Sweet Caroline

Another weekend come and gone…goodness gracious, it all goes by too fast!  We had a rare family night IN on Friday and it was perfect.  I wanted to check a few things off the “December to do list” and we did that on Friday.  I picked the kids up early and we enjoyed decorating our gingerbread house…of course, G and T were more interested in eating the candy after a while, but a fun little holiday activity nonetheless.  I went with the pre-assembled kind this year, no more wrangling a stupid gingerbread house that falls apart after 30 minutes!  It was FREEZING cold Friday so the menu called for soup, grilled cheese and hot chocolate… and a little holiday baking thrown in .  It’s no wonder my pants are getting tighter, ugh!  But, seriously…  the kids of course LOVE helping with the cookies and I love eating them, it’s a win-win, right?!  ;-)  We eventually settled down for a family Christmas movie and to my surprise, the boys sat through t...

Happy freeeeeeezing Friday!!  We had the boys' and Collins' preschool Christmas programs this week and they were adorable. Love this crazy, hectic time of year and love that they go to a church preschool that starts teaching them the REAL reason for the season at an early age! We've got a super busy, Christmas-y weekend .... two family get togethers and Collins' Christmas dance performance! It's going to be busy but so fun!  That's all I got tome for today... hope everyone stays warms and has a wonderful weekend! Xoxo           

We had a Christmas filled weekend!  We tried a new restaurant  Friday night  that just opened… Urban Cookhouse, it’s a chain…but like a Zoe’s, not an Applebee’s. ha!  It was very good and the best part?!  A playroom for the kids!  The kiddos were obsessed!!   Mikey took the boys back home after that while Collins and I went to watch my niece perform in “The Two Claras”… a modern take on the Nutcracker.  So entertaining and a good way to get in the Christmas spirit.    Saturday was GIRLS shopping day.  We always set aside one day during the Christmas season to go shopping with my mom… we were gone  from 8:15 – 5:15 , whew…talk about a long day!  Collins was such a good sport and we enjoyed our girls day very much.  We had a low key  night Saturday  hanging out with friends and watching the kids play together.  Sunday was FILLED with Christmas goodness…. My favorite service of the year at church, the...

Our “big” outdoor Christmas.   I thought long and hard about what I wanted to get the kids for Christmas this year.  I really wanted to focus on “bigger” items and not so many small / little parts toys.  Not that those aren’t necessary too, but they get a lot of those at birthdays … so I wanted to use Christmas for some of those bigger ticket items.  Of course the boys still don’t really understand the whole “asking for toys/getting presents” type thing…they just want everything they see! Ha!  And Collins, that girl.  She loves EVERYTHING.  Seriously.  I also know from experience a lot of the smaller toys get played with a few times and then are forgotten about.   We have a big (or big to us…coming from a small lot in a neighborhood) backyard in our new house.   It’s big and flat which is awesome…and we have a flat place for the kids to ride bikes/scooters/etc.  The focus this Christmas is on the OUTDOORS.  All of my kids ...

Weekends this time of year are cray, and last weekend was no exception.  We started off by going to get our tree Thursday night.     I enjoyed my TWELTH annual ZTA girl’s Christmas party  Friday night  and what a treat that was.   ALL of us don’t get to get together all that often and so it’s always super fun when we do… and this year was no different.  My bestie hosted in Rock Hill at her gorgeous house… we eat, dance, talk, laugh and stay up WAY too late (for 33 year old mamas) , but it sure is fun!!     I was struggling a bit Saturday morning…but we had a jam packed day of course.  Colls had a birthday party to attend and then we left for Charleston!  Mikey wanted to go to the Citadel football game b/c it was the first time they had hosted a playoff game in a LONG time….so we packed up and off we went.  It was pretty chilly, but the kids did awesome.  A bounce house occupied them for most of “tailgate” an...

Goodness…. There I go again, can’t keep up anymore.  But, we’ve been busy with house stuff, life, family time, and just as importantly, time spent doing NOTHING but being together as a family.    We had a WONDERFUL, long holiday weekend.  It was just so good, I didn’t go shopping once, except for from my bed on the computer… we played outside SO much because the weather was nice, we cooked, we watched movies, we hung out with family and we played.  A FOUR day weekend was such a treat…I totally dreaded  Monday morning .    This is just going to be another photo dump post, forgive me😩 My girls Thanksgiving feast at school  Mikey and I enjoyed a date night with friends ... no pics of the boys 😜 Collins and I enjoyed a momma/Daughter date one Saturday... high school cheer competition and the Trolls movie, which was SO cute! My best friend who lives in LA came k town and we got to hang out one night.. total chaos but so good. 💗 We ate lunch out...

1.       KITCHEN scheming…  I need to make some decisions about our kitchen.  My super, amazingly talented SIL is going to help me out with design…  so that’s a huge help, but I just need to decide which way I want to go on a few key things.  I know I want WHITE kitchen cabinets (again, my fifth house with white cabinets, I just can’t’ get enough!!)  What I don’t know is this…  we are going to have a long island… do I paint it white too, or spring for a fun color on the island?  (think pale aqua/sea glass tones)  I’d love to do a pale aqua/sea glass colored tile backsplash as well, so is that too much/too matchy?  If I leave all cabinets white (including island) do I do colorful barstools? I can’t decide.  I know I don’t want ALL white again… (as in backsplash, counters and cabinets…)  we did that in our last kitchen b/c it was so small.  But, here we will have space so I want to inject color.  I j...