looking for a new car?

Well... I wasn't! Ha! I HATE car payments. I am perfectly fine driving a car until the wheels fall off. It makes me insane to make monthly payments on something!

This is was my car... a Mazda CX7. This was the first car I purchased on my own. I decided what I wanted, called a few dealerships, found who would give me the best deal, and bought it! It was delivered shortly after I told my husband I bought a new car! Ha! I wanted to do it all on my own... I was proud of myself. I LOVED my car! My 6'3" husband... not so much! He had a hard time getting in and out. But Hadlea and I fit just fine!

This is my NEW car! And I LOVE it too! My parents bought this car last year... a 2011 GMC Acadia. They were trading it in for another car and offered to trade my car in and let me buy theirs! And being 'almost' 30 years old, it pays to stay a momma and daddy's girl, because I could NOT pass up their offer! :-)

The dealership delivered it to us from Oklahoma City this afternoon. Someone couldn't wait to get in and check it out! Hadlea LOVED walking around in it and climbing on the seats! As did Berkley, who had to smell every single inch!

Thank you so much mom and dad for thinking of me... I know you did not have to. And thank you Gigi and Poppa for thinking of your granddaughter. I know you wanted her to have a bigger and safer car (and yes, Gigi, I know you wanted Hadlea to have rear air! ha!) You are two of the most kind hearted people EVER. I hope to be half of the parents you are to the boys and I. I love you both SO much!

our last few days....

We had a really great, FULL weekend! Friday evening, we met some friends at a new pizza place. It was delish! ...and there drinks were twice as wonderful! :-)

I dressed Hadlea in a Juicy outfit I bought when she was super small. I bought it on sale so I have been saving it for quite some time.  It is a 3T, but I thought it looked small so I tried it on her... thankfully I did. It barely fit. I had to cut some of the straps to get it on... But OMGeee, she looked adorable!

Before we leave the house, Hadlea always has to give Berkley a treat! She takes her job VERY seriously! Ha! And she always claps and says, "good job bubba"!

At the restaurant, they give the kids dough for something to do while waiting on their food. She had so much fun playing... and then couldn't wait to watch her Blues Clues and eat her rolls!

Saturday morning, we went to the boat races. Justin's friend, G, races so I was excited to watch him race.... someone was just excited to be outside by the water!

G, Justin and Hadlea

watching the races with her babies

The boats are very loud, and Hadlea wouldn't keep ear plugs in so we had to cover her ears with each boat that raced. After a while, she would do it on her own! {and don't mind the paci, by this time it was 6pm, she had no nap, it was 100+ degrees and she was TIRED!}

G ended up placing 3rd. He did great!

Sunday, we got up and went to church, out to lunch and back home. Nana came to pick up Hadlea and take her home for a few hours. Riley and Hannah got to go too, so she got in some cousin time... which she no doubt LOVED! After being at Nana's for a few hours, Hadlea started to run a fever and was pulling at her ears again. Grrrr.... I am SO over ear problems. But after a couple of hours, she seemed fine, other than a runny nose.

Hadlea does not want her tray on her high chair anymore so I bought her some plates and she is now sitting in her high chair, but eating at the table. She is loving it... and makes sure to tell mommy and daddy exactly where to sit too! :)

after dinner, we spent some time coloring.

Berkley decided to take a nap on one of Hadlea's babies. Sweet baby boy!

Monday was work, daycare and then home to play! One of Hadlea's favorite things is sitting in the refrigerator. No idea why, but she loves it. And I will pretty much let her do anything while I am cooking... she is easy to control when she is just sitting.... ha!

After dinner and bath, daddy decided to mow. Hadlea wanted to watch her daddy so I stood her in a chair and we watched for about 30 minutes. She thought daddy was so funny when he would walk by and wave... this girl LOVES her daddy!

We had Little Gym tonight and have a busy rest of the week so alot more to blog about!

project 365 - week 34

You can find week 33 here!

Mommy and daddy night out! Nana and cousin, Riley, came to watch Hadlea while daddy and I went to eat with friends and then went to the casino! We had a great time, although we didn't win any money!

Silly, silly girl! Sunday was church, lunch, naps and playtime! Hadlea was in a great mood and was SUPER funny! She loves to act silly in front of the camera and then look at her pictures!

Playtime at home! We spent the evening at home playing and took a bike ride!

TLG Tuesday! Daddy went to The Little Gym with us and H gladly showed off! She had a great evening running, jumping, galloping like a horse and squealing at the top of her lungs!

PAT! After our evening with Mrs Malinda and Parents as Teachers, we played outside. Hadlea loved chasing and loving on Berkley!

Out to dinner. While daddy fished, Hadlea and I went to dinner with Stephanie. Hadlea did great so afterwards we went for some FroYo and a cupcake... YUM!

Another dinner out with friends! After work and daycare, we went to meet Dustin and Alissa for dinner. We sat outside so Hadlea was in heaven running around and not having to sit and eat... there are times when we just have to pick our battles, right?! :)

turning 30...

So... my 30th birthday is coming up in October. I always thought the closer I got to 30 the more anxious, nervous and freaked out I would be... but let's face it... I am not any of the following:

• mature enough to be 30
• mature enough to be a mom
• mature enough to be 30

So... I think it is perfectly safe to say I do not even feel close to being 30... and as long as I do not FEEL 30, then I am fine with turning 30. After all, it is just a number, right?! And it is about how OLD you ACTUALLY feel, right?! That is so what I thought... and what I will keep telling myself from here on out!

And I am writing about this today to thank two very important people in my life... Shannan.

 And my baby daddy...

...who both took an entire 24 hours out of their lives to start planning my 30th birthday surprise party before the information got back to me! Ha! A surprise party would have been super fun {my parents had me one when I turned 16 and it is definitely my most memorable birthday to date, well... maybe 2nd to my 21st birthday when I got engaged!}, but it is definitely the thought that counts! And now that I KNOW I am having a party... let the planning begin! I CANNOT WAIT!

And if anyone is looking for gifts to get me {hint, hint Justin who rarely reads my blog so not sure if you will see this}, but I will take either of the following... or BOTH:

• a Louis Vuitton (ha. yes, I.AM.DREAMING)
• tickets to a Dallas Cowboys game

See... not even a long list! Maybe not too reasonable on either, but really, how many times do you turn 30!? :-)

And because the grandparents would die without a picture of Ms thing... We went to meet my cousin's gfriend for dinner last night while daddy fished. They had put her hair in pig tails at daycare, but with only one bow. I didn't bring any extra one with me {and God forbid she go without bows, yes, I know}, so I had to put it in a pony tail... make.me.melt! LOVE her with a pony tail!

Happy weekend friends!

PAT & exercising

Last night we started back up with Parents as Teachers. Mrs. Malinda is our teacher, and we LOVE her! She is so good with Hadlea. She says the funniest things and sings the most hilarious songs... she just starts singing or talking to Hadlea in these funny voices as if Justin and I are not even sitting there! They evaluate the child for their current age at each visit. Hadlea has scored 100% through 24 months! Mrs. Malinda always gives us ideas for things to work on with Hadlea for her age. Last night was jumping off of a small box to learn coordination, copying someone that drawls a straight line and someone making a design with a few blocks and then Hadlea copies it.

It always makes me laugh to think about doing something so small as drawling a straight line with her, but I know the smallest details can be such a huge impact on the child.

While we were waiting on Mrs. Malinda to arrive, we spent some time practicing our coloring!

After she left, we had dinner and went outside. Hadlea chased Berkley, rode her 4-wheeler, colored with chalk, played with bubbles and then we all went for a bike ride before it was time for a bath, book and bed!

Love this pic! It was so HOT outside, but she still ran around like crazy! She told Berkley to sit, she sat beside him and then started saying cheese... so of course I RAN for my camera! :-)

I started Couch to 5K (C25K) this week. I did week 1, day 1 and it was almost too easy! I think the only reason I broke a sweat was because it was still 90 degrees when I went to run! I jumped up last night to week 2, day 1. I think I could actually jump up to week 3, day 1, but we will see... no reason to rush it, right?! Ha! (and if you know me at all, you know I am NOT a runner, but I am so anxious to run my first 5K. Hopefully it is sooner rather than later!)

I have been asked by several people how I am losing weight/getting in shape. And although I eat WAY too many McDonald's fries to be a professional fitness information provider, I can tell you what has been working for me.... Jazzercise! One of my high school friends was doing it and asked me to go a couple of times. I told her she was CRAZY! I actually thought it was for older people and that she was just doing it to get out of the house (since she is a stay at home mom). haha!

She then decided to get her instructors license and start teaching it. I went to her first class, and I was amazed at how hard it really is! There are all age groups of people, and they give you different ways to do things depending on your ability. I have been doing it over a year now and I am 20 lbs lighter than when I got pregnant with Hadlea in 2009! Although I am not at my skinniest weight ever, I only have 5 lbs to go... I have been trying to lose those last 5 lbs since the first of this year... but I refuse to give up McDs to lose them! :-)

Another thing I love about Jazzercise is they off daycare during certain classes. They also offer the babysitting positions to the people that take the class. So if you can babysit one class a week for one hour, you get to take Jazzercise the entire month for free! I know so many that cannot afford a gym membership, but would love to work out. This gives them the opportunity to do so without having to pay for it!

what she's saying wednesday & TLG

Hadlea talks more and more everyday! She is putting 4-5 words together at a time... and even will go into LONG stories and just laugh her sweet little head off. I so wish I knew what the entire story was about, because they sound really funny! Ha! Not a minute goes by that she isn't doing something that completely cracks us up... well, minus the times she goes into complete tantrum mode! :-) Here are just a few from the last week:

• "No! No, Mommy! Noooo!" - This is what I heard walking Hadlea down the hall when she figured out she was going to a different class at daycare. I felt like the WORST momma ever! I know change is good for her, but it so hurts a momma's heart to hear those words.... followed by a raging scream! :)
• "No, Daddy! followed by "Me. No, Daddy" - The other night, Justin was cooking dinner and Hadlea and I were playing play dough.  I asked Justin a question and I received a smart a** remark. I had to walk by him to get something, so I may or may not have de-pants'ed him! We both started laughing, and Hadlea started laughing too... later Justin did the same to me to get me back... Hadlea yelled, "No, Daddy! and then walked over, got in my face and said to me, "Me. No, Daddy". And then she started laughing. I think she was telling me that 'SHE' told Daddy No! Justin and I could NOT stop laughing, although Justin wasn't so sure about his 1 year old taking her momma's side! Ha! He COULD BE in trouble!
• "Was up?!" - Last night on the way home from The Little Gym, Hadlea started saying something, but it took us a minute to figure it out. I finally caught on that she was saying, "What's up?!". HILARIOUS! Because we laughed so loud, we got to hear it for another 10 miles... Nice!

Last night we went back to The Little Gym. The first time when we went, she did great, but she was still a little clingy. This time... she was OUT OF CONTROL! She ran around non-stop... jumping, laughing, running, squealing, etc. etc. etc!! And she LOVED having her daddy with her this time. She showed him everything!

Each week, they have a station of the week. This week was doing a roll with the parent... kind of to learn trust. We ended up doing this several times... you can hear her yell 'GO' at the beginning and then laugh at the end.

on the upside...

The last couple of weeks have been ROUGH! I am hoping we are on the upside of a sick, irritable, clingy and bossy baby girl... and hoping to finally start sleeping at night! Yikes! I think I slept more when she was a tiny baby than I have the last couple of weeks!

She was only getting up 2-3 times a night, however, I was keeping her at home during the day with me, which meant working before she got up and after she went to bed! That makes for some SUPER long days!

We didn't do much this weekend since I wanted her home as much as possible to recover and rest. We had some friends over on Friday evening for a cookout:  G, Taran, Trevin and Raelie. Hadlea and Trevin had so much fun swinging, playing ball and running after each other. Hadlea wasn't so sure about Raelie at first and she did NOT want me to hold her at all, but she eventually came around. Especially after she got to hold her too!

She went to bed around 9PM on Friday evening. She slept all night so I was thinking she would get up around 0830 or 0900 AM. I got up and dressed so we could go to the park before it got too hot. At 10:48AM she FINALLY started moving, and I went and got her up! Goodness... I didn't think she would ever get up. But I got alot of chores done around the house while she slept! SCORE!

We ended up going to the park around noon, which was crazy because it was already HOT and 107 degrees! She had a great time, but was sweating like a man! Ha!

After the park, we ran to CFA for lunch and happened to run into Nana and Riley. We had a nice lunch visit with them. We then ran to Target for a few things and ran into Aunt Leslie and Hannah and some of their friends.

While we were out, we got some play dough. I have never bought play dough for the house, but Hadlea has played with it at other people's houses. I am still a little unsure of it, because she tries to eat it! {Geesh.. she is a strange kid!} She ended up doing great with it... and not eating a bite! Ha!

Nana offered to keep Hadlea that evening so daddy and I could go out to dinner. Nana and Riley arrived just before 8 so Justin and I left to meet some friends for dinner and then went to the Hard Rock Casino. We had a really fun night!

My baby girl and I before we left!

 silly girl. i love her so much!

 my 3 babies!
{and don't worry about H's boots. I did not dress her in a nice summer ropper and pair them with a pair of rain boots! ha! We bought those while out shopping and she HAD to wear them all evening!}

Sunday morning, we got up and ready for church. I didn't take a picture of Hadlea in her church dress, but she looked SO cute! We came home and quickly changed clothes so we could drop my car off to get the oil changed. While we waited on it, we went to lunch and did a little shopping.

I took Had's picture before we left to take my car. It is almost impossible these days to get a good shot! I thought these were all super fun though!

Once we got home, we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing/playing! Daddy did some laundry, H enjoyed the ride...

Hadlea shared crackers with her brother and got thrown around by daddy!

I am pretty sure Sunday afternoons at home are my favorite (especially now that football is starting YEAH!)! We have so much fun lounging out and playing with Hadlea! We do it alot in the evenings after work too, but they seem to go SO fast during the week when we also have dinners to cook and baths to give.

I am so glad Hadlea is feeling better too! It definitely made Sunday that much more fun to know she was back to her funny little self!

project 365 - week 33

You can find week 32 here!

Fish and Bulls!  Gigi and Poppa were in town to keep H while daddy and I went to the lake with the Justice family. They went to the the Aquarium and the Professional Bull Riding.

 Lake Time! Justin and I went to meet the Justice family at Lake Tenkiller! Great adult weekend plus a little time with KK and B!

Touchdown Cowboys! Hadlea got in her first Dallas outfit of the year! And it is probably my most favorite ever!

Big, sleepy girl! I went in to wake Hadlea up one morning and couldn't believe how long she looked! ...did she really grow inches overnight?! I doubt it, but she sure looked like it!

 August 17, 2011: No picture! :-( Hadlea still wasn't feeling well from her double ear infection.

Home with momma! Hadlea stayed home another day from daycare to spend the day with momma. I worked and kept her... which makes for a VERY LONG day! Nana came to relieve me so I could run to the gym. Hadlea ended up having a great day!

Playdate! We had our friends G, Taran, Trevin and Raelie Sage over for dinner. Hadlea and Trevin are starting to play better each time we get together. They are just hilarious! Hadlea wasn't too sure about Raelie at first, and she did NOT want me holding her, but she eventually came around and even held Raelie herself. She was SO proud! She thought laying beside her and talking to her was the best!