This is my life.: Christmas in Oregon, Sean's birthday, and everything else I can squeeze into one post!!

So I know I have been reeeeaaally bad about blogging. I feel kind of bad. I like to read over old posts and remember what life was like when I was writing them. I also know that our family and friends enjoy reading up on our life (especially Sean's!) So instead of using my lack of posting as an excuse to continue ignoring my blog, I am going to do the opposite and try to catch up on everything I should have blogged about the past few months!!

Let's start back in December- Mike, Sean and I went to Oregon to visit my parents who live on the coast. Of course we had a blast!! It was nice to see my parents again, I wish we could see them more often. We spent lots of time at their house (Sean was on a pretty regular nap schedule back then and trying to ignore it usually made for difficult days) but we also got to spend time at the beach and catch up with a few friends! And we were there for Sean's first Christmas, so we had lots of fun with him opening his stocking, presents, etc. Because I am trying to fit a lot into this one post, I won't go into too much more detail, but I will post a few pictures from our awesome trip!

eating dinner made by Grandma

Love my Little Man

Our friend Brittany came to see us!!!

Relaxing on our vacation

Getting dressed to go to the beach

Grandpa Bill, Grandma Mary, Sean, Jenn and Mike

I love my family

opening his presents on Christmas morning!!

playing with my parents' dog Robbie

playing games with Daddy

our friends Hugh and Sarah came to see us from Portland!

Sean and Grandma!!

Mike's grandparents came to see us too- so they are

Sean's great-grandparents Jim and Judy!!

In January our sweet little baby officially turned into a big boy- we celebrated his first birthday on the 25th, and shortly after our little man took off walking and never looked back! His birthday party was so much fun! We celebrated on the 25th with just us, and then had a birthday party for his (and our) friends on the following Sunday : D We learned that Sean loves cake and balloons, and he got some really neat presents from friends and family as well. Mike's mom Angelia came over from Austin to spend some time with us as well. Here are a few pics from his birthday!

eating the first cake on his actual birthday- I love chocolate!!!!

opening presents from Mommy and Daddy on his birthday

Sean's birthday cupcake at his party, made by our friend Nicole

I love this cake too!!!!!

Mommy was getting a little emotional about her baby turning one!

Here's some cake, Mommy, it will make you feel better!!

Uncle Josh!!!!

opening presents from friends and family

birthday balloons!!

Cupcakes made by MaMa and a little Pooh Bear (his favorite stuffed animal)

February marked me going back to work at AT&T, and Mike staying home with Sean. Sadly Mike was laid off from his company Ranger in January, so finances have been a bit tight. But right at the same time we read Dave Ramsey's book "The Total Money Makeover" and it has helped us sooooo much with keeping our heads above water through this tough time in our lives. We have switched over to a cash only budget that we go over every two weeks when my paycheck comes. We pay all of our bills through the bank with our checking account, and all of the other money we have gets withdrawn and divvied out into envelopes for specific spending: gas, groceries, etc. It has been really tough but well worth it. We are also working on paying off all of our debts and eventually being completely debt free! That's a bit of a road ahead of us, and we really can't work too hard on our "debt snowball" until Mike is working again, but we have made a vow to not accumulate any more debt than we already have in the meantime. Also, Mike's unemployment has somewhat been a blessing in disguise. He and Sean have gotten to spend so much one-on-one time together, so the two of them are like peas in a pod. Sean loves his Daddy so much, and Mike has really gotten a lot more comfortable with the parenting thing since having to do so much more on his own.

I am back to working at AT&T full time now. I had to go through 4 weeks of classroom training again (New Hire class) along with 4 weeks of "transition" training. This week is technically my 4th week of transition, but I also had a bunch of 2010 carryover vacation days that had to be used before March 31st, so I am actually taking this week off from work. When I return on Tuesday, I will have a much better schedule: weekdays 8:15am-5:15pm with Thursdays off, and Saturday I will work 8:55am-5:40pm. I am so excited to be able to make dinner and spend time with my boys in the evenings now!! The past 7 weeks I have been working 10am-7pm, so I am still home early enough to put Sean to bed, but just late enough that it's hard to get anything done before I am ready to put myself to bed. Even though I am giving up my Saturdays for an earlier schedule, I am hoping this change will be for the better.

Our sweet little man Sean is just blossoming so quickly it's been hard to keep up!! He officially took his first (3) steps at my parents house in OR on Christmas day. Between then and his birthday, he would switch back and forth from being daring and trying to step from furniture without holding on, to just crawling with no walking at all. Right after I started back at work was when he truly became comfortable with it, so I have it written in the baby book as February 8th when he took off walking and never looked back.

He has also gotten to be much more interested in communicating. He signs several words with us, some of which he tries to verbally say as well. He signs water, more, all done, eat, milk, bath time, diaper, potty, dog, fish, help, night night, cracker, and book. He is trying to verbally say water, ball, book, dog, DaDa, MaMa, shoe, diaper, bathtime, kisses, hugs, hi, more, all done, and see. I am sure I am missing some! A lot of time he will get his signs mixed up, but we are still working on it! Also sometimes he forgets the sign, but I will know what he wants so I will sign and say the word, and then he will sign and try to say it back. It's really neat to see him develop so quickly! He also like to play "peek-a-book," and when he sees our cell phones, he puts his hand to his ear and says "hi" : D

Sean loves to eat, sleep, read, and play outside. Those are probably his most favorite things! Along with dancing- the kid loves music!! He also loves to watch the dvds we have for him, but I am really trying to not over-use those, especially considering how beautiful the weather has been! We have been trying to take him for walks around the neighborhood at least 1-2 times per day. Sometimes he will actually walk with Daddy the whole time, other times he gets picked up because he's tired, or they will go in the stroller. He's very hands on and really enjoys stopping to touch every rock he finds, all the leaves he sees, etc. He is also becoming very aware of everything that goes on in the neighborhood and is constantly pointing at things- dogs, birds, trucks, other children.

Currently we are working on dropping bottles and the second nap. We just got some new "big boy" sippy cups that Sean really likes, so we are on day two of no bottles except one right before bedtime. Some days Sean will take one 2.5-3.5 hour nap, around 11:30 or 12 until sometime between 2-3:30pm. Other days he is too tired and grumpy to stay up past 10:30am and ends up needing a second nap around 3 or 4pm. We are trying to just go with the flow and let him sleep when he needs to, but as parents it's also our job to help maintain some order so that we all can sleep well at night time and get ready for the next busy day. Our little man eats like a champion, and his favorite foods are fruits, veggies, and of course MaMa's spaghetti! He also will drink water all day if we let him, so we have learned to cut him off around 5:30-6pm so he doesn't end up with a soaking wet diaper when he wakes up in the morning. I have found that we don't even need to buy juice for him, considering he loves to eat fruits and veggies alone and loves to drink both water and milk.

Well I guess that will be it for now. As usual, I will leave you with a few recent pictures of our pride and joy