Insta-Friday

Summer is in full swing here. I've never really cared about summer, it was just a necessary evil to get to winter (Christmastime, my favorite!), but having two rambunctious boys, I can appreciate all the things summer has to offer! 

Owen and I currently have an obsession with candles. He asks to smell every one he sees at the store, and lately he has helped me pick out a few. This watermelon sangria one is my favorite so far. 

I ran into Fry's to grab some creamer and ended up with all of these summer goodies. Whoops!

And yes, eyeliner is summery because it's waterproof. 

Last Saturday's lunch, for free, courtesy of a Papa Murphy's promo. 

Last Saturday evening we took a stroll around the Shops at Norterra. After I shopped for some goodies at Charming Charlie's (Ryan got me a gift card for Mother's Day), we had dinner at my favorite restaurant, Sauce. It was soo good and the boys loved it. Score.

We let Austin walk around instead of sit in the stroller. He definitely enjoyed his newfound freedom! 

Could.He.Be.Any.Cuter.

My big boys

Some other summery things we have enjoyed are

swimming

reading

Going to the library

...and playing with the trains...

...week after week...

...and playing on the computer at the library...

I promise we actually get books too!

Case in point, I often randomly pick interesting looking books from the shelves at the library. Sometimes it works great, sometimes it doesn't...

this book about being "silly" was little more risque than I'm comfortable with..

This has been my lunch a few days a week. Yummy. 

Owen was here. 

Once a month I get this gem in the mail. Full of coupons and recipes and great ideas. Love it. 

Even better if I read it outside while the boys swim. With some sweet iced tea.

I've been doing a lot of meal planning and shopping lately too. We're going through food like crazy with these growing boys. 

There's a peek into my week. If you'd like to follow me on Instagram, I'm NaeMaeLynn. 

Linking up with 

Independence

Owen picked his outfit today and got himself dressed. Do note the swim shorts, backwards. But hey, at least he matches!

A Lovely Mother's Day and the Weekend

I had a lovely mothers day. Actually we had 2 reasons to celebrate this weekend because Sunday was also our 6 year anniversary!

So let me back up. 

Friday Ry & I celebrated our anniversary by going out on a date. We hit my faaaaavorite restaurant, Carabbas. I got the lobster ravioli (a splurge) and we shared a yummy dessert and lots of great, relaxed conversation. So happy to spend time with my husband and enjoy him. I can't believe it's been 6 years. 

Here's to 60 more, babe!

(of course I got a picture of the food but not one of me and Ryan. laaaame.)

Saturday we did the usual, hit the gym, grocery shopping, errands. 

Sunday I woke up to Ryan bringing me coffee, a donut, and my Bible in bed. Ahh, it was such a nice morning! After my quite little breakfast I opened my present from the boys. Ryan got me a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores, Charming Charlies. Oh and Owen picked out this necklace for me. He did good! He knows brown is my favorite color :)

After church and a wonderful Mother's Day message, we headed home and after I put the boys down for a nap I headed to the mall all by myself for some shopping. It was sooo nice! I admit I did miss the boys when I walked by the play area :) I enjoyed shopping at Forever21 for a few hours. Of course, when I actually have spending money (thanks, Ry & Dad!), I can't find a thing to buy. I did walk away with one cute top. I think the quite time alone was well worth it though. 

Ruth met me at Starbucks for the last part of my afternoon out and we chatted. So relaxing!

Sunday evening we went to Chris & Tara's along with Doug & JoAnn for more Mother's Day fun. After dinner we let the kids play in the pool. My boys loooooved it. They're water babies for sure. Austin and Lexie have hit a whole new level of friendship. They played together so well all evening. Love this girl!

It was such a nice day spending time with family and getting out for a bit. I'm so grateful for JoAnn, Tara, Ruth, my mom, all the mothers out there who helped shape me and give me inspiration to the be the wife and Mom that God has called me to be. I'm so grateful for my 2 boys who made me a mommy, and for my husband, who does a wonderful job walking beside me in raising them. I am blessed!

Ten on Ten: May

We had a pretty typical Thursday. 

7ish - Breakfast. Cinnamon Sugar Toast

8ish: Heading to the gym for Zumba

9ish: The boys being silly with my phone

10ish: Monitoring Owen in the bathroom.

11ish: At Chick fil A. Ruth and I have been coming here with our kids every Thursday for almost 3 years! A lot of the staff knows us by name. Love it. 

I had to get this pic because Owen wore his sunglasses the entire time. He loves those things! (Too bad we forgot them there. Gotta go pick them up tomorrow.)

1ish: Naptime treat for me (Thanks Ruth!!)

Skipping ahead to 4ish: Making Peanut Butter Blossoms with Owen while Austin is napping. 

5ish: Quick visit at Nana & Papa's house to see the tractor digging their pool. Pretty darn cool. We also made a quick visit 2 doors down to visit Tara and the kids. 

6ish: Grabbing dinner. We have community group at our house tonight so pizza it is!

10 on 10 is a really fun challenge for me. Not so much to improve my photography (I just use my camera phone) but to capture and document the mundane but sweet moments of my life with my boys.  The little things are the best things :)

So long, CBS and Other Random Thoughts

Yesterday was my last day of CBS. I don't know if I've talked about it here before, but I've been doing childcare for CBS (Community Bible Study) for 3 years. CBS is a large group of women from different churches who get together for Bible study on Mondays and Tuesdays and they pay me to care for their children. The boys come with me and I get to meet lots of different people and play with lots of cute kids. It's been a great (though not easy!) experience! I was sad to be done, but Owen will be in preschool this fall when the study starts up again and the schedules won't work out. 

After our very last class yesterday, we headed to Target to get Owen a toy for good behavior. He picked these nerf guns. A pair of sunglasses also caught his eye. He's been wearing my old ones in the car lately for fun so I decided to let him get them. He looks so cute! I wanted to get Austin the same ones in blue but he had his heart set on the green Thomas the Train ones. Oh well. 

This pic is from the other day. Best buds! They're really getting along especially well lately. I think one challenge of having them so close together (19 months) is that they have to share just about everything and they play with the same toys, which can create a lot of conflict! But we're working on the right way to work through disagreements and how to use kind words with each other. Overall they have a lot of fun together. 

On a completely unrelated note, I've been making quite a few recipes from Pinterest lately. I made this one last night. It was pretty good, but too sweet! Maybe it was the Italian diced tomatoes? Anyway, I think this would be really good next time if I replaced the tomatoes with jarred spaghetti sauce. 

I made this Vanilla Mousse Cheesecake for dessert the other night when we had my Uncle Jeff and Aunt Deb and cousins over for dinner. It was edible, if not good, but not good enough to make again. Kinda bland. Too bad, it looks so scrumptious in the picture!

Tonight I'm sticking with my tried and true chicken stir fry recipe. Then I have a hair appointment planned. I'm looking forward to getting out for a bit! Maybe I'll hit up the half of frappuccino deal they have going on at Starbucks...

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Austin's 2nd Birthday Party

On Sunday, April 29th, we celebrated this little boy's 2nd birthday. We had a casual party at the park and it was really fun! 

Unfortunately I didn't take a single picture, but Dad did! So these are all courtesy of him and Tara, who took some of these pics while she was playing around with Dad's "old school" Nikon. 

My handsome little brother Jesse

"Helping" with the matches - yikes! Aren't the cupcakes cute? Ruth made them for me. 

Dad's wife Lynn chatting with the ladies. 

Precious face

Sharing a "sip" with me

The ladies - Becky (sis in law), me, Emily (Jesse's gf), Lynn

All the kids had fun in the sand. Here's Austy with cousin Eli, who has his own 2nd birthday coming up!

 Sandy, sweaty adorable mess. 

 Bubbles!

Cousin Drew blowing bubbles

Cousin Bella

Austin has been a huge joy to this family. He's very friendly and says hi to about everybody he sees. He frequently follows kids around asking for a hug. He has lots of words and is quite vocal. He's sweet and silly. He adores ketchup and condiments of any kind. He and Owen (or O-wie, as he calls him) are best buds and partners in crime and are learning to share with each other :)

Austin Caleb, I can't stop kissing on you and thanking God for my precious boy. You are loved!