Favorite Things Exchange

One of my favorite things about the blogging world are the recommendations and product reviews from other bloggers.  Sometimes, the reviews introduce me to new products, and other times, well...I'm just nosy and enjoy reading what other people use!  So when Jessica and I started brainstorming this Favorite Things Exchange, I was pretty excited.  Excited to share one of my favorite things, but also excited to read about everyone else's!

First up--my favorite thing.  I make no secret of the fact that in the summers, I take two, maybe three, showers per week.  I just hate blow drying my hair when I don't have to!  Instead, I rely heavily on dry shampoo.  Whether I haven't washed my hair for a few days (#noshame) or I washed it the night prior, slept on wet hair, and in need a little something, I use dry shampoo almost every day.  I've tried all kinds of salon-quality brands - Moroccan Oil, Hempz, and Amika to name a few, but for the price and quality, Batiste's drugstore version ranks at the top of my list.  And if we're talking my most favorite, it would have to be the blush scent.  It smells so darn good!  Not only is this a quality dry shampoo (it doesn't weigh my hair down and doesn't leave it feeling full of product), but it won't break the break ($5 to $8 per bottle) and it doesn't require an extra stop at the salon/beauty store to purchase (sold at both Target and Walmart).  Win, win, win. 

I Amazon primed (ahem, another favorite thing, free shipping? yes please!) a bottle to both Emily (Three Boys and a Girl) and Stefanie (Lexie Loo, Lily, Liam, and Dylan Too!).  I hope you both love your dry shampoo as much as I do and if nothing else, it will work nicely as a good perfume! ;)

I received favorite things from Stephanie (Wife Mommy Me) and Missy (My Shitty Kitchen) and I'm excited to put both to great use!  To see what they sent, you'll have to visit their blogs. ;)

Thank you to all who participated and don't forget to link up and share your favorite thing using the widget below!  You can also share what you received, but it's not required.  And if you'd like, you can post your favorite thing to Instagram using the hashtag #favoritethingsbloggerexchange.

An InLinkz Link-up

Summer Birthday Exchange

For the second year in a row, I participated in a summer birthday exchange among a handful of some pretty famous bloggers.  Or at least, they're famous in my eyes!  And it technically wasn't me who participated, but Brantley, plus all of the bloggers' kiddos!

Our Secret Santa-style partners were Julia {blogger} and Myles {birthday boy} at The Everyday Momma.  This was a new blog {and blogger} to me so I had to snoop around a little to learn all about those two!  Like Brantley (and many of these kiddos below), Myles will turn 4 this summer.  He adores all things superhero, which is what I based the main part of his gift on.  I'll leave it at that and you can check out Julia's blog post for more!

When Brantley's gift arrived to our doorstop, I couldn't help but laugh because it was sent from our friends, Brittany {blogger} and Charlie {birthday boy} of Just Another Day in Paradise, who live just five miles down the road!!  Brittany and I started as blog friends about four years ago, but have since become real-life friends who now attend the same church (except that we haven't been in awhile!) and belong to the same mom's group!  And clearly, great minds think alike because Brittany {and Charlie} sent exactly what was on Brantley's list my list for Brantley without even knowing!!  Add it to the multiple ways in which we're more alike than not, Brittany, and thank you for the game, ball, and package of fruit snacks (which were promptly eaten)!

I think that takes care of all Brantley's birthday-related posts!  For a list of other bloggers who participated, see below!

Ashley and Waverly // Being Brickner

Elizabeth and Mason // Chasin' Mason

Laureen and Tyson // Chateau Deveau

Brittany, Charlie, and Maddie // Just Another Day in Paradise

Desiree and Julia // Macke Monologues

Natasha and Ethan // Schue Love

Sarah and Brantley // Seeing All Sides

Vanessa and Arden // Sunflower State of Mind

Julia and Myles // The Everyday Momma

Traci and Charli // The Hallway Life

Amanda and Lily // Tickled Pink

Laura and Liam // tiny toes, little nose

Whitney and Brielana // Work It Mommy

Our 4th

This year, our fourth was far from ordinary.  We were stuck inside on Saturday and Sunday due to below-average temperatures and rainy, dreary weather.  But that wasn't even the weirdest of it!  Around midnight on Sunday (technically Monday), I awoke to Brantley crying.  I groggily made my way to his room and fumbled to turn on the hallway light.  It didn't take me long to realize, we had lost power and Brantley was crying because it was so dark and so quiet in his bedroom.  I brought him into our bed and proceeded to text Craig, who was having deck beers at a neighbor's house.  Come to find out, the entire neighborhood was without electricity.

I woke up overnight a few more times, hoping to hear the hum of our portable AC, but nothing.  Soon darkness turned to light and all I could think was "What are we going to do without power?!"  There would be no coffee (ugh), no flat iron (luckily, I had washed and dried my hair before going to bed), no dryer (I also started a load of laundry before bed), no oven (it's not 4th of July without my festive fruit pizzas!), and no way to charge my camera battery before all of the holiday festivities!  Clearly, I would not do well as a pioneer. ;)

After a quick run to the nearest gas station for coffee, donuts, ice, and milk, we readied ourselves as well as we could in the semi-darkness (it was still pretty dreary on Monday morning) and went about our normal holiday plans.

First up, the Lenexa Fourth of July parade with some neighbors.

These kids just really adore each other and we're going to be so sad to see four of them go next month. :(  But lucky for us, this isn't even half of all the kids in our little group.

My boys wouldn't cooperate for a photo together, so I had to take their photos with friends and alone.

 

We did our best to get a family photo...but 1) the parade was coming and 2) all the boys wanted to do was sit and play with their friends.

Both boys enjoyed the parade.  Brantley was more excited about every marching band he saw (like, 3) and both boys had enough suckers to last an entire month.

 

The only float worth photographing was this Moose Caboose.  Mike "Moose" Moustakas is the Royal's third baseman and the city has been beaming with pride since winning last year's World Series.  The rest of the parade included lots of political garb, but the kids sure loved all the free stickers!

Meanwhile, back at home, our neighborhood was still without power.  We grabbed some lunch (since no microwave) and headed home for naps.  Literally, that's all there was to do without electricity.  I did go to a co-worker's house for a couple of hours to use her oven and took any and all electronics with me to charge like crazy.  It was at that point that I could finally start Instagraming a few photos.  Life saver. ;)

Just before 5pm that evening, our power was restored!  And based on the girls' text chain, you would think we had gone without it for days!!  #surefeltlikeit

 All in all, we were without electricity for just over 17 hours.  Turns out, a car crashed into the power box near our neighborhood at 11:30pm on the 3rd causing 500+ customers to be without power for most of the day on the 4th.  Luckily, the temps on Monday were below average and being without AC during that time was bearable.  The weather has since climbed back in the high 90s and I can't imagine not having AC!!  We were also very thankful for the electricians who spent most of their holiday working to restore our power.  We felt sorry for ourselves for awhile, but we got to enjoy the holiday with our family and friends...they didn't. :(

On Monday evening, we headed back to hang with neighbor's for a delicious shrimp boil and more festive fun.  

(I screen shotted your picture, Ali.  Thanks!)

I tried one more attempt at a brothers photo.  In over 20 shots, these three are the best I got.  Sigh.

 

And the awkwardly hilarious headphones?!  Despite Brantley telling us for two weeks that he was not going to be scared of the fireworks this year, the minute that first neighborhood firework sounded, he was terrified.  These things never left his ears all. night. long.

 

However, later that evening he surprised us all and stomped on some poppers.  He even tried a sparkler...and enjoyed it...and kept coming back for more!

Holden also enjoyed the sparklers.  He wouldn't let me get too far from him so it was harder to take photos, but I managed a few!

We ended the evening with Olathe's firework display and Brantley telling us he actually liked them.

Until bedtime, of course, when neighbor's were shooting them off right outside his window.  Back to our bed he went for the second night in a row....headphones and all!  

And now, three days later,  we are all still trying to catch up on our sleep!

Everything about our 4th was amazing.  The weather turned out to be perfect and even the power outage was pretty comical...only because we were all in it together!  I have a feeling this won't be a 4th we will soon forget!  Until next year, happy birthday, America!