easter

About a month beforehand, my mom called me up and put in her request to have us spend Easter at the log cabin. She hadn't cooked for an army recently and who was I to deny her that pleasure? Quinn was actually able to spend a long weekend with them as well. His daycare was closed for Good Friday, but both the hubs and I had to work, so Memere came and got him Thursday afternoon and kept him until Sunday.

The easter bunny left a bucket of treats at our house for the little guy, so we brought them along. Glow in the dark items are a recent obsession and the bunny knows what's up, four packs of bracelets in various colors AND a glow sword.

Quinn is also completely tickled to sit quietly for huge chunks of time and work on puzzles. It's the only thing that keeps him still for that long. Bunny put two of those suckers in the basket! We also had 4 new Llama Llama books (fitting since I call him my little drama llama), egg shaped chalk (how could I not?), a travel color wonder book with marker (for future restaurant distraction), and lots of plastic eggs filled with jelly beans. PS I wish easter candy makers would get on board with more non-peanut contaminated products. I couldn't find one single chocolate bunny without the warning.

The other easter bunnies of the family set up a quick egg hunt in the back yard. Replace the smart phones with a standard film camera and I'm flashing back to many a hunt in my own Memere's yard. There were 5 cousins and we would each hunt for a specific color as to keep it even steven.

Quinn was fairly decent at the hunt, but good thing he didn't have any competition. Child is easily distracted, haha.

We were also able to get a pretty cute family picture. I still failed at getting any pictures of Quinn with grandparents or of all the awesome food. Ah well.

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17 weeks

This week we found out we are adding a sweet girl to the mix! Quinn has always been pretty adamant that mommy has a baby sister in her tummy and I guess he was right.

Still tired, still have to pee all the time. Two constants that I expect to stick around.

I threw my back out the beginning of last week and then ended the week with a stomach bug. Woof. Who knew to lose those 5 pounds I just had to become pregnant?

I'm still craving popsicles, but now more specifically pineapple popsicles. Have you ever tried the Outshine brand? Very yummy.

And here's the comparison shot. Baby girl seems much higher to me than Quinn.

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16 weeks

When I was pregnant with Quinn I took bathroom bump selfies. While I'm still very grateful that I took the pictures, I wish I had done it differently. Baby 2 is getting the chalk board treatment! (the hubs is not happy that he has to be involved and snap the picture, haha)

The second trimester finally brought along with it the slow down of the morning sickness. I thought I had morning sickness with Quinn, ha! This time around I actually had to be on Zophran 24/7 or literally suffer the consequences.

I'm still feeling tired all the time, but I think that's just called motherhood. The hubs travels a lot which leaves me on my own with a very bouncy pre-schooler. (Just look at those tired eyes…)

For most of the first trimester, I barely felt like eating at all. When I did want something it was normally mashed potatoes. So random. So good. This week I want popsicles.

The baby must be tap dancing on my bladder. I can't make it through the night without at least two or three bathroom visits.

As you can see the bump itself is going strong. I've been in leggings or yoga pants since about 8 weeks along. Your body truly does know how to make room the second time around. With Quinn, I thought maternity pants with the full belly panel were the bees knees. This time? HATE them. I want nothing to do with them.

And because we all love a good comparison…Quinn vs baby 2!

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surprise, surprise

Well it's finally out in the open! We are expecting our second bundle of joy this September! It's still pretty surreal to think about. Actually, I try not to think about it because when I do it's a mixed bag of "oh another sweet squishy baby!" and "crap, what have we done??"

Let's rewind a little bit. When the hubs and I decided to jump on the baby train again I knew I wanted to plan out a better reveal to him than what happened last time. (I took a test at 6 in the morning because I was too excited to wait any longer, excitedly told him he was going to be a daddy, he grunted and went back to sleep…ugh!)

I found a funny/cute card on Pinterest (because duh) and went ahead and printed it out beforehand. I had it stashed away in my craft room, ready. The morning I knew I could test, hubs was distracted with Quinn so he didn't know I was doing anything. Once the word "pregnant" flashed across the pee stick it was game on! (Still the longest two minutes of my life ever.)

I grabbed my card and the stick and handed it over.

I did attached the card to one of his favorite candies at least, gummy bears. This time there was more than a grunt. Hubs smiled real big and exclaimed, "awww you gave me something you peed on!" Always the romantic, that one.

For about the next 10 weeks, the pregnancy was our little secret. The hubs and I wanted to wait till I had seen the doctor, had a couple ultrasounds, and cleared past the first trimester before we revealed to the world. We did the same with Quinn and it's always easier said than done!

The first time we saw baby 2 was on February 5th, at 8 weeks 3 days. Sadly, the hubs was in Atlanta for work and couldn't be at the first ultrasound. I decided to ask the tech if we could FaceTime and thankfully she agreed! The hubs got to watch our little bean up on the screen thanks to technology.

The second time we saw baby 2 was on March 9th, at 13 weeks. We had decided to let Danny's boss know about the pregnancy so he could help manage the traveling schedule around our doctor's appointments, therefore hubs was in actual attendance this time around. We both breathed a sigh of relief when we saw baby 2 bouncing around and developing just as he/she should!

Now came the fun part of deciding how we would announce this baby to our families and our friends. I had been scouring Pinterest (again duh), but it all felt so "done." I really don't know how it hit, but it did. I decided to do a play on our last name. All I needed was a large scale or seesaw. Do you know that playground seesaws pretty much don't exist anymore? So what's a girl to do… Hubs to the rescue! He built one!

Of course Quinn thinks this seesaw is awesome, because it is! We called up our favorite photographer, Erica Billingsley, and she agreed to meet us at a park here in Spartanburg. She seriously is the best. It started with my maternity pictures when I was pregnant with Quinn and here she is capturing the beginnings of our second.

I made a card that we then printed out and handed to our parents and also mailed out to some friends and family who aren't on Facebook. We posted the pictures above on Facebook to announce to the rest!

Telling my family:
On Saturday, March 21st, we took a trip to Chapin because Quinn "had been begging to visit Memere and Papa" wink, wink. I also had told my brother we would be there and Quinn "would love to see his Uncle Casey." Both very true statements, but not the main reason for the visit. My mom had been cooking all morning for us and when we all sat down to eat out on the back porch, I had Quinn give Papa a belated birthday card to open.

He stared at the card for what seemed like forever haha. He finally said something along the lines of "oh that's so nice!" so I asked "well do you want to share the news?" Apparently it still hadn't clicked yet because he then replied "oh I get it!" and my mom instantly perked up and asked, "are you pregnant?!" Haha!

When we told them about Quinn, my mom got to open the gift of a baby bib and she screamed and cried so quickly my poor dad didn't have a clue what was going on. So I figured this time around, he would be the one to open up the reveal item, it just took a little longer for the puzzle pieces to come together haha.

Telling Danny's family:
On Sunday, March 22nd, we had tickets to take Quinn to see Mickey's Magic Show in Greenville. The show was at 4 o'clock so we planned on meeting Danny's parents and his sister's family downtown for dinner. Once everyone was seated and had ordered, we had Quinn give his mom the same card. She opened it and, again, seemed to stare at it forever. Kathy and Kevin instantly knew it was an announcement without even seeing the card so we all began to just giggle and look at each other seeing how long it would take to click. Kevin even whispered, "wait for it…." Finally Harriette's head popped up and she mouthed the words to me "are you pregnant?!" like it was still a secret. I laughed and said yes.

Now our secret is out in the open and I can stop trying to suck in my gut! Our next big milestone is the gender ultrasound on April 6th.

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best concert ever!

What feels like eons ago, the hubs told me he heard that tickets were going to go on sale for Garth Brooks in Atlanta so I told him to set a reminder in our calendar for the sale day. On August 8th at 10am our phones buzzed and by 10:25 we had a confirmation email. We were going to see Garth! 

The hubs was SO excited, and don't get me wrong, I was looking forward to it too, but I wasn't nearly as bouncy as he was haha. The concert was at Philips Arena at 6:30 so we followed the advise of my best friend and took the Marta into the city. 

Since my day started bright and early with a bouncy toddler, I knew I would need to refuel before the concert. I'm addicted to Dunkin Donuts pumpkin spice iced coffees. I don't care how cliche it is.

We stopped by the concert gear table before heading to our seats. There was a camo hat with the Garth logo in orange. It was meant to be. Somebody *ahem* was thrilled.

Our seats were pretty amazing. We weren't down on the floor but we definitely weren't in the nosebleeds either.

Hands down Garth Brooks was the BEST concert I've EVER been too. No contest. His energy, his singing, his interaction with the audience, just EVERYTHING.

He bounced around stage like my toddler, running around, climbing the set. It was amazing.

Add Trisha Yearwood to the mix and….sigh, just perfection. They sang, the embraced, they kissed. Adorable. Garth came back for 3 encores until, I imagine, Trisha held him hostage back stage and told the crew to turn on the house lights. He had another show starting only an hour after ours ended!

We were definitely on a high afterwards. I told the hubs whenever Garth is back in town, he doesn't even have to ask, just get the tickets. 

Since the concert was in Atlanta, we stayed with my best friend Shannon and her husband. It's also her birthday on the 25th so I brought her some goodies. While I completely forgot to take any pictures of the birthday girl, I did snap some of her presents. 

She's pregnant and just found out it's a girl! This hot pink tote was screaming her name and I thought it would make a fabulous baby bag. I embroidered an M on it (for her last name) since they aren't 100% official on the name just yet.

She also got a long sleeve tee with her monogram on the front and a big lab appliqué on the back. I just love how this one turned out. I'll be making one for myself very shortly. 

The last goodie was actually for her little fluff nugget, Tilly. They just got a standard poodle puppy the day before we came to visit. She's an absolute doll and so completely mellow. Her name, Tillman, is after one of the buildings on Clemson's campus. They are calling her Tilly for short.

We had the best weekend and you know what they say…time flies when you're having fun!

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it's not fall, it's football season

While in northern parts of the country the start of September means fall, down south it means football! It certainly doesn't mean fall weather as we nearly melted at the Clemson game this past Saturday. I'd definitely welcome some cooler temps. 

Friday, I took off work and took bubs to see Sesame Street Live in Greenville. His daycare was able to get group tickets and asked parents if they would like to join. A little while back we took him to see Jake and the Neverland Pirates. He was pretty terrified then, but I thought maybe, this time, he'd be just a touch older and better prepared.

Haha, NOPE. He clung to me and the lovies the entire time. He didn't outright cry, but he did tell me "we can go home now." After a little while I got him to relax and point out the different characters. During intermission he told me that he was having lots of fun. Kids are weird.

We went to Chick-fil-a for lunch and back home for a nice long nap while I packed us up to go to Clemson for the weekend.

I walked into the living room to bring all of our bags and found this little train he had set up. He's obsessed with lining up all his toys in a row. He gets everything the way he wants it then climbs into his truck and watches tv. I'll say it again, kids are weird.

Something that I'm obsessed with are these 31 utility totes. I just got a third one so each person in the family gets a tote for the weekend. They are the perfect size for a weekend away and so sturdy. I love how the opening is structured and doesn't collapse on you. Quinn always wants something while we're driving so the open top makes it easier for me to hunt around in there. 

Quinn got to wear his game day outfit on Saturday. He loves pointing out the different tiger paws every where and telling us "goooooo Tigers!" #raisethemright I put a tiger paw tattoo on my cheek and Quinn about flipped. He wanted one of his face too, ha.

Clemson has new construction going on all over campus. The one that I'm most excited over is Spirit Point near the Brooks Center for the band. My parents bought hubs and I bricks with our names on them to be put in the walkway there. Maybe they'll be going in soon and we'll be able to look for them. It's such a great thing to have for the future. I can't wait to have Quinn help us find our names in the walkway.

Like I mentioned earlier, we nearly melted at the game. It was hot hot hot and I was so glad to not be in a uniform. I do miss marching with Tiger Band and being a part of the color guard, but after a game like that I do NOT miss wearing a uniform.

Tiger Guard has 32 girls this season! Or at least that's how many we counted. I think the band overall has 305. Tiger Band has done a great job over the years and I love to see them growing. IPTAY got them new uniforms this year as well. They look pretty sharp.

We stayed until there was about 5 minutes left in the third quarter. When the Tigers scored again to make it 44 to 0, we decided to throw in the towel and seek air conditioning.

Quinn didn't go to the game with us, but I'm fairly certain he had a better time with his cousins. They went to a pirate pool party and even came home with loot. Then we let him stay up late building towers and running around like a maniac. That's what weekends are all about, right?

He turned into a snuggle bug the next morning though when it all started to catch up with him. He took a pretty solid nap on Sunday to recover. The house was so quiet while the boys napped and I indulged in some sewing. The best.

And to end on a random note, have y'all tried the Blue Moon harvest pumpkin ale? If you like pumpkin flavored drinks, I highly recommend it!

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apple festival

Every Labor Day weekend, Hendersonville, NC has an apple festival. We've never been able to go because Clemson normally has their first football game then. This year Clemson played against Georgia in Georgia so we were free to go! 

Of course this weekend is still sweltering hot, even if it is the beginning of September. Quinn was grumpy at first, but we got him an ice cold apple sipper and all was good. He kept telling me, "I like my apple sipper!" He went through three of them!

We walked up and down Main Street looking at all the goodies in the different booths. There was a booth will tons of wooden toys and I noticed these duck flappers. I immediately flashed back to my own childhood as I had a penguin version of it. My mother likes to tell me how I drove her crazy flapping that thing all around the kitchen. We opted NOT to get Quinn one, hehe.

To take a little break from the heat, we decided to go to the children's museum. It's called Hands On and it's fabulous. Quinn lives for places like this now. He can crawl, jump, slide, touch, and bounce around. I was thankful for the AC and a real bathroom, ha.

He loved building lego race cars and then sending them flying down the ramp where they would bust into a million pieces at the bottom. I believe he's going to love derby car races when he's a little older.

The hubs always seems to have just as much fun as Quinn does at these type places. He followed Quinn around from activity to activity and joined in all the fun. Watching them play together is simply the best. The father-son bond grows stronger each day.

We took a little break to have a hot dog and while the hubs was off finding Quinn another apple sipper, bubs decided to do a little dancing in the street. It was so funny. He bobs his head to the beat and stomps around in circles. Of course as soon as I tried to get it on video he quit.

I got a little souvenir from the festival. One of the booths had many many hand made clay ornaments that could be personalized. I had to get the apple tree! I originally picked the tree with only three apples, but the hubs said I should include all the furbabies too.

Monday I realized we hadn't done the grocery shopping yet so the executive decision to go to Cracker Barrel and the park was made. Quinn didn't want to color on the kids menu while we waited….but somebody else did.

Quinn is finally big enough to climb all over the playground on his own. It's pretty awesome. We try to get him to run around and go down the slides as much as possible before he locks in on the swing.

But it's no secret that the swing is his favorite. He'll tell us to go faster and that he's not done yet.

I wasn't going to let him go on this part of the play ground because I didn't think he could do it without falling. Yep, he totally showed me. He climbed up it multiple times like a champ.

After nap time (3.5 hours!) we had fun rediscovering all of his toys in the back of the cabinet. Trucks, pirate ships, and building blocks galore. I don't know what we're going to do when he gets a fresh batch for his birthday and Christmas.


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