My good mood

Not sure why but I have had so much energy and have been in a great mood lately. It certainly has nothing to do with the weather here, as it has been raining everyday for the last 5 days. Maybe it is because I am back into the swing of going to work and learning to balance things. Of course balancing everything 100% will never be an obtainable goal, but I am okay with that! I have been busy planning Brighton's 3rd birthday party. It will be a small event but loads of fun for him. We are still working hard on his potty training. He is more than capable of doing it, but he regressed from it when Baylor was born and has just in the past few weeks started doing really well with it again. We are trying to use his upcoming birthday as our motivator.

Baylor continues to do better on his new meds but is still having some issues in the evenings being in pain. He randomly wakes up at 5:00 AM some mornings and others, sleeps until 7:30. He is a real Houdini, getting out of his swaddles during the night. Other than that, he is doing well. Last weekend I took him out and about with me all weekend and everyone commented on how happy he was! He just started going to the same church preschool Mother's Morning Out program as Brighton and his teachers say he is a joy to have to that makes me feel so good. We have a fun filled weekend coming up. Meeting up with the Johnsons on Saturday and then going out for Mickey's birthday!! I am really looking forward to it.

4 Month Back to Back Pics

Baylor at 4 months

Brighton at 4 months

Home Improvements

Although we built our house over a year ago, it is always a work in progress. Luckily, we picked a floor plan that has room for us to "grow" into, as needed. More on that in a bit. Jason started this flagstone pathway down to our dock in September. It was quite a job and he put A LOT of work into it. I think it turned out GREAT!!

Over the summer we visited a very mod hotel in Myrtle Beach that had these amazing ottomans that were made out of the same material that my kitchen bar stools are covered in. I fell in love with them and wanted one for my house so badly! Donna had our favorite upholsterer make me one for Christmas!! It turned out great and has totally inspired me to do some other improvements inside of the home. Some of which Jason will only be learning about after he reads this blog!

House Goals for 2013: * Finish the bonus room (Okay he Obviously knows about this one!) * Dressing my naked windows in the kitchen and living room (this could take a while as I am VERY particular about window treatments and picking out the right fabric, but I have already found my DREAM hardware!) * Getting a mantle on our fireplace before next Christmas * Getting shelving or something up on the bare wall in our living room that our TV is on *Also, various small things that are not worth mentioning

Baylor Improvements

After having about 5 out of 7 bad evenings with Baylor (screaming between the hours of 4 and 7 PM) I decided that he was to old to be having colic, and called his doctor. She called in a prescription for acid reflux meds. It has only been 3 days, but he is like a new baby!! He is happy almost all of the time, and eating much better, which equals eating more! Also having much less spit ups. He is still in some pain in the evenings but no where near the level that he was before we started the medicine. I am convinced the medicine is our miracle. Jason was out of town all week at the Las Vegas CES show and I thought this week was really going to be rough on me. Thank goodness I called the doc when I did. Both of my kids have given me a break and have been great, and I have handled things at home by myself much better than I had expected. Of course we have all missed Jason and will be happy to have him home again. Baylor slept for 7 hours last night and I am convinced it is because he is now able to eat more. I hope this lasts. I love having a happy little baby!!

Streaker

This is how I found Brighton when he got up from his "nap" on Saturday. This was about the 6th time that day where he had taken his clothes off and started running around the house. It is sort of funny, but we certainly cannot encourage it! We are starting to see the beginnings of the "Terrible Three's". The episodes and fits are mainly caused by Brighton trying to cut out naptime. He gets so cranky and whiny when he skips them.

Luckily for us, Brighton kept his clothes on that evening when we went over to Aunt Kelly and Uncle Craig's house. They just bought a new house not far from us at all. Jason's longtime friend Damon was there too and got to meet Baylor!

My Batmen

Here are Brighton and Jason dressed up in their finest Batman attire! I thought it was fun.

I am happy to say that the Flowe house is back in order. All Christmas decor and goodies have been put away. I can finally see my floor and the house feels minimal again. Sort of reminds me that I need to finish decorating! Have not done much since we moved in, but the clean slate is a little inspirational. Most importantly though, Brighton is okay. He survived. We took it all down in front of him and let him kiss his Santas goodbye until next year. He is still playing "Christmas" which means that we have to pretend to sleep and he is Santa, delivering gifts, but that is slowly dying down. He is dressing up as Batman again, which he abandoned at Christmastime. Still singing the Christmas songs though!

Baylor was just teasing us with his sleeping during the Christmas break. He was sleeping between 6 and 8 hours at night at a time. Now he has gone back to a maximum of 5. Frustrating! We will get there though. Hopefully soon. Other than that he is doing well. He is still very obsessed with staring at his hands and will not keep them away from mine or his bottle when I am feeding him. I think he will be holding his bottle himself before sleeping through the night again!

Happy New Year!!

We rang in the new year this year the same way as we did last year. Lacey and Mickey had an oyster roast at their house. Just a few good friends, good food and drink, hyper children = GOOD TIMES!

The kids played and roasted marsh mellows until it was bedtime. The adults stayed up for the countdown.

New Years Day I had a traditional New Year's dinner at my house. My parents had been on a trip to California since right after Christmas so it was nice to get together. Here is Michael patiently waiting to eat at the kids table that I had set up for them!

Looking forward to finding out what is in store for us in 2013!!

Twas the night before Christmas...

Christmas has come and gone. Well, not really gone as my house looks like Christmas has exploded all over it! I have to figure out where to put everything! This being said, we had a really good one. We got to spend time together as a family for Baylor's 1st Christmas and had time with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins as well!

We had a series of celebrations to keep us very busy. On Christmas eve, Max, Connie, Billy, Kelly and Craig came over. This was Brighton's 1st taste of really opening gifts. He has never really gotten into it before now. He wanted to open everyone's and had to have a little lesson about taking turns. It was so cute though.

It was a very fun afternoon/evening.

Brighton was surprisingly easy to put to bed that night. We fixed Santa's plate of cookies, and milk, sang a few songs (Christmas tunes of course) and he was off to bed without any problems. No doubt our earlier celebrations with the Flowes had tired him out pretty good!

Somehow, we all managed to sleep in on Christmas morning! WEIRD, I know! When we did get up, we found out that Santa had come!! YAY! Brighton was so excited. The main thing that he had been asking for this year was a Batman cave. Santa delivered, along with some surprises. We had fun watching him play with all of his stuff, and then sat around the tree and went through the stuff in our stockings and opened some more gifts.

Rachel, Donnie and MawMaw came over later that morning and we had another celebration. After lunch we all went outside to test out some of Brighton's gifts! Things were just getting better and better for Brighton!!

After some afternoon naps, the 4 of us went to my mom's house to celebrate with my parents, Lacey, Mickey, Jameson and Michael. The kids were WIRED! My dad made his famous beef tenderloin and then more celebrations!!

What a very merry Christmas. Now we are all very concerned about Brighton. He has loved Christmas and Santa more than any other child I know. I think he will be belting out "White Christmas" until March. Hopefully he will not take it to hard when we undecorate. He was asking me this morning in the car why there was no Christmas music on. He is a happy little boy though and we are all so lucky to have so many people in our lives to share our Christmases with!! Oh and as a very special Merry Christmas to Jason and I, Baylor started sleeping through the night a week ago!!

Merry Christmas!!

This may be the last time I post until after Christmas, so I thought I would add this picture of the boys with Santa. Most of you who read this blog are on my Christmas card list, so have already seen this picture, but it is to cute not to include on here. I may not ever have the two of them BOTH looking happy at the same time while sitting on Santa's lap! I love the look in Brighton's eyes, it expresses perfectly his illumination for the holiday Season and all of it's magic! Sorry if that sounds cheesy!

This weekend I plan on finishing up my gift wrapping, cleaning my house, and hopefully doing some cooking preps for Monday and Tuesday. My last gift that I had to purchase arrived on my doorstep Tuesday, so I thankfully do not have to get back out into the shopping frenzy. Merry Christmas everyone! Now CHEERS to welcoming the year 2013!!

Back to Back Picture Time

I think that Baylor is starting to look like his own person, but he still reminds me alot of Brighton when he was a baby. I do these just for fun. Here is Baylor and below that is Brighton. Both at 3 months old.

Just like Brighton, Baylor has lost most of his dark hair that he was born with and what is left is turning blond. Jason's genes are STRONG!!

One week till Christmas!

Last weekend my parents took Brighton to visit my grandmother in Warner Robins GA. They had a great time, and said that Brighton was very good. He sang his Christmas songs the entire time. I doubt any of them will need to hear it on the radio after that weekend! Ha, they said that it was constant singing!! He came home with a brand new tricycle from Grandmother.

This is Brighton in his new Santa shirt. He claims that he wants a whole Santa costume. This might be as close as we get though. The hat has nothing to do with Christmas, they just picked it up when they had lunch at The Varsity (YUM, I'm envious)and that thing over his shoulder is his "Sack". My dad says he looks more like a Shriner here than Santa!!

Little Baylor is currently obsessed with his hands. He loves to look at them and study them. He does this ALOT! Also, the past two nights he has slept for 5 to 5 and a 1/2 hours!! This means that we have gotten more sleep than we have been used to in 3 months!! I am crossing my fingers that this is the start of better sleeping habits for all of us! Merry Christmas.

Santa Baylor

Haaa! I love this picture. These are not really Baylor's legs, but a double wine caddy that look like Santa legs that Baylor is inside of. Funny right?!

Christmas Parties on Lake Norman

Last weekend Jason and I had 2 Christmas parties to attend. 1st was the Anderson Landscaping party, which we go to every year. Chris is Jason's longtime friend and he out does his own party every year!We always look forward to it.

Then it was on to my friend Billie's party. She and Todd through a beautiful party, and it was so fun to see my girls.

It was really the 1st night that I have gone "Out" since having Baylor. Gigi stayed with the boys, so that was really nice. Getting dressed up and going out sort of made me feel like my normal, old self again!!

Bye Bye Batman...

and hello HoHo. Oh the magic of Christmas! Brighton has put his Batman obsession on hold as it has been replaced by his Santa one. He loved his HoHo's last year (remember the potholder that he would not let me put away and STILL has to sleep with) Well that was just icing on the cake for this year.

Brighton gets into Full On Santa mode and pretends to BE him. He stands by the fireplace with his finger on his nose, pretending to go up and down the chimney. He tells me to "sit on his lap" but really sits on mine instead, and asks me in a deep voice what I want for Christmas. He is LOVING Christmas! His teacher told Jason the other day that he has been teaching Christmas songs to all of his classmates! It is really funny. I know all children love this time of year but I have really never seen anything like this. He is already worried about putting everything away (decorations and Christmas toys) after Christmastime, so this could be detrimental to him! Good thing he will have a birthday right around the corner to distract him.

Saturday we went to the Denver Christmas parade. The Sunday before that we went to sit on Santa's lap. I have been busy trying to get my shopping done. Almost there!!

Baylor is doing well. He is showing signs of dropping one of his night time feedings (just not the right one!) so that is a start. After 10 weeks of maternity leave, I am about to start back full time at work. 10 weeks is almost as good as working for Corporate America benefits! I will be sad but I remember with Brighton, it was the hardest thing in the world, but got a little easier each week.

Michael is 2!

My baby niece has turned 2 years old! I will never forget the day after Thanksgiving, 2 years ago, watching the Alabama/Auburn game in the waiting room of the hospital, waiting on her to be born. Gosh has it already been 2 years since then? She is just precious and saying really cute things lately! She has been very into babies/dolls, and probably more so after seeing her new baby cousin. She is always playing with Baylor's car seat/carrier and wants to hold him. This year she got her own baby doll carseat/carrier, diaper bag and accessories. It is funny to see her make a fuss over them.

Christmas already???

It sure is at our house! I have two guys at home who get all kinds of giddy when it comes to Christmas. Jason and Brighton. They love the decorations, hoopla, and most of all, the music. I am not a Scrooge exactly, but lets just say that I usually listen to a lot more CDs at Christmas time in my car than I normally would! Not my boys though. Last weekend Jason got out the tree and all other decorations and had most of it up by the time I got home from a day of shopping. Christmas shopping, that is! I knew that if the tree was going up then I had to have something to put under it!! See, I am at least trying to get into the spirit!

Brighton is quite happy with all of his "Ho Ho"s, Christmas books and music. I have been trying to squeeze in some Thanksgiving lessons, although it is hard for him to get to excited about that with Santa on the brain! Speaking of Thanksgiving, I am thankful this year for so much. I am very thankful for my husband, who is a great father, Christmas decorator, and such a hard worker. I am thankful for both of my boys who are healthy, amusing, so sweet and the light of my life!! I am thankful for all of my family members. Sisters, mothers, fathers and aunts, uncles, grandparents to my children! I am also thankful this year for a very special boss who has generously given me an extended maternity leave and for my mother and sister for assisting in making that happen! I could just go on and on...

Baylor is 8 weeks old! He is doing pretty good. His cradle cap got better thanks to the prescription ointment. He has been eating well and spitting up less. I love this smiley picture of him!!