Standing!

It's a big day at our house.  This cutie patootie is now standing up on his own!!

He actually started a few days ago, but I thought it was a freak accident.  I looked down at him and saw him standing, but thought my eyes were deceiving me.  Then I got a cute video that I put on FB and after that, he couldn't go back!

Last night he did NOT want to go to bed...instead he wanted to practice standing up and playing.  So we let him.  He had the best time.  No one to dominate his toys since H was already in bed.

And today we are standing some more.  I tried to capture him in those first moments but instead he just looks...awkward.  He has taken only one nap today because life is too interesting now.

I love seeing his little body standing up.  I actually thought this day would never come (joking, kind of...).  I know no one crawls into their kindergarten class but he was taking his time in showing any interest. I have a feeling this character trait of his may frustrate me for many more years...

Lately...

Despite all the birthday shenanigans, other things have been going on.

I've lost a total of 16 lbs on weight watchers...

Next time I'll do my hair and maybe put on makeup before taking a picture.  Geez.

Jace has a mouth full of teeth - 8 total!

The boil is slowly fading...

And we have gotten more winter snow...

which resulted in a snow day at home!  

A Week of Presents

I have been majorly spoiled this last week.  Starting on Sunday, Justin gave me a present every day leading up to my birthday!  It was a wonderful surprise and it was fun to see a random present at different places!

On Sunday, he gave me these:

The author goes to our church and her oldest daughter is actually 3 days younger than H...I've been wanting a chance to go to her book signings but it hasn't worked out...so voila!  Justin works his magic and gets them for me.

Monday, these were on the table.

Tuesday night was my family party and he brought this:

 Haylie actually spilled the beans on this one.  They went shopping one night and when they came back she said, "Mommy, we got you a present. It's a purse.  But I didn't tell you."

Wednesday, I got a note on the mirror - I guess I forgot to take a picture!

 Thursday I got new running shoes - which will be awesome in my journeys toward a 5k!

And last but certainly not least, on my actual birthday after dinner at Dave & Buster's, I came home and got an awesome license plate to rock out on the mini-van. Woot, woot!

I am one happy, 30 year old girl!

Playroom Overhaul

For the last few weeks, I have been taking a Love & Logic class at our church.  I have really enjoyed it and learned lots of new techniques that I can hopefully implement into my parenting. Our last meeting was today and we touched on how kids have so much stuff, that they don't really need it all and most of them are dead - end where it doesn't help expand their creativity.

About a week ago, I wanted to organize our playroom but was so overwhelmed with the amount of stuff in there that I just had to stop.  I can't even imagine how my kids feel when they try to play in there.  So today, after the class, I had new motivation.

So this afternoon, I dumped out all of our toys and went through each one with Haylie.  The end result?

A basket full of toys that are going away. 

 Some of these are just being pulled out for awhile and we'll rotate with others we left in.  Some have been loved on and ready to move on to a new home.  Some I bought thinking they were a good purchase only to find out that they weren't.

Either way, all of our toys now have a place.  Jace has the bottom two shelves where he can explore with his toys and Haylie's are higher up so he doesn't get into her stuff all the time.

You can actually look in to the playroom and see floor space.

I feel so much better just knowing my space is organized.  I don't have a panic attack looking at everything and getting rid of toys that were just taking up space gives me a sense of relief.  I know that starting tomorrow everything will probably be back out all over the place, but I'm okay with that.  Because I don't have to go through loads of crap to put back what they really play with.

Next up on my overhaul list, the kitchen.

The Surprise

Friday night was my surprise party for my 30th birthday.  I wish I could say it was a total surprise, but some of the details weren't communicated to some of my friends and one might have let the info slip.  Either way, I kept it a secret from Justin that I knew because he was working SO HARD on making it a special night for me.  Besides, I didn't know what we were doing, only that it was on the 15th instead of the 21st like he wanted me to believe.

So my friend Maria and I went to Target to browse Valentine clearance before heading downtown.  Supposedly it was going to be the two of us, but we both knew I knew, so we just enjoyed the ride to the party.  I didn't know where we were headed, but was so excited to find out we were going to In the Raw Sushi.  If I hasn't known then, this would have given it away since Maria doesn't like sushi...weird-o. 

My big entrance.  I was supposed to be surprised, but I couldn't keep the facade going.  It was still fun to walk in and see my friends!

They all willingly got a babysitter and gave up a night for me!  It was great.  While we waited for our food, Justin put together some cards with "Erin Trivia" on them.  Stuff like what did I do when my childhood boyfriend made me mad (threw his keys in our backyard - couldn't find them for a few days...eek) or since I could become a crazy cat lady at any moment, how many cats have I owned and what were/are their names? (5 - Muffin, Friskey, Joey, Kobe, Caramel).  My favorite though is what did my BFF from childhood and I used to do in public bathrooms?  Clean them, of course.  Yes...we were crazy and gross.  We would sing the whole time though.  So much fun.

It's 30...not 80 like it looks!

Take 1...

Take 2.  Better.

After dinner, we went to Red Pin Bowling where the girls had a fun time talking and the guys had an even better time seeing how fast they could get the bowling balls down the lane.  They almost broke the back of the lanes a couple of times, but they were proud of their 30.1 mph throws.  

I love these two pictures.  This is the best of us all...we are all so beautiful. :)

Then this one Justin took like 15 shots of us and we are laughing at him being silly.  True candid...except Amy looks like she tooted and was caught in the act.

I had such a wonderful time and nights like this make me feel like I'm about to turn 20 instead of 30.  It was only yesterday that I was in high school, going to Camp Manatawny, hanging out with my best buds and working part time at Happy Harry's.  Lots has certainly happened in all my 30 years, but I wouldn't change any of it because I am where I am today because of everything that happened and everyone that influenced my life along the way.

I am truly blessed.  Thank you Justin for such a wonderful, perfect evening to celebrate my birthday.  You blew me away with all you did for me.  Love you.

Princess Tea

Last week, our church put on a sweet night for daddys and daughters called the Princess Tea.  The little girls got to dress up in their finest and have a date with their princes (daddy's, granddads, etc.)  As always, the ladies who put this on did not disappoint. This was Haylie's first year and she was pretty pumped.

 I adore this picture.  She loves Ella and Ava so much!  They all had a great time together.

Haylie and Liesel!!

 Haylie got to have a choice between two fancy dresses that we somehow inherited. She, of course, chose the white dress instead of the pink one that I was trying to persuade her to wear.  Surprisingly, she did a great job - even with pink princess juice. Not to mention she ate about 3 cupcakes too!

I am so glad that our church thinks about fun nights like this and that Haylie is now old enough to get to go...and that Justin is willing to take her and capture in pictures. It's such a sweet night for them both.

I hope Jace survives childhood.

My sweet baby boy can't catch a break.  See his sweet face below?  And then you gasp and wonder what in the world is on his cheek??

It's a boil.

He got a pimple overnight sometime back in January.  Not thinking much about it, we kind of thought it would go away in a few days...but then it was time for his birthday (2 weeks later) and it was still very much present...although fading.  Then two days ago it started getting really red, inflamed and hard to the touch.  It didn't see to bother him but oh man, it was bothering us as parents!

Fast forward to today when our doctor confirms it's a boil, caused by bacteria and Jace will now be on two antibiotics to get rid of this thing.  Uhh, gross.

But an even better story is what happened to him last night.

 Jace wakes up around 4 am, screaming.  He has soaked through his diaper and pjs and desperately wants to be dried off so he can continue to sleep.  So Justin goes to his room, changes him and puts him back in bed.  Jace keeps screaming so I bring him tylenol (for teething) and a cup of water.  He calms down but 20 minutes later is screaming again.  Confused as to what is going on - all his needs are met - I go back in to see if he randomly has a poopy 10 minutes after his diaper change.  Jace is just tossing his head around with his eyes closed since he is so tired.  So I peek in his diaper and I see something a little odd.

This.

It's his a paci.  Covered in powder that somehow got stuck in his diaper during the change.  I am trying to keep it together so I can get Jace back to sleep.  I go back to our room and tell Justin I found a paci in Jace's diaper...

He said, "oh, I wondered where that went!"

Well, I found it.

A Little Monster Fun

We had a fun time celebrating Jace's 1st birthday on Saturday.  I wanted to keep it fairly simple so we invited my family in town and a two of Jace's friends (well, our friends that we want our child to be friends with.) since Jace doesn't really have his own friends yet.

Before everyone came, we had a little camera fun.

And remember all the months of my kid in a laundry basket?  This is why I made him do that!

I wanted to see how he grew!

Our party was later in the day - 3:30 - so I could just do snacks.  I had favors in the form of balloons and these duck monsters I found online at a party surplus store.  I didn't know they were ducks and I didn't realize how small they were when I ordered them, but Jace loved his when I put them in his bath!  So, it worked out well.

Then everything has to be labeled monster at a monster party so we had monster fruit, Monster cookies and monster cupcakes!  (Let's add more sugar, huh?)

 
But the most fun part was Justin and I got to decorate these little guys Saturday morning.  We had fun picking colors, slapping the icing in ziplock bags and making them just look monster-y.  I didn't have enough M&M's after making the cookies which would have been an additional decoration for the eyes, but they still look perfect to me!

Jace woke up just in time for his party!  His friends were ready to celebrate. Sorta.

So we opened some presents...he wasn't really excited about sitting on my lap to do this.  He didn't care much about it until I gave him some tissue paper to shred.

 And then let the cupcake eating begin.  

His first reaction was to take the cupcake in his hand and throw it off his tray.  He did that about 2 more times until we shoved cake in his mouth.  Then he got the idea and went to town.

And loved every minute of it after that!

 
Some of our older party comers got to enjoy the monster grins.

 And then Jace decided he had too much birthday.  Oh well.  It's his party and he can cry if he wants to.