Ah.....Fall..... :)

Hi precious,

You are taking a nap so I thought I would sneak in a quick blog. I've been meaning to post these fall pictures of us that your nana took of us when she was here, but it has taken me forever! I wanted to get some "fall looking" pictures as it is my favorite time of the year. I just LOVE the fall. That crisp weather, perfect for a sweater..... GORGEOUS drives enjoying at all the brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow leaves on the trees.....an inate "need" to cuddle up on the couch with a cozy blanket and a book or a movie..... Hot chocolate....chili....wine with friends! I could go on and on......I think God was showing off when he created this season! To think that this is only a touch of what He is capable of creating? Wow...that's all I can say. Thank you God for giving us this beauty to behold!!! :) I am loving it!!

I wanted to get a picture of you playing in colorful leaves but I had to work the week they were most brilliant, and then it rained for days after that....now they are just bland color on the ground. Bummer! Next year.....we'll get some good ones then...which may be better anyway since it is sooo hard to get you to sit still for ONE second! Anyway, these pics turned out pretty well....Happy Fall my best little guy! Let's enjoy every second of it! I know I am so far!! I'll introduce you to your first Hot Chocolate soon....with marshmallows of course! Ok...you are waking up so I'll go get you and we'll bundle up and go for a walk! Can't wait to play with you!

Love, Mommy

Nineteen Months!!

Hi my little love,

I cannot believe it, but you are officially one month older than a year and a half. Nineteen months! Quit growing so fast!! Sheesh! I swear you keep getting cuter and cuter and cuter. I'm serious...I almost feel like my heart could burst when I look at you. I love you sooo much I can't stand it.

You are just changing all the time and I can't get over how super smart you are. I'm constantly testing you and asking you things, that you couldn't possibly know of course, to find out that you do! How is that possible?? Amazing....YOU my love, amaze me. :)

You absolutely LOVE Raisins right now....and when I say love....it just doesn't quite explain the obsession. :) Your little temper tantrums make us laugh soooo hard we almost want to purposely bring one on sometimes. (I'm doing a whole separate blog on that) :) You are trying so hard to say everything. You mimic everything we tell you to say, granted it is an extra consonant usually, but you try! It's adorable... You still LOVE to play with the dogs, hate to have your nose wiped and love fruit more than ever. I've finally found a kid's show you ADORE. Blue's Clues!!! You get sooo excited when the little songs play, and when it's "Mail Time" on the show, you go insane!! hehehe What is it with you and mail? I'm glad you like the show so much though...gives me a few min here and there to get some things done without you in tow. Thank God for Blue dogs! :)

We are all sick right now in this house. Yuck, yuck, yuck. Your nose won't stop running, and mine won't either....We actually went through a brand new box of Kleenex in one day. Who ever knew that our bodies could hold so much snot? So gross.... :)

So...in my state of sickness, I spent a good portion of the day on the couch feeling miserable. With your dad's help I was able to be a little creative while he played with you, and I came up with this movie of your life up until now. It took me hours...and lots of editing and guesswork, as I've never done this before, but I am in love with the results! Happy 19th month birthday my boo boo!

I love you with my life,
Love, Mommy

Expensive Little Booger :)

Do you know anyone who doesn’t worry about money right now? Because I don’t. Not single people, not two income families, not couples with one kid or 4 kids. Everyone is stressed out about the cost of living. I like thinking about gas prices and the economy and saving for retirement about as much as like getting a root canal. And we all know how much fun I had with that this year! And yet.... I am plagued with panicky thoughts daily.

I read somewhere that it costs about 200,000 average to raise a child to the age of 18. Are you kidding me? No wonder I'm stressed..... These little bundles of joy ARE expensive. Holy cow, has anyone calculated the cost of diapers and formula and just the basic gear you need for the first year?! I’m sure I could find a statistic somewhere, but I won’t. It’ll just depress you. It's just plain rediculous.

I have a mild heart attack every time I have to buy Caden a new pair of shoes. Which is more often than I would like, because his feet grow sometimes overnight. Because I don't want to buy Elmo shoes, or bright blue Nemo shoes we have to dish out a little more money. I think paying $40 for shoes smaller than your fist is morally wrong. But what choice do you have? Let your child walk around barefoot? Tie plastic bags around his sneakers instead of buying snow boots? That's what my dad would suggest doing...of course using duck tape to secure them. :) hehehe

You just can’t cut back on everything. They need soooo much...so much more than you, So you have to suck it up and open your wallet and just let the contents flutter out into the great big universe.

And when your baby is old enough for group activities? Oh, just forget about it. Sure, you could stay home and play with your same toys day after day after day, or you could schedule play dates or trips to the library or other free outings. But EVERY DAY?? You’re NEVER going to take your child to the zoo, or any place requiring an admission fee? This strategy may keep your bank account in the black, but I guarantee you will lose your mind. :)

So what are some real solutions to our money woes these days? Hope to find good jobs when the unemployment rate is higher than ever? Start clipping coupons for groceries? (which I'm already doing) Push your kid into sports and hope he becomes the next Tiger Woods? Make all your own clothes and grow your own food? I just don’t know, people. Thank goodness Caden shows signs of being a smart cookie -- at least we can hope for scholarships!

Apparently, Oklahoma has the lowest cost of living in the U.S., while Brazil ranks near the lowest cost of living in the world. Woo hoo! Rio de Janeiro, here we come! Kids only need flip-flops there, right?

The Hardest Job You'll Ever Love :)

You hear debates raging all the time about working moms vs. stay-at-home moms. Some claim that being a mom in general is not that hard. Busy maybe, but not hard. I mean, is reading books and changing diapers and playing with balls and cars all day really that tough? Maybe not...but it was today! :)

First I had to switch over the wet laundry from the washer...where it had been sitting forgotten for days...(gosh DARN it I hate when I do that!) While doing that, I almost KILLED myself tripping over the MOUNTAIN of laundry that was still waiting to be done. Then I had to wash his sippy cups by hand (because the dishwasher was full of dirty dishes of course), made his pancake and banana breakfast, fed him, and then spent 10 minutes cleaning the bananas off of everything in sight.

While I was doing this, Caden wandered into the family room and managed to topple off his Lego Box and collide with something...who knows what...it happens many times a day. Whew! So... then I had to spend a few minutes cuddling my child, which I always love, and explain to him about not standing on high places. Yeah right...I knew it was only a matter of time. :)

I forgot that we were almost out of diapers and we were completely out of the diaper refills...major necessity,,so it was off to the Walmart we went, only of course after loading child, stroller, sippy cup, and diaper bag into the car. Remember, child weighs roughly the same as a bag of wet cement. Not always easy! hehehe
First we needed gas and, oh, right, a quick stop to the bank and of course after Walmart I forgot one of the MAIN things I went for, so needed to stop by another place and unload and reload again. By this time Caden had lost all patience for some reason and was wanting to refuse to get back into the car seat. Oh yeah? Like that is an option? Geez... When I FINALLY got him he decided to let me know how ticked he was in the way of SCREAMING for 5 min.....not a common thing for him. What was the deal with this day???

When we got home, I discovered that a glass candle that I had left burning..oops...had shattered all over the table and floor. Lovely. After I got that cleaned up...not easy as Caden was trying to get in the middle of it all...I let the dogs inside to help me entertain Caden for a bit so I could do a little cleaning. A little relief right? Huh! Not five minutes after I let them in, then my male dog Max proceeds to puke all over the floor. Hello!! What the HECK? I have NEVER seen that dog puke before in my life! Caden immediately begins splashing in the dog puke before I can even get to him fast enough. Into the bath we went. After wrestling him and his 56 bath toys in and out of the tub, it was time for lunch. The mealtime sequence was repeated yet again. I was already dreaming of the quiet time to be had during him naptime......

During Caden's nap I thought I would bring my female dog Gabby inside to spend a little time with me while I relaxed and attempted to get some work done, but my phone kept ringing so work was not to be done, THEN my doorbell rang like THREE times in a row, which made the dog bark, (CRAP!!) which woke up Caden. Naptime was cut short. Are you kidding me? Seriously? And the kicker? It was some little kids on our street asking to play with the puppies....the puppies that have been gone for over a month now. Oh gosh, shoot me now. Then, it started raining just as he woke up which was sooo not good as "outside" is where he only wants to be these days. So...we were stuck inside, which wouldn't be so bad if I didn't have the migraine that I had today. The afternoon passed ever so slowly in a fog of snacks, Play-Doh, crayons, time-outs for improper use of Play-Doh and crayons, and various other activities. Please get home daddy... :0

We went outside anyway, and after Caden got soaked splashing in the dog’s water bowl in the THREE seconds I wasn't watching, I decided to change him into his PJs early. The last clean pair. Less than half an hour later, he had his first diaper blowout since he was like TWO months old. Unbelievable. I just used a bunch of wipes to clean him up....no WAY was I going to do another bath! Of course, changing his diaper is, like I've said before, an Olympic Event. Note the picture...just a tiny glimpse. :)I went to check the dryer for clean PJs. The dryer had stopped working and I was met with a wad of wet clothes...must be that DARN birds nest that is in my dryer vent. NO WAY is this day actually happening to me! I mean, HOLY COW! Talk about overwhelming! By this time, Caden was hungry for dinner, so the mealtime sequence is repeated AGAIN.

I still don’t know what people are smoking when they say that being a mom is not hard. Maybe their kids are boring and silent. Maybe they stick them in front of the TV all day while they attend to their own needs. All I know is, that besides being the most rewarding and amazing thing that I've ever known in my life, it is also the hardest job I've ever done. A job I wouldn't trade for anything in the world.

Thanks for letting me vent about my day! Sheesh!!!

Happy (Very Late) Halloween!!

Hello my little mariachi man,

GOSH I have been awful about writing lately!!! I am never usually this bad! It just has been soooo nutty lately, and since this crazy time change, and the fact that it has taken you FOREVER to adjust to it, it's been a tiring time. I'm always tired lately!

So Halloween was almost two weeks ago and I am only JUST now posting this site. Let me tell you my little man, you were the most perfect little trick or treater. Gosh you were adorable!!! Everyone was just DYING over your costume. Your daddy had the idea months before now of dressing you in a little mariachi outfit as you are half mexican, so our last trip there we found this little outfit and HAD to get it. My gosh, when we were in the store trying it on you, we were almost CRYING we were laughing so hard. You were just the cutest thing I had ever seen!!! We couldn't WAIT for Halloween.

So....armed with your Aunt Erica, Aunt Dana, Aunt Heather and your daddy and myself, we had a fun time walking your cute little self up and down our street collecting candy. It didn't take you long to realize what was happening, and what people were giving you, and you were actively taking part! You definitely tried to get more candy as much as you were able to!....which I didn't care as I would be eating most of it myself!! Thanks Caden! :)

We all had alot of fun getting ready too......I was supposed to be a Mexican Senorita, but turned out looking more like Elvira... :) Your daddy went as himself although we FORCED him to let us part his hair a little just to be funny. Your Aunt Erica was a cute cat, Dana was a singer from the eighties, and your Aunt Heather was a black man....We laughed til we cried. None of us EVER would have recognized her. HILARIOUS. We ended up having quite a few people over and had a great night. YOU were just the hit of the whole night and the whole street my dear. People were just absolutely in love. You couldn't have been more original or adorable. I'm so proud to be your mommy. I can't wait for more years to share this fun. Happy Halloween!!

Love, Mommy

Gentry's Farm

Hello my sweetness!

Whew! What a whirwind of a week and a half we have had!! I've wanted to write about what has been going on, but it's been so busy around here with company that I just haven't had time to be at my computer much. So... I'm going to have to backtrack a week and a half and share what has been going on in our lives! Your nana was here for a quick 5 day unexpected trip and it was sooo good to see her! We had so much fun! You adored her being her and you are really good at saying "Nana" now... :)

We went to a farm south of Nashville one BEAUTIFUL Saturday with your Nana and had Suuuuuch a fun time playing in the flowers, sliding down slides, playing with toys, going on a hay ride, running through a corn maze, and lots of other activities. What an awesome place for little ones like you! There was just non-stop action! You LOVED everything. In fact, when we would take you from one activity to the next you would just SOB....you didn't realeze that more fun was to come. It was cute...pitiful, but cute! It was the perfect weather and just a pleasant, pleasant day. We got some great pictures, and this will definitely be a new tradition that will will do every year. I already can't wait until next year!

Here are some pics from that day. You were the cutest kid in that place. Could you be any cuter??

You will always be my cutest love EVER,

Love, Mommy