Favorite back to school tradition

Before I even had school age kids, a friend told me about a really special tradition she started with each of her kids, and I've started the same one with my kids.  I'm so glad she shared!

Before school starts, I take each boy by himself to get school supplies and a special treat while school supply shopping.  I love it!!  And so do the boys.  This is the first year Walker got to go. :)

It's just a little thing, but that alone time is so incredibly important and special.  And school supplies are the best.

Happy school year everyone! 

Summer Fun

^fun sculpture built for kids to play on at the NC Art Museum

This has been such a great summer!  The polar opposite of last summer when I was throwing up every day from secretly being pregnant with Sadie while Noel was prepping for the bar.  Oh the difference a year makes.....yayy!!

Summer is winding down a little too quickly (less than 2 weeks) and I'm trying to decide if there's anything left to do that we haven't done.

Here in NC we've gone to the beach a few times, done all the story times, read tons of picture books and chapter books, and have seen several shows. 

The boys have been to preschool camp, golf camp, flag football camp, tennis camp, and basketball camp...all the camps!!

We've done the pool, parks, science museum, baseball games, bowling, putt putting, visited family, and eaten all the ice cream!! 

The boys have played tons in the yard and drawn hundreds of pictures....why does summer have to end?

In these next 2 weeks, I'm trying to slow things down a little bit to prep for the new school year- dejunking and organizing things as well.  But!! is there anything you've done this summer that you loved that we should add to our "DO before school starts" list?!

Happy Summer!

Skirts with stretchy waists

I'm still at the point, post-baby, where I'm not loving zippers.  Some people drop weight like crazy while nursing, but I tend to drop mine *after* I stop nursing (crossing fingers it goes the same this go around.)

Anyway, because of that and because summers in NC are brutal (I saw people outside the other day wearing jeans and I thought-HOW??!), skirts with stretchy waists are my everything.

If you're in the same boat as me, or just like stretchy waist skirts (because, who doesn't??!),  I thought I'd put together a few cute ones for you to take a look at.  Honestly, I've googled "skirts with elastic waists" so many times these past few months.

Here are the links for the skirts above!  And if you see any you love, please send them my way! Or, if want to have a virtual shopping date and talk about which tops should be matched up with these, let's do it! :) 

Top to bottom: L to R

Green, Blue, Mustard

Gingham, Multicolor

Save

This is going to save my motherhood

I was in Greenville a few weeks ago, feeling very nostalgic since I was in my old college town, when I started thinking...

I absolutely loved my college days.  I was in school before iPhones and social media were a thing, and I felt like I really lived those years. 

I had a thought-"that's what I want my motherhood to be like!"  I truly love being a mom-it's the greatest gig in the world.  These years are physically exhausting, and yes-there are challenges, of course-but they're also amazing (I'm still the coolest to them!) and I know this time is going to pass by way too fast.  I want to look back on these years and think....I really lived those years when my kids were young.

So!  What to do?  How to change?  

For the past few weeks, I've only checked email and social media in the morning for just a few minutes before I get up with the kids and at night after I put them down for bed.

Since I've had baby,  I've been spending a huge chunk of my time sitting and nursing.  As I would sit, I would scroll through social media, and pretty soon, it became an actual habit to grab my phone and scroll.  (By the way, social media scrolling during nighttime/early morning newborn feedings is an actual lifesaver, so there's that...)  

Waiting in the Chick Fil A line, I would grab my phone to scroll through Facebook.  Sitting down to feed Sadie, I would scroll through Instagram.  Getting in the car, I would check my email before we drove away.

The absolute worst. What a waste of time.  

I was one of the last people to get an iPhone, (seriously I had the free phone from Verizon for FOREVER), and I vowed I would never become addicted to it.  I even turned off all my notifications immediately after getting it.

Don't get me wrong!  I love social media.  I was just telling my friend, Anna, that the only thing I didn't enjoy about Chip and JoAnna's book was that they talked about never watching tv.  I think that's weird considering the reason they have the lifestyle they do is because people watch tv!!  So I'm not one of those bloggers knocking social media.

I love seeing new babies, funny memes, cute outfit ideas, and exchanging ideas. I just prefer checking in at the end of the day instead of letting it become a huge part of my day.

I have to tell you....these past few weeks have been amazing.  I feel less frustrated, and as a result-more patient.  When I feed Sadie, I read my book or read books to the boys.  I have done ten times more in the past 2 weeks than I've done in the weeks before.
 
I was telling my sister about this and I asked her, "you know what I've missed?" And she said, "nothing?!".....that's right...absolutely nothing from social media during the day.  

At the end of the day, it is more important for me to answer with all my energy what my 3rd favorite meat eating dinosaur is than to see what a random person is eating for lunch.  It is more important for me to meet a new person in the smoothie line and listen to their interesting story than to scroll through Twitter a couple of times.

At the end of the day, I feel like I've spent my time wisely and have had less "I need to do much better tomorrow" days.  

While cleaning out a dresser the other day, I found a letter from my friend, Mary Beth, that she wrote me from France. She included the quote from Victor Hugo, 

"It is nothing to die.  It is frightful not to live."

And that's what I want to do!  Live the absolute best life I can.

Find out how to live your best life!  Figure out what you might need to tweak in your life, and do it! 

Have a great week y'all.

Last Things...

The last-


Thing I bought-

This cute wrapping paper from Home Goods.  I'm in love with wrapping paper and Home Goods and TJMaxx has some good stuff.  

Thing I laughed at-

Well...maybe not the last thing..... but still funny.  I explain to Crew during the week, every week, that we sit still and sit quietly during church so we can think about Jesus.  Also, because we're grateful for Him, and so others can think about Him.  I take and sit with all the kids by myself each Sunday because Noel sits on the stand, and they usually do a great job. This past Sunday, I whispered to Crew that I was so proud of him for being quiet and that Jesus was proud of him too.  He responded (loudly), 

"Jesus not here!! Jesus not have a CAR!!!"

Cute.  Also funny.  But so loud.

Show I watched on Netflix-

While eating chocolate, of course.  I thought it was great, honestly.  I think they did a great job portraying the truly damaging effects of anorexia on not only the individual, but the entire family.  Side note:  there is a scene in the movie, where the kids go to an art exhibit, and it is breathtakingly beautiful. 

Dress I swooned over-

This one from ASOS.  I do love a good ruffle and this color is IT.  Debating on whether to get it now- even though I can't really wear it for a long time until I'm done nursing Sadie.        

Color nail polish I tried-

Mad for Madness Sake.  Sticking with thinking pink.  I won a giveaway (I actually won something yay!!!) from my go-to beauty expert and sweet friend, Hannah.  I can't wait to show you everything in the box, but this nail polish was in there and it is SO cute!

Picture I took that I can NOT stop looking at-

I really can't.  It's so much sweetness.  Walker loves his little baby so much.  He's always playing, reading, and singing with her.  It's the absolute best.

Unselfie

Oh my gosh-isn't this the truth?  

Parenting really is such a wonderful/interesting/exhausting/exhilarating thing.  With all sorts of advice coming our way, it can also be overwhelming.

I read a book this month called Unselfie, that teaches parents how to raise their children to be more empathetic, and therefore more successful in life.

I liked it and I'm glad I read it, but it was a little....much.  

There were tons of thoughts, ideas, and practices to implement with your children.  The author also gave takeaways to practice with your children, but there were way too many to actually apply, in my opinion.

Here are a few of my thoughts from the book....

*It really is extremely important for children to understand how to sense how other people are feeling. 

            -The biggest way to do this (reduced to one sentence instead of an entire section) is to point it out to your children.  Sometimes quickly and sometimes it needs to be discussed. Did you see that what you did made him sad?  Do you like to feel sad?  Things like that.

*Find a way for your child to decompress after school and/or during a busy time.

             -I think this is super important for all ages...adults and kids...to figure out.  Life can get a little crazy and it's good to have a spot in the house or an activity that is good for winding down.

*I do love her idea of starting a kindness journal.

              -Yes, this is one more thing for parents to supervise, but! with this, kids can record, at the end of the week, something/multiple things they did for someone else.  It's a great idea for keeping service in the forefront of their minds, I think.  This can also put family service projects to the top of the priority list.

*She also mentioned the idea of a family meeting each week.

              -This is actually a concept that our church has focused on for a while.  We hold family council meetings every week (super short, of course, because...4 kids...) where we talk about what's going on for the week. Schedules/thoughts/expectations/etc.

Those are my main thoughts.  Happy Parenting!

Day to Night + a few Links

We were at the beach earlier this week, so I'm currently unpacking and wearing all the "bottom of the barrel" clothes because of all the laundry happening over here, but here ^ is a fun Day to Night outfit and a few links for your Friday!

*I'm currently in to all things with ruffles and tassels and this shirt from SheIn is the perfect match for just that.  (I've found with items from SheIn, I like to go up one size from my normal size.)  I also think this top, this dress, and this skirt are super cute!

*My boys LOVE these guys and thought this was hilarious.  (I'm the sunscreen lady btw.)  As great as these scripted videos may be, nothing beats this classic home video.  We just revisited it the other day and laughed just as hard as we did the first time we saw it.

*One day, I want an island in my kitchen that's so big I can lay on it.  I don't care about the rest of the house....just that island in the kitchen.  This is a pretty great one (and I love how it has the desk space in the kitchen as well.)  Ahhhh dreamy!

*These turns!!!! Also dreamy.

I hope y'all have a GREAT weekend!!

Top: c/o SheIn

Bald Head Island

Noel and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on June 1.  Both of these pictures were taken at the Raleigh LDS temple.....10 years brought a lot of fun changes for our family!

Noel and I always said, when we first got married, that we'd spend our 10 year anniversary in London or on some fancy island.  Those years went by pretty fast.  Being fresh out of law school and having 4 little children, one of them a newborn, that London/fancy island trip didn't happen, but we did take the whole crew down to Bald Head Island.

We loved it so much that we're planning on going back every year from now on.  The island is beautiful and so nicely secluded from everyone and everything.  When we were leaving the island, and came up on all the restaurants and people and traffic, we realized just how nice it was to be away from all of that for a while.

Here's a short little video of our trip full of fun, sand, and dabbing.

Baby Sae's Blessing Day

We had baby Sadie's blessing on Mother's Day and it was such a special day.  Our family and friends joined us at church where Noel gave our sweet precious girl the most beautiful blessing and afterwards we had lunch at our house.  Here are some pictures from the day.

^Crew boo was NOT having any kind of pictures. 

^the group after the blessing at church

^It was so awesome having all my siblings with me

^I had to document that my brother brought his own Pepsi to my house.  The sign of a person from New Bern. (New Bern is the home of Pepsi btw)

Read with Me

I had the great privilege of hosting story time at Read With Me yesterday.  Read With Me is a children's book and art shop in downtown Raleigh and it is the CUTEST shop you will ever see. The owner, Christine, was absolutely delightful, and her shop was a beautiful reflection of her creativity and kindness.

During story time, the children and I read books and sang songs about animals, and afterwards, there was an option to stay for a craft.  The craft went along with our animal theme and was hosted by their fun, in-house art teacher.  There were so many smiles that morning!

I'm always looking for fun things to do with my kids and neat places to take them.  I'm so excited that this wonderful shop is now open! They are offering summer camps all summer long.....I was so happy to see that there will be some offered through August.  I feel like most camps end in July and it's way too hot for even the pool by the end of the summer, so these will be perfect! 

Here are a few pictures from our morning.  What a happy morning it was!  A huge thanks to those of you who came out for it....it was so great seeing you and your sweet kids!  

And thank you to my sweet friend, Katelynn, for coming with me to sit with my sweethearts and for taking these pictures!