Five on Friday

Yay, It's Friday! 

 

I'm linking up with a. liz adventures, carolina charm, hello! happiness, and the good life blog again for another week of 5 on Friday!

Labor Day weekend was so much fun for us, so I thought I'd share 5 fun things that made our weekend so great!

1.) First and foremost, as many of you know, we found out we're expecting baby #2 in May of next year! We are so excited! You can read all about how we found out here.

2.) We finally upgraded our cell phones to the iphone 5. We've been due an upgrade since Spring of this year, but just hadn't had the extra money to upgrade to two iphones at $199 a piece. We had Android phones before, but were really wanting iphones with this upgrade. Thankfully we waited. With the new iphone coming out soon, the iphone 5 has dropped drastically in price! So we took advantage of the half price discount over the weekend and finally upgraded!

3.) We had so much fun @ Chris' surprise 30th Birthday party last Friday night! Chris and Holly just bought a beautiful new house and it was nice to get to see it in person and spend the evening with friends.

4.) On Saturday, we went to visit my Dad's side of the family (My Grandparent's, Aunts and a Cousin) at Rend Lake, in Illinois. My Grandparent's have a camper and were camping there, so we decided to go there for the day and spend some time with them. We grilled dinner and roasted marshmallows. The boys loved being outside all day. They played with their cars in the dirt and had a great time!

Jackson sitting on his Great Grandma's lap.

Yummy Marshmallows. Ha!

5.) Then Monday, the weather was gorgeous, so Jackson and I met up with my Mom, Aunt Karla and my Sister and her boys for lunch and a fun day at Willoughby Farm, while our husbands played golf. The farm has several animals and all kinds of fun things for kids to do. Jackson and I had never been there before, but we had so much fun and hope to go back again.

Jackson loved feeding the goats. It tickled his hand and he laughed everytime!

Pretend driving a tractor.

They loved this tire swing!

And this one too. :-)

Fun on the teeter-totter.

And this was probably Jackson's very favorite thing at the farm. They had a big train/tractor table in one of the old farm buildings. Jackson loved it!!

Here's to another great weekend!!!

Day 6 of our Gulf Shores, Alabama Family Vacation

On day 6 of our Gulf Shores Vacation, we mostly just hung out at the beach and condo. 

This bucket of crabs was on the beach that day. Someone had caught them the night before. Jackson thought they were pretty cool. :-)

After a fun day at the beach, lunch and naps, we got ready and  headed into town for family pictures on the beach. A woman that Jake used to work with was going to be in Gulf Shores the same week as we were. She and I had a great idea to meet up and take family pictures for one another on the beach.  It worked out great!

I also took a few of Jackson while we were there. The lighting on the beach that evening was so perfect. I could have taken a ton of pictures of Jackson that night, but he was a little uncooperative and it was really HOT!

After family pictures, we headed to LuLu's for dinner.  I had gotten many recommendations for LuLu's before we left, so we wanted to try it one night. We had been told the wait would be long, and it was. A little over 2 hours. So I put our name on the list and we went and did some souvenir shopping while we waited. When we got back, we had about another 30 minutes left, which was fine. There was sand everywhere for the kids and they had a live band playing. The whole restaurant is outdoors and it was huge! The food was really good, I would highly recommend it.

It was another great day in Gulf Shores.

Throw-back Thursday: 3 Year Old Me

Welcome back to Throw-back Thursday! 

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While looking through some old photos, I ran across this picture of me! I was three years old here. :-) Don't you just love the curls and lace?

Now it's your turn. Do you have any old pictures of yourself, or just a fun memory you'd like to share? Be sure and link up your Throw-back Thursday post here. I'd love to read about your fun memories.

A Storybook Photography Photo Session

This past Saturday morning, I had the pleasure of taking photos for such a sweet family! I actually met Amber through Holly's blog, when I had taken some pictures for Holly and her family. I am so happy we were able to meet up and get some pictures taken of her sweet family and her adorable little girl, Whitley.

Linking up here: 

A Pleasant Surprise!

We are so excited to announce that baby #2 is on the way!

Many of you have already seen our announcement on Instagram and Facebook, but of course, I had to share it here too. :-) We found out the exciting news this past Friday night. We weren't exactly trying, but we weren't preventing either.

About 2 months ago, I stopped taking birth control because I just didn't like the way it made me feel. As you may recall, it took me a year of trying with Jackson and a round of the fertility drug, Clomid. I just didn't ovulate, or at least not regularly. So I figured it would be the same this time around.

When I went off the pill 2 months ago, I honestly didn't think I would get pregnant, but we figured if we did, that was okay too. So that's why I say, we weren't trying, but we weren't preventing either. :-)

Much to our surprise, the test I took Friday night came back positive! I was about 4 days late and we were going to a party that night at the Stanfields. I knew there would be alcohol and I didn't want to drink if I were pregnant. So I went and got a test on my lunch hour at work that day and then took the test when I got home from work. I thought for sure I was wasting my time and money because I just knew it would be negative.

When it came back positive, I could not believe it! To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I was shaking! Jake was actually outside mowing the grass in the 100 degree heat at the time and didn't really seem to be in a very good mood. I definitely didn't want to tell him while he was in a bad mood. So I thought since I knew he'd come back in and get right in the shower, that I'd put the test in the medicine cabinet for him to see when he got out and was cooled off and in a better mood. Plus, that was the same way I told him we were pregnant with Jackson. :-)

He came out of the bathroom and was like "what's this"? I said, "well it's a little surprise." :-) He was really happy and it put him in a much better mood. ;-)

So far, I'm feeling great, just a little tired every now and again. I will start the weekly bump-date posts soon to keep you all updated with how this pregnancy goes. Prayers for a healthy pregnancy and baby are much appreciated!

Throw-back Thursday: KC Chiefs Football Edition

Welcome to another week of "Throw-back Thursday"!

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Since football season is just getting started, I thought I'd share a few pictures of Jake and I at some of the Chiefs games we've been to in the last few years. 

Let me start by saying, we live in St. Louis, however Jake was born in Kansas City and has family there so he was and always has been a Chiefs fan. He moved to St. Louis when he was 2, so he definitely grew up here and has really only known living in St. Louis, yet he's a Chiefs/Royals fan! Go figure.

For his 18th birthday (2003), I surprised him with a little party at my parent's house and invited some of our friends and family. I also surprised him with his first ever Kansas City Chiefs game tickets. He's been hooked ever since. I so wish we had a picture from that game, but unfortunately we don't.  It was a cold, late December, Sunday game. The last game of regular season. :-)

The next game we went to was in October, 2006 against the 49ers.

We also went to another game in 2006, when the Chiefs came to St. Louis to play the Rams. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from this game.

The following year we went to a pre-season game when the Chiefs came to the Rams stadium here in St. Louis. 

And in November of that same year, (2007) we saw the Chiefs play again, but this game was in KC against the Broncos. BTW, it's a lot more fun to see them play in KC.

In 2010, we went to the Chiefs home opener in September!

In November of that same year, I surprised Jake with tickets to another game. I had some of his family in on the secret too and we tail-gated for the first time!

On top of these games, Jake's been to a few without me, including a play-off game in 2010 and most recently, a game he went to just last year with some of his family!

Next month, we're excited to be heading to Kansas City for another Chiefs home opener with the Stanfields! They are playing the Dallas Cowboys and our good friends Chris and Holly are Cowboys fans! It should be such a fun game since I grew up loving the Cowboys, (back when I had a huge crush on Troy Aikman)!

So now it's your turn. Do you have any fun football memories, or just a fun memory you'd like to share? Be sure and link up your Throw-back Thursday post here. I'd love to read about your fun memories.