Which one of these is not like the other?

So, I might be the only one who finds this funny.  But all summer long I have been so excited about getting 3 scare crows for our front yard, one for Ryan, me, and a baby one for Garrison.  So I waited and waited until they were on sale at Hobby Lobby and honestly, had a great time picking them out, pitiful what makes some people happy!  Any way, it wasn't until about a month later that I realized something about the "Daddy" scare crow.  Do you see any resemblance in him to Ryan? HAHAHA- the Daddy one is darker than the momma and the baby!  It is not as obvious in the picture as in real life.  This just cracks me up because all of Ryan's friends constantly pick on him about being so dark, and now so is his scare crow! Ah hahahah.  Oh my, I'm laughing out loud while typing this... hehehehe.  I thought about  taking it back- but it just makes me smile every time I pull up and see it!  Sweet Ryan is such a good sport.

Daddy, where are you?

Ryan had to get up in the attic yesterday to get down our fall decorations.  Garrison could not understand what was going on! He would laugh for a minute then he would cry- it was too cute so I couldn't resist taking some pictures!

**No worries Garrison did not touch the insulation that fell on the floor**

Garrison update!

Garrison will be 11 months tomorrow!!!! He is def a big boy now! He is walking EVERYWHERE and today he mastered standing up without having to pull up on something. He loves to talk and I think he thinks he is saying actual words but it just comes out as "ohhhh". He is very curious now. When I got outside to check the mail or something he will stand by the cracked open door, open it when I walk up, and with a little coaching close it when I come in.   It is probably the cutest thing I have ever seen!  He is also wearing "big boy pjs" to bed now.  After a wild diaper incident, we no longer put him to bed in a t-shirt (you can imagine what happened ;)  His new pj's make him look so much like a toddler, I really don't like it!  Enjoy the new pictures, they are all close ups of Garrison, because as soon as I pull out the camera he runs to me to try to grab it!

Garrisons 10 month pictures

We just got the proofs back from Garrisons 10 month pics- and it just confirmed that he is the cutest! I can't help but smile when I look at them- and I have oh about 83 times. We got them taken at Lighthouse studio and I would recomend Mrs. Leslie to anyone! She took Celeste's senior portriats and Trail pics so she came highly recommended. She was so sweet and patient- she even let us come back a second day because Gar wasn't the sweetest or patient the first try! She also printed out all of the images so we could see what they would look like, instead of just looking at the "raw images" online. No worries- I spent about 3 hours at her studio trying to decide. In a couple of months we are headed back to get some family portriats done- this will truly test Mrs. Leslie's skills as a photographer- sure she can make Celeste and Garrison look good (prob two of the most beautiful people I know) but what about pregnant me?!?!?!
So here is the link- enjoy!
http://lhactionshots.com/OnlineViewing/

The password is : Garrison (make sure to capitolize his name or it wont work!)

Have a good weekend and ROLL TIDE!!!

My fairy tale life- Loving and supporting my prince from the home

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There was something on the news this morning about how more and more women are choosing to "opt out" (bull) of working to stay at home with their kids.  They had two women on: one who chose to stay at home and one who is all about women in the workforce- pretty much all about women being men in my opinion.  I felt so bad for the woman that chose to not only stay at home- but RAISE HER CHILDREN AND SUPPORT HER HUSBAND FROM THE HOME.  I understand that not all people share the same Christian view as my family, but I was literally screaming at the tv while the program was on.  It was so obvious which woman the station supported more (even the write up about it that I later read said nothing of the stay at home mom).  The woman wrote a book called "The Feminine Mistake".  The main subject is that women who chose to stay at home are depending too much on their husbands for financial support.  I fully understand that "bad things happen to good people" and you can not live in ignorance about your finances- but there are ways to plan for these things. Here is a piece of the article:

"But in 21st century America, it has never been more clear that choosing economic dependency as a lifestyle is the classic feminine mistake. No matter what the reasons, it’s simply too risky to count on a man to take care of you over the long haul.

Half of all marriages end in divorce; the average age of widowhood in America is 54; and by the time women reach 60, two-thirds of them no longer have partners. Even those in lasting marriages must contend with an insecure labor market in which many men lose their jobs at some point — a hardship that proves especially painful for families who rely on a single breadwinner.

Meanwhile women’s life spans have doubled in the last century. The result is that American women are now twice as likely to slide below the poverty line as men in their later years — and 80 percent of those women were not poor before they lost their breadwinners. And yet our culture continues to encourage the fairy-tale fantasy that women should devote themselves to marriage and family, in return for which Prince Charming will take care of them forever."

So- let me get this straight- at the off chance that my marriage should end in divorce (which it wont), at the off  chance that Ryan might die today or tomorrow (which very well could happen), and at the chance that I will out live my husband, I should hand my child, soon to be children, over to some daycare worker for them to raise, live in fear that my husband is going to leave me, and go back to work teaching. All while my child is being raised by a complete stranger. Well, as for me and my house we will continue to keep living the "fairy-tale fantasy" that we are called by our Lord to live.

If it's not one thing it's another...

So I have been broken out in whelps for three days now.  It all started Saturday night and they have been coming and going since then.  I took some pictures of my arms and legs to put up, but after viewing them blown up on the computer screen I did not want to induce vomit on any of my readers ;)  So I decided it was best that I kept them to myself.   

Please pray that we figure out why I keep breaking out.  I am about to itch to death!!!  The whelps will not effect the baby so that helps put my mind at ease.  But between the whelps, constant state of panic (you would think you wouldn't be that way with your second- but you are), and all the other pregnancy symptoms it is hard to sometimes remember why I put myself through this mess!  But I just keep telling myself, right after the nurse held Garrison up when he was born I forgot all about the hard times during his pregnancy.  So I will forget about all of this in 6, hopefully short, months.  Until then I will be pouring Calamine lotion all over myself and using some kind of lotion that smells like an old lady to hopefully make the itch go away!

Ryans first game as head coach

Ryan's first game as a head coach was yesterday! Well he is the co-head coach of the Freshman football team at MGM. Why they do it that way I will never understand. Anyway he is over defense.
So, me and Garrison got all decked out in our MGM appareal and headed to Semmes. It was soooooooo hot!  It was miserable. But it was exciting to see all of Ryan's hard work pay off and his dream of being a coach coming true!  He coached football last year, but this year he is in charge of his own team.  

It was so funny to see the boys, well I guess "young men" so intimidated by Ryan.  They really looked like that wanted to toss their cookies when he would get upset with them. So that was quite entertaining.

 GO VIKINGS!!!

P.S. That is not sweat on my sons outfit- it is juice :)

Rub a Dub Dub Garrisons too big for his tub!

In honor of the duckie tub being packed away (Garrison's legs are almost too long to allow him to sit in it) I thought I would post some precious pictures of Gar from bath time the other night. I cant wait until 25 years from now ;) when Gar brings a girl over and I can show her these pictures of him. Hehehe - sweet revenge for all the nights he kept me up!

Why buy toys for baby?

Garrison loves to play in our curtains.  He has a living room and a bedroom full of toys, but he picks curtains over them all! Even though it is a "no" I think it is the cutest thing.  I couldn't catch it on camera- but he was all wrapped up in one panel.  After he saw me he just looked at me like- "What I'm not supposed to touch these?"  and then he crawled over to me and laughed.  Pretty sure he knew that he got away with it :)

Blah Blah Blah Blah

K- so today has been awful. I am just going to be honest.  I put way to much on my plate, again and over half of it has not gotten done. And frankly, I don't care!

  It would of not been so awful if today wasnt a Friday.  Fridays are football days!  In our house this means Ryan leaves at 6:20 in the morn and usually gets home around oh midnight.  So I just stumble through the day until I wake up and its Saturday morning.

  Also, to make matters worse- we are closing on our lot today and me and Gar had to make a last minute trip to MGM to pick up something from Ryan.  And for some reason (cell phone malfunction) a trip that should of only took 30 minutes tops ended up taking me an hour and a half.  Let me just tell you, Garrison loved the trip ;)  It is on days like these that I long to go back to teaching 3rd grade- what a cake walk.  I take that back- teaching is by no means an easy job- I am just in a bad mood and things like that just tend to spill out...

So therefor I lost it (I mean big time lost it) on the two men who seem to always get the blount of my anger- Ryan and sweet Garrison.  Even while I am writing this I am wondering if I should erase this part.  No one really every writes about screaming at their husbands or needing a break from their kids.  But lets be honest, not every post can be a tribute to how wonderful your children are and how easy it is to serve your husband at all times.  Please do not leave me a comment saying that you always get along with everyone and smile all the day through- somehow I just don't believe you.  Again, when I am in a bad mood things just tend to spill out...  I was in the wrong for being so ugly to them- and I apolgize.

K- well I am off to go get my weekly caffeine fix!  I promise on my next post I will be a nicer person.

Home is Where the Heart Is

We are closing on a lot in, of all places, Saraland, on Saturday.  My entire life I swore I would never live there.  It is amazing how your needs/ wants change once you have a baby and another one on the way.  The idea of having my parents and Ryan's so close is actually one I like to think about!

 We love the house we are in now, but we knew when we bought it we wouldn't be here forever Once our house in mid town sold we had two weeks to find a new house to move into- before we lost the contract and before Garrison decided to arrive.  So we found our West Mobile house and liked it, but always new we would look back and think of 208 Pinehill Drive as our home.  

     Our mid town house was our newly wed house.  When we were dating we would always drive around Mid Town and I would beg Ryan to buy us a house there.  (My grandparents lived in the Springhill area growing up and I had always wanted to live close to their old neighborhood).  Ryan, of course, hated it- small yards, houses close together.  But he always told me that one day he would buy me a house in midtown.  And somehow I finally talked him into it!

    Pinehill was were we spent all of our first holidays, had friends engagement parties and showers, had many fights, found out we were having a baby, proudly displayed our brand new wedding photos, and had a lot of laughs.  Our entire family thought we were nuts for buying it. The Pinehill  house is by no means anything fancy, is on the outskirts of what is considered the "nice" part of midtown, was built right beside a lovely drainage ditch which the city tried to mask by putting up an even lovelier chain length fence, and stood proudly at 850 square feet- counting the front porch.  But we LOVED IT!  We loved to talk about the other families that called 208 Pinehill home before us.  What their lives had been like, the holidays they spent there, and the memories they made.  In just the short time we lived there we have so many fun times in that house!  Mainly ones made while trying to fix it up!  Like me and Ryan stuffing ourselves, a garbage can of cement, and needless tiling tools into a bathroom the size of a shoebox, to try to lay tile ourselves to save money- needless to say we called a professional.  Another HILARIOUS memory was Ryan loosing his mind on the dogs that kept us up all night next door!  I still do not know why he thought hollering at them at midnight would make them stop barking.  "they are just dogs sir, dogs will bark" haha ryan.

It will be sad to see our West Mobile house go, we have had a lot of wonderful times here also.  I don't even want to think about leaving Garrison's and the new baby's nursery.  But we knew we would be moving from here the day we moved in.  Still, it will be some time before the move actually happens and we look forward to our adventures still to come in West Mobile.