A Huge Summer Update

Okay, this promises to be my longest blog post ever...seeing as how I haven't updated all summer. I don't know what is going on, but I seem to have lost much of my blog motivation. I guess it could also have something to do with the busyness that comes with chasing around a 2 year old! I saw another blog friend do this recently, and I'm hoping it will help motivate me to blog more often, too. So, if you are reading this blog, please post a comment at the end of this post...whether you are a friend, a friend of a friend, family, or a person I've never met before. Please post a comment!

This summer has been wonderful. I have truly enjoyed each and every minute I've spent with Hayden. He can be a handful, but he is such a blessing in my life...and I am so blessed to have a job where I can spend so much time with him. This promises to be a random conglomeration of pictures and events...but here goes.

We had a lot of fun at the beginning of the summer at Renaissance. Hayden just loves any kind of water there is and always jumps right in without hesitation.


Exclaiming "lader" the whole time

He would fill up his cup in the fountain and drink the water! He drank a ton of water!

We had our first major injury this summer. Hayden always plays in the garage while I am cutting grass. The weekend before his accident, I had asked Chris to clean out the garage to make it more kid friendly...move out gas cans, fertilizer, etc. Chris did a wonderful job cleaning the garage. I was cutting grass a few days later, and I heard a loud crash. It was a huge scaffolding ladder that Hayden had pulled down on himself. Of course, he finds the one thing that was left in the garage and manages to hurt himself. The ladder fell and hit him on his face/head, and he fell back and hit the back of his head. He had a large gash under his eye and by his eye along with a massive knot on the back of his head. He also had some nice ladder rungs across his face for a day and a half. He was very upset and had a lot of blood coming out by his eye. Then, he started throwing up, and I felt like it was best that the doctor see him to rule out a concussion and/or the need for stitches. Both were ruled out thankfully, but it was scary....and Hayden ended up with double black eyes. Poor guy. It is the first of many, I'm sure! Chris and I told some people that he got in a playground fight and that they should see the other kid. Hehehe...

The other eye ended up the same color.

It was so pitiful!

This is a picture of Hayden and Lindsey that I just love from our trip to Trustmark Park. My cousin coaches baseball at Water Valley, and his team made it to the 3A state championship this year. The championship was at Trustmark Park, so we were able to go.




Hayden as a baseball player


Kristopher joins in the fun

Hayden is definitely all boy and loves doing anything involving being a boy.

Driving the big truck at Bass Pro Shops

Showing off his boxing skills. Look at that determination.

We went to a campout at Gran's house, and Hayden had his first swim in the pond.



This year, I helped with my church's Vacation Bible School. I taught 3rd grade Missions and absolutely loved it. I had three wonderful groups, and it was a huge blessing in my life. The theme this year was Saddle Ridge Ranch, and the missions room was called Firefly cavern. I kind of got a little excited this year and tried to decorate part of my room like a cavern. The cavern ended up being more difficult that I anticipated, and it was put up three times before it actually stayed. I was pretty pleased with the results and the kids loved it....but am planning on being a little less complicated next year! :o)

My friend, Leslie, had a baby boy at the beginning of June, and we went to Memphis when he was two weeks old to meet little Nathan. He is just as cute as ever, and thankfully, Hayden now has someone to loan hand-me downs to. By the way, aren't hand-me downs just the greatest? When Hayden was first born, I wanted to buy all these cute little clothes for him. That sure wore off after a few weeks when I realized how great free clothes were! Anyway, while we were in Memphis, we went to the Memphis Children's Museum. Hayden had lots of fun! They had so much fun stuff, but my favorite probably was the miniature Kroger where kids could shop and ring up their purchases at the cash register.

My friend, Abby, recently got married. Abby was my room-mate when we lived in the sorority house junior year. We had a shower for her, and it was so great to see so many friends. Congrats Abby and Matthew! And, thanks for allowing me to be apart of the wedding, too! It was beautiful! (I wish I had some pictures from the wedding, but hopefully, I will be able to upload some later.)


Some of us got pedicures beforehand at Aqua the Day Spa in Ridgeland.


The group of us at the shower.


Leslie, Abby, me and Juliana....Room 211 Delta Gamma House...and Abner's every Sunday...I miss these girls!

We spent July 4th visiting MaMaw, Kelli, and Brianna in Columbus. It was a weekend full of good food and Hayden's first experience with fireworks...at least that he can remember. He was in awe and sat in my lap the whole time just as still as could be. He also was all about the watermelon at the fireworks show. I didn't get any good pictures of the fireworks, but they were great.

Give me some of that watermelon, Mom!


He was all about it!

We went for a trip to Jellystone water park in Pelahatchie. It was packed, but we still had a great time. I terrified Hayden. He was all about going down the slide when we got there. He and I climbed up, I let him slide down, and I went down behind him....only I didn't wait long enough and barreled right into him. It terrified him for a while, but he still loved it!

Gran sliding with Hayden


Lindsey taking him for a ride.

By the end of the trip, he was brave enough to try it again on his own.

CAUTION! This part includes material that is kind of gross. Right before his two year old birthday, Hayden started going backwards on his sleep. He wasn't really wanting to go down easily for naps or bedtime. Although I thought I would switch him over to his toddler bed when he turned two, I wasn't sure he was ready for it. Well, about a week before his birthday, I had to get ready for it. I had put Hayden down for his nap, and he was crying. I went in there to get on to him and tell him to sleep, but he continued crying. I decided to let him cry it out, and sure enough, he got quiet. He woke up a few hours later and was crying again.

I went in to his room to find quite a surprise. Hayden had taken his diaper off many times before and made messes with poo poo, but he had never managed to take off his shorts. Well, on this particular day, he had taken off both his shorts and his diaper. He had poo-pooed (sorry, gross...I know) and had rubbed it everywhere....on his crib, wall, dropped it out of the crib, you get the picture. He was like, "Mess! Clean it up." So, I began cleaning it up and preparing him for a bath. About that time, he bounded both legs over the crib for the first time and was like, "Woa!" Woa, indeed. He had poo-poo all over himself, taken off his shorts for the first time, and he was escaping his bed for the first time. I cleaned him up and put him back in his crib. Over it he went again, so Chris and I changed him over to a toddler bed that night.

We made a really big deal out of his new "big boy bed." He did great with it and went right to sleep. He did great for about a week until the newness wore off and he discovered he could play with his toys anytime he wanted. Well, after a week of that and getting spanked when he got out of bed (I know, we are mean parents), he started sleeping well again. I have been so proud of him, and he is so proud of himself.

He especially loves saying prayers before he goes to bed, but now, he wants to say them before his naps, too. Of course, this involves Chris or I saying his prayers for him, but he is so cute when he goes into his room, sits beside his bed, and puts his little hands together. He even said his own prayers today in the car...prayers to thank God for Kritiker (his cousin) and pizza and Kritiker and night and Kritiker and Moma and Kritiker and Dada and Kritiker and sandcastles and Kritiker...you get the idea...He loves Kristopher, his cousin. Kristopher is definitely duly prayed for by Hayden today.

Fast asleep his first night in his big boy bed


The only casualty of war that first night


He wanted to take a picture in his bed. This one is one of my favorites!


As he put each animal in the bed, he said “night, night” to them. Night, night elephant. Night, night teddy. Night, night froggy. It was so cute!

On July 22nd, we celebrated Hayden's two year old birthday! We celebrated on his birthday by taking him to Pump It Up in Flowood, MS. They have all kinds of inflatable jumpy things, and Hayden had a blast. Chris was able to take off work that morning to come, and Gran came, too. Chris and I also celebrated by taking Hayden to see his very first movie in the theatre the weekend before his birthday….Toy Story 3. Hayden is all about Buzz and Woody.

For some strange reason, I decided it would be a great idea to make Hayden’s birthday cake this year…complete with fondant decorations and homemade buttercream frosting. I really love making cheesecakes and cookies and thought I would enjoy doing a birthday cake, too. I also thought it would be cheaper than paying someone else to make the cake for me. Wrong on all thoughts! I definitely didn’t enjoy the process, and it definitely wasn’t cheaper after I ended up buying all the supplies I needed. I guess it would be cheaper if you made a lot of cakes over time, but this is going to be my first and last experience with fondant. The entire process was about 6 weeks including planning time, deciding what the cake would look like, making fondant, making the decorations, etc. Oh well! At least I tried it to see if I liked it. Next year, I will pay someone like $1,000 to make Hayden’s birthday cake for me. It is worth it not to go through the headache. Cheesecakes and cookies are definitely more my thing.

We celebrated Hayden’s actual birthday on July 24th (also our 6 year anniversary) at Gran’s house. We did a Madagascar themed party, because Hayden loves the movie, Madagascar. We grilled out hotdogs and hamburgers, opened presents, ate cake, and went for a swim. Brianna joined Hayden, Gran, Lindsey, and I for a swim in the pond. It was a fun day all around. Chris and I bought Hayden a battery powered John Deere tractor. Hayden is so proud of his tractor. He hasn’t gotten the complete hang of it, but he wants to ride it like every day.

Oh, and by the way, after the whole headache of the cake, I was actually pretty pleased with how it turned out. It wasn’t perfect by any means, but it tasted good and could have been much uglier for sure. Hayden definitely enjoyed the cake, and I guess that is all that matters. You’ll see the pictures of the cake. The cake was frosted in buttercream with fondant polka dots, a fondant #2, and fondant stars shooting out. I ordered the Madagascar characters from the internet.

I guess the last big event of the summer was a trip to the beach. We usually go to Orange Beach, but due to the oil situation this year, we decided to move the trip a little bit down the coast to Destin, FL. Hayden rode to the beach with my mom, because I was in my friend Abby’s wedding…and Chris and I left straight for the beach after the wedding. We got to Destin around midnight, and we found out the next morning that Chris’ grandmother had passed away. This is his paternal grandmother who lived in Gadsden. I was so sad to hear of her passing but was glad that she no longer had to suffer. She had been on dialysis for kidney failure for several months, had recently broken a hip and had surgery, and most recently found out that she had colon cancer. We were expecting her to live a little longer, but we definitely weren’t surprised to hear of her passing.

Due to her death, Chris and I cut our trip to the beach a little short…but we still made the most of the day and half we were there. Hayden did great on the beach and really loved the sand. He loved building sandcastles and even rode some waves on a boogie board. He had a little sinus infection while we were there, so he had to take breathing treatments. There is a really cute picture of him asleep during his treatment. My favorite part of the trip was going to Fudpucker’s for lunch the day we left. They had alligators that you could feed, and our family took a picture with an alligator. Hayden definitely didn’t want to get too close to the alligator.

Yes, that is a real alligator Gran is holding. And, yes....there is definitely tape around his mouth.

Chris and I left from Destin for the funeral in Gadsden, AL. God worked out all the details for us, though…of course! Chris had his suit since we came straight from Abby’s wedding. I had some black heels since I was an attendant in the wedding, and I even brought a black dress in case Chris and I wanted to go out to eat while we were in Destin for our anniversary. My mom was able to take Hayden back with her so that we didn’t put Hayden through tons more driving and a funeral. God is so good! His grandmother will definitely be missed but left a wonderful Christian legacy behind. I was so glad we went to visit earlier in the year so Hayden could see her. That was probably one of her last good days. God really is good!

So, you can see that the summer was full of fun and was very busy. Don’t forget to post a comment, and hopefully, this will motivate me to blog more often! Sorry for the long post!