Pics of the Kids

Today was picture day for the kids at school, so I figured I would try to get a few pics of them together before we left this morning.

Wedding Prep....Continued

Here are the AFTER pictures from Tatum's night of sponge rollers. Her hair didn't turn out as GREAT and FANTASTIC as I remember my hair turning out back in the day...lol


Tatum was so funny, she couldn't believe how her hair looked this morning and I don't think she really understood why her hair was so curly.

I didn't have much time to play with it this morning, so I just pulled it up in a ponytail and it looked pretty cute. Had I put more time into it(and actually put some time into pulling it up) this may have looked cuter and it still may be an option for the wedding.

Does anyone have any other ideas of how I can fix Tatum's hair for my bro's wedding? I am not good at this kind of thing.

Tatum got tired of me taking pics....

Wedding Preparation

My brother, Matt, is getting married in a few weeks and Tatum and Mateo are in the wedding. In preparation for the wedding, I am trying to figure out what I am going to do with Tatum's hair. She was 'lucky' enough to inherit my straight, stringy, limp hair. So, I bought some sponge curlers at Walgreens yesterday and decided to give them a try tonight after she got out of the bath. I was a little shocked that she sat still long enough for me to put them all in her hair, but she did great. Here are a few pics after I got done putting them all in....

I bought this thing to put over the rollers to hopefully keep Tatum's hands out of her hair.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.....hopefully LOTS of curls. I will take some pics in the morning and post them when I can.

Not to be left out, we tried Mateo's tuxedo on him yesterday. Here is a sneak peak of him sporting his tux. He is teething so bad right now and his runny nose is horrible, but he still managed to give us a few smiles.

And if Mateo's originial Halloween doesn't work out (I think I bought it WAY too big), then we now have a Plan B....what do you think?

Meeting People that Make a Difference

I just got in last night from another business trip. My business trips are always fun because I get to see the people I went through training with and hang out with people on my team. Another reason I love our meetings is because I know we can always expect to hear some amazing speakers. This time we got a visit from....

...if you can't tell from the horrible picture from my cheap camera, that is Emmitt Smith! I know he was an amazing football player for the Dallas Cowboys and I respect that, but after hearing him talk, he gained bonus points. He is such a humble person and seemed so down to earth.

On the left is our VP of Sales for the Southeast Area. He never seems to disappoint with the speakers he brings in. Frank asked Emmitt several questions and then Emmitt took questions from the audience. He was so funny and nothing was off limits.

I must admit that sitting at the front of the group is not always my favorite place for meetings, but as a team, that is where we always end up. I am thankful now that we were sitting 3rd row because my poor camera that I take on my work trips might not have been any good if not. I know these pics are not the best, but it is the best I could get.

Emmitt Smith (#22) said several things that were note worthy, so here they are...

-If you don't know, Emmitt Smith went from rags to riches...literally. When asked how he did it he replied that he always had a "Bigger vision than the current situation."

-"The day you become satisfied is the day you stop growing."

-Set goals AND WRITE THEM DOWN!

-Discipline - He said when he was playing for the Dallas Cowboys he always strived to be the best. He said he would get up at 5am and workout. That's fine, anyone can do that. BUT he also said he went to bed every night by 9pm. He said THAT was the hard part and what his competition didn't want to do.

-His level of training prepared him to take on greater challenges to get to the next level. He talked about the different training he would do. At one point, he would practice with the team and then stay after and push a golf cart (with someone sitting in it) back and forth from end zone to end zone.

-Integrity-Emmitt said it was always an important thing to his mother that he finish his college degree even though he had already 'made it big.' He told his mom he WOULD finish his schooling, and that is what he did.

-Someone in the audience asked him how he would raise his kids to not take their lifestyle for granted since he came from nothing. He said he has told them all that when they turn 18 they will have to make their OWN money. He was laughing because one of his daughters (I think he said she was 12) has been telling her friends that "her daddy is going to make her get a job and make her own money when she turns 18!!

In the pic below, there are many important people in this pic. Frank, VP of Sales, Emmitt Smith, Andy, Frank's boss, and Jurek, Pres of my company.

Another person I got to see that is making a difference is Tanna. Iknew she lived in the Dallas area and I would be there for meetings, so we communicated through emails and decided to meet up at the airport. We only got to hang out for about 30 minutes, but it was so worth it.

Tanna is the one that started The Challenge that I have been a part of since back in April. She was a huge answer to prayers at the perfect time when I needed to make some changes in my life. Here we are at the airport....(I stole her pic)

Since April 20th (my birthday), I have lost 22 pounds and MANY inches. We are now in the 3rd challenge and while the pounds aren't falling as quickly, the inches are.

Below is a picture I took a few weeks ago. The pants I have on in the picture are some that I bought the week of my birthday to wear when I returned to work from maternity leave. They actually fit me perfectly when I first went back to work.

It is fun to look at this picture and see the progress that I have made so far. I am still hoping to see more progress in the future.

This and That....

I haven't blogged much recently because it doesn't seem like much has been going on. This past Thursday, Tatum got sent home from school because she was running a fever. Her teachers told me that it was nap time and they told all the kids to go to their cubby and get their blankets. As they were getting all the kids down, they couldn't find Tatum. They looked around the room and found her at her cubby, bent over, head propped up on her cubby, asleep! We took her to the dr later that afternoon and she tested negative for the flu, but we got Tamiflu for her "just in case".

Later in the evening, she fell asleep on Antonio and he put her in bed. A few minutes later she started crying and he went to check on her. Apparently he picked her up and that's when I heard it....she started vomitting. It was all over Antonio, Amigo bear, and the floor. There was a trail leading from Tatum's room, across the hall and into the bathroom. Antonio gave Tatum a bath while I tried to clean it all up. I didn't do too well, but managed to get it cleaned up without getting sick.

Tatum hasn't really been attached lately to anything. She still has her Amigo bears and Baby Luke, but nothing HAS to travel with her or anything. However, when we got to the dr's offic on Thursday afternoon, all she wanted was her Amigo Bear!!! She whined and whined and asked for him. We had to find him as soon as we got home and she has carried him around since Thursday. I am VERY thankful we have 2 because when she got sick on one, we just gave the other one to her and threw the dirty one in the washing machine for a much needed bath.

Anyway, Tatum woke up Friday with fever, but did not get sick all day. Antonio AND I both stayed home, but I took Matoe to school. Tatum slept alot during the day and just lounged around the house.

Today we hung around the house again. The dr. told us not to go out all weekend even if we thought she was feeling better because she still might be contageous. I got out to run some errands, but other than that, we stayed in and chilled out. I got to do some deep cleaning in a few rooms of the house and hope to get some more done tomorrow.

We signed Tatum up to play soccer with our YMCA last week. Her first game will be next Saturday, so this past week, I went to get her some soccer gear. Apparently, Tatum has a rather small foot or something because I couldn't find soccer cleats in her size. I did find a store that would order some for me, so I went and picked them up today. Since that was the last gear needed to complete Tatum's soccer outfit, we let her dress up for us and I took some pics. Here is Tatum in her NEW SOCCER GEAR...

...Tatum wanted to show us how she can kick too....

Near the end of our photo shoot, Tatum would tell me "THANK YOU!" every time I took her picture. You can see she gets tickled as these pictures progress.

Mateo has been keeping us busy too. He is all over the place these days. His little army crawl is NOT slowing him down by any means (especially on our hardwood floors). He was playing in the floor tonight, so I sat in the floor to eat dinner while he played. He let me know quickly that he wanted to eat with me, so he got to enjoy some puffs. (Yes, he is wearing his PJs. Yes, he wore them all day. Yes, they are wet because he has been drooling. Yes, he has 2 more teeth coming in I think. and Yes, he is eating his puffs off the ground. No, they did not start there, but how do you tell an almost 9 month old to keep his puffs on his plate?)

Mateo decided to show me his 'happy plate'.

What are you looking at Mateo? Oh, Daddy who is holding your puffs over your head.

If you are on facebook, then you probably saw my post last week about how terrible Mateo's skin has gotten since he has started crawling. We know he has ezcema, but it is SO BAD right now. When we took Tatum to the dr Thursday, I decided to go ahead and take Mateo too. The dr. said that kids usually have ezcema 'flare ups' when they have a cold or virus. I don't know if Mateo's teething caused his ezcema to flare up or if it was something else, but it is getting better slowly. Here is a picture of his foot and leg. Just imagine this ALL OVER HIS BODY. I am not lying either. Just wanted to post it so you all could see how bad it really is so you don't think I am being a drama queen or anything.

So, Antonio discovered something new today about Mateo. Every time I feed Mateo his bottle, I have to hold it for him. I have often compared this skill to Tatum because Tatum started holding her bottle around 4 months old and it was nice because I could get ready in the mornings while Tatum drank her milk. However, with Mateo, he is almost 9 months and i have to hold it for him every time. Well, look who has been holding out on us....

Do you see what I see????? Not only can he hold his bottle, but he can hold it with ONE HAND???

It's okay. I enjoy our morning time together, but I laughed so hard when I saw him holding his bottle on his own.