A Peek Into Our Week

Can't believe the weekend is almost over, boo. Luckily my husband surprised me and has tomorrow & Tuesday off! Our 3 year anniversary is Tuesday so I thought that was super sweet. :-) 

Anyway, last week: 

Monday he woke up and picked up this bad boy from Ikea. We were a little unsure of the color and size, but we really love it. It's just very clean and not bulky. Bonus: We'll be able to hide some of the kid toys. ;)

After a SAMs haul we got a giant watermelon. We cut it up and ate a bunch outside. Emma loved every second of it. I even froze a piece on a popsicle stick and she thought it was Christmas. 

Several weeks ago I randomly found some athletic type clothes for E at TJ Maxx. When Nathan saw her wearing them he thought it was too cute. He never really takes interest in her clothes (Most dads don't, LOL), so I thought that was funny. I should find some more next time we go! 

Her shirt (above) is Nike and the dry fit material-- so funny to see her running around wearing it. I think it was $3.99 or something crazy like that! 

I should totally work at a restaurant. Ha. Emma took an extra long nap so I embarked on this lovely mess. Technically the crust is whole grain and the pepperoni is turkey, so that counts for something, right? 

After dinner shenanigans in our yard. We have been working on not running in the road and she really understands that she has to hold my hand or be held when we cross our (quiet) street. 

I was trying to show off my skills and the ball rolled waaaaaaay down the road so imagine me having to run/walk with her on my hip. I should work on my skills. 

My dad found her that romper (above) from SAMs. After my MIL sent E some jammies from Costco, I thought we should check out the clothing section at SAMs. They didn't have PJs but they had a ton of stuff for very reasonable. 

That pic was after I said "Emma! Smile! We are going to send this to Papi!".

I take her places and she literally acts like we have never been in public before. I believe this is the trip some guy saw me chasing her and said (sarcastically, I assume), "Wow. She looks fun". 

I don't know how or why she has Skittles. No we didn't buy them but they sound delicious right about now. 

Trying out different baskets for our little TV stand. Nathan likes the two on the left and I'm too lazy to try out anymore so he wins. I like the wire look best, but they won't hide the kid toys so well. ;) Also love Cocoa's photobomb. 

Had a playgroup and did these (above). More to come but it was a fun project to work on colors! Pretty self explanatory-- just paint the sections & clothespins different colors and have the child match. 

Speaking of learning, I have been doing a lot of reading on Montessori pre school, so we've adapted some of those practices into our home. I can post more about this later, but it is basically "help me do it by myself". 

One of the suggestions was to have your child's snacks/dishes/whatever within their reach. Obviously not my brightest move. 

While this is an awesome concept, I will probably be moving the messier snacks out of Emma's reach. Plus, we want her to ask for her food. Again, more later. 

Back to Target because we had to return those dumb baskets. Emma was very well behaved so I got her a cake pop. No pink so she had chocolate for the first time! 

She ate about half of it and her chocolate-y face was pretty hilarious. They know us at the little Starbucks cafe and when we left they gave me a giant (Trenta?) sized water. For free! 

Sent this to my dad-- little bird bathing in our bath! Emma stalks them all day long so I think this guy was glad he could bathe without her banging on the window. The 2 feeders we have have brought so much joy!

And that's a wrap. Off to bed. xoxo 

Friday Faves

TGIF! So freaking happy it's Friday. Even though it was a shorter week for us, it still felt long and we just had a lot going on.

We are having some kiddos over this afternoon for a playdate. We are making a craft involving paint..wish us luck!

I have found some cool things online this week and had to share:

I find the most random things online and always laugh so hard. I should probably find a hobby but I usually send them to Nathan and he says he laughs too. 

:: Birkenstocks! I had several pairs growing up, but don't have any as an adult. They are totally in right now and I love them with cropped jeans or a bathing suit with coverup. I like this look.

I don't think I'll get any, but I love all of them. Especially these:

Ooo just realized these are leather, and guess what the 3 year anniversary gift is? Hmmm. 

:: Baby play makeup. My sister in law is major makeup obsessed, and when Emma sees it all out she goes bonkers. I don't really wear makeup, but I still love this little kit. I could probably just empty out old makeup compacts just as easily, but still cute for a birthday present. 

:: Another leather item. Crap I'm on a roll! I already have a bag, but this one is gorgeous. I love the inside as well.

Off to use my boring bag to go return something. Life is tough.

Hope everyone has an awesome weekend! xoxo

Outside Progress

So I had mentioned that when my dad was here (back here) he & Nathan did a lot of yard work. They worked so hard! I will confirm with Nathan but I believe they went through 42 bags of mulch. 

It's very deceiving but we have a very large yard-- about 1/3 of an acre. Next house we buy will not be on a corner. ;)

We found a gas trimmer and they did all the bushes. My dad said that was the easiest part. I have to disagree..I had Emma-- that was the easiest part. ;) 

They would run out to Lowe's and not tell me so Ems & I would pack up stuff to go outside and visit with them and they would be gone. Sweet. 

One of their trips they came home with that bird bath. I love it! Love love love it. My mom was really into birds, so I know she would love that we now have a birdbath and 2 bird feeders. 

I really wanted some color so we found some random plants and threw them around. Hey, it satisfied me. We don't have lots of time to work in the yard, so I don't want anything that requires more work than daily watering. I prefer the plants to yell for help. 

99% sure that tree (above, left) is dying, but I'm waiting to see if it will come back to life. I also want to get one of these number signs for our door-- just not completely sold on it yet. Click here to see what I'm talking about. 

They pulled out tons of old bushes and put those fancy fence pieces in their place. It is so much cleaner and I love it. I think down the line we'll find something to put in the empty spots, but for now it looks 1 billion times better. 

Emma knows the way to the playground. She doesn't care if anybody is with her, she'll just start walking there. Nathan dressed her (yesterday), not exactly sure what look he was going for.

Off to go stalk the birds and see if any are in the birdbath yet (Only had one visitor so far).

Last Week Recap

Well. Sorry for the crickets around here! Hope everyone is having an awesome Memorial Day-- we are so so thankful for those who have paid the ultimate price for our freedom. I can't help but think of Chicken Fried-- "Salute the ones who died. The ones that gave their lives. So we don't have to sacrifice all the things we love".

Nathan had a 3 day weekend which is super rare around these parts. But, back to last week. 

My dad left Monday night (after delay upon delay upon delay). We miss him dearly! We hit up Bed Bath & Beyond & Lowe's one more time before he left. No pictures, but I have missed shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond. Ours has a baby section (?) which was really different but fun. 

Tuesday after playgroup we went to the yogurt place again. So fun! Emma loves the strawberry yogurt mixed with vanilla. It can't be that bad for her, right? 

You were wondering what we bought at Bed Bath & Beyond, weren't you? Check out this bad boy: 

My dad did say, the more ghetto the toy, the more they love it. Bonus: There is a giraffe at the top. (Not pictured). Emma liked it but the water was very cold. We'll have to wait until it gets warmer out to really enjoy it! 

I already lost track of days, but one day the outlet mall had a "Mommy & Me" event. We met up with a friend & her two children and it was so much fun and worth the hassle (finding the place, driving 30 minutes, chasing kids, etc). 

They had face painters, free Chick Fil A breakfast, regular balloons, balloon animals, caramel apples...I could go on and on. 

Emma got her arm painted (a little butterfly) and was so good-- she sat still and watched the lady the whole time. 

My kid will love you forever if you give her a balloon. I "lost" the flower balloon we got-- I wasn't up for dealing with it popping and the ultimate meltdown that would ensue. 

The red one blew away when I was putting E in her car seat and she just waved at it, thank God. 

We let the kids chase each other for a bit before we left. Emma was tired and slept the whole way home and then some. I may or may not have hit up Starbucks on the way home. 

One day it rained the whole morning, so N & I decided to hang up our little gallery wall. Want to test your marriage? Hang a gallery wall. 

Honestly, I don't even really like it. Ha. Neither does my husband. All the pictures keep sliding and Nathan won't let us sit on the couch because he knows the black sign (far right) is going to fall. 

I'll do a post on it, what worked (and what didn't), and lots more pictures soon. There are very few pictures of the process because Nathan and I were ready to hit each other with the hammer. 

I love following Honest Toddler on Facebook. So freaking funny. Even if you don't have a toddler you will find their updates hilarious. :-) 

I used to screen shot them and send them to Nathan but now he follows them. And the picture below I thought was hilarious. 

I'm not really up to date on the Josh Duggar stuff, but I had a good chuckle. ;)

Saturday of course meant gymnastics! Emma was rocking her top knot all day. Here they are in line for the "car wash". The little girl in front of Emma "helped" her get in her car. 

Emma & the girl behind her kept hugging throughout the class! Every time they'd see each other they would do this weird slow hug. They kept us laughing all morning. 

Nathan slept in and he had a surprise for us when he got up-- He had a 3 day weekend! So we celebrated by walking around the outlet mall. 

I'm not really an outlet mall shopper, but we got Emma a smoothie from Planet Smoothie. I think I'll definitely take her back during the week because it was quiet, wide open, and had lots of fountains for her to watch. :-)

Nathan mowed yesterday morning so we snuck out for bananas & milk (the only thing Emma is eating these days, LOL). I just love her little top hat! Can't get any more festive than that. 

My wedding ring was missing some diamonds so I had to take it in and enjoyed some "Mommie free time", LOL. Nathan sent me the picture below: 

She looks 12! They had fun and I decided to get my eyebrows waxed. Such an exciting life we live.

Okay hope everyone has a great week! xoxo

Papi Visit

We had such a fun time with my dad. We hate seeing him leave but we'll see him soon enough. :-) Nathan didn't take any days off so it was just us 3 for the afternoons. 

Thursday after N left we were determined to find some sandals for miss Emma-- so the mall is where we headed. 

After trying Gymboree & The Children's Place, we determined E has a teeny tiny and fat foot, ha ha. When we walked by the carousel we knew she had to try it out. 

My dad said we'll tell her we went to Disney. It's not like she'll know the difference. ;) She of course refused to get off and then was pissed we took her shoes off her (because we were just going to try on more), so that was fun. 

Anywho, back to the shoe game. We finally found 1 pair (literally the only ones that fit and were sandals) at some random shoe store. 

They look like these but are neon and pink, LOL. I'll have to get an action shot of her wearing them. They are so comfortable/soft and sort of waterproof (?) so she can wear them at the splash pad too. 

We spent Friday scheming about our lawn and what Nathan & my dad were going to do. Mulch, flowers, trim, blah blah blah. 84 trips to Lowe's later, the boys started working at the crack of dawn on Saturday. After N mows I'll take some pics and share. 

The ladies headed to gymnastics. :-) We also picked up our pictures from the photographer and hit up Dollar Tree. Guess I live in a box but I hadn't been to Dollar Tree in about 10 years. Way fun. 

Of course gymnastics was fun. They did books during separation time which was just about the best thing ever for our little reader. 

Saturday night we found some local bar/grill to go to for dinner and it was nice. We had never been there before and I'd definitely go back. 

Emma is in that super fun stage where she enjoys her high chair/being contained for 11 seconds. It makes going out to eat an adventure.

We got a booster seat and she loved that..for about 2 minutes. She spent the rest of the time staring at balloons and running around. 

She loves iced tea and had some of my chicken and Nathan's mac & cheese. Homegirl can eat. 

I got some really yummy lemonade drink and it was delish so of course I had to snap a picture of it. If you didn't take a picture it didn't happen, right? 

It said it was supposed to rain on Sunday but we took the risk and drove during E's nap to Alexandria. I'm so glad we did! She was still sleeping when we got there so I hung out in the car (read: read half a book on my phone) while the boys got drinks and tickets for the boat ride. 

When Ems got up I gathered all the crap and met them by the boats. This was totally up Emma's alley because she is plane obsessed right now. She can point out a plane that I can barely see. She pointed at every plane that flew by and waved at all the boats. It was hilarious. 

She would also yell at whoever was near her informing them there was a plane. . . in case you didn't see it. 

She did really well on the boat and just walked around and looked out the window. It got rocky for a bit and she loved that (yelling and squealing). 

We got to Georgetown and found a place for lunch & gelato. So good. When we were waiting for our ice cream, a family came in with 3 children. I immediately saw what one of their children was holding, but it took Emma a minute.. 

A puppy. She. About. Lost it. She was yelling and ran right over to it. After (at least) 10 minutes of her sitting on the floor with the teeny tiny hairball the people were like "umm, we are going to go eat our ice cream now...". Ha ha. 

When we were walking by the pier I remembered taking a photo with Emma the last time we were there, so of course we had to reenact it. 

The left was August and the right was on Sunday. Crazy how much Emma has changed! Glad to see my hair is very slowly improving. 

We took the boat back to Alexandria and headed home. We stopped at a Mexican place on the way back-- for being completely empty it was really good! 

We let Emma run around (like I said it was completely empty besides one lady) and she ran behind a booth and pooped. Only my kid. 

And I guess that's all the pictures I have. Emma forcing Oreo to play with that toy. Obviously it goes without saying that we watch them like a hawk. 

Anywho, we had a fabulous time and can't wait for him to come back! We miss him already. Hope everyone is having a great day! 

A Peek Into Last Week

So my dad (Papi) just left and we are so, so sad! We are 10 pounds heavier but our hearts are filled up. :-) I'll do a recap on his visit tomorrow but for now, last week: 

My Mother's Day flowers were looking really pretty one day so I had to snap a pic. I love when they droop and flop over while still bloomed. 

                     

Emma harasses the dogs all day errday. I thought this was especially cute because Oreo hopped up during our reading time. 

I picked out that outfit (below) for Emma and remembered taking a photo of her last year, so I had to recreate it. August 2014 (10 mos) vs May 2015 (almost 19 mos). 

Those chubby cheeks! Those shoes! I can't believe how fast time flies (I know, so cliche). Nathan took her out for their first daddy/daughter date to buy those shoes. 

Don't ask about the pearls. She loves all my jewelry right now. Also feel the need to give a shout out to Gymboree-- those clothes are on their second year of being worn and still feel super soft. Great quality. ;) I bought those shorts & shirt (and a bunch more) for less than $5/pair on clearance! 

Brought the sidewalk chalk out and that was lots of fun! Can't wait to have many summer nights out there drawing. Emma just scribbled and then tried to draw on our house. She always asks before she draws ("dis?" and points)-- at least she's sweet about coloring on our walls! 

Wednesday we had a gymnastics makeup class. It was with some new kids (one mom had twins!) and parents but everyone was very nice. 

During separation time the teachers brought out fruits/veggies and shopping carts. There were lots of tears when it was time to put them away. One kid (no lie) chased the coach screaming when she put the shopping carts away. LOL. 

That afternoon we found a new yogurt place and had to try it out. We had never taken Emma before (it's on our summer bucket list!), and she liked it! We got plain vanilla & strawberry yogurt with blackberries, strawberries, & blueberries and two cups. :-) We'll definitely have to go back with Daddy!

Messy hair after gymnastics & nap, LOL. She licked all the yogurt off the strawberries and handed them to me. Yuuuum.

My dad got here Thursday morning-ish and I'll have to do a recap on that tomorrow. Hope everyone had a great weekend! xoxo