I can’t believe that next week is the start of Normal Life again around here! We have loved this summer so much (mostly because Jon only has one job during the summer). A part of me is ready for our regularly scheduled programming – I think I always get this way around the first part of August – but I’m sad to see the summer end.

Three boys watching their dads play softball. Love this – it had poured rain right before the game, so everything was soaking wet and these giant ants were EVERYWHERE. It was yucky. Thankfully, we had a towel in the car. 😉

Nathan and Eisley had well-child checks one morning, so Jon took the morning off of real estate work and took Parker out for donuts and hot chocolate. Based on the gigantic smile that never left his face the rest of the day and how he talked about it the whole rest of the day and next day, I think he had the time of his life. So precious!

Little sleeping beauty girl. Love how she snuggles up with her Bunny every night. And every day. She’s rarely without her. 😉

These two cousins are in that stage where they are either the best of friends or the worst of enemies. 😉 Ha! They are so cute together though!! Also, ice cream on the porch should be a requirement for  summer evenings.

Joel and Nathan’s birthdays are within four days of each other, so we’ve done several joint birthday things over the years. This year, we did a low-key family dinner with the old Lunch Bunch crew who still live in Albuquerque and it was SO much fun. The kids played in the rain outside, the adults all laughed so hard most of us were crying, we stuffed ourselves with pizza and ice cream and it was just the sweetest time with dear, dear friends who have known us for what seems like forever.

When I was pregnant with Eisley, we had this hope that maybe, just MAYBE, this one would be a little less nuts than her brothers. Maybe, we were going to have a calm, chill baby this time. Well, that is definitely NOT the case. 😉 She is crazy like the boys and loves nothing more than to entertain us every night at the dinner table. And I love her with all my heart and wouldn’t change one single spaghetti-covered curly hair on her head. 😉

Off to go soak up the last of the summer!

 

Good morning friends!

I have such a fun thing to tell you about today (including a free thing just for you!)! But first, some back story – a long time ago, my brother, Bryant, started talking about what we all thought was a really fantastic idea for a business. Basically, he wanted to make a site where you could sell used goods, similar to Craigslist, but incorporate cashless payments, sort of like how you would pay for Uber.

He has worked SO so hard and now A Good Find is a reality!! I’m so proud of him!! I’m also so excited for you guys because since he’s my brother, you guys get to reap some of the benefits. 😉

So, what is A Good Find? I’ll let them answer that for you:

“It’s a modern listing site where users can buy and sell their stuff, used goods, custom pieces, etc. to their local market. It’s a way for people near each other to buy and sell locally. OK cool, but why is that such A Good Find for my audience, you may ask? (we can’t stop with the puns since we came up with the name ?). It’s a local marketplace built for 2017, with safety and security baked in from the beginning: cashless payments (no more stacks of cash when meeting a stranger), internal messaging, and a sleek user interface.

Most importantly, we want to be a social enterprise, meaning we directly act for the betterment of our local communities. We’ve chosen our company purpose and mission to benefit youth in crisis.

More details about A Good Find and what we do: About Us, How it Works, A Good Find Payments (Cashless), Our Blog, Our Community Involvement.”

Now on to the FUN part – because you guys are my readers and I love you and because Bryant is my brother and he loves me ( 😉 ), he’s giving y’all a completely FREE lifetime Professional Account IF you sign up in the next seven days using my promo code. You can read more about the different accounts here, but, basically, the Professional Account gives you up to 25 listings a month along with a ton of other benefits.

A Good Find is like the best kind of garage sale – you can sell your stuff, make the money and not have to be up at 4am to do it. 😉

To claim your free account, you need to register within seven days of today (so BY August 2nd!). Click “Get Started Now” under the Professional Account button and then enter my promo code on the next page. The code is ERYNN (all caps!). Then, you’ll be given the free account and you can start listing your stuff and browsing the things for sale right off the bat. My code only works until August 2nd though, so be sure to check it out quickly!

So proud of Bryant. So excited for this company and for the vision he has for it!

Yay!

Jon’s family lives in Northern California and we do our best to get out there every summer to visit! This year, we were extra ready to go because we had a new nephew we were waiting to meet.

It’s a 17.5 hour drive to get there and due to a few things, we decided to do it in one day. So I went into Planning Mode early. (A little sidebar, and if you know me in life, this is not news to you: I make all of my family and friends insane a good 68% of the time because of my need for organization. So normal me is already pretty annoying to be around. Planning Mode Me? Impossible to be around.) Jon made fun of me for weeks because of all the stuff I was planning for the kids to do on the drive.

We left at 4:15am, Albuquerque time in total darkness, hoping that the kids would fall back asleep for a little bit. Parker and Eisley both did. Nathan was too excited to sleep.

New Mexico sunrise – you just cannot beat New Mexico skies.

All of the kids loved the magic marker pads I found for them. So fun and the marker didn’t show up on anything except the pad. 😉

I had an activity planned in 90-minute increments for the entire trip. Ha! Possibly a little overboard, but when we pulled into Nonnie and Papa O’s house at 10:30pm Albuquerque time after 17.5 hours in the car and only Eisley had fussed for just the last few minutes of the drive and everyone else was happy the whole trip, it was TOTALLY worth all the work I put into it!!

We made such great time that we actually got to the In-N-Out that we were planning to eat lunch at before it opened – just so crazy. So we ended up having snacks until about 2pm when we got to the next In-N-Out. 😉 Ha! It’s a treat because we don’t have one in the entire state!

He had no idea why we were making him pose with the Coke bottle. 😉 We made sure that Jon and I stayed caffeinated the whole drive so we stayed awake.

And this one decided maybe she should make that her goal too. 😉 Little Miss was in the room with us and between the time difference and the different room everything else, she ended up in the bed with us more than in her own bed and by 5am, I gave up trying to sleep and we moved into the living room so at least Jon could. She finally slept perfect the last night we were there.

We did family pictures on Friday! Our kids were not in prime picture taking mode, but we tried our best. 😉 Jon’s sweet cousin came and took them for us.

Love this one of all the kids. 🙂

This picture basically sums up what my kids were doing the entire photo session. Nathan, who has always had the super power of smiling, was apparently exposed to kryptonite, Parker was tired and Eisley was FEISTY. Goodness.

That night, we all went to Olive Garden for dinner since we were all dressed nice and clean. Nonnie bought a cake for Nathan and he thought it was hilarious.

Nonnie and Papa O live in a retirement community that is meticulously maintained and gorgeous. The boys were SO excited to go fishing in the fishing pond and both of them each caught a fish! They were so happy! (And smelled SO bad!)

Snuggling with the new cousin. 🙂 Eisley loved baby Campbell!

We did the 17.5 hour drive home in one day again and the kids did great again – a little more grouchy but that was to be expected after such a busy trip! We got home, got the kids showered and in bed by around 11pm. And NO ONE THREW UP THE WHOLE ROUND TRIP. It was a road trip miracle!! Nathan did break out in full body hives the last day there and the drive home, but Benadryl seemed to keep them under control until we could get home and wash everything in our normal detergent. A good trip all around! Always so good to see everyone!

 

You guys are amazing!! Swing Lowe has been ranking on Amazon and I’m so thankful for each and every one of you who have read this little novella. I had such a fun time writing it!

Would you do me a favor? If you’ve read Swing Lowe already, would you be willing to leave me a review on Amazon? It is also available now on Kobo and Nook!

You make my job fun!! Thank you so much again!

Love to you!!

 

I am so so excited!!

Here are the links!! As each platform goes live, I’ll be sure to update this post!

Amazon/Kindle

Barnes and Noble/Nook

Kobo

Keep an eye out today too – I have a fun contest starting on my Facebook page this afternoon! Yay!! Thank you guys so much! I can’t wait to hear what you think of Swing Lowe. 🙂

Okay, guys. My parents have thrown some pretty awesome birthday parties in the past for the kids grandkids. But this one was by FAR my favorite. And the kids agreed too – by the end of the day, everyone was saying they wanted an Olympics party for their birthday too. 😉

Gammy came up with the theme and their house seriously morphed into a host country. It was hilarious and awesome!

The boys were ready and raring to go early that morning.

Apparently, the “USA” tickled. 😉 Ha!

We got to Gammy’s house and everyone checked in and got their official shirt and name badge giving them access to the grounds. Ha!! The boys were eating it up.

Jon, Nathan and Parker were Team USA, Gabriel, Uncle Bryant and Aunt Nicole were Team Italy, Gammy, Pops and their friend Mariah were Team Germany and Aunt Cayce, Eisley and I were Team Great Britain. 😉

Gammy even made Olympic Torch snacks. Seriously. It was amazing.

Great Britain made a solid stand for Cuteness during the Opening Ceremonies. It was hilarious – they had the official music and everything and had the teams follow a path around the yard. All the adults were dying.

A little congratulatory hug between countries during the relay.

We had four events – A relay race, an obstacle course, a Nerf Gun range, but my personal favorite was the Equestrian Race. HA! It was so awesome!!

Pops was the honorary judge so y’all know that absolutely zero medals were handed out to anyone older than seven. 😉 They even played the country anthems for the gold medal winners. Awesome. Sauce.

Someone was very worn out. Mostly because he got so into the games that he wouldn’t stop running when he reached the finish line. 😉

We ate our victory corn dogs and macaroni and cheese (requested by the birthday boy) in the Olympic Banquet Hall. 🙂

Oreo Smush Take Two. Best birthday EVER.

Just even typing that is insane. He’s getting so big so fast, it kills me!

We had such a wonderful day for his birthday! He decided he wanted to go to the zoo and to Texas Roadhouse. We woke up, ate birthday pancakes and headed straight for the zoo before it got too hot.

It is basically impossible to get a picture of three children all smiling and looking at the camera. Just in case anyone was wondering. 😉 This was the part Nathan wanted to do the most – the last couple of times we’ve been here, the reptile house was closed so he was SO HAPPY it was open today. So was his dad. So was his brother. His mom and sister were not so much. Every exhibit, Eisley would look into the aquarium and say, “EW.” Ha! I was dying.

We rode the new carousel, which they did such a good job with!! The boys loved it! Eisley was not so sure about it once it started moving.

Little buddy loves himself a good carousel. Always has. 😉

“MOM! Let’s take a weird picture!” And of course this is the only one that Eisley was smiling in… 😉

You can’t say you went to the zoo if you don’t get a picture in the weird chair. It’s like a rule somewhere or something. Goodness I love these kids.

Nathan wanted Freddy’s for lunch, so we ate our greasy burgers and came home and everyone took a shower since we were all gross and smelly by that point. 😉 Eisley took a nap, the rest of us watched a movie and then it was time for presents! Nathan loved them all but went especially nuts over the boxing bag. 😉 Such a big kid gift. We were wrapping his presents the night before and I was mourning the days of Mickey Mouse themed gifts.

Texas Roadhouse for dinner and he just looks ridiculously old!

Nathan always requests Oreo Smush for dessert. 😉 Love, love, love my biggest boy! I can’t believe he’s seven!

Swing Lowe releases on Monday, July 17th! I’m so very excited for you guys to meet Amelia, Landon and Joe!

Here’s how to pre-order on your copy on Kindle! As a reminder, you don’t need a Kindle to read Swing Lowe. Amazon has free Kindle apps for basically every device out there – iPhone, Android, PC or Mac. If you are a Nook or Kobo user, it will be available on the 17th!

Thank you guys so much – I’m so thankful to have such a sweet community of readers. I usually get all sentimental around my kids’ birthdays and yesterday, I was looking back through the blogs I wrote when Nathan was born and realized I still interact with a lot of the same people who were commenting back then! We’ve changed to more Facebook/Instagram comments, but I feel so incredibly blessed by you, sweet friends!

So excited for Monday!!

Sweet boy,

Oh, my goodness, I have NO idea how I am already writing this! You were JUST born – how are you possibly turning seven?

You are such a fun kid! You are still crazy energetic and most of the time, super happy and outgoing. You love meeting new people, you love trying new things, you love anything and everything that makes you feel even bigger.

You completely excelled in school this year! You made some great friends and as weird as it was for you to have friends that I knew nothing about, it was really neat to hear your stories about your day at the end of the school day. 🙂 You still LOVE to talk and love to entertain and love to be the class clown.

This year was such a big year for you! We moved into a new house, you went to school for the first time, you lost your first tooth… all these huge, big kid things which just completely solidifies that you are officially a Big Kid. Dad and I are SO proud of you and of the boy you are becoming!! You are such a fantastic big brother and such a good friend. I envy your ability to walk up to anyone and immediately start up a conversation. 😉

You asked Jesus into your heart this year! I struggle to find the words to say, but oh sweet boy, it was an answer to many, many, many prayers since before you were even born! Oh how I pray you will continue to walk with Him for the rest of your life!

Your imagination is still absolutely amazing to us – you are SO creative. You can spend hours making all these towns and scenarios with your Legos or action figures and it’s just fantastic. Parker LOVES to play in all these things with you! You are really good with him too, for the most part. 😉 I love watching the worlds you guys create outside!

You are a joy to us and to so many others! I cannot believe you are so big – I know I will blink and another seven years will have passed us by. Please slow down!!

Happy birthday, buddy! I love you so much!

Love,

Mom

There’s this running joke in our family that the reason all of my children love iced tea so much is because it’s what their amniotic fluid tasted like. 😉 But yes – basically, if it’s July, I am drinking iced tea. Or iced coffee, which is something else my kids love to steal from me.

Not even 8am and this little is already out fighting fires. Ha! The life of a baby girl with big brothers.

I found this basket on clearance and was thinking of putting blankets in it, but a cute little girl works too. 😉

Cow Day!! We love Cow Day so much in our house! It’s become one of our favorite yearly traditions! This year, Nathan had VBS every weeknight, so we went for lunch instead of dinner. So much fun!

Crazy little cows. 😉 Eisley’s boots kill me – Gammy found those and bought them just for her. She wears them around the house all the time now. Ha!