The One With The Fourth Of July {2016}

Is it weird that I always forget how much I love 4th of July weekend?? Every year it rolls around and I'm reminded that it's one of my favorite holidays for several reasons...

1. Casual

It's SO laid back! There is no major planning, gift buying or decorating.  Just hanging out and enjoying time with family and friends.

2. Coordinating Outfits

I am up for any occasion that allows for theme dressing.  We were the red, white and blue family all weekend!

3.  Food

 #AllTheFood

4. Freedom

I'm a great big fan of the USA & the freedoms this country gives its citizens. But I'm mostly a GIANT fan of the freedom that comes through Jesus.  I'll take any holiday that can shine the goodness of Jesus!

5. Heroes

I have the privilege to know many men and women who have served our country past & present.  I'm thankful for this day that shines a light on their greatness.  I have been taught to have nothing but respect for these men & women.  To ALL who have served, thank you for being selfless.  I'd like to honor a very special veteran who went to be with Jesus this week.  Jonathan's grandpa, Mr. McKay, was one of these selfless men who served his country, served God, and served his family.  We love him so much & know he is in the presence of Jesus. 

We started the weekend at White River at my grandparents little lake house.  My sister & I have always known some sort of lake getaway.  Growing up they had a place at Possum Kingdom

{This picture is so special to me. It's me & my cousins with my DadDad at PK.  If be the one behind the steering wheel wearing a "Pistol Petes Pizza" shirt!}

  Lots of summers were spent on the water fishing, tubing, swimming, & just being together as a family.  I'm so thankful that my grands love the lake and welcome us out whenever we want!

Jack got plenty of attention!

White River Lake isn't the biggest or the best, but I spent 10 summers at the camp across the way, so it's my favorite lake of all time. 

Mom was channeling her inner Rob Wilkinson & trying to hypnotize Jack. 

hah!

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."

We got there Friday night & went to the Marina {with everyone else in a 30 mile radius} for the fish fry then headed back to the house to watch the firework show.  I told Brynn we were going to watch a fire work show and she said, "I don't even know what that means." Hah! Well the firework show started, I broke out some glow sticks...& she was the least bit impressed.  Maybe next year!

Everyone was up early the next day for some water fun!

It was breezy enough for Jack to spend the morning outside with us, but that also meant the water was WAY chilly for the swimmers!

Yay for Reagan & John meeting us there on Saturday.  Brynn just adores both of them, and they are awesome enough to go along with all of her bossy orders. 

Then the storms started rolling in.  We were smart enough to get out of the water & back to the house before the downpour started...all those other people down there were not. And it provided us some great entertainment!  

 Brynn wanted to play hide-n-seek. This is where Reagan hid.

 We left after supper on Saturday & we weren't even a mile down the road before this happened. 

We pulled into the driveway around 8 and she looked like this...then went right to bed and slept until 8 on Sunday!

We ate Sunday lunch with Devin, Kensey, & Miss Adeline.  Brynn has always been unsure about Devin until he took her to get a balloon, pretty sure he's her best friend now!

On Monday, we went to my parents house for food, fun, & fireworks. We took a few pictures before we left #BecauseObviously  

And she looked like this before we were even off our street.  Girl has been playing hard this summer!

My sweets!

Jack's first 4th & first holiday! 

I think everyone is on pins and needles waiting to see if his little legs and arms chunk up like sisters. ;)

We spent the evening watching Battle Bots, {don't judge, it has me hooked!} watching Brynn swim {I have a hilarious snap of her crashing into the pool} & spending time with family and friends. I love the 4th! 

And here are a few pictures of my cuties from the past few days. 

Have a great week!

The One With Jack Kellen's {eclectic} Nursery

It's finally finished! 

Welcome to Jack's little room. 

I couldn't decide one on particular theme so we are just going with "all-things-boy-eclectic." That works, right? 

In his "all-things-boy" room, we've got woodland animals, football, baseball, farm, Texas, and lots of pattern.

I saw the little toy fox & this wire shelf in the nursery that my friend Diana designed for her little boy & I went right to Amazon and Target and got them for myself! 

{I really enjoy to reading blogs where they link up to where everything is from...but I just don't want to do that for everything, and I'm not really sure any of you care...so if you see something you want to know about, let me know and I'll tell you where it's from!}

I love all the little trinkets in his room.  Almost all of them have a special meaning or story behind them. 

The tractors are my daddy's.  

The little mailbox next to the books belonged to our Jack's namesake, his great grandpa Jack.

The Texas "home" sign is part of a gift from my momma. 

The blue bins are FILLED with toys {most left over from when Brynn was a baby.}

Onto the crib corner! 

I've had my eye on these little animal prints for over a year from one of my favorite ETSY shops. 

{If we were having a girl I would have been all over this one...adorable!}

His mobile is also from ETSY.  I bought the actual mobile separate from the felt balls. The felt balls came as a garland so I just cut them to the sizes I wanted and attached to the mobile piece.  I love how it turned out! 

My incredibly talented momma made the bumper pads, curtains, & crib skirt {the crib skirt is actually re-purposed from Brynn's room! She just removed the blue flower fabric and added in the plaid!}

 

And the worlds softest blanket award goes to this little guy.  Like I might want to use it mostly for my own comfort. Hah! Thanks for the blankie Aunt DeAnn! I love the orange pop it adds to the room. 

Play corner!  I wanted to save a space in his room that he could access toys, books, and just have a place to explore as he gets older. The lamp was in our room, so I just relocated it into his room, the low book shelf is from Target, & I majorly scored the wooden play cube on a local resale site!

My little jammie clad helper wanted me to take her picture by her "new favorite toy." That toy has been in the living room for her to play with also, when she saw that I moved it in there she looked at me in total disbelief and said, "What is THIS doing in HERE!?" 

Excuse the great white spot...that's the window & lamp.  One day, maybe, I'll get a real camera and learn how to use it...until then my phone pics will have to work! 

Before I started looking for bedding & fabric I knew I wanted it to go with Brynn's rocker. I really like how it looks with the blue plaid...and SO glad to re-purpose it without recovering.  Are you seeing a trend here? Lots of rearranging & re-purposing over here! 

Last time we made an IKEA trek I picked up like 5 {seriously} of these fake plants with containers & I use them all over the house.  I think there is one in every room! 

The monogram pillow is possibly my favorite thing about the room.  I searched high and low for the perfect one {I plan to take his monthly pictures next to it} & fell in LOVE when I saw it on ETSY {another trend...ETSY} & then was bummed to see that the shop was on vacation.  I messaged the seller & she re-opened her shop so I could order. SO Awesome! 

This is the shared wall with Brynn's room.  And I'm proud to say that all of these things have stayed put through several wall kicking tantrums from nap refusing sister. :)  

A jack for Jack.
I can imagine our first family of 4 photo in this frame.

This is the scripture we chose to pray over Jack.  I apparently have a thing for verses that reference rooting yourself in the Lord. The scripture speaks not only to what I pray will be Jack's character, but also serves as a reminder of our job as his parents to teach & show him the truth. 

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."

Colossians 2:6-7

Ok, this thing was a very happy accident! 

I had the green frame in the garage, the cream pin board from when I sold KEEP and it just so happened that they fit perfectly! I hot glued them together, & after lots of trial and error with the letters, this was the final product.  Favorite! 

Another frame just waiting for a picture of our little man!

And the top left is the painting Brynn did.  So special!

And there it is...I've been working on it for what seems like FOREVER & I'm glad to have that checked off the list...now on to the other thousand things that need to be done within the next 3 weeks! 

I hope you love your room JKG.  I  had the best time creating it for you!

Also, I'm 36 weeks today and feel every bit of it.  I forget how these last few weeks make you SO ready for this stage to be over & to just get on with whatever it takes to get baby here. Now that I've finished about  8 loads of baby laundry, I think I'm finally settling into the idea that maybe, possibly we can handle this and I'm just ready to meet him! 

Next up...hospital bag packing!