Howdy, y’all. I am finally getting around to part two of the Easter photos (see part one here if you missed it). The last week has been a little crazy as Little Miss has been pretty sick (I will try to give the details when I write her 16 month update, hopefully this week). Luckily, she seems to be on the road to recovery, and I am using her naptime to blog even though there are 289357982372 other things I should be doing (aren’t there always? Sigh!). 

After leaving Concord on the Saturday before Easter, we headed to Lake Norman to spend some time with my family. We laid low all afternoon, but that evening the kids (and Bek, Kyle & Miki) dyed some eggs. Aunt Bekah helped H dye a few before she went to bed and she loved it (again)!

I forgot to take a pic of the finished product, but trust me when I say they were beautiful. ;)

The next morning was Easter, and church was an hour earlier than usual, so we (of course) had to wake Hadley up. She was still pretty sleepy when she saw her Easter basket, but she loved her bunny, which we weren’t too surprised at since her stuffed animal obsession is still going strong.

Did I mention she was still half asleep?! ;)

We headed off to church at UGUMC, and after a great service (which just so happened to be Daddy’s last Easter service at UG…*tear*), we went back to the lake for a yummy lunch and more fun with the family. Of course before they changed out of their pretty Easter dresses, I had to snap a few photos of the girls.

Take two of H with her Easter basket:

I had been collecting things for her Easter basket since Christmas… she got: some play clothes, several animals for her Little People Zoo Talkers toy (have I mentioned how much we love this toy?!), a few (classic) Disney movies, a beach towel, a basketball hoop for the tub, and of course, a stuffed bunny.

After H’s nap, the kiddos decided to do a little Easter egg hunt. H was a pro since it was her 3rd hunt…she loved it!

The bunny ears. :)

Aunt Jennifer came over later that night and brought H yet another Easter basket full of goodies. (Side note: example # 350892305982309582 of how just having a nice camera does not guarantee good photos… I really should teach Jon how to use it!)

We finished off the night with a good old fashioned game of family Twister. Just lol. :)

I would say that Easter weekend was a real “slam dunk”! (Ba-dum-chh!) (How do you even spell that?!)

Seriously though, we had a very happy and blessed Easter full of family time and fun. We are so lucky to be making such wonderful memories!

-S

Yep, you read that right. Part one. As in, I took way too many photos over Easter weekend, so I have to share them in not one but two posts. I know, I have a problem. Sorry ‘bout it.

On the Thursday before Easter, we headed to Concord to spend a few days with Jon’s family. I must note that I was on day 2 of a terrible stomach bug, and in fact still had a pretty high fever, but I knew that it would kill Jon’s mom if we waited to go until the next day (maybe it was the email she sent me that said “deep down it would kill me if you don’t come tonight”? haha…she was dying to see Hadley!), so I sucked it up, threw on some sweatpants and a hoodie and off to Concord we went. I went straight to bed when we got there, but I started feeling better later on that night, and was finally feeling back to 100% by Saturday. I digress.

First off, Hadley is a huge fan of being at Jon’s parents’ house, partly because she gets to see the cows! She practically begs to go outside any time she gets a glimpse of the cows, and luckily her Papaw is happy to take her to see them.

Jon’s parents had several fun Easter activities planned for us Hadley, the first of which was dying Easter eggs…H’s first time! I was nervous that she would make a big mess and dirty up Kim & Tim’s immaculate house, but shockingly, she did great! Of course her Mamaw was armed with lots of paper towels, and they covered the table up, so no mess was made that wasn’t easily cleaned up! H had a BALL, dropping the eggs into the cups and stirring all the cups one by one (she would go up the row and back down, and up and back down…it was quite cute). Anyway, I took a zillion photos of the event but here are way too many of my favorites.

Jon’s face in the next one makes me laugh out loud. He and Heather like to tell stories about them growing up and dying eggs…and their mom “helping”, aka doing it for them because she wanted them to be perfect. I was secretly a little scared that Jon would be the same way (he is an engineer and likes things to be “just so”), but surprisingly he let H do her thing and I was very proud of him. You will notice in quite a few of the photos, however, that it wasn’t necessarily easy for him to do. ;)

The finished product:

And the finished product along with the finished mess. Not too bad for a 15 month old!

H went down for her nap shortly after the egg dying, and when she woke up, it was time for an Easter egg hunt! She was a pro at finding the eggs and putting them in her basket, especially after her first hunt with Lilly. Yet again, I took tons of photos of this…

Something about a baby in blue jeans. And the little bootie? Forget it.

Even Ralphie had to get in on the Easter egg action. ;)

To say the least, she had a ball “finding” the eggs and putting them in her basket. I am sure all the cheering and “YAY HADLEY”s definitely encouraged her. ;) We ended up the afternoon with a ride on H’s car, one of her favorite pastimes!

Finally, the next morning before we left, H got an Easter basket from her Mamaw and Papaw…complete with peeps! (Yuck!)

First taste of a peep… she was a fan! I love how Ralph is creeping, hoping to get a taste of the peep too!

We had a great time in Concord, as always, and H loved spending time with her grandparents and having fun making new Easter traditions. 

All for tonight…part 2 of the Easter weekend coming soon!

-S

Last Sunday (the Sunday after Thanksgiving), Jon, Hadley and I started a new family tradition. After church, we headed up to Boone, NC to cut down our Christmas tree! Technically this year is Hadley’s 2nd Christmas (she was born on December 22), but I feel like she kind of got jipped (or is it gipped?) since she was just a few days old last year…the whole holiday season 2011 is kind of just a blur to all of us! Anyway, we obviously got our Christmas tree last year before H made her grand debut, but this year we wanted to start a new tradition of going to the mountains to cut one down!

I have actually never been to the mountains to do this, but Jon did it sometimes growing up. We thought it would be something fun to start now when she is little and then go every year from now on. The mountains of Boone are gorgeous, and just the drive up to the tree farm made the trip worth it. God’s country!

We went to Dark Mountain Tree Farm with my sister Bekah, her husband, Kyle, and my mom (my dad had something at church that he was afraid he wouldn’t be back for). Hadley (and Jon) slept most of the way up, which isn’t unusual. ;) Anyway, the tree farm was awesome! They had a pretty barn with wreaths, etc. for sale and also a fun little trolley ride pulled by a tractor that took us out to where the trees were. It was cooooold, but luckily Bekah let me borrow a coat and gloves of hers…and Hadley sported her super cute toboggan and gloves that Meemaw (my mom) made for her. Of course we took the opportunity for quite a few photo ops since we had Bekah there to take some of our family (I am usually the one BEHIND the camera, not in front!). 

When we got out to where the trees were…I was SERIOUSLY overwhelmed. SO. Many. Trees!!! But it was so pretty!

We walked around for a LONG time before finding the perfect tree: a 7.5 footer that was just perfect for our living room. (It actually ended up being more like 8 feet which was too tall for our living room but we won’t talk about it… Jon fixed it right up!) :)

Shortly after we found ours, Bekah and Kyle found their perfect tree. They are goofballs. ;)

The tree farm was one where the workers come and cut the trees down for you, so they came and cut them down and had them taken out front for us, while we headed back down the hill to take the trolley back. As we were walking down…this happened. I would like to say that I didn’t laugh…but I couldn’t help it (she was ok). My mom will kill me when she sees I posted this, but oh well! ;) (Love you Mom!)

On our way down, Jon snapped a couple sweet pics of me with my girl. :)

We had a great time choosing our tree, and Hadley loved the mountain air, the ride out to the trees and helping us pick one out. :) I am looking forward to keeping this tradition for many years to come!

We spent several nights last week decorating the house for Christmas…here is the finished product. I LOVE Christmastime!!!!

Hope everyone has had a great weekend! I’m off to edit about a million pics while H is napping. ;)

-S

Happy Halloween! (A day early…I know, but tomorrow is sure to be a busy day, I STILL have to go get candy to hand out tomorrow night and run about a million errands that I haven’t been able to do due to a nasty virus that struck me Sunday night). 

I want to start off by recognizing that today is not so happy for those in the Northeast who are experiencing the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy. Our family’s thoughts and prayers are with everyone affected and also the rescuers during this time.

I know I have been MIA lately. I have been SO busy! For starters, there’s the whole “having a 10 month old who is into everything” thing. That keeps me busier than I can explain. But also, in the last couple weeks I have officially launched Stephanie Aldridge Photography after much, much encouragement from my family and friends…and so far, things are going great! I’m keeping busy with it and loving every minute (somehow I could never quite say this about accounting…wonder why?!). Anyway, I am going to try to do better about blogging and even HOPEFULLY write a “weekly update” post full of too many tons of pictures this week, so be on the lookout for that. ;)

Halloween/Fall activities started for us a few weeks ago when we were home at my parents’ house in Union Grove. We went there for the weekend to be there at UGUMC when the church celebrated my Dad (and Mom!) being there for 20 years (21 now, actually) on Pastor Appreciation Sunday. It was a great day and my “whole fam damily” (minus my sister-in-law, we missed you Kelley!) was there…so we took the opportunity to get an updated photo of all of the grandkids together at where else, but the pumpkin patch? :) Looking at these photos makes me realize how OLD all of my nieces and nephews are getting (and they are all seriously SO beautiful/handsome!). 

My nieces, Mary Elizabeth & Natalie Jo

My nephews, Jacob, Coleman, Caleb & Hayden

The Kirby kiddos and their pup, Winston

The Brown kiddos

Sweet little miss

The beautiful “grandgirls”

And finally…all of the Kirby grandkids!

We had a great weekend with the family and fun at the pumpkin patch! More pics to come from that weekend in the weekly update if I ever get around to it.

The following Friday, we headed out to the Naylor Family Farm with the Baums for a cute photo op some pumpkin picking. We all had a great time checking out the animals at the petting zoo and going on a hayride to pick out our pumpkins. Plus, we took some ridiculously cute photos of the girls. (Side note: we are working on getting Lilly to smile for the camera. ;) I told Sarah she has to get her camera in L’s face more and she will eventually catch on, like H has, that if she just smiles I will go away!).

Jon saw the barrel cars and then was super disappointed when he realized H was too little to ride in them this year. Didn’t stop us from using the NC State one for a cute pic!

We checked out the animals:

Then headed out on a hay ride to pick out our pumpkins!

Nice ones, boys!

I had to include this one… Lilly is like, “stop touching me!”

We finished off that day with a yummy dinner at Aviator Smokehouse Restaurant. It was great to spend the afternoon and evening with Sarah, Dan & Lilly… Sar has been super swamped with work lately so we were LONG overdue for some QT. On the way home that night, Jon and I talked about how this was exactly the type of day we dreamed about when we found out that Sarah and I were both pregnant. Looking forward to lots more fun outings like this one. ;) (Love you guys!)

Our next Halloween activity took place on Sunday, when Sarah and I took the opportunity to get the girls together and dress them up in their Halloween costumes for another photo op. This year, Hadley is a zebra (complete with her hair bow, of course), and Lilly is an owl! Have you ever seen such cuteness?!

The tail…and the mane…I can’t stand it!

That’s all for tonight. I hope everyone has a safe and happy halloween tomorrow, we are looking forward to hanging out with the folks in our cul de sac and handing out candy to all the trick or treaters. :)

Love!

-S

Hi, friends! How is it possible that the weekend is already over? Just dropping in for a quick post to share H’s 6 month photos that we had taken about a month ago. Becca Robinson Photography (the same photog that did H’s newborn photos—the one that my work gave us a gift certificate for to be able to get her newborn, 6 month and 1 year photos!) did a great job even though H was not in the best mood (it was 100 degrees and we were ALL miserable!) and we definitely got some framers. :) Anyway, I’m exhausted from a long, busy weekend, so without further ado, here are too many some of our favorites. 

That’s all for tonight—heading off to spend the last hour or so with my girl before the weekend is over. :( They always go by WAY too fast!

-S

As promised, here are the rest of the photos from our awesome beach trip. Already looking forward to our next little weekend trip to the beach in early September! :)

-S

I have been meaning to blog about our week-long beach trip with Jon’s family for a while now (it’s been almost a month since we went!), but honestly there are just SO many photos, I didn’t know how I would choose and I knew it would take a while to blog about it. So, I am taking the lazy way out and doing a not one, but two-part blog post full of photos from our trip. As you can tell, we did a lot of playing/laying on the beach, hanging out around the house, going out and about around Myrtle Beach, sleeping, and just having some QT with the family.

H mostly played in her little tent while we were on the beach each day (it was perfect and I would highly recommend anyone with a baby getting one for the beach!) and was as happy as could be lying in there with the wind blowing on her. She usually took her morning nap on the beach and then we would take her in for her longer afternoon naps…we had a nice little setup going on and PLENTY of babysitters there with us who all helped us out with her sooo much (I don’t think I fed her any solid food while I was there, as the others were all fighting over who got to do it! ;)). 

While I am thinking about it, H had several firsts on this trip:

• first time seeing/getting in the ocean, feeling the sand, etc.
• first carousel ride at Barefoot landing (she was a fan even though she was super tired by the time we got to ride!)
• first time (and several times thereafter) staying with her Great Grandparents (Aldridges)—huge thanks to them for babysitting while she napped/when she woke up and giving us a few extra hours on the beach each day! :)
• first trip to Calabash (have a feeling this was a first of MANY because I love to eat in Calabash)
• first golf cart ride (she LOVED this!)

I have a feeling there are more that I am forgetting, but those are the big ones.

Anyway, we had an absolutely amazing trip, and we did NOT want it to end!! So, without further ado, here are the first half-ish of the 5 billion photos:

OK—all for tonight… more to come (hopefully) tomorrow!

-S

“Our nation owes a debt to its fallen heroes that we can never fully repay. But we can honor their sacrifice, and we must. We must honor it in our own lives by holding their memories close to our hearts, and heeding the example they set.”

        —President Obama

I want to start off this post by saying that I am so thankful for all those who have served and who are still serving to protect our country. My family will be forever grateful for their service and do not take for granted the freedom that we have!

To say we enjoyed our four day weekend for Memorial day is the understatement of the century. We headed to my favorite place on Earth, the lake, on Thursday night after Jon got home from work. I held H off on her afternoon nap until it was time to leave, and she did great on the drive, slept the whole way. Friday morning, we slept in (thank goodness for a baby who likes to SLEEP) and did a whole bunch of nothing for the first part of the day… we just hung out and played with H. That afternoon, Jon went to play golf with Kyle, while Bekah and one of her friends came over. After playing a little bit with Hadley down on the pier,  I got to get in a little much needed time in the sun during H’s nap.

Jennifer came over during H’s nap, so we all hung out on the pier until H woke up…she was very happy to see Aunt Jennifer when she woke up! :)

Friday night was low key, my parents made us a delicious steak dinner and we just hung out…H definitely enjoyed some QT with Aunt Jennifer!

Zack, Kelley and family arrived Friday night, and we stayed up way too late, doing what, I’m not sure! :) Saturday, we slept in (“we” being Jon, Hadley and I) again, and headed outside soon after we woke up to play outside!  We spent all day outside, and it was a perfect day! My brother’s kids had a ball tubing and swimming… and boat rides put H right to sleep every time. ;)

Do you SEE those thighs?!!?!?!??!?!?!

Saturday was also my nephew Jacob’s 7th (so big!!!) birthday, so we celebrated at dinner (pizza and cake!) that night. Is he not the cutest?!

Saturday night was low-key, we just spent some family time and did some (continued) relaxing. Can I reiterate how much it was a perfect weekend? Mary also got some time to love on Miss H… not sure there is anyone who loves Hadley more. ;)

Sunday, we headed to church at UG. It was a special Sunday because my Uncle Butch (my Mom’s brother) and his friend were in town for the Fiddler’s convention, and they played some special music at church. My Aunt Teresa, cousin Derrick, his wife Lindsay, and their cute little boy, Nicholas (who is just 4 days older than H!) all came to church, too… I was excited for them all to meet H for the first time, to get to meet Nicholas, and to get to hang out with Lindsay and Derrick for the first time since their wedding! 

H didn’t make it through church (yet again…maybe it’s Pop’s preaching?!), but I got to catch up with Amanda and her sweet little Garrett during a little nursing session in one of the Sunday school classrooms, ha! He is so cute and I’m so glad that the Loftis’ are doing so well! :)

We headed back to the lake for lunch right after church, and got to spend some time with the Bosts. I would say that Nicholas and Hadley really hit it off, they just did a lot of looking at each other and smiling! :) The weather was absolutely PERFECT outside, so we enjoyed most of the afternoon on the pier!

We had a FABULOUS afternoon…can’t wait to do it again soon! Sunday evening, my Granny and Paw Paw came over for dinner. I was a bad Mama and forgot to take any pictures while they were there, but it was great to see them, as always! :) The weather was still perfect that evening, so we spent most of the evening on the porch. H LOVES to swing!

We definitely took advantage of our last opportunity to sleep in (again) on Monday. It was another day with absolutely perfect weather, so we spent the day outside again, of course! We also finally got a chance to blow up the cute little pool that Bekah got for Hadley, and she (and Mary!) loved it, despite the water being QUITE a bit colder than her bath water. :)

As always, we waited until the last minute to leave…I NEVER want to head home after a lake weekend. :( We have learned that it is best to bathe Hadley and put her in her PJs before we leave…she slept the whole way home, I nursed her when we got here, and she went back to sleep and slept until 10 Tuesday morning. Score!

Whew, photo overload, I know…but ahh, looking back at the photos makes me even sadder that the weekend ever had to end! I am glad that summer is HERE, and I am looking forward to the rest of it and many more weekends like this one. A big thanks to my parents for hosting and feeding all of us…I know there were a lot of us! :) 

Hope everyone had as fantastic of a holiday weekend as we did, and remembered that it was not just a day off of work…SO grateful for the men and women serving our country! 

-S

Sit back and relax y’all, because I have a feeling this is gonna be a long one! Probably if I posted more often instead of waiting a few days there wouldn’t be so much to write…but I’ve been feeling lazy, sorry! This past Sunday was my birthday. 27!! For some reason, 27 sounds MUCH older than 26 to me. I was telling someone this weekend that I always said I wanted to have at least one kid by 27, but when I used to say that 27 felt so far away! Either way, I stuck with “the plan” and honestly, I am happy as can be with where I am in my life at 27. Life is GOOD!

I mentioned this in H’s 18 week update, but when Jon asked me what I wanted for my birthday this year, I told him the main thing I would love to have is a long weekend at the lake. He ended up working 4 10s last week so that he could take Friday off without having to take any vacation, and just took Monday as a vacation day. We went to Union Grove on Thursday evening because Bekah was having her bridal portraits made on Friday at the vineyard where her wedding is going to be, and I wanted to be there for those (oh, how I wish I could share some of them—she was STUNNING!). Friday morning, I took H over to the school where my mom works for a quick visit, and of course Mom loved showing her off to everyone. :)

After that, I left H with Jon and went to the vineyard for Bek’s photos. We ended up doing a wine tasting before taking the photos—delish (check them out—Shadow Springs Vineyard)! And I think it definitely helped Bek loosen up a little before her portraits. After the photos were over, Jon, H and I headed over to my BFF Kennette’s house to hang out with her and Mark for a little while…it was so good to see them and to catch up a little. :) I only wish I had taken my camera in!

We headed to the lake Friday evening after leaving Kennette’s, and had an awesome steak dinner made for us by my parents…happy birthday to me! Miki, Frank and the kids arrived shortly after we were finished eating, and we had a good time hanging out for a little while. 

Saturday morning, Miki, Mom and I got up early (7 a.m., yuck) to head to a children’s clothes consignment sale (at the same place that I blogged about in the Fall) in Concord, where we met Jon’s mom. The sale was a major disappointment this time—there was almost nothing! We ended up walking away with 6 outfits: four that Jon’s mom bought for $13 and two that I bought for $5… they are all cute but I wish that they would have had more!

The rest of Saturday was spent inside—it was COLD! The weather definitely let us down, as we were hoping to spend the day outside. Either way, we had a good time playing with the kiddos and just hanging out and relaxing. 

My Granny and Paw Paw came to dinner on Saturday night for all the April birthdays in our family (Kyle, Jon, Miki and I were all born in April!), and as always, it was awesome to see them! H slept most of the time that they were there, but I woke her up before they had to leave and she was ALL smiles and giggles for them—they loved it!

Sunday (my birthday!), we slept in (we were heathens and skipped church, sorry Daddy!) and headed outside as soon as we were up and ready—it was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL day! We got the latest present for H hung up and ready to go: a swing on the pier! It is a little big now, but by this summer it should be perfect…and either way, she LOVED it!

We spent most of the afternoon just hanging out on the pier (with H in the shade—it was HOT!). It was the most perfect way to spend my birthday!

Around 3:00, we went up to get ready and then headed to Concord for Jon’s uncle’s engagement dinner. It was great to see all of the Kluttz side of the family and to celebrate Heith and Karen’s engagement…we are looking forward to their wedding in Pigeon Forge in June! After the dinner, we went back to Jon’s parents’ house for a bit to hang out. 

And I had to grab a photo of me with H on my first birthday spent with her—can’t think of a better present!

Monday was spent much like Sunday—outside! It was another perfect day. It was so nice that morning and H was in a great mood—so we decided to do a little 4-month photo shoot in the yard…it was the first chance I’d really had to take some good, natural light photos of Little Miss. So here are WAY too many of my favorites:

That afternoon, my sweet husband took Hadley duty and let me have some great stress-free, baby-free alone time in the sun on the pier (we all need that every now and then!). When H woke up from her afternoon nap, she joined us on the pier and even got to put her feet in her pool!

My mom made one if my favorite meals Monday night (country style steak, yum) before we headed back to Holly Springs—the perfect ending to the perfect birthday weekend.

Whew, that was a lot, but I didn’t want to leave anything out! Also, a HUGE thank you for all the birthday calls, texts and Facebook posts. You all made me feel BEYOND special and loved, and I love you all very much. Thanks for making my 27th the best one yet!!

-S

Happy Tuesday! I meant to write a weekend recap yesterday, but as is always the case when we have company for a whole weekend, my Monday was spent trying (and subsequently failing) to get the house back in order, sheets and towels washed, etc. etc. etc. It looks like it might be more of a week-long task as it seems Little Miss is becoming more and more demanding (and less and less keen on taking long naps) for my attention these days. Not complaining, though, because there isn’t anything I’d rather be doing than hanging out with her all day long! :)

Friday night, Jon’s parents got in around 7:30, and we ate dinner (I made one of Jon’s favorite meals for his early birthday: country-style steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, yeast rolls and the best part—Sun Drop Cake!). 

After dinner, we just hung out for a bit and Hadley got plenty of love and attention from her Mamaw, who loved getting to feed her (not many people get to, since she only gets one bottle a day, and only sometimes!). 

Saturday morning, we got up and went on a shopping trip to Lowe’s, to get some things for the yard and also for us to get our big birthday present from Jon’s parents—a new grill! While it sounds like this gift may be more for Jon since he is the resident grill master, it is also surely for me since it means I will (hopefully) be getting some help with cooking dinner now! :) Anyway, Jon got his “dream grill” (a Weber) and I haven’t seen him so excited about something in a long time! A HUGE thanks to Kim & Tim for this—we promise to grill for you guys every time you come to visit, as a continued thank you. :)

When we got back from Lowes, the girls just hung out inside while Jon and his Dad worked out in the yard. For those who haven’t been to our house, we have a lot of trees in our yard, and about 90% of them are Sweet Gum trees. These trees are the bane of our existence, because they drop these stupid, sticky, ANNOYING balls that look like this:

So, every year, it takes Jon and I an entire weekend to rake out our beds and the yard to get all of the stupid balls up…except this year his Dad volunteered to help (and I was off the hook)!! They worked hard while H got plenty of attention from Aunt Heather and Mamaw inside. 

Saturday evening, we went out to dinner at one of Jon’s favorite restaurants, Tony’s Oyster Bar. The food was delicious, as usual and H slept through the entire meal—score!

Sunday morning, the guys decided that if they were going to get everything finished in the yard, that we needed to stay home from church (heathens, I know). We woke up early and even though Jon would have waited all day, I insisted that he and his mom open their presents (I LOVE presents!!) first thing. 

Jon got some help from H opening his:

Jon and his mom both got some frames for their desk at work with photos of (what else?) H in them… and Jon also got some undershirts (boring, huh?), cologne, new Rainbow flip flops, and a Blu Ray player (he might be the last guy in the world to finally get one, haha!). Kim also got some gift cards and a small photo album full of (again, what else?) photos of H for her to take to work. 

The guys headed out to work in the yard, and H had play time with Aunt Heather, Mamaw and me.

For lunch, of course Jon had to fire up the new grill! We had hamburgers and hotdogs, and we all agreed that they were the best hamburgers and hotdogs that we’d ever had…hahaha. ;)

When Hadley went down for her nap, I started my own little project, planting a garden! It may or may not be a garden in a box from Lowe’s that I am 99% sure is for 8 year-olds, but it is still a garden (don’t judge me, this is probably the only way I will ever actually do it—and when I am harvesting tons of produce I promise I will share with anyone who doesn’t make fun of my garden in a box!). I planted tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, cucumbers, oregano and basil. I promise that I will post photo updates if when my vegetables grow! 

After H woke up, she got a little more loving before they all had to leave to head back to Concord. 

We had an absolutely fantastic weekend, and we could not be more blessed or thankful for all of the help and the company. Jon’s mom said that it was the best birthday she could remember, and Jon agreed! 

Here’s to many more family weekends, we can’t wait!

-S