swing set

One of the perks of our new house is that it came with a swing set in the backyard. I knew that Quinn would love to climb up the rock wall and fall down the slide and I could picture evenings spent pushing my bubs in the swing, back and forth.

For his first birthday (which was in November), my parents gave Quinn a brand new swing for his swing set. We put it in the corner of the breakfast room until it was warm enough to go outside. One evening after work I asked the hubs to put it up.

Quinn loved it!

The setting sun was pretty bright so I put his little whale bucket hat on while he ran around. It's a little goofy looking but totally cute!

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my 27th year

This past Thursday I turned 27. It seems like such a blah year haha. Not a huge milestone except for it's getting me closer to the next decade. I'm ok with that. It was still a good day.

I got the itch to make some cupcakes and what better reason that "it's my birthday!" so I whipped up a batch of lemon with vanilla frosting and pink sprinkles. I knew having 24 cupcakes in the house was not a good idea so I took them to work!

Everyone kept raving about them. I hated to say it was just a simple box mix. This just confirms to me that the hassle of homemade isn't worth it when people love box mixes just as much!

Every girl needs flowers for her birthday. Aren't these pretty? You can't really see from this picture, but the petals had a marble look to them with the purple and some white.

Thursday afternoon I had texted the hubs saying I didn't care what he did, but I was not cooking on my birthday. He texted back saying he already had a plan in place. When I got home he told me he had a baby sitter coming at 6:30 and we were going out on the bike for the evening. Such a nice surprise. We went to Cribbs Kitchen downtown. I recommend it! The food was tasty and the atmosphere pretty relaxed. I'm not one for extremely fancy/stuffy restaurants (especially when we show up on a motorcycle).

Sunday we went to my parents' house for the afternoon. We decided to turn around Quinn's carseat for the first time. Poor thing got sick halfway into the drive. Luckily we were close to a truck stop and I was able to clean him up.

After an outfit change, he snoozed the rest of the way there. I felt for him. Mama gets car sick too and it's not a fun feeling.

After lunch, my parents gave me my birthday gift. It's a card catalog! I've been wanting one for a long long time for my craft room. I'm so excited to fill up the drawers and add labels on the outside. My little organizational heart is just so happy.

Awhile back I had posted a 30 before 30 list. How about a little update on how I'm doing?

Have 2nd baby.

Haha! God willing not anytime soon. I'd say closer to my 29th birthday. 

Get current with scrapbooking. I'm working on 2010 right now {and by working I mean that's where I stopped right before I had Quinn...}.

Ummm haven't touched it. I keep trying to get the room cleared so we can paint and organize and I'll have my space again.

Get 2nd holes pierced in my ears. I want to be able to wear the diamond studs the hubs gave me everyday.

Nope, still chicken

Establish a workout routine.

Doing it! I'm working out 6 days a week following the Bikini Body Mommy Challenge. 

No credit card debt.

Two of my three cards are clear!

Visit five new places.

Nothing yet, but we are planning on going to Savannah for our anniversary. 

Read the Bible.

I'm still following She Reads Truth on and off. 

Own a beach house or have an awesome rental.

We are trying a new rental on Isle of Palms this summer. Fingers crossed we'll want to use it again the next year. 

Join Junior League.

Nope.

Maintain a size 8 figure {almost there already!}.

Done! I actually fit into size 6 jeans and size 8 dress pants.

Sew ten projects for me.

Does pinning ten new projects count? No?

Create the perfect craft room {I feel like this will be an always ongoing project..}.

Now that I have my card catalog, I've got another piece of the puzzle!

Host a fancy dinner party using our wedding china.

Hmm, not exactly. Christmas Eve dinner we ate off our wedding china, but we also were in our pjs, ha!

Read 30 books.

Yikes, haven't even started this.

Find a church we love.

We started going to St. Paul's. TBD if it's the perfect fit.

Visit my great-grandfather's grave at Arlington.

Nope.

Go out on the Sky Walk at the Grande Canyon.

Nope.

Start a college savings account for Quinn.

Nope.

Have a family portrait taken every year {we already have a session scheduled for this year with my fav girl, Erica!}.

We had pictures taken in November, so I plan on having them done again this November.

Create five family traditions that we repeat yearly.

This past Christmas I started a tradition of the Christmas Eve box. Everyone received Christmas pjs and there was a movie and hot chocolate included for later.

Start a prayer journal.

Nope.

Start a vegetable garden.

Nope.

Visit Yellow Stone.

Nope.

Establish a yearly party {4th of July maybe?}.

Nope.

Bake a cake from scratch.

Ha! See comment about box mix above.

Get my concealed weapons permit.

We have our class scheduled for this October. 

Catalog our Christmas ornaments.

Was going to do it this past Christmas, but didn't.

Learn how to can the vegetables from our garden.

Nope.

Learn how to crochet.

Nope.

Find my signature drink.

Nope.

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carrie underwood

As part of my birthday present this year, the hubs got us tickets to see Carrie Underwood in her Blown Away Tour. This is the second time we've seen Carrie and she was just as fantastic as the first go 'round. The girl can belt out some songs.

I was skeptical of our seats at first (I mean who can really tell from those layouts on the website?), but ended up being very pleasantly surprised. Her set was pretty neat looking.

I brought my little point and shoot camera and actually ended up with some halfway decent pictures. I still felt a little disconnected from the show since I couldn't *really* see her and mainly watched the big screens.

Carrie had some phenomenal costume changes. Even though I'm not a fan of the high-low hemline trend going on, girlfriend has some rocking legs and deserves to show those bad boys off!

This picture cracks me up, ha! During parts of her show the lights got a bit out of control for us old folks. It was so bright in there that Danny put his sunglasses on.

The first concert we went to, Carrie got into the back of a pick-up truck and was flown around the coliseum. This concert, she climbed into a fenced in part of the stage that lifted up and went across the crowd.

The opening act for her tour was Hunter Hayes so they did a song together towards the end of the show. Now Hunter Hayes isn't exactly my jam. He's cute but a little too throat-y for me. Well I was clearly in the minority based on the girl screams when he came out on stage haha!

It was a great birthday present!

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you are more beautiful than you think

A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook and it is so touching to me. I love this Dove campaign and the message they are putting out there.

I'm not going to really get into how harsh women are on themselves (because we are) but I hope after you watch the video you see yourself in a different light.

You are more beautiful than you think.

I am more beautiful than I think.

happiness on a sunday

The hubs was still on his camping trip Sunday morning, so it was just the two of us going to church. I love dressing Quinn up for church. I know my years are very numbered so I'm soaking it up as much as I can.  

Quinn was in such a silly mood that morning. Sometimes he just loves to make faces in the mirror and for the camera. It quite entertaining. He was certainly hamming it up.

This has to be one of my all time favorite pictures right now. He is just so happy and excited! You can also see all his little teethies that have come in.

After church, lunch, and a nap, we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with legos. He's getting quite good at putting them together and pulling them apart. If it gets stuck though he just makes the most pitiful face, ha!

It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday!

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a day at the park

The hubs is off camping this weekend so it's just me and the kiddo. At first I was going to take Quinn to the zoo, but then I came up with a better idea. Instead of driving the 45 minutes into Greenville to put him in a stroller the entire time, how about a morning running around a local park?

I talked with my coworkers and there happens to be a perfect little park just minutes down the street from where we live. I packed up his diaper bag with chalk, bubbles, and a ball plus plenty of water and snacks for the both of us.

I think it's safe to say that he had a blast. We played with chalk that the Easter bunny {Memere} gave him.

His favorite part had to be climbing up and down the stairs of the jungle gym over and over and over again. He was so proud going up and down all by himself.

It was such a beautiful day too. I foresee many more days spent at the park. It has lots of shade for those scorching hot summer days that are just around the corner!

After a solid two hours of running around, we ate our picnic lunch and then headed home for a nap. Baby boy slept from 12:30 to 4 o'clock! I love that he had so much fun and I love that it completely wore him out ha!


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rsv and the easter bunny

The two weeks leading up to Easter weekend, the hubs was out of town. He had to go to Boston for another one of his training classes so that meant the kid and I were on our own. Luckily as he's gotten older we've settled into a great routine. I can handle him on my own most nights but it's also nice to have a little help here and there.

My mom came to visit a couple of days the first week, but couldn't make it the second week. It was great while she was here though. She kept Quinn out of daycare for a full day and they had lots of one on one time.

These are blurry because my camera was on the wrong setting, but they are still really cute! (I've been trying to start using my nice camera instead of only my phone all the time.)

The Monday before Easter, Quinn started to sound a little sick. It seemed like one of his normal winter colds - runny nose, congested, cranky, but by Wednesday I became really concerned. He was panting really hard and I did what you're not supposed to do, I googled. Of course I freaked myself out and ended up facetiming with my mom to see what she thought. We decided he didn't need to be rushed to the ER (google said to call 911), but he needed to go to the doctor's in the morning.

Thursday we ended up spending the better part of 3 hours hanging around the doctor's office. Quinn was diagnosed with RSV so we gave him a breathing treatment and some prednisone to help with his panting. We also went next door for a chest x-ray to make sure he didn't have pneumonia as well (he didn't, thank God). The doctor almost sent us to the hospital for an overnight stay, but luckily the prednisone helped enough that she felt ok letting us go home.

The worst of it had to be that I didn't think we would be there that long, so I didn't pack any snacks. Quinn kept coming up to me saying, "Eat! Eat! Eat! Nack? Nack?" I felt terrible! On the way home, we stopped by Chick-fil-a for lunch. Poor thing was so tired at that point he just wanted to sleep.

We did more breathing treatments at home, every four hours, and by the time Sunday came he was in much better spirits. We did have to skip the egg hunt at the church on Saturday. I didn't want to derail his progress and I definitely didn't want any other babies to catch his RSV. Next year he will understand the egg hunt even more, so it will be that much more fun!

The Easter bunny brought him so many fun goodies. He was definitely spoiled with a total of 4 different baskets! One at our house, one at Memere and Grandpa's, one at Grandma and Papa Gil's, and another at Aunt Kathy and Uncle Kevin's.

My family came to our house for a relaxed lunch and stayed until about 4 o'clock. I had made a casserole the night before so it was easy to just pop it into the oven. Around 5 o'clock we headed to Greenville to have dinner with the hubs family. After dinner I was trying to wrangle the boy into his jam jams but he was having so much fun running around in his undershirt. Of course I completely forgot about taking pictures the entire day except for this.

I hope your Easter was as blessed as ours was!


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