Busy little bees

So much for trying to post more than once a month! I'll have to get back on the blogging wagon, now.

We made her a Pillowcase dress while my mom visited at the end of last year.

The hooligans out shopping.

Let's see . . . Joe has started school and so has Emmett. Joe is officially back in college working on his Master's degree. The first couple weeks were a little off around here with adjusting to college responsibilities but we're good now. Joe had been doing great. All of his classes right now are online except for the tests they take, those are in class. Some of his classes were half semester and he passed with all A's. I think he's actually better at school with 3 kids rather than 2 . . . go figure. Between work, school and his busy church calling he's been handling the stress phenomenally. Me, on the other hand, not so much. I miss him, a lot. Joe and I dream of going on a vacation just the two of us, we've thrown out a couple destinations but it probably won't happen. 

We've started noticing some sibling rivalry issues with the boys, more than the normal stuff. We thought about it a lot and realized that with all of the extra attention that Anderson gets for being "special", Emmett has been feeling left out. Just around this time, a friend from church posted on Facebook about a preschool that had opened up a new class for the Fall. I called and they mentioned he could get in as soon as that same week. We jumped on it! He has been going for the past couple weeks and he LOVES it. Before he would make up stories about how he rode a bus and what his school friends names were (remember he's the child with the overactive imagination). It was kinda sad. Now, those stories have stopped and he says he's a big boy just like Anderson. Emmett was just accepted into the Pre-K program at the same school Anderson will be going to in the Fall.

Anderson is doing well. We have been working really hard on learning the alphabet. We started out with learning to sing the ABCs song. And now we sing the song as we line up the letter blocks in the right order. It's hard work but he's a smart one. I'll be meeting with the school soon about registering him for Kindergarten. I hope the transition goes well. Right now he goes to a school for children with special needs where he receives all of his therapies so I hope they will work with him at his new school just as well. I'm worried about them holding him back from 1st grade (which would put the boys in the same grade) but that's a while from now. Anderson lost his first tooth or first 2 teeth, actually. His 2 bottom front teeth, to be exact. It was so sad for mommy. I didn't think I would be so emotional about it. It's just more proof that he is growing up more every day and there is nothing I can do about it.

Let's talk Tatum. Oh, my dear, Tatum. She's just like the boys with that she's happy all the time, unless she's hungry or tired. Nothing terrible. BUT she sure knows how to make a mother worry. Remember way back, when Anderson was almost 15 months and the doctor and therapists were concerned that he hadn't started walking yet? Well, he decided to start walking just before he turned 15 months and he took off running. NOT TATUM! She's such a lazy bum. She is 15 months now and she has JUST started standing by herself. Every few days we will catch her standing up in the middle of the floor and then she'll sit back down. Then a few days, maybe a week later, she'll stand up and then plop back down. She needs to stop toying with mommy's emotions. People keep saying it's totally fine but I have those haunting voices from the past coming into my head saying things like 'developmental delay' and 'therapies', blah blah. Which gets me thinking about how I've heard that Autism can run in families and then I'm freaking out because I am not prepared to repeat the last 4 years of Autism 101. She's great on everything else. She says mama, dada, hi, bye, arf arf (closest thing to anything dog related) and she's getting better at "I love you". She likes to wave at everyone lately and nod. Super cute. She laughs and smiles all the time and she loves to sleep. So far she's going right along with the boys in attitude and personality which means she should be getting ready to start waking up during the night anytime now. Sad time for us. I'm getting ready by trying to enjoy my sleep as much as I can, while it lasts. Her hair is getting so long. It hits about her shoulders but it has some curl to it so when you get it wet it hits about her shoulder blades. Still red, too.

My new set of dishes. Red & Black.

Weight Watchers Online!

The state of Arkansas hates me, 
I haven't been able to find my favorite flavor of ice cream since we moved here.

BEFORE

BEFORE

AFTER

I've been working at getting in shape. I've still been working on the treadmill but I've started weight watchers and Joe is doing it too. I took last week off because with my birthday and my dad visiting it was too much to keep track of my points but I still managed to lose 0.4lbs. Total I've lost about 10lbs. I'm working towards a goal to be lighter by the time we start trying for another rascal so that's something to look forward to. Thursdays are our weigh-in days. Today is the first day of Spring break so we shall see how well I do with the boys home full-time. I may find myself needing some m&ms to ward off the mommy rage. Joe bought me a vacuum for Valentine's day and dishes for my birthday . . . I've become very domestic. I turned 28, yuck. I'm teaching the 6/7yr olds at church. I have a friend here and things are looking up. I really like Arkansas. I still have an immobilizing fear of tornadoes but that won't go away anytime soon, if ever. I've been in need of a dresser for a while now and so as a birthday present to myself I bought a old sturdy dresser off Craigslist and repainted it. I love how it turned out!

For Christmas I was given my first and probably what will be my only pair of UGGS. They are ridiculously expensive but they are very nice and I feel super trendy wearing them. Like I ALMOST don't look too much like a mom, or something like that.

Joe and I stole this idea off Pinterest and we made them for the Grandparents for Christmas. They were a big hit!

  
What else, you ask? Hmmm, our transmission went out in our van back in December so we've been sharing a car. I miss the van. It's crazy cramming the kids into the back whenever we all go somewhere. They estimate it will be about $2100 to fix. Eek! So, we're waiting until we win the lottery . . . that we don't play. I've taken a leave of absence from my extended family. The drama has become too much and my family doesn't need to be involved in the dysfunction. Thank goodness for In-laws, they fill in the gaps.

We celebrated Valentine's day with some gifts for the ladies. Joe started a tradition with Tatum. Since I grew up HATING Valentine's Day because I was one of the girls that never got anything when it seemed like everyone else did and I grew up to be a bitter woman because of it, we figured we'd try and prevent that from happening to Tater Cheeks. So, every year for V-day she will get a balloon or flowers or both from her daddy. :)

Rise

And

SHINE!