a little bit of life lately:

**This post was originally written back at the end of October, but I am just now getting around to posting it... Such is life, am I right?**

It's been a while since I've done any sort of "what we did this week/weekend" update and I know that I will regret not capturing those moments here to reflect on later. This past weekend was simple, but filled with fun - my kind of time well spent!

On Friday, Peyton went to a fun trick or treat event at a state park with her Dad and his family (one of their yearly traditions) so my Dad and Nick worked on the mudroom for a bit, before we headed out to Home Depot to pick out our "faux wood" tile. I've been so excited to see this room come together because, considering what it looked like before, it is going to look SO much better now! There were decisions to be made about which tile would look better...

Originally, we had planned on the right - "Rustic Bay", I think it was called) but instead I liked the lighter "Dapple Grey". Ironically, our first picked just looked too "muddy"... for the mudroom ;)

After we loaded up the car with our tile purchase, we headed towards Walmart for some much needed baby formula and other essential food items. This little munchkin man was so good for us, and it is so much fun shopping now that he can sit in the cart like a big boy. 

Since it was so late, neither of us felt like cooking dinner. So, Little Ceasar's pizza and crazy bread (while snuggled in bed!) it was! Hashtag fatties but we love it.

Saturday started off with a bath for little man. He loves bath time and will splash around and play with his bath toys 'til his little heart is content. 

Nick and my Dad spent the morning working on the mudroom, so Peyton, Rhett and I got ourselves together and hit up the library for some new book selections for my little which, Peyton and then we made the drive to go pick up my Dad's birthday presents (his birthday was Sunday!).

Once we came home, we relaxed and were bums for the rest of the evening. 

The next day, Peyton and I took a trip to the hair salon down the street!

She got her bangs trimmed and Mama became a redhead! 

When we got back, Dada and Papa Ron worked super hard to finish up the mudroom floor.
The day before, they had laid the tile and then Sunday they filled in all of the gaps with a dark grey grout. It looks so good!

^^ The tile before the grout was applied. ^^

Me, Peyton, and Rhett spent the afternoon preparing for the evening of Papa Ron's post-birthday celebration by baking a cake. Which was, not without a few whisk and spatula licks - because icing is tastyyyy, duh!

^^ Peyton showing Aunt Nenna the card that she made for Papa Ron while they were facetiming. ^^

It was a wonderful weekend, indeed. And then that Monday we carved pumpkins and listened to Halloween music. There was also an in-living-room screening of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" that I was more than happy to be a part of. Life with this family of mine could not be better.

Life is good. So, so good.

xo,

Sara

My Grammy turns 90.

This year, my Grammy turned 90 years old. To think of all of the things she has witnessed in those ninety years... I just can't even fathom it all. She is such a wonderful and amazing woman and I am so beyond lucky to call her my "Grammy".

Technically, her birthday was back in July. However, we were on our vacation when she turned the big 9-OH (we're awful people, I know). Thankfully, this weekend we finally got the chance to have a big party for her and celebrate her day of birth properly.

 

Peyton had her not-so-little cousins wrapped around her finger. They are such young gentlemen that they went to pick flowers with her {from that giant wildflower field in the background}, kick the football for her... and then go retrieve the football to do it all over again, etc. Needless to say, Peyton had a great time, haha.

Peyton helped Grammy open all of her presents, of course.

My (& Jen's) Uncle Dan and Aunt Janice came down for the party- all the way from New Hampshire! It's a shame that we only get to see him every few years or so, if that. However, he did invite us to stay up at his place sooo we may be taking him up on that offer soon!

My Grammy, Jen, Momma, and our Great Aunties. The Aunties come to stay with my Grammy this time of year and they laugh, and laugh, and laugh and play cards all day and night. They each come from different states: Florida, Texas, and Arizona. They celebrate Christmas on a Tuesday (in September) so they can all "be together for Christmas". They go to the "Cousin Crab Party" which is practically a family reunion and a crab feast combined into one. I love each and every one of them and I am so thankful to consider these happy, happy women members of my family.

I do believe that Grammy had a wonderful time at the party. There were numerous people there to celebrate with her and to enjoy her company, of course. There was tons and tons of food, which was nearly completely finished by the end of the night. Seriously, I didn't even get to take a picture of the appetizer set-up (I made the bacon-wrapped-brown-sugar weenies and some spinach artichoke dip in a bread bowl, yum!) before it was completely annihilated by the swarm of party-goers, haha. It was a super successful event and I am so glad we got to throw Grammy a birthday party full of laughter, catching up with family, and great food.

 

Grammy, you mean the world to all of us. I hope this year is filled with much joy and happiness. Here's to 90 more fabulous years! I love you.

labor day weekend happenings

Our Labor Day weekend was all about spending time with family and eating delicious food:

 

Friday: Jenna came back from school in NYC {after we just dropped her off last week} and Dadda took us all to get Mexican food. Chicken Enchiladas = YUM in my tum(my)!

 

 

Saturday: I worked late. The morning was spent doing MORE dress shopping! Eeek! I know I already mentioned about how I fell in love with two dresses at that shop and I am just itching to go back and try them on again! That night at work, my coworkers had put together a little birthday gift for me that included a bottle of pink moscato, The Knot magazine for PA/DE, and a generous gift card to our place of employment. They are so the BEST! Thanks guys! :) Also, Saturday evening (after work), Rory snuggled up on me as if she were a 3lb lap dog... I would've been mad at her, except she's just so darn cute.

{PS- I know I am biased, but my little girl is just so darn beautiful. Even in her sleep.}

 

Sunday: I didn't have to work! And I didn't even request off! It was a miracle. So, we raided Bath and Body Works' candle section did some shopping and then went to my parents' house for a delicious homegrown and homemade dinner that was straight out of Jenna's garden! 



 

Monday: Labor Day. No work was to be done so, naturally, we stuffed our faces. We went to one of my all-time favorite restaurants in Maryland and chowed down on our "family-style" crabcake lunch and sugar biscuits! SO STINKIN' GOOD! I'm drooling just remembering it.

 

 

After out belly's were about to burst, we decided it would be a fantastic idea to go on a nature hike. #nobigdeal. This is Prettyboy Dam on Gunpowder River in Maryland:

 

{those are a whole heck of a lot of stairs, if you couldn't tell.}

 

{on our way down the "trail" to the water.}

(Nenna ended up taking off her flip flops in order to carry the baby down on her back. We were also in skirts. We may be crazy. May be.}

{Do you see Nicholas over there on the side of the dam? :)}

{I was so worried he was going to slip and fall in 'cause the rocks were so slimy and wet!}

 

 

 

And then our weekend ended with this:



{sunsets from home are always the best.}

 

I hope you had a wonderful 3-day weekend! :)

 





 



family reunion time!

The main event this past weekend was a sort-of impromptu family reunion with members of my Dadda's side of the family, who we rarely see. It was such a wonderful evening, spent catching up and reconnecting with family who we haven't seen in quite some time.

 

Friday evening I kind of decided to take it upon myself to make Strawberry Peach Sangria, Chocolate Kahlua Trifle Cake, Bacon-Wrapped Brown Sugar Weenies, and Taco Dip for said family reunion... that was to happen the following afternoon/evening. I must be crazy. By time I got the Sangria done and the brownies baked for the trifle cake, it was 11:30pm... and I passed out with Peyton shortly after that.

 

The trifle is supposed to sit at least 4 hours before serving it, once it's all layered together. However, I wanted to let it set overnight in the fridge. Obviously, that did not happen with me passing out and all. Ha! At least Nick made the Taco dip that night and then took on the Brown Sugar Weenies Saturday morning while I went to work. And luckily, I woke up early enough (and bolted out of bed!) that morning to finish up the rest of the trifle cake.

 

The Sangria was a hit, but the Chocolate Kahlua Trifle took the cake! (pun intended :P) Seriously, if you need something super easy to make for dinner tonight a family get together, I highly recommend it!

a "bird's eye view" of the family reunion. yes, the tarp may be redneck-ish of us... but, hey! we didn't have a tent, the forecast called for showers, and there was no way that we were all piling inside the house just because of a few raindrops!

my beautiful girl - in the middle of a game of tag.

Peyton was THRILLED to have other kids to play with! We "partied" after dark and started up a campfire {my idea!} so we could make some s'mores!

1// Candy's first s'more ever! I couldn't believe this girl had never had a s'more before. Pure craziness. 2// Me & babygirl... and some photobombers :P 3// It was Rory's first campfire! This was her attempt at trying to lick s'more crumbs off of my face. 4// FIYAH! {PS- sorry for the poopy iPhone pictures, it's all I had at that point!}
 

la familia.

We should really have these reunions more often! I'm certainly looking forward to the next one. :)

clownfish and minions: our weekend shenanigans

I'm back! I'm back!

Vacation was so very wonderful, you guys. Seriously, I wish I could go back. I plan on doing one, or probably a few, recap posts in the near future... but I'm still going through the 4,000-some pictures we took! So crazy.

So, for now, I'll fill you in on what we did this past weekend! Granted, it wasn't super exciting by any means, but it was fun and filled with family-time.  Though, I am starting this recap on our last Wednesday evening because that night we crossed off one of the items on our Summer Bucket List!! {yay!} So, maybe this is more of a "what we've been up to" post rather than just a weekend dealio, but that works for me!


Wednesday:
We got ourselves a fish for our saltwater tank! Finallyyyyyyy. After 2 months of constantly checking salinity and nitrate levels and gathering our "cleaning crew" for the tank {aka: an emerald crab and a whole bunch of snails- including four "zombie snails"}, we could finally add some little fishies to it! So, Aunt Nenna and Rory joined us for a trip up to Petco where we made two little clownfish {and a teeny-tiny peppermint shrimp} our own!

Any time that Aunt Nenna comes over, I swear she is constantly plotting how she is going to sneak Rory out of our apartment and up to New York with her. {You can see them cuddling in the above picture.} :P

 

Blogland, meet our clownfishies. Clownfishies, meet Blogland :)

{Nick picked out Onyx and I chose Phoenix. Then, Peyton and Jen picked out the nicknames.}

 

 

 We spent the rest of the evening watching Despicable Me {preparing ourselves for our movie date to see the second one on Friday!} and eating ridiculously overpriced snacks from Sheetz {because we hadn't been to the grocery store yet since coming home from vacation}.


Thursday:
I broke down on the way home from work and purchased only the necessities needed to create some deliciousness in the kitchen. How did I do this, you ask? Well, by using Erin's recipe for Copycat Chipotle Corn Salsa and another copycat recipe for Chipotle's Cilantro Lime Rice. They were piled on top of each other to make magnificent chicken fajitas. Yum. Throw those together with some Rum & Coke with lime, and you have yourself a Mexican fiesta right there in your kitchen!

 

 

Friday:

via

Nick, Peyton, and I had a movie date! We went to go see Despicable Me 2, and it was so good! We snuck in snacks {popcorn, chips, and juice} and just enjoyed ourselves. The movie was super cute and I would definitely recommend seeing it! The only problem I had with it was that I felt that the movie referenced death/dying/killing a little more than I had expected, and Peyton is only 4. It just seemed a little too much sometimes.

 

After the movie, we went to SweetFrog for a sweet treat. Peyton picked the flavors and most of the toppings!

 

 

Saturday:

Saturday I had to work, but not til later that evening. So, for the morning, we all hung out together and just had a relaxing morning. Nick and I had thought about going to a bank to see how we would go about getting pre-approved for a loan... for a house!! That's right, you guys! We're gonna try to buy a house by the end of this year {key word: TRY}. However, since it was a Saturday and the banks aren't exactly open long if at all on Saturdays, we just didn't get around to doing that.

 

Instead, Nick, Peyton, and Rory went up to the pet store for supplies for our "zoo" of animals; and I stayed home to relax/catch up on True Blood/do laundry/etc. {aka: I just sat on the couch and watched True Blood, ha.}

 

Sunday:

I woke bright and early to go to a work meeting at the Pier, yay! Ha. After the meeting I had to stay to work for a few hours and then high-tailed it outta there to pick up my babygirl and go... grocery shopping! Just what everyone loves to do... not. Nick met us there so that made it a bit more of an enjoyable experience. This was the first time doing a legit grocery run since we got back from vacation... and we made it a big one!

After taking the groceries home, we headed down to my parent's house for yet another enjoyable night around the picnic table. I finally got a chance to see how my sister's garden has been doing. The last time I saw it was before vacation... It. Is. Booming. Like crazy. Check it out:

We then spent the evening eating corn on the cob, burgers and zucchini fresh off the grill, and drinks fresh out of the martini shaker. Also, my Grammy and my Great Aunt Margie {who lives in AZ} came up to visit!

 

 

Evening's like that are what being "home" truly means.

 

Ironically enough, my Dadda made a last minute decision to pack us all up and head to the local snoball/ice cream shop {it used to be a movie theater way back in the day} for a treat to top off the night. I say "ironically enough" because none of us were aware that Sunday was National Ice Cream Day!

Ps- I suppose this also counts as crossing off another one of our Summer Bucket List items - "Get a snoball, with marshmallow!" Although, I was the only one who got the snoball, while everyone else chowed down on ice cream. But hey, it works!

 

That about wraps it up, folks. We'll see what the future holds for us as far as loan approvals and house hunting! For now, I'll enjoy the moon-rises outside of our apartment: