Twenty-Something

Well, another birthday has come and gone (on Wednesday to be exact). I'm not real sure what to think about birthdays anymore...I'm not real sure what I think about getting older... not real sure how I feel about receiving gifts...not real sure how I feel about bringing extra attention to myself (thanks to Facebook, everyone knew it was my birthday!) It's definitely not the same as it was when I was a kid. However, I have come to realize that it's a day to feel loved and to be thankful to my Creator! I realized that I am so blessed and have more and more to be thankful for each year of my life. So...looking at it that way...each year brings on more blessings, so bring on the birthdays!! Haha :o)

Here is how I did celebrate my day:

On Monday (we actually celebrated early), Jason and I were off of work so we took the kid to the Apple Orchard in Idalou! We enjoyed a lovely morning picking apples, pumpkins, walking around in the beautiful sunshine, and just being in God's creation. It was a beautiful day, perfect weather, and a great way to spend some much needed time together.

On Wednesday, I ended up not having to work, so I wandered around Target for a while by myself (I can't tell you how much fun that was!!!), had lunch with my wonderful Mom-in-law, went for a walk with Mollie, worked in the garden, then had a relaxing dinner at home with my two favorite people! It was a great day and I went to bed feeling blessed.

To continue the celebration, we partied at our tailgate before the TTU vs. OSU game (thank you to all the 60,000+ people that celebrated my special day with us...because they certainly didn't have anything to celebrate about that game!) And I believe we have a fun afternoon planned tomorrow as well.

Two sweet Red Raider fans: Mollie and cousin Maddox!

So, it's been a great birthday, a great week, and great times spent with my family! Yay!

20 Months!

Yesterday we celebrated Mollie's 20th Month by enjoying a morning at church and having a lazy, fun afternoon at the house. We sure are enjoying this kid! It's crazy to watch her become less and less of a baby and more of a toddler. Kinda makes me sad, but at the same time excited to see her grow. Here's what this kid is up to this month:

Our 20 month old lovin' on her daddy! (notice the chocolate drool coming out of her mouth and her wild hair...haha!)

- Up to 25 lbs! Even though she's gaining weight, she's also growing taller and thinner. There are some clothes that she grew out of that she can now wear again because of how the shape of her body is changing.

- Improving her fine motor skills...she can drink out of a glass without a lid (we don't do this very often!!), is getting more efficient using her eating utensils, likes to pretend like she's putting a screwdriver in a hole and turns it, can stack her blocks higher and higher, etc...

- She can recognize most or all of her ABC's, colors, and numbers 1-10. Just yesterday she counted to 10 with us! With a little prompting, she's got it.

- TALKING! She's definitely going through the "language explosion" most toddlers go through about this age. She picks up words at an alarming rate, and is now speaking in 2-3 word sentences. Some of the things she's been saying include, "Mommy's here!", "Daddy's home!", "Done with plate.", "I love you", "Apples and pumpkins!" (referring to our little field trip today...I'll post about that later), "Go to school", and my favorite, "I'm poopin'." Hahaha!

- Singing...she LOVES to sing songs. Her favorite at the moment is the little prayer song they sing at school before snack and lunch. It's to the tune of "Are You Sleeping?" and the words are "God our Father, God our Father, once again, once again, we will ask your blessing, in the name of Jesus, Amen. Amen." She folds her little hands and sings it over and over. So sweet!

- Still doing a great job with the potty training! Has the occasional accident, but does great the majority of the time.

- Climbing! She's learning how to climb, and now climbs on everything! This has been a good thing because she can now climb up on the couch and some chairs with out help. But she's also been climbing on things she shouldn't be and I imagine we're going to have our first busted lip or something like that pretty soon :o)

- In true toddler fashion, she's testing her boundaries! She's started throwing mini-fits by whining and sitting herself down on the floor. She sometimes tries to pull away when she KNOWS she's supposed to be holding your hand (at the store), screaming MINE when she wants something, and basically just screaming :o) Mollie's cries usually turn into a scream (they've always been like that), but now they can really get quite loud. I know all parents have to go through this little phase, but I'm praying it goes as quickly as it came. So far, this has been the least fun part of parenting. However, we've had to remind ourselves to remain consistent and it'll work itself out!

-However, the BEST part is that she's showing more affection towards us, is being very friendly, and her sweet personality is becoming more evident. We sure do LOVE this little stinker! Here's a little video of Mollie doing push-ups with her Daddy...she also enjoys doing leg lifts, stretching, and playing football :o)

Also...We all had the day off today, so we ventured out to the Apple Orchard in Idalou! I'll blog about it later...so much fun !

Rain, Roadtrip, Romance, and Roseola

So, this is a bit of a random post about a few random things we experienced lately...

1) Rain! Oh how I love a little bit of rain. We had the opportunity to enjoy some several days ago and play in it just a bit...after I got caught in a soaking downpour without an umbrella :o) Here's Mollie enjoying it in her rain gear:

2) Road trip! We had the opportunity to make a quick trip to Denton to see some of Jason's family. We left eaaaaaarrrrly Saturday morning and made the drive to spend some time with the Johnson's and the Stubblefields. We had a great time visiting with everyone and Mollie had a great time playing with cousins Kayley and Raegan! She LOVED playing with the older girls and we're so thankful they loved on her so much! We had a blast and miss you guys already! Also, Mollie did SO WELL in the car, thanks to some audio books (Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Give a Mouse A Cookie, Skippy John Jones to name a few) and a little travel potty. She loves listening to her stories in the car and it made the trip SO easy for her. Thanks mom for letting us borrow them :o)

Being silly with Kayley!

Pretty ladies! Raegan, Kayley, and Mollie

3) Why did we leave so early Saturday morning for the trip? Because Friday night I was in New Home celebrating the "romance" of my forever (like since the age of 4 or so!) friend Lexi and her fiance Brad! He was super sly and planned a romantic proposal for her that night and was sneaky enough to include her family and close friends in the fun. We're SO excited for you two, and can't wait for you to join the old married people's club :o) So sad I don't have a pic of the happy couple, though!

4) We've had a bit of sickness going around this week which ended in a diagnosis of Roseola for poor Mollie. We've all had a bit of allergy-type symptoms for a few weeks, then on Tuesday I finally got "sick" of it, went to the dr, and was treated for a sinus infection. Yuck. Then just a few hours later, got a call from Mollie's school that she was running a fever. So I took her to the dr. and discovered she had an ear infection. Yuck. We were both on antibiotics and doing good. However, about the time Mollie's fever went down and her ears got better, the fever came back. In fact, it spiked to 105.6! Yikes! We got it down with ibuprofen and cool rags (it was in the middle of the night, of course), but headed back to the dr. the next day. They could not find anything else wrong with her (ears were perfect), but told us to watch for a rash. Sure enough, on Friday, after having a fever for 4ish days, it went away and a rash emerged all over her torso. Roseola! It's such a weird virus; it's only diagnosable after the fact when the rash emerges. I've never even heard of it until this week, but you should Google it; it's very interesting. The best part is that once you get it, you can't get it again! Most of us had it as kids. But luckily it's not serious and goes away as quickly as it comes. Here are some shots of Mollie after it spread to her legs:

Oh and here's another one...those Red Raiders! Did you see that game this weekend?? Ugh. Sometimes it's hard to be a Tech fan.....

So, we're now healthy, home, in better spirits, and looking forward to a great week! Long live the Matadors!