Five on Friday

Ok - I actually am doing it again.  Linking up with Darci and friends.  That's impressive, isn't it??

{ONE}


We put an offer on a house.  Yes, after one look we were hooked.  However - it's a little bit dramatic because it's a foreclosure, so it's a great deal.  We put in our initial bid and apparently in the mean time someone else did too.  So they gave us until today at 1:55PM (random time?) to submit our final offers.  Talk about stressful.  Luckily I am officially trained in negotiation tactics thanks to my last job (haha - seriously though).  So we submitted the best offer we had and can feel good about it even if we lose it to someone else.  It's perfect.  But guess what?  There are other fish/houses in the sea too.  But would appreciate any and all good thoughts and prayers and good lucks!!!

{TWO}

Birthday party planning is in FULL swing!  We are at the one month mark today before Mr. Charlie's big birthday party so on the top of the list??  Sending out the invites.  I will say we have LOTS of family and big family, so this kid seems rather popular for just a first birthday.  But I keep reminding myself, this is a celebration well deserved.  We made it through the first year of our first baby and everyone survived (luckily!) and is well and happy.  So that's a huge accomplishment in my book.  To think that this is the last time I'll be compiling invitations like this in our house did make me a little sentimental last night though...

{THREE}

Sweet summertime = ice cream on the front porch.

Nothing beats this {especially since he loved it}

{FOUR}

I cooked THREE TIME this week - like legit meals.  Seriously with moving and work and life, I feel like we have been just picking up stuff out or eating macaroni and easy stuff for the last few weeks.  It felt so good to have some healthy(ish) meals that were homecooked and to contribute to "operation clean out the fridge/cabinets/freezer" since we will be moving in with my parents for a bit and won't need that food.  Here's what we were eating this week:

This started with some mushrooms that Jimmy bought the previous Friday for our pizza date night - I needed to use them + chicken breast in freezer + cream of mushroom soup = deliciousness.  So easy.  Cannot beat a crockpot meal

Source and delicious recipe

Wednesday I had all the right ingredients for this except the Italian bread, so my sister brought that over and we ate this yummy meal and celebrated her NEW JOB!! So proud of her!

Source and delicious recipe

Thursday night Charlie and I were flying solo since Jimmy had his weekly Thursday happy hours.  I was planning on cooking this on Tuesday, but then we decided to go look at a house and put an offer on it that night - so we had to settle for eating out then. But this was delicious.  Instead of following the recipie, I just put ground beef, brown rice and rotel in the peppers after they had been in the microwave for 4 minutes, then took them out and sprinkled cheese and YUM.

Source and delicious recipe

{FIVE}
 
Guess what is next week??!?  Ah - Fourth of July.  I cannot believe it.  Last Fourth of July I was SO pregnant and SO for the holiday celebration.  So it's crazy to think about being a normal sized person with an almost 1 year old this year.  I don't think the weather will be any different, but that's ok. 

This holiday means a 5 day weekend too - even if it involves moving and packing - I'm excited for some time away from work and spending time with family and friends.  I'm not one to pick out outfits far in advance, but if I did - this is what I would have got this shirt for Charlie to wear.  Um, so cute.

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 Instead, he just has these shorts.  #momfail But he will still look oh-so-cute, I'm sure.  You cannot go wrong with plaid shorts! Overall, we are looking forward to some time together to celebrate America! 

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And we're just happy that it's Friday again - hope you all have a great weekend as well!  I'm sure lots of people have travel plans and I'm jealous!!  Hope it's to fun places with fun people as always...

A baby filled lake trip

So I'm working my way through all these great pictures and events I want to share over the past few months.  I'm even staying up late to do this {that's dedication people}.

The first weekend of June, our friends Sarah and Josh invited us to head down to the Ozarks with their cute little family, along with the Gray family to hang out at Sarah's grandparents lake house.  A vacation with friends that are on the exact same crazy baby schedule?  Um - sold.  We had a few things scheduled - including a baby shower I had to end up missing for a work friend - but we decided it was worth missing out because this was going to be FUN.  And guess what?  It was all that and more and it was MUCH needed time away from normal life and some great times with friends.

I mean - this was what our Saturday consisted of.  Yes, life is good, friends.

Time for a role call from the weekend attendees.  Sarah and her little man, Bo, are on the far left - she was the host.  Then her sweet cousin that I finally got to meet, Emmy, with her sweet little girl Karigan are the next cute pair.  Karigan was the lone girl but is just a few days older than Charlie.  Charlie and I are next and then the cute pair of LeighAnne and Bennett Gray.  What else is fun?  Bennett and Bo are the same age - I mean the EXACT same age.  Yep, these best friends had their sweet baby boys the SAME day.  Pretty fun.  They are 3 months younger than Charlie - soon enough they will be roughing him up versus him doing it to them!

We got to the lake on Friday night after work and it was a smooth drive down there.  We quickly put the boys in the bathtub together (hilarious) and got them into bed.  And then we stayed up way too late talking and laughing.  And it was so fun.  Much needed girl time and gossiping.  After going to bed way too late, Charlie decided he was going to wake up.  UGH.  Usually we just let that kid cry it out, but with other so close and other sleeping babies - I held him and tried to get him back to sleep.  After 30 minutes and trying many things - no such luck.  So I looked for back up - aka my husband.  He was nowhere to be found.  30 minutes later, still crying and I had to pee.  I found Jimmy asleep under the staircase - AFTER I peed with Charlie on my lap.  Just another day in mom world, right?  Well - I woke him right up and he was in charge of getting him to sleep.  Super dad got him to sleep.

The next day - we headed right to the dock for some sunshine, baby pool and an amazing baby play area.  OMG.  Emmy and her parents have a house right next to Sarah's grandparents, so they are down at the lake all the time and got this awesome gate.  It was amazing containing Karigan and Charlie who are ALL over the place.  Definitely gave me a piece of mind after my crazy mom nightmares the night before that he was going to crawl into the lake!  I really want this.  AH!

Overall, it was a pretty fantastic day at the lake.  A great and relaxing day filled with sunshine, good drinks, fun conversation, lots of laughs and some good nap time (for the babes and a 15 minute power nap for me!).

 Josh and Bo - how cute are they?  And me relaxing with my babe after his nap!

Jimmy insisted Charlie get in the lake.  It was COLD, but dad knows best right?  Well - believe it or not, after Josh literally dropped Charlie into the lake by holding his life jacket - Charlie didn't cry when he was in the lake with his dad and dad was ALL smiles.  So happy these boys.

Here is a great group shot of everyone.  Thankful for these people in our lives.  Been friends with Jimmy for all to long and we are lucky to have babies the same age!!!

Finally - the night ended with another fun bathtime where we got a few more pictures of these crazy babes.  Needless to say, the fact that my kid was super mobile didn't make it easy.  Bo and Bennett look so cute and content.  Well, not for long mamas!!

Outtakes:  I have several more, but this gives you an idea of what craziness it was!!!!  These boys are so freaking cute.

And after the babes were in bed, we spent more time and stayed up late doing this.  Have you heard of the face juggler app?  Well however much it cost Josh - it was worth it because seriously we laughed for hours with different pictures he switched around.  Including this gem......

Yep, let's pray we don't have a girl.  Or if we do that she doesn't look like Jimmy.

PS - we also got to see this cutie later that evening in KC!  Love these 2!  Growing up too fast!!!

Mommy and Me + trip to the pool

I guess it's fitting that the first weekend following the first day of summer we finally decided it was time to hit up the pool.  Don't get me wrong, this kid loves water and has been to the lake already, but we finally made time for a trip to the PV pool down the street from our house.  And grabbed a great mother and son picture while we were there.

They have a great pool just for kids that is closed off to big kids. We went after dinner on Saturday so the weather had started to cool down (80, not 95 degrees), but it was perfect for the pool.  Charlie sat for awhile in the pool just watching the other kids play and run.  He finally started moving around and playing in the water and slowly started to love it!!!

After we all decided it was time to get out and dry off, this kid was all over the poolside.  Practicing walking, bear crawl crawling (heaven forbid he scratches his knees!), and getting into things per usual. 

He really liked the people watching the most and was fascinated by all the stuff other kids were doing and running around in the water.

I told him to not worry I'm sure he will figure out this walking thing in no time and he'll be running around the rest of his life.  So just enjoy this time where people want to carry you!!!

Overall, it was s successful trip to the pool.  We love the city pool and how close it is.  Hoping we can find a great pool in the neighborhood of our {future} new house!

Five on Friday (jumping on the bandwagon...)

So I’m jumping on the band wagon hoping that this type of post is something I can keep up with weekly since it’s super random.  We all know that I have been majorly slacking and prioritizing sleep over blogging (how dare I?!), but my friend Vanessa has been linking up with a fun group of bloggers (Darci, April, Christina and Natasha) the last few weeks and I’ve been loving her posts.  Not only that, but I feel like most of the folks that I follow are linking up to, so I am copying off your blog posts again Vanessa.  I’m just hoping I can do it more than one week!!

{ONE}

We are on the house hunt this weekend.  The folks that are buying our house had the inspection on Wednesday and from what we hear it went ok – so nothing official yet, but we’re far enough along that we figured we should probably start our search.  I’m half excited and half overwhelmed.  We think we have an area in Kansas City narrowed down to look, but then keep changing our minds.  Do we build or buy?  All TBD but we need to figure it out sooner rather than later because interest rates are on their way UP people!!!

SOURCE

{TWO}

My baby is turning ONE in just 6 short weeks. I’m not quite sure when this happened.  This first year just flew by and it has been so fun.  As for birthday party planning?!  Well, we have the theme and the guest list and are going to order the invites over the weekend.  My friend, Victoria from RVParties, is helping me with the design work and I’m really excited for a beach bash in our empty house (party is 7/28 and our buyers close 7/30 – so it’ll be like having an empty banquet hall to work with but in my house – weird!!).  

{THREE}

So happy the weekend is finally here.  Whew.  There are some weeks I’m not sure if we will all make it to Friday.  Jimmy was out of town Monday through Wednesday this week, so I had a little extra responsibility on my hands, but we were so happy to have him back.  I’m guessing there will be a few more of these in the next few days….

{FOUR}

Duck Dynasty.  Do you watch it?  I didn’t until I started working on it like every day of my life at work.  I’m supporting a team that is developing some Duck Dynasty products and I feel like that’s all I hear about all day long.  So I broke down and set my DVR and watched a few episodes.  I didn’t think I would like it – but I have to say, it’s pretty funny.  I think I like the mindless-ness of it especially.  If you haven’t seen an episode – give it a try.  They seem like a pretty good family and it actually makes working on their product P&Ls a little more fun to have watched the show!

SOURCE

{FIVE}

Charlie is so so close to walking it’s scary.  He’s standing on his own now for a good 30 seconds at a time and even taken a few steps here and there, but nothing consistent.  What I cannot get over?  Is looking at him from such a new vantage point.  He looks like a toddler when he stands up and dances.  It’s crazy to me how you get used to looking at your kids a certain way (first laying down, then sitting up, then crawling and then walking)…so when that view changes it crazy to me.  When he’s standing and looking at me face to face, I cannot help but smile.  But that also means he’s into EVERYTHING.  I’m not kidding when I say this kid is all boy.  We have at least one accident report a week at day care that involves a bloody lip or bump/bruise.  At least he takes it all in with a smile, right? 

Here’s to a fabulous weekend that feels extra LONG, right??

 

Remember me?

Hi my name is Brittany.  Remember me?  Here’s what I look like.

And this…is my cute son, Charlie. He looks more like a toddler than a baby in this picture.

And here Charlie is with his cute dad (and my husband), Jimmy. 

Yep, I used to blog on a semi-regular basis.  I love blogging and telling the story of our simple life. 

Our simple {and busy} life has certainly gotten in the way lately for blogging.  Here are some highlights of what I’ve missed:

• Charlie’s second lake trip – this time with 3 baby friends
• My mom turned 58 (I usually always do a birthday post and of course didn’t get around to that – her cards are even still sitting in our kitchen #daughterfail)
• We celebrated Jimmy’s first Father’s Day (see picture above) and the other wonderful father’s in our life.
• Our house went on the market and we got an offer in 6 days; pending inspections today, we will be moving out of our first home together July 30.  Where we will go – umm…no idea.  Moving in with my parents in the meantime.
• Charlie is standing up regularly and just dying to take his first step.  The thought of crossing that threshold is crazy.
• Speaking of…the first birthday party planning is in full swing.  July 28 for the party and we’re pretty excited!
• Work is crazy crazy crazy.  I wish I could be happy happy happy {ok that was a joke because I seriously spend half of my work day every day working on Duck Dynasty gifts…….have you watched the show?}
• Jimmy went on a 3 day work trip and I’m in the middle of playing single mom.  Easier said than done when you’re trying to keep everyone alive {dogs included} and the house spotless for the people that are buying it to inspect it

There are the highlights.  I plan on blogging soon on lots of these things and more {i.e. breastfeeding post because believe it or not, dialing down breastfeeding for me is harder than building it up}.

So in the meantime…I’m trying to keep up with everyone else in the blog world’s summer shenanigans…but wanted to pop in and say when I get a chance to blog, I have lots to blog about – but in the interim, I’m choosing my 4-5 hours in the day I have to sleep to sleep (don’t worry, this is not because of Charlie but because of work.  I wish I could have my child’s sleep habits!!)….

 

 

Charlie's 9 month pictures!!!

On Cinco de Mayo, we FINALLY got to head outside to take some Charlie pictures.  When you have a baby at the end of July, it's too hot to be outside and then Kansas weather doesn't really cooperate with pictures at the end of October and January to be outside for pictures.  So inside we did his 3 and 6 month pictures at Amanda's studio and they turned out great!  But I was dying to get outside and get some pictures of this boy in nature.  And luckily the weather did cooperate and the pictures turned out GREAT!!!!  While you didn't smile that much (as usual), I was pretty impressed at how cute these turned out!  He just looks SO big and handsome!!!

That's his serious look....

This picture cracks me up!!!

LOOK at those teeth!!!!!!

And my 2 favorite family photos....

I love this one so much.  I love the smiles, I love the closeness, I love Charlie's face and I love the trees.

You better believe this is going to be a huge canvas soon...

Amanda did it again - I love these pictures and am so glad that we got her 1 year package.  It has been so fun to see these pictures of Charlie as he gets older and older and changes with each session.  Cannot believe the next one he will be a year old.  Holy cow!!!