A Week in Review

Not a whole lot going on in these parts this week. But in an effort to not fall behind on the updates, let's do a little week in review. 

We ate.

We left off with Sunday night dinner last week. I absolutely love this weekly tradition of having family over on Sunday nights. The kids always look forward to it. I made a pesto lasagna that I knew my Dad would love and it did not disappoint. 

Wal Mart pick-up has revolutionized my weekly cooking. We have eaten at home every night for about three weeks now. I meal plan on the weekends and load stuff into my virtual cart as I jot down the meals I plan for the week. I click a button and within an hour or so I can go pick up every single grocery I need for the week. It's awesome! Friday nights have become our make your own pizza night. I make homemade dough on Friday morning and let it rise while we're at work. Friday night, when we're all so exhausted, all I have to do is set our toppings and the kids happily make their pizzas. I'm slacking in many areas lately... but cooking meals has been one thing I've got down. 

We played. 

We've been "booed" by two neighbors so far. The kids are ecstatic about it! They're loving all of their Halloween goodies. 

 The girls have been super into pretending to be witches. I take full blame as we watched Hocus Pocus early on in the season and I can't stop singing and quoting every line. So now these two run around with the window rods as brooms saying, "Sissssteeeerrrr!" They crack me up!

 This was an especially sweet sister moment caught by blurry phone pic. Emmerson has been such an excited, little reader lately. She asked Taylor to crawl into her bed one night so that she could read her a story. Emmerson gets the cutest little high-pitched mommy voice when she's baby-ing Taylor like this. It's so funny. Also, Taylor is absolutely obsessed with her little Paw Patrol Everest doll. It's her thing lately and we can't go anywhere without Everest tagging along. 

 Oh, and Taylor was "reading" this book to us, too. 

 It was a weekend full of sports over here. The bigs both had their soccer games on Saturday spread out early morning and mid-day. Today Donovan had two baseball scrimmages at two different parks. The girls came with me to cheer him on for the first game. Then game two we came home so that Taylor could nap. 

I learned. 

I spent an hour this afternoon watching a math webinar right from my couch. Professional Development has become so amazingly practical now a days. Work has been great lately! I feel like our school year is off to a great start this year and I am so beyond motivated with all there is to do in the math coaching arena. I am just trying to work on turning off the never ending stream of thoughts and ideas when I am at home. It's not always easy for me. Balance is key and I am forever challenged by that. 

I wore. 

 Not a whole lot of excitement here but I did remember to take a few quick mirror selfies before school this week. 

 I bought this little striped Madewell tee last weekend when they had their 20-30% off sale. I think I have already worn it 4 times. It's the perfect weekend tee. So comfy and as evidenced by these photos I am really loving that golden yellow color for all things now that it's fall!

What's ahead?

Grammie flew back in today! We are so glad she's back for a few weeks. It's extra helpful this week because school gets out early all week long for parent-teacher conferences. So thankful to have Gram here to hang with the kiddos while we're still at work. 

Tay wouldn't leave her side tonight! 

Lots of baseball watching and Halloween party planning this week. Cheers to you! I hope you all have a great week ahead!

Catching up- May 2019

Originally started this post in mid May and never finished it up: Let's play a little catch up, shall we? 

This may perhaps be the most random post. Here are a bunch of phone pictures and memories from the past two weeks. 

Taylor is getting so big all of a sudden. She is spending much more time hanging out with Emmerson which is good because it won't be long before these two become roommates. 

I celebrated my teacher of the year ceremony. I was SO nervous! I always get super anxious with that sort of recognition/attention. It was such a nice evening. Dustin totally embarrassed me by doing his best Elf impression when they called me up on stage, "I KNOW HER!" I love how he balances me out. I would rather hide and he's the life of party. Love that man of mine, so much! 

This week was also the week of sick kiddos. It started with Taylor getting pink-eye, then Emmerson, then Donovan and I snapped this picture to send to Dad while waiting at Kaiser during my lunch break to have his ears checked. He ended up needing an ear flush and then also developed a pretty hefty cough and cold. Taylor had the same. We were soooo thankful to have Grammie here with us to keep the troops in line that week. 

In the midst of a really cold rainy May we have been dreaming of the warm summer months to come. I caught the girls singing along to Kenny Chesney videos in our bedroom. Nothing says summer like a little country music. 

Our next door neighbor inherited this gorgeous 1958 Chevy Corvette. He was so sweet to take each of the bigs out for a little ride. PS Don't mind the mustaches... birthday party favor. ;) 

Last weekend Donovan had a double header scrimmage in Carlsbad. It was SO cold and SO rainy! I actually stayed home with the girls for the day but the bad weather didn't keep all the grandparents away. I LOVED this picture that my mom sent me of the boys waiting out a downpour. Donovan has spent a whole lot of time with this group of boys both last year and this spring. I just adore all of them so much! That's D on the far right. 

Meanwhile here I am at home trying to get Taylor down for a much needed nap. Girlfriend continues to rebel against sleep lately. She's always up SO early in the morning. She stands right here at her open door, behind the baby gate and shouts and shouts for me to come get her out. If I don't do it, she'll start calling for Grammie downstairs. "Gram, YOU come get me out?" "Gram, come get me out from here!" On this day, I scooped her up off the floor and tucked her into her bed and she never even flinched. She cracked me up tonight when I tucked her in, too. She asked me to scratch her back and then she kept trying to fight falling asleep telling me with her finger pointed in the air, "I just sleep 5 minutes. Okay? Just 5 minutes." Momma needs more than just 5 minutes, Taylor. And let's shoot for an after 6am wake up time. Okay, Little Miss? 

Oma and Grampie came home from their month long trip to Europe last week! We were so excited to have them home and also to celebrate their 44th anniversary together. Emmerson is my favorite party planner! She made them cards and put on all of the hair accessories she could find for the special occasion. 

Oma and Taylor passed out some sweet souvenirs from their trip. 

This little face! 

Emmerson and I baked Oma's favorite, coconut cupcakes. Donovan helped us decorate them with little flowers. 

Back to the work week. This girl is a reader! She's reading me books every night when I tuck her in. It is the sweetest thing. On this night, I had taken a while to tuck Taylor in. When I crawled into Emmerson's bed, she was reading to her horse and pointing out how the horse in her book looked just like her. 

Emmerson also had a fun field trip to the Safari Park last week. I wasn't able to go, but her chaperone texted me pictures all day. It made my heart so happy. It was another cold and rainy day, but the kids all had a blast! 

Her teacher took this on the ride home. Isn't that the sweetest? 

It was a long, busy work week. We were so grateful for the start of the three day weekend. Friday evening kicked off with the start of a baseball tournament for Donovan. We played a Carlsbad team who invited us all out to pizza with them after the game. Grammie was home with the girls who were so tired after the long week. Dustin, Donovan, and I closed this place down! These kids had THE best night ever... and the grown ups did too. 

And then 5:30 am came and guess who was ready to party? 

Super Grammie went out on the rainy morning and got everyone donuts. 

We had a nice, lazy Saturday morning at home. We played in the yard and enjoyed not having anywhere to go. 

In the afternoon, the skies cleared up just in time for Donovan's baseball game. 

Our non-sleeper finally gave in to a little rest during Donovan's game. Thanks Oma!

This tournament was Donovan's last games with the team he'd been playing with all season. They will continue on together through the All Star season, but we opted not to have Donovan try out this year, knowing that our summer vacations would impact his ability to join the team for some of their tournaments. He was disappointed, but understood. I loved their little All Star team banner where they so kindly added Donovan's baseball for the final games of the Memorial Tournament. 

My little cheerleader greeted me after a chilly afternoon jog. 

One little girl is napping and one is pretending. I'll let you guess which one's which. 

And last but not least, my final outfit pics of this work year. 

And there you have it, a mid-May catch up.