What a fast week!

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jer. 29:11

This week has gone by so quickly! I can't believe it's almost Friday already. We have spent a lot of time in the pool this week soaking up the sun. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner have almost all been on the deck this week. Even though it's like 99 degrees outside, it feels great to be out! In the morning it isn't SO BAD, and at lunchtime, I'm still wanting some sun from just getting out of the pool. I'm also trying to get some color on my pasty boy =)

We also decided to paint the guest room, finally, and re- arrange it. I like it MUCH better than ' Atlanta Braves Blue' that was in there. It's now 'toasted coconut'. Yes, you must be a food name to be a color in our house: melted chocolate, peanut butter, bavarian creme, and now toasted coconut! Our house is not all browns/tans though. The toasted coconut was in the orange family actually, our room is a light blueish tealish, one of the bathrooms is bright green, and Landon's room is tan with a turquoise on one wall. we'll eventually paint an accent wall in the guest room too.

We are so happy with life right now. Although the one income thing is tough, especially when we get a little crazy and eat out a few times in a month, we feel so blessed! I love raising Landon, and being with him every day. Even through all of the hard times, we come out alright, and know that we are taken care of. We are just enjoying all of our family time-summer is SO good for that--and are thankful for all of our blessings!

Sweet summertime!

Summer is delicious, rain is refrshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilirating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. --John Ruskin

We had a fabulous time in Memphis last weekend. Landon enjoyed every minute, especially the pool. I'll have to steal some more pics if I see any. I only took a few:

Landon is under that splash. He loved the slide! We tried arm floaties, and he loved them!

I stole this one from Karen.

We finally got the living room and hallway floors down! Now just a few more small things to finish up with it. We didn't get the guest room painted, but we have all summer for that! And we didn't get the kitchen floor laid down during Luke's week off, but we don't think it will take too long to complete.

Landon has gone on the potty at least 1 time every day since last Monday--except Thursday, when he had a Dr appointment. And we didn't try Saturday when we were out of town. I enjoy sitting with him so much. He is a trip, and LOVES to sit on his potty. Hopefully soon, it will click that he needs to use the potty, and will be able to tell us himself!


Tomorrow is my first 'race' since the mini-marathon. It's a 5K in Nolensville. I've been just doing 3.1 a few times a week, so we will see how I do. Hopefully it won't be 106 with humidity in the AM!


I've loved this song for a while now,& still enjoy it!
Listen and enjoy.

Summer fun

Landon and I had fun playing outside this morning while Luke was putting some baseboards back on. I was just turning the sprinkler on to water the flowers and grass, but he ran straight to it and wanted to get wet.
The living and dining rooms have all floors down, and Luke is working on the baseboards getting put back on. We're heading to Memphis in a few minutes, and will have to lay the hallway,and putty & paint the baseboards on Sunday and Monday.

My GroWinG boy

Today was Landon's 18 month check-up. He started his life as a tiny little runt-- 5 pounds and 3 ounces being his lightest weight. He is now almost at 22 1/2 pounds! He continues to jump off of his curve a little more each time. He has spent a LOT of time under the 3%, but is now at 8% in weight. His height is 31.5 inches & his head is 18.2 inches around-- both in the 30%. He looks to be doing great in ever area--even though I was down about him not talking as much as the girls his age or slightly younger. His Dr. said with as many words as he says, he is still above most boys his age. He was also happy that Landon had used the potty at least once every day this week. He said to take full advantage of Landon being interested and enjoying sitting on it, and let him run around without a diaper on. That's exactly our plan! It might take a long while to get there, but 1 pee-pee on the potty a day is 1 less wet diaper to change!

The living room flooring is all down, and the baseboards just need to be put back on. The dining area got to a stopping point last night ALMOST at the end. Luke had to go into work and open at 5AM today, and we're not sure if we have enough to go down the hallway, or if we need to stop at the wall. We didn't originally buy it for these rooms, so that is why we aren't certain. We THINK ,as of now, there is enough. You have to factor in 10% waste, but we don't even have a full plank that we had to waste! When Luke gets off of work today, we are going to lay them all out, and see where it takes us!

The first full week in June =)

Luke normally can't take any vacation during the Spring or Summer. But he has 2 weeks left of vacation, and isn't taking 1 of them until his last possible week--BeAcH in AuGuSt! So, he wrote himself on vacation this week on the schedule, and it was ok! Once it was OK ed, there were some changes in the store--one of the ASMs got moved to Hermitage, the new ASM was suppose to come 2 weeks ago ( and just got here TODAY), but then they switched who they were transferring, moved Luke to another part of the store ( which he DOESN'T look forward to), brought in someone from Murf., and his boss is having surgery this week on his eye. But he still is able to be off until next Monday or Tuesday, and just go in and open 1 or 2 days ( which he can use later on for vacation). So on the agenda for this week:

1) Pull up the old carpet & baseboards in the living room & dining area2) Pull Landon's floor up to add to the LR and DR. * completed*3) Put down the flooring ( in the boxes in this picture). Put the baseboards back on.

4) Finish painting the guest bedroom.

5) Begin potty training! ! !

We had our first pee pee in the potty this morning! He had a wet diaper at the Y, but we drank a sippy cup of juice on the way home, and then sat down for a few minutes and went =) Since we're ripping up the floors, and he is SO fascinated with sitting in chairs right now, and he is enjoying his potty--we're going to try to put it all together. And if it takes a while, it's alright. We just both want it done by 24 months. No rush right now, but figured we'd give it a shot, because we both think he is physically ready, the rest is just TRAINING! It's like the first REAL thing we have to teach him how to do. We're just going to spend a lot of time diaperless in the house, and sit on the potty as much as we can.

6) Mow the grass! *completed* which I did this morning after a great workout, getting some extra calories off!
7) Lay out as much as possible, but hey that's EvErY week here at the Howell House!

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Congrats Trish and Jack on your fabulous wedding this past weekend!

I wish we could have stayed longer at the reception, but Landon fell asleep ON THE DANCE FLOOR. Really?!?!
< The boys!

hhmmmm a constant battle with his blackberry

Summer Summer fun

What a FUN, FULL week! We spent many hours in the pool this week with Landon and Elyssa. Elyssa can now walk on her tip toes and stay up above the water...barely =)
The water has felt wonderful! We also went to see Shrek 3, Landon didn't make a sound the entire time. But he did fall asleep with about 30 minutes left in the movie. We went at nap time though, but he had a good time watching. We're going to try to hit up some of the free movies this summer at Providence or Green Hills. Elyssa and Landon also had fun in the sprinkler in the front yard. Ignore me yelling inthe video--Landon gets confused when he gets squirted in the face. He just stands there trying to catch his breathe instead of moving, and Elyssa had agreed to move him if he did that....and she forgot =)
We also went to get Landon's hair cut at snip-its. And no, we didn't pay the full price, we had a coupon =)We have such a HARD time seeing his hair cut, we love how he looks with long hair. His shorter hair totally changes the way he looks. It's pretty cute though, but I'm tempted just to cut it SHORT so we can mohawk it again. No, I'm not, I just can't! She thinned it out--YES, my 18 month old boy gets his hair thinned =) It's not as bushy now, has some layers, and is a little on the short side! It will grow quickly though.And it's starting to get so much blonder now from the sun!!!

After his hair cut that day, we went to Borders to get a boy potty training book =) Then we made a pitstop at Starbucks for like to get AnOtHeR coffee, and got some chocolate chip cookies to share, and then headed to play at Crockett Park. We also all went to Las Palmas once this week, and had fun ridinging in the double shopping carts at Target and Home Depot. ( The picture and video are pre-haircut). And then on Friday night my mom and sister came to pick up Elyssa. They all swam this morning while I went to go workout at the Y, then we all swam a little bit more before they headed off to the farm for the long weekend. Landon was SO tired from taking short ( 2 hour) naps this week afraid he'd miss something, and waking up at least an hour earlier than normal that he took a FOUR HOUR NAP this afternoon after they left. And he is still worn out, as he is falling all over the floor and laying on the couch right now. I need to get him in bed so he is ready for Sunday School and Church in the morning! We're ready for another FULL week, then off to Trish's wedding in Louisville over the weekend !

For the past 2 weeks, I watched Marlie. Landon loved having a playmate every day. We went to the zoo with Luke one day that he was off of work. It was HOT, and there were too many field trip kids there!


This past Sunday we went to the farm to pick up Elyssa. They played in the baby pool, we grilled out supper, and sat by the fire pit, stayed the night, visited with my parents and grandpa, then headed back Monday morning after breakfast. Luke had to go to work. We're packing our week full of fun stuff. So far we have swam, gone to zumba, IHOP, the splash park, and plenty of movies. And it's only TUESDAY!