Been a while...

Sorry I'm not posting too often anymore - or maybe y'all are cheering out there. HA!

What can I update all of you on?

Well, my amazing grandma turned 75 this past Sunday. The Sunday before we had a huge surprise birthday party for her at Gloria's at Firewheel in Garland. To give you an idea on the size of our family we had the entire upstairs to ourselves...and filled it up. She was so surprised and grateful that EVERYONE was there! It was incredible. Every time we have family get togethers I realize how truly blessed I am. I remember growing up and people telling me they had 2 cousins that lived many states away that they saw maybe every 5 years. What?!?! I thought everyone had a family like mine. Loud, fun, exciting, hilarious... did I mention loud? My grandma had 9 kids (God bless her, right?) and almost every child had at least 2 kids. I have truly lost count but have somewhere around 20 cousins on that side. It's amazing! Anyways, this experience reminded me how lucky I am to have such a great family and it makes me sad for those who did not get to experience that growing up. I keep trying to point out to Garrett (who loves our huge fam) that we don't want to be old with only a few kids and grandkids surrounding us do we? Do NOT misread that - I definitely could not handle 9 kids but maybe 3 instead of the 2 my husband wants? We'll see... Anyways, here are some pics from the "Gerber Reunion/Grandmama's 75th Bday Party"!

So today is my "Friday". We leave for the beach tomorrow morning. I am SO excited! I cannot wait to see my adorable nephews and I know Garrison is craving some cousin time as is Will (my oldest nephew). I just love seeing them together. I can only imagine what it will be like in 10 years with them wanting to go walk the beach (aka look at girls) to which I'm sure KiKi and I will say, "Sure, just let us get our shoes on and we'll join y'all!" HAHAHAHAHA! Here are a few pics of our beach vacation last year...

My husband makes me laugh so hard. I mean really makes me laugh. This morning I had my hair pulled back a little differently - nothing crazy - just top part pulled back and I'm wearing it wavy today. I leaned down to kiss him goodbye and he said, "Bye Sackagaweeah!" What?!?!? I had no idea what he was talking about. He then told me I looked like an Indian (I don't give a crap about being PC so I mean the feather in the head kind of Indian) with my hair that way. I had to just sit there and laugh at him. First of all I'm glad I am the kind of wife who didn't storm out all pissed off at him and that I can actually laugh when he makes fun of me. Second of all, I LOVE that he is honest with me. Can't say we have a lack of communication, right? (Well, except for the time we showed up at different restaurants for lunch - HA!)

I'm super proud of myself for working out every day as of last weekend. I have done my Jillian Michaels (Biggest Loser coach) dvd every day and gone to the gym twice so far. I feel SO much better when I work out. Only downfall? Increased appetite - damn, being a girl is hard. Oh well. I'm hoping to keep it up even on vacation but we'll see how that goes.

Speaking of Jillian, for all you Bachelor watchers out there, I'm learning that I am one of the only ones who is happy that Jillian picked Ed. He is so real and I love that! Everyone else seemed to want Kypton to win but he has a serious problem kissing. Every time he would kiss her I had to turn my head or risk vomitting in my mouth. GROSS!

Anyways, I'm outta' here. Y'all have a great weekend and I'll update soon!

Love,

Jewels*

Finally, 4th, Dogs, Parenting

Hey y'all!

I am going to apologize for my peppiness (real word?) ahead of time. I FINALLY dragged my ass out of bed to work out this morning. Yep - 4:30 came early but what is my other choice? Unless I want to take time away from Garrison at night I only have the option of going to the gym in the morning. After only 6 hours of sleep I have to say I still have so much energy after working out. Hopefully this is the start of getting back into my gym routine... we'll see! Oh and on the way to work this morning I saw an incredible lightning show. No rain - just awesome lightning streaks all across the sky - beautiful!

We had a great 4th weekend! I was just glad we didn't have to be anywhere at a certain time, different from past few weekends where we were constantly going. We went to Wylie fireworks show Thursday night with my friend Julia and her kiddos Mark and Shelby. Friday Garrett and I went to see The Hangover and while it is completely vulgar it is by far one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. We hung out with my parents that afternoon and evening. Dad grilled out steaks and we had game night. Garrett and I were the winning team - yay! On Saturday we went to McKinney to visit the in-laws and some family that was in town. We rode out there in Garrett's Jeep. WHY we thought that would be a good idea I have no clue. The 100 something degree heat definitely got to us. And then as if that wasn't dumb enough we proceeded to go to the car show in downtown. Oy vey... But we did hit the Allen outlet malls where my mother-in-law introduced me to my new favorite store - Burke's. It was incredible. Think slightly downscale TJ Maxx or Marshalls. They have name brands for SO cheap. I got 2 hats ($7 each) and some jewelry (like $3 each) and PJs for Garrison ($5 each). I was so excited. And Bass was having a huge sale so Garrett got some much needed shorts for $13 a piece. This is the great part. He was at Ralph Lauren at first and called me and said he wanted to get these $40... you heard me 40 DOLLAR shorts. What?! Was he crazy? Pretty sure I just bought my summer shorts at Wal Mart for $15. I know that sounds WT but really now... I told him to just hold on and we'd go look together. So we went into Bass and voila - shorts on sale! He was happy we shopped around. Hello - doesn't he know I know best when it comes to deal finding? :)

Last night Garrett and I watched that A&E show, I Survived. Ever seen it? It's great! Anyways, one of the stories on there had me crying like a baby. This woman was an avid runner. She had a 3 year old dog named Taz that she rescued from a shelter a few years before. For all you dog lovers this is NOT a sad story - nothing happens to the dog, trust me! Anyways, to shorten the story they went on a run in Utah and she slipped on some ice and fell 60 feet down a canyon and shattered her pelvis and had severe internal bleeding. Her dog ran around and around and finally made his way down to the bottom of the canyon. After a couple days of her dragging herself with her upper body alone she realized she was not going to make it out of there alive unless she got help. It was 20 below 0 at night time. Finally she turned to her dog and said she actually looked him in the eyes and told him to go get help. She said her dog looked at her like he totally understood what she was saying and then took off. A few hours later her dog came running back. She was at her lowest point by then and she was crying. She said her dog literally licked all the tears off her face as if to tell her it would be okay. She then heard the motor of a car and a man came to her and said, "That's some dog you have there!" HOW GREAT IS THAT? For those people out there who don't think dogs understand what you're saying or that they have no real connection with humans argue that! It made me realize how great dogs are and the true comfort and joy they can bring to our lives. Here are my dogs Sox and Tex with Garrison- love these babies!

Friends often ask me how Garrison turned out so good. We are very lucky to have a sweet, well behaved son. Since this is a blog where I am speaking to whoever wants to listen I wanted to give a few tips on why I think Garrison turned out so well. I think parenting is a very simple concept that takes patience and a go with the flow attitude. And now for my unsolicited advice (haha). Five words - consistency, discipline, laid back, patience, and most of all LOVE!

Garrett and I are super consistent - from routine to discipline to schedules and we co-parent together really well, thank God. We never contradict what the other one says in front of Garrison.

Discipline can and should be used at a very young age. We started timeouts when Garrison was 1. Trust me - when you tell them no and they look at you and laugh and then go do that same thing again while still looking at you, they know what "no" means.

Be laid back. Your child (from the time they're born) can feel the tension in your body when you hold them.

DO NOT LET THEM SLEEP IN BED WITH YOU! Please!!! That will affect your marriage (hello!) and will never allow your child to be independent. It's okay to let them cry sometimes - they don't always need to be held.

Some of that may sound harsh but trust me - it works. I have one of the sweetest, most affectionate, loving, trusting son I could ever ask for! I'm SO not bragging on my parenting skills or saying I'm perfect - just trying to help any new parents out there or those that may feel like they just need some extra advice.

Well, I'm hopping off my soap box now! Have a great day! Here are two pics of Garrison - when he was a baby and now. WOW - time goes by fast. For all you parents out there PLEASE enjoy every second you have with them!

Jewels*