a dress

normally my blog posts are not just

about one dress, but i feel the need to share

because i'm assuming most of my readers are either,

1 - my friends/family

2 - other mom's

in which case, i think you all should know

about this crazy cheap, amazing dress.

hello world, i just bought my #1 go-to summer

dress at Wal-Mart and i'm not ashamed to admit it.

when i was pregnant you could basically find me

in a black t-shirt dress on most days.

it was comfortable.

it fit great.

and it didn't make me feel sloppy.

it's the one piece of maternity clothing that i truly miss.

(see below, i literally wore it all the time.)

so when kassie's sister showed up to elle's birthday

party in a non-maternity version of this dress,

i had to have it.

when she told me it was from Wal-Mart and it was

E I G H T   D O L L A R S,

i ordered two.

one black and one red.

and i'm in love.

a great length and a little bit of stretch.

wear it plain with converse or sandals.

put on a scarf and some flats.

throw on some booties and a jean jacket.

i literally want to wear it everyday.

so here you go.

see if you like it.

i mean, it's only $8, so

what's the harm in giving it a try.

you can thank me later.

happy birthday, ronald!

after our weekend away to illinois we

came back just in time to celebrate the 4th of july with kassie's family and

to celebrate ronnie's  t h i r t y - e i g h t h  birthday on friday.

ew.

so old.

my parent's were already planning on having the girls

that afternoon because i had an event at work

so they had to pick them up from school.

i conned them into turning it into a sleepover so ronnie

and i could actually go out and do something fun - - without kids.

i sent a group text to ronnie's friends to get everyone together and

try to set up a little night on the town.

have you ever tried to plan something with a bunch of guys?

it's heinous.

i know us girls might over plan and maybe design a t-shirt, but

at least we're all excited and constantly texting.

guys will sporadically respond back or not at all.

and if they do, it's just to suggest something else or

change something or to talk about something

that i should never have read.

literally, like herding cats.

by the end of it, i was like - whatever, i made reservations,

show up if you want.

and by some miracle, every one of ronnie's friends came out.

it was super nice of them because they actually have to drive

up here to go out and then drive an hour back home, but

i'm really glad we got together and i know ronnie had a good time.

(there might have been a few shots and moonwalking involved)

but i'm bummed because i forgot my phone at home so

this is literally the only photo of the whole night.

we spent saturday getting the girls back and doing a bit of shopping.

sunday we worked in the yard and finally got that fallen tree

completely removed, grass sowed and then a friend of ours

picked up all the wood that i've been staring at for almost a year.

yesssss! fist pump.
ronnie's already planning the next dead tree he wants to cut down,
but I told him to give me a minute to enjoy a yard without
a half a tree laying around and a pile of wood.

my yard feels a little less cluttered and i'm always down for that.

that afternoon we went to miss elle's first birthday.

she had a little 'merica themed party for

our favorite little july 3rd birthday girl.

she rocked her cake.

 it was a good weekend.
and now we're ready for our next!

grandma jean

we had been planning on a long weekend away

to illinois over the 4th of july since this spring.

it was time to go see ronnie's family.

we hadn't taken the girls back since i was pregnant with reid,

over two years ago.

normally, ronnie and i visit once or twice a year.

somehow times gets away from you and traveling with

a toddler and a baby seem like the worst option ever.

unfortunately, we missed seeing ronnie's grandma jean by three days.

she passed away the monday night before we were set to leave and
it was a bit heartbreaking for ronnie.

growing up, he spent a month every summer with his grandparents and he

has such fond memories of the farm and playing with his cousins.

it's a little hard to accept that we didn't get to say goodbye and  

i know he's struggling with the fact that our kids are so young

that they will never remember her and she didn't get to see them grow up.

i try to remind him how awesome it is that she even got to meet them at all.

not a lot of people live until they are 94 and get to meet all their great grandchildren.

what a blessing.

i'm so glad that they came to visit us in march and ronnie actually spent

an evening alone with his grandma taking her to dinner.

(she needed a break from the chaos, lol.)

i know he wasn't expecting it to be the last time he spent with her and

i'm so thankful he got that time to sit and talk with jean without

everyone else around.

it helped to go back and be surrounded by family all weekend and

although it was not the trip we originally planned, it ended being a nice weekend.

we took the camper so we had our own space, but

we spent the whole time with family.

we got to see old pictures of his grandma growing up and meet a lot of her

family that we normally wouldn't see otherwise.

we went to a tractor pull and swimming with his cousins.

we stayed up drinking, listening to don william and george strait.

it was exactly what ronnie needed.

he wasn't ready to leave and i promised that we would go back this fall.

she will definitely be missed and visiting the farm wasn't the same

without her, but i know she was ready.

and now my girls have a special lady looking down on them.

happy birthday from the islands

we had brette's birthday party the

weekend after her birthday so we could

share the celebration with madeline too.

they wanted a moana party, so i did a

luau theme straight from the islands.

i hung lanterns, put out tiki torches and

set out some pineapple.

is it weird that i love to decorate?

it's my favorite part of throwing a party.

ronnie said we should have roasted a pig,

but i settled for some pulled pork and

pineapple upside down cake.

(it was my first time making it.

its so easy and turned great. it's not MY favorite cake,

aka - no chocolate, but it was cute for our theme.)

the girls both love each other so much and

they really enjoy sharing a party.

i hope we can do this for a long time.

#cousinlove

i bought little flowers for their hair and grass skirts,

which they didn't wear.

i really thought that would be their favorite part,

obviously not.

we had most of our family over and spent

the evening together.

it was a great day for our girls.

happy birthday, loves!

full time

i'm going on three weeks at my new job and

it still feels... new.

i'm a little more comfortable with the actual work

and for the most part, it seems pretty straight forward.

there are a lot of summer events that i wasn't expecting,

(code for nights and weekends, blah)

but i see a lot of room for growth and i'm getting

to learn a lot of new things too.

i'm in charge of the website, social media, blog and signage.

i'm pretty sure i'll stay busy.

the kids are still adjusting to life as full-time students.

brette still asks if she has to go to school and reid

cries every morning when i drop her off.

it's not my favorite.

i think they're learning a lot and doing lots

of fun activities, so that makes me feel better.

it's got to be more fun than hanging around

the house all day while i clean and do laundry.

ps- i went to brette's classroom for her birthday

last week and they all went around and told me

how old they - - every single kid in her

class is five going on six. 

whhhhhaaaaaaat?

my kid started in this classroom at THREE.

i wonder if they think she's stupid because

i KNOW they have know things that she's still learning.

it makes me nervous for her.

but i'm hoping being around a bunch of big kids

helps her in the end.  it's like having a ton of mentors.

right? right.

ok, good.

a n y w a y,

the hardest part of my day is 4:30 to 6:00.

we have our mornings mastered.

i get up and get ready before either of them awake,

so all i have to do is get them dressed and out the door.

we normally leave the house around 7:30 and i

make it to work a little before 8:00.

it's super nice that everything is less than 10 minutes away. 

BUT, the afternoons are hard.

the first few days they were crying the whole way home.

they were tired, plus hungry and thirsty.

since then, i've been packing drinks and snacks that

i keep in the fridge at work and before i leave for the day

i grab them for the girls.

it's made the ride home a lot better.

but still, once we get home they're a mess.

they want to be held and they want dinner and

they want to play and they want drinks and they

want. want. want.

there have been several nights where someone is

clinging to my leg crying while i'm cooking something

on the stove.  good times.

i normally turn on the tv and try to distract them

for 30 minutes while i get dinner ready.

(ps- i've been doing really well about prepping the

majority of meals on sunday and all i have to do

is throw everything together at night.) 

after they've eaten, things are much better.

we go outside to play or go upstairs in the playroom.

ronnie's home by dinner, so i also have another set of hands.

tonight, ronnie did the dishes while i folded a load of clothes.

i know he's not a fan of getting home from work and

doing chores, but WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD.

and then every night i lay out their clothes school,

i fill up sippy cups for the next morning and i pack my lunch.

this makes my mornings super easy.

for the last two weeks i've been cleaning house on friday night.

its the one thing i haven't quite figured out.

when do normal people clean?

it can't be friday nights...

but i never feel like doing it during the week and i refuse to

waste my weekends doing it, so finally on friday night

i'm forced to get it done.

weird, right?

send suggestions on when to clean or what

you all do because its the one thing i haven't fit in my schedule very well.

overall, it's still a huge adjustment for all of us but

so far i think we're doing okay.

the first few days were rough for me and i

felt really sad that i wasn't with the girls, but

i'm actually really happy with this change and

i think we're all going to be a lot better off in the end.

ps- those of you that worked full-time

with little babies - i can't imagine.

literally, can't.

pss- i have another post coming soon.
brette's 4th birthday luau!

my moneymaker turns four

i couldn't let this day go by without saying

a little something about my BMoney.

i think four is going to be one of my favorite ages.

things are starting to seem a little bit easier. finally.

my friends texted happy birthday wishes for her, and

one said, "you are sweet, gorgeous, feisty and hilarious."

then my other friend chimed in and said,

"you forgot bossy!"

which is totally the perfect description of my little one.

my little mouthy, totally hilarious child.

since i had to work on her actual birthday,

my parents came up and spent the day with all four girls.

i can't imagine brette would be happier doing anything else

than spending the day with mimi, papa and her cousins.

they had a picnic, went to the splash pad and filled up our backyard pool.

i'm positive she had a great day without me.

i tried to make the weekend special to help celebrate.

i decorated the house and hung streamers from her door.

we went to the donut shop. (she told me she like the

donuts better at the gas station where daddy takes her. eye roll.)

we went swimming with kassie, chris and elle and both her

and reid went down the water slide, which they loved.

but better than anything, ronnie and cale spent

THE ENTIRE WEEKEND

building her a huge new playset.

i actually feel really bad because they literally worked

on this monster from 9am-5pm both saturday and sunday.

not a great weekend for them.

but we ended up with this and
the girls love it.
ps- do not expect your four-year-old to understand
that this is her gift. you should definitely also have
something for her to open or she will say,
"its not her birthday without presents."
i know this from personal experience.
(all the stuff i ordered online didn't go through so all her other gifts
aren't going to be her until tomorrow and brette kept
wondering where her presents were.
i MIGHT have sent ronnie to the store for something super fast just
so she could actually OPEN one thing today.)
ridiculous.

we didn't get rid of our wood (yet) or do

much of anything else to clean up the backyard, so

unfortunately its not going to be pristine for her bday

party on saturday, but ronnie likes to

remind me i'm crazy about stupid stuff.

we're having a luau theme.

brette and madeline wanted moana, so instead of

doing a character, i thought it would be more fun

(and cuter) to do an island theme.

i bought leis, grass skirts, tiki torches and flowers.

i think the girls will love it.

it feels so crazy to have a FOUR YEAR OLD,

and at the same time, it feels oddly perfect.

Happy Birthday, Brette Annaleigh!

love you so much!

first birthday
second birthday
third birthday

all the fun things

i have a post coming about my new job

and how we've been surviving, but

i'm still knee deep in missing my kids and

just trying to get a handle on our new lives.

but there will be an update soon. promise.

lately, we've been heading out of town.

in the last two weekends we left lees summit 

to do something fun.

over memorial day weekend we took the camper

down to truman lake with a bunch of friends.

it's the same group as last year so brette

and reid are pretty much spoken for.

i literally ask at least 5 times a day where my kids are.

its weird to let them go off without me, but

they both absolutely love it and love all the kids

they get to hang out with.

the older girls always ask if they can watch brette and reid,

so its like having free babysitting built in.

ah-mazing. 

reid DID NOT sleep with brette though.

thank god we packed the pack-n-play just in case.

she is not ready to be on her own. 

she plays and gets up and talks.

brette finally said - mom, you got to get her outta here.

so we separated them and they slept great the rest of the weekend.

we did have one minor setback - HAIL.

a huge storm came through with the biggest hail i've ever seen.

maybe i feel this way because listening to hail in a camper

is extra loud, but i still think it was crazy.

we had friends with windows busted out, lots of damage to all 

our vehicles and holes in campers.

luckily, ronnie and i escaped with the least amount of damage.

my yukon is in the shop right now getting it all fixed and

we're still waiting to hear back on the camper, but

nothing actually broke so i'm grateful. 

 

 

 

last weekend we drove down to leeton, 

a small town outside of warrensburg. 

we have a group of friends that live down there and 

they put on a fair.

we met my mom and dad, who were watching madeline and eden.

the girls had the best time.

they're little dare devils. 

no one was scared of anything.

it freaked me out.

reid was hilarious to watch.

i'm pretty sure i could put her on a roller coaster and 

she would laugh her head off.

my parents took all the kids home for bed and 

ronnie and i stayed out for the band and beer gardens.

(bad decision. we should have gone home too.)

i felt like crap the next day, but

we had fun.

this weekend we're staying home.

we have a friend who might come pick up a load

of all our wood and

ronnie and cale are going to try to get brette's 

swing set put together for her birthday.

i'm excited to get our backyard in order.

have a great weekend!