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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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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labor day weekend

Our Labor Day weekend was jam packed full of fun. We headed to my sister-in-law's house Friday evening and didn't leave until Monday after dinner!

Saturday was the first Clemson football game against the Georgia Bulldogs and whoo-whee was it a doozy! ESPN Game Day was on Bowman starting at 9 o'clock. We all got to campus around 10 and milled around for a bit.

Quinn was able to run out some energy on Bowman while we waited to hear the ESPN crew announce who they thought was going to win the game. They picked Georgia (boo) but turns out we didn't need their support. Clemson won anyway!

This year we have season tickets directly behind Tiger Band. The view is pretty good and it almost feels like home ha! The Georgia players ran through the band to try and "meet" the Clemson players at the bottom of the hill. I had flashbacks to my freshman year in 2004 when the South Carolina players did the same thing, except that time I was down on the field trying not to get knocked over.

I was actually very thankful for an intense back and forth game. It kept me interested and awake! The game didn't end until a little over midnight. Luckily we were able to scoot out of traffic quickly and get back to Kathy's by 1:15.

The next morning Kevin was so kind to watch Quinn for us so we could sleep in. I'm not sure the last time I slept till 11! Kevin and Kathy had friends come over for a cookout later that afternoon. There were 8 little ones running around, having a blast. We took them to the park after dinner to expel the energy!

Monday we took the boat out on Lake Hartwell for one last hurrah. Sadly we were only able to enjoy the boat twice this summer. Maybe next year will be better. The kids went tubing and loved jumping off the dock. Even Quinn got in on a little of the action. Danny sat on the tube in the water and Quinn jumped into the water where I caught him. He would immediately want to climb back up and say, "Set! Jump!" (ready, set, jump).

It's a little hard to see in the picture since we didn't get very close, but that's Clemson's stadium from the lake.

While Quinn was napping, Eric convinced Uncle Danny to help build some legos.

It was a fantastic weekend but very tiring haha! I love seeing Quinn play with his cousins. He'll be doing lots of that this fall as we head back each weekend for another football game!



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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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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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