Thursday, February 27, 2014

Valentine’s Day…

AB’s Love Bug Valentine’s (thanks, Pinterest). 2

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We did the bugs for the boys and butterfly clips for the girls…3

For her teachers, (and some of our family) we did the measuring cups filled with candy… because they all “measure up” to be the best! 1

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I found this Sugar Daddy & couldn’t resist giving a few of my favorite single girls these… :)5

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AB had a Valentine Dance at school Valentine’s morning. 9

10The kids had so much fun and they are hilarious (and precious) to watch.11

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Nie-Nie kept the girls while I got my hair done later that morning and they got to do some Valentine-ing with her, too.

At lunch, we did our Valentines with the girls. I found these balloons at the Dollar Tree (for a DOLLAR!) and they were the highlight of the girls’ day. 14(They’re also the longest lasting balloons ever…I FINALLY had to pop them when the girls were napping yesterday because two weeks of Valentine balloons floating around my house was ENOUGH. Thankfully, nobody has yet to ask about them. I’m certainly not bringing it up.

We got both the girls a little something, and I wrapped them up in pretty paper and tied them with pretty ribbon… because even little somethings feel like big somethings when they’re wrapped pretty. :)15

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Beau, Kristy and the kids came down Thursday night for the long weekend to surprise my mom for her birthday.

Since they would be here for Valentine’s Day, we decided to all have dinner together on Friday night.

DW and I have never gone out on Valentine’s – we just don’t want to fight the crowds, so we’ve always just cooked a good dinner at home instead. Once we had Cooper, it became our “fancy dinner” night and I’d do a little (tacky) decorating, light candles and we’d eat on our good china. Annabelle loves it now, too – and all day she was so excited that everyone would be here for our “Valentine Party.” She helped me set the table, sprinkle out hearts, and tie red bows. I wish I’d taken a picture of everyone at the table for dinner… dern.

Everyone came over early that afternoon and the kids had a good time playing outside. DSC_9510

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For dinner, my Dad had brought over steaks to grill. We had a great “fancy” meal and AB was thrilled to get to drink out of a real glass. It’s the little things. :)

Garrett & Caroline ended up spending the night with us and since the kids couldn’t decide who was going to sleep on the floor, Uncle Devin/Daddy made them a giant bed with AB’s and an extra mattress we have. 20

Saturday night we celebrated my mom’s birthday at my parents’ house.16 After a great supper, AB opened up her new Rainbow loom to make some bracelets. 22Uncle Beau read the directions and got so into it, I was afraid he might try to take the loom back to Georgia. :) We were telling him what he was doing wrong (because that’s what family’s for) but then decided he was doing great because none of us wanted to challenge him a loom-off. :)

It was a fun Valentine’s this year, with no lack-of love--and the highlight was definitely having Beau & his crew down for it!

~amw~

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Where did January Go?

It took until the middle of February to post about Christmas. But at least our “news” is out and I’ve got a good excuse as to why I’m behind on just about everything and moving slow. Nap time (& I don’t mean for my kids) is an almost daily occurrence (& necessity) in my life right now. :) Growing a baby is hard work- add in a 2 & 5 year old- and the fact that someone is in her 30’s now and it means naps are priority.

In an attempt to catch-up – A few I-Phone pics (because I haven’t used a real camera all month long… I don’t even know who I am anymore) from January thru mid-February…

- New Year’s Eve we ate fondue with the in-laws and were back home by 8:30. 26Annabelle insisted she wanted to see the ball drop, but she fell asleep and missed it. I did, too. :)

- I’ve been working on cleaning out drawers, cabinets and closets in our house. (I know this is probably the last time I’ll get around to it for at least three years. Ha) DW worked in the garage and outside while I worked inside all day one Saturday…there was still lots to do, but we decided to call it quits around 4:00 and take the girls to the park and dinner at Blue Highway. 25Work is really important, but so is playing…

- The last day of Christmas break was a teacher workday which fell on the first Monday of January. Our nephew Warren stayed the day with us. 24We had breakfast at Cracker Barrel and went to Target. Warren was so excited to hear that day that Aunt Lauren was naming her baby “Parker” and he’s sure that it’s after Spiderman, Peter Parker. :) (I had to write that down for memory’s sake).

- It got cold enough to make icicles!22 I remember my Dad always doing this for us when we were kids, so I asked Devin if we had a sprinkler so he could make some for the girls… They LOVED it… 21

- The middle of January, we planned a last minute (as in two days before) trip to Macon to meet up with my Georgia aunts and cousins. Stephanie was flying back to Houston (then to Oklahoma City) the following Monday, so we really wanted to get to see her before she left). My mom and I had a great time and we all decided we should do a half-way meet up more often. We made it to Macon Friday night in time for dinner.23 That’s when Steph broke the news that she and Henry are expecting their first baby and then I got to tell everyone that we’re also expecting again! It was so much fun telling the girls together, which was a huge reason Steph and I really wanted to get everyone together that weekend. She and I are due within days of each other. I’m due the first week of August and she’s due the second week. I can’t describe the sweetness it’s already been getting to be pregnant together. We are so excited to get to have little ones who will be the same age. We checked into our hotel and stayed up way too late eating our to-go desserts and laughing our heads off. We did a bunch of old wives tales to see what Steph and I are having and none of them were conclusive. :) 16Saturday we had brunch at Market City CafĂ© 18and ended it with the banana pudding of our lives… and a few of us don’t even really like banana pudding…it was that good. We visited the Parks Hay house6

7 and took in the beauty and reverence of the Saint Joseph Catholic Church. 19

20We wrapped the day up with a little maternity shopping.8

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By mid-afternoon, we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.11 It was such a fun 24 hours and I hope we make a habit of doing it at least once a year.

- The kids were out of school for MLK Day, and Warren had asked to spend the day with us again. My Mom & I decided to take them down to Crystal River to see the manatees. 27

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29This time of year they’re all making their way to warmer water and there were tons of them out. 30The kids loved it and afterward we picked up Sonic for a picnic in the park. 1

- We finally (a month later) got to do Christmas with Carrie, Allie & Whitt. We met them one Friday in Lake City (which is about an hour for both of us and half way between our houses). We had lunch at a new place, “Ray’s Deli & Grill.” Lunch was good, but the highlight for the kids was Ray’s Sweet Shop. 2Mamie was in “pop-pop” heaven.  3

After lunch we took the kids to Chick-fil-A to play on the playground. It was too cold to go to the park, so we bought a tea and watched them play.

We exchanged our gifts in the back of my car in the parking lot. We only got a few stares. photo 5

- Mamie got her first haircut! I decided to cut quite a bit and give her a cute bob. 33

She was such a big girl and I was so proud of how well she did. It turned out so cute. 

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- We had the brothers/sisters over to eat for the Super Bowl. I didn’t even know who was playing- but who cares- its all about the snacks anyway. 37We had an embarrassing amount of food. Everyone brought something. I was afraid we were going to flip the breaker because we had five crock pots plugged up. We had meatball sliders, five different dips, three different kinds of chicken wings, gizzards (gross- but Adam fried those up for he and his brothers),39 & jalapeno poppers. 38We were a bad case of heartburn waiting to happen and not just for the two pregnant girls. On top of that, we had three desserts. It was a “go-big or go-home” meal for sure. I’m just thankful for full-panel maternity pants.

- Mamie has become our “cat-lady-in-training”- she is obsessed with “ki-ye cats” and I had to snap this picture of her one day while she was napping with ALL of them in her crib.12 I am not much of a pet person and really only prefer the occasional outside dog, but I REALLY don’t care for cats, so it’s so funny to me that she’s so crazy about them. It’s pretty cute, though. 

~amw~