2016 Recap

Ok, let me be honest here.... 2016 has not been my favorite year. In fact it has been a very challenging year. There were things I never thought would happen, that happened. Ugh. Yet, it has allowed me to learn and grow in many capacities. I would also rather not have a year like that again. Haha. 

2016 lows: Granny passing away and having Shingles
2016 highs: Great Wolf Lodge and going on a helicopter ride

Here was our original 2016 list with the accomplishment beside it!

• Resolution1- Read at least one book per month  - Check! I read 30 books this year!
• Resolution 2 - Have 3-4 Mommy/Son Dates or activities per month with Blake. I want us to be so close this year (even closer than we already are. haha) - Check!
• Financially get ahead... already paid off a credit card - eh... maybe not
• Hopefully enjoy some snow days (fingers crossed... more like ice days! 
• Go on some awesome vacations (beach... maybe a water park... maybe the mountains again?)- Check! 
• Knock off some stuff on my bucketlist (paddleboarding, ziplining, etc)... a 2017 resolution
• See Lion King on Broadway with my dad - Check!
• Plan a spectacular 4th bday for Blake! - Check!
• Survive my  30th birthday - ugh...- barely
• Make as many new friends as we can!  - learned a lot about people
• ...and who knows what else... COME WHAT MAY!  

Needless to say, I am very ready for next year! 2017 HAS to be better! 

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!!! This is one of my favorite days of the year...and I think it is safe to say Blake's favorite too! We were both very good this year!

I got some work out clothes, leggings, scarf, and some adult coloring books for relaxation.

Blake got a Paw Patrol train track, a HUGE garage for all of this hotwheels cars, and a Paw Patrol jungle set. Those were the main things. He also got race tracks and a basketball goal from the grandparents.

Merry Christmas from us! :) 

Few Of Our Favorite Things

December is such a busy but also such a fun month. We have done lots of wonderful things! Here are a few...

We made homemade ornaments for our tree...

Speaking of trees, we also helped Gdaddy decorate his tree!

Hunter, Blake's best friend had a birthday this month. We went to Defy Gravity to let the boys jump it out! They had a blast and I love seeing their little friendship develop.

And finally....we had time to do gingerbread houses. I had to slap it all together before Blake ate it all! He loved the candy. Haha.

Santa, We Know Him

We got to see Santa!!!

Blake was so excited to see Santa this year! He has been very clear on what he wants for Christmas this year, so he was excited to tell it to Santa. We even had to practice it a few times. I am so proud of him because he jumped right on up there and told Santa exactly what he wanted. He even answered all of Santa's questions about being good this year.

I can testify... Blake has been amazing this year. I am not sure how I lucked out with such a great kid! He is nice beyond belief. He is kind and funny and wants to please everyone.... yet he is strong and confident and loves to joke around. I am just proud of such a great kid that he is growing up to be.

I think Santa agrees... so Blake will be getting everything on his list this year! Hopefully Santa will leave a little something for me too! :)

Disney on Ice 2016

Disney on Ice!!!! Rudy surprised us with tickets to Disney on Ice! This was our 3rd year going... we always take Granny, too.

Blake was SO excited to see that Rudy made an Olaf when surprising him with the tickets. Olaf is the snowman from Frozen and he is Blakes favorite character this year. Blake was thrilled to see Olaf in the show!

He also impressed me because he  remembered perfectly a scene in last year's show with Buzz. I couldn't believe that he remembered that from a full year ago! I'm curious as to what else he remembers! Haha.

We had such a blast!

Christmas Parade

We love the Rolesville Christmas parade. We also always have the best seat in the house because the parade goes right in front of Memommy's house.

It has become a tradition to go to Memommy's house early and eat lunch. Then we take a nap and wake up just in time for the parade to come by. We get our chairs and our blankets out and sit right there in the front yard. Memommy also has nice warm hot chocolate ready for when the parade is over.

This year we also had some fun people join us... Tiffany, Clint, and Tristan joined since they just moved to Rolesville a few months ago. Blake and Tristan loved waving to all of the floats and trucks. They also got pretty good at catching the candy!

PS- This is the last picture of Tiffany's family before baby Cameron arrived! He will be with us next year! ;)

Christmas Tree Time

December is here! Finally! We have been so busy just embracing this month that I got somewhat behind in blogging... So the next few entries have happened over the course of the 11 days of this month. I am just not getting to actually write them all down.

Christmas is one of the most exciting months for me. I like to call it the Christmas Magic and it is something that I believe strongly in. Also, having a child during this month is amazing. There are so many wonderful things to do and memories to make.

One of our favorites is getting the Christmas tree. Our tradition is that we get the tree on December 1st, or either withing the first few days of December.

Blake thought picking a tree was extra funny this year because our tree lot came from Booger Mountain. Blake said we had a booger tree...and that is hilarious in every 4 year old boys mind. Haha! He picked a good one though.

Having the tree decorated and lit up makes the house just seem so cozy. Any it truly sets to the tone for that Christmas Magic feel!

PS- I had to get on Blake for playing with the tree this year! He thinks the ornaments are toys. We have already broken 2. It is our tradition to get a new ornament each year for the tree. Right now our tree is covered with superhero ornaments!

November Resolutions

Hey... look at me! I am actually posting my resolutions for this month DURING this month! Haha! On it! This has been a long year for these resolutions, but I am proud to say I have done it and only 1 month left!

Books I have read this month...
Vanishing Girls - one of the best this year!
5 Love Languages for Children
The Girls - awful... it freaked me out actually.

Mommy/Son Dates:
Trip to Pilot Mountain
Bagel Breakfast Date
Go to work with Mommy day
Trolls Movie

Thank You For

This is the month of Thanksgiving! I feel like it is a very important age for Blake to be learning about what it really means to be thankful for things. Four year olds tend to be naturally demanding and I think they just assume that they are given the things they have because that is what they want... and they get what they want. This year, I wanted Blake to be aware that not everyone has wonderful things like he does, and for that reason he should be thankful. We tried saying something we were thankful for each night. It was cute because instead of saying "thankful" he would say "thank you for". Haha! :) He was "thank you for" his toys (#1), family (he named everyone individually), our house, food, and poop/toots (because he is a boy and everything involves saying poop or toots - sigh).

I am thankful for being able to spend these wonderful moments with Blake. We, Ryan and I, were both able to attend Blake's Thanksgiving luncheon. I love being involved in Blake's PreK activities. We also returned the kindness by showing them our gratitude and giving them a little thanksgiving gift.

I am grateful for my friends and my health. Blake was with Ryan for the morning/lunch of Thanksgiving, so I was able to run a 5K this morning with Rita. We had a blast and this was our 3rd 5K this year.

I am grateful for family. This just happened to be the only picture I got. But I am blessed with a wonderful family. I am particularly grateful that we are all within a close distance of each other. That is something that many people do not have.

Finally, and most importantly, I am grateful for my greatest blessing of all...Blake! That little boy has my heart in a million ways. He is my world. Simple as that. My life revolves around being his mom and I love it... I am lost and incomplete without him. Seriously, you should see me on the weekends he is with his dad. I am pitiful.Blake is my best friend and our bond is something that I consider to be very special. I hope and prayer that we can continue to be that close in the years to come. I hope he will always know that being his mom is the one thing that I am most grateful for in life! NOTHING will ever compare to that!

Trolls

Blake and I went to see the movie Trolls. It was the cutest and happiest little movie ever...and full of great color and music!

And what is it about kids movies that makes me cry!?!??! This movie taught us that happiness is within all of us and that we can choose to be happy. We don't have to depend on anyone or anything to be happy... it's in each of us! :)

This movie and this little boy made me  the happiest today!!!

5 Love Languages for Children

My eyes have been opened to a BEAUTIFUL concept of love! It is inspired from the book 5 Love Languages for Children. The authors explain that each of us give and receive love in 5 different ways: words of affirmation, gifts, quality time, service, and physical touch. This book then focuses on which methods your child specifically needs the most and how to show them the love that THEY need to feel.

Wow! It was so eye opening to read about each love language and how that might be prioritized specifically with Blake. Many of the things in this book are common sense, but it really opened doors with different areas of my parenting.

My love language is words of affirmation. I need to hear encouragement and love through language. Naturally that is how I show love as well. I am consistently telling Blake I love him and how proud I am of him. I shower him with encouragement. That is all great and loving, but it isn't the way that he receives love the most. Blake's current love language is quality time. He sees love by spending time with him. Sitting down and playing on the floor with him for an hour will show more love than me telling him I love him a hundred times a day or giving him a million kisses. So, that means that I will continue to focus on quality mommy/son dates for us!

While gaining knowledge of all of the love languages has also helped me when communicating with Blake. Depending on the situation, I can see how Blake can better understand situations. Especially with discipline, I can see how approaching a situation can help or hurt Blake. Blake is sensitive with words of affirmation. He is SO sensitive. That is why normally the only discipline that he needs is talking and a brief time out. Knowing this reaction and this love language, I can talk to him in a way that he understands in order to teach him about appropriate behavior. We understand each other and can love each other while also still learning.

The book also mentioned that children's love languages can shift depending on age and phases of life. Currently his main love language is quality time, but it might change as he gets older. Being a boy, he will probably distance himself from me when he gets to the almost teen age. I learned how to shift showing the love languages while respecting those phases of his life.

Being a mother is my ultimate purpose in life. It is something that I am grateful for every second of every day. This book has made me value this role even more. My bond with Blake is a special one and I love that I can know grow that bond stronger! 

October Resolution

Whew... this hasn't been my favorite year. It has been challenging, but I have still been trying to do my resolution!

Books I read in October:
The Girls
Truly Madly Guilty


Dates with Blake:
Pumpkin Picking/Hillridge Farms
Pumpkin Carving
Mommy.Son Pictures
Halloween Decorations
Survived Hurricane Matthew together! HAHA

Two months left... I can do this! 

Incredible Trick or Treat

Trick or Treat!!! This is by far the best trick or treat age! We had such a wonderful time!

First of all, I am pretty sure this is one of the last years that Blake will want to dress up with me. I was so excited to dress us with him as The Incredible family! He was Dash and I was the mom, Elastigirl. We were pretty Incredible!

Following tradition, we trick or treated with the grandparents and great-grandparents first! The adore Blake and loved seeing him all dressed up.

This year was special because Blake got asked to Trick or Treat with his best friend. His social life far surpasses mine. Haha! So, we decided to go to Hunter's neighborhood and go along with his family. For some reason I thought it would be a nice relaxing stroll down the neighborhood. Whew... it was nothing like that. It was more like chasing two 4 year olds and a 2 year old around the neighborhood! HAHA!

Either way, these boys were the cutest things I have ever see!

Things you learn/say when trick or treating with two 4 year olds, a 2 year old, and the cutest baby ever.

• Don't touch the pumpkins! - some people still use real candles in their pumpkins and 4 year olds love trying to touch them. Sigh.
• We adults are still pretty quick on our feet as we chase the kids and prevent them from running into roads. "Look for cars!" 
• teaching Halloween etiquette is legit! "Say thanks" "don't go into their house!!" "You can't take a whole handful of candy. Just one" (unless you are the cute minion. Rules don't apply to that overload of cuteness). 
• sometimes we still get more scared than our kids... especially with large jumping spiders.
• to a two year old, carrying his heavy candy bucket is the greatest sign of love.
• and we mastered every way to put a glow stick on a toddler.

PreK Halloween

Yesterday was Blake's PreK Halloween party! He woke up right on time and as chipper as he could be because he got to be....BATMAN!

We even got to drive the "batmobile" to preschool AND when we arrived his buddies Superman and Spider-Man were already there. I can't tell you how freaking adorable it was so see those little 4 year old boys running around in their superhero costumes. They were very in character and were ready to save the day! I love it! It made me smile for the whole day just thinking about them!

Blake is super excited for the actually Trick-or Treat night on Monday night now. No worries... we will have new costumes for that one! :)

Homecoming

It was Homecoming Week... and as the SGA Advisor that means that this was the craziest week for me at work. It also means that it is one of the most exciting weeks.

One of the best moments of the week was when the varsity players got to ask one of their favorite teachers to wear their football jerseys. Noah, one of my AP students, asked me to wear his! I felt so special and I am SO proud of him. He is an awesome young man! It's moments like this that make me LOVE my job!

Go WF Cougars!

Pumpkin Carving

Now that we picked the pumpkins it was time to carve them. This was a big deal because this was the first year that we were actually carving them! In previous years we painted them... because carving with toddlers can sometimes be a disaster.

Blake LOVED carving the pumpkins... while his attention span lasted.

He wanted his pumpkin to be a scary Jack-o-Lantern. Done. Easy!

Then I suggested mine be something super cool like a Spider-Man pumpkin - Yes, this was me trying to impress my kid and be a cool mom. I didn't really think about actually having to carve it and make it look good. It may have been slightly above my pumpkin carving skill level. I think it turned out somewhat decently. Right?! Either way, we had fun.

Blake loved seeing the pumpkins "glow" at night. :)

Pumpkin Picking

It was a gorgeous day this past Saturday and we went to pick out our pumpkins! Of course we went to Hillridge Farms!

Blake loved bouncing on all of the air pads and bounce houses.

We also rode the train. We can't visit Hillridge Farms without doing this!

Our favorite part was the hayride to the "pumpkin patch". It was so much fun! This is one of the many reasons I love Fall!

Finally we got to pick the pumpkins! I think we found some keepers. Blake did a great job at picking them out this year! Then he wanted to run around in the patch. HAHA! Now, if I could just get him to help me carry the pumpkins.... it was a struggle, :)

Now we get to carve them! We are so excited! Stay tuned....

Our Photo Shoot

Blake and I finally got our family pictures done! Just the two of us...because we are one awesome little family! :) No matter what... "you will always be my greatest adventure". I love my little boy more than life itself!!! Thanks so much to Ashton for capturing this beautiful bond that we have.