Look Familiar?

When we went to my sister's apartment last weekend Riley apparently remembered me taking these pictures of Averly. {Wow, I can't believe how much she has changed in the last 6 months! She's even slimmed up a little! Haha!} He kept saying that he wanted to sleep in there but I finally convinced him that it wouldn't be very comfortable.

How in the world could I forget?

This sweet little girl is now saying “Mama” & “Dada” on a normal basis. And directing it towards us! It all happened at once back on January 21st. She said “Mama” while I was getting her pj’s on. It totally melted my heart. Then, the next day she said “Dada” when she saw him that morning. Oh so sweet to hear coming out of her little mouth! She follows me around calling me & calls "Dada” when he comes home from work. PRE.CIOUS.

Our date with Charli Beth

First of all, thank y’all so much for all of your sweet comments on my last post. Your thoughts & prayers mean so much! However, I really did not want it to sound like a pity-party, by any means. We are still managing just fine & are very optimistic in this situation. It could always be worse & I know it will all work out for the best in the end. It has been about 6 weeks since the gym closed & I debated posting anything because I didn’t want to come across as being ungrateful for what we do have. So, sorry if it sounded that way, but thanks again!

On Friday the kids & I met up with one of my blog besties, Paige & her adorable little girl, Charli Beth. I have been reading Paige’s blog forever & we saw that we have so much in common. We decided to meet up for lunch & let the kids hang out. Despite Averly screaming for about 90% of our lunch, it was perfect! Poor baby girl didn’t sleep well the night before & she was so ill. I felt like the entire restaurant was staring. Hopefully we didn’t embarrass you too much Paige! :0)

She did stop crying long enough to get a group picture though. I love how Riley is checking Charli out! He LOVED her!



These two immediately hit it off! They were 2 peas in a pod! Someone even asked if they were brother & sister. They had warmed up to each other that quick!



After lunch we walked around downtown a little. Riley & Charli held hands the entire time. Aren’t they just too sweet?!



Then we stopped in to see my sister at work & the kids got some new cowboy hats. I thought they looked so precious in their cowboy/cowgirl attire!

Still holding hands ;0)



When it was time to leave I told Riley to give Charli a hug & he ran up to Paige wanting her to hold him! He wanted to go home with them I think!



Saying goodbye to his new friend "Chawli"!

 

We had so much fun & it was so exciting to meet a fellow blogger! I can’t wait to get together again when it’s a little warmer outside & the kids can play. Paige was just as sweet & pretty in real life as she is on her blog! And of course Miss CB was absolutely adorable. Such a little firecracker-just like I imagined her to be! Thanks for meeting up with us girls! Can’t wait til next time!!

Our “Big News”

A while back I mentioned that we had some big things going on. No, I am not pregnant but a childhood friend of mine, Rachel, just announced on her blog that she is expecting baby #2! I am so excited for her! So since I am not pregnant, what could it be? My news is not exactly the best news. Back in early December my husband’s gym closed down. It was a very quick thing to happen with literally no warning. December 8th at 5:00 pm TAG’s business partner called him & said to be sure to bring all of his stuff home with him that night because he was shutting the gym down at midnight. Although the gym was doing great & new people were signing up daily, he said that he just couldn’t put forth the effort right now. Without him, there was no way TAG could run the business by himself. Plus he was the main owner & what he said went. I think it was totally wrong & selfish of him to just spring it on TAG like that. But what can ya do?

TAG came home that night & told me the news. I immediately started FREAKING out. Remember I only work part time. My salary is not enough to support a family of four. Plus Christmas was right around the corner. So yea, I freaked. But TAG, being the level-headed guy he is, calmed me down & reminded me that it’s not the end of the world. We will make it through. He immediately got in touch with a few connections & got a temporary job lined up until he can find something else. Now he is working on a receiving line at a warehouse. The hours are long (usually 12-13 hour days) & the pay is half of what he was getting before. On top of that, when he gets off there he goes to another gym to speed train some people. He leaves the house around 5:30 am & gets home around 7:30 pm. I know he’s exhausted. I’ve been working an extra day or 2 at work here & there to help fill in as well.

Not gonna lie, it’s been hard. But we’re totally fine. We have all we need & I know he will get a good job offer soon…hopefully. There is just not many jobs out there right now in the area we want to be in. We got our hopes up a couple different times with some possible job offers that ended up not working out. I think I’m more bummed about it than him. He knows how to bring me back to earth when I haven fallen off. He is definitely my rock.

So that’s it. Our “big news”. At one time there was going to be more to the story, but it didn’t exactly happen. Not to say that it won’t in the future though. It’s just obviously not God’s plan for us right now. We pray daily that the unknown part of all this will soon become known. And it all will. Just in God’s time, not ours.

To Be Continued…

Shrek The Musical

Saturday I got a call from one of my friends that she had some extra tickets to Shrek that day & asked if we wanted to go. I opted to leave Averly with TAG since it would interfere with her naptime. So my favorite little man & I had a date! This was Riley’s first live performance so I didn’t know how he would act or if he could sit still for that long. When I told him where we were going, he kept saying “I so cited!” He couldn’t wait to get in the car & go. Once we were there he was still “so cited” & couldn’t wait to “ride Shrek!” Yea, for whatever reason he thought he was going to ride Shrek like a horse. Anyway, we snapped a few pictures while waiting for Shrek to come out.

This is what I got when I told him to show me how excited he was! Haha!

 

Riley loves Megan so much! Especially after she bought him M&Ms & Skittles. :0)



Overall he did great. He asked to go to the potty about an hour into the show. We went & when we came out of the bathroom there was a looooong line. We made it in just in time! I think he got kind of tired of sitting still though because he didn’t want to go back in. He kept saying that he wanted to go home. We stood at the back for a little while & then I bribed him with more candy & we sat down to watch the rest. He was such a big boy on our date! I think he really liked it!

Round 2

We had round 2 of the snow come in last week. We got more ice than snow this time but I was determined to let Averly have her 1st look at our white yard.

As you can see from the pictures, she was less than thrilled. Plus her hat kept sliding off so I’m sure her ears where freezing. I only kept her out there for literally 2 minutes though. Just long enough to get a couple pictures.

  

“Mom, what the heck is this stuff I’m stepping on?”



Not a fan. So back inside she went!



Riley, on the other hand, I had to bribe with hot chocolate to get him to come back in! 



Happy “First Snow Experience” angel baby! I like warm weather better, too. :0)

1 Da-yer

As we were getting Riley ready for bed last night, we had an entertaining conversion with him.
Riley: “I got go woyuk” (work).
Me: “You do? Are you going to make us some dollars?” {He always refers to money as “da-yers” aka dollars.}
Riley: “Yes mayum!!! I got get my clothes.” {He sees TAG pack his bag each night to workout after work, so he thinks going to work involves packing your clothes.}
TAG: “Are you going to make us lots of dollars?”
Riley: “Oooohh wee!! YEA!!!”
TAG: “How many?”
Riley: “One da-yer!!!”

Now that’s cheap labor right there!

He is such a little ham man!



Then this morning while I was at work, my mom sent me a picture of Riley sitting on his bed, “tying flies” on his night stand. This is clearly something he got from his Bubba. If you know my dad, you know he is an avid Fly Fisherman & he ties his own flies. Riley loves to watch him tie flies & now wants to “fish like Bubba” with his flies. Mom said that he had two bobby pins poking them in the holes of a lamp. If you have any idea what a fly tying kit looks like then you can see that he was pretty imaginative & correct with the bobby pins.

It amazes me every single day how much he really soaks up everything around him. He is so observant & not a thing gets past him!