White House Christmas

My parents got to do something super special on Monday afternoon!  They drove up to DC which is only a few hours from them.  They had lunch at Old Ebbitt Grill then went over to the White House for a tour!  Of course the White House is all decorated for Christmas so it was extra beautiful! 


Here they are!  They said it was absolutely gorgeous.  Dad told me he dressed up in case he saw Ivanka!  Haha!


Aren't they cute?!


I love that they got to go do something fun like this together!


A very special thank you to my dear friend Sarah who made all of this happen!  xo

Molly Anne at almost 2.5!

Thought it’d be fun to have a little Molly Anne update!

1.  She is wearing 2T in all clothes (except 18 month in smocked things) and 3T in pajamas.  She has an opinion of what she wants to wear but will end up wearing what I put her in. Ha!  Lately she is into wearing dresses!  She’s about 31 pounds ish. Not sure of her height but I’d expect she’s still in the mid percentile for that. 

2.  One morning a couple of weeks ago when I was leaving to go to the airport she said, “mama I need you!”  She didn’t want me to go. And she really wanted to go to the airport and Utah with me.  We always have little separation issues on Monday mornings, I say “we” meaning both of us!

3.  She has lots of favorite little terms right now but geez this girl doesn’t miss a beat.  “I sorry for talkin’ to you dat way!”  She and Kevin do this thing where they say what the other one is saying at the same time. They’re crazy.  Every time she walks in the garage she yells, “dah” to see how it echos.  When we walk in the house at the end of the day she says, “heeeeey buuuubba” to Mills and loves on him for a second.   When I change her diaper sometimes she says, “mama you bless my heart.”  

4.  The other day we were leaving a Christmas brunch and we were walking down the driveway and she randomly asked, “Where’s Uncle Mac?!”  It completely caught me off guard so I quickly said, “he’s not here (at the party)!”  I should have told her that he was in heaven. We never really had this conversation with her back in October but maybe we should have. 

5.  She loves singing and dancing.  Not sure about her rhythm though, she may have gotten that from our side of the family. Sorry Molly Anne.  

6.  She’s very into puzzles and doing her numbers game on my iPad. The app has actually been really helpful for her learning her numbers, odd ones versus even etc.  

7.  She is in the tub at 6:30 every night, bed by 7:00pm. She usually gets up between 6:30-7:00am.  Nap is 12:15/12:30 to about 2:30/3:30 depending.  She is a true testament to the old saying, “the more she sleeps, the more she sleeps!”

8.  She remembers EVERYTHING. I could tell her one little thing and a month later, she remembers it and randomly brings it up. 

9.  Mills - this dog/part human is a saint. He lets her do anything she wants to him. She climbs on him, pulls his tail, rides him like a horse, puts make up on him, he is amazing.  She loves him something fierce.  

10.  When Kevin was rocking her to bed one night when I was gone, she told him - ”I’m your baby. I’m mama’s baby and Millsy’s baby - and you love me the most.” 12/13/17. I love that they get these sweet moments together when I’m not all up in their biz! ;)

That’s all I have for now.  I’m sure I’ll think of something later that I forgot.  

Christmas #1

I feel like all weekend on social media I saw pictures of families having Christmas with one side of their families.  It was fun to get our festivities started on Friday night with Kevin's side of the family and it was good to spread it out for Molly Anne.  She had a blast playing with all of her new toys all weekend!  


This Elsa sing a along was the star of the show.  She is obsessed!  




We gave Kendall lots of play doh treats and some books!  


Actually this Elsa towel was a pretty big highlight too!  She wore it around the house all weekend.  

She took opening presents very seriously!

Saturday morning we went to Nora Beth's 3rd birthday party! 

Saturday night we went to a new place for dinner called the Smoke Pit.  I don't think I've ever seen Molly Anne eat so much in her life!  She loved it.  And it was super fast so that was awesome.  


Yesterday I found my old sorority pictures and had fun texting some of those out to my girls.  Kimmy and I were always double trouble!


Check out my parents haha!  Old school yall!  Dad said he felt old seeing that. 


Hope everyone has a good week!

Five on Friday - Christmas Parties

It's been quite a week.  Full of fun and chaos!  Everything Christmas hit this week so I'm here to share what we've been up to. 

ONE:
We have an annual ladies luncheon at work with a white elephant swap.  We had a $20 limit so I took this candle and a $5 gift card to Starbucks as my gift to give and I ended up with a $20 Home Goods card!  We had Panera brought in and had a nice time with the ladies in the office!



TWO:
Tuesday night we had our company party at Quail Hollow Club.  It was gorgeous and everything was perfect.  Our company is pretty small and since I've worked there forever, we all know each other's spouses very well.  It's always good to see everyone.  It really is my other family!  The after party was at Alan's house and their house is absolutely stunning.  It made me feel like we missed some things on our house but they're working with a different budget ha!

THREE:
On Wednesday I went to Texas and got back about 11pm.  If you look closely at the second window from the left, you can see a deer head.  There were four deer in our front yard hanging out when we got home.  We've only seen deer once or twice in our backyard and never in our front yard.  It was pretty crazy!

FOUR:
Yesterday I took my girl to the playground because it was so nice out and she LOVES the playground in our new hood.  Running through the field is one of her very favorite things to do and yesterday we were running after each other and she kept saying, "you're kiddin' me!"  It was fun! 


She also conquered the "rock wall."  She's always tried to make it up there but hasn't been able to so once she did it yesterday, she did it about 50 more times!


I made some baked spaghetti for dinner last night which actually was pretty good.  While I was cooking, this one stayed entertained with these magnetic blocks.  Have you all ever heard of them?  I hadn't but my friend Lisa who knows about good kid stuff gave them to Molly Anne.  She really likes them!  Good for restaurants etc where you want them entertained. 



FIVE:
Last night we had our final bunco evening of 2017 and we did a favorite things gift swap.  Everyone brought three of the same item and each item had to be about $15-20.  I brought some gold tassel earrings from J. Crew! 

The way it works is there are two hats of names.  First hat has everyone's name in it one time.  Second hat has everyone's name in it three times.  Someone starts by choosing one person from the first hat.  This is the person that hands out their favorite things first!  They explain why they brought what they brought and then they choose out of the second hat the three girls that get their favorite thing!  Then she picks out of the first hat to see who goes next!

How fun is that?!

Sarah always has the best food - sushi from Cowfish and a meat and cheese platter from Reid's! 

This is what I went home with - a necklace from Katie, a Lilly cup and Starbucks card from Mindy and a Nest candle and Kiel's pear lip balm from Margot!  So fun!  

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

House Update - Sewer Flood, Gas Leak, Backyard, Hardwoods Color

Whew, yesterday I went to Texas for the day.  Flew into Dallas then drove a couple hours, looked at a market, drove another hour and a half  back towards Dallas to look at another market then back to the airport.  Ate McDonalds in our lap at 2:30 for lunch.  One of those days.  But a good, productive day!  

Here are some updates on the house, mainly for my record!  

The great flood of 2017 on Friday, December 8th.  It was actually a sewer back up but it was just dirty water because no one has used sewer water in our house yet. The low point of our house for sewer is the powder room and that toilet had been removed so the hardwoods could be installed that day.  Doesn’t matter if the toilet was there or not, the pipe would have overflowed either way.  Friday night the plumber came out and stopped the flood.  The cleanout at the street was dry so clearly there was an issue between our house and the street.  

On Saturday morning they ripped out all of the affected hardwoods so the floor underneath could dry for a few days.  It was about $1,000 worth of materials plus labor to rip out and install back.  Thankfully the water didn’t get higher than the cabinets which sit off the floor 3/4” so the hardwoods can go under them.  



Monday, they tried to camera it but the line was too dirty so they knew where the issue was from that.  The dig it up this week and the pipe had been crushed.  Truly a plain ole construction issue and that stuff happens.  Lots of vehicles and construction equipment had run over that area which could have caused it or the pipe didn’t have proper compaction over it. Hard to tell.  So now they will replace that section of pipe next week. 




In other news, our backyard has cleaned right up with the dirt we brought in and some grading.  We are pleased with how it has turned out.  Oh and railing is up on the porch. 



The gas leak update - the hvac guy Ivan that ran the line found that source too.  Under the slate, concrete pad and masonry of course. The line had split open for some reason whether it was a certain load on it or just simply a failure above the line.  He repaired it and now the masonry and tile guys will have to come back to repair the hole.  Never easy!  But thankful this happened when it did due to the gas fumes.  





Hardwood stain choices.  Kevin and I met Mike (our flooring guy) over at the house on Tuesday to figure this out after staring at the deck for days.  Once you put poly over the stain, it looks like when you first put stain on the floor (like when it’s wet).   So it was important to not look at them after he tested them and dried. We had to look at them while they were wet.  This changed our mind so I’m glad he told us this.  



L to R - Provincial, 50/50 Provincial and Dark Walnut is on the right side of the Provincial sample, Dark Walnut, Early American, Special Walnut, Provincial 

We were between the right two - Special Walnut and Provincial.  

We decided on Special Walnut!

Another crazy day today and another one tomorrow. Then a day to recover before more chaos begins.  Fa la la la la!  

Post Office, Cute Pic, Shutter Color Vote

Yesterday after I got Molly Anne at Becky’s, I decided to take her to the post office.  I know that doesn’t sound too thrilling but I thought it would be a nice little learning experience.  Molly Anne loves getting the mail everyday so yesterday she learned how the mail gets to our mailbox.  She started by putting each individual envelope in but then decided quickly that she could put a huge stack in and do it faster ha!  It was fun and she loved mailing our cards.  



I just love this picture of her from this past weekend.  She was taking care of her bunny.  One of our favorite things she says is, “mama, I gonna be a baby mama today!”  It’s adorable how she says it.  Y’all like our Christmas tree?  Molly Anne thinks it is magical!  Haha!



Can I get a little vote on our shutter color?  We are already leaning towards one but I won’t tell you which one.  Please vote in the comments!  Left is SW Gibraltar and is more gray.  Right is SW Outerspaxe and is more blue. 

So, Left or Right?!

I’m off to Texas for the day today.  It was a late night at our company party and an early morning.  I don’t function well on 5-6 hours of sleep but that’s all I’m getting every night this week.  Final push of the year! 

A Crafty Night Turned Into House Chaos

Last night, we had our annual craft night with a few of my neighborhood friends, this time at Regina's house!  Lisa brought the craft and it was a  reindeer that was so funny to make.  We laughed the whole time!  We decided that even though it said it was for ages 5+, it was really more for 35 and up!  Or maybe for people that hadn't been drinking haha!

About 10pm they said let's go see your new house so we jumped in the car and rode over there.  We walked in the house and bam, major gas smell!  Called Dad first because he always answers and knows what to do ha!  I'm not sure why it didn't occur to me to call 911 immediately but I was just in shock by the whole situation.  I called the gas company first and they dispatched their on call technician.  Depending on where he lives is how long it takes for him to come.  They said I should call the fire department for a faster response.  Called the non emergency line for the station down the street and they were so kind to come over.

They spent lots of time checking it out and ultimately they decided it had to do with the gas lanterns but couldn't find exactly where it was.  They turned off the gas at the meter and said talk to the gas company when they get there.  The guys were SO nice.  And of course the girls were like ahhhh we have to get a picture on the truck so they took our picture and dealt with us four crazy girls!  It was funny!  


Then the gas company arrived as the fire truck turned around to come back by the house.  The firemen jumped back out of the truck and explained what they had found to the nice man.  They left and the gas guy checked everything out.  He isolated it to the line that feeds our gas lanterns.  He turned that line off, kept the rest of the house on and told me to have our HVAC guy come out to fix the leak.  Basically gas was pouring out of that line and it made the whole house in and out smell.  


We are incredibly thankful that we happened to go over there and find this.  I mean what are the chances?  Thank God the house didn't blow up, seriously.  The firemen were like umm this is a big deal, next time call 911 immediately.  Less learned.  I got home at midnight and didn't sleep all of last night because I was still so worried.  Went back over this morning early to meet our contractor and the HVAC guy showed up shortly after.  Whew.  Now, we gotta get it fixed.............!!!  Something else to add to the list....sewer back up on Friday night, gas leak on Monday.....wanna move in some day soon!  Glad this stuff is happening without us living there.