Slice of Life – November 29th, 2015

November… it’s just been wild. At MOPS last month we focused on embracing rest as moms, and I’ve had to remind myself many times this month that it’s okay to let the sink sit with dishes a little longer and to turn down a few invitations for the sake of just resting. When I used to rest I would joke that I was being lazy, but the word lazy has such a negative connotation. Now I call it what it is – rest and necessary quiet time. I hope you find time to embrace rest when your body tells you that you need it this holiday season.

Here’s a few happy pictures of what’s filled up our calendar the last few weeks. 🙂

There’s a state park around the corner from our church, and we’ve been frequenting it with our buddies the Landers after the service ends. We usually get out of church a little before 11, so letting the kids run around for an hour before lunch and nap time has worked out beautifully!

Hadley’s coat / shoes

Jamie’s mom came to visit us from Texas for a couple of weeks, so she got to attend a birthday party with us for Hadley’s friend Lauren. A local doughnut shop – Varsity Donuts – does birthday parties where the kids get to play with extra dough and decorate plain doughnuts with icing and sprinkles. Super cute!

Getting a ton of kids to cooperate for a group picture can be challenging. 😉

A few weeks ago we celebrated my friend Shannon with a “baby sprinkle” for her second baby who’s due in just a few weeks! A group of seven of us went out to eat, enjoyed cake, and showered her with gifts for her son. We enjoyed the event kid-free too, which was a plus! We love you Shannon and can’t wait to meet that handsome boy!

I love the Army community so much and how fast wives can come together as quick friends and give each other the support we all need while being away from our other family and friends.

Teddy’s crate confinement is driving me a bit crazy, but we’re getting through it. He still spends the majority of the time in there, but it’s getting harder to keep him in there because he appears to be 100% healed and he wants OUT… bad! It’s obvious the crate confinement has worked though because he hasn’t walked this well in over a year. Hooray! Just a few more weeks to go until we can say goodbye to the crate.

I’d been wanting an 8’x10′ rug for our living room for forever, but I’ve never been able to justify spending the money because we always have other things going on. We found this one at Home Depot, so Jamie’s grandmother got it for us for Christmas! It’s probably the softest rug I’ve ever walked on, and it’s pretty beautiful in my opinion! Even my dad made a comment about how she probably spent really good money on it because of how soft it is, but it was so inexpensive for a rug this size! You can find it on their website here. Such a good deal. Don’t forget they do a 10% discount for military! (Please excuse my messy living room. I took this picture for my mom and sister!)

A few days ago I got the happiest piece of mail delivered to my front porch! I won a giveaway on Elizabeth’s blog a few weeks ago, and the giveaway prize was a huge box full of goodies from Hawaii! Unwrapping each gift and reading her sweet notes brightened my day.

She even included a coloring book for Hadley! So thoughtful!

Look who made it back to Kansas! My dad didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of Hadley, Teddy, and I doing the 800+ mile trip to Alabama alone, so he came up to help me get my house in order and do the road trip with us. Hadley loved seeing Grandpa as usual!

She’s totally my daughter and LOVES ice cream, especially if her grandpa buys it for her!

The calm after the storm. A few hours before I took this picture, Hadley got car sick and threw up five times in a row just two hours into our 14 hour trip. She was covered in throw up from head to toe (literally), but thank goodness there was a quiet gas station one mile away that had the space for me to strip Hadley down, wash her up, and change her clothes. Dad did the best he could to clean the car seat, but needless to say it was a horribly stinky drive home. My first day at home in Alabama included washing that car seat entirely. So gross! I was so calm while she was throwing up because I just thought about how every mom is bound to have a travel horror story like this at some point, and mine is happening now. 😉 Husband’s deployed, traveling 800 miles home for the holidays, and toddler barfs just 100 miles into the trip. This is my life!

Big milestone! She’s officially out of her crib and in a twin bed! Another post on this coming soon, if you’re interested. 🙂

This is the only smiling picture I could get of Hadley on Thanksgiving. This one is of her and my sister hanging out at my parent’s house before we left to go eat at my brother’s house in Birmingham. She really loves her Tante (Aunt) Jenn!

Deployments are so much better thanks to FaceTime! We got to “see” Jamie three times on Thanksgiving which made the holiday separation a bit easier. There’s nothing like having him here with us though!

I don’t think I’ve shared the news on the blog yet that my sister Jennifer is pregnant! SQUEAL! We’re only 15 months apart and have gone through almost every stage of life together. Same college, same sorority, married best friends (who we each set the other one up with), got married four months apart, and so much more. It only makes sense that we’re pregnant once together. Our babies are due within five weeks of each other. The spring is going to be BUSY but incredible! Here she is at 14 weeks and me at 19 weeks.

Look who’s hair I finally squeezed into a ponytail! PS – You can find me on Snapchat @WhimsicalSept (Erica DeSpain).

My mom and I took Hadley for a spin on the carousel at Bridgesteet shopping center on Saturday morning while making some returns. She is obsessed with all kinds of animals and kept saying “zebra!” over and over while we rode. 🙂

I’m convinced there’s never enough time when it comes to being around your best friends. On Saturday night Hadley and I got together with my three best friends from high school and had a blast! There’s something so special about the people who’ve literally known you forever that’s irreplaceable.

My life-long best friend Amberlee is expecting her baby boy Carter to be born around February 5th, and he put on quite a kicking show for us! Feeling him was so incredible. I already love that little guy so much and cannot wait to meet him so so soon! I also can’t get over how beautiful Amberlee is pregnant!

And that’s what we’ve been up to! Hope you had a great Thanksgiving week with family and/or friends!