2007

With this being the last day of the year, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on this past year. I really started 2007 off with a bang. On the 15th of January, Tayson was born! This has been the most wonderful thing I could've ever experienced. Everyday this year was just so exciting and new with him!!! Words can't explain the overwhelming love and bond that I feel for him.

On January 18th, Justin's grandma, June, passed away unexpectedly. We were very close to her and this was a very hard time for us. Just having had Tayson was the only thing that helped everyone through this tough time.

In March, Justin and I celebrated our 2nd Anniversary!!! In May, Tayson and I went with my mom and sisters to Michigan to see my cousin graduate from college. This was Tayson's first big trip and we had a great time getting to see family that we really don't get to see often enough.

On July 1st, I celebrated my 24th birthday. While this wasn't a very exciting, Justin's 25th birthday was July 9th! I threw him a HUGE birthday and it was so much fun. I bought him 25 gifts for every year of his life...that was lots of fun!!!

On August 23rd, we lost Justin's grandpa to cancer. Having just lost his grandma in January, this was probably one of the hardest things we have been through together. We spent so much time with his grandparents that we were left with a void in our lives. This was definitely the worst part of 2007!

In September, my brother-in-law, Billy, went back to Iraq. He is in the US Marine Corp and this is his second tour of duty. While I hate it when he is gone, I love that my sister moves back home while he is gone. They are stationed in Twentynine Palms, CA so I don't get to see her all that often.

At the beginning of November, one of my best friends lost her sister. We grew up together and her family is like my family!

In December, my baby sister turned 16!

These experiences, both good and bad, were the big things that made up my life this year. I pray that 2008 can be filled with good health, wealth and happiness for everyone!!!

Tayson's first Christmas!!!

I know this blog is really late, but I thought maybe if I got it in before the New Year, it would still be okay! I have just been crazy busy at work, it seems like everyone wants to close their loans before the end of the year. Anyways...this was Tayson's first Christmas and it was wonderful! I truly love Christmas time and having him here to share it with, made it a million times better!!!

I don't know if I ever mentioned this before or not, but Tayson is the first, and only, grandbaby on either side of our families. So...he is just a "little bit" spoiled and I must say, it is ALL the grandmas! :)

He had such a wonderful Christmas and got some really neat toys and very cute clothes. I told Justin that we may have to really start seriously discussing building a new house before we are completely out of room. With Tayson's birthday being in January, I can only imagine where we are going to put everything!

Our Christmas started on Monday evening when we went to Justin's mom and dad's house for dinner. We had such a good time and Tayson enjoyed getting to see Aunt Jaclyn(Justin's sister who lives in Atlanta).

When we left there, we went to my Aunt Becky's house and opened gifts and had some awesome desserts! She made this chocolate cheesecake ball that was to die for!

On Christmas morning, my family and Justin's family all came over to see what Santa had left for Tayson and watch him open his gifts from mommy and daddy! We all ate breakfast and watched Tayson play with his new gifts. He had such a good time showing everyone his toys, he is such a ham!

Later that morning, we went to Justin's grandparents house on his dad's side and visited for a little while. We weren't able to spend a lot of time there but we wanted to go by and see everyone. After that, we went to my mom and dad's house and had Christmas dinner with my family and opened our gifts. I got lots of cute clothes, which were much needed. I have had a hard time finding stuff to wear to work this winter and I couldn't really figure out what happened to all of my stuff or why I didn't like any of the stuff that I have, then I realized, I was pregnant all last winter and only bought maternity clothes so it has really been 2 years since I bought any new work clothes. So...now I am in business!

Santa also made a stop at my mom and dad's house...Tayson got a wagon and a rocking horse! He especially loves the horse, he named him Trigger (actually PaPa did!). He knows that if you squeeze his ear, he moves his head and tail and makes noise. It is so amazing to me how much his is picking up on things now!

Well...I know this blog has gotten REALLY long so I will stop for now! I don't have a lot of Christmas pics with me at the office right now but I promise I will post more later. Here are just a few...

Random...

I know it has been awhile since I blogged but time seems to be flying by me right now. There is so much that I have wanted to blog about and I just haven't gotten around to it.

First off...The Razorbacks got a new coach! I know that this is old news to everyone by now, but I am so excited about this. I am a HUGE Razorback fan and think that this is just so great for our team!!! I can't wait for football season to start now!




To show just how much I adore the Razorbacks, I have posted some pictures of Tayson's nursery...








Last week Justin and I decided that we were going to take Tayson to see Santa. So...we got him all dressed up in his little Santa suit, and headed to the mall. Little did we know, it was pet night. There were dogs everywhere! Tayson loved that part. However, when we got up there to see the big man himself, Tayson was not so thrilled.

Needless to say, mommy ended up sitting on Santa's lap, holding Tayson!

On Thursday night, we went out to dinner with Grandma, PaPa, Aunt Taylor, Aunt Ally and Beau for Ally's 16th Birthday. We had so much fun and, knock on wood, Aunt Ally is doing so good at driving. So far, the FJ is still in one piece!!


On Sunday night, our friends Jen, Justin and their son Cole came over for dinner and to exchange our Christmas gifts. One of the things they got us was this really cute Razorback ornament...

They also got Tayson a really neat picture of the Razorbacks for his bedroom...I LOVE this pic!

We also got our first taste of Christmas with Tayson. I was really worried that he wouldn't be that excited about opening his gifts but acutally, he was a pro!!



Monday night was Justin's company Christmas party. Actually, this is kind of funny because he and his dad are the company! So, really it was just us going out to dinner with Grammy and PaPa H. They brought Tayson an early Christmas present to open so, again, we got more practice!!!


On Tuesday night, The Pecks came over and we did our Christmas exchange with them. I know this is starting to sound like a broken record, we keep doing the same thing over and over again. It is just hard getting together right at Christmas time because people go out of town and are just so busy this time of year! They got Tayson this really cool walker/scooter, that will hopefully help him get more interested in walking. Right now, he has absolutely NO interest! He would rather mommy or daddy carry him, or just crawl there himself. He really did have fun playing with his new toy, at least until he realized that we got Kaid a nerf gun! Then, that was far more exciting than his walker!!!




Anyways, I will stop rambling about what has been going on in our lives now! I hope that everyone is enjoying the Christmas season as much as we are!!!

Santa is busy!

My mom got Tayson this really cute Santa outfit and I decided that I was going to try and take pictures of him in it. However, he had a different idea. Have you ever tried to take a decent picture of a 10 month old? He wasn't having any part of it! Everytime I thought I had his attention, he would look away. Finally, I set him in his high chair so that he would have no choice but to look at me (or so I thought). So...here are some of the random shots.















On another note, my sister will be 16 in less than a week now. Thursday, December 13th is her birthday. I am posting this as some what of a warning to those of you who live and drive around the Fayetteville area. It has been a long time since I learned how to drive, and I guess I sort of forgot how difficult it may have been. She is getting much better, but still needs lots of work!

When they first began looking for her a car, she immediately decided that she wanted a Toyota FJ Cruiser. My parents told her that this was probably not going to happen since this was the first year they were made and it would be too expensive for her first car. However, secretly, I knew that if she wanted it, she would get it! Remember, she is the baby!!! So...it has been a big suprise for the past couple of weeks, but on Sunday, the cat was let out of the bag.

We were all over at my mom and dad's house, including her boyfriend, Beau, who was in on this and has been teasing her for months now about knowing what she was getting and how she might be a little disappointed. My mom told her that we were going to go ahead and celebrate her birthday then, since we were all there. She started out by opening up a little FJ Crusier (like a hot wheels car). My mom told her that she would just have to make due with that until she graduated from high school and they could get her one. Next, she opened up a black t-shirt that said "Got FJ Cruiser?". At this point, she was really thinking we were all evil! Finally, she opened up the box with the key and this is the picture I took...




Here is a picture of the car. On a side note...I have always thought these cars were rather ugly, but I think it is growing on me! Anyways...Happy Birthday Ally, We LOVE YOU!!!

O' Christmas Tree...O' Christmas Tree

This weekend I decided to start decorating for Christmas. Realizing, right away, that I did not have nearly enough stuff to cover the tree! We got a new tree last year but I guess because I was 8 months pregnant and didn't really want to mess with it, I was okay with a half-naked tree! Needless to say, I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and took care of this problem! I bought LOTS of new ornaments, bows, and beads. While I was there, I decided that Tayson really needed his own "little" tree for his room. He helped me pick out some ornaments and decorations to put on it. We found the perfect place for it in his bedroom, where he can still reach it to take all of the ornaments off and throw them on the floor. I turned over the top to his storage ottoman and it fits there just perfectly! Here are some pictures of us decorating it! (Don't mind the mismatched PJs...that is what happens when Daddy gets him dressed)

7 Random Things

Amy tagged me with this. I'm supposed to list 7 random things about myself.

Here are the rules:
Link to the person that tagged you.
Share 7 random or weird facts about yourself.
Tag 7 people with their links at the end of the post, and then scout them out to let them know they've been tagged. (I may or may not do this step - so if you reading this and I tagged you - surprise!)

Here goes:
1. I love for Tayson to sleep in the bed with Justin and I. I know, everyone tells me I will regret it, but I just can't imagine that! He loves to cuddle up next to me, and I love it! I have actually gotten to where I cannot sleep if he is not in the bed with me.

2. I graduated from college when I was 20. My birthday is in July so, I graduated in May and then turned 21 in July. It is really wierd to not even be the legal drinking age, but have a college degree.

3. With that being said in the random fact before, I don't drink! I just never have had any desire. I honestly have never been drunk. I have tasted a few drinks but never liked anything! I'll just stick to my Coke!!! People find this extremely hard to believe.

4. I am a BIG tight wad! I love to save money and invest it in different things!

5. This is probably going to be really funny, following the post before, but...I love to shop! I don't shop just to buy things...I actaully love to just go and look. Yes, I do buy, I just enjoy it so much more if I feel like I am getting a good deal!

6. I only wear dress pants from Victoria's Secret. Not on purpose, I just fell in love with these pants. I wear dress pants to work, nearly everyday, and I love their Christie fit pants. I am only 5'5 1/2 but I have really long legs. I have to wear their 36'' inseam (If you have long legs, you know how hard this is to find). I have these pants in: red, light pink, dark grey, light grey, black, brown pin stripe, winter white, winter white with purple stripes, and after Christmas: navy, chocolate brown and another pair of black! If you wear dress pants a lot, you should really try these...you can wear them all day and they still look like they are straight from the dry cleaners!

7. I don't cook! Honestly, my mom always cooked when I was growing up and I just never learned how. I have tried on occasion to cook something but it is always a disaster. I really enjoy baking things like brownies, cookies, cupcakes, etc. but, those too, usually don't turn out that great! It is really funny because my little sister was helping my mom make a list of what all we were going to have for Thanksgiving and what my grandma and aunts were bringing and I said "I'll bring something" my little sister looked at me and said "no, that's okay, I think we'll have enough." The truth of the matter is, she knows what it would turn out like! I am actually really fortunate because my husband loves to cook and is an awesome cook!

I tag Angie and Shelley

Weekend Recap...

Friday night Justin and I had a date night. My mom and dad watched Tayson and we went out to dinner and went over to the casino. We had a lot of fun just getting away and enjoying our time together. On a side note, I have a really hard time being away from Tayson, I always feel guilty. Does anyone else experience this? I don't know if it is because I work all week and feel as if I should spend every free second with him??? However, I know that Justin and I need some quality time together too!

On Saturday, Tayson and I went to Gymboree for the first time. This is a new play gym that opened in Bentonville. Tayson had SOOOOO much fun! There were only 3 babies in his class but they had a blast together! If you are looking for something that you can do with your baby, I recommend this!!! Saturday night, we went with Ryan, Amber and Matt to the Lights of the Ozarks in Fayetteville. Tayson really enjoyed the Christmas parade and all of the bright lights!






On Sunday Tayson and I hung out at home and did some laundry while Justin went fishing. These pictures below are of Tayson helping me...He is such a good helper!!!

These clothes don't go in the dryer!


Is it time to dust?

Mom, I'll clean out this drawer!

Justin got back around lunch time so we went to Chilis' and ate. After that, we went to Toys R Us and picked out some toys, for Tayson, for Christmas. I am not sure who had more fun looking at toys, Tayson or daddy!

Happy 10 month birthday to my baby!

I know this is a day late but we have been busy doing things with the funeral so, I figured, better late than never! Yesterday, my sweet baby was 10 months old. It honestly makes me cry everytime he turns a month older because he is just growing up so fast. It is really bittersweet having him get older. I miss the days of having a little baby that was just so fun to stare at for hours, amazed by his little fingers and toes, and all of the facial expressions he made! On the other hand, everyday is such an adventure as he learn new things that I would not trade all of these new experiences, for anything in the world!

Brownies!!!

This weekend was actually very low key for the Hathorn family. Friday night we went to dinner at my mom and dad's house. While we were there, we found out that one my best friends' sisters died Friday afternoon. My parents are very good friends with her parents and we have grown up together so this was very hard news to handle. They are not certain what she died from so they were performing an autopsy on Saturday to determine the cause. The results are still not back yet. Anyways...we went to their house after dinner and stayed with her family for awhile to try and console them, even though there is really no way to console someone who has just lost a child/sister/friend/etc.

On Saturday night, we had some of our very good friends over for dinner. We had chili and brownies for dessert. Tayson was dying for some of the brownies so I decided to give him a few little pieces to see what he thought....this is the results! I think he loved them!!!

2 New Teefies

Tayson now has 2 new teeth (teefies as we call them at our house). It is the top two. You can't see them all that well right now but you can sure feel them. This makes a total of 4 now!

New to this

I am new to this whole blogging thing but decided I would give it a try! It seems like a great way to keep in touch and meet new people.