40 Before 40 update

Wow, it's been like forever since I even wrote about my 40 before 40 list.  You can check out my 40 things I want to do before I turn 40 by clicking on the button at the top of the page.

First I will back things up a little bit and explain why I'm doing 40 before 40 instead of the usual 30 before 30.  When I first started noticing all my favorite bloggers marking things off of their 30 before 30 lists I was already 28 and had 2 small children and a bun in the oven, and I just knew I would be setting myself up for failure if I tried to cram in 30 things in 2 years.

So the idea for 40 before 40 popped into my head and I went with it.  I've only marked off the following...

14. Start a blog
Obviously if you are reading this I've checked this one off my list.


15. Inspire someone
I inspired someone to start a blog, but I'm not sure they are still doing it or not.  I also like to think that I inspired a bunch of ladies at work to lose weight through two years of organizing a biggest loser competition.


24. Take a GIRLS ONLY trip somewhere.
We went on an overnight trip last year to look choose our bridesmaid dresses for my sisters wedding.

33. Buy a bicycle
I got a bicycle for my birthday last year.  This picture is from September.  Look how little Jackson was!!  He still LOVES to go for a ride.  When he sees the bike, he starts pulling on me and saying hat, hat!!  I can't resist him!

So I realize that is only 4 things so far, but considering I've got 5 more months in my 20's, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

The following things are in progress and hopefully will be next to get marked off my list.

2.  Lose 60 pounds (after the baby is born, of course)
I'm down 47 pounds.

28.  Pay off all debt
We are more than half way there.



Number 16 from list will probably be changed.

16.  Go on a cruise
When I made this list, I was envisioning a big family cruise with Mom and Dad, but in light of recent events, I'm thinking of something to replace this.  Maybe a beach trip??

I need to start planning some of these things!!  

5 months and 10 years will go by before I know it!! LOL

i'm glad that's over

We had a crazy super busy week full of baseball practices, softball games, dance and on top of all that, we had our standardizing testing.  Ugghh, it's such a boring week for teachers and stressful week for kids.

I'm glad it's over and it's my last one at that.

 

Abigail had her first games on Monday and Tuesday and she did really well.  Her team won both games!

Austin was super excited about Abigail's games, because that meant the "snack bar" aka concession stand would be open and he could get nachos, or candy, or chips.  He was a little too excited about that.

Austin's games don't start for another two weeks, but games and practices are starting to overlap and I hate missing anything.  I know it's unavoidable and I just can't be in two places at once, but it still bothers me to miss their things.

Abigail and Austin are going out of town this weekend with Brent's mom and step-dad.  They are going to visit a wildlife refuge.  I think they are more excited about staying in a hotel with a swimming pool though.  I sent Abigail with my old camera, so we'll see if she takes any pictures worth sharing on here.  They might be pretty funny!

My weekend looks pretty quiet and boring, just how I like it.  Brent has been working nights, so I'll just be hanging out with my little Jack-Jack!

Have a good weekend y'all!

I'm trying it out!

I'm trying out this Bloglovin business.  

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Jackson (20 months)

I can't believe we are only 4 short months away from being 2 years old!!  

Crazy how quickly they grow up!

Eating

Jackson is an awesome eater!  He will basically eat anything you put in front of him.  The problem is that he will no longer sit in a high chair, and doesn't always want to stay sitting while he eats, which results in food all over the house.  But after Austin's horrible picky eating ways, we don't really care.

favorite foods right now: waffles, spaghettios, yogurt, apple sauce, gold fish, chewy chips ahoy, hamburger, eggs, pop tarts, apples.

Oh and he loves to dip his food in ketchup or ranch dip.

I heard a loud thump in the kitchen and this is what I found.
He pulled the whole cookie jar out of the pantry and some tortillas.  

He still takes a bottle at nap and night time.  I wish that was the only time, but he usually asks for it throughout the day.  I think it's sort of like a pacifier for him.  Our summer project will be to wean him off the bottle.  I'm not looking forward to that!

Weight

Jackson weights about 26 pounds.  He went to the doctor 4 times last month.  Only during two of those visits did he cooperate enough to get his weight.  In fact the second time the nurse had to hold him and weigh and then subtract her weight.  Needless to say he HATES the doctors office now.

you can see his hand foot and mouth disease rash 

Clothes

He's wearing a solid 24 month or 2t.  I get a little too much happiness out of this fact.  My other two kids were always small for their age.  They both wore a size less than they should, in fact Austin still does. 

 I like having my big boy! 

Sleeping

He is a GREAT sleeper!!  

He struggled for a few nights while he was sickly, but he's back to sleeping all night.  He goes to bed at about 8:00 and during the week we have to wake him up at about 6:45 to bring him to my moms house.  On the weekend he will sleep until 7:30 or 8.

Talking

He is saying a bunch of words.  The ones in orange he was saying in my last Jackson update post at 16 months.  The black ones are the new words.

Mamma

Dadda

Nana

Papa

Babba-Abigail (we call her Abba)

Jack-Jack

Baa-Bath

juice

bota---bottle

ba---ball

na---nose

eye

Maddie (my parents dog, he loves her)

Ke--- Kelsie

flower- I haven't heard this, but mom has.

boo---book

Autin--Austin

shoes

toys

cookie

phone

hello

car

go

door

jump

baby
keys
no-no

bida--open (i'm not sure why, but it clearly means open)

I know I'm probably missing some.

He has also started putting some words together.  

mama nose

dada shoes

dada phone

nana bye bye

He knows the following animal sounds. 

Kitty

puppy

cow

duck

He can do a sad face, which is pretty funny!!

He loves watching Yo Gabba Gabba, Backyardigans, and Sid the Science Kid.  

He is really into cars, trucks, and trains.  I love watching him drive his cars around the floor.  

He would live outside if he could.  He LOVES playing outside.  He can climb and slide down all on his own now.  He likes to swing, but usually only stays in it for a few minutes.  He loves having Austin drive him around the yard in his car.  

He also loves jumping on the trampoline, which he can also climb onto himself, sometimes when I'm not  looking. #scary  

Lately he wants to eat all the time.  Every thirty minutes he's dragging me over to the pantry for a snack.  We went to target and got popcorn the other day and he loved it.

Daddy loved having to clean it all up from the back porch!!

He is turning out to be a really silly little boy.  He likes to make people laugh.  He will do something over and over if he can get a laugh out of you.  

Every day he seems to be getting so much easier to deal with.  He really is more toddler than baby now days and I am loving every second of it.  Don't get me wrong, he still has his tantrums and meltdowns, but he's just getting more independent and playing on his own or with the other kids.  He doesn't need me to carry him around everywhere or entertain him.

I can actually cook supper again.

he's started stuffing as much as possible in his mouth, it's not pretty

I love my little guy!!!

in your face daddy

This is too funny not to share! 

Last week Brent had all three kids by himself for a little while so he took them to get snow cones.  The following is a text I received shortly after.

If you are new around here, Austin our 5 year old is a very, very, very picky eater.  He basically lives off of sour cream chips, chicken nuggets, and eggs.  He has never liked ice cream or popsicles.  I'm not sure why Brent would even think that Austin would even consider eating a snow cone. 

Austin's poor eating habits bother Brent a lot more than they bother me.  Which is ironic because according to his family he was a picky eater himself up until a certain age.  

Then later that evening I saw this on Facebook.

Of course there are other kids out there that don't eat ice cream or snow cones!  He just couldn't seem to let this go!

Now lets fast forward to the next afternoon.  We went and played putt putt and then headed to Sonic because Abigail wanted ice cream.  Abigail and I got vanilla cones and Austin got some chicken.  Almost as soon as I start eating my ice cream, Austin asks if he can try it!  

What???? Austin wants to try ice cream!!  Are we in an alternate universe??!  

(by the way Austin had no idea we had talked/texted/facebooked about his dislike for ice cream)

This was completely out of the blue and what I call perfect timing!  

Not only did he try the ice cream, he and Jack actually ended up eating most of my cone and then he announces that next time we go to Sonic he is getting ice cream.  

Oh I was laughing so hard!!!  Brent's face was priceless!!

These pictures are from a few days later at McDonald's.  Just a little proof that it wasn't a one time deal.

Abigail and Jack eating ice cream is not big shocker.  

They will eat practically anything!!

I just thought the timing of Brent's ranting and Austin's deciding he loves ice cream was too funny! 

too many pictures

I know y'all are sick of looking at pictures, but since I'm trying to teach myself how to take better pictures I've been taking way too many.  

These are my little models!

these are old pictures, his rash is practically gone now

I'm pretty sure my kids are getting sick of having their pictures taken, but I don't care. 

5 bits of randomness

It's been a while since I've done a randomness post. 

 I'm always surprised by how much feed back I get on these.  I always think no one will read them, but then I'm pleasantly surprised with comments.  I'm not trying to pressure you to comment or anything, but feel free if your heart desires!

#1- We are all healthy again.  Praise God!!  Pretty much the entire month of March someone, mostly Jack, was sick.  I was at my breaking point.  Austin's runny nose started to make a reappearance this past weekend, but I've already noticed an improvement.  

#2- Our spring break is over. (insert sad face here)  We actually got to enjoy half of it.  By Wednesday Jackson was feeling better again and my sweet, silly boy was back.  I've blocked the first half of spring break from my memory.  It's just too horrible to think about.  (insert over dramatic face here)

#3- You won't believe this one, but Brent and I actually had a date night.  We went out to eat at Texas Road  House and it was yummy.  This day marked the downward spiral on my weight loss effort.  

please ignore the cactus that looks like it's growing out of my head

my rugged bearded man
the beard and hair are gone by the way
(sad face)

We have very few date nights.  As you know, my mom watches Jackson for us during the day while I work and I just hate asking her to babysit again during the evenings or weekends.  We already feel like we take advantage of her enough.  Once I'm not working anymore, we plan on having more date nights for sure.

We could pay a babysitter, but Jack is at a hard age right now with stranger danger, and I would hate to put a babysitter through that agony.  

#4- As previously mentioned, my weight loss efforts have take a slight backwards slide.  Actually with all the stress of getting Jackson well and happy again, I actually got down to 181.6 on last Wednesday.  I was pumped!

But then Thursday rolled around and we went out to eat on our date night and things just sort of went down hill from there with Easter candy and Easter dinner.  

So I'm starting this week at 184, which I'm not too upset about.  I'd like to get back to 182 by the end of the week though.  

#5- The countdown has begun!!!

37 days of school left. 

I always enjoy a good end of the school year countdown, but this year it's even more exciting, and a little bit scary, because I'm not coming back.