Parenting an ADHD Kiddo

 Good morning friends and happy Friday! Are you on break yet? Liam and I had our last day Wednesday and while technically today was supposed to be LG's last day, we are currently on an airplane to snowy Colorado! Woohoo! 

I was initially very hesitant to write today's post, but I've had a few of you reach out to me via email about ADHD or with ADHD related questions... and since this is something I get asked about by people in person frequently too, I figured it couldn't hurt to write a post about it. There is a lot of misinformation out there about what ADHD actually is, so I figured I'd clear a bit up before we begin. 

I don't want to share too much personal info about LG on the internet for the whole world to see, so I will intentionally keep some of this vague. If you have any further questions though, please feel free to email me (laurendarrell13@gmail.com). And in order to break up this super long post, I will be adding in some cute pictures of our little bundle of energy over the years. 😍

Not Just a Mom-- How We Handle Busy Nights

Good morning and happy Monday! I know many of you may have the day off from work/school today for the holiday and if that is the case, I hope you're enjoying it! Today the Not Just a Mom ladies and I are talking about how we handle busy nights and I am looking forward to the advice! 

What We've Been Up To

 Good morning friends! Today we officially move out of our house for the next 4 months. It is bittersweet. We love our little home and will miss it, but are excited for this next adventure. When we move back in, our home may be unrecognizable... but in a good way! I will be very happy to not recognize my tiny old kitchen 😂

So since life has been crazy busy lately, I figured I'd do a roundup of what all we've been up to! Here are some pictures of our sweet kiddos to fill you in on what life has looked like for us lately:

Rainy Day Quarantine Activity: Our Virtual "Trip" to Disney World

Good morning friends! Today I wanted to share a super simple yet fun activity we pulled out of our back pockets this week when it poured rain for 4 days in a row. Yes, 4 days in a row! With a baby and a toddler stuck inside on week 452 of quarantine-- yuck! Needless to say, we were starting to get desperate for some new indoor activities. 

Luckily Devin had somehow stumbled across this "Virtual Disney World" Youtube page. We checked it out and it was all the rides at Disney World, but virtually (just like the name says 😉). We knew our Disney World loving toddler would LOVE it! Remember when we went back in December? She is still talking about our trip (so much for the people who said "she won't remember it at that age"!!).

3 Years Old!

Yesterday our sweet girl turned 3 years old. I cannot believe how quickly the time has flown by! 

May 5th, 2017.

Six Months with Our Little Man!

How is our sweet baby boy already 6 months old? It's amazing to think that in just a matter of months we went from this:

to this:

My Top 5 Parenting Books (So Far)

Happy Friday everyone! I've had several friends have babies recently and a couple of them asked me if there were any parenting books I'd recommend. If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time you know how much I love to read. I read roughly 40 books a year, and I try to include a variety of different parenting books. They may be about varying parenting styles, how people raise their children differently in other cultures, something that focuses on one specific area (i.e., sleep training), or something completely different and unique.

Life Lately

Good morning everyone! I wanted to just hop on today to share a few pictures of this sweet stage of life we are in at the moment. A couple weeks ago I was playing with the kids around the house and had one of those "this is my favorite stage so far" moments with both kiddos. I know I'm going to want to look back on these moments and remember them forever, so I figured I'd share a little bit of what has made these past few weeks so sweet 😀

 All of a sudden Lily Grace's imagination has just taken off. I love that her vocabulary has just exploded at the same time and when she is playing with her toys, she is explaining what's happening. In this picture LG was playing "mommy" and Elsa was her "baby". She was changing Elsa's diaper here, and was walking me through the different steps as she did it. Listening to her little voice tell me how to change a diaper was so incredibly sweet. 

 Then Elsa got hungry after her diaper change, so she had a bib put on her, was put in the highchair, and was being fed baby food. Apparently it was sweet potatoes.

 We had a surprise little bit of snow a few weeks back! When I say "little bit", I'm not kidding. You can see how little it on my car, right?

 Here is another picture. You can see roughly an inch on the grass and absolutely none on the roads. Would you believe it if I told you that school was cancelled the next day over this?! I teach at a Catholic school and we only had a 2 hr delay, but CMS (Charlotte's public schools) and several other districts were out for the full day. Being from Ohio, it always make me laugh at how much people in the South freak out about snow. 😂

 Meanwhile, we spent our snow days inside doing puzzles. Lily Grace did this puzzle all by herself and was so proud!! As she should be!

 And this little guy just kept smiling and snuggling and stealing everyone's hearts. 

 Another day, same puzzle. Now that she knows she can do this one on her own, we have to do it at least twice a day. It makes me so happy to see how much she loves puzzles, because you all know I do too!

This squirmy little guy is getting harder and harder to get a picture of that isn't blurry! He is always on the move. 

 Our little celebrity here woke up from her nap and came out of her room looking like this one day. 

 And then we picked up some new goggles for her swim lessons and this girly thought she was "big stuff". 

That's just a quick look at what's been going on around here lately. See you all back here tomorrow for another healthy recipe!

How I Survive a Traveling Husband

Hi there! As you are reading this Devin is on Day 5 of a work trip and I figured it was probably time I write a post about something I frequently get asked about: Surviving a Traveling Husband. 

It's hard, but it's do-able! I can't even imagine how hard it must be to be a military spouse or a single mom all the time. I literally have a countdown app on my phone that tells me how many hours I have left until Devin returns from his trips and I can get a "break" 😂

Our Trip to Disney

Good morning! We are back from Disney World and all feeling a little sad that we aren't still waking up in the happiest place on Earth. 

A Day in the Life of Us

Good morning and welcome to a day in the life of our family! I try to do one summertime "day in the life" post and one in the winter. This is our first "day in the life" with our newest family member (who is already 11 weeks old! How did that happen?). Let's get started 😀

Lily Grace 2.5 Year Update

Good morning! I wanted to share an update with you about our sweet girl because she is in such a fun stage right now and I don't want to forget any of it! I know one day I'll look back at this and be so happy I wrote it all down. 

One Month with Liam

Good morning! Today our sweet little man is 1 month old. I thought I'd share a few pictures of him and tell you how it's been going so far.

Pinterest for the Win-- Halloween Crafts for Kids

Good morning and happy Friday!! Earlier this week I posted my monthly goals for October and one of my goals was to have my kiddos homemade Halloween cards made and in the mail no later than the 24th of October. Seeing as today is the 11th, that means it's time to nail down an idea and get to work! Usually we make the cards over the course of a few days so it doesn't get overwhelming to Lily Grace and lose the "fun" part of making them. 

Initially I had some trouble finding any inspiration that looked both cute AND easily doable for a 2.5 year old and a 3 week old (and by 3 week old I really mean mom, because he clearly isn't doing any crafting!). After changing up the words I was typing into the search bar I was able to find a lot more! Here are some of the cute ideas I found:

Life Lately

Good morning! We have had a VERY busy past few weeks around here so I figured I'd share a bunch of the pictures I have stashed on my phone. 

Weekend Highlights

Good morning and happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Ours was the first weekend we've had in awhile that wasn't crazy busy with scheduled activities, so we had a decent chunk of time to relax and get stuff done around the house. It was SO nice! 

On Friday we hosted a going away party for a friend. It was bittersweet to say goodbye to someone we love but also so wonderful to get to spend more time with her before she did. I wrote a post about what all I do to prep for hosting a party last Friday, which you can read here. One of the food items I prepped was a charcuterie board, which I took a picture of here before I put it all together:

Friday Favorites-- Book Edition-- May

Good morning and happy Friday!! I am officially on summer break and our first trip of the summer begins TOMORROW! Bright and early tomorrow morning we are headed to Steamboat Springs, Colorado and I am super pumped about it. I am looking forward to some hiking, "exploring" as Lily Grace calls it, and a lot of reading and relaxation. The perfect way to kick off summer!

Today I am linking up with Erika and instead of my typical Friday Favorites post, this week I am sharing the books I read in the month of May. Now, the books I read in May were good, but the books I read LAST month, were GREAT. If you are looking for some good summer reading books, I would check out my post about last month's books. You can not go wrong with any of them!

Lily Grace's Ice Cream Sundae Birthday Party

Good Morning! This past weekend we celebrated our sweet girl's second birthday. I know every mom on the face of this planet says it, but time is a thief. Where did our little baby go?? 

Friday Favorites- Devin's Birthday Edition

Good Morning and happy Friday! Today I am linking up with Erika for Friday Favorites and I am sharing one of my BIGGEST favorites over the past week: Devin's birthday!

 Crowder's Mountain, NC 

The view from the top of the mountain

Weekend Highlights Part 2

Good Morning! If you missed part 1 of our weekend recap, click here! Today I am picking up where I left off... in Charleston!