Celebration Week Extravaganza!

Wow! What a week it has been!  We are coming off of a high of multiple celebrations!

This is my favorite time of the year.  The leaves are starting to change, the weather is beautiful but most of all October brings a week of wonderful celebrations for us.

My parents arrived to town last Tuesday for a week.  We were so excited to have them here.

This past Friday we got pictures taken.  My good friend Shana, who has taken such wonderful pictures for us before, offered to take pictures of Noah and his first taste of a cake.  It was an awesome time.  It was so messy and it brought alot of laughs.

Quentin and Pa Pa went to Talledega for the races this past Saturday. They had a blast! This was Quentin's second time this year.

Sunday, we joined our friends the Corbetts and Grubbs at Bennett Farms in Alabama to celebrate the boys' birthdays.

Monday, Dary and I celebrated our 8th anniversary and were able to get away for the evening for dinner and a movie.

Tuesday, we celebrated Quentin's 4th birthday at school and surprised him with a bike when he arrived home. He has been having a blast riding that thing.

My parents flew out Wednesday night which was sad. =(

Yesterday, we celebrated Noah's 1st birthday by having a little party at his day care!

Whew!! That was quite the week. We look forward to a relaxing weekend.

Like I said...I love this time of year! So much to be thankful for!

Here are some pictures:

Time is flying!

I cannot believe the boys' birthdays are closely approaching! How can it be possible that one year has flown by with being blessed with Noah and 4 years with Quentin! We love those little boys so very much and cannot believe that we were given the opportunity to be parents to them.  Of course, our lives at times may seem chaotic but I would not trade it for the world. =)

We had a wonderful time last weekend with having our nieces up Leslie and Gracie.  Leslie is freshman in high school and Gracie just turned five.  We went to the Atlanta Zoo, ate alot of ice cream, and went on a creeking adventure in our neighborhood. We had so many laughs. Quentin keeps asking when they will be coming back up.

Last night, I hosted a small baby shower for my good friend Kellie is is due to have little Lillie in a couple weeks. We are hoping she holds off until after October 7th so we can do our annual Bennett Farms visit. =)

Tonight, I am so excited to have a date with Darcy! We are going to a dinner and dance tonight with friends from church. We have not had a date night in a long time. I am so excited to spend some much needed adult time and enjoy drinking, eating, and dancing to a live band. 

We will see what condition I am in for working this weekend. =)
am so excited for my parents to arrive this coming Tuesday evening to stay for week to help celebrate the boys' birthdays. We will see what is in store over the next week. =)

Here are some pictures as always to share.

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Great Week

We had a pretty low key week but a good one.

Work went well for Darcy and I. I was very excited because I passed my post test for my Certificate of Training in Children and Adolescent Weight Management.

We really enjoyed spending time with the boys over the weekend. We attended the fifth birthday party of Quentin's buddy, Bryce.  He is the oldest son of our close friends Me`gan and Billy whom we have known for 10 years now! Me`gan and Darcy work together and they actually were the reason why we moved out to our house in Douglasville.  It is crazy how we all knew each other when we were engaged, are now married, and both have two kids each! Alot has changed in 10 years.  

We look foward to next weekend with having Quentin and Noah's cousins visit us for the night.

Here are some pictures of Noah at 11 months!

Awesome Opportunity

Last Friday, I was so excited that two of my close friends, Kristin and Kim had a lay over in Atlanta for a couple hours before heading to Spain that we were able to get together and have dinner. It was so nice seeing them and laughing as we always do when we get together.

This past week, I had the opportunity to attend a 2 1/2 day training in Atlanta that was focused on Weight Management for both Children and Adolescents. It was incredible to be in a room with 200+ dietitians who all came from so many different professional backgrounds but with the same interest of keeping our youth healthy.  This was a very expensive training and I did not think initially I would be able to attend but I found out about scholarship and applied, crossed my fingers, and was accepted for it! I had to read  15 hours worth of pre-reading and take a pre-test to even attend.  I met alot of awesome dietitians and made some great connections.  I am really hoping to take this information and be able to use at my job but also have so many great ideas for Quentin's school.  We will see if the administrator will let me. I missed the boys and Darcy greatly and the commute was awful but so worth it!

We had a great day yesterday spending time as a family.  Little Noah has a left ear infection and is cutting 4 new teeth so he has kind of been under the weather. He still continues to have a little smile on his face.  Quentin was so excited to get back to school today.  He is excited tonight to bake cookies with me for Patriots Day tomorrow at school to honor police and firefighters. 

Labor Day, was the very last day that we could get over to the pool in our neighborhood to play at the spray park. It had been broken half of the summer and Quentin was out of town and school started so we waited to the last day available to finally get over there.  They had a blast!

The weather is finally cooling down here a bit and it feels like fall.  Football season has started so Darcy is in heaven. I just have to get used to the Saturday routines changing a bit to revolve around the sport. =)

 Just a little messy from spaghetti!

New York! New York!

Well...it has been quite the busy week.  I had a wonderful birthday spending time with Darcy and the boys.  We went out for lunch, spent time at a park, and just relaxed the rest of the day.  If you would have asked me pre-children if that sounded like quite the happening birthday, I would have told you no.  However...my life is so different now being a mom in so many incredible ways that I would say now that is exactly how I would want to spend my birthday. 

I did also get a huge birthday bonus this year by being able to fly up to NYC to spend some time with an awesome friend, Anna.  She has over the years become like a sister to me and I felt so fortunate to be able to go spend some time with her over the weekend. Anna and I met right off the bat in highschool and became friends but our friendship truly grew in college when we re-connected and were roommates.  We have shared so many wonderful memories over the years and this past weekend we were able to make even more.  I think the theme of the weekend was eat, drink, walk, eat, drink, walk.  Okay..so there was shopping in there as well and also she treated me to go see Chicago, the muscial.  We shared so many laughs and I love and miss her dearly.  I wish so very much that we lived closer together.

This week was a busy but great week at work.  I am working tomorrow at the hospital but then will have three days in a row off so that will be nice. I really look forward to spending some time with Darcy and the boys on Sunday and Monday since we all have not had quality time together in over a week. 

Here are some pictures from my birthday and the NYC weekend:

 Quentin looks so grown up! We were enjoying some time together on my birthday!

 Noah going down the slide with a little static electricity!

 Can you tell he likes the swing?

 This was awesome art work that we saw as we walked along the Skyline

 View from Anna's balcony

 Always have to make a swing through Times Square to people watch. There was a topless old lady that said she was the naked cowgirl.  I took a picture but decided not to post. =)

 The city that never sleeps. I lacked some of that as well over the weekend.

My beautiful friend Anna! Love her!

Awesome start to the birthday celebration!

Just coming off of an awesome weekend! I know my birthday is not until Tuesday but I like to celebrate it pre and post as much as I can! We are so very blessed to have such wonderful friends in our life and we were able to spend some time with a couple of them this weekend.

Yesterday, we met up with our good friends the Gricus family at the zoo. It was quite eventful with rain and 6 kids total but such a wonderful time.  They had a DJ there and Quentin and I had a blast dancing.  We have known this family since 2004 when we met Hope and Michael through RCIA at the church we went to when we were living in Atlanta. My...how our families have grown and so has our friendship.

Today, we went to church and then we were able to spend some time with our good friends the Corbetts. We had not seen in them in 2 months! The boys had so much fun together and Darcy being the best husband ever made me a chocolate chip birthday cake. It was delicious! 

Tuesday, I took off work to take Quentin to the dentis but to also celebrate my birthday with the boys. I look forward to the next couple days and then I head to NYC to see my wonderful and dear friend Anna.  It will be the first time for an extended weekend away from the boys.  I know I will miss them but really look foward to some much needed "me" time.  I am sure I will have alot to share after next weekend.

Here are some pictures to share from the weekend:

10 Months old!

Noah's special Godparents!

Ups and Downs this Week

Well... I am happy to report that we made it through the first week of school. Quentin did well the first couple days because I was off and was able to drop him off and pick him up for 1/2 days.  Wednesday brought about another adventure of dropping off at pre-care and then him staying for after care.  He screamed and cried and all I could do was turn around and walk out to the car. Of course the guilt in my heart was huge and I held back the tears until I got to work.  I can only imagine what his little mind was thinking (why are you leaving me in this new room, with this new teacher, and new kids???).  He was better on Thursday but still clung to me but no crying though.  We really enjoyed hearing his stories when he came home.  My favorite thus far was "Being obedient makes God's heart happy".  They are learning obedience this month. However, I am not sure that is translating to home. =)

We had a great weekend.  We were able to go down to Columbus, Georgia yesterday and celebrate our niece Gracie's 5th birthday with Darcy's parents and brother Doug's family. It was so nice to see everyone and spend time with family. 

We have had a pretty relaxing day today. Enrolled Quentin in our church's religious education classes for children. He will start going weekly in September.  Another adventure to start!

Here are some pictures of the boys with their cute matching outfits that my mom got for them!