This was the first outfit that I purchased for my expectant niece. My sister informed me on Mother's Day that she is pregnant again. I went shopping that following weekend. I love this material for this outfit and cannot wait to try it on sweet Maddy.
Dollywood with one of my besties. We got to go to Dollywood together twice and luckily, the guys got to come along on the second trip. I enjoy being around this couple. They are great people and wonderful parents. I just love hanging out with my dear friend too because she is a hoot!
This was my birthday dinner. I am so blessed to have such a wonderful
family. My mamaw spent the weekend with us that weekend and went to church with us
on Sunday. On Saturday, my Uncle Jeff, Aunt Melissa, cousins Leah Beth
and Justin, and Justin's girlfriend, Reagan went out to eat with us at
Red Lobster. Afterward, we came home and enjoyed some homemade lemon
ice cream and watched the girls dance with Justin and Leah Beth on the
Wii. I never knew Justin had moves or that Leah Beth could be so
bashful.
I took a wild hair (or several) and decided that I needed to spice things up by getting some blue streaks in my hair this summer. I want to do purple next but have been trying to put it off for a few more weeks.
Build a Bear sucked my child in once again. They had pigs and she just had to make one. Then she just had to have the Rapunzel outfit to go on her pig. I guess it is worth it if it makes her happy.
My nephew has spent a couple of weekends with us recently and his birthday was actually this past weekend. We bought him the Abercrombie outfit for birthday pictures and then gave him his presents- two sets of Cars II cars, three pair of shorts, two shirts, 3 pair of boxers, helmet and pad set and a bunch of Toy Story action figures. We also went to Chuck E Cheese where he led the Chuck dance. He had a really good time and even asked for doughnuts after the Chuck E Cheese visit, stating that he would rather have doughnuts than a cake.
My nephew had outgrown all of his pajamas and most of his summer clothes
already. We decided that he needed new pajamas so the girls got new
pajamas as well. They planned a slumber party but fortunately, they all
fell asleep before 10:00.
These are my "new" dishes. If you remember last year at Mother's day (if I recall correctly), I purchased a set of dishes like the ones I grew up using at my mamaw's. I saw this set on Craiglist and got a steal! I bought all that you see here for $40 and could not have been happier. I figure that the more pieces I have, the better. Maybe I will actually be able to pass a set down to each of my girls. My problem now is having a place to store all of it because my china cabinet only holds so much. My sweet husband spoke to the owner at Missy's Treasures and she is going to work on finding a corner china cabinet for me that can be painted pink.
My cool dog...Bailey does not always enjoy the dressing up we do on him but he tolerates it. The day after this picture was taken, Bailey got really sick with a stomach bug. The vet said it was also possible that he got into something he shouldn't have.
Kendra and I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese one Monday this summer and the manager gave us princess tiaras to wear. We have tried to spend quite a few Monday's together over the summer since I took Monday's off. We went swimming a couple of times and spent some time just hanging out. She always makes me smile and is like the soul mate of best friends. I couldn't live without her! Well I could but life just wouldn't be as much fun.
Kendra's dog, Daisy- She is such a sweet puppy.
My mom brought my Mamaw flowers for her birthday and Bailey had to smell them. Mamaw thought he was eating them and I had to reassure her that he just likes smelling things like humans do. Last Christmas, he tried to eat all of Lynette's candles that were made to smell like food.
We took Mamaw out to eat at Amis Mill in Rogersville. It was pretty good food! We also got her a ton of Amish books since she has been into reading lately.
My Mamaw insists that she never thought she would like a dog, especially one inside the house but she seems to love Bailey and calls him when he does not come straight to her. My Mamaw turned 77 this birthday and I hope that she lives another 77. I really mean it when I say I couldn't live without her. She has been my biggest cheerleader throughout everything in my life, even when she thought my decisions were stupid.
My sister, nephew, and niece (in the belly)- I can't wait to see her, all though my nephew isn't quite as excited. He has named her "gummypuss." The kid cracks me up! He recently told me that he wanted a trampoline but that I couldn't jump on it. I asked if he was calling me fat and he said, "no, your just big because your an adult. But Uncle Matt- he's fat." Guess why I love that little stinker so much?!
Bailey was hanging on to Coke for dear life. Just more proof that Coke is better than Pepsi.
Yeah, I know...Maddy is already spoiled. This isn't even the half of it. I do admit that the aqua outfit is one of my favorites just because it says, "I Love Auntie" and has a cute monkey on the behind. I can't wait to dress her up and put bows in her hair just to torture my sister. I did do something nice for her though; I purchased a camo crib set. I have threatened to decorate it in pink bows if she isn't careful though.
Sweet Pea is in love with Rapunzel so she chose this doll as her back to school present. She already has two other ones that are about this size and another that I have purchased but put back for birthday or Christmas.
Pumpkin Pie asked to have her room rearranged however she wanted so we agreed and did that this past weekend.
Both of the girls are off to good school years so far. Sweet Pea loves her teacher this year and I think I may like her as well. Pumpkin Pie insists that she is going to work on making the highest GPA this year in her class and I am so encouraging that. She is super smart in so many ways but just like her dad, she tries to get by with the littlest amount of work as possible to skate through. She is playing volleyball and basketball for the school this year. It has me worried slightly because I cannot be with her 24/7 and letting her have that freedom is scary. I promise I won't get on my soapbox and talk about kids in the world today and all the problems with parents not being involved or knowing what is going on in their life. I will share my bad parenting of the week to make others feel better though. I feel like Pumpkin Pie has grown up way too much over the summer and I have been trying to squeeze some teachable moments in with her and get her to talking. Saturday night, she and I stayed up late watching "Teen Mom" (yes, I know it is horrible to let my child watch) but I turned it into that decision making kind of discussion and tried to focus on how each person makes bad choices and have to learn to accept consequences and move forward. It also gave me an opportunity to hear what she thinks about the decisions that some of those girls were making and what she would do differently. At least I know some areas that I really need to focus on with her before she grows up much more. I am very blessed to have such smart, sweet, and loving children, even when they think I am the meanest mom in the world. She even snuggled with me while we were watching the show which definitely made it worth that much more because she has never been a snuggler.
Two cutesie pictures of Bailey wearing my Eeyore ears from Kendra's trip to Disney years ago. Oh, did I mention that we have made vacation plans for this fall. That's right; we are headed back to Disney and I cannot wait. Once the cat is out of the bag so to speak on the other vacation surprise, I will post about it too. I know my kids will be doubly happy when they find out the second part of their vacation surprise.
Overall, I can say that we have had a great summer but I will sure be glad to get back into a regular work routine. The 10 hour days were not so good for my brain! At the end of the day, I felt like crawling into bed and hiding under the covers the remainder of the night. Not that the work load gets any easier with 8 hour days but at least there are two less cases to think about and worry that you are making the right decisions and helping people to the best of your ability. I also missed time with my kids...coming home to house chores and getting them into bed was about all that I had time for at the end of the day. I did appreciate that one full day to focus on them each week and of course the weekends with my husband tagging along with us but I felt like I was missing out on important things each day.
We are looking forward to another wonderful school year and really hope to make time to spend with friends a little more in the next few weeks. Maybe if I can keep the housework caught up, I won't mind having people over.
