Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

We traveled up to Virginia for the weekend and spent time with our families.  It was packed and exhausting but it was oh so good to see our families.

Several weeks ago, my grandfather was diagnosed with his second bout of lung cancer.  We found out recently, that the diagnosis is not good and that it has spread to multiple other parts of his body.  With that being said, his birthday was last week and the family got together to celebrate his birthday and surround him with love.

Friday Night - my dad's (Pop Pop) house

Friday night we spent the night at my dad's house and Ryan got to celebrate Easter a little early.  And that meant, lots of chocolate consumed from his Easter eggs and running wild in my dad's house with Ryan's new monster trucks he got.

You can always count on the good ole grandparent for feeding your kid mounds of sugar and then handing them back to you!

Saturday - my mom's (GiGi) house

Saturday was the day for my Papa's big birthday party.  My mom has three younger brothers, so my uncles, their wives and kids all came to surround my grandfather with tons of love and food.  I am the oldest of 15 grandchildren and aside from my sister who is just three years younger than me, there is at least an 11 year age gap between me and most of my cousins.  Ryan absolutely ADORED them and played all night long.

Playing with Play-Doh with my sister (Aunt Court) and GiGi

Loving on my Papa

mommy and baby :)

See, my family thinks it's really funny to give my kid sugar!

Some of my cousins with Ryan!

Ry with my uncle Billy

Ry with my uncle Wayne

Sugar kicked in

Some of my cousins, myself, Ryan and the best Papa around

GiGi and her Ry guy

Sunday - GaGa's house (Russell's mom) and then home

Sunday, we spent the morning with Russell's mom and then drove home.  GaGa and my husband both have chronic Lyme's disease and she isn't doing well so she came with us back to NC, to stay for a little while and get healthy.

My husband flies to St. Louis to see a Lyme's specialist so he is trying to get her in there asap and go with her to get her some help.  If you don't know much about Lyme, it is a horrible disease. My husband has fought it for over five years and early on, we didn't even know if he would make it. With lots of research and finding the right doctor, he has learned to manage it and that is what we hope for her.

When we got home, it was beautiful outside so Ryan did get to play before dinner...

Yes, he's watering the trees

... and then we promptly put that little nugget to bed to get him back on schedule.


Hope you had a great weekend!

XOXO,
Sherri

Friday Favorites | 2.19.16

Thanks to Heather for the link-up!

It has been a hot minute since I have done a Friday Favorites post. Mostly because I have either had a sick kid or a sick kid that had surgery on my Fridays.  Catch the trend?  But, it is looking like we are out of the woods and my little boy is staying healthy.  Whoop whoop!

So, what are some of my recently favorite finds?  

Currently...

It has been a while since I did my last "Currently" post so I figured you were just chomping at the bit to know what has made my "Currently" list.

Current Book:

I am re-reading the Fifty Shades books because I have needed some down time in the evenings that is not intellectually stimulating. I read the books almost four years ago while on my honeymoon. (Great honeymoon read by the way.) I recently watched the movie and forgot a lot about the first book and barely remembered what happened in the others so I picked them back up.  I'm almost finished with the last book.

Weekend Recap | Operation "Toddler Bed"

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

The weekend came and went way too fast, just like any other weekend.  The only difference is that we were having monsoon rains all day yesterday with extreme cold (extreme for NC), so there was a little cabin fever.

And let me tell you, cabin fever is very hard when you have a toddler that needs to run around.  So, what did we do?  We distracted him with Operation "Toddler Bed."

The treadmill lies!

I have been an avid fitness enthusiast for I don't know how long.  Back in the day, I used to teach Turbo Kick, I have done Crossfit, spin classes, DailyBurn, Les Mills On Demand, etc... you name it I have done it.  Now, I am successfully rotating Les Mills On Demand BodyPump, Pure Barre at home DVDs, and treadmill HIIT training.  But, through it all, I have never monitored my heart rate or calorie burn.  I have based everything out on how hard did I sweat.  Isn't that sad?  I mean, my treadmill at home has an estimated calorie tracker and I figured that couldn't be THAT far off.

Beets Blu contacted me recently to try out two of their new Bluetooth products that I could syn with my iPhone.  One was their Beets Blu Bluetooth Heart Rate Monitor and the other was their Bluethooth Key Finder.  I jumped at the chance so that I could see if there was ready an added benefit to the heart rate monitor.

Weekend Recap | Warm weather and lots of laughs

Happy Monday!  I am linking up with Katie for my weekend recap!

Thank you for the kind comments on Thursday's post.  Ryan's ear surgery went very well!  He ended up having a double ear infection, again, at the time of surgery so I am very thankful we got Ryan in when we did.  They cleaned his ears out and he pretty much slept the rest of the day.

By the time he woke up, he was famished so we went to our favorite local fresh Mexican spot, Islands.  They have no refrigerators, and everything is bought locally that morning and made fresh daily.  The best food ever!  Ryan was down for some grub and some Dada bonding time.

Saturday was "Operation Disinfect" at the Schwartz house.  With Ryan's surgery and earlier in the week our Hand, Foot, Mouth issues, it was an urgent matter to attend to.  Every surface was germ free and even Ryan was up for helping.