I have so much in my life to be thankful for. I try hard to be grateful year round... not just on a day in November.
My boys are my biggest blessing. I am honored to be their mom--- and I am forever grateful to them for giving me the title of mom! I adore these two wild things and I want to soak up every minute with them.
Eddie is another blessing in my life... love him and his love of our boys.
I am a happy lady and feel so thankful that God has given be these blessings. I will be stealing some extra kisses from these boys (all 3 of them!) this Thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 27, 2014
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
Weekend Update
I got home from Miami Wednesday night and taught at the preschool Thursday morning. Nothing says "welcome back to reality!" like getting you and your kids ready and out the door to teach 10 two year olds bright and early!!! It was a great day, but I was pretty exhausted come Friday. I taught popup Friday morning and had some fun plans to go out Friday night, but honestly, I hadn't seen Eddie in about a week (I left early Sunday morning before he woke up and came home Wednesday night, and he left Wednesday afternoon and didn't get home until Friday) and I missed him! We hung out Friday night and I went on a clean-out spree. I started with the downstairs playroom-- there's so much stuff in there that the kids don't even like to play in there! Then I moved to the upstairs playroom. It was in sane the amount of STUFF we have that we don't play with any more. We donated a TON to goodwill and I gave some of the barely used stuff to a friend with a little boy.
Here's some random shots from the weekend...
Friday he was all set for school....
Friday afternoon, the boys played in the backyard and had quite the football game going on. It was hilarious to watch them running around like crazy...and tackling each other like crazy. I posted a video to instagram where Cal tackled Andy-- pretty hard. I shouldn't laugh about it, I know, but it is kinda awesome to see brothers playing like brothers.
As I worked on the downstairs playroom, the boys were in awe of all of the things I was "discovering." Suddenly, they LOVED the barn they hadn't played with in 3 years, and the "race car mat they haven't touched in years was their "most favorite thing ever!" Once they went to bed, the real progress was made. Andy found a Santa hat and promptly put it on his head and watched my every move deciding if I was a good girl or not.... spoiler alert: I am not a good girl, according to Andy.
Saturday morning, I cleaned out my closet-- another item on the list that was much needed. I started a goodwill pile on the floor a few months ago and it has been growing and growing-- I needed to bad it up and take it in! In between filling bags, we wrapped presents for a birthday party we had for two of our favorite people! Cal insisted on making them a card-- I thought this was so sweet....
The party was a blast- it was a Peter Pan and Tinkerbell theme and they had a gem stone mining company come and set up a station outside-- it was SO cool!
Eddie and Dustin matched head to toe-- we were all dying laughing. What are the chances?? hahaha
There was a lady painting faces at the party. Both of my boys are pretty anti-face paint. They just aren't a huge fan of it on their face. But Andy was intrigued at this party. Could be because the face painter was gorgeous and super sweet...could be because he saw Janey having it done and she wasn't scared... so Andy started small and got a little batman symbol painted on his arm. Then he got down and would stop staring at it.
Then I told Andy she could paint anything on his face, like a tiger or anything else. He immediately said he wanted to be a tiger. He walked right over and waited his turn to become a tiger...I was cracking up the whole time. But in all seriousness, this is a really big step for a kid like Andy-- who is scared of everything.
He held on to the arm rests of the chair the whole time... just in case...
Almost done.... he wasn't so sure of things...
All done! My little tiger!
He LOOOOOVED his face painted. LOVED it! He wanted to stare at himself nonstop and was just grinning ear to ear the rest of the day.
Janey had her face painted....along with her legs and feet! She certainly wasn't afraid!
After the birthday party, we stopped by mom and dad's house for a bit and then I ran home to let the dogs out and then we headed over to another friends house for some time around their bon fire outside! It was a cooooold night but we had so much fun with our friends.
The boys were thirsty so we sent them over to the cooler thinking there were juice boxes in there...they found some beer and thought it was sprite.... we were all dying laughing. Guess you had to be there, really, but this made me laugh so hard.
Sunday morning I hit the grocery store for all of my Thanksgiving day items and then I worked (hard) on the upstairs playroom. This is not an easy task with two "helpers." I finally finished and the closet looks better than ever....
....and the playroom is still looking pretty clean too! Hopefully we can keep it like this for at least a week....???
Sunday afternoon, Cal had swim practice. Andy has been dying to try swimming again and is pretty adamant about having lessons. I emailed the girl about lessons on and she was free before practice on Sunday. Andy was THRILLED when I told him he was getting a lesson. He immediately found his goggles and was so happy.
He took his lesson very seriously and was smiling the whole time he was swimming.
He ended the lesson by jumping in and swimming to the side... can you tell how serious he is??
I was exhausted Sunday night. Flat worn out. I wanted to take a bath and Eddie didn't want to deal with Bruce and his antics (he is locked in the kitchen, but has learned how to escape the kitchen now that he's growing) so he came in the bathroom with me-- not a very relaxing bath! I was paranoid the entire time that he would jump in the tub. Eddie finally came up and got him. Cute face though!
Can't believe it is already time for THANKSGIVING!!! Get on those stretchy pants....! I will be eating way too much, but I am also planning on working out a bunch. Local friends- there is a FREE popup class on Thursday morning and then a regular class on Friday that I am teaching.... just in case you've been wanting to try it!
Happy turkey time!
Here's some random shots from the weekend...
Friday he was all set for school....
Friday afternoon, the boys played in the backyard and had quite the football game going on. It was hilarious to watch them running around like crazy...and tackling each other like crazy. I posted a video to instagram where Cal tackled Andy-- pretty hard. I shouldn't laugh about it, I know, but it is kinda awesome to see brothers playing like brothers.
As I worked on the downstairs playroom, the boys were in awe of all of the things I was "discovering." Suddenly, they LOVED the barn they hadn't played with in 3 years, and the "race car mat they haven't touched in years was their "most favorite thing ever!" Once they went to bed, the real progress was made. Andy found a Santa hat and promptly put it on his head and watched my every move deciding if I was a good girl or not.... spoiler alert: I am not a good girl, according to Andy.
Saturday morning, I cleaned out my closet-- another item on the list that was much needed. I started a goodwill pile on the floor a few months ago and it has been growing and growing-- I needed to bad it up and take it in! In between filling bags, we wrapped presents for a birthday party we had for two of our favorite people! Cal insisted on making them a card-- I thought this was so sweet....
The party was a blast- it was a Peter Pan and Tinkerbell theme and they had a gem stone mining company come and set up a station outside-- it was SO cool!
Eddie and Dustin matched head to toe-- we were all dying laughing. What are the chances?? hahaha
There was a lady painting faces at the party. Both of my boys are pretty anti-face paint. They just aren't a huge fan of it on their face. But Andy was intrigued at this party. Could be because the face painter was gorgeous and super sweet...could be because he saw Janey having it done and she wasn't scared... so Andy started small and got a little batman symbol painted on his arm. Then he got down and would stop staring at it.
Then I told Andy she could paint anything on his face, like a tiger or anything else. He immediately said he wanted to be a tiger. He walked right over and waited his turn to become a tiger...I was cracking up the whole time. But in all seriousness, this is a really big step for a kid like Andy-- who is scared of everything.
He held on to the arm rests of the chair the whole time... just in case...
Almost done.... he wasn't so sure of things...
All done! My little tiger!
He LOOOOOVED his face painted. LOVED it! He wanted to stare at himself nonstop and was just grinning ear to ear the rest of the day.
Janey had her face painted....along with her legs and feet! She certainly wasn't afraid!
After the birthday party, we stopped by mom and dad's house for a bit and then I ran home to let the dogs out and then we headed over to another friends house for some time around their bon fire outside! It was a cooooold night but we had so much fun with our friends.
The boys were thirsty so we sent them over to the cooler thinking there were juice boxes in there...they found some beer and thought it was sprite.... we were all dying laughing. Guess you had to be there, really, but this made me laugh so hard.
Sunday morning I hit the grocery store for all of my Thanksgiving day items and then I worked (hard) on the upstairs playroom. This is not an easy task with two "helpers." I finally finished and the closet looks better than ever....
....and the playroom is still looking pretty clean too! Hopefully we can keep it like this for at least a week....???
Sunday afternoon, Cal had swim practice. Andy has been dying to try swimming again and is pretty adamant about having lessons. I emailed the girl about lessons on and she was free before practice on Sunday. Andy was THRILLED when I told him he was getting a lesson. He immediately found his goggles and was so happy.
He took his lesson very seriously and was smiling the whole time he was swimming.
He ended the lesson by jumping in and swimming to the side... can you tell how serious he is??
I was exhausted Sunday night. Flat worn out. I wanted to take a bath and Eddie didn't want to deal with Bruce and his antics (he is locked in the kitchen, but has learned how to escape the kitchen now that he's growing) so he came in the bathroom with me-- not a very relaxing bath! I was paranoid the entire time that he would jump in the tub. Eddie finally came up and got him. Cute face though!
Can't believe it is already time for THANKSGIVING!!! Get on those stretchy pants....! I will be eating way too much, but I am also planning on working out a bunch. Local friends- there is a FREE popup class on Thursday morning and then a regular class on Friday that I am teaching.... just in case you've been wanting to try it!
Happy turkey time!
Friday, November 21, 2014
MIAMI!
Every year, my mom and I do a girls' trip together. Normally we go to New York and shop 'til we drop. This year, the fall has just been SO crazy, we decided to do a more low-key, relaxing trip. And it was just that! It was WONDERFUL!!!
My mother and father in law came to town to help Eddie with the boys and mom and I left Sunday morning suuuuuper early.
After a quick flight down, and a quick cab ride to the airport, we were out walking on the boardwalk by 9am.
We took long walks each morning-- close to 6 miles each day-- and then sat by the pool relaxing the rest of the day!The first day, we were poolside with drinks in hand by 11am:
It was COLD at home. Like 20* cold. I felt bad sending my friends pics like this....but not bad enough to not send them!
Round one of the green drink (AKA frozen mojito) went down quickly...
So we tried some other drinks... this one had champagne and vodka and cranberry juice... it might have been the death of us on day 1.
But we were together and having so much fun!
By this point, we were both feeling really great... it was a sunny day and the drinks were delicious :)
We went out to dinner Sunday night and walked in to some stores along the way. This picture made me laugh-- I look like such a giant next to my mom! She isn't short either! I was just wearing wedges...and I am telling myself it's the angle....
We got up the next morning and did a repeat of the previous day: walk, breakfast, pool...
That night we went to Juvia- a rooftop restaurant with views of the whole city. It was delicious and we had so much fun!
Why am I sitting like this? Is this a job interview??
Tuesday was much the same again...we took a reallllly long walk and had breakfast and hit the pool. Each day, the forecast said rainy and cool and each day it was sunny and hot! I will take it!
Halfway through Tuesday, some clouds rolled in and it looked like it might rain. We hid under a cabana, but decided to just head to our room around 3:30.
We had another fab dinner Tuesday night and then sat in the lobby of a really cute hotel after-- not for any real reason, just because we felt like it!
Wednesday morning we took a walk and then it was time to get ready to head to airport... I was wearing flipflops with my jeans...my feet were chilly when we landed in RDU!
The boys were excited to see me when I got home-- which always makes me feel good! They missed me just like I missed them! I got lots of hugs and kisses from them.
The furry boys missed me too...
It was another fun trip with my momma...I am grateful each year to get to take trips with her. We would have fun at a random town in South Dakota...just as long as we are together!
My mother and father in law came to town to help Eddie with the boys and mom and I left Sunday morning suuuuuper early.
After a quick flight down, and a quick cab ride to the airport, we were out walking on the boardwalk by 9am.
We took long walks each morning-- close to 6 miles each day-- and then sat by the pool relaxing the rest of the day!The first day, we were poolside with drinks in hand by 11am:
It was COLD at home. Like 20* cold. I felt bad sending my friends pics like this....but not bad enough to not send them!
Round one of the green drink (AKA frozen mojito) went down quickly...
So we tried some other drinks... this one had champagne and vodka and cranberry juice... it might have been the death of us on day 1.
But we were together and having so much fun!
By this point, we were both feeling really great... it was a sunny day and the drinks were delicious :)
We went out to dinner Sunday night and walked in to some stores along the way. This picture made me laugh-- I look like such a giant next to my mom! She isn't short either! I was just wearing wedges...and I am telling myself it's the angle....
We got up the next morning and did a repeat of the previous day: walk, breakfast, pool...
That night we went to Juvia- a rooftop restaurant with views of the whole city. It was delicious and we had so much fun!
Why am I sitting like this? Is this a job interview??
Tuesday was much the same again...we took a reallllly long walk and had breakfast and hit the pool. Each day, the forecast said rainy and cool and each day it was sunny and hot! I will take it!
Halfway through Tuesday, some clouds rolled in and it looked like it might rain. We hid under a cabana, but decided to just head to our room around 3:30.
We had another fab dinner Tuesday night and then sat in the lobby of a really cute hotel after-- not for any real reason, just because we felt like it!
Wednesday morning we took a walk and then it was time to get ready to head to airport... I was wearing flipflops with my jeans...my feet were chilly when we landed in RDU!
The boys were excited to see me when I got home-- which always makes me feel good! They missed me just like I missed them! I got lots of hugs and kisses from them.
The furry boys missed me too...
It was another fun trip with my momma...I am grateful each year to get to take trips with her. We would have fun at a random town in South Dakota...just as long as we are together!