That's It! I Give Up!

So much for the blog/photo a day challenge; I completely fell behind and can't catch up.  Let's chalk this month up to a loss and call it a day.  June is just too busy. With my trip to Vegas, my birthday, wrapping up my duties at work before transitioning, and running around doing a million last minute tasks for the wedding, I just can't commit to keeping up with a blog a day. In concept, it was a great idea.

So, I'll leave you with a few recent pics of my handsome fellas!

Who can resist these handsome blue eyes?!

This boy loves to eat!

The best part of baking with Mommy!

Playing first base and concentrating so hard!

And a bonus pic of me and my favorite sister (okay, I only have one sister anyways).

Eleven: Junk

I don't have much junk in my house. I'm probably the furthest thing from a pack-rat.  I typically go through closets and stuff every few months to get rid of items that we haven't used in awhile.  Keep the memories; get rid of the crap!  That's what I always tell Jordan, anyways. :)

One piece of junk we do still have is our desktop computer. Jordan got that thing for me our first Christmas that we were married, so that makes it way too old in computer terms.  We hardly ever use it anymore, as I typically use my work laptop for fun while I'm at home, too.  Well, that all changed when we obtained an iPad a few months ago. I didn't really understand what all the hype was about wasn't so sure that I would use it much. At first, Austin played on it all the time, watching cartoons or playing games. It's crazy how easy a 3 1/2 year old can navigate a iPad! I decided to take my turn, and I love that dang thing! I have the Kindle app on there and have read so many books on it! Does that make me cool now that I carry an iPad with me for when I go get a pedicure?

Speaking of the Kindle app (I'm getting off-topic here), I guess knows a good time to share some of my recent reads.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James
Fifty Shades Darker by E.L. James
Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James

(Let's be honest. I had to see what all the hype was around these books.  Interesting!)

Thoughtless by S.C. Stephens
Effortless by S.C. Stephens


Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan
Barely Breathing by Rebecca Donovan

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Anyways, these are some of my faves! I've read a couple of other mediocre ones too, but didn't feel the need to list them.

Ten: Secret

I was still in Vegas on the 10^th of June.  Let’s see……..that was Sunday. My secret for that day was that at 6:30am that morning, we were still up from the night before!  And the sun was up already! I never thought I would be able to hang like that again.  I’ve been out of college for too many years, and let’s be honest, having two little ones at home doesn’t allow for very much party time. Needless to say, we made the most of our time away.  Not all of our pictures from Vegas are blog-appropriate, so I’ll just share a pic of the group of us out on the town!

Nine: Money

Money…………it’s not everything.  I make a decent amount of it. We’re not rich by any means, but we live comfortably. I didn’t go to college for five years, busting my butt for nothing!

One of those luxuries of having some extra money is being able to take vacations.  This past weekend, I took my first ever girls’ trip, for my sister’s bachelorette party.  We headed to Vegas; neither Kat or I had been before, but the other three girls had been before.  I really had no idea what to expect, but just rolled with the punches.  It was a fabulous time! I’ve been home for three days and I’m still trying to recover.  I don’t even know how much this trip ended up costing me, but it was worth every penny and I hope my sister had the time of her life!  Here was the view from our room.

Eight: Bad Habit

I think when my fellow blogger planned out this ‘Photo-a-Day’ challenge, she already knew when I was going to Vegas and timed these posts quite well! Bad habits. Hmmmm. Well, on the 8^th of June, I was on a flight to Vegas, for the very first time.  I don’t drink very often, and when I do, it’s usually just a glass or two or wine a week. I don’t necessarily like the feeling of being hungover (and it usually doesn’t take much to do me in these days). Needless to say, I was nervous about the amounts of alcohol that I would consume while in Vegas.  I usually stick to beer and wine at home, but it was only liquor and champagne (aka schamps) while in Vegas. J  And we kicked it off right on the plane ride there.  We were ‘those girls’ on the plane. But hey, we were headed to Vegas and were going to make the most out of our trip! And we did!!

Seven: Back

I don’t really know what was meant with this blog category; I’ll have to inquire of the creator. J I skimmed through some recent pics in my phone and came across one of Austin laying on his back at the dentist, and thought this one would suffice.  A few weeks ago, we took Austin to his first trip to the dentist.  I was worried about how he would react to being examined, but he did surprisingly well.  I found a great pediatric dentist that was close by and they were great with him.  They had tvs in the ceiling playing Disney movies and even used chocolate-flavored paste to clean his teeth. He was the best patient, ever!!

Six: History

I’m playing catch up here, trying to make up for about a week’s worth of blogs I’m behind on. So bear with me!  When I think of ‘History’, I think of important events in my life.  Let’s recap some of the highlights:

July 26, 2003 - Getting married!

December 11, 2004 - Graduating w/Bachelor's & MBA

November 13, 2008 - Bringing new life into the world.....Austin Jordan

January 7, 2011 - Round two.........Hello Chase Cooper!

Time out!

I know I've seriously fallen behind on this whole blog/photo a day thing. But I'm in Vegas, baby! Good grief, I'm having a BLAST! I'll have plenty to blog about when I get back!

Missing all three of my boys back home!

Five: Appreciation

Who do I appreciate??  These guys!  We picked up the boys' school pictures yesterday and they are just too damn cute!  I appreciate the fact that they are handsome, healthy, and full of life! Oh, and that they're both Momma's boys. :)

And yes, I took a picture of a picture. Sue me; I was in a time crunch!

Four: Summer

Summertime!!! Summer is absolutely my favorite time of year! Yeah, the Texas heat brings 100 degree weather, but I love the slow time at work, my birthday month, our wedding anniversary, and spending time outside any chance we can.  Although it's technically not summer yet (according to the calendar), it certainly feels like it.  We've been spending alot of time playing baseball lately. We're about a month into Austin's t-ball season and it's definitely been interesting.  The first night was pure chaos, with the boys all trying to figure out what they're doing.  As each week passes, they're getting better and more involved in the game.  And our little slugger looks so dang handsome in his uniform!  It's so great to see Jordan out there helping Austin playing; it truly just warms my heart.

Listening to instructions from Coach!

Daddy and Austin

So excited to watch big brother play!

Swing batter, batter!

And the best part......snacks after the game!

Three: Ingredients

All day, I've been trying to come up with something clever for today's topic of 'Ingredients'.  I'd love to say that I cooked some gourmet dinner for us to post about.  Unfortunately, we were all out of taco seasoning when I went to fix a Mexican fiesta for tonight, so we settled on take-out. So, I'm going to go a different route for 'Ingredients'.  How about the ingredients for a great weekend?

Friday night - Hubby home, Chik-fil-a for dinner, quality time with the kids, thanking the Lord that Chase's incident wasn't worse than it was, a glass of my favorite wine, and a good book after the kiddos went to bed.

Saturday - Hubby home (again, yay!), playtime in the backyard, running through sprinklers, grilling out with wonderful neighbors, and another glass of wine.

Sunday - Waking up to the sound of Austin and Jordan playing in the backyard, dancing to music with my boys, Austin vacuuming the house for me, four loads of laundry, three hours of work (okay, not a great ingredient to my weekend, but necessary for some upcoming time off), takeout for dinner, and another glass of wine.

One common ingredient..........spending time with my family! Okay, and a glass of wine!  I'm trying to prepare myself for Vegas this week. Although, I think I'll be drinking on something alot stronger than wine (and more than one serving a day!).  Yikes, I'm not ready!

Two: Project

There's one big project I've been working on for several months now.......my sister's wedding. Sorry, I don't have much of a picture to go along with it, but I have to keep secrets safe. I couldn't possibly post a picture of the wedding dress (that we happened to have our first fitting with this past week and is STUNNING!). Or my bridesmaid dress (which is now a little too big due to all my hard work). Or the adorable sign that Austin will be carrying down the aisle (made by yours truly). Or the stunning programs I designed. I guess you'll just have to wait til the big day to see what all the fuss is about. It's going to be such a beautiful day, and I can't wait. I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure this is the most perfect day in my sister's life.  She totally deserves it!

One: Discovery

When I first saw the topic of today's post, I figured that I would do a sweet post on some of the new things that the kids were discovering and how much they've grown.  Well, this post is taking a slight turn, based on one of Chase's recent discoveries............climbing out of his crib.  Austin never tried to climb out of the crib, and Chase has never really shown any interest in it either. But then I heard screaming on the baby monitor at 1:30 this morning.  Something about it didn't sound right, and as soon as I glanced at the video monitor, somethings was definitely not right about what I saw..............Chase standing lost in his room.  I cursed a few words and went running in there to scoop him up.  He had a big bump on his head, his nose was red ans starting to swell, and there was blood in his month. After I held him in my arms to calm him down, I laid him down on the floor so that I could try to get a better look in his mouth.  He just went completely silent and his eyes started to close like he was going to pass out. Of course, Mommy freaks out and the tears start to fall.  We quickly threw on some clothes, called to wake our wonderful neighbors to drop Austin off, and headed up to the local ER.  And call me a bad Mommy, but I didn't put Chase in his carseat. I just held him closely in my arms in the front seat to make sure he stayed awake.  Luckily, our local ER is awesome and never crowded, so we were seen immediately.  After looking him over, we decided it was best to get a CAT scan just to be safe. The doctor was even worried that he may have had a broken nose, poor guy.  He did incredibly well, as we laid him down on the CAT scan table, wrapped him tightly in the sheet, and I (wearing my big lead vest) held him down so that he would remain still.  He was such a trooper and we got the images on the first try!  Everything came back fine, and we were sent on our way.  We've kept him home from school today, so that we can monitor him to make sure that there are no signs of a concussion, but that kid just scared the crap out of me last night. It was just so bizarre.  Anyways, prayers for Chase, that his goose egg on his head, sore nose, and teeth heal from this recent incident.  I'm sure it's not the last ER visit I'll have with two boys, I need to get prepared!

June is Here!

I can't believe it! I seriously don't know where the time has gone so far this year. Anyways, a friend or mine (and fellow blogger) suggested that I take part in the June Photo/Blog challenge that her and her friends created. I hope I can keep up and be encouraged to blog more.  And that I can be inspired and come up with something appropriate for each day.  Stay tuned!