Fri-YAY!

I am so excited for this weekend! As I said in my last post this is one of my favorite times of the year. The HLSR BBQ cook-off is this weekend and rodeo kicks off next week. Although we won't be going to cook-off this year I'm excited to see all the pictures on my newsfeed and will be counting down the days until it's my time to rodeo. So let's get this party started. 

1. Go Texan Day -Today is Go Texan Day in Houston and that equals super cute kiddos heading to school in their cowboy/cowgirl best and their parents showing it off on social media all day. It's almost as fun as the first day of school but even better because they're celebrating being Texans! I just love it. Here is my buttercup being her typical toddler self and not letting me get a good picture to save my life. Still cute though!

2. Thrive Blog Conference I am super excited to be attending my first blogging conference and can't wait to learn a whole lot and meet some other great bloggers. I'm also looking forward to getting to know some of my blogging buddies a little better since it's not often that we actually get to see each other in real life. My friend's Chelsea, Amy and Michelle are all heading to the conference and we can hardly wait!

Date night at the Houston Rodeo

The spring time is a beautiful time of the year in Houston and when my friend Susannah at Simple Moments Stick asked me to share a spring date idea for her new series I knew immediately that I would have a lot to choose from. 

Houston and the surrounding areas have so much to offer to couples looking for some adventure but the weather isn't always on our side. Luckily, for a few short weeks we are blessed with just enough sunshine to make you want to stay outside all day and soak it all in. This time of the year brings, crawfish boils, wine festivals, bluebonnets and best of all the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. 

10 Things I would tell my pre-kid self

There are probably closer to like 100 things I would tell myself before having children but that would be a pretty long and boring list so I'm going with 10. Sound good? I thought so, here we go!

1. You know nothing about parenting. You think you do but you just don't, period. Your friends with children may let you share your thoughts and opinions on parenting with them but as much as they love you they are rolling their eyes on the inside and thinking, "You'll see." And they're right; parenting just is one of those things that you can't understand until you're in it. 

2. You're not busy. Scratch that, you may be busy but life after kids is a whole new level of busy. Enjoy the moments to yourself because they will be harder to come by after the kiddos start poppin' out. For the most part you won't mind how busy you are and you'll even enjoy most of it but there will be days where you just want 5 minutes to yourself and to actually finish something as stupid as reading your Facebook feed. It's selfish and silly but the 5 minutes of breathing room will make a huge difference and will re-charge for the next hour of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, crying for no reason and doing the same puzzle 50 times in a row. 

3.Travel. I've never had a desire to do a lot of traveling because I tend to be a homebody but even I wish we had done it more before Amelia. I'm so thankful for our trip to Mexico that we went on before we started trying to get pregnant but still wish we had done a few more trips like that. You can definitely still travel after babies but things are just different. Either your leaving your little tiny one at home which is like the MOST nerve racking and anxiety ridden thing you'll ever do or you'll bring them with you and let's be honest a vacation with kids is not really a vacation. {If you don't already know this, kids are a lot of work, like a lot.} Oh and some more free advice...if the resort you're at has a professional photographer, sign up for a session. I love good ole selfies but I'm so glad we have these beautiful pictures to help us remember our trip. Shout out to Excellence Playa Mujeres which I recommend over and over again to anyone who will listen to me.  

NO...the new four letter word

No...is it just a word that corrects behavior or does it go deeper than that? If I was asking my friend, Kathleen, she would say it goes much deeper and in fact it is a word that should be avoided in parenting when at all possible. I trust her opinion for sure because she studied early childhood as an undergrad and graduate student so she definitely knows a thing or two. That being said, we say no in our house. It's not the only term we use when correcting behavior or asking our daughter to stop doing something but I would say that it is the go to, especially when she's sticking her finger in a socket or attempting to ride her toddler four wheeler while standing up and time is of the essence. {Side note, she seriously may be related to Evil Knievel because she's always trying to do stunts while riding her little four wheeler! Crazy kid!}

I understand the psychology behind avoiding the word no but I'm not sure I see the benefit of it. The Millennials are probably the first product of the, don't say no parenting technique, and I'm almost positive we can all admit that this generation could have handled being told no a time or two while growing up. Heck, I'm part of that group and I can admit some weakness in this area as well. While I have been disappointed with most of the bratty behavior of my generation I also have a lot of pride for the ones who have made positive changes because they didn't take no for an answer. {As usual I see the good and bad} 

Friday Faves

On Friday's...I blog. Haha, really though. I have some great posts in the works but I just haven't had the time to wrap them up so this will be all you get this week. ;) I'm sure you're really disappointed...(insert sarcasm here) I don't know if I have many favorites this week and I may need to change the title of this series to something like..."Friday Highs and Lows," I'm not sure but I'm thinking "Friday Faves" just doesn't quite work. Anyway, let's get started. 

1. Vicks Filter-Free Cool Mist Humidifier- We rounded out the week with a trip to the Pediatrician's office. Pretty much my least favorite place ever. A recent post from Coffee + Crumbs describes the miserableness that is the pediatrician's office perfectly. The diagnosis was, "just a cold," and we were sent home to inevitably watch Amelia get more sick over this beautiful weekend but WHATEVER! A friend of mine, Amy Stewart over at New Mom Problems is trying out this humidifier with her precious little one so I decided to order it and try it out as well. Here's hoping it really is just a cold and we can actually get out of the house this weekend to enjoy what is forecasted to be a beautiful couple of days.