five friday confessions

• When people drive through a parking lot too fast, I stare them down to try and make them feel uncomfortable {good lord I'm becoming my grandmother}.
• Whenever I take front facing pics of myself with Quinn on my iPhone, I always think I look old and tired so I crop out majority of my face before posting.

• I often contemplate eating my lunch cold because who wants to be that asshole filling up the office space with smells??
• When the hubs is out of town, I eat a ridiculous amount of junk food. This week I've had poptarts, combos, cupcakes, and kraft mac & cheese.
• I feel guilty that I haven't been able to sew any clothing for Quinn. I really want to make him a bunch of cute appliqué outfits, but haven't made the time to do it yet. 

mourning summer

I was talking with my mom last night about the end of summer. It seems everyone I know is ready. They're ready for fall, for cooler weather, football season, jeans, boots, scarves, soups, the whole shebang. I'm not, not one bit. Summer is my favorite season. Even though where we live often hits record breaking highs in the 100s, I enjoy it.

I just love everything that comes with summer including beach trips, pool days, boating on the lake, longer days, the smell of sunscreen, cook outs, water fights, bug spray, and flip flops. I'm not ready to let all of that go just yet. Lucky for me just because the calendar says September does not mean that South Carolina automatically starts to cool down. I'm pretty certain the hot days will stick around for a little longer.

I feel like I'm mourning the loss of my summer. I know God had bigger plans for us this year. He showed us part of His plan with the new jobs and move, but with this plan meant letting go part of mine. This was supposed to be the summer of fun. Our boat was fixed and ready to go out on the lake every weekend. We had planned our anniversary trip to Charleston and I was even {semi} prepared to let my parents watch the baby for the weekend. We were going to have our 3rd annual beach trip to Isle of Palms with our friends.

Sadly none of that happened. Vacation was used to go on job interviews. The Charleston trip was traded in for house hunting. The boat currently sits in the hubs' sister's backyard. We were able to take it out one afternoon for the 4th of July, but it was rushed and only for a couple of hours. I was ready to take an absurd amount of pictures featuring baby toes in the sand. I was ready to lather on the sunscreen and don my floppy hat. I was even ready to brave putting on a bathing suit, although it would be a tankini instead of bikini, but I was still ready!

So while everyone keeps pinning recipes containing pumpkin and exclaiming how happy they are that it's only 80 outside, I'll keep wishing for a few more days of hot with a side of sunscreen.

picture dump from the weekend

enjoying sitting down by the dock in my parents' backyard

letting the dogs go for a swim

the cow says, "mooooooo"

safe to say they love their grandbaby

no he's not spoiled...

my bitty baby's nine month picture {he looks like a toddler here *weep*}

grocery shopping with mama

happy birthday Eric

My nephew turned 4 this past week, so the weekend before we went to the Pavilion in Greenville to celebrate. There is a cute little park with play grounds and George the train for the kiddos. I have to say that this was the very first "fun" birthday for Eric. He totally knew it was his birthday and was totally into it ha!

blowing out the candles

opening presents is serious business

I believe he was happy about this one

the hubs gave Quinn a taste of frosting

more please

ready to ride the train

here we go!

he seems a little bored

cheese!!

sitting with mama

It'll be fun to watch these cousins grow up together. Eric is always wanting to play with baby Quinn as he calls him. It seems like just yesterday Eric was a baby himself. I'm sure in the blink of an eye we'll be celebrating Quinn's 4th birthday.

Quinn is nine months old

Dear Quinn,

My sweet baby boy, you are just getting sweeter by the minute! Your little personality just keeps developing and everyone has nothing but good things to say about you. Your teachers at daycare constantly tell me how happy you are and that you never cry. Let's keep it this way, shall we?

You are turning into a little eating machine. I'm not even sure I can name all of the foods you've tried. You almost always make a face when given something new. Your daddy and I can help but laugh at your sour puss. It is too funny. You eat solids three times a day and on the weekends you sneak in some snacks off mama and daddy's plates as well. 

You have mastered putting puffs and cheerios into your mouth yourself, although you can still become easily distracted. If I don't watch you, you'll take a fistful of food and just crunch it up in your hands. You love nilla wafers but also love to shove the entire cookie in your mouth!

You had your nine month check up with the doctor. Your new pediatrician is very happy with how healthy you are! You are 27.5" long (17th percentile), weigh 16lb 13oz (3rd percentile), and have a head circumference of 18.5" (87th percentile). Even though you are in a low percentile for weight you don't seem too skinny to us!

So far you seem to be following along with clothing sizes that match your age. You are wearing 9 month clothes and some 12 month clothes (only because we don't have a lot of 9 month clothes). You are still on the middle snaps for your diapers with two rows showing around your waist.

One big development is a new bed time! You now go to bed at 7:15 or 7:30 and sleep until 6:30-7 in the morning. That's almost 12 hours! You hardly ever sleep for more than 45 minutes at daycare (can't miss a thing!) but you still nap for 2-3 hours after your noon feeding on the weekends.

You have made some progress in the crawling department. You will get up on your knees and rock back and forth. You even manage to somehow push yourself backwards. I can tell you are starting to get frustrated that you haven't quite figured it out just yet. Hopefully this will encourage you to keep trying!

We have introduced you to some new toys. You love banging your building blocks together and making as much noise as possible. Toys that play music seem to hold your interest the longest. Memere has the best music toy at her house. It has so many buttons and sounds that you just love to bang over and over!

You are definitely a little boy. You love to be tossed in the air and bounced around. When you dance with mama you like to be dipped. I have to be careful to pay attention because you will throw your head back trying to get me to dip you again ha! When I pop you back up you giggle and laugh and then throw your head back for more.

We love you to the moon and back sweet boy.

Love,
Mama

a baby shower

This past Saturday I hosted a baby shower for my good friend Jessica and her little bun in the oven Parker. I knew my house would be in no shape to have the shower there and Jessica's new house is in the process of being built, so her mother graciously offered to help. I was a little worried since decorating someone else's house isn't something I do often, but everything fell into place.

The day of, the hubs helped pile everything into the car and drove me and Quinn to Greenville where he then unloaded the car and even stayed to help set up. Lord I love that man. It worked out perfectly that Quinn went down for his nap right as we arrived and stayed asleep the entire time we set up.

Since Jessica's little girl's name is Parker, I decided on an amusement park theme with bright colors and a fair food twist.

The menu:

cheeseburger bowls

corn dog muffins

soft pretzels with mustard

popcorn

fruit kabobs

veggies with dip

apple slices with caramel dip

chocolate cupcakes

lemonade punch

We had planned to have all of the guest make hair bows for Parker, but unfortunately never got to it. Jessica and I plan to have a hair bow making date really soon instead!

Isn't the mama-to-be gorgeous?

Since Parker's due date is October 1st, I couldn't resist getting her a set of Halloween footies!

I had such a great time putting together this shower for Jessica. I'm so excited to meet Parker Addy and can't wait to love on that sweet baby girl!