These Are The Days

Sunday, January 15, 2012

An average evening with Mimi and Pop

Grayson and I go over to my parents' house several times a week for dinner while Beau is out of town. Simply put, we are beyond blessed to have them so close by. They are my sanity, my calm, my humor, my adult conversation during the week when it's just G and me. I don't know what I'd do without them!

I followed the 3 of them around the house the other night with my iphone camera in hand and snapped away. Grayson is a happy kid but nothing compares to his delight when he is over at their house! They always have adventures whether it's cooking dinner, feeding the ducks on the golf course or, as I recently learned, turning off the lights and playing with flash lights!

Watching the ducks while playing with his tongs

Patiently awaiting Pop's next cooking project

What's taking him so long, Mimi?

Making homemade french fries!

Bath time!

Wrestling with Pop - right before he put his foot on Pop's throat. :D

Brushing his teeth is still fun

Same teeth, different toothbrush

I had no idea they do this! Everyone climbs in bed, lights off
and they play with flash lights. He LOVES this!

We usually do bath and PJ time at home for the sake of his routine but this was an especially fun night when we wanted to stay longer at their house. Thank you Mimi and Pop for being so good to us! You make the days that Beau is away much more bearable!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Resemblance? or Resemblance!

Back in the day (2009), Beau's Mom gave us these pictures from Beau's childhood to use in the slideshow at our rehearsal dinner. I love these pictures even more now since Beau and I created someone that looks just like him.

For Christmas this year, Beau's Mom gave Grayson the cutest striped overalls that look just like the ones Beau used to have! I had to snap some photos to see if there is a resemblance like I thought there would be....

They're still a little big so the strap came undone...

I don't think he looks as much like Beau in these pictures as I have always thought he does?! We still always hear that he's a Little Beau and I know that he looks just like him but I expected to see a mirror image in these pictures but just don't see it. It doesn't help that Grayson's hair is a mess. Here are some other comparison pics - you be the judge...

Ahhh, Beau fell asleep in his spaghetti... :)

They look identical while sleeping, I think!

Baby Beauby

Baby Grayson

Aagghh, Baby Stacey makes an appearance!

There's a resemblance, people! He's a Little Stacey!

I hope all my babies look like Beau Reynolds! And since he swears we're having enough kids for our own baseball team, we should have plenty of opportunities to have Little Beaus running around :)

Monday, January 9, 2012

Our Weekend

We had a pretty eventful weekend. Nothing life-changing but pretty entertaining ;)

Friday - My friend/former Account Executive was in town from Houston to see friends and wanted to spend the day with me and see Grayson. I felt SO cool that she set aside an entire day for her "Housewife Friend" - ha! ;) Ashley is mid-20s, uber-fabulous and you can always guarantee a fantastic time with her! Beau watched G while I drove down to Dallas to pick her up. After an adventurous drive around the metroplex with a Pomeranian (long story), we landed on the Breadwinners patio with a glass of wine for lunch. Gorgeous 71 degree, sunny weather - I miss patio time with her! We used to do it on a regular basis after work and pre-Grayson. I took her back to our house to visit with Grayson and then we headed to Razor, our old agency to visit with our co-workers from back in the day. I just LOVED seeing everyone and being back there. I miss the (good) memories of that place!

This is a Pomeranian, right? He only drew blood
on one person, which is apparently a successful day.

Friday night Beau, Grayson and I went to Lori's house for a wine night with EZ, another former Razor-ite. Beau and Allan kept the babies in the other room so that we could chat :D LOVED talking with them and only wish I could have stayed longer. Mother-duty calls though.

Saturday and Sunday were full of running errands for the DIY drapes in the nautical room and I'm happy to report that they are complete! Only after a LOT of problem solving, many trips to various stores, 2 sewing machines for the NO SEW curtains (sigh) and 1 toddler PEEING on them! I WISH I had video. Or pictures. But alas, nothing. There was too much activity to capture it all.

I have so much "been there, done that" advice to give regarding this project but no energy right now. I plan to document the steps (and I have much better pictures than these) just in case anyone is thinking about doing striped drapes. Creating stripes isn't your typical DIY curtains so I want to share b/c hind sight is always 20/20 and it could have been so much easier! That will happen some day that isn't today. :) In the meantime...

Shopping for material on Sat. left us empty-handed;
ALL stripes we found were too skinny and vertical
instead of horizontal like I wanted.

The easiest and cheapest part: shopping for the rope tie-backs.
Beau talked me out of white so that it would look
more realistic. Whatevs.

Beau ended up doing 98% of the work! I really
didn't expect that to happen but glad it did b/c
they would have gone in the trash if it was up to me.

My 91 y.o. grandmother's sewing machine.
Beau reading "The Woman's Guide to Everything Sewing"
was HILARIOUS. ;)

Our new sewing machine when we realized the
60 year old machine wasn't going to work.

Complete! An iPhone picture but a sneak peak nonetheless.
Better pics to come.

Look at those cheeks! It looks like lipstick but after
a quick inquiry determined that it was either
chapped cheeks from the cold weather (he played in the backyard
ALL day) or a food allergy from raspberries. Time will tell.

Buddies hangin' out while we made dinner.
Salmon and asparagus - Grayson can not get
enough of this dish - hope that lasts. :)

Happy 18 months, Grayson!

Grayson, you had your 18 month check up a few days before Christmas and you are....

35 inches tall

28 lbs

19.5 inch head - (still don't know why they measure this or why it matters)

Mimi, come get me NOW! Crazy talk about shots
up in here!

In a 6 1/2 W shoe

in 24mo & 2T tops - still in 18-24mo bottoms

Still in size 4 diapers

We have had a couple of big changes in your growing up that I want to share!

First, you are officially down to 1 nap! Getting on the same schedule as the rest of our friends has been a big deal for me! The unpredictability of 2 naps, sometimes 1, had us canceling and missing a lot of events, play dates, church, etc. It feels good to have a routine with my big boy!

And second, this past week, w/o 1/2/12, you successfully and permanently weaned off the pacifier! I feel so free! It was surprisingly easy and I realized it was ME that was much more dependent on it than you. :) I didn't expect this but it has actually been a huge relief not being dependent on those things, panicking when I couldn't find one, and you even seem to feel more free without being addicted to it! The best part, besides not having to make sure we ALWAYS have one near by, is that you don't immediately cry in the middle of the night or in the morning like you used to when you would realize you didn't have it. You now soothe yourself in the crib and the babbling and talking you now do when you first wake up is a JOY to listen to! It's pretty funny actually. :) It also gives me more time to wake up vs. the screaming you used to do when you realized you dropped your paci out of your crib (sigh). I can't believe we didn't do this 6 months ago!

No more of this! Well, we still love the tongs.

You get what we are saying! You now answer yes and no to our questions. Blows my mind that we can now communicate with that little baby that once came out of my belly. You're a little adult already!

Music! You dance and sing more and more. Your Dad taught you about singing when he was home this past 2 weeks. Singing around the house, making up funny songs, singing you to sleep and watching you join along was so funny! Your dancing is AWESOME but I have yet to get it on video. Here is a video of your Dad teaching you the drums. With a storage bin and my kitchen utensils, of course! :)

You love stacking things. I love watching the random things you will come up with to put into your tower. :)

This is a plastic pitcher with a sippy cup in it, a Christmas
gift box and a spatula. Makes perfect sense.

Passive agressive! ;) Maybe that's not the best term but you will specifically NOT do something we want you to do when the camera is on! Here's a great example ;)

So curious! You want to know about EVERYTHING we are doing and be involved in it all! You are the biggest helper b/c of this. You feed the dogs, unload the dryer, want to help us cook but you know to stand back when the oven or knives are involved (I love how you are learning!)

Watching the ducks and/or golfers at Mimi's house

Best buds

You just adore being outside and never complain about the weather. Most of the time, I think it's too cold out there but you don't seem to notice. You just HAVE to be let out in the backyard and are completely content with your world when exploring out there.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Things I Love Thursday

This gorgeous Spring weather!

This short week - Beau comes home today! He just left Tuesday ;)

My friends. Good girl time last night, support from others that have reached out recently, a fun play date with our play group this morning and amazing neighbors. Even the ones I don't talk to every day or week, I am just so grateful for all of the girls in my life!

This time. Just when I want to scream because Grayson won't sleep, I have to remember that this age is flying by and pretty soon I won't get to cuddle him like this. Or sniff up all that Grayson baby hair. And let's be honest, this is the ONLY time he sits still long enough to cuddle with me. :)

My new lamps! What a RUSH it is to take a discounted item to the register to find out it has been further reduced!! Originally $80 each, thought I was getting them at $46 to only find out they were $30 a piece! Pottery Barn scored major points with me yesterday!

So much prettier in person. Trust.

I LOVE this tush. I want to start a blog just about this bum. But I don't want him to hate me when he's older. Well on that subject, it would be awkward to blog about it when he IS older.

A new coffee experience. My new mugs have become even more exciting to use in the mornings now that we have found a coffee that we both love. Dunkin Donuts flavored coffee is the new smell in our house. I will always love the convenience of the Starbucks Via but nothing can replace that fresh brewed coffee smell in the mornings :) The coffee maker was brought back out and dusted off for this stuff. It even converted my formerly-coffee-free husband to being an addicted coffee drinker like me. Welcome to the dark side, honey!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

5 Life-Changing Goals for 2012

I'm down to 5 from 11 in 2011 - yes it may seem that way. But seeing how I averaged about 5 successes last year and only thought of my Goal List about that same # of times throughout the year, I thought I'd slim it down and really focus on my list. I have ideas swirling that I want to jot but as they say in the advertising world, these are my 5 "Big Ideas":

365 Days of Declutter.
I haven't proactively done ANYTHING in my life for 365 consecutive days. Besides eat, sleep and go to the bathroom, which are only for survival reasons. This link, which I just decided to do in about 30 seconds, is my new best friend. I'm already 2 days behind. Chop, chop.

Become pregnant.

I mean, really. I'm tired of being asked, joked with, or whatever. Yes, we're trying and no, it's not happening as quickly as we'd like. 7 months of trying to be exact. I'm frustrated and disappointed. People, what does it say when five couples get together (each has one child) and FOUR of the FIVE women are having trouble having a second baby. You caught me on a bad day, sorry. Anytime I even attempt to get sad about this I just think if we only had Grayson forever, that we have already been so richly blessed and been given more than I could have ever hoped for. If we are meant to have more babies then all in God's time for sure.

Become a better cook.

Y'ALL. I'm the daughter of the 1969 recipient of the Betty Crocker Homemaker of Tomorrow Award. There are NO EXCUSES. I always have a frozen pizza in the fridge as a backup and more times than I'd like to admit, we use it. I should be a pizza-back-up-free cook!

Be a better friend/family member.

I feel like I'm a thoughtful person but I definitely don't show it. For example, I can know that a friend has a big test or interview coming up or a birthday party that I can't attend and I think about them a lot but I don't let them know that I'm thinking of them. Nor do I follow up to see how things went. That's just not thoughtful. I also show up places empty-handed a lot. I hate that. I always think about it ON THE WAY to someone's house. On Christmas night. When stores are closed. (sorry Aunt Gayle :( ) I think this is all a matter of being more organized in my planning and keeping a better calendar of events/birthdays/special moments in OTHER people's lives - not just my own. Then training myself to look ahead at the events on the calendar for the next few weeks. My sister Andrea dominates in the Thoughtful Department. Sometimes we get a letter IN THE MAIL just to say hello. And she always brings hostess gifts. W.W.A.D fo sho.

Savings, savings, savings!

When I think about how many things we need to save for, I want to hyperventilate. Retirement, college(s), a new home, a new car, 4 new tires, home repairs, a new baby, another new baby (I mean someday), another new car, all of the trips we want to take...blah blah blah! We have sworn that we will pay cash up front for our next new car. And since we are so close to having 0 car payments, there is no reason that we can't set aside that money every month for the next one. Or both! And we are starting to stir more than ever about moving (staying in Frisco of course). I never thought we'd get so restless so quickly but it's a good thing b/c it's definitely making us adjust things to start saving for such an expensive decision! Not just the house but the MOVING. Anyway, if we had a different account for each major purchase or goal, we'd have like 35 accounts. My cup of anxiety runneth over. I wish my cup of savings account would too ;) So, 2012 is the year to grow!

Sunday, January 1, 2012

A Rockenbach, TX New Years Eve!

Beau and I started the day with a trip out to North Richland Hills for a baby shower for our dear friends, the McAllisters! They are having a miracle baby boy and we are so, so, so happy for them! Katie was told that she wouldn't be able to have children due to her battle with cancer (she has been in remission for 2 years now!). She was even told as recently as March by a Fertility Specialist. The reality of not being able to have children was slowly setting in through some really depressing months when she found out she is pregnant and due on April 18th, our wedding anniversary!

The Rockenbachs had a party for the families this year! Ken made lasagna from scratch and it was amazing. But everything Ken makes is amazing! The rest of the time was a ball and should be told in pictures...