236/366: Met up with some friends at the coolest outdoor playground.

237/366: It’s been a surprisingly mild and rainy August, but my flowers are loving it!

238/366: Sonic pit stop before swimming.

239/366: Laundry, laundry oh my. The good times caught up to me, had to tackle mount laundry finally.

240/366: A completely impromptu trip to Hawaiian Falls! The husband was home and my sister wanted to come for a visit. We found someone selling their family four pack on a buy/sell site for super cheap, so we all went to the waterpark for an afternoon.

241/366: Last day of summer!! We kept things pretty busy between church and then visiting the splash park. We spent the last hour before bedtime playing magna-tiles and chilling out before the big day of pre-k ahead.

Back to school. I’m not sure who was more excited, me or Holden. He spent the day reconnecting with old friends and making new ones. My husband was unexpectedly home as well, so he got to accompany us for drop off. After school Holden had swim lessons, it was a BIG day for all of us and we decided to have a family pizza party to cap things off.

243/366: A little downtime after school.

229/366: Rain clouds were still looming, but we made it to the splash pad anyway. I could not stand another minute cooped up in the house, and neither could the boy. The rain stayed in check, and really the day ended up being pretty nice for August. Mid 80s, some overcast skies and a slight (albiet humid) breeze.

230/366: Wednesday is the uber exciting grocery day for me. I’ve been feeling a little down because of all the gloom. Plus, my husband has been out of town for work around 10 of the past 14 days, so things are feeling kind of lonely around these parts. The grocery cashier brightened my day by offering a free bouquet of roses. Apparently they were about to be past their ‘sell by’ date, so they were handing all these gorgeous arrangements out for free. Really brought a small bit of cheer to the day.

231/366: Trying to get a little work done, but this little fellow kept joining me in the office.

232/366: Caught red handed cleaning up his room!!!

233/366: Rain, rain go away. These should be flip flops by the backdoor, not rainboots.

234/366: Major excitement because the hubs was home AND we got free circus tickets from my sister. I haven’t been to a circus since I was probably 8, and Charlie hasn’t either. Holden had never been, so this was really fun. We had excellent seats, about 6 rows from the floor dead and center. I felt like the tigers were so close that if they really got upset they could scale the cage and have us as a snack. The only bad part about the circus was that I didn’t bring my real camera. I tried reading through the rules online and it said no video equipment. I was worried someone in security would classify my DSLR as video equipment, so I opted to play it on the safe side. Of course, no one even searched bags and I totally could have brought it in if I wanted. I guess it was nice to have my hands free and just enjoy the day though. Thus, the poopy phone pix.

235/366: Prepping for a birthday party, inspecting his name inside the card.

221/366: Yes, this is a photo of laundry. Keepin’ it real.

222/366: I’m a gold medalist in eating Blue Bell while watching others perform Olympic feats.

223/366: Vroom vroom.

224/366: The last day of “reading school” for my little guy. We started this journey about 5 months using a curriculum called, “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.” It has been a lot of work for mommy and daddy, and I am immensely proud of all that Holden has accomplished. This boy can straight up read at 4 years old, and I am so excited for him to go back to pre-K in the fall and show off his new skills. I know he loves reading and is really, really proud of himself too so that’s awesome.

225/366: Took my little to Krispy Kreme for the first time ever. This was a treat for completing his reading school. The donut machine was broken, and they had run out of ingredients to make plain, glazed donuts so I was miffed. However, to a four year old sprinkles are really the most important thing anyway so it all worked out.

226/366: Getting everything setup for little Benjamin’s newborn image reveal. It is always a fun day when I get to show off a final gallery.

227/366: Sent the pups to my dad’s house during our pool party. We went to pick them up later in the afternoon and here is Rufus reuniting with my husband.

228/366: When there is one raindrop in Texas, one must wear rain boots. Also, we had to make a pit stop at the manhole cover. My son is obsessed with sewers. Is this a boy thing?? When he rides his bike, he always makes sure to drive over the ‘sewer covers,’ and if he sees a manhole cover he likes to go investigate.

208/366: The boys made breakfast for dinner!

209/366: Loading into the car for Spanish camp. Someone always wakes up super early, yet despite this I would not classify him as a ‘morning person’. Giving me the attitude at 9am really paves the way for a pleasant day, doesn’t it?

210/366: Cover your ears.

211/366: Another day, another trip to Home Depot.

212/366: The many faces of a four year old. I had a cake smash session earlier in the day, and during clean up time my little guy asked to have his picture taken. So, I obliged and we got about four seconds of four year old, which is basically all the emotions.

213/366: A little Sunday morning sorting pie.

200/366: Crossing the Day 200 mark!! Nothing exciting to report, just this spaghetti monster sighting.

201/366: Holden likes to quiz me and make sure I know all my sight-words. We take turns, but he loves playing the little teacher (read: boss).

202/366: Doggie bath. I remember when Rufus was a pup and we bathed him every few days. Yeah, flash forward 10 years and now he’s lucky to get a bath once a season. #stinkydogs

203/366: I’m always trying to grow in my photography, so it was a treat to be able to enjoy a webinar on shooting in full sun. I even got to watch it uninterrupted while my son was at daycamp. Winning!

204/366: I guess someone is trying to get in the Olympic spirit? He decided to wear his good sportsmanship medal from soccer around the house all day.

205/366: Sir Shark hanging in the pool.

206/366: My resident seamster. Yeah, I don’t know the dude version of seamstress. My talented husband—he can fix almost anything that’s broken, including clothes.

207/366: It’s summer. We can watch TV in our swimsuits and have marker on our legs.

188/366: Aunt Coco and newly minted Uncle Chad returned from their honeymoon in Mexico and brought some maracas home for Holden. I will remember this for when they have kids. I have a whole attic full of extremely noisy toys I am more than happy to pass down.

189/366: A little summer treat—made some homemade frozen yogurt. Super easy recipe, just called for Greek yogurt, frozen berries and a food processor. I think Holden is more into actual ice cream, but I was really impressed with this culinary accomplishment. PS- Has anyone tried that Halo ice cream? I keep hearing about it, but I think only Kroger stocks it and I don’t usually go to Kroger. Would love to hear if it’s worth making a special trip. Always looking for dessert alternatives that are low in sugar, because I have a major sweet tooth and kind of refuse to end my evening without some kind of tasty treat to end the day.

190/366: Always swimming. I warned y’all back in the winter that this would happen. Out by the pool pretty much every day.

191/366: A random storm came through in the afternoon. It was a pop up super cell and the wind knocked out our power for a good 4 hours. This is right after the power went down, when we were blissfully unaware of just how long the power was going to be out for and were still intrigued with a little ipad chill time and looking out the windows at the raindrops.

192/366: Right foot, left foot.

193/366: My enthusiastic mail checker.

173/366: My boy working on his reading lesson for the day. We started doing this thing called, “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” a couple months ago. My son is only 4, so I really didn’t have the expectation that he would read this early, but I felt like I needed something guided to help get him on the right path. Well, this book has proven me wrong. We are on Lesson 60-something and this little dude can officially read. He is reading stories with paragraphs, not just lame sight words like ‘cat’ and ‘bat’. I am beyond impressed with this little program, and considering all I had to invest in was the book and about 20-30 minutes a day, I’m giving it an A+. So, if anyone out there is looking for a good way to start teaching your preschooler to read, I can’t say enough positive things about this workbook. Disclaimer—I would be lying if I said that some days this book doesn’t make me want to pull my hair out, but overall the success we’ve had and the pride my son has in his accomplishments makes it well worth the effort.

174/366: My hand boo boo. Do you know how difficult it is to take a photo of your own injured hand? I basically only had the ability to use my one arm all week, and I think that’s what contributed to me pulling my back out. I think I overused the one side of my body and strained the muscles in my back. Anyway, a look at my whack gauze job.

175/366: Playtime in my son’s ‘office’. Yes, he calls his playroom an office, and it melts my heart.

176/366: Dog days of summer means that my Rufus spends a lot of time on the cool tile.

177/366: Wedding day!!!! Sorry for all the lousy phone pictures, but, like I said, I wanted to live in the moment and leave the photography job up to the photographer. Sadly, I don’t have one of me and the bride together, which is a huge bummer because I really wanted to show off how spectacular she looked all dolled up. I know the real photographer got plenty, so I will definitely point y’all in the right direction once she puts up a preview.
Oh- did I mention that my lil’ man was the ring-bearer? Isn’t he handsome?? He made a fast friend in the flower girl as well, and those two had the moves on the dance floor!!

178/366: My bridesmaid bouquet cheering up the kitchen table.

179/366: We had to drop off my mom and her husband at the airport. I knew my little guy would be in tears after that, so my husband and I tried to cheer him up with a visit to the splash park.

180/366: There was a lot of delicious, yet carb-loaded food consumed over the weekend, so I was excited to get back in the kitchen and have something a little healthier for dinner. Love this southwestern inspired salad with homemade chipotle ranch dressing and grilled shrimp. It looked so pretty, but then my husband tossed the salad before I got my photo taken. So, now you’re just looking at what appears to be a generic salad in a bowl…but I promise this dish is delish.