Lost in this moment...

6 Month Update

2011-06-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well, obviously it's been six months since I last updated and a lot has changed! The boys have grown, Jayden finished his first year of school, and JR has embarked on a new career venture. First, and foremost let me announce that WE ARE MOVING!!! Lol, big surprise considering we've already moved so dang much. We are wayyyy excited about this move though! Here are a couple pics of the new house (we are only renting and have the option to buy this house if we like it enough)....

Secondly, JR quit his job with Pier 51 Marina and is now a Contractor for Alantic Meeco! He will be a contracting foreman and travel all over the country building/repairing docks. He starts in a couple weeks and his first job will be in Alabama, he's meeting with the CEO this week. We are both very excited as this will provide so many opportunities for our family. One being able to afford private school for Jayden. We are very excited about this, we are planning on putting him in Summit Christian Academy this coming fall semester. The other opportunity would be that I would be able to stay home with Gavin again :) This makes me very ecstatic because I have been struggling with the idea that we are paying other people to raise Gavin. I have done a lot of praying over this and still have no comfort in other people raising him. Speaking of Gavin that brings me to my next topic.....

Gavin, please pray for him. He has been very sick for the past 8 months. He hasn't gone longer than 2 weeks without an ear infection and bronchitis. In March, he had his adenoids removed and tubes placed in his ears. We were hoping the infections would die down after this but to no avail. He was also diagnosed with asthma a couple months ago. He's in constant pain from his ears and he has to take sooo much medicine almost daily. His daily medicine routine consists of Allegra in the am and Benadryl and Singulair in the pm. That's if he is not sick, when he is sick we have to throw in the antibiotic, albuterol, and tylenol/ibprufen throughout the day. He doesn't get to play outside very often like most children because when he's outside his allergies tend to flair up. And, the Dr is threatening if his asthma doesn't get better we will have to put him on a nebulizer. Oh, and last but not least we go back next week to see if his tubes are still in place. His most recent infection caused his eardrums to swell so large they were pushing the tubes out, if one or more of the tubes are gone he will have to go into surgery again to either patch his ear drum or place another tube in it. This breaks my heart, it's hard seeing your children suffer and sick all the time. I am hoping that once I am able to quit my job it will give Gavin the opportunity to build his immune system at home.

Oh, and btw Jayden played his first team sport this Spring. He played T-Ball for Sapulpa Youth Baseball and his team was "The Inferno". They didn't win much, but they were sure cute trying!

Well, this is all that's going on in the Burger Family recently.... hopefully it wont be another 6 months before I update again!

Back to Work

2010-12-18T08:19:00.000-08:00

This past Monday I went back to work! I am the new Patient Care Representative at OU Internal Medicine Clinic. Sounds important right? Lol I really am just a secretary :) I am very blessed to have found a job with REALLY good pay, amazing benefits, and HELLO paid holidays! My last job I worked almost every holiday and it SUCKED! My family is always together for every holiday, and even though I willingly worked every weekend for OSU they still made me work every holiday too, which meant I NEVER got to go to any of our family events. I am also off every weekend too, which means whenever Jayden starts sports (which is really soon) I will not have to worry about ever missing a game. The only downfall is having to pay for a babysitter, because I work 8 to 5. Our new babysitter is very sweet and I really am looking forward to developing a relationship with her, but at the same time I really am sad I will be missing out on a lot with the boys.

So, this past week has gone really good. I am learning fast and even though I was intimidated at first, I am seeing it's really not all that hard and the people are so much fun. Unfortunately though, Thursday morning I broke my foot; making me late for work and then Friday I missed work because I was in so much pain. Luckily, it was either a bruised bone or hairline fracture and once the swelling went down I am feeling A LOT better. I REALLY hated missing on my first week, but sometimes things are just out of your control and I had to continually remind myself that this Friday.

The best part of this is, we will be able to move to a nicer bigger home once Jayden is out of school. I would gladly move now, but we are trying to find some sort of stability here for the kids. All of this moving has been a strain for all of us. Even though it was necessary the boys don't understand and it doesn't make it any less stressful. We are still indecisive as to where we want to live. We are being very picky this time because for one we can and for two wherever we choose we plan on buying there eventually and want to keep the kids in the same schools. We love Sapulpa but the rental market is few and far between here. We will see come May we still have plenty of time to worry about that. Also, JR's friend from work also works at Riverside Chevrolet and he told us he could get us into a brand new car for as much as we are paying for the Hyuandai (03 Hyundai Santa Fe, that we had to get from one of those bad credit lots with ridiculously high payments and payoff prices) even though we have horrible credit, past repo, owe way too much on our car, and have no money for a down payment. This came as exciting news as the Hyundai is already giving us problems. Im not so sure this will work out but if it does then it will definitely be a blessing for us. We also will be able to buy JR a truck once we get our taxes back so that makes me happy :)

We have been continually blessed with amazing news this past month and I am excited about the things that are to come. We have suffered grief after grief for the past couple of years and though I try not to get my hopes up I really think it's all about to turn around. Whoever reads this please to continue to pray for our family as we still have several hurdles to overcome. God bless you all and I hope you have a very Merry Christmas. I will post photo updates of our Christmas as soon as it's over :)

25 Things I am Thankful for

2010-11-25T18:26:00.000-08:00

Being Thanksgiving and all it's always a good time to reflect on the things we are thankful for. God says in all things give thanks. Today we spent the day with my side of the family and tonight JR and I are spending some much needed alone time watching movies and being lazy. Here's a tiny list of the many things I am thankful for:

1. A faithful God that never fails me.

2. An amazing, sweet, caring husband that provides and loves unrelentlessly.

3. Jayden, who never fails to remind me that the simple things in life are the most enjoyable. He's my little helper and has the most endearing smile that lights up my life.

4. Gavin, who is my shy one. He is the biggest momma's boy and every single day makes say at least once that he is the cutest little boy ever. Very precious and sweet.

5. My dogs, Chloe and Maddie. They are ever faithful in any time of need or snuggling. They sure help calm me when life feels a little much.

6. My mom and dad. I can always rely on my mom when I need non judgemental advice and a shoulder to lean/cry on. Dad I can always rely on to show up whenever I need help with anything. If it was 3 am and I was broke down 90 miles away he would come get me.

7. Preschool, it gives me a much needed break 5 days a week and Jayden has learned soooo much from it.

8. Internet, when you are a SAHM you are desperate for any type of outside communication.

9. Cable, um need I say more.

10. Good friends, there always there.

11. Starbucks white chocolate latte.... yum.

12. Christmas trees, so beautiful.

13. Cell phones, saved my life lots of times.

14. My best friend Sarah!!!!!

15. My long hair, love it.

16. Random acts of kindness.

17. Dr. pepper.

18. Snow.

19. Having a car.

20. Home decor.

21. Hot baths.

22. Hot cocoa.

23. Fluffy warm beds.

24. Cereal.

25. Kit kats.

Here are a few photos from this fall:

Fried Rice

2010-07-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted a reciped on here in a while so i thought i would post one of my recent favorites. This is one I came up with by watching people make it. It's very easy and quick.

2 bags of uncle ben's ready brown rice (the kind that microwaves in 90 seconds)
1/2 of a white onion chopped
1/4 cup chopped carrots (you can use the canned kind and chop them too but it tastes better with fresh carrots)
2 eggs
3 green onions chopped
1/4 cup snow peas (optional)
3-4 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp olive oil
tsp of soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a large stir fry pan or wok heat the olive oil and buttter till butter is melted.
2. Add veggies, and cook for a minute.
3. Add Rice, continue to stir fry about 5 minutes or until the onions and carrots are cooked.
4. Scoot the rice all to one side of the pan add just a tiny bit more butter and crack 2 eggs into the empty spot on the pan.
5. Scramble the eggs and cook until done.
6. Mix the eggs into the rice throughly.
7. Add soy sauce, salt, and pepper and stir.
8. Enjoy!

You may add meat to the mix, cook the meat first and then add to the pan when you add the rice. Simple, easy, and delicious.

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart....... Eh, It's a little late!

2010-07-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

So June 1st was our third year anniversary. It feels soooo much longer than just 3 years. Mainly because this November will mark 9 years of being together. There are many precious things about marrying your high school sweetheart. We've seen each other grow up. I remember J.R. when he was this pimple faced 16 year old with braces, dorky friends, and the basketball king of the school. He would tell you he remembers me at 14 with poofy bangs, braces, and the over confident dance captain. He was there when I first got my license. I was there when he made all-state. He was there when I had my first accident (we had been fighting and I, crying and upset, backed into a brand new mustang..... 3 times). I was there when he went to his first Jr./Sr. Banquet. He was there for all 4 National titles I lead my team to win. I was there during each of his homecoming games. He was there when my life changed forever because of that one teacher. I was there when he walked across that stage and into the real world. He was there to throw my friends and I a party for the first week of our senior year. I was there when he got his first apartment. He was there when I found out the consequences of that party meant I would become a mother. I was there when he fought the biggest battle of his life, the one that almost cost him his life. He was there when I was an 18 year old child delivering a child of my own. I was there to see him become a Father. He was there to watch me graduate. I was there the day his daddy died......

We have grown so much since we first met, and the closeness of our bond is stronger than I ever imagined. He is my best friend, the one I can rely on over anyone. He knows what makes me happy, what makes me sad. He knows I get randomly emotional for no reason at all. He knows my favorite candy, the only type of chocolate i will eat, and my favorite ice cream. He knows what irritates the living hell out of me, but knows what to say to make everything better. He even knows what tampons to get without even asking. He'll carry my purse when he can tell my back is hurting (he wont even ask, he just grabs it). He'll rub my head for hours when I'm riding out a migraine. He randomly comes home with flowers and leaves thank you notes all the time. He's never said anything negative about my cooking even when I can tell he doesnt like it. He is an amazing father. He treats me like a princess and never lets me think otherwise.

I am a very lucky girl and so thankful for such a sweet husband, Happy Anniversary sweetheart.

Happy Birthday to My Sweet Husband

2010-05-22T21:14:00.000-07:00

Today is J.R.'s 25th Birthday. I love you honey and hope you had an amazing day.

Happy 4th Birthday Jayden!

2010-05-18T11:51:00.000-07:00

My firstborn turned 4 today. Very bittersweet feeling, I am happy he is growing up and sad at the same time. Boy, how the time flys. We celebrated his birthday over the weekend. He had a lot of fun with cousins and loved all his presents. I can't believe in less than 3 months he will be starting K4 at Lone Star Elementary. We asked him what he wanted to do today to celebrate his Birthday and his response was eat at McDonald's and go fishing. :) Such a boy! Here's a few pics of the party:

J.R. helped the kids decorate balloons.

Blowing out his birthday candle.

Opening Presents!

His motorcycle Nana and Poppy got him. Kid needs his own garage.

Right now your into:

Any and all cartoons. Your favorites are Team Oomizoomi (sp?), Max and Ruby, and Spongebob Squarepants.

Your favorite toys are monster trucks and hot wheels.

You love all sports and want to play on a team, you love to dress up in your uniform and play pretend games.

Your best friends is the little neighbor girl Angel, and you always call her your angel.

You could play outdoors all day long, you're the happiest when you are outside.

Your favorite food is Malt O'Meal, you even asked if you could have it at your birthday party. Favorite snack is anything chocolate.

You still like to be babied every now and then :)

Also since I never posted pics of Gavin's 1st Birthday here is one:

Kitchen Preview....

2010-05-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

Obviously our kitchen is far from being done. For Mother's Day I got the tile to do my countertops and so here is a preview of what they will look like. The blue cabinets are finished and even though I was a little skeptical at first, I have to say I love them! Here is a pic of the tile...

and since I never showed you a pic of the cabinets here they are as well...

Our plan is put 4ft tall white beadboard in the kitchen, install a white sink and replace the faucet with an oil rubbed bronze one. Eventually install a french door into the backyard, replace all the appliances with new white ones and install a door on the pantry. Also, eventually lay some laminate wood floors like we had in our last house. The floors we used in our last house was the Swiftlock Plus handscraped hickory. The reason I mention this is because they are the easiest and prettiest floors to maintain. They look the closest to wood floors that I have seen in a laminate because they are handscraped for texture and you dont have to use special cleaners on them. Plus, you CAN'T damage them, trust me we tried! J.R. had dropped a saw from 12 feet high on them in our last house and it didn't even scratch them, Jayden dumped a gallon of paint on them and we used paint thinner to remove it and it didnt even phase them. I highly recommend them! Ok enough with my free advertising, hope you enjoyed the preview!

Menu Plan

2010-04-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted a menu in a while and I got to be honest, it's because either J.R. has been cooking or we've been eating at McDonald's...... I know it's ridiculous. My screwed up schedule hasn't allowed for much family time for me and when I am home I've been avoiding the kitchen at all costs! Anyway enough chit chat, here is the menu for next week.

Breakfasts: Malt O'Meal, cold cereal, sausage rolls (me protein bars)

Lunches: peanut butter sandwiches, homemade lunchables, pizza bagels, yogurt shakes, and grapes. (Me protein bars, yogurt, and fruit)

Dinners:
Saturday: (J.R.'s cooking day, I work till 10). Enchiladas, and guacamole dip.
Sunday: Leftovers
Monday: (J.R. day) Taco Salad.
Tuesday: Fish and Chips, hushpuppies, and cole slaw
Wednesday: Grilled BBQ Chicken, wild rice, and summer squash
Thursday:Rachel Ray's Taco Pasta Toss
Friday: Chicken Alfredo (my recipe), cheese bread, and salad (my fat day :o))

Also, on the homefront we have a peeping tom. Lol she is 7 and at first it was kinda funny but yesterday she caught me and J.R. being intimate. So, quickly cute became irritating and now I am going to have to have a talk with her mother. I believe the reason she does it is because they are real religious and are not allowed to have a tv, so I think she tries to watch the tv through our window.

Progress as Promised :)

2010-04-11T15:58:00.000-07:00

So we've moved in and have started the whole remodel process. Man, are we exhausted!!!! We are not still completely unpacked. I cringe as I am typing this, but our clothes are still in boxes. Please don't tell anyone, I'm embarrassed! Most of the kitchen is unpacked, but unfortunatly I will be repacking the kitchen soon as we have a little (severe) roach infestation. Apparently the people that lived there before didn't believe in good hygiene. So, after battling (foggers, gel, 2 different types of sprays on a daily basis, and traps) them to no avail, we have caved and called an exterminator. He/she will be here sometime this week to work their magic. I have seriously never seen anything this bad in my life, eeekkk! So, besides that nastiness we have made a little progress. Since I didn't have any before pics here are a couple before:

Ugly carpet, and the walls/ceiling fan were nicotine stained.

linoleum floors, and wall? No counter space on sink, and ugly cabinet and lights.

Fridge wont fit (Jayden took it upon himself to paint the wall black!)

Outdated cabinets and hardware, old appliances.

Right now there are temporary shades up because the blinds were so stained with nicotine there wasn't any salvaging them.

I am so happy that things are starting to look so good. It's amazing what a little paint and updating light fixtures will do to the look of a room. Here's a few pics of the updates:

Silly boys!
Loving the warm paint color! Anyone wanna donate to the make our floors pretty fund???

New ceiling fan, 56.00 at walmart!
Decided to go with a light blue color for the cabinets (pictured with only one coat). We will be buying new white appliances, tiling the countertops with travertine tile, installing a white acrylic sink, changing all the hardware to bronze, and putting up beadboard in the kitchen. Going for a country look! BTW, the fridge fits now, JR did a little tweaking to the cabinets.

Prayer Request

2010-04-06T20:21:00.000-07:00

One of our ER Resident's 3 year old daughter was diagnosed with Stage 3 Neuroblastoma Cancer. Please pray for complete healing of little Gracie and pray that its a quick and as painfree process as possible. You can find out more information about her at graciecare.blogspot.com. There you can read updates and also donate money for her care. Dr. Bloxham and his wife also have three other children at home, so please pray for them as they try to balance being at the hospital with Gracie and home with their other children.

We Are Moving!!!!!

2010-03-28T13:11:00.000-07:00

This will be our last move for at least five years (fingers crossed!). We have a majority of our stuff packed and had a very successful garage sale Friday. We do still have an infant carseat for sale for $30.00 dollars, so if you know anyone let me know! Its a black Babytrend one with the weather boot. I don't have any pics to post of the house because when we went to look at it they had worker's there working on ripping up the carpet. It is very outdated though and that means we will get to do a lot of remodeling! I love remodeling! So, here are a few pics of some of the projects i have going on in my head....

The cabinets are old and just a dark stain color so I am going to do a cream glaze on them and hopefully get this outcome:

We are going to put in stainless appliances as well along with bronze cabinet hardware as shown here. We are also going to get a brown granite formica countertop. I am painting the kitchen and living a taupe color and considering putting up white beadboard waist high in the kitchen. Also there is currently no back door to the backyard but a huge picture window in the kitchen. So, we are going to blow that out and install french doors with a small deck in the backyard.

Here is the flooring we are going to lay in the kitchen, bathroom, and entry:

This is the carpet that was just layed:

This is the bedding we just got Jayden:

We are going to paint the walls dark blue and one wall make it a chalkboard wall. We are also going to hang green curtains and paint his white toybox green. We are going to buy him this twin sized bed (the firetruck bed is going into storage for Gavin):

And if anyone has some cute sports decor they want to sell, let me know! I'm looking for fun possibly vintage stuff!

Gavin's room is going to change a little. The bedding will stay the same and we are adding the bench that used to be in the living (we painted it white) to his room for a toybox. We are going to paint the walls a chocolate brown this time and add this to the wall:

He's our little monkey, all he ever says is "oo, ooo" so I find it very fitting for his room :)

Our room is being painted a dark gray color. My parents had bought us a white bedding set for christmas this year and we have painted our bedroom suite a black cause the stain had become damaged over the last couple moves. We have a blue colored throw and pillows and blue curtains as well. Right now I don't have any wall decor because nothing has stood out for me.

Our bathroom is getting those beautiful cherry floors. I am painting the walls a chocolate brown as well and putting up bead board. We are replacing all the faucets and hardware with bronze colored ones and we haven't evaluated the current vanity enough to decide if we will keep it and update it or buy a new one.

And last but not least, the outside of the house is very bland and I am really looking forward to sprucing it up. The first things we are doing is painting. Currently the roof is a very light gray color (ugh!) It still has a lot of life left so no changing it :( The siding is white and trim is green..... btw who does that???? We are going to paint this siding a medium gray color, the trim a light gray, and add black shutters to the windows. We are painting the front door black and taking down the security screen and installing a glass storm door. It has a nice front porch so we are putting out 2 black rocking chairs, with blue and white throw pillows. We will be doing tons on landscaping as well. The front yard is just mud right now, so there's a lot of work to be done. As you can tell I am excited!!!!!

oh and p.s. I am trying to do all this for $6000.00. Crazy right!?! I have been doing lots of research and here are my totals as follows:

floors: $400.00
appliances: $3300.00
doors: $700.00
hardware: $400.00
paint: $600.00 (give or take)
countertops: $400.00

We are doing everything by ourselves and hoping to complete everything over a years time. We are both very excited about this move and so glad we finally have something to look forward to.

Pics from the Week....

2010-03-21T18:13:00.000-07:00

This past week was Spring Break and even though it doesn't really effect us any, we thought we would have a little fun this week. On Thursday we went to Incredible Pizza and Jayden had a blast. He was very sad to leave. On Friday my best friend Sarah came over and we took the boys to the zoo. Again, Jayden had a lot of fun there. It was the perfect day for the zoo as well.

Also in other news: We got the house! We are so excited to be homeowners again that I can't even tell you. We will be packing and moving all week long, so anyone who would like to babysit Gavin PLEASE feel free! It's so hard to supervise him and get things done at the same time. Also, I'm jumping on the menu planning bandwagon. This is something I have done since we first became married, but I thought it would make things so much easier if I had a place to write it down. So here goes....

Monday- Hamburger Stew
Tuesday- Tacos
Wednesday- Tomato soup with grilled cheese
Thursday- Buttermilk fried chicken with cheese and green onion mashed potatoes and corn
Friday- pancakes and sausage
Saturday and Sunday is usually fend for yourself day

Pics......

2010-03-09T21:33:00.000-08:00

Last Friday we took the boys to the park and took some pics. We also had a date night and had a lot of fun. We went out to dinner than to an Oiler's game. It's been a while since we have been able to just go out by ourselves. No one ever takes both the boys at the same time during the evenings so it's been almost a year since we had been on a date. Needless to say it was very refreshing. Here's a couple pics....

Baby Name

2010-03-02T03:37:00.000-08:00

For way over a year now I have been struggling with the fact that we never named the baby we lost. When Brooke and Josh had baby Maggie and witnessing their struggle with naming her made me start thinking again. I believe in my heart the baby we lost was a little girl. I may definitely be wrong and I won't know until I finally get to meet her in heaven but I finally came up with a name for her: Abigail Grace. Baby Abbey, went to rest in our Father's arms April 18th, 2008. Though she didn't make a significant impact on your lives, she did mine. I will never forget the pain I felt that day. I can't wait to join her and the rest of our loved ones in heaven someday. Which brings me to my next topic. J.R. and I are getting matching tattoos. It will say, "In Heaven Too" in Hebrew. For us there is just so much meaning behind that little phrase so I am really excited about it.

In other developing news we may be moving again! It will be the 4th time in less than a year. I love being back in Tulsa and love the neighborhood we are in right now, but we have an opportunity of a lifetime to buy a house in Sapulpa. We weren't planning on being able to buy a house for another 2-3 years because this past year has absolutely demolished our credit. J.R.'s boss owns several rent houses and has decided to sell all of them. The particular one we might buy just happened to be a foreclosure that his boss bought for well below market value and he is just going to let us take over the payments. So, basically it will be rent to own but here's the best part..... it's the same size as the house we are in now and in better condition, plus its Sapulpa schools instead of Tulsa and the mortgage payment is only $325.00 a month!!!! We are currently paying $800.00 a month in rent. Also, rent will come straight out of J.R.'s paychecks so we wont ever have to worry about it. I am pretty stoked about all that. I am NOT however stoked about moving... again. Like seriously, we may have set a record for the amount of times moved in one year! So anyway if we have something that you have been eyeing then let me know because you could probably have it!

I Love My Husband

2010-02-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have one of those days where you just have that warm feeling all over that you absolutely love your significant other. Today was one of those days! I have been battling a sinus infection for the last couple of days, but today was just absolutely horrible. My hubby completely spoiled me today. He stopped by my work on his way home today and left me a dozen pink roses and the sweetest card ever so I would get them when I got to work. Then after dinner (this is TMI for some so I would quit reading if you dont care to hear) he ran a hot bath for us and gave me a massage. He hates that BTW, but he did it because he knows I love it and he wanted to make me feel better. Here's a pic of the flowers.....

Oh, also I cut and colored my hair... finally! Seriously it had been a year since I cut my poor hair so here's a pic as well. It doesn't really do it justice but you get the idea.....

January 2010

2010-02-09T23:07:00.000-08:00

First Time Eating Spaghetti

Well it seems as if I am only updating once a month now. Which is fine with me, seeing as this blog is purely for documentational purposes. Anyway the month of January had been rather busy. This year has gotten off to a good start and I'm praying it continues to be great.

Gavin turned one on the 9th. His party was at nanny's and he had a blast. He was the perfect birthday boy. He oo'd and ah'd over every present he received and was as happy as could be the entire time. I was hoping he would destroy his birthday cake and make a huge mess but instead he picked at it very carefully trying to avoid making any type of mess. Some of his favorite toys were his firetruck, his tonka truck, and his Bible stories book and Elmo book. I am just glad he had a great time.

Jayden is becoming such a wonderful big brother. He loves playing with Gavin and seems to be very attentive to Gavin's needs. He'll let me know if Gavin has a dirty diaper or if Gavin is getting into something he shouldn't. We are in the process of learning how to share right now and it can be difficult at times. We are still having trouble with discipline and sometimes that can be very hard on J.R. and I. It seems like a daily battle on what the best techniques are with him as nothing seems to work. He is a very strong willed child. I the terrible toddler years are soon about to pass and I pray that he grows into a very wonderful young boy.

J.R. and I are hanging in there. Still recovering from the aftermath of what 2009 had left us with. We are trying our best at staying positive and planning a future that will be beneficial to our family. I am going first thing in the morning to apply at Mayo Demonstration Academy for Jayden. It's a magnet school through Tulsa Public Schools. It is a very wonderful program and if you have not heard of it I encourage you to do some research on the school. They only accept 30 4-year olds a year and the selection is based on a district-wide lottery. Meaning they draw names from the entire district to fill the spots. The drawing is being held February 23rd. We are keeping our fingers crossed on that one. If Jayden does not get in then we are going to send him to cornerstone. We are very excited that he will begin school next year. It will allow me a little more time to start school back up again. It has been hard being a mom and working on a degree, but when I became pregnant with Jayden I made a promise to myself that I would get a degree no matter what. I owe it to myself and my family. One thing I've learned in the past few years is that tomorrow is not promised and I want to be able to support myself and my kids if something were to ever happen to J.R. I am really excited about going back to school as well. Anyway that has been our monthly update.

Giveaway at V and Co.

2010-01-12T22:24:00.000-08:00

I have been a fan of Vanessa's blog for quite a while. She has the cutest little family and makes some adorable things. I was introduced by Brooke and regularly check in since. So you should check it out as well. Right now would be the perfect time because currently she is giving away a beautiful necklace by the rusted chain. So head on over there and check it out! NOW!!! (just click on the name Vanessa)
Here's the beautiful necklace:

Minor Update

2010-01-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

Gavin turns 1 this Saturday and I'm so excited. I am going to miss the fact that he is no longer a baby, but I am glad that he's getting older because he's easier to care for. Speaking of Gavin we are learning that he may have a minor milk allergy. He does fine eating things that contain dairy, but when he actually drinks milk his face breaks out into hives. We will be meeting with Dr. Murphy next week to see what she wants us to do. 2010 looks like it will be a good year for us. We had a rough year last year and are looking forward to what this year has to bring for us. I finally beyond a shadow of a doubt have our finances under control and our income is finally more than our expenses. lol that might seem like a duh! situation but we've gone an entire year living with our expenses exceeding our income. With tax season just around the corner, we plan to pay off a majority of our debt and pay back all the people that helped us get through this past year. There were a few people and I cannot express how thankful I am for you guys. Hopefully, 2012 we will be able to buy a home. We are anticipating (fingers crossed) that J.R. will get a pretty significant raise in March and we will start putting back money then for a down payment. So keep us in your thoughs and prayers!

That said I will leave you with this cuteness......

11 Month Update

2009-12-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

Gavin turned 11 months old 9 days ago. Call me a scrooge but I am so ready for the holidays to be over with. I'm ready for this year to be over with because it's been one of the hardest years of my life! Next year will be a good year for us. I am however excited about Gavin's upcoming birthday. He's still just as precious as the day he was born and I pray he continues to be my sweet boy throughout the years. Not much has changed from last month.

He can cruise and occasionally will stand without holding onto anything if he's distracted.

He will only eat table food and chocolate donuts are his favorite. We have already attempted to wean him into regular milk and it upset his belly so we stopped. We will try again in a couple days with 1% milk this time.

He hates wearing socks and I get lectured by old ladies everywhere we go.

His hair is getting so long his bangs hang in his eyes.

His eyes are still blue but I still think they will change to green eventually.

He had been waking up throughout the night, but I realized it was because he was getting cold so I placed a small heating fan in his room and he doesn't wake until 9 am every morning.

He has 6 teeth now.

His favorite thing to do is play in his brother's firetruck bed.

10 Month Update and 30 Things I am Thankful For

2009-11-21T10:26:00.000-08:00

So I thought it would be fun to post 30 things I am thankful for. I've decided I would post 30 things, since there are 30 days in November.

I am thankful for my mom. She is my best friend, and I can tell her anything. She is always there for me no matter the situation and I can always turn to her when I am in need. She is by far the best mother ever. She took me in when no one else would, and even though I am not hers biologically she never made me feel so otherwise.
I am thankful for my husband. He is the most supportive, loving, caring person I know. This year has been a very trying year in our marriage and he has stuck through it with me. I couldn't be more proud of him and more thankful for all the things he brings to our family.
I am thankful for my children. They bring me joy and an overabundance of love.
I am thankful for Dave Matthews Band. They are my most favorite band ever, and how could anyone not LOVE Dave's voice.
I am thankful for The Twilight Saga and all the delicious fanfiction that comes with it. Yes, I am a twilight dork, and I don't care what you think.
I am thankful for my J.O.B. I love it. I seriously get paid to sit around and talk on the phone and play on the internet. Plus it helps JR pay the bills, and I love making his life a little easier.
I am thankful for American Eagle jeans. I have an akward shaped butt and they are the only ones that seem to make jeans that fit me right.
I am thankful for my car. I love it, enough said
I am thankful for my best friend Sarah Elizabeth Cook. I never laugh harder than I do when I am with this girl. She makes life complete.
I am thankful for my dad. He is the very best handy man there is. No matter where I am or what time it is, if I need something fixed he will be there. Plus, he has the dryest sense of humor which makes me laugh.
I am thankful for swiffer wet jets. They make my life 20 x's easier.
I am thankful for fancast.com. That website helps my overnight shift go by so much faster.
I am thankful for online bill pay. I am a weirdo when it comes to mailing out my payments, so basically if it's not done online it's usually late.
I am thankful for Dr pepper.
I am thankful for clorox disinfecting wipes, without them my house would always be grimey and slimey (oh wait it is always that way, having 3 boys stinks)
I am thankful for sour apple martini mixes that you can buy at the grocery store. They are so delicious and it's nice to unwind on the weekends with my hubby.
I am thankful for Nickelodeon for making cute little kid's shows so I can attempt to do some housekeeping during the day.
I am thankful for Maddie. If it wasn't for my live vacuum cleaner, I would have to sweep after every meal.
I am thankful for carmel brownies and cookies and cream ice cream. Best food therapy ever!
I am thankful for Old Navy, they single handedly keep my children clothed.
I am thankful for online classes at TCC. If I couldn't take them online, I couldn't take them.
I am thankful for my blackberry. I dont know how I kept on track with things without it.
I am thankful for Target. I LOVE that place.
I am thankful for the path that God has lead me on.
I am thankful for my friends. I seriously have the best friends ever.
I am thankful for scented bath and body works shampoo and conditioner. I love when my hair smells delicious
I am thankful for the pioneer woman and all her delicious recipes. Her and my tacos are the reason I'm still chubby.
I am thankful for laughter. Not a day goes by that all 3 of my boys are making laugh so hard I pee my pants.
I am thankful for passion. I truely couldn't imagine what my relationship with my husband would be like without it. We have been together for 8 years and still have raw passion. I believe he is my soulmate.
I am thankful for God and his faithfulness. Even in the storm I feel his undying love and compassion.

Also, as we know Gavin turned 10 months a couple weeks ago. He is still growing and learning.

He can cruise.
He loves crawling under stuff and just recently got stuck underneath our tv stand. It was quite hilarious, because he looked like the wicked witch from the west with his legs hanging out.
He is talking a lot better and uses one syllable words for things. For example he calls Maddie and all other dogs ma. He says good good, but it comes out a breathy goo goo. He says thank you but it comes out a breathy tha u.
I've noticed he's more advanced in his motor skills but lacks in his speech development compared to Jayden. At this age Jayden was putting together 2 word sentences and saying clear words. He also could point to body parts if you asked him to.
He will only eat table food and if I am not watching he will steal Jayden's food. He's already accidentally had peanut butter, chocolate, lollipops, pop, and donuts. He's my little chunky boy.
His hair is getting so long I am tempted to cut it but cant bring myself to do it until he is one. We put it into a mohawk the other day and it measzured 4 inches standing up.

Update and Gavin is now 9 months!

2009-10-10T10:24:00.000-07:00

Our whole family has been sick on and off for the last month. It started with me, then Jayden, then Gavin, then J.R., and now its back to me. It hit all of us pretty hard, so it got kinda scary for a little bit, but thankfully none us had the flu, just little viruses.

Our BIG news of the month is Jayden is FINALLY potty trained! He's doing so good with it and rarely has accidents. He even just goes on his own without telling you. The only trouble I have had with him was when my friend Kristine and her little girls stayed with us. He refused to go potty the whole time they were here. I think he was a little embarrassed. I was so happy to see my friend, she is one of my best friends and I haven't seen her since a month after Jayden was born. She moved to Tacoma, WA because her husband is in the military and that's where he was based. She has 2 little girls; Isabel will be 4 here in the next couple weeks, and Amya who will be 2 here in December.

Gavin is now 9 months old! I can't believe it, I say that every month but really thats how I feel. He cracks me up so much! He really is just a goofball. His personality is really starting to come out. He's a lot like his older brother, but definitely has the big baby thing going on. He weighed 19 pounds last week when we took him into the dr, and his legs almost dangle out of the carseat. Some of his recent accomplishments are as follows:

He can wave bye bye ( this just started yesterday)
He can sympathize with your feelings (i.e. he cries when he sees Jayden crying and laughs, when we laugh)
He can shake his head no in protest. Last night he was doing it while drinking his bottle.... I think he was trying to tell his bottle that he didnt want to go night night.
He can pull up to standing. He's my little monkey baby.
He's eating a little bit better. He loves, crackers, cookies, mac and cheese, and sweet potatoes best.

Gavin is 8 months.

2009-09-03T03:14:00.000-07:00

I can't believe Gavin is already 8 months old. This year has flown by so fast. Gavin has grown so much and I really wish he would stop. I almost don't have a baby anymore and since he's my last it makes me sad : ( He hasn't really changed much from last month. He looks very tall to me and I'm curious to see at his next dr's appointment how much he has grown.

We have gone a little backwards as far as eating goes. He refuses to eat baby food and will barely eat a 6 ounce bottle. I think it has a lot to do with his teething. His top 2 teeth came in a couple weeks ago. So along with his barely eating during the day, he is now waking at night to eat as well. Thankfully J.R. is very helpful when it comes to that so we rotate feedings and on days I work and he doesn't he takes over the whole night. Things he will eat though are mashed potatoes, malt o meal, and melted marshmellow.

He's so silly, and such a happy baby. Still not crawling on all fours, he's done the army crawl thing for a while now and I don't think he realizes there are other ways of crawling. He does try to pull up on things but from your belly thats kind of hard so he doesn't achieve much and ends up frustrated. I've been trying to come up with ideas for his first birthday. I know I still have 4 months, but with the holidays coming around the corner I will barely have time to think about it. I can't wait to dig Jayden's old lion costume out for Gavin to wear. That costume was by far the most adorable costume ever made and I am so glad I get to use it again!

Oh, also a little update with our entire family. Our house is officially on the market! Yay, pray that it sells quickly and flawlessly. I'm so ready to start the next chapter of our lives and it finally seems to be changing. Hopefully when our lease runs up, which is in August of next year, we will be able to buy another house, and be debt free minus my car payment (which is my goal, fingers crossed). Oh, and J.R. bought a Jeep Wrangler, which I was completely against at first but he's agreed to sell his bike. Plus, we went mudding a week ago and it was soooo fun, so I've warmed up a little bit. I'm trading my car in soon, think I'm getting another Jeep Grand Cherokee but we'll see. Here is a pic to leave you with (another cell phone pic).

He loves playing in the laundry basket.

Bored Beyond Sanity

2009-08-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

1. I've come to realize that, me and my family: are very, very close. I don't think there is a daughter and a mother closer than my mom and me.

2. I've come to realize that, I talk: at all the wrong times.

3. I've come to realize that, I love: brownies with chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream WAY more than I should and I could definitely cut back a bit.

4. I've come to realize that, I have: The most amazing husband in the world and I tend to forget that way too often. Oh and the cutest little boys ever made.

5. I've come to realize that, I've lost: a lot, I gave up so much to live the life I am living but I definitely gained so much more.

6. I've come to realize that, I hate how: some people only think of themselves and don't ever stop to think that the decisions they make effect the people around them.

7. I've come to realize that Marriage is: very hard! JR and I are about as compatible as it gets. We think on the same wavelink, and GET each other but even then it's still hard.

8. I've come to realize that, somewhere, someone is thinking about me and: knows that I try my hardest and do my best everyday.

9. I've come to realize that, I'll always have: my family.

10. I've come to realize, that my ex: Well I didn't really have boyfriends other than JR in highschool I just dated. So the last guy I dated passed away a couple of years ago and he was a really nice guy, and the other guy I dated around the same time is married now but he was a lying douche so that's all I have to say about that.

11. I've come to realize that, The last time I truly cried: was the day I thought that maybe we weren't going to make it.... it made me put my big girl panties on and fight harder.

12. I've come to realize that, My cell phone: will never make me happy, no matter how cool it is.

13. I've come to realize that, When I wake up in the morning: I beg God to just let me sleep all day, he just laughs and makes Gavin cry a little louder.

14. I've come to realize that, Before I go to sleep at night: is when I do ALL my planning and it usually takes me at least an hour to fall asleep.

15. I've come to realize that, Right now I am thinking about: how much I miss JR and the kids and that I would so much rather be there then here working.

16. I've come to realize that, Babies: are Pure.... they are the most enjoyable beings ever created by God. There is no love greater than the love for a baby.

17. I've come to realize that, I get on myspace: only when i am bored.

18. I've come to realize, that today: was a very lazy day, but I got to spend it with the boys so it was good.

19. I've come to realize, that tonight I will: be working all night while everyone else will be sleeping in their comfy beds.

20. I've come to realize that, school is:never ending in my life.. and VERY important to me. Nothing is more valuable than being educated. I believe everyone should get their degree.

21. I've come to realize that tomorrow I will:play with the boys, hang out with my husband, clean a little, and then go to work.

22. I've come to realize that, I really want: my house back.... We've got big plans for our future though and couldn't be more thankful for J.R.'s new job.

23. I've come to realize, that my last goodbye kiss: was short and simple and had a lot of love behind it.

24 .I've come to realize the last stupid thing i did was because: I was cranky.

25. I've come to realize that my true friends: are some of the greatest people in the world and I could not be more proud of them.

Just a Little Update

2009-08-12T02:05:00.000-07:00

Wow the last month has been a blur for us. Actually the whole summer has been a blur, and sadly can't really say it's been very enjoyable either. J.R. and I have been going through a lot. Quick recap- J.R. lost all work in January, didn't find a job until March, Was promised to start at 20 an hour and then 2 weeks into it was bumped down to 10. I didn't find a job until May, leaving me to be the primary breadwinner because I made more, we had spent our entire savings on trying to get by and never "really" getting by, and then fell behind on our mortgage 2 months. We have been talking back in forth with the bank on what to do as far as our house is concerned and now we have to list it for a quick sale. We have moved twice in the last 2 months and I am just tired. Not to mention the strain this is putting on our marriage. Whew! Done complaining, but seriously just needed to get that off my chest.

Now for the update- Gavin is 7 months old! Sorry still no pictures, really haven't cared much about getting internet so I've been putting it off.

He can "army" crawl. He can get up on all fours, but he hasn't figured out how to work his arms and legs in that position.
He has 2 teeth, which he's had for a while but he's been teething sooooo bad lately that I had to throw that in there.
He loves to "walk" if he had a personal walking assistant all day long he would be over the moon.
Can say dada, mama (only when he's upset), and good good (which means hungry). I say he can say these things but really you have to be listening to him to know what he's saying.
His favorite activities include- staring out the window watching bubba play, tearing up mommy's magazines and eating the leftovers, and chasing the dog anytime she walks by.

Jayden is getting so big that I can not even catch up with him. He could of started pre-school this year, but he is still not potty trained yet and he's already been through enough emotional distress with the moving that I decided it would be best for him to stay home. He doesn't understand why he can't go "home" and he has started calling his nana and papa's house his home. Oh and as far as the potty training goes we are just taking it day by day. I honestly dont know why they call it potty trained bc Jay KNOWS how to use the potty just fine, he just doesn't WANT to. This week though he's been showing a small amount of interest but I am not making a big deal out of it, I just want him to be happy and comfortable about it. He is such a sweet boy and I am so glad he is my son, he really brightens up my day.

As far as I go I haven't been doing much. I have been working so much that by the time I get home I do a few chores and crash. I have chose not to go back to school this semester, maybe (hopefully) next semester I will be able to resume, I can't stand not being in school. I work for OSU Medcenter and they do tuition reimbursment for certain classes so I will need to look into that since Im taking classes for Occupational Therapy. As far as J.R. goes he is doing well. He just got offered a new job with pier 51 Marina (he's a marina whore) and will start next week. We are so very thankful for this opportunity as he will be making more than twice as much as he is now and that will be a huge load off of our shoulders. I have set goals (all financial) for the family and hope that we can reach them by August of 2011. Goal #1 pay off all credit cards and close down all but 1 account. Goal #2 pay off motorcycle and barge loan. Goal # 3 have $10,000.00 saved. My goal is to be completely debt free minus my car payment and to have money saved up so we can purchase another home. Renting sucks royally and in 2 years I know we'll be able to reach our ultimate goal of buying another home. It's 5 am and time for me to get off here so I can get ready to go home, hope you all have a great day!

Gavin is 6 Months

2009-07-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

Our little man is growing so fast. He turned 6 months a couple days ago and I am starting to get sad. No more babies for me.... guess I will have a new neice or nephew to love on instead, Congrats Brooke! Gavin had a doctor's appt yesterday and he is doing so good. Dr. Murphy said he was the cutest baby she has ever seen and she just kept kissing and hugging him :) Im a bit partial but I agree.

Gavin now:

can sit up by himself (still wobbly though)

has 2 bottom teeth

rolls wherever he wants to go

can say dada

still sleeping through the night and now taking a regular 2 hour nap

can give kisses.

(Took a pic of him sitting up on his own. Used my phone and had to use the flash on my phone so the pic sucks but it's still cute. Oh and he wouldn't let me take his juice away long enough to take a pic hints why I am holding the juice.)

Wave Your Flag Cheesecake

2009-07-01T02:15:00.000-07:00

Though I can't take credit for this one I thought I would share in lieu of the 4th. I plan on making this for my family this weekend and encourage you to try as well because it looks fairly easy. Here is the link to the actual recipe if you would like.

INGREDIENTS
1 quart strawberries, divided
1 1/2 cups boiling water
2 pkg. (4 serving size) JELL-O Brand Strawberry Flavor Gelatin
Ice cubes
1 cup cold water
1 (10.75 ounce) loaf pound cake, cut into 10 slices
1 1/3 cups blueberries, divided
2 (8 ounce) packages PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 (8 ounce) tub COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed

DIRECTIONS
Slice 1 cup of the strawberries; set aside. Halve the remaining 3 cups strawberries; set aside. Stir boiling water into dry gelatin mixes in large bowl at least 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add enough ice to cold water to measure 2 cups. Add to gelatin; stir until ice is completely melted. Refrigerate 5 min. or until gelatin is slightly thickened (consistency of unbeaten egg whites).
Meanwhile, line bottom of 13x9-inch dish with cake slices. Add sliced strawberries and 1 cup of the blueberries to thickened gelatin; stir gently. Spoon over cake slices. Refrigerate 4 hours or until set.
Beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with wire whisk or electric mixer until well blended; gently stir in whipped topping. Spread over gelatin. Arrange strawberry halves on cream cheese mixture to resemble the stripes of a flag. Arrange remaining 1/3 cup blueberries on cream cheese mixture for the stars. Store any leftover dessert in refrigerator.

P.S. my mouth is watering!

Forgiveness (another long one)

2009-06-24T22:07:00.001-07:00

In the last 48 hours I have been faced with many challenges. I have hurt and been hurt by people I love and care for very much. I had been having a conversation with someone I care for but have been holding in anger for and through the conversation it made sit back and take time to really think about my life and how I have been living it. Through the last 48 hours I have learned it is time to forgive.

As many of you know I was adopted by my aunt and uncle when I was 10. I was sent to live with them when I was 4. The earliest part of my life was something that no one should ever have to endure. For the last 17 years I have held so much hate and anger for a few people and it was eating away at me. I have always told myself that I would never forgive them for what I had to endure and that if I ever got the chance I would unleash everything I had held onto for years. I had always known that I am supposed to forgive as God does but I had never considered that these people were worth forgiving.

I had I guess what you would consider a breakdown. I sobbed and sobbed uncontrollably for a while this morning. Then I decided to pick myself up and do a little meditation to clear my mind. I sat there and just cleared my mind and relaxed. The word forgiveness just kept repeating itself and finally I decided it was time to take my dusty Bible out of the closet and read. Here's what I was reminded of during my little session:

We have to forgive in order for God to forgive us. "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins." Matt 6:14-15.
I have always considered myself "saved" because I had accepted Christ as my savior and knew He had died for my sins, etc. What I never stopped to think was how He also died for "their" sins and that they are equal in His eyes. God loves all His children. No matter how awful we may think they are, He loves and understands.
I do not want to hold this anger and hate, it is exhausting and tiring.
They will have their judgement day and if they have accepted Christ by then and repented, good for them. I now know my slate is wiped clean and I can live each day with a genuine smile on my face and a heart full of love.

Speaking of love, JR and I are doing really good. We have been working as a team really well. We have always effortlessly worked well with each other but the last few months the financial and emotional stress had been completely taking over our relationship. I stumbled across this website and it was talking about falling back in love when your marriage has suffered a blow. The website had this exercise to do to make you put a conscious effort into complimenting each other and it turned out to be really cute. You think of 10 qualities that led you to fall in love with your spouse and then share the list with them. I encourage everyone to do it, it's really cute and you'll get a sweet kiss for it! (from your spouse duh, not me! ;)) Anyway here was my list:

he is a hard worker- everyday he is either working to provide for his family or doing things around the house so that I will have a little less to do that day.
he is hilarious- not one day goes by that he does not make me laugh.
he is sensitive- he gets his feelings hurt real easily but it shows that he cares.
but has a bad boy side- he likes to have a little fun and do things that are "dangerous" which means he lives a little and lets me live a little as well.
he is thoughtful- sometimes he comes home with some walmart flowers. They are just cheap flowers but it shows he was thinking about me. I especially love it when he's a work and he makes me things out of scrap stuff he was using. He once welded me some beautiful roses.
he is not cocky- I think he is really good looking and strong but he doesn't act like all the other guys who are good looking and strong ;)
he is "dirty"- I know my family members dont care to hear this but it's on my list so too bad. He is grabby I guess you could say. Mostly it can get annoying but it makes me feel sexy to know 7 years and 2 kids later he still looks at me that way.
he is tender- he is very gentle with the way he handles me. when he touches me he does it in a very soft and gentle way, like he fears he will break me.
he doesn't take my crap- he is about the only person that knows how to handle me when I get rowdy. He tends to take everyone elses crap but not mine....hmmm.
he is too trusting- I love and hate this quality. I love that he sees so much good in this world that he is trusting of people's word. Hate that people take advantage of that so much.

lol i dont even know what to put anymore.....

2009-06-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

I dont even know where to begin. Too many changes have been taking place. We rented out our house in Tulsa and the couple seem pretty sweet. They are around J.R.'s age and are expecting a baby. We moved to Cleveland to the Cedar Creek apartments (blah!), but it's only for 6 months so hopefully by then we will find a house for rent or figure something else out. Jayden is having an overall bad experience, first mommy goes to work full time which really I only miss one day a week with him because I work overnights but he doesn't like it none the less. Secondly, he doesn't like the fact that we moved. He was excited at first, but now he keeps saying, "I want to go home!" Poor guy. Gavin doesn't seem to mind or notice, he's too little.

Gavin by the way is becoming quite the big boy! I had him sitting up on his own for a whole 2 minutes yesterday. He also figured out that he can roll to get places, so he rolls all over the place, I left him in his room for a few minutes last night and found him under his crib when I came back :) He also started eating baby food early per dr's orders because he wasn't satisfied w/ just formula anymore and he now eats 2 jars a day.

J.R. and I have been having our moments, this has been really tough on our family and we've been having a hard time supporting each other like we should. The stress has been insane and sometimes I just want to run and not look back, but I am working on it and we are working on it. I would be stupid to just give up now and let everything we have ever worked for just go down the drain. Everyone thinks that we are young and stupid and really I am just tired of being treated that way. I may be young but I don't act my age. I had to grow up faster than most people and I learned real quick. Also I am tired of my intellect being questioned, I am well educated and it's very frustrating. That said J.R. and I love each other very much and we know we will pull through.

On another note, the 4th of July is coming up and I am getting excited! The 4th has always been one of my favorite holidays, not sure if its because I LOVE fireworks or because my Uncle Bruce always grills and it's sooooo good but either way. I love that Jayden is getting older and funner so I can have fun too. and on a sad note, until we figure out what internet service we are going to use there will be no pics to post unless I take some with my phone. Have a great weekend and if I dont post beforehand have a great holiday!

It just keeps getting better.

2009-06-08T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well keep praying for us. We found another house in Cleveland that is the same price as the one below but better looking and from the pics it looks like we wont have to do as much work. We are going to view it Wednesday and hopefully this will be the house! We still got a lot to do with financing but I feel confident, plus I just raised J.R. and mine's credit scores 100 points! So proud of myself lol! Here's a pic of the new house....

Now

2009-06-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well even more has happened since the last post. We decided to scratch the mobile home idea and are just going either rent a house in Cleveland or buy this house. We are dealing with the banks right now and since our home we own now is an FHA loan and we cant own 2 houses with that, we are are trying to refinance and take out a mortgage, and find renters and get moved out all at the same time. HEADACHE pretty much somes it up. Oh and J.R. totaled his truck Wednesday morning. He hurt his shoulder but he's ok other than that. The house we are thinking about buying will need remoldeling, but we are buying it for half of what our 1st house cost and it has A LOT of potential.

The Last Few Weeks......(warning long post)

2009-06-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

Man a lot has happened I can barely even breathe. Well first off there was Jayden's birthday. We went to Whiteside park because that's our weekly hangout spot and Jayden loves it. He had a spongebob cake and got lots of cool presents.

3 years old and still hates the birthday song!

J.R. was swinging the boys around and I got a cool pic of Hayden.

Then J.R. had a birthday. We didn't do much, I just made dinner and had a nice quiet evening alone.

Lol, now I know why I married him!

Then our anniversary was yesterday, but we both completely forgot because we've been packing. Yup that's right I said packing. I started my job at the middle of May and we made the decision to move to Cleveland. Yes, I said it right we are moving to Cleveland. Robin is taking over our house and renting it out for some money. And we are buying ourselves a singlewide and moving it out to our land. We are planning on building ourselves a house and hoping to do a majority of it without having to finance, so it will take a few years. Or at our pace 50. So the last week I have been cleaning, feeding, packing, and listening to my hubby bounce around the house singing, "I live at home in a trailer..." Here's a few pics of the one we picked out (it really is the nicest single wide I have ever seen!).

See I told you!

Oh and also Gavin is about to turn 5 months! He can roll all over the place, I predict he'll be crawling by 6 months. He wants so bad to get up and play with big brother. He is still just as sweet and perfect as ever. Oh, and we have already started him on baby food. Fat boy isn't satisfied with just milk anymore. I'll post a pic of him later though...

Gavin is 4 months!

2009-05-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

Gavin turned 4 months last week. It seems to be going by WAY to fast! It makes me sad but oh wells....
Some facts about Gavin:
He weighs 15 pounds and 10 ounces.
He can now play with toys.
He is not to be left on the couch alone because he can roll over both ways and push himself with his feet.
He HATES cereal, and refuses to eat it. However, he loves malt-o-meal and has not had a problem digesting it.

He's started teething

The cutest almost 3 year old alive.

Recipe of the Week...

2009-05-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Cheeseburger Macaroni
This one is soooo easy and velveeta has their own version but this is J.R.'s version:

2 boxes of velveeta shells and cheese
1 pound of hamburger meat
green onions
ketchup
3 tbsp sour cream
mustard

slice as many green onions you would like (the more the tastier!). Cook the onions with the hamburger meat. We put seasoning salt and pepper on the meat for flavor. While cooking meat cook the pasta (we only use 1/2 of the second box of noodles bc its cheesier that way). Once everything is done you could drain the meat before adding it to the cooked noodles but over here we LOVE fattening stuff so we DONT! Add the cheese from both boxes and mix well. Spray ketchup and mustard (as much as you would like) over the top and mix well. Then add the sour cream and mix well. Serve and enjoy! ( When I get more organized... ha like that will ever happen.... I will start adding pics of the recipes).

Creamy Chicken Alfredo

2009-04-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

I have decided once a week that I will post a new recipe. No reason, just thought it woul be fun. And if you have any favs to share feel free!

Creamy Chicken Alfredo:
Sauce:
3-4 tbsp butter
1 pint heavy whipping cream
1/2 c. milk
3 tbsp cream cheese
2 pkg. shredded parmesan cheese
1 tbsp garlic salt
salt and pepper to taste

melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic salt. Add heavy whipping cream and let warm 1 min, stirring occasionally. Add milk let warm while stirring. Add cream cheese and let melt, continue stirring occasionally. Stir in parmesan cheese. Simmer while stirring frequently for about 20 min or until cheese is melted completely. Add salt and a generous amount of pepper. Pour over cooked pasta of your choice (I use penne).

Hint: For the chicken we season it with lemon pepper seasoning and grill it, or you can heat a tbsp of olive oil cut chicken into 1 inch pieces lightly flour and cook till done.

Happy Easter...

2009-04-12T08:51:00.000-07:00

"And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." Romans 8:11 NIV
I hope everyone has a wonderful day! Jayden sure had fun this morning hunting for his easter basket and hunting eggs. I will post pics later when I have time to.

So Remember When....

2009-04-10T11:46:00.000-07:00

.... I said I think Gavin will be rolling over in about a week on my last post. Well, I was right! He first did it Tuesday and it scared him to death! He started to do it again today and now he wont stop! So much for tummy time!

Gavin is 3 months!

2009-04-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's already been 12 weeks since little man came into this world. He has grown so much and is definitely out of the newborn stage. Here's just a list of all the things he can already do:

He can hold his head up very well.
He LOVES tummy time and already "scoots" all over the blanket. I predict in about a week he'll be rolling over.
He is smiling, laughing, cooing, and making the razzing sounds. He loves talking to people.
At his 2 month check up he weighed 12 lbs 13 oz. and was 26 inches long, so little man is growing like a chunky weed!
Oh and most importantly (to me, at least!) he is sleeping through the night and sometimes sleeps till 9 in the morning!

Meet Eian and Tyler

2009-03-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

I started watching a couple boys this week so i could bring in some money and still be home with the boys. It's been a long week and I am EXHAUSTED. Eian is 5 and Tyler is 2. Any tips on how to make these boys all get along?

old photo touched up

2009-03-13T19:54:00.000-07:00

This is a pic I just posted a few days ago but I just touched it up and I LOVE the way Gavin's eyes just pop. I love how they're blue now, but I know they will probably turn sooner or later. Oh by the way say a little prayer for the little guy, he got his shots today and has been sick all evening.

His Father's Son

2009-03-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

I let Jayden dress himself today because I've been busy around the house and didn't feel like fighting him. The result looked much like his father would have dressed himself as a child:

2 Months

2009-03-06T08:51:00.000-08:00

Gavin turned 2 months today. Time is going by so fast and he is getting so big!

Why I Will Miss the Terrible Two's....

2009-03-04T10:49:00.000-08:00

Let me start off first by saying I am sooo ready for this stage to be over because my child DEFINES terrible two's but there are a few things I will miss....

His silliness,
his sweetness,

his messiness,
(Yes, that's Gavin in the background)

his innocence, and.....

his nudiness!

(he does this everyday after his bath!)

Coolest Mom Ever...

2009-03-01T18:44:00.000-08:00

Yup I have been dubbed by my son as the coolest mom ever. Conversation:
(opens the fridge door)
J: Wow, there's Elmo juice!
M: Yeah!
J: Did you buy me this Elmo juice?
M: Yes I did!
J: Wow! Thanks buddy!
M: You're very welcome, buddy!
J: You're the coolest mom ever!
M: Thanks Jayden that's very sweet.

He's a little biased and easily pleased, but for now I'm the coolest mom ever!

Bath Time

2009-02-23T08:19:00.000-08:00

I love bath pics of babies, and Gavin loves his bath because he knows it's bedtime immediately afterwards.....

Tatted Up...

2009-02-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

This whole week both of the boys have had a little cold. Gavin's was minor and he is pretty much over it, but Jayden's keeps lingering and seems to be getting a little worse. He has resorted to only eating old faithful.... hot dogs and ketchup. He also decided to be like daddy and get a lot of tattoo's.

We finally got our new table in! Yay we have 4 chairs again and the table was cheap which makes me even happier!

4 Weeks Old

2009-02-06T08:42:00.000-08:00

Gavin is growing so fast! We tried a little bumbo time this morning but poor guy is not ready....

Having trouble holding his head up...

A little better....

Awww... much better!

A little ice storm fun

2009-01-28T11:19:00.001-08:00

Jayden sized snow man

I'm So Blessed....

2009-01-24T13:26:00.000-08:00

...With a baby who sleeps like his daddy. Jayden has always been so hard to put to sleep. He never learned how to soothe himself so everytime he goes to bed someone has to lay down with him until he falls asleep. Not Gavin! He can be wide awake when you lay him in his bed and he's out in minutes with no complaints. And... he can sleep through all of Jayden's chaos, so I Praise Him for blessing me with such an easy going baby. I would probably lose it if he was any harder to care for.

Brotherly Love

2009-01-21T11:08:00.000-08:00

Jayden had a real hard time adjusting to a new baby being in the house. He threw awful fits and said really mean and hurtful things to everyone for about a week. He's doing much better now, and really loves helping with baby brother. Everyday he likes to hold Gavin and watch Barney with him. It's pretty cute...

Baby Gavin

2009-01-12T14:16:00.000-08:00

He's here.... Arrived January 9th, 2009 at 2:11 a.m. weighing 7lbs and 6oz, 20in. long. As most have already read on Brooke's blog J.R. barely made it for the delivery as his arrival was very unexpected and J.R. was working in Arkansas. They were literally rolling me into the room when he arrived. I can not tell you how thankful I am that he made it for the birth.

The Reason I Smile Everyday

2009-01-05T07:04:00.001-08:00

Just got the CD back from Jennifer's shoot and she had a lot of good pictures of Jayden. I thought I would share a few of my favorites.....

Christmas Morning

2008-12-26T16:50:00.001-08:00

My camera decided that it wasn't going to work Christmas morning so about 3/4's into opening presents it finally started semi working, though a lot of pics were blurry. Jayden was real excited that Santa ate his cookies and insisted that Santa needed more because he was hungry. It was a good morning and so thankful we had the time to spend together.

Seeing Santa's present for the first time

Riding his horse

Christmas with the Balocca's

2008-12-26T16:44:00.001-08:00

Every Christmas Eve my side of the family goes over to my aunt and uncle's house to do dinner and a gift exchange. I still wasn't feeling well so these were the only pics I got.

Jayden's cousin Tiara. He's closer to her little sister's age, but they do not get along very well. There was a lot of fighting that evening.

Christmas with the Burger's

2008-12-26T16:39:00.001-08:00

I wasn't feeling very well when we went over to J.R.'s mom's for Christmas and didn't take any pics. I stole these from Brooke's flickr so I could show you what fun we had.

J.R. and I's presents to each other...

2008-12-26T16:32:00.000-08:00

We decided to do our gift exchange for each other the weekend before Christmas because we get Saturday nights alone together. J.R. has been wanting a flat screen for the bedroom for a very long time so that's what I got him and he got me a Coach diaper bag; which I've been wanting since Jayden was born and a really pretty necklace from Helzberg (not pictured). These were just our big gifts to each other. I can honestly say I got really spoiled this Christmas!

I love it!

Getting Ready for Christmas

2008-12-22T20:55:00.000-08:00

J.R. and I thought it would be a fun idea for Jayden to decorate gingerbread men and make "Santa's" cookies this year. Here's a couple pics....

Jayden's 1st gingerbread man
Hard at work

Cookies he made with mommy

I thought I would throw in a pic of the tree, it's so gorgeous and I couldn't get a picture to justify it!

Silently Weeping

2008-12-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

Coleman lost his battle last night with his illness. He was so young and I can only imagine the pain that Jordan and his family are enduring right now! This time of year is hard anyway remembering the loss of Randy. Being strong for J.R. has its challenges when I feel like I can only cry myself. Seeing all the things he has had to endure in the past year can make me bitter at times. I feel my own heart along with his holds a lot of anger and pain. Being married and having children have made me face a lot of demons from my past and in some ways it has been therapeutic and in others it has been disturbing. I fight so many emotions deep inside that I know I shouldn't be feeling. At this very moment I should be holding a precious baby that we lost back in April. Our little one was due Christmas day, but since I have to have a c-section we would already be holding our little boy or girl. I know we will get to have our precious Gavin here in a month but I still hurt for the baby that never was. J.R. has his own very set of issues that turning to him just isn't possible right now. He holds a lot of anger and pain. I always try to deter that anger but I am at a time in my life that I can only understand and only feel compassion. I want to tell him to stop and I do most of the time, but his actions are what he is feeling and I feel its best to be expressed the way that they are being expressed instead of physically like he wants. I am so sick of people taking advantage of his kindness that I literally could do the same things as him sometimes. The past year alone he has hooked several people up with jobs that they themselves would have never gotten. In turn one person relapsed and chose drugs over his friendship and loyalty, one person always calls in sick and halfheartedly gives a damn (excuse my language), and one person snuck behind his back and made up all kinds of lies and stories about J.R. ultimately causing J.R. himself to lose his job. That person then took over J.R.'s position only to fail at what he was doing. J.R. has lost a few friends the past year due to this situation and due to immaturity on their parts, he lost a baby and suffers silently just like I do, he works a job that causes him to be away from his family for a majority of the month, and he deals with jerks on a daily basis, he works ridiculus hours to support his family and put me through college, and he has become sort of the backbone for his entire family. Anytime anything needs to be done for anyone, he does it without a question. He loves his family and wouldn't want it any other way but no one but me sees the struggles he goes through. He's sick of seeing people he loves and cares about getiing hurt and it's wearing him out. He comes home so tired from all the stress of life and work that he can barely keep his eyes open. It's not fair to Jayden, who never gets to play with him because he can barely keep his head up. It's not fair to me to be the only one raising Jayden and to not have a husband because he can't even give up enough energy to give me that time. J.R. actually loves spending time with us, and I actually love my husband. It's something that we both sacrifice to spend our lives together. And I am SICK of people calling him the bad guy and looking at him like he needs to grow up and get his heart right. His heart is right, but he sure is angry and I don't blame him one bit, he deserves to be angry for a little bit. So, no I am not ashamed of my husband or his actions, I love him for everything he does and I stand by him through and through! I dont want any comments on this post, i dont want any phone calls, or text messages either. I just want you to read and understand why my husband and I have been feeling the way we do lately.

Urgent Prayer Request

2008-12-15T02:49:00.000-08:00

A friend that I went to high school with a couple years ago has currently been diagnosed with acute leukemia. He was serving in Iraq at the time and him and his family really need your prayer. For anyone who knows Coleman, also knows that he really is a great guy to be around. He is funnier than anyone that I have ever met and even though it's been a couple years since I have last seen him, he regularly becomes a part of conversation between friends and me because the way he has touched our hearts. His liver is failing and things aren't looking good. Please pray that God will heal his body and please be with his family as they are going through this tough time. Please visit Coleman's blog for more information on his condition. Thanks~

Gavin's Nursery

2008-12-11T08:53:00.001-08:00

We finally finished the nursery. We have everything thing we need except a few little things. Now all J.R. has to finish is the garage conversion and painting the living room....

My Little Cowboy

2008-11-24T14:28:00.000-08:00

Jayden is obsessed with any and all things to do with being a cowboy. He loves to pretend to ride horses so daddy turned his punching bag into a makeshift horse:

Pregnancy shoot part 1 (Jennifer Voss Photography)

2008-11-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

We have decided to do a 2 part session because getting JR to be there with his schedule is so hard, so here is part 1 (this was just my preview):

There are a lot more that I love, but I just wanted to share a couple and I had to throw that one of Jayden in there because it's just too cute to not share!

The Burger Place

2008-11-03T11:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we all went over to the old house for family pictures and I decided to take a few of Jayden and Daddy playing.... (Sorry there's a lot but couldn't narrow it down)

Halloween

2008-10-31T19:03:00.000-07:00

Jayden dressed up as a pirate and Maddie was a ballerina. He really liked the whole concept of getting candy for saying trick or treat!

Does anyone notice all the orbs on these pictures... kinda creepy!

Birthday Flowers

2008-10-31T07:51:00.001-07:00

For my Birthday I got a new camera because my old one was broken by Jayden. I didn't expect anything else from my hubby so I was quite suprised when I came home to these....

I think they are beautiful. I love coming home to flowers it just makes you feel special.

Carving pumpkins

2008-10-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

I got my new camera and love it. Jayden and J.R. carved pumpkins last night and here's a few pics of the event....
We have a daddy pumpkin, Jayden pumpkin, and Gavin pumpkin

Jayden with his pumpkin

baby update:
I went in for my ultrasound last Wednesday and it looks like we are having another big boy! Gavin already weighs 3 pounds and all his measurements were measuring 28 weeks and 3 days (I was 26 weeks and 6 days at the ultrasound). The ultrasound tech put my due date at January 11th. I go to the dr tomorrow to find out what that means as far as scheduling my c-section date. I was hooked up to a fetal monitor last Saturday due to the fender bender I was in Friday night and the dr there said he is as healthy as could be.

I am still alive.... barely

2008-10-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

It's been forever since I have been on here. I mainly started this blog so I could have a place to post pics of Jayden during everyday life and to journal this pregnancy. Well, Jayden broke my camera and I haven't enjoyed this pregnancy too much so there hasn't been much to say, lol. I do check on Brooke's blog occasionally to see pictures of sweet Sophie since we never get out of the house much to see anyone. I will be getting a new camera sometime this month for my birthday so maybe I will start posting more.
Update on Jayden:
He is definitely in the "terrible two's" stage. I seriously feel like I'm either threatening, spanking, or sending him to his room all day long! He is growing so much and becoming very smart. Though this stage is supposed to be terrible I enjoy being able to hold a conversation with him and not feel like I'm talking to a brick wall. His personality is becoming all to evident as well and he really is a dramatic kid. J.R. and I both are pretty dramatic ourselves so it was bound to happen.
Update on J.R.:
He has decided to continue with his dad's business and I could not begin to discuss how much God has blessed us with this opportunity. For once we feel financially secure and have finally been able to pay off the debt that has been haunting us since day 1 of our marriage. We finally have been able to focus some more of our attention on each other instead of our stress and it has been refreshing. I think when you are able to do that you remember why you fell in love with that person in the first place.
Update on me:
I finally was able to quit my job and focus solely on school. I am just taking one class this semester and will be taking a break next semester. I will finally be able to enroll in the program I will be studying next school year and will be done with my associates then. I am doing occupational therapy assistant and have decided when the boys are in middle school I will go back and finish my bachelors. I'm really excited about the way this is all planning out.
Update on baby Gavin:
Yep if you haven't heard by now, It's a boy! We plan on naming him Randy Gavin and he will go by the name Gavin. In an effort to save money I have switched over to the Indian hospital. A couple weeks ago was my 1st appointment there and Gavin was measring 4 weeks ahead of schedule. The dr was concerned about it so I got the pleasure of taking my glucose test a month early. We haven't got the results back yet but I have another appointment this Friday so I should have the results then. I'm not too concerned about it Jayden was a big baby and Gavin feels even bigger, plus I haven't gained near as much weight with this one as I did Jayden so thats good for me! We also bought all the stuff we need for Gavin's room, so now all we have to do is put it together. J.R. is in the process of sanding the floors and he should be able to stain them by tomorrow and then by this weekend we can start putting things together. Now, the only things we need are a carseat, double stroller, and the little things like clothes and diapers. Also, on a good note the migraines have seemed to stop and I have been feeling better.
So, that's been our life lately, I will probably be updating again around Halloween since I should have my camera by then!