kid free silence

Posted on February 23, 2012 by Tiffany

All this kid-free silence is making me want to write. I have all these ideas in my head… all these words, sentences, and even paragraphs I’d love to put down. And of course, of course, no computer to do it with. I have my iPhone and iPad but not having a keyboard messes me up.

So I’ve scribbled some ideas and words on a scratch piece of paper I found in the hotel room and am praying I won’t lose the rest when I get back to real life.

I’m currently in Ohio where Andy has been for almost two weeks now doing a training course for his job. I am in mommy heaven. I took a Tylenol PM to ensure a good night’s rest (which was probably totally unnecessary but I didn’t want to chance it) and slept from 10 pm to 10 am. OH.MY.WORD. IT WAS ABSOLUTELY BLISSFUL. I’m sure you’ve heard me say it before, but neither of my kids inherited Andy and I’s love of sleep apparently so getting even four straight hours of sleep would be heaven on earth since that never ever happens at home.

Today I watched an old Lindsay Lohan movie (like before she went all crazy), took a long,extremely hot shower, and took my time putting on my makeup and doing my hair. After I got ready I ventured out and found my most favorite shops that I most definitely don’t have in Paris- SuperTarget, Best Buy, World Market, etc. I also found Starbucks and Panera Bread which made my life complete.

I do miss my little stinkers, but I won’t lie and say I’m not enjoying every second of this kid free time by myself and with Andy. I think it’s so important to get away and rejuvinate yourself and remember what life was like before the constant touching, feeding, and no sleep that comes with having kids.

I’ve also had a lot of time to think about what I want to do with my life. I’ve always had this struggle of not knowing what I’m meant to do or who I am supposed to be. I’ve toyed with so many ideas as to what I want to be when I grow up but have never been truly satisfied with what the outcome would be. I thought for a long time I’d settle with being a teacher and I think I could be a good one but I don’t have that desire to do it. And with only one life, I feel like settling is the last thing I should do. So I’ve decided, and am so very happy about this decision, to go back to school and get my degree in English with an emphasis in creative writing. Maybe I will write a book or children’s book, or maybe I will never write more than this here blog, but I will finally feel like I accomplished something for me and that’s enough for me right now. Four colleges and about ten majors later, I finally figured out what I want to do with my life and it feels good. Now I just have to figure out when to start back and what to do with the kids. I don’t have much left, but I’m not under any illusion that it will be easy. It will be hard to juggle it all but I’m ready.

Anyways, I will be back tomorrow to tell you a hilarious story about a mini vacation Andy and I took once… and I’m hoping it isn’t repeated this weekend.

And one more thing- will you pray with me for a friend of mine, Sara, and her family? Little Cooper started spitting up blood this morning and has been admitted into the hospital to try and figure out why. I KNOW the fear she is going through of the unknown and I know she would appreciate the prayers. Thank you!

Posted in Travel | Leave a comment

cousin fun

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Tiffany

Well our weekend was wonderful. It was crazy, insane, and loud, but so much fun! My parents now have eight grandkids, so you can imagine how crazy it gets with just that. Then you throw in another “kid”, Jessi, and eleven adults it makes for a housefull of fun!

Rory’s birthday party was fun and disorganized (ha!) and I will blog about that soon.

Today I want to tell you about all the fun the cousins have when they are together.

Unfortunately, I didn’t take as many pictures as I normally do but I have a few! Rory was completely in love with every single one of her older cousins. I mean every.single.one.

And she sorta loved her little cousin, Clayton, too but got very possessive of the toys he was playing with because “no! those are Ryyydur’s toys!”, of course. Bless her heart, she’s very protective of her sister. She did thoroughly enjoy taking a bath with Clayton though (because he let her dump water on his head).

Jacks, Landon, and Riley of course did their own thing most of the time which included lots of playing outside and also included sawing through a rock (for real). Jacy and Cade played basketball with the older kids (me, Papa, Josh and Patrick) and OH MY WORD it was the worst game of horse and around the world EVER. No one made any shots and it was ridiculous.

Clayton and Ryder stared at eachother a lot but barely made contact unless we made them. Soon they will be giving us a run for our money! (Can you believe they are just 2 months apart?!)

All weekend long we were cracking up at Clayton. He does this signature move that only one other person in our family has ever done and we got SO TICKLED all weekend at it. This picture doesn’t really do it justice but here is the signature lounge…

Aunt Nita, doesn’t he look SO MUCH like Patrick doing that?! I hope this makes your day. We miss Patrick so much and I can’t believe its been 12 years since I have hugged his neck. I miss him all the time.

Alright, tomorrow is the big day! I’m flying to OH to be with Andy for FIVE days of R&R! 

Hallelujah and amen.

Posted in Family | 3 Comments

grand plans, junk food, and Valentine’s

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Tiffany

I had all these grand plans for consistently blogging while I was here in TN…

like for instance, taking Valentine’s Day pictures the day before we left.

Well, friends, I uploaded those pictures on my computer at home and then cleared my SD card to have room for everything for the trip.

Which is smart, you know, if I had brought my desktop along with me.

Anyways, we’ve been having a blast seeing friends and family, and most of all partying for Rory’s birthday! Its been a good week but we are all exhausted since NEITHER OF MY CHILDREN want to sleep anymore. Honestly, I just don’t understand why I was tortured blessed with these children that do not sleep.

Dear Lord, I love my sleep. Can’t I get some kids who love sleep too? Amen.

Rory’s been having tons of fun getting away with murder with the grandparents. And also getting to eat things like potato chips, nutty bars, and let’s not forget the coke she drank. She’s going to be sad when she gets back home! ha!

Andy left a Valentine’s present for Rory before he left for his work trip. She absolutely loved it. She “read” the card over and over and loved her bear and chocolate kisses. And THEN the slinky came out. Y’ALL. Best dollar spent ever. They both are obsessed with it. Rory decided to play a game where she gave one end to Ryder and then backed way up and then Ryder would let go. It was hysterical. Ryder laughed so hard she literally flopped on her face.

So here are your 3 days late (unofficial) Valentine’s pictures. Rory sat and cheesed for me for a minute and then her and Ryder just acted silly when I tried getting their pictures together. Seriously, they are just little butts. And I love them dearly.

I will do a couple posts next week all about Rory’s birthday parties! Tasha’s family will get to TN tonight and so all the sisters and their kids will be together tomorrow and I cannot wait! Hope you have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

Posted in Family, Rory Eve | 2 Comments

Happy 2nd Birthday, Rory!

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Tiffany

Rory, you are TWO YEARS OLD today!

I just can’t believe how fast time flies by! I am mixed between being so sad that you are growing up too fast and so glad because each day you get more fun!

Rory you are the sweetest, spunkiest, most determined two year old I’ve ever seen. Your indepence and need for knowledge is amazing. You are always wanting to know how something works and don’t stop until you figure it out! You are such a problem solver and I can almost bet you will be an engineer like your Daddy.

I can’t tell you how many people ask to hear “Rory stories” when they see us out. Everyone gets such a kick out of you because you really are just SO funny. Of course, I love telling on you because your mischeviousness cracks me and everyone else up! Your personality is so sweet and fun and everyone loves to be around you. I couldn’t be more thankful for that!

Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you, Rory! We can’t tell you how thankful we are that God chose you to be our daughter. What an amazing gift you are to us! My biggest prayer for you is that you take your strong-willed spirit and do something amazing and something that changes people’s lives.

We love you Rory girl!

Posted in Holidays, Rory Eve, Rory's Monthly Posts | 3 Comments

Book Review: The Weird Sisters

Posted on February 9, 2012 by Tiffany

When I got the email to sign up to read The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown, I immediately clicked to sign up. A book about three sisters who are totally different and “weird”… HELLO! My life!

Being one of three sisters, I totally related to this book. Though we have never gone to extremes like these sisters have, we are all so different and so much alike all at the same time. We may not talk every day, or even every week, but when things get hard and life takes us to unexpected places I always know that my sisters are who I can run to.

Summary from Penguin:

Three sisters have returned to their childhood home, reuniting the eccentric Andreas family. Here, books are a passion (there is no problem a library card can’t solve) and TV is something other people watch. Their father-a professor of Shakespeare who speaks almost exclusively in verse-named them after the Bard’s heroines. It’s a lot to live up to.

The sisters have a hard time communicating with their parents and their lovers, but especially with one another. What can the shy homebody eldest sister, the fast-living middle child, and the bohemian youngest sibling have in common? Only that none has found life to be what was expected; and now, faced with their parents’ frailty and their own personal disappointments, not even a book can solve what ails them…

I loved how this book was written, in 1st person plural. This part was the most brilliant in my opinion. I loved how Brown weaved in and out of each life without breaking too much. I loved how she introduced Shakespeare in it and included their love for literature.

I would definitely recommend this book to my friends, especially for an easy read to take them away from having to think too hard. And although that sounds like a backhanded compliment, it isn’t. I love an easy read to take my mind away from the decisions and hardships of the day. That’s exactly why I loved this book so much- it moved me without my having to be burdened by it.

Join our conversation on this book at BlogHer Book Club.

Note: I was compensated for this book review by BlogHer Book Club, but as always, the opinions are my own.

 

Posted in Book Reviews by Tiffany | Leave a comment

the many faces of Ryder

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Tiffany

Rory is at school and Ryder and I have been playing this morning.

She was totally cracking me up, so I got my camera out of course.

Y’all.

This kid is something else. She is a total ham. I always thought Rory was until Ryder came along. The kid sees my phone or the camera and immediately goes into cheese mode.

It is hilarious.

So, without further adieu, I present to you the many faces of Ryder.

the “shut up! you’ve got to be kidding!” face (talking to Elmo, of course)

the “hey mommy” smirk

the giggle

the “gotcha” face.

Note: She has this face on when she pulls Rory’s hair.

the “I’m so thrilled with myself” face

the faker

the distracted faker

the evil laugh

the “I’m ignoring you but will pretend you are funny” face

the innocent face

Note: This is also the face she has when she is pulling sister’s hair.

the serious reader

Now I’m going to have to stop there to tell y’all that I’m a bit worried about Ryder’s eyesight…

haha! This is exactly how she “reads” her books every single time.

The End.

Posted in Ryder Amelia | 5 Comments

the four-wheeler

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Tiffany

Since we will be in Tennessee for Rory’s birthday on Sunday, Andy and I decided to give her big present to her early. So yesterday, when she woke up from her nap she was surprised with a new Barbie four-wheeler!

She was SO excited! She drove it around the circle of our living room/kitchen/playroom.

But we are having to work on the whole steering thing…

We got so tickled because her favorite part of the whole thing was being able to put her juice in the cup holder. ha!

Last night we had our Sunday School class over for the Super Bowl party (we really missed the Darst’s and the Riggs’ by the way!). We had the best time and Rory always loves playing with her bff Grady!

Well, they discovered the four-wheeler and got on together and there was no stopping them! The drove around and around and had the best time ever!

I thought it was so funny how Rory wanted to ride in the back. She did not want to drive at all which is so not like her! She just let Grady drive her around the whole time.

I’m pretty sure Grady felt like he was such a stud getting to drive his girl around… ha ha!

If these two ever ended up getting married, we’d have one heck of a slideshow! ;)

 

Posted in Rory Eve | 2 Comments

let’s start this celebration!

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Tiffany

We woke up bright and early this morning to take Rory to the eye doctor in Dallas. We had been noticing that her eye seemed to turn in and so we needed to get it checked out. The doctor had told us that she would probably have to have surgery to correct it and so we have been worried about it because we’ve had enough this year with surgeries!

Well, I’m happy to report that no surgery is needed! Finally, a specialist appointment with the kids that didn’t end badly! Apparently she gives the illusion of having a “lazy eye” because her eyes are so big and dark and the bridge of her nose is wide. Its something she will grow into and will need no further testing. PRAISE THE LORD!

After the appointment, we decided to take Rory to Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate her birthday as a family a little early.

Rory loved it, though she was a little timid. I got her to ride one moving ride and then she was OVER IT. She’s going through a “scarey” phase right now, so its kinda a bummer. She runs in about 19833 times a day from her playroom or wherever saying “mommy! mommy! that a scarey me!” and who the heck knows whats scarey-ing her. She liked playing the games and watching us play though, so that was fun!

She tried with all her might to climb into the tall kid play thing but just couldn’t get the strength to hoist herself up more than two levels. She did go up and down about two thousand times though!

Her favorite games were anything with balls. She loved skee ball and similar games. But she’d only throw over handed so it didn’t work out so well, ha!

She thought she was big stuff putting the coins in.

And even bigger stuff when she “drove” the car. (oh and yes, that precious pumpkin of mine totally gave a smile without me even asking!)

Ryder had fun too being passed around between us and watching Rory run around.

By the way, Ryder is a total stinker. Everytime I’d put the camera to my face to take a picture while holding her, she’d grab it. So here she is with her stinker face on…

If that ain’t proof of a stinker, I don’t know what is.

Then it was time to collect all the tickets and pick out a prize!

She picked a lizard, vampire teeth (that didn’t fit in her mouth), and a bracelet.

About two seconds into the ride home, both girls passed out and slept the entire 2 hours home.

We had such a wonderful day together. Nine days until my Big Stinker is 2!

 

Posted in Family, Rory Eve | 4 Comments

Seven Months Old!

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Ryder

Y’all, I’m SEVEN Months Old!

You’d never believe it, but I had to go to the doctor today, and I have a double ear infection!

Doesn’t keep me from smiling though!

When Rory was seven months old, she had an ear infection too! How weird is that?! Look how chubby my big sister was!

This has been the best month yet for me! Mommy got me a new doctor that I love and got me to see a specialist about my tummy! I’m on a new formula and am feeling so good now!

Now that I am feeling so good (besides cold/ear infection) I am happy ALL THE TIME. Its like a different world all together without pain! I love to play with my toys and especially my sister. I will sit and play on the floor forever all by myself.

I also LOVE to pull my sister’s hair. Mommy gets onto me (because Rory needs to know its not ok to pull hair) and I just laugh and laugh at her. Mommy says I’m going to be as big of a stinker as Rory! Everyone says she’s going to have her hands full with us!

I always hear Daddy and Mommy talking about how funny and sweet I am. I guess they are right about that!

I am a momma’s girl to the max! When Mommy drops me off at the church nursery, I start crying as soon as I see the nursery workers! I don’t like to be away from my mommy ever!

So what’s up with me this month?!

- I weigh 13.4 lbs! (4th percentile)

- I eat 4 oz bottles. I’m starting to eat some soft solids, but don’t try and feed me baby food! I go all lock jaw on mommy everytime I see a spoon!

- I wear 0-3 month clothes but Mommy is making me wear some 3-6 month stuff and just letting it be big, ha! (Rory wore the outfit I’m wearing on her six month post if you want to see how cute she was in it!)

- I still don’t have any teeth and I’m not showing any signs of getting them either!

See y’all next month!

—–

Mommy Interruption: Ok, let me tell you how hilarious it was to take Ryder’s pictures this month. She started doing this “teased” thing where she scrunches her nose and squints her eyes whenever you smile big at her. I swear, y’all, she is THE BIGGEST FLIRT EVER. Andy and I crack up at this all the time.

So, about 90% of my pictures looked like this because she kept doing “the flirt look” as we call it:

And then 5% looked like this picture where she is extremely serious about whatever it is that she’s trying to tell me:

Isn’t she so funny?!

Posted in Ryder's Monthly Posts | 7 Comments

the big girl

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Tiffany

I know I’ve been whining about this for a couple of months but….

howwwwwwwwwwwww can Rory be almost TWO?! Only 16 days! My heart can’t take it!

But OH MY WORD is she so much fun right now! We have had the best week together. She’s been so sweet and helpful. I mean, she’s still stinkerish, but its getting easier.

She’s been sick this week with the same ol’ crud we’ve been passing around. Tuesday she had to miss school because she woke up with a 102 fever. We loaded up to go to the doctor and she thought we were going to school. Poor thing kept singing, “school ‘day, school ‘day”, and she was heart broken when I finally told her we weren’t going to school.

Thursday she was feeling much better so I sent her on to school. I put a bow in her hair and she said “ohhhhhhhhhhh I CUTE mommy! Take a pikure!” HELLO! MUSIC TO MY EARS! She was very particular about where she stood and everything.

Oh my mercy, is this not the sweetest picture of the sweetest face you have ever seen?!!!!!

These are her “two” fingers. She’s been saying “I two!” for about… I don’t know… 8 months! haha! We are working on the finger issues though. ha!

Today I decided that while Ryder took her morning nap, Rory and I would bake some chocolate chip cookies from scratch.

That’s right, folks, FROM SCRATCH. Impressed?!

Rory was ADORABLE in the apron my mom made me. Its made out of my Granddaddy’s coveralls and Grandmother’s dress. I’d give anything if they could see my girls. Ryder has my grandmother’s expressions down and Rory is so spunky and fun that I know my Granddaddy and her would have been the best of pals.

And y’all. Don’t go commenting on how I let my daughter eat the batter and how bad it is. We always ate the batter of everything growing up and never got sick, so I had to give her a little taste! She LOVED it!

The other big girl related thing we are working on is the whole potty thing. I’m not going 100% yet because of our trip coming up, but we are working on the concept and she’s doing great.

For a while I didn’t think she was ready physically or cognitively. Sure, she stripped neeeekked to potty no less than a thousand times a day, but I still didn’t think she was ready.

But this week she’s been waking up dry in the mornings and at naptime.

And then the Stinker in her came out one day this week too…

I had tried to get her to potty and was wrestling Ryder (who by the way is THE MOST WIGGLY BABY ON EARTH) but she “tried” and said she couldn’t go.

Then about ten minutes later, I walked past her room and had to do a double take because Stinker was crouched over her PLAYHOUSE potty tee-teeing all over the place trying to get it in there. Note: the playhouse is one of the Little People playhouses and the toilet is about the size of my thumb.

So. Yes. She gets it.

Today she’s peed in her diaper once so far, and we’ll see if she’s dry at nap. So far, she’s doing great! I’m going to go cold turkey and do panties only during her Spring Break in March since we will have the whole week at home.

Well, I’m off to go enjoy the last 16 days with two kids under two! Have a great weekend!

Posted in Rory Eve | 2 Comments