I could not be more proud! and blessed! and thankful!

Today was just like any other Wednesday. Work. Come home and play with the kids. Eat dinner. Then get ready to go to Church. Adalyn asks every day if it's Wednesday or Sunday because she knows that she will get to go to Church so she was very excited to get there tonight. Right before we were getting ready to leave, she asked Adam if she could take her coloring book so she could share with her friends. I initially didn't hear her ask the first time so as I was walking down the hall with Landon, she came to me and said, "I take my coloring pages to the boys and gurls at Church?" For her birthday last year, she got a "giant" coloring book of Tinkerbell. It has "giant" sheets in it which are sprawled all throughout our house on a daily basis. She can never just pick one sheet to color, she must color on all of them you know. For the tinest, split of a second, I thought "no" to myself. All I could think of were giant sheets of Tinkerbell flying everywhere as we were trying to go to church, or losing it somehow, etc. And then, after my split second of thinking no, I completely changed my mind and said yes. Adam and I have showed her how to share, talked about sharing, praised her every time she has shared with her brother, reminded her to share, explained why we need to share, and on and on and on we go. It hit me that she gets the concept and wants to put it into action. What a better way to let her do it! So we gathered up the giant tinkerbell coloring book and headed to Church. When we arrived, her class was outside playing. I explained to Donna that Adalyn was adamant about bringing her book to Church to share with her friends. Adalyn was very excited to do so because on the way to church that's pretty much all she spoke about. "I share with my friends at church!" We dropped her off, then Landon, then we headed to class ourselves. Adam and I kept talking about how proud we were for the way she was acting and the fact that she was so insistent about taking her coloring book to share with everyone else. If you have a toddler, or have been around one, you know how difficult it is for them to want to share. She does pretty well for the most part unless Landon thinks about touching one of her cows, then she puts a stop to that. She has, however, been known to share her cows, too. :) When we picked her up, we learned that the girls took part in coloring and one girl even asked if she could take her sheet home. I was obviously going to let her but I waited to hear what Adalyn would respond with and she picked it up and handed it to her. (I am seriously having a major mom moment and I don't think I have stopped smiling since earlier tonight.) Adalyn then turned and looked at me and said,"Please I go upstairs and sing To God be the Glory?" Ahhhhhhhhh. I mean really?! Is that not the most precious thing ever?? I am totally bragging here but I just can't help it.I am so proud of her. Witnessing her actions tonight showed Adam and I that all of our hard work is paying off. Who knew parenting would be so difficult at times? But yet SO very rewarding all in the same breath. I think we breathed a little sigh of relief as we watched and listened to her sweet actions and innocent voice this evening. My heart was in awe, and was so full of excitement and love. I thanked God over and over for my sweet girl and what she chose to do tonight. As we were getting in the car, Adam and I were telling her how happy we were, how thankful we were for the decision she made tonight, etc, that I told Adam we should take her by the dollar store to let her pick out a toy. It was a spur of the moment idea, and I'm sure some of you are thinking, "You don't give your kids toys for doing something that should already know to do" etc, but you know what, we did. I guess I felt like praising her for her actions just wasn't enough. I was so thrilled that she chose to do that on her own, I thought it might be a nice treat for her to pick something out. As we pulled up to Dollar General, Landon looked too comfortable in his car seat to get him out so Adam stayed in the car with him while Adalyn and I ran inside to shop. When we got to the toy aisle, her eyes lit up. You would have thought it was Christmas. Oh was she so excited and was talking non stop. She had to touch everything she saw and said, "ohhhh!" "I like that!" "A Dinosaur!!!" I didn't think it would take long to pick something out but we walked up and down the aisle for 10-15 minutes. She was just so excited and overwhelmed so I had to help her make a decision. We ended up leaving with a glow in the dark wand, a glitter wand, and a container of this pudy stuff that reminds you of Gak like we use to play with back in the day! She carried the bag to the car and before we could even reach the car she was yelling, "daddy! Look what i got!" She was proud of her purchases (or my purchases) and even shared the wands with Landon on the way home. Sorry for being so mushy but I just couldn't help myself! I wanted to share Adalyn's "sharing" story so if you see Adalyn soon, ask her about sharing her Tinkerbell coloring book. I'm sure she would LOVE to tell you alllll about it! This is her before church tonight gathering all of her sheets together.

Way to go Adalyn May!

It's weaning time!

I seriously thought this time would never come. I have been nursing Landon for almost a year now. He will be 1 in a few short weeks so the past couple of weeks I have been slowly weaning so my girls wont be in so much pain if I were to stop cold turkey. I did the same with Adalyn and it worked wonderfully. I started by not pumping as long at work and then I cut out a session completely. Since I have done this gradually, my body is accepting it pretty well. Last week we started to add whole milk to Landon's bottles. We started by doing 1 oz to the rest breast milk but yesterday added 2 oz to the rest my milk. We again did the same with Adalyn and by gradually doing it, she never noticed the difference once we gave her a bottle just of whole milk. We are wanting Landon off his bottle and on whole milk around 1. Adalyn was 14 months before she finally would take milk out of her sippy cup so we are hoping Landon does the complete opposite with it and take it with no problems. I can almost bet we spent over $30 in sippy cups just trying to find the right one for Adalyn. He chugs his water so im hoping the transition will be a breeze! Aside from that, Landon is just about a human garbage disposal. Which I have to say, I am so thankful for! Adalyn is a picky eater and I think we were "too" careful about certain types of food we gave her due to choking possibilities, etc. (Got to love being a first time mom! lol) So in addition to Landon's baby food, he gets bites of anything and everything we eat. Meatloaf, biscuits, chicken, Sausage and cream cheese croissant, corn casserole, beans, peanut butter toast, cheese, spaghetti, fries, and on and on. I have a feeling as he gets older, our grocery budget will have to increase to keep up with his eating. From what I have been told, when Adam was younger, he could eat everything in sight and still be hungry. Adalyn is Adalyn. :) She makes me light up everyday with her personality and crazy things she comes up with to say. She gets so excited when I get home in the afternoons. Yesterday, in her best singing voice, she made up a song... " I Love my Mom! I Love my Dad!" and she sang it over and over again all while giving me hugs and kisses. It was precious. She is the smartest little thing and for a 2 1/2 year old, has the best manners. We have taught, reminded, and explained about being polite and what to say, etc and it has paid off. Without thinking she automatically says, "May I please..." or Thank you" etc by herself. Her hair is getting longer and curlier! I try to pull her hair back in a pony tail or pig tails before I leave for work and by the time I get home, her hair is down and is a wild, curly, frizzy mess! I love, love, love her sweet curls but I bet as she gets older, she won't like it. I never liked my curly hair and most days I still don't. Landon is at a very fun and active stage and Adalyn loves it. She tries picks him up and carries him to where she wants him to go, they play so well together, and I can't wait for Landon to walk to he can keep up with her. He has been taking steps for about 2 weeks now. It's usually about 2 steps, and then he plops down and crawls. Yesterday afternoon Adam called me before I left work and said he took 4 steps! So we are getting closer to him walking! Adalyn always tries to grab his hands and make him walk with her and she doesn't quite understand why he isn't doing what she tells him to. Her new thing with Landon is "petting him". In the sweetest, quietest voice, she asks, "Can I pet the little fella?" and Ohhhh yeah! I almost forgot. Landon says DA DA all day long. I mean allll day and very loud. Adalyn actually said "ma ma" first so I loved that. I have been telling Landon to say "ma ma" for the longest time and Sunday afternoon while we were at Brian and Logan's house, he said "Ma Ma!" I was talking and almost didn't hear him until Adam got my attention. He was in his stroller and I had stopped and I guess he wasn't ready for his ride to end so " Ma ma ma ma" he said! Score! I was so happy. It is such a great feeling when they say your name on purpose and for a reason. He said it yesterday afternoon, too. So that's another word added to his vocabulary... da da, ba ba, ma ma. We have been talking about Landon's birthday lately and Adalyn is getting excited for hers, too. Which is a few months away but she says, "Landon's birthday first, then mine is next! Ill be this many (holding up 3 fingers) in November!" A new thing Adalyn loves to do is run around our dining room table. She finds this to be hilarious so as we are running around the table, Landon is crawling around as fast as he can, too. It's quite a work out and we all get a good laugh from it. Mom is watching the kids today. She sent me a picture of Adalyn in her baby doll stroller with Landon attempting to push her then another picture of them on the deck having a picnic for lunch. I tried to get them off my phone but for whatever reason my smartphone isn't being so smart today so I'm sad to say I don't have any pictures to post. Maybe next time!

Me!

I am going to do something a little different with this post! I normally blog about our kids and what we have been busy doing, but it has occurred to me that a lot of my readers know more about my kids than they do me! So, I thought I would take some time to fill everyone in (who doesn't know me) on the person who is behind writing these blog entries from time to time. My name is Hollyn Donielle. The Donielle comes from my dad, Donny. My birthday is March 23, 1987 so that makes me 25. My favorite color is yellow and my favorite TV show is Grey's Anatomy. I literally sat in my living room floor and cried at the last episode this past season. Adam and I started dating when I was 14. We got married June 2, 2007. We "picked" that date when we were dating in high school. His football number was 6 (June is the 6th month in the year) and 2 was my softball number. Corny I know. We never thought it would actually work out but it did! and I love the fact that it did. I love to clean. I'm the type of person that picks up toys multiple times throughout the day instead of waiting until the end of the night. I make our bed everyday. If our bed isn't made up, I feel like my whole room is messy. When I put the toilet paper on the holder, it has to roll off from the top, not being pulled from the bottom. It's just one of those things I guess. I do no eat cake. I just don't really care for it. When I was little, my grandmother would fix me a plain miracle whip sandwich. Oh me was it yummy. I absolutely love the smell of miracle whip. I don't eat it much since it's obviously not good for you, but anytime I find myself wanting a bologna sandwich, you better believe miracle whip is smothered on there. We don't eat out much, but anytime I crave a cheeseburger, Sonic is where I go. There is just something about going to Sonic on a hot, summer day, and getting a large drink and something to eat that will just about make my day. When I was 16, I had 7 stitches in my lip thanks to a fender bender. I have never broken a bone. I absolutely do not like basketball and soccer. I don't understand them so therefore I don't care much for the sport. My luck, Adalyn will love basketball so I guess I better start learning the rules. I had braces from 4th grade - 7th grade. So therefore I despise going to the dentist. I absolutely love everything about the beach. I could seriously lay out and bake all day without moving. It has killed me that we didn't make a trip to the ocean this year but our beach vacation is already booked for next June! Wahoo! Can't wait. I graduated Mortuary college December 2006. I spent 4 years in the funeral business embalming and funeral directing. I decided to take some time off once I became pregnant with Landon. Having a family life while working in the funeral industry is almost non existent. Adam and I bought our 1st house in April 2011. Adalyn's name is a combination of mine and Adam's name. Her middle name, May, comes from my Grandmother's middle name. We have always liked the name Landon and his middle name, Riley, comes from Adam's grandfather's middle name. We aren't having any more children. We have been blessed with a girl and a boy and feel we are complete. I love movies but don't watch them much anymore. Seems like we don't have much time nowadays! I could watch The Sound of Music or Titanic at any point during my day. They never get old to me. I love thunderstorms. I love airports. I would rather fly than take a road trip. Traveling for hours in a car is not appealing to me. At all. I am a people watcher, that is one reason why I LOVE being at a airport. I do not like snakes. They freak me out watching them slither away. I love pretty much all forms of pasta.I drink water all day long. I have always loved milk, but while I was pregnant with Landon, I CRAVED it. I mean like 4-5 glasses a day. 90% of the time, Adam and I will have a nightly snack which always includes a glass of milk. (and normally a pop tart. Bad I know!) I am not a breakfast person. I eat peanut butter toast every morning. I do not like donuts. I hate canned biscuits. Depending on my mood I MIGHT have a bite of Adam's biscuit, if it's from Hardee's. I am not artsy or creative so it really blows my mind that I am able to monogram and do appliques. I only watch NewsChannel 5. News 2 and 4 seem so backwards to me. I keep my toe nails painted all the time. Makes your feet look a little cuter by doing that I think! Pizza Hut pizza is by far better than Papa John's. I dip my rolls from O'Charley's in Ranch. I guess I shouldn't say dip, I should say smother. I also dip my pizza in ranch. We think Adalyn is allergic to some of the spices in Ranch because every time she eats it, her mouth gets red and splotchy. She loves it though. My favorite TV commercials are the two Sonic guys. They are hilarious. I could spend all day in Hobby Lobby. As a kid, I hated going in that store with my mom. Now I couldn't imagine making a trip to Murfreesboro and not going. I LOVE old shows from back in my day that I grew up watching. The Brady Bunch, I Love Lucy, The Jetson's, Clarissa Explain's It All, Saved by the Bell, Boy Meets World, 7th Heaven, Full House, I could go on. I miss good shows like that! I do not like McDonald's and honestly couldn't tell you the last time I have been there. Adalyn has no clue what it is either. I like the smell of fresh, cut grass. Love chocolate milk shakes. Our favorite place to shop for Adalyn's clothes is Target. They have some of the cutest things! I use to have my cartilage pierced. I am not a runner. Never have been. I would rather do a serious workout than go for a run. I don't care much for cats. We don't have any pets unless you count 30 head of cattle and 6 pigs! I am a Christian. Adam is a deacon at our Church and I am so very proud of him. We go by Dave Ramsey a lot when it comes to our finances and I can happily say we are completely debt free!! Ahh, I cannot even begin to describe how that feels by typing it. It truly is an amazing feeling and a huge accomplishment. Most of you know me and my quirks, habits, likes and dislikes, but I also know the majority of my blog readers probably don't know a thing about me! So, here is just a tiny bit of information about yours truly! :)

A new view!

Look who has a new view while riding in the car!

We got the urge to flip his carseat around Wednesday before we left for Church. I love being able to see him now. We would always have to ask Adalyn "What's Landon doing?" and almost every time her reply would be this... "He's looking out the window", "He's sleeping" or "He's looking at me". He is quite the traveler! He just talks and talks and laughs at Adalyn. I'm so glad both of my kids do so well in the car because when Adalyn was a baby, she was so very opposite than Landon and thankfully she grew out of that a little after she turned 1.

Watermelon

My granddaddy gave me a watermelon the other day and yesterday evening we went on our back patio and Adam cut it open. I love watermelon and was hoping Landon would, too. No surprise here but he did! He didn't want me to feed it to him, he wanted to hold it himself. Already becoming so independent. Anyway, he loved the bites he took. He is standing so well and takes a step or two a day. I'm so ready for him to take off! Adalyn was walking by 9 1/2 months so it's taken some getting use to having to wait for him to do it on his own. Here he is with his watermelon in his hand

And this is definitely no surprise... Adalyn didn't care too much for the watermelon. I figured she wouldn't. I was just hoping that her trying it yet one more time might make a difference. Or seeing the fact that Landon was eating it. But nope. She opted for a Popsicle instead

Here were are playing in the "castle" as Adalyn calls her swing set.

Notice the lovely mosquito that landed on my face? Thanks for ruining the picture! I am now scratching my face all day because of that stupid thing. That night before bed, Landon went all over the house with his walker. He would bump into something, back up, then keep going. He's becoming a pro! Now if only he would do that without the extra help!

A little of everything!

I am making myself blog tonight! The past few nights Adam and I have been in bed by 9:00 or so. We have never really been the type to stay up late anyway and being in bed early is just SO nice. We make sure the house, dishes, etc is cleaned up so once the kids are in bed, we can do nothing but relax. Which means watch tv, eat a snack, go to bed. So this past Friday morning I ended up having to wake Landon up. It was 7:00 and I have to leave the house by 7:15 to head to work. So I needed to nurse him so I could head out. I spoke to Lynn later on in the day and not only did he sleep in until 7, he took two 2 hour naps that day! I think he is hitting a major growth spurt. Saturday Adam and the kids loaded up and headed to Pelham while I went to Hillsboro to sew. Adalyn was actually able to pet a pig that day. She told me, "I petted him on his bottom!" Then imagine a girly laugh after she told me that. She only napped 30 minutes that day so by the time we all got home, I started cooking supper and I look in the living room and she's passed out in the recliner. We let her nap for a bit in hopes she wouldn't be moody the rest of the evening. She had been fine but we still had about 3 or so hours until bed time so we figured snoozin for a bit wouldn't hurt her. After dinner, all all went on our nightly walk, came back and did baths, books, then bed. Sunday morning came and we got ready for church. It was a new Sunday School year for us so that means Adalyn AND Landon moved up to their new class! It's crazy to me when I think back to when Adalyn was a "bed baby" in the nursery. She and Landon both were just 6 weeks old when we left them for the first time in the nursery and now Adalyn is in the 3 year old class and Landon I believe is in the 12-18 month class since he is so mobile now. After church, we put the kids down for their naps and Adam and I relaxed in the living room. Got to love peace and quiet on a Sunday afternoon! After naps, we played, cooked supper, then headed back to church. We had a busy weekend as usual, but it was so nice! I miss not being able to play with them during the day since I'm back at work so afternoons when we get home are non-stop play, play, play! Here are a few pictures I have taken recently Isn't she the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?!

Adam and Adalyn before church

Landon loved meatloaf!

My kids will be bigger than me by the time they are in Kindergarten!

Adalyn and her Overalls!

Adam and I went to the consignment sale Monday after work to shop for the kids and boy oh boy did we load up with clothes! (and shoes!) I love it when consignment sales come around. As we were searching through Adalyn's size, Adam came across a pair of overalls from OshKosh. They were adorable and we knew she would love them. Once we got home, Adam started cooking and I started going through the gigantic mound of clothes. Adalyn was so excited and was such a "girl" when it came to her clothes. "Ohhhhh! I want to try it on! Daddy, look at my new shirt!" Just imagine loud girly squealing and her hand going over her mouth in amazement every time I held up a new shirt, jacket, or pants. It really was the cutest thing. I then come across her overalls. Oh me, you would have thought it was Christmas morning at our house. She immediately starts tearing out of her clothes she had on and I couldn't get the overalls on her fast enough. As soon as I buckled the straps, the very first thing that came out of her mouth was " I'm a farmer like daddy!" Adam wears his overalls quite a bit so it just made her day that she could dress like him too. She pranced around the house, walked in our bedroom to my mirror and started posing. She was twirling, talking, and laughing at herself. In addition to, "I'm a farmer like daddy", she also stated that she was "a farmer in the dell" and that she wanted to go to the "farming place". Adams asked her where that was and she replied back with "John Deere". I snapped some picture of her gushing over her overalls. It was easy to get her to smile for the camera since she was smiling ear to ear the entire time she had them on and was posing non stop. It was precious to see her so excited over her new overalls!

So vocal!

Landon is so vocal these days. He was "yelling" Da Da at the top of his lungs yesterday. It was adorable. I have been telling him to say "ma ma" for months and months now. He just looks at me and says "Da Da". Thanks Landon. We are having to keep their bathroom door closed now since Landon has decided that's his favorite place to be. He crawls so fast to get in there before I close the door. He pulls up on the toilet, (will stick his hand in it if it's open)and immediately starts unrolling the toilet paper. So for whatever bathroom we are in, the first thing Adam and I now do is take the toilet paper off the holder. Adalyn has watched us do that countless times so now she says, " No no bubba" and takes it upon herself to take the roll off for us. It's funny to think back to when Adalyn was Landon's age. We had to do the same thing for her (take it off the holder) and now we are watching her take great pride in her roll as big sister and look after Landon and try to "teach" him what he can and cannot do. Any window he sees that has blinds on them, you can guarantee he pulls himself up and starts beating them on the window. Adalyn always moves his hands and then comes to us to tattle on him. Yes, that has already started! Adalyn has the best manners for a 2 1/2 year old and I have to say I'm pretty proud of her. It's the cutest thing to hear her ask for something. "May I have my milk please?" "Excuse me daddy" and my favorite, "Thank you for my yunch (lunch) daddy!". She has been saying "yes sir" to me the past few days and I have to remind her that I am not a boy. We really haven't stressed a whole lot about manners. We have always just reminded her what to say when she asks for something like her milk, toy, etc. and to say thank you when someone gives her something. Aside from playing really hard and being the sweetest, most polite 2 year old I have ever been around (yes, I am biased), here are a few pictures from our week. Landon eating his egg whites

Mowing with Adam. This was Landon's first time to ride! He kept a pretty serious face.

Adalyn is really interested in "helping" us cook at the moment. (notice the huge butternut squash in the background? That will last Landon over a month!)

One of Landon's favorite places to play... under the kitchen table

He has discovered a new cabinet. He obviously enjoys pulling everything out so instead of picking it up, I let him (and Adalyn) play with everything while I grabbed my camera. It kept them both occupied while I finished cleaning the kitchen. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do!