Hey hey friends, and Happy Friday! After a super busy, nutty week, I’m relieved and excited to hop on a “big blue airplane” (as Hadley says) and head down to Destin today for my best friend Ashley’s bachelorette weekend. Hooray! We’re so excited for our Ash. There’s a great group of girls going, and I’m just crossing my fingers for a pretty day to lounge on the beach tomorrow. I need a little R&R in the worst way!
I’ve never been away from Sadie for more than six hours, and leaving your kids overnight for the first time is always a little strange/weird/hard/awesome. I know the girls will be happy as clams in their daddy’s very capable hands!
Here’s a little “Slice of Life” of what we’ve been up to.
I usually use Shutterfly or a similar website for birthday or shower invitations, but this time around I was really struggling to find a black and white-themed invitation with a bow tie on it. I remembered that my friend from college, Laura, has a thriving invitation business, so I reached out. She offered to make all of the invitations in exchange for sharing them on the blog with all of you, and I knew that I’d be HAPPY to since her work is seriously gorgeous!
I sent her a few I liked on Pinterest as well as all the info I needed on the invitation, and she had the entire invitation designed and sent to me for approval within a day! I thought it was perfect! The next and final step was picking an envelope – white or KRAFT (the brown paper sack look). I loved having this option. The invitations were at my house within six days of first communicating with her. I was just a tad impressed!
I invited Laura to tell me a little bit more about her company: “I created the company while on maternity leave with my son Mason is 2013. I started out with an Etsy Shop. Eventually, the orders were coming in so quickly that I reached out to my sister-in-law for some assistance. Later that year in Summer 2015, she officially joined Allie Logan Designs as co-owner. We decided that we wanted to venture out and really brand our company, so we decided to go away from Etsy and create our own online store www.AllieLoganDesigns.com. We were also recently invited to become Amazon Artisans and have work displayed and for sale there now, too. 🙂 PS – the company name comes from my beloved Weimaraners – Allie & Logan.”
You can find Allie Logan Designs on Facebook or on their website, or you’re welcome to email Laura directly and pick her brain about what she can design and put together for you: info@AllieLoganDesigns.com
Last Friday night we had our first family swim of the season. I knew I was going to be gone most of the weekend doing various things and was craving some family time to fuel me before a couple full days. We decided last minute not to think about it and just head to the pool! Each of us held a kid and we really enjoy it (even though the water was still a bit chilly).
We are really conflicted about using a Puddle Jumper with Hadley. We loved that she could swim on her own with it last year, but it also gave her two year old self the idea that she could go in the water by herself (and we all know what happened next). Sigh. I don’t like any of our options and just wish she could swim for her own enjoyment. Sigh.
Speaking of swimming, Hadley had four days of private lessons this week! I wanted so badly to share with our families who were anxious to know how she did that she, in fact, did great… but, she didn’t. She had the most wonderful teacher who Hadley loved and happily went with every day, but she refused to release her arms from around her teacher’s neck. She likes being in the water, but she doesn’t want to learn anything. The teacher went underwater with her twice, and Hadley went ballistic.
This is all really hard on my heart because she still remembers so much from September, and I’m so frustrated about that. I’m not sure what to do about swimming this year. I’m worried that if we avoid the pool this summer that she’ll be even more uncomfortable in the water next year as an almost five year old. I hate to be a Debbie Downer because y’all know I’m a glass half full person, but this pool/swimming saga has effected so much of our lives. I’m so thankful she’s healthy and that we had a great outcome, but gosh… the recovery emotionally is just hard. #keepinitreal
But let’s move on to some happy pictures because we’ve had a ton of happy moments lately too. 🙂
Last week Hadley and I ventured over to a nearby park before sunset so that I could play with some camera settings and we could wander together. Just wanted to share a few of my favorite shots. I’m so nuts about this kid!
On Tuesday we had a little date night and ran around participating in the “Taste of Downtown”, which is a fundraiser for the local Optimist Club. It was a gorgeous night and we had so much fun! I just love this little city (and my handsome hubby!) so much.
See ya next week! Have a fun weekend (and wish Jamie luck with the girls – ha!).
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo