Weekend Recap {1-30-17}

The weekend just went way to fast! It was a pretty uneventful weekend but as I wrote out our February family calendar and looked ahead to March, I will take these quiet weekends as they come!

{F R I D A Y}
Friday afternoon Andrew and I took Beau and Gabe with us to get fingerprinted and our applications all turned in for our foster to adopt process. It was quick and painless as expected but so exciting as the fingerprinting and background check are what typically takes so long to get processed. Physicals are getting turned in this week and then we can move onto more meetings and our classes.

After a week of travel and busyness, I was so excited to have a date night. Both Andrew and I's moms helped us this week while I went to do some work and Andrew was out of town so for Friday we hired the boys' favorite sitter. She is a senior in our community and just a sweetheart. We appreciate her so much. Finding a sitter who loves your kiddos and your kiddos love is one of life's little gifts, am I right?

Scarf Similar Leather Jacket

Andrew and I got to go to dinner and enjoy conversation completely un-rushed and uninterrupted. Then we went to see Hidden Figures. Y'all, it was SO SO good!! I highly recommend going to see it. And honestly, we will most likely rent it and let our boys watch it, it was such a clean, appropriate movie. And Hudson is also all kinds of interested in space.

{S A T U R D A Y}

Andrew spoiled me completely and let me sleep in until almost 8 o' clock! It was heaven. I got up and went downstairs and the boys were all drawing and coloring (apparently, they drew pictures all night with our sitter..we had tons of sweet "presents" from them when we got home). Andrew picked up donuts for the boys and then they just continued playing ALL morning. Not a fight or squabble. I changed sheets, picked the house up and just was lazy. I did not get out of my pjs until I realized it was time for me to go to my hair appointment, aka the best day of the month!!! 

I ran to the store to pick up a few things and then came home and played with the boys while Andrew went fishing. I sent Hudson to take a shower (who was still in his pjs!) while I fixed dinner because Hudson and I had a date at our community club's Mother/Son Event. It was Luau themed and so so cute. Lots of games and snacks and sweet time with my biggest boy. I just love him to bits! Five has been my favorite year of is! 

Everyone still in their jammies at three in the afternoon. 

Lots of the games had you competing against your kiddo. Seriously so cute and fun! 

Building a "sand" castle

One of the games/events was hula hoops. This kid was a STUD. Seriously!!! I was so impressed! 

{S U N D A Y}

We went to church, had lunch with my mom and chilled all day in between loads of laundry. It's not even impressive enough to blog about. Just another day together. 

This week we have a special boy's birthday so I am sure that will be the highlight of our week! 

Entryway Redo

I have had a plan for our entryway for well over a year. But between life, crazy work schedules and just other things coming up (Hello, new air conditioner!) we just hadn't gotten around to it. So when Christmas time was approaching and Andrew's work schedule finally slowed down for the year, we tackled our entryway. I couldn't love how it turned out any more! 

Our plan was to get this done over Christmas break since Andrew had some time off. Well, the week before Christmas (Friday the 20th to be exact) Andrew and I had a date night and went to dinner. At dinner we thought, why not get all the things we need tonight? So we headed to Lowe's to grab our materials. What wasn't on the agenda was terrible weather and it was sleeting/icing and so the ride home with all the supplies was a little interesting. 

 

He's a keeper. 

         

Don't all date nights look like this? 

Our plan was to shiplap our entire entryway and convert our entry closet into an open closet with a bench. Shiplap is a simple way to make a statement and is a really affordable update. We had already measured our space and knew we wanted our boards 8 inches in height so the task was simply to find quarter inch plywood and have the fine people at Lowe's rip them for us. We also got some trip pieces to help finish off the space, supplies to build our bench, paint, and some odds and ends that would be needed for the project. 

The next morning we emptied the closet, took out all the junk coats, and took the base trim off. Andrew marked where the studs where on each wall so when we got started, we weren't constantly searching.  

Since we have angled ceilings that go into our cathedral ceiling in the living room, we started our first board at the top of that angled wall BEFORE it angles. {In essence, where the board would meet the corner of the connecting walls and the ceiling without needing to have an angled cut made.} We then lined up with our first board all the way around to give us a starting point to go off of. We did one more row all the way around before going back to the first wall and completing it. 

To create the spacing in our shiplap we used nickles. We also use an air nailer with staples to attach our wood to the wall. The project went fairly quickly. We had to make several cuts on the two walls with the door and the closet because the boards were too long (obviously) which was probably one of the most time consuming parts. We had interruptions that Saturday (going and picking up the boys from my parents and hanging with them) and on Sunday was my family's annual baking day for the holidays so that day was pretty shot. With that being said, by Sunday evening, all the wood was on the walls and on the wall inside the closet. See---QUICK! Sunday night I filled the staple holes with putty and then sanded everything day so on Monday I could paint. 

We put two coats of white semi-gloss paint on our shiplap and our trim. We used the same paint on the bench Andrew built as well. To give our entryway a POP, we painted our front door and sidelight black. I just love black interior doors! 

By Tuesday evening the shiplap was done, the trim was back in place and all that was left was to rehang the decor that had been on our entryway wall previous to the project. 

We were so happy with how it turned out and to have it all done before Christmas was even better! 

We have about a million and four more projects to do to make this house our forever home but we'll get them all one day! 

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!

Date Night

Last Friday I got to spend some quality time with Hudson. He had his first soccer game of this next indoor season. I have loved watching him learn more about this sport and really see him gain confidence in the new skills he's learning.

I had told Hudson that we could do something just him and I after the game since Andrew wasn't feeling great and decided to just stay home with the younger boys.

It isn't very often that I get to spend time one on one with my boys. Not as much as I'd like. Between having three boys, a husband who travels, and just our day to day schedule, Andrew and I try to split our time with our family, honoring our marriage, and giving each other time to be who we are. Needless to say, it can be a lot to juggle. I know other parents have to feel me on this, right??

The gym is across town. I turned the radio down and tuned in to Hudson. He is a talker. He hates when he gets interrupted by his little brothers. He has a big personality. I never want to forget the way he thinks; the ideas he has; how smart he is.

Hud: Hey mom..
Me: Yeah, babe.
Hud: You know there's a window in the basement.
Me: Yeah.
Hud: So like we are under the ground.
Me: Yeah Hudson, the basement is under the ground. The window shows right above the ground.
Hud; Like we are underground but the ninja turtles are deeper underground.  Their lair is deeper.
Me: Lair??
Hud: Yeah, mom, like their hide out.

Hud: I am getting pretty good at soccer, I think.
Me: I think so too, bud.
Hud: But like, mom, if I am playing I can't like take a toy away from Cruze because we can't take toys we have to wait our turn. But when I play soccer I can just take the ball because that's the game.
Me: Well, right. But you can't take the  ball away from people on your team.
Hud: Oh no, mom.

Hudson plays 3 on 3 soccer. There are supposed to be five players to each team so they learn to sub in and out. However, this week, there were only three boys that showed up, including Hudson. Those sweet boys played two 12 minute halves, had a quick break between games, and then did it again.  They were definitely all dragging by the end. Hudson would turn around and look at my mom, Andrew's mom and I like, "I am dying out here. Are we almost done?" But he kept chugging along.

He scored two or three goals over the course of the night. And his face lit up every time. I thought he would be pretty exhausted after his games, but the first thing he said when he came up to us was, "can we go on our date now??" Bless. His. Heart.

He said he was starving. He had only eaten a light dinner because, non stop running. So he asked to go to Culver's (huge shock! <---saracasm. My kids LOVE Culver's). We got into the car, got buckled and before we were off, he was chatting away again.

Hud: Mom, my legs are like so tired. Like my feet are tired. They hurt. I think we ran forever. We were better than the green team I think but the white team might have been better than us, I think.
Me: Well..
Hud: But we played good because we played the whole time.
Me: You did play awesome, babe.
Hud: I just want to be on TV.
Me: TV?
Hud: Like yeah, just on TV.
Me: Like on a show or a movie?
Hud: Mom, like for soccer. Because I'm so good. I can play on TV. And people could watch me. When they go to Mexican.
Me: Literally laughing out loud so hard!!!!!

This sweet boy polished off an entire cheeseburger (with ketchup and pickle, of course) and then we took some sweet treats home to share with Daddy and Beau.

When we were tucking the boys into bed that night, Beau prayed. Then Hudson prayed.

"Dear God, thank you for my date with mommy and our good day and bless we'll have a good day tomorrow."  Hudson- age 4.5

Hudson, you bless my heart so much. I am so thankful that God let me be your mommy. I pray each day you continue to find a deeper faith and closer walk with Jesus. That you listen to your heart and go after all your dreams. That you work hard and are kind to others. I am so blessed to be your mommy and share in special moments with you! <3

Weekend Love

I love the weekends. Which is funny because now that I work from home, sometimes I don't even know what day it is because I don't work Monday through Friday, but nevertheless, weekends always seem to be filled with lots of extra fun.

Friday night we were all excited for Andrew to get home. He left Thursday morning and had an overnight for work. After having two weeks with him home for the holidays, the transition back to work has been hard on the boys (and ME!) so we were excited to have him home!

I deemed that evening pizza night and whipped up a homemade pizza. Andrew and I are really working hard towards our health and fitness goals so I made most of the pizza with turkey pepperoni and light cheese. On my little area, I also did light cheese but piled up chopped onions, green peppers, broccoli bits and carrot shreds. Andrew and I paired our slice with nice mixed green salad and totally felt satisfied.

The boys had a great week (and we had coupons) so I suggested to Andrew that we make a little trip to Culver's.  I spelled out Culver's just in case Andrew wanted to veto the idea.  Hudson has been on this kick lately of wanting to know everything going on. In true fashion, he didn't let the spelling slide. I told him if he could figure it out, he would know. I respelled the word slowly and by the "v" he guessed Culver's and tagged on ICE CREAM!!!!

Now I'm not sure if that means he is really getting his letter sounds down and putting it all together or if we frequent that joint too much! ;)

After dinner the boys got a bath while I cleaned up and then we trekked out to get some ice cream to go.  Andrew and I did really good here again and got nothing. If you know me, you know there is a deep love in my heart for ice cream so this was a big #NSV.

We wrapped our night with a few rounds of bumper motorcycles (remote control motorcycles the boys got for Christmas) and a chapter of Farmer Boy. Family nights are so much fun!

Saturday was deemed "Guys' Day" since I had my quarterly coach event, Super Saturday. I met up with a couple of local coaches from our team and we drove over. It was one of my favorite live events. I got so many great ideas to better help the clients I work with, ideas to help my team thrive and help more people and a KILLER workout! We were dripping sweat after the thirty minutes were up.

When I got home, Andrew and I pushed play on day 13 of Hammer and Chisel while the boys were napping. It was a doozey!

With all the family time we had been blessed to have lately, I felt like Andrew and I needed some 1:1 time.  It had been almost a month since our last date night.  Fortunately one of our go-to sitters was available!

Andrew and I got to head out to a late (for us) dinner at one of our favorite local places.

Sunday flew by! Church, naps and workout, housework and playing with boys. We did get to cap it off and meet some friends for a quick dinner at a near by Mexican restaurant.

Overall, a pretty low key weekend. Looking forward to this week and all that is in store! New indoor soccer season kicking off, three day weekend for Hudson, babysitting our sweet nephew, and finalizing Hudson's birthday weekend.

Favor: We are planning a fun, family weekend in Chicago for Hudson's birthday coming up. Any must-do suggestions or must-try places to eat?? Remember, family of 5; three kiddos (almost) 5 and under! Thanks in advance!!