Anyone like raccoons?

This is what happens to your garbage if you leave it out overnight!

Well.....

I'm not going to apologize for not writing sooner, I'm just going to write.  Bowen is 11 months old yet and is quickly approaching his first birthday.  I can't believe my baby boy is going to be one years old.  I think everyone feels this way when their child gets another year older.  It's a sad but great thing because I love watching my children grow, however I cherish the fact that they will never be this age again.

Bowen is crawling, or should I say scooting now, and he his trying his hardest to pull himself up.  He's almost there.  I love watching him learn new things and I am amazed at how he picks up on things so quickly.  Bowen's appetite is growing quite quickly and he eats a lot of things directly from the table now without having it pureed or mashed.  It's neat seeing him with his little two teeth try and chomp everything down.

Camryn will be 4 and a half soon and she is growing like a weed.  Her legs seem so long now and I can remember when she was Bo's age and she was just a little peanut.  We just had her weighed and measured at the doctor's office and she is at the 50th percentile for weight and height which is surprising because she was always in the 10th percentile as a little one.  It's beautiful to see her growing in to quite the little girl.  One of my favorite things is to listen to her pronounce difficult words.  Today she told her Daddy that "the blender is too loud making it hard for me to concentrate."  I wonder where she gets that from!!!!

What's Your Purpose?

This past couple of weeks I watched a video that really made me think.  It convicted me in a huge way and made me reconsider everything I do, everything I buy and the reasons I am doing these things.  Have you ever really thought about why you pick up a magazine or why you buy that coffee?  Have you ever thought about why you are here on Earth and what your purpose is?  I will attach a link to this video so you can have the same realization. 

After watching this video I got my new subscription to SELF magazine in the mail.  I started reading it and realized that nothing I was reading was actually true to my beliefs.  It is all about ME!  Really?  Is life all about ME?  The answer I was convicted with was a big NO!  No, life is not about me, it's not about making myself feel better and it's not about what I want.  My purpose is to serve God joyfully and a lot of the things I have been doing, purchasing or telling myself, do not align with that purpose.  It's clearly time for a change. A change for the better.  One that will help me fulfill my purpose and in turn, be a lot happier.

Rachel Barkey - Death is not Dying

Lost Video

I just found this video and had to share it!  Cutest thing ever!

Camryn Singin'

Happy 10 Months Bowen!

I am feeling pretty guilty for not posting anything about my little boy who just turned 10 months old on Feb. 1st.  So the update on this little gift from God is that he has absolutely NO teeth, even though every day I check to see if things have changed.  Well you can probably guess, they haven't.  Bo has however been teething since around 2 and a half months old.  Drool and all!!!!  Today, for the first time he crawled, or what you would call crawling because he's not on all fours by any means but he can move forward to get something he wants.  Yeah!!!!!!  I was so happy because he really has been working out every day now and what he is doing, whatever it is, is working now.  Bowen is 20 lbs. now and at 6 months old he was 18.4 lbs. so he really hasn't grown that much but he has definitely gotten taller.  I used to think that he was this really BIG kid but not so much anymore.

One thing about Bowen that is pretty cool is that he smiles. His beautiful smile lights up the room!  And those eyes, well they are HUGE!  Thankfully both my kids inherited their Daddy's eyes because mine are much smaller than that.  I use an eyelash curler and some heavy duty mascara every day in order to let them be seen.

Now since I haven't posted in a little while I decided to add a video of Bowen starting his crawling.  I love wtaching him. Anyways, enjoy and mind the commentary!!

Click here to see Bowen crawl!

There is a first time for everything

Tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m., three cleaning ladies will be coming to my house.  I have never had a cleaning lady of any kind, unless you count my mom, sister, or sister in-law (thanks guys!), who regularly straighten up, tidy, do dishes and save my regularly messy house from being SUPER messy.  It is definitely a lived in house, never, ever perfect, always with something or something's out of place.  I am not embarrassed by it, nor do I want to be spic-and-span, all the time, but I do however wish there was someone to come over and do the deep cleaning.  The window, window panes, bathrooms, floors, maybe the fridge, and the dusting.  I'm fine with doing dishes, laundry (I LOVE LAUNDRY) and straightening up the general toy mess that has become my house, it's just the stuff that we never get around to doing because we are always busy doing something else. 

Anyways, I have really gotten into "daily deals" such as Groupon, Living Social, etc.and I found an offer that got me two cleaning ladies for two hours for $60.00.  I think this is a good deal. My house will be cleaned, top to bottom, with no chemicals and I am all for no chemicals! About two and half years ago I was interested in Norwex products and I haven't looked back.  I haven't used any sort of chemical in my house since.  I love the products and am a huge advocate for cleaning this way.  A girlfriend of mine has become a consultant and I am super thankful.

I am not going to take any before pictures because they would be too embarrassing but I will update on how it goes tomorrow.  I'm so looking forward to it.

This is my new friend....

and I am in love!  My hubby bought me a treadmill on January 1st, 2011 and I am so thankful.  I have had a gym membership forever and I NEVER go.  I wish I could go, I do like the gym when I continually go but I am not interested in taking my kids to a teeny, tiny daycare area where they don't know anyone and I don't know anyone.  It makes me uncomfortable, let alone my kids. 

I am training for a 10K run on July 9th, 2011 for the Underwear Affair and I am super excited but I am not willing to go outside and run in the freezing cold, nor will I put my children in the stroller and push 75 lbs. around in order to get in shape.  I started doing that and only ended up with an extremely sore upper body and neck  I was in more pain than ever and it wasn't in the places that I wanted to be sore.  Hubby doesn't get home from work until 6:45 pm which is 15 minutes away from baby boy's bedtime and really close to the time we start putting our little girl to bed.  It has just never worked, so we made the big purchase. It's a good thing we don't spend any money on each other for Christmas.  We were going to buy a couple of bikes but that purchase has been delayed.  I feel blessed to have a husband who supports my goal to get in shape and understands where I am coming from when it comes to getting to the gym.

P.S.  If you are interested in helping reach my goal of raising $500 in order to run the 10 kilometers, please click the link above and head to my personal page!  Thank you!