Tuesday, April 30, 2013

April Miscellaneous

A few of our April memories together. 

Sand and water table fun- early bday present from Nene and Pappy

This thing has kept him occupied for hours

Panera opened- finally a place to get bagels! 
James went to a school friend's princess party but they made sure he got to be a prince. :) 

Excited about his new crocs from Nana 

James checking out the trains at Target. Ryan watching the Masters on his phone. Emily getting groceries. Typical Sunday afternoon.
Meeting Daddy in the middle of the day for lunch. Special treat! 

Trying out Daddy's shoes 
Testing out Rotolo's and concentrating hard on that coloring sheet 
We started swim lessons. The first lesson he took off all of his clothes, the second lesson he ran out of the building, the third lesson I bribed him with ice cream. Desperate times call for desperate measures! 


Actually in the water- progress 

Working on a back float 
We might be postponing lessons for the summer...more than this Mama can handle! 

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Girls' Weekend Extravaganza!

This was a first for me- a girls' weekend getaway!!! (well, since having James)  I have only spent a few nights away from him since he was born, not because I haven't wanted to do some special things but the logistics of trips, etc. when you live so far from family and have a resident husband are not always the easiest to plan. One day on a whim after seeing that Wicked was coming to Dallas I texted Kathleen and said, "Don't you want to fly in and meet me?" To my excitement she said "Yes!"  And our sweet husbands immediately got on board and told us to do it and they would make it happen. Kathleen is one of my most special friends. The funny thing is we didn't even become friends until the second semester of our senior year, yet we have stayed in touch ever since. I remember when I first started hanging out with her thinking, I don't know if there has ever been someone who has such similar beliefs as me in terms of teaching, life, and now mothering. Not to mention she is a ton of fun to be with!  I think any mom appreciates a weekend away. However the fact that me and Kathleen both are stay at home moms and live extremely far from family made us appreciate the time away and with each other even more.  The only negative part of the trip for me was that I came down with a sinus infection and felt pretty crummy the whole time. However it felt awesome to get to just lay on my bed and chat with NO responsibilities whereas if I was home they would definitely have not been the case. 

On the way to Dallas I had to stop at Dairy Palace and get a cheeseburger and milkshake which had been recommended to me (thank you Jennifer!). Very tasty! The benefit of being able to stop whenever I wanted to and listen to whatever I wanted on the radio got this trip started off in the right direction. 


I arrived at the hotel- so excited to have a big bed waiting for me and lots of relaxation in store.  That night we walked around the mall, got pedicures, ate, and chilled. It was great! 
The next day we had all sorts of things that we could have done but both of us just wanted to basically do nothing, something we never do, lol. We got up late, ate breakfast, did a little shopping, and just lounged around. Then it was time to get ready for Wicked.  

Dinner before the show
I don't know if I should even write about this next part of the trip. Long story short Kathleen and I lost the car and spent over 30 minutes looking for it. We both remember exactly the same thing about where we parked it. Finally in desperation we took a cab (which ended up being a whole other fiasco) so we wouldn't miss the play. The play was great and while we were there my sweet husband (who probably thought I had lost my mind) contacted the mall security and arranged for a security officer to drive us around the parking deck when we got back. So...at midnight we drove around for seriously a REALLY long time and still couldn't find the car. We kept telling the man "B2".  At this point we thought the car had been stolen and then suddenly the man said, "Oh B2. I bet its in the basement." Needless to say we were thankful to find it!!!

Oh parking garage- we will never forget you
Overall it was a fabulous weekend, and we have decided we need to do one somewhere every year. Thank you SO much to our sweet husbands and my mother-in-law who made it possible for us to go. 

I miss this girl! 
I would never have been able to do this trip if my mother-in-law had not graciously agreed to come help with James. Ryan had a work conference in town so he was in and out all weekend. James loved getting to spend some time with his Nana! 

Nana and James made a tent out of the sheet 
I think the three of them had quite a few yummy treats while I was gone. :) 







Thank you so much Nana for taking such good care of my sweet boy. It was the greatest gift ever to be out of town and not have to worry about him! 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Last Trip to NC as a family of 3

I was looking forward to this trip to NC for weeks.  We hadn't been there since our Christmas visit, and I knew that it would be our last trip home before the baby arrived.  Unfortunately despite all the fun pictures in the two previous posts this ended up being one of our most stressful trips to date.  James refused to sleep in the real bed, it took us hours to get him to sleep each night, he wouldn't nap well, cranky, etc. etc.  Did I mention that I was 7 months pregnant and dealing with James's issues was really not what I wanted to be doing on the trip? I called Ryan about 48 hours into the trip and said that if we had a car I would be getting into it to drive home! Anyway, a few of the things that saved our sanity was some fun things/getaways that we had planned as well as the help from our families.  We are hoping/praying that our next trip will go a little smoother! 

One night my I took James over to see Marianne and Hayden.  They brought out all of Hayden's old trains, and James was perfectly content to play there while Marianne and I chatted. And I really needed some friend time then! 



We had some job-related getaways.  We briefly thought about taking James with us to the beach but after he was giving us so much trouble we left him behind and soaked up as much relaxation as we could in 24 hours! 
Beach I miss you!

32 weeks (I think) 
Nothing like a water view for lunch 
We got to meet David and Greer for dinner while in Wilmington 


Later that week we had another mini job getaway for the night. It wasn't the babymoon I was dreaming of but at least the people paid for a nice dinner and a hotel for us, haha! 

Ryan made me take this picture
Another highlight for me was getting to see my old bible study girls as we celebrated Ashley's upcoming marriage. We started off our girls' night with dinner and then went to a paint your own pottery store.  Afterwards we had a honeymoon shower for Ash and gave her some stuff to take with her when she heads to St. Lucia.  I love and miss these girls so much!






This pic is a little cheesy but we had to get a bump shot together

Love these ladies!

The next day I met Shannon, Ashley, Sara, and Reese for breakfast before they all headed back out of town. We had been wanting James and Reese to get to hang out together- they haven't seen each other since they were 2 months old! 

Always interesting eating out with 2 year olds 
Hugs and kisses
I really shouldn't do this to myself but I had to drive past our little house on Chippenham. Such great memories of living there. 

When the trip was finally over we were really sad to say goodbye to everyone but truthfully we were just SO ready to get back into our routine and try to get James back on track (which ended up taking a very painful couple of weeks but that's a whole other story).  Of course what better way to end a trip when you are already exhausted than by with a long layover that gets even longer after your connecting flight is delayed twice? And are we really going to be doing this with two kids next year? To say we were excited when we pulled into our driveway is an understatement.  It was a great trip in terms of seeing people we love but boy were we happy to be home! 

Flight delay 

Very cranky and tired 2 year old