Category: Jonathan

Friday Favorites {08.12.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy Friday, friends! It was the boys’ last official week in their current classrooms, and they are off from daycare today for a teacher in-service day! We have lots of errands to run to get ready for Jonathan’s birthday party this weekend, so I’m hoping they’ve put on their ”helper” pants and are eager to be good listeners today. Hahaha. Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend!

I took Harrison for a special birthday treat/breakfast in April, and I loved the short little one-on-one time with him. Jonathan had his first dentist appointment last week, so I took the opportunity to sneak him away for a little special birthday breakfast date, too. He apparently missed the memo that it was breakfast and opted for an iced sugar cookie. Emphasis on just eating the icing, though.

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Dear Jonathan, (v. XIV)

Posted on by Lauren Lane

{{A note to the reader: I’ve written my little boys letters throughout their whole lives. I share some of them here on this blog. Some are kept just for them in their memory boxes. Letters are my way of memorializing their childhood and their mama’s love for them. Our little Jonathan, who is our youngest, turned two this past weekend. I’m sharing my letter to him here.}}

My sweet little Jonathan Brooks. Happy second birthday, little boy! Another milestone, another letter from your mama. You are really starting to blossom lately, little guy. You make us laugh and smile every day. The day starts with you waking up and asking us to “mow?” And ends with you always telling us there’s a “BUG! BUG!!” in your room. Our nights are punctuated by me asking you just before I lay you down to sleep, “How much does mama love you?” To always have you respond with a “so much” that sounds like “fruit snacks.” I will always love you fruit snacks, little boy.

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What’s Up Wednesday {07.27.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

This is always my favorite post of the month. They’re the most fun to go back and read, it’s a little bit of food, a little bit of my Timehop addiction, reading, watching, all wrapped up in one post.

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: I’m trying a new Half Baked Harvest recipe for my resident shrimp lover in the house (Mr. Harrison): Garden Herb Shrimp Scampi. We’re going to attempt to brave the heat this week and grill some burgers and hot dogs, and taco stuffed sweet potatoes, which I’ve never done before either! We’re rounding out the week with a couple of fun sweet treats for the boys to help me make: watermelon popsicles and blueberry cobbler, so I can use up some of the blueberries we picked and froze last month!

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT: It snuck up on me, but my littlest boy is turning 2 this weekend! This past year seemed to fly by, and it’s amazing going back and watching videos of our Jonathan at this time last year. I think we always think about so much changing the first year of life, but my goodness! They change so much in year 1 to 2! Walking, talking, becoming so strong-willed and independent. Love my little guy so stinking much, and watching the boy that he is becoming now!

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The Black Hills 2022: Part 2

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Over the week of the Fourth of July, my family and I packed up the car and headed to South Dakota to spend a week in the Black Hills visiting my parents. They have a cabin just outside of Deadwood. I look forward to going up there for a week every year. It’s cool, crisp, and the mountain air is perfection.

If you missed Part 1 of our trip, I blogged about it yesterday HERE!

Part 2 starts with a hike on the Mickelson Trail. Baby J absolutely LOVED this hike. In fact, even though we took the stroller, Harrison rode in the stroller most of the time and Jonathan walked!

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The Black Hills 2022: Part 1

Posted on by Lauren Lane

We got back last week from a trip to the Black Hills in South Dakota to visit my parents. For those that are new here, a bit of history on the Black Hills for my family, because this isn’t going to be a typical travel post about what we did and where we ate!

My parents grew up at the foot of the Black Hills in Rapid City, SD. My maternal grandparents bought some land in the Black Hills before my living memory, and lived in the Hills pretty my entire childhood. As kids, we’d always spend a week in the Hills visiting my grandparents. My sister and I have wonderful memories in the Hills growing up. We’d catch and release chipmunks, go camping, feed the deer, hike (I hated hiking growing up, though), and just generally lived outside in nature for a week.

Years ago, my parents bought land in the Hills as well, and in 2014 built a cabin on that land. They spend their summers living at the cabin, and the rest of the year they live in Kansas City. Thus began our own family annual pilgrimage to the Hills once a year.

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What’s Up Wednesday {06.29.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy What’s Up Wednesday! A little bit of everything in one post. I LOVE this post every month, and they’re my favorite to read of other blog friends! So let’s get into it!

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK: We made HBH’s Chicken Gyros again, because we’re absolutely obsessed with the taziki sauce! We’re also having another Half Baked Harvest recipe this week: Lemon Butter Chicken Piccata, and some easy pasta with TJ’s sauce from the jar to round out the week. 🙂

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

We’re getting ready for our trip to my parents’ cabin in South Dakota. Here are a few pictures from last year at the cabin…

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7 Quick Jonathan Takes (v. II)

Posted on by Lauren Lane

-1- When he finds something that we were looking for, he declares ”DARE IT IS!”

-2- Completely obsessed with his mow mow. That’s lawn mower in baby talk.

-3- I love it when he informs me he needs to put on his “sockies” before his shoes.

-4- His favorite part of the alphabet must be ”Q, R, S” because he’ll scream sing that to us over and over and over again.

-5- He’s still my little reader. Still pulls down book after book after book and flips the pages, sometimes pointing at certain things in the book.

-6- Jonathan is my wait and see kid. We had our parent educator over the other week, and she asked me if he ever does puzzles. No – never. No interest. We got one out, and after five minutes Jonathan came and sat down on his own accord, not when Mom suggested he come do the puzzle, and rolled through the puzzle like he’d been doing puzzles every day of forever. My mouth just hung open. Literally the first time I’ve ever seen him do a puzzle. And that’s the way most things go with him. Out of nowhere one day, he sits down and does something that you’ve been asking him to do or say for months.

-7- The way he runs or walks with purpose makes me laugh every time. He has one arm that swings vigorously on his right side, and the other just kind of stays still.

Love this little boy of mine. He is endlessly exhausting because he’s at the age of endless energy, but the need to explore things with no sense of danger. He doesn’t listen to a word I say and has no concept of consequences. But oh my, is he just complete cuteness wrapped up in sweet. Can’t believe that it won’t be much longer before he’s 2!

Friday Favorites {06.10.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy Friday, friends! It’s been a busy week around here. I was traveling for work for a few days, which always seems to make the week fly by. I hope you have something fun planned for the weekend!

Can I be really honest with you for a sec? 2020/COVID really kind of burned me out to my very core.

I loved doing special adventuring with, back then, just Harrison and me. It filled me up. I used to be on a flexible work arrangement that allowed me to do something special with Harrison every Friday.

But COVID quarantine, working full time with him home, then having both boys be home, honestly just knocked me on my booty. And in the past year, more often than not, even when I’ve had the option of being able to have the boys at home because I had PTO to use or a holiday, I opted to send them to daycare because I truly have felt like I’m still recovering from the depletion that was 2020.

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What’s Up Wednesday {05.25.22}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Edit: My heart is heavy and shattered given the events in Texas yesterday. The fact that we’re here as a nation weeping again at the loss of innocent little lives in America. That we did nothing as a nation to change the course of the future after Newtown makes me sick to my stomach. That we live in a country that it seems the risk we take with sending our children to school in this country includes a higher risk of being shot and killed in their school than every other developed nation. It’s inexcusable. Exhausting. Heart wrenching. It makes me want to hold my babies close to me and never let them out into this seemingly cruel world.

I’m not tone deaf. And truthfully, I considered just pushing delete on this post. All of it was written before this horrific event. But it’s written. And it’s fun to read. So I’m going to leave it here because these are my memories that I want to be able to go back and read for myself. But where I’m personally at tonight, as I sit here in my pj’s having tucked my precious boys into bed, is a mess. Angry. Pleading with my fellow Americans. Can we please compromise to do something to move in the right direction to fix this. We must be better than this.

My favorite post of the month! A post with a little bit of everything. A little bit of food and recipes, a little bit of books, a little bit of looks at family, and lots more! I can’t believe we’re at the end of May getting ready to gear up for summer.

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK:

I can not stop. You guys, I love these Chicken gyros, and they are on the menu again this week. AHH. So good!

Some homemade pizza and sundried tomato pasta with creamy burrata rounds out the week. Yum!

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Another fun soccer season for our little man!

We’ve had so much fun watching Harrison play this spring. He truly loves soccer. Every day he comes home and asks to play soccer, so we’ve had so much fun watching him get to do something he really loves with his friends. He may be the most into it four year old soccer player on the team, but we love every minute of getting to watch him!

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What’s Up Wednesday {April 2022}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

This might be my favorite post of the month. They’re the most fun to go back and read, it’s a little bit of food, a little bit of my Timehop addiction, reading, watching, all wrapped up in one post.

As always, I’m linking up with Shay and Sheaffer to share with you what’s going on in our life!

1: WHAT WE’RE EATING THIS WEEK:

Aside from leftover pizza galore, I’ve made carne asada tacos this week, and chicken gyros. May round out the week with some stuffed peppers.

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Past Harrison birthdays…This was his first birthday. His only truly ”normal” birthday…

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