Happy Birthday to Me!

On August 20th I turned the big 25! That's right friends, I can now rent a car! We were in VA beach with friends and it was a great way to spend  the day! (With the exception of Bastian yakking all day long!)

When we got home there was a mysterious box on the table... When I opened it I found these!

My sweet thang noticed my ridiculous excitement over the stainless steel cups at Michie Tavern and he bought me eight 16oz cups and four 32oz cups for my birthday! I was so excited! We are one step closer to being completely plastic free! ( Our goal is by Jan 1st to be completely plastic free... I sure hope we make it!)

So anyways... whatta guy! I must say I feel like a lucky lady every day anyways... but I feel super special when my dude pays attention to my ramblings and then buys me some sweet cups!

Peace!

Nikki

America's Divine Destiny & Restoring Honor Rally & DC Fun!

Tony and I were lucky enough to get tickets to "America's Divine Destiny" at the Kennedy Center on August 27th. It was an amazing experience. We were super lucky to be a part of it. 

     We walked from our hotel on Wednesday night to see how far  it was (Tony would be leaving around 4am to try to get tickets for the event!) We got there around 6pm and the line  was around the building! Tickets wouldn't be available until 10am the next day! We decided that Gabriel and I would stay, and Tony and Bastian would walk to the hotel get the car then I would go back to the hotel room with the boys and Tony would camp out at the Kennedy Center all night in hopes of getting a ticket. While I was in line Glenn Beck came and talked, prayed, signed books, bought pizza... some people in line were going crazy over him!  I think he's an ok guy... He has some great ideas, but I could do without the waterworks! The ladies around us in line wanted to marry him or kidnap him and take him home... I'm not sure which! It was freaky either way!   The great thing about it was they gave us all tickets and let everyone go home at 9pm! The show was sold out 11hours before tickets were supposed to be available!  

In line for tickets!

The event itself was awesome! The entire purpose was to pray for an American Revival. They  had amazing speakers like Miles McPherson from The Rock Church in San Diego. His message was so motivating. I love that his message was intended to get the Christian off the couch and out in the world. Tony and I definitely feel like the Lord is guiding us out into the world so we were able to relate to him big time! Lives are not saved on your drive to and from church... It was great. 

Another great speaker was Dave Roever He has a sad story, but he was a riot. He had a great message about why we should never give up and that God has a plan for us.   I loved him!

Chuck Norris was another speaker. It cracked me up that he was there, I think he's a great guy but to be honest I was el bored-o during his speech! 

The event as a whole was awesome. Beck invited thousands of Pastors, Rabbis and other church leaders. He stated that many churches have gone soft and we need to remain diligent about keeping God in our country. It was such an amazing experience! The best part was the we had both boys with us and they both slept the entire time!

We left the Kennedy Center at 11pm  and had to walk through the pitch black woods for 2 miles through DC with 2 kids. Can you say MORONS! I was so tired, but I was able to sprint-walk the entire time. I am certain that my pupils were the size of dinner plates and that I could have fought off a bear with all of the adrenalin pumping through my body. I was horrified to say the least. 

The next day was the big "Restoring Honor'' Rally. It was the same idea with some fresh speakers.  The little men were exhausted and a little tough to wrangle... I spent a good chunk of the day sitting on our blanket rocket Gman and playing Hulk vs. Wolverine  with Bastian. I missed a fair amount of the rally so I am pretty excited that I was able to go the night before. 

Here are some photos!

Before America's Divine Destiny we were able to spend some time wandering around DC. We checked out some Monuments, fed some pigeons, had a sword fight in the park and then went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Bas had been pestering us to see dinosaurs for quite some time and we were finally able to show him! Tony and I realized that we had never seen a dinosaur before either... how crazy is that!! 

We logged about 13 miles on foot on Friday and Saturday... by the time that we got home we were SPENT! Getting out of bed on Sunday was tough for everyone! But it was definitely worth it! 

Peace!

Nikki

Solid Food Schedule

I love to stay organized and I love to make spreadsheets! I opened an Etsy shop to try to make some extra money... but after praying about it I realized that The Lord doesn't want me trying to make money. After more prayer I decided to figure out how to post them on my blog and share them for free. 

The first that I am sharing is the one that is the most useful around here.

Gabriel's Solid Food Schedule (Page 1)  

   (I'm trying to figure out why the letters are all squished.. if I figure it out I will post a new one that is not all funky!) 

 Thanks to this schedule we are able to ensure that we are spacing the introduction of foods far apart enough and able to determine which ones are causing issues. 

I hope that the link works!

Peace!

Nikki

GratiTuesday

I've decided to Jump on the GratiTuesday Band Wagon. I need to stop and think about the things I am grateful for... if not I worry that I will just forget about it and waste it.  So my plan is to join Heavenly Homemakers (My favorite blog ever) and share a piece of awesomeness. 
Join us for Gratituesday at www.heavenlyhomemakers.com


I feel like I have so many things to be thankful for... today I will cover the basics!


 I have an amazing husband. He and I are such an amazing team. I seriously think that together we are an unstoppable powerhouse! Tony is such a hard worker and he takes a lot of pride in providing for his family. He loves the Lord with all of his heart and when I'm struggling in some area Tony builds me up... I'm so lucky to have him!

Together, we have 2 awesome boys. Bastian has the coolest sense of curiosity! The dude loves to learn and we have so much fun with him. He seems to be slowing down a bit and he loves being a big brother. He is also becoming the most encouraging little guy ever! Today he told me good job for stopping at a red light! And then he wanted to give me a high five for it! I love to see such an awesome trait develop in him!  Gabriel is the most mellow baby dude I've ever met, and after having a wild card like Bastian that is a huge thing to be grateful for! He loves to watch, and he rarely voices his opinion and he is super happy just being in the arms of his mommy! It's also nice having a guy who likes to snuggle. The boys are exact opposites but it seems to work for us and  We feel so blessed that the Lord chose us to be the parents of our boys. 

We also feel super blessed for Tony has a great job that he loves and that we are in a pretty good place financially.  We just bought our second home and we think that we will be in a good place to purchase #3 soon. We are grateful that we are in a position to be considering another home purchase rather than losing ours...   We know that God has a plan for us and the fact that he's not giving up makes it easy for us to stay involved in Real Estate as well!


So basically- We have our God and we have our family... I'm super grateful!
Happy Gratituesday!
Peace!
Nikki 

VA Beach here we come!

Connor, Tony and Gabriel

 Summer = Visitors! Which is awesome, we love the excitement of guests! This time we were lucky enough to have our friends from the Michigan ANG spend some time in our neck of the woods! The best part was that they didn't stay in our house! We all stayed in hotels! I didn't have to freak out about cleaning, I didn't have to get annoyed that they didn't put the lid to the toilet down or used the wrong soap... It was great!

Bastian, Brandon and Connor playing WOW.

Gabriel has a thing with hair...

We woke up in our hotels in Norfolk and had breakfast... All was good until Bastian puked all over the floor in the breakfast room! He acted like he felt ok off and on, but spent the rest of the day randomly throwing up and not eating. Poor dude, but the next day he was good as new!
 We went swimming in the ocean with everyone and we saw the biggest jellyfish I've ever seen in my life... which also happens to be the first jellyfish I've ever seen! (Not counting those in captivity or on tv)  We did occasionally see some jellies in the water... but apparently this is a mild Jellyfish season.
     The best part about swimming away from a huge tourist trap was that we were lucky enough to see a giant pod of dolphins swim by. They swam about 100ft from the guys in the water... Bastian loved it!  Gman and I watched from the shore... but that was enough to convince us to get our buns in the water! We went to VA beach after naps to check out the boardwalk and play in the sand. And eat at a rather questionable Mexican Restaurant.

Bastian, Evan and Connor playing in the sand on VA Beach

The next day was reserved for Busch Gardens! Tony and I are not big ride people, so Elmo's Forest of Fun was all the excitement that we needed! We hung out with Bob and Connor all day.  Tony, Bastian and Connor dominated the rides while Gabriel, Bob and I watched. We met up with everyone else for a few rides and then had dinner and then we got to see  The Illuminights Show.

Connor, Tony and Bastian on an "Elmo Ride"

Connor and Bastian walking to the next ride! 

Tony and Connor waiting to ride a roller coaster! 

After we left the park we parted ways in the parking lot... we had to go home and prepare for our trip to DC and The Llewellyn clan was headed to Myrtle Beach- to be stung by the jellies!

We had a great visit with them... and it was a good reminder that there is still some good in Michigan!

Peace,
Nikki

The Joys of Good Teething Gear!

We have had our share of teething issues in the Whitehead home. Along with pretty much everything else, that we aim to be "natural" in this aspect of our lives. We do not like to medicate- although we do offer the occasional Hyland's Teething Tablet. It seems to work pretty well for us... don't give me any junk about the stinking Belladonna. It's a great pain reliever! We have had to give Gman ibuprofen once or twice, but we save the hard stuff for an "in emergency break glass" situation!

One thing that has worked well is a wooden teething necklace.  Yes, they do make some super cute rubber ones... but I don't think we'd ever offer rubber for Gman to chew on! So wood it is!

We love the necklace by Stones of Healing. I love that it is a nursing/teething necklace. Gabriel loves it as well! If mommy has it around her neck you can guarantee he will be chomping  away at it!

Another necklace that we love is by TarynStuff. The necklace is super cute and reversible. My first necklace had a dent in it and the seller sent a new one to me at no charge within 24 hours of my message to her! I was super impressed!

We have finally bit the bullet and ordered an Amber Necklace. I'm excited about it, I hope that it works as well as I've heard that it will. I've heard some great things from multiple people, I'm excited to see if it works for us. I found This seller on etsy and I liked the necklace because it looks pretty manly! We bought an unpolished Sea Amber necklace...(here she is) I'm super stoked about it! I wish I would have seen that the seller was from stinking Latvia! Sometimes I think I need a more calculated approach rather than just willy-nilly amber necklace shopping! It could take a month to get here!

Lucky for us Gabriel is such a mellow fellow and nothing really seems to bother him too much... the only rough night that we've had was the night before his first tooth broke through.

We are so lucky to have "alternative" methods for pain... I'm glad that we are learning more and more about everything. Maybe by baby #20 we will have this Natural Living/Parenting down!

Peace!

Nikki

Grams & Grams Whitehead come for a visit!

We recently had a visit from Tony's parents! They were on an anniversary getaway and made a stop at our place for about 4 days.  The trip was non-stop action right from the gates!

We started the visit with a trip to the beach. Even though we went in August we were lucky enough to not see any of those pesky jelly fish! Trust me, I was watching out for them big time!  

<

<< Gramps and Daddy with the boys!

^^ Sandy Buns after playing in the sand!

^^ The boys playing in the sand together, eating shovels that don't belong to us 

and are covered in sand!

 

Our next stop was  The Michie Tavern in Charlottesville. Which is a really cool place to check out right by Monticello. They had great food and great shops. They serve the drinks in Stainless steel cups, that we loved so much that Tony bought me a set of 12 for my birthday!! Whatta guy! (Back of you cougars, he's mine!)

We didn't get to do much after our trip to Charlottesville, it was "Man- Night" and pretty much every man we know was going to eat at Quaker Steak and then going to see The Expendables. 

Tony's mom and I stayed home and talked about gardens and how to convince Tony to let me raise my own chickens! 

Our next stop was back to VA Beach to check out the Aquarium. We haven't been there since the brazzillion dollar upgrade! We definitely liked it more than before. That being said, I find it funny that the aquarium in Newport KY is still the best! (We haven't taken the family to the aquarium in Baltimore- but don't get me started on my feelings about the training of Marine Mammals!)  

Bastian still loves sharks, sea turtles and puffer fish! 

Speaking of Sea Turtles... how cute is this little dude! He was trying to bite his filter (filter thingy?) off.

Bastian and I were exploring some hydrothermal vents... 

Bastian was able to pet some horseshoe crabs!

And we wore out the grandparents!

Then on Sunday we went went to church and played cards and relaxed! 

Grandma reads lots of books Bastian (We usually like to get a bunch from the library since Grandma is such a good reader!)

And Gramps snuggled with Gman!

We had a great time and we look forward to seeing them again for Gabriel's first birthday!

Peace!

    Nikki