the start of something BOOtiful (October 1st weekend)

this weekend was good. it was oh so good. it started off with going to my hometown football game friday night for the homecoming game (we won!) and rooting for the mighty viking team and my cousin who was on the homecoming court. more on that to come.

the rest of the weekend was spent waking up saturday morning and fixing french toast for my growing handsome little man pictured above, just the way he likes it. with two slices of texas toast bread in the french dip batter, fried and sprinkled with powder sugar and the syrup hot, lightly drizzled.

next it was onto the pumpkin patch to pick the first of many pumpkins for the season at stickley farms. what you can't tell from the last two photos, is that the hill was pretty steep and he was getting quite annoyed that i was taking pictures while he pulled our load. he he. i believe buying pumpkins on october 1st is a MUST!

the rest of the weekend  was spent decorating a little for this.
and listening to this.  with my favorite talk from her.  and doing wee bit of shopping from here.
and i just might have bought this from online here.
and finally, watching this with friends to kick off the the month of all things scary!

how was your first weekend in October? my favorite month of the year!

a birthday with to many themes (that sounds so lame <--------)

*sighs* ...that week....the one i talked about in my last post....oooooooh was it a doozy! so much so, that my brain just couldn't focus on the right "theme" for angelus's birthday this year. so whats a girl to do but go to target and just get a little of everything into the pile. yep. that's right..i was going SO insane that very busy week that for his school classroom party (i do that to save money instead of spending tons at some lame kids party place) i did everything in star wars. for his cake at the "family" party, i went with TRON because lame O Walmart proclaimed they were out of star war  cake decor and transformer decor. again, i was SO over it at that point that i didn't.    even.     care!

but, needless to say the cake was ordered, the school party was a success (with no help from my work not willing to cut me a break) presents were bought and wrapped....and i even manged to take a shower ANNNND help him with all his scout projects. did i forget anything? hmmm...OH yeah....all of the decor for his family party was transformers....So lets see....Transformers, Star Wars, Tron....I think i just about covered it wouldn't ya say?


Enough with my whining. Next week we are off to the beach and I'll have plenty of time to forget about the world while there. *SQUEE!


To note 9 things about my not so little man is as following:

1) He recently learned how to snap his fingers. My little snapper snaps ALL.    THE.   TIME!

2) Legos...Legos.....Legos! Thats all he plays with. I mean really, how many Legos can a guy have? TOO MANY! His little life right now is all about earning money to buy more legos.

3) With reading we have entered into the stage of reading all things about The Diary of a Whimpy Kid series.

4) When he grows up, he proclaims that he will be an astronaut. And I am currently on the hunt for an astronaut costume for Halloween because I quote "that's all i want to be" is always stated very dramatically. Or any ideas on how to make one? Let me know.....

5) Plain Hamburgers with ketchup or plain hotdogs with ketchup or corndogs are his fave.

6) The kid lives for sweets and breads....if i would let him, he would eat my homemade chocolate cake, kit kats, or oreos or any type of roll or bagel for every meal.

7) He is still the most polite kid I know. I look at other little boys at school and i think to myself...I don't know how I did it but he is very respectful of others around him and his manners. *sidenote: a kid at school gave him a dollar for his birthday during his classroom party and he said "thank you but i cant take your money, you need it" and gave it back. WITHOUT my prompting to do so. I was so proud!

8) His favorite song right now is Tonight by Neyo and Pitbull.  He sings this with a little heart content in the back seat. It's too funny!

and finally 9) He still has this major crush on his older cousin Hailey who is 18teen. She was all he wanted at his birthday party! It's the cutest thing ever! When she called to wish him happy birthday and i handed him the phone, his whole face lit up and was smiling from ear to ear.

a nine yearold birthday

i am so behind! last week was one of the hardest weeks in my working career up to this date! and wouldnt you know it, anything and everything had to be jammed into that week(church YW activities, nephews major school project due, his scout projects due, house to clean, laundry, his birthday parties to plan, presents to buy, cakes to order etc etc) and yet work demanded a lot of hours. darn that hospital! hence me being wayyyyy behind. anywho....

my baby turned 9 on saturday. NINE! as in this will be his last year in single digits and then double digits from now on. NO. FREAKIN. WAY! it really was just the other day that a 16teen yearold tierra was holding and feeding and changing diapers to her brand spankin new nephew. sidenote: i gave him his very first bottle and changed his first diaper when he was only 4 hours old. and didnt have a clue to what i was doing LOL your probably askin why is that? where was his mother? and to that i say...i'm still asking where his mother is.....but thats another story for another day. -----------------------> moving on.

did you hear me say he's NINE!   NINE      NINE      NINE! ....my goodness time flys. and i don't like it one bit. that day on september 3rd 2002 it was pure love at first site. i will admit to feeling very left behind when my brother had announced that there would be a new baby in the family months prior and was just surrrre that i would lose the top spot in my brothers radar.

and you know what...i did.

and it was 1000% worth it the minute the nurse popped in the room to where my sisterinlaw had just given birth and wheeled a beautiful baby boy into the room who was very fussy and hungry. infact....my brother lost his spot on my radar as i picked him up and did what just felt natural. even though he wasn't fully mine and i wasn't the one who had given birth to him...he became a part of me that will forever be attached.

from that point on my world was completely  turned upside down and made magical and very busy thanks to that sweet baby boy. he has been my constant in a life full of ups and downs. he has shown me what it's really like to be a  mother and to really embrace and love the divine right that heavenly father has given to us women to hold and nurture and care for a child.

Happy Birthday my sweet Baby! more birthday madness to come....

spinning like a hurricane

these are the moments i shall treasure always. this was taken last week and the sun was shinning and a handsome eight year old boy was running down the slope in the backyard yelling he was a hurricane and spinning around and around. my baby is SO not a baby. we went shoe shopping the other day for some summer tennis shoes and the guy at dicks sporting goods was measuring his foot. the guy proceeds to tell my nephew to place his heel all the way back against the foot pad to get the right measurement. my nephew scrunches up his face and tells him it is. the man shakes his head and looks at me and asks how old he is. when i reply "just eight"  the man says "well...your going to have one tall, big guy on your hands because his foot has outgrown the kid measurement foot pad." ....me: "uhhh and your saying....." sales guy: "your going to have to look at the men's shoes. we don't have any youth shoes in his size."

i had to buy shoes for my eight year old "baby" in the men section. are-you- freakin-kidding-me?!?!. he is growing soooooo fast.

....I Love {my little toilet man}

i may not have the boyf valentine...but what i do have is 1000% better. Him. my toilet valentine L.O.L.
from my little "stinker" to yours....{captured last week when he left my bathroom door open}

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

XOXOXOX

you were born today

dear angelus,
today, i turned around and now your 8. eight years old is such an important number. if i was to share my favorite thing about you to the world, i would share how very kind you are. it truly amazes me how sincere you are to your grandmothers and watch out for them if their going down steps or hold the door for them or fuss at them if they say the don't feel good and you ask them to lay down and rest or if they took their medicine. i love you with all my heart. let's see...eight things to note.

1. you are VERY tall. and it's really funny how i make you hold my hand when were at the mall or crossing the street and your only 3 inches from my full height.

2. you fuss if some one changes the channel on the radio or takes out your cd because your in the back seat singing away.

3. corn dogs and mashed potatoes are your favorite meal

4. army men, building blocks, and legos are your favorite things to play with.

5. your dad is your best friend and you guys do everything together

6. you can't stand for any of us to say "i love you" in public because it embarrass you LOL
and i love to torcher you with saying things like "angelus, do you need any new underwear?"...really loudly in stores.

7. you have this adorableness of a small mole right above your upper lip that i just heart

8. and finally, you LOVE to break dance!!! many a video do we all have on cell phones, cameras etc of you and your break dancing skills for future embarrassment!

Happy Birthday to my little stud whose not so little anymore! And to celebrate, I'm sharing an honorary song obsessed from Angelus. This is his current favorite..."turn the radio up, nobody talk to me because this song is on" obsession.

Easter Portraits & Holiday

After we came back from the beach, Angelus (my nephew) was on his spring break and came back up with us to spend the week an the Easter Holiday. So, I of course bribed the handsome fellow for some picture time (even though he hated every minute of it and proclaimed it a HORRIBLE day the entire time)...I know, I'm such the mean auntie LOL I think it's HILAR that the kid can take great pictures even in a bad mood LOL We had a charming week with the most beautiful Sunshine the whole way through. The night before Easter we colored eggs and grilled out steaks. During dinner we were then given the dreaded loaded question by Angelus....."Is the Easter Bunny Real?" .....Oh boy, we didnt see that coming and thankfully his Dad (who came up for the holiday) handled that question as I squirmed out of the room LOL

Ocean, Sand, and Him

Yelled at by a Seven yr. Old

Tonight, I made my nightly phone call

to my nephew who lives at the beach (Lucky).

The conversation went like this.

Me: Hey sweetie, Whatcha doin?

Angelus: Hey, Did you mail the girl cookies (meaning girl scout cookies) that granny bought me?

Me: Which ones? I didnt know we were suppose to mail you some.....

Angelus: Ya know, my favorites with the peanut butter.

Me: Really! Mine too! Abouut that.....

Angelus: Tear-ra (how he pronounces my name, it's too cute) did YOU eat my cookies!?!?!

Me: Well....I didnt know we were sending them too you sweetie and they were SO GOOD

Angelus: TEAR-RA!!! THOSE. WERE. MINE!!!

Oops. Looks like I'll be trackin down another girl scout.

Mr. Serious

My stud had his 7 year old photo shots taken Thursday {by yours truly}
I just don't trust alot of people to take pictures of my Mr. Serious.
He can be so grumpy and serious when it comes to getting good smile shots.
Plus, I'm proud to say we have never gone to any other place except maybe twice.
Anyway, tonight we went to a Tennessee High School football game and I'll have you know that I ended up sitting with four little 6 yr. girls from school because they wanted to sit with Angelus & Cameron. Cameron's the blond stud.
They on the other hand played with their other buddies and yelled at the team to score.
I'm NOT ready for this girl drama ladies...NOT at all!
Funny though, I can SO remember already having guy crushes
in Kindergarten and first grade. What can we say...we start young!
But not on my baby! ! !

In case your wondering...

Sweater by Old Navy

Under shirt with matching skull tie by Old Navy

Rugged Jeans by Oldnavy

Black dress Shoes by Gap

And handsome Stud....Priceless

Birthday Recap

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures from Angelus's Birthday. The little man had a blast. His birthday this year was on a week day so we did a class party on the day of his birthday and then a family party the following Saturday. As traditions states, I ALWAYS take sugar cookies w/ a drop of the most color coded icing with a sticker stick of what ever theme we go with. I remember my mom always coming to class throughout my entire elementary yrs. and so I've been doing this for the last three for Angelus!

When Angelus got home from school that day...we made sure he had a few presents to open and then the rest we told him he'd just have to wait till Sat.

I saw this cute idea from a friends blog {thanks Ann} to where you take a medium small tin can and turn it into a birthday tin with all your favorite candies and such. He loved it! I filled it with glow sticks, dinosaur eggs that hatch and candy! I think this will be a new tradition! And SO easy. Just look in your cabinets and find something you don't use and clean out and go shopping at the dollar store!



One of the presents he got to unwrap was a shirt I made just for him with his name and Roman number VII/7 Again so EASY to do. Just buy a shirt, the iron packages from Wal-mart. Download a picture, print and iron on! BUT make sure you read the instructions! !! !

Of course...we had to go with a glorious fattening food city cake! !! ! Saturday we kept it low key this year with just family. Aunts, Uncles, Grannies, and all his favorite cousins. Lee & Mary--his parents--cooked killer food with shrimp, asparagus, pasta, sauteed mixed vegetables and mushrooms with a cream sauce base and shrimp cocktail galore! They are high class cooks if I do say so myself!

Again, Happy 7th Birthday baby!