Wrapping up 2012

Life has been so busy. I'm starting to see a trend with my blog, I seem to be posting a summary post each month.  Since my last post we had Mexico Lindo night at Brady's school, celebrated Thanksgiving, got our Christmas tree, got the flu, recovered from the flu, enjoyed a wonderful Christmas concert at the school and celebrated Christmas.  Shew... That's a lot to do in just a few weeks!  Here are a few pictures.

Mexico Lindo Night

Cutting down the Christmas tree

Christmas program at school.  One of the best elementary programs I have ever been too.

Christmas morning.

Six!

Today my favorite little man turned six today! Wow, where did the time go!?  It has been so much fun watching him grow up, and now that he is in school it's a whole new adventure for us.  This week has been a busy week (like most lately).  We started Sunday night off with a birthday party for my mom and Brady.  On Wednesday night we celebrated my brother-n-law and Brady's b-days.  Today was filled with fun and a few first.  Brady celebrated his first birthday with classmates.  Then he had a friend come home with him after school for the first time (also a first for this friend).  We spent about 2 hours at Chuck E Cheese, had dessert at Menchies!!  Brady's friend was invited to stay all night (a first for both of them).  This little boy wasn't to sure if he wanted to, so we told him that after we had our fun we would stop by his house. If he wanted to stay he could get his bag, give mom and dad a hug and we would leave or he could just say good bye to us and we come home with out him! Well I think everyone was a little shocked (especially his mom and dad) when he walked in the house, dropped off his school stuff and than picked up his sleeping bag and headed towards the door!  It' is now 10:04, and I hear no noise coming from the room. They were in bed at 9 and I only had to go up there twice. Hoping we have a nice peaceful night!

October Fun!

It's November already!!  Wow, were did October go?  We have been pretty busy with just every day life.
Brady is loving school.  The teachers are awesome and Brady is picking up the Spanish like a pro. On Tuesday the 23rd he walked in the city Halloween parade with his school.  That Sunday we had our neighborhood trick or treat in the rain and cold. Just this past Tuesday the school hosted a family Math Night! Instead of Halloween parties during the school day, the school puts on a Math night. The kids are encouraged to dress in their costumes and they go around to different tables that have math activities. Brady had tons of fun hanging out with his friends.

Walking in the parade.

The Pirate!

Drawing out a pumpkin based on certain questions about his family.

First Day of Kindergarten

The day finally came. My little boy started kindergarten yesterday. Brady had been looking forward to going and was dressed and ready to go long before we needed to leave. Finally the time came and we set out. He wanted to walk but considering the huge amount of school supplies we had to take with us, we ended up driving.  Brady was all smiles as he walked into his classroom. He quickly found his desk and his teacher Señora Segura helped him find the hook for his backpack.  We really love his teacher! She is so nice and you can already tell that she really loves her "kids".  No tears from this mommy though!  I was excited for him to start this new chapter in his life. I know he is going to do great in school and that he is going to enjoy every moment of it.

Tiny Vent

I try to be a positive person.  I just have get something off my chest that is really starting to bug me.   First I want to say that it's not so much the questions themselves that people have been asking that bug me as much as the responses that frustrate me.
Question #1-  "Are you going to have anymore children?"  Okay once again it's not the question that bothers me. It's a pretty common question to ask. It's when I respond with "No not at this time" and instead of receiving positive or supportive comments I get the following statements.
-- Oh why not?
-- Oh you can't just have one.
-- Oh you better get busy.
Question #2- "So what are you going to do when Brady goes to school?"  A basic question, that I don't mind answering and probably one I might ask a fellow stay at home mom myself.   However I would never make a mom feel guilty for stating that she was going to continue to stay home.  I would never shame a mom for choosing to go to work either.  My newest response is to just say "Oh I have a huge list of stuff."  This is the complete truth.  I do have a ton of things that I would like to accomplish.  I would also like to volunteer at Brady's school as much as possible and I will continue with my home business.  

 If you have read this whole post than I thank you for listening. As I mentioned at the top of this post, I try to be a positive person.  I also try not let others get me down but sometimes a person just needs to clear the air.

My Flowers

I haven't blogged in a while and well although we have been busy it's nothing really blog worthy.  I got to thinking that I could share one of my favorite things that I enjoy.  My flowers....I love flowers of all kinds.  The flower bed in the front of our house has been evolving for several years now. When we first bought our house you couldn't even see the house because of these very tall, slender arborvitaes trees that were planted right against the house.  Needless to say one of the first things we did the following spring was pull every single one of them out. Here is what it looks like today.  

My Impatiens were not as pretty this year due to the heat but they are coming around.

Close up of my huge Hosta plants.

This Snap Dragon has been with me for 3 years now.
Amazing since they are only supposed to live through one season.

I just love this Chrysanthemum and it's getting huge!

Daily Lilies (one of my favorites) and Purple Cone Flower.

Happy 4th of July

Every year the Blvds (our street and the next one over) get together and have a little 4th of July fun.  Events start off with a kids parade.  The kids decorate their bikes or their strollers/wagons and than we close the street off and they ride around the island showing off their work.   Than we go on to a tug of war competition and a frisbee toss round between the two streets. The event is topped off with a water balloon toss and popsicles for all!!  It's a great time and gives us the opportunity to get to know our neighbors a little better.   Here is Brady's bike! He won a silver dollar for best decorated bike.

The Boy's Life

 Brady has had a very busy schedule this June.  He started out with a week of vacation bible school. Then he just finished two weeks of Safety town!  He had a great time and learned lots of new safety tips.  He made a few new friends and talked a lot about a girl named Ashleigh.  Today was his graduation and marks the end of a busy month for him.  Here is a picture of him getting his certificate.  Oh and just for the record his shorts are wet because he dumped a whole cup of fruit punch all over him in his classroom celebration.  That's my boy! LOL

My Little Swimmer

Well the start of Summer is here. Although you wouldn't know it based on the weather we had today.  Anyways, we typically put our pool up on Memorial Day weekend. This year we completed it a week early and I have to say that was one of the best decisions we made.  Memorial weekend was a hot one!!!  Brady is already becoming quite the swimmer.

Happy Birthday to Me

No it's not my birthday.  However just recently I finally decided to part with some birthday money that I have been collecting/saving for 2 years.  Add in a gift card and some Best Buy rewards money and I had just enough to purchase a Nook for myself. This was a huge purchase for me. I have never been a huge reader and couldn't figure out why I felt that I needed one. I researched and thought about it for two weeks. I almost talked myself out of it on more than one occasion. Finally I broke down and I did it.  In about one month I have already finished one book (The Help) and I'm just a few chapters short of finishing my second book (The Frontiersman's Daughter).  I highly recommend both books. However I have to say that although "The Help" was good, "The Frontiersman's Daughter" is just outstanding. I have a hard time putting it away and have been up a few times a little to late.  Ooops! LOL

    

Easter

We just finished celebrating Easter. As always we had lots of fun and overstuffed ourselves with great food. It's so neat to watch Brady experience every holiday. Each year a different aspect of the holiday seems to really excite him. Here are some pictures of our Easter.

Love the sunglasses!

Coloring his eggs!

Easter Egg hunt!  Uncle Ross kept stealing eggs out of his basket and re-hiding them.

Proud Mommy

About 2 weeks ago, I overheard Brady in his room, he was looking at a few small books that we had read to him since he was a baby. I knew that he was very familiar with these books as I myself had memorized them word for word. It wasn't until I listened closer, that I realized he seemed to be reading every word on the page. I listened for a minute and then he quit and I got occupied with something else. A few days later, Brady picked up another book and started in right away. I listened from the other room and heard him actually sounding out the words that he didn't know. The next day we had our weekly trip to story time at the library. We picked out a few books to bring home with us. When we got home we sat down and he proceeded to read the entire book to me. Every mom has those moments when they become very proud of their child. For me this is one of those times.

Warming Up

In January I posted about my dislike for cold weather. Well thankfully February and so far the first week of March has been pretty mild. Not to say we haven't had a little snow here and there or a few cold days. However just recently we have made it into the 60's. This makes me one happy lady! I love the sun, it seems to give me an unexplainable energy. I even put a load of bed sheets on the clothesline the other day. There is nothing better than crawling into bed and smelling that sweet smell of fresh air. Brady enjoyed his time outside playing on his swing. He told me that wearing a light weight jacked made him feel naked. Sigh.... the things that come out of his mouth.

Great Deal!

I'm really not one to shop for myself. Take a look at my current tennis shoes for example and you will notice that they are pretty worn and no tread left. I've known for a while that they were ready to be replaced but just didn't take the time to find a new pair for myself. About a year ago when I purchased my current shoes, I had tried a certain pair of shoes on but just couldn't talk myself into spending $70 dollars for them. On Friday Brady and I were out shopping and I took the opportunity to look for some new shoes. I noticed a clearance rack of shoes and was shocked when I saw 2 pair of tennis shoes in my size. I was even more shocked when I saw that one pair was almost the exact same $70 shoe I tried on a year ago, the other pair not a brand I had worn before but heard they were great for working out. I quickly grabbed both boxes and found a spot to try them on. Both pair fit perfectly!! I looked at the price of each pair,they were marked $24.99 and $29.99. Great deal right? I mean I could get them both for less than one pair not on clearance. I looked up at the clearance rack again and noticed that there was a small yellow sign that stated "save an extra 30%". Now, I assumed this was already figured into the price on each box, but I thought I would ask the associate that just walked by just in case. The associate looked at me and smiled and than sighed. She than explained that someone had signed the shoe dept. wrong and that 30% off sign should not be there. She than told me that she would give me that price since I saw the sign and asked about it!!!! I'm sure at this point I was smiling from ear to ear. I ended up getting both pair of shoes (New Balance and Sketcher Tone Ups) for $41!!!! Now that is a great deal!!!

Snow Fun

We haven't had much snow this year. The last real snow we had Brady was not well and didn't make it outside before it melted. This morning we woke up to 2" of snow and it snowed till about noon, leaving us a very wet 4" or so of snow. Brady finally got a chance this afternoon to go out and have some fun. He enjoyed making snowballs and throwing them at me as I rolled the body of the snow man for him. The snow was melting pretty fast so it's a good thing I took pictures right away because about 2 hours later his poor snowman collapsed.

Keeping My Fingers Crossed

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the winter months. Now don't get me wrong I do think that it's very pretty when the giant wet snow flakes start falling and the grass and streets are covered in a blanket of snow that sparkles in the moon light. It just seems that the cold winter months seem to go by so slow.
However this winter seems to be a little different. I can not believe that we are in the last days of January already. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that that February moves just as fast and we can start welcoming more sunshine and warmer weather. Although living in Ohio we know from past years that our biggest snow of the season can come in march.

A Loss for Words

All I can say is the bond between this man and his dog is something truly special.

Source: Uploaded by user via Alyssa on Pinterest

I came across this photo on Pinterest a few days ago and saw it again today. I felt I needed to share.