Five on Friday

Linking up with Five on Friday today! It’s been awhile, but I’m trying to get back in the groove! 

Without further adieu…
{1} May is CRAZY.  It’s only May 2nd and I already feel behind this month.  I don’t feel like this month is always this crazy for us (the way October is always a crazy month) but this year is definitely different.  Between doctor appointments, golf tournaments (ahem MATT), Mother’s Day, a preschool program, field day at school, end of school party, my sister’s baby shower (that I’m co-hosting, in another city), and then leaving for CALIFORNIA sans kiddos at the end of the month I feel like I’m constantly running around!
{2} Speaking of our trip to San Diego – one of the things I am most looking forward to is (hopefully) being able to read!  I haven’t made much time for reading lately and can’t wait to catch up on some new books!  I really want to read Bridge to Haven – Francine Rivers’ new book.  Her book, Redeeming Love, is hands down my favorite book ever, and I have loved pretty much everything else of hers I’ve read so I can’t wait to read this one!  I’m also hoping to finally read Melanie Shankle’s books – she is absolutely HILARIOUS!











{3} We’ve been car shopping for Matt – not nearly as fun when you’re not the primary driver. ;) He wants to keep driving a car because of his commute (25mi each way) but we’re not 100% sold on what to buy.  So far we’ve only looked at the new Accords and we plan to still test drive Acuras.  Any recommendations?
{4} I have a few house updates I’ve been wanting to post but each room has one or two things left that I still want to do so I haven’t taken pictures.  I need to at least take some progress pictures.  We’ve done a lot of painting (read: hired someone to paint for us) over the last 6 months or so…
For example – the dining room before: (with the seller’s stuff)

And during (we still need to have the shutters painted and ideally I’d like to have the ceiling painted as well, but Matt isn’t sold on that.) I promise to get my big camera out and take some better photos of what it looks like now!

And a poor quality iphone pic of the semi-current state:

{5} If you follow me on instagram you may have seen this already, but we had our first (I’m sure of many over the next 15ish years) warning about lice at school.  Ewwwwwww.  So far it looks like we’re in the clear…I’m crossing my fingers it stays that way!

That’s all I’ve got for today! Hope everyone enjoys the weekend!  I am off to enjoy FINALLY having Matt home after his traveling Tues-Friday this week for work!

College Roommate Reunion :)

One of my closest friends and college roommate lives about 5 hours away from us.  Needless to say, with 4 kids between the two of us we don’t get to see each other nearly as often as we’d like.  Thankfully (although this is not typically something she’s thankful for), her husband had to travel to Dallas for work recently, so she and the kids tagged along so we could visit!  We had 2 whole days of catching up, visiting and watching our kids play together.  It was so good for my soul and such a fun blessing to get to watch our two oldest girls form a fast friendship, just as we did over a decade ago!

On their first day here we took the kids to the Arboretum to explore the new children’s garden and I took a ton of pictures…

Hadley and Kate requested to match “like twins” – Hadley’s outfit was the best I could do on short notice ;)

On our way back to the car, sweet Kate was getting tired so she hitched a ride with us ;)

Love this shot of sweet Ryan after he just woke up from his nap. :)

I also had to share this picture I snapped of the girls on the monitor.  I had come downstairs to put Harper down for a nap while the girls played upstairs.  I turned the monitor on and it was still set on scan, so it clicked onto Hadley’s room first.  Kate was sitting behind Hadley on the bed styling her hair!  I could hear them talking about how beautiful it was going to look and how they both couldn’t wait to show their moms!  Too precious!

It was a bittersweet visit – so fun to spend time with them and watch our kids play so well together, but made me so sad that we don’t live near each other (as if I wasn’t already sad about that!).

I’m sure they were not quite as thrilled by the trip, however, as we were hit by a massive hail storm after dinner one night that caused some major damage to their new car! :( There go my chances of trying to convince them to move to Dallas!

It’s Been Awhile

Apparently I fell off the blogging bandwagon again so I’m going to attempt to get caught back up!  I know there’s a certain grandparent in Russia right now who would probably appreciate the photos and I know I will appreciate it when I’m trying to fill in baby books! 

I have yet to blog about Hadley’s big girl room, all my car seat research, Hadley’s birthday party and Harper’s birthday party… let alone Easter and everything in between so I’m going to let this post serve as a big picture catch-up and go from there! 

We went to a Superbowl party with friends. I watched zero football.  I did watch my kids. And eat some queso. :)

Hadley got some iPad time while Nana & Poppy were in town for Harper’s birthday.

Hadley and I had a fun time at her class Valentine’s party – also known as the only times she’s allowed to eat candy, cookies AND drink juice at the same time.  AKA: tummy ache and sugar crash 30 minutes later.

At 12.5 months old, Harper FINALLY popped two teeth! 

We’ve done a lot of swinging and playing outside enjoying some warmer weather finally!

We found out there’s going to be a little BOY in the family soon!  My sister & brother-in-law will be welcoming a sweet little mister come July! 

Hadley & her friend Russell from school were enjoying the photo booth set up at their school’s lemonade stand fundraiser.

We’ve had lots of fun play dates with friends!

We visited daddy at work and little miss made herself at home in the office!

I designed the invitations for my sister’s baby shower  and I really like how they turned out! She’s planning to do all different neutrals in the nursery – cream, white, grey – along with pops of orange, so I tried to design them with that in mind (and I had to throw in a little blue )

Harper started walking at 13 months old and hasn’t slowed down since!  She pushes this little stroller around the house NON.STOP.

 

I celebrated my 31st birthday on April 2nd.  The girls and I went to lunch with a good friend and her daughter (who treated me to a starbucks g/c – hence the pic below) and then we got to spend the next couple days with my college roommate and her family!  I couldn’t have asked for more. :)

The girls and I have enjoyed plenty of chick-fil-a lunch dates – which is slightly more expensive these days given Harper’s appetite!

I’ve always rocked Harper to sleep, but lately she has been goofy and giggly at bedtime while we’re rocking and then asks to go into her crib.  While I’m a little sad that she rarely lets me rock her to sleep now, I am loving the sweet smiles and giggles!

I went back blonde! (Sorry for the lame selfie).

We enjoyed some family time with mimi & grandpa last weekend (April 12/13).  Lots of good food and playtime!

Hadley LOVES to bake with me, so we’ve spent lots of time in the kitchen baking sweet treats!

Oh yeah. And a tree fell on my car.  Well, fell may not be the right word.  More like a tree was hit by a car and knocked over on top of my car.  Kind of cancelled out the relaxing pedicure I was enjoying with a friend.

Of course we had to go have a margarita on the patio with friends to compensate for the tree incident.

Whew. Ok – now to work on a few more updates to get us all caught up!