My Birthday this year was a blast! Seriously one of my best birthdays ever! Brian's parents came into town (it was also President's Day Weekend) and they watched the kids so Brian and I could have a date night Saturday night. We went to Red Lobster and watched "The Secret World of Arrietty". I really loved it. And earlier Saturday, I took the gift card my parents had got me and got my hair done! I got it cut and dyed! Love it! Theresa also bought me some new dresses. Love!
Then, Sunday afternoon was the Highland Mardi Gras Parade! I am kicking myself that I forgot to take my camera but it was a way fun parade! Love the interesting beads, my favorite: a pair with jazz instruments! Way cool! Plus got stocked up on plastic cups! Sydney loved the parade! She refers to it as "rade" though and I have to tell her we did not go to a "raid" we want to a "pa-rade". oh well.
Then, Sunday night Brian threw me a birthday party! It was lots of fun, my sister was there and so were our friends the Terrys. We had Kings Cake for my birthday cake. Can't beat that!
Jonas found the cake yummy!
And I found the baby in the cake. Oh well, just will have to buy another delicious King's Cake!
Great birthday! Thank you everyone that made it great!
When I don't post on this blog, it doesn't mean I haven't touched the computer in a month. Oh man, I'm so sorry I don't post updates more often. This is a summary of how we are all doing. I will do another special post about my birthday! :)
Not too much excitement. Hired some workers to patch up the ceiling where Brian put a hole. No more hole! Yeah! Ouch on the budget! Boo! I listened to some Dave Ramsey recently and I am COMMITTED! to sticking to a budget and getting our debts paid off. Goal: 2014 debt-free. No student loans, no car loans, no credit card loans. Free I tell you! We've adopted the envelope system. Hope it goes well!
Jonas is so sweet! He's started giving closed-mouth kisses and does a cute little smack noise! I haven't yet (knock on wood) heard him say "no" but it does such an energetic "yeah" nod. So cute! He's also getting the hang of hide-and-seek as we play around the house. He tries to sign "dad" by putting his thumb on top of his head (should be on his forehead) but I'm impressed that he has that idea down! He helps you dress him, and he can take off his shirt now. He is also so trained about bed time and nap time! He knows the routine and walks himself over to bed. Most nights, he doesn't cry, just goes to sleep. So nice! Jonas is getting so confident on the playground equipment, too!
Sydney has been watching the Leap Frog Letter Factory videos and is picking up on her letters fast! Sometimes, she gives you the sound though instead of the name of the letter but it's still a step in the right direction! Sydney practices writing an S and we hope that by the end of the year she can write her name. She sure knows what she wants and often tells me an alternative to what I have asked her to do. It can be trying but overall I know she is a sweet little girl and I love the way she sings "Follow the Prophet" as we are walking down the sidewalk. I think she'd make a great missionary companion!
And this is a layout I did ( I modified the picture to include the stripes) of Sydney to talk about her recent issue of coloring on the walls. It lasted about 2 weeks before she finally grasped that is was bad. Again, knock on wood, it's been several days but I have a stash of Magic erasers just in case....
Brian's work keeps trudging along. His company has cut back on some of their natural gas teams which meant job cuts for those workers but Brian's job was not in jeopardy. Relief! He continues to study for the second of five APECS exams and is looking into graduate school programs. He wouldn't stop working just do it at night or when he has "free time". But I'm supportive of him getting more education.
I (Meagan) am finishing up my math course! I have my final scheduled for March 20th and then I am done! With that course at least. It's 1 of 4 pre-requisites I need to get into the grad program for Applied Math at Texas A&M. I'm not sure when I will be able to take the other 3 as we just don't have extra money for education right now. But maybe when we get our debt paid off, my digital scrapbooking business profit can go to it. My business is going really well and I even had to file it on my taxes for this last year so it's growing! and I couldn't be more thrilled. I teach the 4-6 yr olds at church and I am finding the age group fun to work with. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't like to teach 20 of them 5 days a week but for Sunday for 1 hour, it's fun. Next post, my birthday!
I've neglected my blog recently. ooops. It's been a fun month and a fun/interesting month to start the new year!
The year started out great with my parents and youngest sister visiting. I also had lots of cousins, aunts and uncles visiting as well.
It had been about 8 months since I saw my parents and a year and a half since they saw Sydney but affection for them came easy to Sydney and Jonas!
During their visit, I was driving home at night and saw there was something in the road, at least I thought I saw something. Before I knew it, I was running over it and it instantly popped my two left tires. I began swerving and it was hard to get the vehicle off the road and to a stop as I was going 60 mph when I hit what we later discovered was a tire hubcap. My older sister came and was able to take my kids home and my mom and grandpa stayed with me while I waited for the tow truck. As soon as I got off the phone to call my parents and let them know what happened, I said a prayer of gratitude because I knew we were protected. There could have been other cars on the road while I was swerving uncontrollably making the situation much worse but as it was, no one was injured.
The damage turned out to be more than just two flat tires. The bumper had to be replaced and the actual wheels on the left side, too. I am grateful for insurance. It took 2 and a half weeks for the repairs to be completed. But we have our car back now and I couldn't be more thrilled.
We got a nasty electric bill in December so we decided to finally do something about adding more insulation in the attic. My cousin's husband James came to help Brian as they rented a blower and blew more insulation in our attic. I must have jinxed them as I was talking to James before they started and explained that my husband was like Tim Taylor and he needed to be the Al. I didn't want any ER visits that day. Well, we didn't have an ER-worthy incident but we did get this nice hole:
As a loving, caring and sweet wife my first thought SHOULD have been concern and gratitude that Brian DID NOT fall through this hole. But instead I was shocked and mumbled some kind of death threat. But, we'll get this fixed soon. I'm mostly annoyed that it's probably not going to look seamless and as wonderful as it did before. And yes, I am grateful Brian did not fall through.
Jonas had his 15-month check-up and all is looking great! He is 24 lbs 10.7 oz (around the 75% percentile), 30.5 inches (around the 25% percentile), and his head was 18.8 in (75% percentile). He and Sydney were both so great during the visit the doctor said I had sweet children :) I should let them hang out at his house sometime. But seriously, they are pretty sweet and I think they get along really well.
Jonas is just a ball of energy! He babbles a lot and a lot of words have that "bah" sound! "Outisde?" "Bah!" "Bath?" "Bah!" But really he sounds out a lot of words. I had fun a few weeks ago when I was telling him "You rock" and he replied with what really sounded like "I Rock". Still haven't been able to get a clear video of that though. He climbs on everything: the couch, the changing table (he can climb to the top), climbs into the bath tub, etc. He tries to put his shoes on his feet. He turns book pages with ease (board books), and he loves giving hugs. He gives "kisses" but they mostly involve sucking on your skin. He's made a few marks with a crayon on paper and loves to dance! Brian and I have an XBOX Kinect that can follow some simple voice commands. Jonas tries to say "XBOX" when we say that and also, the Kinect follows your body movement and to trigger that, you wave your hand back and forth. Jonas will stand in front of the Kinect and wave his arms to try to wake up the Kinect. Techno-baby!
We had a little scare with Jonas when earlier this month he got several fire ant bites while playing in my grandmother's backyard. He had at least 20 on his hand. I quickly got him inside and stripped him. We poured vinegar on the bites and rubbed some painkiller cream on his hands. He really took it like a champ the entire time. I gave him Benadryl for several days to make sure he didn't have a reaction. I'm so glad he didn't.
Sydney is loving being a Sunbeam and does pretty well about staying in her seat. She is eager to learn and we are trying to master the shapes, colors, and some letters of the alphabet. She knows "s" (has known that one for months), "j" (J for Jonas!), "b" and she knows the letter "m" is what "mom" starts with but she is still working on saying it's name. She can mostly count to 20 and when she takes her time she can count 10 objects. We've also been practicing cutting paper. I watched a friend's 3-month old a couple of times in the last few weeks and Sydney has been all ga-ga over him and very helpful with fetching burp cloths, etc. It's really sweet to see. She is also becoming very skilled at navigating her way around Brian's I-Phone! Sydney also had her first dental visit this month! She did such a super job and opened up nice and wide for the dentist. And got a clean bill of health for her teeth! Super!
I took my second mid-term for my Independent Study math course and it is such a relief to have that part past me. I studied every day for 2 weeks. It will be a while before I found out how I did but I feel it went well. I still have one more unit and the final to complete and need to get it done by April 2nd so as not to pay for the extension. After this course, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I feel like my only option is to pay out-of-pocket for this pre-requisite courses to get into my grad program of choice but with our house we don't have the money for me to do that. I need to do some soul-searching and really contemplate where I want to go with this and what I need to do.
And some additional videos for your viewing pleasure.
It seems like some of the videos did not link to my channel or something... the two Christmas ones can be accessed with the previous link but here are the two of Sydney singing and then 2 of her dancing:
So I've wanted to start making a special post on my sisters' birthdays and Drea's went whishing past me! So, better late than never, a very belated happy birthday to my big sis!
This is Andrea. I am her twin born 5 years later.
As proof, I had this picture of me up on my computer today and my nephew said, "That's mommy!" Not quite!
If there was a movie made about her life, Drew Barrymore would play her.
Drea already had the theme music from Ever After play at her wedding so it's like a life soundtrack now.
A thing I remember about Drea from my childhood was that she loved [loves] music. And all types. I remember her passionately singing along to Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast [her fave movie] as well as "I like to move it" (not the King Julian version). She played the violin in her school orchestra that went to Carnegie Hall. Wowzers!
She's very intelligent and organized. She's an accountant. That pretty much sums up her amazing intelligence there!
She is a loving, busy, working-mom of two cute kids!
Ok, so the one dressed in yellow is mine.
And even though I am about 1/4 inch taller than her, I still look up to her. Love you big sis! and Happy [belated] Birthday!
First, sorry about my digital-scrapbooking post that went out to a lot of you! I goofed up on that!
In the last week we finally got our Christmas tree up. The kids aren't messing with it too much. We obviously didn't put any of our breakables on the tree (little kids+ glass ornaments + ceramic floors= trouble!!) and they had fun helping us put it up!
Yes, Jonas had to put up the tree shirtless. Very macho!
Sydney decided that stockings should be used for their true purpose.
Last Saturday we went to Christmas in Roseland, a rose center that has lots of lights displays and performances. I was so glad we went when we did because it was a beautiful night! and the week since we went, it has been cold, wet and windy.
Another set of displays are large "Christmas Cards" by the local schools. I thought this one was so cool: They used bottle caps to the make this snowman.
I don't talk about Santa a lot but I guess from movies and such, the magic of Santa has been instilled in Sydney's heart. So when she found out Santa was at Roseland, a cute grin stretched across her face. She was so excited and was not scared of him at all. I was pretty surprised. Not surprised that Jonas freaked out after 2 seconds on Santa's lap. We took one with me holding Jonas but it didn't come out well so I didn't upload. But here is the picture they gave us:
It's too yellowish-green for me so I changed it to black and white- looks better I think!
Or maybe you like this one with the red selected:
I think I like the black and white one best, what do you think?
A little late I know but it's been a little crazy! Jonas has been pretty fussy lately. It could be teething or it could very well be his rebellion since I stopped breast-feeding him. Who knows!
We had a great time for Thanksgiving visiting Brian's parents in Alabama. Here are some pictures:
This is a nightgown from Grandma Holloman. Sydney absolutely loves it! because it twirls like a dress!
Grandpa Tuck helping Jonas unwrap his present.
This is a great shot showing all the gorgeous woods around Gma and Gpa Tuck's new place!
We had lots of fun seeing Brian's aunts and uncles as well. AMAZING cooking and Brian and I got a date night courtesy of Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks! Of course some shopping as well! It was just the R&R I needed!
It's seems by perfect design that we have Thanksgiving before Christmas. At Thanksgiving, we hopefully reflect on all the blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us and truly see how fortunate we are. Then, with that in mind, we turn around and feel the need to share and bless the lives of others at Christmas time. I hope we each take time to count our blessings, and then go and be a blessing on someone's list.
Brian and I met at BYU-Idaho. We were married in August 2005 in the Las Vegas Temple and we now have a beautiful daughter, Sydney and son, Jonas! We are now located in Louisiana.
