Stomping Grounds

Mommy was away for a week from family with work stuff. I'm surely glad to be home and I know Daddy was excited for a break! My quarter end doesn't end until Sunday but I needed to get out if the house. So I texted my friend Elizabeth who is always down for last minute get togethers and had her meet us for lunch at stomping grounds. A place where 3 year olds can run wild under little supervision :) While I was in California, Kevin emailed me to say that one night before bed Jack told him "tomorrow I'm going to go play with Annie and Blake". When he sent that to me I laughed that Jack must have his own cell phone and is making dates for himself. Ha So I was happy that we could fulfill his social request with some A&B time :)

Hello there

We haven't been blogging to much around here. We returned from vacation and got unpacked and took it easy around the house last week :) Yesterday we finalized the structural parts of our house (floor plan changes etc). We are so excited to have that done! Today we drove out to meet up with our friends Liz and Henry to confirm a few interior selections that I wanted to see in person at another Highland model home while the Dads golfed. We love The George Family and only wish they lived closer! After we played around a little, we had lunch and then hit up the model homes... and yes our kids were "the wild ones" running amok in the model...but we had fun and ruffled a little feathers with the sales consultant. ha!

I just have to laugh because I for sure was one of those people that got annoyed when kids were not exactly acting like perfect little angles (pre baby)....

but then I had a kid and realized toddlers don't exactly listen to you all the time, so I apologize to all those moms I used to give those not so nice looks to, I understand now:) 

And memo to the sales lady at the model home...We did purchase one of these sparkly homes from your said company, so I think my kid can touch the fake books if he wants, ok? After all  we are not dealing with precious memoirs here. If you put it back as found, all shall be good in my book.

Obviously we were not on the same page ... ha

On to the pictures!

This is not our house plan but the Highland homes in the Woodlands are so pretty!

beams are in our plan and I just love them!

Isn't this light amazing? Not something we are doing but I do love it!

Pending this isn't discontinued, I believe this will be in our shower

Do you think this thing cooks on its own? I hope so! I'm excited to talk to her and find out, ha   

(Not a fan of the cabinets/tile/granite, we are doing something entirely different but the stove is ours)

I'm excited for cool suburb nights and a glass of wine!

what room do you think the kids loved?

yes I had a feeling, where the biggest screen is :) I know Kevin is excited to watch football up close and I'm excited to feel that much closer to my Real Housewives :)

After our play time at the model homes we headed out to Niko's 2nd birthday party at Great Play of Cypress. We had never been to GP and it was sooo much fun! I might entertain the idea of Jacks 4th birthday party there next year at the one in SL bc he had a blast! 

Interactive fun on the walls was amazing!

Birthday boy and his beautiful mama!

This was one of my favorite things they did. The loud speaker would tell them to hop, roll, jump or walk and then it would ask them to find something on the wall.

(rolling)

Everyone was to find a "star"

"something blue"

lots of running around and even some gymnastics to go with it!

This was really cute, they would go under a tent and he would tell them what to look for and they could only bring that one thing back in their bucket to him.

Here they are looking for the "hands" to bring back to him. They did this until everything was picked up. They were picking up the toys in a fun way and didn't even know they were cleaning up! Love it!

So blessed that Jackson has so many wonderful little pint sized friends!

We had to get up early to get all this done but it was sure fun and this big cutie pie is out for the night! zzzz

Welcome to Miami

A few weeks ago we were packed and ready to go.... go on vacation with sun, sand and drinks in hand. However a tropical storm turn hurricane had other plans and decided to take route to our vacation destination. We were faced with either attempting to get to Miami knowing that our flight would most likely be canceled and if by chance we were able to get there we would then be faced with rain the entire time.
So we made the wise decision to push it back a week and what a good choice it was! The weather was perfect and we really had such an amazing time together with our family and then with Mommy/Daddy time and no kiddo. As you can guess I took a million pictures so Ill let them speak and add commentary here and there. The one thing I have to say is THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to my awesome father and his wife Edith. Jackson is one lucky little boy to have so many amazing sets of grandparents. Taking our little wild boy for a week and letting us have time to relax was heavenly!! (while I did miss him every single day and talked about it often) I know he wore my Dad and Edith out but they had equal amounts of fun as we did and it was so great to be able to end our vacation all together. I'm very much looking forward to going back and I know Jack is too, after all he has been chatty chatty about them both this past week! 

 The best kid on an airplane award does go to Jackson! But we also are so thankful for the iPad!!

 We arrived to Papas house and settled in just perfect! Jack took to the guest bedroom where they had a little bed set up for him (how perfect!!) and he made Papa get in the big bed next to it. He then decided to jump up on the bed and snuggle right up to him. The sweetest thing I ever did see :)

 Toys were out and ready to go for Jack as soon as he walked in the door! Now thats service (and Edith smart thinking!)

 after just a short day at my Dads we left Jack in good hands and took off for Miami for the week!

 the most amazing balcony I have ever had!

 

 While we were off playing so was Jack! Papa and Edith took him to Aquatica along with her nephew. Jack loved having a little friend to pal around with and I heard those boys closed the park down! So fun!

Back in Miami we were eating, drinking and eating.. 

oh dear how I need no more food for weeks after this trip!

 Winner winner chicken dinner...except after several rounds I wasn't able to buy no chicken dinner! booo

in south beach the drinks are huge and expensive!

 beautiful coastal homes on our duck tour that we took!

 and we did a little shopping around Miami style...

 Food again...

 late night in the lobby we would play cards ...one of my fav things to do on our trip!

 We spent time at the Biltmore and it was the most beautiful resort!

 Kevin golfed three times on our trip! Spa time for me during then was a win win!

 We took a drive down to the Everglades and did an air boat tour. The water was like glass, the pictures have no edits to them. I cant believe how amazing they came out and it was at times hard to tell the sky from water! Alligators were coming up to us and freaking me out a little but it was an amazing experience!

 After alligator ally we went way down to Key Largo and got on a chartered boat that holds 40 people but lucky for us there were 5!

 amazing shallow reefs right in the middle of the ocean, crazy cool!

After our awesome day on the water we took to the Keys and had a beautiful sunset dinner!

 

 We went all over Fl and had a blast together, waking up in the morning to this view was the best, and waking up when we wanted and doing what we wanted was a joy...but we certainly missed one sweet little voice...

 We couldnt hardly wait for Friday to come around so that we could see our baby!

 and my family :)

 Jack was thrilled to check out the hotel and ran around like he owed the place :)

 The water was soooo clear! Jack was right at home with all the little fish!

 But we loved the pool too!

 There were a few levels of pools at the resort, one cool feature was that circle you see, if you went to the pool below you could actually see the people below in the pool. Pretty neat!

 There is Daddy down in the lower level pool testing it out for us! :)

 

 We had lots of fun on the beach! We took our Christmas card pictures and we got a keeper!!
So you will have to wait until Dec to see the one we love the most :) 

We did try to get Papa few keeper pictures of his own... and our little toot was all over the place...

 but we finally got this one and it couldn't be cuter! I love my Dad so much and I love that he loves his grandson just as much! Papa we love you and miss you already!!

Oh how we miss Florida weather too.... 

 We promise to run back soon!