Hey, 30A! Days 1 & 2

 

And just like that... our family beach trip has come and gone. And apparently, I am still stuck on Central Time. Because we returned two days ago, and even though I am a night owl, I have been staying up too late for even my own standards of what late is. And since today was a holiday (and Kyle was home) I even slept in a little late for my own standards as well. But, that's what days off are for. Especially days off that fall on the last day before true reality kicks back in. Anyway, since I had nothing better to do than to lie awake and stare at my ceiling, I thought it'd be a great time to write about our first two days of vacation!

Here we are loaded up in the van heading to my parents house to drop off our dog Ollie (who got to lounge with their dog Lucy around the clock at their house while we were gone) with nothing but excited kiddos - and parents - to get down to the beach!






We arrived on 30A late afternoon and got settled into our little Beach cottage for the week. The girls immediately threw on their swimsuits and dove right into the pool!

 

While the kids swam their little hearts out at home with the guys, my mom and I did a quick grocery run for a few items to get us through dinner and breakfast the next morning until we could buy out the whole store come back at a less crowded time. We came home with fried chicken and all the fixins' and the kids were in swimming pool heaven. After a few hours, we jammied them up and let them have a little pre bedtime snack. I love me some jammie babies!!

 

The next morning we couldn't wait to get our toes in the water!! I didn't get many pictures because after snapping a few, I put my phone away so I could play! :)

After spending the morning splashing in the waves, we went back to the house so the littles could nap and we could get ready to head out for a late lunch and some shopping around Seaside.


The girls thoroughly enjoyed getting to swim every day while Preston napped (and so did mama!).

We decided to start at a local favorite, The Great Southern Cafe. Seriously, such good food and a fun little atmosphere. I just love Seaside!

Charleigh (who was exhausted from all the fun) was less than thrilled to have to wait for her food at lunch

Callie wanted me to document her little sunburn she got that morning. I promised I sun-screened her, but she loves to rub her eyes a lot!

After lunch, my parents took Charleigh back with them to the house so she could rest while the rest of us walked around a few shops and just enjoyed some slow paced quality time together.


We spent a good bit of time at the local book store there in town. I love how small and quaint it is there, I always make a point to visit there when we're in town. We let the kids browse around and play in the little children's section.

She was so excited to find a book for me to read to her all week!

Look closely at the book he chose to play with :) Pure coincidence. Love my little Farmer Boy!

After hitting up the book store, we were sure to visit the shaved ice food truck before making our way back. Callie got the rainbow kind, Kyle and I both got the Tiger's Blood (coconut & cherry flavored) and Camryn got watermelon. So good and so fun on a hot day!

On our way back to our van we walked past this little court yard and let the kids run a bit. One of my favorite things about visiting the towns on 30A are all the little hidden places like this placed throughout. They all feel like you're the only one there and no one else even knows it exists.

After our day out and about, we came home to rest before more water fun that night. I HAD to document this. Getting to take a guilt-free nap in the late afternoon for no good reason other than I wanted to... now THAT is a vacation! :)

The kids swam for a bit in the pool before we went back out to the beach together. This was the view out from my parents' balcony ( you can't see her in the pic but Nana was in a chair with them watching :) ).

Sunset on the beach never gets old!!

She still seems to young to me but every now and then I'll look and see a sweet little lady looking back at me.

I shared this on my Instagram (coveredingraceandkisses) - they were playing in their birth order so I HAD to capture that moment!!

After a fun night at the beach, we came back for showers, dinner in, and snuggles.

You know you've had a fun day when your kiddos put themselves to bed on their own. ;)

 And that's that for days 1&2!! I will share about days 3&4 in a day or two. I am hoping my post-vacation blues won't be as bad by then either. ;) 

Round Three & Mother's Day Weekend

I'm just going to address the Round Three thing real fast. :)

I have four kids... and a life with them that I desperately try to capture + remember with my camera and social media... but we also homeschool and I'm committed to serving on a local women's ministry through my church, among other parts of Real Life with Four Kids that happen at a very fast pace all the time. Having all of these things going on at once has kept me pretty busy the last year. However, I've come to the conclusion already that I would STILL, regardless of how "busy" I am, love to be able to go back and re-read how we spent these crazy days together as family. 

So here I am again. Trying to be committed to this little family blog. For no purpose other than to fill up my future Mama Cup when all my littles become all big and I'm longing to relive these days again. That is why I keep coming back to this little scrapbook/blog. So, I make no apologies to myself for my lack of posts, but moving forward into summer, I want to commit to writing it all down. As much as I can...when I can. I want to choose to make this little memory maker a priority, so I can thank myself later. Because the days are for sure long... but the years are so, so short. And I just don't want to forget the details of this little life with Kyle and our four kids that I've been blessed with!

Please bear with me (the 2 whole people that even read this to begin with... hey Mom & Dad) while I find my little documenting groove again and attempt to make it readable. Moving on :) 

Mother's Day 2016! And hello there, May! You are one of my favorites!

This year for Mother's Day we did a whole bunch of nothing. :) It was a weekend full of quality time and not really having anywhere to be. Other than running a few errands, attending our neighbor's soccer game, and getting to Worship on Sunday, we spent most of the weekend at home. 

It was exactly what I wanted (and needed!) and I soaked it all up. 

Ya'll, I rested on Saturday AND Sunday. And it was glorious. 

Sunday morning I was gifted by my sweet girls a few homemade love letters (the best) and then treated to a good southern cookin' lunch by my family & Dad. My poor mom was stuck at home sick, so we'll get to celebrate her next weekend. The rest of the day was just quality time, resting, and ending the evening with a little backyard cookout with friends family. :) 

Love all of these precious kiddos so much, and am so grateful to have them in my children's lives! 

Overall, Mother's Day weekend was perfect... and I am thrilled for all things May and all the fun memories that are coming very, very soon! 

Yay for completing my first post back! ;) Not gonna lie... it feels amazing. :) 

In Case You Were Wondering: My Netflix Binges

I love watching TV at night after we put the kids to bed. It is definitely mine and Kyle's way to wind down and relax after each day. While I am over-the-moon happy it is now summer, the only downside is weeknight TV. I miss some of my shows but I'm pretty happy with Netflix as well! I love it. I'm totally convinced that if Netflix would have been around when I was a teenager, there is a good chance that I would've stayed home more and been in trouble less! :) I'm an extremely extroverted person, but I know it is a good show when I find myself wanting to be at home watching Netflix instead of out doing whatever it is I'm doing. That is saying a lot for me! :)

First, some shows that I have binge-watched in the past are:

The Vampire Diaries-  I was borderline obsessed with this show when I was binge watching it. But once I got caught up, I lost interest. Proof that binge watching is way more fun than live tv :) Still a fun show though, and I even went on a tour with some friends a few years back, since they film it about an hour away here in Georgia. It was pretty cool!

24- I watched the first season. I actually have a mental note to come back and watch more. This show is good, but it is a little hard to get going since it is so old and I'm just now watching in life. The dated technology/fashion is fun yet distracting :)

Parenthood- hands down one of my all-time favorite shows ever. I started this show in the beginning live on TV and stayed with it until the very last episode. One of the best!

Raising Hope- this show is like goofy funny. Laugh out loud for sure!

Once Upon a Time- Kyle got really into this show a few years back. We don't watch it currently, but really enjoyed binge watching it for several seasons!

New Girl- another hilarious sit-com. Definitely a laugh-out-loud kind of show.

The Office- this show brings back good memories of 2006ish. Good times. SUPER funny show!



 Between being pregnant and not sleeping well, then nursing throughout the night, and now just lazy summer days, I've gotten into a few shows again this summer!

First off, when Preston was less than a week old I believe, I started Gilmore Girls.

Ohmygoodness. I finished it when he was 8 weeks old. The show is SO GOOD! I went through a bit of a grieving process after I was done. If you haven't already seen it, start now. Love it!! It only took me about 6 months of a grief period to finally start up a new show again. And it was worth the wait.

Hart of Dixie- this show is cute! It is easy to watch and a cute little comedy. I originally started this so I could have something to leave on while folding laundry during quiet time each day... but Kyle somehow ended up picking it up along with me and now we watch it at night together. It kind of is an "us" kind of show... after all, there are about 50 references per episode to the University of Alabama... so Kyle had no choice but to be somewhat in to it :) A cute little fun fact- it is filmed on the same set/town square as Gilmore Girls! It was like coming home to Stars Hollow at first. :) :) This show only had four seasons, too bad. We are in season 2 and I'm not in any rush to finish just yet! I'm enjoying this one a lot.

Since Kyle joined in on my original laundry show, I had to find something else and ended up coming across the cutest little Hallmark original show.

Cedar Cove- this show is so cute, too!! It is a little cheesy at first, but I find it really refreshing to have something wholesome to watch on tv. I believe this show was written after a book series, so I may have to check them out! Netflix has the first 2 seasons, and I know it still airs on Hallmark channel. Yay for not being cancelled yet! :) I REALLY love Cedar Cove.

Friends- ah, the go-to for easy, no-thinking-required tv entertainment. As I've gotten older, I've gotten even more into this show than I was when it first aired. It is fun watching episodes and remembering them. Anyone else miss the 90's? :)

Okay, so I watch more shows than just those listed, but most are live on tv still, so that is for a different post. :) I have a dream of one day, when Preston will finally let me leave him with someone other than Kyle, of spending an entire weekend at home with just Kyle and no kids, watching a series on netflix uninterrupted. I doubt that dream will ever happen, but it is definitely a goal. ;)

 Now, tell me, what are YOUR favorite netflix shows to binge watch? 

Preston's First Fourth!

You can take the girl out of PTC but you can never take the PTC out of the girl.

I am such a Peachtree City girl at heart. Independence Day in PTC may as well be the only holiday the town has. It is THE best holiday of the year around there.

Callie age 3 

Cam age 7

fourth of july, 2010 (Cam age 4, almost 5, and Callie 10 months)

We don't reside there, but we do spend the fourth there!

This year was spent differently than most. Several of our regular friends that we spend the majority of the day with were out of town. We stuck to our usual plans, as we had invited my cousin "Aunt Tammy" to join us for the day so she could see what all the fuss was about... but unfortunately she didn't get to see any of it!

We all woke up to pouring down rain. I was tempted to load up our rain coats and umbrella's and attempt to see the parade anyway, but then I remembered we have a baby. :) And I knew that wouldn't be easy or go over well! I heard that they had the parade rain or shine, but we enjoyed staying home relaxing, while Kyle cooked a BIG southern breakfast for everyone (his Saturday morning routine).

We had coffee, homemade southern biscuits, bacon, hash browns, eggs, and juice, all around the kitchen table while the rain came down just outside the window. It was so dark it felt like it was 8 o'clock at night! We could hardly believe it was July the 4th!!



The kids enjoyed snuggling around Aunt Tammy and playing on her phone ;)

We left shortly before noon to proceed with our pre-planned afternoon plans of taking the girls to see Inside Out. Kyle and Preston stayed home and napped. :)

The movie was adorable, as expected, and the girls all did great! Afterward they had to stand next to their favorite emotion for a quick pic.

Aunt Tammy had to head home shortly after we got back, so she could get to bed to prepare for her trip to China for work. After throwing together Shay's blueberry cake bars while Charleigh took a short nap, we loaded up the van and headed out to our church's cookout. We were undecided about going, due to the muggy weather. The sun was out but it was BUGGY and muggy. Yuck.

We endured the cookout and managed to get some good pics of the kiddos and then headed over to the golf course for play time and fireworks! 

Preston ended up doing great with all the day's activities, despite staying out WAY past his bedtime. He reminded us that it was late as he screamed the entire ride home (in traffic).


Once we were all home and in Jammie's, we ended the day with some sweet baby snuggles!! 

I am thankful for family and freedom. I am so happy to get to raise my children in this country. I am thankful for a town that stays true to the heritage that is the Fourth of July and what it stands for... and already look forward to next year's (hopefully) back to normal day of celebrating!!

Callie in the same dress, age 3 :)