Im so Thankful! Part 1.

Starting from the beginning, I was talking to my sister Shannon on the phone Friday and maybe a little on Saturday about how the whole family (my side of the family -minus my mom, because my parents are divorced, so the "whole family" has to exclude a parent) would be spending Thanksgiving together at my sister Kelly's cabin up in Blue Ridge. The last family reunion was last August, and we were all there, but Dave, who is my sister Shannon's husband (and of course my mom, because it was my dad's side of the family- reunion.) Needless to say, we have all resigned ourselves to not really getting to spend many holidays together. My sisters have husbands and spend time with those families too so sometimes its real hit or miss. I have kids and, me being a stay at home mom, buying plane tickets is not easily affordable. Anyhow, Shannon and I were talking about how nice it would be to see each other for the Holidays, and I am in my 3rd trimester so I wasn't sure that I would be able to fly, nor did we have the money to spend on 2 tickets, just before Christmas and the delivery date. We talked and Shannon said that if I was game, that she was going to look into tickets.

Sunday I woke up super early. Laid in bed awake from 4am til 5 when finally I went downstairs to set up coffee to brew and eat some cereal. I was standing in the kitchen, and checked my phone and saw that I had an email. OMG!!! It was a flight itinerary for later that morning... as in I needed to get Josie and I packed, and me showered and FAST!!! As it turns out, that email was not the tickets that she bought... about a half an hour before we would have had to leave for the airport, Shannon texted me that she had not purchased that flight, nor did she realize that it was a flight that was going to be leaving in a couple hours hahaha. So I called he and we ironed it all out and since I was packed and ready and so was Josie, we were able to get a flight booked for a couple hours later, so I was able to sit down and let my head stop spinning from the craziness and the tiredness... we were able to go to Starbucks and Sarah met us there to say bye to Josie and give her hugs and kisses.

We made it to the airport on time, Michael parked and got us all situated up to the security line, which was sweet of him. We all miss each other already. Josie decided that she was going to have a god potty training day all day! Each and every time that she had to go potty, she told me, and we went to the bathroom and she used them, even public self flushing toilets! EVEN THE ONE ON THE PLANE!!! Can I tell you how small those damned bathrooms are? OH EM GEE! There was not enough room for my 31 week pregnant belly to bend or squat down hardly with a toddler in front of the potty so that I could pull her pull up down. She hasn't gotten savvy to the pulling up and down her own pants or pullups yet. That will come soon I hope. Anyhow, we made it here. The plane landed at 6:30 Atlanta time, and Brian was at the airport to pick us up. We had about a 35 min drive to the house, chicken noodle soup was made and ready for us, with cheese bread and grapes, mmmm. Finnegan waved when we came in and flashed us a HUGE smile. It was awesome. I had to wash my hands first and Josie's because we were just at the airport all day, and where as we had washed our hands several times, it just needs to be a good habit. Finn stayed up about an hour past his bedtime to visit more. Josie said "Night" over and over again, for the first time ever. We got our jammies on when Finn did, and we were soon to go to bed after. I was delusional tired. We called Daddy to say night to him. He said that the house was too quiet. :( I told him I was sorry and that I missed him a bunch.

Good thing is though, my person's family decided to stay home for this Thanksgiving, and they said that they were hoping to come eat with Michael, so he will have some people to share Thanksgiving with. Im just sad that I wont be there to witness Michael's cooking, because truth is, he wouldn't cook if I was there, I am pretty sure about that anyhow.

Today I woke up earlier than I would have liked to, but thats just how it goes. I got to spend time with Finn before he went to daycare, which was super nice. He is such an adorable sweet boy. Today Josie and I get to just hang out and readjust to the new time of day, etc. I need a nap today, to try to recover from me waking up so early and waking up during the night etc.

Most of all I am excited to see us all be able to surprise my dad and Grandma with our visit. We are hoping for tears. We never get to spend holidays all together. I wish Michael was here so bad... He wishes he was here, that he could visit too... but we have to choose and pick how we can. I have to wait to post this, in the off chance that my dad checks this blog regularly, I don't want to spoil it. So, til tomorrow this post will remain in draft form.

Nevermind, the cat is out of the bag. My dad knows, lol. He called Shannon to talk about something and she couldn't keep herself from spilling the beans. *sigh* Oh well. We still get to be together for the rest of the week. :)

Tis the Season

I can't believe that we are already in the holiday season. One day it seems like time is passing normally, then all of a sudden there are days when I am surprised at how far away a date is, or how close a date is coming. I love the holiday season, I love a house decorated with trees, and lights and ornaments, and Christmas Villages, smells of the season like yummy things cooking, or nice woodsy smells of tree's and fires in fire places. Thanksgiving is a week away. I will be doing a bunch of cooking, and hopefully I can get some of the things done the day before, like the desserts so that those are out of the way. We were going to do something other than a Turkey, and then I was like.... but why? Turkey is good, and its traditional, and no one had an amazing idea for an alternative, so lets save the mixing it up for Christmas dinner I say, and everyone agreed. I am assuming that Michael's father will be having a meal on thanksgiving, but if we are eating at that time, then we will just have to make time to visit later in the evening. I don't think its imperative to gorge ourselves if not necessary, and anyhow I am pregnant and my digestion is so darn slow, that if i overeat, I will be in pain and need to sleep til Christmas, but wont be able to get comfortable enough to fall asleep lol.

Today I kinda got on myself about how is Josie supposed to take potty training seriously, when I am not seriously working on it with her, as in she knows that if she is wearing a pull-up that she doesn't have to go to the big girl potty every time otherwise there will be a mess. So today, we are low on Pull-Ups, and I want to save them for when she is sleeping because thats a reasonable accident time. She did pretty well. She is much more willing to use the potty when there is no pull-up as a safety net... and I am happy, that means that this is all happening at the right time. I need to just really stick with it, unless she has a major aversion to continuing potty training. We can do this!!!

On another side note, the baby... (which Michael and I have a couple of names that may be used still... it depends on what she looks like when she is born) she was kicking right behind my belly button, it was very odd feeling, but kinda neat. She even did it when Michael got home from work and he got to feel it, he swears it was her butt, but I think it was a foot or a knee. Also this is the second day where I have really noticed that I am having Braxton Hicks contractions every a couple times a day. During them, I cannot walk at my normal pace, in fact its best if I sit down and wait it out. Nothing to worry about, just one of those pregnancy things that some people have and some people don't. Its hard to fall asleep at night, because I can NOT get comfortable, then when I am asleep, anything wakes me up... so I don't get a lot of continuous sleep, but I am going to chalk it up to mother nature's way of getting you used to sleep deprivation with life with a newborn. Que cera cera though, right?

Ok, this is a late post that I am sneaking in at the end of the day... Maybe my person will enjoy reading it tomorrow, which is Thursday!!! Thursdays are my favorite days of the work week, because our favorite shows are on, and I go over to her house and we watch them together, sometimes there is coffee and treats and other times its just our good company. Either way, its our day, and I love her for wanting to share her Thursday nights with me.

Belated Halloween recap

It was Miss Elaine Abigail's very first debut as a dressed up trick or treater! Amanda's family came over in the late afternoon so the girls could all get their pictures taken together (just wait until proms and first day of schools, and hey its Thursday, excuses to photograph the kids together lol) She was the most amazing little monkey ever!
Avery got to look like the princess she believes she is, for Halloween. She chose to be Belle this year, and Grammy happily obliged her with a very fancy and beautiful Belle costume from the Disney store. I made sure to make her hair and makeup look as Belle-like as possible, all while freaking out a little on the inside and telling myself over and over again that I was not being a pageant mom lol.

Josie for some reason, although she loves Nemo, and loved her costume, she was not wanting to dress up early for the photos or get her picture taken. She didn't really realize what the night had in store for her. In her mind we were jsut trying to dress her up for photos, and she wanted to exercise her ability to say NO! We managed to get a couple with her in the frame, but when she was done, she was done.

After pictures we tried to hurry through dinner (which next time it should just be pizza, not taco night) and there were trick or treaters at our door before we were done eating, so we got the girls all ready to go, Michael quickly carved his pumpkin and met up with us down the street. There were just enough houses giving out candy on our block to make it worth it for a toddler, but as the girls get older, they will know to start out earlier, to be able to cover more ground further back into the neighborhood, in order to achieve a bigger candy bounty! hehehe

All in all, the girls were still in bed on time, Avery chose a cupcake to eat and Josie chose a dumdum sucker (they are her favorite I think) They trick or treated like pro's! Well Avery did, she said Trick or treat, Happy Halloween, and Thank You every time! That makes me so proud, and makes her seem so grown up and polite, and was a great role model for Josie. :) I wonder what next year will be like, with a 9 month old added to the mix. HAHA!

Weekend Fun Pt 1

This weekend was super awesome. Friday I picked up Avery in the afternoon, she and Josie each had snacks, Josie had Goldfish, and Avery had been given a popcorn ball as her treat at daycare. They elected to trade, which as long as they worked it out and were happy, then I was happy haha.

Josie with her popcorn ball.

I decided that it was perfect timing going to the park, it was afternoon and the weather was so nice, and we had time to kill anyhow before Daddy got home. We went to Stevenson Park. The girls ran around for a while on the playground stuff, and all was well until some super rowdy boys that were older came, they were screaming and throwing things and Josie acted a little freaked out by it all (Avery is much more use to being around rowdy crazy kids, so she thought nothing of it.) So i decided to see if the girls would like to go "exploring," which they did, so we walked around the park on the trail. We looked for squirrels and fallen leaves, and pine cones and rocks, and areas that were flooded from the storm early Thursday morning. We got to where the pool was, and a High School swim team must use the pool, because there were a bunch of kids swimming laps. Josie was pretty upset seeing them in the water, she really really wanted to go swimming too. Poor kiddo. It wasn't too chilly, but the breeze was cool enough that a light sweater definitely was more comfortable. The girls ran around the big gazebo for a while and then we finished up walking the trail and ended back up at the car. We made it home, and the girls played, we had dinner, the girls got their first bath together in the new bathtub upstairs! Then, kind of last min, I decided that I would go see Law Abiding Citizen with my person and her husband. I was happy to get out of the house and hang out. The movie was pretty good, I have a big celebrity crush on Gerard Butler anyhow, so that made the movie better, in my opinion.

Saturday we woke up and watched a little TV while waking up. Had our beverages of choice, coffee for the adults and chocolate milk for the kiddos. Then we had oatmeal for breakfast. After we ate we decided to get ready for the day. It took a while for Michael and I to get showered and ready and to get the girls in their cute halloween outfits (not their costumes.) Michael wanted more coffee and wanted to get a new book to read, and so we packed up and when Aunt Sarah got here, we left for Barnes and Noble (they have a Starbucks connected to them.) We hung out there for quite a while, when the Rosendahl's joined us we headed out to the pumpkin patch! We took some pictures, and bought some pumpkins!

On our way home, we grabbed some quick lunch, and the girls finally got to take their naps round 2:30. I laid down with Josie. She has been terrified of the smoke detector in her room ever since it beeped in the middle of the night apparently needing a new battery SHEESH! Then I cut the front yard. When the girls woke up, Damien was just getting dropped off, and I laid down two huge blankets on the yard for us all to lounge on for a little bit. Damien walked with me as I pulled the girls in their wagon around the block. We played with a ball in the yard, and when Kerry arrived a little later, we sat on the blankets and had some coffee and talked and Michael felt adventurous and washed his car! Josie and Avery decided to help and when Kerry and Damien left, we quickly gave my car a fast scrub down too. Then we came in, the girls got into dry clothes and I threw together a late dinner, pasta shells with zucchini and broccoli in a garlic butter E.V.O.O. sauce. I served it with fresh crumbled mozzarella cheese and pesto, and fresh sliced tomatoes for those who wanted it. It was a build your own pasta bowl dinner. Micahel gave me a pretty amazing compliment. He said that my cooking has gotten a lot better, that I am a lot better at making good food and throwing together some amazing dishes with no recipe, just things that we have. I thanked him and said that was a really nice compliment and I am happy to hear that! We finished the night off with watching Winnie the Pooh. The girls never ask to watch this movie, but they love it. Its too cute.

The Rest of May Days

So, Mothers Day came and went, I have photographic proof that Michael was not the first one up, and did not let me (the mom) sleep in on Mothers Day, heh heh heh. We went to run a couple errands while the girls napped and Grammy was home studying for finals, and then we went to Michael's dad's house for lunch and to hang out. It was a super hot day, and we had set up the pool for the girls. They had a great time in it! 

         
                

During one of the showings of our house, Josie and I took Michael to the new park we found. He had been there before, but not since they redid all of the playground equipment. Even he thought it was pretty cool! (May 13, 2009)

That Morning Josie and I had played with play doh :)   

       

On May 17th 2009 we went to Damien's 10th birthday party. It was at the park next to their house, and it was a water balloon/ water gun party HAHA  Erik, Amanda, and Laine came too! It was a great idea that Kerry and David had to orger pizza and set up the tent, it almost rained, but turned out to be a great day and a great party!

           

      
 
        
   

Silly pics of Josie and I 

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And finally, Memorial Day came. To me growing up, Memorial day was always the first sign that summer was here, public pools were open that day. This memorial day, it was 96 degrees out. Michael and Josie and I wanted to get out of the house, but it was so dang hot, so what would you have done? We went and got Snowcones! WOO HOO! Josie's very first. We decided to get her started with a blue raspberry one, and it made her tongue all blue! My favorite is wedding cake with cream, and michael got tangerine. We had a pretty common Memorial day dinner. Corn on the cob, baked beans, and chicken sausage. :) All in all it was a great lazy day.