Friday: crazytown

Where has the month of November gone!?!?

Linking up with these ladies: Darci, April, Natasha and Christina.

{ONE}

We attempted to decorate for Christmas last weekend with our new 10 foot tree.  Well, apparently the tree company that shipped it (bought through Home Depot) didn't get the memo that yes, a tree stand in fact is required to make your tree work.  Ha.  Jimmy almost started crying (he LOVES Christmas!) and has since been fighting with them to get it shipped to us ASAP.  Cross your fingers (for all our sanity) it will get here ASAP!

In the mean time, my parents are amazing and offered to pay for my sister and I's houses to get Christmas lights!!! AHH!  What a treat (and peace of mind that my husband will not be getting up on a huge ladder in attempt to decorate...) and look at how nice it looks!!

{TWO}

Went to a LulaRoe pop up party at Vanessa's house on Monday night and boy was that fun!!  Their clothes are awesome and so simple and SOFT!!  We had a great time trying on a bunch of different clothes and buying some.  I love the baseball tee that I bought and haven't broken down YET to buy the leggings, but I will soon.  My work friends liked my baseball shirt so much they want me to host a shopping night too- done!!!

Have you heard of LulaRoe?

{THREE}

Maddie cakes has been rocking some sweet drainage in her ear - poor thing.  Luckily for tubes when you have an ear infection you just use drops - except when you get picked up from school and have nasty blood coming out of your ear (GROSS!).  So off we went to a walk in clinic by our house that we have been meaning to try out (versus driving all the way across town to our doctor and during somewhat normal business hours - I mean REALLY, who's kids actually get sick during normal business hours/!?!).

The kiddos loved the waiting room (and the candy I was able to bribe them with that I found in my purse!)

Maddie does have an ear infection - but not a popped ear drum, and got some meds for her nasty cough. Here's hoping for a well family during Thanksgiving - mine and yours!

{FOUR}

Crazytown is the title of this and that is what life feels like these days.

With thanksgiving less and a week a day and the need to get to Christmas shopping along with 14 other things that Jimmy and I are wanting to wrap up before year end (our will/estate plan, solid budget that we can both be ok with following, etc.) paired with some craziness at work - somedays it feels like we are just swimming.

However, the weekends seem to be a wonderful break from the crazy when we get some family time.  Love these two kiddos!!!

{FIVE}

PREVIEW!!

My friend, Sarah, was sweet enough to shoot some family pictures of us a while back.  I haven't been on the ball enough to actually ORDER our Christmas cards (yep, need to get on that!), but I love the pictures!  She has a talent for sure.  Even though my kids weren't all smiles - I love the images she got because it's more reflective of our "real"!  

Here's a sneak peek!

Happy Friday!!!

Five on Friday: Random Ramblings

HAPPY FRIDAY!  

Surprise!  I'm not at work today - volunteering for Habitat for Humanity with some co-workers - so kicking the weekend off right!!

Linking up with these ladies: Darci, April, Natasha and Christina.

{ONE}

Project progress

I'll start here, as my last Five on Friday featured the below picture:

And now?  The furniture is all painted and sealed and now I just need to find some hardware.  Which is easier said than done because of the "not so normal" width of the larger pulls - but we will find something.  So for now, we just open it without pulls and it's all good.

Did you notice what else is new?  PAINT!!  Thanks to Vanessa's recommendation, we bit the bullet and got the same navy she used in Nash's room and painted Charlie's.  It took taking our kids to my parents after church on Sunday and leaving them there until dinner to get it done (FINALLY).  But Charlie loves it!  Now I just need to get up all the decor I got months and months ago.  He's so excited!

A quick before:

{TWO}

Speaking of - can we talk about how much you can get done on a day that your kiddos are somewhere else?  HA!

I told you that we were lucky enough to take our kids over to my parents right after church last Sunday for some grandparent fun while we worked our butts off at home.  They got some entertainment and we couldn't believe how much we got done!

1. Finished taping and painting Charlie's room

2. Organized his clothes and took out his old dresser (took it apart)

3. Moved all his new (painted) furniture in and got the clothes in it

4. While we let the paint dry (literally), I made 6 freezer meals with stuff that I already had

5. Jimmy mowed the lawn

And then we went to my parents to eat soup...and then passed out from all that work.

But felt VERY accomplished!

And we even snuck in a date on a Tuesday this week!  Sushi and a free Old Dominion concert - yes please!  Besides the smokers that literally smoked a whole pack of cigarettes standing in front of us it was a great night!

{THREE}

This deserves a post of it's own...but last week was a whirlwind because we joined 800,000 other people on Tuesday to go to the Royals World Series celebration.

It was crazy.  We were crazy.  The whole thing was crazy.

But these pictures say it all (more on the rest later!!)

{FOUR}

So literally RIGHT after the parade we were driving home (with the rest of KC)...and Maddie threw up in her car seat.

Then even better.....Charlie threw up all over me when I was carrying him upstairs to take his {late} nap.  It was horrible...so both kids went into the bathtub.  Then Charlie had a 102 fever and got sent home from school on Wednesday morning (yep, wasn't just a one off throw up like his sister)...and poor guy wouldn't kick the fever until SATURDAY morning. Seriously!

My dad was nice enough to let Charlie come over and hang out and my dad took good care of him on Wednesday afternoon, then hung out with dad on Thursday and after a trip to the doctor with me on Friday morning and confirmation of a negative strep test and positive flu test (UGH!) we went back to let Papa take care of him.  Seroiusly, this picture (and this little man sick) was the saddest thing.  He's still not back to sleepign at all - but at least he's back to his normal self.

{FIVE}

And finally - speaking of normal three year old selves.

OMG

Does anyone else feel like this???

Seriously #three is wearing us OUT.  Hardcore.

We are going to do some Christmas decorating this weekend and cannot wait (got a HUGE new tree!).  Even though we are hosting Thanksgiving, it will put everyone in the Christmas spirit (right?)!

Oh and PS - Thanksgiving was 2 weeks from YESTERDAY!  HOLY COW!

Fall Blogger Scarf Exchange

My friend, Sarah, knows my love of scarves...so when Courtney, Elizabeth and Whitney announced they were hosting this fall scarf exchange, Sarah told me that she was joining in and so should I.  It didn't take me much convincing to sign up. How fun!!!

I was lucky enough to get paired with Jess from Secrets of SAHM to buy a scarf for me and then I got to buy a scarf for Sara from Running from the Law. 

After getting and email from Jess and an email back from Sara, it was time to go shopping (for Sara!) and anxiously await the scarf that Jess chose for me.

I was very excited checking the mail each day for the package from Jess to arrive and was like a kid squealing with excitement when I saw the package from her.  And even more excited when I had Charlie rip open the package for me.

An awesome scarf that is just perfect for fall!!

And guess what?  I only have had it for a little while and I already found two outfits to wear it with!

One to work on Thursday:

(Please excuse this awkward picture - I'm obviously NOT a fashion blogger)

And then to church on Sunday:

Yep!  I'm a fan!!

It was fun to do the exchange and get to "know" a few other mom bloggers.  Jess sent such a sweet note with her scarf and was so nervous that I wasn't going to like it!  Never fear - the colors are perfect and it was the perfect weight for a scarf to wear when it's not too cold, but not too hot!!!

I hope that Sara likes her scarf that I picked out for her - and am thankful for a new scarf AND two new blogs to follow!!!  I'm so excited to see what everyone else in the exchange picked out and sent too.  

And most importantly, Happy Fall, y'all :)

What a WEEKEND: Royal's, Halloween and MORE Royal's

SOOOOO many things happened this past weekend.  Crazy.  Must recap.

We did some "spooky" shopping on Thursday night to get ready for the weekend and our little "Pot Roast" devoured her pot roast (and looked dang stylish doing it!).

On Friday, we had a dilemma.  The kiddos had their Halloween party at school from 3-4PM and at the same time we had our annual Spooktacular at my work where all the kids come in and trick or treat.  Pretty much last year, coming to mom's work for trick or treating was Charlie's favorite thing in the world.  He has been begging to come back to work with me and do that (obviously it's not that much fun every day....).  So when it came down to it, I let him decide what he wanted to do and guess what?  He said to skip his school party and he and Maddie would come visit me.  Sold.

I didn't take any pictures because following these two hooligans around my office making sure that they literally didn't take ALL the candy (i.e. Maddie) or break an office window with the Donatello bow staff (i.e. Charlie) was enough work.  I do with I would have gotten a video of just how fast Miss Maddie picked up on trick or treating - it was pretty impressive actually.  She figured out fast that all she has to do was flash a quick smile, grab a handful of candy and run to the next person.

Smart girl.

But we did make the twitter feed picture!!  And check out those amazing cupcakes that one of the girls I work with made - WOW!

That night, we had Jimmy's brothers and their family's over to watch the Royal's game.  It was game 3 of the World Series and the only game that they lost (so you know we are not having a watch party ever again - bad luck!).  Very casual with hot dogs, pizza and some snacks.  Our kiddos stayed up WAY too late but had SO much fun with their cousins.  

LOOK at this picture of Maddie (I posted this on Instagram too).  But seriously.  I couldn't find Maddie and then looked in the dining room and she was in the pop up school bus with three of her older cousins and a bazillion stuffed animals just giggling away. Nothing better!!!

The next day - OUR KIDS SLEPT IN UNTIL 8:45.  Let's mark this day in history because that has NEVER happened.  Ever.  After everyone was up, we ran some errands and then Jimmy headed off to his last football game during naptime.  I'm not going to lie, while I know he really liked coaching, I'm secretly glad it's over with.  Man oh man it's good to have him back home every week night and will be nice to have him for a full Saturday!!!

Then at 4PM, my parents came over and we went up to our pool area to help set up for our neighborhood Halloween fun!!  I volunteered Jimmy to be in charge of the music - he was so excited! Ha.  But seriously, our mom's committee did such a great job this year.  Totally helped that it was on a Saturday, but so much better than years past with dinner there, lots of games and a fun parade (versus just walking aimlessly through the pool parking lot and leaving like the past 2 years).  And btw - apparently like every kid in our neighborhood was a ninja turtle!! They were everywhere!

We attempted to get a family photo at the "photo area", but the sun wasn't doing us any favors.  So this was the best we could get (thanks Aunt Lulu for taking ANOTHER family pic!).

After the parade, we headed over to our friend's house down the street.  They host a chili/soup every year and we were excited to be invited...but no one was more excited than Charlie and Kate.  These two.  They just love each other so much and it's adorable.  The good news is that I love her parents too - so what better combo can you get?  We got to eat with them and go trick or treating too with Kate and big sister Emma.  Maddie was in the stroller and not wanting to sit still for these pictures!

We walked down lots of streets and visited more friends until we were all just pooped.  Maddie and Jimmy went home to put her to bed (another late night!) and we finished out the rest of the street on the walk back to Kate's house.  I wish I would've gotten a video of them rushing to trick or treat.  It was so cute.  Charlie LOVED it so much.  Which was so fun to see.  He told everyone "trick or treat" and made sure to yell at them "thank you for the candy" every time and then proceed to tell us how he said thank you. Haha.  Then we were eavesdropping on he and Kate walking and her dad said he heard Charlie randomly say "I love you, Kate" and she looked at him and said "AH - I love you too, Charlie".  I mean so cute, right?

I came home to this guy watching the Royal's game in the garage passing out candy!

And guess what??!!  They WON!

And then Sunday (right, it was just Sunday!?).

Well the Chiefs were playing in London, so they started at 8:30AM, which was the perfect reason to break out bloody mary's and mimosas, right??  Plus it was daylight savings so we technically got an extra hour of sleep.  HA.  Turns out that I forgot to reset Charlie's light up alarm clock - so when it turned green at 5:30 instead of 6:30, there was just no explaining that to Charlie.  So he sat and watched movies on our phone while we slept #parentingproblems

At 10AM, my college friends, kids and husbands came over to have a little post-Halloween party.  Seriously, we don't get together enough but even less do we get a chance to get all our kiddos together.  And it was so fun.  Not to mention November 1 was the PERFECT day to break in the new backyard.  All the kids had so much fun.  We enjoyed a simple brunch and I just love talking to everyone.  Miss them so much.

Even funnier was watching our kids play!  My favorite part was when I came outside to 4 of our boys "fighting" over the baseball tee.  Love them.

And then I forced everyone to take a picture.  Which is easier said than done.

However, Maddie and Will seemed to be ready to go!

Then the rest of them joined and it was just pure crazy!!!

Berkely|Arden|Maddie|Samuel|Charlie|Will|Noah|Stratton|Nash|Henry|Bennett|Brodie

And guess what?  There were actually 5 more kiddos that couldn't be there (Caroline, Jack, Kenley, Bowen and Autumn) - with 3 more on the way!!!  WHAT?!  We multiply.  Next year - 20 kids?!

And then Samuel tried to grab Maddie's hair....

And then his foot went in the air and Maddie's face.  Oh my.

Nash wanted nothing to do with sitting on the couch #toughbeingone

And then we had to snap a shot of Charlie and Nash since they were twinning it up!!!!  SO cute!

What happened next?  Besides passing out?

Ha.

Well, we went on a gorgeous walk while Jimmy went over to clean up all the leaves in my dad's yard.  Seriously - November 1 was PERFECT weather.

And then we stayed up SUPER late to watch what had not been done in THIRTY years.  Yes, 30 years.  We watched the Royals win the world series in 12 innings.  It was crazy.  Jimmy was on cloud nine.  But don't worry, the celebration for that was far from over!!!  More to come.

Hope you guys had a great Halloween weekend!!!

Thankful - ROYALS WIN!

It's November 2 now and I'm going to participate in the 30 days of thanks sponsored by Skinny Mom because you know what - we all have at LEAST 30 things to be thankful for!

Instead of posting on Instagram every day, I'm planning on doing a weekly summary with some pictures.  But for now, I'll start with what I'm thankful for on November 1 and November 2!

November 1:

I'm thankful for the KC Royals WORLD SERIES WIN!

Yes, you read that right.  In case you were living under a rock....the Royals beat the Mets in a crazy (as usual) game on Sunday night that we tied in the 9th inning and then completely dominated in the 12th inning.  Holy freaking cow.  Amazing!  

The last time this happened?   I was TWO MONTHS OLD!  Yep, it was 30 years ago!

While I'm not thankful for the lack of sleep these boys in blue have caused the entire city this post season, I couldn't be more thrilled and thankful for the way we have seen this city come together around this incredible team.  But most of all, for the downright joy this has brought my husband.  Jimmy is SO passionate about his sports teams.  Like to a fault in my mind because when they lose it takes him like weeks to shake it.  He's loyal the core and has always been to the KC Royals - through all the years they were downright horrible.  He would drag me out to the K and we'd by the $7 tickets and sit in the outfield on a Sunday afternoon regularly.  It's in his blood this team.

He was over the moon last night.  Literally.  It just makes me happy - everything about it.

Including this shirt I told him to buy me... :)

Source

November 2:

To tag onto the above, I'm thankful for a husband that encourages me to do fun and crazy things, even though I might not want to. 

There is a World Series parade in downtown KC tomorrow durign the day.  I should be at work (I have PLENTY to do), but Jimmy said no matter what he wanted to take a least Charlie to the parade.  Because it really could be a once in a lifetime thing.  He went in 1985 with his family and there is a picture of him (around Maddie's age) that he just loves so much of him in a stroller eating a handful of raisins.  So guess what?  I asked for the day off and we are taking the whole fam (along with the ENTIRE city it feels like - pretty much every school district canceled school - CRAZY!) to the parade.  Crowds and waiting are not my thing in general...add having a 1 and 3 year old to that and yeah - totally not my thing.  But you know what?  I'm so excited.  The adrenaline when you are at something like that doesn't compare.  Since we didn't get to go to a World Series game at the K this year like we did a few times last year, it's the least that I can do - and we are going to have a BLAST!

Here is what the streets looked like during the 1985 parade:

And one just for fun of Jimmy and I at a Royals game earlier this year....

So what are you thankful for as we enter into November?

Join the Skinny Mom Challenge for 30 days of THANKS!  #30daysofthanks