Life Lately: July Edition!

Arnie and I went to the Lynyrd Skynyrd concert on the night before my birthday! That was his bday gift to me this year. This was there farewell tour, and the last time they would ever be in Charlotte :( They are my favorite band ever and I have been to 10 of their shows... several of them even while I was pregnant! That night was HOT and I was sweating and grumpy.. and we spent $20 on overpriced water bottles, but we still ended up having a good time. I got a little emotional during some of the songs and teared up a little.. I just feel like this is the end of an era... my dad took me to my first concert 17 years ago, and now Arnold took me to my last Skynyrd concert! 

Just like every year, Mom had us over the night of my birthday and made me her famous homemade lasanga! I ask for it every year and every year she makes it.. except last year when she had recently had hip replacement surgery, and my DAD stepped up and made it-- and that was the sweetest thing ever! 

I got some awesome birthday gifts.. some cute clothes, a few new books I had been wanting to read, and some new pioneer woman stuff for the kitchen (utensil holder and paper towel holder.) I hope to eventually have a Pioneer woman kitchen! I love her rugs, towels, bakeware, and everything she has! 

We celebrated the 4th of July with some swimming and  cooking out at Mom and Dad's! Everyone but me had ribs... we even took Sheldon with us! 

The kids had their dentist checkup.. and it went pretty well. Caleb continues his almost 11-year streak of NO cavities! He lucked out and got teeth like mine. The dentist always says they look great. Brooke didn't have any this time, thank goodness. And Rachel has a small one that she has to go get filled in August. That night we went out to Mellow Mushroom and the balloon lady was there! So the kids picked out a turtle, cat, and dog. 

The kids occasionally spend the night with my parents, if Arnold and I want to go on a date or something, and this is how they look afterwards, haha! But really though, they have been staying up waaay too late here lately. They are going to hate getting back into a school routine soon.

I havent been reading hardly at all lately! But after getting those 2 new books at my birthday, I read BOTH of them in the span of a week or so. I forgot how much I LOVE holding a real book. I just can't get on board with doing all my reading on a kindle! I've tried, believe me! Anyway, Sheldon likes to sit in the recliner with me and he gets jealous when I read because he'd rather I pet him! ;)

Brooke has GROWN lately, and I don't know how the time got away from me! She is already wearing women size shoes, she is almost into junior sized clothes exclusively, and she has started wearing a little bit of makeup. One day I found all my makeup in my drawer missing and later I found out she took it and put it on herself and was embarrassed to tell me. I really don't mind a LITTLE bit. But man is she looking older lately! She will be going into the 7th grade next month, and turning 12 the day before that! 

Rachel still occasionally hops into bed with me at night and stays there all night! Its usually on nights Arnold falls asleep in the living room or doesn't come to bed until late and she steals his spot! Ha! But I love it because I know she won't do this for much longer! This is the scene I woke up to the other day.. her right beside me in the bed and Sheldon over on Arnold's pillow! ;) 

We took the kids last weekend to the movies to see Hotel Transylvania 3! Rachel absolutely loved the first 2 movies and has always watched them over and over so she was looking forward to this one. It was pretty funny! Especially the scenes with the big green blob, haha. 

The living room floors are finally finished! I am so thankful for Arnold and Father-in-law for all their hard work! The floors look GREAT and I am very happy with the color we picked. It really made over the room. The room looks a little bare right now, but we hope to have new furniture in there soon. I have looked on pinterest and found all these ideas for cute "sitting area" arrangements and I'm excited to have the room come together! It may be awhile before we get around to redoing our kitchen floors but that is next on our list of home remodel stuff!