Monday Mashup: Weekend through the iphone!

1. Shopping on Friday night with Mom and Dad!

2. "Sharing" Grandma's sandwich on the boat

3. "My turn to drive!"

4. Hanging with Uncle Eddie

5. Wine on the back deck

6. Redskins game!

7. We found Daddy's old toy chest in the attic!

8. Beautiful sunset

9. Great-Grandpa, Grandpa, and Conrad

5 on Friday

Linking up again this week with some lovely ladies! 

  

<<ONE>>

Lake Time! This weekend we are heading to my in-laws house and they happen to live on Lake Anna. They moved down there from Northern VA about five years ago; they built a beautiful home and have a boat and jet ski – perfect for fun summer weekend getaways as it only is about an hour and a half away. They are also close to lots of great wineries and cute, historic towns (two of my favorite things). A girl who loves her in laws?! She does exist! I kid, I kid…I would love them even if they didn’t live on a lake.

<<TWO>>

ME TIME! I am starting to notice myself slipping…not eating healthy, not exercising, getting stressed out. And it’s making me sluggish, tired, and irritable. So I’ve decided I need to change some habits. Nothing  crazy – no crashdietsoyoucanlose10lbsinaweekthengain20back, no ridiculous exercise plan. Let’s be real here, ain’t nobody got time for that. Maybe just walking/running more in the evenings with the baby, not eating so much junk food (it’s HARD because I’m on the road so much), and taking it easy on the weekends with eating out. I also watch an insanely large amount of TV at night – when Conrad goes to bed I just veg on the couch and get nothing accomplished. I’m not saying I need to do a marathon cleaning session during that time (again, let’s be real, there’s no way in hell that would happen anyway and I am hiring a cleaning service STAT) but perhaps do something a little more productive…like read one of the 123,409,102 books I’ve downloaded on my kindle but never read (those damn $1.99 specials!)

<<THREE>>

My new iphone! Ok, I know I already mentioned it in last week’s 5 on Friday but I was really only talking about the case in that post and this time I’m talking about ALL THE APPS. I know that I could download apps on my old Droid but for some reason it’s way more fun on my iphone with my snazzy case. AND I love FACETIME! My parents have iphones (yes, my PARENTS got an iphone before I did) and now they can see Conrad every night – love, love, love.

<<FOUR>>

SO TRUE! I have so much to be thankful for and sometimes I just have to take a step back and stop wanting more so I can enjoy what I already have.

<<FIVE>>

I couldn’t resist:

I can't believe he was ever this small!

Attempting to keep it together 24/7,

Elizabeth

Beach Baby!

So it's taken a while for me to post about our JULY vacation as I lost the cable to my camera so I couldn't post pictures. In any case, here's some snapshots of our vacay and Conrad's first trip to the beach. As I mentioned here, vacationing with a baby is WAY different than without. And to reiterate (and trust me, this is not sucking up - just pure gratefulness!), thank goodness for my MIL - she was so helpful!

Every year Sean's family goes to Emerald Isle/Topsail Island down in NC. It's been their family tradition for years (his whole dad's side comes down from NY) and I've been lucky enough to be able to participate the last 8 years.

On the way down, we stopped at Grady's BBQ in Dudley, North Carolina. It was a slight...20 minute...30 minute...detour but was well worth it. It's a long-standing family owned BBQ place with amazing food. And it's all smoked and grilled right out back. Sean even met the owner and got a tour of the kitchen (he's a little BBQ obsessed).

Conrad was not so big of a beach fan. In fact, when we first tried to put his feet in the sand, he looked at us as if to say, "um, what the hell is this...you're joking, right?" BUT after a while, he got used to it and dug some holes and flung sand around with his little plastic shovel. Oh, and tried to eat a lot of it. The ocean however?? NO WAY. He started to fuss whenever we stuck his toes near it. Oh well. Next year, maybe?

Hanging out under the umbrella was a fun time for Conrad too. We got one of those little tent things but he didn't use it at all...maybe better use it next year (that thing was NOT cheap!!).

The pool on the other hand was GREAT. We loved us some pool time. Before Conrad came into this world, I always thought the people who spent all day at the pool while at the beach were nuts. Turns out they probably just had little kids with them. And it was easier access to the beer. Loads of beer. Wait, that was last year (well, year before last that is, considering I was pregnant last year). This go-round? No time for that. You have to be on your toes with this one!!

I  can't wait until next year when he's a little bigger and can enjoy the beach even more!

Professional Pictures!

Instead of the usual Monday Mashup (because I still need to figure out how to get my pics from my new iphone to the computer) I'm excited to share our professional pictures! We had these done on Conrad's 9 month birthday and they are fantastic! We were very fortunate that someone Sean was friends with in high school turned out to be a professional photographer. She did an amazing job! Here are some of my favs:

My handsome boys!

Those teething necklaces are great!

Love this one!

I'm probably biased but I have an amazing family! We had such a great time taking these. We went to the center of our town  and it was the perfect setting with lots of different options. It was cloudy the whole time and towards the end I thought for sure there would be hurricane-like storms but the weather held out long enough for us to take some great pictures. If anyone needs a great photographer in the DC-metro area, let me know!

Elizabeth

TGIF!

It's finally FRIDAY! Although, not really for me since I have to work for a while tomorrow. But hey - it's still the weekend!!

I'm linking up with some great ladies today for the 5 on Friday!

 

<<ONE>>

So, I bit the bullet and got the new IPHONE 5. I've had Verizon forever so I didn't catch on to the craze initially, then when Verizon started offering it, I still didn't (couldn't - my phone is supplied by my employer) bite. However, I was due for an upgrade as my beloved Droid was dying a slow death and it just so happened that my company approved the new IPHONE for purchase. So why not? Now I'm super stoked and have just purchased my new case:

(via)

<<TWO>>

I get to see my sweet nephew this weekend!! Sean is going out of town to DC for a bachelor party so my sister and her son are coming to keep Conrad and me company. I love it when these two little boys get together!



<<THREE>>

These rings!!! I'm loving the new small ring/band look that's out right now. These are on my "must get" list:

(via)

 <<FOUR>>

The Five Book by Dan Zadra.

My mentor at work gave me this book and it is awesome. It's part journal/part insperational reading/part planner. My motto has always been: "picture where you want to be in five or ten years. Now are you doing anything about that vision? If not, get moving." In trying to figure out what path I want to take with my company and career, this book is extremely helpful.

<<FIVE>>

Menu Planning!!! Being a working mom (or any kind of mom, for that matter!) means you have to plan a lot of what you do in advance. A big piece of that is meals; especially now that Conrad is older and eating a lot more "big people food" I have to be able to get home, have dinner easily accessible and cookable. None of this stopping by the grocery on the way home to pick up ingredients then rush home to fix it all while with an "energetic" 10 month old baby in tow. Yeah, that is what I'm currently doing and it's - for obvious reasons - not working. What ends up happening is he's too much to handle and cook at the same time so I plop him in the high chair and heat him up some Gerber Organic pasta pickups....have you seen those? Good idea but not the healthiest, despite their "organic" label. The times when I have planned ahead, I try to get him to eat what we eat (usually chicken, a steamed veggie, and salad). But if I am waiting at the last minute to shop, prepare, and cook, that means baby isn't eating until 730 at night and he's having none of that. Hence, menu planning! I'll let you know how it goes...

Attempting to keep it together 24/7,

Elizabeth

RANT: Commuting and Driving in General

As I recently mentioned in this post work has been kind of crazy lately. I am very fortunate that my commute is only 15 minutes to my actual office; this is one of the main reasons we sold our previous house and moved where we did last year. My commute was previously HIDEOUS as most people in the DC Metro area can relate to. However, a large part of my job involves driving to client homes all over VA, MD, and sometimes DC. While I love my job and visiting my my peeps in their homes, I think that driving all over is the biggest WASTE OF TIME EVER! Why can't we just create a self-driving car already?? I mean, come on: light bulbs, Man on the Moon, Squeeze Bacon (yes, ew), Justin Bieber...where's the auto-car?

Thank God for cell phones and bluetooth at least. And sending emails at red lights (yes, guilty, let the comments begin). I could be doing so much more in the amount of time I spend driving!

The worst part is when I'm driving to pick up my baby boy. If there's traffic when I'm trying to get to him, I FREAK OUT. But, then I need to remember to keep it cool as there are some terrible drivers around here and I'm no good to my family in a car wreck.

So, if anyone is up for inventing the self-driven car...hit me up and I'll for sure invest!

Monday Mashup: Weekend through the camera phone

 We had a very busy weekend! Naturally, the first weekend we have in town within the past 4 weeks and we cram it full of lots of activity! On Saturday Conrad and I enjoyed a nice long run while Sean did yard work and then we went to a good friend's house for dinner, bringing Conrad with us so he could play with his good friend. Conrad is now in a phase in which he likes to take things out of drawers, boxes, baskets, bags, cabinets - you name it! We really have to watch him (and install locks on the drawers and cabinets) otherwise things like this happen:

I can feed myself, Mommy!

I am working on getting Conrad to eat more finger foods and things with different textures. It's been slightly successful. He has a phobia of things with different textures but he's getting there!

Mmm....nom nom nom.

My handsome boys getting ready to go out!

Wait, why are you wearing your sunglasses inside, Dad?

On Sunday we went to hang out with our neighbors who have a precious 3 month old baby. We just met them recently and are excited to meet more families that live on our street! Then we headed into DC to a friend's rooftop pool so Conrad had a blast swimming and splashing - he was a huge hit! Unfortunately, I had a Mom Fail and didn't take any pictures of that. Despite cramming tons of stuff in this weekend, we had a BLAST and made the most of the two days off.

Attempting to keep it together 24/7,

Elizabeth