A trip to the fair.

I love the fair...the food, the rides, the sights (people watching at its finest), just the tradition of it all. We met up with friends, ate some funnel cake, rode some rides, had some cotton candy, saw the animals and high divers, and rednecks...

We went this past Monday (I know, bad Mommy for just getting these pictures up). The kids had the best time! We went with 3 other families (all have kids Anna-Kate's age and around Ryan's age). We go the unlimited ride pass and went crazy. Not sure if you remember her hating the rollercoaster last year (if you don't, it ended in the hysteric crying that the person crying can't really get their breath. See?)



Now this year:



This is immediately upon getting off--how cute is this??:)



Amazing how much difference a year can make! When I told her we were going to the fair she said, "do I have to ride the scary catepillar rollercoaster again this year?" Then, upon seeing it at first she said, "I not gonna ride that!". She had her friends, Adam, Hannah and Lauren with her (and incidently, their parents and younger siblings) so that seemed to help the excitement level go up to have a "ride buddy". Ryan didn't miss out on the action either. He will be my daredevil child, for sure. He loved it all.

Woah, that was a quick start!



(R) Hey, I like this thing, (AK) Down to the serious business of driving:



(R) Having the best time EVER, (AK) Oh look, friends, hi y'all!



Anna-Kate LOVED the teacups (she's my girl afterall!). While watching the girls all you could hear was Anna-Kate giggling and Hannah preparing for management, "OK girls, now you spin it, a little faster now..." :)



On the carousel:



Ryan's first ride by himself, the "Nemo". Despite his face, he LOVED it and was laughing most of the time. All of the parents were watching/laughing at him because he was so cute. :)





Anna-Kate and her friends, Hannah, Adam and Lauren (and Lauren's Mommy, Heather).



Anna-Kate, Ryan and Adam on the big fish:



We had a great time and Anna-Kate is already asking when next years fair is. :)

So I've been MIA

Busy does not even begin to cover it.

So I guess you heard/read about/saw the flooding and devastation that took place very close to here last week (thankfully, we are safe and did not suffer any loss or damages). Ironically, schools were closed Tuesday and Wednesday of last week...and it was perfectly blue-skied and not a raindrop to be seen. On Tuesday we made home made chocolate chip cookies. The kids had the best time. Stupid me swiffered and mopped my floors right before such that they were disgusting mere hours later, but whatever...it's memories we're after here. Ryan was obsessed with holding the salt. Really, he was OK pouring stuff in, but always kept his hot little hand on the salt. Whatever.



Then Wednesday, we went to the zoo. It was so fun and thankfully it isn't so horribly hot that you just want to die while smelling all of the hot animals (lovely picture I'm painting, no?). :)



We went with our friend Adam (and his mommy and sister).



I was talking with my mom on Friday afternoon while the kids were taking a nap (and I was MADLY sewing) and she mentioned that it would sure be nice if we saw dad for his birthday (incidently, the next day). I called Chris to see what he thought about going down on Sunday after church and he said, "let's just go tonight". It was 4:07 in the afternoon when he said that. If you know me, you can imagine what that did to my blood pressure/stress level. (if you dont know me, I'm pretty type A and am not uber flexible, nor do I handle last minute plan-changes and/or curve balls very well). (There, I said it. That's the first step, right?). Well, all I could think was, "are you kidding me? leave in a couple of hours when I've not packed, the kids are waking up and I told my friend who just had a c-section that I would keep her daughter this afternoon?" Well, me did it (and, bonus, didn't even forget anything). We are so glad we went, had a great time with my parents, and glad we got to wish Poppy a happy birthday in person!

On Saturday we went to the science museum (it was Smithsonian get in to a museum free day. Wouldn't suggest this museum otherwise...). The kids had a blast!

Searching for dinosaur fossils:



Making shapes with the wooden pieces, then running balls down them:



Nature walk (that, sadly, was sorely missing some "nature" aspects...). Nonetheless, the kids had a great time until Ryan stopped walking, put his hands up and said, "mama, uuu peeez". Poor guy was done. (It was 1:05. I love Babywise.) LOVE the mid-air run/jump of Anna-Kate in this picture!



The kids with the birthday boy: (Happy birthday, Dad!)



***

And now, to show you how I've been keeping busy lately. Sigh, will the mess ever be gone?? Craft fair on Saturday, the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Pictures to come.

Countdown...

...to losing my sanity (clearly, my mind is already gone). It has rained for approximately 900,437 million days in Atlanta (seriously, 2 weeks. Straight. Like, the pouring so hard you can't see your mailbox kinda rain).

They canceled school today (and, incidently, ballet) due to extreme flooding and mud falls in the area. Ironically, it's not raining today (and hasn't since I've been awake).

Now, here I go with my silver linings again...we've had a really nice morning. We are all still in our pj's (well, to be fair, AK dressed herself this morning and Ryan is in a pj shirt and real shorts. So, I'm still in my pj's...). The kids have done a craft project, (that netted me about 20 minutes of uninterrupted cleaning time!) I've washed, folded and put away (the real miracle) 2 loads of laundry, cleaned a bathroom, cleaned the kitchen, and dusted.

Wowza, I should forsake a shower, social life and sanity more often...

We are praying for no more rain, so perhaps, we can venture outside tomorrow. Now, wouldn't that be something?

OK, I take the cake on this one...

...and, unfortunately, I'm not talking about cake.

Alternate title: I've officially lost my mind.

So if you read about my day on Friday (and read the comments) you'll know that my lovely husband offered to take me out to dinner (whythankyouwhattimedoyouwanttomeet?). Well, this pregnant girl has been craving Olive Garden (I swear that all marketing campaigns succeed because of pregnant women. Just my theory). Anyway, he begrudgingly obliged. It was soooo good (and totally weird...the last time I was there was for my birthday either my jr or sr year of college when my parents took me and a bunch of friends out for my birthday....oh the memories. And oh, the breadsticks and salad!). Anyway, Chris met us there, so as he was walking me and the kids to the van I began searching (in the bottomless pit of a purse that all moms inevitably carry) for my keys. I finally had to stop, put it down and begin the empty-it-to-see-anything approach. Not there. "At least Chris is here" I thought, "so he can unlock the door, I'm sure I just locked them in the car."

Oh, if only that were the case.

Come to find out I had forgotten to lock the doors. But, I had left the keys in the car all right. In fact, I had left them in the ignition. Furthermore, I had left the car turned on. So, quick recap, I left my car running and unlocked for 1 hour and fifteen minutes while we ate dinner at the Olive Garden.

Ya, just let that one sink in.

(In case you were feeling bad about yourself, just remind yourself that you aren't that stupid). The blessing of it all? God kept my precious Odyssey safe for me to actually come back to (and, saved me the hassle of having a very odd conversation with my insurance company...and many nights of NO conversations with a very mad husband!)!

1 down, 2 to go.

Trimesters that is. :)

I woke up yesterday feeling horrible. I mean, 20 minutes in the bathroom horrible. Not knowing which end was higher priority horrible. YUCK. I drove the kids to school with 2 publix bags sitting on my lap (thankfully, they were not used). OK, enough of that.

Yesterday was my monthly OB appt (though for whatever reason I was closer to 13 than 12 weeks. Whatever). All is well. Baby H has a heartbeat (heartbeep, as Anna-Kate would say) of 150, so pretty right in the middle as far as old wives tales go. Though, everyone that has spoken an opinion to me thinks it is a girl. I'll let you know. You are welcome to weigh-in on that. :)

***

Last night I kept my friends' daughter while she was in the hospital having her little boy--congratulations Ashley!! The girls had such a fun time, and surprisingly, Ryan kept up pretty well.

***

Bonus section titled: Your Kids Really Aren't That Bad.

Today has been one of those days. Train wreck. tGif I say, Chris will be home in T minus 4 hours. By 9 am, Ryan had been in isolation two times, and we were late meeting a friend at a consignment sale. Thankfully, we rallied and had a good sale (though my friends' daughter was none too pleased to spend time with us, her Mama is evidently far superior. :) ).

Then there was the line. Oh, the line, that is what did us in. I found a bike and helmet (both princess) for Anna-Kate for Christmas. (Ya, I'm cheap like that, she doesn't know the difference. Yet.) So I"m standing there trying to keep the bike (with no training wheels) from tipping over, holding the helmet, a pair of shoes I found for Ryan, a big puffy winter coat for Ryan, a pair of tights, 2 books and a pair of pj's...it was quite the armful. Then, add in Ryan trying to climb on the bike and being too small, thus crying hysterically...that was how I spent about 30 minutes. I had people with kids of their own offer to let me go ahead of them (you know it's really bad then!). Anyway, I get there, ring me up and I write my check....then the lady says the words that sealed the deal on my morning, "just head over to that line and you can pay." She must have seen the look of absolute desperation in my eyes because she said, "well, here, I'll keep your stuff here so you don't have to carry it with you." Thanks for throwing me a bone lady. At this point, I added to the mix, not only was Ryan crying (so I finally picked him up with my hand now freed) but Anna-Kate decided she wanted in on the action. I physically cannot hold both of them right now in my fatigued state...it would have taken energy I need to reserve for tomorrow. So she began to cry that she just needs mommy to hold her. Again, people let us go ahead of them. Mortified, yep, that was me!

We were about 5 minutes from where Chris works so I called to see if he wanted to meet us for lunch (at this point, not so much about eating, more about me regaining a portion of my sanity). He declined (can you blame him?) and said he had packed a lunch. Why didn't I think of that excuse??

Thankfully, both are down and, I'm hoping, asleep. The only thing that could top this off is Ryan throwing up tonight. But then, that wouldn't be so suprising, now would it? :)

1st day of school, Ryan edition

So last Thursday was Ryan's first day of "school" (Ok, MMO, whatever). Here he is, isn't he handsome??



Walking to school. What a BIG boy with a BIG backpack:



Usually, I get to drive through the carpool line to drop off/pick up Anna-Kate. But, on days Ryan goes, I have to walk him in, so I take her in as well. She found one of her best buds, Andrew (who says, "Miss Anna-Kate is my girlfriend, I have 2 girlfriends though. Is that OK Miss Janelle?"), walking in and here's the picture I snapped:



Ryan and I outside his classroom:



Last week he cried pretty hard when I dropped him off, but they assured me that he quit crying within about 5 minutes. When I picked him up, however, he was crying again. Evidently he was fine until he saw the first mama come to get their kid, he got excited then realized I wasn't there (to be clear, I wasn't late, I got there at 12:57 people!). Anyway.

After dropping him off I had to look in on Anna-Kate...doing puzzles, her current fav:



***

Today was his second day of school (he only goes on Thursdays to give me a day to go to the OB, work on business stuff etc). He did really great. Cried a bit, but was fine by the time I was down the hall. I was the first mom to pick up (I expect to hear loud applause for being there EARLY!) and I cracked the door to look in and see him playing and laughing and dancing with the kids. I called to him and he came running. He turned to his teacher and said "bye-bye", in his veeeery thick southern accent, gave her a high five, then gave me a hug. Then promptly took off down the hall to find Anna-Kate. Too funny. I took a picture of him today because I just thought he looked too cute not to document. :) (I'm not biased, he's the cutest boy in the world, right?) :) (Side note on the shoes...he is obsessed with them. He got up from his nap and the first thing he did was ask me to put them on. One fell off a few hours later, he brought it to me almost crying. I put it back on and he got the biggest grin on his face. Random, huh?).

Family Vaca to PC Beach!!!

Well, we're back! It was a WONDERFUL trip for our family. A big thanks to Pete and Ashley for hooking us up with the great beach house!! We arrived Thursday late evening and the kids ran around exploring while we got set up. As I said before, we had ac problems, thankfully, that did not set the tone for the rest of the weekend!! The kids slept great, we had a king size bed--life was good!

Anna-Kate chillin' in her Ariel sunglasses on the way down:



Whereas, my boy is happiest while eating. Health freaks that we are, we stopped at McD's on the way down and ate in the car. I made it a twinge better by adding carrots and cantelope to their plates, right?:




We woke up Friday morning to G-L-O-R-I-O-U-S weather and went to meet my childhood friend, Kendel, and her family for a day at the beach. What a blessing that time was. We have been friends since I was 10, I believe, and we have remained close ever since. Our boys are only 3 weeks apart in age even! Anna-Kate asked the rest of the time when we were going to see Miss Kendel and her beach because "she's nice Mommy".

Our family at the beach the first day:



Ryan, with swimmies on, cuddled in a towel. He's a regular Linus (you know, from Charlie Brown?). Happy as pie as long as he something to cuddle with:



Us with Kendel, Eric and their son, Ezra:



That night we went to a new area in Panama City, Pier Park, and discovered The Back Porch, one of our favorite places to eat in Destin had expanded to PCB--yay!! See evidence of completely eaten calamari? It was good...



My boy loves seafood! He gobbles up shrimp, fish, calamari....well, about anything.



This is my favorite picture of the weekend. Sidenote, I loved this outfit of Ryan's, and when I found some fabric to coordinate I went to work asap making the dress for AK. I think it turned out cute!



On the way back from walking on the beach we passed an icecream shop and let the kids get some--they loved it, of course. :)



On Saturday we woke up to pouring rain. Kind of a bummer, though ultimately it's always good to mix up your days to avoid burning. We drove to Destin to do some outlet mall shopping (scored a Loft dress for $20 that will fit me for a while this pregnancy!), then went to our absolute favorite place there, The Donut Hole. There are no words...I got a burger (to.die.for) and Chris got an omelet. Of course, we brought home some donuts too...That afternoon we watched Cinderella, had a small dinner at home then went swimming out back.



My girl plays it safe, staying on the stairs and where she can reach. She will.not.jump unless you are holding her hands. It's a bit frustrating, but she is going at her pace I suppose.



My boy, on the other hand, is a DAREDEVIL! He pushes off the stairs and kicks to you, puts his face in the water, jumps to you--going under water, and loves to be thrown high in the air by his daddy (below). I know it's blurry, but I love this picture of Ryan--the sheer joy in jumping to Chris--from an area 3 steps higher than the edge of the pool!





On Sunday we again woke up to pristine weather. We headed to the beach early, you know, like 8:45. Ha! I have no pics in the water, as we were all there...our time was pretty evenly divided between playing in the sand/making castles, and Chris and I each with a kid about chest deep in the water jumping to miss the waves. Our kids LOVE the beach!



The kids (and Chris) absolutely crashed during naps. I sat on the back deck under the fan and read (if interested, I'm reading Shepharding a Child's Heart and I highly recommend it).

For dinner we went to Uncle Ernie's. It was so nice sitting outside just off the water (until the flies attacked, but we won in the end.). The kids again ate really well and we enjoyed our time. After dinner we walked over to look at all the boats in the dock. They really got a kick out of seeing all of the boats, especially the one that looked like a "pirate ship". :)

Eating...it's what we do:





This is how close we were to the water...just down about 10 steps:



Out on the pier, me with my babies:



A last family picture down at the beach. We could hear thunder in the distance and knew it would rain on Monday...



Something about a boy in seersucker...finally succeeded in getting Chris in it, and I'm training Ryan early!



Excellent...they sleep! Chris and I got to have a lot of time to just sit and chat together, a lovely ending to our long weekend.



That's about right...pouring down rain. It does help to cushion the blow of leaving the beach though. At least we knew we weren't missing out on anything!



We got back in to town around 6 and hit our favorite pizza place for dinner. Thankfully we had a self-proclaimed "coupon freak" for a waitress who totally hooked us up! What a great weekend!!

Oh My!

We were sitting at the dinner table when Anna-kate leaned in and her belly hit the table.

AK: "Do you know why my belly is so big it hit the table?"
Me: "No, why?"
AK: "Cause I have a baby in my tummy."
Me: "Oh, did God put the baby in there?"
AK: "No, Joseph did."
Chris: "Joseph? Is he your husband?"
AK: "Yes, he my husband. I told you that yesterday. Is it a no-no that he put the baby in there?"

Where does one go from there? Hmmm.

Ahhhhh!

As we crossed the AL/FL line I turned to Anna-Kate and said, "we're in Florida!!". Instantly, it began pouring. Like the hard rain that you can hardly hear the person next to you because it's so loud. (Remember our last trip to Florida, you know, where we got 18 inches of rain in one week). Anna-Kate looked up from her movie, saw the rain and said, "it's raing here? AGAIN?!" I couldn't have said it better myself. Thankfully, it quickly stopped.

We got to the beach house last night around 7 and got settled and turned the AC on--stat! It was HOT. Unfortunately, though it was not raining outside, about 1 hour in, water started pouring from the ceiling in 1 spot. Ironically, that one spot happened to be on my head. Seriously? Soooo my luck! Long story short, we had to turn the AC off last night and Chris had to come back today to let the ac guy in to fix it. Thankfully, we are cool tonight!

Well, I forgot my cable, so there will be no pictures in this blog. There will be LOTS when we get home. Thankfully, we still have our camera...

We had a wonderful day with GORGEOUS weather (quite uncharacteristic for our family while in Florida). The kids had a ball playing in the sand. Surprisingly, Anna-Kate kept wanting to go out deep in the ocean. She was knocked over from a huge wave and went completely under...miraculously, she came up smiling and wanted to go right back in--that's my (beach) girl!! Both kids took amazing naps (so did Chris!). We went out to dinner at the Back Porch...it's a place we love to go in Destin, and they now have one in PC Beach. Anyway, we walked down to the beach to look for shells and take some pictures, then walked over to see the carousel, live music etc. As we walked up and the carousel came into view Anna-Kate said, "O look, there is a carousel. This is a wonderful place Mommy!" She then told us that we needed to bring Nana and Poppy here because they would like it. :) So I played with the kids in a grassy area near the live music while Chris went to get the car...I put the diaper bag down as we all sat in a big chair. Chris pulled up, and we hopped up and hopped into the car. Leaving the diaper bag behind. With my camera in it. We didn't realize it until we got home...Chris rushed back and it was gone, searched everywhere and had to wait for security to get back to him as there was a security "emergency" evidently...thankfully, the bag, camera and all, was returned and is now back in my hot little hands. (I know, you are thrilled to have pictures of the weekend too :). )

OK, praying for no rain tomorrow. Loving the family time. We are having so much fun just being a family together--so thankful for this time!!

Random

Anna-Kate to Ryan in the car yesterday, "Ryan, you make my heart happy."

***

Ryan's new thing is shouting "GO!" and pointing his hand forward everytime we come to a red light. It's hysterical. He says it, then just sits there giggling at himself as if he's the most brilliantly funny comedian ever.

***

As we drove home the other night...
Anna-Kate: "Mommy, I need to go poo-poo. Right now!!!"
Me: "well, we are in the car, you are gonna have to hold it for a little while, can you do that for me?"
AK: "Hold it, you mean, hold it with my bottom?"
Me: (holding in laughter) "Umm, ya, please."
AK: (about 2 minutes later) "Oh, it was just a toot-poop, not a real poop, I don't need to go poo-poo anymore."

***

Tomorrow is Ryan's first day of school. I have very mixed emotions...will post pictures tomorrow. But, as I have a dentist appointment in the morning, need an oil change, and have to clean the house so we can leave to GO TO THE BEACH (!!!)--I'd say I'll have plenty to keep me busy while they are away.

The long weekend

It was lovely. Chris ran his first 10K--the Chick-fil-a (appropriate, as you will soon find out). He has been running the last few months almost every day, so was looking for something "official". We are so proud!! (in fact, we heard the garage door open from him coming home and I said to the kids, "let's go greet daddy and tell him how proud we are of him for running so fast!". We went down, opened the door and Anna-Kate said, "I so proud of you running fast daddy." He said, "did Mommy tell you to say that?" She said, "uh-huh." O well).



(Sidenote on this picture, for months AK has been asking if she can have a Belle dress for Christmas. I've been looking everywhere...I mean, I refuse to spend tons of money, but within reason I would buy it...not.to.be.found. So I was talking with a friend and she said she found one at BJ's or Costco or somewhere a couple of years ago for $10. I said if she ever saw one again to call me! She said her daughter didn't play with it anymore and we could have it. (side note to side note, I insisted she ask her daughter if she could give it away first and she said, "I don't even play with it mommy, a little girl can have it" how sweet??). Anyway, I brought it home in a bag so she wouldn't see it, but Chris, not knowing the history and whole story, saw it, pulled it out and and it hasn't left her body since)

OK. So we got ready and headed to Chick-fil-a for lunch. They had a deal going that if you had any sports paraphanalia on, you got a free sandwich. Well, I am economical if anything, so I took juice boxes and applesauce for the kids, and we split a large fry--voila, lunch for cheap! Well, we did spring for a diet lemonade too, we're givers like that. We met a bunch of friends and had a blast!



(friend from above loaned us the kids' shirts so they got free sandwiches too!)

We came home, and Chris and the kids napped while I ran errands. Jo-Ann fabrics was having a huge labor day sale--so I hauled it all the way up there, but it was worth it! My church is having a craft fair/fall festival in October and I was asked to have a booth (not that I'm amazing or anything, I think they just needed people and a few people knew I sold stuff that I made). Anyway. I found fabric to make the kids' halloween costumes. Pics to come of that--I'm PUMPED! I also bought a lot of fabric to make simple a-line dresses (like this one) that I will monogram and/or applique. Asked the lady if she had any coupons lying around and she said, "I have a 10% of total purchase, you want that?" Is the pope Catholic? Score!

After naps Chris said, "so, we doing Chick-fil-a for dinner too?" Not cook? Sure. So, off we went to meet more friends at the Chick for dinner. (BONUS, the kids split sandwiches both times, so we had 2 sandwiches leftover. You know, just we needed).