Fourth Anniversary

I can't believe we've already been married for 4 years!

We celebrated our 4th Anniversary on Thursday by going to Ruth's Chris (fancy restaurant with delicious steak). After dinner we went to a football game with the Carolina Panthers against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Jared got free tickets to the game from someone on his team at Wake Forest. The game just happened to be on our anniversary within walking distance from the restaurant we ate at, so it all worked perfectly! 

 

I wanted a picture to document us on our anniversary, but unfortunately it came out awful- it's grainy, taken at a horrible angle that makes us look morbidly obese and we were sweaty after climbing up a million stairs (we were at the top of the stadium)...Oh well, I'm posting it anyways :P

I love that our anniversary is so close to Labor Day weekend. It always makes it easy to go on trips for our anniversary. Like the beach. Which is where we are currently spending the rest of our weekend. More later!

....after one more wedding picture....

I can't even express how happy I am to share my life (and eternity) with him.

The Forgotten Blanket

On Friday night Jared and I went to an orientation dinner for Wake Forest's MBA program . It was at the dean of Wake Forest's MBA program's house...and his house was the biggest house I've ever been inside in my entire life! I wanted to take a picture, but didn't want to look creepy/weird...so I didn't. Typically our date nights involve Netflix and ice cream at home. Not that there is anything wrong with that (I LOVE those dates!) but it was nice to get a babysitter and go out on a nice date.

Kyler loves babysitters, but we've never had one put him to bed before, so I was a little worried. In the middle of the party I got a text from our babysitter that said something like this:

" Kyler is looking for his green blanket and won't go to bed without it. Do you know where it is?"

Then I panicked-I knew exactly where it was.

*In his preschool classroom that was locked up for the weekend*

Kyler has never slept a night in his life without his green blanket! He was really upset, but somehow she magically managed to get him to sleep by the time we got home! I love babysitters!!

However, Kyler did wake up in the middle of the night crying for his green blanket FIVE times on Friday night (of course earlier that day I was just bragging to my friends about what a good sleeper Kyler has always been...apparently not so much when you take away his favorite blanket!). Yesterday I went through a box of Kyler's old baby things in search of a replacement blanket and found this blue one he used when he was a newborn. The fabric feels similar to his beloved green blanket, and blue is his favorite color, so I hoped it would work as a temporary replacement.

 Kyler was so excited to see his old blue blanket, even though it is much too small for him.

He gratefully accepted it as a temporary replacement, and napped soundly without crying at all :)

Saturday night he slept great with the replacement blanket. Hallelujah!  Before bed he informed me that: "Green key key (that's what he calls his blanket) at pweeschool an go pweeschool Monday!" I love how much he is talking/understanding these days...though I highly doubt he knows when Monday is.

RED MEANS STOP!

This week we taught Kyler that red stoplights mean stop and green lights mean go. Everyday since then he has been watching stoplights from the backseat and when he sees one he yells: "Green means go!" or "Red means stop!".

This little "know-it-all" boy wakes up with MESSY hair.

  I thought him telling us when to stop and go was cute. That is until yesterday... when I had to make a right turn on a red light. I got reprimanded hardcore by my 2 year old from the back seat. He yelled "NO MAMA!! RED MEANS STOPPP!! NO!!"  There was no way I could explain to him the laws about turning right on red lights much less the difference between right and left. So I just sat there... and regretted teaching him about red and green lights to begin with.

File folder games...counting and color matching

I LOVE file folder games. Not only are they educational, but they keep my crazy (but sweet) little boy entertained and quiet! The ipad/iphone is also awesome for a few minutes of quiet entertainment, but there is something about actually physically moving and feeling things that kids can't get enough of.

I recently made Kyler two file folder games. They aren't anything fancy, but they get the job done!

Cupcake Counting:

and....

Balloon color matching:

I found a couple free download file folder games online, but the colors and images were lame, and I wanted something that would grab Ky's interest. So, I copied and pasted these images (thanks google  coloring pages) into Microsoft word and made some file folder games myself.  After a little crayola magic, a lamination job, and some self adhesive velcro circles....VOULA.. I had quiet entertainment for my little one.

I know most people would never spend time making these, but if you are interested in a quiet time activity that doesn't involve the glorious ipad, I say go for it!  I would suggest finding images that your child is interested in... but if they happen to like cupcakes and balloons.... here ya go!

Embarrassing Myself

I'm probably the only one who does this, but every once in a while I look back at my old facebook status's and pictures and get SO embarrassed. I always say: "I can't believe I said that...or posted THAT picture..." then I delete like a million things (not that anyone even looks at my old facebook status's from 2007 hah).  I do the same thing on my blog sometimes...for example, the first 90 posts on this blog are ALL about my dog.... and I talked about him like he was my child! For example: "Bauer's potty training is going great...he is 12 week old!" haha

Now I wonder what I'm posting today that I'll look back on and make fun of myself for later. Probably..."WHY did I write an entire blog post about a stupid lunch box??"

So I thought today, I'd just go ahead and embarrass myself next year by writing a post about that poor neglected dog that became significantly less important to this blog once Kyler was born.

If you remember, Bauer had a bit of a weight issue earlier this year...he was 102 lbs and is supposed to be around 88 lbs.
Bauer had his second official weigh in last week....and he is down to 95lbs! I know, still giant, but he is only 7 lbs away from his ideal weight- thanks to his new healthy dog food....and lots of walks on my part. Go ahead, pat me on the back. haha

Now I see why

I promise Kyler has more than one pair of pajamas, but it seems like he is always wearing these particular ones every time I get the camera out. 

He always sits like this...doesn't it look like it hurts?!

I was exploring in our game closet last week- in search for a game to play for family night- when I found these foam-disk guns (I have no idea what they are really called).  I thought Kyler would get a kick out of them. I was right. Jared was equally pleased with my discovery. I used to play with those guns all of the time when I was a kid, until my mom hid them. I never understood why she did that. I do now. They are LOUD and annoying... and I keep finding those little foam disk things in random places.  So I'm doing exactly what my mom did when I was a kid...and hiding them back in the closet where they belong.

A New Lunch Box

A blog post about a lunch box- sounds super lame right? Oh well, my blog, my rules. :p

Even though Kyler typically eats lunch at home with me everyday before school, occasionally he has to eat at the school. So, I bought him a lunch box...and let me just say- I LOVE Kyler's new lunch box!! Surprisingly, we have gotten a lot of use out of it. We bring it to the pool, to pick-nicks at the park, and...Kyler loves it so much, he often request to eat out of it at home.

It's easy for him to carry, all of the food stays in their individual compartments, and best of all no ziplock bags that he gets frustrated trying to open, and I don't like buying! 

Today was one of those rare occasions that Kyler did have to eat lunch at school, and this is what I packed him. He doesn't typically like to eat carrots and celery, but his teacher said he actually ate them today! What do-ya-know- miracle lunch box makes veggies taste better too! Hah. 

Oh and one more thing I like about this lunchbox is how compact it is compared to those bulky lunch-boxes with tacky cartoon characters on them. It fits in the smallest pocket on Kyler's toddler back pack!

I bought the lunch box from Target for I think $9. Target also has THIS and THIS one which are similar.

Our new lunch-box also works great for holding Kyler's church snacks. I took this picture last Sunday before church. Kyler saw daddy with his hands in his pockets, and then discovered that he had pockets too! He was thrilled about his new discovery and wouldn't stop filling them with random things. :)

I hope this lame post about our new favorite lunch-box didn't bore you too much :p

Better late than never- home movie

Our family reunion was just over a month ago, and I'm just now getting around to posting the home movie I made from it. I blame moving and getting a new job, but hey- better late than never~

The Fam reunion 2013 from Char Charr on Vimeo.

Watching that video makes me want to go back so bad! I seriously have the best family- I wish we all lived closer!

Close Enough

Yet another failed attempt at going camping this summer....eh close enough.

Last time we tried to go camping (earlier this summer) the tent only made it to the living room...so at least we made it outside this time! I guess I should also add that we didn't actually even sleep in it. Jared asked me if I wanted to, and I said "No thanks!" ...not when my comfy bed is a hundred feet away with nice cool AC. I'm sure Kyler would have loved sleeping in it, but he was still happy just playing in the tent for a little bit that night and the next morning too. I love how kids get SO exciting over little things like this. I love being a mom!