Sarah's New Bling

Today was set to be a mommy and Sarah day.  Sarah was all excited that we would be dropping Leah off at school and she would be able to spend the day with me.  Sarah had a follow up appointment with the ENT today to check on her tubes that she got back in March.  Since the office is so close to the Mall, we decided lunch at the mall and a ride on the carousel was a must along with some other little errands along the way.

 

But while I was getting ready in my room, little Miss Sarah came bee-bopping in with a big smile and a thought...which she apparently had thought out very well in her mind. 

 

"Mommy!  Since we are going to the mall, I want to get my ears pierced."

 

Let's be honest here, I have put this off so many times with the usual "maybe later" or my go to "you have to wait until you're ten".  Not sure why I pick ten, but it seems like a nice number.

 

So my reply was something along the lines of: "ummm you know that hurts right? like getting a shot in your ear.  And I'm not really sure you are ready for earrings Sarah.  We need to talk this over with your Daddy.  Who at school has their ears pieced that you think you need this done? I'd really rather not do this at the mall.  Maybe we can ask Dr. Hansbrough (our ENT) if they can do it (with all intentions of them telling me that I'd need to make an appointment and I could put this off a little longer).

 

Well Sarah had an answer for all of my questions/thoughts and insisted that she was ready for earrings and that she'd be ok with us asking Dr. Hansbrough about it. I sent Andy a quick text and he was ok with the ENT doing the ear piercing.  So we headed out for the day to see where it would take us.

Loving the carousel.

Only kid in the mall that doesn't pick chicken nuggets for lunch!!

After lunch, we headed to Dr. Hansbrough's office.  While we were with the nurse, I slipped in the question about getting Sarah's ears pierced.  She jumped right on the idea and said YES! we can do it today.  Oy!  Ok, I wasn't really ready for this, but here we go!  They put some numbing cream on Sarah's ears and we waited for about 15 or so minutes and then Dr. Hansbrough came it, took a look at Sarah's tubes...they are working great, and then he pierced her ears.  The girl didn't even flinch!  All she could do was smile.  

Bling!  Happy Girl!

Turning out to be a very eventful summer for our little Sarah.

Peas and Carrots

Leah is loving all of the new "real" food she is getting to taste on a daily basis.  I try every night to give her something that she can eat and work on her chewing.  We usually see a funny little face the first time she tries a new flavor and then after that she is making it known she is ready for more!

More Peas Please.

World Cup Fun

We have really enjoyed the World Cup this year.  And I mean who can't get on board once every four years!



GO USA!

Fun times!

USA made to the round of 16 which is a huge accomplishment.  Germany ended up winning the whole tournament...they were very impressive.  So until 2016...GO USA!!!

Leah is Crawling!!!

A little over a week before she is nine months old, and Leah is CRAWLING!!! Whoohoo!! She's been working hard to get those hands and legs going the right way for forward progress.  Tonight she had us all celebrating with her.  Way to go Leah!!

 

 

 

More World Cup!

Game two and we are ready to go!  Gotta keep our mojo going with our attire.

Leah still not quite sure about selfies.  haha!

*USA tied 2-2 in this game.  Gotta win Thrusday vs Germany to advance. #soccerfaneveryfouryears

First Day of Summer!! (well on the calendar anyway)

I love Saturdays! 

Started the day with our early morning walk. 

Got some facetime with Uncle Mike!

What better way to spend the longest day of the year than to be outside and playing and boiling crawfish.

Bradley hanging with the big kids.  Sarah and Abby working on their water gun skills.

Uncle Jeff getting in on the fun.  Munchkins vs Uncle Jeff.  FUN!!!

Last taste of crawfish for the season.  Yummy!!

Leah hanging out.  As Sarah said, she "missed all of the fun" due to her nap. 

Fun times...."Just hanging out at the house".

Why can't every day be Saturday!

Aqua PARDS

Aqua PARDS is the water park that is now a couple of years old, that is attached to our local parks and recreation area.  Sarah has just recently started asking about us going there and Andy and I either avoid passing it in our travels around town, or Andy tells her that "it's broke" or "they won't let us in" ha!  And that has worked for the most part.  Well, a coworker of mine, Mrs. Page, was having a birthday party there tonight for her granddaughter and extended and invitation to Sarah. 

I was hesitant to take Sarah because, I wouldn't be in swim wear and I was afraid that she would just cling to me the whole time and not participate in the fun.  I mean, C'mon...we all know how Sarah is with new environments.  She did the complete opposite of what I was expecting and she had a blast!!!! 

Getting into the water sprinklers.

Happiness!

While we were there, we ran into some old friend from daycare: Avery and Addalyn.

Now here's where the fun starts.  Sarah kept eyeing the little green water slide...the one that was made for the little kids.  She had tried once or twice to make it to the slide, but this thing is crazy busy with water shooting at you from all directions.  Sarah could hardly see from all of the water in her eyes and she'd turn around and come back to see me.  The other issue was this gigantic barrel of water that would fill up every so often and then dump gallons of water on the kids that were near the slide.

 

Once we figured out that if she would wait for the water to dump then go to the slide and if she would look away from all of the spraying water, she could actually make it up to the slide and enjoy it....the rest was history!  She was a sliding pro!  She loved it. I of course took video and sent it to Andy and we were both super impressed.  This was HUGE for our Sarah!! New environment, trying new things and having a blast!

Weeeee!

And then the next question.  "Mommy can I go on that big slide now!"  Umm, ok, as mentioned, I wasn't in swimwear so I wasn't going to be able to go up there with her and I really didn't think she was tall enough.  And well, let's be honest, that big ole slide made mommy  nervous!!!  After talking with Addalyn's mom -little bitty Addalyn had already attempted the slide a number of times and did great- she and Sarah headed to the slide.  And before you know it, my sweet Sarah was coming down the slide! 
It really felt like a Nemo moment to me...you know "You think you can do these things Nemo, but you just can't"  But really she can and she as just fine!

Two comments from Sarah: "I was thinking what is going on!" and "I really didn't like when the water got in my nose."  She went on to do the big slide again before we had to stop for birthday party festivities.

Breleigh the birthday girl! Happy 7th Birthday sweet girl!!

So crazy proud of you Sarah May for trying something new tonight and meeting new people and just having fun!! Love you!!!

It's getting hot in here....

YUCK! Our air conditioning went out yesterday afternoon.  Today the original plan was for me to pick the girls up early on my way home from school and all of us go get some frozen yogurt.  Well, Andy had to stay home to wait on the AC repair man.  Us girls headed out for the frozen yogurt anyway to find a cool place to hang out until the repairs were complete. 

Silly face and froyo...puffs for Leah.

The house hadn't quite cooled down yet by the time we finished our cool treat, so we headed to grandma's...where no one was home.  We made ourselves comfortable.  Leah and I played while Sarah watched Peppa Pig on Uncle Jeff's laptop.

Luckily, the AC repair mas able to fix our air conditioning and we have escaped...for the time being...a new unit. 

World Cup 2014!

The Jacobsen girls are ready for the World Cup!! Thanks to Grammy for the USA shirts....she sent them for July 4th, but we decided to get multiple uses out of them!

Uncle Jaff came over tonight to watch the game with us. 

USA Wins!!! Whoohooo!! #soccerfaneveryfouryears

Father's Day Weekend 2014

Friday afternoon, everyone was so excited about father's day, that we let Andy open his presents early.  Sarah was excited to give Andy the gifts that she and Leah had made at school and Andy was excited to open up his present that I ordered him that came in the mail Thursday.

 

Daddy with his girls.  Leah is sitting on the GrillGrate thingy that we ordered Andy for his grill. 



Sarah is "Hooked" on Daddy and Leah's little footprints for Daddy.

This girl has her daddy's heart!

The Graves came over Friday night. Andy wanted to try out his new grill toy.  Abby and Sarah thought they were hot stuff eating in the living room while the adults ate in the kitchen.

Satruday:

PJ Saturday morning waiting on breakfast before our walk. 

Playing in "muddy puddles" like Peppa Pig during our walk at Willow Woods Park in our neighborhood.

Saturday mornings this summer have fallen into a routine of a morning walk with the girls and then lots of play outside, maybe a trip to the library and then of course some kind of grilling.  This Saturday on our way home, Sarah and I noticed that our neighbor across the street had put this little plastic play house on the the street for trash.  Yep! You guessed it...one man's trash, another man's treasure.  Sarah was all in...she volunteered to clean it, and knew exactly where she wanted it to go in the yard.  After discussing with Andy...who said "that's fine, but it's a you and Sarah project", we gathered our treasure from across the street!  And well, let's just say that Sarah can get her daddy to do anything for her.....


Look who's helping now...Daddy, power washing the house! :)  Sarah and I welcomed the help!

Proud new homeowner.

Sunday- Father's Day:

Picture with daddy before church. The girls sure are lucky to have such a great man to call daddy!

Daddy's baby girl.

Photo Drop Friday!

NOLA - 2014 - Day 2

The morning started slow, although there were talks about breakfast plans being made the night before that no one could remember the details for, so we skipped breakfast and slept in a little.  Kristy and Smokey decided to spend most of the day in their room, so we carried on without them.

No real plans as usual on this trip, but we did find out that the Creole Tomato Festival was this weekend in the French Market, so we headed that way for the morning.

 

Festival goers.

Faron enjoying the alligator corn dog.

Just hangin' out.

Ummm cold beer and festival food....love it!

Love spending time with this guy!

 It was crazy hot at the festival, so we decided to move on to a location with AC.  Chrisie and I did a little shopping and the boys found somewhere to listen to some live music.  We ended up having lunch at the Somethin' Else Café and well, I am going to say about that is it was the worst dining experience we've had in NOLA...EVER!  Around 3:30 we all headed back to our rooms to clean up and head to uptown and then dinner.

Group pic at The Bulldog after watching the horse races. California Chrome was a no go for the triple crown.

 Dinner reservations were at 8 at Jacques Imos!!  I was super pumped about this dinner.  And it exceeded my expectations!!

Jacques -Imo's: Warm Beer, Lousy Food, Poor Service.  Now at the top of my NOLA favorites!!!

Our side of the table.

Their side of the table. (after Kristy returned from her impromptu participation in a Second Line that was taking place outside)

Seriously.... Andy and I both agreed...Best trip yet!  (we may say this every year, but who cares!?  We LOVE taking this weekend trip every year!!!)

NOLA - 2014 - Day 1

As mentioned before, I had to work on Memorial Day this year, so that also meant we had to move our yearly anniversary trip to NOLA with the Young's.  We ALL look forward to this weekend every year...so we just moved it to the first weekend in June...which we've agreed that we all like much better do to the low numbers in the crowds.

 

So the plan was Grandma was going to watch the girls for the weekend as she has done in the past.  This year, we had a little "drama" so to speak on Wednesday.  Grandma sneezed and busted a blood vessel in her eye, which led to many doctors appointments and initial restrictions on her activities...like picking up her 20 plus pound granddaughter!  Have I mentioned how much we love this weekend getaway??? Andy and I were really starting to believe that we were not going to make it to the Big Easy this year.  However, our wonderful, most amazing babysitter Ms. Tiffany came to the rescue!!!  Long story short....Ms. Tiffany was able to stay with the girls and pick them up from school on Friday and stay until Saturday afternoon and then Grandma who had been released from the doctors would stay with the girls the rest of the weekend.  Whewwwww!  After all of the planning, stressing, preparing etc, a weekend in NOLA was just what we needed!!!

 

We dropped the girls off as usual Friday morning and headed to New Orleans to meet Chrisie and Faron (who had been there since Wednesday- so jealous) for breakfast at Fluer de Lis café.  We've all eaten here before and we enjoy the atmosphere and short order grill style breakfast. Once we had our belly's full it was time to get the weekend started.

 

But first, let's take a selfie!

Kristy and Smokey's flight got in town around noon and they met us at The Chart Room.  One of our absolute favorite places to sit and enjoy adult beverages.

 This would be Kristy and Smokey's first time to experience New Orleans.  They currently live in Kansas City, Missouri.  Smokey received just a taste of NOLA when he was in town last fall for the LSU game and was certain that Kristy would love the city.  He made a point to get her down here and what better weekend to do it than this weekend!  And since it was their "first time" it was necessary to partake in a little bit of Bourbon Street of course...at least during the day.  Ahhh I remember when this annual trip consisted of only Bourbon Street adventures....my how we've grown! After lunch at Felix's, we hit the street ready to go!

Razoo's with these yahoo's!

Me and my sweetie.  Celebrating 8 years of marriage!

Girls pic!

Got this sweet pic from Ms. Tiffany around 3:30...the girls were home and safe.   Enjoying a little Peppa Pig.

More walking down Bourbon brought Kristy to get her fortune from Zoltar...ya know from the movie "Big".

Pat O's Piano Bar.

uggghhhhh!  this was going to be a great pic...only it didn't focus! oh well, you get the point.

Group pic outside Preservation Hall.  Just weeks earlier Foo Fighters (Kristy's FAVORITE band) recorded an album and then opened up the doors for a concert.

O my list of must haves is BBQ shrimp from Mr. B's...just a 5 o'clock snack in NOLA. Ha!

 After our late snack at Mr. Bs we headed to the other side of the quarter to our next favorite sitting spot, Harry's Corner Bar...which has the best AC in all of NOLA!  The original plan was to eat at Coop's but we had just eaten, so it was necessary for more play time before we ate again.

Fun times at Harry's!

 Annnd four or so hours later, it was time to eat again! ha! we had NINE orders of crab claws at Coop's to start the meal and then we ate up some awesome fried chicken....the whole reason we went to Coop's. 

Our first six orders of crab claws, before Kristy decided we needed three more.  Yummy!!

So if your counting, we ate a total of FOUR times in one day!  And why wouldn't you??? We all know the food is like no other.  After a close call on even being able to make the trip, we had an amazing day!!!  Time to rest up for tomorrow.