Last Weekend

This past weekend Brad and Bradlee were invited to go hunting for youth weekend. Bradlee shot his 1st deer! I am sad for the deer but very excited for him! This picture is painfully blurry, but it's all I have right now. All the other pictures are on Brad's phone. This was the one they emailed me. Tyanna cheered at the football game Friday night. She insisted on being beside the mascot in the back, so you could barely see her. I was sad. Next time I'll try to make sure she is in the front. Here is the video from that.

Then Saturday, we headed to the pumpkin patch. I've been seeing so many great pictures on myspace and blogs of the pumpkin patch, so we had to go! We decided to go to a small pumpkin patch in Mansfield to keep from driving forever. I'm sure the Flowermound one is amazing, but the kids never knew the difference.

Now I'll start working on this weekends blog. We went trick or treating lastnight and then to Rock the Pumpkin (Trinity Fall Festival). We had lots of fun.

My Blessings

It's hard to put into words how I feel about my children. I am so amazed at God's love for me and that he chose me to be the mommy of these kids. They are so amazing! I know all moms feel this way, and rightfully so!

Tyanna Crystal, my 4 year old princess. She is kind and loving. It is very natural for her to want to take care of others. When I picked her up at school the other day, her teacher said that she had to keep informing Tyanna that she needed to stay in her seat and quit helping the others with there project. The teacher said this is a daily issue. And even though it is challenging for the teacher, she informed me it is always in Tyanna's heart to help others. She loves makeup and getting dressed up. Right now, she is a ballerina and cheerleader. I know that even when I am having a hard day and my patience is thin with her, she still loves me more than anything and she will always be there for me!


Tristen Manhattan, my soft hearted little man. This little boy is amazing. So different than my other children. He is very serious. His little heart breaks when he gets in trouble. Having Bradlee and Tyanna before him, I am used to lines being crossed and buttons being pushed. He doesn't really do that. He likes to make me happy even when it means obeying when he doesn't really want to. He is athletic, yes I can already tell. He has good balance and likes to climb things and jump off of stuff. He loves to watch football and has informed us that he will play football one day. He is 2, and with that has come some fits, but still nothing like big brother when he was 2.


Ashten Serenity, my joyful little girl. I say to Brad all the time that her name should have had Joy in it. She is so fun! She is always smiling, always happy, always content and I could go on forever. The nursery workers at church always tell me that she was the best, sweetest, and most fun baby in the class. I tell them thank you, but in my head I'm like, duh it's Ashten. I love her so much!!!


Bradlee Preston, my smarty pants 6 year old. My first born, which holds a special place in my heart. He is extremely smart. He can debate with adults and win. He also has a special place in his heart for me, his mommy. If he hears Brad and I disagreeing about something he will always chime in and defend me no matter what. It's really sweet. I'm sure Brad doesn't appreciate it as much. He is very outgoing and has lots of friends. We can go to a football game and he introduces himself to older kids and immediately is hanging with them as if he is there age. I'm not sure I will like that when he's 14. He's not a little kid anymore, he is growing into an amazing young man.

Things Are Getting Accomplished!

Tristen poo poo'd in the potty!!! Ok, I know that is way to much information, but I am so thrilled. Yesterday, I decided to start keeping his diaper on and reminding him every 20 minutes or so to go potty. And he did it! He sat on his little potty seat and did his business. And now today, he keeps trying, so I am fully confident that he will do it again today.

Yesterday, I had to go back to the dentist. They had to put my crown on my tooth from the root canal last week and re-do a root canal that I had done in high school. I was excited to get a day out to myself. I was jamming in the car, drinking some starbucks. I realized that my children must be alot of work if I was excited to go get my teeth grinded on! Don't worry, about 30 minutes into my dental work, I was dying to go home and be with my kids! I decided this time not to do Nitrous, becuase I was soooo sick last week from it. I figured out the pros and cons to nitrous. Last week I had it and this is how I felt: high as a kite, giggly, not nervous, but very neaseas. This week I did not have it and this is how I felt: jumpy to every noise, terrified that they were gonna strike a nerve, wide awake, but not sick. So there are pros and cons, I'm not sure which is better. I go back again in 3 weeks to get my crown for the root canal they did yesterday AND get a wisdom tooth pulled. As sucky as it is, I am very thankful for the oppertunity to get my teeth fixed right! Still haven't taken a Vicodin, I'm not sure why I am so scared of that stuff! I'll probably stick to the advil, it's working ok.

A fun oppertunity has come up. I MIGHT be on the dance team that my church has. They perform for our Girlfriends event. (which by the way is awesome) So I was invited to be on this team which practices Wednesday nights when my kids are ALREADY in nursery. Very convienant. They dance really cute to. My only dilemna is that for the next 4 weeks I will miss our young marrieds class. Which makes me so sad. I feel like I have learned so much in this class and that Brad and I communicate better than we ever have. This class has been awesome for us, so I really have to pray about it and see if I want to miss 4 weeks of it.

Oh, one more cool thing. I made a really cool chore chart for my kids this past weekend. I went to the Supernanny website and found one I liked, then recreated it in excel. It has cute little pictures for things they have to do, like make the bed, clean up toys, no whining etc. Yesterday was the first day we used it and I am happy to say that yesterday Bradlee recieved all his stars, and Tyanna recieved all but one star. She was very whiny yesterday morning. And today, they made their rooms spotless before school. So they will probably get all there stars again. I just hope the excitement doesn't wear off. Oh, each star is worth 25 cents, so if they get all their stars, the will make $7 dollars a week. Which we will pay them Saturday night, and they will pay their tithe on Sunday! I am really excited about it!

This blog was way longer than intended, but it was a nice outlet. If you haven't already, please add me to the blogs you read, so others will read. I mean clearly, you read my blog if you are here right now! Unless you are just stalking me, Lol!

Potty Training! Why do I try?

I have decided this week that I want Tristen potty trained. He turned 2 the end of June. In my head, 2 seems old enough to potty train. However, Bradlee was 3! The good thing about potty training a 3 year old is there is no training. He just did it. No accidents. Anyways, we went and bought Tristen a potty chair on Tuesday. Which he still has not successfully pottied in. It's like a major case of stage fright. He tries, but nothing comes out. He even makes cute little grunting noises to assure me that he is trying. Yesterday, he wore big boy underwear all day which only resulted in 4 pair of wet underwear and 1 pair of poopy underwear. Today I started feeling defeated and re-thinking my decision. Let me tell you why. This morning when we got up, I took his diaper off and told him that when he needs to go poo poo to tell me and I will help him. Thinking surely he will not poop on the floor, right? Right, he did not poop on the floor! Instead, he climbed up on the dresser in his room and pooped on it!!! I was only away from him for about 5 minutes. I headed downstairs and asked him if he needed to poop. He replied "no" and pointed to where he had already done his business. As if to display it in a high place. He thought it was greatness. I can only imagine what it looked like, him climbing on the dresser and taking a squat, then climbing down without ever touching it. WHY??? So I called Brad and told him I don't think he is ready. Brad said, keep trying. Would I rather spend a week cleaning up after him or another year changing his diapers. So we are still trying, but I am a little frustrated! I did take pictures of the poo on the dresser to show Brad, but I will spare everyone else the ugly picture! If anyone has any ideas, please share. I am really trying to stick it out and get him potty trained this week.

Boss's Day

Technically Brad is my boss. Somehow we have managed to work with each other for almost 9 years! Longest job I ever kept, lol. I will admit that there has been tough times, but we always seem to get through it. I remember on many occasions, threatening to go out and get a "real" job. Which he was always fine with, but once I actually thought it through, I realized how stupid that was and I would much rather be at home in my sweats! All in all he is a good boss. He appreciates me and he understands that taking care of the kids is a job itself. He works very hard, I think I would have anxiety attacks if I was responsible for the things he has to do! So, here's to my boss, my best friend, my husband! I love you Brad!

Two Hour Workout

Today I feel like super woman! I went to the 8:30 Pilates class, then the 9:45 Cardio Kickboxing class. Whoo, was I whooped. For some of you who might not have read my myspace blog. I am trying to get down to 115 pounds. I don't even know if this is possible. It's about 22 pounds. My plan to get there is working out 2 hours a day Monday through Friday and drinking liquid dinners like smoothies, slimfast, or soup. Also I am on weight watchers and will continue to go once a month. Wish me luck! I still debate on posting my before and after pictures from my first 25 pound weight loss, but when I look at the befores, I just don't feel like I look that different, which makes me not want to post them. Anyways!

Root canal yesterday = very sore mouth today. I thought it would feel so much better because my tooth doesn't throb. Unfortunately my jaw is so sore from being open for over 2 hours that I can't even chew. I first noticed the pain when I opened my mouth to brush my teeth this morning, I let out a shriek! All is well, I quickly popped 4 advil.

Something totally sad happened. Yesterday when my mom got to the gym, there was an ambulance and fire truck there. She waited at the door because they wouldn't let anyone in. As she stood there, they wheeled out a young woman on a gurney. They were pumping air into her manually. So today when I went in I asked what happened with her. Her name is Crystal and she is a trainer at the gym and she collapsed. They never got her to breath on her own again. So she is at the hospital on life support. Her parents are flying in from Australia to say there goodbyes. She had a brain anurism at the age of 31. So sad.

Tonight, my sister in-law is babysitting (I think, I hope) so that Brad and I can go to dinner with his brother and his brothers girlfriend. We barely know her and Brian is very serious about her, so hopefully conversation will be great tonight and we will really get to know her. Brad has a hard time with how quiet she is, but I keep reminding him of how quiet Brittany (my sister in-law) was before her and my brother got married and NOW she is one of my BFF's! I really think Stacy (Brians girlfriend) is a great match for him. She seems really sweet!

Well, that's all I have for today! I need to do a little bit of work before I go pick up my kids from school!

Why Me?

As far back as I can remember, I have had teeth issues. Luckily for me, it's all in the back of my mouth. I don't understand teeth. They have nerves, yet if you yank them out or have them pulled the pain is gone. What is the point of a nerve in a tooth? Sometimes my teeth hurt so bad I cannot function. It's worse than a migraine. Throbbing pain that pulsates through my whole body. Here's the good news: We found a dentist that needs landscaping! They have numbing medicine and root canal machines and we have Lupe and Juan! It's a win win situation. Please don't take offense to my reference to Lupe and Juan, they are real people and they are GOOD! We have been to the dentist office several times in the last few weeks. Once to get my teeth x-rayed, once to look at their yard and tell them what they should do, and once to sign the bartering contract. I love bartering! Somehow we worked it out with them to do half of my work before we start theirs since we demand half up front to start a job. So here I was today, relaxed in a reclining dental chair, headphones with kiss fm, sunglasses to make it dark and Nitrous Oxide known as "laughing gas". I remember when I was in highschool and they put me on this stuff, I kept randomly laughing. Fully aware of what was going on, it was really embarrasing. So this time around, I told myself "no laughing". And I failed. He asked if I was starting to feel calm and I busted out laughing with a giggly "yes". On the outside I looked like I was having a great time, on the inside I was yelling at myself to shutup and quit laughing! I went through several different feelings with this nitrous stuff. First I felt giddy, then I felt a little nauseas, then I fell asleep for a little while, then I woke up and thought I was going to throw up in the the dentist' face! I quickly pointed at the gas mask and he removed it. I spent the rest of the time focusing on not getting sick. It was terrible. I just wanted to be done. Today I recieved a root canal and two fillings. I swear I brush and floss people. It's hereditary, seriously! I have an uncle, my biological dad's uncle that became a dentist because of all the teeth issues in the family. Unfortunately for me, he lives really far away, oh and I've never met him. Here I am sitting and writing this blog while Brad drives to the store to get me some cookies and cream icecream since my mouth is a little sore. It's kind of nice, maybe I should still be hurting tomorrow too. Did I mention that the doctor prescribed me Vicodin. I've never had that before. I'm a little scared to take it. I might just keep it in my medicine cabinet for emergency stuff.