Lots & Lots of Stuff!

So I don't have any pictures to put with this post because I don't have access to my pictures at this moment but I have time to update my blog so I thought I would write a little. :) I may try to add some pictures to the post at a later time.

All about Ava - August 22, 2011 - Ava started Pre-K at First Christian Academy in High Springs. The day started out well with us getting up and getting ready for her first day of school. We get to school and everything is fine, except for her not leaving my side. She seemed to be getting use to things and then when I said it was time for me to go her eyes welled up with tears and she started crying, she at this point is clinging to me and will not let go so the teacher comes over and basically rips her from my arms (not being mean, but it had to be done), once ripped from my arms she is screaming at the top of her lungs while crying, so that was my breaking point and I literally ran out of the school crying! Went to pick her up at the end of her day and she was great, had made new friends and was ready to go back the next day! Now that we are a month into school, she is absolutely loving it and cannot wait to go everyday! I honestly cannot believe how much she is learning and Pre-K (or at least her's) is so advanced. She amazes me everyday with what she tells me she learned. Oh and on this day my little niece Isabella Nikole turned 1! I cannot believe she is 1 already!! :)
I cannot believe she will be 5 in November. She is still a little character and makes us laugh every single day.
Ava also took swimming lessons over the summer (well a week and a half) and is swimming like a fish. She catches on and learns things soooooo quickly! It just amazes me.

All about Aidyn - He has been adjusting well to not having big sister around all day everyday, although he has his moments. Speaking of one day in particular....he and my mom dropped Ava off at school, once it was time to go pick Ava up my mom told him that she needed to run by the store before they picked her up and he started screaming NO I wanna go get sissy! Needless to say, they didn't stop at the store and went to get Ava.
He is finally talking so much better! His tubes in his ears have fallen out and he has been doing great since. We took a trip to Illinois in July and I swear the airplane ride opened his ears completely because he started talking so good and clear once we got there and has been the same ever since.
The one major issue we are having right now with him is potty training! I never in my life thought it would be so hard to train a child. He absolutely refuses to use the potty. We have tried everything under the sun to get him trained and it is just not working! If anyone has any advice please let me know, we have got to get him out of diapers!!

All about Forrest and I - Well actually all will be house related because we have gotten so much done with our house in the last couple of weeks it is unbelievable! We decided we were going to start selling things in the house that we absolutely did not need, starting with the 7 fish tanks we had! We ended up selling 4 of the tanks, a glider, Aidyn's toddler bed and the baby furniture! We were blessed to sell it all so quickly. Little did we know that in return we would be able to purchase a new "big boy" bed for Aidyn and an entire bedroom set for ourselves for only $500!! God definitely blessed us. I have been bugging Forrest for over 3 years now for a new bedroom set because absolutely nothing in our bedroom matched and low and behold as soon as we sold most of the stuff we were trying to a new bedroom set bascially fell into our laps. It is amazing to me how it all just fell into place. We now have all of bedrooms done except for paint. The last piece of new furniture I want to get is a new diningroom table but mine that I've had for almost 7 years still has a little life left in it, unless I can find something super cheap. :) Oh we also added a pool to the backyard! This was due to Ava graduating with flying colors from swimming lessons. Daddy promises and pays for it. :) We are all grateful for that promise that he made to Ava though, it has been a great summer having the pool! Thanks HONEY! :)

Some stuff about ME - So remember that friendship thing that I have been struggling with for a while....well I believe God has answered my prayers. He has sent me an amazing friend and I am truly grateful for her!!
Also, I am now a Thirty-One consultant and still trying to get my business off the ground but I know that soon enough God will bless this business and it will take off! If you know of anyone who would like to host a party or you yourself would like to host one please let me know!!

Oh and some exciting news about one of my best friends Tricia! I can't believe I haven't updated my blog since she found out but she is expecting a little bundle of joy in February and I couldn't be more excited for her and Jared. They are like family to us so it feels as though we will be getting a niece! :)

Hope you all enjoyed reading.....if you made it this far! :)

Our Own Reflection....

I received this in a message from a friend on fb and thought I would share it. I have been struggling with old friendships and trying to find new friendships, so when she shared this with me I knew it was for me. This is definitely the way I feel.....Please read and if you are struggling with friendship, I hope this helps you the way it has helped me.

Our Own Reflection - Written by Dionna Sanchez/http://beautyinthestorm.blogspot.com

Many moms can become lonely. Friendships can be hard to keep up when your families’ needs come first. It is a wise woman who knows this. Yet even though we may know that sometimes our wishes and desires have to be put off, that doesn’t mean we feel any less lonely at times. It doesn’t mean that our hearts don’t yearn for some good girlfriends who can understand our soul.
Just as our children need good friends in their lives to walk alongside them, encourage them, and be strong for them during those times when they aren’t feeling so strong – so also, do we as adult women need this in our lives. In fact, just when we may need this the most (when we become mothers) is when it becomes the toughest to cultivate.
So, what do we do? What do you do when you feel like there is no extra time in the day to get together with another woman for lunch? What do you do if you are having a hard time making friends who you feel truly care about you and your family? What do you do when you feel really lonely for women friendships?
I have been on both ends of this spectrum. I’ve been thankful – most of my life – to have been able to easily make and keep friends wherever I’ve lived. I always thrived with girlfriends in my life to help teach me things about myself, to encourage me, and to just be a sounding board at times. Yet, I also hit what I call a “desert” period in my life with friendships. I’ve had close friends leave my life and holes have been left that created quite a deep loneliness in my heart. It was a new feeling for me.
As lonely as this time has been, God taught me some special truths through it that I wouldn’t have learned had I been filling my heart and mind with only the words from the mouths of friends. Instead, I was forced to go straight to the mouth of God for what He thought of me, what He wanted of me, and how He would help me. I learned that it is good to have no one to depend on at times other than my Lord. For so often we can let others fill His shoes in our life when that is not their place. And oftentimes we can lose a little bit of what makes us unique if we are in the company of women who are stronger, or more verbal than we are. But with God – all He shows us is our own reflection. It may not be one we want to see at times, or it may be just exactly what we need to see to encourage us to move onward. But it is pure, it is authentic, and it is full of love for us and our future.
Nothing can ever take the place of earthly friendships. As women, we are social beings and we were created that way on purpose. God knows we need friends. But if you find yourself in-between friendships, or maybe in a position where you’ve been praying for years for sweet, Godly friends to enter into your life – then be encouraged. I believe they will come for each one of us in God’s perfect timing. Until then, know that you have the best friend of all who is right there beside you. He wants you to unload your daily heartaches and burdens on His shoulders, share your dreams and hurts, ask Him His thoughts and perspective, and He wants to be able to encourage you and show you just how beautiful and lovely you truly are. He wants to show you what HE sees in you so that you can blossom as a woman.
You can have a very special friendship with Him that will help hold you together until those women come. And you will find that even when they do, God will be the first person that you turn to with all those thoughts and feelings that you’d normally run to a girlfriend with. She’ll still be there to hear them – but they will be filtered with the wisdom, grace, love, and devotion of your Heavenly Father. The best friend a woman could ever have.

Growing, Growing, Growing......

This post will mainly be about my kids and how much they are "growing up".

I am going today to register Ava for VPK. She is so excited to start school she can hardly contain herself. Like I've mentioned in previous posts, she doesn't have alot of friends so the fact that she will have LOTS of friends once she starts school, she is completely overwhelmed and so ready to start her new adventure. She is such a trip lately, she says some of the strangest, cute and sweet words that could ever come out of a 4 year olds mouth. She is definitely her daddy's daughter. :) Let's see if I can think of some of them....to me when not wearing makeup, "Mommy, why are you not wearing makeup?" Me, "Well I haven't had the chance to put any on." Her, "You don't need it anyway, you have beautiful skin without it." :) She went to a funeral the other day with my mom and asked why the guy was not breathing and when my mom told her it was because he had went to Heaven she replied, "Are you blind Ninny, he is right there laying down sleeping!" She is definitely a character. She is getting so big and she is very independent. She loves sending Aunt 'Kel things in the mail. She also loves making things for people. I love watching her grow and that she is coming into her own but she's growing up way to fast!

Aidyn is a trip too! He is definitely coming out of his shell and is talking soooooo much more FINALLY! Ava recently got 2 Hamster's and yesterday morning while I was getting things ready to leave he started talking to them. He saw Lucy out and said, "Hey Lucy!" (Lucy likes to bite) He put his finger in the cage and of course Lucy bit him and he said, "OW Lucy stop that!" He then say Ethel come out and he said, "Hey Ethel! Come bite." (Ethel does not bite) Lucy then went up to get something to eat and he told her, "Lucy GET DOWN!" That's his favorite saying because we are constantly telling him to "Get down" from off the back of the couch. He absolutely loves baseball, football & basketball!! Anytime they are on he will sit and watch them and constantly says whatever sport it is. He LOVES the Gators (what can I say? He's being raised right!) Everytime he sees a Gator he says, "Gator or Albert." He also loves Motorcycles, Tractors & Trucks. He is definitely a people person, we cannot go anywhere without him saying HI to or waving to 500 people and most of the time tells complete strangers that he loves them. :) He is definitely a mess and getting so big!

We really don't have any updates on anything else, we never do. haha Hope you enjoyed reading out our kids! I mostly do these posts so that I can look back on them and remember what was going on. Although I do love talking about our kids.

I'll be updating a post with some pics here soon that we had done of the kids. Hoping to finally get family pics done soon! :)

Ever feel like.....

You're finally moving forward with something that you've been struggling with and then hear something that someone says and you're back at square one. That's exactly how I feel tonight. Over the past few weeks I have felt that something was healing, getting better and growing again but tonight I'm feeling like maybe I got my hopes up only to be let down. Praying, praying, praying things get better! I'm so ready to be done with this and get it back to where it was! Sorry if you don't know what I'm talking about but I had to get it off my chest! :) I will be updating with a happier blog when I have more time but tonight I just had to write that out.

March 5, 2011

On the date above Forrest and I celebrated 6 wonderful years of marriage. We had an amazing time going out to dinner and doing some shopping. We don't do date nights, so having a night all to ourselves for a few hours was GREAT! This was the first anniversary that we have done something just by ourselves and not with both of our families. We tried a new sushi place(thanks Tifani & Joe Paul) called Fuji Sushi and it was the best place we have ever been to! Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of us in the resturant because we were 2 of the only people in there and we were right by the bar and the chefs were staring at us the whole time. I did get a pic of us before we left, my mom watched the kids at our house so she was able to take a pic of us. I'm also adding a pic of us when we celebrated our 4 year anniversary so everyone can see how much someone can change in 2 years. Apparently I didn't blog or take a pic of us on our 5 year anniversary so I can't compare that one...oh well here are the pics!


Here we are before we left

Here we are at dinner on our 4 year anniversary @ Yamatos!

Thanks for reading! I'll blog again soon........

Friendship

PLEASE READ WITH CAUTION!! I'm sure if you read my blog you have seen my post of TRUE friendship. I have been struggling with this for a while now but I have to be cautious about how I say things here because I know some of my friends read by blog and I don't want them to take it the wrong way. I have always wanted a really strong close friendship with my friends and in the past I have had those things but it's seemed to fade away with time. Once I have a strong close friendship with someone it seems as though something happens and for some reason they drift away and find "new" sometimes even a stronger closer friendship than we had and it hurts so bad because I feel as though I've done something wrong. I am still friends with the ones that I've had those strong close friendships with but it hurts when I know how they use to count on me so much for anything they needed and now I see or know they have someone else they turn to. I feel as though I am the worst friend ever. Yes I do have "friends" but I just wish our friendships could be where they use to be. I know things change but I know people who have had strong close friendships for over 30 years so I think if you have an awesome friendship with someone you shouldn't let it fade or drift away. I feel like I am always the one who is trying to "save" the friendship and apparently I always come up short. I wish there were scenarios I could put on here that would help open eyes and someone could give me advice but it's too personal. Maybe one day I will be the friend that someone is looking for. Until then I will be waiting for advice on how to get over this struggle. It's really been about 2 years that I have struggled with this and it hasn't been 1 friendship that I feel as though I've lost but a couple or maybe even a few. I will admit though there is one that has hurt me alot. Anywho, if anyone has any advice for me leave me a comment! I would appreciate any of it good or bad. :) Thanks for listening (if you do)!

What is a TRUE Friend?

I'll elaborate on this more later when I have time but I am really struggling with friendship lately and I just needed to post this if not for anyone but myself.......


What is a true friend? A true friend is someone you can count on to laugh with you, cry with you and be there for you through good times and bad. Unfortunately, people do not come with a true friend label; you need to be able to spot the characteristics of a good friend.
Throughout your life, you will encounter many, many people. Some of them will become good buddies and some will become true friends. The difference between a good friend and good buddy is that the friend will be with you for life. Buddies come and go with school, work and neighborhoods, but a true friendship can survive being separated by continents.
It is very disappointing when someone you thought was a friend lets you down. It can be very hurtful when you lose a friendship. You may be sad, lonely and even angry with the "friend" who let you down.
While there is no guarantee that a friendship will last, you can look for several characteristics in a person. If they have the following traits, they are more likely to become your lifelong friend. Luckily, you will be able to tell if a person has these characteristics right away; they are core values that will be apparent in everything a person does.
Characteristics of a True Friend
Honest and trustworthy: Can they keep a secret? A good friend doesn-t gossip about you. Do they tell they truth? If they lie to you or about you, they are not a true friend. At the same time, however, a true friend will always look out for you. If you ask a friend to keep something that's harmful a secret, like drug use or stealing, they may tell somebody in an attempt to get you help. That's not betrayal, that's caring.
Good Listener: Do they listen to you or do they only talk about themselves? If you tell them that you don't eat candy, do they remember that?
Loyal: Do they stick with you even when you are grumpy? Are they still your friend when your sick or out of money? If someone is gossiping about you, will your friend step in and put a stop to it?
Available: Are they available when you need them? If you need to talk instead of going to the movies, are they willing to sit and talk with you? Will they help you finish your chores so you can go swimming?
Supportive: A true friend will never make you do something that goes against your moral or religious beliefs. They will not ask you to lie, steal or cheat, or to do drugs or alcohol.
If your friend has these characteristics, you know you have found someone who is a true friend. Be a good friend to this person, and you'll benefit from this friendship for many years to come.

Thankful

I just wanted to write a post about how Thankful I am to God for watching over my little family and providing for us when we didn't think there was any way! First of all he gave me a new job with set hours and myself and my family could not be happier. We didn't know if we were going to make it at first because I took a big paycut from what I was making but God always comes through and we have been absolutely fine. We can't buy all the things we want anymore on a whim but he still provides in the all the areas needed. Every once in a while we splurge on certain things, whether it be dinner or buying something for the kids. We have definitely learned how to save money in ways we never thought possible but above all I just want to thank Him for always watching out for us.

That is all....I'm just THANKFUL! :)

Aidyn's 2nd Birthday Party

So this is a little old but I am home with 2 sick kiddos today and I figured I would post about Aidyn's birthday party! First off I will start by saying we are so blessed with wonderful Family and Friends and we couldn't ask for better. Aidyn had a wonderful birthday party and got lots of great gifts (which reminds me I have to send out Thank-you cards!) We had his party on his actual 2nd birthday Jan. 15, 11. I cannot believe he is already 2. Where has the time gone? Sometimes it feels like he was just born and other times it seems like he's already been 2 forever. Here are some pics from his birthday party....ENJOY!

The birthday boy and his homemade cupcake cake! :)

Aidyn, Ava & Preston having fun on the playset.

Aidyn & his bud Logan

Ava & Aidyn playin with his new drum set

Logan & Aidyn playin with the drum set.

We had a wonderful day and are so grateful to everyone who took time out of their day and weekend to be with us. :)

All about my kids! :)

So the kiddo's went to the Dr. yesterday. It was only suppose to be a 2 yr check up for Aidyn but they squeezed in Ava's physical for school as well so I was happy to get new stats for both of them. It is crazy how much and how fast they are both growing. They are both going to outgrow me very soon!

Ava is - 38 1/2 lbs and is 40 1/2 inches tall, still measuring to be taller than me at age 7. Not lookin forward to that. :(

Aidyn is - 27 1/2 lbs and is 34 3/4 inches tall. He is going to be a very tall boy as well!

Aidyn goes back to his "ear dr." in Feb to see how he is progressing, it is a slow process since he couldn't hear for the first 9 months of life and he is finally starting to talk ALOT more. He's now putting sentences together which is very good! He and Ava are starting to play alot more and they are getting along alot better as well.

Ava will start school this fall @ First Christian Academy and she is so excited! Finally she might have some friends to hang out with, come to her birthday parties and more! :) That is what she is most excited about is meeting new friends. Hopefully we will be getting her involved in Cheerleading (not my favorite) & Soccer this spring as well so that she can meet some new friends. Just trying to get her out there more and be more social. :)

Anyway, those are my updates for now on my kiddos! I will be posting about Aidyn's
2nd birthday party soon. Those include pics though and I don't have them right now. Hope you all enjoyed this post but really most of my posts are for my remembering because probably no one reads this anyway.

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years!

Before I start on our Christmas posts I'm going to post some pictures of a Sunday that we went to Char and Duke's church where the kids were able to see Santa and he also gave each of the kids a present with their name on it! The kids loved it because they felt special that Santa had come and brought presents just for them! Here are those pics.....
Ava with Santa! :)
We couldn't get a good pic with Aidyn and Santa. He only got close enough to get his toy!
Ava's present from Santa. She was so excited!

On Christmas Eve my parents came over and we had Christmas with them. It's become a tradition to do our Christmas on Christmas Eve and I love that we have that tradition. :) They came over and we had Chicken Enchilada's for dinner with lots of snacky foods and then we opened presents as always. My kiddos were tremendously blessed this year! Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve.....



Then on to Christmas morning! It's normally tradition that all the Grandparents come over and watch the kids open their presents from us and "Santa!" However, my dad got very sick on Christmas Eve night once they got home and they got no sleep so they weren't able to make it to watch the kids. My in-laws made it though and it was a great morning. After we open presents and get all dressed, it is tradition to go to Aunt Cindy and Uncle Ray's for breakfast. We weren't going to go this year because we wanted to relax and let the kids play with all their new stuff but Ava wanted to go to breakfast to see everyone and tell them what she got for Christmas, so we got dressed and ready and headed over. Here are the pics from Christmas morning, I don't have any pics from breakfast but we had a wonderful time there.







On Christmas night it's tradition to go to Char and Duke's house for dinner and some family fun! We all went over and had dinner and then we did a little dancing with mine and Forrest's Kinect for the Xbox! This is also becoming a tradition at family functions. LOL We had an absolute blast and of course the kids were spoiled with more gifts at Aunt Charlie (Char) and Uncle Duke's! Here are some pics from Christmas night.....











After Christmas day we made plans to go over to my in-laws and have the kids open their presents from Nanny and Tatoe! I unfortunately do not have any pics from that day because I forgot my camera and had to take the pics with my phone. :( Maybe I'll eventually upload them to my computer and add them to this post.

Now on to New Year's Eve! We had decided not to do anything again this year like always. We are just not the partying kind of people but then we decided to have Jared, Tricia and Amanda T. over to ring in the New Year with us and we had an absolute blast dancing with the Kinect and playing some other games! Wish Stevie could have been here to join in the fun but he had to work. This is one New Year's Eve that will not be forgotten. We are so blessed with wonderful friends!! Here is one picture from New Year's Eve....that's all I got because we were having so much fun dancing! haha

Sorry this post is so long but I had a lot to update about and I wanted to get it done before I got to behind! Hope everyone enjoys it....part of my New Year's Resolution is to keep this thing up to date! Let's see how long it lasts!