Girls Weekend Getaway

We have a very busy fall coming up with a few trips planned.  The first is a trip I've been planning for myself and a few of my closest girlfriends. At the end of October we are going to spend a weekend in Beavers Bend, Oklahoma at a beautiful seven person cabin with a wrap around deck.  All of us are looking forward to a weekend with out babies and kids.  There will be no filling up sippy cups...just wine cups.  We may do a little horse back riding, hopefully a little hiking and a lot of relaxing in the hot tub. I know all of us are really looking forward to a little down time even if is for just a few nights.  I've never done a girls trip before...I hope we make it an annual or bi-annual event. This will be the first time I've left Drew overnight.  It will be a good trial run for when we leave for Vegas for my Thirty Plus One Birthday Party.  Here's a link to the cabin we are staying in.

I better run because today is early release day for Rockwall ISD and I'm keeping a bunch of girls for a few of my friends.  It's going to be a little nutty around her this afternoon.  At least MC will be at school  until 2:30.

The post where I talk about breastfeeding

Hard to believe that it's getting close to time to wean Drew from nursing.  We have been at it for about ten months and I plan to introduce whole milk next month.  I'm hoping the weaning process goes smoothly. I know I'm going to miss nursing him for many reasons, but especially for the convenience factor.  Breastfeeding was so easy this time around.  With Mason the first eight weeks were pretty dicey. I wanted to give up everyday, but pushed through. With Drew, it just clicked right away for both of us.  Don't get me wrong it was still gut wrenching pain every time he latched on for about a week or so, but then it went away.  I still can't believe we are at this point. It really seems like just the other day I was in his room with him snug in my belly, organizing.  Hanging up little tiny onesies, putting toys on shelves in his closet that he wouldn't be able to play with for quite a while...And  now all of those tiny onsies have been packed away...some of the toys too.  Drew's first year has flown by at lighting speed.  I still can't believe we are close to celebrating his first birthday.  When "they"say with the second baby everything goes so quickly...you better believe it.  I'm trying to soak in every minute of this baby stage because who knows what the future holds. The way his hair smells when I gently sway back and forth before laying him down, the way his little hand moves when he signs "milk", the way he growls when you ask him what the lion says, the way he lights up when he sees me walk into a room, the way he says bubba when he sees Mason.  I could go on and on.  I hope he slows down a little bit, but as I look at his older brother who is now four...I'm well aware that he won't.

Mason's First Day of Pre-K

Mason started Pre-K this morning.  This is his third year of preschool. So, needless to say this morning was rather anticlimactic. Ms. Becky and Ms. Lori seem super and I'm looking forward to how his day went.  Seems like it was just yesterday that I dropped him off at Mother's Day Out for the first time and came home and wrote this post. My boy...he's a growing up and time really seems to be a marching on. He had a great day and his teachers just raved about his bigger the life personality.  The especially pointed out how kind he was to his friends...which was my biggest worry about going back to school because lately he's been a wee bit aggressive.  He stayed the whole day and did well during rest time, but the major downside to him staying all day was the hot mess that he was when he came home.  When Mason gets tired he amps up to the tenth power.

And without further ado here's MC's First Day of Pre-K pictures

Insanity at its best

I told Scott that i would be drinking everyday this week 

So far I have followed through. Wish I could stay as committed to eating well and working out.

 

Each night this week Scott and I have ended the night with a little cocktail consisting of Tito's vodka and Simply Limeade. Refreshing and takes just enough of the edge off so that you're willing to start the craziness all over the next day. See we're coming down to the wire on Operation Remodel the Flooded House. The painters have been dragging some serious ass with the paint piece. And if it wasn't for my sweet animal loving husband who decided to go check on our cats and make sure the fumes didn't kill them we might not have the little friends anymore. The painters taped plastic sheets ( I have no idea what the technical name is...nor do I care) where all the doors go and those bleep bleeps taped the cats shut in there. I kid you not. Griff just thought he had it bad at doggy boot camp. We're in the home stretch now and I have no more clean clothes or panties because I got clothes for everybody, but Old' Mom here.

 

And Mason eats like crap these days.

 

He is usually a really good eater, but lately there's all kinds of bargaining going on.

 

And i'm soooo over it.

 

Drew Beans is officially crawling. It so cute.

 

It's cute because he's not very fast yet.

 

I'm sure the cuteness will ware off soon...like when he's crawling up my leg while I try to fix dinner in my new fancy to me kitchen!

 

For the most part everything is great and these are great problems to have and I'm so thankful...

 

 

Blah blah blah

 

We're just ready to be home...our home.

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My two cents worth on Baby Food

In some ways I'm more laid back with Drew and in others I'm far more up tight.  I thought I might be a little more up tight in regards to starting solids because Mason isn't the best eater and I wanted to make sure I didn't make the same "mistakes" with Drew.  We started Mason on solids around 4ish months.  He was never really into it.  We quickly switched to table food for the most part with a jar of sweet potatoes here in there.  With Drew we waited until the customary 6 months starting with oatmeal followed be jar food a few weeks later.  I had high hopes of making all of his food, but quickly came back to reality.  Jar food does get quite expensive and I know you can save dollar bills by making it, but Scott felt that it was more important to have his wife calm and collected at the end of the day so store bought jars  here we come.  Now, I've bought all kinds of brands.  With Mason Earth's Best was what we bought the most of because lets face it organic is the best for the first kid.  We bought organic milk, organic baby food and organic snacks...looking back I crack up. I think the only thing Ol' Drew has had organic is his oatmeal...poor neglected second child. :(

Out of all the food I've tried this has been mine and Drew's favorite.

Beech Nut

I noticed my sister feeding Baby Owie a jar while we were out to eat a few weeks ago.  I think it was broccoli and carrots or something like that and I noticed how it actually smelled like something I would eat.  It almost smelled like the Broccoli and Cheese soup at Chili's...I kid you not. Side note...I love how I can learn new baby/toddler things from my younger sister.  She's great at finding good finds for the babies.  I call her often and ask her "now when are the suppose to do this".  It's been a while since I've been in the baby phase and for her it wasn't that long ago since Landon was almost 2 when she had Owie. Back to the reason of my post.  With Mason I would have never bought Beech Nut...for some reason I had in my mind that it was the reject of baby foods.  I've only found the Beech Nut brand at Walmart.  Their food is very inexpensive and Drew's a big fan. Actually, Drew's a big fan of anything food related...that's a whole other post.  Boy's a hot mess when it's meal time...can't shovel it in fast enough.

So there you have it, my two cents worth on baby food. 

Lately I've felt guilty about not playing with Mason very much and instead sticking him in front of the tv or on his Nintendo DS. It was already hard to split my time between two shorties, but now with a remodel going on and splitting our time between two houses I barely have time to go to the bathroom. Life slowed down for a little bit yesterday and Mase and I played Train and Dinosaurs. He's a such a fun age and his little imagination is just running wild. I took a few pictures of us playing because I hardly have any pics of me in front of the camera with my kids. 

 

Letting Go

It's hard for me to let go of friendships.  Sometimes you feel like you're compatible with a person to find out that maybe that was the case for the other person.  I'm not sure if I did something to offend them or if after getting to know me they just decided I wasn't their cup of tea.  This is hard for me to accept.  Sometime you just have to let go and move on and not dwell on what you could have done differently.

What I'm loving right now

Here's a few things that I'm loving at the moment.

Make Up For Ever HD.  This stuff is incredible. When it comes to foundation I usually always splurge and by the good stuff.  For several years now I've used Mac's Studio Fix, but recently decided to try this stuff.  To say I love it would be an understatement.  The first time I wore it Mr. CoccaNuts asked me what I did differently with my make up and that it was working for me.

I recently bought All baby instead of Dreft.  I've really never been that head over heels over Dreft and it's price tag.  All baby gets the stains out and smell so good.

This B12 is such a nice little all natural energy boost to start your day. I drink it with a little unsweetened cranberry, apple cider vinegar and a lime.  Email me if you want the exact recipe.

The best cream I've had hands down.

When it comes to baby monitors I would like to consider myself the expert..LOL. I think we've gone through five. This is the newest one Baby Touch Digital Video Monitor by Summer Infant.  Such a great monitor.  We love the Talk-back feature allowing parents to talk to baby while in the nursery. This is handy when Mason climbs in the crib with Drew and starts picking him up like he's a baby doll.

Still one of my favorite slings.  HotSling.  I've tried out several and this is still one of my favorites.  I especially love how  you can use it a all the different stages of the baby's first year. LOVE!

Well, I'm SOOOOORRRRRY

This little phrase is Mason's response to anything that he gets in trouble for.  For some reason he feels that by saying that he's guaranteed he will not get into trouble. Yesterday, while riding in the car he started throwing things at his brother and calling him poop po face and other words that only little boys can come up with.  I today him that when we get home he will be receiving a spanking.  He then proceeded to tell me that when I stopped the car that he was going to jump out of the car and run away from me as fast as he could so I couldn't catch him. Well...by the time we stopped the car he forgot about the spanking that I promised.  He walked into the house and then as soon as the door shut I delivered the spanking that I promised...sneaky mommy.

Disclaimers: The spanking was on his bottom and he really wasn't even fazed by it.  The kid is tough as nails y'all. I realize spanking isn't for everyone, but here in the CoccaNuts house it's put into action every once in a while.

Just another day

So tired this morning. All of the decisions that have to be made about the house gives me tired head.  To glaze the walls or not to glaze the walls??? And who knew that glaze walls for three rooms would cost $1200...sheesh! Good news is that it's all coming together quickly.  We should be back in our home sweet home by August 18th!  We stayed there a couple of nights ago and even though we don't have a kitchen, it was soooo nice to be home.  I loved that both of our boys were fast asleep in the own beds. The guest house that we're staying in is great, but there's just no place like home.  I'm especially looking forward to be back in our house just in time for fall!  I can already picture it: windows open, football on the tv, apple crisp candle on the coffee table and a fall beer in my hand! Fall is my favorite season of all. 

We saw Griffin on Monday and he seems to be doing really well.  He was super excited to see us and really over the moon when he saw Mason. He still has about four weeks left in his BOW WOW BOOT CAMP.

A couple of days ago I received news that one of my good friends from grade school passed away.  She was thirty years old, married with three adorable boys.  Her death was very sudden and unexpected. One of her boys will start kinder in a few short weeks without his mommy and one of her boys is so young that he won't even remember her.  My heart aches for her husband and sweet boys.

Looking forward to the weekend!

We are so looking forward this weekend. Lots going on though.

I have to get Mase packed up because he's going to weekend with his Nonny and Papa's for the weekend.

The Mr. And I are celebrating seven years as Mr. and Mrs. CoccaNuts on Saturday. We'll also be celebrating our first outing with just the two of us since Drew was born. He's 8 months old y'all! To say we are looking forward to it would be quiet the understatement, but I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about leaving Drew for the first time. I'll put him to bed before the sitter gets here, but still I'm nervous. Our anniversary present to each othe is this new bed.

Wednesday we met my sister and her boys for a little fun at a train park. The big boys ran off some energy and the babies sat in the shade thinking about the day that they'll be able to toddle after them. It was a fu day and I love to watch Mase and Landon play. Afterwards went into Victoria's Secret because I need a few new pairs of undies. The boys were running around that place like wild men. Mason told me sister that he thought this store was precious! He also told me that girls don't work and I told him that someday you're going to make a girl very happy!

I have so much more to say, but I have to get a few things accomplished before Drew's nap and Mason is begging me to play bingo with him and let's face it one day it will be me begging him to play.

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Breakfast with a view

Good morning y'all! Lots going on around here. I picked out cabinets for our kitchen and master bathroom. Scott's chatting with General Contractor to the right of me and Scott just called me Jennifer so it's getting serious over here. LOL!

This Is the style, but we haven't picked out stain yet and we're putting glass inserts in a few of them and building a wine rack above the refrigerator.

There's a dumpster in my drive way. Hope my neighbors aren't too pissed about that.

this

This is what my down stairs currently looks like. The kitty cats are a little freaked out. Poor things.

#2 eating his breakfast with a few!

 

 

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Friday recap

I'm constantly writing blog post in my head and then when I actually have time to sit down and blog...I got nothing.

This little cutie and I took a few naps together.  I love that he still holds his giraffe love when he sleeps.  I went out an bought him that about an hour after I found our I was pregnant with him.

Swim lessons happened.  He did great and is looking forward to his next lesson.

We took a walk one evening after I put Drew down for the night.  I love when I able to have 1:1 time with him.

This guy is getting more personality by the minute.  He's a little bit more high mainatce the Mason if you can believe that. He's happy as long as I'm in arms reach.

My favorite part of the day is in the morning watching these two play while I sip on a cup of coffee.

Clean baby smell...what's not to love.

His eyes are still soooo blue. Maybe they'll stay.

These are the new floors we picked.  Next up...cabinets. 

One of my favorite blogger wrote the a great post this week.  See it here

A birthday party at Shenaniganz

I wanted to write a quick review on Shenaniganz in Rockwall. We recently had Mason's fourth birthday party there. We selected the bounce house section. It was very clean and you didn't feel like you had to douse your children in hand sanitizer when you left. We were assigned to staff members that handled ever last detail of the party. The even wrote down the gifts that Mason received and who the gift was from. The party ran so smoothly and I never had to lift a finger the entire time. It was so nice to actually enjoy the party and not be caught up with all the the little things. Mason had a blast and has already requested Shenaniganz for his next party. The only down fall is that it's a wee bit on the pricy side. The package is for 8 children and that includes the birthday child so any children over that is an additional $20...we had a total of 14...ouch! All in all I highly recommend Shenaniganz for a birthday party!!!!

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Good news and bad news

Yesterday I over heard this little conversation:

Mason: Dad, I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?

Scott: good news.

Mason: the good news is that mommy's home and the bad news is that I have a boo boo right here.

Such a funny little shortie.

 

I really do have good news...the remodel on our house is starting tomorrow!!!! They'll begin ripping up the old hardwood floors tomorrow. I think that'll take a couple of days. In the meantime we'll be look at flooring and cabinet samples. I think we've settled on a 5 inch hand scraped for the new floors, but I have no idea on the cabinets. We hired a decorator to help us with some of theses decisions.

Mason had his swim evaluation yesterday and really enjoyed it. I've heard nothing put great things about the Rockwall Aquatic Center and got to experience it first hand. Their customer service is impeccable. Mason will be going every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.

I just got off of the phone with the dog trainer that has Griffin. He says he's doing really well, but I doubt he would tell if he wasn't. He did say that Griff is quite the barker and that he would be fixing that for sure. Thank you Jesus...that's worth the money right there. I'm probably having the hardest time with him being gone because he's been attached to my hip since the day we brought him home. Can't wait to go visit him in a couple weeks!!!

Must cut this short...the teething baby is up from his nap.

 

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A glimpse into our morning

I started this morning by Mason climbing in my bed begging me to play I SPY on his Nintendo DS, so what's a mama to do...play I spy of course. Next up Drew is ready for his breakfast, but mommy needs her coffee. Mason's really great about entertaining Lil Bro while I get the coffee going. Side note...there's really not anything better then hearing sibling giggles come from the other room. After Drew nurses we usually play on the floor for a bit before getting the boys breakfast.

 

 

And Drew likes to stick his hand in his mouth after bite of his oatmeal. I think it may have something to with another round of teething. I gave him some orajel teething tablets this morning and he seemed much less grumpy.

 

Mason has his swim evaluation at the Rockwall Aquatic Center this afternoon and then he will start swim lesson 2-3 times a week. There's been several children drown this summer in the DFW area so Scott and I decide not to mess around and get him enrolled. He's not a fan of going under water so it should be interesting. Here's a few pictures of the place we're staying for the next few months. I really nice and I kind of feel like I'm on a little mini vacay.

Sorry for the typos...still getting use to blogging on my IPAD.

 

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I'm Back!!!!

Hey y'all here goes my attempt at blogging again. Lots going on in the CoccaNuts land. For starters our house flooded a couple of weeks ago and now we have completely moved out of our house and into a friend's guest house. It's nice and cozy and has made me realize that house is just a house and home is where ever I am with my family. The boys have adjusted so well and Drew will sleep where ever with out any problems.

We just celebrated Mason's fourth birthday this past Saturday. We had such a great time with a ton of our friends. Hard to believe my first born is four...time marches on. The Mr. and I just recently decided to put Mason in preschool three days a week versus his two days that he's been doing the last couple of years. This makes me sad for a few reasons I love having him home and he's growing up too fast as it is, but also because most of my friends are on a two days a week schedule so there will be less time for us to get together. I have to put my selfishness aside because he's pumped about his additional day at school.

 

Drew Beans is a week or so away from 8 months. Ack...we're getting much closer to being a year old. We are still nursing and plan on weaning around 12 months. He's very much attached to his paci which is still kind of strange because Mason wanted nothing to do with a pacifier. I'm a slave to the damn pacifier, but the damn thing has been such a lifesaver at times though. Moving on...he loves to eat, especially Tex Mex. Are we surprised??? Not so much...it's a staple at the CoccaNut house. Drew sits up, says dada and babbles, but that's about it. Not crawling, but that's really fine by me. ;)

 

I recently joined WeightWatchers online. I'm determined to loose this weight. Whoever said oh you can eat whatever you want because you breast feeding FREAKING LIED! My body is funny...I never gain much wait while pregnant and usually drop about 30 pounds right after giving birth, but about a month later I start packing on the pounds. It very well may be very difficult for me to get back to my happy size until I stopped nursing, but I'm really going to try!

That's all for now. Time to go run a ton of errands and get back to my little shorties!

 

 

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February Photo Challenge (Day 2)

Take a picture of WORDS. I ran across this article in my Real Simple magazine and it gave me a pretty big chuckle.

February Photo Challenge (Day 1)

Take a picture of your view.
Drew in the Moby. I looked down and this is what I saw. Sooo sweet!

Hangin in the Hospital

We had lots of family and friends stop by to get a peek and Baby Drew.  Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of everyone...BOO! We had a nice stay at the Hospital (Presby Dallas...LOVE) and took advantage of the nursery so that we could go home rested...something we didn't do with Mason (such a Rookie).

The Moment Y'all Met

Isn't it every Mother's dream for their babies to met each other?!?!  You have this idea in your head of that perfect moment and for me it was just that!  Mason instantly fell in love with his new baby brother.  I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking. 

Sometimes beings a

brother is even

 better then

being a superhero

~marc brown

The Birth of You, Baby Drew

On Wednesday evening I started having contractions every 8-10 minutes for about 2 hours.  We already knew that I was dilated to a 4 and 50% effaced from my last OB appt. so we started to get a little anxious and called the on call Doc.  It was about 10:00pm.  Doctor told us to go ahead and come in.  Once at the hospital I was admitted and thought you were on your way.  No such luck...I didn't make any progress over night. So, that morning my Doctor made her way to my room and gave us a few options, go home and wait it out or she could break my bag of water and make things happen.  We decided to go home and wait it out. Something told me that I would be back very soon so I might as well go home and get all my ducks in order.  Once home I took an Ambien that my doctor had given me slept.  We woke up around 3:00 in the afternoon and ran a few errands all while still contacting every 8-10 minutes. I was quite a sight to see.  The folks and Home Goods and Home Depot probably thought I was nuts.  We had a nice dinner at Campisi's and then went home for the night.  At about 10:30pm that night I told Scott I was going to try and get some sleep because the contractions were getting more intense, but still 10 minutes apart. I never really went to sleep because I was so uncomfortable.  Once Scott got in bed we just laid there timing contractions and breathing through them. At this point they were about 13 minutes apart. Finally, I decided I need to get up and walk around...it was about 12:00 AM.  Once I started walking around my contractions were about 2-4 minutes apart...OH GAWD we have to get to the hospital which is 30 minutes away because I am not having the baby in my car on LBJ!  Scott started getting dressed and everything ready to go and I just wanted some relief so I hopped in the bath.  Scott walked by and said "get out...we have to go...you are not having this baby at home!"  For the most part we were very calm the entire time.  Mason was at my mom and dad's house because I knew you were coming with in the day.  Once in the car the contractions were still coming ever 2 minutes so I decided we need to say the Rosary to get our mind off of them.  We finished the Rosary as we pulled into the Labor and Delivery parking lot...talk about perfect timing. I signed a few papers as I'm breathing through these earth shatter, mind blowing...somebody get me my DAMN EPIDURAL contractions and then I was walked back to L&D Triage.  They were getting ready to check me and see how far I was dilated and I told the nurse that she wasn't allowed to tell me I was crowing or that I was still only dilated to a 4!  Good news...I was almost at a 6....YAY...time to have a BABY Y'ALL! While walking to my room with just a sheet wrapped around me and my bare ass hanging out in all it's glory, I had to stop and breath through another contraction.  This is the point when tears started running down my eyes...I think because I new there was an end in site and I new very soon I would be holding you for the first time. 

The epidural was waiting on me when I got into the room. Once administered it was smooth sailing. It was about 1:00 in the morning and I was ready to sleep. We called my mom and told her it would be a while and we would call her in a bit when I was further along. We turned out all the lights and I drifted off to sleep...I wanted to rest before the pushing began. Before I new it they were back and I was dilated to and 8. Scott called my mom and told her she need to get here because I was progressing very quickly now. I'm not sure what time it is at this point, but my OB checked me and told me it was time to start pushing. My mom and grandma walked in right in time to see me start pushing. I think I pushed about 10 or 15 minutes at the most and you enter the world at 5:50 am on November 18th 2012. You immediately tested out those lungs of yours, started crying and peeing! All 7 pounds 7 ounces and 19 3/4 inches of you were healthy as can be. It was love at first sight part Deaux!

Fall is here,

hear the yell

back to school,ring the bell

brand new shoes,walking blues

climb the fence,books and pens

I can tell that we're going to be friends

Walk with me,Suzy Lee

through the park and by the tree

we will rest upon the ground

and look at all the bugs we found

then safely walk to school

without a sound

Well here we are,no one else

we walked to school all by ourselves

there's dirt on our uniforms

from chasing all the ants and worms

we clean up and now its time to learn

Numbers,letters,learn to spell

nouns,and books,and show and tell

at playtime we will throw the ball

back to class,through the hall

teacher marks our height

against the wall

And we don't notice any time pass

we don't notice anything

we sit side by side in every class

teacher thinks that I sound funny

but she likes the way you sing

Tonight I'll dream while I'm in bed

when silly thoughts go through my head

about the bugs and alphbet

and when I wake tommorow I'll bet

that you and I will walk together again

cause I can tell that we're going to be friends