Rewind: Happy 4th of July {in photos}

Fireworks Cake I baked for our church's 4th of July Festival!

FREEEEEEDOM!!!!!!!!

BBQ Chicken cooking all day. Good thing. It was raining most of the day.

Hanging out on the should of a bridge in Downtown Birmingham read to see the show!

With every "boom!" from the sky there was a "wow!" from the little guy

A nice and cozy 4th of July. Just perfect!

Oh, and this is perfect, too! 

Lindsay Letters - In God We Trust Print

That will definitely be going up somewhere in the new house next 4th of July!! Though, I may get the blue version. Either way, it is perfect!

Hope y'all had a great 4th of July!!

Currently. {Vol. 5}

Enjoying:

Father's Day Weekend!

Picnic dinner at a local park

They all must sit in the big blue chair.

The first day of summer (per the calendar).

Eighteen25

 The last day in my 20s - gasp!

Also, enjoying my free birthday drink from Dunkin Donuts while listening to the Inspired to Action podcast.

Loving: 

I am LOVING the fact that we can finally countdown to moving!! As of today, we have 33 days until closing/move-in day!!! AHHHHH!!!! Stay tuned for posts on saying goodbye to this house and HELLO!!!! to the new house! We cannot wait to show you our new home!!

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(Ok, maybe it's not the final countdown... I do still have the first day of kindergarten and a new baby to countdown to. But, Ross on the keyboard?! I couldn't resist!)

Planning: 

Oh. You have NO idea. I just got my AWESOME Erin Condren planner in the mail on Friday. (psst! click that link and you'll get $10 off your first order!)

Do you see how pretty?!

One happy planner - me!

Oh, yes. All the school dates are penciled in. The moving date is penciled in. PENCILED. Key word. (Do they make erasable colored pencils? Hmm...) My mom got me the carry-all clutch for my birthday! And, I plan on getting some customized stickers for different categories. See? You have no idea. Erin Condren is fabulous!

Feeling: 

Excited!! I think this pretty much sums it up:

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Making: 

Making menu plans based on everything in the pantry, fridge, and freezer. We have 33 days left in this place and I can probably make it about 2 1/2 almost 3 weeks on this (of course adding the needs like milk and fresh fruits/veggies).

I'm not the only one making things around here. Here's something that Andrew invented. Basically, you write a word in one box and the thing appears in another box. I would buy that. Or write it in and then it would appear. Only, he told me that this is for fruits only. He is working on making a few other "chart machines" for other things later, he says.

Listening:

Listening to these guys play Super Mario Bros. is HILARIOUS!

Andrew picked a level that I guess Alex didn't want. So Alex went into the bubble. But Andrew had the fire flower, so kept popping the bubble. Then, at one point Alex was floating over a drop where Andrew popped the bubble. Alex yells at him, "YOU DEADED ME!!!!!"

Another level Alex had picked and they were both playing fine until one grabbed all the mushrooms out of a mystery box instead of just taking one and letting the other get one. Whoever it was happened to be on a Yoshi, so he ate him. And spit him out over a drop. Nice.

Finally (after a lot of laughs from mama), I explained that Mario and Luigi are BROTHERS. Andrew and Alex are BROTHERS. You have to work together to win the level, guys. They said they know and giggled, then continued stealing coins from each other and throwing each other over the drop. Oh, dear. So, silly.

Reading:

I am happy to announce that I am FINALLY done with Wizard and Glass. Y'all. I really would have rather travel back in time to the grade in which I was FORCED to read The Grapes of Wrath. I mean, it was basically the same thing. I went to add it to my GoodReads account and, apparently, others seemed to think the same...slow read...what on earth did we have to go into such great detail in the middle of the book for...etc. I am so happy it is over.

Who knew a 30 week bump made such a great page holder?!

On to the next read: Death by Coffee!

Watching:

Austin and I watched some late afternoon cartoons while Jason and the bigger boys took a load of boxes to the new house and made a trip to Costco. He is such a little snuggle bug...

That's it for now! Lots of fun and exciting posts will be coming up in the next few weeks. YAY!

Have a great weekend!!

Great Mamas Think Alike

So, my mom came up last week (or maybe the one before? prego brain...) and gave me a really pretty set of serving bowls to go with a few other awesome pieces she has given me for past occasions. I finally got to use them this past Saturday. Love them!!

The best part...

Yes!! The top left photo is at my house in Alabama. The top right photo is at her house in Florida.

We had the SAME dinner on the SAME day using the SAME (ok fine...same pattern, different colors) awesome serving pieces and didn't even plan it! HA!

And, yes. I sent that photo on the bottom to all of my little brothers. Boom.

Happy Mother's Day to all you legends out there!

Side story:

Mom told me to tell Andrew that she was having Salsa Saturday, too. He told me to tell her, "No, Grandma. It's Taco Tuesday (long pause) on a Saturday!"

Love that kid! 

 

Veteran's Day Parade {in pictures}

Veteran's Day in Downtown Birmingham.

Where it all began back in 1945...

Prayer for Veterans and those still serving our country

7 Quick Takes {The Lake Adventures}

1. The Marina at Strom Thurmond Lake

I love sail boats! Never been on one that I can remember, but they look cool.

2. My boys SUPER excited to be boating!
 

 

3. A few attempts to fish for the first time and one who HATED the life jacket 

4. Lake swimming and sitting in a beer bucket filled with lake water is awesome!
 

 5. Learned that going under bridges in a boat is WAY cooler than going over them in a car.

6. Andrew LOVES Canada Geese, just like his mama and grandma!

7. Best moment of the boating adventure: SUNSET! It was a wonderful day!! ;)

Labor Day Festivities {Recap}

The Week of Labor Day Weekend

With 3 kids you learn that you MUST pack throughout the week. Why wait til the last minute? You will forget something anyway. Always happens. This time I forgot Austin's blanket. But, at least I remembered the kids - both real and stuffed (aka Tusker the Elephant, Roary the Lion, and Baby Fox)

Yep, that is my kitchen table covered in the stuff needed for this family when we travel. This does NOT include the parent suitcase, the baby's tote, the highchair (there were a LOT of people at Sarah's house this weekend...plus it breaks down pretty easy), the pack-n-play, AND two bikes with helmets.

I know. I KNOW!

Good thing we have the awesome minivan...

Thursday Morning (the day we leave for Georgia)

We headed out to the zoo. Because I'm insane like that. BUT! I have good reasons - the house was mostly clean, the kids were wild and asking every 5 minutes when it was time to go, and I didn't want these packed items messed with anymore!

Ready to head out to the zoo!

Bird is the word...

Lunch at the library before dropping off books that were due / picking up our books for school

Thursday Afternoon (pack 'em up and let's roll)

I love having an engineer in the house. He can solve any "Rubik's Cube" - especially the minivan version!

Yes, everything packed - the bikes are in the right seat's spot (we took out that seat)

Working on the last of the baby afghans for this month

Thursday - We have arrived!

Happy to be at Nana's with the train tracks!

Just happy to be out of the car. Not a fan of being strapped down when he has places to go and things to get into...

Love this picture! We have a funny story to go with this one. Kate, my sister-in-law (!!!), and I were looking through a book from Mark (Jason's dad) called Practical Problem Solver. We were answering the questions to "Are you in love?" You had to be there. We had fun with it!

 Friday - the LAKE!! (see this post for more pics of our adventure)

These guys had an absolute blast and are already asking when we get to go again! So much fun!!

Mark and Sarah rented a party boat for Friday afternoon/evening. It was AWESOME. Great fun was definitely had on this gorgeous lake! The boys went fishing for the first time ever...loved it! They even swan in the lake. They thought that was pretty cool until another boat came by and made waves. They would run up the ladder, wait for the waves to calm a bit, then get back in the water. So funny!

I mean, see? GORGEOUS!! Also this was my favorite part of the boating adventure! ;)

Saturday (Catan Extravaganza...after golf, of course)

I would just like to document here that I WON a game of Catan...and NOT JUST a game of Catan. A game of Catan with "the ones who cannot be beat" - ahem...all the men! However, I'm still not entirely sure how I did that. I tried to do the same thing and that blew up. So, hmmm. Maybe it is a game of luck. At least for me.

Sunday 

Trying out another Catholic church while in Augusta. We think this is the winner! Beautiful Mass, beautiful music, and they have a Nursery AND a Sunday School program that even visitors can attend. Wonderful priest - LOVED, LOVED the homily!! Definitely will visit St. Mary's on the Hill again!

No Sunday is complete without football. Check out that arm!

The sweetest picture that I'm so happy I was able to get! This is Ma, the boys' great-grandmother, and she is reading the rest of the Magic Tree House book that we brought along. Love it!

Monday - We head home!

Austin decide to wake up at the crack BEFORE dawn and scream bloody murder...So, he and I headed out on a walk on the peaceful path. But it only looks peaceful since he was angry the whole time. Stinker. It's all good. I brought my phone along and play some music for us. He wasn't happy, but quit the constant yelling at me. He was fine the rest of the day. So, I have no idea what that was about....

On our way home, we hit a few scattered showers. Check out that beam of sunshine.

Finally home! But everyone was wired...so Jason turned everyone into an obstacle course for Austin. He called it his version of Mount Midoriyama (Can you tell we are American Ninja Warrior fans??)

This was such a fun trip! We were so glad to see everyone! Hope y'all had a great Labor Day weekend, too!