Weekending

Honestly we didn't do a ton this weekend. Mills was really not doing well on Thursday into Friday and really he's still not right. We are working with a bandaid temporary plan right now. I was able to get this super rare hard to get very expensive last resort type antibiotic on Friday thanks to an amazing guy named Jason at the Walgreens in southpark. We also took the risk and started a steroid before another drug was out of his system but we really had no choice. He has shown improvement over the weekend thank goodness. I really thought the time was close but he's keeping on for now. Not sure what happens when these meds are done. Doc also found a tumor on his kidney last week. I just want him to feel okay so long as he is okay and happy, we are happy. Right now he's pretty happy so we will take it! Ughhhhhh!! 

So yes we loved on our boy a lot this weekend. We always do so honestly this isn't odd but this is hard y'all. 

Friday evening we went to our neighborhood kids party. 

All of us spoke to Santa! 





And they had carriage rides for everyone. It was so nice!




Bringing him his water. Now he can get up to get it unlike Saturday. 


Saturday afternoon the kids and I went to an oyster roast which was super great! We picked up wings on the way home and you better believe Mills perked up with those. He likes duckworths wings!

Sunday morning lovin via Molly Anne!


We did a whole lot of nothing on Sunday. Got Christmas cards done, exercised, watched the panthers, I worked some, just stuff like that. We needed a day. 


Happy Monday!

Favorite Things / Stockings

Went out last night with the girls from Molly Anne's 3's class. I love that we still get together! We were missing three friends but very much enjoyed our time together. And Postino was amazingggg. 

Every year we do a favorite things dinner out and each bring 3 of the same to give to three friends! This year we did $15 max per gift and that was perfect. 

Each person picked three names from a bag and those are who got the gift! I ended up with Bombas socks, tarte lipstick with Belgian seashells and the wonderskin lip goodness. 

Also given was this good smelling toner...

...this teleties clip that doesn't hurt when you lean back in a seat. 

And I took small scout pouches for everyone. So fun! Tis the season!!

Pizza Casserole

This is not the healthiest dish but this pizza casserole was delicious. And I used Barilla protein pasta and half of what it called for. That helped. The extra work of the cheese sauce is definitely worth it. It took me about 35 minutes to make the whole thing. I made it late at night so I would have it for a quick dinner the next evening. And we of course had leftovers! 

Thanksgiving Weekend

Back at it today! Let December commence. We will be glad to see 2025 although I do not wish away these holidays with my kiddos. It's soooo magical for them! 

We ended up staying in Charlotte for a couple extra days so we could have lunch with Kevin's dad, brother and his girlfriend on Thanksgiving. Mills hung in the car and we checked on him a few times. And took his bed so he was extra comfy! Then we hit the road to Pawleys. We missed that dinner but still got to have fun with the fam. My parents had gone to ocean isle on Tuesday so they were already there!

Grady read most of the way down there. He loves the Who Would Win books. I think the reading spark is there for him now that he can really read in his head and understand what it all means!


Pawleys. Our second favorite place after OIB. 


My brother's next door neighbor has a seven week old golden named Sailor. 


Marsh has grown!


We came back to Ocean Isle late Thanksgiving night. It was a long day. Poppa made Molly Anne a box that she had requested. She decided the measurements and he made it. So special!


A little Black Friday shopping at OIFC. 


Then we had an afternoon cocktail hour with a bunch of friends over. I think we had 30 ish people!


Then we stopped in to Hilary's to say hey after dinner. 






Saturday was the parade and Flotilla (boat parade)! Our favorite day in OIB! Well close with July 4th!






Came back to our house and decided to order pizza for dinner and hang until flotilla. 


Went over to Ariel's for hot chocolate because they have the best spot to watch the boat parade right at their neighbors on the intercostal. 




Bunch of crazy kids!











It was a really fun weekend. Now, we have fun times to look forward to for the Christmas season!

All of the Sales

Thought it'd make things easy to round up all of the sales going on! I'm knocking out a bunch of gifts today!

Minted - 20% off and free shipping with code BF2024

Sephora - up to 30% off select items 

Tecovas - 20% off. Add the Dakotas to your list!

Serena and Lily - many savings 

Target - so many things are on sale

Oliphant Design - 30% off with code CYBER30

Lilly Pulitzer - 30% off site wide 

Anthropologie - 30% off

Athleta - 30% off

Prodoh - 30% off, the best clothes for girls and boys 

J.Crew - up to 50% off most everything 

Properly Tied - 30% off site wide, cutest boy clothing 

American Stationery - 20% off with promo code 94064. A great gift for anyone and a good time to refill your own stationery. 

Tuckernuck - 20%-30% off depending on how much you spend. Code is MERRY

Loft - 50% off

J. Crew Factory - 50%-70% off site wide plus $10 for every $50 you spend!

Hill House Home - 30% off 

Randoms

Order your stamps to send your Christmas cards with!

Take your kids to Dollar Tree and tell them they have a $5 limit. Teaches them to prioritize and budget etc. 

I'm working on wearing less number of outfits each day to limit my laundry. 

I'm also working on my kids to make them put their clothes right side out when they take them off!!!!

Working mighty hard at work right now. A lot going on as I'm wrapping up 4 projects at the same time. We have 4 certificate of occupancy's though so getting there. 

Molly Anne needs some new dresses and shirts. 

We got our family pictures back and I'm soooo glad I have these. 

That's about all I have today. Talk soon friends. I'll be back Thursday with all of my favorite sales!

Sad News

I have sad news to share. My mother in law passed away last Wednesday due to heart issues. We are sad, upset, devastated. She was getting better after her heart attack on October 13th so this was a shock when we got the phone call early that morning. 

She was such a gem of a lady. Quiet but you always knew what she was thinking. She LOVED Kevin with all of her heart. One of the biggest blessings of the previous five weeks of her being in the hospital was that Kevin and I (and his brother and dad) got so much one on one time to talk with her. She always had such good advice. She knew what it was like to be married to Kevin in a mother in law way. He is her son after all so she always had the right thing to say but was my fan a lot too. 

And she was probably my biggest blog reader after my Dad! She told me a couple of weeks ago that she had been keeping up with my blog while she was in the hospital. She hadn't turned the TV on once in there though and had talked to really only family and close friends. Still was reading this blog. Silly but meant a lot that she wanted to know all of the things!

Her service was this past Saturday. It was nice. As you can imagine it's been a rough week around here. Explaining it all to our kids while trying to keep them innocent has been interesting. They understand the circle of life but I don't want them consumed by it. They were at the funeral and burial though. 

We have had dear friends helping us by keeping the kids, bringing them to the funeral so they didn't have to be there during the visitation, taking care of Mills when we were gone all day, dropping off food, coming to the funeral events, all of the things. We are sooo thankful for our friends.

Hold your people closely. Treasure each moment. 

Thursday Finds

ONE - a cozy mock neck in many colors would make any outfit look put together. 

TWO - the cutest glasses to give or receive. 

THREE - love this sweater

FOUR - gold silver hoops 

FIVE - cropped cords in their most popular fit.  

Zion

I headed out to southern Utah in the middle of October. I went with a few others from my office and we went to visit two of our projects. You may remember if you've been around awhile that I've done a ton of Utah work. Back in years 2015-2018, I went to the Salt Lake area about every three weeks. It was great to be back, this time down south in the St George area. 

We got our work knocked out the first day and before we flew home the next day, we hiked Watchman Trail at Zion Canyon. It was stunning. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Springdale and it was perfect. We walked to Switchback Grille for dinner and that was nice. Nothing wild but fine. 

Springdale was a cool little town. I'd say you can probably do it for a night or maybe two but that's about all of the time you need. I'm not the most experienced hiker (I never hike) so I probably would be too nervous to take my kids but there were a ton of kids there. But they've all probably grown up hiking. There's just not much room for error and that makes me nervous!

Pretty view at the top. 


It wasn't a rough ride to get out there. We bounced around a few airports to look at some sites. It was good. Our pilots even hiked Zion with us. But one of them is like family to our company. 


It was an amazing one night trip and great time with my coworkers. 

Big Weekend

Well, I doubled the legal drinking age yesterday and I feel it today! 

Kids wore their camp sweatshirts for National Camp Tshirt day on Friday!

Last Friday my friends Hilary and Kellie took me to lunch at Postino. Soooo good if you're in Charlotte. 


Fancy bruschetta and roasted cauliflower. 

Friday night my friend Jen had a crockpot party where you bring a crockpot recipe to share with everyone. It was a good time. Maybe too fun?! Haha. 


Saturday morning tennis. The kids played with Coach Joe while the moms played with Coach Wade!


Saturday afternoon we had family pictures taken by Karen Morneau who is a neighbor and friend. I cannot wait to share more!

Saturday evening was pickleball potluck in the neighborhood! Played pickleball then we took a dish to the clubhouse and hung out. For a long time with fun friends and loud music!










While we were at the party, Molly Anne had a babysitter and Grady went to a birthday party for his friend Nolan. Brittany took him so he was super excited!


Sunday morning Molly Anne arrived downstairs with this box filled with adorable crafts she had made for me. Best part of my day. 


We hung out most of the day then Hilary and crew came over and brought dinner and cake. It was the perfect evening with my people. 

And the most fantastic card from Hilary. Because I do not like cats and this is just funny if you really know us!

Inside it said, "Choose wisely!"

Talk soon friends. Back to the grind today!