To Grandma's House We Go!

If you have checked out the About Me tab above, then you know I grew up in Vidor, TX. And yes, I am proud of that. Because people need to know that normal nice people come out of there haha and maybe some of you are saying, well who are you talking about???

When I was in college, most of my classes were huge, so most days I sat by a new person and usually people are good about small talk before class starts, so a common question was, "Where are you from?" And I would get one of two responses... one was, "oh... really... you're from THERE??? Isn't that where blah blah blah..." or people would have no idea where Vidor was and couldn't care less. Anyway, that's a total tangent when all I'm about to say is that we went to visit my parents in Vidor this past weekend haha... and I love my home town and am proud of it. It was such a great little place to grow up and I have sweet memories and friends there.

Friday, we spent the morning at home playing and watching movies so mommy could frantically run around trying to get all of our stuff together. If you have kids, you know it takes an incredible amount of stuff for them to function.

"Why do you buy me toys mom, just give me a measuring cup."

Then one of my best friends stopped by to pick up some oils she ordered and she dropped off EXACTLY what I needed to get through the afternoon!!! Love!!

After Jacob got home from work and the boys woke up from their naps, we packed up the car and headed over to Vidor-ville. It takes almost/about two hours from Friendswood to get there, and once we can get out of our part of Houston, it's not a bad drive. 

This little dude takes soooo long to fall asleep in the car... and then only sleeps 30 minutes.
Had to bring his fox to cuddle with. :)

As soon as we walk in the door, the boys are ready to PLAY. My parents saved so many of our old toys from when my sister and I were growing up, and Jackson thinks they are the greatest things ever to play with! Novelty gets you everywhere with kids!

I love watching my Dad play with my boys. Sometimes I feel bad for him that he had to put up with my sister and me being all dramatic and girly our whole lives, so it's been fun to watch him play with these little dudes. That toy to the left in the picture below, the little people zoo, was a "gift" from Joanna when she was born haha... 

And because my Mommy loves me a lot, she made my Great Grandmother's gumbo. I'm obsessed. I jokingly suggested it for dinner when she asked me what I wanted to eat, and the next time I talked to her she was all like, "yeah I got the stuff." :)

Thanks MOM!

It's always been a good dinner if you end up only in your diaper afterwards. #bluestripe #momchangemydiaper

And again because my mommy loves me... apple crisp. I may or may not have eaten this three times this weekend. I did go run Saturday morning... as if that helps at all. ;)

On Saturday, we just hung out at my parents house and just let the boys play. It's nice to just get up and sit around on a Saturday morning and let your momma make you breakfast. That's what I did. And I can't remember the last time I did that! Again, thanks Mom! :) 

Snuggles with Papa!

One of the perks of your baby deciding they don't want to nurse anymore, Gramma can feed him!

Jude has recently started eating solids, or beginning to figure out solids I should say. He loves to try to feed himself. I did baby led weaning/solids with Jackson because he also liked feeding himself and didn't really like me spoon feeding him. I've been trying to do both with Jude, but he really enjoys trying to eat with his own hands and it's a really cute mess. He's had pears, bananas, avocado and softened apples so far and also had some cheese and cantaloupe at my Mom's. It's really impressive to watch him I think, and he gets more of it than you think! 

After naps, my Dad came in with his annual "I have something red in my pocket for everyone and am trying to be sneaky about it even though I do it every year so you know it's coming" haha... For the last 15 years or more, my Dad has been getting my sister and I silver coin ornaments. They are so beautiful and each year have a different holiday design on one side and the year on the back. The last couple of years Dad has been getting them for my boys, and this was Jude's first one! 

Who needs a fancy coin, just gimme that pouch to chew on!

My sister and I with our coins! (You might spot my favorite mug from my Granddad sitting there!)

After lunch, we just cuddled and played some more. I really love days like this where I don't have anything "to do" or anywhere to rush around to. I can just sit with my family and enjoy them. The best. 

I love this so much!

After Jackson got up from his nap, my Dad gave him his coin too. Love his little face! So sweet!

We were planning on going to a Fish Fry Saturday with my parents that was being hosted by some sweet people from church here, but both boys woke from naps not feeling good and coughing... of course!! So we just stayed in out of the cold and let the boys rest. I feel like almost every time I bring them home they get sick haha, how does this always happen?!

Sunday morning we got up and went to church and then came back to my mom's for lunch, more playing and naps!

Because once you have kids, no one cares about taking pictures with you anymore!

This one may or may not have ended up becoming my mom's new phone background mysteriously... still not sure how that happened. ;)

Not sure if I've said this lately, but I love this guy. He has made my life so wonderful. :)

My sweet Grandmom June :)

We headed back home once the boys had a chance to take naps. Jackson was pretty miserable the whole way home, crying every time he coughed. I think he ate 8 pieces of chocolate because I was just trying to keep him distracted and happy so his little brother could get a little nap haha... #desperate

So of course, Monday morning we ended up at the doctor's office with a Starbucks vanilla frappucchino in my little one's hands. Because "milkshakes" always make doctors visits easier. He did so great and did everything the doctor asked him to without getting upset. I was really proud of him! Thankfully it was just a cold, but this momma would rather be safe than sorry, especially when they are having trouble breathing from coughing so much! Eek! 

Hope you enjoyed our weekend! More to come soon for Thanksgiving activities!

I'm in love...

I'm in love... with my new steam mop. Oh man... I may have a new obsession. You know you've entered a new phase in life when you get this excited about a cleaning product. (I did turn 30 this year folks...) Our floors might get cleaned more than once a month or when my mom visits... (I admit that unashamedly because I have two babes under two and a crazy labradoodle to contend with...)

Couple of back stories before I dive into this love fest... I have been using a swiffer mop for years. And while it did the job, it left residue behind that kind of drove me nuts and I had to work pretty hard to get stuff up off the floor from my sweetie pie toddler man. 

We also had moved into our house a year ago, and Village Builders failed to mention that they didn't seal our grout. Their excuse?? That the sealant breaks down because it has a silicon base and has to be redone every 6 months or so, so they just decided not to do it at all. REALLY??? Really... So when did I find this out? After we moved into our house and were here long enough to get the grout in the kitchen nice and stained from cooking or having meals on the floor a.k.a. my toddler dropping food everywhere. (By the way, would not recommend them as a builder for a few different reasons... but that's another story for another more appropriate time.)Yes, I would like my grout unsealed so we can destroy the color of it in 3 months said no new home builder mother ever. (I'm not bitter at all.)

Back to the swiffer mop. So this little swiffer mop had been with us for a while. It served us well in our first home and was a good 5-6 years old. I had started ordering the refills off of Amazon of course because I could get a subscription which equals discounts, when it dawned on me that this little guy was sucking quite a bit of money out of my wallet! 

So I went on the hunt for a new steam mop. I had had one before, a Shark model, but it stopped working at some point and got chunked. But the nice thing about it was that it just used water. And it really would cut through junk on the floor. 

So I mentioned this to my hubbie, that I was looking around at them online, but wasn't ready to buy one yet because I wanted to finish using up the refills I had for the swiffer mop. He thought that was fine. Then my mom came to visit one week and mopped my kitchen, because she knows deep down it's the chore I hate the most and my floor was really gross. And that's one of the many reasons why I love her. We started keeping this mop in the garage because it was leaking (I know, long story about a silly mop) and somehow the mop ended up by the garbage can. I'm still laughing thinking about this... I don't know if she put it there or if Jackson moved it there, who knows... but Jacob thought it was trash and chunked it. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this but I had 6 bottles of swiffer solution to use haha! I went looking for it one day and couldn't find it, and when I asked Jacob he said he thought I was ready to toss it to the curb haha... Yay for marital communications! But no worries, because that means I can lavish my friends who have swiffer mops with bottles of solution aannndd more importantly I can order a new mop. And so I did. And it came. And I'm in love.

I looked on Amazon of course because they have the best ratings for products, and this baby was the number one best pick out of steam mops. And I can see why. It's amazing, which is why I felt like you needed to know about it.

Some things I like about it... It heats up supa fast, has multiple steam settings and has this great little brush you can click down in the back for hard to clean spots. It also has the awesome smell good disks you can inset into the mop for a fresh scent. What I like the most though is how effortless it was to clean my floors. I haven't had a lot of time to work on my grout stains, but I can tell a difference just in one use so I know it will help out that situation. You're welcome Village Builders. So if anyone is in the market for a steam mop, this is the one for you. You might think it's expensive, but it's a one time purchase because it runs on water. I guarantee you I spent more than the price of this mop on swiffer refills over the years!!! Enjoy obsessing over the pictures below.

I may also be in love with my new sleep mask. I have no earthly idea why anyone that knows me and my sleeping habits of lack there of has never thought about recommending one of these bad boys to me! Good grief people I can take NAPS during the DAY now!!!! WAT?!?!?!?!?! For real, I do not lie, I can sleep even after the sun comes up (if my littles aren't awake yet hahaha...) and I can even take the occasional nap if my littles' naps line up! hahahahahaha..... Actually that has been happening more often lately and I am so very very thankful for that. Anyway, this little guy was eight bucks on Amazon, and has saved my life.  (Really, Amazon, you should give me commission for all of this plus the fact that I have recruited my whole family into using you...)

Pre-Sunday Nap

ahhh... It's bright in my room but not in my face!!!

I'm also in love with these little stud muffins. Can't have a post about loving things without including them. Where would I be without them?? Probably still teaching and being miserable about STAAR scores and filling my weekends with grading papers. Definitely don't miss that part of the job! My littlest munchkin turned 5 months a couple of weeks ago and his older brother is just as emotionally stable as ever ... haha... hope you enjoy the pics. 

There are no words for this haha... the expressions are perfect and so unprompted.

One of my sweetie pies.

Because taking selfies in the car on the way to church is supa fun.

Catching Up With the Campbells!

Just thought I would do a quick post about what has been going on with us lately. We have a lot of family that live out of state and we don't get to see them very often, so I thought this might be a nice way of just giving them a peak into our lives!

One BIG thing that has happened lately is that Jackson is in a BIG BOY BED! Eek! I can't believe it!! He's doing great with it though, we had a few hard nights but he does pretty well most nights. I need to take more pictures of his room with his new bedding. These pictures were from right after we put the bed together.

Jackson's newest obsession lately is "pumping" things... He always has had a fixation with his cars having flat tires and needing to tow them with his hot wheels toy truck. Well when Jacob had to pump up the tires on the Bob stroller this weekend he was enamored with the bicycle pump for the rest of the day. He pumped up the wagon wheel, his monster truck, Blaze truck, his car transporter and some other cars that he had. It was pretty cute. 

Jude is grabbing at things and chatting up a storm! He loves watching his big brother be crazy and is interested in everything he does! He is still my little cat napper, except for one long nap he takes in the middle of the day, and he is doing well at night most nights since we have gotten past the 4 month sleep regression! He is working hard on his baby push ups, and rolls over all the time now. He also has found his little feet lately and likes sucking on them hehe.

We celebrated my sister's 27th birthday a couple of weekends ago with my family at Jimmy Changas. YUM. Jackson was particularly fond of the ice cream.

I was pretty excited about this new development... It had been about two and a half years since I had gotten a new phone and trust me... it was much needed. My poor iPhone 5 had been swimming in my friend's pool, dropped in water, drooled on by my baby and chewed on by Jackson when he was younger, and pretty much was freaking out every time I went outside because of the humidity. Who knows how many times it had been dropped... my favorite dropping memory was when it slid through the seats at a Rockets game and fell a good 40-50 feet under the bleachers. Jacob reminded me of that one the other day haha... Honestly I was impressed it made it as long as it had.

I was also excited about this little buy at Target.. $4.98 for these babies... can't beat that!

Jacey Lynn is still vying for any kind of attention she can possibly get from anybody... I'm pretty sure that if the UPS guy stayed longer than a minute dropping off my Amazon packages she would hit him up for a scratch on the head too. She loves the boys though and love playing with her ball in the yard still. Sometimes when I run at night I let her out in the front when I go get the mail and she goes nuts running around everywhere hehe. She turned five this week so we gave her some treats and a little toy that Jackson picked out for her when we were at Target.

She likes the baby's hoppy pillow.

Most of our days are filled with errands, church and playing outside. We like to go to the neighborhood park and Stevenson park in Friendswood. Jackson loves to slide and swing, and even little Jude got to swing this past weekend!

He had just woken up hehe, he had a few smiles in the swing!

We also went to the zoo this past week with friends, Jude's first time! We had a great visit! We didn't stay too long though just because Jude was so exhausted by lunch time! He needs his naps for sure during the day and doesn't take very long ones while we are out.

Serious Jude Man. :0)

Jacob is still enjoying his job at ENSCO, and he brought home this little onesie for Jude to wear!

No huge travel plans coming up any time soon aside from running over to Vidor to see my fam bam, but we do have plans on taking a cruise with my family next summer though! Really excited about that! So now you are caught up with our lives these days haha!