Red White and Two

Saturday we finally were able to celebrate our Jack boy's second birthday with a "Red White and Two" party. A friend of mine on Instagram did this theme for her son a few years ago and I just loved it and filed it in away in my memory for this opportunity. The party was suppose to be outside but the weather was cold and rainy so we moved it inside and just made the most of it. 

 

The cute party invitations my friend Sara made for me. Love love love them! 

 

It always gets crazy the last 15 minutes before it's party time and I didn't get as many pictures of the decor as I would have liked but my sister did get a few for me. 

 

Gina Howard made his adorable cake. It fit the theme perfectly. And we went very simple this year-just cake, cupcakes, fruit, chips and drinks. It's funny how much you mellow with kid #2. Or maybe it's just me HA!

 

 

LIke I said it turned off cold this weekend after a warm April so far so I pulled out my patriotic sweater :) Why not!

 

Not the best picture but the only family picture we got. Love them anyway :)

 

The birthday boy! He was pretty chill about the whole party thing. Georgia gets so excited for her birthday parties and just thinks they are the best! He was kind of take it or leave it HA! I'm thinking that's a girl versus boy trait. But he was very sweet and mature and thanked people for their gifts and was well behaved. I was so proud of him!

 

My boy is two. Everything happens so much faster the second time around. I will blink and he will be starting kindergarten. 

 

Opening gifts and stopping to use his new electric toothbrush he received :)

 

Riding his new bike from Ma and Pa!

 

Opening more gifts with help from big sister and his friend Ava.

Like I said there weren't a lot of pictures taken but we had a lot of fun celebrating our boy. He is loved by so many people, we had a house completely full of family and friends! I never could have imagined how much I would love being a boy mom. It's everything I wanted and more. 

Happy Birthday, Jack boy! Bring on year number two! :)

Jack Starts AKK

I hope I can get caught up with week on all my posts because it's been a busy two weeks celebrating lots of new things for Jack! A big highlight has been Jack becoming an AKK preschooler. Jack stayed at Grandmomma's house three days a week but he was just one-on-one with her. Now he gets to graduate to being downstairs with the other preschoolers including big sister Georgia!

 

His first official day. He was just a little excited. I still can't believe this day is already here. 

 

On his first day he got to hold the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance and My Country Tis' of Thee :) 

 

His first coloring sheet. 

 

He was right on target for a new incoming two year old :) SO proud of him! 

 

Nap time has been tricky for our boy. It's been an adjustment going from napping in a crib and Grandmomma rocking him sometimes to sleeping on a mat in a room full of his friends. The first day it took him an hour to go to sleep, the second day he never slept (!) and the third day it just took thirty minutes. He just LOVES to talk and has a hard time being quiet HA! He was saying things like "No talking" "Georgia sleeping" "Shut the door". Hopefully next week will go better and he will be napping like a champ soon! 

I'm proud of him and how he is adjusting to AKK. He is going to test limits and will probably have his fair share of timeout visits but he's a good boy with a big personality and even bigger heart :) He's going to learn so much and have so much fun!

Easter 2017

Happy Easter! We had a wonderful weekend celebrating our Risen King. Georgia really grasped the true meaning of Easter this year and it reassured us that we are doing what we need to do to teach her about Jesus. We didn't really talk about the Easter Bunny much. He came but that was about it, but they were very excited nonetheless! :)

Thursday was the Easter party at AKK. Jack turned two on Wednesday so he was able to participate this year! He officially starts AKK next week and I still don't know where the past two years went.

 

They have a long standing tradition of every child bringing a dozen boiled eggs and the kids coloring them and them hunting them for their easter egg hunt.

And of course lots of yummy treats to make the party more fun!

  

Sweet boy found a few eggs during the hunt.

 

Eating lunch with his preschool friends. He feels like such a big boy doing this kind of stuff!

 

 

Saturday morning before our Easter egg hunt at church we swung by Ma and Pa's house to see the turkey Pa killed.

 

Daddy hasn't got one yet but he's still got time!

 

We headed to church for the egg hunt. The weather was perfect! Actually a little too perfect because the chocolate-filled eggs had melted :) But we will take that any day over cold and rainy!

 

She found 44 eggs and was so proud of herself!

Jack found 20 eggs that included two prize eggs.

 

We came home, ate lunch, napped and then colored eggs of our own. Jack just got in on the last part of it because of his nap which was probably for the best for everyone's sanity :)

 

Easter morning 2017

The bunny brought candy, water guns, new pajamas, new flip flops and a few small toys. They were tickled with their loot!

 

What's Easter without a picture of your babies in bunny ears?!?

 

 

We put on our Easter best and got ready for church. We did matching sibling outfits because why not until they form an opinion on their attire :)

My beautiful baby girl. She has grown so much this year.

 

My beautiful baby boy. We've hit the two's wide open but so far it hasn't been too terrible! Love that sweet smile and voluminous hair.

 

We didn't have anyone extra at the house to take our family picture so we took turns of taking pictures of each of us with the kids. 

Jack was ready to "play outside" at this point but posed for a split second for me.

 

 

Georgia wasn't sure about a picture with her boyfriend on Easter but she finally obliged. And then she was glad she did ;)

We celebrated Easter and my birthday at Mom's after church. No matter how far away my birthday falls from Easter we always do it together and that's fine with me. There's not a better holiday to share the event with!

 

Sweet Embry babies looking super Easter sweet :) I was so glad we got to spend Easter with Bo this year!

It was a pretty perfect weekend celebrating our King. So very thankful for all my blessings this Easter!

NYC Days 3-5

The forecast for day three was rain all day so we changed up our itinerary and planned to go to both indoor museums. Marcus had read about the crowds at the 9/11 Memorial so we decided to knock it out first thing.

 

 

 

Words can't describe the powerful impact of the 9/11 memorial. It's truly one of those places you have to experience yourself to get a true fill for it's magnitude. We were there two hours and could have easily spent half a day.

  

The last pillar that was standing from the original World Trade Center. It's kind of the centerpiece of the whole museum and everything is built around it.

 

This is 3000+ tiles of all different shades of blue to represent every life lost in the attack. No two tiles are the exact same. You can get an idea of how large it is by how it dwarfs Georgia Grace!

Since it was raining we didn't spend a lot of time observing the outside pools but I did snap a few pictures from under an umbrella. They are HUGE.

 

 

One World Trade Center that replaced the world trade centers. It is the tallest building in NYC, just like the original buildings.

If you make a trip to NYC, the 9/11 memorial is nonnegotiable. You must do it. It's worth a trip to the city just to see it.

  

After we explored the memorial, we took a subway to meet my brother at Ralph's Coffee. We hadn't seen him since Christmas so it was a sweet reunion. We turned a corner and sister spotted him :)

Two cuties! She got out her little toy camera she brought and started taking pictures of him HA!

 

It was so good to see him and to have an NYC expert help us plan our trip and make sure we maximized our time and resources. He's a true Manhattanite now.

 

Sister taking more pictures from her stroller view and through the eyes of a four year old. And just look how she stood out against all the drab colors of the city! She brought some sunshine to the city.

 

I snapped a few pictures from the subway. I didn't feel comfortable taking many because I didn't want to make people feel uncomfortable but for us country folks that aren't use to having our personal space violated like that-it was worth documenting! :) We were pleasantly surprised at how nice and generous people were. On multiple occasions people offered me their seat so I could sit and hold Georgia. It made my heart happy :)

 
As I mentioned Jack stayed with family while we were gone and I received various pictures of him at a toy store, grocery store, outside, etc. I think he was extra spoiled this week! And he picked out all the groceries in his cart HA!

 

American Museum of Natural History was up next

 

All the animals were real and are now stuffed and displayed. There were some really amazing ones.

 

We took a selfie with the life size blue whale :)

  

Georgia and t-rex-he was so big I couldn't fit both in the picture!

 

We went to The Burger Joint that night for supper. It is hidden behind this curtain in a five star hotel. The restaurant is seriously a hole in the wall, the menu is written on cardboard and it's just so crazy that it's in the lobby of this hotel! But delicious burgers.

 

The Trump Tower was in our path on the way home from supper so of course we had to stop and check it out. When in Rome, right?

 

We could go in the lobby area but not up the elevators. We got to talking about how many secret service people were probably watching us at this very moment!

 

 

The grandparents enjoyed this pictures :)

Our last full day in the city began early at Magnolia Bakery. 

The trick to missing the crowds? Get there when they open! 

 

It just so happened to be my 30th birthday! So a picture in front of the bakery was warranted.

 

 

And a picture in front of the NBC News studio that had the date displayed was warranted as well :)

 

For my birthday we decided to go to the Top of the Rock to see the best views of the city.

 

 

Sweet sister and New York City!

 

 

 

A memory the three of us will never forget

 

I can't brag enough on how well behaved Georgia was the whole trip. We decided as her reward we would take her to American Girl Place and let her pick out one thing for Lea. She was ecstatic!

 

Literally running through the store!! :)

 

Thumbs up for shopping for her doll!

 

Shopping and deciding on what she will buy for Lea

 

This dress was the winner!

 

And the breakfast bakery set-she loved both so we agreed to two things for Lea :) She deserved it! It was seriously like taking a fourteen year old without an attitude to NYC instead of a four year old!

 

We headed to the East village for some pizza for lunch-delicious!

After a little rest in the hotel room, we headed to visit Cody as his apartment. Oh my it's the cutest! It looks like something straight off of Sex and the City or Cosby Show. He told us that Janis Joplin lived in his apartment building back in the day-so cool!

 

His view from his bedroom window. He is living the life!

 

 

Family picture on the front porch minus Marcus who had to take it for us. Just look how cute it is!!

 

Cody had us dinner reservations and bought our meal for us which was super sweet of him! We ended my birthday with a trip to Cookie Do-the latest craze to hit NYC. It's actual cookie dough you can eat-they use pasteurized eggs. I can't think of a better way to celebrate turning thirty than edible cookie dough in NYC.

 

Yum yum yum!

 

We couldn't eat at all but I finished it off in the airport the next day!

 

This is what four days of city exploring will do to ya.

 

Our last day in the city we slept in and just took our time getting ready to head home. I took Georgia to the lobby to get a few pictures of her in her jammies. Totally channeling some Eloise :)

 

The hotel was absolutely beautiful but it didn't hold a light to my girl!

We had a little fun too :)

 

We walked to the Chic-Fil-A that was close by for lunch and then did a little shopping before it was time to head to the airport. We were super duper ready to be home and see Jack at this point!

 

 

Goodbye Roosevelt Hotel, thanks for a week of memories!

 

Our view from the window of our Uber as we drove over the Queensboro bridge-spectacular!

 

We had an evening flight and I snapped this picture of New York as we headed back down south. I really love traveling and exploring new places but goodness there is no place like home!

 

She got to go in the cockpit on our flight home from JFK airport! Probably because she was wearing Easter onesie pajamas and carrying a babydoll on a flight full of adults. What an awesome memory for her!

We had a really awesome time in the Big Apple. It was pretty cold most of the time, we were excited to get home to warm and sunny weather. Cody plans to move to Chicago in the fall so I'm not sure if or when we will ever be back but it's definitely a trip everyone should take at least once in their lifetime.