Monthly Archives: July 2017

2017 Camping Trip

by July 27, 2017

A couple of weeks ago we took the kiddos camping for 3 nights. I was scared. And I had to order stuff from Amazon, and make runs to target and walmart to get everything we needed. I saw this quote once, “camping, where you spend a small fortune to live like a homeless person”, and there’s some truth to that. That being said we still have nothing compared to our neighbor campers, we definitely need a tent shelter for our food, some adorable enamel dishes, camping stove oh and a large SUV to fit all this shit. Oh and did I mention I took a day to grocery shop and prep meals prior to going? But I’m just complaining/rambling because all in all it was a really really good trip. In fact Jonas asks me every night if we can go camping again. First off, he’s 2 how in the world is he old enough to say full sentences much less remember things???? So I have a feeling this camping thing is probably sticking around here and really that’s okay. There was a time when we were putting the kids down for a nap and it was SO hot in our tent and then a storm came rolling in and this amazing breeze flew into the tent and it was magical. 

Things I don’t want to forget about this trip:

  • Jonas calling himself ‘Jonas fish’ when he was swimming, which he wanted to do all the time
  • The kids being rockstars when we head to put up and put down the tents by just being kids outdoors, playing imagination with sticks, pinecones, chasing birds and just getting dirty. 
  • Jonas wanting to hug all of the bears (boo boo, yogi and cindy, not the real ones, we thankfully didn’t see real ones) at the camping resort
  • Nola having a special stick that she played with the entire time we were there and we ended up taking it home with us because we are suckers
  • Surviving 3 nights of people putting off fireworks
  • Surviving in a tent in a major thunderstorm
  • Nola being brave and standing under the bucket every time it pours water in the splash pad 
  • The time we got ice cream cones and then were reminded why we always get ice cream in dishes 
  • Watching the old school yogi cartoons outdoors

Here’s a video I compiled of all the footage I had while we were there. It’s long, so sorry about that, but my kiddos love these!

camping resort
kid’s star tank tops

Nola’s Dance Recital

by July 18, 2017

This past weekend (this is funny b/c I started this post at the end of may??? truthyfully I’m amazed I even get to these posts, but I really am trying to document these moments, so I’m doing my best with 2 kids, laundry and mountains of dirty dishes :)) Nola had her dance recital. This is our second recital and though I’ve caught onto a few things from the first one, it really does amaze me how much work goes into the production from everyone and how much fun it really is! Honestly even taking Nola to rehearsal is exciting. And I can’t say enough good things about Spotlight. Nola’s teacher was great and I could tell how much she grew in a year. Hip hop is not easy for little kids bc there is not a lot of repeat moves and after watching the ballet routines at her age, trust me on this hip hop is hard. But Nola did so great and we were so PROUD because we could tell she was really trying to make sure she did all the moves. Have I mentioned lately how much fun it is to be a parent?! Here’s some photos of the day if you care to see:

This was rehearsal, which is so much fun because then the kids can watch the other kid’s routines. The kiddos watching is Nola’s dance team.

This is Nola pre-dance, all ready to go! This time I let her wear some makeup because she loves makeup and really what does it hurt? It made her day and we make sure to tell her beauty is only on the outside…KIDDING 🙂 I know you all watched dance moms back in the day on TLC and it gave dance mom’s the bad rap and now you think the whole dance thing and the parents are crazy. I’m here to say it’s truly nothing like that. Of course I only have a 4 year old and it’s pretty low key, but from everything I experienced the teacher’s and mom’s they are awesome. In fact since summer break I miss sitting in the hallways Wednesday night chatting it up with the parents during class. And I’m proud to say I’m a dance mom.

Our little fam bam with the tiny dancer (catch that)

Jonas made sure to live up to his age and basically CJ had to sit outside with him for most of the recital and then he passed out. In his defense this was right during nap time. Nola adores her little brother.

Nola with her flowers from us and papa and grandma which she loved!!

Happy Birthday Nola Girl!!

by July 16, 2017

It’s my little girl’s birthday today and I can’t help but feel a whole lot of panic and angst because she’s been here FIVE years already and frankly the time is going by too quick. But the emotion that trumps that is the love I feel for this girl. She is my #1 little buddy, she still is cool matching with me (thank you God!!!), she loves having a good time, an amazing sister to her overbearing 2 year old brother, smart, witty and I’ll say this every year but she’s the girl I always dreamed of having. 

So in honor of my girl here she is on each of her birthdays:
the big ONE

TWO THREE FOUR

We love you Nola and we are so proud of you. I’m so thankful I get to to be your mama!! xoxo

While Sister is Away…

by July 3, 2017

This past week Nola went to Vacation Bible School and I was so excited for her! I had such good memories of going when I was a kid, vivid memories in fact, and I don’t have a ton of those from my childhood (I am one of those kids). I met one of my dearest friends when I was 4 at VBS and we are still friends today! I also volunteered as a leader in the past as well. CJ was a bit concerned I would be disappointed if Nola wasn’t as excited about it as I was, but she seemed to really like it!! Maybe not totally love it, but I’m okay with that. Because she actually didn’t want to go the first day, which for me specifically was breaking my heart. What? I’m not living vicariously through my kid or anything, ahem….hip hop for toddlers. But I digress. I should mention that it was REALLY weird eating dinner without her at the table. Like I possibly may have shed a tear because it felt like the beginning of when our kiddos are in sports, etc and then it’s just ME AND CJ at the dinner table!!!! I mean I love my hubby and do look forward to doing a lot of things when it’s just us again, but can we hold on minute here??? Plus I just kind of love eating all together for dinner, I guess that’s my thing.

But what this also meant was FIVE nights where Jonas got to be doted on, pretending like he’s the king and the only child. I can assure you that he’d give up all those rights and privileges to have sister by his side because they are best buddies right now, but we did our very best to provide him a really fun week too!

Night 1: Let’s just preface it that Jonas is not happy when Nola leaves. He’s at the age where he feels left out and hates to not feel included. For the first night the highlight of the evening was going to Yo’s to get yogurt. CJ also took him to the playground and after yogurt we went for a walk around the block and it started raining half way through, which any other night I would be fine with but I was wearing my new shoes, which was stressing me out a little. Side note: these shoes are awesome, get them!! But the greatest thing was we were running home and Jonas was giggling and holding his arms up, he’s a total ham-ball and the definition of joy.

IMG_2921

Night 2: The night started with CJ taking him to the playground and then we went out to eat at Lone Girl. We quickly realized even though Nola’s older and really easy, having just 1 kid is still sooo much easier. So while he’s climbing up the booths, spilling water and just being a terror of a two year old we now had two adults to mange him. IMG_2930 IMG_2933

Night 3: Jonas has been to plenty of movies in the theater, probably more than a 2 year old should, but he has an older sibling so there’s that. But we never took him to a movie on his own. So we decided to take him to Cars 3. We thought that since this was a car movie this would be really fun for him. Um, not so much. Maybe it was the movie, to me it was kind of slow, but he just wasn’t into it. In fact he asked to leave half way through and we secretly happily obliged. I should also note I spilt popcorn not one time but TWO times and I’m pretty sure CJ was actually getting mad. I can’t help it, by that time of the day I’m an absolute disaster. IMG_2940

Night 4: I’m just going to give you a heads up that going forward our nights were pretty lame. I had a workout class, all the while the weather was absolutely nuts, like torrential downpour, wind, tornado watch! So my two boys stay homed and played inside. But if you don’t see a theme here we did give him some italian ice. IMG_2951

Night 5: The last night of VBS Nola had a little program at church, so we ate dinner, played and headed out. The program was adorable, I mean seeing all these kids dancing and singing about God’s love, really there’s nothing better. Of course I didn’t take any photos of Nola at VBS, face palm, but I can assure you all she had a great time.

It was really good being able to give Jonas our undivided attention all the while knowing Nola was having a blast at VBS. But in my opinion it’s even better to have the gang all back together for the evenings. I was so excited to have my sweet girl at the dinner table Friday tonight.