THANKFUL + SURPRISED

I've never been more thankful at Thanksgiving than this year. We spent another 5 days down in Florida and crammed so much into the trip...

First festive things first -- Thanksgiving! We flew home bright and early on Thanksgiving morning in our best athleisure and ready to party. Per usual, mom whipped up the most amazing Thanksgiving dinner feast for about 125 people (even though we only invited 17 people). Also noteworthy, this year Matt was delegated the most important task -- carving the turkey. Thomas supervised, only threatening to sacrifice a few fingers along the way.

Thanks to my friends at Fruit Bouquets we had one heck of a centerpiece too -- an adorable and festive fresh fruit bouquet. And there was only a brief argument over who got to eat the chocolate turkey head apple.

Friday morning we went on a family adventure to Santa's Tree Farm. Yes, even my sunshine state offers a cut your own Christmas tree experience. The kids had the very best time chasing goats, petting horses, wandering the jolly acres forest of trees and more. Caroline said her favorite part of the trip was the bag of kettle corn and Thomas said his least favorite part of the trip was definitely Santa.

 

 

Lucky for us, we got to knock out our 2017 Santa visit while we were there.

Caroline was a little bashful this year, but not enough to prevent her from asking for the Doc McStuffins Hospital Cart she's been obsessing over. I love Christmas. Every time she gets into trouble she'll give the most sincere apology and then ask us if we think Santa will still bring her cart. Maybe, Caroline. Or maybe you've walked past that cart 15 times in the garage already and still haven't noticed it.

Thomas was just...nope.

There were no amount of candy canes that would keep Thomas on Santa's lap for even a second.

Later that afternoon we decorated gingerbread houses which was fun for about 3 minutes before Thomas realized we wouldn't be eating the candy, but instead decorating with it. The temptation was too strong and he ended up eating it by the handful while Caroline screamed and bawled over him eating all of her house decorations.

Once the kiddos were sound asleep, Matt and I snuck out of the house for a drink at M Bar before meeting two of my girlfriends and their husbands for drinks at M Lounge. It was a super fun night.

Saturday morning mom and I "went Christmas shopping," aka we ran a bunch of errands (filled balloons, picked up cake, etc.) and then went to Uncle Nick's house to set up a surprise birthday party for dad! How freaking crazy that we got to celebrate dad's 60th birthday (technically 11/30, but still)?!?! All of us were just SO thankful and happy to celebrate him and he never saw it coming. He thought we were all headed to Uncle Nick's house for a BBQ...

SURPRISE!!!! Also, ALL THE PRAISE HANDS that dad was able to get out of his wheelchair and WALK into his surprise party? Blessings. Blessings. Blessings. There were 25+ party goers cheering loudly for him when he walked in.

Uncle Nick!!

My best friend since elementary school, Ashley, and my bestie since high school, Shannon, also came to the party to celebrate dad. Both of them have known and loved my dad for a very, very, very long time and he was SO happy to see them there.

Sunday morning we went to church where Thomas spilled communion juice all over himself (and me) and started screaming and crying for "juice" during the silent prayer. It was awesome and not embarrassing at all as I was frantically trying to remove him from the service as fast as possible. Afterwards we all went to lunch and then lounged around the rest of the day eating lots of leftover birthday cake.

On Monday we flew back home!

Asheville Birthday Weekend

We spent the weekend in Asheville celebrating my birthday! This is actually our second time celebrating my birthday in my favorite city (read about the last trip here), only this time we were sans kiddos! Early Saturday morning Ms. Jamie arrived and Matt and I were out the door 3 seconds later. 

We arrived in Asheville just in time to grab some BBQ sandwiches at Buxton Hall before checking in to our hotel.

Dress || Watch || Sunglasses

We stayed at the Grand Bohemian Hotel which is one of my favorite places to stay in Asheville. I love all of the details of this hunting lodge-inspired property and the service is always top notch.

Our room was so amazing! 

After we got settled in, we ubered to the Grove Park Inn for an afternoon of day drinking on their gorgeous terrace overlooking the Blue Ridge mountains. We arrived just in time to snag the most secluded table on the patio. It's a little grainy but Matt snapped a pretty cool picture from the top of the Inn...

 

Later, we both agreed that this was our favorite part of our trip. It was so relaxing and nice to spend quality time together over cocktails instead of our sweet but very loud toddlers. We brought books to read but ended up chatting away and forgot about them.

When we arrived back to our hotel we popped a bottle of champagne and slowly got ready for our night out. But first, dessert! The Grand Bohemian surprised us with a complimentary dessert for my birthday down at The Red Stag Grill so we stopped there on our way to dinner for a round of beers and dessert. We devoured the most amazing blackberry swirl goat cheesecake.

We ate dinner at Curate. I have been dying to try this Spanish tapas restaurant for a very long time but it is so dang hard to get a reservation. So when we booked our hotel a few months ago I immediately called and secured our reservation (yes, three months in advance)!

We arrived a few minutes early and grabbed a drink at the bar before being seated. The ambiance was incredible and our meal totally lived up to all the hype.

Everything was delicious, but Matt's favorite was the smoked pork sandwich and my favorite was the sauteed garlic shrimp! Oh, and we enjoyed a second round of dessert...because you only turn 31 once!

The next morning we slept in! On our way out of town we stopped for breakfast at our favorite restaurant, Early Girl Eatery. My favorite menu item was sadly discontinued, but to my surprise our waitress offered to put in a special request for it which made my day.

After breakfast we rushed home to squeeze our babies and spend the rest of the day with them. After naps we picked out Halloween costumes and ate dinner at Cowfish (Caroline's request), where Thomas devoured my birthday dessert. It was the best birthday weekend!

Previous Birthday Celebrations 30th Birthday Surprise Party  29th Birthday 28th Birthday Weekend in Asheville 27th Birthday

Tom Tom is Two!

Yesterday our little Tom Tom turned TWO. Thankfully his second year of life wasn't as much of a whirlwind as his first year! I just adore the little man of ours. Thomas is definitely a rambunctious boy, doesn't listen to anything we say, laughs at our discipline tactics and pushes his sister around too much. But he's also the absolutely sweetest and cuddliest little guy. He still lets me rock him to sleep every night. He loves to pat or rub my back when I'm holding him. He gives the best kisses. And he has completely stolen my heart as a mama's boy.

A few things for the "baby book:"

Goes By: Thomas, Tom, Tom-Tom & Bubby

Loves: Trucks! Really, he loves any sort of transportation -- cars, boats, tractors, etc. I especially love to see his excitement over trucks though -- construction, utility, emergency, etc. He loves them all. Tom also prefers to always be outside and loves water, dirt, mud and jumping off things -- all boy!

Favorite Toys: Ride-On Truck // Firetruck // Meow Piano // Dump Truck // Scooter // TV Remote Control

Eating: He's still our better eater and although he isn't a vegetable fan, he loves tomatoes. Also loves yogurt and applesauce pouches, ALL the fruit and popsicles.

Sleeping: Tom is also hands down our better sleeper (always has been)! We dropped his nighttime paci a few months ago and he didn't care at all, which is totally opposite of our experience with Caroline, who dropped hers much later and with a ginormous fight! Sleep regressions didn't really phase him and he loves to sleep in. The only time he will cry at night is if he is sick, which means he gets to sleep with us.

Sibling Love: It's hilarious and awesome to me that Tom wants to do every single thing that his sissy does. He follows her around and touches what she touches, repeats what she says and jumps when she jumps. He must drink out of the same kind of cup, use the same utensils, eat the same snack, play with the same toy and more. He follows her to the potty (where she kicks him out every time -- privacy please!) and wants to sit on the potty afterwards too (not that we are embarking on potty training yet!).

Vision: We've seen tremendous improvement in his vision over the past year which I couldn't be more thankful for. When I look back at pictures I can't believe how far we've come. Despite his improving eye sight he still doesn't care about TV or the iPad for more than 3 minutes. He'd rather listen to music or run wild.

I am SO excited for two (gasp, I know!). I've said it a million times, but toddlerhood is my absolute favorite stage and I'm excited to see his personality continue to shine and his vocabulary pick up. It's going to be a wild but fun year ahead!

Caroline stormed into Tom's room bright and early on his birthday with tons of balloons!

Then we went to IHOP for a pancake breakfast -- our birthday tradition for the kids.

And ice cream...because you only turn two once!

After breakfast we visited the fire station where Tom was allowed to crawl around the inside of the truck and left with a fire fighter sticker. It was a fantastic birthday morning!