Friday Photo Dump

There's a whole lot of cleaning up, packing up, and putting up going on around here. This includes my phone's camera stash... Here are some June pictures I never got around to sharing. Enjoy!

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Hanging out at the park

 

My little boy is still my little baby

And then my baby gets stolen for a few minutes my little boy.... 

Note: That stuffed animal is about 30 years old. That was my baby when I was little. He still is, actually. That was a gift from my Grand-daddy and I still love it. So much that I wouldn't....and still won't let anyone else have him for more than 5 minutes. Lamby-Kins is in hiding right now. Safe and sound. Whew!

Mornings are for smoothies and waffles/pancakes

Mornings are also for playing outside until the sun is too much. 

Then, of course, that's what tents are for...shade. As long as you have the chimney shadow, too. 

Until it starts to go away. Then you move the tent. 

 Until all the shade is gone... And you come back inside to catch up on your Lego reading. 

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Next up: My brother, Brendan, is in town!

Currently. {Vol. 3}

Enjoying: The cuteness factor of the bond between brothers!

Alex isn't a huge fan of trains, but he definitely needs to be in on all the action... Especially when Andrew is picking out every one's trains. Also Austin is learning all kinds of word these days about the world of trains: train, track, chug-chug, choo-choo, car, wheel, etc. It is super cute!

Loving: The awesomeness of the McWane Center.

Y'all. For real. You just don't even know how extremely happy the moms are to have this Itty Bitty Magic City within the McWane Center. The Stroller Parking in a cute "parking lot" is adorable. The GATED ENTRY with a sign that not only clearly states "kindergarten and under ONLY" but with a McWane employee manning the gate?!?! HELLO. This place is at a whole new level of awesome. Really and truly, there are not enough words to explain how happy we mamas of little ones are. You could see it on all of the mamas faces. Andrew and Alex could run around and play their little hearts out without me constantly saying something about running off and not being able to see them. There is even a spot where Austin could play that is for 2 year old and younger. Seriously, y'all. This place really is "magic" and we are thrilled!

Planning: Something. I'm always planning something. For now it is just baby stuff.

It's all I can do really... Until we are actually moving for real there isn't anything I can do. And that may be what is slowly killing me. Having a true panic attack on a daily basis can't be good. Maybe I should plan how to stop those before they start. Suggestions are highly welcomed. But not the fluffy bologna, please. Much thanks.

Feeling: Unbelievably stressed out to the max. I'm sure there is another word for it...

However, due to some recent feedback... Maybe our luck is about to change. Oh, don't worry though. I'm no longer giving my hopes up or anything. I might give myself a little gift when this junk is over.

Alex & Ani "It Is What It Is"

I mean really. It is my current motto. It is perfect.

Making: Everyone crazy? Kidding. Though I probably am...

We did make up a fabulous play date for all the Moms & Tots though! Good times!

It was a perfect day for our bubble fun, too. The sun wasn't beaming down on us due to the threat of spring showers that never showed up. It was great! The kids all had a great time. My lame joke was that since it was my last year as Mom & Tots Coordinator for our Guild at OLS, that I was "popping out of here!" Haha, I know. We all had a great time!! And, I know that our next mama to take over is going to great!!

Listening: Some serious Lego building is going on in the kitchen.

I found a small, manageable box of Legos for while we are in the "oh, my gosh! the house must stay perfect all the time!" stage. And, yeah. They are of course loving every piece. It is just cracking me up while I'm typing. I can hear Alex telling Andrew to "put that wreckin' ball down before I get mad!" and Andrew is saying something about "those pieces are for his creation that his wreckin' ball will never touch. ever!" See? Serious building. No joking.

Reading: A whole mess of books. I have issues. As clearly stated.

Ok, before you gasp at the MASSIVE size of The Goldfinch... That is in large print. It was the only one I could put on hold for some reason. But, I wanted to read it. So, there you go. One massive book. I also have Gone, The Sandcastle Girls, and In Sunlight and In Shadow in that stack. The kindle has about 3 books in the works right now, too: A Mother's Rule of Life (for the 2nd time. It's really good when you are losing your mind...), Love the Home You Have (because I am losing my mind with selling the current home), and Far from the Madding Crowd (which is slow going...not sure if I am a fan yet...).

Watching: Sadly nothing... My show just ended and won't return until October!!! NOT FAIR, CW!!! October is TOO FAR AWAY!!! It's the only show I watch. The only one where no one is allowed to call, text, email, anything while it is on. I'm so sad... I know...

I might watch The White Queen on Amazon Prime, but I don't know. Maybe I'll back up my historical fiction and watch The Tudors again. Or maybe Vikings or Rome. We only have Amazon Prime for now... so no Game of Thrones for now.

I'm hoping that I get to watch Jason and a bunch of awesome friend fill up a moving truck soon more than anything though....

For now, we will just keep moving our pieces around the board.

From Instagram: Andrew: "I got mmmmmolasses...yeah..." Alex: "GOATS!!!! YES!!!!"

 

Exploring New Places

Sometimes we have showings that happen almost back-to-back or have a time slot blocked off. When this happens, we tend to take a longer drive - especially if some small people (and mamas) are a tad cranky. On one of those days, we drove over to explore things very close to the new house. We are so happy we did, too! The library is just minutes from the new place and the staff seems very nice, as well as the children's department (this is VERY important for this mama...see here on how we do the library). We can't wait to go there for story times and such in the very near future.

Behind the library, right outside the children's department floor-to-ceiling windows, is one awesome playground. We, of course, had to check that out! Another score! This place is perfect for all of my guys! It has all kinds of playground equipment that is spread out enough to where they can "run free" but fenced in perfectly for this mama of many! Oh, and the best part...no mulch! Ha! I know... But, it is that recycle tire material. It is awesome. I see many outings here coming up!

Andrew looking back at me from the "Sea Monster" area. Promise to get a better pic of that thing next time!

Watching Alex run all over the place from the Toddler area.

 

Austin loved this dinosaur - he is growling like one here!

Giving the alligator a pet. Gotta make sure he knows you're a good guy.

Hanging out with a hippo

Taking a swing break

This was a very cool place. We stayed for about an hour and didn't even realize it! Gotta love a place where you lose track of time! We can't wait to go back! Hopefully we can move before then!

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House update: Some have asked how it is all going. Well, we are no longer "for sale by owner" after trying that out for 60 +/- days. And, we have been with our realtor for 2 weeks. We  did an open house the Sunday after re-listing. We had 4 showings last week and are up to 2 this week, so far. April is still a weird month with the weather being unpredictable and all. But, we are all thinking next month will be the month. So, keep the prayers a-coming!! Thanks everyone!!

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Bump Update: We are doing well! I'm only really tired in the sense of "tired of waiting for a buyer" - and sometimes if it was a rough day... Luckily, the bigger boys have been pretty awesome since finding out they were getting a sister. They have been super helpful! Speaking of being helpful... Andrew wants y'all to know that I'm 22 weeks now which means the Baby Aria is the size of a grapefruit. He is so cute... He was talking to her earlier about something. It was all whispers, but he said she could hear him just fine. So, so sweet. He has always been a rockstar big brother!

House Showing Time {Trial Run}

Now, come on. Y'all know that I'm all about having things in perfect order (though sometimes it may not look like it...). So, of course, I had to make sure we could get our act together should someone want to see the house in about a half hour.

Photography by Jennifer Branham

This means:

Toys picked up
Everything put back in it's place
Dirty clothes in washer
Bathrooms freshened
Kitchen back to photo set up and freshened
Pretty items for showings out
Candles lit
If time, vacuum once more (or Jason does this while I get the boys in the car
Boys in car
Bag ready and in car - this is my backpack for all of these munchkins (snacks, diapers, drinks, etc)
Lights on
Get out!

The boys and I got this all done in about 25 minutes on the day we tried this out. On the day of a showing (who ended up changing the day - but that's fine. We knew what needed to be changed up!), the boys were already in the car from a birthday party/Costco. Also, the house was picked up and ready to go before we left. Jason vacuumed and put away the fridge/freezer stuff (the rest stayed in the car). I ran through the house putting out the pretty things, lighting candles, and turning on all the lights. Easy peasy.

Back to our trial run day...

As soon as I had everything ready to go and the boys were in the car, we headed over to one of the nearby playgrounds. And, apparently, this one got a makeover!

Good times and a good trial run!!

We are definitely ready! Let's sell this house!!!

Sunday Sweets {#31days}

These two...

Have you heard that song by Katy Perry, Hot N Cold?

Well that's like these two, in a way...

Only it's that one's hot, the other's cold. One says yes and the other no (louder and many times). He's wrong and he's right. One goes up and the next one goes down.

It's exhausting really.

But then most of the time, they are the sweetest boys in the world. The best 2 big brothers that a little brother could ask for. Austin wants to do EVERYTHING that his big brothers do.

And, they let him (sometimes). Though, only a little.

Like, the boys said that Austin was fussy because he didn't want to play in the stroller. He wanted to play on the playground. Only, they wanted him to be safe so he needed to be in the swing.

Then, the boys wanted to play in the Army Jeep (we were at the Veterens' Park) and they needed Austin to be the trailer.

Not exactly what he had in mind...

But there are times when the bigger ones are acting all wild and crazy:

These are the times that I see that look in his eyes... When he is watching closely and learning about these things:

Now that he is walking...he knows. He knows that  he will be leaping and running and joining this wild life soon enough.

He's just giving mommy a break.

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A Quiet Morning at the Park {in pictures}