the REST of labor day.

**warning: picture-packed post**

friday afternoon i picked the hubbs up from work and we attempted to head out to the 'country' for a few days. BUT because of the holiday weekend, the traffic was awful. what would normally take an hour and a half at MOST.... took 2 and a half hours. whew.

by the time we got out of the city.... we really needed to be out. of. the. city!

so - where was our destination?

mt. vernon, texas.

woo-hoo! sounds like fun, right? right!!!

you may remember a while back when i went with a few girlfriends from high school to the lake for the weekend. well, my parents bought a lake lot soon after that, so we were headed out to 'try out' the town with my family before they start to build.

we stayed at a little ranch about 10 minutes from their property. we. loved. it.

by the time we arrived friday night, it was pitch black so it was such a wonderful surprise when we woke up saturday morning with 'neigh-neigh's' right in our backyard! brady was THRILLED. he didn't want to touch them, but he wanted to be close to them. every morning we were there he would wake up and the first thing he'd say is "neigh-neigh!" it was so fun.

saturday morning we went on a little walking tour of the ranch. {yes, brady was still in his jammies with a sweatshirt}...

we made friends with a little kitty - that brady kept asking to go back and see. he's going to follow in his momma's footsteps with this one. everyone else in my family {including the hubbs} does NOT particularly like cats. i'd go so far as to say that some even HATE cats. but me? nope. i love them - especially the friendly ones like this little barn cat. he followed us everywhere.

saturday morning my sister, mom & i went 'into town' while the boys went to go get their fishing licenses. sweet jeff was determined to catch a fish this weekend. he took brady the weekend before to get a little fishing pole. {brady was uninterested for the most part - but jeff had a great time.}

jeff & trent {my sister's BF} tried their hand fishing in dream lake, which was right in front of our cabin, on saturday afternoon. no luck, but they both said it was very 'relaxing'. it sounds {and looks} boring to me.

saturday night we went into winnsboro {a CUTE little town} to eat dinner at one of the only places to eat dinner. sibo vino {i think that's how it's spelled...} they are a little family owned restaurant and you definitely get that small town feel - but it's a really nice place. and super yummy, i might add. but we did have to wait a while for our table so we walked around down town.

they had a mock choo-choo-train that b. was of course pumped to see. we made the mistake of doing that first and he didn't want to leave!

then we ate dinner. yumm-o. b. got a little antsy around 9:30 and jeff took him to see the choo-choo one more time as we were paying the check. when we came outside there was a real 'choo-choo-twain' {as b. pronounces it} going by. he even honked his horn {or is it blew his whistle?} for brady. jeff said it was a 'moment he'll never forget' because brady was beyond excited!

sunday morning we met jeff's colleague from the legal world who has had a house on the lake for 15 years. it was brady's first boat ride. {and this momma has no pictures....} the weather was gorgeous.... and b. fell asleep in big daddy's lap because he was so relaxed on the boat. too cute.

{side note - about lake cypress springs - we LOVE that you don't even know the lake is there until you're right up on it. it's surrounded in pine trees & beautiful houses. there is only one public 'marina' and campground... so it's really clean and pretty!}

sunday night we went to our friends' house for a cookout. darrell & paula were so kind to take us out on their pontoon boat before dinner. brady even got to drive this time - and honk the horn!

{i love this picture because they look exactly alike!}

{the water was rough - so b. & the hubbs got splashed a few times}

{this is my dad - a.k.a. big daddy - kayaking while we were on the boat}

when we got back, jeff & trent tried their hand at fishing again... right off their doc. with stink bait. and let me tell you - stink is an understatement. gross!!!! the hubbs caught a catfish! yaya!



then as we were about to have dinner another boat load of people came by. it was so fun. and packed. so we waited a bit longer, threw on some more burgers and got to see some fireworks across the lake! brady liked them because they were so far away.

i wish i had a picture of this - but when we finally ate dinner - i think my dad counted 31 people! what a fun dinner! the mccutcheons are incredibly generous with their home and of course - the food was excellent.

the weekend was great - thanks to nana and big daddy. we loved evey second of it and can't wait to be out on the water more. we were only sad that uncle cammie had to work... {and this preggo momma can't wait to be on the jet skis!}

a look at labor day.

i can't believe it's already a week into september... and that labor day has already come and gone.

yesterday i woke up to the reality that charlotte will be here in two months... and that there's still so much to get done.

to be honest, a little panic set in.

then it was over, i made a to-do list and prioritized. praying for energy to get it done so i can relax with the hubbs at night and on the weekends...

okay - enough of that. onto something fun:

it's taking forever to sort through and edit my pictures from our fun labor day weekend with my family. it's low on my priority list right now, however, i have a few favorites i must share.

i'll go into detail about our 'trip' later, but to sum it up - it was relaxing, busy, we had cool weather and that was awesome. we got out of the city for a few days and it was SO good to get away. again - i will be sure to tell more later.

friends.

wow. i am so behind in my blog-posting! i've been procrastinating because i have a hundred pictures to load and my computer is almost full.... which means i will be deleting and saving before loading. what a pain!?

anyway..... last friday, we kept one of our dear friends all day... pierce. {or as brady likes to call him "tearce"!





we had talked the day before about sharing our toys - and we did pretty good, i must admit. it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be for brady. he only had to sit in time out one time during the morning.




vi broke out the double stroller and we went to the park with another friend of ours, kate. the weather was really nice so the boys played outside a lot, which made the morning go by fast.

we fixed lunch and i let them watch yo gabba gabba while they ate. what a treat?!



by lunchtime, they were incredibly sandy from the sandbox so i threw them in the tub before naps. brady thought it was hilarious.




we had such fun!!!

in other news, i found out last week that i had somehow gotten off a week in my pregnancy count. so i 'turned' 29 weeks on tuesday. {my doctor confirmed this just to make sure i wasn't wrong again}. i thought i was 30 weeks. ugh. not a good feeling. he assured me that this is common when you already have a child though. i immediately signed up for those baby center deals just to make sure i don't get mixed up again.

i've been desperately {and frantically} trying to figure out a new routine - which has been part of the reason for my absence this week. with school starting, brady isn't getting much of a nap on tuesday/thursday {ok, no nap at all} and by 5:00 he is a terror. {or he was yesterday and tuesday}.

we have also hit our stride in the 'terrible twos'. whew. so i'm preparing to change some things up starting next week... and i'm really excited about it. i think brady responds well to structure and routine so we're going to try reigning him in that way starting next week. more to come on that.

i've also started charlotte's bedding. i'm almost done with the ties. what a monotonous task!? i'm really excited about the whole thing - i think i can do it, but there are 32 ties that must be sewed, turned inside out and then pressed. it's a lot of turning. my goal was to get it done by the end of august but ha.... no. i am only able to work during nap time - and although this is another story - i'm beat during nap time. so we'll see how i manage getting it all done.

okay - so that's enough.... but i hope everyone is planning on doing something fun for labor day! i can't believe college football is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i told jeff that tuesday night he's going to come home to some chili, a pumpkin candle and candy corn/peanuts for dessert.

i love fall.

back to school.

last thursday was b's first day back to 'school'. and yes, i call it school because they have a curriculum, music, art, chapel, etc. {i always wondered that before i had my own kiddoj}...


i didn't do as well with the camera as i had wanted to. it was a MADHOUSE up there. so many people taking pictures, crying {and screaming} kiddos, lots of dads {including the hubbs} and so on.

that's my excuse anyway.

that coupled with the fact that once b. saw miss julie {a sweet friend of ours} in his classroom, he bypassed all the people in line to get in and walked right in! luckily julie stopped him for a picture for us!



jeff asked me on the way out if it made me sad that he didn't stop to say bye or give me a hug or whatnot - and as i thought about it, it actually warmed my heart very much that he was so excited. he loved it last year - although he was periodically one of those screaming kids... and i imagine we'll even have our moments this year. but i know that having miss julie in our class has {and will} help out with that a lot for him.

this month we're learning about the color blue and circle shapes. stay tuned for cute art in our near future.