The Best Laid Plans....

I was so excited Friday night. We had such a fun weekend planned, and I was excited to come home and write a Blog post all about the fun time we had together. Here was the Grand Plan:

Friday: dinner at Senor Tequila's
Saturday: Ultimate Garage Sale in a.m.
Mardi Gras parade at 3 p.m.
PBR Bull Riding at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday: church and lunch after.

Here's what ACTUALLY happened!! We did go to Senor Tequila's Friday night for dinner. But that didn't quite turn out the way we had planned. We had to WAIT for a table (never had that happen before) and then someone was quite bad at the table (only happened 1-2 times before). Bad to the point that his Daddy took him out to the car for a 'talk'. Needless to say he calmed it down after that. Things continued to go downhill after we got home. My stomach was messed up and we all went to bed early.

Feeling better in the morning, I decided to do something special for my boys. Something that I have never done before. I got up and fixed pancakes for breakfast. And not just plain pancakes, no, I made the 'supreme' pancakes off the Bisquick box. They sounded great and they tasted great. Everyone really enjoyed them...for about an hour. And then the real drama began. We all got food poisoning. My loving husband keeps telling me it was Senor Tequila's, but I tend to think it was something in the pancakes. I promise the eggs were still in date and I tasted the milk!! So, as you can imagine, none of the rest of our plans materialized. We all stayed close to the potties for the rest of the day. We ended up letting Jonathan stay up and watch bull riding on TV. He loves the bulls. So funny but he does love him some bull riding!!

Luckily, Mark and Jonathan were feeling better by Sunday. Unfortunately, I was not. They ended up leaving me at the house and went to the McDonald's playground to play for a few hours. I laid on the couch, did a zillion quizzes of facebook, and worked on our taxes. (The taxes are another whole sad sob story, but I won't go there today!!!)

I finally started feeling better Sunday night and finished washing/drying/folding clothes. What a weekend. Hopefully I will have better things to report after this next one! Here's hoping things are going better for ya'll!

Karaoke Elmo with Jonathan

(see previous post)

Shh...Watching Birds

Just had to add this picture as well. We threw the first pancake (a little burned) out on the back porch for the birds. Jonathan had more fun standing at the window and watching the birds come up close. We had to work on not squealing and screaming every time the birds came close. He kept scaring the poor things off from the pancake!! Thus, the 'shh...'. Today, he saw a bird and told me, "Mommy, birds eat pancake?" So we went to check the porch, and yes! the birds did eat all of the pancake! (And Mark said they wouldn't touch that pancake, it was too burnt!!) Jonathan was so excited that the birds had eaten his pancake. Going to have to burn something else to feed the birds (shouldn't be that hard right? and probably safer than feeding it to my family at this point!!).

Singing with Karaoke Elmo

Jonathan had a great time sitting on the chair singing with Karaoke Elmo. He sang and sang and sang. And did quite well honestly for a two year old. Such a sweet baby. Mommy had a good time singing with him. We sang BINGO and Happy & You Know It. I have another video of him singing these songs as well as Elmo's World and The Wheels on the Bus. But the other one is too large to load on the blog.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day, Love Jonathan

What a wonderful Valentine's weekend we have had. I used to believe that big gestures, expensive flowers, and extravagant dinners were necessary for this day. I have come to appreciate the smaller things that truly show love.

Mark has been in Phoenix for most of the week. He was off this Friday, but Jonathan went to school anyway. He had his Movement Class in the morning and his Valentine Party that afternoon and we didn't want him to miss out on the fun.

The new Movement Class is being taught by a parent of another child in the preschool. She is a dance teacher and is amazing with the kids. After the first class, Jonathan was so excited to tell me that they played with a drum and scarves. This class she played some African music and all the kids really got into that.

Fun in Movement Class

Mark met me for lunch and we had a good time just eating a meal and talking. It was a nice treat. We ended up going back to Easter Seals and waiting on Jonathan's Valentine Party. The party was a lot of fun. They had so much fun chowing down and dancing to the music. His friends are just happy and loving and it is just a wonderful place for our little boy to be. Jonathan was so excited that his Daddy was there for the party. We all had a good time.

Valentine Party at Preschool

After the party, we went out to the lobby at Easter Seals to meet Jerry Jones. He is the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and Easter Seals' Arkansan of the Year. He came in for the press conference and to take some pictures. Of course, Jonathan ended up being right up front and got to meet him. It was so cute and he is such a ham!

Jerry Jones and Jonathan

We got up this morning (Valentine's Day) and went to McDonald's for breakfast. I know it is silly, but we had a blast having some Sausage McGriddles and Hash Browns this morning! Little things, but fun, and good memories. Mark bought me a beautiful display of bright red tulips with white centers. They are gorgeous and such a sweet gift. His plan is to plant the bulbs after they die off so that they will regrow next year and I can enjoy them for years to come. Is that not the sweetest thing! Much better than cut flowers that will just die.

Valentine Tulips

My mother is coming tomorrow after church. She is off Monday and Tuesday and is coming to spend time with us and keep Jonathan. He is going to stay home with her and play. They have a ton of activities planned and will have a great time.

So that is it for today! Who knows what the rest of the weekend will bring, but it will be fun I'm sure! Hope everyone else is having a great weekend as well. Love to you all!!

Happy Birthday Mark!

Well, I think we might have to accept the fact that we are (becoming) adults. Mark slid over the hump this weekend and turned 31!! I get to harass him for about a month and then I will be 30 and we will both be out of our twenties. Not that we really mind too much, there is something gratifying about making it this far in life and to be happy and content.

We had a good weekend. Everyone at our house is finally feeling better (we've had colds and sinus infections all week). Mark's parents came to visit on Saturday and Jonathan was so excited to see them. He loves being with his Paw Paw and Grandma. He is an especially big fan of Paw Paw's (and really anyone's) truck. We hung around the house Saturday and just played with Jonathan. We went to eat Saturday night at the Riverfront Steakhouse in NLR at the Wyndham Hotel. We had not been there before, but it was really good. Everyone really enjoyed it and we had terrific service which was a plus. We came home and had cake and presents for Mark. I made Mark's cake (yellow cake with chocolate icing) per request and think it turned out pretty well. I think he was pretty happy with everything. Jonathan and I are getting him new speakers for his car (typical Mark). We also got him a gym bag and socks for his new membership to the gym (thanks to Michelle for helping me come up with that idea).

Obviously, someone wants cake!

We were planning to go to church on Sunday, but Jonathan woke up in the middle of the night having nightmares. Poor baby, he was scared and just shaking when I got him out of the bed. He got in the bed with us but kept waking up the rest of the night. He tried to tell me what he had been dreaming about, but I couldn't understand him. I tried to ask him this morning, but it just upset him, so we let it go. But we didn't get much sleep, so we just missed church this morning. Hopefully next week! After we got up, Mark's parents wanted to go to the RV Show downtown. We had seen a sign for it last night on our way to dinner. It was a blast, who knew?? Jonathan had more fun climbing in and out of EACH and EVERY camper out there. He opened as many doors and cabinets as he could and climbed on and off of all the couches/seats/beds/etc. Mark's parents have been talking for years about buying a 5th wheel camper. We did finallly find two that would be really nice. They had a 2nd bedroom/playroom area with bunk beds. It would be perfect for little people to have their toys in and to take a nap in or go to sleep before everyone else was ready for bed. Anyway, we were just looking, but it was fun.

His parents left after we got back to the house. Jonathan was beyond exhausted and was having a hard time going down for his nap. So he ended up in the bed with me, again. Poor baby never moved away from me though. Usually he moves to the other side of the bed before he falls asleep or right after he falls asleep. He never moved from my side today. Mark went to buy new pants for his business trip while we were sleeping. He found a good deal at Men's Wearhouse and actually did a good job of picking his own clothes out (he doesn't do this very often....at all). So now we are just having a relaxing weekend at home before beginning another week. Mark is off to Phoenix this week, Monday through Thursday, so it will be busy for me here at the house.

I also had to put up a picture from my Daddy's birthday a few weeks ago that I finally got downloaded off the camera. I made his cake as well and we had a good time visiting with my parents.

Jonathan helping blow out the candles.

Super Bowl Party Pics

The kids enjoying some pregame goodies!

Jonathan played so well with Megan, it was quite sweet to watch them.

It's Party Time!

What a fun weekend we had. Everyone was pooped out so we slept in Saturday morning. Jonathan is definitely our child, he loves to sleep in. THANK GOODNESS! We cleaned up around the house during the day and just enjoyed being home.

Saturday night we went to the Ahne's house for Game Night. It was so much fun and we really enjoy spending time with our friends. The Spicer's were there with their three girls. Jonathan had a great time running around with the older two. They had an especially good time playing with Monte's (the dogs) toys. The guys all ended up in the living room playing guitar hero, Wii Fit, Wii Mario Kart, some airplane game, etc. The girls ended up sitting around the kitchen table, talking, of course. It was a ton of fun. We ended up staying late. We thought Jonathan MIGHT go to sleep on the way home, but no, he was wired up and having a blast. Took a while to get him to sleep once we got home.

Of course, everyone was pooped out in the morning when it was time to get up for church. We did make it though and weren't too terribly late. Went straight home after church for a nap before the Superbowl. We went over to the McKinney's house to watch the game. They had cooked up a TON of food as usual and we had so much fun spending time with them. Jonathan just loves Katie to death and is starting to play with Megan too now that she is more mobile! And dark chocolate chips in brownies is a darn good thing! Everyone had a couple of them, they were just that good! Unfortunately, the Steelers managed to steal the game away, but at least it was an exciting ending. We thought the best commercial was for CareerBuilder.com where they kept adding on to it, "If you hate going to work, wish you were somewhere else, feel like hitting small animals, have to sit next to this guy..." That was just too funny! Mark also was excited by the new Transformers and GI Joe movie trailers. Guess I know what we'll be watching this summer! Overall though, not that many great commercials.

After staying out late two nights in a row, I figured today would be bad. Jonathan was hilarious when I went to get him up for school. I tried to wake him up in the bed and he never moved. I finally picked him up, carried him across the house, talked to him, stripped him out of his pj's, still didn't move or open his eyes. Finally sat him on the potty and he was just weaving and kept his eyes closed. He did potty though, while I held him on the potty! Got him dressed and then he finally opened his eyes when I put him at the kitchen table to eat his breakfast. He was awake but he mostly just sat at the table and watched tv while I got ready to go. Poor baby was just tired. He did well though at school and didn't show out or anything, thankfully! But he was pretty pooped out by the time we got home though.

We went by Heather Owen's today to pick up his 2 year old book and prints. They turned out so well. Check out her website and blog. She takes great shots (almost all outdoors) and really captured Jonathan's personality so well. Her website is: http://www.heatherowensphotography.com/ and http://www.heatherowensphotography.blogspot.com/. If you look, you will see Jonathan's picture on both sites. Such a sweet happy baby. I am such a happy (and just slightly proud) Mommy.

Well that is probably enough for today. Mark's birthday is coming weekend. I need to get ready for that! My hubby is going to be 31 on Saturday. Sliding towards 40! I can say that for a while longer as he will always be older than me!!