…is Apostolic Angel!

Congrats! Send me your email address associated with your Amazon account and I’ll send you your Kindle copy of Fish and Chips!

Thanks everyone for entering! 🙂 Have a great weekend!

Guess what’s available NOW on Kindle???! 🙂

My newest novella!!! You can read more on my site here and also on Kindle’s site here! And remember – Kindle apps are completely FREE, so even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can still read this fun, summer book on your computer or smart phone! I can’t wait for you to meet Raina and Chip – I just loved writing their story. 🙂

AND… one of you will win a FREE copy of Fish and Chips on Kindle!! Leave a comment and I’ll pick a random winner on Friday morning!

Goodness! So many contests!! YAY! 🙂

And so sorry to leave you hanging yesterday – it took a little longer for this to appear on Amazon than I thought it would. Ha! Let the contest begin!

We had a busy weekend and a busy week already!

This last weekend was my brother Caleb’s birthday, so we went over for a little birthday party Saturday night. Nathan has become the Official Present Opener of the family, I think. Hopefully Uncle Caleb didn’t mind!

Nathan also really started walking pretty well this past weekend! It’s so fun and so scary! And he is bruised everywhere from falling over – his poor little legs look terrible. He’s still pretty unsure of himself, and I think he still prefers crawling. But he’s getting better. 🙂 He got the Sweeping Award at dinner a few nights ago after he threw everything he was supposed to be eating on the floor.

🙂

He also learned a new trick and has been doing it NON STOP and then laughing the whole time he’s like that:

Ha! Like father, like son!

Jon was a deep snapper all through high school and college football. Guess it starts young!! 🙂

I’ve got super fun news coming hopefully later tonight! Can’t wait to share it with you! 🙂

The Grand Prize winner, who gets an autographed book and an autographed Sketchy Behavior cover is:

Sarah!! Send me an email (erynnmangum@gmail.com) with your address and the book of your choice that you’d like autographed. 🙂 Yay!

The next four winners will all receive autographed Sketchy Behavior book covers:

Congrats to Jewlez, Greta Lynn, Carol M, and Gabby! If y’all will email me your addresses, I will get those covers in the mail ASAP! 🙂

SO SO excited for Sketchy Behavior to release!!! And thank you to everyone who entered the contest – so fun!

YAY!!! Look what I got in the mail yesterday! 🙂

It’s the cover for Sketchy Behavior! That means it’s almost here!! 🙂

And Zondervan was WAY sweet and sent me a few extra covers that I can give to some of YOU! I’m going to be giving away FIVE autographed covers!

Here’s how to enter:

1. If you’re not already a Follower of this blog, start following me with Google Friend Connect and then leave a comment that you did that (or have already been following my blog!).

2. Start following me on Twitter and then leave a comment letting me know you did that.

3. “Like” me on Facebook. (That just sounds weird.) And then… you got it… come back here and leave another comment. 😉

4. And lastly, sign up for my “monthly” newsletter (and I put monthly in quotes because HA. It’s definitely not monthly). Then leave another comment!

Already do all of that?? Then just go ahead and leave four comments letting me know! And thank you very much! 😉

So, you’ve got four chances to stick your name in the hat. I’ll draw five random winners on Monday and as a SPECIAL treat, I might just have to give away one autographed book as a grand prize to go along with one of those covers!!! 🙂

I love, love giveaways!

This last week wore us out. It’s hard work turning one!

We spent all day Tuesday in sweatpants and laid around the house. So, yesterday, we had to get out and do things again. I’m not the type to just sit at home and I think Nathan got that same annoying gene. 😉 By the end of Tuesday, he was just looking at me like, “Well. We really aren’t going anywhere?”

Our zoo is doing this thing on Wednesday nights called “Zooper Wednesdays” (and I about DIED laughing because isn’t that so what Jack’s zoo would have done in Double Shot?). Instead of closing at 5, they close at 8. So, I packed a dinner and we drove over after afternoon nap and Jon met us there when he got off work.

We had such a great time! The animals really were a LOT more active, which was just fun. And there were maybe 60 people in the whole park, so the three of us were the only people looking at some of the animals. SO nice!!

Nathan loves, loves, loves the monkeys. They are his all-time favorite animal there. He just laughs and points and talks the whole time to them. It was really cute. 🙂

We were finishing up dinner when it started sprinkling and within a couple of minutes, it was pouring rain. We threw everything in the stroller and ran for the covered polar bear exhibit and stayed under there for about 20 minutes before giving up that it would ever stop, so we ran for the exit.

We got SOAKED. Absolutely soaked. Nathan started laughing as soon as we got in the car, so I don’t think he minded too much. 🙂 So fun even with the rain!

Last weekend, we had a whale of a time at Nathan’s swim party!! I love my little squirt. 🙂

And… a HUGE surprise! Friday, Jon and I decided to spend the night at Gammy and Pops’ house since we were having the party at their pool. That way, I could get up Saturday and get busy decorating while Nathan took his nap, etc.

Friday night, Pops kept delaying Nathan’s bedtime and the doorbell rang at almost nine. I went over to answer it and found my dear, dear friends Jen, Greg, Barb and Noah standing there!! I was TOTALLY shocked! And Nathan was so excited to see his friend Noah!! 🙂

I’m not sure that we could have gotten everything done without their help! We decorated and baked and spent Saturday hanging out with all of Nathan’s sweet friends. What a wonderful, wonderful day!

I got a few pictures of the decorations before all the guests arrived. Here’s where all the snacks were! I hung pictures of each month of Nathan’s life on the windows behind the table. 🙂

The cake!! Don’t look too closely at the fondant – it was my first time working with it. 🙂

All of the little guests got a pail of party treats! I think we had seven little ones all together – SO FUN.

Swim party fun! We are so blessed to have such sweet friends in our lives!

Nathan’s new favorite thing to do is sit on the edge of the pool and launch himself off into our arms. Scares me to death, but he LOVES it!

This time, the Nater Tot was pretty much a pro when it came to eating cake. He dove into that cake like there was no tomorrow! Ha! We had to hose him off afterward! Good thing he was in his swim suit. 😉

Yet again, Nathan was completely spoiled rotten in the gifts department. He got so many fun toys! He had help opening his presents this time too, which was just hilarious! Gammy and Pops gave him a basketball hoop – that got rave reviews from the peanut gallery. 😉

Jon and I had seen this waterwheel play set on Amazon and thought it looked so fun, especially for a kid who loves to splash so much! It was a HUGE hit this weekend!

“Thank you for my new car, Joel!!” Nathan loves his friend Joel. 🙂

Ali bought him an adorable little puppy and Nathan spent the rest of the afternoon “being sweet” to it.

We had such a great time! Thank you so much to everyone who made Saturday such a FABULOUS day!!

Sunday, Noah and Nathan had to try out the waterwheel toy. I think they liked it. 🙂

And Jen, Greg, Jon and I got to go out for another double date! I love those! We went to Chili’s and then met the rest of the crew at our new favorite place – Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt!

The weekend went by way too fast. We went to lunch with everyone on Monday at Johnny Rockets and then the Colorado gang had to start the drive home. I’m SO GLAD they came to visit!!

Nathan and I went to Lunch Bunch for a little bit afterward, came home and Nathan took a LONG nap. Then we went to watch Jon’s softball game. Needless to say, we need a day at home today! He’s still taking his morning nap and I’m trying to figure out if we have enough food in the house to not have to make a trip to the grocery store. It’s not looking good. 😉

What a great weekend!

We had a WONDERFUL day yesterday!! I am so thankful for my family who made Nathan’s birthday such a fabulously fun day!

Nathan woke up late – which gave me time to make him some birthday blueberry muffins. He usually gets oatmeal for breakfast, so I think he was pretty excited about getting a muffin instead!

Afterwards, we hurried and got ready and went to the aquarium with Gammy and Nama. He had SO much fun! He loved the mantra rays, though he got a little freaked out when one swam right up to the plexiglass and splashed water on him. I’ve never seen him jump into my arms so fast! Ha!

“Yay for my birthday!!!”

We came home, he took a nap and I finished a couple of things for later that night. Jon got home from work right after Nathan woke up. We headed over to Gammy and Pops’ house for a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse birthday extraordinaire!! This is what we saw when we walked in:

LOVE it!! Nathan kept pointing to the Mickey balloon ALL night. He was so excited about it!

We had to get a couple of pictures of our bean with the decorations. Some of these are my new favorite pictures, I think. Such a smiley birthday boy!! 🙂

We ate one of his favorite meals – pizza!!

Did I mention he liked pointing to the Mickey Mouse balloon?? 🙂

Nathan was completely SPOILED ROTTEN by his great-grandma, grandparents and aunt and uncles. I guess it pays to be the only grandchild on this side! Ha! He made out!!

It was hilarious watching him open presents. He would open one and get so excited about it that he didn’t want to open anymore, he just wanted to play with that one. So cute. We actually ended up saving a few just for him to open at his party on Saturday because it was getting late and he was done opening, I think! 🙂

The slide from Gammy and Pops was a HUGE hit! The first time down, he was a little wary, but he caught on FAST. My arms got a workout today helping him up and down the slide!

We had to get a few family pictures before the cake smashing occurred. 🙂 I love these! Here we are with the new one-year-old!

Pops, Gammy and the Birthday Boy 🙂

Nama and Nathan 🙂

Auntie Cayce, Uncle Caleb and Uncle Bryant with the bean:

His cake was ADORABLE. I was so excited with how it turned out!

I did great the whole day – didn’t cry at all until everyone was singing Happy Birthday to him. I was holding him and he got so cuddly during the song and I started tearing up. But I held it in! I love these pictures:

I never doubted for a second that Nathan would enjoy his cake, but I didn’t count on HOW much he would love it! He crammed the whole thing into his mouth and kept pointing for more. We had to undress him in the bathtub, he got so messy!

After bath, he got to play with the Mickey Mouse ball pit Jon and I bought for him. I think he liked it just a little bit. 🙂

Then we packed up our sleepy birthday boy and headed home. I nursed him, he fell asleep and I just held him for a few minutes before putting him in bed. And THEN I cried. 🙂 I love that he’s growing up and becoming his own person, but I hate how quickly time is flying past.

Now, we’re just gearing up for his friend party on Saturday! I have been just SO overcome this last week with the blessings we have been given. I’m so thankful. I wouldn’t change one thing about my life – God has given us so much!

Sweet Nathan,

Today you are turning one year old! Everyone told me to treasure every second with you because I would not believe how fast it would go – they were SO right. This has been the fastest year of my life. It seems like it was only a few days ago that your daddy and I were walking into the hospital completely scared and nervous and very, very excited!

I can still remember the moment your daddy looked over and saw you for the first time. He had the sweetest expression on his face – I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. And when the doctor said, “It’s a big boy!” And then I heard you cry. The most beautiful sound I’d ever heard! Both Daddy and I burst into tears when we heard you cry. And then Daddy brought you over to see me. I will never ever forget how much I loved you the moment I saw you. I thought I would never be able to love anything more, but I was wrong. Every day since then, I’ve loved you more and more.

I remember holding you for the first time. I was so shaky from the C-section and I was so nervous that I was going to drop you! You snuggled right in and it was like you knew that I was your mom.

I remember when we got to bring you home and show you your new house and introduce you to Kody. You had your first bath and hated it – how much has changed!! I didn’t sleep hardly at all that first night – I was so worried about you and whether or not you were okay.

I have loved every moment of this year. You are the sweetest, most amazing boy I could have ever imagined. And the thing that astounds me is that you’re mine! God has blessed me more than I could ever imagine. I always wondered what it would be like to be a mom, what it would be like when your daddy and I were not just a couple but a family and you have completely surpassed everything I ever dreamed about what it would be.

I have loved every milestone you’ve passed – even if there have been a few times along the way when I’ve been sad that you are growing so fast! From your first smile to your first step, they have each been an adventure. It seems like yesterday we were so excited that you were following us with your eyes and now we’re racing to close drawers and doors before you follow us into a room with an un-baby-proofed mess!

You are so silly and make it your goal everyday to get Daddy and me to laugh. I love that! I love that you are so fun and goofy and smiley. Even from just a few weeks old, you were making silly faces and waiting for our reactions. You love it best when we’re laughing and clapping at something you just did.

You aren’t the biggest cuddler, which just makes the times when you do snuggle in even more precious. While I miss the days when you were content to just be held and snuggled, I LOVE these days of having fun going places with you! I remember our first Mom/Son lunch date at the mall – you were only about 2 months old and I sat and ate my lunch while you stared at me from your stroller. Now, we get to actually go have real lunch dates!

You are the child of our prayers, sweetie. Daddy and I prayed so hard that God would bless us with a baby and YOU are the answer to those prayers! I remember feeling you kicking when I was pregnant and aching to hold you in my arms. It is my favorite thing in the world when you crawl over to me and jump into my lap. It melts my heart every time!

It has been so fun to watch you learn things right before my eyes. You have always been so happy, so full of life! I’m so excited to see how you’re going to change and grow and to see the sweet little boy you will become. I pray for you more than I ever thought possible to pray for someone. You are so loved, sweet boy! Not only from me and Daddy, but your whole extended family loves and prays for you. I hope that you never, ever take that for granted.

I prayed so hard for a happy, healthy baby and God has blessed us more than I could even imagine. Sweetie, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me and your daddy. We cannot even express how much we love you!

Happy first birthday, my precious son!

I love you so much,

Mommy

One year ago this evening, I looked like this:

…in the hospital and ready to meet our little man!! His birth didn’t turn out ANYTHING like what we expected – but God is so good.

Yesterday, we had a fabulously fun day hanging out with Nathan’s great-grandmother. I’m so blessed to have such an amazing grandma! And Nathan ADORES Nama – he was being SUCH a ham yesterday. It was hilarious.

She and my mom came over right before Nathan woke up from his nap and then took us out to eat at Nathan’s favorite place – Chick-Fil-A! Afterwards, Mom left and my grandma, Nathan and I did a few errands, then came home and let him play for a little bit before putting him back down.

Jon got home and Nama took all of us out to dinner at Chili’s – which was SO good!! I haven’t eaten out this much in a long time – I’m getting spoiled! Jon, my dad and brothers had a softball game last night, so Mom came back over and we watched Get Smart with Steve Carrell. So funny. We had a great night!

Nathan discovered that our end table has a drawer this morning. He spent most of the morning pulling everything out of it and then putting everything back in – including a few things that didn’t belong like my cell phone! I’m glad I saw him do that or I would have never found it! Ha!

I’ve got a haircut tonight (I’m SO excited! It’s been a long time and I’m going to take several inches off. Time for a summer haircut!) and I’m planning on just doing a couple of errands after Nathan wakes up from his nap. It took him an hour to go to sleep this morning, so his afternoon nap is now going to be all messed up. I’m wondering if he’s slowly starting to transition to one nap a day – although, some mornings he’s dragging after he’s only been up an hour and a half.

And then tomorrow…is my little bean’s birthday!! I have NO idea where the time went… wasn’t he only this big about three days ago??