Everything is changing...

I feel like I have fell off the blogging world for a while. I know all the family members that live far away wish I would find my way back-and I do too to be honest. Not sure what my problem has been lately other than working prn, pregnant and SO tired-i mean no energy at all(but thankfully that has been getting much better), trying to start up my own online based childrens clothing business on facebook, chasing around a 2 year old, cooking, cleaning, planning and hosting a 2 yr old birthday party for landry, I have no excuses. I haven't even taken many pictures of Landry lately-so I'm not sure what my problem is?? So I apologize to those who check in daily! Landry is changing so much lately. I have been doing a horrible job on documenting everything he is doing lately but I'll give it a shot and try to catch up on just a few things. He is now talking all the time and putting sentences together. My absolute favorite is "I wuv you BIG Momma" and he puts an emphasis on BIG. This melts my heart ever time. He will say it all throughout the day but my favorite time to hear this is while rocking him to sleep at night. We have a nightly routine of reading a few books, turning out the light, and then he will say "night night-I wuv you BIG mamma" and proceed to kiss me on my lips. This is the best way to end my end every single night and it makes all the fits and tantrums that day all melt away. Oh- speaking of fits and tantrums....bless it! He has learned he has an opinion and a voice in what he wants to do and he will express it to no end. This has been a big shock to me and at first I kept thinking "he must be getting sick, he doesn't feel good" but I quickly learned he feels just fine he is just going to let me know what he does and doesn't want to do. Whew I catch myself saying prayers for patience several times a day. He will also say "Go mamma-outshide", "No shadie no"*(no sadie), "Go-bubba ba"(Let go get a bubble bath), "crock crawl crawl"(after while crocoadile)-this is always followed after I tell him "see you later alligator. I seriouly need to start writing things down as soon as he says them b/c I can't remember them all when I am put on the spot. He is doing so good with his colors and now can point out and say the following: Pink, blue, green, orange, yellow, white, black and red. He is also a very good back seat driver and when we approach a red light he will tell me to "BOP" aka "Stop." As soon as the redlight turns green he will then tell me to "GO!!" He can also count to 10 but needs a little reminder to start with the number 1. For some reason he always starts with 2. He will now say prayers all by himself when we sit at the table to eat-and if you don't have your hands folded together he will stop praying and say "Daddy-PRAY" and then will continue when you get your hands in the right position! ha! So bossy! :) The other day in church Austin grabbed my hand and was holding it during the closing prayer and he saw it and said-"No daddy-pray!" So austin had to let go and fold his hands together like we taught Landry." He also loves to sing at church. As soon as we start a song he chimes in and can sometimes get a little loud. Its hard to not get tickled at him. He has officially came up with a name for the baby in my tummy. "Cocoa" is what Landry calls him/her. We have no idea where this came from but randomly one night Austin asked Landry what we should name the baby and he said "ummmmm.... Cocoa!" And so since then this poor baby has been called Cocoa. :) He is very resourceful and methodical in everything he does. A few weeks ago he got a yard stick and used it to turn on the light to his closet. I thought this was very clever and had no idea how he knew how to do that-but somehow he did. He will also line all his toys up in a row or get several toys that do the same thing out at the same time and play with them several times a day such as "tickle me Elmo, Dancing Mickey, and His Brobee(from Yo Gabba Gabba) that sings and dances. He has been using the big boy potty for about 2 months now when we ask him to so I think we are going to try potty training soon...just not exactly sure he is ready and I don't want to start too soon and him totally lose interest. So wish me luck and any pointer by fellow moms would greatly be appreciated! If your still reading this boring post-ha! I hope that you spread the word on your blog or on facebook to your friends about my business. I am going to be selling designer children's clothing at a discount price-no overhead cost of a store or employees since I am doing it through my home. My business is going to be based on facebook and the name is "Sweet lil Tweet" So, please "like" my page or better yet blog about it on your page so I can get lots of fans-PLEASE! :) Also, I am in the process of getting his birthday party pictures uploaded. I can't believe I still haven't posted on that-it was over a month ago! My little baby boy is turned 2 that just seems crazy to me! Where did the last 2 years go?? What did I do with my time before he was here? I learned a new love that I never thought was possible and our house had to be so quiet and boring. I have loved every single second with this precious gift from God! I pray God will continue to bless him and protect him.

Guess what??....

Landry's going to be a BIG brother in September! :) He is so excited! The way I told Austin I was pregnant was I went and bought him a "Big Bro" shirt and had it on him when he walked through the door from work one night. He ran to him and said "daddy daddy...Big Bubba" and pointed to his shirt! :) I was able to get a few quick sweet pictures of him with his shirt on before Austin got home that night. So far this pregnancy has been COMPLETELY different than the pregnancy with Landry. I can maybe list the times I have actually gotten sick this time where as with Landry I would lose count in one day b/c I was so sick for the ENTIRE 9 months with him. Austin promises up and down "it's a girl Tara....it's a girl" but I always remind him I also don't have a gallbladder this time. I had my gallbladder removed when Landry was 2 weeks old due to a gallstone attack. The doctors told me then that could have been the reason I was so sick the whole time. I have a feeling it's another boy...I guess b/c all I know is boy. But a few short 6 weeks and hopefully we will find out! :) I keep getting the question "what do you want a girl or a boy." I can honestly say that I REALLY am indifferent. If i have a girl it will be fun to have something different and someone to dress up and go shopping with one day. If I have a boy I will be so excited that Landry will have a little brother to look up to him and be an example to. We couldnt be more excited!

Super Hero Day

Landry is absolutely having a blast at his mother's day out program. He has always liked going but here lately it's almost as if he looks forward to it. When I ask him what he did at school today it's always the same answer "kick ball." The first time he said this it caught me off guard so I had to ask his teacher if they really play kick ball. They will take a ball outside and let all the kids run and play in a field while kicking the ball and she said "Landry gets into it much more than any of the other kids so it's kinda turned into our little game together." They always have fun dress up days/ wear a certain color day. Today at school was "Princess/Super hero" day. My little hero was Spider man. I took my camera to school to get a good picture of him and his class mates dressed up but it never fails-my battery was dead. So I had to settle for a blury/not good quality cell phone picture. My blackberry used to take really good pictures-that was until it went swimming in some coke one day by Landry. Ever since the picture quality hasn't been the same. If you ask me I think he's cuter than the "real" spider man! :)

Barnum and Bailey Circus

Last weekend we went to the Barnum and Bailey Circus that came to town with some good friends of ours Abby and Zach and their little girl Clara. I have never been a big circus fan b/c I feel sorry for all those animals being caged up all the time and not having a normal life, but I knew Landry would really enjoy it so I decided to take him anyways. Landry and Clara have become REALLY good friends and always have so much fun together. Clara aka "Caca" is so sweet to Landry and loves treating him like a little baby doll. She always wants him to sit in her lap, give her a hug, hold her hand, etc. Landry doesn't mind all the attention and laughs she gives him and eats it up the whole time they are together. She thinks everything Landry does is so funny. He ask about "Caca and Babby" every single day. They had fun at the circus together laughing at the acts, at each other, and dancing to the music, and sitting in each other's lap. It might be safe to say we will have to make the circus a yearly thing for the kids to do together. We have planned a long weekend trip with them in the next few months to Gatlinburg so we are looking forward to the kids making more memories together in the near future-not to mention us bigger kids have fun when we are all together also!


This was Landry's favorite act of course b/c he loves "bobby's" aka motorcycles! I can't remember if I had told the story of how motorcycles became "bobby's" long story short though; a man at church is names Bobby and he drove a motorcycle to church one Wednesday night and let Landry sit on it while he rev'ed the motor and ever since then Landry has been obsessed with Bobby(the man) and Bobby(any motorcycle) he sees! :)
Clara wanted Landry to sit in her lap who herself was sitting in her mothers lap. So cute!
We had great seats and the kids loves the elephants!

Who loves a good deal??

Ok who doesn't love a good deal!? I know I do. I love finding a good bargain! Have you heard about the new deal site called Moolala? It's like Groupon, Living Social, etc where they bring you deals at 50-90% off, but the cool thing is that they pay you when you're friends get deals, your friend's friends get deals and so on. The deals are launching soon so go ahead and sign up so you can get ready to save money and make money. :) Please sign up through my link and then pass this on and we will all make some money to use on great deals in our area! :) Click here to sign up: http://share.moolala.com/r/YFNHL9M

SnOw Pretty!!

We were blessed with another beautiful snow! I don't know what it is, but the snow brings out the child in all of us! We were anticipating this snow for a good 3 days b/c the weather man had been calling for it. So like every other person I ran to the store and stocked up on some milk-not for us, but for Landry. He would not be able to function without his "muk!" Austin and I stayed up watched a movie till midnight and kept running to the window to watch it snow every 10 minutes. It was snowing so hard that you could hear it making a "shhhhh" sound which I had never experienced before. Monday morning we bundled up and headed to our usual sledding spot at my aunt and uncle's. We had a blast and Landry loved sleeding which I had a feeling he would b/c he LOVES slides. Landry now know what snow is! Every time he sees it still piled up on the ground somewhere in a random parking lot he will say "nooooooooo." I know to a lot of people this word would be NO but he says it in a different tone than just the normal word "No" so I can differentiate b/c the two. He almost says it like a northern'er.

I love making memories like this-there is nothing better than good family time especially in the rare beauty of God creation here in Tennessee! Of course we had to take pictures to document the day-I can't go anywhere without my camera! :)

**SNOW ANGEL**

My 2 precious boys got all bundled up and went to play in the snow several weeks ago. Landry loves the snow but actually calls it "nooooo." He was outside for a total of about 10 minutes and got cold and was ready to come inside which if you know my child you know he had to really be cold if he wanted to come inside. He would stay outside all day long if you would let him! I was able to get a few really cute pictures of them playing and making sweet snow angels. Landry watched Austin make one and thought it was so funny and immediatly started making his very own. I love my 2 angels God has given me. I can't help but to think how beautiful they are in my eyes just like a single snowflake.

Newest and Favorite sayings...

Here are just a few words that Landry has started saying lately. I just wanted to be able to go back one day and see how they have changed.

"Ray"= Laray
"nonnie"=Nana-not sure why or when he changed it from Nana
"Moe"=more
"Out"=uses this when he wants us to get out of bed in the morning
"Nanny"-granny
"Bubbai"-byrdie
"Allie"-Alex
"ew"-Susan
"nan-ou"-thank you
"ea-mam"-yes maam
"me-man"-evan
"emmie"-martha who he called emmie
"nah-no"-Nora
"no,no,noooo, nooooooo"-obivously this is NO and he means it...this one gets him in trouble. :(
"ahh-we"-sorry
"benben"-bentleigh
"babbie"-abby my parents dog and my good friend abby are both called babbie
"caca"- Clara my friend abby's 3 year old daughter
"an-we"- This is how Landry says his name
"ba"-this is his word for bath as he is trying to take his clothes off at the same time
"ootball"-football
"ouchdown"-touchdown and most of the times immediately procedes "ootball"
"moe eese"-more cheese
"mulk"-milk
My personal favorite- "Momma-I wuv you" followed by a big hug with a grunt and a kiss!

I know there are so many more that I am missing but these are just a FEW of my favorites right now. He is picking up new words every day and putting 2-3 words together at a time now also. I can't believe how much he has grown up in the past months. I know I keep saying this but it's true-he keeps getting more and more fun. This is my favorite stage right now. I love him being able to communicate with me over half the time but yet he still babbles and has baby talk. My love overflows for him every day!

Christmas 2010

**Christmas picture overload WARNING**
Christmas this year was the best! It was so fun seeing Christmas through Landry's eyes. He picked up how to open presents very fast! :) So fast that he wanted to help everyone open their presents. But not only did he want to tear the wrapping paper off the presents but every gift he opened rather it was a toy or a piece of clothing he wanted it out of the package and wanted to play with it. It was so cute but at the same time if you only saw the HUGE pile of gifts this little blessed boy had to open-it got a bit overwhelming.




Landry got a elf on the shelf this year sent from Santa Claus himself. I was unsure of how he would do with him b/c to be honest I just thought he was to young and wouldn't be able to comprehend it. Boy was I wrong!! He/we named his elf "Cookie Sugar Crumb" but called him "Cookie." We wanted a name that Landry could pronounce and one that he would get excited about and what better name than a treat full of sugar!(have I mentioned how this little boy has a HUGE sugar tooth? Wonder where he gets that from??-Sorry Landry it's my fault!) Anyways we named the elf Cookie and every night he would return to the North Pole and report to HoHO on how good Landry had been that day and then would bring him a special animal cookie back every night from Mrs. Clause. Oh me! Let's just say Cookie trumped HoHo this year! Every where we went and every book we read he would quickly point out all the elves and call them all cookie!! It was a HUGE hit-so Thank you Santa for sending cookie to our house! We had TONS of fun with him!




Christmas morning Landry woke up at an amazing 5:30 ready to go see what "HoHo" brought him. This was new to us b/c up until this morning the first thing he would ask about as soon as he would get up would be "Cookie." Not on Christmas morning though. He remember from the night before us telling him that "HoHo" was coming and he would get to see a lot of toys in the morning and that Cookie would leave our house when HoHo came to go back to the North Pole with him. Well he didn't forget at all. We always take him to our bed in the morning and let him lay in between us and drink his milk from a sippy cup while we wake up and sometimes will watch about 10minutes of sesame street. But not this morning-as soon as he finished his milk he looked at me and austin and said "Out(aka get out of bed)" So as we stagger out of bed and walk into to see his toy store Santa left for him-he must have been real good this year! :) In the middle of opening presents from Santa we had to take a break and go outside to play in the snow. It was so magical seeing the ground white on Christmas morning. Landry and Sadie both enjoyed playing in the snow. When we got back inside we still had several presents he had to open.



I couldn't think of a single thing this little boy could have wanted that he didn't get. On his list of VERY favorites but not limited to are: slide, basketball goal, trains, kitchen, battery operated 4-wheeler, tent, dancing Mickey, puzzles, etc. This was the best Christmas I have had in several years so thank you Landry for bringing so much happiness into our life! Merry Christmas to our sweet baby boy!











Oh by the way- please notice my Christmas tree I decorated this year. I had mentioned it way back several months ago about all the decorations I bought for it in Gatlinburg. It turned out WAY better than i expected. Also, notice my Santa picture hanging on the wall behind the Christmas tree. That was an early Christmas present from my mother and I enjoyed it all season. In the letter it actually says "Dear Landry, you have been good all year. Love, Santa. But don't worry there is a space where other names in the future can be added to Santa's letter. I LOVE it and am looking forward to using it in the years to come!

Opryland ICE and SNOW

This weekend we took a BIG family trip up to Opryland Hotel to the ICE and SNOW exhibits. All 12 f us piled into my Granny's traveling van and make the trip up there together singing Christmas carols, laughing at Landry, and yelling at the driver(Laray) to slow down and take the curves a little easier b/c 5 of us were sitting in the floor of the van. Don't worry though-Landry had an entire seat to himself and was strapped in his car seat. We all laughed that he was the smallest one in the car and had the most room-but he is precious cargo so we had to take care of him!
The exhibit this year was The original TV classics "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" by Fred Astaire. This was perfect for me b/c that's one of my all time favorite movies to watch at Christmas and have watched it every single year since I was a little girl. Once we got to the Ice exhibit they gave us these huge heavy parka jackets to wear on top of your other clothes and jacket b/c the keep the rooms 9 degrees! Not only was it 9 degrees but they have the air conditioners running so there was cold air blowing in your face constantly. To say it was freezing is an understatement! I didn't know how Landry would do with it being so cold but we bundled him up as if he would going out to play in the snow plus the parka jacket they gave him which drug the ground. It was precious watching him walk around with his jacket dragging behind him. Bless his little heart one time he lost his balance-fell backwards and laid on his back like a bug unable to turn over. We got a good laugh out of it and he was a good sport and once he was pulled back up he was ready to go again. He enjoyed himself and even liked going down the ice slide. He was ready to go by the end of the exhibit and we ended up rushing through the last part b/c he was getting very cold.










After we left ice we shed about 3 layers and went into the hotel to eat dinner and walk around and look at the lights and let Landry ride on the escalators up and down abut 10 times. I would say this was probably one of his top 3 favorites of the night! He would get half way up smile and wave at me and say "Bye bye Momma!" If I would have know this would have been a favorite we would have saved our money and just went to the mall and let him ride all the escalators for free! :) It's funny how kids gets the most please out of the most simple and cheapest things!

This was my first time back to Opryland since the flooding earlier this year. They had done a great job of getting everything back to normal and unless you knew what the lights looked like on the inside all the previous years you would have never known that anything was missing. After dinner the party wasn't over yet so we headed back outside to go to the SNOW exhibit. They had an area filled with snow where you could build a snowman, roast s'mores over a campfire, see and pet Santa's reindeer Comet, play in igloos, and a snow ball fight area(which we stayed away from!) Comet was definitely Landry's favorite and didn't want to leave him but once we told him it was time for Comet to go "night night" he was ready to go and a much better sport about it.









We had a blast and I am SUCH a LUCKY girl to have such an amazing family that loves to get together and take big fun trips like this! Oh and on a different note Cirque de Soleil is coming to Nashville in June and we got tickets to go with Nana and Pops! So excited about this-can you tell I love going and doing things like this?? It's my favorite! I'm such a sucker for concerts, shows, plays, anything like this but especially when family gets to go and share in making memories with us!