Christmas

Well another Christmas has come and gone and I am happy to say that ll of my decorations are put up! I love having them out but when it is over I like to get things back to normal. We had a wonderful Christmas. The kids had so much fun. JC was not that great with all the traveling back and forth between grandparent's houses, but he is just 7 month old. I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves on this one so enjoy the photo book and read all the captions!

Make a Smilebox photobook

JC in our room waitin for Drew to get up.

Christmas Morning Video, kinda long

Christmas Fun

Well it is Christmas eve and we are home from celebrating with Jim's family. Santa will soon be arriving and we will spend the morning at home seeing all the fun stuff we get and then pack it up and head to my mom's to celebrate with them. I am not going to say a lot in this post, I mostly just wanted to get pics of what we have done so far so that family can see them.

Here is a slide show of some of our holiday fun so far!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Here are some pics of JC in the bathtub tonight playing with his new bath turtles that Memaw gave him!



I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas day! Remember that Jesus is the reason for it and that the reason He was born was to die for you!

Merry Christmas from the Mayos!

Playing Catch Up

Well it is now December 16 and I have not updated the blog since December 1! Can you tell we have been busy! Even now the only reason I am on here is because the mattress pad is not all the way dry yet for me to make the bed!

Where to begin.... I guess we will start with the 2009 OB Christmas Parade. This was JC's first ever parade.



As you can see from all the layers that were worn it was a cold parade! JC actually slept until the Fire Trucks came so in reality he missed most of the parade. He was not scared though. Drew is the one who greatly dislikes the fire trucks and all the noise that they make. He sat in the chair with his hands over his ears when they came down the road. We had a great time and it was a wonderful way to start off the Christmas holiday season!

Last Friday was the highlight of the season so far, Drew's school program. He actually had the lead role and a solo! He did so awesome. It is not in a video format for me to blog but we do have it on video. He has such a great singing voice and he was so confident. We definitely have a little star on our hands.


The last week has been a difficult one. JC and I have both been pretty sick with just a bad cold. We are both on the mend now, just dealing with coughing and stuffy noses still. We had all the best intentions of taking a family picture in front of the Christmas tree just after getting it all put up after Thanksgiving and it just didn't happen. So Sunday the boys were both dressed in warm winter sweaters and I decided that we would do our best to get one of just the two of them and get picture cards ordered. So here are the results.



We actually went with pictured #2 for the Christmas card. We will be picking them up tomorrow and I will be doing my best to have them in the mail by Monday, we will see! If you do not have yours before you see us for Christmas I promise we will hand deliver it!

Last little bit for tonight is some pics of JC sitting up and playing. He does have the boppy pillow around him but he is starting to get the hang of being upright and leaning forward and regaining the upright position. He is actually sitting here on the bed next to me while I am working on this post. Of course some of the pictures have Drew in them, he is an absolute ham and cannot stand to have me take pics of JC without him!




I know there are so many other little things that have happened that I am forgetting to blog about. It has been a rough start to December. The other secretary that I have worked with for 3 years resigned to take another job. It is a wonderful opportunity for her and I am so happy for her. However I do miss her friendship and I certainly miss the help! I am hanging in there and getting things pretty caught up. There is very little time for any extra stuff right now though. So I will do my best to keep you posted and up to date on all Mayo happenings over the next few weeks. We are greatly looking forward to Christmas and all the fun and family time that is a part of it. Also this being JC's first Christmas is a very special time for us. So my encouragement to all of you right now is to take the time you need to enjoy your Christmas season! Remember that Jesus' birth is the real reason we celebrate and the reason He was born was to die for you! That is the ultimate Christmas gift, the free gift of salvation. If you have not accepted this precious gift from God please do so now, we just don't know what tomorrow may bring.

Drew and Kathryn Singing in Church

There were a few technical difficulties at the beginning, so it takes a minute for us to get started. He did a great job! I think he is ready to be The Littlest Christmas Tree next week for the school program!

Drew Video

Ok, so here is the story. JC had been giving Drew kisses, it was so sweet. So I sent Jim to get the camera and try to get it on video to blog it. Well Drew decided to get silly as soon as the camera was brought out. Some may not find this all together that amusing but as the parents we simply saw the beauty in the fact that one day this will completely embarrass him. I can see myself now showing his friends and girlfriends all these horribly embarrassing videos of him. That will be justification for all the inappropriate things he has done or said that have embarrassed me! Call me mean or cynical if you want, but that is my silver lining!

Too Much Time Between Blogs

Well, as you can see it has been busy! I did not mean for this much time to pass before blogging again, so I have much to try to catch you up on!

First the good stuff!
Sunday we had a baby dedication service for JC and one other baby in the church. It was a very special day to Jim and I. I think perhaps even more so now that Drew is getting more and more close to making a decision to trust Christ as his personal Savior.
I wish we had gotten a better picture of all of us together, but I will try to make that happen during the holidays.

Christmas has arrived at the Mayos!!

I know some of you are saying it isn't even Thanksgiving yet. I realize that. Traditionally we have taken today, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, as our day to do the decorating. However this year Jim and I both just felt the need to get it done this weekend while we were home and had the free time. We had a good time getting it done and feel like now we can just relax through the Thanksgiving holidays. Only one ornament bit the dust this year in the process of putting the tree together. Last year one glass ball broke and one ornament received major damage and required a lot of super glue. This year the casualty was one glass ball. Drew just wants to help so badly that he get a bit anxious and doesn't wait for help.
Sunday afternoon Jim's mom was with us following the baby dedication at church. She was gracious and watched the kids while Jim and I got the outside decor put up.


Now for a weight loss update:
I have lost just about 3lbs shy of 40lbs since giving birth to JC!! I have officialy dropped 1 pant size and 2 shirt sizes. It has been incredible to buy clothes that are not in the woman's department of the store! I did purchase a couple of pair of slacks and some blouses for work. I hope to be too small for them soon, but I had to have a few things since one of my pair of dress slacks were no longer wearable due to the risk of them falling off!! I have also been able to dig out of my closet 1 pair of jeans, 1 pair of khakis, 2 dresses, all that have been too small on me for years! Now I have the great challenge of the holidays before me but I am determined to continue to work hard and even if I put on a few pounds with the holiday eating I will work it off soon after the holiday.

So I think that will just about catch you up for now. I will try to post pics and stories from Thanksgiving next week. I am going to work on a funny Drew video here in a sec and I am hoping to have a video of Drew singing in church this Sunday, if he actually does it, we will see! Also JC has started giving kisses to us! So sweet and makes me cry, I hope to get that on video and maybe some of my blog readers will get to see it for real this next week! Until next time!

Video of JC Bouning

I had wanted this video to be on the post from Friday but had issued, again, getting my video to upload with blogger. So I have it on YouTube now and it is much better! Here it is!

A Wonderful Day for our Family

We have had a wonderful day today! No band, no football, just us! We did have to finish up the housecleaning that I started last night. It was hard to find the motivation to do it, but the sweet smell of a clean house was worth it! We spent the afternoon at the zoo and had dinner at IHOP, Drew's favorite place! The zoo was awesome! The new exhibit, Tetan Trek, is so beautiful. They have really made it a nice place. I just love our zoo. Since we buy the membership it is a fun thing we can do anytime. We spent about 2.5 hours there and that was enough to be worn out! Of course Drew wants to see everything, but we keep on reminding him that the next time we go we can see all the things we missed today. I will let the pics to the talking, enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Here are a couple of videos from the zoo. Since uploading videos on Blogger is not the greatest I will be putting the videos on my YouTube page from now on.

Oh where has the last week gone...

Okay, so I never intended for it to be this long of a gap in between post. This has been a rather weird week. Not a bad week, just one of those that it seems unusual things come up each day that keep the things you must do from getting done, resulting in the things you want to do getting pushed further and further down your list! Can anyone relate??

Well obviously Halloween has come and gone. There will be a slide show at the bottom of this post of all the fun we had last weekend. We did have much fun! We attended our churches fall festival on Wednesday. Still have not quite figured out why we had it on Wednesday rather than Saturday to provide an alternative to Trick or Treating but I will refrain from climbing up on that soap box today! Since we do not Trick or Treat and do not hand out candy to those who do, we decided to attend Longview Point's (the church where I work) Fall Festival which was on Saturday, thus providing my family with the much needed Trick or Treating alternative! Oh and there my soap box peeped out again, so I will move on! We had a cute little puppy dog and an awesome rat this year! Don't ask me why he wanted to be a rat, that was his choice! Actually that was what he wanted to be up until the week of Halloween, then he told me he wanted to be a snake. Now I did not care what he was, as long as I wasn't spending a bunch of money, but I had already arranged to have my co-worker make him a tail and did not have a clue how to dress him up as a snake anyway. So I finally convinced him that he should not be a snake because snakes do not have arms or legs, which would prohibit him from walking, let alone playing games and getting candy. So he went for that and quickly forgot all about it and is even now planning what he wants to be for the next 3 Halloweens based upon the costumes he saw on his friends. Don't worry, I am not rushing out to buy anything yet! So Halloween was a big success in our house and we have plenty of candy to last us until January, or as Jim would tell you, until I get tired of looking at it and throw it away!

Moving on to other subjects. Jim and I had lunch with Drew at school this week. As we walked through the hallway doors and the aroma of what is supposed to be pizza came from the cafeteria I seriously thought I might hurl! Since Jim and I did not eat there I don't want to refer to it as eating lunch with Drew, we will say observing lunch with Drew instead! So, observing lunch with a room full of kindergartners is most interesting! I had to peel bananas and open packets of raw carrots, which by the way I never saw one kid eat. I did see a kid use it as a dipping mechanism for his pizza sauce! I mean seriously, who really thinks these kids are eating raw carrots. Cut those off the lunch menus and we can save some hard earned tax dollars right there! But back to my story, it was fun though. We actually took Drew lunch from McDonalds. I do not totally like doing that because some of those kids will probably never have a parent come to eat with them, but of course many of the kids in his class have had that done for them and he ask for it. So I decided to bake cookies for all the kids and that way they all got special treatment! Actually it had a two-fold purpose. You see since I am majorly dieting I don't eat cookies or anything else sweet or that taste good for that matter! So Jim brings home not one, but two tubs of cookie dough home from school! Not the smartest thing he has done lately! So by cooking over 50 cookies for Drew's classmates I eliminated all but a very small portion of the dough! Yeah for me! Of course the kids loved them and it was fun. I do hope we can do this again some time, although I don't know that I will plan on doing it on pizza day because the odor seriously grossed me out and gave me flashbacks to Jr. High!

JC is getting more and more active! I am working on a video of him in the jumper, he loves this thing! Hope to have it up soon! Also check out the pic show of all our Fall Festival fun.

Oh, one last thing. A weight loss update......
I have lost 14.8lbs since starting my weight loss challenge 6 weeks ago and a total of 34lbs since I gave birth to JC! And remember, I only gained 5lbs through the entire pregnancy. So I am obviously excited and feeling great and running out of clothes that fit me! Even my wedding ring has gotten too big! Sounds like as good an excuse as any for him to buy me some new bling!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

JC is 5 months old!

It is hard to believe that 5 months ago today I was holding my second son that was only a little over 24 hours old. Time is passing so much more quickly than I want it to. As a mom I find myself wanting to cling to all the moments and savoring the sweet "baby time" of his life and yet you long for the advancements too. I am anxious to see him sit up on his own and to crawl, get his first tooth, speak his first word. Well maybe not that first word part since both of my children seem to have been abundantly blessed with the gift of gab! He is so much more advanced at this age than I remember Drew being, although that has been 5 years ago and I have a hard time remembering it all. Here is a run down of some of the things he is now doing:

1. You eat 3 meals a day,
breakfast - baby oatmeal and formula
lunch - vegi, fruit, 4oz juice
dinner - vegi, fruit, 4 oz juice
You still have a bottle in the morning and at night which are 7oz each. Your favorite foods seem to be squash, pears, and applesauce. You still love the food I make for you but we do buy the baby fruits as well as some vegis.

2. You typically sleep at night from 9pm-5am for a total of 8 hours. You take a morning nap and an afternoon nap which are both about 2-3hours long. You nap at daycare even in the midst of all the chaos of the baby room and yet at home you want it to be totally silent. You have started sleeping mostly on your side but have also done some sleeping on your tummy now that you can turn over to it.

3. You like to play on the floor and are able to turn yourself from your tummy to your back and from you back to your tummy. You have not managed to make a full rotation yet but you are close. You can even get your legs up under neath you sometimes, so crawling may not be too far off!!

4. You like to hold toys and beat them against the floor or your car seat, kinda makes me think you may be a little drummer! What ever you have in your hands you are waving it back and forth.

5. Another favorite thing you like to do is to sit in my lap and rock your body back and forth, not really sure why you like this, maybe it is just that you are learning to control your body motions.

6. Teeth are hopefully on the way. You still drool a LOT! You have had some really bad diapers lately too which make me think it is coming. I sure hope so! Occasionally you are in an ill temper and I think that it must be due to the teeth.

7. You LOVE bath time. You will just sit and kick your legs and splash that water! You truly seem to love being in the water. I am looking forward to swimming with you next year!

8. Right now you are wearing size 6-9mon clothing and even have a couple of blanket sleepers that are 12 mon, but they run small. You are definitely a big boy by comparison to your brother.

9. You like to "talk". Well, your version of talking anyway. You do say mama quite a bit, although I do not think you use the word because you want me,just that you want something. Like to be held, eat, bottle, everything seems to get mama right now.

10. You have a few favorite people! Ms. Deb from church, you know her pretty well now. She keeps you in the nursery on Sunday mornings. Lauren at the daycare. I can ask you if you are ready to see Lauren when we arrive in the mornings and you get all excited! I am so grateful for all the wonderful people who take care of you at daycare and at church!

So that is pretty much where JC is at these days! I have put together a photo album of his first 5 mon, I will probably do another one for 6 mon. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Band Performance from Saturday

Tupelo Performance

Click the link above and you will be able to see the band performance from Saturday on YouTube.

They did great! Won everything in the competition that night and got all 1's for their festival rating. It has been a great Marching Season for the OB Band! This Saturday is our final competition. We will be traveling to Clinton, MS for the MS State Championship!

Soon to be banned from bathing in the kitchen!

As you will see from the video JC loves bath time! He is not going to be able to bath in the kitchen anymore because he makes a HUGE mess. I could hardly even hold the camera steady due to him splashing me and the floor and the counter and the wall and everything in range of his tub! I wish I had gotten video of him when he saw the tub set up, he got so excited and just kicked and threw his arms around. He really does like baths. I think for Christmas he is going to get some bath toys, he doesn't really need anything else so that will be a good item! Enjoy!

JC is getting pretty active!

JC is beginning to be really active, I am starting to dread him actually figuring out how to roll around and even crawl! This child is not going to be a late bloomer people! He has learned how to kick, really hard! He likes to kick us while we are changing his diapers and he will kick in the bed and move his entire body up the length of the bed. Last night he was not quite ready for bed at bed time so he ended up in the room with us for a while watching tv. I set him up in the boppy and gave him these two toys and he played like this for over 30 minutes. The video is kinda long but will really show you how much more control he is learning to have over his arms and hands.

Fall Break 2009

Well Fall Break has come and gone and I am just now blogging about it! We had a wonderful time together and did many fun things. We did get rained out of the zoo, which was very disappointing because we really wanted to see the new exhibit. But we will do it again next month when band is over.

I will let the pics speak for themselves, so enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The Beginning of a Long Weekend

Well we have had a good and unexpected weekend so far! Yesterday we had another round of thoroughly soaking rain. We have had quite a bit of rain the last month. Due to the very wet conditions our football game last night was canceled and rescheduled to tonight. Also the band festival and competition that was to be today was canceled and rescheduled to next Saturday. Since we did not have a ball game we decided to plan some fun family activities last night! We went out to dinner together and then went bowling. It was so much fun. We have taken Drew one other time and he was not that into it but we were with a large group of people. I think going with just us made a difference. JC slept through most of the bowling night. It really was a fun time. We all ended up going to the ball game tonight. It was VERY cold. Actually the temps are not that low but it really seemed to be cold out. I think that the breeze made it feel so much colder. The boys did great though. JC stayed bundled up in his stroller the entire time and Drew ran around as usual. Getting to be home this morning was great because we were able to get the house cleaned up and laundry done.

So we have had a great Friday and Saturday! Tomorrow we have our annual church picnic in the park. Monday and Tuesday are fall break. We have many fun activities planned so we will have many more pics to post!

Here is a slide show of what we have done this weekend so far!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Videos & a Pic

Drew getting his first awards in Sparks.

4 Month Doctor Check Up

JC visited the doctor yesterday for his 4 month check up. Here are the stats...
16lbs
25in long
He is happy and healthy! He is still in about the 75% on his weight but height is right on target. He did really good but of course he cried when he got his 3 shots. The really cool thing that happened is that he actually rolled over from his tummy to his back while we were in the office! It was funny because the doctor had just been in the room to examine him and had ask me if he was rolling over yet. I had told him we were close to it but not yet. Then he left the room and JC then proceeded to roll over!

Let me kinda give a run down of all his activity at this milestone:
-Still sleeping through the night, usually for about 8-9 hours.
-Smiles and laughs A LOT! Very happy and very easy baby.
-Wearing mostly 6-9 month clothing but still some 3-6 mon.
-Likes sitting in his pod seat or playing on the floor. Getting rather tired of the bouncy seat and nearly too long for it.
-Loves to watch his big brother and really loves for him to talk and play with him.
-Eats cereal with fruit for lunch and veggis and fruit for dinner along with a little bit of juice. Still takes 2 morning bottles and one before bed time.

That is all my brain can think of right now! I have some videos to post and will work on that this week, so stay tuned!

Catching Up

I have so much to get you all caught up on! It has been incredibly hectic since my last post.

As you know we are in full swing of Marching Band season. The band is doing superb! Last weekend they had their first two competition, both in one day! In both they placed 2nd over all. In the morning competition Jim's drummers came in 1st overall, yeah!, and in the second they were 2nd overall! This has been very exciting and he has been getting many compliments on them this year. This is his 10th year of teaching, all at OB, so it has been really exciting to be getting the best scores of his career! It has not all been easy or great years but having this success makes it all worth it. I am so proud of him and his students! Of course he has more competitions all throughout the month of October so we will not see him around the house too much. It is a fun but challenging time of year so please pray for all of us. In addition to all the band competitions we have football games on Friday nights. The boys and I have been to 2 home games thus far. They really do good at them. JC just sits in my lap and Drew is able to sit and do his own thing pretty much. I love going to the games and really enjoy watching the game, so it is nice that they are good and I can enjoy it. Tonight is the BIG game, OB at South Panola! I would LOVE to see our boys beat some Tiger Tail! I will not be traveling into the chaos that will be this game! Fortunately they will be airing it live on Channel 5 so I will be watching it from home! I will have to watch my excitement though. The last time we played them and it was on tv I yelled at the tv and scared Drew!

Now for a Weight Loss Challenge update. I lost 4.6lbs in week one!!!! I was so very excited and motivated to continue. I have been working hard to get through week 2. It is hard when I am home by myself with the kids. That is the time that I snack more than any other. I think it is boredom and not having Jim around to talk to. Imagine that, I would rather talk than eat!!! Monday will be my next weigh in. My goal is for 1lb per week. I do not expect to have big losses like I did last week. Often when you start a program you lose a lot of water weight that you are carrying. I will try to update on Tuesday with another report on my loss.

And now for some kid updates. JC is officially 4 months old as of last Saturday. He is a big boy. I really think he looks like me, not Jim. He talks a lot. He is getting close to rolling over from his back to front. He is a BIG flirt! They love him at the daycare. He just smiles and laughs for them all whenever they talk to him. We go to the doctor in the morning for his 4mon check up and shots. I will post all the specifics on weight and measurements after that.
As for Drew, he is going strong in school. For the most part we are doing really good, although his car has been moved off the track twice this week for not listening. I am trying to not get too worked up over this. The teacher told me that it is basically a warning, not major discipline as far as she is concerned. He does lose all tv/computer/video game privileges for the day when it moves to yellow. If it goes to red, which has not happened, then he gets a spanking. He knows and seems to understand what he is doing wrong. He actually told me last night at prayer time that we needed to pray about his car getting moved and that he will do better. So maybe that means he is progressing. Today they had to dress up like a nursery rhyme character. He is Little Boy Blue. Jim got him a toy bugle from the dollar store and he wore all blue today. I will try to take a pic of him when we get home today. Pictures are not something that happens at our house in the morning! Drew is starting to ask more and more questions about Jesus and salvation. He and I actually went through the ABC of becoming a Christian last Saturday. He has an understanding of it all but does not seem to understand his need for salvation yet. Please pray for his heart to be turned toward Jesus. I know it is coming, I just want to lead him in the right direction and not push before it is God's time. It is very exciting to talk to him about it though!

Well that will get you up to date on the Mayos! I promise to TRY to post all the info on the dr visit tomorrow, notice I said try! Enjoy the pic show below. It is just some random shots from around the house over the last week.

Make a Smilebox greeting

A New Day

Well today I have started a new diet/weight loss plan. I will not discuss all the specific details of it at this time until I feel that is it working and worth bragging about. I did join a group for a "Weight Loss Challenge". This is being led by a lady from my church. We will meet for 12 weeks and basically be a support and encouragement group for one another. Each participant can follow whatever diet plan they wish. I am really very excited about it and really hoping for positive results. One of the things that she said last night which I really liked was that you don't need to come into this with a big goal of losing like 50lbs. Instead just say I want to lose 10 and when you get that 10 off go for 10 more. I like that approach, it is sensible and doable. So I ask your prayers for me as I continue in my quest to be a healthier woman, wife, mom and Christian. I feel very strongly that it is my responsibility to set a good example for my boys, not of being a skinny momma but a healthy mom. Healthy may not ever mean that I fit back into a size 8 or even a 10. I am excited about this new venture. I have been working on weight loss since the gestational diabetes diagnosis but in the last month have gotten really lax and put back on about 8lbs.

The other healthy habit that I have established since the baby arrived is exercise! And yes some of you know I get up at 4am to do it, but I feel so much better for it! I actually started a new workout dvd today, I LOVE it!!! I will brag about it a bit. It is Leslie Sansone Walk Away the Pounds 5 Day Slim Down. I have done her walking workouts before and they are awesome. This one has 5 different 1 mile walks, one for each day of the work week, as well as a warm up and cool down. It took me about 30 minutes to do the whole thing this morning. It went by really quickly and it was challenging but fun. It is designed that if you wish to do more than one mile you can. However with time constraints 1 mile is just about all I can get in on a week day, I may push for more on the weekends.

I will say that as I have been on this journey of creating a new healthier me that i have seen many of my priorities change, in a good way! Here are a few things that I really don't stress out too much over anymore:

1. How clean my house is. There are just more important things in life. If you want to come by my house and do the white glove test I will go ahead and save you the gas and let you know it fails. It my potties are clean and you can not see too much dirt on the floor it is fine by me!

2. Hair/Makeup. Now don't get me wrong on this, I make sure I look presentable each day and do wash my hair. I just don't fuss over this the way I used to. I am a big advocate for proper skin care for your face. When I was growing up I was told that every night you do not wash your face, regardless of if you are wearing makeup or not, it ages your face 7 days! I don't know about you but I sure don't want to look 30 even though I feel it sometimes!! All I am saying on this is that it now takes me on average about 5 minutes to put on my make up and about 10 minutes on the hair. I am trying to work out the hair so that I do not have to use the straightening iron each morning but I am not there yet!

3. Being involved in everything. This spans several areas of my life, like church, band, school stuff. I have learned well over the last few years to say NO! I love being involved in stuff. And truth be told I love the fast pace life we lead with very little down time, but it takes it toll on you. I have slimmed down my responsibilities at church. This was hard to do b/c I want to be involved and want things to go well, but the thing is if God has not called me to it then I am wrong for doing it. I will not receive eternal glory for it. Now I may get a pat on the back for all the hard work but all the crowns I earned are burning up! As far as the band goes I will be going to only one band competition this year. That is really hard for me. Every year I have gone with Jim to Tupelo for State Festival and Contest, even the year before we married. This will be the first year I miss it. That is really hard for me but with JC being as young as he is there are limitations to what I can do. We are making the ballgames right now and that has been fun, but the competitions will go on without me this year. I will be cheering for them from home and wishing I was there. School stuff for Drew is absolutely ridiculous already! We are less than 2 months into school and already we have had 2 fundraisers and now the PTO is about to start one. This momma ain't doing 'em! I know, I know, it is my child's education and the school that will benefit from it. Well I am not hitting up every family member and friend I have for money. So that too will go on without me. I did make the effort to join the PTO and went to the first meeting which lasted almost 2 1/2 hours! I do plan to continue going to those, and that is the best I will do!

Wow, this turned into a much longer post than I intended! Well that is what is going on! Maybe by the end of the week I will get some pics of my boys and post them, but I won't stress over it!

First Baby Food Feeding!

Well I decided last night to try JC out on some real food! I am happy to say that he loved it! Carrots was our first food, I have more of that made up than anything else. I am making my own baby food this time. It went really good. I make it and then freeze it in ice cube trays. It actually took 2 cubes for last night's feeding. The trays I am using are really very small because that was only enough food to be equivalent to a small jar of stage 1 baby food. He has been eating a bowl of cereal at lunch and dinner time feedings for about 2 weeks now. He has done really good on that although he fusses quite a bit through it. He did not fuss at all with the carrots, so maybe he was just ready for something with some flavor! I am still having the day care just give him cereal at lunch time for now. I may start taking them some food on Monday if all goes well with it this weekend. I am pretty sure that Drew did not eat any cereal or food this early, but all kids are different. We go in for our 4 month check up on Oct 3 and I fully expect the doctor to tell me he should not be eating solids yet, to which I intend to respond that he should know from being a pediatrician that all kids are different and when he is ready to come to my house and take care of all the feedings for my child then he can insert his "professional" opinion! I will say that it is rather bittersweet that he is already to this stage. He is growing so much faster than Drew did. Drew was always a skinny little baby and JC is so chubby. They really are total opposites! JC loves his big brother though. He just smiles and laughs at him when he sits and plays with him. Even as Drew is tugging on his legs and throwing toys in his face he just smiles at him!! JC talks ALL the time. I mean seriously, everyone of you know that Drew's mouth NEVER stops, did God just think it would be funny to give me another one with motor mouth!?! The thing about JC talking so much is that I am pretty sure he has figured out how to say mama in his own way because that is what is sounds like when he is whining to be picked up or fed or changed or anytime other than when he is smiling and playing! It is a sweet sound though, well most of the time!!

Well I will close for now. That is what is happening in the Mayos house! Oh, one last thing, we are holding steady and staying well right now! I am praying that it will stay that way! I hope all of you are well or getting that way if you have been sick.

A New Look!

Well as you can see I felt that it was time for a new look to the blog! I wanted to add the pics to the banner so that it would be a bit more personal. I hope you like it!

There are many things rolling around in my mind and my heart today. Let me begin by asking prayers for our dear friends the Strawns. They had a baby girl last night at just 29 weeks gestation. Thus far she is doing well. This is their second child and they had the same type of problem with their first. He is now 6 and is Drew's "best, best friend!". I am praying that God will allow this precious baby girl to be another little miracle like their son. Of course hearing this kind of news from people you are close to reminds you of how incredibly blessed you are. I have no right to complain or ever get put out with my children. They are a blessing. I do wish that I would remember that more often without have to be reminded through devastating circumstances. So this is my way of saying, be thankful and take just a few minutes to tell God just how gracious He has been in your life. You know we are all undeserving of His love and mercy.

Now for a devotional thought. This morning my Journey devotion was from the passage in Romans 8:1-17, about life through The Spirit. God really spoke to me through verse 3-4
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
What God really spoke to me about was the magnitude of the fact that the "law" is powerless to save us! No one has the capability to live a perfect life because of sin. Jesus had to be sacrificed. There was no other way. He chose to come and take the likeness of sinful man to become the sacrifice. He did this fully knowing that some would never choose to give their lives to Him. Because I have accepted His gift of salvation I now do not live according to my sinful nature but according to the Spirit! Now that does not mean I do not sin, because I do! What is means is that I am no longer a prisoner of sin! The chains have gone and I live freely in the Spirit. As a result of the Spirit in me I am fully aware through conviction of my sin and shortcomings and therefore must seek forgiveness from my Savior. But the point of what I want to say today is that I am truly free from the misery of sin because of my salvation through Jesus Christ! Do you know Him that way? If not don't wait another day! I would be happy to share with you the way!

Another Drew Story

Well Jim ended up getting the stomach bug. He got sick Wednesday afternoon but was pretty much on the mend by the next morning. I am still praying and holding out hope that JC will not get it.

While Jim was sick on Wednesday I had to take care of the kids alone. Of course we went to church that night and when we get home from church it is always a rush to get ready for bed. I was getting Drew in the bed. We were skipping the story and devotion that night because it was already past bedtime. We had just finished our evening prayers. I had prayed that night and just as I got up to turn the light out Drew ask me something about God and Jesus and I was trying to explain to him that they are the same. His next question was so funny! He wanted to know if God wears crocs! I just chuckled and told him I did not know. The mental picture I had as this point was from Isaiah 6, one of my favorite passages, of God seated on the throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filling the temple wearing a brightly colored pair of crocs! I wonder if God has to laugh sometimes at the things kids will ask about Him!

Canoe Trip

Here are the pics from our canoe trip. They were not that great. I think that next year instead of buying the disposable water camera I will just take our old digital in a ziploc bag in case it got wet. It takes good outside shots. We did have so much fun and are looking forward to next year. Enjoy the pics!

Make a Smilebox postcard

Funny conversation with my elder son

As Jim and I were finishing our dinner last night Drew was playing on the rug in the living room. Our dining room looks out into the living room so we could see exactly what he was doing. As he was playing I noticed him wiping something from his hand onto the rug. I questioned him about it. Here is how the conversation went...

Mom: Drew, what did you just wipe on the rug?
Drew: Nothing
Mom: I just saw you wipe something, what was it?
Drew: Well, I just did this (demonstrates running his finger between his toes and then wipes it on the rug)
Mom: So you wiped toe jam on my rug!
Drew: I do not have toe dam!
Mom and Dad are now hysterically laughing!!!!
Drew: Stop laughing at me, I do not have toe tam!

I laughed so hard I hurt!

Promised Videos

JC playing with the toys on the bouncer.

JC eating cereal

Outside on Labor Day. Drew at the end with the car was funny!

A Very Happy Labor Day Weekend!

The Mayo family had a wonderful weekend! Drew spent all day Friday sick with the stomach virus but by Saturday morning we were in the clear, yee haw! So Saturday we thoroughly cleaned the house. We worked really hard but we knew we would have Monday to just chill.

Sunday evening we went to the zoo for Members Night. This was JC first trip to the zoo and our first experience at this special zoo event for members. JC did great, he really loves just hanging out in the stroller. The zoo was fun, although it got dark and you really could not see any animals. But the rides were all free so that was the main thing the kids wanted to do. We really had a great time and it was free, other than driving out there, so you cannot beat that!

Yesterday on Labor Day we pretty much did not do anything, just hung out at the house. We did go outside yesterday morning for Jim to clean the blow up pool for winter storage and I cleaned up the free stroller that I got from the lady down the street. This will be my football game stroller since it is a small lightweight one. The big bulky stroller is just too much trouble in the stadium. Drew decided that he needed to wash his Lightening McQueen car, as you will see in the pictures! We had a fun day of just being together as a family!

So today we have started back to the norm, hopefully we will all continue to stay well! Enjoy the pics below and the next post will be the promised videos!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

It's Official: School is in and sickness has begun!

Well it has been an interesting week at the Mayo household. Last Saturday we had a wonderful day. It was a quiet morning and Jim got the yard work all done, even trimming all the bushes. The yard looked great and still does! Saturday afternoon was spent at my mom's belatedly celebrating her and my brother's birthdays. It was a great afternoon of just being together. The kids played outside and Jim was able to do some fishing. We came home and had plenty of time to get the kids bathed up and ready for bed. All was going really well! That is until I woke up at 5am feeling really sick to my stomach. It was not too bad and I just went on back to sleep after we fed JC. Then when my alarm went off at 6:30 I got up still feeling really sick. Well it was not long after that I found myself on my knees in front of the toilet! Somehow I managed to catch the stomach virus. I cannot remember having it anytime since I was a kid and it knocked me straight on my butt for 2 days! Sunday was awful, I spent the day in the bed or the bathroom. Monday I had to stay home because my energy level was zero. Jim had to take both boys to Hernando for school and daycare and then Drew went home from school with my sister-in-law. Jim had to go back and get them that evening. He was great to me through the whole thing! So Tuesday I went back to work, thinking we had it all behind us. We had a really busy week with stuff every night. Tuesday night was "Teacher Talk" at the school, Wednesday was church, and last night we had Praise Band/Team practice at church. We were looking forward to our 3 day weekend and to going out with some friends tonight. Well those plans got crushed when Drew woke up this morning with the stomach bug! He has been sick throughout most of the day. Hopefully now we are about to the end of it. Tomorrow Jim and I will be doing some major house cleaning and disinfecting. I am praying that he and JC will not get it. We have been washing our hand constantly and Drew is not allowed near JC. If nothing else I feel like we have been officially initiated as public school attendees now! This virus seems to be running rampant around the Desoto County schools. I do have to say that we have been so blessed by not having too much sickness with our kids. This is the first real stomach virus that we have had to deal with. God is good to us, more than we could possibly ever deserve.

Since I have once again gotten behind on my blog I am going to do a pic slide show so make sure you read the captions to see what the pic is of and why.I do have several new videos I would like to get on here but it may have to be done next week from my work computer, they just work so much better on it.

For now that is what is going on with the Mayos!

JC Dancing

We ate dinner at Colton's Restaurant last nigh for Jim's birthday. This is a western kind of steakhouse so they play country music. Well JC REALLY likes music and wiggling around or what we call dancing to music. He does this a lot in the car when Drew is listening to the Cars soundtrack. He was dancing to the country music last night at the restaurant so I got him on video. Enjoy!

Pod Dweller

For those of you who do not know what that thing is my baby is sitting in, it is a Baby Pod. This is a tool I was completely unaware of because when I had Drew 5 years ago this was not a popular, cutting edge, baby must have. Well now it is. The one he is in belongs to my sister. Considering that he will just be 3 months old tomorrow I really did not think he was ready for sitting up in this seat, of course if you know anything about the pod it basically sits them up and teaches them how to get ready for sitting up on their own. Today when I arrived at the day care to pick him up I found him sitting in a pod. I was quite shocked to find him this way, because as I said I did not think he was ready for this! I managed to stay calm and was only mildly testy when I told one of the workers that we had not yet tried this at home! So as I pulled away from the day care I immediately whipped out my cell phone and promptly called my sister. I relayed the story to her and ask her opinion about it. She assured me that it is safe for him to be in it at his age. Now again I remind you that this is contraption that I am highly unfamiliar with, so I was not some over bearing, freak out over anything, mom. So I decided that since they had done it there at day care that I was going to try the thing out at home. So I cleaned it all up and put him in it. Well it turns out he really likes the thing! He can look around really good at all the activity around him, which mind you there is a lot of that around here! Never a dull moment with Drew! So I am giving my mom stamp of approval to the Baby Pod and now declare that my 3 month old is officially a Pod Dweller!!

Jim's Birthday

Today is Jim's 33rd Birthday! We celebrated a bit before we left home this morning.
Jim opening his card and present from the boys...


Yes, the present is a watergun! Drew picked it out on his own and it was totally his idea, I promise!! Jim's exact words after opening it were "somebody wants to get wet", directed at his son of course because if he even thinks about shooting me with the thing he will pay dearly for it! I mean it Jim!

Here is a pic of the three of them with the watergun. Looks like a good father/sons bonding time activity to me!


Seriously though, I want to wish my sweet husband a wonderful birthday! He is without a doubt the best husband and I would not trade him for anyone else, even if he does get me with the water gun! Tonight we are going to Colton's to eat birthday dinner and then home for a homemade Birthday Cake! It is a pretty simple celebration but hopefully it will express just how much we love him!

Jim and Drew at Colton's tonight


Jim's Birthday Cake