Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Target Meltdowns, every mom has a story. . .

Hi all!!

It's a breezy 90 degrees here today and it feels really good! I took B outside early in the day and it felt so cool compared to what it was. I am so excited to fall and cooler temperatures! I know that's still a month or more away, but a girl can dream. Besides, even in this August heat I'd still rather have this than winter.

We had a fun weekend! Friday night I went out to dinner with some other staff wives and it was wonderful. I left dinner at 8:30 to head to the church and attend Common Ground- a once a month get together for women at The Met.. . . there's drinks and desserts and women doing various crafty things. I was too busy talking and didn't even completely two scrapbook pages. Ha! Saturday was filled with swimming and eating lunch at chick fil a and watching Friday Night Lights (best show ever) and eating homemade pizza. We also cracked open a puzzle which we're still working on.

So I have a mom story for y'all. Yesterday I took Brennan to Target to pick up a few things (and to get out of the house, lets just be honest here). He is usually a little charmer when we go out in public and I have zero problems with him. Well this time, he just kept fussing and fussing and reaching for my purse and saying, "cawww" (car). I handed him his car, he didn't want it. I handed him some crackers which usually works, nope. About 10 minutes into our trip, he starts wailing. So I checked out and we headed home. He seriously cried the entire trip home. I get home and he continues to have his little meltdown. Cue Jon walking through the door to be welcomed by this sight. I'm in the kitchen slightly laughing because I cannot figure out what is triggering his meltdown! Jon hands him a sippy cup with water and Brennan stops crying and drinks the entire thing. Who knew!?? And how did I fail to think of his sippy! Oh well.

Poor kid was just thirsty. I cannot wait til he can use his words more but at the same time, I have a feeling we have a little talker on our hands and I might really be missing the days when he didn't talk!

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Hanging out with the B Man



This video is for Grandma and Grandpa O and A back in Michigan. It's just a boring little video of B but we thought you would enjoy it!

Monday, August 16, 2010

Wins

This weekend, I just really needed a win. You know what I mean? I was feeling like a lot of stuff was just not going good and I was feeling really defeated. I'm sure you can tell that from my last post.

Saturday morning, Jon, B and I went out to lunch and stopped by Goodwill really fast. I'm browsing through the toddler clothing racks and Jon comes around the corner with a scrapbooking rolling tote! Can you even believe it? It was a whopping $7.99.

See, I decided to get into scrapbooking this spring because I wanted to make Jon a scrapbook for Father's Day. I already had a ton of supplies because Jon has been wanting me to get into scrapbooking for forever and bought me most of the basics. It's been awesome for me because our small group gets together one Friday night a month to hang out and scrapbook. So now it's become more of a social thing for me than anything. And I loved going home to scrapbook with my mom and sis in law this past vacation.

But I've really been wanting a rolling tote so I won't have to carry everything to and from The Met for scrapbooking nights. But they're kind of pricey- like $75.00 ish. I know it's a small win, but it's a win none the less that we found one for so cheap! Who doesn't like finding a sweet deal?

Oh, here's a photo of the tote and some cute clothes we found B at Goodwill. I love thrift stores!

Friday, August 13, 2010

Because tonight, I NEED to think about the good things in life. Because it is too easy to fall into list making of everything that's gone wrong.

Tonight, I am thankful for:
YOU! You readers, your comments brighten my day. Really.
My husband.
My sweet son. I could watch him "run" around our house all night.
Our families who love us
Katie Foster. I am so glad she's coming to visit!
MOPS
Growing Covenant small group
The fact that our house is rented!
A God who works all things out for good.
Suzanne being cancer free.

Ackerman Clan!


After spending a week at my parents, we were able to spend a week with Jon's parents and the Zubert family. It was such a great time! We went to the beach (Lake Michigan) about three times, had a girls lunch/pedi time, Jon was able to play golf a few times and we did a lot of wii playing.
The only picture of the three boys that turned out!

I'm SO glad my parents and Steve were able to meet us at the beach one day. The waves were so awesome to play in! Here's Steve with Brennan.

Westin and B. Poor Brennan is teething something awful right now.

St. Joe carousel.

We got family photos by the most talented Ben Pancoast. . . here Jon and B are trying to keep Westin and Lincoln's attention for their family photo!

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Urban GL

At my parents house we basically stood around and shot assault rifles all day, what can I say?


No, really, we did. See? Even my Grandpa took some shots:


Just kidding. We had a great time in Grass Lake. It was filled with card games and food and family and the Chelsea Street Fair and a little bit of Rock Band. We were able to see Katie and her new baby, Charlotte and I'm so excited they're coming to visit in a few weeks! We drove to Lansing one day to see some friends and check on our house (and our expensive trees we had put in a few weeks ago).
On Friday we drove to Grand Rapids to see John and Kym and Andy. They both have recently bought new homes and it was so fun to see them. John and Kym have an awesome backyard so we had a BBQ and let the kids play on these things:



Brennan and Kaitlin. Pretty much Brennan was in heaven. He's slightly obsessed with CAWWWWS.

Everyone was home, including my sister and brother in law from DC and my Grandpa from Buffalo, NY. It was really cool for me to see how much my brothers loved Brennan and interacted with him. It's hard to be this far knowing they are missing out on a lot of his life.

We were able to stop by my college roommate's house on the way to GR. She amazes me in many aspects, especially how she can raise 4 kiddos and still have a clean house and be so productive. So good to see you and your beautiful kids, Lacey!

I'm really glad my Grandpa was able to fly in from Buffalo, NY. He's so good with the kiddos and so energetic. He's pretty much one of my favorite all time people- if you ever read this Grandpa, thans for coming up!!

And now I'm going to wrap this puppy up so I don't start crying. Adios!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Summer Vacation 2010

Dudes. We had the best time on vacation!! Thank you so much for praying for Brennan and his sleep. He did GREAT! Slept great at night, took good naps, and traveled like a champ. Thank you Lord! We drove a ton and had pretty long plane flights (thanks to being re-routed to Madison, WI to re-fuel due to a thunderstorm, ugh) and through it all, B was pretty darn good. I guess the really great thing about having a super tough first year with your baby is that we never take him being happy for granted. So so so thankful he was a good traveler!

(For you moms that care, we bought a sound machine, had him sleep in his own room, and brought his crib bumper with us. We're not sure which one of those three things (or all three) is why he slept while we traveled, but it worked).


(Also, we have the best parents in the WORLD. Thank you to you both for finding room for B to sleep on his own and for your amazing hospitality. Thank you for your understanding, we loveeee you!)

I think I'm going to break up this post into a few separate segments. We'll start off with the Girls Weekend! Saturday morning, I drove my father in laws truck to Grand Rapids to meet with these girls:
(Dinner at Rosa's on Reeds Lake. BEST sandwich I've literally ever had.)

I was driving in a huge rainstorm and praying the whole time, "Dear Lord, please don't let me crash Ron's truck, I don't think it would be good for our relationship." :)
We got to visit our dear friend, Suzanne, in the hospital post surgery. She was looking and feeling great and we were so thankful with her (she was declared CANCER FREEEEEEE!). Aftewards we ate lunch at a little Mexican place, got pedis:


Shopped, ate out for dinner and stayed at the Amway Grand. Somehow we got upgraded to a corner room, check out the view from our room:

(Wendy and Michele, there is no way I'm posting the photos I attempted to take in our room. One word: horrid.)

The next morning we ate breakfast at Wolfgang's in Easttown and relaxed at the Holland state park beach the rest of the day. So good to see you girls, I love you!!


Next up: a week at my parents house in metro Grass Lake.