An Adventure into the Great Outdoor [World].

I'm a home body. I love home. But when I'm home, I tend to get caught up in the millions of things I could and should be doing here instead of being intentional with my kiddos. This week has been particularly full of to do lists, so today, these two minis and I decided it was time for a little adventure. Because it's just shy of one billion degrees and humid, we decided to make a trip to the exceptionally well air-conditioned Bass Pro Shop!

The BEST part about Bass Pro is there are exactly one MILLION things to look at, and I'm not tempted to buy a single solitary item [except that one really cute board book I saw].

I was worried how Beckett would respond. Last time we tried to venture into Bass Pro, he was afraid of the Moose and wasn't impressed with the other animals either! But this time, I wish I had a recorder for all of the cute phrases that kept coming. "Wow! Wook up dare! Wots ishy (fishy)! Oooo! Weady (really) big nose!" Charlie just squealed a lot.

If I had known that these fish would entertain these kids for so long, I would have grabbed a coffee to enjoy!

Exploring with these two lends itself to so many sweet moments. Experiencing new things definitely brings out a side of them that I don't often see at home -- or maybe I'm not paying close enough attention. Charlie loves people watching and being out and about. And Beckett loves to learn new words. He repeated everything I said with is adorable two year old speech, and I could have just melted. [Although I'm sure one day he'll repeat something I say and I'll want to melt in a completely different way. LoL.]

After the fishies, we headed up for some more intense adventuring. We rode the glass elevator (which is more exciting than you might think) and then Beckett got to shoot his first rifle! (Kind of). He was so focused and serious! Poor gophers didn't stand a chance.

Our Bass Pro has a restaurant, so we finished up our morning there. We're very lucky that our two do fairly well in restaurants, so this was sweet & enjoyable too. Buck & Chuck are finally to an age where they really enjoy each other and interact in all of the sweetest ways. Beckett kept wanting to hand Charlie bites of chicken. "He ya do Tawlie."

And just like that! Another fun morning in the books!

That Time I Woke a Sleeping Baby

Sometimes I miss my little boy at night. I often go in, as I'm sure many parents do, and check on him after he is sleeping. I make sure he's ok, and covered up, and it's not too hot or cold. And I kiss him. 

For a very long time, Beckett could ONLY sleep in his own bed. We were deliberate about putting him in his own room from day one, so he grew used to his space and if we ever needed to share a bed, NOBODY was getting sleep. He just wouldn't. For the most part, we were really grateful for that, but there is an element of "he'll only be this big for so long" that makes you want to soak up extra snuggle time on occasion. 

Recently, he's started coming in early in the morning and climbing in next to Brian. And even more recently, since Brian is traveling a lot, he's asked to sleep in our bed a couple times. 

It's. So. Sweet. 

Sometimes he'll reach over and hold my hand. Or sometimes he'll scoot really close and put his tiny arm around my neck. I love his snuggly self! Two nights ago, he crawled over and gave me an Eskimo kiss and then turned around to return to his spot. I can't even. The melting!

So last night, at midnight, I missed my little boy. So this crazy-pants mom went in and pulled a sleeping toddler out of his bed and transferred him into bed with me. Couldn't help it. I missed him. 

Overall, I prefer that he sleeps in his bed. I like my space and I'm glad he likes his. But I also want to remember to embrace and cherish moments like these.

Happy [Belated] Birthday, Brian!

Brian turned 32 this week. I think often as we get a year older, we feel like "how can I possibly be [insert your number here]," but this guy makes me wonder the opposite. HOW IS HE ONLY 32?

I don't think I need to reiterate the many details of this past year, but I will say this guy has taken on A. LOT. this year. In less than 365 days, Brian has welcomed his second child, bought a company, brought said failing company back to life (saving a lot of jobs, by the way), said good-bye to his 10 year old BFF puppy, moved into a second home, celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary, traveled all over the planet for work and personal reasons, and dealt with way more lawyers and law suits and drama than I care to think about, all while maintaining EXCELLENCE in his husband & father roles. And I kid you not, he makes it look easy. I promise I'm not just being biased when I say that he operates with such integrity, kindness, and grace that I am amazed by him DAILY. He is patient, generous, and incredibly hard working. The way he manages to balance life and put others first is absolutely stunning. He is not your average 32 year old, folks.

In true Brian form, he was more concerned about work than his birthday, so Tuesday on his ACTUAL birthday, he was out of town at a conference. So tonight, we celebrated!

One of the major perks of being in Tennessee temporarily, is living near Russ and crew. We're so lucky to have family here too! Tonight, Russ treated us all to a Brian birthday dinner at a new favorite restaurant on the lake. There's something about being right on the water that makes everything taste better. It's magical, I tell ya.

After dinner, we came back to the house for cake and presents. Because you're never too old for that part of a birthday.

It was a simple and fun evening. I love spending time and making memories with these folks. Unlike us, it'll never get old. ;)

Happy birthday, favorite!

Happy Early Birthday, Charlie Grace!

So I know it's actually Brian's birthday, but he's out of town! So in the spirit of birthdays, I've been finishing up this early birthday gift for our almost one year old!

Happy early birthday, Charlie Grace! I made this:

So the kiddos desperately needed some outdoor toys. We wanted a play place but as you know, we are in (seemingly endless) transition. Therefore, it's absolutely not a good time for a big fancy structure better suited for a permanent home. So I hit up Craigslist and found a Little Tykes 8 in 1 set. $150. Boom.

I am so excited about this set. Have you checked out the price of these things?! On Amazon, they are over $800! So, I'm considering it a totally great deal to have picked up this one, in fairly good condition, for a fraction of that. Of course when we got the set, it looked like any toy that has been sitting outside looks: dirty, faded, and covered in U.G.S (unidentifiable green stuff).

We lugged it home in our trailer, took it apart, and got to work scrubbing it down. Poor Charlie was totally put to work for her own birthday gift!

You know when you decide to take on a DIY project and buy all of the materials and then as soon as you get started you instantly regret not just spending the extra money to buy it already done?

This was not one of those projects!! It really wasn't that bad! I would totally do this again. It was a beautiful evening and we got a lot of work done. Plus it was a fun project to work on while the whole family hung out outside.

After it was clean, I got to work spray painting. I'm not an expert spray painter, so there are definitely some spots that are not exactly perfect but you can't tell on a galloping horse and the kids definitely won't care. Look at the difference one coat makes though! These slides were the same color before I got started.

We chose various colors of Rustoleum indoor/outdoor spraypaint in Satin and then also got a can of Krylon Cover Maxx because the Rustoleum didn't carry the blue we wanted. FYI: The Rustoleum definitely had better coverage. With the exception of the white (obviously) all of the Rustoleum colors covered well with one coat. The Krylon needed two. It took a total of 13 cans of spray paint to cover this baby, bringing our total to just over $200!

The biggest issue I had was my hand and forearm were nearly paralyzed by the time I finished spraying out 13 cans of spray paint. I'm only slightly exaggerating here. Next time I will invest in one of those fancy gun things. 

I'm so happy with how this project turned out, and the kids are IN LOVE (I currently can't get Beckett inside)! I would totally recommend this route!

Roomie Summer 2016

You probably see me mention my roommates a lot. Obviously they are not my current roommates (that would be weird.) but they were my grad school roommates. Actually, they were gracious enough to take me in when my intended roommate got a job in another state and left me roomie-less. At the time, these girls and I weren't very close. They make fun of me now because I tried to impose a "no junk food in the house" rule (poor girls) and I learned later that it was an easy decision to give me the master bedroom with my own bath cuz all the high maintenance tendencies. Whoops. I'm so glad that they put up with me though, because that turned out to be THE BEST year of college and was the beginning of an AMAZING friendship. After grad school, Rachel and I lived together for two years in a cute little apartment in an old Victorian on the edge of knoxvilles historic district. Katie introduced me to Brian, because she "just thought" I would like him. These girls are my people. When we were younger (cuz we're old now), we had big adventures like camping in the bush of Kenya. Now Rachel and I are married with babies and Katie is the most amazing, commited advocate for her ELL students and now we have different adventures. When I moved to St. Charles, we started "staycationing" together. We'd get together at someone house and just be together for a week or so. It's been awesome. But now that I'm (temporarily?) back in the area, we decided to take advantage of our July together and cram as many fun adventures as our crazy schedules would allow. I even made a cheesy calendar. I wanted to take a moment to archive some photos here of those adventures, so without further ado: Roomie Summer 2016
Swimming @ Panther Creek We're not QUITE to the point where we get to sit back and watch our kids play together, but this was still close. It's crazy that a few years ago, our idea of a good time was traveling to whatever new place we could think of, and now we're totally entertained just by watching these three goof balls SIT IN WATER. Seriously, though.
Also, this is an outing I COULD NOT have done without Katie. How do you take a baby who doesn't walk and a toddler who runs EVERYWHERE to a POOL?! I need one of those kid leashes.

Knoxville Zoo The next item on our summer itinerary was the Knoxville Zoo. Why is taking kids out to have fun so much more work on the parents than the kids? This was exhausting, but still very sweet. I felt like such a grown up. Is that weird?

The Muse, Knoxville This place is so cute and perfect for our littles! And I could have just melted watching them all of my favorite people play together.

Of course, while the kids are fun and all, we also needed some grown up only time. So we worked into our schedule a girls night and a grown ups night.

Paddle Boarding @ Black Oak Marina

Have you been paddle boarding? SO. MUCH. FUN! Highly recommend it!! I don't, however, recommend paddle boarding on the lake as a storm rolls in and getting caught in the torrential downpour and high winds. Only us. Good times.

After we barely escaped lightning electrocution in the lake, we had dinner at the marina restaurant. Being with these girls is therapeutic. I could have sat all evening and caught up.

After this evening we decided we need to be more intentional about getting together. Story of our lives, right? Hopefully we can stick with it, because it's legitimately good for the soul.

Smokies Game

I don't like baseball. Neither does Brian. But Katie suggested Thirsty Thursday at the Smokies game and of course it doesn't take much to convince us! I'm not sure Katie even knows what sports are (although she assured me baseball is her favorite), but I will forever be grateful that she recommended this outing. The three of us sat and gabbed the entire game. I watched ONE play. That's not an exaggeration. It wasn't even a good one (I'm pretty sure I would have done better than Mr. Third Baseman). While we chatted, the guys talked about whatever guys talk about, in between beer runs, and it was everything summer should be.