Catching Up

We've had so much going on lately and I've been feeling completely overwhelmed! 



We've had a lot of not so fun stuff going on but a lot of fun stuff too!! 

We went on our first family camping trip a few weekends ago! 

The next weekend we went to a fall festival which is always fun! 

And L got to ride a horse for the first time!! 

Last weekend we went up to the mountains for a few hours on L's 4th birthday!! 

I plan to post about all that next week! 

She opened a few presents here at home before we headed up to the mountains.

We have a lot of fun stuff coming up too! Of course today is Halloween! With storms in the forecast for this evening it sounds like a lot of the community may postpone trick or treating until tomorrow though. We have friends coming over this evening and If it does storm we plan stay inside, eat candy, make a fun s'more dish, watch a Halloween movie and maybe play board games!! I can't wait to share the kids' costumes... especially J's! I'm making that one myself and can't wait to see the finished product! 



We have L's birthday party coming up on Saturday! This is the first birthday party she will remember having so that's really exciting for her!! 



And our first Disney trip is coming up in just over two weeks!! So exciting!!! 



I'm going to try hard to get back on track with blogging next week! Lots to blog about!  

2018, A Look Back (Part 2)

July - We spent tons of time in the pool! C and my husband flew to Texas to visit family. This was C's first time on a plane! 

August - The guys went camping (I think it was in August but it may have been in the fall..)

C turned 8! School started! And I celebrated another birthday!

September - We got settled into our fall schedule and prepared for Hurricane Florence. Thankfully we didn't get any damage from the hurricane... just lots of rain. The Sunday that we got all the rain from L started getting sick, had a seizure, fell off a chair and hit her head. She was fine but we spent a few hours in the ER having tests and x-rays. In late September my husband celebrated a birthday!

October - My mom came to visit! L  turned 3! We spent an afternoon in the mountains and celebrated Halloween!

November - November seemed to fly by! Mar marched in the annual Christmas parade (held the Tuesday before Thanksgiving) and we spent Thanksgiving Day with friends!

We had an amazing 2018! It was our first full year living in North Carolina. I hope this year will be just as wonderful!!

a day in the life

I thought it would be interesting to recap our busy day Tuesday.

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We all had to wake up pretty early since we had a busy day ahead. By 8 a.m. I think everyone was up and awake except for L and I. I drug myself out of bed, stumbled downstairs to mix up my Revital U coffee and headed back upstairs to straighten my hair.



I woke L up around 8:15, got her dressed, made sure someone gave her a chocolate chip granola bar and quickly got myself dressed.



My husband's grandmother passed away suddenly over the weekend so he left for Texas on Tuesday with the two older girls. 



My husband finished loading his car for the trip then left and took C to school around 8:25



I try to double check to make sure the girls had packed everything they needed but figured out later they left a few things behind... including nice dresses for the service and all their bath/shower stuff. Oops.



The girls and I left the house right after 8:30 and drove to Wal-Mart to meet my husband. We left his car and we all went together in the van to get his car registered before going back to Texas. We may have been a bit overdue on the whole registration thing..

We stood in a long line at the registration place but thankfully didn't have to wait too long. That place had to be 50 years old and smelled like old, stagnant cigarette smoke.



After getting the car registered we went back to Wal-Mart around 10:00-10:15. I dropped my husband off at Wal-Mart so he could get his prescription and a few other items before leaving town. The girls and I drove over to the Dollar Tree in the next parking lot. I let the two older girls pick out several things to keep them busy on the road. They got crayons, notebooks, coloring books, a few crafts and more. Plus Play-Doh to play with at my mother-in-law's house.



My husband met us in the Dollar Tree parking lot with donuts around 10:45. We were all starving! We said our good-byes and he and the older girls left and headed out of town from there.

L and I went straight to therapy after telling the others goodbye. She had a great session! She crawled through a big, long tunnel for the first time (she was terrified of it previously) then crawled through it several more times throughout her session. She also wanted to get on the "horse" swing and actually swung on it for the first time! She loved it! Last week she sat on it for a minute but wouldn't swing on it. You can see she has my old "My Child" doll from the 80s that she played with all day Tuesday. I begged for that doll for my 8th birthday and named here "Emily" when I was a kid. L tries to say Emily but it sounds more like "Em-na-lee"... it's really cute how she says it! 


Excuse the awful pictures! The camera on this new (cheap) phone drives me crazy. I'm practically counting down the days until I can get a new phone but it will be a few months. I finally found the charger to my big camera and really want to start taking that around with me. I need the practice and really miss decent pictures!

On the way home from therapy we met a girl from a buy/sell/trade group to buy a pair of snow bibs for the winter. L was sooo excited to get them and had to put them on as soon as we got home ha! They're a little too big for her but she looked so cute in them! I'm hoping we get as much snow this year as we got last year. (What we got last year seemed like a lot to us since we hardly got a thing in Texas).



L and I came home for lunch around 12:45, took the dog out a couple times then left to pick up C for an orthodontist appointment. His appointment was at 2:10 but of course we were 10 minutes late. This was a follow up to his evaluation back in February. They still want to wait a while to start treatment and don't need to see him again until May.



After the orthodontist we came home for a late nap and quiet time. Yesterday was cold, overcast and rainy... perfect napping weather! L went right to sleep and slept until I had to wake her up to leave the house again at 5:30.



Around five I made grill cheese sandwiches for C and I and made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for L to eat in the car. Trail Life starts at 7 but I told a girl from another buy/sell/trade group that I would meet her at 6:15 so we left the house around 5:30-5:40.

After we met the girl we browsed around the dollar $3-$5 bins at Target for a while.

The kids tried on a few hats. Both kids wanted that toy that L is holding in the last picture. L got the snowman and C got a penguin but as soon as we opened them we realized they were junk. L and I went right back to Target after dropping C off at Trail Life and returned the toys. We walked around Target again for over an hour. I could spend my life in there ha!

I bought a couple clearance palm stems (and want to go back for more!) and a Barbie baby for L but this candle smelled sooo good! I may go back and get it.



L felt warm to me off and on all evening. The last thing we want is a seizure so I kept feeling her forehead to figure out if she was feverish. I walked over to the Target pharmacy and asked if they could take her temp. I think the pharmacist thought I was crazy at first ha! Then he seemed to agree it would probably be a good idea to keep a thermometer behind the counter. In the end I just bought Tylenol and gave L a dose to be on the safe side. I'm going to try to remember to keep a bottle of Tylenol or Ibuprofen in my diaper bag/purse from now along with a thermometer. I always have about fifty thousand things in there that I don't need. I wish I could remember to carry along the stuff we do need!



We picked up C from Trail Life at 8:15, stopped by McDonald's drive-thru for a snack. The kids had fries and chocolate chip cookies and I had a hot apple pie! It's crazy how much calmer it is with just 2 kids. It's almost like a vacation!



Despite a busy day we came home, played with the dog, had snacks and went to bed late.. around 11:15. I watched a few episodes of "Friends", then fell asleep with my contacts still in! This happens way too often. The kids love sleeping in my bed when my husband is gone so after C got the dog to sleep in his room he came and slept in bed with L and I. Then he ended up going back to his room in the middle of the night after the dog started whining. The dog is so funny.. just like a toddler... he doesn't like to go to sleep in a room by himself so you have to sneak out after he's asleep.. then if he wakes up and realizes you're gone he whines until you come back haha!! Such a spoiled puppy!



I kept an eye on my husband and the girls' route as they were traveling yesterday and into the night. I'm always a little nervous when my husband drives straight through! I have no idea how he does it. They did stop to rest for a while and arrived safely at his mother's house early Wednesday morning. I'm so thankful they had a safe and uneventful trip out there!

October TBB Asks Fall 2.0

I'm linking up with The Blended Blog today!

1} My favorite fall color to wear would be navy or a dark pink. 

I love all the fall colors for decorations. 

2} I'm not a huge fan of apple cider but most definitely prefer it hot. 

3} Absolutely! I love caramel apples! 

4} I would choose an apple cider donut. 

5} Long cardigans for sure. 

6} Chicken wings! 

7} I love both orange and white pumpkins. 

8} I love hayrides with my kids but bonfires are more cozy.

9} I love apple pies and homemade chocolate chip cookies. 

(All photos via Google) 

10} I'm looking forward to going up to the mountains this fall! 

Fall Bucket List

It still feels like summer outside but I'm really ready for fall!

 I'm linking up with Girl Chat and High Five For Friday sharing my Fall Bucket List! 

{via Google}

Carmel apples are always at the top of my list!! I've managed to stay away from them so far 

this year you can bet I'll be buying some soon! 

{via Google}

Going to the mountains is also at the top of our list! We've lived in NC for over a year now and still haven't taken a family trip to the mountains. We plan to go to Asheville for the day in October. I know the trees will be breathtaking! 

{Roba family farm, image via Google}

I'd like to take a family trip to a farm or pumpkin patch. It's seems like a few of us go every year either with a moms group or on a fieldtrip but I think it would be fun to go as a family! My kids love hayrides, petting the animals and picking out their own pumpkins. 

Taking tons of photos is always a must! Fall is the perfect time for outdoor pictures!

Here's Indie almost a year ago.. right around her 2nd birthday. 

And all the girls last fall at a display downtown. 

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Fall décor. I don't have nearly as much as I'd like but I do love decorating for each season. 

Here are a few things I'd love to pick up this year! 

I love how this throw pillow is fall-ish while still being neutral. 

Mini white pumpkins made a great vase filler. I'm loving white pumpkins white now!

This dried wheat wreath would be cute on my living room wall.

And the white pumpkins would also look pretty cute in this tray!

* * * * * 

Besides going to the mountains and visiting a farm or pumpkin patch I know we'll want to spend as

much time outdoors as possible! We love going to parks and having picnics by the lake! 

The guys are heading out to go camping in the mountains tomorrow with some 

friends! Perfect way to kick off fall! I'm hoping it'll be a little cooler up there for 

them that it's been down here. 

Sea World! {Part 2}

After the Shama show we watched the "Azul" show. It was pretty good. A lot more to see, actually, than the Shamu show. 

I snapped a few cellphone pics of the kids and I. I know my husband has tons of pictures on his phone too but I haven't taken the time to go through those. He takes pretty good cellphone pics too so he has some great shots of the shows and everything. Oh well.

After the "Azul" show we went over the shark aquarium. C was pretty excited to see real sharks. Ha! 

The aquarium was pretty dark so it was hard to get pictures but here's one shark. :) 

I liked the round window and like the way this picture came out. 

After the sharks we had to stop by the dolphin pool one last time. We were hoping to pet them again but they didn't swim close enough. J and I could've stood there all day. The dolphins are so fun and cute to watch. 

A few family pics before we left. 

I forgot to mention the weather was absolutely perfect the day we went! This is the second time I've been to San Antonio in October and I think it's the perfect time of year to go. 

By the time we left Sea World we were starving and exhausted. I don't think Five Guys has ever tasted SO good!

J drew this in her little notebook as soon as we left Sea World. I think I helped her with the tail but she did a pretty good job. :) She loves to draw and she's getting better all the time.



Even though it was a quick trip we had a great time at Sea World! The kids are ready to go back again!