FATHER'S DAY WEEKEND & MORE

Happy Monday! I'm so excited to look out my window and see blue skies as opposed to rain & clouds. I feel like that's all it's been doing here in southern Indiana lately. However, I do believe it's supposed to a hot one this week, so time to break out the baby pool, sprinkler & slip-n-slide! 

While the wild one is napping (thank goodness for morning naps!) & the first born is coloring, I thought I would catch everyone up on what's been going on around here. This past week was super busy...a family reunion, a 2nd birthday party, Christian's summer camp, my step-dad's birthday, we celebrated our 5 year anniversary, my 10 year high school reunion AND ended it with a day full of Father's Day fun. Sprinkle in two wild & crazy boys, a hormonal-third trimester preggo, doctor's appointments & one working late hubby and you get a week of EXHAUSTION! 

Needless to say, I am SO excited about the fact that we literally have NOTHING on the agenda until the weekend. I'm going to catch up on housework, Netflix, outside fun & maybe even finish the nursery (HA! I've been saying that for weeks now...)! 

 Our week started off with miss Scarlett's 2nd birthday party...the boys had a blast playing with their friends & chowing down on delicious cupcakes. And Gavin may or may not have thrown a red-headed-sized temper tantrum when we wouldn't give him a second cupcake. Worst parents ever, I know.

Also pictured, dancing in the sprinkler, and attempting to hang onto a one-year-old that thinks he can swim & has ZERO fear of the water (or anything for that matter). Yet please note in the background, the timid first-born that's scared of the water and took major coaxing to let go of the side of the pool. Could these boys be any different?!

 Silly faces, snack time & rare brother snuggles during morning cartoons...

Making Papaw's birthday card went a little something like this:

"Papaw has looooooong legs, a big circle head and he's SOOOOOO happy to see me. Oh, and he has birthday hair."

And Gavin didn't care about Papaw's birthday, he wanted to rip the feathers out of Mimi's baby chicks.

We have also implemented snuggle sessions to our day. Gavin will come up to me with his paci, "baby" & blankie and point to the rocking chair. Okay, twist my arm. ;)

On Thursday, Gavin had his 15-month check-up. He weighed in at 24 pounds (67th %ile), 31.5 inches tall (61st %ile) and his big ole noggin was in the 87th %ile. She said he appeared to be very advanced for his age & was impressed with how many words he can say...that's right, he might be the moodiest, craziest red-head ever, but he's a smart one! He then tried to escape before his vaccines...nice try, buddy!

Oh, and he's also started an obsession with sleeping with every stuffed animal he can find...he calls them his "babies" and it's the cutest thing ever.

I ordered another comfy maternity dress from Old Navy (along with some goodies for the guys...how could I resist?!) & then showed off my 29 week bump in all it's glory. I had my glucose test and a check-up with the nurse practitioner...no gestational diabetes for me, but I am anemic again (no surprise there, I usually am). I have gained 15 pounds, I'm measuring about 2 weeks ahead of schedule (also normal, I make large babies) & she marked me down as attempting to go natural in my file. Lord, give me strength!!! It's not that I have anything against pain meds, but with both deliveries I've had epidural issues, so I'm going to see if my body can hold out without it this time. Not likely, but we'll see!

On Friday, Dustin and I celebrated 5 years of marriage with steak, mashed potatoes & truffle mac-n-cheese at our favorite restaurant...Eddie Merlot's! Oh, and I also got these cuties. ;)

On Saturday, I decided to finally finish painting the closet doors in the nursery. The difference between bright white and antique white is unreal! 

I also hung 3 things on the walls! I'm getting there, one slow step at a time!

Saturday night was the high school reunion...I cannot believe it's been 10 years! 

And Sunday we celebrated with presents, homemade McGriddles, lunch with my step-dad & dinner with my dad's side of the family.

The kiddos had a blast eating Arni's pizza & playing with their cousins!

And that's it for the recap! I'm looking forward to a relaxing week ahead & then it's the wedding of one of our best friend's this weekend. We are also starting to plan our PARENT'S ONLY trip to Texas next month to visit some friends...it will be a nice little 'babymoon' before we officially become a family of five! 

Hope everyone enjoys their week & thanks for reading!

EASTER WEEK!

Happy Monday...again! Man, those Mondays sure do come quickly don't they?! We had such a busy Easter weekend & now I'm feeling extra lazy this Monday. But, I made one nice green smoothie for energy & I'm forcing myself to get things accomplished. First up...blog! 

This week started a little a lot rough. I'm not sure if it was the colds the boys had or if they really just felt like teaming up against me, but wow. I really thought I was going to lose my mind on more than one occasion. But I survived, the colds have passed and everyone was in much better spirits by the end of the week.

We played in the ball pit & outside as much as we could. We even had a playdate with our friends!

We colored Easter eggs with Mimi...AKA threw as many eggs as we could in the dye, colored all over ourselves with markers and then dropped them on the floor countless times. ;)

I put together very minimal baskets this year...after all, a trip to Disney this week is enough spoiling for the boys for the rest of the year!

I started trying on dresses & outfits for Florida & Easter, which allowed for a couple 18 week baby bump photos. Nothing like a dress to make you feel extra preggo...why is it that dresses make the bump look 10weeks bigger than it actually is?!

On Saturday, we had a friends & neighbors Easter egg hunt...11 kiddos (no, you're not counting wrong, we couldn't get 2 of them in the picture) hunting for 300 eggs. SO MUCH FUN.

Easter morning, we searched for baskets, ate candy for breakfast & then headed to my mom's for our 1st Easter event.

Can someone say bedhead? ;)

We stuffed ourselves with delicious lunch & then let Christian and Gavin hunt for their baskets & eggs.

After my mom's, we headed home for naps before Easter dinner at my grandparents. More food, egg hunts & family time!

We had a beautiful Easter day with family, & the boys were so well behaved! Sometimes I think throughout the week, they just get tired of seeing my face and decide to rebel against me. Or maybe they're just preparing me for life with 3 boys? 

This week will be filled with to-do lists, packing, last minute trips to the store & prepping for our big trip to Disney! 

*Insert huge excited squeal of excitement*

Until next time, friends! Thanks for reading!

Hello, 2015!

Happy 2015! 

I hope everyone had a fun safe New Year...ours was definitely on the low-key side, but to be honest, that's just what I needed! The past week has definitely been very eventful, so I'll take any relaxing I can get. For starters, remember two of my very best friends who were pregnant with the same due date? Well, they had their babies...and on the same day! Talk about some emotions running high! December 30th welcomed Cash first, followed by Gemma several hours later. I love these babies so much already...think they would be mad if I stole one?! I promise to bring them back when they start crying! ;)

Because I was at the hospital so late waiting to meet Miss Gemma (she took her sweet time!), New Year's Eve was a bit of a blur for me...and no, not because of alcohol. I was running on approximately 3 hours of sleep with no time for a nap. However, I still managed to stay awake to see the ball drop, eat some yummy hors d'oeuvres and cash in my New Year's kiss...this is my 12th New Year's Eve kiss with my hubby! Twelve years of smooching on the same man...and we haven't killed each other yet! ;)

New Year's Day, I slept in until 10am (thank you, husband!)...I cannot remember the last time that has happened. We visited the sweet babies and then came home for a completely lazy day. Christian also came down with a little cold, so extra cuddles were in order for all of us.

Did I mention we were super lazy?!

Gavin is getting pretty darn difficult to photograph, as he is always on the go and hates sitting still, but I managed a few cute shots of him on his favorite Christmas present. Totally rotten.

And we finished the evening with a magic carpet ride around the house. Boys are so much fun, but whew! They are exhausting! 

Since New Year's Day, we have all caught Christian's cold. None of us feel too badly, but it's been couch time, medicine & kleenexes galore for all of us. We did manage to escape the house for some Christmas returns, shopping & grocery. Christian stayed with my mom Saturday night, which always makes shopping so much easier. The less needy children at Target, the better! And I'm kind of obsessed with my adorable Valentine's Day finds for the boys. Thanks Old Navy & Kohl's!

AND since everyone finally has their Christmas gifts, I can share our family photos I took back in November. Like I said, Gavin is remarkably hard to photograph, so I consider all of these a complete win. One of these days we'll be able to get in with our regular photographer for some actual family photos, but until then, my cheap little camera will just have to do!

So that's been the start to our 2015 year. It's only 4 days in, and I can already tell it's going to be a great year! Time definitely needs to slow down though, because I'm only 2 months away from throwing my baby boy a first birthday party...and that just ain't right! ;) 

Until next time!

Thanks for reading!

Christmas 2014

 Well, all of our Christmas festivities have come and gone and although we're sad to see the holiday season to go, I was so happy to have my house back in order! And I finally have a few minutes to upload all of my pictures, which means blog time! Christmas this year was amazing. Christian was the most excited ever to see presents under the tree, we got to see lots of family and friends and eat way too much good food.

On Christmas Eve, we always go to Dustin's grandma's house and then my grandparent's house. My aunt takes family pictures every year, and this year was no exception. Our family just keeps growing, so it took a good minute to fit us all into the frame! 

After the festivities, we put the boys to bed and set up all the gifts. Luckily we had wrapped them as we bought, so we just had to take them out of storage. 

We were pretty exhausted after our long day, but we put on our comfy pajamas, grabbed some old fashioned cokes out of the fridge, turned on Elf and did our Christmas exchange.

I was the most excited about my new white dishes! My mom got me one set and Dustin got me another. No more mismatched hand-me-downs for this girl!

Christmas morning was a blast. We actually had to remind Christian that Santa Claus came during the night, because he decided to sleep in (of all days!!). We opened our stockings first and then headed downstairs to see what kind of goodies Santa dropped off. 

"Presents! Presents! Presents! Can we open them?!" He was pretty excited to say the least. Gavin wasn't interested in anything but escaping to the stairs. He didn't even care about the wrapping paper, which shocked me. He did however love his two new toys from Santa...for a couple seconds...and then he was back to climbing stairs.

After opening presents, we made cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Christian didn't have the time to eat because of all of those new shiny toys, so Gavin snuck behind us and finished his breakfast. He was really sorry about it. ;)

One of his favorite toys was from us...a fireman outfit! Lunch made by a fireman? I'll take it!

Gavin loved the kitchen, too. Although I think he was slightly disappointed when the food wasn't real.

The day after Christmas, we took it pretty easy. Christian and I had "lunch" together again. Cheers!

Friday night, we went to a friend's Christmas party while my mom watched the boys. And no friend's night out is complete without a trip to Taco Bell! I feel like we're 21 again...except without the hangover since I'm not a big drinker. A glass of wine is all this momma needs to have a good time!

Saturday was a super lazy day (thanks to a fevery baby...see below) that ended with a family game night.

Christian won...again. We don't ever let him win when we play games, but he always manages to beat us anyway.

We finished the weekend off with a double-date night to Eddie Merlot's with our friends from Germany, but somehow managed not to take a single picture!

And that sums up our Christmas festivities! We are very ready to ring in the new year. We will be having a New Year's party here at the house with friends, games and food. I am pretty excited about 2015...Gavin's 1st birthday, some family vacations, new babies joining our crew and who knows what else! I'm not sure that I have any real New Year's Resolutions...I could say the typical "I'd like to eat healthier, exercise more, be a better wife and mom, yadda-yadda...", but let's be honest, I'm doing the best I can right now with two wild little boys! Haha. So I'll just say, my New Year's resolution is to do the best I can every single day. If it's not perfect, oh well! 

I hope everyone has a fun and SAFE New Year's Eve! 

I'm going to attempt to do a blog before NYE of my favorite 2014 moments, but if that doesn't happen....

Cheer's to 2015!

Lights, Presents, Family & Friends!

Whew, what a whirlwind week it has been! I can't believe all the things going on right now, but I absolutely love all the hustle and bustle. But it's important to take some time for yourself during naps & preschool to sit down and unwind...and devour a freshly glazed donut. I may or may not have also devoured a blueberry cake donut. I'm a sucker for the donut shop in our town, what can I say?!

We picked up big brother from school on Thursday and went home to set up our train around the boys' Christmas tree. They loved it at first, but then Christian couldn't stand it when Gavin would try to knock it over. He decided he would rather not play with it when "bad baby Gavin" was around. 

We started our weekend off with a trip to the underground MegaCavern to see Lights Under Louisville. This is absolutely one of our favorite things to do during the Holiday season. I grabbed the boys from their carseats (no worries, folks...you drive 2.5mph in an assembly line of cars) and let the oohing & aahing being. Despite Gavin's distracted and terrified faces, he loved it. He danced to all of the music and cracked up at some of the lights. Christian had a ball...he got to "drive" the car, which was the most exciting part of all for him. 

After the lights, we went to the roadhouse, where once again he devoured the rolls and begged for more.

On Friday, we went to C's preschool Christmas party. We decorated cookies, made an angel, played a guessing game with his teacher and chased after Gavin as he explored the classroom. He was like a little puppy dog...all of the kids kept following him around and petting his head.

After the party, we finished up our homemade ornaments and hung them on the tree. This is a tradition I started with Christian and can hopefully keep up with until they're mean teenagers who are too busy for their mom. Cue sad, crying face.

We played down in the basement, so I attempted to feed Gavin his lunch in the bumbo. This was a huge fail, as everytime I tried to give him a bite, he would throw his head back and forth and I would get sweet potatoes all over the place. He thought it was a fun game though!

After he was finished bathing in his lunch, he decided stealing brother's lunch would be a good idea. Christian didn't agree.

Mmm, toes!

Saturday morning snuggles with dad are always a big hit around here.

Saturday evening we had our Christmas with my mom's family. We always cook way to much food, open gifts from each other, play a $5 white elephant gift exchange and have one too many inappropriate conversations...AKA we have a great time. ;)

We also discovered Gavin LOVES pickles...FINALLY! Someone else in the house who can share my obsession.

My mom got a selfie stick for her white elephant gift...which was a total blast to play with!

After the Christmas party, we headed to our friend's birthday party where we got to visit with our friend who has been stationed in the army for the past 3 years. He is on leave now for Christmas and the birth of sweet baby Gemma, who is due any day now. We are beyond thrilled to have them both back in the states for a short time, and we're probably going to go into a depression when they leave again. Cue more sad, crying faces.

And we finished our weekend off with my dad's side of the family's Christmas...the Thomas'. I'm not going to lie, the attempt to get all of the great-grandkids in the picture cracked me up. Luckily, they cooperated for all of the other pictures!

And that was our festive weekend! We are so excited about the next couple days...there is so much going on right now, it's crazy! But good crazy, so we are ready! I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and gets everything they wished for!