Friday
Ryan took Friday off work to spend time with my in-laws who arrived in Charlotte in the late afternoon on Wednesday so it felt like the weekend kicked off a day early for our crew! Temperatures were fantastic on Friday and hovered around 80 degrees so we spent most of the morning outside after we dug into French toast casserole for breakfast.
We took the boys and Sadie for a walk around the neighborhood and then everyone was craving a boat ride, so Ryan took his mom, Les and Chase on the boat while Ryder and I hung out at home. (Thank you guys for kindly encouraging me to opt out of boat rides with Ryder this summer. Of course I miss the time on the water, but you’re absolutely right that an infant — even one in a life jacket — and a boat just don’t mix well from a safety perspective.) Ryder ended up napping most of the time everyone was gone so I took full advantage of a relatively free morning and marinated some chicken thighs for lunch and then began working on a blog post for an upcoming campaign I have in the works. I didn’t expect to have the chance to get much of anything done this weekend so the unexpected burst of productivity felt amazing!
Once the whole gang was back home, Ryan threw the chicken thighs on the grill and I made some simple sides to enjoy with them for lunch.
After lunch, Ryan and Les had plans during Chase’s nap and so my mother-in-law and I stayed back with the boys and I finally watched The Greatest Showman for the first time!
Diane saw the movie on a plane and had good things to say about it and since I’ve loved the music when it has popped up randomly on various Pandora stations, I had high hopes and it did not disappoint. (Also, I fully admit to having a bit of a celebrity crush on Hugh Jackman.) I want to see the movie again ASAP and am already playing the soundtrack on repeat.
Once everyone was home again and Chase was awake, we spent the rest of Friday night hanging out in the backyard and around the house. I love low key evenings at home and enjoyed digging into flank steak, corn and potatoes for dinner before making my way to bed nice and early.
As far as sleep is concerned these days, Ryan and I really try to get in bed as early as possible to “front load” our sleep right now since Ryder will often wake up anytime between 3 and 5 a.m. and be a little difficult to settle back down. This results in some crazy early wake up times around here right now, so if I can get in bed by 9 p.m. and fall asleep soon after feeding Ryder, that’s ideal. I can tell I’m more tired than I even realize because I cannot make it through more than THREE pages of my book these days without passing out. (I’ve been reading The President Is Missing for weeks.) Thankfully the spacing between Ryder’s nighttime feedings seems to stretch out a bit each week (a stark contrast from Chase who had us up every two hours for two months) and I’m hoping this continues. (Ryder is currently going anywhere from 2-5 hours between nighttime feedings but averaging around 3.)
Saturday
Ryder and I were up before everyone on Saturday morning (surprise, surprise!) so I took advantage of our early wake up time and headed out on a walk with Ryder and Sadie before the heat of the day set in. Ryan’s mom was kind enough to make everyone biscuits and gravy for breakfast and then Ryan, Chase, Ryder and I sneaked away for a birthday part for our friends’ Laura and Steve’s two children who were turning one and three years old.
You may remember Laura as one of the thoughtful friends who planned and hosted my baby sprinkle. She’s known in our little group as the most incredible party hostess so I just knew the birthday party she planned for her children would be adorable. And it was!
Laura stuck to a “Teddy Bear Picnic” theme for Lily and James’ party and it was so darn cute! The kids at a blast snacking with their stuffed animals and running all over the yard.
This was Ryder’s first official party and it was a home run for our family because he slept through the whole thing. WIN!
We made it back home just before Les and Diane arrived home from a morning in Davidson. We spent more time in the backyard before Chase’s nap (everyone is joining in Chase’s bird watching / bird feeder obsession) and after Chase’s nap the rest of our Saturday was much like our Friday — nice and low key!
Diane and I actually went to check out an open house in the late afternoon which was a lot of fun! (No, we’re not moving but Diane and Les are always browsing Zillow and constantly toy around with the idea of finding a small place in the area which would be awesome!)
As for the rest of our Saturday, Les was kind enough to begin making a big batch of his amazing pasta sauce for all of us to enjoy on Sunday and it made the whole house smell fantastic.
We all absolutely adore his sauce and appreciate it so much when he makes a giant batch of it since it’s quite the process!
Sunday
Sunday I was up at 4 a.m. with Ryder and Ryan was awake not long after us. Once the sun was up, I took Sadie and Ryder out for a walk while Ryan worked on his computer and hung out with Chase’s monitor until he was up.
I arrived home to find Chase and Ryan hanging out in our backyard and joined them on the swing until Diane and Les were awake. Everyone seemed to want to spend more time on the boat on Sunday morning, so Ryder and I hung back again and he thankfully slept most of the time so I was able to get a jump start on this blog post.
Ryan, Diane, Les, Chase and Sadie spent around two hours on the lake and arrived home hungry.Thankfully Les’ sauce was ready so lunch came together quickly for all of us.
After lunch, Chase went down for his nap… and Sadie followed suit.
As for the rest of our Sunday, we had a mini birthday celebration for Chase with Diane and Les (he’s turning three next Sunday) which was a fun way to conclude the weekend!
Even Ryder seemed intrigued by Chase’s new dinosaur toys!
I’m so glad Diane and Les were able to make the drive up from Sarasota to spend time with our little crew his weekend. We loved our time together and watching Chase light up when he saw them and seeing them snuggle with Ryder made us smile so big! They’re heading back to Florida today but we are feeling grateful for the long weekend we had together!
I hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well and thanks so much for stopping by the blog this morning!
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Ah yes, the newborn haze. We’re there too, and my 3 week old also has been waking up super early. She (unfortunately) doesn’t have long stretches at night, but hopefully they’ll get longer soon. All she wants to do is eat!!! 🙂
I can’t believe our toddlers are 3….I’m trying to plan my daughters 3rd birthday at the moment (pink &gold&unicorns over here!)…the teddy bear picnic theme is so cute!
The cluster feeding is somethin’ serious!! Phew! And happy almost bday to your little girl!! Her theme sounds adorable and perfect for a sweet three year old!!
Sounds like an absolutely perfect weekend!!! 🙂
I’d love if you could do a blog post talking about your recovery this time around after giving birth to Ryder compared to when you had Chase.
I’m definitely hoping to recap this soon!
Our church does a summer series with popular movies and how they tie in to biblical teachings – last weekend was The Greatest Showman! We sang a few of the songs during the service, which was a blast. I’ve been listening to the soundtrack nonstop too!
Oooh I’d love that! And our church does something similar with summer movies!
Happy Monday! Always love your weekend recaps. Your friend Laura really DOES know how to throw a party! (Hosting this kind of thing just stresses me out. lol Something about having people over and the stress of being clean enough for outside eyes……)
As usual, your mother-in-law looks insanely photogenic and lovely! I love the photos of you all.
Glad to hear that Ryder is sleeping for longer stretches – what a blessing! Just like Laura above I’m wondering how you’re doing/recovering? I hope well!
Wow, Chase looks exactly like his grandma!
I was just going to comment the same thing! Chase looks so much like Diane!
I need Ryder’s mohawk to stay around FOREVER. <3 It's so precious! I'm glad you got to have a fun weekend – so much social time for the little guy! I STILL haven't seen The Greatest Showman, and I feel like I'm the only person on the planet. I'm hoping to knock it out maybe before this baby gets here!
Sounds like a wonderful weekend! You sound like such a chill laid back mom. I can’t really do anything during the day except for feed my baby and try to get him to sleep.
I would love a post about Ryder at one month! Sounds like night sleep is going ok. How are his naps? How is breastfeeding going?
Sounds like you guys had a great weekend with family!
I am all about the newborn haze mama! 😛
I watched The Greatest Showman in May during my maternity leave and loved it! I still dance to the soundtrack in my car 😉
I swear EVERY song in that movie is a good one!
It’s so great that Ryan’s parents were able to spend a weekend with their grandsons! You can tell from the pictures that Chase just adores his grandparents. It’s great to have family in town. Fingers crossed that one of their Zillow searches turns into something more 🙂
I can’t make any promises, but if you’re enjoying watching the birds now, just wait until September/October! That’s when fall migration season will ramp up, and you might get some unusual visitors as they pass by on their way south for the winter — or some unusual residents, if there are birds that live way up north during the summer and consider North Carolina south enough for their wintering. I don’t know if Chase will fully understand the excitement of seeing new birds (I assume they’re all relatively new to him anyway, since he’s only just about three!), but I think it’s a lot of fun to see some out of the ordinary birds during migration season 🙂
Awesome!!! This is the first year we’ve all been paying close attention to the birds in our backyard and it is SO fun! Right now we’re mostly seeing cardinals, robins, blue jays, goldfinches, chickadees and blue birds and every time we see a new bird, we all get way too excited! Hoping we get some new visitors soon!!
If you start to get really into watching birds, I highly recommend the Merlin Bird ID app. It’s free and AMAZING. You can use it to figure out what birds are likely in your area at this time of year (or any time of year), which is really useful of course, but the particularly cool feature is that if you see a bird you don’t know, you can either answer a few questions about it or take a picture of it an upload it to the app, and it’ll give you a few ideas as to what bird it could be. It’s really handy! And I have to say I’m very jealous of your bluebird visitors – they’re one of my favorites!
I’m sure he will be delighted to hear this but I have a huge mom cruah on Zac Efron right now. What a fine looking man he turned out to be!
Hey girl – we too have an infant this summer (our third baby- 2 months old). I’m not going to lie it’s been hard with my family out boating this summer without me – even though I’m eating up these newborn snuggles. I’m so glad they’re having fun and know it’s just a season but I do miss it and miss our family time together. We are doing a ton of dividing and conquering and it’s hard to not feel FOMO. Just keeping it real! Def in the same phase as you!
Hang in there on sleep – we hit a sweet spot at the 9 week mark and have been getting much longer stretches. Hoping that’s coming for you too. Have a great week!
Oh Julie, it sounds like you had a great weekend! It also looks like Chase really loves his Grandparents, so adorable!! I always love reading your weekend recaps, well I guess I just LOVE your blog and all of your posts! 😉 I hope you are having a great Monday! Xoxo
<3 Thank you so much, Kayla!
Ryder is soooOOOOOooooo cute!! And Chase too, of course … you’re doing an amazing job, mama!
Thank you Andrea!!!
Props to you for being productive during naps! When my son was a newborn all I did was sleep (and pump) during his naps! How do you have so much energy?
My daughter is 2.5 and I still nap on the weekends when she naps!
OH the newborn phase, haha. It hasn’t been that long for me (I have a 3 and a 2 year old), yet I still forget. We totally did the “front loading” of sleep like you mentioned. Good job Mama!
And I have heard so many good things about the Greatest Showman, I need to see it!
If you like the Greatest Showman you will love this clip of how the “this is me” song came to be & got the movie greenlit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLFEvHWD_NE Just a warning though its very emotional so if you have little control like me it will definitely make you tear up!
As a side, Im about to be a mom of 2 and your blog has definitely helped me prepare for this a lot! I love all your recaps and think you are such an amazing mom 🙂
Dude, you have a one month old and are cooking for guests? That is very impressive! My boys are the same age as yours (hence the late night comments) and You are totally right about the boat rides. I’m hoping to get a babysitter one day this summer for my infant son so I can do the family boat ride with my toddler on my mom’s boat- I hate to miss seeing how much he loves it!!
Chase & Ryder are so lucky to have such a loving family, especially extended family who stop by to dote on them! Is your mom still in town? If so, even better to have both grandparents around – nothing is better than being spoiled 2x as much 🙂
Hope the newborn haze ends quickly, but not TOO quickly!
That would’ve been so fun to have both grandparents here over the weekend but she was back in Florida! 🙂 And as hazy as these newborn days are, I am definitely loving them through the exhaustion!
Love! I am obsessed with Ryder’s hair and I looove his name. He is such a Ryder and Chase is such a Chase! What was the other name you considered? I wanted to name my first son Brady but my husband said no… only if we had a second son. So our first son is Tyler and our second is Brady! And I couldn’t imagine my Tyler as a Brady! He is such a Tyler!
Are you watching Big Brother? This season is really good but you could always watch it in the future
Thank you! We were mostly between the names Ryder and Cade but other contenders were Reed, Luke and Sam! And we aren’t watching it this season but I MISS it!!! It’s so fun to get into that show!
All are so cute!! He is suuch a Ryder though! Love
All are so cute but he is such a Ryder! love !
Upon reviewing this latest pic of Thomas the Train I think he has Ryan’s eyes and the rest is you 🙂
You always seem to have the most fun family-filled weekends! I love it! It serves as some inspiration for me when I finally do settle down and start a little family of my own. 🙂 Also, forever craving French toast casserole. – Kaitlyn | http://www.poweredbysass.com
Your weekend recaps are my favorite!
Thank you Kendra!! Hoping to get back into the swing of things and continue sharing them regularly again soon!