Loving life

I just love beautiful Spring mornings, March is usually so windy it is hard to go and play at the park. This past Saturday it was a nice cool morning with a light breeze, so the kids and I took full advantage of it! The only people that we sure where missing were our friends Reed and Grace, but next time!!! (of course daddy as well)

I was informed by a friend that they had re-done Hogan Park's playground and they did and its my new favorite spot! It has AstroTurf, so no more dealing with sand in the shoes!!! I always feel that I bring a good portion of sand home when we leave!

At first I was not sure if he was tall enough for this, but guess I was wrong!!! JP enjoys spinning back and forth on this!!!

This slide is pretty high and I was shocked that JP wanted to go down it. He has never been a big fan of heights for whatever reason, but guess since he is getting older he is conquering that fear and is becoming fearless!!! He loves this slide!

Seeing the joy in his face is priceless for me!!!!!

Don't worry there is some things for Corley as well, she just enjoys sitting on this and I will just push her and she will laugh and smile!!! I know she is not smiling now, but trust me!!!!

To slide or not to slide, that is the questions she is pondering! Well she chose not to slide, but I know one day she will. She is my daring one, so I was surprise when she did not slide.

Of course swinging is both of their loves!!!! They can let me push them for hours if I would let them! She will cry and tell you what she thinks when you take her out to go and play with some other things on the playground. I have to share this story with yall!!! When we arrived there was another mother there with her young daughter that was probably about 10-11 months old and her son that was probably 2 years old. The mother had the daughter in the swing and was putting her son in the swing, well Corley was not happy and she looked at me with, "Mommy I wanna swing face!" Needless to say she started to pout and cry and I took her by the hand and lead her away to play elsewhere, she took her thumb in her mouth (like always) and enjoyed other things before it was her time!!!! As I walked away I told her that we have to share the toys at the playground, and she just gave me the look of "I just wanna swing" So she was so happy when it was her turn!!!!

These are the things that Corley was sitting on, I am not sure what to call them, but JP enjoys walking across them and standing on them as the move a little bit!

This was another shocker to me that he did and he did it on his tummy!!! Don't worry, he did not fall off and he actually corrected himself so he wouldn't fall!!!

She is doing things to fast for me and I think its because I still see her so little. Once I moved her way from the other children swinging, she went to the stairs and started to step her way up with no help!!!!! She sure is doing things to fast for her mommy!

So we went to this park on Tuesday night and I did not have my camera as I wasn't planning on going, but Grammy wanted to see the park so we made a quick trip. JP needed help climbing up the rock wall then, but today, no help needed and managed to get up and climb over with no help of mommy!!!!! WAY TO GO JP!!!!!!

Haircut!!!!!

This was another first for Miss Corley! March 25, 2011 at 3:30 she got her first haircut!!!! My mom wasn't able go with us to take picture, but if you notice that lady under the dryer, well she was nice enough to take the pictures for me!!! I know most of you are thinking she is girl, let it grow, but I have always been told if you cut it or trim it up, that it will grow faster and thicker, well I did that with JP and it did! So I am taking my chances!!!

Corley before!!!

The first cut!!! She did really good. If you know Corley, she has to be in the mood to want to sit still, lucky for me my hair dresser was able to move with her!!! At first Corley did great and then she had enough of being still. Yes she takes after me in that department.

All done!!!! She is so cute! Ok I know I am biases what can I say!!!

No I am hoping that it just grows grows grows so I can do do something more with it! She has very fine hair to its hard to do much with right now!!!!

Saturday at the Park!

We headed to the park with some friends a few Saturday back and the kids had a blast!!!! Corley of course threw a fit when I took her out of the swing, as she loves it!!!! Here are just a few fun pictures that we took!!!!

JP showing off his muscle to mommy and sister!!! Corley was all over this piece of the playground, the hard part is that this is more designed for older kids, but she did have fun "running" up and down the walk way!!!!!

Here is a picture of JP's buddy Reed!!!! I told JP earlier in the morning that we would go to the park with Reed but he had to listen to mommy and take a nap.....well he did take a nap, but it was not a very long one!!!!! I think he was too excited about seeing his friend to sleep!!!!

Call Miss Hollywood please!!!! OH, and no pictures please!

One of the only ones I got of them together! Its so hard to take a sibling picture at this age and one day they will care, ok I hope they care!!!!!

I found a new park today and I can't wait to take them there this weekend!!! They both are going to love it!!!!!

creating memories

So I have been very busy with work and have not time to blog! So just a short update about things going on in February! Also for those that where wondering how JP is doing potty training, so far he is doing great! Don't get me wrong he is not perfect and we still have accidents, especially when he won't stop playing but over all he is doing a great job. He has even started to wear his big boy underwear at night and has done much better than I thought he would! I am such a proud mommy!



February 1, was a very sad and hard day for my family, my grandmother and my last grandparent went to meet our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I couldn't be more happier for her and her new perfect life with the Lord, but still sad for us that are left here in our temporary home. I know its not good bye, but it still does not make it easier! I have been beyond blessed to have spent the last 3 1/2 years of her life with her and was more blessed that she was able to meet both my children, see Corley walk and help us celebrate Corley's first birthday with us! She and JP share the same love for Oreo cookies and every time he eats one I can't help remember the last time they shared one together! I can't wait for them both to grow up so that we can tell them both about their great grandmother!



During one of the coldest days of 2011 I was able to stay home with my kids and I will say that we did whatever they wanted to do! They were in such a great mood and we had so many laughs this day! It was a great time to hang out and be able to enjoy them! JP was so silly and I kept trying to give him his sunglasses and he wanted Corley's! He is such a character

Corley just had a great time putting on her glasses and then taking them right off and of course her hat at well! She just loves to laugh and smile!

We were able to go Bowling for Kids Sake on Saturday afternoon in Feb. I am not sure who was more worn out this afternoon me or the kids from playing and bowling so much, but we had a blast! Corley was so proud of her ladybug balloon!!!!

Here is the crew that Bowled for Kids Sake!!! Me and my kids, my sister in law Jeanette and her boyfriend Adam and their kids and Adam's little brother through big brothers big sister program! He was such a gentleman and had a great time hanging out with the younger kids!

Valentines Day party at school! I knew I could not miss this! I know what you are thinking, why is JP in orange and not red, well daddy got him dressed this morning and I totally forget it was Vday! Oh well, I think he was just fine and had a nice time eating his cupcake and fruit!

Now Corley was hilarious when I went to her party, she was sitting very good in her chair eating away at all her goodies and had not noticed when I walked in the room and I was there for a little while before she saw me.....see her reaction below!

Yes of course she is wearing her Vday shirt! I guess I remembered after JP was already dressed and he refused to change clothes, what a typical guy!

Can we say I have a mommas girl on my hands! She was done eating her snack and she also thought her buddy next to her was done as she was trying to throw his plate on the floor! She cracks me up with her personality! (don't worry we did not let her throw the other kid's plate on the floor, she was going for it and I stopped her)

Heading to the park for some mommy and daughter time! The weekend of President's day I potty trained JP, well you can only imagine how tired they both were of the house so John was home and I took advantage of getting her some nice Sunshine and break of the house!

It was like as she walking up she was thinking where do I go first????

We learned that she has a great deal of love for the swings and now anytime we go to the park that is the first and about the only thing she wants to do! I took her out so the sun would not be in her eyes and you would have thought I was telling her we were leaving the park and would never come back the way she reacted! How I love both my kids!

Hope you all enjoy and make sure you take time and enjoy some laughter!

How do they do that?

So John came to me last night to ask me if I had gone to check on JP and I had not at this point. We put him in bed to go to sleep and this is how he was found! What is really cute is that he is wearing his new baseball pj's!
So tonight, I knew when Corley got home from "school" she was tired but I did not want to lay her down as it was close to dinner time. She fell asleep in the middle of her dinner eating Chicken Spaghetti! What was even better is that she would use her other hand to pick up some dinner and put it to her mouth but never put it in her mouth, she would just suck her thumb!!!

Don't worry I did not leave her there all night, she got a bath and was ready to go and play! And yes she still went to bed at 7:30 and was asleep very fast!

One Week

I am so proud of JP!!! His first week of potty training is going great!!! I was nervous about taking him to school on Monday and was prepared for a phone call saying they need more clothes and underwear! I was shocked when he only had one accident at school on Monday!!!! Way to go Champ!!! He averaged about 2 accidents a day and some days it was only 1 accident in that day! John and I are so proud of him! There are time he won't stop playing but from other mom's that I have visited with have said that this was a common issue with them. The fun part of this process of raising children is watching him just sit on his potty reading books, watching Handy Manny or playing with his Ipad (well its really is daddy's but lets face it JP has it more than John does). So mom's that are thinking about this process, I will say it isn't that bad! When he does have his accidents we don't get onto him, we just tell him that he has to stop playing and go to the potty, we also make sure he has pants that he can get on and off fast!

I sure do hope this will help someone one day!

Day 4 at home

Well today was the last day of potty training at home, tomorrow JP returns to school and I pray that he does well and that I have packed enough extra clothes for him. We are very proud of him and we have had very few accidents. I will say that on Friday evening I thought to myself that maybe he is not ready but Saturday there was a change that made me feel that he will be able to complete this hard task! What I can say is that I am more tired than I expected, but its worth it when I see how happy he is when he comes to tell me that he went in the potty, that sweet happy face makes it worth it.
So this is what I did:
Friday- set a timer for him to go and sit on the potty every 15-20 minutes, which got expanded to every 30 minutes when he was not needing to go at 15-20 minutes. I would let him sit on the potty for as long as he wanted to, so we read books, watched shows/movies and played games on the Ipad! We had our accidents this day.
Saturday morning-the same routine as Friday, but that afternoon I had him go without underwear as my mom felt that he may not know where the pee was coming from, that worked!!!!
Sunday he started to know when he needed to go to the potty and he would go on his own!
Monday morning we woke up to a surprise, his diaper was dry, John and I were excited for him! It took him a while to go this morning but he knew when he needed and he ran to his potty!!
Know that he is not perfect with the potty yet, but I feel that we have had a great start and I know that we will still have our accidents, but I look forward to buying him big boy underwear and not diapers anymore and so will my bank account!!!!!

JP you have amazed us this weekend and have been a great sport with it all! We love you and are so proud of you!!!!