Happy 4th Birthday Thomas Joseph

TJ is 4 days old; first day home from the hospital

TJ is 1 year old! This was his first birthday party! Dumbo Theme

TJ is 2 years old; this is from his second birthday party! Hot Wheels Theme

TJ is 3 years old! This is from his third birthday party! Bob the Builder Theme

TJ is 4! This is just hanging around the house; his bday pictures he has his eyes covered in most of them! The "party" was a John Deere Theme

Yes it is true! My BABY is 4! Where does the time go? I remember going to the hospital to be induced; it was VERY cold and snow was covering the ground (what happened to snow?)! The pregnancy was easy, no issues, LOTS of food! Mashed potatos and gravy as well as mac n cheese were two of my favorites; odd for me since I hate gravy; never ate it before TJ and don't eat it now! They broke my water; started the pitocin and then said to me; either your baby is bald or I feel a butt! Well he wasn't bald! It was a butt! So then they gave me drugs to stop the labor and off to my emergency c section I went! TJ came into this world at 3:20 pm at 8 pounds and 19.5 inches. (don't hold me to the height). I HATED the c section but recovered "quickly" according to the doctors. TJ was a very good baby; loved to be rocked; used his swing up until very close to his first birthday; always has been a climber; was walking by 10 months...not much of a crawler; first official word CAR; go figure! Today his interests include; TRUCKS, including but not limited to Big Rigs, Car Carriers, Cement Mixers; he points them out and names them all, he loves legos, puzzles and trains. His favorite color is green; hence the new background! He is very loving and caring and can be the sweetest boy in the world! Flip side; when he is good he is great; when he is bad he is HORRIBLE! LOL! He is all of the above and more and he is MINE! (well technically "ours") LOL! As another year comes and goes I think of his upcoming years to include the start of school! Lord the tears will flow then! So I end this with a thanks to god for giving me a happy, healthy, loving boy that we call Thomas Joseph!

A Night In the Life Of US:

Last night the boys and I had a grand ole timewhile daddy was asleep (not sure how he slept through all of our noise)!LOL! The first couple pictures are from dinner time; a couple peoplehave commented that Jack looks different so I thought I would take anupdated picture! Then TJ decides to "rock out" (his words) for Jack byputting on a show while Jack drinks his bottle (he loves to hold ablanket while he is "eating" (Carrie note the blanket!) Anyway; theoutfit choice was ALL TJ and this look is not allowed outside of thehome! (he found that shirt in a box in the basement; clothes for Jack'sfuture; it is a 2T I think) Then after the concert he decided to takepictures and then the two of them played dino's together on jack'stray...I don't have pictures of that....then Jack went to bed and momand TJ played legos! He LOVES legos and quite frankly so do I! I lovebuilding all the cool stuff! I made a helicopter and a truck and TJmade a ship! :-)
Mom - he played that CARS game thing again last night and he kept askingwhere his CARS movie was (it hasn't seen the light of day in months) sowe watched that (well some of it) as well.. He loves that thing now!

Hope all is well with everyone! Love US!

TJ's 4th Bday Celebration & Weekend Stuff

Hi Everyone! I so wanted to post the other day but was having issues getting into this portion of the blog. Anyway so over the weekend I did all the fun stuff like shampooing the carpet upstairs and the dining room; finally all the carpet is done and it already should be done again in the living room I'll leave it for a bit and do it all over again! I love shampooing the carpet not only does it look better it feels better like fluffier or something! It's the little things that keep me happy! LOL! This weekend is bathrooms! FUN!
This weekend we had TJ's 4th bday celebration - John Deere was the theme. He had a good time and was very well behaved. We had only a handful of kids and that was fine by me; it was kind of last minute! I used to be so organized about such affairs; the life of only 1 child! Enjoy the pictures. By the way he is covering his ears because he did not want us to sing Happy Birthday but Chuck E Cheese sings it to all the kids at the same time so he didn't have a choice and by the way Rob's mom has a picture of Rob doing the EXACT same thing because he also did not liked to get sung to! Like Father Like Son - God help me! LOL!

Half a year old....

My baby has turned half a year old! 6 months as of yesterday the 22nd...how do I reward him; well with a trip to the doctor of course! LOL! TJ came along for the first time; he is wiping the drewl (sp) off of Jack in that one picture. Anyway; he is 18 pounds 13 ounces and is 26 inches long. I always forget to ask what precentile that puts him in but the doctor said he looks great and is growing awesome! He got three shots and some oral vacination. He has to go within the next week to have his blood tested. The doc said they test at this age for anemia and now they also test for lead so that will be another poke for the little man. He handles it well; cries when he is given the shots but is done by the time we hit the "check out" window. He can sit unassisted; roll over both ways and is doing the backwards crawl now but working on going in a forwards motion so it won't be long now! He eats GREAT! LOL! Stage 2 and 3 baby foods; we also give him snacks like biter bisquits and that toast stuff. This weekend he had "real" banana and I chopped up some elbows into tiny little pieces; he pretty much just played with those but ate some. He can drink from his sippy cup but I just give him water in it for now; he still gets bottles which he pretty much holds on his own about 90% of the time. He is growing up quick! He thinks anything TJ does is so funny!

Saving lives is tough work!

As some of you know in my "spare" time I volunteer with a rescue group; All 4 the Animals Rescue (http://www.all4theanimals.com/) (Plug over) and last weekend TJ and I volunteered for the adoption event that was being held. TJ did GREAT and behaved like the little man he is and can be when he wants to be! At the end of it all this is what happened on the way home! We started out at 10 am and this was at about 4 after all was said and done!

New Background

In Honor of our up and coming Holiday - Which would be Valentine's Day I changed the background to a more suitable color of pinkish/rose something! LOL!

GO Jack GO!

This is just a quick post. Since I do not only use this to keep others informed but also as a type of online diary and since I suck at baby books I just wanted to make note that Jack was up on all 4's yesterday rocking back and forth! I didn't get the camera in time but will keep it handy so I can hopefully catch a picture of him! It won't be long now! LOL!

GOALS

Goals; isn't that what life is goal after goal after goal; some achieved some not some made so many times you can not even remeber if you achieved it or not! LOL! i.e. Weight Loss! LOL! I am back into the swing of things post baby and so far have lost 6 pounds; now only about 600 more to go! Or so it seems to me! Not to much has been happening in Reese land. I have made some changes when it comes to TJ and the way I handle him. I have been far to easy on the little guy and he knows it; he also knows that mommy is the push over and I recognized this (it did take some time didn't it) and am now on a mission to re program the little man (since he is becoming a little man these days). I want my boys to be great men and it takes alot to raise a great man. He knew that mommy would get him a toy everytime we went somewhere; this has stopped; he is now in the process of learning to EARN his rewards since nothing is handed to you in life it is earned. It is tough; I would say more so on me than him. Our first meltdown in Walmart (which sells beer and wine now) was last weekend at my first attempt at saying no toy. I explained to him before we even left that there would be no toy; he assured me that he understood and still wanted to tag along; the entire trip there I repeated myself over and over no toy; you may pick a book or puzzle (educational) but no toy. We were about 5 steps in the door when I hear "I want a toy"; I was dumbfounded! He knew in his little head that the old mommy would have just said fine and he would have gotten yet another toy he really does not need but this is new mommy he is dealing with now! It was a loud tantram with lots of crying but I won that battle and stuck to my word and by the time we got home he gave me a hug and a kiss and was fine. Grated my nerves to their very core but I am sure we will have many of these struggles before he realizes that mommy means business even if it did take me almost 4 years to realize that! LOL!
He is almost 4! I can not believe it! He wants a John Deere birthday so I am trying to make that happen; nothing exciting or fancy this year; truthfully I haven't even sent out any invites or anything! Go mommy of the year! LOL! He dresses himself start to finish (except sneakers) and tells me more and more I am a big kid; he did tell me about a boy at daycare the other day I asked how old the little boy was he said he was medium! LOL! Not little like McKenna or big like him but medium! Love it!
Jack is trying his best to get to a sitting position from the floor; he gets over on one side and then grabs his leg while it's like sticking almost straight up and just tries and tries; not there yet...he is army crawling himself across the floor and likes to stand more than sit and lay...we still have to hold him up for the most part but he's getting there....I am in no rush since this will be my last little chubbster and a chubbster he is! He goes for his 6 month check up on Monday the 22nd of Jan. We'll see what they say!
All else is well.

Wrestling 101, haircuts and more

Hello one and all! The weekend went by without to much action, Jack got his first ear infection which had us at the doc on Saturday morning but despite it gave me huge smiles for the camera it also gave mommy a break from TJ and some quiet time with Jack (an a little shopping with kacey). I got my hair done Friday night and guess what it was totally FREE! Momma had referred enough people that I got a free cut and color (Savings of over 100 bucks)! I was very excited about that one! The weekend was nice; great weather on Sunday and more on the way! WOO HOO outside play! The boys are growing closer and closer each day and we had our first wrestling match and by the looks of it I think Jack won this one! Jack thinks TJ is the funniest thing out there and I even had to break out the recorder because TJ had him laughing out loud literally! TJ also made his first trip to a real baber shop and looks so grown up now! I also got the oven scrubbed the main floor and both sets of steps vacumed! What can I say it's the little things that make me happy! LOL! Hope all is going well with everyone else! Till next time!

Tubby Time! First picture (s) of 2008

Howdy everyone! Well here it is finally! Our first pictures of 2008 and much to everyone's disbelief it took me almost 4 days to take a picture. I think that is the longest time ever that the camera has been "shelved"! LOL! These pictures are very obviously tubby time; the one picture is Rob (daddy) trying to find the right ship parts for TJ...

So...for 2008; no resolutions here; just living. I could say that in 2008 I will be healthier but hell how hard could that really be since I was pregnant eating for most of 2007! LOL! What I want out of 2008 is a happy healthy family. That's it. I want to be nicer to my husband and children (sorry everyone else you get the same ole me)! LOL! I want to remember the important things; that the floor won't always be mopped, the carpet may not be vacumed, the dishes may pile up but who cares, my children will be happy, payed attention to, my nerves will not be strung because I can not get everything done and there will always be smiles (well we'll aim for it not making any promises)! I want to savor this year with my babies as they are growing everyday by leaps and bonds. There will be no more mini me's coming so I want to remember and soak in all I can with the ones I have. Does it bother me that the dishes won't always be done; that the floors won't always be clean..yes, yes it does, I won't lie but that is what needs to be and shall be pushed to the back burners (the dirty ones) not my children, not my husband.

So to everyone I saw Happy New Year. May you put the truely important things first, not a clean oven...we wish you the best!

Love ALL OF US!

Nope not the big it's a New Year Post; just poo....

Well I'll be darn; he can do it...I never thought I would think that wiping a butt on your own could make me tear up but dam if it didn't and all you mom's know what I mean!TJ pooped in the potty yesterday, no biggie, nothing new there, but what came next had me tearing up. I am waiting for the shouts of I'M DONE MOM; MOM I'M FINISHED before the poo even hits the water when I am first to ask are you ready for me, the reply, with a hand in a stop where you are motion, I can do it, it's okay I'll do it. SAY WHAT, since when...and he did, all by himself, no he didn't clog the toilet with 100 pieces of toilet paper, he didn't need any jumps for joy, simply he is growing up. One less thing he needs mommy for..

Well here it is:

This is what TJ gave up his birthday party for! And yes he got it early; his bday is 1/30 but the sale at Toys R Us wouldn't wait for that! LOL!