Wednesday, November 4, 2015

October: Pumpkins, Parties and Plane Rides

Sweet Mercy. I can't believe we actually fit all we did into the month of October. It was fabulous though. Such a fun, jam-packed month, and it might be my favorite month of this year so far! 

At the beginning of the month, me and Lil G loaded on a jet plane (a very small one) and headed to MS for the BIG Taylor-Myers wedding!  


This was the 5th time I've flown with Mr. Tinypants, and ya'll, even though I feel like I've got it somewhat down to a science, it never gets any easier. Even though the flight itself is only a little over an hour, it's like trying to hold down a cat in a bathtub. I enter the plane with a full bag of tricks....a new toy for every 15 minutes of flight. Fortunately on this trip, G had his own seat, so at least I didn't have to try to hold him on my lap without scratching, grabbing, or licking the person next to me. 

We arrived at CC and Pop's who had a flashy new rocket for him to ride on. They don't spoil him at all. 


We immediately got to work on all things wedding, including painting road signs, packing lanterns, and loading the car. The next day, Mom and I dropped Lil G off with his other grandparents before we headed up to Starkville. When we arrived at their house, I opened the backdoor and saw this....


SADLY, as much as I love chocolate, that is not what this is. I FROZE. I didn't even know what to do or how to begin to redeem this situation. My mom was also gasping, but probably secretly saying to herself: "PAYBACK!!!!"  So I began executing a plan of wiping him down as best I could so I could at least touch him to get him out of the carseat. My mom ran into my inlaws house and got a trash bag which we laid in the driveway and put G on and striped him naked. Then we took him straight to the bathtub. After pressure washing the carseat for 15 minutes, we were finally on our way to Starkville to wedding prep! 

Greyson had a great time with his Nona and Papa
We spent the next 2.5 days setting up tables, chairs, hanging lanterns, decorating arbors, and hanging more lanterns. 


The happy couple!!!! What you might not know about these two is what they've already overcome before their wedding day. Two weeks after Adam proposed in February, he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and went through chemo for the next 5 months. PRAISE THE LORD on July 30th he went into remission!!! So their JOY on the wedding day was just overwhelming and so sweet. They are completely perfect for each other! The wedding was absolutely gorgeous!


Isn't she lovely?
And the ring bearer was pretty darlin' too.....
And even though every part of my body ACHED from wedding exhaustion, we were so happy to take Greyson to campus for the first time the next morning! 

He looks like a happy Bulldog to me.
Reluctantly, we loaded our crew up and headed back to Texas. I spent the week recovering and returning clean drawers to our drawers, pardon the pun. (Let's face it.....I was gone a week, there was much laundry to be had.) 

THEN.....DUN DUN DUN.....I woke up Friday morning SICK. AS. A. DOG. Mama down. Jeremie is a VERY supportive husband, but on this particular morning had a VERY important meeting 9 a.m., so he was kinda giving me the "you're just gonna have to power through it speech". But he did say he'd change/feed/play with Greyson until his morning nap. As I literally CRAWLED into the kitchen to try to take over, I saw G completely throw up his entire breakfast. Baby down. At that point, Jeremie just called it a day and did his business over the phone. 

By Sunday, me and G were feeling better and NEEDED to get out of the house. And let's face it, it was already October 11th, so in my eyes we were already 11 days late to the pumpkin patch. So to the patch we went!  We hit up a darling place in McKinney called Storybook Ranch which had a great petting zoo, pumpkin patch and wagon ride to the 1800's replica village in the back of the property.  It was SO cute! G really enjoyed holding onto the pumpkins and walking around. (Which is his new obsession now.) 



And after our blissful first trip to the pumpkin patch.......the plague returned to our home and Jeremie was SICK. Daddy down.  I sent him to bed with a phenergan pill and Lysol(ed) every door knob, light switch, and remote in our home.

G was kind of pitiful throughout the week; it took him a while to get back to eating and drinking normally. Thank goodness he recovered just in time for our families to arrive on Thursday for his FIRST BIRTHDAY PARTY! 

We did a Milk and Cookies theme and it turned out SO CUTE! I had SO much fun getting everything ready and decorating! 


Lil G's 12 months of photos was one of my favorite decorations!







About 2 hours before the party, Jeremie asked me "If I get my to-do list done, can I set up a tv outside?" It was SO sweet and hilarious! Clearly, he finished his list and set up his very own tailgate within a matter of minutes. I think all the male attendees were thankful.
Greyson didn't really know what to do with his cake. 
What a crew of mamas and babies! We were missing a few, but these girls have seriously helped me survive the past 12 months!

Post party shenanigans with Pop!
The next day, the whole crew loaded up and headed to the Dallas Arboretum which has the MOST AMAZING pumpkin patch! It's insane....like 75,000 pumpkins! Since there were so many of us, our parents just bought us a membership and called it a day!



My parents are in the back, me and J are between his parents and to the right is his sister, our sweet "La-la" (Lauren), and the one and only cousin Judah.
In other news, Greyson's obsession is the water hose. He likes to help his dad water the grass.


Soooo......as if we hadn't gone enough, that Monday, me and G loaded back on the jet plane and flew back to MS with my parents to visit some family for the week. That Friday was technically G's first birthday (October 23rd) and he was PROUD OF IT.

I'm ONE.
We were supposed to fly out the afternoon of his birthday, but dear ole Mother Nature had other plans. Storms were a-rollin' through Texas. My dad took us to the airport and after the news that we had a 3 hour delay, we escaped to Gander Mountain and Wendy's to eat. Fortunately this little buggy/car contraption at Gander Mountain bought me an hour. 


Unfortunately, as we were on our way back to the airport 3 hours later (which was now also G's BEDTIME) I got news that the flight had been cancelled. I was SOOOO disappointed, but based on the radar, I think they made a great call. ; )  The real deal breaker was when Dad and I were about 5 minutes from their house and he realized that we didn't go back to the airport and get my bag. I know it's not a HUGE DEAL (the airport is only 30 minutes from their house) but I was exhausted, G was exhausted, and that was it for me. (It's never the big stuff that finally sends us over the edge, is it?) I had myself a good ole breakdown and cried my eyes out.  I feel like men in general don't know what to do when girls cry, much more with dads when their daughters cry. But Dad did a great job comforting me and after he dropped me and my screaming baby off at the house, he and mom went BACK to the airport to retrieve my bag. Parents FO LIFE.

We finally got on a flight on Sunday morning and couldn't get enough hugs from Jeremie! 

The party continued on Monday as The Jones arrived in town since Hunter had work in Dallas. 

Monday we headed back to the arboretum to try to get *real* pumpkin patch pictures.  Sadly, G would have none of it.  


This was the best of the litter.
We sure love being mamas together!
And Greyson and Jaxon are BFF's too.
Tuesday, while G went to Mother's Day out, I was an extra set of hands for Meg at the consignment shop and Playstreet Museum, which is the most darling place to take your kids in Plano. Wednesday, we headed out to the Heard Natural Science Museum, which I've been reading about lately that has a full scale dinosaur exhibit. It was really neat, but honestly, will be more fun when the kids are like 5 and really running around on their own. Everything was pretty much out in fields and it was like driving a stroller through a gravel pit. We were both exhausted by the time we were done. But not too exhausted to swing into the Outlet Mall on our way home. ; ) #winnersneverquit


Aunt Meggie made the boys matching shirts.
Look at those blue eyes.
Thursday we drove out to the country and hit up the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm at Preston Trail Farms. It was ADORABLE! It had a ton of animals, photo opp stations, a hayride, and a darlin general store! Our other BFF's Jorie and Preston came out to meet us. We had a blast and will definitely be going back next year. 



Perhaps the most entertaining thing at Preston Trails was the fact that Meg bottomed out their SUV rental in the mud when we got there. All the storms from the prior week made for a great mud bog in their "parking lot". Fortunately, we called the general store from inside the car and these three cowboys came to rescue us. #neveradullmoment




The best part was when Meg's hubby, Hunter asked us over the phone: "How is it, that 2 girls from wherever you're from in Mississippi get stuck in the mud?!"

By the end of the week, we were about to turn orange from all the pumpkins and totally ready for Halloween. Friday Greyson sported his cowboy outfit at the house. When you're a baby, every day is an opportunity to dress up. 


Saturday morning we had a birthday/costume party and that evening we went to a block party in our neighborhood.  Greyson was the cutest little dragon I've ever seen. 





I can't begin to express how much fun this was for me! 

October was such an amazing month and we made memories that will last a lifetime! It makes me so excited for the holidays! November better bring it, cause October set the bar high!