High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) After seeing something similar on Pinterest, Friday morning I decided to try something new with my hair. I have a thingy that makes a "perfect bun" so I used that and tied it with a scarf I've had for a few months but never really used. It didn't turn out pinterest-worthy but considering I'm generally terrible at styling hair (specifically mine), I think it turned out pretty well. Husband called it "cute".

2) On Friday, Grant ended up at the doctor and was put on breathing treaments and a steroid for a nasty cough so we got to do a lot of hanging out with him over the weekend. It's never fun when he's sick, obviously, but spending some down-time with him is always nice (especially when he's feeling cuddly).

Chowing down on some shaved ice I made him.

3) I tried a new recipe for our Sunday dinner. I LOVE the Pioneer Woman and I've always had good results with her recipes. When I saw her recipe for Slice-Baked Potatoes, I knew they were going on my menu soon. SO good!

Mmmmmm...

4) Monday came and I felt like Grant wasn't ready to go back to school. So we had a restful  and cuddly day at home.

Cuddling in my lap :)

5) I've managed to keep up relatively well with the running challenge I joined in May. I'm not running every day but I am going pretty often. I pretty much curse running the entire time I'm doing it and I can't seem to do more than 1.5 miles when I go but when I'm done I feel great. And if I'm being honest, I'm pretty proud of logging 26 miles in the last month.

Happy Friday!
Have a great weekend!

In the Morning

The weekend was supposed to be a date weekend for us. Grant was going to spend the night with Gramma & Grandpa. Husband and I were going to go out for a nice dinner and had planned to watch a movie in our quiet house, one that didn't have any cartoon characters in it (I'm thinking it was going to be Monuments Men). But in the wee hours of Friday morning, Grant woke up with a nasty cough. Husband ended up staying home with him after the doctor's visit that put him on breathing treatments and prednisone. No one in our house was getting sleep so we definitely weren't putting the in-laws through that.

Saturday morning, Grant was much more improved. Husband went out to get us breakfast since I was too tired to took. Grant and I were hanging out on the couch just watching TV and he was talking non-stop about the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode that was on. 

I rarely take pictures of Grant in the house. Not like the ones I do with him where I pick out the perfect spot and have a couple adorable outfits picked out. But Saturday morning, I decided to just take pictures of him sitting on the couch.

I loved the bedhead he had going on, he was wearing his favorite dinosaur pajamas, and his eyes looked so pretty. I didn't ask him to smile or pose for me, I just took pictures of him while he talked to me. 

My favorite! My happy boy :)

I just love hanging out with this guy! Which works out well since he wasn't able to go to school today. We're going to rest up and make sure he gets better :)

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren and Jennie to share some of my favorite stuff from the past week.

1) Saturday evening we took Grant to the ER with stomach pains he'd had on and off since around noon. While this initially wouldn't have made my list of "favorites" for the week, ruling out appendicitis and skipping emergency surgery definitely is a favorite. It was a very long evening - including a 20-30 minute ultrasound - and Grant was so incredibly patient and well behaved the whole time. After the ultrasound they decided to try giving him oral fluids instead of starting out with an IV and he drank like a champ. So they sent us home around 2 a.m. telling us it must have been a "bug". We all spent the next day recuperating.

The ER staff kept Grant happily entertained!

2) One night this week (Tuesday maybe? I can't remember.) we made a fort in the living room. I haven't done this in a while and we had so much fun pretending to camp. We pretended to gather wood for our fire, roast marshmallows, hot dogs, and burgers (Grant kept stealing my pretend stick!), and we tried to pretend to sleep but there were monsters to watch out for. It made me want to get a tent so we can camp in the backyard!

3) I finally finished editing the wedding pictures for my brother-in-law & sister-in-law and mailed out a package to them this week! I'll probably share some here in the next few days.

4) One of Grant's teachers will text me pictures every once in a while. Yesterday was "water day" at school and she sent me a picture of Grant having some fun. I love it when I get surprise pictures of him during the day!

5) A few weeks ago I found out that my sister & I won a giveaway from a website I'm a big fan of called Pick Your Plum. I've ordered some great stuff from them and randomly enter some of the giveaways they do on facebook. You tag a friend in the comments and if you win, you both win. And my sister and I won one!! My box came yesterday filled with three fun scarves, a bracelet & earring set, plates, cups, baking cups, treat bags, serving trays, and table runners! I can't wait to use it all!!

Happy Friday!
Have a great weekend!

2013 Pullen Park Holiday Express

Having attended this event last year and having had a good time, I wanted to go again but really wanted to aim for a Saturday (last year we went on Sunday). This year I bought our tickets as soon as I was notified they were on sale. In August.

Flash forward to Friday - the day before the event: Grant is diagnosed with strep throat and its supposed to be super cold on Saturday. So we waited to see how he was feeling and he seemed very Grant-ish on Saturday so it was decided we'd go. Very reluctantly from Husband but we went.

Waiting for the bus.

So Pullen Park doesn't have adequate parking for something like this, so they have you park at a soccer field and run buses to the park which is rather convenient. And I think Grant was just as excited about riding the bus as he was about the train. Our plan was to make this quick. Ride the train, ride the carousel, go home. That was the plan.

Entrance

I love their little light displays, cheesy though they may be.

Posing with Daddy at the Pullen Park caboose.

So we walked around the lights for just a minute and headed to the line for the train. It became rather obvious at that point that "quick" wasn't going to happen. 

Waiting in the train line.

They very wisely snake the line around by the playgrounds
which came in handy for lots of parents, us included.

Firetruck/Fireman lights

He got excited every time he hear the train whistle!

After 30-45 minutes of standing in line (which really wasn't that bad except for being cold), we finally got on the train.

The train takes you around the light displays and through some light-covered canopies. Grant loved it and was yelling out everything he saw. Its a short ride but it was fun.

We did a quick walk around the park before heading to the carousel. Which has got to be the fastest moving carousel ever. 

I think was as we were starting up...it's not blurry enough
to be when we were really moving.

Aaaaahhhhhh it's so fast I'm about to be thrown off! :)

We headed out after that. If Grant hadn't been sick the day before we may have stayed longer. Or if it was warmer. But it didn't matter because he had a good time anyway. And it was followed by pancakes for dinner. For Grant, it doesn't get any better!

High Five for Friday

Today I'm linking up with Lauren to share some good stuff from the past week!

1) The weekend weather was wonderful for playing outside! On Saturday, Grant and I raked leaves into a pile for jumping - a first for him - and he loved it! On Sunday, I took for him a trike ride and we played some baseball too. I love how much he loves to play outside :)

2) On Saturday we had family movie night! I love family movie night! We rented Monsters University (super cute!) and I popped popcorn on the stove like my mom used to. Then we hung out together watching the movie. Good stuff!

Wearing his monster feet and ready for the movie!

3) On Monday, Husband and I "celebrated" our 7th anniversary! I use the term "celebrated" loosely because Grant was super sick so we didn't actually celebrate at all (except a drop in Grant's fever). Our anniversary evening consisted of one of us laying in bed with Grant so the other one could eat dinner...also I was probably still wearing vomit from the 3 times Grant threw up on me.

Husband stepping on the back of my dress and breaking my
bustle as they announce us on our way into the reception.
Happy Anniversary Husband! :)

4) After two days of fever, vomiting, sore throat, lethargy, and no appetite Grant finally felt better Tuesday afternoon and was able to go back to school Wednesday. Tests for everything came back negative, the doctor said it was just a virus. It was so good to see him getting back to his normal, crazy self!

Taken Monday evening after his day long 101.whatever fever
finally broke and he felt a little better.

5) AAAAAAHHHHH! For my birthday Husband got me Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets - which was finally last night! - and actually said he'd go with me! This day seemed to take forever to get here! I've been a fan for years and have wanted to go to their one-night-only-show every year and missed it ever year. The tickets were a complete surprise! Since our anniversary was side-lined we decided to use the show as an anniversary date night. It was the most incredible concert!! Best date night  - and birthday present - ever :)

None of my pictures could even begin to do justice!

Hopefully soon I'll begin to catch up on posting somethings I've been meaning to do but just haven't gotten around to (like going to the State Fair and Halloween!).

HAPPY FRIDAY!!

Have a great weekend!

Pumpkin Hunting

Where has October gone?! I wonder that every year because I don't really get an October. I had mentioned that two weekends ago, while I was working at the State Fair, Husband had to take Grant to urgent care...for pneumonia, as it turns out. Well, medicine (and rest) is a beautiful thing! The very next day, Grant was able to go to a pumpkin patch down the road for a little pumpkin hunting.

Just about every weekend in October, a local farm has been doing a "pick your own pumpkin" thing where they pretty much turn you loose in their field. Porter Farms has a couple locations and one happens to be about 10 minutes away. We've never actually taken Grant to a pumpkin patch...typically I pick our pumpkins up at the grocery store because that's what I have time for...so this was a first for him! The whole way there he was all "We're gonna get a big BIG pumpkin! Except me. I need a little one 'cause I'm little. You don't need a little one. But I do." Conveniently, pretty much everything they had was enormous.

He couldn't wait to take off in that field!

"I'm gonna find my pumpkin."

Grant went through several that he "needed to take home". Though none of them actually ended up in the truck.

Burning off some energy! You'd never know he was sick.

After getting him to pose on some of the bigger pumpkins, he was obsessed with climbing on them. He ran through the field then catapult himself onto a huge pumpkin. He had a blast that day. I don't think he would have cared if we didn't even get a pumpkin.

"I'm gonna get it. Oh...it's too big."

We ended up picking one that was pretty huge. Big enough that Husband had to go get the pumpkin people to pick it up in their truck for us. I think I may have been more excited than Grant. I've never gotten a pumpkin this big before!

Heading up to get the pumpkin picker while I marked our territory :)

Grant with our pick of the pumpkins!