Where has Kim "The Blogger" Been?

Hey...I'm back. YAY! Mister Husband got me a SWEET laptop for an early Christmas present. Thank you Mister Husband...I love you.

So, I have WAY too many pictures to catch up on. Those will be coming soon.

What are our kids doing now:

Hayes:

Hayes is all over the place. WAY too much energy. Hahaha. He is so much fun though. He has the cutest little personality and we love to play with him. He has the most amazing imagination. He tells us he loves us all the time and loves to cuddle now, which we love. He also loves his sister and when he wakes up in the morning, she is the first thing that he wants to see. They play together really well most of the time. He can count to 15 and can count to 8 in Spanish (gets caught up on quatro though, he really likes that one). He loves music and loves to dance. Chris's dad was just in town and he played the banjo and the guitar and Hayes loved it. He danced and every part of his body was moving to the beat. Even if he stood still, his finger or toes would be tapping. This boy is going to play some kind of instrument. He loves to march, so we see the marching band in our future.

He is quite the climber though, which has not changed over the years. He managed to climb his bunk beds without the ladder. So guess what, mommy and daddy took his bunk beds apart. We may be switching his room with the playroom to give him more room though because its really tight in his current room with two beds and a dresser. We had to take his chair and his shelf out. We will see though, not sure how he will respond to that. He is really into little treasures. He counter surfs by standing on any of the riding toys and helps himself to whatever he wants when we are not looking. He will find little things, like scissors or food and go hide under the table and eat it or hide there VERY quietly because he knows he has something that he shouldn't. We did a little experiment to see how he would react to food with milk in it and he did not break out like he usually does. We thought we were getting lucky, but then about two days later when the food passed through him, he got the worst diaper rash I have every seen and was screaming and pulling at his diaper. Miserable. Poor thing. So needless to say, we are avoiding that all together again. :(

He still has a temper though...woo-wee. He pretty much does what he wants, when he wants and that is just Hayes. He has started to respond to discipline finally... sometimes. He does get feisty though when we get on to him and sometimes will just scream in defense or growl at me like a lion because he thinks it will scare me away. HAHA...not gonna work on me buddy. He is definitely more scared of daddy than me. He gets all pouty sometimes when he gets in trouble and will make a sad face or hang his head in shame. Time Out seems to be the only thing that he responds to or occasionally a spanking works. Most of the time spanking just make him mad. He has been hitting some, so we are trying to nip that in the bud.

Hayes loves school. We cannot go there or drive by without his seeing it and saying, "my school". If he can't stay, he cries. That makes me feel good taking him there. He is going two days a week. The thing that I really like is that the room mom and other moms along with the teachers really try to make it to where Hayes can participate in all holiday parties. They make dairy free cupcakes and cookies and that makes him feel so special. The room mom's daughter is in the same boat with milk, but not as bad as Hayes. I am very appreciative as a mother that people are sensitive to his needs. He was getting in trouble at school a few times because the other kids were encroaching on his territory and he would push them down over and over. He and another little boy name Jackson are pretty chummy. He has been put in time out and had a report card sent home about his behavior because he wouldn't stay in the line to wash his hands and gets pretty upset when its time to come in from the playground. His teachers Mrs. Andrea and Mrs. Jackie said that he has gotten WAY better lately though. I think it was just coming back from the summer and getting re-adjusted to school and a stricter schedule.

Kate:
Miss Katherine has just turned ONE. We cannot believe it. Her birthday fell on Thanksgiving day this year, so we celebrated her birthday and had her party on November 20, 2011. Pictures to come in a separate post. She is quite the little DIVA, that is what we call her. So that was the theme of her party. She has really picked up on walking and is all over the place running after her brother and playing with all the toys she can find. She loves Hayes and tries to copy everything that he does, including dancing. She put everything in her mouth, so we really have to watch her. The grossest thing that I found her gagging on was a disgusting beetle. That almost put me over the edge. I have found stickers, bark, leaves, grass, and all kinds of other random objects in her mouth, but a beetle....I was not expecting that one. She eats very well, but only big people food. She will not do ANY baby food at all. She loves fruit pasta, veggie sticks, cheerios, and pancakes. She hates baby yogurt, but she loves mommy's smoothies. She wont eat sandwich bread either or avocado.

She is mostly sleeping through the night now, finally. It only took 11 months. She still wakes up pretty early some mornings, but we just feed her and put her back down. She can say ma-ma, da-da, ba-ba, hi, bye-bye (and she waves her hand toward her self, so cute). She also clicks her tongue and makes kisses at us. The way to know she is awake in the car on the way home from dropping off Hayes at school if I can't see her in the mirror, I just click my tongue and she will do it back.

What a good girl she is. She LOVES her daddy and if he is home, that is who she wants all the time. It is really cute. She also loves her grandparents and when he is here she makes them hold her. I like seeing my dad with her. There is something about her that he really connects with. She loves him very much too.

Chris & I:
We have been really busy too. Chris has been working really hard. He is very ambitious to learn as much as he can. He has done some traveling, one major trip to China over Labor Day week. He is still playing tennis year-round, which he really enjoys. I have expanded my business to monogramming and have been super busy. I did a show at Hayes' school called Creekside Holiday Showcase and sold almost $1000 worth of business. I couldn't believe it. I partnered up with my friend (My Muse) Rebecca DaSilva and we did really well. She makes a lot of hand made clothing and I buy a lot from her for Kate. Well, i used to buy a lot until she talked me into getting my own machine, so now I can make a lot myself. I am soooo busy this holiday season though, I can barely find the time. I work during the kids naps every day and at night. I am thinking about changing my business name now that I don't just make tutus for girls, but offer boys and girls items like burp cloths, bibs, monogrammed and applique tshrits. I am having a lot of fun.

Chris and I are still leading our small group. We have the most amazing group right now. I am just so blessed at where we are and could not be happier. I have the most amazing husband. He does everything in his power to make sure that I am happy and I could not be more appreciative for all of the help he give me around the house and with the kids. I can honestly say that not that many women's husband do what he does. I know that I am truly blessed and I thank God EVERY day for giving me such an amazing husband and father. Words really cannot express how thankful I am for the life he has given me.

So that is where we are. I hope to blog more often now that I can do it downstairs while I am home with the kids. Thank you baby for my laptop. I LOVE YOU.

End of Summer Catch Up

I am sooooo far behind on this blog. Sorry kids. We had a busy summer and with having two kids now, mommy was a little busier than normal. I will post lots of pics in a separate blog. Hayes has been going to school two days a week. He missed the last 4 days though because he was sick for two and we went to visit all the family in Louisiana. We had a great time. Hayes played so hard he didn't even notice that he missed his afternoon nap three days in a row. By 7;30pm he was OUT. He and Tucker played really well together. Its always nice to spend time with family. We stayed at Maw Maw Airharts, spent some time at Nana's, The Bruns, Chris & I even had a date night to Coyote Blue and The Casino "Laberge De Luc".....no gambling here, just wanted to see what all the hype was about. I didn't know that downtown Lake Charles was so pretty. I would like to go back and spend some more time there. The homes and the water were beautiful. Not to mention the awesome breeze we had from the tropical storm that was their that week. Luckily we were far enough away in Reeves that we did not get more than wind and some hard rain.

Miss Katherine is all over the place. She is cruising everywhere. She can even walk behind the push cars all over the downstairs. She just cut her 6th tooth and she is starting to babble and even said, "mama". She practices talking by moving her mouth open and closed and I have to say that is the cutest thing EVER when she does it. She learned to wave bye-bye yesterday, but most of the time she just moves one finger as she stares at her hand trying to figure out how to get he rest to move. Aunt Jess saw her doing it today and it looked like she was motioning for her to "come here" with her little finger. We laughed and laughed. She is 9.5 months and is still the sweetest little baby on the planet. We are just so in love with that little stinker we can't stand it. Jess and I took her to get her ears pierced today and she hardly cried at all. I was nervous, but she did really well and it looks so cute. Mimmies and Papaws were not to thrilled about that one.

Mr Man, Hayes keeps me on my toes. He is smart as a whip and knows how to play me. Today he sent himself to time out. I guess if he likes it, I need to come up with a new spot. I sure do love that little boy with all my heart, even when his tantrums get the best of him....AND boy let me tell you, he definitely has a temper. We will get through it though, I can already see him growing up so fast. We can practically carry on conversations now becasue he talks so well. Chris just adores him and they get a long so GREAT. They are like the best of buds and Hayes just can't get enough of his daddy, which I love.

I have recorded some things that he has said that were cute or funny that I don't want to forget and I also recorded some firsts for lil Kate.

Hayes:

• Told me to "go to my room"
• Still loves movies: calls Pinocchio- "yoke-e-yoke"
• Favorite shows/movies- Dora & Diego, Toy Story, Blues Clues, Curious George, Calliu, Charlotte's Webb (The Pig), and Bambi.
• He says, "more before everything"- "More, got it"
• Me hold you

• "Skuck or Help, I skuck in the mud"- he says that even when there is no mud around and he is just stuck.

• "Go in the water"- he makes us bend on leg over the other to make a hole to he can dive through it
• "High Nee No"- I don't know
• He tries to jump to reach something and just stands there with his arms up going, "ugh ugh"
• That Funny
• All his friends names sound the same, Brandon, Braxton, and Braden- so sometimes he just calls them all "Ben"
• "More Walk"-When he wants to get down or out of the stroller
  
• "Bana-nae"- Band-Aid
• "Hayes BooBoo"- when he gets hurt
• "Ouch, hurt me"
• No, Sisters (as he pushes her or bumps her out of the way with his behind)
• Did you push sister? Hayes says, "yes"
• "Pack-Pack"- his backpack (he also says that when he sticks stuff down my shirt or up his or daddy's shorts)
• Hayes is getting better at counting, but sometimes he will say, "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, 11,12,13,12,13,12
• Someone asked him today how old he was and he said, "3", sometimes he says, "6"
• What's your name? Hayes, "Hayes my name"
• Spo-bok- Robot
• He talks about birds all the time and always tells me when he sees them. Sometimes he even pretends to see them
• When he likes something, he says, "I love it"
• I say his prayers with him and usually have him repeat what I say, the other night I said, I said, "Now I lay me down to sleep" and he said, "No". Then I said, "I pray the Lord my soul to keep" and he said, "No". Then I said, "Guide me safely through the night" and he said "No" and then I said "Wake me with the morning light" and he said, "Ok". It was really funny.
• Every time he sees a paw print or a hand print, he says. "coos-coos" for Blues Clues
• He loves to pretend to build and he says, "lets build or lets build blocks" and he uses his pretend screwdriver to try and screw in all the light switch plate covers and calls them "Scrooms"
• "Pat-Tub"- Bathtub
• "Hayes Paci Blue or Hayes Paci Green"- thinks that if he gets the color right then we will give it to him.
• We gave his paci back to him in August....What a disaster. He screams for it all the time now and we are trying to restrict him to only having it in bed, but he does not like that AT ALL. Every time he sees one or sees Kate with one, he takes it from her or tries to climb to get it and cries when I take it away and sometimes even throws himself on the floor. He has even mastered climbing into Kate's crib to get them. He's like a scavenger. This battle has not stopped since we took it away 6 months ago and we were doing so well. The only reason we let him have one was when he was sick throwing up and it helped him to stop dry heaving, but it started the paci wars all over again and guess what, "Hayes is winning".
• The kids could eat an entire box of multi-grain Cheerios- "More Cher-os"
• "Mommy, play cars"
• "Mommy, More Too"- that means you do it for me or with me, like, "you do it too"
• "No, my turn or no, Hayes turn"
• He learned the lovely phrase of "give it back" and says, "No, Gib it back" in a really mean tone
• Today he said, "Not nice" and "Be nice to Mimmie"- this is bc last night he got in trouble for disrespecting my mom
• "Mommy, More drawf"- Mommy, I want to draw/color
• "Cramps"- Crayons
• "More Pups"- More Puffs
• "Donk Truck"- Dump Truck
• "Sure"- in this really cute and enthusiastic tone when he wants to do something
• "Here you are, its found"- when he is looking for me or Kate or a toy
• "I can't"- when he doesn't want to do something
• Randomly at the table during lunch the other day, he said, "Go Dawgs"- which I loved and couldn't wait to rub in Chris's face
• "Lets Go Get Em"- he says this as he puts his arms up like he is going to run as fast as he can to go do whatever he wants to do and he also says this when he sees that Kate is awake on the monitor.
  
• "Ouch, sun hurt me, go away sun"- when the sun shines in his eyes in the car
• 
  
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Kate:

• If you play Peek-a-Boo with her and you hide for too long and then jump up and say "Boo" it freaks her out and she will poke out her lip and start to cry
• She is scared of the vacuum
• On 8.18.11- Kate climbed up the stairs all by herself (with me behind her of course)
• Kate is always scrounging for stuff on the floor and she puts EVERYTHING she finds in her mouth. I have removed several random things from her mouth. Most of the time its mulch that tracks in on Louie, or some food that Hayes has dropped, like a Shredded Wheat that she is choking on....well, not this time. This time she was choking on a BEETLE. Yes, I am telling the truth. That was the last thing that I imagined to pull out of her mouth and the even grosser part was that she had eaten its head. Poor Kate.
• Kate started to pretend to kiss on Aug 30 and we played that game all day. So cute.
  
• We are still working on sleeping through the night and dropping this late night or middle of the night feeding, but I can proudly say that at 9 months, she has slept through the night 4 times. Yes, only 4 times. We are working on it though. Mommy just has a hard time letting her cry to much because she starts coughing and gagging and even threw up a few times and it scares me.
  
• Sept 9, 2011- Kate said her first word. "Ma-ma"- I almost cried and snatched her up and hugged and kissed her like crazy. See at her 9 month check up we saw a new doctor that raised a little bit of concern since Kate had not started babbling or talking with consonants. Words like Da-Da, Ma-Ma and Ba-Ba, so she asked me if we thought she was having trouble hearing. We said, "No" and we think she hears fine. We started working with her a little more and within a couple weeks, she started to say some sounds and Ma-ma. She just has a really laid back personality and with a brother like Hayes to keep you entertained, you wouldn't say much either. She spends a lot of time watching and observing her surroundings and her big brother.
• Sept 11, 2011- Waved Bye-Bye
• Sept 12, 2011- Jessica and I took her to get her ears pierced (9.5 months)
  

Important Note: Chris said that Hayes could go to UGA on 7/30/2011 at my parents house.....Just needed to document that fun little fact. Then he said, "He can go to Athens, Its a fun town".

Come On Ride The Train

Took the kids one the train at the mall. It was Kate's first time and she and Hayes both LOVED it. Hayes was yelling, "Choo Choo" the whole time. I love how excited he gets and his cute little personality.

Meeting Miss Montgomery

Jennifer came to see us the other day and spend some time. She got to meet Kate and had not seen Hayes in forever. Its always good to see Jennifer. We don't get to see each other often, but have been friends since 1999.

First Carousel Ride wtih Mimmie!

Mom and I took the kids to Mall of Georgia so we could get out of the house. After we did some damage at Old Navy, we decided to take the kids on the carousel....they both loved it. It was Miss Kate's first time. I was very worried though because Mimmie had not been on one of those in a LONG time and she was starting to feel sick. I was scared she was going to lose her balance and fly off the thing...it was going quite fast. Thank goodness that did not happen and she was fine. Kate and Hayes both rode their own horses and had a great time. We LOVE outings with Mimmie. She is our favorite friend.

Habitat For Humanity

Some of the members of our small group invited us to participate in a Habitat for Humanity project just outside of Gainesville. We gladly accepted because we had been looking to find a way to serve in the community as a group. We showed up to the site where they were building the house and got right to work. Jeremy and Ryan were cutting siding for the house, while Mark hammered it on the house. Katrina, Chris and I were in charge of cleaning the site and organizing the lumber. Then the manager took us over to the side of the house where he attempted to give me a measuring tape and wanted me to measure siding and learn to nail it onto the house. Chris gladly accepted his job, but Katrina and I politely asked if there was something else that we could do, like continue to organize. That is what we knew how to do......and frankly I don't know a thing about hanging siding on a house and I would probably hurt myself or someone else and I REALLY didn't want to mess up Sarah's house. LOL!

Play Date with The Crutchfields

Christine brought the kids over to play in the new backyard. We always have so much fun. She's one of those friends that even if you don't see or talk to often and you just pick up right where you left off. She is a great person. Her kids are super sweet and Ansley loves her some babies, so she was fast friends with Kate....while James and Hayes threw mulch on each other. Boys will be boys. Christine will be having her third, another boy in December.

Play Date wtih Jodi & Katelyn Ford

We spent the afternoon over at our friends, The Ford's, house and let the kids play while the mommies caught up. Love them. They are such sweet people. Hayes had a blast. We had dinner together, played and this kids finger painted. He even got to ride a power wheels for the first time. He was riding in it and the little boy, McGavin, who is 3 was giving him a ride of his life. I was a nervous wreck and made him wear his helmet. Hayes was so excited that he gave the little boy a kiss on the cheek....lol! Anyways, all the fun came to an end when as I suspected, Hayes face-plants on the driveway out of the jeep. He of course screams and I am running terrified. Luckily he was fine, just little scraps and mild road rash.

Miss Kate

Kate is getting so big. She loves her brother and they get along so great. All day long, Hayes walks up and tells her he loves her and gives her a hug and kiss. I love having two kids so close together.

Where's Hayes?

So Mr Hayes is obsessed with brushing his teeth. This would make Uncle B proud. Lately when I can't find Hayes and he is being really quiet.....this is where he is.....IN THE SINK...brushing his teeth. This has happened on several occasions. I guess if you can't reach...just climb on in. He's such a stinker.

Happy 4th of July 2011- Cumming Fairgrounds

For the 4th of July this year we decided to take this kids to the Cumming Fairgrounds for the fireworks. It was a really nice day and really HOT. There were all kinds of vendors there with yummy food and little prizes. We got a funnel cake, pizza and a pulled pork sandwich. MMMM, junk food. My favorite. Chris also got Hayes a lemonade and look how BIG it was. That was the only size they had and it was bigger than Hayes. Hayes got a light-saber and a finger puppet. I think that Hayes and Chris's favorite part was watching the go-carts race. They had a live band playing and Hayes danced for the crowd. He doesn't know a stranger and went up to all the other kids if they had a ball and said, "Catch." Some let him play with them, some didn't. You will see some pics of him with the little girls next to our car. They were nice and played with him for a while. Miss Kate was a trooper too, didn't make a peep. Both kids stayed up WAY past their bedtime for the fireworks that did not start until 9:30pm. Once they started, Hayes loved them, but lost interested after about 10 because he wanted to run around. Kate watched all of them on my lap. We had a nice time as a family and may go again next year. Even if they did not get to bed until 10:30 and it took them 3 days to recuperate. It's only once a year!