Corey (Mullen) turns 30!!

This is an exciting year for birthdays...Jacks turns one soon (tear), Kylie reaches double digits, and many of our close friends turn 30 this coming year, including Mike and my brother Corey. We got to spend this past weekend celebrating our close friend Corey's 30th in the mountains. His sweet wife, Claire, planned a surprise birthday trip for him outside of Boone. She then surprised him again by having us show up. I know you are probably all thinking two things: First, why would we want to ruin a romantic weekend for the two of them in the mounts?? Second, smart - invite the couple with the baby! Sure that was a lot of fun....haha. Well, Claire insisted that it was okay and that Corey would love it. From what we could tell, he did. We don't get to see our dear friends nearly enough, so this was a nice weekend away for all of us. Plus, our dogs are besties and they both got to come along.

Anyway, I think we all had a lovely time! We hung around the cabin Friday evening and made dinner. Saturday we went in to Blowing Rock and walked around the shops and had a delicious lunch. We then went back to the cabin and ended up ordering in for dinner. It did rain a good bit of the time (no surprise, it has been raining every day in NC since summer started!), but we did have pretty nice weather while walking around Blowing Rock and the dogs still got to play outside and swim some. As always, it was great to catch up and spend time with good friends!

I put together a little basket of 30 goodies for the Corey's 30th.

What is a big birthday without a fur coat? haha

 

This boy was obsessed with Annie's bed....don't judge my parenting, it is hard to contain an active baby. Anyway, a little dog hair never hurt anyone. 

The cabin was even equipped with a high chair!

This boy loves Annie's bed too. 

The birthday boy with his glow sword! 

Family time down by the creek. 

We love you Corey, Claire, and Annie. Thanks for including us in your special weekend. 

Kitchen Table Makeover

We re-purposed our kitchen furniture a couple of weeks ago. The table and chairs that we have is the set that Mike's family used when he was growing up. We've used the cute little set the past five years, and although it has served it's purpose, it was time for a makeover! I'm not a huge fan of dark wood and have wanted to paint the table white for a couple of years. I really like the look of painted furniture and wanted to do something more fun with the chairs. I started pinning ideas for kitchen table sets a year or so ago. (I didn't find the time to complete this project pre-baby and life was a bit hectic after the arrival of baby. Finally we found the time!). We decided on white for the table and a bluish-green for the chairs. We kept the wicker seat of the chairs as is. The process was pretty simple, just took some time. The table top was laminate so we sanded it with an electric sander. We used steel wool to scuff up the table base and chairs and then primed everything. Lastly, we painted! We gave the table a couple of coats and sprayed the chairs with Krylon Jade. The chairs are far from perfect (and will need an extra coat and a clear finish when I have a little time to spare), but I absolutely love the finished look! Before and after pics below:

Family reunion, birthday, and wedding

We've had an incredibly busy past week...first of all, Corey came in at the end of last week. He was only here for a couple of days but just long enough to help me refinish our kitchen table and chairs (more on that in the next post). He got to spend a little time with Jackson and even babysat while we started house hunting. Jacks just loves his uncle Corey! He wanted Corey to hold him all of the time and even left daddy for him more than once. It was super cute because this is the first he has really wanted someone other than me or Mike.

Jacks and I packed up and rode back to Tennessee with Corey on Saturday evening. All of mom's side of the family was coming down for a family get together for the week. Mike had to work until Tuesday, so we left early with Corey in order to visit longer. While in TN we got together with a group of Belmont friends and former teammates. All five couples had a baby boy this past year - it was fun seeing all of the boys together! We all hope for a future basketball team out of these little (or not so little) guys! We missed Mike for the shot of the dads with their boys...

The rest of the week was pretty much just spent lounging at the house. We got in some pool time and played a lot of corn hole. Jackson got to meet the rest of my cousins and aunts/uncles that he has not met yet. He loved the attention and is really starting to take to other people. It was fun visiting and catching up with all of the family. Mike joined us Tuesday evening, just in time for my birthday on Wednesday.

My birthday was spent lounging by the pool. It was a relaxing day and I couldn't have planned a better day. My cousin Whitney made a delicious coconut cake. The best gift I've received this last year is my sweet boy and I feel blessed to wake up each day and spend it with him. I'm such a lucky mommy!!

It rained ALL day on the fourth - after being cooped up for hours we finally braved the weather and hot tubbed it and even continued our corn hole tournament in the rain! We tried to make the most of the holiday!

Mike, Jackson and I loaded up early Friday morning to make the long trek to Charleston, SC. One of Mike's good dental school friends was getting married there. The trip was over 8 hours - the longest we've made with Jackson. He did very well. He had one rough hour in the afternoon, but other than that was an angel.  The wedding was beautiful and held in a historic church in downtown Charleston followed by the reception at the aquarium. We had a fun time visiting Charleston briefly and catching up with some of our best friends!

It's been a fun week but we sure are glad to be home for a little while! There really is no place like your own home....