May 30, 2013

first day of summer...

a peek into our first day of summer....
7am--coffee, coffee, coffee--celebrating my new job with cool whip

 8am--smoothie time

9am--mclain's cousin came to play--we went on a trip to nyc

10am--headed to market street--whoo-hoo!!!

11am--racing down the slide

noon--mclain's lunch on the floor (keepin' it real, y'all)

1pm--not pictured--i met a friend for lunch. uncle ben was kind enough to come babysit :)

2pm--craft time while mclain sleeps

3pm--mclain is up--time to eat!

4pm--explorin'

5pm--chased down the ice cream man--win!

6pm--dinner prep--taco thursday

7pm--bath time

8pm--night night

so very thankful for today and the days ahead! 

hugs and kisses~m, s, mc, bg, t, b, b, m, m, b, bc and m

happy friday!!! hope you have a lovely weekend :)

May 29, 2013

what do you want to be when you grow up?

this question. until i was 29, i had no clue.
(photo courtesy of uncle benji)
i figured my dream job would be laying at my feet the day i graduated college. i went into retail, started hair school but didn't finish (yep, i'm a beauty school drop out), went into banking, went back to retail, went back to banking until becoming a teacher. but even then, when someone would ask the question, "what do you want to be when you grow up?", at the age of 29, i still had no idea. then i met mclain. the first moment i held him in my arms, i planned on never letting go! (his middle school/high school and college years were going to be pretty awkward seeing as i wasn't planning on letting go and would physically be with him every step of the way ;)) i knew then that all i wanted was to be his mama. when i grow up, i want to be a mom. some girls learn this at age 4, it only took me a quarter of a century longer to figure it out.

in the process of moving/unpacking and getting our home organized i was distracted by a box of letters i've kept but have never really gone back to read.  do you have those?  a box of old letters, birthday cards, journals? when was the last time you went through them? for me, i hadn't gone back to read them since i tucked them away years ago. 9 years ago to be exact. i found a  letter from my grandpa (when i went off to college him and my g-ma would write me letters about life back in san antonio).  this letter. this letter he wrote 8 months after my grandma (greatest woman i've ever known) had passed away.

"I hope that you are enjoying Tech and your work- difficult 'tho it may be. I am truly proud of you for going to college to get a better education and hopefully a promising career. But, of course I prefer to see you to be more like Grandma and devote yourself to a husband and family."

she was and is the woman i've always admired most. she loved well and taught me so much. she bought me my first bible, taught me how to cook, how to be patient (i'm still working on that one), the value of eating together at the table as a family, she taught me that i could be anything i wanted to be, that i didn't have to follow in others' footsteps. she was always so encouraging and put those she loved first. today is my last day of my old job and tomorrow i get to start a new chapter, i get to be what i want to be and do what i want to do. i get to devote myself to my husband and family. 

hugs and kisses~s and bg

*the picture above has nothing to do with the post, but isn't he the cutest?! also, i was a barista in my former life....twice :)

May 27, 2013

red.white.and.blue.

hope y'all had a wonderful memorial day!!!
a few things we are thankful for....
thankful for freedom, for this country and those who serve to protect both.
thankful for 3 day weekends and our time spent together.
thankful for mclain's big hugs and open-mouth kisses.
thankful for bbq, lemon pie and cookie-cake balls.
thankful for pool time, sunshine and time spent with family and friends.

happy official start to summer!!!

hugs and kisses~m, s, mc, bg, b, b, t, m, m, n, bc and m


May 26, 2013

preparation update...


some of my goals for being a stay-at-home-mom, posted here so you can keep me accountable :)
preparing my heart: waking up early to have my quiet time, to fill my cup, so that it may overflow onto those that mean the most to me, my family. because i am human and selfish and so far from perfect and i know that i cannot love them well all by myself. this time alone, to fill my cup, to feed my soul, is priority numero uno.

preparing our menu: oh my goodness this boy loves to eat! and when he's ready to eat there is a very small window of time between "i'm hungry" and "i'm starving-feed-me-now-or-i-will-have-a-melt-down". it's the only time he ever has a meltdown and i know where he gets it--from his mama :) i completely understand the appeal of quick, pre-packaged, processed foods. but i have a hard time giving my little something that has a shelf life of 18 months (that's older than mclain!). with all that said, i will have fresh fruit and fresh veggies ready to go, washed and chopped and easily accessible for those melt down moments. i've been pinning recipes for goodies i can bake and cook in advance, on the weekends or in the evenings. "what's for dinner?" glad you asked :) in the past, i've been guilty of deciding what's for dinner at dinner. now, because of mclain's small window and our smaller budget, dinner will be planned in advance and nap time will be used for dinner preparation. 

preparing our schedulei have an idea of what mclain needs because of my week at home with him during spring break...but because that was a couple months ago, this schedule is tentative. he wakes up at 8:00. we get ready, eat, play, craft and read a few books.  around 10 or 10:30 he is in need of a change of scenery. (this is where i get my workout in) we go on a long walk, he can't stand to be in the stroller for too long, so we will stretch our legs at the park. then, finish the 2nd half of our walk and head home for lunch (some days we will go to the library for story time or the indoor park at the mall or go visit anna, marmee and grandad). after lunch we will play/read, then take a nap between 12:30 and 1:00. if all goes well, he will nap for 2 to 3 hours.  when he wakes up we'll have a snack and go to the pool, play in the back yard or run errands while we wait for pops to get home.  when pops gets home they spend time together, while i finish getting dinner ready. we eat, we play, mclain takes a bath and then he goes to bed around 8:00.  a strict bed time for the little one, means much needed grown up time for the grown ups.

preparing our bank account: i'm not going to go into too much detail because it's waaay personal but i will be honest and say that not having 2 incomes will be a challenge. we won't be eating out, going to the movies, shopping because "i don't have anything to wear". we will be pinching pennies, eating meatless meals and trusting that God will provide when we're not sure how. all that said, i know we would not have been able to live off of one income in dallas. lubbock, thank you for this simpler life.

hugs and kisses~s and bg

May 23, 2013

preparation is key

4 more work days until i start my new job. haven't you heard? i'm getting a promotion :) my official title will be "stay-at-home mom/stay-at-home wife".  my dream job!
4 more days until i get to spend my days with this one....
 
i'm in the process of preparing my heart, our breakfast, lunch and dinner menu, our schedule and our bank account. i know that all these preparations are necessary for this to be the most enjoyable experience for everyone involved. in the coming days, i will be sharing in more detail the preparations that are taking place.
until then, let the countdown begin.... 

for all you seasoned stay-at-home moms, please feel free to send any helpful tidbits on making the best of the best job in the world.
hugs and kisses~s and baby girl

May 20, 2013

you win some, you lose some....

we started off the weekend with a little big hiccup.  one of my biggest fears as a mama came true....mclain climbed out of his crib. and by "climb", i mean "threw himself over". i heard a loud thud, followed by the loudest, worst scream-cry ever.  praise Jesus he was okay. we turned his crib around, (thanks gilmore girls for that small nugget of wisdom) hopefully, that will deter him from trying it again, at least until we can get a video monitor in his room.
the kid can't be trusted! 

^^^^this is the coke machine from matt's family's shop.  it hadn't worked in a couple years and matt was able to bring it back to life! it's our new favorite!
*please note: mclain took one sip of coke and made a face as if he'd just bitten into the most bitter lemon the world has ever known.

sprinklers sound fun in theory.....
 ^^^but once the water hit him...he screamed bloody-murder, so we decided to watch the sprinkler and eat our watermelon from the comfort of our shaded, dry blanket instead.

sunday, we ventured out to mackenzie park to feed the ducks and turtles. 



^^^anytime mclain picks up a stick or a rock, we tell him to "throw it"....it's either that or he will put it in his mouth.  trading one bad habit for another....it's called good parenting ;)

hope y'all had a wonderful weekend! 

hugs and kisses~m, s, mc, bg, t, b, m, b, m, b, bc and m

r.i.p. tink, (our smallest-bravest turtle) you will be missed.


May 17, 2013

bubbles....not so much

every kid LOVES bubbles. mclain, not so much. he may get excited the first go-round but loses interest very quickly.  he would much rather take the bubble wand out of the container, put the bubble wand back in the container. take it out, put it back in. repeat. this could go on forever. 
FOR-E-VER. 
(thank you sandlot) 
it's the simple things.
i love that he is fine tuning his fine motor skills. 

it's friday y'all!!! have a wonderful weekend :)

hugs and kisses~m, s, mc, bg, b, b, m, t, m, b, m, bc and t

May 12, 2013

i'm mclain's mama...let's celebrate!!!

mother's day means i get to celebrate being mclain's mama. and there is nothing better than being mclain's mama! when it comes to mother's day, i want to spend every second loving on him and soaking up all the joy he brings into my life. 
 ^^^^breakfast at j&b^^^^
^^^^al fresco lunch at our new digs and my mother's day present...a rain reservoir^^^^
^^^^my handsome men^^^^

i hope you all had a wonderful mother's day! 

hugs and kisses~s

only 2 and 1/2 more weeks before i am a stay-at-home mom :)

May 7, 2013

abandon ship

we had a family outing to chipotle recently. it was so crowded, the line was almost out the door.  they had just added the chicken to our burritos when we realized neither of us had brought our wallets.  my first reaction was to abandon ship, throw in the towel, go home with our tails between our legs and eat leftovers, but matt was not so easily swayed. he asked the barista worker (what do you call the professional burrito maker?) if he would finish making our burritos and we'd run home, grab our wallets and come back to get/pay for our dinner. everyone was good with this arrangement. we figured mclain would much rather run the perimeter of chipotle than get back in the car. while pops and mc stayed and did laps, i rushed home and back hitting every red light along the way. lubbock may be small and we may only live 2.5 miles from chipotle but it took a good 20 minutes flying driving home and back. and when you're a starving pregnant person, 20 minutes feels like an eternity. (i know...so dramatic)
 ^^^^waiting patiently in one of the longest lines of his life
^^^^grabby hands ate half my burrito 
^^^^go.go.go. 

hugs and kisses~m, s, mc, bg, b, b, m, t, b, m, m, bc and t

what about you? do you tend to ride the waves or abandon ship?