This past weekend my hubby went back home to Texas to visit some old friends and family. It was a much needed trip, but unfortunately it came on the heels of him being away for work, so me and my little guys had a real nice stretch of quality time without daddy. And by that I mean, I had to get pretty creative to come up with fun stuff to entertain them so they wouldn’t spend all weekend looking at me saying, “When’s Daddy coming home?”
As a teacher, I loved lesson planning, so I was up for the challenge of planning some engaging activities that went beyond watching Paw Patrol and playing in our front yard. I’m not saying we didn’t do that too, but it was a long week/weekend so I needed more in my arsenal. Here’s how we spent our time…
Friday was a rainy day, so we spent it trying out a new game, playing with shaving cream, and going to the mall.
Sweet Brady was obsessed with this fish game!
When all else fails, play in the kids area and eat Chick-fil-a at the mall.
Straight from my bag of old teaching tricks…kids LOVE shaving cream!
On Saturday, we had gorgeous weather. It was the perfect day to check out the Museum of Life Science in Durham. Or as I now like to call it, the Disney World of Durham. Good gosh, this place was amazing for kids. We were there all day and could have stayed longer! Thank you, thank you, thank you, to whoever created this place.
Train selfies!
On Sunday, we got up and made banana muffins together.
Then we went to the airport to watch the planes take off and land, and of course, pick up Chris!
We went straight downtown from the airport for a food truck rodeo.
And blissfully, Chris will be working from home ALL week this week. Woohoo!
I loved my one on one time with my boys, but it always feels better when our foursome is back together!
This weekend marks one year since us Smiths moved from Lititz, Pennsylvania to North Carolina. In some ways we still miss our friends and small town that we left behind (heck, we still miss Florida too!) but in most ways, we feel like we’re finally home. This last year has seen our boys reaching new milestones- Nolan learned to walk and talk and Brady has completely blossomed into an independent pre-schooler. Our kids have gotten to experience so many new things since moving to North Carolina. They’ve explored lakes and trails, visited the mountains and beaches, and have been to tons of downtown museums and festivals. Here’s some of my favorite pictures from the last year of getting to know North Carolina.
If the weather was nice, we were at a park. Lots of biking, running, playing, and boating took place this year, and we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of the amount of cool parks to check out.
We’ve tried to spend a lot of time enjoying all of the lakes near us as well with picnics, swimming, fishing and boat rides.
We’ve celebrated all of our birthdays since moving to North Carolina…Brady turned 3 last summer and Nolan turned 2 this Spring. Side note: This summer Brady will celebrate his 4th birthday in his 4th house. Time to stay put for a while!
We’ve really gotten to enjoy all 4 seasons. In fact, that might be my favorite thing about North Carolina. You get a taste of each season without ever feeling tired of any one type of weather. Just when the Summer heat got annoying, Fall gave us a welcomed break. When Winter got on my last nerve, Spring began to give us some relief. It’s just gorgeous here.
Summer
Fall
Winter
Spring
Some of our favorite memories were when we ventured out of Raleigh and checked out what else North Carolina had to offer.
Visiting Boone, Blowing Rock and Grandfather Mountain.
Checking out UNC Chapel Hill
At Oak Island, NC
Day trip to the NC Zoo
While we know the state of North Carolina has a lot to offer, we’re especially happy that we chose Raleigh as our city. We’ve had so much fun checking out the museums, shops, parks, restaurants, festivals and Farmer’s Markets downtown.
It has been a fun year of exploring this area, and now that we have built our forever home, we are really looking forward to seeing what else there is to discover. I’ll always miss seeing Amish buggies in PA, and I’ll never be as close to the beach as I was in FL, but, despite the fact that NC has the worst Spring pollen I’ve ever encountered, it really feels like the perfect fit for our family. We’re looking forward to seeing what else this area has to offer and making lots more memories!
In some ways it’s hard to believe it has already been 2 years since Nolan came bursting onto the scene of life in an oh-so-dramatic fashion. In other ways, it’s impossible to think that life ever existed without his larger than life personality.
It’s been 2 years of laughter, exhaustion, questioning our sanity, and thanking God every day for the gift that is Nolan. He continues to keep us on our toes and crack us up with his mood swings, catch phrases, and ridiculous obsessions. He is also just about the easiest thing in the world to fall in love with thanks to his cuddly, smiley, thumb-sucking cuteness.
While I admittedly never thought I could love anything as much as I loved Brady, (even while pregnant with Nolan!) I am forever in awe of how much my littlest man changed everything I knew about love. Like, heart exploding, best thing in the world, how did we ever live without you, love. Brady taught me what real love was, and Nolan taught me the infinite capacity that my heart could love.
While it is bittersweet to think that our baby is no longer a baby, I’m too excited to see what life has in store for our sweet Rolie Nolie to ever wish for time stop. Even the surgeon who delivered him said that he must be destined for great things in life and was definitely sent to us for a reason. (Insert proud mom face.)
So this Easter, as our little Bubba turns 2, we’ll be farther away from all the sleepless nights of his infancy and one step closer to the sleepless nights that he’ll undoubtedly cause us in his teen years. He’ll be going full throttle (as usual) and we’ll be there just trying to keep up with him (as usual.) His big brother will be desperately pleading with him to “follow the rules” and “stop stealing my food!” all while laughing throughout the house, chasing each other or wrestling on the bed. He’ll be the maniac that he is and then stop for a quick snuggle and thumb suck (all while pulling my hair, no doubt.) We’ll soak up the good and try to get through the terrible 2’s with the mindset that this is all going by much too quickly.
Thank you, Nolan, for the most challenging, hilarious, and love filled 2 years of our lives!
Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss! On March 2, people across the country come together to celebrate “Read Across America Day” in honor of Dr. Seuss. This is a day to not only recognize one of our most amazing authors, but also a great opportunity to for teachers, students, parents and children to come together to read and take part in literacy related activities. I always loved celebrating this day with my students when I was teaching, and now it is a day I look forward to enjoying with my own kiddos as a stay at home mom.
This year Dr. Seuss’s birthday falls on a Monday, so we made some tasty treats for “Kids Cook Monday” to go along with some of our favorite Dr. Seuss books.
We started by reading the most classic Dr. Seuss book, The Cat in the Hat. It’s funny. It’s silly. And, it’s always a crowd pleaser. We made some easy little fruit kabobs to go along with our lunch and story.
Then we read my favorite Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hatches the Egg. It’s the sweetest story about an elephant who promises to take care of an egg and goes through terrible circumstances but never leaves the egg. I just adore Horton’s selflessness and love. I always loved reading this book to my first graders and will never forget reading it to my Brady when he was just a tiny baby. Seriously, my favorite.
We made these cute little haystacks that look like a bird’s nest with blueberries to represent the egg that Horton was protecting. These are the easiest and tastiest treats.
Nest and Egg Ingredients
1 cup Butterscotch Chips
1/2 cup Peanut Butter
2 cups Chow Mein Noodles
1 cup of blueberries
Here’s how we made our nests…
Melt the peanut butter and butterscotch chips together in the microwave. (About 1 minute)
Stir the mixture until smooth.
Add the chow Mein noodles.
Stir until all the chow mein is coated with the peanut butter mixture.
Scoop spoonfuls of the chow mein mixture onto a greased cookie sheet.
Add blueberries to the tops and put into the refrigerator for at least a half hour.
While the nests are cooling and hardening in the fridge, let your littlest helper lick the bowl.
These little guys are sweet, salty, crunchy and the blueberries are surprisingly necessary!
If you don’t have many Dr. Seuss books at your house, or you can’t make it to the library to check some out, look on Youtube for some awesome readings of some of his most popular books. This is one of my favorites too!
Ah, Winter time. That lovely time of year where noses never stop running, feet never seem warm enough, and cabin fever sets in. Admittedly, this North Carolina winter has paled in comparison to what went down last winter in Pennsylvania, but when you’re a mom of two small kids, cold is cold. No outside playtime and always having to bundle up to go anywhere is a drag. Then when you add snow or ice that keeps you housebound, well, that’s a lot of togetherness!
So, I’m sharing what we do to keep sane in Winter months.
First of all, without a doubt, there is more T.V. watching and iPad time. I just don’t know how to completely avoid that.
At least it’s educational!
We have literally played with every.single.toy. in our house. We build and take apart various train tracks all day long. We paint pictures. We play with Play-doh. We read and re-read our favorite books. We do puzzles. We make buildings with Legos and blocks. We have races around the house. We jump on our trampoline. Aaand, that gets us to right around lunch time. Whew!
Working on those fine motor skills!
Another life saver during winter months is a new toy added in the mix. Anything new that can be a distraction, is always a win! Except for this toy. It’s called a Wubble. It was described by Brady as, “The BEST toy ever!” And, it popped the day after we got it. We didn’t even have time for the novelty to wear off! Ugh…
The real winter fun begins when we can get out and play in some cold weather. Last week we had this weird ice/snow storm that froze everything, made roads impossible to drive on, and canceled school all week. Thankfully we were stocked with lots of food and Chris was home with us as his travel plans were canceled for the week because of the weather. We couldn’t go anywhere, so we just used that time to bundle up and play on the ice.
Nolan kept saying “Pretty Snow. Wow.” but he only kinda tolerated being outside in the cold. He refused to wear gloves and was much more interested in coming inside the warm house to eat breakfast.
While North Carolina does have it’s share of warmer winter days where temperatures reach into the 50’s, for the most part it’s much chillier this time of year and you are forced to find inside activities to fill the day. Some of our go-to places to venture to are the mall play area (if I’m up for dousing the kids with hand sanitizer afterwards), the train table in the children’s section of Barnes-n-Noble, a friend’s house for a playdate, the Chick-fil-a play area (so mommy can get an iced tea and a moment of sanity), story time at the library, Marbles Kids Museum (definitely getting our money’s worth out of those annual passes!) and the North Carolina Science Museum.
At the “World’s Largest Dinosaurs” exhibit at the Science Museum.
Dino dig at the Science Museum. Brady was in heaven.
When all else fails and we just can’t think of anything else to do, we make music, play music, and dance.
Another winter pastime of ours is finding a house project/re-decorating. It must be all that time spent sitting around the house that makes me start to critique every piece of furniture, paint color or throw pillow. Our house is new, so theoretically I shouldn’t have that much I’d want to change, but my dining room table has been on my mind for sometime now. I’ve always loved the table as it used to belong to my grandparents, but the chairs were not my style. During our week of being stuck inside, I finally bit the bullet and ordered some new chairs. Then, our first outing after the ice storm was to Home Depot for a new light fixture for the dining room. Thanks to winter storms, my hubby was in town all week and had some time in the evenings to put this all together for me!
I’m a much bigger fan of the “After” look.
We try to make the most of our time together during all the cold weather, cabin fever loveliness, but some days seem to turn into a blur of baking cookies, watching movies, and taming toddler madness. I’m sure Spring is right around the corner, but for now we’ll keep searching for our lost gloves, watching the Planes movie on a continuous loop, and checking the news for school closures.
Keep warm, friends! And for goodness sake, if you’ve got some better ideas for entertaining kiddos during the winter, please share them with me!
It’s almost Valentine’s Day and we’re totally that family that buys into the whole “Hallmark Holiday” event. Yes, it’s cheesy and you should just show your love all year round, but what’s it hurt to have a little fun and go over the top with mushy stuff every now and then?!
As a wife I don’t expect expensive gifts or fancy dinners- in fact I really just like hanging out around the house and indulging in desserts and champagne. (Don’t get me wrong, flowers are appreciated too!)
As a mom, I just like having a fun day to look forward to with my little guys. We decorate the house, make fun food, give little gifts. Again, why not?!!
On top of our family celebrations, Brady also has a Valentine’s Day party at his pre-school. This year when I asked him what kind of card he wanted to give his little friends, he said, “Um. An alligator card.”
Well who could say no to this little face?!
Hmm…the Gator fan in me loved this response. The mom in me was like, “Do they sell those? Oh gosh, what is Pinterest going to suggest I spend hours making?” So, to make it easy (on me) I had my handy hubby come up with a quick Alligator card design. After he designed it (and made all the changes I requested) all I had to do was print, cut them out with “fancy” scissors, and glue some Hershey Kisses on them. I helped Brady write his name on them, and we were done!
I thought I’d share what we came up with in case anyone needs a last minute, quick Valentine for their little one. Just click on the link below the image. There are 2 cards per sheet.
Nolan is officially the age that Brady was when he was born- right around 21 months. I can’t for the life of me picture how I managed a newborn and someone Nolan’s age. I’m sure the only reason it was possible is because Brady was a completely different 21 month old than Nolan is. Brady was calm, quiet, and liked to play independently. Those are not exactly the words I’d use to describe Nolan, but he’s fantastic in his own way. He’s at such a fun age, that I wanted to take the time to write a post that could act as a “snap shot” of a typical day in the life of Nolan. I want to remember as many of his little quirks and catch phrases as possible.
Just woke up. Must bring all items from my crib downstairs.
You never quite know what kind of Nolan will wake up each day. Happy and singing a song?! Screaming and demanding you take his socks off?! Busy and talking to the pictures on his wall?! Either way, you can just about count on the fact that he will not want to get out of bed without his “night-night” (blankie) and Pup-pup (puppy.)
The other thing we can count on each morning is that Nolan will wake up HUNGRY. “Snack! Milk! Foffle! Pancake!” Just a few of the things he yells at us as soon as we come downstairs.
You must always be prepared with snacks and milk when Nolan wakes up. Keep the beast happy.
The boy enjoys his breakfast. Yogurt is always a favorite (and one of the few healthy foods he requests.)
9 times out of 10 Nolan is not satisfied with only eating his own breakfast. Generally he assesses the situation to scope out what everyone else is eating and either grabs it out of your hand/mouth or, when he’s being polite, stares you down and says, “I want some.”
At some point in the morning, you will inevitably hear Nolan say from the other room, “Yay. I did it.” To which we respond, “What did you do, Bubba?!” and he very matter of factly states, “I pooped. I stink. Stink! Stank! Stunk!” We’ve never accused him of being subtle.
Other favorite phrases, “I’m awesome” “Hot Mess!” and “Wow. I’m fast!”
When it comes to playtime, Nolan is all boy. He loves all the things his big brother loves- trains, cars, and airplanes. In fact, he plays with cars and trucks even more than Brady ever has. It’s one of the few times he’s quiet and calm…
Nolan loves to line up his “f*cks” (trucks) Still waiting on him to turn that “F” sound into a “TR”
He also reeeeally likes to drive his “f*cks” up the “Mommy Mountain. Wheee!” It hurts a little…
He usually plays really hard- running around full speed, knocking things over, singing, squealing, roaring, and then all of a sudden needs a break. Like anywhere…
On school days, Nolan and I get lots of “Mommy and Me” time.
The boy is a big fan of selfies. Like, wants to do them all the time.
Some mornings we go to Toddler Time at the library or walk the park. Other mornings we run errands- lots of Target runs.
My Target buddy- wiping down the cart like it’s his job. “Mess! Yuck! All better!”
And, most mornings he falls asleep in the car because he just can’t quite hang yet without a little morning snooze.
And of course this usually happens as we’re on our way to pick up Brady from school!
When we go into Brady’s school, Nolan gets excited and tells me “lollipop!” (Brady’s teacher made the mistake of letting Nolan choose something from her treasure box once. Since then, Brady’s school= Lollipop.) After we get home and he takes his afternoon nap, he wakes up…yup, you guessed it, HUNGRY.
Snack time Round 177…
When the weather is nice in the afternoon Nolan loves to play outside!
“Folfing” is the BEST! And he WILL throw a fit if someone leaves the house with golf clubs and he’s not invited.
Walks in the park are cool too (as long as there are snacks involved.)
One of our favorite things about Nolan is his ability to talk/sing non-stop all.day.long. He just doesn’t shut up! We joke that he narrates his own life. In a car ride he goes from describing everything he sees on the road- “f*ck! tractor! bulldozer! light!” to naming the members of our family, “mommy! daddy! Brady! Nolie! Albert! Gato!” to singing a prayer, “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Ah-men. A-men!” to labeling the parts of his body, “eyes! nose! tongue! hair!” And occasionally he’ll treat us with a little gem like this…
When dinner time comes around, Nolan is not shy about expressing his hunger. His favorite foods are pizza, tacos, “foofies” (cookies) and hummus. He doesn’t exactly crave the healthiest of foods…
After dinner, Brady and Nolan usually run around the house chasing each other or playing on their riding toys. When Daddy is home, they have dance parties and play Hide and Seek. Nolan, bless his heart, tries so hard to hide and be quiet, but usually calls himself out by loudly saying “Husssshhhh!! I hiding.” Either way, he just loves playtime with his daddy!
No one makes Bubba laugh quite like daddy.
At the end of the day Brady and Nolan take their bath together. Nolan always initiates the splashing.
He is the first to splash, and the one who cries the loudest when water gets in his eyes.
When I put Nolan’s jammies on he usually asks for powder and lotion. He specifically says, “Lotion. Feet.” (People who know my feelings on feet should be impressed that I will in fact put lotion on his little *clean* feet.) And usually as I do this he looks at me and very seriously says, “I’m fancy.” Apparently soft feet=Fancy.
Right before bed we always read books with Brady- Nolan loves to “read along” with sound effects and voices for the characters.
When it’s time to say goodnight- Nolan doesn’t leave anyone out. “Night-night, Brady. Night-night, Albert. Night-night, fan. Night-night, downstairs.” And then it’s off to thumb-sucking, blankie snuggling, dreamland…but not before a quick song that he sings to his night-light and space heater.
We love this kid so much. From morning to night, happy to sad, clean to messy, and everything in between, he keeps us laughing!
Loving this age- full of toddler energy and laughs, but still baby enough for some mommy snuggles!
We’ve been in our new home for about 3 weeks now. Honestly, it feels like a lot longer! This place just felt like home from the minute we moved in. Here’s a little recap of how our home has shaped up since December 26…
We had our closing at 8 AM the morning after Christmas. Every year Chris holds back one present for me for the day after Christmas. This year it was keys to a new house!
Shortly after we closed on the house, the movers arrived to load up our stuff from the rental house. Nolan was an excellent supervisor.
Good-bye rental house! You were good to us for those quick 8 months we lived in you. (Sadly, our awesome tree did not come with us. He found a new home in the woods out back.)
Moving into the new house…patiently waiting for the movers to bring all their toys in!
Chris and I did not waste any time unpacking. Our first night in the new house was fueled by Chardonnay as we made our way through the boxes.
Here’s what our house looks like now!
North Carolina doormat!
Here’s how she looks from the inside…
This is the hallway and stairs that are to the left when you walk in the front door. We hung our very favorite pictures that reflect all the places our family has lived- Florida, NC and Pennsylvania. (Thank you Darrah and Kisha for 2 of those!)
This leads into the boys’ playroom. (Otherwise known as formal dining room, but that’s not how this family is using this room!)
The playroom (doorway leads to the pantry and kitchen) with our Pennsylvania barn star. We also have the boys’ birth announcements hanging (gift from Auntie MB!)
The builder gave us some extra windows in this room so it is nice and bright. Perfect for a cheery playroom! (Or formal dining room someday!)
But truth be told, this room is never this neat and tidy. It usually looks like this…
Down the hall is our kitchen. I love that I can see the playroom from the kitchen now!
Next to the kitchen is a little bump out area that we added. This is where we have our dining table. We really like it because it’s close to the kitchen and next to the living room. It’s all very open. It also has a sliding door that leads to the deck out back.
This is another super bright room!
This is what you see if you look straight down the hall from the front door. Would love to eventually update our dining chairs, but for now, that’ll have to go on the wishlist.
Here’s Brady in the open area between our kitchen and living room. It’s usually where they use their riding toys and race in a circle through the playroom and kitchen.
This leads into the living room. We just hung some pictures, so now it’s really feeling more homey. (Sidenote: the pictures currently hanging are of just me, Chris and Brady! I ordered some new prints to reflect the fact that we are now a family of FOUR! Sorry for the delay, Nolan.)
Hi Albert!
We’re really happy with how everything has turned out. It’s crazy to think that less than 6 months ago this was all just a plot of uncleared land. We feel very blessed to have been a part of the process of creating our forever home. But of course, regardless of the house we’re in, home is wherever I’m with these guys!
December has been a quick and busy month. We kicked it off with some Christmas decorating and tree trimming. Our tree this year was less than stellar, but it got the job done. While we didn’t put out all of our ornaments or decorations because of our impending move, we did just enough to make it feel festive. Plus, it just doesn’t feel like Christmas without a tree filling the house with that awesome smell and glowing lights!
We had a 9 day trip to Savannah and then Daytona (Chris went to Clearwater for a work trip) in the beginning of December. It seemed like a good idea (before we got our December 26 closing date). Even though it was right in the middle of Christmas season and our big move, we had some nice visiting time with my dad and step-mom and then my mom and Grandma in Daytona. The kids loved all the time with their grandparents.
One of my favorite memories from last December was our advent calendar. Each day was filled with a fun activity or treat to experience with Brady. This year we did something similar, but we wanted the focus to be more on the act of giving and doing for others (with some fun stuff for the boys mixed in.) Here’s some of our activities we did…
Making cards and giving candy to the kids in Brady’s class.
Surprising the boys with their train track around the tree one morning.
Donating a gift for Toys 4 Tots.
Eating treats and watching a Christmas movie.
Visiting with our elderly neighbors and bringing them a Christmas present.
Picking out Christmas presents for Albert and Gato.
Getting Peppermint Chocolate Chip milkshakes from Chick-fil-A (mommy’s favorite tradition!)
Making Candy Cane Brownies for our neighbors.
Christmas presents for the trash collectors (Brady’s most favorite activity!!)
Breakfast for Dinner!
Baking cookies for Santa (frosting/sprinkles for Brady and Nolan!)
Some of our other activities included cleaning out our old toys and giving them away, putting a surprise present in the mailbox for the mailman, looking at Christmas lights, and surprising Brady’s teacher with her favorite coffee one day. I hope these are traditions we continue as it was such a joy watching the boys experience the act of giving and getting to spoil them a little along the way.
While much of the month was consumed with thoughts of our new house and tons of to-do lists, we appreciated any small moments where we got to slow down and enjoy Christmas, our boys, and our new hometown. I loved getting an afternoon to myself to do some exploring and shopping downtown.
Nothing like walking around downtown on a chilly day! (especially if you have hot coffee in hand, like I did!)
I also loved baking cupcakes and getting to go to Brady’s class celebration for Jesus’s birthday.
How cute are these kiddos?!
But, admittedly, lots of adult beverages were consumed after bedtime this month to help keep our sanity.
Even though adding a big trip and a big move to an already busy month at times made us a little, cray cray…
We are abundantly aware of the many, many blessings God has bestowed upon us. We are constantly in awe of all that He has provided for us and give thanks for the good, the bad, and the crazy every day!
We spent our Christmas with Grandpa and Nana, opening gifts, eating, and getting ready for our big move.
We hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and will have a blessed 2015!
In true Smith fashion, things are nice and crazy right now (and exciting!) We’ve been traveling for the holidays- Atlanta last week and Savannah and Daytona next week. We’ve also been putting up our Christmas decorations. Oh, and we are moving into our new house the day after Christmas! Our original closing date was scheduled for February. That got bumped up to January, and while it was a little sooner than we had planned on, we went with it. THEN, our builder came to us and said they’d like to close before the New Year. Whoa! We quickly had to make arrangements with our current rental house, look for movers, and wrap our heads around moving over Christmas break. (We also negotiated a few concessions with our builder to compensate us for accommodating their expedited schedule!) Despite the stress that comes along with yet another move (our 3rd in the last 2 years) we are pretty giddy about the idea that we’ll be starting out the new year in our forever home.
The boys look forward to our weekly trips to the house on Sundays to check out the progress. It’s always a fun game of chasing Nolan around and trying to keep him from picking up rusty nails, touching wet paint, grabbing insulation, etc… Brady has the house memorized and has been able to give a tour since it was just framing and floorboards. He loves to show us where “his” playroom is going to be and always likes to remind us that we need to remember to bring the T.V. from the old house.
Here’s some pictures of the recent progress…
Nolan checking out the new bathtub in the boys’ future bathroom.
It was really exciting when the siding started going up!
Drywall really made it start to feel like a home!
The original deck. They ended up re-building it because it was just all wrong.
The new and improved deck with the stairs moved to the side.
My favorite part of the process…seeing the kitchen cabinets installed. Not gonna lie, I almost teared up when I saw my kitchen. {The site of future Kids Cook Monday posts!}
Another exciting day was when the stonework started going up!
Paint and trim- getting closer!
The driveway was poured this week and our fireplace has a mantel. I can’t wait to see the flooring and countertops go in next. It’s hard to believe that in less than a month we can unpack our boxes for good!
our blessed adventures 