State Fair

The Georgia State Fair is in town! We moved to Georgia almost 3 years ago and have been to the fair every year we've been here. It's so much fun with so much to see and do (and eat!) We decided to go on Saturday evening. The first thing Emma wanted to do was rides of course. I am so excited that I got her to ride the Himalaya with me! She was so scared that she actually wanted to get out of line as we were about to get on it! But once we got started she had a blast! And wanted to ride it again. We had to ride our favorite ride, The Tilt-a-Whirl! It's not the fair without that one! Tyler was to small for the rides so he hung out on the sidelines with Dad. We watched an amazing circus that had tight rope walkers, a clown, a dog show (Tyler's favorite) and a bear show (my favorite!) Although I felt so badly for the bears they looked like they were unhappy. :(

Ms. Emma's face paint

Me and my sweet girl!

My Strong Man!

We closed the evening with some delicious funnel cake! We had such a great time and are already looking forward to next year!

Book Nerd

Ok,ok, So I admit it. I am a self proclaimed book nerd. And although I don't always have the time that I'd like to sit down and read, I try to squeeze it in as much as possible. I HAVE to read a chapter a week from the books we are discussing in my Sunday school class. (So far we have read 2 amazing books. Here you can read about the latest one,'Victim Of Grace') But I have a list of favorite books and authors, with topics that range from, suspense, to romance, to comedy, to parenting! As much as I love reading I am not one to re-read a book. (Which is why I was shocked when my husband got me a Kindle a few years ago. But from his point of view I enjoy reading and a Kindle is the perfect gift for a book lover, right?) One book I love and have read and re-read is 'Girls In White Dresses' by Jennifer Close.

This book is perfect for girls in their 20's as well as early 30's. I just started Jennifer Close's 2nd book, 'The Smart One', and am about half way through it! One of my newest favorite authors,Robin Jones Gunn,writes Christian fiction and non-fiction. (See 'Victim Of Grace above')Not only are her books great reads, her own story is pretty incredible and I recommend her to all my book- loving friends! She is known for The Christy Miller series, The Sister Chicks series and Glenbrooke series (my favorite!) My all time favorite suspense thriller writer? James Patterson! His books never fail to take me on a ride, surprise me and keep me wanting more! One I recommend, The Beach House

Those are just a few of my favorites - trust me when I say the list goes on and on! Reading is my way to relax, unwind and go to a different world for a little while. Book worm, book nerd, book lover - yup that's me!

Friday Blog Hop - Link-up

Work-Mama Balance

The HARDEST thing in the world! Finding a balance between working woman and life. I find it especially difficult to spread myself between work, my husband, my kids and oh yeah ME time! Anyone else relate to The Incredibles Elastigirl?
Pulled in a million directions? Ugh I often feel as such. As Moms we are suppose to be the glue that holds it together, taxi driver, referee, nurse, teacher, best friend, cook, the list goes on and on!
I don't think there is any easy answer to figuring out how to balance it all. My day is non-stop. I wake up with my 1 year old son (sometimes as early as 5 sometimes as late as 7 - which then adds to running around trying to get out the door!) I get my 8 year old daughter ready for school, we wait for the nanny to arrive and out the door we go. I drop my daughter off at school and head straight to work. I work till 3pm (I am so blessed to have an accommodating work schedule)pick my daughter up and back home we go. I then juggle making dinner, 3rd grade homework, and chasing after a mischievous toddler! Some nights (forgive me!)I find myself counting down till bedtime, and as rotten as I feel I know I cannot be the only mom who has felt this way. One of the most important ways I keep it together is a schedule! I have alarms and alerts to go off to remind me to pay the credit card bill, upcoming doctor's appointments and every other little life detail that might fall between the cracks of this sometimes hectic life. I also try to plan ahead. I don't cook often, my husband is the chef in the family and although I love baking it's different then cooking! But I can make a mean shake n' bake chicken, and my speciality, spaghetti! Nights I know my husband won't be working I try to have the dinner plan ready to go so when I walk in the door I don't have to get ideas together last minute. At the end of the day all I can really do is my best and hope that I am succeeding in somewhat of a happy balance. You have to realize and accept you cannot please everyone, you cannot do it all and there will be days when you feel like you are failing miserably. But we are mom's and even though I am certain we have a little bit of superhero in us we are allowed to make mistakes, have freak outs and sneak away for the quick 15 minutes of silence. (I have been known to hide in my bathroom!) And to be quite honest there is no other way I would have it. I do love my life and every up reminds me of how blessed I am and every down reminds me of how strong I am!

Instagram

I've been having a lot of fun capturing different moments on my phone of my favorite subjects - Emma and Tyler! Then pretending I am some great photographer sprucing them up with Instagram! So easy and you can really bring the moments caught, a little more to life!

Labor Day

Nothing better than a 3 day weekend! Especially when I get to spend it with my kiddos! And Ben was actually off both Saturday and Sunday! Saturday of course we went to the zoo. Sunday was a relaxing day of church, cleaning up around the house and watching tv with my munchkins. Ben had to work yesterday and I had a TON of grocery shopping to do! Since we are early risers in my home (I have a 1 year old remember) we left for the grocery store first thing in the morning. I hit both Walmart and Kroger and was back home by 9 AM! Which left the rest of the day to relax with my babies! We did a whole lot of nothing but I did let them run around and play in the hose for a bit.

After drying off, Emma played with her neighborhood friends and Tyler explored the front yard a little.

That boy LOVES the outdoors! He is constantly pointing to the front door ready to go on an outside adventure! And now that Labor Day has come and gone that means Summer is officially over and we can start looking to all things FALL! I am ready to decorate the house for fall and start thinking of Halloween Costumes! Hope everyone had a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!

Zoo Atlanta!

So this weekend we surprised the kids and drove up to Atlanta to the Zoo. Besides a quick down pour (in which we got drenched!) we had a fantastic time! The Atlanta Zoo is really just quite amazing. You can get so close to the animals, I mean we were 15 feet away from a Silverback Gorilla! Breath-taking! Tyler got so excited over each of the animals. I think he actually got disappointed when he couldn't go play with the orangutans! They have a petting zoo for the kiddos as well as a train and merry-go-round. It took us 2-3 hours to see all the attractions (include the 20 minute downtime for the rain). If you are ever in the area I would definitely recommend checking it out!
 

                               The kiddos with a gorilla (which ended up making Tyler cry!)

                                                             Me & the little man!

                                                               The Silverback Gorilla!

Oh and this weekend - Labor Day weekend - marks 10 years ago that I met my husband Ben! To celebrate that here's a few pics of us over the past 10 years including one from our wedding day. :)

 

 

 

Happy Labor Day & God Bless!

 

 

 

A 'Victim Of Grace'

When we first moved from Maryland I knew I needed to find a church here in Georgia. My denomination is

Christian Missonary Alliance

or simply CMA. It's a small denomination and my church is well, small. My dad is a preacher at a CMA church in Pennsylvania and so I've been in church my entire life. I have had many stumbles during my walk in faith. But God is good and he was with me every step of the way. I didn't really have a home church in Maryland and honestly didn't attend regularly. When we moved to Bonaire (Georgia) lo and behold there was a CMA church 15 minutes from my house! 15 minutes! God's way of drawing me back to him. I had so many doubts about moving. All my family is north. (Originally from Baltimore now my parents, niece and sister live in Pennsylvania) Not to mention all my friends! I had lived in Baltimore since 4th grade and in Delaware prior to that. This move was a huge step of faith. But things fell into place and the door opened for us to make this move and we did so. I started attending the Christian Missionary Alliance church in Warner Robins soon after we moved and adjusted. I instantly felt welcomed and became great friends with the preachers wife who is a couple years younger then me. We have TONS in common. She also has 2 kids. One of her sons is 3 and the other is 10 months old. (He's Tyler's buddy!) What an amazing opportunity to meet such wonderful people and find a home church. As mothers of young children the pastors wife, Sarah and I find many Sundays where we are in the nursery watching our boys (Emma of course is in her Sunday school class!) So we decided to start our own Sunday school class! We pick a book and read a chapter a week and discuss on Sunday mornings in the nursery in between feeding snacks, cleaning messy hands and chasing the munchkins! The book we are currently reading is called "Victim Of Grace" By Robin Jones Gunn. Sarah introduced me to Robin Jones Gunn, a Christian novelist. She has so many inspirational, entertaining heart felt books which is why I want to share them with you and hopefully introduce you to her world. I hope that her words will have as much impact and inspiration on you as they have had on me.