This recap covers week 10 of our summer which was from Saturday July 16 through Friday the 22nd.
Our plan for the weekend was to GET STUFF DONE. I’ve found that I like to have a full weekend devoted to party prep the weekend prior to a birthday party. We had originally planned to be in Atlanta the weekend before Tess’s party (more on that later) so we bumped the party prep weekend to the weekend of the 15th. It was also a chance to do things around the house in prep for home study (we have a flower bed in our yard that just won’t let things live and Zach was on a mission to get it looking GOOD).
Friday evening Zach took the big kids to VBS at Lakeland and Saturday morning they went back to VBS with Casey. It worked out nicely because Tess is a breeze solo and Zach and I really got a ton done!
When I did Kye’s 1st birthday I did EVERYTHING myself. The more kids we have…the less and less I physically do for their parties. I like to at least have ONE thing that I make myself and for Tess’s party I was planning to make jellyfish lanterns. I found the instructions here and they looked SO EASY. Lies people. ALL LIES. I spent 90 minutes working on ONE of them and got this far. As in nowhere with it. I decided to better invest my time and energy into searching Etsy to just buy some hahaha. I’m just NOT a “crafty” mom!
I reached out to a few Etsy sellers. I was nervous about TIME more than anything because the party was 14 days away! All Themes Possible truly came to my rescue. She was AWESOME and had the lanterns to me in plenty of time for party day and they were FABULOUS. Here’s a sneak peek of how they turned out (lots more to come in Tess’s party posts!).
The kids had so much fun at VBS with their cousins and came home with these cute frames 🙂
Mr Mini Entrepreneur has been begging to do another lemonade stand. Zach sat out with him for about an hour and a half. And Kye made $44. Whhhhat?!! I told him he should sell lemonade to help us fund the adoption and he said “how about I sell the lemonade and we can split it 50/50?” Such a businessman 😉
Big Baller!
Zach handled feeding the kids dinner for me so I could get things done…
and then he even made a DELICIOUS steak dinner for us both to enjoy together as a date night 🙂 We had seen an episode of Big Brother that was sponsored by Outback and we’d both been craving steaks. While the sponsoring didn’t cause us to actually eat at Outback it did get us to buy steaks so I guess it kinda worked?
Sweet sisters ready for church!
It was National Ice Cream Day on July 17th (yes, it’s a legit holiday!). So we had to celebrate, of course! Seth and his crew came over for dinner and some swimming and some ice cream eating. I wanted to get a good pic of Seth and Zach together for the adoption book. Literally every picture I have of Seth he’s being silly or shirtless or both haha. This is about as serious of a photo as you can get with these two!!!
Tess is SO proud to be included with the big kids 😉
Homemade s’mores ice cream for the win!
Seth wanted a picture with Sadie which was random and funny and now I’m thankful for it as it ended up being the last picture we have of her. I also have a lot of guilt wrapped up into this night. You can see that we didn’t put the pool floats up that night. We figured we’d be swimming later in the week and just left ’em out. IF we had put them away she probably would have been able to swim to the steps and gotten out (like she had previous times she’d fallen in the pool) but the floats blew into the pool during the storm and were blocking the steps. 🙁 🙁 🙁
We had a case of the Muffin Mondays! Britt is SUCH a helper in the kitchen and LOVES baking and cooking with Mommy 🙂
Recipe for our favorite breakfast casserole muffins can be found here!
Sweet babies!
Something we want to try to do more regularly is to have girl’s nights with just Mrs Charlotte, Courtney, Casey and myself! So often when we’re ALL together it’s ALL of us, kids too, and that makes it tougher to have GOOD conversations ya know? I am just beyond blessed in the in-law department. I know I say it all the time but it’s just that true! Not only have Mrs. Charlotte and I become so close over the years, and not only have Casey and I become so close as well but so have Courtney and I. She was CRACKING ME UP that night and it was probably the most fun night of just us four that we’ve had in a long time. Courtney Casey and I were jumping from topic to topic and had to keep Mrs. Charlotte from falling too far behind the conversation haha. We ate at The Salty Snapper and if you are local you MUST try it out. AMAZING food, I want a date night there asap (HINT HINT ZACH!)
Shrimp and Grits AND hush puppies! I was in heaven!
Tuesday was a BUSY day for us. The girls spent the day with Mrs. Charlotte and Kye and I ran errands/had appointments together. We had to go to the health department to pick up Tess’s birth certificate (for the home study stuff) and he noticed this HUGE wall art thing in the foyer. I’ve been to the health clinic a few times and have NEVER noticed it. We stood and studied it for a long time and it made me appreciate having him with me. Children see things that us adults just don’t. I’m thankful to see the world through his eyes!
It’s some sort of mural thing about the history of Valdosta. How HILARIOUS is it that a football player is at the top?!?!
I alway go to the dermatologist once a year for a check up (you should too!!!). Kye had a couple spots that I was concerned about and that I had his pediatrician look at. She recommended to just get him checked out to be on the safe side so I made us an appointment together.
The only spot of concern the dermatologist noted was one on his head. He’d had it awhile and it was kinda crusty/dry. She said she wanted to remove it and send it off to get biopsied. Y’all, this kid is SO TOUGH. He didn’t cry when he got stitches and he didn’t cry at all when she cut this thing off! She had to numb it which I know hurt and he was super strong about it all. She let him play on her iPad and it was some app game thing that you know we don’t have downloaded so he was all about the chance to play it 😉
That ain’t no joke!
We hit up Cici’s for lunch and omg guys. If you haven’t been to Cici’s lately…you NEED to go! They redid their buffet and it’s SUPER good! They have lots of new options (including stuff crust!). We both loved it and couldn’t get over how awesome it is and for so cheap! Our kind of place 😉
Our next appointment was the eye dr. I’ve always gone to the same dr who did my lasik but felt it was time for a change. My eyes always get worse when I’m breastfeeding (which I wish they would have told me PRIOR to lasik…I probably would have waited to have it done) but since finishing up nursing Tess they have stayed pretty bad.
Dilation twins!
(Kye was fine, perfect vision. The eye dr I saw was
AWESOME and she said her rule isn’t 20/20 it’s 20/happy. We decided to do
glasses for driving!)
That afternoon Kye and I went to pick up the girls
from Mrs. Charlotte’s. Earlier in the week a very close family friend (Walter)
passed away and as the kids and I were leaving his children pulled into her
house. I visited a minute and hugged their necks and all (as Zach and I are
very close to Lindsay and Travis, Walter’s kids) and then went to head home. On
our way Zach called and said to turn around and go back because there was a
really bad storm and the power was out. I was SO uncomfortable going back
because I knew what a sensitive, tough time it was for Lindsay and Travis and
their family and didn’t feel like me and my kids busting in there was very
appropriate. Luckily the kids behaved beautifully and Zach met me there and we
were able to be there for people we love very much during an extremely painful
time.
Sitting there with them and seeing their raw
emotions firsthand was very difficult for me. I relate a lot to the
relationships they had with their dad and to a lot of what they’ve been
through. I was thankful to be there for them but it was also a glimpse into a
potential future for myself that was very hard to deal with for me. We stayed
there pretty late and when we got home we found Sadie. It was just a rough
evening that lead to an even rougher next few days for me personally.
But ya know what? As a mom you have to SUCK IT UP.
I cried most of the night Tuesday night and did NOT want to get my butt up and
get ready that next morning. And I especially didn’t feel like going to get
donuts or going to the fire station. But I wasn’t about to let my kids
down!
Kye worked hard all summer (kinda..I mean he is
obsessed with reading so it wasn’t actually a lot of “work” for him
haha) to read over 100 books and he went above and beyond my expectations. He
def earned this donut party for himself and his sisters! I must add…genius
idea of me to offer up a donut party as in incentive because I always take the
kids to get donuts at the end of summer anyway hahaha!
I skipped the donut but did get coffee which I
never, ever order ever. But it was needed to survive the day. And I looked
rough while enjoying it ha!
We left the donuts to go to the fire station!
After the fire station we headed to CFA for lunch
with our friends. I’m so thankful for the amazing women in my life. I am truly
beyond blessed in the friendship department. I walked into CFA and just
straight up BROKE DOWN. In the play area. In front of a bunch of children. I
just cried and cried and really couldn’t stop. I’m sure people thought I was
crazy and probably thought I was upset over my dog dying. Which I mean it was
sad, don’t get me wrong, but I was much much more upset about the emotions I
was feeling related to Walter’s death. It was just intense and heavy and it was
one of the moments where I straight up COULDN’T hold it in. My friends are
awesome for just loving me, even in my darker moments 🙂
And Mommy’s mess didn’t stop any of the fun 😉
You know what ALWAYS makes me feel better? A fresh
cut and color! Renika is not only an amazing hair stylist but she is my free
therapist too 😉 Our talks always leaving me feeling refreshed!!!
Losing weight also makes me feel better. I tend to
eat my emotions so I tried on a bunch of clothes to remind myself that pigging
out wouldn’t pay off!!!
This shirt I wore on our honeymoon! I can’t wait to
wear it on our 10 year anniversary in May (We JUST booked it and are SO stoked!)
New jeans…in a size 2 whoop whoop! I’ve NEVER
owned a size 2 in jeans! I’ve also never been one to buy pricey clothes. BUT I decided to purge ALL of my jeans (literally I own two pairs now) and went the Nordstrom route. I’m obsessed with Wit and Wisdom (and they go on SALE)
I had this dress in a pile of clothes to get rid of
and Casey encouraged me to keep it and try it on! Def a good date night look
because it’s much too short for church haha
Britt’s servant heart is growing and growing and it
makes me SO PROUD and HAPPY. She is loving being part of meal time with me. It
takes a lot more patience for me having a helper during dinner prep but I love
it!
We got invited over to a family from church’s house
on Friday which was SO THOUGHTFUL. I told Zach I can’t remember the last time
we were asked over by a non-family member. It really has been a God thing
because I’ve known Laura for YEARS and have always liked her but we just
haven’t ever hung out. She and her husband, Jerry, have four kids all around
the ages of ours and our kids INSTANTLY clicked. And so did our husbands! We
seriously had the greatest time and are mega pumped about this new friendship
for our family. We want our children to grow up with good Christian friends and
it’s been awesome to get to know such a wonderful family outside the church
doors 🙂
Anyways Laura insisted on having us over AND
cooking (I mean super woman status or whhhhat?!?!) so we baked my favorite
cookies in the world (cocoa no bakes) to take over and to enjoy since I was
having a rough week 😉 (Yes, emotional eating may have won out by the end of
the week haha).
It was a VERY bitter sweet baking session. Kye
opted out of helping. My Kye. My sweet little baby BOY who always wants to help
his mama and lick the spoon…yup. Too big to wanna help. On the upside it was
the first time Tess was able to help in the kitchen and she was PUMPED. I love
that the first baking she’s done in her life was my favorite cookies 🙂
I love the memories and laughter and many meals
we’ll make together 🙂
Baking wears ’em out 😉
YUM! Worth having to put back on a bigger size
jeans for haha!
I got a call back from the dermatologist regarding
Kye’s spot he had removed. They did biopsy it for cancer but for some reason I
was just zero percent nervous about it? I guess I felt like this kid has been
loaded UP with sunscreen since like birth and there was just no way he’d have
skin cancer at age 7. Glad I didn’t waste the time worrying because it wasn’t
cancer. Instead it’s Molluscum. Which I’d never heard of before but they said
it’s SUPER common. He actually has several spots on his face and chest that are
part of it and it should just naturally go away. Colt had it and Carter also
has it. Maybe it’s a male thing in the family bloodline or something?!?! At
least it’s nothing serious!
It wouldn’t be a summer recap without a couple of
pool pics 😉
I don’t think there has been a week in my recap
series from this summer where I’ve been like BEST SUMMER EVER! And I think it’s
just honest to say it wasn’t our best summer ever. May was ROUGH and it just
kinda started a ball that continued to roll. We’re realllllllly hoping for an
AMAZING fall and winter though 🙂 Not every season in life can be rainbows and
sunshine all the time and I’m just so thankful to know that God is always good,
even when moments of life aren’t so wonderful. Always so thankful for his
unending love and blessings 🙂
My work has been featured on Love What Matters, Today Parenting and Babywise.Life. I'm also honored to be a member of the Babywise Friendly Blog Network.
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