Naming Aidan James

Posted on by Lauren Lane

I’ve written posts about naming our other two boys, and why we chose their names. Aidan is, of course, due the same about his name. Nathan and I struggled to agree on boy names. For each of the previous two boys, their names ended up being the only names we agreed on together. We’ve had a name that we liked for a girl for years. And while we can’t imagine not having three boys now, I think we were hoping that the last Lane baby would be a girl so we didn’t have to go through the name game again for a third boy.

But alas, God had bigger plans. And we were blessed with a third boy. This sweet little boy…

We agreed on his middle name first. I liked the name James as a middle name solely based on the sound of it. And that’s the whole story of why we picked James. Ha. No family history, no connection at all. Just thought it made a musical sound as a middle name.

I will never forget exactly where we were when we agreed to Aidan’s first name. We were sitting in the perinatal doctor ultrasound’s lobby waiting for our monthly sonogram of baby boy. We had some time to kill as we waited, and decided to revisit names again. I had a list of about five names I liked for the last boy on my phone, and as we took turns throwing out names, Nathan goes,

“How about Aidan?”
And I replied, “I actually have that name on my list.”
“No way,” he replied. “I don’t believe you.”

We had never both had the same name on our lists before.

I showed him my phone, where one of my options was already typed “Aidan James.”

Nathan looked up the meaning of the name Aidan. Little fire. And we both kind of liked that.

“Aidan James,” he said. “It kind of sounds like a movie star.”

It was several more days before we settled on the spelling of the name, but that didn’t take long either. It was the easiest first name we’d ever come to for the boys.

Our little fire turned out to be pretty darn cute.

A Kids Halloween Carnival

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Around Halloween, my sister and I plan a cousin Halloween carnival. It started during COVID. We weren’t comfortable with the kids going trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, and we both had small little babies at the time. But we wanted the kids to be able to celebrate and have something fun to do for Halloween. And thus, the Cousin Halloween Carnival was born. I think my sister and I look forward to it as much as the kids.

The games change as the kids get older, but it’s been a fun way for the kids to get another wear out of their costumes and celebrate the holiday together.

Here’s a look at their first Cousin Halloween carnival…

I mean….those littles are so dang cute.

I’m sharing some of the games that we’ve done in the past with the kids today!

Zombie’s Laboratory

One game that we added last year was lovingly referred to as “Spooky Feels” primarily because we couldn’t remember what it was called from our elementary school days when we remember it at the school carnival. You could call it a bit of a haunted laboratory of sorts.

Here are the items we used as the different body parts that the lab had dissected…

Guts/intestines: Cold cooked spaghetti with olive oil
Teeth: Candy corn or popcorn kernels
Ears: Dried apricots
Eyeballs: Peeled grapes

Heart: Boiled tomato peeled
Brains: Boiled cauliflower head
Fingers: Cocktail sausages

I vividly remember as a kid that the ‘eyeballs’ felt so darn realistic, that the mere thought of it sent me over the edge. The kids absolutely loved this game….although, they were a bunch of cheaters trying to see in the back what they were actually feeling.

Mummy Wrap

Each child picks an adult to be their wrapper. The adult is given a roll of toilet paper, and it’s a race to see who can wrap their kid the fastest and best. Other plus side is that breaking out of a roll of toilet paper is a ton of fun!

Gone Fishin’ for Treats

The kids get to “cast their lines” into the sea. When they feel a tug on the string, bring it back up to see what treat you got from the ocean!

Cake Walk

I remember so clearly in my mind doing the cake walk at our elementary school Halloween carnival as a kid.

We cut out pumpkins and tape them to the ground, and the cake walk is just a good old round of musical chairs until there is one winner that earns themselves…a cupcake. 🙂

Spooks Hunt

During the days of COVID when we weren’t comfortable trick-or-treating with the babies, the kids did a Halloween Easter egg hunt for candy. They loooooved it. I don’t know any kid that doesn’t love a good old fashioned egg hunt.

Happy hauntings, ghouls and boys!

What’s Up Wednesday {10.25.23}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

How did we get to the last Wednesday in October? It flew. The whole month, absolutely flew by. The holidays are right around the corner, and it’s a mad dash until the end of the year. Again….how did we get here?!

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: So far this week, we were lucky enough to have my dad offer to smoke some brisket and give us a portion of it….which I absolutely never say no to when there’s smoked meats involved. And then we’ll round out the week with some spaghetti and meatballs and baked salmon.

2: WHAT I’M REMINISCING ABOUT:

Aidan is up on all fours and doing the rock back and forth. The precursor to full blown crawling. He’s going to put it together any day now. And given how close to the same time of year Aidan and Harrison were born, all of my memories showing up on TimeHop right now of this little one crawling for the first time…

Nathan and I were talking just the other night that watching some of these videos of baby Harrison crawling is like watching a video of Aidan.

3. WHAT I’M LOVING:

It took us awhile to get here, but the boys have been really into imaginative play lately. I loooooove listening to them craft stories, rules, come up with ideas. It’s the MOST FUN THING to overhear.

The most recent concoction was a full blown construction site in Jonathan’s room. Jonathan kept coming downstairs asking me to put his drill back in his back jeans pocket.

And getting some fresh fall flowers with the boys has been bringing me so much joy on dreary days.

4. WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO:

Soooo busy. Lots and lots of fun things!

Harrison finished up his fall soccer season.

Nathan and I celebrated our nine year anniversary!

Of course, I went to the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie, which was so much fun to get to see the concert again!

I was able to skip out from work one morning to get to go on Harrison’s first school field trip to the apple orchard with him.

Aidan started solids. Seriously, almost seven months have gone by in a flash….how did we get here?!

And then last weekend, we cheered Nathan on as he finished his first half marathon!

And we went pumpkin patchin’ with the cousins.

5. WHAT I’M DREADING:

Nothing at the moment.

6. WHAT I’M WORKING ON:

At the moment, I’m working on our laundry for the week. Ha!

7. WHAT I’M EXCITED ABOUT:

I’m so excited for Halloween with the boys. Harrison & Jonathan both really get it, are so into it, and these holidays with little kids are just something special. Look at these cuties from last year!

Jonathan would have been thrilled to dress up in his lawn mowing costume again. He’s still VERY into lawn mowing.

And Harrison is still into superheroes.

8. WHAT I’M WATCHING & READING: I’m watching all of my typical Bravo shows. But I’ve been particularly pleased with this season of Southern Charm. Last season was….meh.

Much more entertaining this season!

I just started My Sister’s Keeper audio book based on my Mom’s recommendation. I’m still very much behind on doing a new book review. Maybe next month!

9. WHAT I’M LISTENING TO: Taylor. Taylor. Taylor.

10. WHAT I’M WEARING:

I’m a 100% obsessed with this new pullover from Target. I got an XL based on reading the reviews….because sizing was….weird.

Still love this dress for fall.

11. WHAT I’M DOING THIS WEEKEND: It’s going to be cold. And rainy. With no plans. Ahhhhhh. We’ll have to find something to do out of the house! Definitely carving our pumpkins for Halloween!

12: FAVORITE AMAZON FIND THIS MONTH:

Few things have brought me more joy of things I’ve purchased lately than these gigantic spiders…

13. WHAT I’M LOOKING FORWARD TO NEXT MONTH: Thanksgiving. Of course. It’s almost annual biscuits and gravy time in the Lane house.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Our Kitchen Renovation Renderings

Posted on by Lauren Lane

We’ve been all heads down on the basement renovation lately. It’s been moving along really well so far…where’s the wood I need knock on now? My mind has been so consumed with basement things that I forgot to share our kitchen renderings.

We engaged a designer (Jordan with Willaby Way) to help us with drawing plans and renderings based on our needs and wants. When it comes time to do our kitchen renovation, we’ll take our drawings to a contractor to bid the work.

I just walked over to our current kitchen and took this picture as perspective for how things look right now…

And this is how that same view will look after…

The kitchen table area will be gone, and we’ll use our current formal dining room as our everyday table.

The current sliding glass door also gets moved in this renovation, so that people’s path from the garage door or front door to the backdoor doesn’t involve trapsing through the kitchen.

We add in a boatload of storage. Maybe even be able to move all of my pots and pans out of the basement and into the kitchen…

Massive windows looking out onto the backyard and my gardens. 🙂

And still get bar seating at the kitchen for quick snacks, as well as have a formal drop zone for alllll of the shoes, backpacks, coats, and junk.

That’s where we’re heading! Now if I could just wiggle my nose Bewitched style and have it all magically done without having to live through the mess.

Friday Favorites {10.13.23}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy Friday the 13th!! If you saw my post earlier this week about my biggest fears, you know that I kind of like Friday the 13th. But I failed to mention one of my biggest fears. Like the most obvious fear that I have. A fear of having my blood drawn or getting an IV. And this past weekend, we survived flu shots for the family, and little Aidan was due for FIVE shots yesterday at his six month appointment. We are immunized out over here. But happy to have the heavy fall shot time behind us!

I’ve rounded up some of my favorites from the past week!

Speaking of shots…when we went to get our flu shots as a family, the pediatrician had this buzzing little bee that she put on the boys’ leg while she was doing the injection and on my arm and I literally felt nothing. The boys didn’t cry at all. And I immediately went home and ordered one to keep in my diaper bag for all future shots. Ha!

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Let’s Look…At Our Biggest Fears

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Did you know that Friday is Friday the 13th? I’ve always kind of liked the number 13. Harrison was born on a Friday the 13th. And that kind of cemented it for me as being a good number. So, while there’s no triskaidekaphobia over here, there are plenty of other rational and irrational fears.

And that’s what we’re sharing today in this “Let’s Look” link up! So, let’s jump in!

I spiral if I don’t hear from you. And this mostly pertains to my immediate family. But if I text Nathan and know he’s out with friends, and then I don’t hear anything for an extended period of time…I spiral. Down into a deep dark hole of irrational thoughts about what happened to him. What if he got in a car crash and nobody knew how to get ahold of me? What if he got robbed and someone took all of his stuff and he had no way to reach me? What if he’s lying dead in a gutter….? It’s not a pretty place…and it’s grounded in….absolutely nothing that has ever happened to me.

I have a fear of cockroaches. I can handle a lot of bugs. Cockroaches I just can’t. When I lived in North Carolina during my masters program, I found a cockroach in my kitchen, and nearly died of panic. Stood on my kitchen counters and called my parents in a panic. Expected them ideally to jump on a plane and come kill the bug for me. And only came off the kitchen counter once it ran under my dishwasher where I taped the little gap between the bottom of the dishwasher and the floor shut so that in theory…it couldn’t get out. I removed the tape when I moved out of the apartment.

It’s not a fear, but I don’t like even numbers. I wake up on odd numbers, will choose an odd number any day of the week when asked to pick a random number. It pains me slightly that some of my children will graduate high school in even years. So while it’s not a fear…it’s definitely an irk.

I have a fear of running out of money in life. I squirrel bits and pieces of money away with the best of them for a rainy day.

I have an irrational fear of not knowing something and everybody else being in the know…like it’s obvious and I’m the only idiot left out. I’m not built for surprise parties. It absolutely killlllls me internally if I know something is being kept from me. I am way too afraid of looking dumb.

And lastly, I’m terrified of running out of gas or having any car trouble at all. I refill my tank when there’s a quarter of a tank left, without fail…in case I need to make a surprise 100 mile journey and don’t have time to get gas. And other rational thoughts like that.

So those are my fears! Please tell me I’m not alone!

How I Do Laundry for Our Family of 5

Posted on by Lauren Lane

The truth is, I don’t mind the actual doing of laundry. When I have the time, I don’t mind the sorting and the folding. It’s the putting away laundry that’s the particularly icky part of this chore. And because I don’t mind laundry…and I would never trust my husband to do my or the kids’ laundry (hello….we’d end up with stains on everything because he’d never check them before throwing them into the wash)…I’m Chief Laundry Attendant.

Let me tell you, though, something in the laundry universe shifted when we went from a four person family to a five person family. It started to feel like a MASSIVE undertaking each week. And pile on that certain kids needing certain uniforms washed by certain days…you sports parents know what I’m talking about…and I was DONE. And annoyed.

So I switched up how I do laundry, annnnnd, I’m back to really kind of liking laundry day now.

I’m going to take you back, though. Back to the way I used to laundry. I designated one day every other week as laundry day. It usually took me realistically two days to get through, but I did EVERYONE’s laundry at the same time.

The pendulum shifted with that fifth kid, though. And the folding of clothes and getting all five people’s clothes back to the right spot became too much. It was like a part-time job for two days straight.

So, I changed what I was doing over the past six months. And now, I do laundry by person.

Adults get their laundry done every other week. Nathan has a day of laundry. Everything gets sorted, washed, and folded for him to put away.

I get a day of just my laundry. Sort, wash, fold, and put away.

And then there’s one day each week that I do all of the kids laundry together. Does it result in more loads of laundry? Maybe. But it makes the pieces much more manageable.

Laundering of linens and bath towels happens every other week, and the off weeks of adult laundry.

And that, friends, has truly made a difference in my sanity and enjoyment.

You didn’t even realize you could enjoy a whole post about laundry, did you?

Friday Favorites {10.06.23}

Posted on by Lauren Lane

Happy weekend, friends! Construction on the basement is in full swing over here. It is loud and messy, but already looks so different! I can’t wait for it to be done so we can use the space, and it’s only a week in….it’ll be worth it in the end.

I have a random handful of things that have brought me joy this week!

I can’t even begin to wrap my head around this actually being thing. But I am all in for the Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce combo.

I’m in for the merch. I’m in for the Taylor watch. I’m in for the mash-ups of Taylor songs with Kelce dancing. I’m in for it.

….adding to my mug collection this October 🙂

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7 Quick Harrison Takes (v. XIII)

Posted on by Lauren Lane

If there was ever any doubt that fall has started, it’s the first virus of the season. I apologize for the ghosting over the last few days as I took care of a sick boy, while still trying to get myself back in the swing of working full time.

From time to time, I like to gather a few things that feel unique to each kid and share them as quick takes. It’s my way of capturing a bit of their personality as they grow up. Little Harrison doesn’t mispronounce things very often now, but there is definitely things that feel so uniquely Harrison that I want to remember them for forever.

-1- Harrison is my competitve kid. He is interested in EVERY sporting event. I remember wondering in school gym class how there seemed to be children that just naturally were already so good at playing sports, when I myself had never played sports before being forced to play them in gym. And then I had a child that was interested in sports from the moment he could walk – and I got it.

He wants to know who is playing every sporting event, who each person is cheering for, and what colors each team is wearing. Every. Single. Game.

-2- Speaking of competitive, his obsession with winning extends to which team he cheers for in a game. He HATES losing, so usually will flip flop what team he’s cheering for based on who is winning.

-3- Every game he watches, he likes to build the players out of his counting blocks based on their uniform colors, and then proceeds to play the game with his players while watching the game on TV. This child could not be more different than me growing up if he tried.

-4- He’s five years old, and believes himself to be pretty much completely devoid of the need of parents. He informed us going into Kindergarten that once he was in Kindergarten that he “wouldn’t need us anymore.” Except for a ride to school…and to make his food…and do his laundry…and buy him things. But everything else, he’s got covered.

-5- Aidan is his “favorite” because he’s the “softest” member of the family. That baby skin speaks to Harrison’s love language.

-6- As if it was ever in question, Harrison’s favorite subject in school is “gym.” He has a particular fondness for all of the elementary school games he’s learning: kickball, dodgeball, and something called “toilet tag.” Sounds like a winner with the elementary school crowd if I’ve ever heard of one.

-7- His favorite shows to watch right now are Spidey and the Chiefs vs. Broncos game that’s a recording from last year’s game. He narrates this game as though it’s the first time he’s ever watched it, and that no one has seen the ending. But he’s well aware of who wins the game. 🙂

I love my little sports obsessed boy.