what we've been watching

Since I last left you, we discovered boy had the flu and Declan may or may not have had a milder version.  So, with all the lack of sleep and single parenting I did last week I've begun drafting hate letters to the flu vaccine people insisting they owe me a day at the spa.  I had a few days were my throat would hurt, but nothing as bad as boy.  I'm praising the Lord for that!

We've kept quarantined all of last week and a good portion of this week just to be safe.  We had no place to be and I'm a big believer in sparing others of unnecessary misery.  With that, mama's done a lot of television watching this week and I thought you might like to hear my thoughts on the matter.  So, here's what I've been watching this winter.

"Sherlock"- Boy and I have both been loving this as we binge watch it on Netflix.  Completely addicting and captivating.  We have one episode left and sadly we will finish this up within the next day and then spend the weekend mourning our loss.  It took us a good week after the season finale of Homeland last month, so wish us luck.

"The Fall"-this is a Netflix one and season two comes out tomorrow so hopefully this will distract us.  A very suspenseful show and so well done.  We love a good mystery series.

"Celebrity Apprentice"- I've loved every season of this show.  I won't go into too much episode detail for fear of spoiling it for someone, but I do feel some of my favorites have already been fired.  So we'll see...lots of divas left though.  Anyone else watching, who are you rooting for?

"Parenthood"- this is for sure one of my favorite shows and I am beyond devastated that we are going to have to say goodbye to the Braverman's in just a few weeks.  Why, why must they go??

"Real Housewives of Beverly Hills"- because why not?  I'm loving Lisa Rinna on this season and I'm sort of obsessed with the train wreck of Brandi's mouth.  Girlfriend needs a filter.

"Parks and Recreation"-I heart Ron!  I'm so going miss this show.  It's going to be easier to say goodbye, though, with Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe already gone (I miss them).

"Serial"-now this was a listen not a watch, but I was addicted and binge listened to this thing the week of Christmas.  So fascinating you must download it on iTunes (it's free by the way).   Can I also say how refreshing it was to turn off the tv and just listen for once...very therapeutic in a way.

Add in a whole lot of HGTV and that sums it about up.  Do share, what's your DVR been up to this winter?

thank goodness for boogie wipes

Tis the season for colds.  I hate winter.  Declan came down with a really bad cold last weekend (and is still fighting it).  Before a kiddo I thought boogie wipes were a joke, now I've succumbed to their awesomeness (ps thank you Sam's Club for carrying these in bulk)!  And boy started coming down with it a few days ago and is still feeling awful.  I feel like a sitting duck now.  I'm staying close to my thieves and loading up on Vitamins praying this momma can be spared from anymore snot.

Who else is ready for spring?

merry christmas & happy new year

...a little late I know.  It's how I roll these days especially since Declan gifted us, last week, with the talent to open doors.  Good night this age is exhausting.  But seriously, I hope everyone had a truly wonderful Holiday spent surrounded by loved ones relaxing and celebrating the birth of our Savior!

We spent Christmas Eve doing Christmas with boy's family.  Declan got his very own Radio Flyer from them and loves taking it outside.  Can I just say these wagons have come so far since I was a kid?  Seats (jealous), padded seats (luxurious), cup holder (shut the front door).

Then on Christmas morning Santa came and so did my parent's.  I think boy was more excited then anyone.  He was up an hour before me and then we had to wake Declan up at 8:00 pm (never wake a sleeping baby unless it's Christmas morning)!  He isn't so sure about his train that his bubie and big daddy gave him here, but he's warmed up to it.  The pug's not so much.

And at first his truck from Santa, that matches Daddy's, looks interesting.  Until Daddy puts you in it for a ride.  Took some time to take it all in I guess.

It was such a fun day, Christmas through the eyes of a child so incredible.

On New Year's Eve, boy and I dropped Declan off at my parent's and we headed to Fort Worth.  We grabbed a quick bite to eat and I made a quick return to Homegoods before we headed to visit boy's mom at her 3rd chemo treatment.  Hooray she's half way done!!  Then I left boy at the center and went and picked up Declan and we met them all back at his parent's home.  Declan is the best medicine after a long chemo day.  Then boy and I headed to bed early after getting Declan down to binge watch Sherlock on Netflix.  We didn't even make it through one episode, much less till midnight.  Sleeping is a good way to ring in the New Year if you ask me.

our elf on a shelf

My mom started a tradition last year, where she gives Declan a pair of Christmas PJ's.  This year I happened to be at her house when they came and well we both couldn't resist and ended up using them for my parent's Christmas card.  Oh the truth this card speaks!

PJ's from HERE

Linking up with:

breakfast with santa 2014

We had Breakfast with Santa this past weekend.  I'll let Declan tell you his thoughts on it...

I feel like we entered a rite of parenting passage with the crying Santa picture.

Don't let the kid fool you thought...it wasn't all filled with tears.  Forget the Santa, we we're all about the large never-ending breakfast.  He sat and ate, all while keeping a good eye on the big guy.

This was our second year to do this...you can travel back to last years experience here.  I will say this one was way better over last year and not just because Declan was more aware, but because this Santa was actually old enough to walk up to rent-a-car and rent a car.  It's the little things that make this time of year magical you know?

oh pug

I was always under the impression that dogs slowed down as they aged.  

Until I met pug.  

Nine years y'all...nine years of these shenanigans of his.

I don't know if I was really that surprised when the other day I walked back into the kitchen after changing Declan and discovered pug had pulled off a sack of flour (in a ziploc bag) from the shelf off the pantry and then tore into it.  And I guess either him or his faithful watch dog (Landry) ran around leaving little flour paw prints all over my wood floors.  It took forever to clean this up.

Who wants a pug for Christmas?

we gobbled then we wobbled

Yeah so I realize Thanksgiving was almost two weeks ago, but I figured since this seemed to be my kid's favorite holiday so far (we had him at food) I should get this day posted.  We had Thanksgiving with my side on Thursday and then headed to boy's side for Thanksgiving on Friday.  This carb loving kid was all over this.

He was more then ready to eat by this point.

Big Daddy gave him a hammer to tide him over.  Big Daddy and boy are playing toss with the stuffed Winnie the Pooh (poor pooh)!

A tradition my parent's started with me when I was young was that you write a letter to Santa on Thanksgiving and then put it outside the door and he comes by in the middle of the night to collect the letters.  We started last year with Declan.  I filled in his letter this year.  Declan's always saying num nums for food and knew that had to be on his list, but boy and I had a disagreement between is he actually saying yum yums or num nums so I compromised and put both.  Then we put the letter for Santa in the window sill.

On Friday we spent a good portion of the day outside at boy's Aunt's enjoying the beautiful weather, but also playing with the dog.  Declan is all about dogs these days and one that chases a basketball was mind blowing for him.  I guess he wasn't accustomed to being around a dog that didn't sleep on the sofa all day ha!

Hope everyone had a relaxing and yummy Thanksgiving too!

christmas cards

We've had an early Thanksgiving miracle around these parts...our Christmas cards have been ordered.  Not addressed, but at least ordered.  I'll leave the addressing the mass pile of envelopes till after IK've stuffed myself full of carbs.   This is a first I tell you and after last years fiasco where they literally were addressed and sent out on Christmas Eve I vowed never again.  Last year was too crazy with a new baby and although I had thought about having our photographer do a professional shoot I knew we'd have to go a month or two out to get them back in time and edited.  And let's face it babies change drastically in a month and I wanted a fresh picture on that card.  My plan backfired when we were snowed in for a week and so a week before Christmas were outside with my camera and tripod trying to get one good one before it went dark.

We had our pictures done last month by our favorite photographer and so I was able to get a better jump on them this year.  I don't know about y'all but I love sending Christmas cards and receiving them.  If you've sent me a photo card I will save it.  I have dedicated Christmas card album full of Christmas cards.  I keep it out during the holiday and it's fun to look back at friend's who were pregnant and just announcing one year and then the next holding their baby.  I love it!  I'm a Christmas card hoarder I tell you.

I'm not loyal on who I order my cards from...I like to just visit the sites and see which design fits my fancy or compliments the portrait on the front.  As I was browsing I realized I spend way too much time trying to make up my mind because there are some really cute designs out there.  So, I started marking them and thought maybe I won't feel like I've wasted perfectly good nap times around here if I share them with someone who needs a card idea.  So, you're welcome if you do.  It makes me feel better that my indecisiveness can go to some good use.

1. /2. /3. /4. /5.

All these printable ones are from vendors on Etsy and I love them all.  When I order printables off Etsy I usually get them printed at Staples and then corner round them myself.  Great look for a not a lot!

1. /2. /3. /4.

These are some of my favorite templates, again on Etsy, and are all instant downloads.  Cheaper then the ones above, but you're doing the work of adding in your pictures.  You do have to have photoshop, but most vendors are really good about sending instructions with the download to walk you through those steps.  And again you can take them to get printed where ever.  I actually ordered #1 and loved it, but once I added our pictures into it it just didn't go.  I'll hang onto it for another year.

1. /2. /3. /4. /5.

Last but not least the printed ones that come to your door ready to go!  

cancer stinks

This week we lost a dear friend, who was also boy's coworker, to a courageous battle against cancer.  She was 33 and had an 8 year old son.  This week my mother in law started chemo for her battle against uterine cancer.  The irony of one battle ending and the other beginning within hours of each other are not lost on us.

You get a lot of unsolicited advice when you join the mommy club, but I always held tightly to my friend's pearls of wisdom.  Hers was always just raw truth.  No fluff.  She knew her days were numbered and had managed to sort through to what really matters and I'm so grateful for her sharing that with me.

Boy was also in Arizona on business most of the week.  This picture about sums up the week.  What an awesome gift FaceTime is, but my goodness how rough it is on a one year old when you hit the end button.

Oh and to top off the week, Friday night boy was giving Declan a bath and after I cleaned up the kitchen I went into our bathroom and just sat on the floor in an exhausted haze.  As I'm sitting on the floor boy hands me Declan and somehow Declan lunged forward and boy lost his grip and Declan lands right on my face.  And I hear a crack.  The worst sound ever.  My nose is broken.  Just the icing on the cake for the week.  Our ER nurse neighbor came over to examine the damage and tell me what to do.  I'm not as swollen, but still sporting a pretty bruise.  So, this thanksgiving I'm incredibly thankful for smashbox's heavy duty concealer. Oh, and that our Christmas family portraits are done if I'm being truthfully vain.

TeePee

My mom and I made Declan his very own teepee a few weeks ago.  I should really rephrase that and say, my mom made Declan a teepee since she did all the labor of sewing the canvas and whatnot, while I just swooped in and painted on some navy stripes.  She had found a pattern and I took her idea and ran with it after eyeing the orange teepee in the land of nod catalog.  It's turned out to be the perfect spot to play peek-a-boo and read a book or two!

Yeah, a picture of him not moving and looking at the camera...so not happening these days.  He was just not feeling the photo shoot.

When we're not working on our downward dog yoga poses in front of our teepee we're shoveling crackers into our mouths.  That's just how we roll playing in our teepee!

book shopping

I'm on a reading kick lately.  You know when you discover a new to you author and love the book so you read another, then you're reading another piece by them.  Yeah that's happening with Liane Moriarty's books right now.  I'm obsessed y'all.

     

 I started with her book "The Husband's Secret" and was hooked from the first chapter.  Then bought her newest "Big Little Lies" and it became my escape when baby napped for a few days...such a great read too.  Finally, I figured I'd better pick up a copy of "What Alice Forgot", the reason I even came across this author in the first place.  I'm about halfway done and am so sad for it to end (thankfully I only get to read a little here or there with my kid's refusal to nap).  I just love her writing style and love how they're witty yet suspenseful.  If you haven't read anything of hers before you must.  

I thought I'd add in what Mr. Declan is reading these days as well.  Right now our favorite is "The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt.  I think mama and daddy may be enjoying this book more, but he loves reading anything so we'll how this one.  This book is hilarious and so creative.  One we don't mind reading over and over again.

So, that's what were reading this month.  How about y'all?  What should we add to our list next?

happy halloween

from our cute little monkey!

we started out the day in a shirt my mom made for him that says "don't scare me...i poop easily!" how hilarious is that?  

then we headed out for some trick or treating.  we have been so blessed to have two neighbors that each have a boy a few months older and then a few months younger then declan.  i can't begin to tell you how many miles we have burned walking and talking with our friends...we love them both dearly.  well back in august i hadn't really been thinking halloween costumes, but happened to be in costco and they had just put costumes out so i picked one up because it was so cute.  i told the girls and they loved it and they each picked one up too.  so we decided to have the boys go as a "barrel of monkeys".  we had a sign on the wagon and they were so hilarious and precious in their costumes.  anyway a few of these pictures are from a few weeks ago when we did a dress rehearsal halloween because we had some sweet neighbors that would be moving before halloween.  

"what i earned all this candy and y'all are going to eat it after i go to bed?!?!"

and because there is something really funny about a crying monkey!

hope everyone had a fun evening!

still here

Seriously, where has October gone?  October's been a busy month and it hasn't helped one bit that I'm in a bit of blog rut either.  So here we are inching closer to November and maybe I should start with a little recap to catch y'all up to speed on life here.

Declan's now 15 months!  Agh how is this possible?  He's just the got most lovable personality and constantly laughing and handing out slobbery kisses.  My mom made the ever so true comment that you can just not be in a bad mood around this kid!  We are just soaking these moments up for sure.  We also have a cruising baby in the house.  Not completely unassisted yet, but we've gotten about 12 steps all by ourself.  That confidence is building everyday.  It's the absolute craziest thing to go from one day having him crawling around to taking off wobbling across the kitchen towards you.  We're also into everything with this freedom now too...I'm having some second thoughts about putting up a Christmas tree this year for sanity purposes. ha!

Declan attended his second wedding of one of boy's colleagues these month.  This is also the second wedding Declan has been to in a barn.  Poor kid's going to grow up thinking you can only get married in a barn.  I am loving the barn trend though...so pretty all lit up at night!

October wouldn't be complete without a trip to the pumpkin patch.  Five seconds after this picture was taken we toppled over and got trapped between some pumpkins.  He still loved it though!

We also, unfortunately, found out this month that boy's mom and Declan's Gigi has uterine cancer.  To be more specific the type is called MMMT, which is an extremely rare and rather aggressive form of uterine cancer.  We've spent the month charting territories of a world we'd frankly rather not chart nor wish for any other families to have to either.  There's very little information out there due to it's rarity.  If you feel so inclined to pray for Gigi, we'd be ever so humbled and grateful.  

I've promise to be better about blogging...I'll be back Friday...you'll go bananas over his costume!

jack jack

We get lots of random comments on Declan's gorgeous red hair and every so often people will tell us who they think he looks like.  My favorite so far happened to be from last week when someone came up and told me how cute he was and that he looked like a Keebler elf.  Umm, thank you I think?  But the one we get the most is Jack Jack from The Incredibles and the first time our friend mentioned that I went and googled it because it'd been awhile since I had last seen it.  Yup bless his heart and those ears!!  I just wish his super power was being an awesome napper!

a day in the life of

I always love seeing bloggers document just and ordinary day in their life.  I think this will be fun to look back upon in a few years at what a day typically looked like with a one year old.  So here we go...

7:00 am- My alarm clock (aka Declan) is hollering at me.  Boy's already out the door for work and pug is sleeping in the laundry room and Landry is in bed with me.  I grab Dec who's standing up in his crib letting me know how hungry he is.  We do a quick diaper change then grab a bottle and curl back up in my bed to snuggle (my favorite part of the day).

7:15 am- Thankfully he dozes back to sleep and so do I.  I am so not a morning person.

8:30 am- We're up!  We grab a bite for breakfast today (waffles and fruit) and then while he plays in the living room I feed the pups and let them out then start the routine (unload dishwasher, toss in a load of laundry, pump).

9:15 am- I shower and get dressed for the day while he tries to get into stuff in the bathroom cabinets.    He likes just crawling around the closet and pulling out shoes and stuff off the lower hangers (I make it a quick shower).  Add in a little pug chasing to get the day started then get him dress Declan.

10:00 am- We head into the next town over (big city for us) because I've got the crazy project in my head to do and need a few things for it at Lowes.  He looks bored already!

11:30 am- Spent way more time in Lowe's then I had planned, then hit one more store to try and find a birthday present for his buddy's birthday party coming up.  No luck.

12:15 am- Head to our favorite sandwich shop Which Wich and grab a sandwich to go.  I'm not feeling brave enough to eat out in public with a messy baby.  That's a two man job!  So we drive home.

12:45 am- Declan snoozes on the way home I'm praying he will eat then nap for me.  I'm kicking myself that I took so long.  Never a good sign when baby falls asleep in car right before nap time.  Wakes up for lunch!

1:15 am- After a yummy sandwich and some carrot sticks we head off to nap.  And mama can finish up stuff around the house and return phone calls (all that boring stuff).

1:30 am- Not napping just talking to ourselves in the crib.

2:00 pm- Crying now not wanting to nap.  I go in there pick him up, soothe him, kiss him night night then lay him back down.  Wanting no part of this nap business he's putting up a good fight.  I try and plead with him but it's not looking good.  Finally after two hours of trying I cave :-( and go get him.  Now we're both worn out.

3:15 pm- With the looks of no nap in our immediate future I decide to run another errand in town that's been on my to do list.  And we take a baby selfie!

3:58 pm- Make it to Sonic in just the nick of time before happy hour ends.  Mama needs a pick me up.  Confession I sometimes read a book at Sonic.

4:15 pm- My parents have been out the country and just got home a few minutes before so we head over there to surprise them and say hello.  To say they missed Declan is an understatement, my mom basically ran out the front door to greet us.  Priceless.  Declan is full of smiles for his Bubbie and Big Daddy.

5:15 pm- Said goodbye to the grandparents and head home to make dinner.  He tells me "no" strapping him into the car seat (oy!)

5:30 pm- Crawl around while I make a dinner.

5:45 pm- Hubby calls to say he had a meeting run late and will be late for dinner.

6:00 pm- Dinner time for mommy and Declan.  We keep daddy's warm in the oven.

6:30 pm- Neighborhood walk with friends.  Love this time of the day...great mama therapy!

7:15 pm- Daddy's home!!  He eats dinner and plays with Declan.  They're working on walking tonight.  I feed the pugs.

8:00 pm- Bath and bottle for Declan.  Daddy does bath duty and I tackle the kitchen and fold some laundry.

8:30 pm- Declan down for the night.  We watch Big Brother and catch up on our day.

9:30 pm- Pump one last time, return a few e-mails and pay bills and then we head to bed.

10:30 pm- Boy's out for the count so I use this time to binge watch the last season of Parenthood.  This is one of my favorite shows and last season I missed a few episodes being sleep deprived and what not with a new baby so I just held off on watching it until it came out on Netflix.  Love this season!  Sadly I only make it through an episode and a half before I'm out to.  Night night!

project nursery contest

this sweet -cheerio loving little one year old has a huge favor to ask!  the lovely site project nursery, nominated declan's hundred acre wood birthday party as a finalist for their august birthdays.  we're super excited and if you sweet friends get a second or two would you mind voting?  it's really easy, just click the link below scroll towards the end and click on declan's box then hit vote.  i believe the contest ends the end of this week and you can vote every 24 hours if you feel so inclined.  so pretty pretty please with cheerios on top would you vote?  thank you bloggy friends we're so grateful!