The Friday Five!

TGIF!  Can I get an AMEN!!

O N E
So last Saturday the entire little town of Carrollton woke up with a collective WOMP WOMP.  The inches of predicted snow were nowhere to be seen.  Instead we had some very thin, lame patches of ice sprinkled sporadically throughout our lawn and on our back deck.  Regardless, CK and E were ready to suit up and put our newly purchased snowboard/sled thingy to good use!

E mostly ate icicles off of any and everything he could put his mouth on, and CK had an absolute blast sledding leaf sliding and stayed outside as long as we let her... and she had quite the rosy cheeks to prove it. :)  I guess in good ol' GA we'll take what we can get!

T W O
One reason I was so ready to get back into our post-holiday routine is that I missed my quiet time in the mornings.  For me to have a good start to my day, I need some alone time with my coffee and Jesus before the rest of the house stirs.  Right now I am finding my time with God through an online devotional my incredible sister is heading up based around this book.  I am also about to start reading this book for my Wednesday night bible study, and I'm really excited about it!  But perhaps what I am most excited about is the fact that once I'm finished with my alone time, CK joins me and we do her devotional together.  I absolutely cherish our sweet moments together and hope it instills in her the importance to make God a part of your life from the moment your eyes open each morning!

T H R E E
Y'all... my little buddy is finally getting his turn at swimming lessons and omigoodness I am so proud of him.  He has watched his sissy swim at her lessons for about a year and a half, and was so excited when he found out it was his turn!  His first lesson was this week and he rocked it!  His teacher, who is pretty much the kid-whisperer, said she was amazed at how well he did and that he surpassed multiple levels during his first lesson.  He laughed and smiled and giggled the whole time and has not stopped talking about it!

F O U R
And I can't forget to mention the fact that our little caboose turned four months old this week!

He also had his four-month checkup, where he clocked in at 25.75" and 16lbs 8oz - the exact same weight as Everette at four months!  He is just a'growin and a'changin and is aaaamazing.  He is at the point of babyhood where everyday brings on a new discovery and I could just eat him up.

We're still dealing with an insane amount of spit up and a facial rash that the doc thinks is either eczema or a dairy allergy (nooooo!).  But since he's generally happy and growing like a weed we're just going to keep an eye on things and try some topical creams for his sweet little red cheeks.

I love him so much, you guys.  He is a great big butterball of squishy happiness and the absolute best ending punctuation on my story of motherhood.

F I V E
So, I've been in a bit of a funk lately and have been kind of questioning why I blog.  It's pretty narcissistic, I get that... to think anyone really cares to read what's going on in our little house in GA or in my crazy, chaotic brain.  And in the midst of daily stress it may seem silly to complain about not having time to get stuff done, yet I make time for this.  I don't know, I've just been reflecting a lot and wondering where this fits into my world right now.  And honestly?  Writing is such a passion of mine.  Truth be told, if I had the opportunity to write for a living, I'd jump all over it.  And also?  It is so therapeutic for me, so important for me to sit down and just let it out.  I cannot tell you how many things I write and never publish - but just getting them from my head/heart to the screen makes me feel like the weight of the world is off of my shoulders.  The last reason this little corner of the internet is so important to me is because every year I have that year's entries printed into a book, pictures and all.  There's a website that does it for you.  Having my blog printed into books that now line a shelf in our living room keeps me motivated to keep on writing, because I want my children to have these little snippets of our lives at their fingertips when they are older.
Anyway, not sure where that word explosion came from... I think it's just that during a season of life when things are so chaotic, I have so many words in my heart that are dying to jump onto this screen and I hope I can keep finding the time to get it all down.  And I have learned that I certainly cannot freeze this precious time of my life, so the next best thing for me to do is to mold the moments and the memories into words and sentences and paragraphs and write it all down so that I never forget...

And with that, I wish you a wonderful weekend and will be saying CHEERS with the rest of my happy hour lovers in T-minus three-and-a-half hours!

First 5 on Friday of 2017!

Hellooooooo first blog post of 2017!  I've been a little MIA, but am popping back in for a minute with a little Five on Friday to kick off the new year.

O N E
Since I tried to step away from technology a little bit throughout the end of December, I wanted to do a little Christmas/winter break catch-up!  We had such a fun time celebrating the holidays throughout the entire month, and here's a little of what we did:

We visited our favorite local Christmas tree farm and picked out a tree, which ended up with the wonkiest trunk I've ever seen, and thus became the leaning tower of tree-sa.

We TJ also decorated the outside of the house!

 The kids were obsessed with their Advent calendars all month long (thank you Grammy!):

We went to the Rudolph puppet show in Atlanta with our cousins (thank you Aunt Beth!):

CK had her Christmas performance at church:

We <attempted> some Christmas crafting:

And enjoyed our elf Zoombie's shenanigans (so much fun this year!!):

 We went to an awesome "Santa" party, where the kids were able to get up close and personal with the big guy.  It was so magical!  (Thank you Kristen!):

 As previous mentioned, we had our annual BLOMPSmas:

 We went to a local pottery place to paint this year's plate (love this idea I stole from my sister Lindsay!):

And I got in lots of snuggles with this little guy... if you would've told me at Christmas last year that we'd have another baby at Christmas this year, I never would've believed you.  But oh what would I do without him?!

We had friends over to decorate our gingerbread house:

And enjoyed the very mild Christmas weather!

And went to my friend Molly Kate's annual Christmas Eve Eve brunch:

And ate candy canes for breakfast:

And I got very emotional at this year's Christmas Eve church service... <3

We prepped for Santa with reindeer food on the lawn and cookies on the fireplace and reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas:

 (Hashtag TWO YEAR OLD):

And oh the magic of Christmas morning:

 And perhaps her favorite gift, a Catboy costume a la PJ Masks... a gift she decided she wanted about 48 hours before Christmas, and "I asked Santa for it in my bed last night and he heard me and it's not too late because he is magical."  THANK YOU AMAZON PRIME.

As for my favorite gift?  This beautiful, incredible necklace my hub had made for me with the birthstones of each of my babies. <3

 

 And hopefully a new family tradition?  Ice skating the day after Christmas!  So.much.fun.

 We cured the cooped-up-crazies with some trips to play in the gyms at T's work:

 And good ol' T put together lots of toys and made lots of battery runs:

My girl and I went on a movie date:

And these two watched many Christmas movies:

 And honestly, we just had tons of time to play and play and play at home!

All in all, the Peele party of five really had such a wonderful, busy-but-lazy Christmas and winter break!!

T W O
We also had such a fun New Year's Eve!  For the first time since we had kids, T and I went OUT for NYE sans-kids.  We got a sitter for all three (and she was awesome!), and a group of us went out to dinner.  After dinner we went back to my friend Brooke's house to watch the Clemson game (wooohooooo Tigers are headed to the Natty!) and celebrate the end of 2016.  We laughed and danced and played games and laughed some more and toasted the new year and it really was so, so fun!

T H R E E
And speaking of 2017, do you make New Year's resolutions?  I usually come up with some things I want to focus on/work on, and this year is no different.  Though this year there is one in particular I've had on my mind for a couple months - something that is long overdue and something I am so excited to "do better" from this point forward. <3  I tend to keep my resolutions private, and this year is no different - and I'm sure I will make mistakes and find some moments of failure with my resolutions this year, but I hope with all my heart that each day finds me staying focused on doing, on being better.

F O U R
So with Christmas and winter break and the New Year's festivities behind us, I have to admit that I was so ready to get back into our routine.  While I've gotten much more laid back three kids into this whole mama gig, I still think children (or at least mine!) function much better on a routine.  And I think by the beginning of this week we were all ready to have a little more predictability back in our lives!

F I V E
And that predictability was thrown for a loop when winter weather was predicted for our little southern town today!  Mention the word snowflake and everyone rushes to the grocery store for the ingredients to make milk and egg sandwiches.  (Why does everyone want milk and eggs and bread, anyway?)  Meanwhile I picked up some wine and the ingredients for homemade donuts and nachos, because #essentials.  I did also scoop up a little snowboard/sled thing and some snow gear for the kiddos.  So we are officially ready for Snowmageddon 2017!  And my little southern self is so excited about the potential for a couple inches of snow!!

I'm off to change into inside-out-backwards pajamas and put a spoon under my pillow and flush ice cubes down the toilet to hopefully bring on lots of snow for my excited little crew - Happy New Year!