Go Hogs!

I'm really behind on Mason pictures--here he is cheering on the Razorbacks. (3 months old)

We made it

Well, I made it thru my second week back at work and taking Mason to daycare. I am glad to be at work--2 months leave does wonders for the burnout I was starting to feel before--however it's sooo hard to leave Mason everyday! He's doing great and I like where we're taking him but it is so hard to drop him off in the morning.

He's getting so big already! I'm really dreading Monday--I have to take him for his 2 month shots. That will not be fun.

He is such a sweetie--we are so blessed to have a wonderful adorable son! Speaking of...He's waking up--gotta go!

Monkey Boy

Here's Mason's Halloween costume--I hope he fits in it by Halloween! I ordered it online and it arrived yesterday. It's way too big for him right now, but we've got 2 more months for him to grow into it. I need to find him a banana as a prop!

growing so fast!

Look how much Mason has grown! Top pic is just a few weeks ago! He weighs about 11 lbs now. He's cooing and smiling at us and is very responsive. He's too cute!

Women Building Better Communities

Look! I do have a life outside of home! (just barely) I took this at our (me and Christy's) Advisor Social at Johnny Carino's. It was fun and great to get out of the house and have adult talk! Interested in learning more about Junior League? Here's our NW Arkansas League's website: http://www.juniorleaguenwa.org/
And AJLI's site: (Assoc. of Junior Leagues International) http://www.ajli.org/
I love being a member of the Junior League. It's very fulfilling and a great way to meet new people--a very successful, inspiring group of ladies in my community! This is my 4th year. (3rd active) I get more excited about it each year as I learn more about the league, the needs of my community and just general skills such as conducting business meetings, the structure of committees, bylaws and policies, and fun stuff like socials and icebreakers. Well, that turned into an ad for the Junior League!

Start Saving Now for College

Being a Mommy...

There's a company called Upromise that saves money for your child for college when you go through thier search engine to purchase stuff online. You can also set up local grocery store cards, etc. and everytime you buy stuff they contribute a certain percentage to your college fund. Too bad our local stores don't have grocery cards--it's mainly big city stores like Kroger and Whole Foods, etc. But it's a good idea if you shop online like we do.

Here it is...

in all

it's glory.

R.I.P. Gardenia

This beautiful gardenia that my brother-in-law and his girlfriend (now fiancee!!) gave us at the hospital...


...is now DEAD!!!


They got it so it would bloom each year and grow with Mason--how thoughtful! However, we put it in the sunroom and it was too hot :( Wayne brought it back from the brink of death once but then it went ahead and went to plant heaven. I can't keep any plant alive--that's why you see fake plants at my house. I'll have to take a pic and post of how pathetic it looks now--it really is sad --and yet kinda funny to look at. I even looked for one at Wal-Mart to try to replace it but had no luck. The worst part...they don't know we killed it. (yet)

Extreme Close-Up

My sweet baby boy!

He Has Arrived!

Mason Cole is here!

7 lbs, 10 oz

21 in

What to Expect When You're Expecting...

*ultrasounds*excitement*heartbeat*swelling*joy

*pain*hormones*cravings*stretch marks*weight gain*soreness*anticipation*rest*picking names*decorating*dr's appointments* questions*bathroom breaks*morning sickness*due dates*smiles and tears*

"Of all the rights of women, the greatest is to be a mother."
--Lin Yutang

9 MONTHS!!!

Here I am in the nursery--it's ready to go, we just need the baby! I had professional maternity photos taken around this same time--just a few days before my due date!

Fire! Fire!

This is our fire pit that we bought early this summer. We bought it at Lowe's. We roasted marshmallows and made smores for dessert for family night at our house. It was nice sitting around it talking--although a little on the warm side! This fall it'll be nice when it's a little brisk outside.

Showered at Work

My work threw this baby shower for 3 of us that were pregnant. (My 4th shower!!!) They do that every few months or so--there's always several employees that are pregnant--it's in the water. (well it IS a women's hospital!)

The cake was too cute! My friend's cousin made it--she has a cake business. I plan on using her for any cakes I need in the future. She does awesome work. The other girls in the pic are on thier 4th and 5th kids!! Holy moly--count me out on that!

Baby Shower

My baby shower in May--lots of friends attended and I got tons of much-needed baby stuff! My car was full! Ang and Tori were hostess' and they did a great job. Thanks everyone!

8 MONTHS

Just a few self-portraits of me in the nursery at 8 months...

Run-on Sentence of my Current Life

Yes, I'm still alive! I haven't posted due to many other higher priorities....
ya know, like growing a baby. I only have 4 weeks left! We're so excited to meet our baby boy! Here's what I've been up to: decorating the nursery, cleaning everything, working 40 hours a week, having 4 baby showers, finding a place for all that baby stuff, writing thank you notes, spending time with family, buying lots of stuff (including a new digital camera!!) , going to Dr's appts, and scrapbooking 16 pages in 2 days!!!!
I needed to catch up sooo bad--I did Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, our b-days, and some other random pics I wanted to scrap of friends, family and my cat. I'm a very slow scrapper, so 16 pages completed in 2 days is a new record for me. I better get used to that with a new baby around.
We're having family night at our house this Sat. We're grilling out hamburgers & hot dogs and we bought a firepit for the backyard, so we'll have smores for dessert! yummy.
Well, I'll try to post again soon, but I can't guarantee anything. Next time I may have baby Mason... :0

Word Cloud

This is too cool. Go to www.snapshirts.com/custom.php to make your own blog word cloud-thingy! (takes random words from your own blog and put's then in this cool collage format.) Neato!

Organizing Like Martha

I have been on the craziest--most-needed-nesting-cleaning-organizing-getting-old-crap-out-of- my-life-- spree lately. And I must say, it's awesome! It's really working for me. I made this out-of-control To Do List a couple weeks ago that has HUGE projects on it--and I'm actually tackeling them one by one. It's very rewarding--especially to a pregnant anal-organized person like myself!
Here's some stuff I've done:
1. Cleaned out the small hall closet & organized all the towels--they look so pretty now.
2. Cleaned out the big hall closet--most proud of my rubbermaid bins that hold gift bags, tissue paper etc. that I labeled with my Dymo.
3. Made a receipt basket for the office--a home for debit receipts waiting to be processed.
4. Cleaned out and totally relabeled the entire filing cabinet (2 shelves) and filed ALL invoices from the last YEAR!!!!
5. Cleaned out the Nursery closet and organized my scrapbook stuff inside so I can open the door & scrap! (required emptiying approx 10 boxes of keepsake-stuff--it was hard to part with some of it, but I managed. The rest got reboxed and sent to the attic)
6. Emptied (almost--still working on it) Armoire so baby clothes can go in it. I moved all my scrapbooks and photo albums to the living room entertainment center cabinets that weren't even being used yet.
7. Put out Easter decorations.
8. Got Easter cards ready to mail.
And Wayne taped off & primed the Nursery walls!
Goodbye pink--hello blue! Yes, it's sad to see my scrapbook room go! :(
So I think I can go by "Martha" for a while. I still have about 6 things on the list to do, so I better go!

So I'm a terrible blogger. I know.

Since I haven't posted in over a month, her's what's going on:
1. IT'S A BOY! Mason Cole is growing and moving all around--it's so awesome!
2. Grandma is on her last dose of cancer treatment & doing well.
3. I like my new position at work in the Nursery, but it's stressful.
4. We have picked out the Crib and bedding for the Nursery!
5. It's Spring! The weather has been nice lately!
6. I finally started working on our "New Home" scrapbook now that we've been here almost a year!

TO DO: Plan a yard sale, paint the nursery, buy a trillion baby things, Spring cleaning everywhere in & outside of the house, catch up on my scrapbooks before the baby arrives....
Gotta go get busy with all that! (you see why I haven't posted??!!??)

Happy Birthday to Us!

It's my Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah! It's also Wayne's birthday!!!!!!!!! (the big 3-0!) We're goiong out to eat at Copeland's tonight. yummy. Happy b-day to us!

Here's the lowdown on what's happened in the last 2 weeks:
1. Suddenly developed Carpell (sp?) Tunnel due to pregnancy. Hurts like a bitch-been to the Dr. twice and now I have to wear a wrist brace everyday and night for it to be bareable. I guess it's payback for not being sick in my 1st trimester.
2. Started my new job in the Nursery this week! I think I'm really going to like it once I learn everything. It's been a little overwhelming but what new job isn't? The bad part--the person who's training me (which just happens to be one of my best friends) was out sick for 2 days during my training. So I flew solo for 2 days! It sucked. And I have a gimp hand/wrist.
3. The Nursery nurses got me a b-day gift on Friday and card that everyone had signed and got cupcakes and sang me happy birthday! It was so cool and made me feel very welcomed. My friend, Amanda, also got me some scrapbook goodies,etc. and a balloon :)

Next week: Wayne's on vacation, family night at my parent's, my ULTRASOUND!!!!!!!

My Week in a Nutshell (TGIF!)

I'm tired (zzzzzz) and I'm getting a big prego belly (ok not big but it's there) and I'm training 2 people at work to take my positon (very tiresome and frustrating--and yes, it does take 2 people to replace me :) ) and I get to transfer into the Nursery in 2 weeks (yes!) but then I have to get trained to work in there (ugg) but Feb 9th is my ultrasound (OMG I can't beleive I'm already almost 5 months and we're going to find out the sex of our baby!!!!) so that's about it (goodnight)
By the way, I just realized that the Larry King background in the pic below soooo matches my blog!!! I meant to do that!

Celeb News

Ok, so I'm bored and decided to surf a little & found some really disturbing "news" (if you could call it that) on the web. Thought I'd update myself (& you) on some crazy celeb news. For example:

Emenim & his exwife Kim are going to REMARRY! Do we all remember the song about him murdering her? It was pretty icky. It must be love...check out the full story!

James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces (that I happen to be reading) supposedly made up some of his autobiographical book about drug rehab & everyone is pissed! I guess it would be a let down if you were an addict who saw him as a role model. The crazy thing is that his book most likely wouldn't have been on the bestseller list if Oprah hadn't chosen it for her book club. (That's how I became interested in it) Lesson: Don't try to pull the wool over Oprah's eyes!

I also find disturbing: Angelina Jolie confirmed she's pregnant with Brad's baby. ugg. Sorry if you like her--I've never been a fan. So how many kids does this make for her? Don't get me wrong, I commend her for adopting those cute kids from 3rd world countries. And I'm sure it was all speculation, but wasn't the main reason that Brad & Jen broke up because she wanted kids & he didn't???? Who knows--you can't believe anything you read.
On a lighter note--Also pregnant: the Gwyns--Gwen Stefani and Gwyneth Paltrow--Love them both! :)
Let's just hope Gwyneth doesn't name this one Orange.

Year in Review 2005

Saw this on April's blog and thought it was too cute not to copy. Modified a little to shorten it.
My Year in Review...
January
Resolutions? Lose weight and get pregnant (well, at least I got pregnant!)
Did you kiss someone at midnight? Yes--Wayne of course
Did it snow? No, I don't think so, althought that was a year ago, I barely remember
Have you been to Times Square? Uh, no. I wish
Special events: Neice Alexis born, Wayne's parent's 25th Anniversary

February
Who was your Valentine? my hubby
Special events: My Birthday and Wayne's birthday, took a week of vacation, Found our House!!!!

March
Are you Irish? Some. Although my last name is all Irish!
What did you do for St. Patty's day? nothing.
Did you wear green? Yes--always. don't want to get pinched
Special events: Mom & Dad's 21st Anniversary, Easter Sunday, MOVED into our new house!!

April
Do you like Rain? fresh, warm, Spring rain is nice. LOVE thunderstorms
Did you play an April Fool's Joke on anyone? not that I remember
Special events: Uncle visited, JL Fundrasier Rhythm & Blues

May
Favorite flower? Tulips & Gerber Daisies
Like Spring? I like the warmth after Winter--don't like the allergies and bugs coming back
Finish this sentence: "April showers bring..." ...May flowers. And what do Mayflowers bring? The Pilgrims! (corny joke my Mom used to say) heehee
Special events: Niece turned 12!, Hospital Week (in charge of it at work), Mother's Day, CF Walk, Dan & Amber's wedding

June
Year graduated? 1995
Fav school subject? English
Fav teachers? 4th grade--Mrs. Kreeger, High School--Mr. Graham & Mr. Ross
Special events: Father's Day, 1st day of Summer!

July
What did you do for the 4th? Hosted a big barbeque at our house & went to watch fireworks--super fun!
Special events: bought a big screen tv (this was very "special" heehee), Our 6 year anniversary!

August
Favorite 2005 summer memory? Our July 4th BBQ
Special events: Nephew's 8th birthday!, JL New Member Retreat, JL All State Training in Little Rock, Hosted a So. Living at Home party

September
Fall or Summer? Fall!
Like apples? green ones
Special events: Started going to Church, Sister & Bro-in-Law's 13th anniversary, Best Friend got married!

October
On a scale of 1-10, rate Halloween: 10!
Fav Halloween Costume that I've dressed up as: me--Miss America, Wayne--Matt Jones (AR football player)
Fav candy? anything gummy, Skittles, Reeses pieces & cups, Heath & Snickers bar--I could go on!
Special events: Mom's, grandma's & Uncle's b-days, craft fairs, Grandma's surgery to remove cancer, Uncle visits, my friend has twin girls!

November
Where did you spend Thanksgiving? At my Mom's
Do you like Stuffing? ick. only Stove Top
I am Thankful for: my family, my husband, my home, my job, my faith, food, friends, my country and much more!
Special events: Found out I was Pregnant!!!!!!!!!!! and told family & friends, Aunt's b-day, Aunt visited, Sister's family went to Disneyworld for Thanksgiving--I dogsat.

December
Been kissed under the mistletoe? Yes! got a cute pic of me & Wayne under it at Mom's! can't wait to scrap it!
Best gift I received this year? A baby! oh yeah--and the Oprah DVD set!
Special events: uh, Christmas & New Year's Eve. And JL Winter Dreams Home Tour

RATE YOUR YEAR 1-10: I'd have to say it was an 8.5 since we bought a house and moved and got pregnant!
That was pretty hairy to type! gotta go get in the shower! Bye!