Feb. 10, 2009 - After months of silence, Myklin emerges from the land of the neglectful bloggers!

My word.  I am getting old.  Time is truly only going faster and faster every single year of my life.  My grandmother told me when I had my 10th birthday that once I hit those double digits, it would be all down here from there...  Little did I know how right she was.  To say that I'm shocked that it's been so long since I last posted would be quite the understatement.  My head is just spinning these days.

I cannot begin to catch everyone up fully on all that has transpired these last 9 months or so, nor would everyone like to know all of the itty bitty details of our little lives, but suffice it to say we have been moving at break-neck speed.  It seems that things are settling down somewhat for the time being, though.  And for that, we are extremely thankful! 

So, how about just a quick little family update? 

Health-wise, we are ALL doing well.  Praise God, Travis is just doing fantastically.  Between the two of us, we were in the hospital 5 separate times, not including 2 emergency room runs that didn't result in being admitted over night last year.  I don't even think I ever told you all that during all of Travis's health trauma last year, my appendix decided to rupture, resulting in a 5 day-long hospital stay and then two weeks later another 3-day stay due to an infection that I developed from the appendectomy.  What a wild year!  Thankfully, the Lord healed and sustained us through it all and has blessed us above and beyond anything we ever could hope for.

Travis is still working and going to school, and is set to (finally!) graduate in May.  He plans to pursue his Master's as well, but hasn't decided on a school just yet.  He is still my heart song and the love of my life.  I continually marvel at how lucky (blessed) I am to be married to such a kind, loving and strong man.   

Little Clarkey is now 2 years old and really not that little anymore.  Can you believe it?  It feels like yesterday that I was posting blog entries about Baby V and wondering what day he would make his appearance.  He is now talking up a storm and keeping us in stitches at his antics and great sense of humor.  His favorite meal is beans and "bread-corn" (cornbread) and he truly is all BOY, which is evident by his favorite past times: the great outdoors, dogs, cars (he has a hard time understanding when we're in a parking lot why we can't just get into any car he likes and drive away in it), FOOD, his stuffed bear and any book he can get his hands on.  We so proud of him.

And with that, I will leave you for now with a few of our favorite pictures taken by a dear friend of ours.  Hopefully next time it won't be next year when I post again!

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Nov. 19, 2007 - Where did October go anyway?

Hey there!

Well, yeah.  So it's pretty much going on 2 months since ya'll last heard from me.  (My, my!  Does this life never slow down? ;)  Really, all's been quite well with the Vinsons these days, minus some of that sickly flu junk going around.  My husband is working, working, working, and when he's not doing that he's schooling, schooling, schooling.  I am blessed beyond words to have such a diligent, hard-working, selfless man as he.  We are both excited to be nearing the end of our semesters.  We have big plans to rip out our dated old carpet in the living room and hallway as soon as school is out and replace it with some lovely engineered hard wood floors.  We cannot WAIT.  It'll be our Christmas present to each other this year.  I'll have to post before and after pictures so ya'll can see the beautiful transformation that will be taking place. ;)

Now, onto all of the fun new antics of our bouncing 10-month old boy...

Clarke is truly growing and developing in leaps and bounds. (And yes, I am following close behind him as he leaps and bounds from wall to wall! )  Every day I'm amazed at the new thing he's learning.  For instance, he's picking up sign language now.  He's getting better at asking us for more to eat.  It's precious!  

He's also toddlin' all around these days, gettin' into literally everything.  He has almost convinced himself that walking is more fun and nearly as fast as crawling.  But, until this revelation truly hits him, he'll still do a combination of crawling and walking. 

Clarke has decided that he is such a big boy when he sits in his rocking chair.  He'll sit for the longest time and rock back and forth.  (His daddy and I love those moments of stillness because he rarely stops long enough to stay in one place for very long. )

 Also, he simply ADORES his daddy!  He'll chant to himself "Da da da" and make a be-line for the door when he hears the garage door open every afternoon when Travis comes home.  He's usually standing in the kitchen, waiting excitedly and squealing with delight when his Daddy walks in.  This is their chase each other around the house, wrestle and play time and Clarke knows it.  I love sitting back and watching my boys have such a great time together.

Now, did we name our son Clarke, or Mr. Friendly?  Our little man is SUCH a people person!  There's hardly one person that he won't talk to or give a huge ol' smile.  My goodness, he just won't stop flirting with and charming all the ladies.  (*whispering*  Hopefully that part will only be a phase.... :)

As my dear boy is now needing some attention, I shall have to close this entry.  We are anxiously anticipating the start of the holiday season this week.  We are planning on spending some time with TX family, thinking of our dear KS family and hopefully just enjoying time together as our own little family of three.

May God bless you all and keep you safe this Thanksgiving!  May you take the time to reflect on all of the Lord's wondrous blessings.

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Sep. 27, 2007 - And there he goes!

From crawling...

...to walking!!

Okay, so he's not ready for any marathons just yet, but after all, he's only 8 months old.   He's been able to stand alone for short periods of time for about a month now, as well as take a couple steps on his own, but Sunday he figured out he could take a couple MORE steps all by himself!  His fear of falling is fading fast, but now it's time for his mommy to start worrying about that.

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Sep. 5, 2007 - I miss blogging

Ahhhh, for the days of yore when I used to be able to find time to actually blog...

*little sigh*

*big grin*

Of course, running hither thither and yon all day after my nearly walking baby boy is something I wouldn't replace for anything.  In the mean time, I guess the luxury of blogging will just have to wait.

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Apr. 16, 2007 - Picture Parade

Well, hello again! 

I'm a bit later in posting than I'd like, but I'm just glad to be able to spare a few minutes to write!  Clarke is sleeping at the moment so I thought I'd take advantage of the ability to type with 2 hands.  

We've had some fun times these last several weeks, including the celebration of Travis and I's birthdays!  It's really great because my birthday is on the 9th of April and Trav's is on the 10th.  We get to do a lot of fun things around those dates and just call them celebrations in honor of both of our special days.   My sweetheart surprised me on my birthday by taking the day off of work so he could spend it with me.  It was so awesome!  He took me out to eat, then clothes shopping, over to Blockbuster to pick up a movie and then back home to watch it together.  *grin*  It was the nicest present he could have given me.  My baby's truly the bestest.

Here's a picture Clarke and I took for Daddy's birthday so that he could have a photo of us while he's hard at work at the office...

Mommy and Clarke

The next day I made us Chicken Fajitas (one of my hubby's favorite meals) and tried my hand at an icecream cake for Travis' b-day dinner.  I couldn't believe how fun and and how easy making that cake was!  I just used crushed up Butterfinger's and drizzled Hershey's syrup over that for the bottom layer, then coffee icecream, hot fudge for the 3rd layer, then a layer of whipped cream, then some vanilla iceream, more whipped cream, the last of the crushed up Butterfinger's on top and then I drizzled Hershey's syrup over that.  And my word a'mercy...all I can say is YUMMO!!!!    I was experimenting with what I thought might taste good and was surprised it actually turned out.  But, I suppose you really can't go wrong with icecream and candy, can you?  


Then, after Travis and I recovered from a MAJOR sugar high, we celebrated our baby boy's 3-month old birthday on the 11th!  (Granted, we didn't really celebrate as much as we just told Clarke it was his birthday and that we couldn't believe he was already 3-months old. ) 

And, of course, a post wouldn't be complete without a few more sweet pics of our little man!

Checkin' out his favorite hanging farm animals

Gettin' the hang of his walker

A happy little walker boy

Playing on his belly

Bundled warm, cute and cozy during the totally bizzare cold spell that hit

All smiles in Auntie Regan's arms


Oh, and now I'm back to 1-handed typing cause my buddy's awake.  I must be off!  God bless ya'll, my friends.

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Dec. 15, 2006 - Christmas time is coming!

With a deep feeling of relief and supreme satisfaction, I happily close the book on yet another college semester.  *whew*   At 8:00 last night I finished my last final and found that I suddenly had a much wider smile on my face and a bigger spring in my step as I was walking out to the car (weeeell, as much "spring" in my step as a 9-month pregnant woman can have, that is! ).  I'm so thankful that my husband encouraged me to take one more semi-full semester before Baby V. is born.  The busy schedule kept me quite occupied and made these last few months of pregnancy FLY by.  Now, I intend to continue to plug away at earning my teaching degree as life allows, but nothing too intense.  The goal is still to earn my Bachelor's, but I know it will take a while.  When the time comes, I think I'll stick with the online courses as much as I can or possibly one evening class a week if needed.  However, my first priorities will always remain my husband and precious child and caring for their needs.  That is why next semester I'm definitely sitting out, and from there, we'll just see how things go... *smile*  In the mean time, I'm so grateful for the opportunity I've had this year to expand my knowledge and pursue this goal I've always hoped for. 

So, now that school is over (ahhhh, it still feels so good to say that!), I'm now looking forward to Christmas shopping (eh, I pretty much haven't gotten ANY of it done *sheepish*), Christmas baking (yummy!), baby room decorating (we have things to fill up his room with now, thanks to all of the wonderful people who gave us gifts at the baby shower!, house cleaning and organizing (we already have far too much STUFF, and we've only been married a little over a year! ), focusing some more on the Heart of Virtue business, and doing a little more blogging, reading and relaaaaaaxing. It's just nice not to have that gut feeling all the time that I have some project due, presentation to work on, or paper to write.  Ahhh, praise the Lord for breaks!

And on another note, I just have to say that our Christmas tree sure makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I look at it... *sigh*

 

And yes, ladies and gentleman...we are now entering the last month of pregnancy!  'Tis the final stretch that lays out before us...  I can hardly believe how drastically our lives will change in the next few weeks.  I look at our baby room and try to imagine our son sleeping there in his bed, and I still cannot quite fathom it.  I am nervous in a verrrrry excited, anticipation sort of way!  It's kind of that feeling I had when I was kid, looking forward to a big trip, or birthday or something, only much greater.  It's almost a giddy feeling at times!    On Tuesday I go in for my last ultrasound at the dr's, so it should be very fun to actually SEE what our little guy looks like these days, although, he's quickly becoming not so little anymore!   I'll be sure to post his latest pic here when I get it.

I'll close with the promise of more to come as the days go by, as well as with a picture of me and my sweet cousin from her visit along with my folks this last weekend, which was loads of fun, by the way...

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Dec. 7, 2006 - Taking a couple minutes...

...To update ya'll on the Vinson household these days!  

Life is going very well here...and very fast!  I'm so pleased to say that Travis is now enrolled in a couple college classes for the spring semester - 100% of tuition and 50% of books paid for by the awesome company that he works for.  Woo hoo!!    Isn't God good??  I'm so excited for Travis.  He has three years behind him already of college going towards his degree (In Manufacturing Engineering Technologies to be precise - doesn't that just sound super SMART? ), so he's got a huge chunk of it already finished.  Of course, working full time, and being a husband and new daddy won't allow him to take a huge load of classes, but it's still a blessing from the Lord that he gets this opportunity. 

Meanwhile, I've been working diligently this last week of regular classes at the college.  I finished a big presentation for my teaching class yesterday, I have a test for Algebra this afternoon and then all I have left are finals next week.  I really can't wait to be through.  And it's not that I haven't enjoyed school very much, but I'm just very ready for a break.  Last semester I was a little sad to see the school year end, but this time I'm totally physched for it!  Having school finished means so much more this year....the holidays are approaching, family will be coming to visit, Travis is starting school, and most importantly, our little son's birthday is "pending."

Speaking of Baby V, Travis and I absolutely adore him already.  He makes us laugh all the time and can entertain us for quite a while.  I think when he gets the hiccups it's sooooo cute!  I wish I could actually see him hiccuping.  It's totally silly I know, but I think a lot about how wonderful it could be if my belly was translucent so that we could watch him growing, changing and moving inside me.  *grin*  Oh well, that sounds a bit "science fictiony" to really be wishing for, eh?  It's all for the best anyway.  It's going to be well worth the wait to see him in person, Lord-willing in another month or so.  

Also, Baby V's being thrown a shower Monday night and I know he's got to be plenty excited about it!   His nursery theme is little teddy bear cowboys, with red and blue bandanas.  Here's the bedding and nursery decor we're wanting to use...(Isn't it sweet?!)



The highlight of this week is the upcoming visits from family and friends from Kansas.  I'm excited to see everyone!  My Dad, Mom, and cousin Sarah are all coming in tomorrow for my "sister-in-love's" wedding reception on Saturday.  They're even staying through the weekend for Baby V's shower as well.  Also, our dear, long-time family friends, the Cowens, will be in town for Kristen's reception as well.  It will fun to get to visit with such dear friends and family. 

And with the thought of Kansas running through my mind, I have to mention that I ran across a great post from a fellow blogger friend of mine, Momwtrmn, that reminds me, once again, of all of the differences between Kansas and Texas.  Ya'll have to take a look at this map of the United States that shows what people from different states call *ahem* "carbonated beverages" and let me know if you're a "Coke," "Pop," or "Soda" person.  Most everyone down here calls it "Coke", but I always grew up calling it "Pop."  Isn't that funny?  Back when I was waitress, whenever someone asked me for a "Coke" I would say, "Oh, I'm sorry, we don't have any Coca Cola.  We only serve Pepsi."  Every now and then I would get someone who would respond, "Oh, that's what I meant."  It made me smile and wonder if they were originally from some place other than Kansas!

And now, back by popular demand... Here is the requested profile belly picture.
(And ya'll, I was truly trying NOT to bow my back, but it seems to be perpetually curved that way these days. )


34 Weeks - Nearly 9 Months Along

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Nov. 30, 2006 - Heart of Virtue Christmas Sale

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Nov. 28, 2006 - Currently, I am...

• Studying my little brains out for exams, taking tests, and writing papers...
  

• Getting the house ready for Baby V's arrival, including room swapping and completely re-arranging furniture...
  

• Setting up our beautiful Christmas tree (and our total of 2 other holiday decorations )...
  

• Arranging details so that Travis can enroll in college classes this spring to finish his degree... (I am so excited for him!!)

• Working in as many nap times and extra hours of sleep at night as possible, as well as huffing and puffing for every little breath I take... (Yep, definitely entering that slow-moving, big momma stage! )
  

• Registering for precious little baby things...
  

• Looking forward to the end of school, Christmas, visits from sweet family members, New Year's and then the beginning of a whole new life with the addition to our little family... *smile & sigh*
  

• Starting weekly visits to the doctor until the baby arrives...

• Trying to work up enough energy to keep exercising a little bit...
  

• Growing a bigger boy in my belly (and therefore, growing a bigger belly) almost daily, it seems! 

• Feeling like my ribs are our hyper-active little guy's own personal punching bag...

• Praising the Lord for giving me such a loving husband, wonderful family and caring friends... 
  

God bless you all!

P.S.  And don't worry, all of you who have been asking... Another belly picture is coming soon.

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Nov. 21, 2006 - A Sweet Little Couple

Still not a lot of time for lengthy posts these days (just a couple more weeks of school left, though! ),
but I wanted to put a picture up of my new brother in law and his sweet wife...


~ Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Peoples ~
~ November 17, 2006 ~

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