What's Up Wednesday

I decided that taking part in another "What's Up Wednesday" would be a great way to catch up on all the posting I've fallen behind on in the last month...I love a good shortcut! Here we go!

1.  What we're eating this week....
Nothing worth posting!  We'll have some of the usual...pasta/salad, baked chicken, tacos....last night we ventured out with some friends to Max & Erma's (turns out they have a kids eat free night every Tuesday!) which was delicious.  There were 3 adults and 7 kids, ranging from ages 4-7 and I have to say, the kids were all angels!  It was a nice night out for the 3 mamas.  The kids were so good, we splurged on some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies for everyone. This little tag speaks the truth:

2.  What I'm reminiscing about...
The beach!  As I've mentioned before, we are doing a vacation this year, but we're changing it up and going to a lakehouse in Montana, so no usual beach trip with the besties for us.  I've been thinking back to last year with these water-loving kiddos:

 

 

3. What I'm loving....
How much fun these kiddos have been having at their camps this summer!  Liam has stayed at his regular daycare/preschool, but they switch over to an informal summer camp format for June-August. He's been loving all of the sprinklers and weekly themes, and he's pretty much a hot, sweaty, tired mess when I pick him up everyday.

Jake goes to camp at our church, and it's an awesome program that has swimming twice per week and a field trip each week.  So far this summer, they've gone to the movies, a hiking trail, the science center, a Just Ducky tour, and the aviary!  He's there with a few of his friends from preschool days and his baseball team, so he's having a blast.  They do a "star camper" award each week for a kid who demonstrates the values they talk about at camp (mostly respecting the rules of camp and being kind to other campers and counselors)...Jake won the award earlier this month!

4.  What we've been up to...
The usual summer stuff, really! Riding bikes, the boys have been in the treehouse a lot, playing with neighbors, going swimming....now that it's not raining 6 out of 7 days a week, we've been out a lot more! This past weekend was busy, I went to a baby shower for a family friend (where I got to hog my nephew, Luke, again!)

 

And on Sunday, the boys had been invited to a birthday party at a friend's house with a pool....these two didn't get out of the pool for a solid 3.5 hours.  I take that back, Liam got out to have a piece of cake (of course) but that's it!  They were WIPED that night.

 

5.  What I'm dreading....
Right in this exact moment, I'm dreading 11:30am today, when I have to go to the dermatologist for my yearly check up.  I know it's a necessary evil, and after having a number of suspicious spots removed in recent years,  I will preach to anyone who will listen that they should go get skin checks...but that doesn't mean it's a fun thing!  But, it will be over with by the end of the day, and hopefully I'll be off the hook for another year.

Consider this your friendly PSA that if you haven't had your skin checked this year, call now to make your appointment!! 

6.  What I'm working on....
Vacation 2016.  I haven't really been working on it as much as just contemplating options.  I know, we haven't even taken our vacation this year!  But of course, I'm already thinking of next year....we've been tossing some ideas around....back to the beach as we usually do?  Disney cruise?  Disney world again? There's so much we want to do and see, and we feel like the kids are only little once so we want to do the fun kid things with them while they're young enough to appreciate it...if only we had unlimited money and vacation time!  


7.  What I'm excited about....
Booties!!  No, no, get your mind out of the gutter.  Not that.  I'm talking these kind of booties:

BP. 'Trott" - Nordstrom 

Ivanka Trump "Taren" - Nordstrom

I've been eying up those two from Nordstrom (thanks, Pinterest Told Me To!), but I hope to be able to hit Marshalls before fully committing to buying the boots at full price.  Any other cute shoe suggestions?  Preference between the two I posted?  Leave them in the comments!

8. What I'm watching/reading...
I'm just finishing up What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty (love it!) and up next is Beautiful Day by Elin Hilderbrand.

 

We've been watching Big Brother, So You Think You Can Dance, and of course, I just finished watching The Bachelorette! (and definitely looking forward to the trainwreck that is Bachelor in Paradise)

9. What I'm listening to....
I've been throwing it back when I turn on Spotify and listening to Dave Matthews and Counting Crows a lot (or the 90's hip hop/rap station if the kids aren't around...shhh don't tell them!)

10. What I'm wearing....
Over the past week, anything that keeps me cool!  It has been HOT here, into the 90s nearly everyday.  The flip side to this horrendous outside temperature is that while the number on the thermometer continues to climb outside, the thermostat temp in my office continues to drop.  So, basically this....

11. What I'm looking forward to next month....
VACATION!!!! :)  I'm sure that I will find myself saying something along these lines when we get back, but we are really looking forward to going!

12. What else is new...
We made an effort this summer to continue going to church whenever we can, even though there's no Sunday School.  They do offer a children's church program during the regular service so we've been able to go a few times over the past 2 months or so.  We'll register the kids for Sunday School again in the fall....Liam loves going and gets excited every Sunday....Jake seems to dislike it slightly less at this point :)  I think his main complaint is that they all sing songs for the first 10 minutes or so, and he REALLY dislikes that portion of it. Oh, and the fact that I won't let him wear athletic shorts or sweatpants. Mean mommy!

sun in their eyes, but looking handsome (and coordinated) on our way to church last sunday!

 13.  What I'll miss most about summer...
Not going to lie here, I love a lot of stuff about summer and I'll miss it for sure, but what I'll miss most is the lack of nightly homework!!  There is something to be said for simply coming home from work and getting to hang out with the kids, instead of having to factor in homework time :(  But, we'll get into the groove eventually....

"Hello is my name"

Liam has been learning "The Lord's Prayer" at school. The memorization is going pretty well so far, he just needs to work on a few lines, including this one that makes me smile every time:

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hello is my name....

Part of me wants him to continue to say it that way :)

Pre-Christmas Fun

It's so hard to believe that Christmas is over already, but here we are...practically ready to ring in the new year!!  Before the big day, we had lots of fun stuff going on.

The week before Christmas, Liam had his Christmas lunch at school, complete with a visit from Santa himself.  Of course, Liam was rocking a festive outfit for the occasion:

#toddlerswagger

 A few days later, Jake had his very last basketball game and got a trophy at the end:

Liam continued his tradition of keeping himself entertained with the Leap Pad for the last game of the season:

 Later that day, we went to the annual Capo Christmas party....these lucky boys got to see Santa AGAIN!! 

 We spent the night at GG and Pappy's that night and had an early bday celebration for moi, and the next day GG babysat the boys so that Brian and I could head to the Steelers game with Dennis and Melissa.  We had a great time and they won!

sweetheart selfies!!!

love this girl!

Jazz hands!!

 My birthday was Monday, and I was excited that the boys got me some Alex and Ani bracelets to add to the one I already had....aren't they pretty?  I already had the "E" initial one from my mother-in-law, Brian and the boys added the chunkier bangle and the "love" one.

Unfortunately, I had to call off sick and drag myself to the doctor on Tuesday :(  I hadn't had a voice for about 5 days and had a hacking cough for over a week.  I wasn't prepared to be handed one of these when I walked into the doctor's office:

 Yikes!!  I guess it was for flu prevention.  Didn't  make me feel like some type of freak or anything.  No flu for  me, but I did have bronchitis.  After a quick stop at the pharmacy for some antibiotics, I parked myself on the couch for a good portion of the rest of the day and enjoyed some  more Hallmark Christmas movies!! I even found this one, starring Naomi from 90210! 

 
Nana and PopPop arrived that night, and we were all home the next day for Christmas eve.  We spent most of the day hanging out and doing some Christmas prep, then headed to the early family service at church at 4. 

That night, it was a crockpot roast dinner, followed by cookies and milk for Santa and shuffling the little ones off to bed!!

image courtesy of ifihadamilliondollars.wordpress.com

 Full Christmas post to come later...we hope you have been enjoying the holiday season!!  

Weekend Wrap Up

You guys...I think fall might be here.  I'm scared to jinx is but SQUEEEEEEEE!!!! :)  The weather this weekend was super fall like and cozy...and we loved it.

We didn't have any real plans this weekend, which was great...it gave me time to do some meal prep for the week and organize a few things that have been completed neglected recently.  The meal prep was important because lately I've been coming home from work at 5:30 and asking myself this question:

But first, Friday night was the perfect movie and snuggling night.  Our neighbor had loaned us "Kung Fu Panda", which made the kids laugh hysterically.

 

I might have taken advantage of that time by sneaking some glances at these little gems....

I had been invited out to a girls night with some fellow preschool moms, and as much as I wanted to go, I just couldn't muster up the energy to join them once I finally got the kids put to bed :(  Brian tried to convince me to go out and that he could try to get them to bed, but I didn't want him to have to do that, I know it's difficult for him to move around that much or bend over.  And honestly, I was fine with just putting on my PJs and plopping down in front of HGTV after they went to bed!

On Saturday, Brian had his first physical therapy appointment; he still can't drive, so the boys and I had to be his chauffeur service.  :)  Our original plan was to head to a playground near the PT office, but it was drizzling when we went to leave...fortunately, Plan B was even better...Dunkin Donuts!!  Pumpkin lovers rejoice....the pumpkin donuts are back!! YUM.

 

Clearly, they both went with the chocolate donut.

PS-see how I'm wearing a scarf??  I busted out the boots too.

Anyway-Brian's therapy appointment went well, but he was s.o.r.e. for the rest of the day.  His next appointment is Tuesday night, so hopefully it will get easier for him.

Saturday afternoon brought some errands during Liam's nap while Jake had a friend over to play, early bedtime for the kiddos who were wiped out from playing outside in the afternoon, and Brian and I watched "21 Jump Street" that we had on DVR.  It was pretty good, an easy to watch, didn't have to think about kind of movie...which is exactly what we were looking for.  (we watched Divergent last weekend-loved it!)

Sunday morning was church/Sunday school, here are the kids heading into their classroom; I swear I didn't coordinate their clothes on purpose, but once I noticed I had to take a picture! Jake was cold :)

Sunday afternoon I was able to get a bunch of silly stuff organized....nothing that was a huge project, but little things, like rearranging the drawer that has my potholders in it so that it doesn't jam every time I open it.  I also made Pasta-Fagiola type soup for dinner (recipe here: http://misadventuresinbabyland.blogspot.com/2013/01/recipe-pasta-fagiola-type-soup.html), and prepped some breaded chicken to pop in the oven for tonight. The kids played outside for awhile, then Jake did his homework...next thing we knew it was bedtime for the kids, and Big Brother time for us! (don't judge.)

Another weekend of doing not a whole lot, but feeling like we got a whole lot done.  I'll take it.