Mother's Day 2014

Did ya think I'd left, never to return again?!  Luckily for you, I have to hang around at least until Friday to announce the winner of the Goosewaddle giveaway (so go enter if you haven't already!).  This has been a crazy week already!

Mother's Day weekend 2014 was fun- and family-filled, not to mention busy.  It flew by - I felt like I blinked and a week has passed.  We headed to Charlotte on Friday midday, and we made a pit stop in Greensboro to see Uncle Frankie graduate.

Lilly was so excited.  The ceremony was pretty small, and when Uncle Frankie walked across the stage she stood up on my legs and squealed, and right as the applause died down she started clapping her hands and saying, "YAY UNCLE FRANKIE!"  It was super cute.  Craft got some sweet snuggles, too!

After the graduation ceremony and a quick celebratory drink, we headed to my parents' house to spend the night.  Saturday morning, we headed to Concord for the rest of the day for my nephew's first communion.  There were three neighborhood friends who celebrated first communion on Saturday, so their parents all got together and rented out the club house and got a DJ.  Lilly had a BLAST. I am too lazy to upload the videos of her dancing tonight (unfortunately for her, she appears to have gotten her Mama's dance moves), so random pictures of my two kids at the party will have to suffice for now.

Lilly latched on to a baby doll that she found in Erica's room and danced with her all night long!  I think she was "changing the baby's diaper" here.

This girl is getting way too good at duck lips.  I asked her if she wanted to take a selfie and this is what she did, without prompting!  I'm gonna have my hands full, I think.

Again, Craft got some special attention from Grandma and Papa, and he loved watching all of the dancing!

Lilly had a BLAST at the party.  In fact, she has asked to "go to the dance party" every day since Saturday.  Needless to say, everyone slept well on Saturday night!

We didn't make a huge fuss on Mother's Day.  Since we attended mass on Saturday and were out late with the kids on Saturday night, we let them sleep in and just took it easy on Sunday morning.

 We also went uptown and met Dan's family for a Mother's Day lunch.

After lunch, Dan and Lilly headed home to Raleigh and Craft and I stuck around Charlotte for a few more days.  My Mom's lumpectomy was scheduled for Monday morning, so we wanted to be with her and help out around the house.  I sure did  miss them, but Dan sent me lots of pictures of all of the fun he and Lilly were having at home.

Like i said, the weekend was busy and family-filled but we had fun!  Mom's surgery went really well on Monday.  The doctors said there were no surprises and they were very pleased.  We are so thankful for all of the thoughts, prayers, and messages and I know Mom is happy to have this part of her journey behind her!

Team JJ

Poor Layla suffered multiple foot injuries in the form of torn paw pads while we were visiting Mimi and Paw Paw's.  Doesn't she look pitiful in this pic?  Not to worry, she appears to be on the mend.

Craft and I headed back to Raleigh on Tuesday morning and have spent the past two days getting back into our routine.  We've spent a lot of time outside enjoying the weather.

We played dress up with Lilly, who put on this "dress" (read: skirt) and informed me that she was ready to go to the dance party.  This kid is hilarious, I tell you!

C got some new moccs today and he is REAL excited about it.  If I were a follower of the Baum squad blog, I might want to stay tuned in the coming weeks.  Hint hint, wink wink. :-) 

Session started this week, which means I will be husband-less for the majority of the week for the next couple of months.  It also means that I will subsist on PB&J sandwiches or cereal for dinner, ha!  Anyway, I digress.  I've been putting L and C in the bath together and they both have a blast!  Craft LOVES his big sister and laughs out loud at her, and she is very sweet with him and wants to help bathe him.  Have I mentioned how much I love these two?!

Mimi got Lilly a new swimsuit cover-up, which Lilly insisted on wearing to bed because she thinks it is a nightgown.  What can I say?  She's 2, I wasn't about to argue.

So, now you're all caught up on our happenings!  I hope your week is off to a great start.  Stay tuned!  I'm off to enjoy a glass of wine and a book (nerd alert!).

Sarah

Happenings

Eeeeeek, another "way longer than I intended" time period between posts.  What can I say?  My work is busy. Dan's work is busy.  Lilly is busy.  Life is busy, y'all.  I just plugged my phone into the computer for the first time in a hot minute and discovered that I've taken almost 200 new photos since the last upload.  That is saying a lot, since I feel like I haven't taken many pictures at all recently (and don't even get me started on the last time my nice camera saw the light of day).  Anyway, with all of that said, here is a little of what we've been up to...in (iPhone...sbi) pictures, of course!

Since the weather is finally nicer, we have been spending as much time as humanly possible outside.  Most nights, Lilly doesn't even want to come inside to eat!  Therefore, we've had a lot of picnics.  :-)

Getting ready to go outside and throw the ball for Layla makes Lilly really happy.

We've also had a lot (and I do mean a lot) of ice cream.  Unfortunately for my rear, there is a Goodberry's less than a mile from our house (I should note that there are [is?] also a Cookout and Baskin Robbins at the entrance of our neighborhood as well.  All three of these came in handy during my pregnancy, ha!).  

Lilly LLOOVVVEEESS ice cream.  Luckily for her, Daddy doesn't mind sharing.

I always get chocolate, and I think it's her favorite.

Helping Daddy drive

Playing in the back yard.  LGB loves the water table, slide, swing and hammock.

Daddy's chalk drawings.  Aren't they sweet?  I think the one at the top might be his attempt at a giraffe, and it is my favorite.

We've also been spending a lot of time at Pullen Park (I blogged about the Holiday Express that takes place at Pullen back around Christmas time).  Pullen is so close to our house and we always have a wonderful time, so we've been going at least once a week after work/before bed and sometimes on the weekend as well.  My only complaint is that the park is so great that everyone else loves it as well, so a lot of times it's packed (and there is a serious lack of parking!), but L doesn't seem to mind.

LGB loves riding the boats all by herself like a big girl!

She also likes the carousel until it gets going...I swear it is the fastest carousel in the history of the world and I guess it makes her nervous!

Bonus: they have Locopops at Pullen.  Yum!

My second Mother's Day was wonderful.  Dan booked me a surprise massage and facial the Friday before that was amazing, and a wonderful surprise.  On Mother's Day itself, he let me sleep late while he and Lilly cooked me a delicious breakfast feast, and then they went on an extra long walk (and picked me weeds/flowers!) so that I could take a relaxing bath.  It was glorious.

Sweetest?!  I think so.

Happy Mother's Day to me!

We also went to the Food Truck Rodeo downtown on Mother's Day.  I was thinking that, it being Mother's Day, the rodeo wouldn't be too crowded.  Wrong-o...it was packed, but well worth it as everything we stuffed ourselves with ate was delicious.  The besties met us there, and I can't imagine a better way to spend Mother's Day, or better friends to spend it with.

Besties and babies at the Food Truck Rodeo

We capped off the day with an outside cocktail at Boylan Bridge Brew Pub overlooking the Raleigh sky line. I couldn't have asked for a better day, and I am so thankful to my sweet family for making me feel so special!

In keeping with the theme of spending a lot of time outside, we've been taking a lot of walks!  Several times a week after work, Meagan (or "Mae Mae" as Lilly calls her) and I take L and Kinsley for a stroll around the neighborhood in their matching wheels.  It is starting to get h-o-t really quickly, though, so we may have to see if we can switch to morning walks!

More outside dining at Raleigh Times. 

L loves spinach & artichoke dip.  Who knew?!

One note about being outside is that walking anywhere can be a process if there are flowers anywhere in the general vicinity of our route or destination, because my child has to stop and smell every. single. one. she sees.  Sometimes she smells plants and bushes, too.  She will squeal and yell, "flower!" and then run over to sniff.  It's really quite cute (unless you're in a hurry).  The following series was taken at the state farmer's market over the weekend.  Luckily this was a leisurely stroll-type trip to the farmer's market, because this went on for a good 30 minutes (not an exaggeration).

And here's some more outdoor eating!  I've found that L actually eats  more this way than she sometimes eats inside, I guess because she's distracted by all of the people and dogs out on walks.  Either way, it's a fun treat for all of us...especially when Dan is working late and I am trying hard to keep her entertained!

Dan and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary last week.  It's hard to believe it has been four years...it seems like yesterday.  It's even harder to believe that we've been together almost 9 years...oy, we're getting old.  Anyway, Dan thought he was going to have to work really late, so we didn't make any plans until the weekend.  He ended up getting off of work early, and Frankie was in town for the night on his way out of the country, so we had a three-person champagne celebration.

I don't really have any particular reason for including these next photos except for the fact that my child is REALLY into night gowns.  I bought a few because I thought they were so sweet, and now L is obsessed.  She still wears regular PJs too, but I should take a video next time she's in one of her night gowns...she walks around swishing her "dress" like a little priss.  Love her!

The neighborhood pool opened the first weekend in May, but the weather has been on the cool side until last week.  We decided to give the pool a try on Friday and it was kind of a bust because the water is still really cold.  We all got in the pool and played but we only made it about 30 minutes before we were all freezing.  Either way, the bathing suit that the Easter bunny brought to Mimi's for Miss L is super cute!

Side note: not sure whether I documented it anywhere, but my Mom is now being called "Mimi" instead of "Grandmommy."  This was all Lilly's doing - I'm pretty sure it was her way of trying to say Grandmommy, but that's a long/hard word.  Either way, Mimi is cute and Mom is OK with it, so we're all good.

Last but not least, Steph and I took the girls to the strawberry patch and then out for lunch ice cream last week.  We all had a blast!  Lilly ate more than she picked - but she would only take one bite and before she threw the "berry" down on the ground and then moved on to the next one.  These girls are hilarious, y'all.  Anyway, either L got a tummy ache or she hates being sweaty because about halfway through she was over it and only wanted to be held, but Hadley was a trooper the whole time.  Memories like these are ones I never want to forget.

Eating is more fun than picking, Mom!

Trying to bribe them with ice cream to sit still and both look at the camera proved pretty difficult.  This was the best we could do, and they both look annoyed!

Steph took all of the following pics of our sweet girls:

I have been wondering lately when my baby turned into a big girl, and looking at all of the photos in this post just reaffirmed that sentiment.  She is growing and changing every day, and I keep just wishing that time would slow down a little.  We are having a ball, though.  I am LOVING this stage...except for the part where L is into everything and mischievous:

Happy Tuesday, y'all!  I'd promise more regular updates but I'm not sure whether I can keep it, so we'll just shoot for every so often for now.  :-)  Until next time!

Sarah