Aiden at 8

 

Today is my big guy’s 8th birthday! EIGHT!!!  Wow, that’s a big number!  But aren’t they all? 

I remember everything about the day he was born very vividly.  It doesn’t seem possible that all of that happened 8 years ago!  You can read all about it HERE, and HERE.

Look at that handsome guy!  He’s such a joy to have in my life! 

At 8 years old Aiden…

~ is funny!  Not just in telling jokes, but in some of the things he comes up with.  For instance, The Fart Army.  No, not stinky farts, but under the arm farts.  Him and his buddy’s learned how to ‘fart’ under their arms so he named them the Fart Army.  Ok, so this is a tad bit weird – after all, I’m a girly girl and don’t quite get it – but it’s just part of his funny little sense of humor that I love.

~ loves sports!  Any and all, he will watch them with enthusiasm!  Football, basketball, baseball, soccer, volleyball, tennis…doesn’t matter, if there’s a ball involved he’s all in!  He really loves to play all sports, too, and he’s good at them!  He seems to have a natural talent when it comes to playing ball. He’s a lot of fun to watch out on the field.

~ is good at school.  He’s such a smart boy.  He loves reading and math and is very good at both.  He has excellent handwriting, which I believe is rare for a boy.  His teacher commented on that more than once over the past year.  He is a good boy in class, doesn’t disrupt the teacher or the flow of the day.  His favorite subject is gym, of course, and he always knows which day he has it. 

~ is the best big brother!  Yes, he fights with Brennan, but they are really good buddies most of the time.  He has quite a bit of patience where Bren is concerned.  And with Tate, well, Tate is Aiden’s favorite little guy in the whole world. Tate lights up when he sees Aiden, and Aiden would spend hours entertaining Tate if he could. 

~ has taught me what being a mom is all about.  I sure do love this guy!  We went for a walk together last week, just Aiden, Tate and me, and Aiden talked and talked and talked the whole time.  It was fun to have a real conversation with him.  I felt like I got to really know him as a person, not just as my son.  It was a really neat thing for me and it showed me even more how cool of a guy he is.

~ is always down for a good time.  He’s jus a fun kid! I am so lucky he is mine all mine!

Happy Birthday, Aiden!

“I’ll love you forever, I’ll love you for always.  As long as I’m living my baby you’ll be.”

 

Shutterfly Photo Book

Hey there!  I wanted to show you a photo book I made of Aiden's Kindergarten projects.

I am a bit of a pack rat when it comes to sentimental items.  I have been known to keep a Garfield Halloween pencil that I was given in 2nd grade and pull it out when I was 22 all because I loved Garfield and couldn't see throwing away a perfectly good pencil and I'd had it forever so just couldn't bear the thought of not having it anymore.  So you can imagine how hard it is for me to throw away the boys' pictures, projects and paintings they make at home and at school.  But, if I keep each and every one I'll be buried under paper.

Thanks to good ol' Pinterest (you can follow me, just use the link above in the banner) I found an idea of what to do with all of those projects. 

I took a picture of all of Aiden's masterpieces then uploaded them to Shutterfly and made a photo book out of them.  I had fun placing them on the pages (or you can let Shutterfly do it for you, if you're not a control freak like me).  I added a few pictures that were taken of Aiden in school that year too to make it even more personal. 

I love how it turned out and wanted to share it with you!  I'll definitely be making another one of these full of Brennan's Kindergarten projects and pictures.  Hopefully I won't wait 2 years to get it done, though!

I hope you have fun looking through my book! 

I am not getting anything free from Shutterfly for this post and they did not contact me in any way, shape or form.  Just saw that I could share my book on the blog with a handy link code they provided, another neat feature Shutterfly offers, so thought "hey, a fun post!"  Shutterfly is who I use to store pictures and order prints from for scrapbooking.  I have made some neat and fun photo projects on their website in the past and have always been happy with the results.  This time is no different.

Click here to view this photo book larger

You'll love award-winning Shutterfly photo books. Start your own today.

Me, Me and More Me

 

Welcome to a new week!  How was your weekend?  We had a good one, seemed to go really fast.  Saturday we attended my cousin’s wedding and Sunday we ran to the big city for errands and then hung out at home the rest of the day.  We got back home just before a big rain storm hit so we sat out on the deck and enjoyed the thunder, lightning and rain.  We got almost an inch of rain in 20 minutes, crazy!  It slowed down after that but still rained off and on the rest of the afternoon.  We pulled out a deck of cards and played Speed and King Around The Corner.  It was fun!

Thanks to all who entered the Start of Summer Giveaway!  Lindsay W. was the big winner! Congrats to her!  “Hello” to all of my new followers!  As promised I will tell you a little bit about me.

• I am the mom to 3, yes, THREE boys!  Aiden will be 8 next week, Brennan is 5 and little Tate is 4 months. 

• I am married to my high school sweetheart, Andy.  We just celebrated 12 years of marriage and 17 years of being a couple.  That means we’ve been together longer than we’ve been apart (we were 16 when we started dating)!  The man spoils me rotten and treats me way better than I deserve.  You will learn that I do a lot of gushing about him because he’s that amazing!
• I am a very big Iowa Hawkeye fan
• I love gardening, scrapbooking and making cards, plus various other crafts, and I love to read, although since Baby Tate has been born I don’t get to read as much as I’d like to
• I enjoy cooking and baking
• One of the best things about summer is mowing.  I love to mow!
• I’m not good at it but I LOVE to dance!
• I am a licensed cosmetologist but haven’t worked in a salon for 8 years (ouch!).
• I have been a SAHM for the past 4 years and have loved every minute of it (even the challenging minutes!)

My favorites:

• color: green
• movie: Bridges of Madison County
• book: Summer Sisters by Judy Blume
• food: pizza, but not homemade. I could eat it from a different pizza joint every day
• kind of music: oldies, heavy on the Beatles
• drink: Mt Dew, even though I haven’t had any consistently for 7 months (I had gestational diabetes while pregnant and now if I drink it Tate gets an upset tummy).  Even so, I still crave it every single day.  You’d think by now I’d be over it! Ha ha!
• guilty pleasure: dark chocolate

My quirks:

• I can touch my tongue to my nose
• I don’t believe dinosaurs ever existed.  Yes I’m serious.  I think the ‘fossils’ are part of the conspiracy theory.  I believe in God and if He created the earth and Adam and Eve and all that then why would he kill everyone off to have dinosaurs run the earth, then kill them off, then put humans back on it?  It just doesn’t make any sense. And the whole rigmarole about us coming from monkeys, or gorillas or whatever??  Fooey. I don’t say any of this to start some big, crazy, serious discussion.  Just chalk it up to me being a silly little country girl.
• I HAVE to have a glass of chocolate milk EVERY.SINGLE.MORNING.
• I celebrate my birthday month, my birthday week and my birthday *day*

That’s a little bit about me.  I hope you stick around and continue to read my blog and get to know me better!  If you have any questions you’d like me to answer feel free to ask away!  I love getting comments, I’ve made some of my very dearest friends through this blog and I am always open to more!  If you leave me a comment and aren’t a no-reply blogger you’ll hear back from me, promise!

Talk soon, friends!

Friday!!!

 

Hey there!  Welcome to Friday, finally!  Not that it’s been a long week but seriously, who doesn’t love the weekend?

The boys have had swim lessons this week and they have both improved SO much!  I do believe we will finally make a swimmer out of Aiden!  Brennan is a little fishy, he loves the water and is much braver than Aiden.  He even asked if he could go off the ‘jumping’ board (diving board) yesterday!  Doing that motivated Aiden a little bit to do it, too. They loved it and did it a bunch of times (with their instructor there to catch them or be within arms reach).  They jumped off it last year, too, but it seems they have forgotten that. I took some fun video of it and will try to figure out how to get that off my phone and on to here next week.

Today’s the last day to enter the big Victoria’s Secret $100 GC giveaway.  Winner will be announced tomorrow (check my Instagram page @homemadehappenings or click the link above in my banner to follow me).

Coming up next week I’ll do a post introducing myself to all of you new followers.  You are probably reading this wondering who Aiden and Brennan are and how old they are and all that stuff – stay tuned, you’ll get to know everything you wanted to know about me and more (like why I don’t think dinosaurs ever existed, ha! {Mean Ang, that ones for you!}).

Have a wonderful weekend! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Start of Summer Giveaway

Hey girls!  With the official start of Summer just days away 11 bloggers, including me, are getting together to co-host an awesome giveaway!

$100 to

Victoria’s Secret!

Are you in the mood for a new swimsuit? How about some adorable workout clothes? Or do you want to ditch the old, ugly, holey t-shirt you wear for pajamas and get something more … grown up?
 
Sign up below using the Rafflecopter!  All you have to do is meet some new bloggers and start following them! Easy peasy!  The giveaway starts today and ends this Saturday, June 21st, the first day of Summer!

Here are the individual links to their blogs!

Darci: www.stronglyfeminine.com

Amy: www.getzgirlonfire.com

Laura: www.lauraakalolo.blogspot.com

Jasmine: www.fleurtyandfit.com

Alma: www.borrowthat.blogspot.com

Kati: www.shes-a-jewell.com

Lindsay: www.bourbonlipstickandstilettos.com

Tia: www.handsonpantoff.com
Rikki: www.mommasgotadudesname.com
 

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Weekend Parade

This past weekend our small town had it’s annual festival, called Fun Days.  We live in a very small town (1200 residents give or take) but it puts on a heck of a parade!
Brennan was staying the night and day with Mama and Papa so he missed out but we still came home with a grocery sack full of candy. 
The parade lasted a whole hour.  The softball and baseball teams always fill a bunch of water balloons and buckets full of water so they can spray kids in the crowd.  The owner of the yard we sat in was prepared – he pulled out his hose to the curb and sprayed them back!  It was hilarious.  Another house next to us filled buckets full of water and would run up and douse the players, too.  Made for a fun parade to watch!
Another notable thing about the parade was the 16 Allis Chalmers tractors that lined up one after the other in memory of a local farmer who was killed in a farming accident last fall.  It was really moving to see.

Parades can be exhausting I guess.

Out like a light!
Another Fun Days parade in the books!  I think it was a success! Already looking forward to next year’s!
Stop back tomorrow for an awesome giveaway!  $100 to Victoria’s Secret!  10 bloggers are joining forces to start your summer off right!  See you then!

Tate at 4 Months

Tate is growing like a weed and changing every day!  We had his 4 month well baby check last week and he is doing great!  He got shots, the same ones as at 2 months, and if you remember my post about those he didn’t handle them so well for the next day and half.  This time he did much better, no continuous screaming and crying for 5 hours straight.  The second day he acted a bit ‘off’, definitely not his happy little self.  He did a lot of sitting with me, laying his head against my chest and LOTS of napping.  But by that night he was back to being sweet little Tater!

Weight: 20lbs 6oz.

Height: 26 1/2 inches

Percentile chart: He’s over the 97th percentile in both, obviously.  Ha ha!  But he’s very proportioned, so that’s good.

Tate’s New Tricks:

Reaching out to grab toys.  Just in the last few days when he lays on his play mat he reaches up to grab the toys that are dangling down in front of him. 

If it’s in his hand, it’s in his mouth.  Tate puts everything in his mouth to chew and suck on.  He found his hands and individual fingers earlier in the month and now will suck on either his thumb or his first finger – so cute!  He is a droolie little guy … teeth??  I hope not yet!

Squealing – when he gets excited he lets out a loud, shrill, ear piercing squeal! I love it!  I can’t wait for him to do that in church, ha ha!

Sleep:

Last month I reported we had an all night sleeper.  Well, that was short lived.  He’s back to waking once a night, usually around 3:30, to eat.  He goes right back to sleep and will sleep until sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 in the morning. 

He is napping MUCH better since starting him on his acid reflux medicine.  He will take at least one 2 hour or longer nap a day, then a couple of 1hour or longer naps to fill in the rest of the day.  All of this in his crib!  And he doesn’t want to nurse to sleep.  He gets fidgety and fussy if I try to nurse him when he’s ready for a nap, it’s best just to give him his pacifier and blankie and lay him down.

Tate can put himself to sleep now!  All I have to do is lay him down awake.  He pulls his snuggle blankie up by his face, rolls over onto his right side and goes right to sleep.  If he rolls to his side then you know he’s going to fall right to sleep.

This picture of him sleeping cracked me up because he kicked his leg out from under his blanket.

Besides all this, he is still strictly nursing.  We are thinking of having my mom take him for a day to force him to take a bottle.  I don’t know why at this point I’m considering this, we’ll see if I got through with it.  She can’t until mid-July so by then who knows what will happen.  He had been doing this funny thing where he’d nurse on one side then get busy talking and looking around.  30 minutes later he’d be ready for the second side.  Then 2 hours from the first side he’d be fussy so I’d feed him again with the same routine.  I was starting to get frustrated about him not just settling in to nurse so I mentioned it to his dr. She said to try holding him off so he’d be hungrier and therefore would nurse longer at a time.  That day I started holding him off for 3 hours between feedings and he’s doing so great with it.  He’ll nurse for about 15 minutes total between both sides and seems happier all together because of it.  And it’s nice for me to have that 3 hour stretch.  Now if I needed to run an errand I could feed him and know he’ll be okay until I get back. 

Tate is such a happy little guy now and has the best smile!  I love that he lights up when he sees me.  He adores his daddy and gets so excited to see his big brothers.  He’s happy to snuggle with Grandma Jean and always flashes Papa a big grin!  They are pretty good buddies.  And the big smiles he gives his Auntie!  He really loves her!

Check out those band aids from his shots!  Ouch!

Tate is doing so great, I love spending all my days with him!

Here is a comparison shot to show how big he’s gotten! Oh how I miss that little newborn!  He’s changed his looks quite a bit!

Erin

Always, Sometimes, Never

<a href="http://homemadehappenings-erin.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag134/aemcguire02/alwayssometimesneverlinkup_zpsfce733d0.jpg" alt="button" width="100" height="100" /></a> Just copy the code above to your page in the ‘HTML’ tab and then be sure to link up below!

I Always…
… have a glass of chocolate milk for breakfast
… give my dad a hug goodbye
... spin my hamburger all the way around to find the best side to attack it
… tell Andy to drive carefully when he leaves for work in the morning
… eat the outside row of my pancakes so I can eat the softened, buttery middle last


I Sometimes…
… check Facebook while using the bathroom
… don’t wash my hands in a public bathroom if it looks sketchy – I wait till I’m out the door then use hand sanitizer
… wish I had my long hair still
… look at a word too many times and think it looks wrong (i.e. ‘never’, ha!)
… make breakfast for supper when I’m too lazy to actually cook.  Pancakes anyone?

I Never…
… use God’s name in vain
… go to bed without brushing my teeth first
… want to hear that Andy finds Angelina Jolie attractive again – ew!

Always, Sometimes, Never

 
<a href="http://homemadehappenings-erin.blogspot.com/"><img src="http://i1302.photobucket.com/albums/ag134/aemcguire02/alwayssometimesneverlinkup_zpsfce733d0.jpg" alt="button" width="100" height="100" /></a>

 

This is happening tomorrow!  All you have to do is say what you ‘Always, Sometimes and Never’ do, say, think, feel, etc.  You can list as many as you want for each category.  Grab my cool little button up there and add it to you post, then come back here Thursday to link up! 

See you tomorrow!

This, That and The Other

 

I have never ever won a giveaway before.  EVER.  But yesterday that all changed.  Miss Shelli from Beauty and the Baseball Coach hosted a giveaway for a gift card to BabySport.com and I won it!  I’m so excited, I can’t wait to pick something cute out for little Tate!  Thanks, Shelli!  And thanks for yesterday.  <3 

Thursday I am having a Lia Sophia party.  If you feel like treating yourself or are looking for some jewelry to finish off an outfit head over to THIS LINK and place an order!  Just put my name, Erin McGuire, as your hostess.  The deal this month is buy your 2 LEAST expensive items at regular price, get 4 more items at half price (the most expensive items)!  Pretty great deal!

Orange is the New Black, Season 2 came out Friday and I believe we might be the only ones who haven’t watched it yet.  Andy’s been begging me to knock out a couple of episodes but I’ve been too tired to stay up til 10 to watch an episode.  Maybe tonight we’ll get started on it.  I’ve also been holding us back from watching Season 2 of House Of Cards (such a good show!).  I don’t want to blaze through it then have to wait months and months to start the next season.  That’s the bad part about watching a series on Netflix, they don’t bring out the next season for up to a year later, so by then you’ve forgotten what you watched and have lost interest.  I’m trying to drag it out a bit to keep the lull in between to a minimum. 

I’m planning a link up for either Thursday of this week or Tuesday of next.  It all depends on if I can find time to get it put together today or not.  The topic is going to be “Always, Sometimes, Never.”  You will just list what you Always, Sometimes, Never do, say, think, feel, whatever.  Just an easy sort of ‘fill in the blank’ topic.  Anyone want to co-host?  I’ll need to know ASAP so I can get your name on the button. 

Father’s Day is this weekend and I feel so terrible that I haven’t bought a gift for Andy yet.  I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks, should have had it ordered or purchased already but life with Tate has been crazy and I haven’t gotten to it.  I’m hoping I find time to head to the big city this week and find him something.  Poor guy, all he does for me and the boys and I can’t get his gift bought. 

Time to play a game of Speed with Aiden. 

Are you watching OITNB?  What did you get your dad for Father’s Day?  Ever played Speed, the card game, before?

Baseball and Parades

 

What a crazy, busy weekend!

Saturday we went to a wedding at a park.  It was raining so the poor couple had to totally change their plans.  They were going to exchange vows outside but instead had to tear down all the decorations and seating for the reception which was set up inside a lodge so they could have the ceremony inside.  After the ceremony they took some pictures then had to re-set up the reception area for the meal.  Poor things.  But at the end of the day, despite things not going as planned, they were still a married couple, and that’s all that matters.  The bride had a really neat idea.  Instead of doing the traditional bouquet toss, they called up three couples who’s marriages were inspiring to her and her new husband.  Each couple were given a bouquet and the opportunity to have a special dance together to Kenny Roger’s “Through The Years”.  It was really sweet, loved this idea!

While we were at the wedding the big boys stayed with my sister’s family.  They had big plans to go camping, and they did, but it was raining for most of it so they didn’t get to have the whole camping experience like originally planned.  Nicole and Pat did a great job keeping the kids occupied inside the camper (hello portable DVD player!) and took them out to supper since cooking over an open fire wasn’t an option at that point.  Regardless of the rain my boys had a super great time!  They love spending time with their cousins! Thanks, Lola!

Sunday we butchered a few chickens (thanks Mom and Dad!), came home for naps, then went back to town to close out the 175th Celebration in our hometown with a big parade.  The boys were on my mom’s bank’s float while Andy, Tate and I sat on the curb and watched with my sister and dad.  It was a pretty great parade!

My dad’s brother and his wife make and sell honey, this was their float (my dad’s uncle is driving the tractor for them).

Tater loved the parade! 

My mom walking, nephew Charley is by her left hand in the hat, then Aiden, Brennan and Nora are sitting in the front waving.

My mom and 4 of her 5 grandkids – all in their parade t-shirts. 

After the parade was over we hightailed it back home to get Aiden to his baseball game.

Aiden made some good plays last night!  He really loves the game.

Tater loved the game, too.  He was sitting under a tree, which he loves to be under and look at, so he was a pretty content baby! 

He likes chewing on his lion.

Another great weekend in the books.  On to the next one!

Erin

Survey Says!?

 

My awesome friend, Mean Ang, tagged me to answer these questions that Candra came up with.  Happy Friday!

1. What's a nickname only your family calls you?

My dad used to call me Runt, because I was small and he was a pig farmer so they went hand in hand.  Andy calls me all kinds of names, but my favorite is Flower. 

2. What's a weird habit of yours?

Checking FB and IG whilst on the toilet.

3. Do you have any weird phobias?

Being falsely accused of a crime I didn’t commit and going to prison.

4. What's a song you secretly love to blast and jam out to when you are alone?

Some 80’s songs – can’t come up with anything specific right now but there are some embarrassing songs from that decade that I will crank up when I hear it on the easy listening channel. 

5. What's one of your biggest pet peeves?

Bad drivers drive me NUTS!   

6. What's one of your nervous habits?

I used to run my fingernail along the bottom of my front teeth, it made a funny clicking sound.  IDK, don’t ask.  It just worked for me.  And I wouldn’t even say it was a nervous habit, just something I did.

7. What side of the bed do you sleep on?

I lay on the side that’s not next to the door – depends on where our bed is in our room.  Currently that means I’m sleeping on the right side when looking at the bed from the foot. 

8. What was your first stuffed animal and what was it's name?

My cute little Teddy Bear, Ted.  I still love that little guy.  If I get super upset I can snuggle up with him and feel better.  He reminds me of Garfield’s teddy bear, Pookie.  I cut out a cartoon one time of Garfield walking around looking crabby.  He found Pookie sitting on the floor, picked him up, gave him a big squeeze and said with a smile on his face, “Pookie, you sure know how to spoil a good bad mood!”  I feel that way about Ted, too. 

9. What's the drink you always order at Starbucks (or Dunkins)?

I don’t.  Have never been to either before.

10. Which way do you face in the shower?

I face away from the shower.  Unless I need to rinse my face, then I put my face into the water stream.

11. Do you have any weird body skills?

I can touch my tongue to my nose.

12. What is your favorite comfort food, that you know is bad but you eat it anyway?

Pretty much anything I eat – ha! Used to be Mt Dew.  Last night we had a horrible experience at a restaurant because it was crazy loud and Tate can’t handle that right now.  We left and all I wanted to make me feel better was a MD.  BUT I can’t have them right now because they upset Tater’s tummy, so I just dreamed about it.  So now I’d say I go to chocolate for comfort. 

13.What is a phrase or exclamation you always say?

I can’t think of one!  I’m sure there must be something I say… ??

14. What do you wear when you go to sleep?

An old t-shirt.  When I was pregnant and couldn’t fit in mine anymore I stole some of Andy’s and now still wear those.  Wish I had some cute little nighties to wear but I don’t.  I used to just sleep in my undies and socks – that was before kids.  Miss those days of freedom! LOL!

15.What did you used to wear that you thought was cool, and now you realize it wasn't?

Flannel shirts tied around my waist.  Yes I did.  Ew. (Said in Jimmy Fallon’s “Ew” skit voice.)  Oh, and a pick in my back pocket.  Lame!

 

Now you pick one of the above q’s to answer in the comments!  And if you want to answer them all on your blog, go ahead!  Just please tag Ang and Candra in your post.

 

Summer Dreams

 

Summer is off to a start around here.  I have to admit, I’ve had a bit of anxiety about the boys being home all summer.  The older they get the harder they are to keep entertained.  Aiden especially.  So I’ve been dreading having them home.  With little Tate here now we can’t go to the pool like the last few summers because the sun is too intense for him.  I’m figuring we’ll go a handful of times for maybe an hour, with me and Tater spending most of it looking for some shade.  I haven’t found time to peruse Pinterest for fun “keep them busy” ideas yet so thought I’d ask the boys what they wanted to do this summer.  Here’s the list they came up with:

• have a water balloon fight
• play tractors in the basement
• sleep in the tent at a local campsite
• go camping with Charley and Nora (cousins)
• go to the State Fair
• go to Planet X
• go to Fun City
• go to the new play set at the park
• go to the zoo
• go to the science center
• go to a water park
• get a dog (Oh Aiden!)
• play outside
• climb the trees
• build puzzles
• go to Nora’s house (that’s one of Brennan’s)
• have a sleep over

Some I added:

• go for a bike ride on a trail
• sign up for the library’s Summer Reading Program
• go golfing with Dad
• go fishing with Dad
• rebuild their Lego sets and make a Lego City
• go for walks and bike rides around town
• take a picnic lunch to the park and meet Dad

Most of these are definitely do-able.  Not sure we’ll make it to Planet X, Fun City and a waterpark, but you never know! 

We can check off the “sign up for the library’s Summer Reading Program” one, did that yesterday.  For every hour they read they get a ‘library buck’ which they can spend on some small prizes (i.e. cheesy crap that’ll break right away and clutter up their room – bah humbug!).  Once they’ve read 10 hours they earn a free book.  In addition to the reading they have an hour long program every Tuesday afternoon where they’ll do science experiments, make crafts and have visitors (the zoo is coming on their first date next week!).  It’ll be something small for them to look forward to every week.

I also have them signed up for a day camp each, plus Aiden’s summer basketball camp he does at the school every year for 3 mornings one week.  I’m working on getting them signed up for swim lessons, waiting to hear back from their instructor. 

Aiden is going to show a rabbit and goat at the fair as a Clover Kid.  He’ll get mentored by an older 4-Her and show their animal.  I’m looking forward to this!  I loved 4-H and always wanted to show animals but wasn’t allowed to.

It’s not a lot but hopefully it’ll help them have a good summer and stay a little busy.

The picture below does a reader mom’s heart good!  Aiden was excited to pick out a chapter book, not just a picture book, at the library yesterday when we were there signing them up.  He knew he wanted a ‘Geronimo’ book, he even knew who the author was!  I couldn’t help but take a picture of him looking.  All those awesome books I used to read as a kid were still there!  Made me want to dive right in!  I was such a bookworm as a kid, I miss having time to read like that now.

We rode our bikes over to the library.  Tater LOVES riding in the bike seat!  I need to get him a helmet so I can stop worrying about him getting a brain injury.

That face doesn’t show how much he likes riding in there!  The night before we went on a short ‘test ride’ to see how he’d do in there.  Loved it!  He was all zoned out when we got back home, it about put him to sleep!  His face that night cracked me up, wish I would have had my camera then!

Hoping for an awesome summer for the boys.  I loved summer’s.  Staying home while my parents were working meant freedom!  I’d watch soaps (don’t tell my dad!), lay in bed reading books and listening to the radio, meet my cousin at the pool for long swim sessions… it was so fun!  I remember having sweet corn about the same time as the county fair, it was always a toss up whether I’d rather eat at the fair or at home to have that yummy corn on the cob!  Playing freeze tag and hide and seek in the dark with my cousins!  So many fun, good memories!  That’s what I want for my boys.

What are your plans for the summer? Any easy but fun ideas for me to do with the boys?

 

Weigh In Wednesday

 

Linking up for Weigh In Wednesday today. 

Sunday I started the 30 Day Shred with our friend Jillian Michaels.  Let me tell you, it was HARD to get started.  Getting started is the hardest part for me.  It was a Sunday, a day for relaxing with my family, lounging around, doing yard and house work.  Not a day for starting a workout routine. 

As the hours ticked by I kept thinking how I needed to do it. But we were busy, gone for most of the day and I had no idea when I’d fit it in. 

You guys were in the back of my mind the whole day.  I knew if I didn’t get started like I said I would there’d be hell to pay.  Finally, at 8:00 Sunday night, I started the workout.

Andy was outside watering in some new bushes and grass we planted, the boys were in bed and Tate was playing on his play mat.  I barely got into the first circuit when Tater started crying.  I thought maybe I could get most of it done before he really got upset, but no, Tate had other plans.  I had to rock him to sleep, which took forever, before I could get back to the workout.

I really wanted to just give it up for the night, but again, you guys were on my mind.  So I started it back up and finished the workout. 

I have to admit, I ‘phoned it in’, as Jillian would say.  I didn’t push myself to do it all, I took breaks during some of the cardio parts, wimped out doing the lunges, but I finished it. (Why are the jump ropes so hard for me to do? KILLS my calves!)

Monday’s workout was better but I again had to stop midway to take care of Tate.  I started wondering how I was going to get any benefit out of working out if I had to stop in the middle every time.  I wimped out a few times but came back to it after getting Tate settled again.

Tuesday was even better.  I made it through the whole thing without having to stop for Tate.  I maybe wimped out a couple times to take a quick break but jumped right back in after the burning stopped (and I chugged some water and air!). 

I am already feeling stronger all over, I love that feeling!  After Tuesday’s workout my legs didn’t feel like jello as bad as the first 2 days.  I am not doing any of the modified versions of the exercises except for the pushups.  Overall I am doing pretty well I think.

I still have not found time to measure myself, which stinks because I think that is where I’ll see the most difference, more so than on the scale.  I need to get that done ASAP!

My NSV of the week is that 2 of my friends’ husbands noticed I’ve lost weight!  I was blown away when they both asked about it.  No one has mentioned it (except for one super sweet friend who is always full of compliments and of course my amazing husband), not even my mom or sister, so for these 2 guys who don’t see me that often to notice? Well, that made this girl feel pretty good and made me want to try even harder. 

What NSV are you most proud of?  What do you do to keep yourself going when you just want to give up?