weekend away - mt olive, nc

  Maran and I had the awesome opportunity to head out of town for a work weekend together.

Have you ever heard of the pickle brand "Mount Olive"?

Yep, that's the tiny tiny town we stayed in, haha!!

There's even a pickle festival and one can tour the pickle factory... Who knew?

We made the most out our weekend  by grabbing some beers at The Boiler Room, of which was decorated with pallets and had the coolest vibe.

We then headed across the street to The Chef & The Farmer - we knew nothing about this restaurant, but come to find out, it has its own tv show on PBS and is currently in it's 2nd season.

It's so much fun getting to work with friends! 

a little pep in my step

So back when Landon was a month old, he only slept in 30 min - 1 increments at night.

If this sounds like hell... it was!

I was literally up ALL effing night!!

It was totally miserable and I should have been moody and exhausted everyday, but I wasn't.

This little shot of naturally sourced caffeine was my saving grace!

And with no artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners it gave me the energy I needed to get through the day without chewing someone's head off.

And with a baby and a toddler in the house, I still drink half of a bottle a day sometimes!

a trip to the doctors

Trace had his first trip to the doctor for anything other than a wellness visit, and all he wanted was for my dad to hold him, haha!

While I was talking about my superfood on the phone with a sweet friend, Trace took a spill while under my dads watch.

He had a large and compact goose egg on his head.

The doctor said he was fine, thank goodness!

softball

With baby brother only a few weeks old, we left him at home with his grand parents and headed off to Bryan's last softball game of the season. Trace sure loves watching his daddy play, and heck, it's a great excise to get out on the house and kill some time ;)

girls night

Shortly after I had Landon a few of my friends and I went out for a "moms only" girls night.

Boy have things changed over the past few years, haha!

dreams do come true

My amazing friend who I met through this here blog made ALL of Trace's car dreams come true -- His 1st time to Charlotte Motor Speedway and he basically got VIP treatment and pit passes for the Coca Cola 600 qualifying round and race day. He kept squealing and saying "vroom vroom" the entire way home!! LOVE MY CAR OBSESSED BOY!!!!

The winner of the qualifying round

 We got a golf cart ride to our car at the end of the night

landon's newborn pictures

Can we just talk about how obsessed I am with Landon's newborn pictures? Lord knows they did not go as planned, I had not envisioned my boys being shirtless or Trace having his fingers in his mouth.... but oh my word, if that isn't my favorite family picture of all time!!

And Landon - Lets chat about how absolutely stunning this child is! I still can't believe that Bryan and I created such a beautiful baby. And he's so incredibly good too. Like, I thought Trace was good, but apparently he wasn't (lol!) because Landon is soooooo much easier than Trace ever was at this stage!

Trace is the best big brother! It took a couple of weeks, but boy is he used to having his brother around now. Being exactly 21.5 months apart, I can't wait to watch them grow up together. They have no other choice but to be the best of friends.... because that's why I had them... to entertain each other, haha!!

There's nothing like a father and son and although this was Landon's shoot, it basically turned into a chaotic family photo session because none of the little people were cooperating ;)

I've been told time and time again that the baby of the family never has any pictures alone with their parents (I'm the baby, so I get it) -- I'm determined to give Landon his fair share of memories with just Bryan and I that aren't shared with his dynamic older brother

And ps. Landon's 8 weeks old today so these pics are waaaaaay overdue!

* Trace's newborn photos