Everyday Erickson: Relaxing, fun, perfect weekend!

This weekend was fabulous! We spent so much time together as a family. I just love it when the three of us are together. We didn't do anything we had planned. No cleaning, no organizing, no moving boxes to the basement. Yes, we still have two moving boxes in our bedroom that need to go to the basement. If they weren't full of shoes and clothes that neither of us wear, then I'd just take them myself. The whole "bun in the oven" puts a damper on that. No big deal. The boxes have somewhat became a part of the decor, or maybe just catch all for dirty clothes, blankets and towels. Don't get me wrong, I like a clean and organized house, but my husband has taught me to relax and not be so anal. I can save the cleaning for a rainy day. No sense freaking out and organizing on a beautiful weekend that we actually all get to spend together.
On Friday, Lauren and I got ready, and ventured to Hobby Lobby. She did great in the cart! She however would not let me snap a good picture of her. She was too busy looking around at all of the cool stuff. As I was loading up the car with my good buys and my good daughter, Kevin called and said he was getting off work early. YAY! We met him at home, had lunch and then the three of us played outside for a while. We laid a big blanket outside and just let Lauren crawl around. She always managed to crawl to the edge and try to eat the grass. That evening, Kevin whipped up a few steaks, recipe courtesy of Bobby Flay. Kevin just loves to cook and loves grilling season even more. Over the last few years, we have acquired several Bobby Flay cookbooks. We have not come across a bad recipe yet. I will share pictures and recipes throughout the summer for your enjoyment. I made baked potatoes....woooo!

On Saturday, we somewhat slept in. They did. I didn't. My internal clock does not allow me to. I always bring Lauren in in the morning to snuggle with us. She just loves to curl up to Kevin and yank on his chest hair and stick her fingers up his nose. He loves it. I just know it! haha. Kevin was so great and got up around 9 and we threw on some clothes and were going to hit up some garage sales. We never made it to any garage sales though...lol. We were only on the hunt for some pajamas for Lauren. She grew out of all of her pj's in the last week or so. There was only one listed that had any baby clothes but they were boys. When we got there, and did our drive by..it didn't look very nice. One place in our neighborhood barely had anything out..no clothes visible on our drive by, so we kept going and the 3rd place we couldn't find with our GPS. We then made a trip to the post office and I waited in line for a good 15 minutes. There were only 2 people working. Out of the 20 people in line, I would say that 15 of them were mailing care packages to their loved ones overseas. Women scrambling to fill out the customs forms before reaching the counter. It made me so thankful that Kevin is home with us right now. After that we hit up our favorite pizza place in town. Lauren even got in on the fun. I was talking to Kevin while holding my pizza slice and she reached up and grabbed it and pulled it to her mouth. It was so funny. She has cheese and sauce all over her little fingers. I gave her some crust and cheese but for the most part she just had to eat her pureed peas..poor thing! After pizza, I ran across the street to the Salvation Army to see if they had any kids pj's. I didn't find any sets. I wasn't too concerned, after all she was just sleeping in them. I did find 3 pairs of pj pants, 1 pair of pj shorts, 2 shirts, a pair of jeans and a cute pair of pink khaki shorts for ....... $5.92. The Salvation Army here sells 0-24 month clothes for 69cents! 2T-4T for only a $1.29.The jeans and shorts are in great condition! The pajamas are pretty faded, but who cares! She is just sleeping in them and most likely will have a leaky diaper a time or two in them. AND 69cents sure beats buying a set of pj's for $7-10 at any other store! I would highly recommend checking out your local store if you are into finding great bargains.

That afternoon we took Lauren swimming again in her little pool. She really loved it this time. She even tumbled over, got a face full of water and she rolled back over and pushed herself up without a fuss! She would just swim from side to side, pull herself up and look and the grass and then turn around and go to the other side. It was so cute! We stayed out there for a good 45 minutes. She was starting to get sleepy though and was reaching for me to pull her out. We rented some movies that evening and called it a night.

Sunday, we got up early and went to a new church. We still have not found a church that we will call home yet. We liked this church but will most likely try the early, traditional service next weekend. I like the fact that they have small groups, Mommy and Me play days and a lot of military families in the congretation. They are even having a cookout for military families to meet! I think we may be attending that to meet some people in the community that are in the same situarion as us. After church, we went to a cook out at a fellow soldiers house on post. They don't know very many people either and invited us over for some brats. Kevin works with Jay. His wife Rachel is also pregnant and they have a 2 year old little girl. Lauren and Savannah play really well together and Rachel and I seem to be able to hold a conversation, so that's good! I think we might plan a trip to the zoo with them sometime this summer! It was nice to get out of the house and converse with people our age and just have a good time!