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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boat! daddy's boat!

At the last minute, my boss decided to shut down on Friday giving us a lovely four day weekend. The hubs still had to work, so I decided to pack up the kid and head to my parents' house. The hubs would leave Friday night and tow the boat so we could play out on Lake Murray all weekend. It was glorious!

On Friday, we managed to take a quick ride on my parents' boat and a little dip in the water before the clouds rolled in. It ended up working out well though because Quinn was ready for a nap. After his nap, I had made an appointment with Picture People. I just love their $16 Groupon specials. It's been a great way to get professional pictures done without costing a fortune.

Quinn made me work for my money though. Child would not sit still! He was a man on the go and I'm certain 75% of the pictures were blurry ha! What happened to my baby that had to be laid on the bean bag?

Saturday was a full on lake day! My brother and two of his friends came down from school for the afternoon. The hubs launched our boat at Dreher Island and we took the pontoon over there to meet him.

Quinn could barely move in his life jacket at first lol

Don't you go boating with lovies and a passy?

Our boat is finally finished!

Swimming with Memere

We decided to skip nap time and go straight to snack time

Quinn with his Uncle Casey

A well balanced diet is a cookie in each hand

The hubs towing my brother and his friends around on the tube

I opted for some lounging instead

Bubs is worn out

We were probably out on the lake for a total of four hours, but that was plenty! We came in and got caught in a bit of a rain storm but it left as quickly as it approached. I'm not sure what happened but Quinn seems to find his 32nd wind of the day and bounced all over the place. After my mom got him to bed I proceeded to crash at 8:45 that night and slept for the next 11 hours. Glorious!

Sunday we did some more of the same. Boat floating, lounging in the sun, splashing in the water, and skipping naps!

I always joke that we have to feed him orange food to keep his orange hair

By the second day, Quinn was really getting into playing in the water

Quinn and I left around 6 o'clock on Sunday. We hadn't even made it 10 minutes down the road when I looked in my mirror and saw him completely passed out. I'd say that this weekend was a complete success!

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going home

This past weekend we decided to visit my parents. The hubs was meeting a friend to cut wood for their camping trip this spring and he also wanted to put up gutters on the garage at the Irmo house. He asked if I would like to spend the weekend at my parents' house instead of me staying at home with the baby and I excitedly agreed. We were going home for the weekend.

I had packed nearly everything up during my lunch break Friday so we were able to leave right around Quinn's bed time. I had already fed him and dressed him in his jam jams and we were on our way. I didn't really put much thought into his bed time routine. Mom and Daddy have a crib at their house so I just planed to transfer my sleeping baby when we arrived. Ha!

He woke up about 15 minutes before we arrived but had very sleepy eyes. Mom rocked him for about 10 minutes and then put him in the crib. He cried for about 10 minutes and then caved and all was quiet. I figured we would be fine after that. Instead this happened:

11:00pm - We all go to bed.
2:15am - Shiloh (one of our dogs) is pacing up and down the hardwood hallway {click click click click click go her claws on the floor} so I end up putting her in the craft room and locking her in with the baby gate.
2:20am - Quinn wakes up screaming bloody murder. I rock him and he instantly calms down. For the next hour any time I try to lay him down he starts screaming again.
3:30am - Mama to the rescue. She takes over the rocking duties and tells me to go back to sleep. I crawl into bed but I can hear him fussing through the walls every time she tries to lay him down.
4:00am - I cry to the hubs that I want to go home because the dog and the baby have lost their minds and I'm losing mine.
4:30am - Mom gets him back asleep in the crib {finally} and my stomach starts to gurgle.
5:00am - I emerge from the bathroom and get back in bed.
6:00am - The hubs' alarm goes off so he can get up to cut wood. He presses snooze.
6:09am - Alarm again.
7:15am - Baby is screaming again, but mom gets him.
8:00am - I give up on sleep and request a giant cup of coffee.

I realized my parents' home is no longer my home. While I love them dearly, the hubs and I have our own creature comforts and our own ways of doing things. It's weird when you finally realize something like this. I know I've been married for 5 years and living on my own for 9, but it really hit me this weekend that I'm an adult now haha.

Of course we still had plenty of fun even on very little sleep. We did stay the entire weekend and the next night Quinn only woke up at 1 and was back asleep by 1:30.

Cuddling with Memere...

...which lasted about 20 seconds before it was party time again!

I brought all sorts of toys for him, but Memere's pots and wooden spoons were more exciting.

They look like they're up to no good...

Bang! Bang! Bang with Grandpa!

Nap time Saturday afternoon was spent in my arms so on Sunday we decided to leave right at nap time and pray that he'd sleep during the ride home. Luckily he obliged! Quinn was out before we even got onto 26.

I love how his little thumb is inside the passy in this picture.

The rest of Sunday was spent watching the race with Daddy, playing with legos, and eating dinner at Cracker Barrel. I crashed as early as possible last night and I still needed a very large cup of coffee this morning. It was worth it though!

I love this picture even though it's blurry. He was so excited to color like a big boy!

How was your weekend?

happy new year indeed

This year my best friend Shannon and her boyfriend Brian came up from Atlanta to spend the long weekend with us and ring in the new year. I was especially excited for her visit, not just to spend time with her, but also because Brian had a surprise up his sleeve.

He had been calling and texting me the weeks before and he planned on proposing! With a little help from me and the hubs, this is how it all panned out.

I had Shannon help me give Quinn his bath as a distraction while the boys did the set up in the back yard. She thought they were just goofing off together in the garage, but really they were taking strings of Christmas lights and spelling out "will u marry me."

After Quinn was out for the night the boys said they wanted to go play with some fireworks outside before dinner. Totally normal for our two! She didn't suspect anything even when I busted out the video camera.

Brian told Shannon that she needed to set off a bottle rocket, so she complied and held it as it shot off it's 10 different rockets. He told her "ok, one more" and after some fussing, Shannon complied again, but this time as he handed her the lit rocket, he had also slipped her ring around the middle of it.

I wish I had the video edited so I could post it because he reaction was priceless. She started yelling "Oh my God! Oh my God! Brian what are you doing? Oh my God!" Of course the best part was that she had to continue to hold the bottle rocket until it was done shooting off. There were tears and hugs, kisses and smiles, and of course she said yes.

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time to slow down

Well this past weekend was quite...interesting. We had lots of fun things planned and lots of surprises thrown in as well.

On Friday I took the day off of work to go Christmas shopping. I created my plan of attack days before, mapping out what I wanted to get everybody and where I wanted to go. I was so excited to have the day to myself, no husband, no baby. The only baby I saw happened to be this cutie.

I met up with my friend Jessica and her daughter Parker for lunch at Panera. It was nice to catch up a little before heading back out for more marathon shopping. While crossing the parking lot I spotted this and couldn't stop giggling.

Unfortunately, around 3 o'clock I received a call from the daycare saying Quinn had an allergic reaction to a raisin cake they gave him and he was covered in hives. Cue mama panic attack. I was 45 minutes away and there was no one closer. Luckily his breathing was never hindered and by the time I got there the hives were already receding. By nightfall I had my happy boy again.

After I put the baby to bed I noticed Shiloh kept chewing on her paw {a horrible habit she's done since she was a pup} except this time she had made her pad bright red and raw. So out came the bag balm, baby socks, and electrical tape. She may hate me for it, but it's the only way we can ever get her pad to heal and keep her from chewing on it even more.

Saturday morning I decided to make us all pancakes while the hubs got in the shower. He came to me in the kitchen and exclaimed, "I think I need to go to urgent care." The poor thing was covered in a rash with hives and his hands and face were starting to swell. Four hours later, the doctor didn't know what caused the reaction but he gave the hubs a cortisone shot and some steroid pills. The hubs then napped the rest of the day while Quinn and I played.

My parents came later that afternoon. My company Christmas party was that night and they were going to stay with the baby while the hubs and I went. Around 5 o'clock I woke up the hubs and he decided he felt better enough to go {who can say no to an open bar, right?}.

I'm glad we did end up going because I won two round trip flights to anywhere in the US, Mexico, or Canada! Besides winning the great door prize, it was nice to enjoy a night out with great food, a little booze, and some dancing.

Sunday the hubs had to work in Charlotte so he left around 1pm and wouldn't be home until around 1 in the morning. My parents and I took the baby to a paint your own pottery place to make some memories.

After my parents headed home and the baby was down for the night, I started to not feel so well. I quickly finished cleaning up and crawled into bed around 8:30 thinking I would just sleep off the yucky feeling. Ha! I ended up with a stomach bug that kept me in the bathroom all night. Around 11pm I managed to text "ginger ale" to the hubs. It was pretty awful and I stayed home from work Monday.

Thank goodness it was only a 24 hour thing and not the full blow flu. I was weak but feeling much better by Monday evening and after a hot shower even felt human again. At 4:30 this morning the bug hit the hubs. Poor thing is now in bed himself. I pray over and over that the baby won't be the next victim. My mom already let me know that my dad has fallen pray. Hooray for spreading the love!

So I'm taking this weekend as a big old shot from God to slow down! How was your weekend?