Mother's Day

Happy Mama's Day! This year was sweet. I felt very loved, very appreciated, and very missed. This past week was kind of a tough one for me. I've been dealing with a fussy/sick/teething Emmett while running off of very little sleep some nights. I felt exhausted, overwhelmed, emotional, and I was missing my guy more than ever before. My sweet parents got me these flowers as an early Mother's Day gift and I don't think they realize how much I needed that at the time. I LOVE THEM.

I went out for a girls lunch on Saturday with my friends Sydney, Jessie, and Sara. I've known these girls since high school and now three of us are moms! So crazy how fast life comes at ya. It was such a yummy and fun afternoon catching up with all of them. Sara was soooo sweet and made each of us a homemade candle for Mother's Day. She is the absolute cutest!!! I want to be more like her.

Mother's day was my favorite day. I heard some things I didn't know I needed to hear and felt recognized for my efforts. Jason messaged me that morning saying, 'I love you! Happy Mother's Day, baby. You are the best part of this family and we are the luckiest in the world to have you.'  *Que the waterworks* He also shared such a sweet post for me online. I love my boys so much and I am the lucky one. 

The rest of the day consisted of church, treats, family, flavored sodas, splashing water, social media posts, melt-in-your-mouth smoked brisket, wedge salads, homemade rolls, a park visit, angel food cake, gifts, and mexican train. It was a great {and needed} day for this mama.

I love being his mom.

I'm happy I was able to celebrate this day with my mom. She really is the best of the best and I am so thankful for her.

I loved taking some time to reflect on the day I became a mother. I feel so, so blessed.

"May I say to mothers collectively, in the name of the Lord, you are magnificent. You are doing terrifically well. The very fact that you have been given such a responsibility is everlasting evidence of the trust your Father in Heaven has in you."

"Do the best you can through these years, but whatever else you do, cherish that role that is so uniquely yours and for which heaven itself sends angels to watch over you and your little ones."

"Through the thick and the thin of this, and through the occasional tears of it all, I know deep down inside I am doing God’s work. I know that in my motherhood I am in an eternal partnership with Him."

"You are doing God’s work. You are doing it wonderfully well. He is blessing you and He will bless you, even—no, especially—when your days and your nights may be the most challenging."

- Jeffrey R. Holland, 'Because She Is a Mother'

Our Almost Home

Emmett and I spent this last week visiting and embracing our almost home in Madison, Alabama. It was soooo good to be back. It's been four months since our last trip! Toooo long if ya ask me. I'm not quite sure how we survived the plane ride there - it was definitely Emmett's fussiest flight to date. He was super happy before take-off, but didn't love being constrained to mom's lap for nearly three hours after that.

^^ These faces make the long, fussy, squirmy flight all worth it.

Our first stop was the house, obviously. Last time I was here this was just lot #85.

We didn't have much daylight left the night we flew in, so we went back the next day to could get a better look of the place. Warning: I'm about to post a lot of house progress pictures.

I loved watching Emmett explore his new house for the first time!!! So many memories will be made right here.

^^ Obsessed with this window.

^^ The backyard Jason's always wanted! I was kinda fine with the no mowing and no yard work gig at the town home lol.

I CANNOT WAIT TO MOVE IN. 

Can we just skip the whole living in an apartment thing for the next few months?????

We really did do more than just hang out at the construction site during our trip haha. We also watched movies, read books, relaxed a bit, had a game night with some fun couples, barbecued hamburgers, explored the greenway, had a play date for Emmett & Sydney, went on walks, grocery shopped, made tacos, dined out a couple of times, took naps, had a late date night to see Avengers, toured the more complete homes in our neighborhood, checked out the local Home Goods & Costco, worked out at the YMCA, attended our ward, took Emmett to nursery, played at the park, shared a giant pizookie {along with an entire tub of ice cream}, and made new friends. We seriously had such a great time!

Emmett rocked his infant car seat while we were there. He has not liked being put in a car seat lately,  but he was absolutely loving that ol' thing! We just might need to bring it along for our 20 hour road trip coming up...

Not quite sure why it took me so long to hop on the artichoke pizza topping train! SO YUMMY.

^^ Spotted this while out on a walk one evening. Noooo thank you!!!

So here's kind of a funny story. Jason wanted to take me out to dinner on my last day there to celebrate an early Mother's Day since we won't be together this year. He told me we could go anywhere my little heart or stomach desired. I wasn't craving anything in particular, but wanted to try something kind of unique to the area. Good ol' google gave us the top rated spots and we ended up choosing a highly rated pizza place {thinking it was more of a sit-down restaurant type of joint}. We went in anddddd it ended up being a place comparable to Dominos. Super small building, very few tables to sit at, and delivery guys running in and out. We ended up staying anyways and just ate our huge, individual $20 pizzas out of the box at one of the tables in very close proximity to the kitchen and all the workers. Not really the romantic dinner we both had in mind hahaha. But hey, we had plenty of left overs AND Emmett was a fan of the food.

The bread loaf hahaha. Karlie wasn't quite sure where she went wrong, but we could not stop laughing at how it turned out! We decided it kinda looked like a tiny baked pig lol.

This was the LAST TIME we'll have to say goodbye to our daddy for a good long while! So so so happy about that. Only two more weeks until this almost home becomes sweet home Alabama for us!