Hello, hello! HAPPY FRIDAY. 🙂 I hope you’ve had a great week. I don’t know about you though, but I am thrilled it’s Friday. We’re looking at a weekend with very few plans, and I am simply craving the downtime that I’m about to have with my girly trio.
I shared bits and pieces of December happenings in yesterday’s “Slice of Life”, and I’m back today with a few pictures from my iPhone to take us through a few January happenings as well.
DINNER/INSTAGRAM
If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve possibly seen that I’ve been sharing a lot of our recent dinners on my stories. I started doing this a few weeks ago, and the feedback has been extremely positive. I really am just a normal mom trying to save money by eating at home more often than we eat out, but who also realistically doesn’t have the time or mental energy to devote to cooking “decent” meals every night either.
And I think so many of you are the same way. So if you’ve been following along, I hope you’re not too annoyed with me yet and all of my content about daily dinners. And if you’re not following along but think you could benefit from some new ideas about how and what to get on the dinner table, definitely check out my stories. 🙂
HADLEY/BIRTHDAY PARTY CARDS
We are solidly in the season of life where birthday parties are an almost every weekend thing, and my kids love love love it. We generally skip buying cards and have the girls make them instead. I usually give them a sheet of computer paper and an envelope, and they go to town.
This was the envelope of a card Hadley made for their buddy Dayton recently. I snapped this picture to send to Dayton’s mom letting her know that we left the card on the counter at home, and then I decided to share the picture here so that I can remember Hadley’s handwriting. She loves adding hearts to peoples’ names. We actually had to work really hard on breaking the habit of her drawing a heart at the end of her name on every one of her Kindergarten worksheets. So girly and so funny, but a heart is not an actual letter in her name. 😉
DATE NIGHT/FAMILY BUSINESS MEETING
A few weeks ago Jamie and I realized that we had so many things to talk about and discuss but rarely ever had the mental energy at the end of the day to sit down and plan things out (think trips, money, calendar things, grad school, professional goals, etc. etc. etc.). So we spontaneously called on his folks to babysit, we loaded up our paper calendars and laptops, and headed to sit at the bar of a neighborhood restaurant. We sat at the bar because we wanted to camp out as long as we could without taking up a waiter’s table.
And camp out we did. For three hours, we synced up calendars, mapped out Jamie’s grad school plans (he just got accepted for this fall to start his MBA!), hashed out some vacation details, and then finally cracked down on the specifics of me potentially starting a new website as a business.
We had the best three hours, and the best part was that we solidified the decision to put into motion the first steps of getting my new website off the ground. We got in the car and took this picture and Jamie captioned it, “The first day of the next chapter of our lives.” He was right.
A few days later, he came home with this surprise. His support is absolutely crucial and necessary for me, and “little” actions like this mean more than I can say. I can’t wait to share with you all the things I’m currently working hard on!
CUTE CHILDRENS BOOK
My aunt is the cutest. Have you ever seen the viral video of a grandmother/nanny reading this story and crying from laughing so hard? It’s cute. She recently surprised the girls with this book The Wonky Donkey, and Sadie especially absolutely loves it!
HADLEY/KINDERGARTEN
Hadley loves when family come eat lunch with her at school! My MIL took this picture recently while her and my FIL made a visit. Friday + cafeteria pizza (she always gets school lunch on Fridays!) + grandparents = happy kiddo! Also… I have the best memories of my dad coming to eat lunch with me in this exact cafeteria. Now the next generation is eating in here. 🙂
BEST FRIEND’S BABY
This wasn’t the first time I met my best friend Amberlee’s baby girl Cora, but it’s the first picture I got with her! I love this precious little miracle. It’s going to be wonderful watching her and Jillian grow up together.
Cora & Jillian’s first picture together of what will be hundreds. Precious family cabooses.
Sadie was about 24 hours fever-free when Cora first came over, so she didn’t get to hold her. She did get to hold her when they came back a week later, which made her so happy! When I told her Amberlee and Cora were coming over, she said “I’m not sick today so I’m gonna hold her!”
SISTER SISTER
These two fight occasionally, but they really, really love each other. My mom babysat last night and was talking about how sweet their relationship is. They could not be more different in personality, but I think that’s partially why they get along so well a good chunk of the time. Hadley thinks Sadie is a riot, and Sadie thinks Hadley is her role model.
Hadley does get annoyed though when Sadie is being an unreasonable three year old, and Sadie gets annoyed when Hadley wants to play independently. Sadie has been known to yell at Hadley so loudly that it makes Hadley cry (just another example of their personalities shining bright!)
But for the most part, they’re inseparable.

ANNIVERSARY
We celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary on January 15th (here’s a look back at our big day)! Instead of going out to dinner, we opted to order carry-out and enjoy dinner on the back patio after the kids were in bed. IT WAS AWESOME. It was lightly raining, 71 degrees, and just perfect.
Nine years feels really good. I am proud of us and in love with him. We are really doing this thing. Ha! And we know we’re just getting started.
I don’t know who was more sad about one of our wedding champagne flutes breaking the next morning: me or my mom (she was like “Oh darn, those were expensive!!”)
ORANGETHEORY
Benchmark workouts at Orangetheory are always difficult but so fun too! I’ve always said that while I’m not competitive with other people, I am with myself. I am seemingly always trying to improve and do things better than I have in the past, so this kind of “self challenge” is right up my alley!
I’ve never been able to run a mile in 7:22 before, but the varied training we do on the treadmills with speeds and inclines has made a big difference in my running ability. The HIIT-style workouts are my jam. Doing benchmark runs with motivated friends is also my jam! Makes it all way more fun.
We did the benchmark run on Friday morning, and then 13 hours later we all cleaned up and met back up for dinner! We celebrated our local Orangetheory’s two-year anniversary and then headed out to another location for more hang time. I woke up the next morning and told Jamie that my abs were so sore, but that I legitimately wasn’t sure if it was from yesterday’s workout OR from laughing so freaking hard the night prior. Friends like these make life so much happier!
KIDS’ SUBSCRIPTION BOXES
My sister got all three girls various subscription services for Christmas, which was a really sweet idea. Jamie and I have enjoyed doing them with the girls. Hadley got a few months of Kiwi Co., Sadie got Green Kids Crafts, and Jillian got My First Reading Club.
In this particular box from Hadley’s kit, we made a stethoscope, sewed up and stuffed some fabric organs, and did some x-ray work. 🙂
LITTLE FRIENDS
What’s better than a trip to Ulta? Running into your girlfriend and her daughter at Ulta, and then watching the girls run around together sampling lotions and makeup like big kids. 🙂
MY BIRTHDAY
I turned 32 on Sunday. 🙂 We celebrated with a few of my favorite things: Jesus, family, brunch, and some hang time at home.
Jamie made us reservations at Char, a new restaurant in Huntsville, and we all thought their Sunday brunch was phenomenal in experience and taste!
Two years ago I spent my 30th birthday in the thick of it with selling our house, and then last year we spent it by throwing our gender reveal party and then heading to Birmingham for a friend’s wedding.
So this year, I just wanted to CHILL. This is 32 I guess. 🙂
My dad couldn’t make it to church and brunch because he was invited last-minute to catch up and play frisbee golf with an old, dear friend of his, and I told him he better not miss that. 🙂
After becoming a mother myself, I know that your kids’ birthdays are a big deal for the moms too. My birthday is also the day that my mom became a mother, which is obviously monumental.
After watching the Aaron Hernandez documentary on Netflix that afternoon, we ate dinner at home (Jamie made steak fettuccine alfredo – yum!) and ate cake.
FAMILY TIME
Jamie and the kids all had off on Monday to honor MLK Jr., so we spent the morning as a fam at Jillian’s six month appointment. We planned to try a new-to-us doughnut shop after the appointment, but it was closed. We swung into my favorite childhood restaurant (Rolo’s) instead, which the kids loved. The diner-type food + antique train that runs near the ceiling made this place a big win.
JILLIAN
Snuggle time with this big girl is one of life’s natural medicines. Babies are hard work but so sweet to have in the home.
HADLEY
Hadley had been counting down to her 100th day of school for weeks. I don’t know what they did in school all day, but I do know that it was fun! She was supposed to dress like a 100 year old, so we did the best we could. 😉
POTTY TALK 😉
Jamie and I HOWLED when a friend texted this to me. OMG. We had just talked the night before about how we can’t wait until Sadie can wipe her own bottom. Her shouts from the bathroom (“I’m dooooooone!!!!!”) are funny but also always at inconvenient times. LOL. But when is it really convenient to wipe someone’s behind? So… this picture tickled us.
SADIE
I’ll finish this off with one more picture of my Sadie girl. Full of sass, a personality that is all her own, and a future ahead of her that I can’t wait to see unfold. She is so special to me.
Let’s chat!
Are your kids polar opposites of each other, or do they have many similarities?
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