Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Long Weekends Are My Favorite

I was one of those moms absolutely not ready to send the boys back to school when the end of Christmas break happened. I loved our break. I love having them all home all day. I love the relaxed days, no real set schedule and just being able to hug on them anytime I want.

Which is why I made sure I was well aware of all the long weekends that were coming up that we could all look forward to until Summer break. We were all pretty happy to see that school would only be in session for one full week before having our first three day weekend of 2017.

Friday after Hudson got home from school we loaded up for haircuts. Andrew had been meaning to take the big boys for awhile and something always came up. I was going to just take them but he insisted. Well, by Friday, it HAD to happen. And after a busy week we all loaded up for the outing. While Beau was getting his haircut, Andrew and Hudson decided that leftover chicken taco soup wasn't going to cut it for dinner and suggested picking up a movie and eating out. I was going to protest but since their plan still left me out of cooking up something on Friday night, I gladly went along.

We took the boys to barbeque and picked up Storks to watch together. While the kiddos took a bath before movies, I whipped up some Rice Krispie Treats and Oreo balls per the kiddos request earlier this week. (We were SUPPOSED to get a terrible ice storm all weekend and so I had asked for some snacks/treats they'd like to have if we were going to be stuck all weekend. The storm never happened here, thankfully!)

There is nothing better than being all snuggled up watching a movie together with your freshly bathed littles. And the movie was pretty cute too!

Saturday morning the boys requested pancakes before running errands. Andrew had some returns to make from our entryway project and I needed to exchange a Christmas gift for Gabe.

After our errands we headed to Grandma Jo's.

Andrew and I are both pretty blessed to have our grandparents still healthy and close by. On mornings when I need to volunteer at the boys' schools or have something come up, they are my go-to sitters and my boys LOVE it! Andrew and I both have some amazing memories with our great grandparents and love that our boys are creating memories with theirs.

Grandma Jo is Andrew's grandma and she is simply a gem. She and Andrew's grandpa are just the sweetest and going over there is always so nice. She is a hostess through and through and she loves through acts of service--mainly cooking and sewing. She has sewed up lovies for my boys and nieces more times than I can count. Her desserts are divine. And I feel like she has a wealth of knowledge that I just try to chip away at because, I am not even close to her domestication level!!

Andrew had some fish he wanted fried up and Grandma Jo is always happy to do that for us. Andrew's parents joined in and we spent a big chunk of our day around Don and Jo's kitchen table, our boys being doted on and spoiled and our bellies being filled! Definitely a reminder to slow down and enjoy the simple times.

We went to church Saturday evening since we could and after putting the boys to bed Andrew and I had our first date night of 2017. One of our goals this year was to be more intentional with our time together. When we first started talking about adopting, one of the reservations Andrew had was that having four littles would make making time for our marriage more difficult. One thing I believe strongly in is that my marriage comes first, before our children. That can never suffer just because we are in the throes of child-rearing. That being said, getting OUT of the house often can be hard to juggle and can get expensive. (We love our sitters and want them to keep coming back so we pay them WELL! At least, I hope they think we do! Ha!!)

We decided to have two official date nights a month. One date IN and one date OUT of the house. We took time to plan them, what we do, and even set the dates on the calendar for the first three months. (I'll be sharing more of our date ideas soon!)

Saturday our planned date was homemade margaritas and doing a puzzle. It may seem lame but it was seriously one of the best nights we've had in awhile. Our margs were SUPERB and the quiet activity of the puzzle let us relax and talk and just "be" together.

I seriously recommend this date night AND this recipe for margaritas. (The original version can be found on the Pioneer Woman blog. I tweaked this version for our needs...halved and a little less tequila)



Homemade Margaritas
6-7 fresh limes squeezed (should make about 7 ounces of juice)
1/2 cup of water
1 cup of silver 100% Agave tequila
6 ounces of Cointreau
Simple Syrup
Lime Wedges
Rim Salt
Ice

Juice your limes. Mix your juice, water, tequila and cointreau into a pitcher.
Using a lime wedge, "wet" the rim of your glass and dip it into the rim salt. This step makes it. Pour your mixture into your glass over ice. Add a little simple syrup to sweeten it up a bit (not much is needed) and give it a stir. And for an extra little kick, go ahead and squeeze a lime wedge into the glass.

On Sunday we got to have an awesome lazy day since we did Saturday night church. We slept in, had a yummy breakfast, Andrew and I both got a run in and some errands done plus our food prep for the week! And the boys got to stay in the jammies and play all day. It was glorious!!

After the boys woke up from nap, we changed them into real clothes and loaded them up for some family fun. Just a short drive away is a pizza place and bowling alley that our kids love. It was so much fun watching them play the game and just having a ball.







On Monday we didn't get to sleep in too much. Gabe has speech therapy on Monday's in the morning. His SLP is wonderful and we just love her to bits! After his session we loaded up and headed to my parent's house to meet my nephews. On Andrew's side, we have two nieces and a nephew. On my side, we have 4 nephews (and another niece or nephew on the way). Needless to say, there is always a lot of activity when we get together. The boys (all under the age of 5) definitely wore each other out playing! We headed home for late naps before I had a meeting with a client.






Today was back to business as usual. Until the next long weekend!

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Hi! Welcome to this crazy life! Thanks for stopping by! I love hearing from my readers and connecting with you all! Xoxo~Bekah