My new obsession

I have been obsessing over crocheting lately. I LOVE it. Every night Brandon and I usually just sit and watch a few shows so I just sit there and crochet while we watch and then I feel like I'm getting something done. I'm not perfect at it at all. I'm still learning, but I'm having a lot of fun learning. Here are a few things that I have been able to make in the last couple months.

Here are a few headbands I have made. The bottom one is for the 4th of July. We are heading to a Family reunion and so I made one for each girl/woman that will be at the family reunion.

Here come all my cute models for the rest of the stuff I've made.

Here is a hat that I made for Gray I'm going to make a matching one for Krew but I haven't started it yet. Gray's not too excited to wear hats right now. It could possibly be because of the fact that I made him a winter hat and its like 100 degrees outside here.

This is a hat I made for our nephew. but Krew is just modeling it here for you. I hope it fits our nephew. I just guessed on his size.

Here is our cute little niece wearing a headband I made.

And our niece again and her gorgeous mommy, wearing the matching hats I made them.

A Heck-a-Busy Month!!!!

First of all I haven't even written about easter yet, so I thought I should tell a little about it first. We had a REALLY fun time. The only thing that went wrong is when the easter bunny hid the eggs that we colored around the house the eggs somehow were perspiring and the color on the eggs came off onto the carpet so now we have little color circles on the floor, "thank you easter bunny". The boys really enjoyed their baskets full of candy and toys for the summer. After church we had a few of our really good friends over for dinner and an easter egg hunt. We had a really great time with them as well.

Krew absolutely LOVED dying the eggs.

This was pretty much both of the boys first easter egg hunt. Since last year Gray was born the day before Easter and the year before that Krew was only 9 months old. Poor Krew. He had a BLAST finding the eggs this year!! All Gray wanted to do was open them and eat the candy right away.

Also My dad and Brother came to visit for a day. They were on their way to Virginia and stopped in to say hello. It was so good to see them! I'm glad they were able to come even for the short period of time!

My 25th Birthday was on Cinco De Mayo, and Brandon and Krew woke me up with breakfast in bed. Then Brandon left for school and I didn't see him at all till 10:30 p.m. that night. He had to study for finals so he was at school the ENTIRE day. Yeah I know, "sad for me", but he was able to make it up to me later, so I'll write about it a little further on in the post. A few of my really great friends here heard that I was going to be alone all day on my birthday so they brought me dinner and a cake. I feel so lucky to have such good friends here. Thank you guys!! You really made my birthday!!

Like I said earlier Brandon had finals the first week in May. He was studying a lot, but it certainly payed off. He got GREAT grades this semester. Not straight "A's" but pretty darn close! I'm so proud of him he works so hard. I love when he comes home all excited about something that he learned. I of coarse don't ever really know what he is talking about, but I try to understand and I'm just really glad that he understands and has a passion for the things that he studies. After Brandon's last final on the 6th we drove 7 hours to Kentucky to see Brandon's family. His sister's daughter got baptized that night, it was such a wonderful baptism. I'm so glad we were able to make it. I'm so proud of her and and the decision that she made. She is such a sweet and wonderful little girl.

Saturday, the 7th, Brandon and I went on our first date since February (thanks to my wonderful mother in-law who watched our kids for us). It was so nice to have that time. I started crying while we were on our way to drop them off because I was so excited (I hope that doesn't sound bad I love my kids more than anything but being at home with them that past week... all day... everyday since Brandon was studying and I had no car it definitely did it's toll on me. I was ready for a little space.) For the date we drove to Cincinnati Ohio (like 10 min from where we were) and found the spot that Brandon proposed to me. It's a spot that overlooks the city and the Ohio river. It's GORGEOUS. I'm so glad we were able to go back there. It was nice to just sit there talking about the past almost 5 years that we have been together and how happy we are. (Brandon also wants me to point out that we made out a bit too he says, "the magic isn't dead yet!!") I feel so blessed to have the most wonderful husband in the whole wide world. He is so perfect for me. We compliment each other so well. And if I had to do it all over again I definitely would!!!! I have loved every single moment we have had together. Each moment that we have had has drawn us closer together and I am very grateful for that. I love him so much and I'm so glad that I have eternity to spend with him. After we went to our proposal site we decided to go to Olive Garden and have a little lunch. It was nice to not have screaming kids around us for that moment and be able to just sit and enjoy each other while we ate. Then we got to go back to see our wonderful amazing kids. And play with them the rest of the day.

A fitting place to propose huh? My hubby is amazing!!

P.S. We carved our initials into the rock.

The next day, Sunday, was Brandon's 27th birthday!!/Mothers day/Brandon's twin Brother Barton's baby's blessing. Yes I know it was a BIG day!! We had so much to celebrate. It was such a wonderful day, Brandon and I kept fighting over who got to do what for each other, I kept saying "let me do it it's your birthday", then he would turn back to me and say, "so? It's mothers day!" So pretty much we had to agree on sharing responsibilities just like any other day. But the blessing was beautiful and it was so fun to sit and hold a new born again, it made me excited for our next one. It was also nice to sit and chat with family. It has been a long time since we had seen everyone. I'm glad we were able to go and see these special moments. We were able to stay there till Thursday morning. I'm so grateful for family and the time we were able to spend with them all.

When we got back from Kentucky on Friday we wanted to just relax so we just dropped all the stuff in our room and relaxed. Then that night at 2:30 in the morning Brandon's phone rang. And one of our really good friends called saying that he was stranded in Arkansas He was on the way to pick up his wife at the airport (about 2 hours away) when his car died about half way there. So of course we couldn't let them be stranded Brandon got up and drove to pick him and his wife up and drove back. He got back around 8:00 and we had to go straight to a singing practice, then we had to go to the store since we had been gone for a week and had no food, plus we had invited a bunch of friends to come over for that night to have a BBQ. We then came home and had to take naps, woke up and cleaned and got everything ready for the BBQ and then our friends came over. We had such a fun night eating good food, playing fun games and just hanging out with good friends.

Saturday we sang in a quartet for Stake conference so naturally I don't remember anything that we did that day. I was so nervous all I could think about was the singing. It went well I think. I'm glad that I did it it's WAY out of my comfort zone and I have to be pushed to do things like that every once in a while.

So as you can see things have been a CRAZY month!! So I know this is long but I needed to write it all down. And yes I wrote this a week ago but I have been waiting to get pictures from our trip to Kentucky.

Brandon's 8 Week Challenges

Brandon finished his second 8 week challenge with Mixers Nutrition he started out at 306 lbs with his first 8 week challenge and is now 248 lbs. I know... WOW!!! 58 lbs lost!!! Isn't he AMAZING!!!!? I am seriously so proud of him, he has worked so incredibly hard for this. In between his classes he would run the stairs and/or play racquet ball with some of his classmates at school. He also has been diligently counting his caloric intake. He looks so good and I can tell he feels good too, and he has had a lot more energy it's been fun to watch this change. And now you can all see this change he is finally letting me put pictures of him on here YAY!!!

Before:

After (-58 lbs later):

OK you can stop staring at him I know he looks really good but, he's ALL MINE!!! Way to go babe!! I love you and I am so proud of you and all that you have accomplished!!!

Now I'm going to ask you all to PLEASE go to the mixers nutrition blog and VOTE for him. If he wins he gets a $100 gift card to Foot Locker (or another sporting store). And it would be so awesome if he won. He also wrote his thoughts on this 8 week challenge on the blog so you should go check that out too! I don't want you to vote for him just because I tell you too... I invite all of you to read all the other contestants goals and accomplishments and then vote on the person you feel really deserves to win. However in my opinion (as biased as it may be) is that Brandon is the clear winner!!!

Lights out!

Yesterday and today Brandon's school didn't have power, a huge storm took out power for over 4500 homes in the memphis area... (luckily our power was only out for 2 hours.) But because Brandon didn't have school that meant he was at home with us all day, AWESOME!! We have had so much fun having him home with us. We have been having a great time being able to spend some quality time as a family. Yesterday we went to the park and Brandon played disc golf with a friend while we walked with them. It was nice to get out and get some exercise. And then today we went bowling, this was Krew's first time bowling and he did a GREAT job. Every time we would try to help him he would say "No I don't need any help I can do it by myself." a few times he wanted to try with out using the ball ramp to help it roll, and he actually did fairly well. Gray even took a few turns and he actually got a strike. Gray is much better than me and he is only a year old. After Gray would roll the ball he would try to run after it. it was really cute he wanted to do everything by himself too. Here are a few pictures of these last couple of days.

When we were leaving the bowling alley the manager turned to Krew and said "would you like to take home one of the pins that you busted?" Krew was really excited and loves it except it's really heavy so he can only hold it for a few seconds.

Interview with Krew

Today we decided to have a little interview with Krew, he was being so funny and cute so we decided to record it. It reminds me of when I was little and my parents would record us having interviews with my dad after church. Here is the interview that we had with him.

Also lately Krew has been getting his play phone and saying "Super Why is calling" Then having a full conversation "with Super Why" I was able to catch a little of the conversation that he usually has. P.S. Super Why is a show on PBS.

"Bear"ton Graham Turns 1

A year ago Barton Graham Sloan was born. Here he is then:

And here he is now!

I can't believe how fast this year went by... It seems like just yesterday that we brought Gray home from the hospital, 6 lbs 15 oz, 18 1/2 inches. And now he is 22 lbs and 29 inches long and running all over the place, kicking balls, throwing balls, clapping, he says Mama and Dada he likes to tease me with this one every time I say "say Mama" he'll look at me and say "Dada" and then laugh. He has a big appetite he pretty much eats more than Krew at every meal. He loves to play with Krew and tackle him, he sure does love his big brother he follows him around EVERYWHERE!!

The following pictures are all from the birthday bash that we threw for him yesterday. It was so much fun to put together. As you can probably tell we centered it on a panda bear theme and trust me the cupcakes are way more work than they seem.

In this picture you can't really tell, but it is one photo from each month of Gray's first year...

The party hats are suppose to be little "chinaman" hats with panda ears...

Close up of the cupcakes...

Such excitement from the birthday boy with "mama" and "dada"...

Gray wasn't able to blow out the candle all by himself but he sure wanted to give it a kiss...

Then he wanted to be all gentlemanly with the eating...

Dada wanted to get things a little more exciting...

Wait is that Gray or a Mafia member?

I want more CAKE!!!!

Finger licking good...

Sugar overload, body shutting down!!!!

With an older brother and a few friends, Gray didn't even need to open up his own presents...

The Birthday Band...

Just Me and My Dada...

Just Me and My Mama...