Little Travelers

We have been quite the little travelers recently. Not meaning to, we planned two trips just a week and half apart from one another. The first trip was going to Chicago. Ricky went there for a business conference and we turned it into a family vacation. We stayed from a Sunday to a Sunday!! I needed a vacation from my vacation. Chicago is one of those trips that you want to see a lot and do a lot. Go, go go! The first 3 days Amber and I were on our own to explore the city while Ricky was at his conference then the rest of the week we got to spend all day with him. I was looking forward to that because Amber really misses her daddy during the day. Just the other day when she woke up in the morning the first thing out of her mouth was, "is daddy at work?" I replied, yes. She then sighed and said, "again?" Broke my heart. Well I digress back to the windy city. We packed in the trip, the navy pier, the sears tower, the zoo, the aquarium, the children's museum, shopping, and eating out! It was tons of fun but not a very restful vacation. Then we came home stayed a week and half and then we were off to Florida. Tallahassee to be exact. Home to the Florida State Seminoles. We went to see a football game and to bask in the glory of all things FSU. That was a very restful vacation. The only thing we planned was the football game and the rest was just whichever the way wind took us. Which included seeing and walking around the entire FSU campus and LOTS of shopping in FSU stores. We all came away with FSU memorabilia. We weren't sure how Amber would do at a football game but she did awesome!! It happened to be a noon game and boy was it hot. So the second quarter she and I took a break and went walking around where the concessions were, which happened to be under the stadium seating so it was much cooler. But the rest of the time she was a trooper and every time the warchant was played she did the tomahawk chop!

Now that we are back from our trips our fall activities have started. Amber has started ballet and is loving it (mainly b/c of candy she gets at the end of each class) :) And I have started MOMS again and Amber is liking her class she goes to as well. Tomorrow I have planned to start doing some little "schooling" during the week on days that we don't have anything else planned. I've been wanting to do this and pinterest has great sites out there with plenty of resources. But we will be going through the alphabet learning bible verses. So tomorrow and the rest of the week its all about the letter A. So i have some crafts and different ways to learn the letter A to do during the week.

Well in a nutshell that's what's been going on lately!

Born to Camp

Every time I go camping I am never ready to come back to the real world. I just love camping! And I'm proud to say that my daughter loves it too! In fact this past weekend we went camping and driving back home she was crying saying she still wanted to camp. Girl after my own heart!

We went to Heber Springs for the weekend with family and had a great time! We went swimming in the lake, watched cardboard boat races, played games, rode bikes and we enjoyed taking little walks down to the river next to our campsite. Amber loved every minute and I think she could stay all day at the river throwing, building, and searching for rocks. There were only two downfalls. There was a burn ban so no campfires which meant no s'mores. :( The other downfall was it was really hot!! We are used to the Smoky Mountains and it be cool however it was nice to have his parents RV because it has AC :)

 Some of the cardboard boats that were made to race. This is some serious cardboard!!

Goodbye Freestyle

My 2005 Ford Freestyle is no longer in the family. It was starting to show so major signs of repairs that we felt wouldn't be worth fixing and it would be better to get a "new to us" car. Did lots of looking and comparing and finally settled on a 2008 Honda Civic. I have had a civic in the past and loved it. So hopefully this car will be with us for a while. The rumor is Honda's never die :)

Let me just say I'm loving the tinted windows!!!

Learning Patience during PTT

What is PTT you ask? Potting Training Time!!

The last 4 weeks have been consumed with a lot of me asking the same question over and over. "Do you need to go tinkle?"

Amber is 2 and half almost 3. She will be 3 beginning of August. So it was time. I am glad I waited this long though because I think if we had started sooner I would have been very frustrated. The first week was sort of rough. Not gonna lie. On the third day of trying she begged to wear diapers again and honestly I wanted to just say, "Ok, it will be easier on all of us!" However, we all put our big girl panties on :) and persevered. And of course I'm glad we did. She has come a long way since that first week. Now we have had accidents here and there but I'm proud of my little girl and wowie are we saving money with out having to buy diapers all the time!!!

Crabs and Eagles...

Amber said the day before we left for our vacation to the beach that she was going to see crabs and eagles. Which we later realized she was saying seagulls but that doesn't make for a cute story :)


We went to Watercolor/Seaside Florida. It was wonderful! It was Ambers first time to see the beach and ocean and she loved it. We spent one day pretty much all day out there and she played in the sand the whole time! I thought that she would eventually get tired of it but it kept her attention. We put her floaties on and got in the ocean with her, of course Ricky held her the whole time. We weren't about to let her go. The waves weren't bad at all just perfect for a 2 year old and she would giggle and scream when one would come. It was a great week and I wish I could live there!!

We rode bikes a lot on the trip and she took a lot of her naps in her bike carrier :)

Did you know...

...that you can regrow your green onions. Of I course saw this on Pinterest and I tried it and it worked. When you are cutting your green onions just cut about an inch of the end where the white part and roots are off. Sit them in a little bit of water and watch them grow! It has only taken about a week and a half for mine! Awesome! It has been fun for Amber too watching them get taller and taller each day.

After two days of growing. 

After a little more than a week of growing!

Organizing

I have really gotten into organizing and trying to keep the house "clean" or at least straight.

Awhile back we replaced our horrible sliding closet doors in our bedroom with nice folding ones. It made such a difference. For once I could see all of my clothes at once instead of sliding doors back and forth trying to get my clothes. Well it inspired me to get my closet organized after that. I have never really thought about using boxes to store things but I didn't really see the purpose but I decided to try them out and I'm hooked. I bought some to keep our sheets and pillow cases in. We have always stored our bed linens in our closets instead of a linen closet in the hall. Makes more sense to have your sheets right where your bed is. Anyway, I bought those and it makes it look so much cleaner and its just not a pile of sheets anymore. I also bought a shoe holder that just lays on my closet floor. Its clear and holds about 20 pairs of shoes. This way the pairs are kept together and not just thrown in a pile like they were.


Here is a picture of my closet before:

And now after: 

I have started working in my laundry room now. I have bought a big plastic tub and put all of our towels that we use for cleaning and our beach towels in. I bought another container and put some cleaning supplies that I might use once or twice a year all in there. It just looks neater instead of having bottles everywhere. I'm also adding a little decor and a shelf as well. Hopefully I will have a before and after picture to show of that as well. 

Some tips to keeping your house "straight" that I use on a daily basis:

Never leave the room empty handed. Something is always not in the right room or spot. 

When I leave the room I see if anything needs to go somewhere else and I take it with me. I didn't start doing this until we moved into the house we are now and boy does it really make a difference and my house is normally always ready for a visitor to pop in. If you know my floor plan there are two sides to my house and when I"m in the kitchen area of my house stuff that doesn't belong over there gets put on my kitchen counter closest to the exit to the other side of the house. Whenever I leave that side I gather all the stuff and take it with me. And same thing when I'm on the other side of the house. But in any way your house is set up just try to always leave with something in your hand that needs to go elsewhere. 

Clean everyday.

I know that sounds crazy. But I do some sort of cleaning everyday. I don't have a chart that I go by like Mondays clean bathroom etc. But I do something everyday. It helps out in that you don't have to do tons of cleaning on just one day. Just keeping it up everyday helps. So one day I might do the floors, like vacuum and mop. The next day I clean bathrooms. The next I dust. I just like doing that because I used to just let everything pile up and I would take a Sat. and would be cleaning for hours and I would hate it!! This way I feel more free to get out and do things and not be cleaning for hours. 

Write on the calendar your meals.

I am not talking planning your meals for the week. I'm talking after you eat your meal for that night write it on the calendar. I just recently started doing it this way because I don't like planning for a weeks worth of meals in one day. I'm just not that organized to sit down and figure it out and what I need to get at the grocery. It works better for me if I just plan on that day what we are having but then by writing it on the calendar allows me to see when I served it and to not repeat it again for a couple of weeks. It also helps me with leftovers. "Oh, we had that last Monday and it's Sunday we need to throw that out."

That's all I can think of for now!!

2 is fun!

2 is such a fun age! Well to be exact 2 and half :) Amber is understanding so much these days. I can't really get away with anything anymore! We are enjoying going to the children's museum, the pink palace, and the zoo! And then every week we go to something at Church called Grace Playce. Its just one hour and the first thirty min. we sing songs, learn bible verses and hear a bible story. Then the last half hour is play time and there are slides, balls, hula hoops, mini basket ball goals and other tumbling things. Its so fun to bring her to different events and outings now since she can enjoy it more. Enjoy the pictures!

Here we are at Reel Foot Lake at their tiny free museum they had. That day they let one of their owl out to pet. He is blind so it was weird to have him looking at you but you knew he couldn't see you.

This is at the Children's Museum. They have a mock of the Mississippi River and you can "fish" in it. 

At the zoo on a pretty day in Jan. 

Meet My Christmas Gift

Every year or for every occasion Ricky is always good a getting the best gifts for me! They are normally all surprises. This year my Christmas gift came the week of Christmas because he got me a kitten!!!! Totally was not expecting it! We have been married for 7 years and Seminole will turn 7 at the end of this month. We had a deal way back in the day when we got a dog we were going to get a cat too. That never happened. All for the best really because Seminole was a handful of a puppy!!! He is soooooooooo mellow now and is wonderful with the kitten. He could care less about her basically. She also has been a great little playmate for Amber. Amber takes her everywhere and tells her to play with her toys and acts like she is a little doll. The other day she even put her in the stroller and strolled her around! The kitten loved it! The kitten's name is Cutie and Amber named her :) We are enjoying our little addition to the Gipson clan! 

Playing catch up

Christmas, New Years Eve, and Ricky's birthday have all come and gone. Way too fast in my opinion. Amber loved opening presents this year and seeing what all she got. We got her a kitchen and she looks cooking in it. Some other things she received this year were puzzles, Little People Zoo set, Kitchen ware for her kitchen, play dough sets, an easel, baby doll highchair and a doll house. Not all of that was given by us! She is blessed with 3 sets of grandparents and they all spoil her!! Who knows what's gonna happen whenever the time comes that we have a second! 

New Years Eve was nothing spectacular. Well because lets face it, we are "boring parents" now :) We went out to eat and then went to walmart and then came home and spent the night watching it on TV. Which I was fine with Ricky and I haven't just sat on the couch and chilled out with him in a long time! We are either really busy, he is playing video games, or we have a little one around us! 

For Ricky's birthday we went with some friends and family to Abners and then headed to the bowling lanes. It was fun, even Amber bowled and she had a blast. On his actual birthday Amber and I gave him cards. One that she picked all by herself and I let her sign it. She also wanted to get him a happy birthday balloon (really it's mainly for her to play) :) And I fixed him a steak for dinner. Man loves his meat! :) 

Will I?

Will I be going out while its still really really dark on Black Friday? Possibly, can't wait to see what the deals are. I did it last year for the first time and loved it!

Was it cold? Yes.
Had I only gotten 3 hours of sleep? Yes.
Was the parking horrible? Yes.
Was the line long to get into Target? Yes.
Was the ling long to check out? Yes, wrapped through the store. Probably in line for an hour to check out.
Were there people everywhere? Yes.

Would I do it again? YES!! :)

Our lil FSU cheerleader

Amber was a FSU cheerleader for Halloween! Ricky and I wore our FSU gear too! She really understood this year! Once we were done she just kept talking about how you just open the bag and they drop the candy in! :)

31

Another year has gone by and I'm now 31. Not much different from 30. On Saturday Ricky and I did a little celebrating. Basically we got a date for the whole day. Amber went with his mom for the day and had tons of fun with her. So we were lazy around the house and then went and saw the movie Courageous.

 I recommend it to you especially if you are a parent. Keep in mind that there are some cheesy jokes but it has a great message. It is also very emotional one minuet I was crying then I was fine and laughing then it brought you right back to crying. I was worn out at the end of the movie. Its a great movie for fathers to see as well! Since it is basically about father and how they need to step up to their role. We came home after that and just were lazy and watched some football and I even took a little nap. It was strange being home and it being so calm and quiet. Then we headed to a great restaurant here in Bartlett called, The Side Porch. It is a steak place and they are delicious!

My shows

The year I have a show just about every night to watch. Every night but Tuesday night. I have never had this many. I will share with all my guilty addictions:

Comes on Monday nights and Amber loves dancing to it! 

Comes on Wednesday and Ricky and I can so relate to some of the things in this show

 considering we just went through some of it not to long ago! 

Long time standing show, its not my favorite anymore but I still watch it. 

Comes on Thursdays. 

Just got interested in this show. Love it! I watched all the past seasons on Netflix (which I love)

 This show comes on Thursdays as well. 

Just got into this show this year. Have gotten caught up on all the past seasons as well and this 

year is the last season. It will start coming on Fridays Oct. 28th, can't wait. 

It's been awhile....

Wow! It has been awhile since I have blogged! I think it's because of the previous post on here....Pinterest! It has taken up all my free time! Instead of blogging I would rather be on Pinterest!

The summer has ended and fall is upon us. I'm ready for the cooler weather! MOMS has started and Grace Playce has started. So we keep busy with those during the week. We also completed the "play fort", as Ricky has named it, and we play on that just about every day. Saturdays are consumed once again with football and this year we are going to a FSU football game. (Ricky's dream!) It will be our first official just us (Amber, Ricky and I) family vacation. We of course visited Memphis when we lived in St. Joe but that really isn't a vacation. And we have been on other vacations but it has been with family. So we are looking forward to it just being us. It will be Amber's first time on the beach, well in Florida for that matter. And we will get to see the FSU campus and go to a game. I honestly am excited about it because I want to see Ricky's reaction when he finally gets to see it all :) He will be giddy as a little girl :)

Amber is now 2 and talking up a storm. She can say some of the funniest things. I got this next idea off of Pinterest. To write down all the funny things said or done but your family and put them in a jar. Then at the end of the year get them out and read them all. I have started writing some things that Amber has said that are funny!

I leave you with some fun pictures....

 Love this picture, and I got this idea off of Pinterest, yes I know I'm obsessed :)

Pinterest

If you haven't heard about pinterest you are missing out!! I had an idea awhile back and I think I even blogged about it on here. Where I had a notebook of ideas. And in the notebook I put different categories of things like Christmas, Kids, Thanksgiving, Decorating, etc. So when I found something I liked and wanted to remember it I put it in the notebook. Well this website is just like that except its all on your computer in one place. Its like you have bulletin boards of different categories and you can "pin" what you like on them. Then its all in one place and stored on your computer instead of having all these papers. You can also view your other friends bulletin boards and see what they like and "pin" some of their stuff too! So go check it out pinterest.com

Just had to share this, I love what it says, and I found it on pinterest:

As Of Late...

~ We went on our camping trip and it was a lot of fun! Amber really enjoyed it which made Ricky and I very happy!! We did hiking or tubing everyday and I think I lost some inches in my waist because we were so active every day! Wish I could go to the Smokies everyday!

One of Ricky's favorite hikes in the Smokies is Chimney Tops. A very good work out, 

you climb to the top of a mountain! Took us 4 hours round trip! 

 The whole family that went. We had a blast! 

~Amber is starting to use her little potty. I haven't deemed us "potty training" yet. However she is really interested in it and wants to sit on it before bath time. So why would I tell her no! She has peed in it twice now and it plays music when that happens. 

~Amber also no longer has a crib. She has a convertible crib so we took one side down and put up a little rail. She LOVES it! She still "cries" for me in the mornings and waits till I get her. I'm not pushing on her getting out by herself just yet. :) If she wants she can but it's not a big deal if she doesn't. 

~We will be celebrating her 2nd birthday soon! Just family this year nothing huge. I can't believe she is 2! I know I have said it many time before but time really does fly! 

~Amber also likes to wear the arm floaties in the pool now because she realized she can "swim" on her own. :)

~I can't wait for MOMS to start back up at church and get back involved with that. 

~ So this post was mainly about Amber  as of late.... :)

RVing it

This year Ricky's family had a brilliant idea for Starlight Spectacular at Bellevue. It always is so hot and they have a RV so they thought why not bring the RV and when we are hot we can cool off in there. They called the head of security and got it cleared that we could do that. It was awesome! I'm surprised no one else has thought of it. We are spoiled now and want to do it this way in the years to come. We cooked out and all brought food and kept it all in the RV then we didn't have to deal with flies and it kept the food cool. We had a bathroom right there and was much nicer than a port a potty! And thankfully we had it during the fireworks because Amber was not a fan of them. We were able to sit inside and still see the fireworks.

Poor thing. This was inside the RV while the fireworks went off. She even covered her eyes but eventually warmed up to it a little towards the end. Reminds me of me when I was little,

I hated fireworks! 

Not all fun and games...

Sometimes being a mom is just plain hard! It's hard to raise a child the right way!! It has been one of those days with Amber today. She woke up on the wrong side of the crib and to top it off we went to a little girls birthday party today and Amber had to get a spanking while we were there!!! She took a toy and purposely hit me with it. So off to a bedroom we went to have a spanking and a talk. Before all of that, she was being very clingy and wanting me to do everything with her instead of all the little kids she had there to play with. You could tell that she is an only child and I am her "playmate." It just makes it worse when you are in a social setting and you are trying to encourage/correct/discipline your child with other eyes watching you. Can you tell we are fixing to enter the 2 year mark with her? :)

On a lighter note I bought this the other day and Amber LOVED it! I had a coupon so I decided to try it since Amber has become a picky eater lately. I thought this would be a great way to get her veggies in. I brought it with me to the pool and so for a snack this is what I gave her. All organic Ella's Kitchen food pouch:

It was neat to her because all you do it twist the top off and then she can squeeze it out into her mouth. I tasted some it was actually sweet tasting but all organic nothing added to it. I'm not going to replace this with trying to get her to eat regular veggies when we eat them but its a nice little treat to give her and she doesn't know that its good for her :) By the way, this really helped to clean her out :) So also if she is constipated I will be buying some of them!! :) TMI???? :) 

Looking forward to

The summer is upon us. We have the temperatures to prove it. My car said 101 the other day and its just the beginning of June! This summer I am looking forward to a few things. 

Visiting this place a lot! Jerry's Snowcones! 

Going camping in the Smoky Mountains at a great campsite called Elkmont. 

This is the river that is at the site and we love tubing down it.

 Hopefully being able to have fresh cut hydrangeas but mine haven't bloomed yet.

 I just planted them this year so we might have to wait till next year.

And lots and lots of swimming!! Amber LOVES it! 

Ricky bought us STOMP tickets and I'm really excited to see them!