February Love

February seemed to breeze by so fast, we had so many things going on that I am not even sure how we managed to make it through the month with our sanity. At least that's how it felt for me...prime example is that it's mid March and I am finally writing this post about February!

It started with both my husband and I in additional education classes, his were local which brought him home nightly and they were spread out over the course of the month. Mine was a three day cram session, two hours away (with traffic...which is basically the only way to determine driving time in or through Atlanta, it is a given) from home which required a hotel and some serious disconnect. Vince's grandparents were thank God in town to help us juggle the month's crazy schedule with the kids plus my parents were here for a week since they were in between closings and have since purchased a new home in North Florida putting them only four hours away instead of nine!

In the middle of this month's craziness, I was also going through the interview process with a company that is a little closer to home and is in a position to offer me years of growth. It was a long process...the offer negotiations were slow...but all worth it and in due time. It is good not to rush these things and to make sure both parties have a good and clear understanding about expectations and future goals. I believe that this is going to be a wonderful fit for me. I feel like I have been swimming between companies for the last two years and I am. over. it. My current company is just not the place they sold me on and I have some serious concerns that has led me to make this move. I am also getting the added bonus of moving back into marketing (which I love)!

By far the BEST thing about this month and will always be the best thing about this month is Nash's birthday! Yes. My sweet baby boy is 3 years old and boy oh boy is he something else! We had a Ninjago themed party since that is his current obsession and the best part was my parents were close enough to hop in the car and be there with us to celebrate! Nash's Godfather Ryan and Aunt Jilian also made the trip from out of state to spend time with him. I wish Nash could see them more often, it still takes him time to warm back up to people he doesn't see all the time which always makes the visit seem shorter.

Since Ryan and Jilian were in town it also gave us a chance to hang out with them and have an "adult" night out on the town (props to the grandparents for keeping the sugar filled grandbabies after the party so we could go out)! We had to take them to the Village Threatre (duh!) and then it was onto the Der Biergarten for late night drinks and German pertzels! You guys...we got home at 2:30 AM...I honestly cannot remember the last time I was up past midnight let alone 2:30 AM...and believe me was I paying for it the next day. Did I mention that I feel so old sometimes???

The rest of the month was spent cleaning up from the beginning of the month, my house was a project to say the least. Mason also wrapped up basketball and we celebrated Blue & Gold with the cub scouts where Mason earned his God & Me pin and badge!

Now that were into March...we thought we'd have some downtime. Yeah. Sure. Right.

Baseball season has started, new job begins on Monday, Savannah trip this weekend, boy scout fundraising...well hello March!

Full House!

February is shaping up to be a very exciting upcoming month! Both Vince and I are working on additional education courses, which will keep him busy during his days off from the fire station and mine will required a three day trip away from home for a crazy two day cram session. All in the name of career advancement…right?

Anyways, with all this going on Vince’s grandparents have offered to come down from Ohio for a visit and to help us with the boys. Lifesavers, they are. But during all this my parents have been in the process of selling their home down in south Florida and purchasing a new home in north Florida. Which is very exciting since we’ve already planned a weekend trip to visit the new house in February and they’ve already asked to have Nash for a week towards the end of February as well. But like all things, it never goes without a hitch…my parents original closing date has been pushed back so they will be coming to stay with us for a week until they are ready for closing (which is awesome) except that Vince’s grandparents will be with us as well. Can you say…FULL HOUSE?!?! Or what would be more appropriate is FULL HOUSE and RV! Yep. Our wonderful, God-sent friends are going to let us borrow their beautiful RV for my parents to use while in town since my house is just nowhere near big enough! Truly, our friends are two good to us and we owe them BIG for this one!

To top all that excitement off, Nash’s birthday is February 28^th and we’re having a party for him…can you believe my sweet baby toddler is turning 3 years old?!?! I just want to cry thinking about it. I could not picture my life without him, he is just that missing piece to our family. We’re having a Bob the Builder/Leggo theme party for him at the house, nothing big but just a little something since we did a big party for Mas back in August. He also has his very first Tae Kwon Do evaluation this Thursday to hopefully get him started twice a week in Martial Arts!

Mason has also started back in basketball this past weekend and I must say he already seems to be enjoying it more than he did the last time he played. We realized very quickly that he is very good a defending, we think this will be where he shines. Now that we have the hoop at home, he can practice with my husband…if this damn weather ever gives us a break!

 

On a random side note…this time next year Vince and I will be celebrating our fifth wedding anniversary in Ireland, Germany and Prague!!! Can you tell I’m excited? We’re in planning mode now and I feel like next year will never get here…not that I want it to fly by but this is a trip we’ve been talking about for so long…I am just ready to get this adventure going, just the two of us.

Happy 2015!

Happy New Year!

 

So far 2015 is already shaping up to be an awesome year! We started it out by celebrating with some amazing friends which of course also included some Cards Against Humanity (we are such horrible people, but it is so damn funny)! We ended up being home just before midnight as I hate to be out driving that late especially on that particular night.

 

We've been kind of relaxing lately, this is probably the only short time of the year (you know...those few days after the New Year just before mid-January) when we do not have a lot going on. So it's been pretty quiet around here, which is always nice. I did manage to snatch up some last minute tickets to Marvel's Universe Live - Superheros Show last weekend in Atlanta. It was so much fun and the boys loved it! It was actually a really cool live action show, Nash about lost his shit when Spider-Man jumped on stage and Mas was memorized by all the characters, especially the villains. They both got there own "weapon" to watch the show with as well as their fill of cotton candy and flavored icy. It was a great day with just the boys!

Vince and I also had a night out to celebrate our 4 year wedding anniversary and since next year marks our big Europe trip we decided to check out this German restaurant in Atlanta called Der Biergarten and it was delicious! I absolutely love German food! We then caught a Village show since that is just our favorite thing to do and it never gets old.

We've got so many plans for 2015 and I can't wait to get them started!

Christmas 2014!

What a wonderful Christmas we had here at the Harris house! Vince was on shift Christmas day so we celebrated on Christmas Eve...but it all started for us on the night of the 23rd! We started a new tradition this year, a Christmas Eve present! When I was a kid we used to invite family over for Christmas Eve and open all of their gifts, then Christmas morning was for our Santa's presents. It always made Christmas Eve so exciting so we decided to do something similar this year for our boys. I pictured it in my last post but our Christmas Eve gift was Star Wars themed and the boys LOVED it! We got all the best movie snacks, some Star Wars toys to play with during the non-battle scenes and all six Star Wars movies to watch!

In their matching pj's out of their Christmas Eve present! They are so dang cute!

Yummy movie snacks!

He was so excited he could barely contain himself!

Lining up his Star Wars action figures.

All my boys :)

It.Was.Awesome.

Vince has never seen the Star Wars movies (apparently he spent the first 28 years of his life living under a rock) but he really liked them which is good since we have four more to go until we've watched them all!

The one good thing I realized about celebrating Christmas on the 24th is everything is still OPEN! I woke up early to cook the kids breakfast then after we had our fill we turned up the Christmas music and went to town unwrapping all the gifts! We spent the next hour putting everything together and letting the kids play then it was onto Atlanta!

Did you know that on the 24th of December the High Museum of Atlanta has free admission?!?! Score. 

We ran a few errands which included Ikea for lunch and to the Green Egg "mother ship" store for charcoal and somehow walked out with a new medium size green egg (I'm still not completely sure how this happen) and then to the museum!!!

Nash was all over the place. Like, I thank the Lord he didn't end up costing us thousands with the way he kept trying to TOUCH EVERYTHING! I think I had at least three mini heart attacks...but Mas loved it, especially the really old pieces.

Posing in front of honest Abe!

Nash just before he tried to lift the painting off the wall...mini heart attack number one.

Nash's face in this picture is priceless.

Abstract family photo

Mas doing a little painting!

Nash painting!

After all our running around in Atlanta we headed to our Christmas Eve services at church, the music and gospel were great but the best part was at communion. Vince had taken Nash to the bathroom right before it started so when we began Mas asked me if he could go up with me to get communion. I told him he could but that he needed to talk to his Daddy when he got back so that he understood exactly what he was participating in. By the time Vince got back we had come back to our seats, Vince explained how important this moment was and then they said the sinner's pray. It was the best gift Mas could have given us! Mas took his very first communion and his respond to it all was "Why didn't you tell me all this earlier?" Followed by "The blood wine juice was the best"...he is such a goofball. But we are so very proud of him, we could not ask for anything more as his parents then him to grow up following the ways of Christ. 

It was a blessed Christmas indeed!

Ohio Christmas!

What a world wind weekend it was, filled with good food, lots of gifts and laughter with family! We’re back from our super quick trip up to Ohio and what a great time we had, the boys got to see a little bit of snow and we all got to take a ride to the North Pole on the Polar Express. It was the cutest thing ever to see Mas and Nash get to spend time with their cousin Wesley (Dubs as we call him) who we sadly do not get to see as much as we would like! The three of them sat shoulder to shoulder for the train ride and seeing their faces light up when we “arrived” at the North Pole, seeing all the lights was just so sweet! Mason was such a good cousin, playing with Dubs and loving on him too. Nash…well let’s just say Dubs and Nash may have had a few wrestling matches between them…but what can you do! They still played well together, I think it was just momentary lapses in mood base on limited to no naps being had.

The boys made out like bandits!

So.Many.Gifts.

We had to check a completely separate bag to get them all home!

We’re now preparing for our smaller, much calmer Christmas at home, doing some fun activities Christmas Eve and then Saturday I’m taking the boys to see the Marvel’s Live Superhero show here in Atlanta!

In other completely awesome news, my parents are officially moving closer to us!!! They received an offer on their house down in West Palm which is set to close the end of January and have a contract on a house in High Springs, North Florida which is about 15 miles from Gainesville. This will put them only about 3 ½ hours from us!!! I see many weekend trips to grandma and grandpa’s house in the boys future! We are all so excited!

Also, Vince and I have finally made the decision to “go big or go home” for our fifth wedding anniversary in 2016. Ireland, Germany and Prague…here we come!!! Vince has already been to Ireland but I’ve always wanted to go. If anyone has ever been to Germany or Prague and has any tips, advice or any other things we should know, please share!

And now…some pictures from our trip!

 

These three handsome boys!

 

Waiting for the tain to get moving!

 

Nash with his Papio! These two are so cute together.

 

I love that my sister-in-law got them all matching pajamas!

 

Nash telling Santa how naughty his brother was this year ;)

 

All three of them FINALLY passed out!

 

Playing in the little bit of snow we received.

 

Grandma and Grandpa teaching Nash how to get into the cake...

 

Early Christmas at the great-grandparents & Auntie's house!

 

Early Christmas at grandma and grandpa's house!

 

Playing with my sweet nephew Dubs ;)

 

Nash...having a mini meltdown that I finally cut him off from the never-ending supply of candy and chocolate donuts at the great-grandparents house. At this moment, his world was ending...LOL!

 

Look at what a stud he is! My heart, he is turning into such a handsome thing!

 

Nash was so excited to visit grandpa Vince at the fire station!

 

My Christmas present this year from my love and the boys, been looking at this for a while now and am so happty with how they came out!

 

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS !!!!

 

 



Be sure to drink your Ovaltine!

Christmas is less than 15 days away! I swear this holiday gets so much more exciting once you have children. I love all the different opportunities we have as parents to start new traditions, continue old ones and really just being able to be a big kid again with your kids! We’ve been busy wrapping presents, counting down the days with our elf “Rez” and counting up our advent tree calendar! It is so awesome that Nash can really start to get into it this year as well, he was mesmerized by the Christmas lights Mr. Griswold put up for us and laughed his ass off when the squirrel jumped from the tree and chased the family. He even laughed when Randy started eating his meatloaf squealing like a pig!  I am of course referring to Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story which thank God BOTH boys love! There has also been a lot of Home Alone 1 & 2 as well as Planes, Trains & Automobiles on consist repeat at our house, but tis the season!

Our holidays are kicking into gear early with a trip to Ohio the weekend before Christmas to celebrate with Vince’s family! That same week I also have a quick trip to Nashville for business which combined with packing and preparing my desk for my days away from the office should make for a very stressful week! I’m excited to get away though and hoping to see a little snow while we’re up there as well!

We’ve also finally finished all of our Christmas shopping, it was a little challenging this year with the boys but we ended up getting Mas the telescope and a basketball hoop for the driveway along with some other smaller gifts. He also got my year old Kindle Fire since I upgraded to the Kindle Voyager and Nash got Mas’s old iPad passed down to him. Nash also got a bunch of small gifts, which consisted of ninjas and fire fighters. For both boys we got them the “big” gift of the outdoor theater for the back deck so that we can watch our movies outside by the fire! I think they will both be happy with this year’s assortment of presents.

I ordered my own Christmas gift this year since it required my ring size and I wanted to make sure it was engraved just the way I wanted it. As for Vince, he of course says he doesn’t want anything and honestly he kind of has everything that currently peaks his interest…I mean he has every accessory available for the Green Egg Grill and everything he could possible need at the moment to brew his beer. I do think in the near future we may build a nice Kegerator for him but he doesn’t feel like he needs it just yet so I am stumped on what to get him…I’m keeping an eye out online for any last minute ideas and/or deals but at this point I've got nothing!

I also managed to get the Christmas gifts made for Mason’s teacher and Nash’s sitters this past weekend! It was a Pinterest project and I am very happy with how they came out! I also added some hot dark chocolate mix, marshmallows, Hershey’s kisses and candy canes to complete the gift! I know it would be a MILLION times easier to just buy a gift but for some reason I just think it means more to make them…or make as much of them as possible.

Well it’s time to tackle this crazy busy week ahead of me so that we can get our asses up north to hopefully celebrate an early white Christmas with family!

 

Teacher's Christmas gifts!

 

The boys trying to figure out which Christmas movie to watch next!

Our elf Rez is in full swing Christmas countdown mode!

 

We also went to the Black Keys concert last week and Nash (of course) LOVE it!

The Christmas Eve present is ready! We'll let them open this on Christmas Eve and they spend the evening munching on the goodies, playing with the toys and watching the movies!