FALL is Here!!

Aren't y'all excited!!!

I know that I am! Fall is my favorite time of year! I love watching the leaves change, curling up on the couch watching movies, the crisp air, and all of the fun holidays!!

Here are some of my favorite "Fall" things...

I LOVE apple cider-- especially Starbuck's Caramel Apple Spice! Yum!

Isn't this so beautiful!

Pumpkins!

I am bound and determined to get to a pumpkin patch this year to take the boys' pictures!

Lovely Fall decor

And of course, cute kids dressed up in their Halloween costumes!

Happy Fall!



9 Months Old!

Brycen Boy, you are 9 months old now! And I can't believe it. In less than 3 months we will be celebrating your 1st birthday!

You are weighing 20 pounds now. You are wearing mostly 12 month clothes, some 6-12 and some 12-18. You are in a size 3 shoe. You are in a size 3 diaper.

You are more boy than I know what to do with! You are such a good baby, but boy do you get mad if you are hungry! You eat 4 or 5, 7-8ounce bottles. We switched you to the Enfamil AR formula and it has helped your spitting-up SO much! It's very rare for you to spit up these days! You also eat 2-4 jars of baby food a day. You have also been eating some smashed up bananas, puffs, biter biscuits, and anything else you can get your hands on! The other day I caught you with one of your brother's oreos! You were so mad when I took it away from you. Makes me laugh. :)

You are standing by yourself, but only like to when you do it yourself. If I try to make you stand, you just go limp. I know that you are going to be a strong-willed child. You also love to crawl behind the couch and hide. (Your brother showed you this trick!) You think it's a game, because you will crawl so fast going around and around the couch. Can't help but laugh. Anytime we try to catch you, you just turn the other way and try to get away from us. Sneaky, sneaky.

I can also already see the sibling rivalry between you and your brother. If he takes your toy, you scream bloody murder and then go after him to get it back. You like to take his stuff too, though. The other day Thompson was eating something and you went and just grabbed the spoon from him. Poor big brother. ;)

Brycen, we are so proud of the little boy you are turning to be. We are seeing your personality more and more each day! Love you, Brycen Boy!

Tuesday Night

Well today has been pretty low key. The boys and I got up, ran to the bank, and then went on to playgroup. Thompson LOVES playgroup and wants to go everytime we drive by the place. I have to explain to him that we only have play group on Tuesdays and that the kids aren't there. He is also that way about storytime at the library. :)

After playgroup, we made our way to Chick-fil-a. Since my diet, I have been deprived of the Chick-fil-a yumminess! I was good and just got some tenders, no waffle fries. I did get me a sweet tea though. Hello, heaven! After I let Thompson play for a bit we headed to Wal-Mart. Robert and I have been tossing around ideas of what to get Thompson for his birthday. The kid has so many toys that I hate buying him toys. Clothes probably aren't the coolest for a 3 year old. So we decided to buy him one big toy that he hopefully won't stop playing with after 2 hours. So... we found this while shopping today.

And I found this online that I know he will love!

So, Mr. Thompson-- you are all set! I also have a few clothing items that I am going to throw in there too! ;)

Tonight Robert has duty. Boo... I hate when he has duty. He has to stay there overnight and basically babysit. When he is on cycle, he has duty about every 5 days. So, when we were at Wal-Mart I grabbed some movies out of the Redbox machine. I know that Robert is going to hate missing this one.

But he might hate that I rented this without him!

So that will probably be my evening!

Oh, and today I was watching Oprah and guess who was her guests? The Judds! Yes! I LOVE The Judds! And they are going on a tour this month. I might have have had a huge school-girl grin on my face when they sang "Love Can Build a Bridge" and might have belted out a few lines with them!

Robert's Birthday, 9/11, and OREO Cake!

Today is Robert's birthday! He has been dealing with a sinus infection all week and just wasn't in the best mood. We enjoyed the day watching football, opening the presents the boys got him, and eating a cake that I made. (I will elaborate on that last one in a minute!)

He turned 27 today. I still remember him being like 14. haha! It is hard to believe that I will be turning 25 next month. Gosh! Where does the time go???

Brycen also turned 9 months today! I will do his post tomorrow. Today is also the 9-year anniversary of 9/11. Still hard to believe. I was in the 10th grade, 1st period Ms.Shinn's English class. I remember her running to turn the tv on and just sitting there in disbelief. We also witnessed the 2nd tower being hit. It was like a movie-- just hard to believe it was real life. I remember just having this numb feeling over me. Afraid of what was about to happen to us all. I never imagined that one day I would be married to a Marine who would eventually be fighting for our freedom. This morning, I got up early to get Robert's presents ready and I was sitting on my couch just finishing his card. Then I heard over the base intercom the announcement that at 8:47 Taps would be played. It was definitely a quiet moment. I just sat there thinking about the families whose lives were changed at that exact moment 9 years ago. I thought about the men and women who have went on to continue the fight against terrorism. I prayed for the safety of those still fighting today.

Today has been a good day-- a day of reflection, a day of thanks.

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For Robert's birthday I made him an oreo cake. The recipe is originally from a Pampered Chef cookbook, but I found mine on Superchikk's blog.

Here are my pictures of my cake. I used an angel food pan because I didn't have a bundt pan.

It was so yummy! Especially with a big glass of milk!

Hope you all have a great Sunday!

It's been too long...

So, here I am... yet again... with a catch up post!

We have been so busy here lately that sometimes I feel like I would lose my head if it weren't attached! ha!

So here are some oh-so important things that have been happening out here in California!

• First off, the weather has been weird. One day it's in the 70's... the next day it's 65 but really cold. It's odd. And everytime I mention it to someone they say that they have never seen such a mild summer. Huh. Wonder if I jinxed it or something! ;)
• Brycen is such a big boy! He cut his first tooth a few weeks ago. That was fun, let me tell ya. The poor boy didn't want to eat for a week! He barely wanted a bottle. My heart was broken. This week he has felt a lot better. He has also learned to stand up by himself without holding onto anything. When he first started doing it, he was definitely scared. Then one day he realized he was actually doing it and he just looked up at me and got this huge grin on his face. He was so proud of himself. I was so proud of him.
• Thompson has been sick for about a week. We finally went to the doctor's today and he has a sinus infection. So after a 3 hour visit, we are armed with more medicine than I think we will ever need.
• Robert's birthday is coming up this Saturday. It's the big 2-7. I have never met someone who dreads getting older more than he does. I think it is a self-conscious thing... who knows. He is looking forward to the new age group he will be in for the military. Apparently 27 is the "old" age. He gets a longer run time and stuff like that. Thompson has insisted that his dad is going to have a Batman birthday party. So tomorrow we are going to make some Batman stuff for him.
• Thompson's big birthday is coming up in a few weeks too! He is having a Toy Story party. I am getting excited for it. Gotta kick it in gear tho. I am not going overboard or anything, there is just stuff to be done!
• My parents are coming out at the end of the month. I miss them so much. I hate being away from them, but I am so excited for them to get to visit us in Oceanside-- especially my dad. Poor guy... he came out to 29 Palms the year I got married and I think it scared him to death. He never came back! ha! But he is so excited to come out here. He has always talked about how perfect San Diego was and he was so glad we got stationed here this time! (Me too!!)
• I have lost 14 pounds so far on my diet. Not bad! I still have a ways to go, but I will get there. I am not trying to be too hard on myself. I want to do it right. Robert started back his cycle at the end of August, so that has really hurt my gym time. I have been trying to get motivated at home doing workout videos, but I do so much better at the gym. I feel like I put forth more effort there. We'll see.
• We have had many trips to the Farmer's Market, playgroup, the library for storytime, and of course Target and Wal-Mart. It seems like we are hardly ever home anymore!

I did get a great phone call today from a friend. I have been praying so hard for her and let me tell you this... we serve an awesome God! I truly believe that God has a plan for every single person. And we need to put our life in His hands and not worry about timing or our plans. We need to have trust in Him that he will provide the path and the way. And he does! He is so faithful!

These are about the only pictures I have of the boys. I am so bad about taking pictures with only my phone. My poor camera probably feels neglected. :(

Poor bubba cutting his first tooth!

He cried all day one day. He was so helpless.

T riding a pony at the Farmer's Market

His "awesome" Spiderman pj's

Something I want to remember-- Thompson refers to anything "boy" as awesome. If it is "girl", it's cute. It cracks me up. If I tell him he is so cute he corrects me and says "No, Mom. I am awesome!" And today he told me that his Nana was cute because she was a girl. So funny!

Where have I been???

Well, I have been here! Busy, busy, busy!

I started a workout/diet with my new friend, Genie. She is a former Marine and is currently finishing her Bachelor's degree to open her fitness training business. She is amazing! A week and a half ago she sat down with me and we worked out a diet plan. I am GREAT with diet plans. I have no problems sticking with it to a "T". And then... we discussed the workout plan. Eesh. When someone says that they want to "thrash" you during a workout, I bet that they aren't lying! Genie thrashes me for an hour each day. I have never done so many lunges, bear crawls, jumping jacks, sprints, ab workouts in my life! But in a week I have dropped a pant size and have lost 7.5 lbs! I am so proud!! We are doing a 12 week plan and the last day just so happens to fall on my birthday! Like I told her, it's not about losing the weight. I can diet and lose weight just fine on my own. It's the workouts that I need help with. I want to be fit. I am super excited about my new change! Oh, and Robert says that there are times that he sees her outside yelling at me and he just wants to tell her to "leave me alone, that I am fragile!" Ha! I love that boy!

Not only is she my personal trainer, but she has become such a great friend. She and Robert, I swear, were separated at birth. They are just alike. And I am just like her husband. Funny, huh? I think we are such good friends because we do have that balance. And it doesn't help that they have an adorable little boy who fits in perfect with my two boys!! :)

We have also been attending many playgroups. They have been fun and I know Thompson LOVES being around lots of kids.

Other than that, that is what has been keeping me so busy. I don't even think I have taken a picture lately!

A few important things...

Like, The Bachelorette!!

:)

I might have cried... like a baby... watching tonight's final episode! If you remember correctly, I picked Chris L. and Roberto as my top two! And we all know that Roberto was my favorite. Well, well, well... little Miss Alli picked Roberto!!! Yay!!! It was actually very sweet and I love the two of them together. I am even more excited that they are moving to sunny San Diego! Maybe I can run into them one day and tell them that I had him picked from the first time she saw him. (I bet I will be the only person who EVER tells them that! ha!)

And now for a weekend recap...

We had an awesome weekend! We have went out and ate at so many good restaurants. One of my faves is Famous Dave's. It's a BBQ place that we have back home. Well low and behold, they have one here! Robert is in LOVE! He declared it the best BBQ he has ever eaten. Score! And on Saturday morning we went to Mimi's Cafe and had breakfast. It was yummy too.

Tomorrow, I am taking the boys back to the playgroup. I can't wait to watch them. On Sunday, we went to church and they had a nursery for the boys. Thompson went to the 2 year olds room and Brycen went to the baby nursery. I didn't know if Robert was going to leave them or not, he didn't want to let them go. :( But when we picked them up, we knew that they had been well taken care of. Thompson, of course, didn't want to leave and threw a fit the whole way out that continued for about 15 minutes. Brycen was an angel, like always! So, I can't wait to see them tomorrow, especially Brycen. I want to see if he is taken with other kids the way he is with his big brother.

Robert started his off cycle and I love this part of his job. We have enjoyed spending time together over the past few days. It definitely makes up for the time he has to work so much.

Not too much else has been going on. I know that the weather has been insanely HOT back in Arkansas. I am so glad that it is actually pretty cool here. The past few days it has been right at about 70 degrees. (Don't hate me!) I love it! We haven't made it to the beach again, but hoping to sometime soon! Robert took Thompson fishing today. Brycen was napping so I just enjoyed the quiet time. I caught up on the dishes, the picking up of the toys, and all the things that I neglect once the weekend hits.

Hope everyone had an awesome Monday!

I will do a post tomorrow with some pictures! Promise!!