Heirloom Renovations

The reason we've been SO busy these past few weeks is we are opening our own business!! This was completely unplanned, and unexpected. One day, about 2 weeks before Christmas, Matt came home and said that he was losing his job, after I cried over the fact that we were both about to be unemployed, we pulled our heads out of the sand, and said, ok, what now?!?! And what now led to, Heirloom Renovations.

We were unable to get a bank loan, the economy just hasn't recovered enough for banks to want to loan to startup companies, so we borrowed from my parents and a couple close friends and we've borrowed everything we possibly could and have managed to get this business set to start on January 3.

We are very excited, yet very scared. We don't know if we will be successful, but we know we need to try. It is a granite countertop business, for those that don't know what Matt did/does for a living.

We imagine things will be very tight, tighter then they have been, but we are hoping it leads to better things in the long run. So, look for more posts, and pray for us, we are going to need it!!

Christmas 2010

This year was a VERY tight Christmas for us. But, through the generosity of our family, I don't feel like our kids were neglected one bit, lol!! On Christmas morning, Garrett even said, "I think Santa brought too much", I could have cried. What we did, was bought more, smaller, couple dollar items, so it appeared to him that he got a lot, when in reality we didn't spend much at all.

We were able to spend time with my parents the week before Christmas, then we saw Matt's mom's side of the family the weekend before, and Christmas Eve with Matt's Dad's family and then Christmas Day was here with just the O'Banions.

We had a very enjoyable Christmas, seeing the delight on Garrett's face when he opened up his green light saber from Santa was SO very worth it!! Payton, of course, just wanted to eat the paper.

I know this post is a bit late, but we've been extremely busy around here! I'll explain why soon.

10 months old

We were in Dallas for Payton's 10 month birthday, so I'm a bit behind on the blog update, I'll try and get pictures up later tonight.

Payton is an absolute joy, I do think it's the age, but a lot of it is just her personality, she's a very happy baby. She's also extremely active, taking her out to eat is an adventure, she just doesn't sit still much, and she's so curious, just as you go to spoon some food into her mouth, someone walks by and her little head whips around and food ends up in her ear, lol!

She is so close to walking, I'll be surprised if she doesn't walk before her first birthday, but since you can't predict these things, she may surprise us all and wait a bit longer.

This past weekend she spent her first nights in a hotel, I'm pretty sure I didn't sleep in a hotel until I was in my teens, so she's definitely ahead in that department! But, we went to see her godmother and Aunt graduate from college!! We were all so proud, and think so highly of her, we know she'll do great in whatever she does next!

So, Happy 10 month birthday Payton, and Happy Graduation Aunt Heather!!

Babies and Dogs

Have you ever thought about how similar babies and dogs are?? I"m not being mean, but think about it.....

we clap/whistle at them to get their attention;

if food drops on the floor, they will clean it up for you;

they like to chew on shoes;

you worry about them peeing or pooping in the wrong places;

if they eat too much, they just yak it up;

we love when they fall asleep on our laps;

strangers love to look at them and touch them;

we buy them special food;

they drool on us;

they hate having their hair brushed;

but love water;

and, of course, we love them to death and would go to the ends of the earth for them!

9 month checkup

Payton had her 9 month well visit today, she is staying right on track, she is 28 1/4 inchs long, which is 75%, 18 lbs, 14 oz, which is 70%. Her iron levels are good. She didn't even cry when the tech pricked her finger, and then she tried to eat the bandaid, so we took that off pretty fast! All in all, it was a pretty quick appointment, he said to start feeding her meats, and that yogurt and cheese are ok now too. He also said we need to take her out of the infant carrier by 20 pounds. We are ok for now, but we only have about a month to go, then she needs to be in a big girl car seat. And he said she'll probably have to face backwards until she's 2! He said there's a lot of new research, and it's being considered for a law so not to rush and turn her around at a year until I go back in and make sure the law hasn't changed any. I can't imagine that, but we'll do it if that's the law. Poor thing, I guess she won't know any different other then seeing Garrett facing forward. I want her to be safe, but 2 seems like a long time!

9 months old

Payton was 9 months old on Tuesday! I can hardly believe it. She was not interested in having her picture taken, and just wanted to play with the sign I made. She is very much a playful little girl. She has 4 teeth, 2 top & 2 bottom, I've been trying to get the top two in a picture, but she moves a lot and it's hard to catch her with the right smile so you can see the teeth.

She's still pulling up on everything and now she's trying to stand on her own. She cruises along the furniture a bit, but seems pretty content to crawl and pull up, and that's ok with me! She waves bye-bye now and gets super excited if you wave at her. She started dancing this week and that is just SO cute! She also loves to hit things and hear the noises it makes. Her favorite thing is to smack the couch and giggle. She "talks" a lot, I have no idea where she gets that from, lol! As always her favorite is G, she just follows him around and gets the biggest grin when he pays attention to her, which is quite often, he seems to like her just as much, and that makes me SO happy.

She loves playing in his room. When given the chance, she heads straight for his room or the bathroom, she LOVES the tub. She will go stand by it and yell, like she wants to get in, and if the water is running, she comes flying in the bathroom and tries to climb in. She gets so excited to be in it and cries when you take her out. She also hates having her diaper changed, all the sudden she will wiggle and cry when you lay her down, it's a real pain!

But, she is just such a joy and a great addition to our family! I can't see what else is coming up.

Preschool

Garrett is loving school! He was moved up from a 3 year old to a 4 year old class. His teacher Ms MiMi, said he loves to learn and wants to please her, he has some issues with keeping his hands to himself, but she said that's more about being a 3 year old boy then anything and they are working on it. Recently she told me she thinks he may be a lefty and I'm supposed to encourage this. As if I wouldn't! But, she said whichever hand he grabs the pencil or scissors with, to let him use that hand. Of course, I'm right handed so helping him cut left handed is definitely tricky, but she gave me some tips and we'll see how he does. He loves to write, they've done the A and the B, for some reason he wants to write the A all the time, the B never, but we're working on it! Logan did not get moved up with him, so his new best friends are Turner and Libby (or new girl, as he calls her). He really does seem to be learning a lot and I"m glad we decided to send him to preschool this year. In the evenings we'll try to get him to repeat some of the stuff they did in school and he'll tell us, "I already did that once today", lol!

He loves to read, we recently went to the library to check out some books and he just stared at all the books. He wanted 2 Star Wars books and I got him a Dr. Suess one, he read mine once and hasn't wanted to read it since, but the Star Wars ones are read multiple times a day. I will stop reading and he will fill in the blanks, I am very impressed by this! If someone didn't know better, they'd think he was reading the book. I'm amazed that he's memorized it that well and that fast. The books go back on Thursday, so I've been spending the week prepping him. He keeps asking if he can get a Luke Skywalker book, I told him we'd look.

I can see his "skills" improving so much, he stays in the lines SO much better, and actually chooses different colors now, he cuts remarkably well, loves to glue things and of course, loves to write. I really hope this love of school continues!