Five For Friday

1.  I know people always say it is so hard to find cute boys clothing, but I really don't agree.  I think Mateo has more winter clothing than any other person in our house.  I am worried it won't all fit in his closet!  I won't even start on the number of shoes that my kids have.

2.  I noticed many yard sale/estate sale signs on the way to take the kids to school this morning.  I decided to stop at a few on my way home and I was AMAZED at the great deals I found.  I got Tatum 2 pair of white leather keds for $0.50 each.  At another yard sale, I got 4 North Face jackets for $5 each!!  Finally, I found NEW in the box games for the kids for Christmas or birthdays.(I will post pics later)  I must admit that the amount of upcoming family birthdays(niece-Oct, Tatum-Oct 27, Mom-Nov 7, Antonio-Nov 11, niece-Dec, Dad-Dec 15, and Mateo-Dec 29..wew) and Christmas has me a little concerned since our finances aren't what they used to be....hopefully buying things early might help this.

3.  The kids and I are heading to Lousiana for several days and I am very excited about the trip.  However, 2 things are making me a little nervous....1) I still haven't started packing OR making a list...2) I have never driven more than an hour and 30 minutes alone with the kids and this will be at least a 6 hour journey.

4.  Over the past few months, our laundry room has been the 'catch all' room of the house.  I finally tackled this monster and did lots of organizing to get the room together so that I can actually use the room.  Since then, I have been amazed that I have done more laundry during the week and it leaves my weekends laundry-free.

5.  Antonio signed up to run the St. Jude FULL Marathon and he committed to raising $500 as well.  He set up his website this week and he is really close to reaching his goal already.  I have tried to talk Antonio into starting a blog page so that people can follow his journey, but so far he hasn't given in.  If you want to check out his website, you can go HERE 

BONUS:  I have a friend that is doing the 3 Day Walk for the Cure in Seattle as I type.  That means she is walking 60 miles in 3 days!!  She has a facebook page for her team(which consists of Jessica and her friend Jana.  If you want to follow her walk, you can go HERE.  I ask you to pray that her body holds up and she can finish this journey strong!  I am sure she and Jana would also love to read words of encouragement on their facebook page too.

Mama Said There'd Be Days Like These...

There is no doubt that Mateo loves his Mommy.  99% of the time, that's okay with me.  Most days Mateo is independent, playing, into something he shouldn't be, etc.  However, sometimes he just wants his Mama to hold him.  Last night I was trying to get dinner made and he didn't care.  He was stuck on my legs, so I grabbed the camera.

HE

IS

JUST

SO

PITIFUL!

Don't worry though...as soon as I put down the camera, I picked him up and all was restored to normal again.  In fairness, he wasn't feeling very well, but I didn't know that when this was all happening.  As I have blogged about before, Mateo has terrible excema and his skin is very sensitive.  Antonio was changing his diaper after dinner and he was broken out REALLY bad in the diaper area.  Apparently, someone that works in his class decided to use baby powder or someone else's diaper cream (which I don't know why because he didn't even have diaper rash) on him yesterday.  Anyway, we put A&D Ointment on him and his rash was 95% better this morning.  I also had a LONG talk with his teacher and the director about this and I pray this doesn't happen again.  His teacher leaves early and another teacher comes in at the end of the day, so I am guessing she did it, but I don't know.  I really don't even care, as long as it doesn't happen again.  The director knows how much trouble we have had with Mateo's skin because we finally convinced her to switch the detergent she was buying for the daycare because it was the main cause of Mateo's breakouts.

Anyway, in fairness, I wanted to post some more pleasant pics. 

We do our best to eat dinner as a family at the dinner table every night.  I think that is important to be able to sit down and talk about our days with no distractions.  At this point in time, Tatum says our prayer every night, but Mateo participates too.  I know I am partial, but I think it is the sweetest thing that Mateo will put his hands together when we pray.  I decided to snap a picture or two during the blessing last night(Antonio didn't really like that I did this, but oh well).

Tatum is praying below.  We are working with both of them on closing their eyes, but that will come with time.

On an unrelated note....

Hello.  My name is April and I am addicted to Diet Dr. Pepper.  This is a picture of our extra fridge in the laundry room.

ahem....and I may also have an addiction to buying this laundry detergent while it is on sale and I can get it for dirt cheap.  You see, this is the laundry detergent we switched to because it does not break Mateo out.  For a bottle this size, it is usually $5....not too bad.  However, it is on sale right now at Kroger for $2.99, so that's pretty good.  BUT I also had some coupons for $1 off of each bottle, so I got many of these for only $1.99.  This should last us for a year or so...lol

A Month Ago...

...we were in Florida. So, I figured it was time to post LOTS of pictures from our vacation.

I tried to get my pictures in order, but since I was using more than one camera on vacation, the pictures aren't in order on my computer....bear with me.

I told Antonio that I wanted to stop when we saw the FLORIDA sign so we could take a picture, so we set the timer on the camera and got a rare family photo...

The sunsets in Florida were BEAUTIFUL!!! This was the picture I captured the first night that we were there.

It poured down rain teh afternoon we got to Florida, but we were thankful to wake up to a beautiful, clear day the next morning. Mateo was more than ready to go outside to play.

This is our view from the deck of the condo. I LOVE that we are directly on the beach. It makes life with kids a little easier.

I am so thankful that Tatum and Mateo play so well together 99% of the time. I must admit that Mateo was not a fan of the sand on Day 1, but he warmed up to it fast. I think we took him out at naptime and that didn't help either.

Okay, out of order pics...here is how we rode in the car. The back was packed and the kids enjoyed their movies on the way down.

On our way down, we decided to break our trip up and stayed in Montgomery, AL. Mateo was teething and not feeling well. He had actually been sent home from school Thurs and Friday and we left for Florida Friday night. He had 4 teeth coming in. For the most part, he was a trooper and did well, but he did have meltdowns from time to time.

Tatum decided she wanted to model for us and asked me to take her picture. I took about 20 that look similar to the next few pics, but I thought these were so cute. She can be as sweet as she wants to be, but sometimes she is a handful.

We ate at What-A-Burger on the way down, and the kids loved it.

This next picture was taken as we arrived to our condo in FL. It was beginning to thunder and Tatum does NOT like thunder.

Here are a few pictures from the 1st floor of our condo. We love this place and have stayed here for 3 years now. It is 3 stories...4 bedrooms...4.5 bathrooms(each bedroom has its own bathroom)...washer and dryer....directly on beach...etc.

My brother, Matt, and his wife Stephanie went to Florida with us. We went out one night and road go carts. (Thanks Mom for watching the kids.)

Matt is in LOVE with his Nutella. I must admit, I had never tasted it until Florida, but it was pretty good.

Do you see teh FULL MOON??

We went out to a fancy dinner one night and it was SO GOOD! Matt has always thought that he was allergic to shellfish, but he recently discovered he is not. This was his first time to eat lobster, crab, and shrimp and he was excited.

My cousin, Hannah, her son and friend came to stay with us for a few days. Her little boy is about 2 months younger than Mateo.

Matt and Antonio went deep sea fishing one day while we were down there. This meant that Matt had to get up early which is something he didn't want to do on vacation. That evening, I sat down beside Matt and asked if he meant to wear 2 different shoes...ya know, is that some fancy trend now that his flipflops are different designs. Apparently, he has the same flipflops, just different designs and did not realize he had on one of each set.

Here are some pictures from Matt and Antonio's successful deep sea fishing trip.

After a LONG day of fishing, Matt, Antonio, and Stephanie cooked the fish that they caught for dinner.

My grandmother's sister and bro-in-law live in Panama City, so they came out one night to visit. It was great to get to spend time with them.

This was another night of an unbelieveable sunset, so Antonio and I grabbed the camera and used the self-timer to get some pics.

Our crazy attempt to get a family picture...

...but Tatum was in a 'mood', so the pictures weren't too successful.

My dad wasn't able to go to Florida with us because he had to work, so we decided to go see him on the way home. He got off one day while we were there and we decided to drive around some so he could show us some of the sites to see.

The first place he took us was to show us his favorite place to eat. Too bad it was closed or else we would have tried it.

and yes, I am serious, he said this is his favorite place. Here is a picture of the restaurant...

Mateo was enjoying the drive in grand-daddy's truck.

THEN, he fell asleep.

The town where I grew up has a Strawberry festival, so I had to take a picture of this town's sign that also has a Strawberry Festival.

Out of no where, it started raining....really raining. My parents said everytime it rains, the streets flood like this because it's Lousiana. I was shocked at how fast the water accumulated.

We ate lunch at this 50's Diner.

Antonio had to get a poboy since we were in LA.

What a look from Mateo! Wish I had a clue as to what he is thinking in this picture.

And here is a picture of my yummy sandwich!

Before we left, we decided to get a picture of all of us. Since it was raining outside, we were left to do a picture in my parent's condo. (So thankful for the self-timer on the camera.)

We had a blast on vacation! As the kids get older, travelling is getting easier...very thankful for this.