Date Night

Farmstead round TWO for date night! This has become one of my favorite date nights of the whole year!! We have made it an annual thing with our friends and we always have the best time together away from our kids and getting to joke about adult things without little ears listening in. haha We can stay as late as we want and watch the sun go down. This particular night happened to have the most incredible pastel rainbow sunset. We started with a food truck style dinner and followed it with a walk through the corn maze. After being in there for quite a while and finding a bridge to see the beautiful view, we took turns being the leaders (guys vs. girls) and attempting to read the map to find the exit. Despite our efforts, we ended up at a tractor exit near the back of the field. haha Even though it wasn't legitimate, we decided to just take it and walked all the way back around the corn maze to get to the other activities. 

We took the tractor ride through the sunflower field (most were beginning to die at this point in the season but it was still beautiful  and the hay ride through the pumpkin patch. They are truly the best company and so fun to be around. I also love a good opportunity to be able to hold Nic's hand.

date night, girls' night

Being able to stay at home with my kids is such a blessing to me. I am grateful that there isn't a moment during the day where they don't have me if they need me but it also makes the days really long sometimes and some of those times I miss adult interaction and connection. Thankfully I have made some of the best friends here and sister-in-laws to do play dates all the time with so I can fill my cup too when I need it. And then there are some of my favorite special occasions ... date nights and girls' nights! Two to remember from January ...

We had such a good time at the sledding hill in town when we went on Christmas Eve that I knew I wanted to squeeze it in for a date night too! It was so much fun to go at night after dark and it kept us feeling young, bold, and brave being surrounded by a million teenagers for a night . ;) haha We dove on our tubes like penguins without a care in the world! I love my time alone with this guy so much! After sledding down the hill as many times as possible during our allowed window, we finally used some gifts cards that Edie sweetly gave us as prizes from our family Halloween party (2 years ago haha) to a small coffee shop. Those strawberry smoothies were well worth the wait let me tell you! 

Speaking from someone who's love language is quality time ... I think "experience" gifts are the very best kind of gifts to get! My mom surprised me with a ticket to see the Broadway performance of Fiddler on the Roof with her girlfriends while it was in town. She has the best group of friends that are all so sweet to me. We car pooled with several of them downtown and all met for dinner at a new-to-me restaurant called "Bonefish" for bang bang shrimp from the happy hour menu. TO DIE FOR!

The show was so so incredible! The main actor who played Tevye deserved every minute of his standing ovation at the end of the performance. I had the soundtrack playing on my Pandora station for my kids to hear for days following. It was such a fun gift (thanks mom!) and girls night! 

dates with Liam

Up until Lyla was born it was just Liam and I during the day. We'd go to the library together, play outside, build Lego's ... we were each other's whole world. Shortly after Lyla was born, I began to notice how attached to Nic Liam became and our bond began to change. Rightfully so because a lot of my attention had to be focused on nursing/taking care of newborn Lyla but it wasn't long before I learned how important one-on-one time is and we started going on dates together. It is something we both look forward to and it gives Nic and Lyla a chance to bond too! 

Liam's love language is quality time and when he acts out it is often because I've had to say "no" one too many times. One particular day everything on our to-do list took a little bit longer than expected and it didn't leave enough time left to do the last thing on the list, go to the library. Liam started getting really upset in the backseat of the car until I proposed that we go on a date later that night, just him and I, so we didn't have to miss the library that day just postpone it a few hours. He lit up and counted down the hours!

After dinner we drove to the library and I turned off the music. I asked him if he wanted to play the "Get to Know You" question game. He was equally excited to answer questions I asked him about what he likes as well as learn about me in return. It was such a fun way to spend our time bonding in the car together rather than driving without talking and just listening to the radio!

At the library we picked out super hero books together and Scooby Doo movies. We did the daily scavenger hunt for a stamp and even had an opportunity to give some service by cleaning the toy room that kids had used that day and hadn't cleaned up. 

After our library date we had some time left and I told him he could pick one other place to visit, anywhere he wanted and you want to know where he chose ... TARGET! Boy after his momma's heart! We wandered all the toy aisles, picked a treat, and got some fun sidewalk chalk spray paint to try! Love this sweet boy SO much!

Our sidewalk chalk spray paint creation ... Liam <3 mom="" p="">

The week before Mother's Day an event popped up on my Facebook page for a mother-son super hero night at Chick-fil-A. I couldn't think of a more perfect date for my favorite super hero! Poor guy fell asleep on the car ride there from all of the excitement haha ...

The level of detail they put into the event was seriously amazing! Half the restaurant was dedicated to it. The tables were covered in nice table cloths and candles, the moms got a carnation, and they had super heroes coming around to take our order! Liam was cracking me up all night with his cute blaster poses ...

I'll never forget when Liam saw "the real Captain America" for the first time! He was so star struck, his mouth was hanging open, his head was down with his eyes lifted from nerves, and he had a permanent closed mouth smile on his face! He was so shy at first but then finally agreed to get his picture taken with him!

They had a photo booth with props so I got to borrow Dad's super hero character for the night and be the Hulk!

We went to the event with Liam best friend Everett and his mom Amber!

Then we got to ride in this stretch hummer limo! It was probably my least favorite part because of my serious claustrophobia ... the ceilings were SO LOW in there! But it was definitely Liam's favorite part!!!

While riding in the limo around the Village parking lot Everett's mom asked him if he could ride with anyone in the whole world in the limo who would it be, he said "LIAM!" My heart completely melted. It was so sweet!

After the limo ride they got to choose a dessert and play in the play place for a while! They sent us home with a future free kids meal and a ring pop representing the "affinity stone". It was the most fun date we've ever had together and I can't wait to do it again next year! So grateful for these moments of quality time with my favorite Iron Man! 

Valentine's Day 2019

I've always loved Valentine's Day! I remember when I was a little girl, my mom used to surprise us with some type of chocolate and a new movie. All the good movies that went to the theatre in November right before Christmas time would be released on DVD right before Valentine's Day and it was so fun having something new to watch together. A couple of my favorite years being Princess Diaries and The Notebook! haha I think I've seen both at least hundred times. 

Now I can say, it is even more fun to surprise a husband and two kids on Valetnine's Day! Liam's class celebrated the day before and he could not hide his grin when he carried in his gift for Mrs. Amber. It was adorable to watch! When she told him she'd open it at the end of class, he carefully tucked it in his backpack and waited to give it to her. When I picked him, she had just barely opened it and was absolutely gushing over the book he gave her called Love Monster. I could have hugged her right then and there because it made his whole day and helped him to experience the joy in giving!

In the weeks leading up to it, I took these adorable pictures for special books we made together for their grandparents and Liam's little best friend in Pocatello, Hadley.

The faces they gave me as their goofy dad rolled around on the kitchen floor were priceless! ;)

Cutie pie!!!

We don't love to go out on Valentine's Day, we'd rather spend it at home away from the craze and with our kids but my mom did give us a special night to celebrate it a couple days before the actual holiday. Our second time having dessert at the Melting Pot and my mouth still waters just thinking about it!!!

Nic had to work on Valentine's Day so he did miss the morning with the kids but we got to have lunch with him at his office which is our favorite! I had them close their eyes and handed them their Valentine's Day mailboxes full of goodies that kept them busy and sugar filled all morning long. haha We did do a fun scavenger hunt for one of their surprises in the evening that Nic got to be home for!

Lyla loves carrying things around right now and dressing up so she got this little heart shaped purse with her first pair of plastic dress up heals. ;) She traipses around the house in the those things all day long and always wants me to stuff her purse with snacks. haha

Their Papa and Grandma Dee sent them the sweetest package in the mail that had these gigantic chocolate hearts filled with caramel and personalized with their names on them. They were a hit!

Liam got these glasses as a Valentine from one of his preschool friends, such a smarty pants. :)

Finally daddy came home to spend the evening with us and he came baring our favorite tradition of Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizza for dinner! Lyla was greeted with the sweetest kiss on the cheek and I was handed that beautiful bouquet of roses, such lucky girls!

Lyla girl helped me make brownies for dessert and didn't complain one bit when I asked her to help me lick the spoon. ;)

Hence the signing for "MORE!" haha

Nic surprised me with a bluetooth speaker which has been so much fun! I love that I can blast it in the kitchen from 4-5 while I prep dinner or take it outside with us without worrying about my phone! We broke it in with a few slow dances to Dan & Shay's Speechless.

Guys can be so hard to find a gift for on Valentine's Day but I had the idea in the back of my mind that we are in this new big city now with so many things we've never tried before and so I took advantage of that with my gift and gave him 5 date cards straight from the bachelor. ;) Our first one was that very next Saturday. Edie sweetly came over at the crack of dawn to spend the morning with these two ...

And Nic and I tried an aerial yoga class! It was SO MUCH FUN!! We both loved it! I couldn't believe what a great sport Nic was about it for being the only guy in the class and how limber he was! haha It was so much more difficult of a work out than I even expected but we both giggled at each other and really had fun trying something new. Our favorite part was laying in those ropes like a hammock at the end with the lights dimmed, candles all around, and the teacher sharing words of affirmation! NAMASTE!

I basically gave him a date card a month through June with a clue he has to decipher on one side and what to wear on the other. Our next date is tomorrow night and we are taking a waltzing dance class! I can't wait!!

I feel so lucky to live a life filled with love in so many ways! 

six years

Yesterday was Nic and I's 6 year anniversary! Definitely the fastest and BEST 6 years of my life!! The celebration started Friday night when he came home from work with this beautiful bouquet of roses with a card that followed later that said: "Yellow because you make me the happiest man alive, Pink because I will never stop being thankful you married me, White because you are the best person I have ever known, Red because I will never stop loving you."

Colds have been going around our house over the last week and half. It started with Nic, then Liam caught it a few days later, and just when I thought I'd escaped it, I found myself coming down with it by Friday too. I was so bummed knowing that this was a special weekend and not feeling well for it was not on the fun meter but that didn't stop us. Saturday mid-day Nic surprised me with a date and we left Liam in the good caring hands of my mother-in-law. His plan was to recreate most of our first date so we started with lunch at Wingers. It felt so serendipitous when the hostess at the restaurant sat us at the EXACT same booth where we shared our first date 8 years ago! We haven't sat there since so it felt so special! Can I tell you just how incredible it is to slowly eat your meal and share a flashback conversation with your spouse without any sticker fingers covering your outfit or leaving your food to grow cold while you cut up and feed your toddlers to them?! It was so nice to just be the two of us for a little while (well, with a growing third wheel in tow who enjoyed that lunch just as much as I did! haha). 

The only pictures we took for our anniversary, still the same old goofballs we've always been ...

We were SO full after eating so we planned to walk around while mini golfing but in true Pocatello fashion, the wind was being outrageous and I couldn't keep my dress from flying up (haha!) so we ditched that plan and went furniture shopping instead! While we have a crib and a rocking chair handed down from Liam for baby girl's nursery, we have been on the hunt for a dresser for her room. I found one I loved at a vintage antique store in downtown last weekend while my mom was here but wanted to show it to Nic first. We wandered through a few more antique/furniture stores (basically all 5 we have in this town) to make sure it was the one before finally going back and buying it before the store closed for the day. Our anniversary gift to each other. It has these adorable scalloped edges and little gold key holes on the front, perfect for a girl's room. I love it so much!

From the beginning, I envisioned this sweet little dresser to be pink so our next stop on our date was to Home Depot. We looked through all the paint samples before deciding on the cutest light blush/coral pink color called "pink elephant". haha We still had about an hour and a half left of our date (it was about 5:00 by this time) but there was no way we were going to be able to have a full meal again after our lunch so we decided since it was a special occasion to just skip straight to dessert. We sat across from each other in a cute little diner setting and had oreo shakes, once again just enjoying each other company talking about both the past and our future together. There is no one in this world who I would rather share both with than you, Nic Williamson. 

Sunday was the day of our actual anniversary and I was up all night long with the worst stuffy nose and sore throat so Sunday was a pretty rough day. We all spent most of it in our jammies watching Disney movies together and taking naps in the afternoon. We went for a short walk through this beautiful cemetery that Nic and I used to live across from. Each time we go back, our lives and our love has grown just a little bit more!

Happy Anniversary to the perfect man for me! I love you even more today than I did 6 beautiful years ago!! There is no one I'd rather adventure with, experience parenthood with, or grow old with than you. I love you!!!

A trip to the zoo & the village

As I mentioned in my post from yesterday, we spent Easter weekend in Boise/Meridian with my family and I took so many pictures that I thought I would split up the days a bit. Here's what we did on SATURDAY ...

Unlike the torrential rain we drove through on Friday morning, we woke up to a beautiful sunny day on Saturday so my mom, brother, Nic, and I decided to take Liam to the zoo. I was bummed at first to see that we missed their annual Easter egg hunt by a week but ended up being thankful that it wasn't crowded at all. It was so fun to reminisce all morning about the first time we took Liam there! He was only 11 months old and just learning to walk in that adorable arms up in the air at all times stumble way! So much has changed since then. This time he was running around everywhere he went and mimicking animal sounds. The first animals we came across were the monkeys and Liam was hysterically belly laughing every time one would leap from a ledge and swing by its tail across a rope to get to the other side. We (including everyone around us) were in a fit of giggles just listening to his contagious laughter. It was by far one of the highlight moments of our time there!

If you look closely at this silly monkey, he is trying to eat a bug that is on the other side of the glass window haha ...

Another entertaining animal was this crane. My brother (who you see in the background) had his hand leaning against one of a few layers of caged fence and the crane immediately whipped its head around and began pecking through the mesh. He jerked his hand away and goes, "Oh, that's why they hung this sign that says not to put your hands near the mesh." Leave it to him to live on the wild side! 

Even though it is pretty blurry I had to include this next picture too to show you how concerned Liam was after the bird attacked the fence. haha It also wasn't our only crazy bird story from the day ... Liam was walking beside us and we were all looking up at monkeys one last time as we passed by and all of a sudden I see Liam slowly approaching a goose with his hand outstretched and the biggest smile on his face. When he was within inches of the goose's face it started hissing at him and Liam booked it out of there and into my arms! haha

There were literally geese EVERYWHERE you looked throughout the zoo and after the hissing experience, Liam was so fascinated with watching them but only from a FAR and protected distance.

Like from this hut for example ;) ...

Driving the jeep with Sita just like a much tinier version of himself did two years ago!

It is kind of hard to tell in this picture but the reason why Liam is so slumped down while driving with me is because there wasn't enough room between the steering wheel and my growing belly for him to fit. haha

Another pretty grainy iPhone picture but a priceless moment caught when he went down this giraffe slide for the first time. It was SUPER steep and it took all four of us encouraging him to go down it while he remained frozen at the top for a good 20 seconds. His face looked terrified the whole way down and then of course the second his toes touched the ground he yells "MORE!" haha And down it he went about 3 more times before we finally had to pry him away to see the rest of the zoo. 

Most of the animals were sleeping or too far off in the distance to see while we were there. Like these missing in action prairie dogs for example that you are supposed to be able to see up close from the tunnel that Liam and Nic are in together. "Hi, Liam!"

As soon as the carousel came into view Liam started begging to go on it so we let his uncle take him for a spin! He originally let Liam pick which animal he wanted to ride but out of all of them Liam chose this boring white bench that you see behind them. Who is this kid?! So we encouraged my brother to plop him up on top of Rue and the Easter Bunny's twin to commemorate the holiday weekend instead. ;) He was a happy camper after that!

After our morning at the zoo we went back to my mom's to put Liam down for his nap and then she sweetly babysat while Nic and I went on a long overdue date! We went to the Village Theatre in Meridian and saw Beauty and the Beast. It was even better than I hoped it would be, we both LOVED it!! The whole time I kind of felt like I was at a Broadway play and you can never go wrong with Emma Watson in my opinion. It was so much fun spending time together, just the two of us. 

We went back to my mom's house after the movie and had dinner before coming right back to the Village again to let Liam ride the slide and play near the fountain. 

We got back home just in time for Liam to go to bed. We all had a bite of this amazing egg-shaped fruit pizza my mom made for dessert while watching the movie Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I had such high hopes for this movie (haven't read the book though). Mostly because I love the Harry Potter series so much but the movie was sometimes hard to follow and felt really drawn out (it is 3 hours long!). My mom and I didn't love it but I was glad that Nic did because he is often roped into sitting through chick flicks whenever he is with us. haha 

 I think it's safe to say I could spend every Saturday like this one!

my twenty-sixth birthday

On Friday, I turned twenty-six! Besides having a cold and a little one who got a fever, it was the best day! Secretly my two birthday wishes were to have Nic home with us and to have the opportunity to go on a date. I felt so lucky because both of those wishes came true! And they weren't the only surprises he had up his sleeve either!!

In the morning we went on a long family walk together and then Nic took care of Liam while I got to take a hot shower and get completely ready by myself without a little body doing figure eights around my feet! It's the little things in life. Unbeknownst to me, Nic and Liam were putting together a little scavenger hunt for me while I was getting ready. I followed their cute clues ... the first card handed to me by Liam, the second found in a GIANT Christmas tree box with a bow on top in the garage, the third on the nightstand in the guest bedroom, until finally ending up at the kitchen table with a heavy rectangular shaped box tied with a red ribbon in front of me. I had NO CLUE what I was opening. I couldn't even guess. It wasn't until I slid the red ribbon off the box and opened the outer edge that I saw a familiar apple shaped logo. 

Nic had been working tirelessly long hours the last couple of months. There were times I was almost frustrated simply because I missed the adult interaction but at the same time so incredibly grateful for how hard he works for our family. Little did I know all of those extra hours he was putting in were actually for me. For my birthday gift. He gave me the nicest computer I've ever owned, a MacBook Pro. I found a note inside with it that said, "Happy birthday beautiful girl! May this toy help fuel all of your many, many talents. :)"

(sorry for the really grainy photo, it was getting dark outside)

We've had two laptops at home in the past. A Dell that we bought together during my last year of college and a Lenovo which is Nic's business computer. In the fall, our Dell was only a few years old and just barely outside of its warranty when it died. We looked into it, and it was going to cost well over half of what we paid for the computer originally to repair it. It was such a bummer to make that decision but we decided not to invest so much money into fixing it when we could save and spend a couple hundred more for a brand new computer. Nic has had bad experiences with HP and we weren't happy to have a 3-year-old Dell die either. Lenovo struggled to run Photoshop for me so that really only left a Mac. We talked about computers for a while, pushed around the idea and then just never committed to anything because they are a serious investment. In the meantime, Nic was sweet to allow me to occasionally use his business computer to blog when I needed to or for any other home purpose but there were days he would take it to work or days it refused to run Photoshop. A big reason for me not posting a lot for a while. I was absolutely shocked when I opened up that box and I still am as I sit here typing on it! Thank you so much handsome!!

  

After feeding Liam lunch, grandma showed up to take over so that we could go on a date!! We had lunch together at Red Robin, mmm. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We hadn't eaten there in several years and they just opened one in our town so it was great timing. They had a crab cake sandwich that was to die for by non-coastal standards! It is definitely a smaller restaurant though and the tables were very close together so we were glad we didn't bring Liam along. He would have had his little fist stuffed in the neighbor's ketchup cup in two seconds. haha 

After lunch, Nic took me to a movie. As we approached the ticket counter part of me wondered which one he'd actually pick but most of me knew he would choose the one I'd been dying to see. Even if it is a tear jerker chick flick which he doesn't care for. Sure enough, we saw Me Before You. It was absolutely adorable and so funny! I loved it so much! But WHAT was I thinking not bringing in tissues?!! Rookie mistake.

When we got home, our sweet boy was watching a show in grandma's arms and looking really lethargic. After she left I took his temperature and felt terrible when I discovered it was 101 degrees. Poor little Liam (and if you're reading this grandma, we are so sorry we left him in your care when he wasn't feeling well, I hope you don't catch anything!). We stayed pretty low key for the rest of the evening and I wouldn't have had it any other way. In fact, my brother called me after dinner time and said, "Hey sis, so what are your big birthday plans this evening?!" And I replied with, "Oh just going for a car drive around town." haha He was like, "You're celebrating your birthday on a car drive around town. Sounds riveting." haha When you are a parent with a sick baby, you do what you gotta do for relaxed entertainment. I'm sure he'll discover that one day when he's a dad too. haha

After putting Liam to bed, we shared one of our favorite ice cream flavors from Cold Stones and watched some Friends (my favorite!) with a little test run of Photoshop on my new laptop. IT.IS.AMAZING. To me, it was the perfect day with my boys. 

Before I end this post,

I have three big goals in my twenty sixth year of life ...

1. I want to be more intentional with my time. This means focusing my time on my relationship with God and my family first. This means being adventurous with Liam and providing him opportunities to explore the world. This means spending more time reading than on my phone. 

2. I want to have a baby and see Liam become the amazing big brother that I know he will be! 

3 I want to grow and make something of one of my many hobbies. This means that I actually have to PICK one to focus on because boy is that a long list and that is something that has been really hard for me to do. And now thanks to my sweet husband, I have a tool to do just that!

Cheers to 26 years! I've never been happier!