July 2024

July 1st is Sabrina’s birthday! We took our kids to their first movie theater experience. We were hoping since it was a summer kids movie they would skip commercials and start right at 10:30 am. Wellllll they did not. So 40 minutes of commercials later, and 30 minutes into the actual movie - our kids were done. Ha!

Later that afternoon, Brielle came over to play while they went to dinner. We had a great time!

Logan has been wanting to go to Bolyard’s to get some more meat. Ben and I swung by and got the list he asked for. I have zero meat ordering knowledge so this was the ribeye I came home with. $45 ha ha ha. Logan then confessed he has never been brave enough to order one there… I was the guinea pig!

10:30 pm cookies… because why not!

Trip to the park! Snagged some cute kid sized masks from my OB office to play doctor with. Dr. Benny Shark!

Police Officer Benny!! Oh my hell - I will never recover!

It was roasty outside - had to strip the suit!

The funniest video ever!

Fourth of July! Fun breakfast at home :)

Water slide time!! The absolute best ever.

Cute fourth outfit from Logan’s mom.

Flooded basement … ugh! Ben helping me clean it up.

Some fun on family search.. haha!

Ben has so many fun dress ups. We finally got something to hang them on and it’s been so fun!

I have so many good memories of my dad cooking up food on his camp chef. We got Logan a flat top grill and have had some really fun meals. Brings back good memories!

Ben loves these dolls. Pooyah 1 and 2. They snuggle us to sleep for naps and bedtime. :)

Buzz cut and new rain boots! So freaking cute.

Hurricane Beryl is making its way across and the rain here has been crazy! We finally snuck out side to play in it.

Another wife is throwing a baby shower for 3 of the pregnant wives at SLU. I offered to do a charcuterie board… something I’ve never done but have wanted to. I saw these cute boards and I had to get them! I can’t wait to see how they turn out.

I breastfed Benson for a little over 3 years. It worked really well for us for a long time, and the last 6 months I’ve worked so hard to do a very slow, not traumatic weaning process. We stopped officially in May. It’s something I feel so proud of myself for doing. I did it so long for many reasons. I believe infancy lasts 3 years, I believe the immune system takes 3 years to mature, I believe there are huge nutritional and developmental benefits. Annndddd, I’ve been terrified my Lupus would come raging back.

I’ve been feeling the worst I felt in years. I’ve felt so frustrated and worried. Simply carrying in grocery bags resulted in this… insane! We are looking into other long term medications to hopefully keep things stable.

Thankfully I have the cutest faces to look at all day and make me smile. :)

The baby shower was a success! I had a blast putting it together and getting outside of my comfort zone. :)

The kids + dads enjoyed the pool!

Sunday afternoon nap with Dad. :)

Hot summer days = walking around Ikea! Ben and Brielle are the best of friends.

They say it’s the job of a kid to play... and boy does benson get his hours in!

Logan putting the black stone to work for from fried rice and chicken. Yum!

More playing of course. :)

Our Friday night family date was at Russell’s. Ben is hit or miss with naps and so it ended up being a nice date for Logan and I.

A very cozy couch at Sam’s club! We came home with a small chair for playing on the floor.

Pool day! Love this new suit from Amazon

Post bath :)

We lived one of benson’s biggest dreams… seeing a firetruck up close! We had the best night at the Fire Station touring the vehicles, eating snacks and watching over the hedge!

More busy summer days and potty training!

We went over to Jaylee’s house to play with Ellie and Brielle. On our way home we had a little Culver’s date. I can’t believe how big Ben is getting!

When we were pregnant the first time I made a Koala quilt and had a friend make me this little Koala bear. It’s been so healing to see Ben play with it.

More pool days!!!

Sleepy Ben! He loves negotiating if we nap or not. Sometimes, his body decides for him. ;)

Last time we were at Wally’s with Sabrina and Brielle, Brielle was loving this little fire breathing dragon duck. When Ben saw it, he asked me to send her a picture. These two have the funniest relationship!

Our trip To Kirksville

16 hours in Kirksville
late night drives + making some memories

Launching right back into another full week!

Manny sent us some Chick-fil-A for lunch and I had the wild idea of rearranging the rooms in our house. Our bedroom is an addition and the lack of insulation makes the winters freezing and the summers HOT! Logan is going out of town for a few days and I’d prefer a bedroom door that locked so I channeled my inner Hercules and got it done!

We wrapped up July with meeting Logan for lunch!