Mountain Getaway

I love Fall and everything that comes along with it. Changing leaves? More like eye candy. Pumpkin spice everything? Never met a pumpkin-spiced food I haven't loved. Cooler temperatures and shorter days? Sounds like an excuse to binge watch Gilmore Girls on Netflix. Seriously, I absolutely adore Fall. A few weekends ago we were fortunate enough to head to the mountains and take in some of the gorgeous views of North Carolina with some fantastic friends.

We kept it low-key on Friday evening but ramped up the fun Saturday and Sunday with hiking, the outlet mall, and multiple trips to the grocery store (there were 12 people total-we couldn't help but forget a few things here and there!). The kiddos had a great time running around our incredible hideaway "cabin" (it slept all of us comfortably which blows my idea of a cabin right out of the water!) and through the woods on our hikes. There were lots of laughs and good food to be had and I'm pretty sure we all left with our hearts a little fuller as well. All in all it was a fabulous weekend and we can't wait to do it again soon!!

You mean your husband doesn't do push-ups while baby wearing??

Baby girl taking in the views.

So many beautiful leaves!

She was NOT a fan of the horses!

Loved

This past weekend I had the incredible experience of attending my first Women of Faith Conference and less than 48 hours afterwards I am already getting excited about the next one. Heck, I was excited before I even left the first one! 

It all came about earlier this year when it was brought up at a MOPS meeting. My friend, Jess, and I heard that one of our most favorite people on the face of planet earth (Jen Hatmaker!) was going to be there so we immediately signed up. We later learned she would not be at the Charlotte weekend, but were still excited to go any way. Jess brought it up one afternoon when we had gotten together with two of our other best gal pals for one of our regular soul-restoring gab sessions. The four of us had been meeting monthly for the past few months after we realized we had all read Hatmaker's book, Seven, independently of each other but knew we needed to hash it out with other believers. Maria and Lauren jumped on board and the ball began rolling on a great weekend!

Fast forward a few months and it's FINALLY here. We all said sayonara to our kids and headed to downtown Charlotte to refill our hearts with the word of Jesus. Maria's husband booked us a FABULOUS hotel room in downtown too so we didn't have to worry about going home and getting our groove messed up :-P

Friday night kicked off the weekend with some worship and a few speakers who brought truth in a big way. Afterwards we headed back to our hotel for drinks, a snack, and girl talk. It was fantastic. Once we realized how late it was we forced ourselves to go to sleep so we would be well-rested for the next day. Easier said than done for four women who haven't seen each other in a while and without the distraction of littles! Somehow we managed to all get a few hours.

Me, Jess, Lauren, and Maria 

The next morning we were back at it again with more wonderful women preaching the word in profound ways. Saturday also brought an incredible performance by Building 429. I had never been to a worship concert before so having the chance to praise the Lord with so many other people was a mind-blowing experience. 

Building 429!

Returning to reality was a little very difficult, but well worth it when I got to share some of what I learned with others. We've already got reservations for next year-who's coming with us?!?

First Birthday Shindig

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to celebrate our little love's first birthday with family and friends! It's so hard to believe that this sweet girl is already one year old. They aren't kidding when they say you blink and your baby is gone. Our precious nugget has been replaced by a wild, child toddler with no fear. Don't get me wrong, I love every stage, but I definitely wouldn't mind if she decided we needed a day of cuddles like old times ;-) Anywho, enough mommy sob time and onto the pictures!

We did an owl theme and my mom really went above and beyond making that possible. I don't have any pictures of the decor but it was impressive! We are so thankful for all those who pitched in to make this such a wonderful day!

Owl fruit tray

Owl veggie tray 

Owl cupcakes 

More cupcakes

The SUPER impressive cake TJ's sweet girlfriend, Rebecca made!

 3/4 of the baby date crew 

(We missed you, Adah and Rachel!)

And when it came time for the cake, Amelia Grace definitely showed that she belonged to us by diving headfirst into her cake!

Here, momma, you get a bite too 

The yummy cookies Aunt Lisa made! 

The babes loved the water table and bubble machine 

My heart is so full!

We were truly blown away by all those who came from near and far to celebrate our precious girl's first birthday. And this truly was a group effort. We are so thankful to all who made this wonderful day so special! I think it's safe to say she had a good time. . .

Discovery Place Kids

This past week we were invited by some dear friends of ours to join them at Discovery Place Kids for a morning of play. David was working in Raleigh so I jumped at the chance to talk to an adult-even if it meant being surrounded by zillions of littles, haha. My only regret is that we didn't visit sooner!

We spent most of our time in a special section dedicated to the younger crowd (babies-3 years) and Amelia Grace loved it! She had a blast at the water table and crawling around the floor inspecting all the neat toys. She also crawled around a foam pit and took a gander at herself in their giant mirrors. She then capped off the morning by getting in her friend Hans' cool-dude car for a hot date;-)

What do you mean they have a giant area for me to crawl in? 

Love the water! 

That's a big flower...it's not going on my head too, is it? 

Biker chick 

I can help Daddy with the lawn now 

Hey, girl, heyyyyy 

Neither of them looked very excited about their date-haha!

It was a fabulous morning that I wish we could repeat sooner! Guess we'll just have to sneak in a visit next time we're in Charlotte!

Weekend Visits

This past weekend we ventured up the road to Raleigh to visit with some friends and introduce Amelia Grace to one of our favorite cities. 

This being our first time taking her with us longer than an hour away we planned to follow thru with the regular bedtime routine and then pop her in the car so she could sleep on the way there. Well, she was so excited NOT to be getting in her crib she did her little "dance party" routine (picture arms and legs going crazy as fast as she can make them go) for the first 15 minutes we were in the car. She eventually settled down and dozed on and off. She was a trooper and settled in pretty well once we got there-whoooooo!

Friday morning we wandered around town in betweens naps and showed her some of our favorite places. That evening we regrouped with our friends for a fabulous supper at a local Mexican restaurant. 

Saturday included more wandering and the opportunity for our fabulous hosts, Steve and Caroline, to babysit a bit. Hopefully she didn't scare them off of wanting their own kiddos;-)

That afternoon we hit up the Blues and Cue Festival in downtown Raleigh where we enjoyed delicious local brews, fantastic BBQ, and awesome Blues. Aside from the cuckoo amount of people when we first got there, it was a lot of fun. And Amelia Grace is definitely a Carolina girl who loved her first taste of Blues music and BBQ. 

Sunday morning found us back at our old church, Vintage. They have since moved locations, but other than that it was like we had never left! 

While we didn't get to visit as many people as we would have liked there will be plenty of time for that later. Until then we will remember this stellar weekend and look forward to the next!

The fam minus Daisy. 

Kisses from Auntie Caroline. 

David was rocking it. 

 You have a baby. In a bar.

AG loves Bark Boxes just as much as the dogs do!

January Baby Dates

Martin Luther King Jr. did a lot of awesome things for our nation and we are incredibly grateful for how hard he worked to push our nation towards equality. But there are few people more thankful than public school teachers. Why, you may ask, are teachers so grateful? Because the celebration of his accomplishments often leads to a much-needed day off from school ;-) All jokes aside, Dr. King was an impressive man whom we really are thankful for!

On this particular day off from school we were able to gather the little babies at our house for a few hours of "play", which really means chit chat for the mommas. The babes are starting to interact much more than they ever have before and we all can't wait until they actually play with each other!

Of course everyone wanted the same toys that made all the noises 

I know my hand tastes good, but how does yours taste?

Just chill in. . . 

 We forgot to take the picture before Adah had to head out, but Braylen and Amelia Grace cooperated for us;-)

Sadly we were missing one-fourth of our quartet this time around as Cohen battles some nasty viral bugs. We're hoping and praying this is the last of it for him and he can finally get some relief from all these germs!

I don't know who's more excited about their next break from school, us or them??

Christmas Crazy 2014

I love the hub hub and crazy of the Christmas season, and this year was certainly crazy-at one point there were four dogs running around my parents' house. We felt like the Bumpus family from A Christmas Story! But I'm jumping ahead of myself. . .

We started our celebration the weekend before Christmas with the Mobley side of the family. David's parents and brother were headed to Florida for the NC State Bitcoin Bowl Game (which they won! GO PACK!) so they wouldn't be around to celebrate Christmas Day. We had a great time relaxing and enjoying each other's company while also sneaking in a few round of Mexican Train Dominoes! It was the perfect way to kick start the celebrating and fun:-)

How many adults does it take to make a baby smile?

Figuring out this Christmas thing. . .

We then hung around and spent a few days relaxing and visiting with various friends before the big day. We usually spend the days surrounding Christmas traveling in every which direction (and there was definitely some of that!), but we made a point to wake up at our house Christmas morning so we could celebrate just the three of us. I don't know if it was the excitement of the special day or the prednisone insomnia kicking in, but I woke up at 2:30am on Christmas Day and despite all my best efforts could not fall back asleep! So you better believe I was jumping out of my skin with excitement waiting for David and Amelia Grace to wake up. Ironic that the baby slept most of the night, but the momma couldn't. . .

Well, hey there!

Family selfie waiting for Christmas Eve church to start

With some of her loot!

After we exchanged presents and got oodles of pictures of the bebita we hit the road to Winston Salem to see my branch of the family tree. With five kids (three of whom are married) it was a bit of a challenge to coordinate everyone's schedules, but we managed to get seven out of eight of us together for a couple hours! My brother, TJ, had duty at Camp Lejeune, but will be joining us for New Year's! After presents and visiting we snuck in a few rounds of the favorite family game, Catch Phrase, before turning in for the night. The celebrating continued with brunch the next day with more of our wonderful extended family.

FaceTiming with TJ at Camp Lejeune!

Things got cuckoo at times, but it was cuckoo in the best kind of way! We are so blessed to have so many people come around us with love and generosity in this beautiful season. Adding Amelia Grace to the mix this year made it that much more special and we can't wait for her to get even more involved next year!

Baby Date

About a month or so ago I posted about a little get together I and with some of my old teaching friends. What made this even more special was the addition of all of our babies! The ladies had a couple teacher workdays last week so we took advantage of the down-time after school hours and had another baby date! It was so much fun to get together and not only catch up on our lives (isn't that what playdates are really all about anyway??;-) ), but to also see the babies really interacting!

They have all grown so much in such a short amount of time. You always hear how fast they grow, but you have no idea until it's your little doing the growing! We managed to snag a few pictures of them being precious:

Amelia Grace (3mo), Adah (7mo), Braylen (5mo), Cohen (6mo)

I just love every bit of this picture!

Amelia Grace was trying her darndest to hold her head up like her friends!

PS-Please not Braylen blending into the blanket, haha. 

A little blurry, but I still love. Thanks, Brittany!

I wish we could meet more often, but it makes the dates even more special:-) 

A Blast From the Past

About a month ago I was going through my old Facebook messages and noticed that there is an "other" category. Yea, yea, yea, I know. Welcome to 2014, Lauren. Anywho, I saw that I had a message from some random person. I curiously clicked it to see what it was about and was shocked to see a picture of some of my stuff. Not just any stuff either, stuff from my past!

I read the message and learned that the woman found the stuff in an old dresser she and her daughter bought at Goodwill. The dresser was MY childhood dresser; the dresser that was in my room growing up. Turns out my parents donated the old clunker (this thing was insanely heavy) to Goodwill in an effort to declutter their house. Apparently they managed to crack open the painted top drawer and found a treasure trove of my old junk.

A few things they discovered:

A cord and instruction manual from my high school stereo system

A list of my favorite recipes my mom used to make

My high school license (hellooooooo over the top eyeliner)

An invitation to my high school graduation (class of 2006!)

A ticket stub from my senior prom

Some old class trinkets from Charleston, SC

A Brad Paisley concert ticket from 2005

A receipt for the final payment for a class trip to NYC

Some random pictures I hung onto from college

An empty bottle of Ralph Lauren's Lauren perfume

My very first pair of glasses!

 Scottish pup magnets from my grandparent's trip to Scotland 

Ironically enough they just returned from Scotland with a Scottish pup bib for AG!

Corsages from my junior and senior year proms

A marker thingy ma bobber for making the varsity swim team

Buttons, buttons, and more buttons!

How random are these things?? I love that the woman was kind enough to find me and let me know she had these trinkets. There are still good people out there :-)

Newborn Photoshoot

A few weeks ago we were fortunate enough to have our sweet friend, Amaris, get behind her lens and capture some pictures of our little family. A wonderful thing about having her take the pictures was that she already knows us so well having gone to church with us in Raleigh, been part of the same community group, AND shot our wedding four years ago. We were so blessed to have her visit our home and capture some amazing images! Here are just a few. . .

Baby feet

*swoon*