A Blast From the Past

Jaden Turns 4!

Yesterday was Jaden's 4th birthday. Hard to believe he's already this old! He's a great kid! He loves to count, play on his computer and he's definitely a water baby (even if he's not much of a baby anymore!) We went to the beach for 4th of July! And then last weekend we bought him a pool. He is REALLY enjoying it and is getting more and more comfortable in it all the time. Last night we went to Applebee's (his pick.) You'll see from the smile on his face that he was SO happy to get that brownie and be sung to!He sure did have a great day! We plan to have some family over this weekend and we'll give him the rest of his gifts. Can't wait to see how he reacts, because we got him some stuff that I know he REALLY wants!

Busy Bee...

...or as my friend called me, "Suzy Homemaker." I've been really busy sewing the past few days!

I have been on the hunt for new pajamas for Jaden. Everything he had was getting really small. As hot as he gets at night, I didn't want to get any pants, but that seemed to be all I could find. SO, I decided I would just make them. Here's the final results: (BTW, he's a ham)
And since I had my sewing machine out, I decided to finally finish a quilt that I had started making for Jaden back at the beginning of the year. This is no big deal, actually, since I have a quilt that has been unfinished for YEARS! LOL Anyway, I just finished it and thought I'd share pix of it, too. My boy loves puppies so that what I did! I had a little extra, so Cooper (our dog) may even end up with his very own mini quilt, but not today! Please pardon the bad pictures, these were taken with my phone.


I tied this quilt, which was a first, but it was so easy that I anticipate having at least 1 more soon!

So that's what I've been doing! Getting ready to have to start lots of work on flags for next year's marching show. Eventually I will add pictures from our trip to Disney World with the band, but not today. I think I'll spend the rest of the day relaxing with a glass of sweet tea!

The long awaited house photos....

I have had some requests for pictures of the new house. These were posted on Facebook sometime ago. Sadly, I'm much better at keeping up with that than this! LOL I have pictures from various stages of the move in process. We still have a long way to go to get the house just exactly how we want it, but we'll get there!

This is the picture of the front of the house that you've all already seen. We've seen lots of blooming flowers since then. If only Jaden would just leave them alone so they can just be pretty!
Here's Jaden's swingset in the back yard. He LOVES it! Favorite spot? The slide, of course!

This is our enclosed patio. It's great when we're grilling. Keeps the bugs away! Cooper is also very happy to have his very own door to go back and forth! If only he would stop dragging his bed outside!

looking around the side of the house, we have a nice big shed for all the lawn stuff! So it doesn't take up space in the garage, YAY!

I just realized that I haven't taken any pictures of my bedroom. We're planning to do some painting, etc. in there, just not sure what we want yet. Anyway, this is the wall between the bedroom and bathroom in the master. I wanted you all to see the skylight. It's really cool during a storm, not as cool when it gets really sunny in the morning when you want to just sleep in! LOL

Here's the awesome BATHTUB!

And the beautiful tilework! I can't believe this is MY bathroom! I have replaced this curtain with another curtain since this picture was taken

This is the window in Jaden's playroom. He has a train table set up right there so he can see what's going on outside while he plays with his trains!

I wanted to share a picture of Jaden's bedroom before it was painted. It was very cute, but this boy LOVES blue!

Some pictures since we settled in. Nothing on the walls at this point (there is some now.) This is looking towards the dining area from the hallway that leads to "Jaden's wing"

Living room from the back door

We have a very unique fireplace between the living room and kitchen area. I understand that it keeps both rooms warm in the winter. Can't wait to test it out!

The dining area. That door leads into the master suite

My little kitchen! The door leads to the garage. The washer and dryer are also in the garage at this house. The mantle from the living room. (this got a little mixed up.) We have some plans for updating the fireplace. Not too much because I do like it!

Jaden's room since it has been painted! I LOVE this blue!

So that's what we have for now! Still a lot of plans for the house. We'll see what the future holds!

Packing, packing, packing....

Ok, so I do have some huge news.....WE GOT A HOUSE! The apartment was definitely a temporary thing for the first year. It has served us well, but I wont miss going up and down stairs every day and smelling my neighbors cigarette smoke in my apartment. Our new house is still here in town. It's close to the hospital and a little further from the school I work at, but still in a great place. It's a 3 bedroom and has been well taken care of. Tonight is our last night in the apartment and I feel like we may never get everything ready to move! Thank God for in-town moves! I promise to post some pictures once we get settled in. I will say that this is definitely a house that I can see us in for MANY years! I'm SO excited!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Hey y'all! I hope you all had an amazing holiday season! We stayed here for the holidays this year. We did have one exciting addition to our family. Jaden got a puppy!

His name is Cooper and he's a daschund. He was 7 weeks old when we brought him home on Christmas Eve. Jaden stayed at my sister's house while we went to pick Cooper up. I got a great video of it, but have had a hard time uploading it, so I'll try again later.

Jaden was REALLY excited for Santa to come. We got some great Christmas Eve pictures of Jaden and Cooper....

Jaden was Mommy's big helper and put out cookies for Santa....


And then Daddy read him "The Night Before Christmas"

Christmas morning was great he got lots toys, including what he had been asking for for months, a kitchen! (Yeah, I don't know about the face, I think he may be shootin' a Jaden's Kitchen gang sign.)

The kitchen was fun for Daddy to put together....

But he LOVES it! (even though that's not entirely evident in this picture. I'm pretty sure he was just to the "STOP TAKING PICTURES AND LET ME PLAY" point...)

We're pretty much back to business as usual. Jeremy is work, work, working at the hospital and I'm gearing up for the first Winterguard competition this Saturday in Gulfport, MS. Jaden is saying funnier and funnier things, but he's smart as a whip and loves going to work with Mommy. He likes trying to tell the girls what to do and he also loves to count for them! Cooper is just growing like crazy! Looking at these pictures from Christmas makes me think "WOW, where did that tiny puppy go?!" I hope you are all well! We'll talk to you next time!!!!

He's a Big Kid Now!

Look! 2 posts in one night! What are the odds?!

So Jaden has been going through lots of changes. He's no baby anymore, which makes for a sad mommy! A little over a week ago we lucked into a free full sized bed for him (which worked out really well since his crib converts to a toddler bed then to a full sized bed!) I managed to find some great bedding on sale, which is always a plus! Jaden is in HEAVEN in his new bed!

He also FINALLY decided to potty train, so this weekend, as promised, I have to buy him a fish tank. What was I thinking.....

Punkin Patchin' It

Hello all! I've been in purple madness while writing and sewing for our 2010 marching show "Amethyst Dreams." We just went to our first contest and have a little over 2 more weeks left of marching season, then we start WINTERGUARD!

Last week I took a break and we hit the pumpkin patch at a local church. Here are some pictures of that:

We ended up with three pumpkins, which promptly went on our front door step. We are waiting until a little closer to Halloween to carve them. Every time he walks by them he tells me how much he loves his pumpkins!

Celebrations, Birthday, and Band Camp

Well, our summer is about over! Where did the time go???

For the 4th of July we stayed in town and went downtown (which is approximately 2 minutes from my house) to watch the fireworks over Heritage Park. They close down a portion of the street that runs along the park and we were able to just walk over and plop chairs down on the sidewalk. It was great! Jaden enjoyed it, even though he was a little freaked out by the big booms and pops.
We celebrated Jaden's 3rd birthday on the 13th. Because his birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, we just did a small thing at home on his birthday (a few small gifts, hot dogs, and cupcakes.) Then on the weekend we celebrated with the Kosutics. He got his first real bike, which made him a VERY happy boy! Everything went really well -- except the birthday cake that cracked while we were in the car on the way to his "party."

The weekend before his birthday we drove to Gulfport, MS to check out the beach and do some shopping. I was actually shocked at how nice the beach looked in spite of all the oil floating around in the gulf. I fully expected to see tar balls all over the beach, but we didn't see any of that! It was a relief.

We just finished band camp and the kids go back to school on Monday. Fortunately we were able to get the first 2 songs on the field before the end of camp, even though we had a few reminants of TS Bonnie messing up part of the first week a little. Now I just need to finish teaching the girls the flags work and clean it up before we start on the final 2 songs. Our show will be great this year and I will share the finished product when I have it.

I hope you all enjoy what's left of summer! We will be relaxing and gearing up for MARCHING/football season around here! GEAUX SAINTS -- and NHS Panthers....