taken during dress up/imaginary play.
please look at them holding hands!
and as my friend mandy said…
“one of these things is not like the other!” HA!
love these girls, love these days.
xo
S
wordless(ish?!?) wednesday
NYC
NYC holds a special place in our hearts. I grew up visiting with my family, and fell in love at a young age.
The city was part of my love story with J. He went to West Point, which is about 45 minutes north of the city.
I’d fly to NYC to meet him all throughout our years of dating.
We have so many good memories there. We’ve taken the bigs once, you can read this post to hear about our amazing adventure.
We decided to take a pit stop in the city on the way to my brother’s DC wedding last weekend.
Good idea and horrible idea. All at the same time.
NYC is just NOT quite as enjoyable with four children. Oh my lord. I pretty much just sweated the entire time.
Twins that can fall onto subway tracks. Four kiddos that touch EVERYTHING. Sadie tries to lick things.
Lucy? Dropped a paci on the subway floor and then grabbed it and put it in her mouth before we could stop her.
Oh dear Lord have mercy.
I think I aged 10 years and had double the gray hairs after the few hours we spent there.
But still…
My heart loves NYC. So much. I loved spending a few hours in town.
But next time? It will be an adults only trip. HA!
Here’s a quick recap of our whirlwind trip.
We packed up and headed out at about 12:30.
We pulled into Manhattan around 4:00 or so and the light was just beautiful. And traffic was super light. Perfect.
We checked into our hotel. We stayed in the Doubletree Financial District.
Our room had an incredible view of the new World Trade Center.
It literally took my breath away, made my heart pound, and brought tears to my eyes.
We hopped on the subway and met Dan and Colton for dinner in TriBeCa. Leigh was sick and I was so sad not to get to see her, but I did get to love on Colton.
Who is, quite possibly, the cutest little boy I’ve ever seen. I thought Jimmy might steal him.
The Howell girls were also quite enamored with him. Or, as Dan says, Colton “speed dated” the Howell girls.
HAHA!
Lucy was the winner, I think. They kind of loved each other.
I had to take this shot of Dan, Jimmy, and the kids.
From West Point cadets to awesome dads. Kind of cool, no?
And I’ve always thought that these two resembled each other. Totally could be brothers. They are both so handsome!
We hopped back on the subway and headed back to the hotel.
This picture cracks me up so much. Do H and S not totally look like disinterested NYC natives? perfect.
The girls couldn’t stop looking out the window and saying how much they loved the city.
It made my heart happy b/c they are the product of two parents who feel the same.
The next morning we walked around a bit…the girls wanted a good view of the statue of liberty so we walked through Battery Park.
And then it was back to the hotel to load up the car.
I snapped this photo of the girls in the hotel window.They were waiting for their daddy to pull up with the car.
LOVE.
So there you have it. Our NYC experience with six.
It may have not involved high heels, fancy food, and chic cocktails. But I’ve had plenty of NYC experiences involving those things.
This time it was more about surviving. Teehee.
Happy weekend, y’all!
xo
busy.
This is the time in my life when I am ridiculously busy.
Everyone I know is ridiculously busy. It’s the season of carpool lines, sports, ballet, gymnastics. It’s the season of “blink and you’ll miss it”.
There are grocery trips, loading the girls in and out of the car 293480238 times a day. There’s the neverending picking up and putting away.
The cleaning itself is a constant battle I can NEVER win. I feel like I run the dishwasher 91382048 times a day.
To do lists, notes from school, coupon cutting, budgeting, forgetting to budget, stressing, more laundry, kissing scrapes and wiping away tears.
Breaking up fights, making up beds, picking up barbies.
Sometimes I feel like Jimmy and I are ships passing in the night. A bump here, a nudge there.
A silent grin or grimace over the heads of the girls…a telepathic conversation might be the best we get until they are all in bed.
Falling into bed at the end of the night because we are just.so.tired. Waking up with little bodies climbing all over us, just as tired as we were the night before.
And guess what?
This does not make us special.
EVERYONE IS BUSY.
It doesn’t mean you are better or more important than someone else because you are busy.
Here’s when I think busy becomes a problem.
When it becomes a badge of honor. When it makes you treat others in an unkind way.
When you use it as an excuse to not make eye contact and not interact.
When you use it to make yourself sound important.
EVERYONE IS BUSY.
It is a gift. It means you’ve been given LIFE.A full-to-the-brim life. A life that doesn’t stop.
A few years ago we had a neighbor. I really liked her. She was loud, outgoing, and funny.
I soon realized that every single time I saw her she’d tell me how busy she was.
Once at the grocery store as I opened my mouth to talk to her? She RAN by me with her cart yelling “sorry! I’m SO BUSY!”.
Every time I saw her on her street, she’d bustle by…the words “I’m so busy!” wafting on the breeze.
And you know what? It made me feel unimportant.And it was rude.
I stopped trying to talk to her.
Another friend I knew a few years ago constantly backed out of every plan we had.
She’d call the day of or text…saying she was just too busy to make it.
Over and over.
It made me feel insignificant.
I stopped asking her.
People glorify busy.
They use it as an excuse to cut you off in traffic. In line.
To talk on their cell phone all the way through checkout…with no eye contact, no thank you.
You see…they’re busy.
“Busy” can be a power trip in a funny way. As if the busier you are, the better mom you are? As if telling people constantly how busy you are makes you sound super important?
Listen here. We are all busy.
But life is too beautiful to be spent running by,yelling you are busy, making someone feel insignificant.
Life is busy.
And beautiful. And sometimes you have to MAKE yourself sit down (right in the mess of it) and enjoy it, instead of picking it up.
It is always worth it to stop and have a conversation with someone. It is always worth it to look at your children when they are talking to you. And to respond.
It is always worth it to get off the phone and say thank you.
Your busy-ness? Does not make you better or different. It gives us something in common. It makes you like every other woman, man, parent, adult out there.
It’s not an excuse or a badge or a medal.
It’s life.
S
snapshots of our weekend
Happy Monday Y’all! I hope your weekend was wonderful!
Our was crammed full with joy, it really was. I wanted to share a few photos with all of you!
Oh, and before I forget…there is an awesome Kiwi Crate sale going on right now.
40% off your first crate! Thought you might want to know! 🙂
Okay, here’s what we did this weekend.
an easter egg hunt with our awesome neighbors:
A trip to the Cliff Walk with Uncle Chris and Aunt Anna.
The water was amazingly beautiful and it felt like spring. I even found the perfect spot for a 10 year anniversary photo!
Egg Dying
Lots of laughs
Hair Drying and Dinner Making
Sweet messages from Sadie
Playground Trips
The Howell girls dressed for a classy egg hunt on Easter.
No spotless and perfectly matched Easter dresses for us…this is how we roll.
yes. the babies are using plastic beach pails for their baskets.
Told you.
CLASSY.
Anniversary Flowers
And the perfect anniversary. The aforementioned awesome neighbors took all of our girls for the evening.
Champagne, dinner out, and alone time. The perfect way to celebrate 10 years.
There was even a rainbow when we were getting ready. Good sign, yes?
for those of you who asked, the dress is jcrew factory and the necklace is from francesca’s. 🙂
Thanks so much for stopping by today. Love to you all!
xo
s
10.
10 years.
4 children.
5 states.
2 apartments.
6 houses.
10 deployments
50 months apart
3 childbirths together
1 childbirth apart
3 cross country road trips
7 times packing up our belongings
8 times unpacking our belongings
2 surgeries
4 girls
countless letters,emails, long distance phone calls
a few arguments
a fair amount of misunderstandings
lots of tears
so much worry
bliss
frustration
sheer panic
teamwork
communication
respect
more love than i could ever put into words on this blog.
ten years ago today i married my hero, my best friend, and the love of my life.
i never ever ever could have known what God would show us, teach us, and put us through.
over the years we have been through more than i could have imagined.
but through it all, the good times and the bad, there has been a finely woven thread of respect.
faith.
love.
honor.
dedication.
commitment.
he is a steady presence in my life. his hand on the small of my back? gives me the confidence to do ANYTHING.
he is my anchor.
i am the silly one. the social butterfly.
he is the rock.
i am so grateful.
so so so so so grateful.
he is the best husband, the best father, the best man.
he loves me in a slow, steady, constant, respectful way. and this is the best gift he could give our daughters.
he is gentle and kind and shows them how a man should treat a woman.
we are a great team. and after 10 years there is still so much to learn.
so much growing to do.
so many mistakes to make (and learn from).
there is no one that i’d rather have holding my hand.
happy anniversary, james carr howell.
god only knows what i’d be without you.
xo
S