Sick Week

Last week I didn't blog for a few days and it was actually kinda nice to have a little break.  It was also busy in our house because Molly Anne had a stomach bug so I was working from home with a toddler most of last week.  Yeah not fun.  

We spent a lot of time hanging out and eating bland food and drinking water and G2 Gatorade because she wouldn't drink pedialyte.  

Mills knew she didn't feel good and he hung around us every day.  

I thought she was better on Wednesday so she went to Ms. Becky's half day.  All was still okay when Kevin picked her up and when I went to a girls night at Cowfish.  

When I came in from Cowfish, I went in to check on her and she had been sick again.  She kept getting sick only at night and in her crib and wouldn't wake up or cry that she needed us.  A couple of nights was like a flashback to the infant stage because I got up every couple of hours to check on her.  Poor baby.

Anyway, Thursday was my birthday and Kevin had gotten her to sign my card.  So sweet.  

She gave me this box of green beans and taco shells.  With a gift card to Nordstrom underneath it haha!  Kevin went nuts and also did J. Crew card too.  Both things I asked for.  Oh and a VV shep shirt which I have lived in since I got it!

Thursday night we had chinese take out for dinner - my request!  Then we went out on Saturday night to have an adult celebration.  I'll blog about that tomorrow.  

The good news is that she was much better by Friday but I still kept her home to rest and chill.  

I'm writing this on Sunday night and so far so good today.  We finally introduced milk to her 48 hours after she had last been sick.  Whew.  

So that was last week.  I'll post about our weekend tomorrow!

Holiday Traditions

My friend Ashley and I were talking the other day about our holiday plans so it got me thinking...

Once you get married, holidays become more difficult don't they?  

You want to spend them with your husband but each of you have sets of parents to be with too.  And then add in siblings and what they are doing with their family or their in laws.  It gets complicated and to be frank, not everyone gets their way on how the holiday is going to go.  

In 2013 and 2014 we spent Easter and Thanksgiving in Charlotte with Kevin's parents and went to Maryland for Christmas to be with my parents.  My parents came down for Thanksgiving too.  Two out of three holidays those years, we were in Charlotte.

(us with our parents)

But in 2015, Molly Anne was born so Kevin and I had to make a decision.  We decided to be home for Easter, go to Pawleys Island (to my brother's) for Thanksgiving and be home for Christmas.  We thought it was important that even though she was so young, she woke up in HER home for Christmas. 

I'm going to do a separate post on Christmas traditions and what all that entails and looks like for this year!

How do you all solve the family dilemma of seeing everyone for every holiday and keeping everyone happy?    

Oyster Roast and Pig Pickin' and Southern Christmas Show

We had a busy weekend!  And my morning started at 4:30am today because of Elmo randomly starting to play on Kevin's computer in his office.  Even more exciting, I have a physical this morning and have to fast for 5 hours which is really like 16 hours since I ate dinner.  Haha!  

Friday night we had an Oyster Roast and Pig Pickin' that benefitted the North Carolina Heroes Fund.  It was a wonderful event that our friends Kristen and Lauren put together.  North Carolina Heroes Fund fills the gap from when our military comes home until they get another job.  They provide car payments, utility payments, rent, etc. to make the transition a bit easier.

The event was held at Quail Hollow Club and it was simply gorgeous.  Kevin helped sponsor the event and the guys at my office did as well.  There were other corporate sponsors that were overly generous.  It was a wonderful evening.

Our group of girlfriends. 

Afterwards, we went home and Kevin built a fire out back and we stayed out there until 1am.  Haha. It was the right decision at the time by 7am Molly Anne time came early!

Saturday we were super lazy all morning.  We didn't even leave the house but we did play a lot!

Afternoon snack time outside as usual. 

Kevin's parents called and asked us to go to dinner at Hawthorne's with them and Kendall so we did that!

Every time we go to Hawthornes we take this picture.  I love to compare it to the others to see how much the girls have grown.  I don't have time today to go back and compare but I will soon!

Sunday morning...

Then Molly Anne and I went to the Southern Christmas Show in Charlotte.  It was a fun girls morning full of lots of excitement...specifically changing diapers in the back of the car when I arrived and only having spare shorts in my diaper bag, not pants.  Girls, change your spare clothes out to be season specific!  Lesson learned! ;)

First time in a raincoat!  The whole coat and car seat thing is nuts but I understand why.  It's just crazy to put them in a coat for a 2 second walk to the car, then take it off of them.  I have been just keeping a blanket in the car to drape over her.  

She basically fell in love with being at the Christmas show.  She loved the lights and this dancing dog and all of the action!

She refused to keep her shoes on at all so she rode around with her leg in the air and no shoes on.  Mother of the year, I know.  People made comments mostly about how cute she was but some about how her feet must be cold.  I said, "well she won't keep them on and I'm tired of picking them up in a crowded area!!!"  

@theTipsyBunny had their hair bows there so we had to go check them out!  Cutest bows!

Lil queenie was pretty much over it at this point.

And it was nap time so we jetted home for a good few hour nap!  

A weekend well spent!  

Five Things

1.  Today is Veterans Day!  Thank you to all of our veterans and their caregivers for keeping us free and safe.  They are the very best.  In honor of this special day, I wanted to tell you about a new foundation.  Susan Tillis is the wife of Senator Thom Tillis and is a wonderful lady.  She announced that her foundation has been founded and I wanted to let you all know about it!  See her post below that she put on facebook.  Here is the link:

Dear Friends,

I am thrilled to share that I have recently founded The Susan M. Tillis Foundation to empower and serve our nation’s military and veteran families. When my husband, Thom Tillis, was sworn in as a United States Senator, I had a firsthand look at the journey that many of our nation’s heroes face. It was on my first visit to Walter Reed Army Hospital that I truly encountered some of the day to day challenges our military families endure. Thom and I have worked hard to instill appreciation for the selfless sacrifice of our military in our own family, and feel blessed to ask you to join me in this most important mission.

The Susan M. Tillis Foundation will provide tangible support to young active duty military families, many that often have an average income of just $21,000 per year. By providing equipment, resources, and much needed items, we are able to help lessen the load for those that sacrifice so much to keep us free. Fort Bragg’s Womack Medical Center delivers approximately 2000 babies per year. The majority of these families face long separations due to deployment, training, and medical issues. The Susan M. Tillis Foundation salutes these heroes that keep us free, and asks you to join with us in ensuring they feel our support.

Thank you for joining with me in this vital mission. I hope you will join me in donating today: https://susantillis.reasonfunding.com/digigive/campaign/…

With every best wish,

Susan

2.  I literally just got off the plane this morning at 6am from a red eye back from Salt Lake.  I flew there yesterday morning and back over night.  It's a true 24 hour trip with zero sleep but always worth it to be back home playing "mama!"  (even those she's at Ms. Becky's now, I got to see her this morning and take her over there!)

3.  RANDOM but I met Ms. America at a gas station at 9pm last night in Salt Lake City.  Not Miss America, but Ms. America.  It's for ages 26 and older.  Let me tell yall - she was the absolute sweetest.  It's kinda a long story of how I got talking to she and her friend but basically he had a Ferrari and I told him I should take a picture of it for my husband which I never did but the three of us ended up talking for about 15 minutes.  She couldn't have been nicer. And now we're facebook friends, she's going to come to Charlotte at some point to see her friend and get in touch with me and she said she loved me last night ha!  She was super super super sweet and most importantly doing really great things for America!  PS - isn't she gorgeous?!!

4.  I had time after my meeting before going to the airport so I slipped by my favorite mall - City Creek.  It spans two blocks of the SLC downtown and the roof that you see in the below picture opens and closes based on how nice the weather is.  There is also a creek running through it.  Fancy!

5.  Three little girls walking the hood earlier this week!!!

My thoughts...

I really tried not to do a hard core political post but I had to jot a few things down for my own memory and honestly to just put things on "paper" so I'd feel better.  So read if you want to read, and don't if you don't want to.  I know we all don't agree and that's what makes our world go round.  These are just my opinions or thoughts.  

1.  Obviously I am happy with the outcome of the election and let me tell you why.  There are two main things I personally care about that are near and dear to me - small businesses and Veterans.  Small businesses because my Dad, brother and husband all own one and Veterans because close family and friends are Veterans and this country needs to do something better for those that are fighting to keep you and me safe.  Those are two of my thoughts and I truly think this country needed change and I'm looking forward to it.  The rest, I'll keep to myself.

2.  I saw all of these posts on Facebook about telling your children the outcome of the election.  I truly don't understand that because in my case, Molly Anne is one.  She doesn't have a clue about any of it and we prefer to keep her innocent and will teach her about these important things as she gets older.  As far as older children, I think you must teach them that it was an election, one person wins and one person loses and we must respect the President no matter what.  Simple as that.  

3.  As far as it being a male versus female president.  I didn't want Hillary to win just because she's a female.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a ra-ra-ra woman kinda gal (don't forget I work in a field of all males so I'm all about women earning and being equal to menl!).  But Molly Anne has plenty of successful, powerful, wonderful women in her life.  I don't need a female president to show Molly Anne that she's amazing!  Molly Anne still can be anything she wants to be in life because we will give her the confidence to do so, not because we have a female president.    

4.  Why did Hillary leave all of her supporters hanging at 3am and not give a speech until 11:30am?  That's messed up.  If I had been standing there and supported her through all of this, I would have been so mad.  

5.  The results are the results.  Clearly there are people in this country that like what they think Trump will do and they showed up yesterday.  And...you don't have to like the guy to like what he's hopefully going to do for our country.

Okay thanks bye!

Brick and Shingles

Just a little house update.  This is a picture of the actual shingles, brick and mortar our house will be!  The brick will have a mortar smear all of it which means they are purposely sloppy with the mortar and they spread it over the brick a bit.  It's a way to make it a little more white without painting or using lime wash.  

Plans are in for HOA approval as of November 1st so we are hoping we can break ground by December 1st.  We visited the lot the other day and the surveyor has staked property corners and our house corners.  Very cool!!! 

Election Day

Today we are all given the right and privilege to vote!  I purposely didn't early vote because I wanted to vote on Election Day.  Can't wait to watch all of the results come in.  Kevin and I have been obsessed with following the election via FoxNews.  After today, may we all come together as a nation no matter which candidate wins.  Go vote!