photo every hour | Saturday-ish

Saturday was a FULL day. it started early and went almost into midnight.  I snapped this picture of the twins playing quietly in their beds- their alarm clock doesn't light up until 7:45am and so if they wake before then (which usually happens) they read books or play quietly until its time to get up.

(we use this clock and it works GREAT! you can also see the rest of Parker + Jolie's room HERE)

I decided after sending a picture of my "unicorn coffee" mug to my dad that.. hey I haven't done my photo every hour post in awhile and we have a fun day ahead, why not!

I probably have never been so successful in documenting our day.. I was pretty proud because normally I forget an hour here and there and have to start over (forehead slap).  in attempt to stay awake at 5am nursing Brady, I started cleaning out the photos on my phone and then went and deleted the entire 2000+ photos in the "recently deleted" album.. well in my exhaustion I ended up getting rid of a couple photos for this post and didn't realize it until the next morning.  GOOD thing is that I am a creature of habit, so I was able to recreate some of those photos on Sunday. 

7AM

 8AM

 9AM

this child.. doesn't usually get up before 9am, and often not until ten in the morning!

I have no secrets on ways to get my kid to do this glorious act of sleeping- Parker was the worst sleeper EVER and still wakes me about twice a night just for a hug:)

 10AM

Baker was here.

 11AM

finally leaving the house!  off to brunch and start the day!

 12PM

crab cake benedict! this was one that I deleted on saturday.. but sunday I met a few of my favorite gal pals for brunch (again!) and snapped a pic of my repeat breakfast!

 1PM

my favorite little girls on this earth!

wearing these amazing boyfriend overalls HERE, my top is old but find a similar one HERE and the best fitting sunglasses I have ever owned are from Diff Eyewear.  (use code AMBER25 for a discount!)  how fun are the colored lenses for summer?!

..and my dainty layered bar necklaces are from jays+jewels

 2PM

shoes + 4 babies at a very busy old navy.  not our best move, but all hands on deck and a polite stranger that helped keep Baker entertained while waiting in a long line to check out! 

 3PM

quick pickmeup after about forty seven errands run whilst herding cats.. 

what should really be pictured here is the butterfinger + peanut butter custard thing I was seduced into eating by the picture on the board at Sonic, but on Sunday I made a better decision with a yogurt from Starbucks.

 4PM

giant Sonic beverages, an empty custard cup, and a hungry babe.  we sat in the church parking lot and let the girls climb all over the car while I nursed Brady before heading inside for church at 5PM.

Brady's paci clip HERE + my FAVorite baby tee HERE + baby harems HERE

 5PM

not before stopping at Starbucks- duh.

church + my sleepy baby in the wrap!

find my wrap HERE + my new favorite watch HERE + Brady's favorite paci HERE

 6PM

back to the car we go!

 7PM

we went to grab a bite to eat and I ate my pizza while nursing Brady.  Jordan and I locked eyes in and amongst the controlled chaos and he said "you are a rock star" picked up my phone and snapped the sweetest picture of me and Brady in the dark corner of the restaurant.. of course I deleted it.

so.. here is Brady and I (on Sunday) while eating ice cream after dropping the girls off with their BB and Papa for the night.  no chaos.  no stress. but still sweet.. and still eating while nursing.

story of my breastfeeding life.

 8PM

I'm crying tears of thanks after our waiter told us that someone had picked up the check.  I'm so thankful for that sweet selfless act and these five people that make my world go round.

 9PM

more chaos.. the twins helped me get Brady in the bath after we got home. all the hands and water everywhere just made me sweat!  I snapped a picture of Brady patiently enduring a scrub down by Jolie, but alas.. deleted.  (I'm so annoyed with myself).

bath time for me and Brady happened again on Sunday night, anyway.

 10PM

good night for Mr. Brady!

I ended up falling asleep on the couch around 11pm and crawled into bed about midnight.

its Monday again and I'm already counting down to the weekend!  

XO!

photo every hour | spa day + then some

eight.

slow to start.. I could have slept until noon- I say that to myself every single morning as I roll out of bed.  

but I had amazing plans ahead of me and was so excited to get the day started!

with coffee of course.

 nine.

I am SO ready for the start of my spa day!  Brittany picked me up at 9:30am and our first stop, naturally, was Starbucks.

you can snag my tee here and my yoga pants here

 ten. 

we have arrived!  the entire spa requires that you do not wear shoes, as well as required "uniforms" on the second and third floor of the spa (the most flattering t-shirt and giant workout shorts you can imagine).  we had a locker for our shoes right when we entered and a separate locker for our other belongings after getting settled in the women's only bath and lounge area.

it was just the beginning of the best day!

 eleven.

about to hit the hot baths!  there were rooms upon rooms and hot tubs upon hot tubs.  it was amazing!  there was very very very strict rules on the usage of your cell phone in certain areas (especially in the woman's bath and locker lounge) so we were very careful when and where we used our phones.  I was bummed not to be able to take more detailed shots of all the fun components of spa castle.

but here is a close up of our faces, instead:)

noon. 

our scheduled massages were from twelve to one, so I missed that hour to snap a photo because I was half asleep and getting the best prenatal rubdown eva.

one.

LUNCH.  

there are three or four restaurants to choose from, but sushi was on our radar.

I ate this giant seaweed salad, too and haven't stopped thinking about it since.  the dressing is my favorite part.. and the fact that the lettuce leaves are always soaked in it.

 two.

hiding in the handicap stall (ha!) to snap a pic of my adorable + super comfortable maternity suit from kortni jeane!

you can find my top here (which is non-maternity) and maternity bottoms here

out to the baths again for (virgin) bloody mary drinks and to soak until our next appointment.

 three.

pedicures time!  my feet needed it so bad and the reflexology massage was outstanding. 

I need one of those every single day.

there's a peek at those super awesome spa uniform shorts:)

 four.

it was such a good day, but I definitely missed my babies!

 five.

looking for one last touch to the nursery. before dinner we made a stop at world market and tested all the comfy chairs..

 six.

..and then onto home goods. 

my child.  thankfully the place was dead on a Saturday night:)

 seven.

dinner!  finally!

 eight. 

daddy + his babies

 nine.

final coat to the wood work + door in Brady's nursery!  Jordan worked all day in here while I was gone.  the crib + changing table are bright white and it made the other white details in the room look yellow.  so Jordan fixed it right up.

 ten.

I had a couple stitch fix clients to style before heading to bed.. but I fell asleep within 7 minutes of getting comfortable on the couch.

photo dump | life lately

I just realized that this post is full of FOOD.  that's what life lately has been about, apparently.. complete chaos surrounded by food.

truth be told there hasn't been a ton going on outside of the day to day shenanigans of managing three under four and growing a human over here.

some days its just about surviving without a complete meltdown and other days are really amazing. 

the usual:

food. cartoons. food.  target.  starbucks.  and about 800 color pages and arguments over the pink crayons.

Oh and lets talk about Baker's obsession with climbing on top of everything.  I turn my back for three seconds and she's on top of the kitchen table helping herself to all the pink crayons in the box and driving her big sisters insane.

my fridge is full of uneaten leftovers and my kids are living on hot dogs and chicken nuggets.. and the occasional box of mac and cheese.  but its the "healthy" organic kind..and I bake the chicken nuggets, so that makes it all better- right?

most of the time we end up eating cereal or toast with peanut butter.

I also have been telling myself that I'll put away the laundry that's been folded on top of the dryer for, oh, about two weeks.

taking a nap in lieu of these household chores sounds so much better.

 last weekend we met my brother and his girlfriend for brunch..and omg. it has been a minute since I have had brunch THIS amazing. chicken and waffles is probably my favorite thing on any brunch menu (its a southern thing, for sure).  the chicken had a bit of sriracha spice and the maple syrup was just the right amount of sweetness.. I'm still thinking about that meal a week later..

 ...oh and pancakes as big as yo'face!  these were on the KIDS menu!  c'mon. 

as you can see, miss Parker Jane cleaned that plate.

 

 there has been a lot of baby brother talk.  Jolie caught me getting out of the shower and casually, with a tiny bit of fear in her voice, said "that baby brother going to come out of your tummy YET?!!"

we spent almost the entire weekend in the nursery organizing.  I've mentioned before that his room is the smallest room in the house and the closet is even more pitiful.. but Jordan spent so much time in there this last week rearranging and adding shelving and rods to make the best use of that space. He also finished redoing the changing table.. which used to be a mint green chalkboard paint color with broken drawer pulls and a bottom drawer wasn't usable. and alas.. a little sanding and bright white paint.. and new copper pulls I found at hobby lobby at 50% off and we have a brand new piece! there is a door that goes over the open shelving you see on the right.. but the hinges of that door were also painted mint green:)  so we need to switch those out, but I kind of like the open shelving idea.. if I can find some wire baskets to fill the space? what do ya'll think?

finding baskets is my goal this week  I want to have baskets on the shelves regardless (for diapers and wipes and those baby essentials because the drawers will definitely be used for his clothes), but with or without the door..?

decisions, decisions!

 in the meantime we will be folding all the tiny things because the girls, especially the big girls, can stop wont stop..

and Baker's hat.  child kills me. I'm sort of bummed we are basically having the most mild mannered winter ever, but 50 degrees can still warrant knit hats. 

knit hats with giant poms. 

YAS.

 ending this post how it began.. with food.

sunday dinner this week consisted of leftover crock pot salsa chicken + a bit of shredded cheese + some kind of bulgar grain mix I had left over in the fridge from lunch last week.. rolled into a corn tortilla. oh and tomatillo hot sauce and + sour cream.

survival of the fittest.

here's to a happy Monday!!

..about how I feel about it, too, gals.

that bed head is something fierce.



weekend top 5

one. kitchen sink stuffed peppers

I made these stuffed peppers last week and they were SO stinkin' easy.. I made another version again using sausage + quinoa instead of ground beef and rice as listed in the recipe below.

 basically, anything you have in your fridge or pantry that needs to be used or tossed is fair game for these peppers.  

--

brown 1 pound of lean ground beef in a skillet with about a tablespoon of olive oil. add in 1 small chopped onion + 3 cloves fresh minced garlic until onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant.  stir in 4 cups fresh baby spinach and sauté until wilted down; stir in 1 can white beans, rinsed and drained + 1 cup cooked brown rice.  lastly, add 1 cup jarred tomato sauce and about 1 cup of shredded cheese (I used monterey jack because thats what I had in the fridge!)

fill 6 bell peppers, seeded and de-veined, and cover with foil.  bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes,  remove from oven and top with more tomato sauce and shredded cheese (if desired) and allow the cheese to melt. 

--

such a quick and healthy recipe!

 two. nana + duke's quick trip
my parents came in for a super short visit on Friday night and left Saturday morning.  we grabbed a casual bite to eat at the mall and let the chicks run in the play area and that's about the highlight of the trip. aside from the girls talking abut "manna and duke" for the rest of the weekend.  that makes me so happy to hear them acknowledge my parents outside of the short visits we have.

 three. maternity photos
this weekend was SO COLD. like 30 degrees for the high.  I kept seeing all these social media posts about negative NINE and we are over here in Texas closing schools early for flurries on Friday afternoon:)  Saturday we had made plans to take some maternity pictures, just me and Jordan, and oh emm gee it was chilly!  thankful for the coffee Britt got me to keep me semi-warm! 
the little bits of snow on the ground and the cool air made for some beautiful pictures!  sharing more on that tomorrow, BUT ya'll my favorite Christmas coffee flavors are being phased out and so I ordered the smoked butterscotch latte.. well, I had to make another trip for one on Sunday afternoon because its THAT good.  I am not a fan of sweet coffee at all whatsoever, and this one has just the right amount of sweetness.

 four. lazy sunday
Jordan has been working a couple shifts a week in the ER at a hospital near our house as a medic, and yesterday happened to be his shift- so me and the girls literally did NOTHING all day. 

nothing.

at.all.

until we made a run to grab my prenatal vitamins prescription and a swing through starbucks for a couple of butterscotch lattes and a few chocolate chip cookies.

 five. first lady love
my big girls.  they talk about Brady A LOT.  Parker is such a sweet soul and mentions wanting him to be here soon.  I find random little stuffed animals in his (empty) nursery that she's placed in there and says "brother needs it for when he sleeps, mom"
heart bursting.
Jolie, my laid back baby girl, talks about how big he's getting- my belly is HUGE but "he will be SO cute when he finally gets here". she asks when she can hold him and if he will love her..
heart exploding.

the weekend was good.

I hope yours was, too:)

XO!