Southern Living Junky

It is officially summer weather if it isn't officially summer.  I cannot believe that it is already May and that it already feels like June.  Being the Southern Living junky that I am, I have been trying to get my garden and other flowers and plants in order around here.  I don't think my yard will ever be what I want it to be, mainly because it is impossible to grow grass with two dogs tromping all over it, but we have definitely made progress (thanks to my strong husband who is good at digging holes).  We started small with the garden this year, but half of it is completely full of mint.  If anyone out there wants some mint, you know who to call.  If you remember the rest of my produce from last year, you understand why I am not offering up any of my other plants.

Well, we went back to the splash pad and we brought some friends with us!  I am sure that the splash pad has not seen the last of us.  If we can handle this 90 degree weather, that is.  I can't believe it is already so hot!  I am very thankful that the evenings are still cool and it does feel nice in the shade.

I still haven't gotten a swimsuit (for me or him) and that is on the to do list.  I am less than excited about finding one for myself.

For you camera people out there, I used my wide angle lens for these photos.  I have been using it more often since my 50 mm broke and I am starting to get used to it.  I keep putting off getting the other one fixed, but it was my favorite.

I am going to have to find some more sensitive sunscreen because the Aveeno seems to be irritating Mason's eyes.  When he got wet (on Saturday and Monday), his eyes got red and puffy as you can see in the picture.  I remember sunscreen doing that to me when I was little.

Mason and Tucker are only 23 days apart.  I am sure they have a lot of good times ahead of them!

The following photo is one picture of about 20.  We could not get Mason to smile because he was too busy looking at everything but the camera.  He has also been busy learning how to spit.  That's right. Lean over his chair and watch his food hit the ground as he spits it out of his mouth.  On purpose. He first attempted this with his carrots at a restaurant.  Then, later in the day he was playing in the playroom while drinking his milk.  I saw him look down and watch the milk dribble out of his mouth and down his shirt.  I told him "no" and he looked up and had milk bubbles all over his chin.  It is pretty hilarious.

We are changing his clothes at least three times a day these days... part of it is due to the above mentioned factors, our yard has a lot of dirt which is his favorite, he spits, he dumps his "no spill sippy cups" out on himself on purpose because he likes watching it spill, he loves to eat 8 to 10 goldfish at one time until they overflow out of his mouth and he gets chewed up soggy goldfish all over his clothes, and he likes to play in the dogs' water and food bowls every chance he gets.  He is normally filthy.  It is not possible to keep him clean, so why worry about it?

After the splash pad he spent part of the afternoon trying to pick up 2 of his balls at the same time.  He tried over and over and over.

He started out trying to scoop both of them up at the same time, stretching his arms as wide as he could...

Then, he brought one ball over for me to hold, picked up the other ball, and then came back to get the first ball from me.  I thought that was pretty smart, but it still didn't work.

Then he discovered the tag on the soccer ball and it was victory!

He is napping now and I am going to try to book a condo at the beach for a quick little trip.  It will be our first vacation as a family of three!

Also, please keep Mason in your prayers as he is going to see a pediatric ENT at Children's in Birmingham in a couple of weeks.  We are getting a consultation on his tongue since he was born "tongue tied." (I just made the appointment, family, which is why you may read this before I have a chance to tell you about it.) The doctor will let us know if surgery is required or if he thinks that it will fix itself in time. I pray that he won't have to have surgery but I fear that his tongue is connected too close to the tip.  I will keep you posted.  Thanks in advance for your prayers!

The Power of Positive Thinking

First of all, thanks to all of you who thought of me this past week as I went back to work.  Your comments, notes, and text messages were very encouraging and I definitely felt your prayers coming my way!

As I mentally prepared myself to go back to work, I tried to think positively about it and not dread it.  I knew that dreading the day would only make things harder and make the situation worse.  Honestly, that mindset helped a lot.  I was able to remain upbeat and the week went really well.  I am not attributing the success of the week just to my positive thinking; I know that God played a huge part in the way things played out and I really had a sense of peace about everything.  However, I am constantly reminding myself of the power of our minds and how I can use my mind to make things better.

Living with an eternal optimist really encourages my drive for positive thinking.  Before you start thinking I am all optimistic and stuff, I have to tell you that Ben's positivity sometimes drives me crazy.  I'm all "can't you just let me whine about this for one minute?!" :) Forcing me to look at the positive side of things and put things in perspective is one way that Ben helps make me a better person and for that I am thankful.

When I get down or become negative, I am reminded of this verse in Philippians 4:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.(verse 8)


That verse is preceded by "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  In my Bible I have written, "Dwell on your blessings while God works out your problems.  


Yesterday, my mom sent me this article which I found very motivating.  It is about thinking big, thinking outside the box, and acknowledging the power of your mind.  The main points that spoke to me in this article are: 


1. Invest time strengthening your strengths.


2. Spend your life on your passion. "This is what you were created to do."(Do you know what your passion is?)


3. Deposit your energies into the creation of products and services that will add value to the lives of others.


4. Choose to see abundance, be abundance, and live abundance, but never at the expense of others.


If you have time, it is worth the read!

And for you moms out there, I stumbled across this website, last night while reading an article on PW's blog about the effects of school on creative children (yeah, I guess you could say it's a little early for that). Anyway, that website (coolmompicks) has a really great recommended reading list that you might want to check out.  I think I will be reading a lot of those books in the future.

And I leave you with this:

My little man is three months old today!! Can you tell that he was DONE with this photo shoot?  I was taking pictures of him this morning ( I will post the Three Month post once I get them edited) and we were doing some shots in vintage outfits.  First I put him in a Feltman Bros outfit that belonged to my brother, Matt, that was complete with matching shoes.  Then, I remembered the p.j.s pictured above which is what Ben and both of his brothers wore home from the hospital when they were born.  I had intended to take Mason's pictures in those a while back (like, when they would fit him) but forgot about it.  When Mason came home from the hospital he was only 6 pounds 3 oz so the outfit would've swallowed him whole at the time (since his daddy was a whopping 8 lbs 12 oz when he was born). Anyway, this morning the p.j.'s barely snapped (I didn't even attempt to snap the top one) and Mason was not having it! Needless to say, I have pictures of him in his daddy's outfit, but they all look like the one above. That picture is a bit deceiving because Mason was an absolute angel during the whole event until I tried to put those on him! You will see when I post the others later on.

Have a great day!