Rooted & Established

Happy Monday, friends! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

First things first.

This picture.

I take a ton of pictures outside our house so it's hit or miss if I get any good ones. But this one is a for sure winner! I'm thinking it will be in an 8x10 very soon.

I love you Brynn Mills, you steal my heart little one.

Now onto the weekend!

We are usually with my family or out of town for the 4th. This year it was just our little family staying at home, so I wanted it to be extra fun & special. I decorated our table with things from around the house and I think it turned out super cute! It was worth the extra time when B saw it and said, "Wow! Stars!!"

Waiting for Daddy to fill up her pool!

Pool side snack service.

We have a great backyard set up now. I found the umbrella & stand on super sale at Academy last week. I big time heart a thick black and white stripe! And this cutie pool from Target matches perfectly. I see spending a lot more time out here!

After a morning swim we headed to Rosa's for lunch & to run a few errands.

Nothing says, "I Love America!" quite like Mexican food!

It was nap time, then back to the pool!

Reagan joined us for a while!

Slowly but surely, she is turning into a full time Daddy's girl.

Popsicle's!

Supper!

And, yes, I know what's in hot dogs. And, yes, I'll keep eating them.

I bought the Hebrew National ones this go around & they were so yummy!

And just in case we weren't stuffed enough...Ice Cream!!

She was not a fan of the cone so she scooped out her ice cream with her hand. Hilarious & precious {and a giant mess! But that's what stain remover is for, right?}

I love this girl more than I can ever say.

Ready for fireworks!

She always puts her glasses on upside down.

She has started wraping her arms around us or tilting her head for pictures and it's ADORABLE!

She decided she was over the fireworks and would rather drive the car.

We paid dearly for the short nap time, loads of sugar, & extra hard play time when we left watching fireworks. She was OVER it & let us know!

Sunday morning we planned for these 2 girls to be twinsies! These girls will go from being so serious, then look at each other and loose it laughing hysterically. I love this succession of shots!

"Ready?"

"Laugh!"

Kensey, aren't you glad you made the back of all these shots! :)

USA!!

I'll be honest, we typically don't watch soccer. But we made a point to watch the finals last night and I'm so glad we did!

A few months ago when that Like A Girl commercial was making the rounds, it really struck me that I want my daughter to know that she's allowed be both strong & kind, tough & compassionate, courageous & smart. I want her to see #likeagirl and be proud to be a girl. I want her to know that she can do BIG things! So in the midst of all the frills, bows, & pink I want her to not be afraid to get messy, to have confidence in herself, and to play #likeagirl!

And those are my deep thoughts for your Monday morning! ;)

Have a great week--see you on Friday for Friday Favorites!

We packed up Tuesday morning {which always seems to take FOR. EH. VER} and headed to Denton to stay with Aunt Jillian for a few days.

Again, 5 minutes in the car and she crashed!

With her allergies we are limited to places we can eat. I think we ate at McDonalds at least 4 times on this trip. If anyone wants some awesome Nerf kids toys, we've got plenty! Sometimes its way easier for us to just have a car picnic instead of going inside. She always thought it was pretty fun!

We picked Aunt Jilly up (after she locked her keys in the car at work. which could have been a frustrating situation, but of course her and J end the whole ordeal laughing & joking about it. i love those two!) and drove to IKEA. It took us about an extra 30 minutes to get there because Jonathan's phone GPS was screwed up. I got irritated, but those two just turned it into one giant joke and now it's turned into, "That time Jonathan's map put Fort Worth right next to Denton."

Anyway, by the time we got to IKEA we had about an hour and half until it closed. And while Little Miss had been so good being in the car all day when we got here she wanted to RUN! After several meltdowns, Jonathan chasing her through all of the chairs, & her playing in the kids section we finally bribed her with cheese crackers and PBS Kids.

Whew.

I'm exhausted just remembering it!

Part of my purchases! I got some adorable pillows for when we get B a toddler bed, frames, plants, & some cute cupcake toys. I'm hoping J & I can make a trip back down there in a few months to get her toddler bed!

Day 6

Wednesday we woke up and drove to Dallas to visit the Perot Museum.

Can I just state the obvious?

Dallas, YOU ARE TOO HOT.

Dallas, YOU HAVE TOO MUCH CONSTRUCTION.

Dallas, YOU HAVE TOO MANY PEOPLE.

#smalltownkid

Ok, rant over.

Before we went to the Perot we ate at El Fenix.

And long story short, we met Mr. Martinez. His dad started El Fenix!

He sat with us & showed us old pictures of the restaurant, pictures of the planes he flew in WW2, & just visited with us for a while. He was so kind & funny.

It was so hot. How hot was it you ask?

So hot that Brynn looked like she had just washed her hair when we would get her out of her car seat.

#sweat #getthisgirlafan

When we were finished, Mr. Martinez wanted to show us the rest of his restaurant. While we were walking around we suggested he open a franchise in Lubbock. He asked us for a good location in town and said, "I'll look into it & see what I can do." So, you're welcome Lubbock! :)

It was a very cool experience for us, it may not seem like much, but we were having a pretty crummy morning and he turned it around just by showing us some attention. J & I laugh about it because

1. We were in the back corner booth sitting with the obviously very popular owner {people kept coming over to talk to him or ask questions.}

2. He showed us around like we were VIPs.

3. We were clearly underdressed and pushing Brynn around in her stroller. So it must have looked really peculiar!

We asked if we could take a picture with him and he said, "Sure, but whoever you show this to you have to tell them that I was the get-away driver for Bonnie & Clyde." Ha!

He also gave us some free chips to take home. Free tortilla chips makes you number 1 in my books!

We walked over to the Perot and were met by just about every summer program group in Dallas. Again, #dallasyouhavetoomanypeople

But, good thing, I got in free with my teacher ID!

Brynn saw these and said, "Mickeys!"

We walked down to the toddler section, and I'll be honest, I was disappointed. Maybe it's because it was so crowded, but I would take our local Science Spectrum over the Perot Museum (at this age.)

They had this campsite area, a grocery store, a small water table section, and an area that you could climb/slide on, {Brynn was to little to use this} and a few other little things. I think the museum as a whole is better for kids 5 and up. Just my opinion though.

Also, if you go and take a stroller, be prepared to wait a while on elevators. And then you have to shove your way in them while other people who haven't been waiting in line try to beat you to it.

"Don't worry Momma, it's ok if I lick this spatula that hundreds of kids have touched."

My kid always picks the most random things to love (giant dinosaurs, creepy baby on Toy Story, the rhino at the zoo, the Betenbough commercial song...she's a little quirky & I love that!) There was a bridge in the middle of the play area that she constantly ran back and forth on.

But I will say, this splash area out front is genius!

That evening we went for ice cream! When we were asking about specific ingredients for Brynn one of the workers came over and said she had the exact same allergies so she helped us out big time! She told us what B could have and let her sample some. When she chose a flavor, she went to the back to get a clean spoon and mixed it on a clean surface for us. So awesome! I also asked her if she can eat Chick-fil-a and she said, "well I did once and went into anaphylactic shock." So we will be steering clear of that for a while!