropologie dress in yesterday! I couldn't wait to wear it today!! It fits perfectly!

• Brent's mamaw is in the hospital and not doing too good, she has cancer and doing radiation treatment. We are praying she starts to feel better soon. With Brent's mom already so sick and now Mamaw, it's going to be very tough.

• I love reading and writing these random posts!