Life Lately: Summer Vacation Week 8

Week 8.  Not much going on this week. It has reached the point of summer where I'm tired. ha! I'm tired of planning things to do, tired of being on the run. tired of keeping the children entertained. 

The children are acting crazy. They are getting on my nerves. We need routine back in our lives! I need routine in my life!!

Seriously. Pray for my sanity....pray for their survival!

One day, we were outside and we found a TURTLE in our pool!! Like a real one. We have 5 ceramic tile turtles in our pool - a daddy, mommy, and 3 babies.  It's a joke that we really can't have any more kids because we have the turtles in the pool now. So when we found this turtle, my husband was all...."um, this better not be a sign that you're pregnant!" haha!! Oh Lordy-Bee! Help us all. But, no. As far as I know, there is no new baby news. haha!

I'm halfway finished with my 21 day fix program! I'm loving the workouts!!

And don't mind the messy bed. Actually... LOOK on top of the bed!! If you knew me... you'd be proud that the laundry is actually folded! haha!

We took a little trip down to Habitat for Humanity's homestore one day to see if there was anything we needed for our house. The only thing we were contemplating was a set of bunk beds for the girls. We didn't get it though. Good thing, because my parents went down the next day to GET those bunk beds! haha! So weird.

We stopped off at one of my favorite restaurants to grab some lunch, Captain Hiram's.

I just love sitting along the "windows" so we can watch the water.

Brooklynn is less than thrilled. haha. 

Then we stopped by this gorgeous landscaping nursery. We got a few ideas, but at this point, I was tired and just wanted to go home. lol

Most of our days have been lazy days. But that's okay. It's summer. we're supposed to be lazy right?!

Autumn has tried her hand in photography. haha.

She's been photographing the babies.

Annnnd...pretty much they've been driving me crazy. I love my girls, I really do. But I wouldn't be mad if someone wanted to take them for a few days! haha!

OH! And I had my totally awesome birthday party!!  Check out the fun {HERE}

So, that's about it. Not much for that week.  Next week is my last week of summer vacay! eeek!

Check out the rest of our summer vacation so far!

First Day of Summer Vacay

Week 1

Week 2
Week 3

Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7

A Splash of My Birthday Party

So, it is said that after the age of 12, people don't celebrate their birthdays anymore.

Well, I'm sorry.  That is just crazy!!  Why would you NOT want to celebrate the day you were born?!! I mean, without that day, that day however many years ago, that your mother labored you into this world and shed her tears of joy when she saw you, then you would not exist, my friend.  Your birthday is the most important day of your life. Not your wedding. Not the day you give birth to your children. Nope. It's YOUR birthday. You would not be here to have all those wonderful memories and other special and important days if it wasn't for your BIRTHday.

So celebrate it!

Celebrate that you were able to be here for another year. Celebrate that you were surrounded by your loved ones.  Celebrate that you have made new memories....even if some of them weren't such happy ones, celebrate!!

It doesn't have to be with presents and a huge thematic party.  But, darn it - CELEBRATE YOUR LIFE!

So, that's what I do. Every year. I like to make a big to-do over it.  My husband doesn't get it. But he's starting to realize that every year, I want my birthday acknowledged.

Well, this year, I actually did have a party.  I don't always. But I really wanted to. I'm not turning a special number or anything. I'm only turning 33.

But I did it up.  And we had fun!

Haha - Matteson was BOUND and determined to go down the slide standing up... it was impossible. But she had fun trying!

FREE WILLY!!!

We were trying to get a group picture on the slide..and we kept falling off! haha!

THERE. There we go.

We actually had the slide for the day before too. The girls had a lot of fun doing "test" runs.

Haha! I love this picture of Brooklynn!

After we were finished with the slide and swimming, it was time for S'mores! Aka - my birthday cake :)

I had said it was a no kid party, so we could all just enjoy ourselves and hang out with each other as adults and friends and not worry about all of our kids....because with all of us there, we would've had about 10-12 kids. That's just too many for my liking when I just want to be an adult.

However, Caroline was there... but she slept most of the time. haha

So, it was inevitable.

I hurt myself.  I knew it was going to happen. I had slipped down the steps too many times.  Too bad nobody got that on camera! haha! One time, Ron was coming up behind me and I was falling down the steps and I knocked him down and just kept on going, right into the pool! haha! WHERE was the camera for that one!?!

And then one time, I actually fell on to the side of the pool and fell in that way. woops!

But honestly. It was the best time. If you can't be goofy and silly with your Biffles, who can you be silly with?!

It was a great way to celebrate my birthday!

Life Lately - Summer Vacation Week 7

Week 7 has come and gone. We didn't really do much, but we were still busy little bees!

First off... HAIR!!  I shared a photo one day and someone commented with... "Did you color your hair?!"  Um... no. That's my 6 inch roots. 

Gah!! Luckily, I did have my hair appointment already scheduled for the day!   Yes, that's a LOT of foil...the more foil, the better I look! ha!

That same day I made a trip to Orlando to visit with one of my blogging friends who was in Orlando at a Kagan training. We had some yum dinner at Planet Hollywood....

And that was AFTER we sat in traffic for almost an hour to get about 600 yards, Caroline POOPED on her, AND she was driving my car after meeting her in real life for about 10 minutes. haha!  Best first meeting ever!

The next night, I got to go out AGAIN kidless! It's such a rare occasion that I get to dress up (out of my workout clothes or bathing suit) in the summer and even more rare that I get to go out kidless! haha

But the next day, Ron was back to work and I had some grocery shopping to do...with all 3 kids. Let me tell you. Every time I go shopping, people always comment how brave I am. lol. Let's just say that life is definitely never boring anymore!

I personally like it when they get the idea to go under the cart - lol. Much more calming.

Autumn finished up Dance Camp at Calvary.  She had a performance on Friday night to culminate the week's camp.

She was pretty excited. And the whole performance was so cute!

But let's just say... I think we found the one thing that Autumn is NOT good at! haha! She just stood there, singing or just not dancing. I don't know. It was pretty funny.  But I guess what matters is that she had fun, right?!  Right.

Saturday we just kind of hung around the house .... and rode Ziggles.

Then, that afternoon, we met up with my parents at Sebastian's campground, Long Point.

My dad is taking the girls out on the paddleboard to go to the island across the river.  I, on the other hand, needed a time out to calm down from the car ride down. So I sat at the campsite drinking my adult beverage while my parents entertained the girls.

They came back and boogie boarded a little.

My brother and his wife stopped by too, and we tried to get a shot of the babies... but Caroline and Jack were NOT cooperating very well! ha!

After they left, my dad and I took the girls paddleboarding for a little bit.  On our travels, we were paddling alongside dolphins! They were playing in the water next to us...and when we were at the island, we were finding all kinds of animals!

Then we came back and hung around the campsite for a little bit and had dinner.

Then it was time to go.  And they all fell asleep in the car. PTL. Peace. haha!

Autumn has also had plenty of time to practice her art skills.  The other day, I showed her how to draw a boy...or girl.  I used this cute directed drawing from Rowdy in Room 300

She drew Daddy. I love it! 

Caroline turned 8 months old. Read about it {HERE}.

And I finished up Week 1 of the 21 Day Fix Extreme!

Never did I think I would ever get to a place where I was comfortable enough to share a picture of myself .... In a sports bra!!! Is my body perfect?? Hells no. But I have worked hard for where I have gotten to. I workout every day (nearly... There are days I miss here and there), I have learned to eat healthy (which started with using the Tone It Up Nutrition Plan), and I don't make excuses! Today I started week 2 of 21 Day Fix Extreme. The workouts push me and I really have to think about how to get all that food in each day (such a weird concept...eating a lot to lose weight!). 

You can order the 21 Day Fix through me {HERE}! (or any other program!). I own pretty much ALL of the programs, so email me at jrossgetsfit@gmail.com if you have any questions!

Check out the rest of our summer vacation so far!

First Day of Summer Vacay

Week 1

Week 2
Week 3

Week 4
Week 5
Week 6