Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I know this is a day early but I will be in New York the rest of the week so I wanted to go ahead and post!

My little Leprechaun!

This is Tanner's last first holiday before he turns 1! It's exciting but sad at the same time :) In his 11 month pictures we used a St. Patrick's day theme. I hope you all enjoy this fun holiday and don't forget to wear green!

A DECA Weekend

This past weekend I took 14 students to Norfolk for State DECA competition. I had students in a variety of competitive events as well as two students who were running for State Office. We had the majority of our competitive events in the Marriott and Sheraton hotels and then our general sessions and awards were held in Chrysler Hall. Virginia DECA is the largest state association with over 14,000 members so this is a very big conference!

Practicing for Presentations!

My students did very well! I had four students who were finalists in their category. This means they were at least in the top ten. Then I had two student winners in the Financial Literacy Promotion Plan. This means they will compete at the national level next month. Finally, BOTH of my state officer candidates won the election! I am so proud of both of them and looking forward to a busy year of helping them serve their term.

State Winners Sam and Eric in the
Financial Literacy Promotion Category

New State Officers Evan and Travis

Our school store also received Gold Level certification with national DECA and our chapter of DECA received the Fortune 500 award. I will be taking 6 students to the International Career Development Conference next month in Louisville, KY! Congratulations Kecoughtan DECA!

11 Months!

I can't believe that this is my last monthly post before Tanner turns 1! It's crazy how fast this year has gone by and how many changes our family has gone through. I remember thinking I would never survive this first year and here we are thriving and very happy. Things are still crazy busy with two kids 18 months apart but we love the way it turned out!

Tanner is about 21 pounds right now. He's eating three meals a day plus two bottles. He's still doing a few jars but he is also eating yogurt, cut up fruit and veggies and a few meats. I am looking forward to no more formula and no more baby food, but it's crazy to think I will never buy it again! He has five teeth and has handled teething pretty well so far. He's been a little cranky but nothing too bad so we've been very lucky. He only uses his binky in his bed and he goes to bed on his own every night. He's amazing! We just lay him down, give him his binky, turn his music on and shut the door and he never makes a sound. He sleeps about 12-13 hours at night and then about 3-4 hours total during the day. Some days he still takes a morning nap but he is starting to get away from that!

He really plays a lot now. Tanner and Izabel will play for a large part of the day in one of their bedrooms. They will run/crawl back and forth. Of course they have toys all over the house and they love to play in the kitchen too. Tanner can jump on the horse now but he can't quite get on by himself. He's still just crawling and cruising, no walking yet. I knew he wouldn't walk as early as Izzy did, but I don't think he's even close! I know he'll walk when he's ready but I was hoping he would do it by his birthday.

Happy 11 months handsome boy! We love you!

And GO MONARCHS!!!

What's Up???

It's been a little while since my last post so I thought I would give a few updates and post some random pictures. I have been crazy busy at work the last few weeks getting the kids ready for competition. I've also been busy with my grad school work and helping Noah with his school work. On top of all this we were anticipating a lot of layoffs at my job so everyone at school was holding their breath. The letters came out on Tuesday. I got a letter but mine said that I would move from being an 11 month employee to 10 months. The bright side - I still have a job and I have a longer summer! The down side - I lost more than a months pay for a total paycut of 9.09% which may still go down some more :( Maybe it was all this stress but I have been suffering from terrible migraines. It got really bad on Monday and I didn't sleep at all from Monday-Thursday. Noah took me to the ER on Thursday and they gave me some IV meds and fluids and sent me home with a better prescription. I am finally feeling better!

Noah got a semi-promotion at work. He is now opening the warehouse in the mornings. He goes in at his regular time (4 am) and works until 2 or 3 on a normal day. I'm not entirely sure what he does all day but I know he likes it better than being on the truck and it comes with a small pay raise and a monthly bonus. It doesn't come close to making up the difference in my pay but it is something! What is going to help is getting approved for the post 9/11 GI bill from the VA. Noah will get complete tuition for three years, a stipend for textbooks, and monthly housing allowance. This will be especially helpful now and we are very thankful for it and also for Noah going back to school to better himself and our family!

The kids are doing great. For all intensive purposes Izabel is potty trained. She wears underwear all day whether we are at home or not. She still wears a diaper for nap and bed but we'll get there eventually. She's so funny because as soon as she uses the potty she jumps up and says "I get ticker and umy bear yay!" I love it! She's very sweet and loving but of course she is two and we are reminded of that frequently. Tanner's been a little cranky lately but I figure it's just teeth. He had his first real experience jumping the other day and he loved it! I have a feeling we'll be spending a lot of days at the jump place this summer!

Noah is camping for the weekend so me and the kids are hanging out at home. We hope everyone has a great weekend!

He's almost big enough to jump on the horse by himself

Izabel and Drew

Noah was throwing her and she LOVED it

Daddy's Boy

10 Month Pics...Finally!

Some months I am able to get the pictures done right on the monthly birthday and some months I run a little behind. This was obviously one of those months :) Don't worry though because I already made the appointments for the last two monthly picture sessions so those will be right on time!

This month we got tons of cute shots of our little man. Enjoy a few of my favorites and then click here to see the rest. There are way too many to post here so make sure you check them all out!

Our Future Quarterback!

Our Little Man!

Weekend Updates and Birthday Celebrations

This past weekend went really well but way too quickly! Noah's birthday was Monday so he got to sleep in both days. He took full advantage of this by sleeping until 12:30! Must be nice :) Saturday I got up and took the kids to the Jungle Gym for a playdate. It was snowing pretty hard when we left the house but nothing stuck. We got there early so we ran over to babies r us to pick up some diapers and wipes. Tanner was asleep so I put him in his stroller and let Izabel walk. Usually she is pretty good about holding on to the stroller and "helping" me push but this time she wanted to push all by herself. Of course she couldn't manuver around the corners without my help and she got very mad when I tried to turn the stroller. She ended up throwing herself on the floor doing a full-fledged two year old temper tantrum. I walked away and told her we were leaving so she got up and followed us almost to the check out line before she turned around and bolted the other way. I looked at the cashier, pushed the stroller to the register and went after Izabel. It took me a few minutes to finally get her because she of course thought it was a fun little game. I got back and paid for everything and got them out to the car. It's so hard to be out with them by myself because if she runs off I have to leave him to go get her!

After the store we still went to the jungle gym for some jumping time. I needed to spend some time with the other mom's and Izabel needed to run off some energy. She got a pretty good lecture before we got there though! She jumped for a while and I even let Tanner crawl around in one of them until a bunch of bigger kids came in. We had some lunch and then headed home.

Izabel was exhausted and hadn't had her nap so we left her at home and went to the ODU game. It was a sold out game vs George Mason (who was in first place). We won, VCU and Northeastern lost putting us in a tie for first place! It was a great day :)

After the game I met up with Humaira and some of her friends for dinner and some drinks. It was nice to sit and chat for a little while without chasing the kids around. When I came home Noah headed to a friends house for a party. He ended up spending the night because he had been drinking too much to drive.

Sunday morning Noah came home and went back to bed. I was doing some homework before church and realized I had missed a deadline for a paper! Needless to say we missed church so I could do the assignment and get it in as soon as possible. After I was done Humaira came over to spend some time with the kids. I woke Noah up so he could take his midterm for psychology while we were out of the house. We went to lunch, did some shopping, and then went to Skinny Dip for a treat before coming home. We had Outback to go for our Valentine's dinner and spent the evening writing a paper for Noah's business class. So romantic!

Monday was Noah's actual birthday but we both had to work. My school played their rival for the final basketball game of the season. Noah came over after work to watch the very heated and intense game. Since we couldn't celebrate on his actual birthday we had a birthday dinner last night. Izabel helped me make and decorate a cake and Auntie came over since it was her birthday. We had chicken cutlets, mashed potatoes and corn and then some yummy birthday cake. Once the kids went to bed Noah got to go to poker (first time this year!). It was a great night and we all had a nice time!

Izabel helped me make and decorate the cake
I did the words and she did all of the balloons!

Ms. Laurie brought over a cake for Auntie too

Auntie's cake came from here...yummy!

Izabel loves eating cake Tanner was sad I wouldn't give him any cake :(He got over it :)
Izabel practicing with a big cup!

Orlando with DECA

Last Wednesday-Sunday Noah and I took 7 students plus the school athletic director to Orlando for the DECA Sports and Entertainment Marketing Conference. Since I am teaching the sports class next year this was a great introduction for me and a few of my students. We arrived early Wednesday morning and used the Disney transportation to the Disney All-Star Sports Resort. After settling in and having some time to relax we went to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping. Thursday and Friday we started our days off with DECA presentations from marketing professionals in the sports and entertainment fields. The speakers were from Universal Studios, Orlando Magic basketball, Tampa Bay Buccaneers football and several local agencies. The presentations went to about lunch time both days but they were pretty interesting and we learned a lot. After the presentations we had lunch and enjoyed the two Universal parks.

Head to head with their favorite teams!

Margaritaville was so much funBalloon hats - twisted for Noah and heart for me
Our DECA group in front of the Universal globeDECA with super herosKelsie with Betty Boop
Thursday night we saw the Blue Man Group and they were fantastic! Friday night we saw the Orlando Magic lose to the Washington Wizards. I am not ashamed to say I was happy!

Kisses from a blue man :0
Noah and one of the blue men
Noah and Lee at the game
Orlando Magic vs. Washington Wizards
Saturday we slept in a little and then spent the day at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The new attraction there is the American Idol Experience. We watched the final show and voted on the winner. The guy who won got a golden ticket to go to any real audition and skip the line! I had a couple of students who wanted to audition but we were too late so hopefully next year :) After the park we took the bus over to downtown disney again to eat at Rainforest Cafe. It was a late dinner but very good!

Me and Noah in front of the Rockin Rollercoaster
The kids at American Idol

Sunday morning we checked out and headed to the airport to get home just in time for the Super Bowl, Go Saints! It was a great trip but completely exhausting! We were happy to get home and so excited to get back to our babies!