Fun Week!

A look into our week! :)

Sat 3/24- Went to a baby shower with great friends from high school. It was fun and great to catch up and see Candace's adorable baby bump!

Sun 3/25- Church, family walk around the neighborhood with John, Cory and the pups, lazy day!

Mon 3/26- Took Cory to Traderbakers in La Grange just to browse, only been there a couple times but it's kinda fun to browse all the antique stuff and Cory likes looking through the toy booths:) Some stuff there looks junky since it is all a mixture of new and used but there are a lot of good finds for cheap! I have been looking for a lamp to go in the living room for better light in our reading area and found a brand new one I really like...it is simple but just what i was looking for. I got the lamp, the pillow in the reciner, the magazine basket on the floor next to the bookshelf and the new hallway rug in the second pic all for $32 total! I think that's a great deal!

Tues 3/27- We watched adorable baby Avery! I keep her twice a week normally, though I have been injured so once a week here lately with my sister helping and and my niece and nephew and Cory get a playdate. I will have to take some recent pics of her and Cory....they are too cute together and will be great friends and won't be long before she can play too! He likes when she comes over and hasn't been jealous of her but will show off for her and try to make her smile...it is the cutest to see them together!

Wed 3/28 - Cory got his 1st official haircut! I have trimmed his hair several times myself in the bathtub but now that I am injured and his hair was getting long I just took him to a place called Short Cuts 4 Kids off Springhurst Blvd. It is so cute where they sit in cars/trucks, get to watch their own personal TV, get bubbles and a sucker and they have a little play area there for after. He liked it but had his serious face on. It was $14 for a kids haircut which I know isn't to bad but I mainly did it for the memory to put in his scrapbook and the experience because for as little as they cut I would prefer save the money and do it myself;) He did look quite handsome though after!

That evening we went to church....we go every Sunday and back again on Wed evenings and I have been teaching the 2 and under class every Wed for the past 3 months. It has been a lot of fun and the class has about 8 to 10 kids in it including Cory. We first talked about Noah, then Jonah and the whale. We are about to switch teachers so I'm hoping Cory will still do good without me in there!

Thur 3/29 - Went to the zoo with some friends from church that are also stay at home Moms! Vanessa with her son Ryan who is just a month older than Cory, Terra with her 2 girls Kaitlynn who just turned 4 and Faith who is 15 months, and Jaime with her son Campbell who is 4. That was a lot of fun and all the kids did really good! Cory and Ryan fell asleep as soon as we got in the car on the way home. I should have taken some pics! Then thurs afternoon I had an appt to get a short cast put on, which feels much better!

Fri 3/30 - John, Cory and I left early for a one day trip to Nasville where we met up with some of his cousins and ate lunch at O'Charley's! Then we went to Rivergate mall and played at the Incredible Dave's gameroom area....Cory had a lot of fun playing skeeball though he couldn't get the ball all the way up the ramp:) Cory got to ride the train in the mall and loved it. We got back around 8pm. (Forgot my camera so didn't get any pics today)

That was pretty much our week! Fun but busy! Today we are looking forward to watching the Hunger Games and seeing UK/UofL play!!

Play Hard, Sleep hard!

What a fun but tiring day for me and my little guy! Today was also a pull-your -hair out kind of day. Some days I just have to sit back and laugh at the little tornado that seems to have hit our home (aka Cory) . He is getting so active and constantly getting into everything so I would spend all day cleaning up one area as he would be getting into the next pulling things off the shelf. Not a big deal but i wonder how much time is spent putting things away only to look like I hadn't lifted a finger all day by the time John gets home so that is why I realized it can be pointless to clean during the day and I don't want to focus so much time and energy to cleaning up messes but to wait until the evening or when little man goes to sleep. Sometimes Cory "helps" me clean up at the end of the day which is cute while I am vacuumming he pulls out his play lawnmower acting like he is vacuuming as well. I started a project of cleaning out my pantry today, which I will have to post a pic of later...it looks pretty now:) Just to name a few things that didn't go as planned: Got 2 dog bones out and gave them to the dogs in the living room while Cory's watching TV on his chair, turn my back to work on pantry project for a bit, Cory walks in the kitchen holding a half eaten dog bone, the other half is in his mouth(yuck)! I spilt all the spaghetti on the floor because the package wasn't closed and didn't realize, before I could clean it up Cory was breaking it into little pieces and putting it in the dog's water bowl. Just my luck of the day after filling up the dog bowl with clean water I get tripped up by the vacuum cord spilling half of it if the floor and half on me....grr....so had to change clothes! Something was just up today and naptime was non-existant since Cory cried longer than usual and i kept going to his room to check up and realized he had pooped while jumping in his crib refusing to nap so I get him out, change him and we ended up just playing outside! It was at least a gorgeous 80 degree day so we stayed out for most of the day! He was running around like the energizer bunny! We did some swinging on the swingset, I walked with him in the stroller, we went down to the woods, he wanted to splash around in the creek and threw a mini tantrum when he couldn't so we came back up to the house and in our yard there was a random dog I had seen before walking around the neighborhood. Nick and Lucky see him and darted over faster than ever charging at him and almost got in a fight but I was yelling at them and they didn't do anything but chase him around. My no-nap wonder sat down to eat dinner and was so pooped that he fell asleep there in his high-chair! This is the first time he was ever too tired to eat his meal and fell asleep after eating about half of it...pretty funny but tomorrow hoping the nap time goes a bit smoother! He's asleep in his crib now and I am happy his sleeping through the night wasn't a fluke because he has slept 10-12 hrs a night without waking since we started the sleep training...yay! Though in the moment I can get frustrated with the little annoying things that can happen in a day, at the end of the day I still feel so thankful to have my little guy and my pups to chase around and clean up after and wouldn't trade living these busy but entertaining moments, whether they be fun or not-so-fun....bring em' on! :)

18 Months!

My sweet boy turned 18 months this past Friday so this post will be dedicated to him. This is such a fun stage! Here's 10 Random Facts All About Cory:

1. His Favorite Food: Mac n cheese
2. His Favorite Show: Bubble Guppies
3. Diaper Size: 5, shoe size: 8
4. He love to dance when he hears any music
5. His favorite things to say: "no", "ball", "momma", "dadda", "shoes", "trash", "duck", "car", "fish", "choo choo", "bread", "bubbles" "milk" and he can say other words but these are the ones he's pretty good at.
6. He just went to his 18 month appt and he weighs 30 pounds and he is in 2T clothes
7. He's got 14 teeth and 2 more breaking through on the bottom
8. He loves to play in all kinds of water....the bath(*especially bubble baths), rain puddles and even the dog bowls
9. He's not a picky eater and will eat about anything I put in front of him....even pickles, lemons, carrots, and he likes trying all new fruit and veggies. Only thing he hasn't been crazy about is peas!
10. He loves to run around the house and chase our 2 dogs and his favorite place to be is anywhere outside!

Here's a few pics:

1st Golf lesson with Daddy:)

Looking like such a big boy!

All About Kristen

I love to Run! My husband and I made a lifetime goal to run a marathon in all 50 states! We've completed Hawaii and Ohio so far. The marathon tab is where you can see our progress. My favorite place to be is soaking up the sun at the beach! I love warm weather and surfing! I have 2 pretty awesome mutts named Nick and Lucky.

A random fact about me is that I love to organize! Though my house isn't the cleanest and I can be quite messy at times....one of my hidden passions is organizing! I have all these ideas running through my head on ways to simplify and create more space around the house with different storage solutions and cleaning every nook and cranny. That's why i have the projects tab to show before/after pics of things i would like to accomplish around the home. I'm hoping this blog may help inspire me to get some things done on my list!

I am a proud mama to a beautiful, active baby boy named Cory. I'm a stay-at-home Mom and am thoroughly enjoying my days home with him and I feel so blessed to be able to see his sweet smile all day:)

I was in the Army 4 years after graduating college at WKU in 06'. Though at times it was a whirlwind experience and chaotic between moving to Hawaii, deploying twice to Iraq, traveling to all the training events, jumping out of planes, etc.....I would'nt trade that experience which really opened my eyes to all different people and different parts of the world!

It also helped me to not take forgranted the important things in life like my faith in God, my loving family, helping others along the way, and to not sweat the small stuff. It helped me better appreciate the simple life and to realize no matter how big of a deal something may seem at the time, it really may not be if you look at the big picture and how short our time really is. Sometimes when things get you down, you just gotta grin and bear it:)

I really appreciate those who do choose to stay in the Army and sacrifice so much time away from home and their families, but I realized it was my time to get out when all I would do is dream about moving back to KY, settling down close to family, buying a home and expanding our own little family. (Me at 32 weeks)

After I got out in May 2010, we moved into our first home on Sept 6th and Cory came into the world 3 days later on Sept 9th. He has brought us far greater joy than we could have ever imagined and we have been enjoying this fun but challenging journey into parenthood ever since.

Being a stay-at-home Mom isn't always easy (in fact there are days when I think the Army was an easier job:), but it certainly is the most rewarding and I'm paid with lots of hugs, kisses, and snuggle time throughout the days! It's also helped me to learn a lot more about budgeting, being more frugal, couponing which now I love, and just seeing that you can live on less and be happier than ever. Money just buys things and those things are replaceable and can be taken away in an instant but time is invaluable and can never be replaced so my motto is "do what makes you happy and fulfilled in life!" :)

What are my Future plans?

Well they change a lot but I have different things I can envision myself doing....some being more out of reach than others but here are a few things that would be totally awesome jobs in my opinion. For now being home with my little buddy is number one, but I will eventually narrow it down to which one I most want to do down the road:

1. A Professoinal runner or triathlete (hey a girl can dream right)!
2. Start up my own specialized running store in La Grange, KY
3. Personal Trainer or Physical Therapist
4. Start up a professional organization business with my sister, Jennifer
5. Be a professional photographer
6. Elementary P.E Teacher (I guess I could do what my degree is in :)
7. Work from home with my own Daycare or some kind of home-based business
8. Work at a animal shelter
9. Be a firefighter
10. Distribution Manager (or something to do with supply and demand like my job in the Army)

So I guess you can tell I love kids, animals, running, working out, organizing, and photography:) I recently bought my first DSLR camera and love it. I have always loved taking pictures and capturing all the special moments and memories. And I love snapping shots of my favorite subject....Cory! I think he had several thousand photos saved by the time he hit 1-year old.

I started this blog MAR 2012 to basically keep me accountable to reach my goals, to have an online scrapbook to keep track of events and things to remember, and it is a good way to share what's been going on with family and friends since i have been so bad at keeping in touch! I love scrapbooking but started a 1-year scrapbook for Cory and am only on month 4 (he's 18 months now) so maybe this will be a little easier to keep up with.

Last, but not least, I am very thankful I met my best friend and amazing husband John the first week of college running on the track in Aug 01'! It was like we were destined to be right from the start! He thought of the title of this blog which was the title of a love story artical we were featured in from the WKU alumni magazine. He surprised me by submitting our story of how we met at WKU and ours was one of the 6 chosen from hundreds...how sweet of him to submit our story! Nothing would be as easy in without my other half, he is always there for me and encourages me to follow my dreams, which he has already made many of them come true! :)