Weekend Wrap-up {Potty-training, Flea-marketing & Preaching}

We had a great weekend but it was a wet and wild one! Sorry this post is a little long.

First off, our little TN county has received a ton of rain over the last couple of days and there are a lot of people near the creeks that are flooded out of their homes. Thankfully we live way up on a hill and it was not an issue for us but we have lots of folks that are having to clean up after all this rain.

A couple of quick notes on potty-training too. Jonah has done so well and we are really proud of him. I knew a couple of weeks ago that it was time to start training when he came to me in the bathroom (while I was using it) and was standing there with his diaper on telling me he was peeing....as he also stood right beside his little potty-chair. If he knew he was peeing and he knew he had the diaper on then he was ready, in my mind, to learn to put his pee pee in the potty. He had already been peeing in the potty a couple times a day but it was always before nap at his Nana's and before bath at our house. So we already knew he could do it....we just had to get rid of the diaper safety net.

So last Monday we started. I got him up and sat him on his potty first thing that morning (he had a dry diaper from the night on) and he put it all in the potty! So we put on our big boy underwear and headed to Nana's. I have to give my Mom most of the credit for the training because we had discussed strategy the week before and she was ready to go on Monday. She had a sticker potty chart in the bathroom all ready for him when we got there. He had several accidents the first couple of days and he did not make it to the potty when he went #2. Mom unfortunately got to deal with all those while I was working. He did not have any major accidents at home with us. By the third day he didn't really have to "go" each time we took him (which was about every 15-20 minutes). On Thursday his little schedule was mildly interrupted because he stayed at my Granny's (his great-Granny's) that day because my Mom had some appointments. That was his first accident-free day and his first day to really hold his bladder for long periods of time. He did not go #2 that day though. :( By Thursday, I have to note, he wasn't a fan of having to stop what he was doing to go to the potty and pitched pretty big fits about having to. He still had not made the connection of telling someone when he needed to go and how much he would feel better after he went. We were not really sure how to make it over this hurdle at the time but we pressed on.

I also need to note that we have chosen to still put a diaper on him at nap and nighttime. I think that is pretty normal but not sure. He does understand that he only gets a diaper those two times of the day. So our next challenge after not having any more pee pee accidents was to go #2 in the potty. Well....he actually did not go #2 AT ALL from Thursday through Saturday evening!! Which was NOT normal for our once-a-day regular little boy. So we were a bit worried about that. His belly was really hurting him by Saturday night and we just decided that since we tried several times to get him to go on the potty #2 that we would put the diaper on for a while and encouraged him to just go in it! It finally worked and bless his little heart...he was backed up. But we started fresh on Sunday morning and he wore his big boy underwear to church that morning and did great and after church we came home, ate and started playing outside. I kept telling him to let Mommy know if he had to go poopy and we would run to the potty. Well HE FINALLY TOLD ME! We rushed inside and got it all in the potty! There was a lot of celebrating after that one and we called Nana and Papaw and told them too. That was the the final turning point for him I think. I am just hoping that this week will just continue to get better and not have any major accidents. I am really hoping we will be in the clear by the end of this week (that will be 2 weeks in).

Ok....so enough about all that. LOL

We bravely ventured out on Saturday (it rained the whole day) to a new, large, indoor flea-market in the next town over from us. I have been wanting to find a shabby chic style dresser for Haley's nursery that was already painted and done but that didn't cost a thousand dollars. LOL I was really hoping I'd find one at this flea market because I had been following them on Facebook and seen that they had some really awesome booths and lots of people were selling painted furniture. My Mom (Nana) came along with us and helped me so much by keeping an eye on Jonah while I shopped the booths. Surprisingly there were not a ton of dressers for sale but of the ones they had, I found the perfect one for her nursery and it was a decent price. My budget was no more than $200 but I really wanted to stay under that. Well this one (see below) was priced at $150 and was already painted and very nicely waxed with Annie Sloan chalk paint, all the drawers were in good shape, worked and had the handles. Also the drawers are dove-tailed so I knew it was a solid piece. I offered $125 and we ended up settling at $135. I feel like I got a pretty good deal and I had a little cash left to buy Haley a cute little stuffed owl and a tiny white tea pot. I am loving the shabby chic look so I will have to go back and look for more stuff at that place later.

Finally, Sunday night was capped off by listening to my handsome hubby preach the evening service at our church. Our minister has been away on a mission in the Ukraine and asked Michael to fill in one evening since he has done it a time or two in the past. He did a great job and everyone was really proud of him. It's not something he just loves doing but he doesn't mind filling in when needed. He really loves to teach the adult class and is really great at that too.

I hope everyone had a nice relaxing weekend!

Baby Shower Favors & Hostess Gifts

My wonderful and gracious friends have offered to give me a baby shower for Haley in June! I am so excited to get to spend a day with a lot of my favorite people and of course there will be cake too! Yum!

I love to give people wedding and baby showers. I think it is so fun to decorate a place and just celebrate the special couple or mother-to-be. Our church always gives members and children of members a shower when they get married or have their first child. We don't do second-baby showers though, as a tradition. So this shower will be given by some of my friends from church but it will be at a different location. I just feel so blessed to have these God-given friends in my life.

So this time I decided to put together some favors for all my guests to show how much I appreciate each one of them and for the three ladies that will be hosting and doing all the decorating. Thanks to the magic of Pinterest, this was an easy feat. I got started early (the shower is not until June) since I we didn't have a lot of stuff going on and I will probably be in full nursery decorating mode once the shower gets closer.

I saw several ideas for hostess gifts such as a shower/spa basket with a tag that read something like "I hope your next shower is as wonderful as this one." I went with the bath/shower theme but sort of took it in a different direction.

Bath & Body Works was having a great sale on their body products and small antibacterial cleansers. I was able to order all the Pocketbac antibacterials for a $1 each and got a deal on the smaller body products. I chose the Beautiful Day sent and then made up tags that read "Thank you for making this a "beautiful day" for me!" I think they turned out pretty cute. 

I also included some light pink Essie nail polish since we are having a girl. :)

Here is closer look at the products. I got the clear, plastic containers from the Dollar General (of course).

I just made up the tags in Word and used some scrapbook paper to set them off.

Next, I cam up with a small tag to go on each antibacterial cleanser favor. I wanted to get all Sweet Pea scent but the website would not allow me to buy as many as I needed in that scent with the special sale price. So I also bought several in Strawberry Cupcake scent instead to go with the "girl" theme.

Another idea from Pinterest, the tag reads, "Thank you for celebrating the mother-to-be and her little sweet pea."

I am excited to have this fun job wrapped up and ready to go. Now I just need to get started on the nursery. Hopefully we can start in May!

P.S. Please wish us luck in the potty-training dept. too. We started this week with Jonah and he is doing pretty good but it still has not "clicked" yet that he has to get to the potty BEFORE pee pee starts to come out. I will do another post on this if and when we have somewhat mastered it. We will see.

Have a great week and weekend!


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Friday Randoms & Pregnancy Update

Just a post of a hodge podge of things swimming around in my brain. It helps sometimes to just get them written down and recorded. I want to remember how great I am feeling at this stage of my second pregnancy, as I have not idea how long it will last. LOL

I am currently 23 weeks along. I have lots of energy right now and I don't feel too big. I am fitting well into my maternity clothes and I haven't had any swelling. Food tastes sooo good to me right now. My biggest craving is anything Mexican. I have limited myself to only indulging in this craving once a week. Thank goodness our tiny town has one little Mexican restaurant. They see me coming! LOL I have been getting good sleep each night and have really started to feel her moving and kicking a lot this week. It's so weird to be feeling that again! It's like I had forgotten what if feels like but still it's so familiar at the same time.

I just have to add a note about how blessed I (we) have been with "stuff" this time around. Since having Jonah, several of my friends and family members have had babies and girls and they have generously shared and gave us so much. I was able to buy an entire maternity wardrobe from a girl I go to church with that had a baby last September. We are the same size and she had tons of dresses and cute tops and even a maternity swimsuit. I spend around $70 on an entire wardrobe for this spring/summer! Also I had two other of my friends from school (actually my FB friends now) answer my call for maternity clothes and one mailed me some of her stuff and the other I was able to go pick up all her old clothes! I am so set on maternity clothes and it has/will save me so much money. I plan to bless someone else with all of it once I am done with it.

Also, I have been so blessed with girl clothes already and baby gear. My cousin has already brought me a swing and activity center to borrow and I have two huge totes full of clothes from my friends! So blessed by that!

By the way....I don't think I've mentioned it on here yet....her name will be

Haley Rose Cheatham

Haley is a name I've always liked and said I wanted to use if we ever had a girl. Rose is my mother's maiden name so I wanted to pass that along to her too. I had a really hard time deciding on the spelling of her name but I think Haley is going to be simplest and best for us.

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We've had a beautiful week, weather-wise, around here and been able to break out our shorts and t shirts.  Here are a couple of pics I took with my phone.

We got Jonah his first fishing pole at Bass Pro last weekend. Michael showed him one time how to release the line/sinker and how to reel it back in and that was it. He caught on very quickly. It was so funny that is took his Daddy 3 weeks to decide and shop for the right fishing rod/reel. He had to have a realistic one and not a plastic one. LOL

 

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Things in our house are kind of crazy right now as we prepare to welcome this next addition. I think I've mentioned before that my home office is in our third bedroom currently. So we are fixing up our spare room (mudroom/storage room) as my office right now. We still have lots of work to do in there before we can start on the nursery. 

I also have so many things I want to do myself before the Haley gets here. Just a few of the things I want to do. Kind of like pre-birth resolutions. LOL

-complete her nursery

-make lots of bibs and burp cloths (I have all the supplies but just have to make them)

-deep clean my house (truthfully this is at the bottom of the list LOL)  

-get Jonah's scrapbook done for this third year

-plan Jonah's 3rd birthday (just a couple of weeks before I am due) 

-put together several freezer meals for those first few weeks at home

-get Jonah potty-trained or at least mostly potty-trained (a BIG one)

I hope I can get most of these accomplished! Wish me luck! 

Birthday Weekend

I had a fantastic birthday weekend and I have all of one picture to show for it. LOL I have to get better at taking pictures with my phone at least.

I took off work for my birthday this year since it fell on a Friday. I just couldn't stomach the idea of having to work AND turn 30 on the same day. :)

Michael and I had a fun day together on Friday and we headed to Nashville (about 2 hours away) and did a little shopping (at thrift stores) and ate at The Cheesecake Factory for the first time! We had a delicious meal and we both got the chicken salad and soup. They had fresh-made New England Chowder soup and I literally could have licked my bowl, it was that good. The chicken salad was yummy too but a little heavy on celery. Still wonderful and we topped it all off with some cheesecake, of course. I had the Ultimate Red Velvet cheesecake and Michael opted for the original. Our nice waiter even made my plate special for me and I had a candle too! It was a very nice thing of them to do for me and made me feel so special.

We capped the day off by going to Opry Mills Mall for a little bit to Bass Pro Shops (for birthday gifts for my Dad & brother) and I hit up a big sale at the Carters outlet too. My feet were killing me due to my poor choice of wearing flat sandals, by the end of the day so we headed on home after that.

My parents kept Jonah overnight for us Friday night so I got to sleep in a little bit (7:00 is sleeping in for me now). Then I picked up Jonah and we headed down to Piney campground in LBL (Land Between the Lakes) which is just a short drive from our house. My in-laws were camping down there and it's such a fun place for Jonah to play outside in the dirt. Michael was partaking in a fishing tournament so we just went down and hung out for a while and let Jonah play in the beautiful weather and see his other grandparents. His Papa and him took a walk through the woods up to the campground supply store where Jonah got a little a stuffed animal Owl to take home. His name is Hootie. LOL

Saturday night my Mom fixed a special birthday supper for my Dad and I. My Dad's birthday is April 2nd so we always combine our special family meals. Mom made her wonderful lasagna and fruit salad and then we had Holy Crap Cake (I will have to share that recipe sometime. It's called that because that is what people say when they take the first bite). It was such a delicious meal and a great time visiting with family.

Sunday we went to church and had a fellowship meal afterwards. We have ate big all weekend! Then we just rested at the house and played outside.

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and friends!

On Turning 30

Today is my 30th birthday. As you read this I am off to the big city (Nashville) with my hubby to eat at The Cheesecake Factory (one of my personal goals before 30-so getting it in right on the day-yes I know. What a goal! LOL) for the first time and doing a little shopping and just overall treating myself.

As I turn 30 I just cannot help but think of how different a person I am than when I started this decade at the age of 20. I KNOW who I am now. I didn't know who I was at 20. So as I look back over this decade I am grateful for the years (good and bad) and for the lessons learned that made me who I AM. I think I finally found myself and who I am to God and to all the people in my life.

I am God's child and saved by His grace first and foremost. I understand God's love for me so much more now than at 20, or even probably 25. I understand what it takes to have a relationship with God and not just what it takes to be a Christian.

I am a wife to Michael. I know what my role is as his wife. I know more now than ever who he is and who God made him to be. I understand what a marriage is supposed to be, more than I did back when I was 21 and reciting my vows to him. I understand more about what it takes (hard work among other things) to keep your marriage strong. I recognize when I am pushing his buttons and I try not to do that. We communicate better, we love better and work together so much better than we ever have before.

I am a mother to Jonah now. I have a son. I have another life that depends on me. I understand more deeply how God loves me because of how deeply I love my son. I teach him how to operate in this world. I show him how a mother and wife should be in the home. I love and cuddle him and keep him safe. I put someone else's needs and wants ahead of mine.

I feel like I am a better daughter, sister and friend now than I was at 20. I know who I need to be to keep those relationships strong. I also know who my true friends are.

I encourage people more at 30.

I am more compassionate at 30.

I am more kind at 30.

I am more focused at 30.

I am more selfless at 30.

I am me at 30.

Our Easter Festivities 2013

We celebrated Easter all week long it seems.

We started Wednesday with our church's Easter egg hunt and meal. We always do it the Wed. before so that people can get to their family gatherings after our church service ends. We don't do a sunrise service or anything like that either.

There were over 200 eggs for small group of kids and this was just the preschool section.

Jonah definitely knew what he was doing this year and just went right to work picking up eggs.

He ended up having the most eggs in his age group, but I think it was just because he had the biggest basket. LOL

Jonah and his pal Neely Jane. Love her little coat.

Checking out what was inside all his eggs.

Neely Jane, Anna and Jonah. I grew up with both of their parents and it's so fun to see our kids running around together now.

The next day, Thursday, Nana and Jonah went to the library's little egg hunt and Easter party they have for the preschool story time group. He had lots more fun but there were more kids at that one. He got to see the Easter bunny but Nana said he didn't get to close and he just whispered "happy Easter" to the bunny. LOL

Standing by the library Easter egg tree.

Jonah and Neely are big buddies at library.

Then on Thursday night we dyed a few eggs at our house. It was our first time to do it and I must say that egg dying has come a long way. It was really easy. Maybe next year we will tackle decorating a few.

We just hung out at home all day on Saturday and relaxed. Then on Sunday morning we went to see what the Easter bunny had brought Jonah!

He got a bat and tee, mitt and glove, books, squirt gun, sidewalk chalk and some candy.

All in all, we had a wonderful Easter. It is fast becoming my favorite holiday. The best part of all was on Sunday night after we did our nightly prayers with Jonah. I asked him what he learned about Jesus in class at church that morning. He thought for a minute and then he said "He alive. He roll the stone away." Gracious that boy makes me so proud to be his Mama!! I hope you had a wonderful Easter too.