Welcome, 2012!

2011 has came and went. It never slowed down and I see that when I signed in I only had 1 post from 2011. 2012 hopefully will be different but lets face it, I am bad at blogging:/

Chris, Corey and I had an eventful year. We visited family and friends as much as possible and we went to our favorite places as much as possible as well.

We are expecting our 2nd baby here in the early summer and can't wait until he or she gets here. We are wanting to know the sex beforehand so we can get the baby room set up. I can't wait to decorate. I'm sure to know sometime in February, so stay tuned. Our summer is going to be eventful with a new baby. We are excited.

I changed accounts at my job in May in hopes that I would be working back at home and December 19th it finally happened. I work at home and doing 2nd shift. So far it has been lovely, sleeping in and hanging out with Corey in the mornings. We like to have a big breakfast of sausage, oatmeal and toast with milk for him and OJ for me. I keep wanting to get up and cook some eggs and toast for Chris in the mornings but he gets up so dang early and can't muster up the strength to get up. Hopefully, I can get into the habit of it soon since my New Year's resolution is to cook more at home.


There are so many things to look forward to that I can't wait for but I feel like because 2011 went by so fast that this time/this year I want to tell myself to take a deep breath, slow down and enjoy each and every single day. I feel as a mother especially, I am waiting and holding my breath for the next milestone or special event. I need to keep telling myself to enjoy the little things because one day I will look back and realize those little things were the big things that I may just miss and wish I had that time again.

My advice for anyone in 2012 is remember the positive, forget the negative. Don't focus on the negative or you will never get to the positive of any situation. Keep a smile on your face, people will either love you for it and those are the people you want in your life or people will hate you for it. Either way, just keep smiling. Hold your head up high and focus on what matters the most to you. Most of this is me telling myself these things but I hope whoever is reading can take something from this. Oh and to blog more...another New Year's resolution for 2012:)

Loving Life

Life is so busy right now! Its hard to sit still. Life is crazy....and we love it!!

Corey is now 2 YEARS OLD!! We planned a small birthday party that ended up being huge:) But we were so excited that everyone was able to come!

I am now an independent consultant for Scentsy! I am trying to get my business up and running Right now I'm focused on trying to get my clientele up but its hard when all I want to do is buy all the products in the catalog, there will be no way I'll be making money at this.

Chris and I are really focused on Corey. We make sure hes healthy and happy. He has been sick a few time this winter but it was nothing we could not handle. With the help of Chris' mom, Frieda, he has become a very smart, intelligent, wonderful kid. He pronounces his ABC's really well. Kind of knows how to spell his name (we start out saying 'C' and he will finish 'O R E' and we finish with Y). He is a big ol' sponge! He loves to count his cars, though he has hundreds in a matter of months. 3 days before he turned 2, he spent the night at my mom, 'Nana's' house. With a matter of a day, she managed to get him to get rid of the pacie!! I was ecstatic. That is the start of many new 'big boy' things to come, though. We have potty training and getting him to sleep in his own bed at night. We have a good start as we took the crib part off his crib and made him a 'big boy bed'. He doesn't like that too much. We also have him running around in underwear sometimes but I get scared and hurry up and take them off before he has the chance to practice. I hope I can get over these anxieties so he is able to learn.

Chris and Corey love to watch tv together. They watch sports. Corey loves all things sports!! Wrestling, football, basketball...!! its great to see them watching all that together. It's their bonding time. We also watch Seaseme Street, Sid the Science Kid and Dora the Explorer.

They also like to cook together and the love eating and snacking. They are 2 boys that are gonna eat me (momma) out of house and home! Corey is picky when eating but when he likes something, he cannot get enough of it. Just like Chris.

This is just a little update on how we are doing. Thanks for reading:)

Our Summer

I am upset with myself that I have not posted anything since May. Not only is this blog for my friends and family to read but this is a good reference back when i am trying to record things for Corey. He's getting to be super big. Literally, 'a little man' is what I like to call him. He is 19 months now. Walking around like he owns the place. Going through kitchen cabinet drawers, mommy and daddy's dresser, underneath the bathroom sink, in and around my scrapbook room, up and down the stairs. Everywhere except his bedroom! He hates being alone in there but soon he will have to get used to it. Being almost 2 years old, he should be out of mommy and daddy's bed soon but we love cuddling him so, here he sleeps with us because it is us that need him for comfort. He's our little piece of heaven.

I am happy to report that Corey is up to date in all his immunizations until Kindergarten, which for me, is a great feat that I accomplished that for my son. I thought I would be the kind of mommy who says to herself, 'Hey, I'll get them next month or he doesn't need them now, I'll get them done before this or that' I'm a huge procrastinator, so this surprises me. Also not to mention all the people scaring me with the side effects. Corey did not have any!

This has been a really fast summer as always...it goes by so quickly. Because it was pretty eventful. May, we went to the St. Louis Zoo for the first time with Corey. He loooooved it. We had a trip to Vegas in May as well that we won from a radio station to see a group called Paramore in concert at the Hard Rock Hotel. The trip was great and the time we shared without our little guy was needed but by the end of the 4 days, we were really excited to get back to him.

June, we celebrated our 4th year wedding anniversary. Pretty uneventful as well but we know we love each other enough that we didn't need to make a big deal out of it. 4 years together, wow. Plus the 2-3 we dated and were engaged. Its been a long ride but i'm enjoying every minute as his wife.

July, Corey and I took a small trip to Branson with my parents while Chris took a trip with his dad to California. I stayed with my mother in law some of the days while they were away, to make sure she was ok. We had fun times all around.

August, we made a trip to Chicago for our nephews 7th birthday. It was actually Chris and my first trip to Chicago together. We've gone other times but never together and to have Corey with us our first time together was just great! We went to Shedd's Aquarium and Soldier field for family night.

September, we took Corey down the road to the Pumpkin Festival! We went all 4 days it was in town! We had so much fun and Corey loved all the rides he rode with his cousins, uncle, dad, mommy and friends. We had lots of good food. Hotdogs, ribeyes, pumpkin porkchop sandwiches, pumpkin chilli, pumpkin ice cream, lemonade shakeups, corndogs!! Yum yum!! We saw lots of old friends from school and Corey was a big hit with his big smile and huge belly laugh!

We have been hanging out a lot with our friends Kamron, 4 and Landon, 2 and their mom Ashley whom I work with. We have had a lot of playdates and go to places like the zoo and shopping with the boys. We take them to McDonalds and eat lunch of have dinner usually pizza! We love hanging out with them! Its great to have friends to just have a relaxing day together. The boys get along great. I am very happy we have them as friends.

I am happy that I have so many friends and family to share this summer with. It was a pretty fulfilling summer with lots of things going on. For all of you reading who has been a part of our summer, I am very grateful for you all.

Thanks for reading.

15 months:)

We can't seem to sit still these days! Maybe its the fact that COREY'S FINALLY WALKING!! It was a long process for us to teach him how and I have to say we had been very patient. It paid off in the end seeing him walk on his own! 14 months and 1 day old!!

Corey is now 15 months. He runs around and dances and plays hide and seek. Its his favorite game. We have a glass coffee table and he squats underneath and looks up to see if we are looking for him. Its the best thing when he laughs when we find him! Today I found him and I picked him up and he started hugging me but then started attacking me, laughing and biting me...it was crazy! I had to laugh because he thinks its playing around but it did hurt...i'll have to teach him biting is not good! We let him watch Dora and Diego and he loves Sesame Street. Elmo is his favorite! Ok Elmo's my favorite:) I love sitting there cuddling and watching Elmo's World. It is super cute. Corey loves going outside and sitting in the grass and looking at bugs....he is definitely a boy. He likes to explore. He loves visiting his grandparents. We recently went out of town and left Corey with my mom. He did wonderfully there! Nana Norma took all bottles away and now only uses sippy cups!! He got on a schedule and goes to sleep at 8-9 pm. My mom is great with him! Life as a mommy is good....just this week when we got back, I realized that when he says ma-ma, he's actually asking for me and wants me to pick him up! It took awhile hearing that from my son is so rewarding. Chris loves him calling him Dada too. I will say, give Dada a kiss and he turns and kisses him!

Lots of things going on this month and last but as I always end my blogs, I will try to write more often! Hope all is well with you. Thanks for reading!

Where did the time go??

I would like to say nothing has happened these past couple of months so I haven't posted anything. But just the opposite is true. There has been so much going on that I haven't had time to stop and record them and let everyone know how we are doing! We have a 1 year old now!! Corey turned one Feb 13th! It was awesome that it was a Saturday and we could plan a huge party for it! Thanks to all that came, it made his day! We had a lot of fun spending time with everyone and helping Corey celebrate his 1st birthday. He had fun too, although he was pretty tired since I didn't give him a proper nap that day. What can I say? His first birthday only comes once! Here are some pictures! I also have more on Facebook if you want to get on and look:)

He was so super cute! He wouldn't touch his cake until his Aunt Tammy helped him! Putting his face in his cake was the only way he'd eat it! It was a great day!

We are once again just the 3 of us as our house guests finally moved on and out so we no longer have live-in babysitters but its a blessing in disguise since now Corey is babysat by his Grandma Frieda at her house! He has lots of room to play everyday and he's getting to know his daddy's parents a lot better.

He has 6 teeth now and can feed himself really well with those teeth! He still likes for mommy and daddy to feed him his bottle...I don't mind...its an excuse to cuddle him but it does get tiresome when I'm trying to get ready for work:( He cries when we try to give him the bottle to feed himself...I say pretty soon he won't want me to do anything for him so we give in to it...I'm sure by this summer he'll be off the bottle anyway!

Corey's cruising...big time. He can crawl and walk while holding stuff like the couch and tables. Sometimes he'll get up on the bed and actually try to climb up the walls! He's a big ball of energy...I'm just happy he's healthy and happy!

Being back at the office is going okay...I still wish I was working at home and Chris is working lots of overtime so when we get home its dinner....bath for Corey...and a little tv and bed for the 3 of us...I haven't had lots of time for anything else but after our guests left I took all of my scrapbook stuff back into the guest room and now I have a little space for myself and my stuff so I can scrapbook and check email and listen to music. Chris has a workshop down in the basement, he hasn't really done very much in there but he likes organizing it;) Corey has lots of toys and books in his room...his room is a child's dream but he cries when we leave him in there to play, he wants someone to play with...I tell Chris we need a 2nd baby so he has someone to keep him company...maybe soon...don't hold your breathe people, lol! It will have to be something we both want and when we are both ready.

I am going to try to start blogging more often with extra pictures so please bare with me while I find some time to do that each week:) We love you all, thanks for reading!

10 months already!?!

My baby is growing so fast...where did the time goooo? Corey is now eating solids and today he got pieces of chicken fed to him...wow! I'm excited to see him feeding himself finger foods...which will be next.



Right now we are preparing for Christmas...Corey's first one. I'm going to make it as special as possible for him. It will be my first too...my first time hosting my family christmas! 30+ people in my small house...hope I can do it! I want it to be special for Corey, not only him but all my little cousins...I want them to have a tradition to look foward to as I did growing up...hopefully I can make that happen.



What better way to get into the holiday spirit than to visit my brother in law and sister in law. My sister in law does Christmas like its her job! Her house is beautiful and very festive. The day we went, she baked brownies and sugar cookies that were amazing and had Corey eating them. My brother in law gave him a whole sugar cookie and he loved it...had Corey loving him afterwards, giving him big smiles and laid his head on his shoulder when finished...wish I had a picture of it but I have a small video of him admiring his aunt's christmas tree...

Please excuse the background conversation...it was Sunday...football.

Can you see how big Corey is getting, though. My sister in law can barely hold him up!! He is starting to learn how to stand while holding on to stuff and pulling himself up but hasn't got to that stage yet.

In other news....I'm back at work in the office, no longer working at home. My account closed and so I went to another account but this one does not offer the option of working at home so I'm back to the daily grind. I actually have to get up and pack my lunch...do my hair and makeup...start my car...leave my baby at home with babysitters. Yes...I have babysitters...a live in nanny...2! My brother came back home from Texas and brought his Fiancee and is staying with us until they can get on their feet here. I'm loving it...she cooks, he cleans, they both take care of Corey until Chris gets home from work. I missed my little brother...I'm happy he's here for the holidays.

Chris has been working lots of overtime at Cat. He is loving being the head of the house! He's a good daddy and plays with Corey from the time that he comes home from work to the time we go to sleep for the night! He's having fun this season, watching football with Corey and teaching and talking to his little boy about the games. Recently, Chris taught Corey how to high five, very cute!

It has been bitterly cold out this week and we have not taken Corey out at all. I'm hoping this weekend or sometime next week before Christmas, we can take a trip out to the Festival of Lights in East Peoria. I would love to see Corey's eyes when he sees all the lights! Lots of stuff to be excited about:)

9th month in November:)

I feel like I never really had a little baby...Corey was big when he was born and he's always been a big boy... Right now, it seems to me that Corey is a full blown toddler. He's always had a mind of his own and wants to be independent all the time. In the past month of November we've gone through milestones like they were nothing...

November 1st he started waving bye...he doesn't know the concept of it yet...that you leave and you wave, no he'll do it randomly and at the wierdest times. Maybe he's just waving 'hi!' to us.

We also got him started on 3rd stage foods. It requires lots of chunks and chewing so he's starting to eat table food like eggs, banana's and teething biscuits. Not that he hasn't eaten teething biscuits before but he actually chews them instead of sucking on them.

November 13, Chris lowered his crib because he's been sitting up and lifting himself up on things...that was a moment I knew I didn't have a little baby anymore...like I said, not that we ever did have a little baby but it really hit me then. I am very proud:)

Between the 13th and the 15th his upper left tooth broke thru and he now has 3 teeth! That is amazing!! I don't know the exact date of the tooth but it wasn't there before the 13th and it was there on the 15th and plus he didn't make a big deal out of it...it must not have been too bad. Corey is a tough guy!!

For the past month, I have been teaching him to point out the nose, eyes, ears, and mouth....He's got the nose down pat and when you ask him where his nose is, he'll point to yours, lol. He doesn't have the concept that he has a nose and where it is. He'll get it soon.

And the big announcement: In the past 24 hours Corey has crawled!! Wednesday the 18th, I was getting all my scrapbook stuff out, my brads and stamps and buttons and Corey was so curious that he started crawling, he took 3 big crawls and stopped, I screamed and everyone came running in but he didn't do it again probably because I scared him. Then today Thursday the 19th, he got tired and just started crawling... anywhere and everywhere, to the picture frames on the floor, to the PS3 remotes by the tv, to the dvd stacker, just everywhere. I got it all on video and I'm so happy I got it! Thats the one reason why we got the camcorder and I'd be really upset at myself if I didn't use it.

Its been a whirlwind of milestones and firsts so I told myself I'd better get to blogging before I forget the dates!

Next week will be his first Thanksgiving! I'm making sure that every year he knows that I'm thankful for him and his Daddy...Happy Thanksgiving, All!!