Friday afternoon=first day of gymnastics. No, they were not excited whatsoever. Nope.
Afterward we took the kiddos to the playground.
Can we discuss how AWESOME this seesaw for four is? I need one at home.
And there is a story that goes with the photo on the right.
So I decided to challenge J to a game of HORSE. On the preschool playground. On a goal that was uhh…maybe 6 1/2 feet high?
And it took us like 40 minutes to finish. Because of our awesome basketball skillz.
It was maybe the world’s worst game of horse ever played. Yet I was laughing so hard I was crying. Good times.
Saturday we had our first family pancake breakfast. We are really wanting to start a lot of new traditions this year. Jimmy hasn’t been around much so we don’t have many. And we want to remedy that this year.
Daddy pancakes? Are the BEST.
Then I was treated to an 80 minute Balinese massage at the Viking Hotel. Can you say BEST birthday gift ever? The massage is specifically to relieve stress…and wow,did it work. I may or may not have been drooling.
When the masseuse got to my neck he said “HOLY SMOKES there is some tension here!”. And I said…”you.have.no.idea.” Bahahaha.
Jimmy told me to take my time coming home so I tried a French bakery (best scone I’ve ever tasted) and then hit up the sale at JCrew. Which is really good right now, by the way. This southern girl needs LOTS of sweaters and there are so many cute ones on sale.
The rest of the day consisted of autumn beer (my favorite) and snuggles. Not a bad Saturday. 🙂
The black and white photo is blurry, but the way J is looking at Lucy melts my heart.
Sunday I did something that makes me really,really happy. I picked up again with project life. And I was HAPPY the entire time I worked on it.Just full of joy.
I tried a new recipe for dinner. I’ve been making a ridiculous amount of skinnytaste meals. This one is Cajun Chicken Pasta and every single person in my family inhaled it. True story. I have not tried a single skinnytaste recipe that is not delicious.
Another new tradition is Sunday night family dinners with discussion questions. I made an effort to really set the table.Place mats, cloth napkins, a candle lit. This might not sound like a big deal to you, but I don’t ever have time (or maybe energy) to do this.
I printed questions and we all took turns answering them.
I found and downloaded Set One HERE and plan on doing these every week. The questions were a big hit.
Some of the answers made me teary.
Q: If you were granted 3 wishes from a genie, what would you wish?
A (Sadie): 1. To see BB 2. To have family suppers every day 3.Family movies every day
And some made me cry…
Q: What do you think is beyond the stars?
A(Harper): Jesus
and laugh
Sadie: Oh, I love Jesus. I wish I could kiss him right on the mouth and hug him.
Sunday night Sadie decided her daddy needed a pedicure. And when she showed him the sparkly polish, he said yes. without hesitation.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is reason 93840284308 I love James Howell. Because he is a real life action hero who has pink sparkly toenails under his combat boots.
Happy Monday,sweet friends.
xoxo
Great great post and what an awesome weekend. Thank you for sharing!!!
AWWW – I love your last comments on why you love your hubby….so, so sweet. Your girls are adorable and you so easily go with the flow! God bless our military!!
What a great weekend you had and so many memories were made! I know you cherish each and everyone!
thanks for the link to skinnytaste! just pinned about 100 recipes!
I love, love skinnytaste recipes, def. try the Italian wedding soup! Everyone in my house loved it and awesome for the upcoming fall months.
Awesome post! My husband and I stay at The Viking every time we are in Newport! We LOVE it!!!!!!! And had a full day of beauty. What a treat( for future reference;)
P.S. They sell that same exact see-saw at Cotsco!!!!!!! 😉 my neighbor has it in their yard for their family of six.( all girls)! Sound familiar?
he is an awesome daddy to let his sweetie put toenail polish on 🙂 love that !! glad you had a good birthday, time to yourself is an awesome present 🙂
what a amazing weekend you and all have!
memories to rem by!!
i love your whole family so dang much.
xoxoxo.
What a great weekend! Thanks for sharing!
pink, sparkly toenails? dang, he is the best dad a little girl could ever have! thanks for sharing your fabulous family with us.
Best blog post, ever. Thank you for sharing!
Thanks for sharing your weekend. So happy that you have this year!
I lost it at, “pink sparkly toenails under his combat boots”. Goodness, you found an awesome man!!
That is so beyond precious!!! The pink sparkly toenails and
A(Harper): Jesus
and laugh
Sadie: Oh, I love Jesus. I wish I could kiss him right on the mouth and hug him.
Makes me teary. Sweetest. thing.
You are so blessed with your precious family!
What a wonderful weekend!! I LOVE skinny taste and I find my whole family enjoys the recipes as well. Project Life…did you try to “catch up” or did you just start back up again with the past week? I am so very far behind that it seems like such a daunting task to do….not sure what I’ll do. Love that you enjoyed your family dinners:) We have 2 kids son, 16 and daughter, 13 and it is so amazing how just really focusing on eating dinner together and not answering the phone makes for such great times. We feel so blessed that our kids actually argue to talk and tell us things during dinner.
Adorable post and pictures as always! Thank you so much for sharing the recipe website! I knew there was a reason why all I could do last night was look at shoes online INSTEAD of planning meals and making a grocery list! …It was all because I was waiting to get up this morning, read your blog, and have that website do all the work for me! Woo-hoo! Thanks!!! 🙂
Great post and I love the part about the sparkly polish under the combat boots!
I just picked back up. I might go back and print some photos and write some stories..i might not. 🙂
stephanie!!!
I just printed that recipe, thank YOU!
I made that caprese lasagna you had posted too and my whole family
is begging me to make it again!
photo of j getting toes painted, PRICELESS, heat melting, tear jerking PERFECT photo!
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE that you are doing PL again and LOVING it! way to go! that’s the whole point!
and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the questions for dinner time! printed those off
and putting them in a jar TODAY!
I printed an extra set to record their answers on! LOVE!
thanks for inspirations!
tara
I’ll never look at a pair of combat boots again, without grinning. Too funny!
will you adopt me? thank you very much 🙂
I was SO excited to see you picked up ProjectLife again (I asked you about it in my last comment to you 🙂 – Your page/spread looks amazing! (I started to just type ‘your spread looks..’ and taken out of context, it seemed WAY inappropriate – yikes!) AND, I completely agree about SkinnyTaste – definitely one of my favorite blogs for recipes!
ps – you are going to need more sweaters than that living in New England….think layers…
with love, from your bloglurking friend in New Hampshire 😉
BWAHAHAHAHA. Love random comments that sound dirty. Hahahahha.
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his toes will probably scare the hell out of anyone, maybe he should go barefoot until polish starts coming off!
What a wonderful post! The recipe looks great – will have to look it up. I have the caprese lasagna twice now with tomatoes from our garden. My family loves it! I love your project life layout. That project has renewed my love for scrapbooking and photography. I just don’t sweat it and work on it as the spirit moves me. Your girls answers are so precious. Thanks for sharing.
Loved that last sentences…made me a little teary-eyed. Your girls will never forget Daddy’s pink toes when they grow up.
Steakley! The see-saw for 4?? Walmart.com!! We just ordered it with the climbing dome:)
Loved your weekend recap. I too, started project life again is weekend. I quit back in March when life got crazy – I am going to try to maintain your no stress attitude about it!
Every time I read your blog I cry. LOL… I am laughing and yelling to my husband that an Army Ranger has sparkly toe nail polish on, and then he starts laughing. 🙂 I also love that you started project life again. I want to do it and I just have not gotten (fit in) time. You rock so much!! XOXO
YESSSS!
Sent from my iPhone
Our Sunday night dinner tradition is to go around the table and have each person say something nice or something they appreciate about each family member. My kids are 10, 14 and 16, and they all love doing this each week. Helps to keep things in perspective and remind all of us about the good things that happen during the week.
love this. thanks for sharing!
Ah, just love your family……. God Bless
Oh my goodness, you can always make me laugh, cry and melt my heart when you post like this, seriously LOVE LOVE the way you see your life and share it with us. Any man with pink sparkly toes is a HERO to me, your very lucky to be married to him!! Enjoy making your new traditions, the table setting and pancakes are always a hit at our house too. We do the paper questions also and laugh and talk and laugh and talk more. I should update our papers actually, thanks for the reminder and for melting my heart over your kids answers.
YIPPEE HAPPY DANCE, AWESOME YAHOO FOR PICKING UP PROJECT LIFE AGAIN, SOOOOOOO MADE MY DAY TO SEE THIS!!
Great job on just picking up where you wanted to and it’s sooooo pretty!! WAY TO GO GIRL!!
Best post ever! Loved it! Your family is truly blessed and we are also blessed for being able to share your joy. Thank you!
I love the family dinner night with discussion questions and I love that you jotted down some of the answers. I’ll have to steal that idea. And, yes, placemats, cloth napkins and candles are a huge deal when you have young children! And I love the J doesn’t even hesitate to have pink sparkly toe nails. Awesome dad!
So sweet! Love it 🙂
This post just made me smile ! Loved it. The family traditions you are creating daddy’s pancakes, love the list of questions… Might have to try that (we do fave and least fave of the day most dinner times.) and love the sparkly toes 🙂
Wonder if those pink sparkly toenails are Army regulation toenails!!! And love Sadie wishing for BB. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!
That sounds like the best weekend any family could want….and the pictures that accompany it,,,,fab!
Oh, and the sparkly man toenails: perfect! X
you are amazing.. set the table? with candles and all? my girls are 12 and 10 and I don’t even do that. LOL. and oh.. when you said – you.have.no.idea i almost choked, i just made a layout with that exact words! ha!
Oh Stephanie, can I just say that reading your posts brings such joy to my day! It is so sweet to see photos of your adorable family and what fun you have together. My kids are all teens now and weekends together are far and few between. Now that I work Sundays 🙁 my hubby rides his horse (sometimes our youngest goes too) and the kids kind of scatter to the winds. Lately, I have not had a lot of time for blogging or reading blogs, but I always have to read yours and even if I don’t comment, I am filled with joy with every one. Thanks so much for sharing your adventures.
Not every dad can be reminded of his girls the minute he takes off his socks….
pink polish on toe nails could be our new secret weapon!!! shhhhhh!!! lol! does he ever feel out numbered with all the females in his house?? poor guy…goes from living with all guys…to living with all girls!! quite an adjustment!!
glad you are doing PL again…i am behind trying to catch up..love to look at how far i’ve come (ok so it’s til the middle of june…)
love to look at your kids’ pics wish i had taken more of my kids growing up…they are now 36,34,31 and 29…but i have 11 grandkids to take pics of now!!
and everyone knows that they make the best kinds of super heros!
What a wonderful weekend!
What a man, gotta love him. I’d love to shake his hand in deep thanks for his service to our country and hug him for being such a great daddy!!!
thank you SO much for commenting today,becky. sending you much love.xoxo
Could your family be any cuter? And Jimmy with the girls melts my heart!!!
For 10 years, every night when we eat dinner together we ask “What was the best part of your day” and “what was the worst part of your day” (and why). I love that we have this tradition. I hope you discover some really amazing traditions for your family this year!
Oh my heart, I smile at the
“sparkly pink toenails and combat boots.” Soak in all of this love. They grow so fast and one day you turn around and your days are longer than they once were.
I have followed your blog since Harper was a toddler and Sadie was just a baby and have not commented….until now. This post made me all warm and fuzzy and reminded me of what family is all about. I had a great childhood and am now at a transitioning point. I’m 20, finishing up college, and am trying to figure out “what to do with my life”. This post brought me back to what really, truly matters and where my priorities should lie. The starting of family traditions and the last photo and sentence about J being a real-life action hero really struck a chord with me. That is what I hope to find in a future husband for our future kids. I feel like I’m writing a book, but I just wanted to let you know that the words you typed a few days ago made an impact on me….thank you for that! 🙂
Sheree-Thank you SO much for taking the time to leave a comment today. It means the world to me. Its so nice to meet you! Dont be a stranger. 🙂 xoxo
I think this is the sweetest post ever!!!! I love you Stephanie. I think I need to work on traditions too. If you can fit it in then so can I. 🙂
I’m super late to the party with this blog, but just HAD TO COMMENT because you went to Spa Terre. BEST.SPA.EVER!!! Seriously, I didn’t mind one bit shelling out my money for that place! HA! Love, LOVE! AND I’d have food delivered from room service… while I chilled by the pool and hot tub after my massage. I’d get a chicken salad and their AMAZING fries. Oh, I could go for that right now. LOL. Love that place, and I’m so glad you got to go! Hooray! (And shame on me for not telling you about it! LOL!)
The other photos are awesome too. Tee hee. And that meal you made looks delicious! I’m gonna have to make a GF version for us. 🙂
p.s. YAY for gymnastics!!! 😀