What's up?

What's up?  Well, tons!  I have so many updates I don't even know where to start! But here goes nothing:

The BIG move:  We made our big move near Atlanta.  We are about 45 mins north of the city, right near the mountains!  Our house has everything we need, a playroom for the boys, a big kitchen, a nice open living room, and a huge yard!  We are so happy with our new house, but we miss all of our friends in the Carolinas!  Come visit!!  :)

Potty'ing:  Tanner is working on potty'ing!!  He found his "big boy" underwear (CARS) and asked if he could wear them.  I told him that he had to tell Mommy when he had to pee or poop if he's wearing them. He agreed, and we put them on.  Five mins and two pairs of underwear later, I gave up!  Then the next morning, he asked again and I said "Ok, let's try again."  This time he only had 1 accident, which was when we were playing outside, and ever since then, he has been wearing underwear all day except when sleeping!!  :)  We started with rewarding him with candy (M&M's) when we used the potty.  I told him if he went poop on the potty, he could have a LOT of candy.....he somehow managed to poop every time he used the potty.  Then he would get made if I only gave him 1 piece of candy.  Lesson learned....only 1 piece of candy for using the potty!!!  He has been using the potty for about a month now, and he hardly ever asks for candy anymore, but if he does, I still give him a piece!  :)

Easter:  My mom and Jon came for Easter sunday.  We did an egg hunt with the boys and fried a turkey.  Our first holiday in our new house-what fun!

My cousin, Stephanie's, wedding:  Bobby and I traveled to Asheville for my cousin's wedding.  My in-laws came to watch the boys, so we had an adult weekend (Woohooo)  :)  On Friday night, we went to the reception dinner.  We had so much fun drinking and catching up with family!!  Saturday, Bobby and I walked around downtown Asheville.  Bobby made sure that we hit up every craft beer bar, well maybe not EVERY, but many!  We did a little shopping with the fam and went back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding!!  The wedding was wonderful!  Stephanie looked stunning, Rob's family did the music for the ceremony, and the dance floor was hopping!!  Congrats Stephanie and Rob!!  :)

Brennan:  My baby is almost 15 months old!  He is cruising (a little) on the furniture, but not walking yet.  He loves to dance and clap his hands.  He just started blowing kisses!  It's the sweetest!!

That's all I can think of, I am sure that I have missed a few things, but it's getting late and I'm sleepies!  Here's some pics for ya!!

First ever surprise party

This Saturday, my friends threw me my first ever surprise party.  Too bad it was a going away party, but that's life.  My bestie, Jacqui, said that we were going out to celebrate her birthday (which was earlier in the week).  Since we didn't have a sitter, Bobby was home with the boys.  I texted our other bestie, Maggie, and asked if she was coming out.  She said that she didn't feel good, so no.  After eating dinner at Jacqui's house, we left to meet her SIL at Hickory Tavern.  As we walked into the bar, I saw Maggie and a bunch of our friends there.  I still thought this was a surprise for Jacqui's birthday!  I walked over to Maggie and told her that she "got me."  Then I looked at the cake.  I thought "oh, that's a pretty purple cake."  Then I read it....It said "We'll miss you Shaunda and Bobby."  I was so shocked, I think I just said "what?"  Then I looked around and just broke into tears.  It was the sweetest thing, and I never imagined that this party was for me.  I dried my tears and went around and hugged everyone who came.  I was disappointed that Bobby couldn't come (he knew that the party was for us and tried really hard to get a sitter, but couldn't.)  I had such a great time chatting and drinking with everyone.  It was so fun!  A few of us ventured downtown after the party and went to the dueling piano bar.  Fun, fun!
I am so grateful for my friends that I have made here in Charlotte (Rock Hill).  I will miss you all, and I will be back to visit, but I really want you all to come down and visit me!  I mean that!!!  :)

Party pics:

Playroom project-ABC wall

The teacher in me wanted to do an ABC wall in the playroom of our new house.  I googled ABC walls to get some ideas, pinned them, and decided that I wanted to do a little something more than just letters.  I decided to create letters using objects that begin with that letter (B is for buttons, P is for puzzles, etc)

So here's how I made the letters.  Pictures to follow.   (I am not a person that usually goes around showing off their work, but I am really proud of this, and I thought that some others may like the idea and want to know how it's done).

I painted an 8 x 10 canvas, printed and cut out full page letters from http://printerprojects.com/alphabet/ (I recommend doing this unless you are excellent at free handing letters-I ruined 2 canvas's before coming up with this idea), then traced the letter using a pencil onto the canvas, and used glue or hot glue to glue on the objects.  So, after hot gluing some of the objects, they fell off.  My friend told me to use E-6000 (sold at craft stores) instead, and all have stayed on!  My son helped me with a few of the buttons, but lost interest after that.  :)

That is all that I have done so far.  I will post/pin pics of the finished product when we move and get it on the wall in our new house!

I have finished!!  This project took a while and bit of trial and error, but I am proud of the way it turned out!  Here is the finished project!

Before I forget these moments....

I want to do a quick blog about what the boys are up to before I forget, so here it is!

Tanner:  He loves to talk about the days of the week.  He will say "Today is Friday, not Monday and Tuesday."  He likes to says what things are followed by what they are not.  Ex:  "Nanner wants to watch Loin King, not Shrek or Cars anymore."  He recognizes some letters and numbers.  On the way home from school the other day, he said "There's a 2."  He read it from the road sign!  I was amazed, I remember teaching my Kindergarten students number recognition.  He now likes to "read" to me instead of me reading to him.  He does well with books that we have read a lot (Brown Bear) but just makes up things for unfamiliar books.  His new saying is "Member we.......got Dunkin Donuts yesterday," etc.  He also likes to say "already" as in "Tanner  need to eat muffins already."  His speech is coming along, and I am not longer "Nonny" and Uncle Tony is no longer "Auntie Nony."  I am kind of sad about that!  He still stumbles over hard names like "Obi Wan Kenobi" and says "Obi dobi dobi."  His name is "Nanner Roney!"  Too cute!

Brennan:  My baby is almost a year old!!!!  He is army/inchworm crawling all over the place now.  He only likes to eat food that he can feed himself.  He makes this pig face when he's eating, it is sooooo cute!  Pics included!  :) So far, I have not found anything that he won't eat!  I took him for his first professional haircut the other day, and he HATED it!  The stylist started by using the buzzer thing on him, so of course, he cried the whole time!  But he does look so cute.  Brennan has also started dancing!  It is the cutest thing!!!  He will sway back and forth if I am signing or playing music!  Then, he cracks up!  Hehe!!  He is a babbling machine.  He says "uh oh" when he drops something, and imitates us singing and talking.  He is now only taking one nap of about 3 hours and I can stretch him to get him to take it when Tanner naps (or does quiet time in his room).

That's all for now!

Christmas and BIG changes for the New Year

Our first Christmas as a family of four was really great!  We ended up having 3 Christmas's-2 with my mom and Jon, one which included Curtie B and one with Bobby's family.  The boys got way too many presents, but I guess that's to be expected.  Since the weather has been "spring like,"  the boys and I have taken walks almost every night to see the lights in our neighborhood.  My in-laws were brave and requested a weekend with Tanner, Brady, and Carrigan.  They made ornaments, gingerbread houses, and went to the Science Center.  Tanner had a blast with Cousin Brady!  He told me that Brady is funny.  Since I grew up around my cousins and am very close with them, I love that Tanner got to have some time with his!  :)  I think that Grammie and Papa had fun, but were glad when the weekend was over!  Bobby and I enjoyed spending some alone time with Brennan.  We shopped, ate out, and talked about how quiet it was in the house!!!  We spent Christmas Eve at "Hotel Meroney" and ate tasty food, opened gifts, and watched the kiddies play-fun times!  Bobby and I rang in the new year with our besties, the Montini's, Magsie, and Shannon!
OK, now for the BIG news......We are starting a new chapter in our lives, we are moving to Atlanta!!!  Bobby got a promotion with PJ's and is now over the Atlanta market.  He officially started this week and said that it's going well so far!  With the move means, selling our first house.  I am having mixed emotions about moving.  I am glad that Bobby will no longer be traveling, but I will miss all of my friends here.  Plus, we will be farther from family.  This is not going over well with our moms, but hopefully they will see that it is not thaaaaaat far!  I would probably be sadder if I had time to think about the move, but with getting the house ready to be put on the market, I do not have time for anything, even being sad.  We have been painting, decluttering (and those of you who know us, know that we have tons of clutter), packing and organizing toys, etc, etc, etc!!!
OK, just wanted to give everyone a quick update.  More to come!

Here's some pics!!