She arrived!

She is here. Dec 14th at 12:51pm. 8 lbs 1 oz. She is so wonderful. Having one baby is soooo easy compared to having the boys. :-) My boys are so loving towards her, no issues so far with adding her to the family other than lack of sleep. :-)

4 more days

Wow, just 4 more days until this little girl arrives. I am so happy with how our nursery turned out. I am super nervous about the surgery and recovery. I have all sorts of emotions lately running from fear to excitement. I hope I can remember how to care for a newborn.

The Boys Questions

The boys are starting to ask me some specific questions about the baby. I didn't expect it although I sometimes underestimate them. Dean asked on the way to school this morning...how does baby sister get out of your belly? I thought I had a good answer with the doctor will take her out. Then he said..but how? I said, the doctor will make a small cut in my belly and take her out and then stitch me up and I will have a bandaid. He then asked if I would have a cast like Caden did...I said no.

I love how curious they are at this age. I hear a lot of why's lately.

Greenbrier

I have to say that the Greenbrier is the most amazing place ever. We had a fantastic time and the hotel and amenities are out of this world. Everyone in our family enjoyed it...my youngest sister who is single, my middle sister with her husband (no kids yet) and my family with 2 - 3yr olds and my parents. Everyone had tons of activities and I love having fancy dinners every night. Yes, it is coat and tie at some of the restaurants and at least a jacket at all. I love that!! But then again I like fine dining. :-)

If you ever have a chance to go (and someone else is paying...like the parents) then jump all over it!

Thanks Grammy and Grandpa!

Having a Girl!!

So excited. I am 21 weeks pregnant and we had the ultrasound yesterday. Everything is looking great and we are having a little girl. I am soooo excited.

I'm ready to go shopping and decorate the nursery!

Punta Cana

We just got back from 5 days in Punta Cana. It was a great place to relax. We went with a couple friend of ours. The only bad part was that I couldn't drink. I normally don't drink very much but being at an all-inclusive adults only place meant I was the only person not drinking. Those pin a coladas were calling for me.

Now back to the grind. :)

I'm glad my husband just has 1 day of work before the weekend. I'm ready for our next vacation! We have our annual 4th of July with family, then a big family reunion, then a family trip with my parents and sisters. Which reminds me...my sister announced she is pregnant too!! I am ecstatic! She is 6 weeks behind me. I can't wait for our kids to be the same age.

Good news!

I am pregnant! This time I have been feeling pretty sick so I haven't been blogging as much. But we are so happy. I can't wait for our ultrasound on Friday to make sure that it is just one baby this time. :) My two boys are identical twins so it makes us extra nervous going to this appointment. Keep your fingers crossed! I love having twins but it was extremely hard work the first couple of years.

A Dream Day with Kids...Ha Ha

So today was one of those days you dream about (well...maybe me) when you think of having a family. We have a full day planned with a big Easter Egg Hunt and Festival at our local recreation center, lunch out and then a trip to Costco, nap then dyeing eggs in the backyard. Well....it just did not go like I dreamed of it. :-)

Maybe all parents know this after having kids and especially my Mom laughed at this when I told her. The day started out with me trying to get my boys to wear special Easter outfits. Tons of crying and yelling was involved...a sad trip to the Festival. Then I tried to get a couple pictures before the Egg Hunt but I still couldn't get any smiles. Then we went and waited in long lines for the jump castles and Easter Bunny. Then Dean wanted to go on the pony ride. We waited in line for 1 hour...Caden wanted nothing to do with it and whined about getting ice cream the whole time...we were all grumpy. Then Dean rode on his pony and we filmed it, took pictures and when he got off...he just cried because he didn't get to ride on the pony he wanted. We walked out of there with both boys crying and falling down on the ground. Ugh!! I wasn't going to let them ruin my day though so we soldiered on. My husband was even more unhappy than the boys with the way they were acting. The day ended up getting a bit better but Wow! I am exhausted.

This must be what people talk about when you go to Disney you hear tons of parents yelling at their kids to stop crying and be happy because they are at Disney. I would have been even more upset if we had paid money to be at that event. Do kids just freak out when they know it is supposed to be a big day of fun???

My husband and I both collapsed when the boys went down for nap and fell asleep for an hour ourselves. We were all in better moods to dye eggs.

Flowers

 I'm so excited how my flowers look right now. I can only hope I can keep them looking good throughout the summer. I can't stand yard work and leave that to  my husband but I think I can handle these containers. I had to redo the one on the railing. It had flowers in there from the previous owner and the center grassy looking plant had to be repotted. I also had to redo the coconut liner...I never knew what that it was made of coconuts or that you even had to replace it. :-) I just happened to walk by some replacement liners one day in the store and it all clicked...'oh, I can get a new one!' I didn't even realize how horrible mine looked before I replaced it. I came home with a new one and went around to the front porch and looked at the old one and just laughed...how did I not notice that it was completely grey and falling apart??

This is the plant that used to be in the basket hanging on the railing. It was too big so got its own pot now. I had to find some flowers to go around it that can stand being in the shade. I hope they survive.

Trip is booked

Yea! We just booked our vacation. We are going on a trip to Secrets Sanctuary Cap Cana in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We have never been and we are going with another couple. It is my husbands and both of the other couples 40th birthday this summer so it sorta a celebration trip...or at least that is the excuse we are using. :-) 

For the first time ever we are trying an all-inclusive resort. I'm hoping it is as nice as I am used to visiting. I hate to say it but I am super spoiled with all the nice trips my parents take us as a family. I'm hoping that the all-inclusive helps my husband to relax. In our few vacations we have taken that weren't with my parents, by the end he has freaked out with all the money we have spent.

My husband's family didn't take family vacations. I grew up with my Dad being in the hotel business so we went on vacation all the time. I get very antsy if I don't have a trip planned in the future and my husband could care less if we ever go on vacation. Hopefully, the all-inclusive can help us meet in the middle. :-)

I'm a very happy girl today...I love having something like this to look forward to!

Modeling/Acting

I've broken down. My husband has been after me to try and get the boys into acting/modeling for over a year. He even made an appt for us at an agency last year and I just didn't show up that day for it because I thought the boys were too young. Now we've visited a couple agencies and we have commited to getting pictures done. This is a whole new scary world I'm taking a trip into....scary like Toddlers & Tiara's scary. I'm very nervous about this but hope it goes well. We are in a very small city so I doubt we would get much work at all but my husband thinks it would be great to get some money for a college fund. BTW, this is very unlike my husband...he is totally not into looks or anything...he just see's $ signs for their college because I think he is very scared of the day they send us the college bill. :-)

Anyone have advice? The fact that they are identical twins is the only reason we are looking into this as it gives them an advantage in jobs.

Another Girls Trip

I am so lucky! I've had two girls trips in the past 6 weeks. This one was with my tennis team. We went to Kiawah and had a tennis clinic and played for hours and stayed overnight. It was a blast but I am so tired now. I love the women on my team, a good mix of ages, some with kids and some without. Great tennis, great conversations, great fun!

Family Dinner

We had my parents and one of my sisters over for dinner last night. I really wish we all lived in the same town so we could have a lot of family dinners. It was hectic but fun! I think it was funny that the boys insisted on sitting at the ends of the table.

Look at me...I'm crafty!

I'll start off saying that I am not a crafter. But I impressed myself by putting this together with $ store items. I found the eggs on sticks at the $ Tree and put some pastel jelly beans in the bottom. The vase is a Tiffany's vase I already had. Now I need to make sure the boys don't touch it. It is very risky for me to leave this in the middle of our table. I told them the candy is pretend just like the eggs on a stick are not lollipops. :-) I'm not sure if they believe me.

My husband even said he was impressed that I did this myself. Wow...so sad that this is impressive for me.

Painted Tables

Yea...I can check one item off my list. I had priced having these tables repainted by someone else along with a dining room hutch but in the end I decided to do the tables myself to save money. It actually was so easy since I decided to try spray paint.

I didn't take a before picture but it was a red/orange fake wood finish. They were in my fathers old office. There are 2 of them but I only took a picture of one.

We are going to take the hutch to someone else who paints furniture as a business. I just can't handle that big of a piece of furniture. I can't wait to see it. Hopefully I'll keep up my motivation to get some of my projects finished.

Girls Trip

I went on a girls trip this past weekend to the Grove Park Inn. All I can say is Wow! That is the most amazing spa! We went down to the spa at 8:30 am and didn't leave until 7pm. It was so relaxing and I had the best massage of my life. I recommend Mo the masseuse. They have so many pools, hot tubs, steam rooms, silent rooms with big fireplaces, etc. I feel so refreshed.

Here is the basket of goodies I took for our hotel room. We went through a few bottles of wine as soon as we arrived. It was nice to have a few bottles of water for in the room and a couple munchies, gossipy magazines and some dark chocolate. :-)

Lots of Updates

Lots of things to update everyone on...

1. The boys turn 3 this weekend. I went back and forth but ended up deciding to not have a party this year. We did a great party last year but it is hard to find a place for 3 year olds. I will not have it in my house...just too much work. We did Gymboree last year which was great but they are a little too old for that this year. They aren't ready for roller skating, bowling or anything else I could think of so we opted out. All of our friends are having parties so I feel sorta guilty but they won't remember. We will just have a family party with my parents and one of my sisters will be in town for it. I wish they had a summer birthday so we could have a cheap pool party or something at the park.

2. I guess 3 will be a tough age for us. The boys are really testing my limits. I've got to up my dicipline level...timeouts for 3 mins just aren't cutting it. They laugh through the whole thing. I wish they had a favorite toy that I could take away but they don't have anything like that. They are super great in public but are starting to put up a fight when we leave something or place or they get super wild at home.

3. Matt and I went on a date night 2 weeks ago. It was fantastic! We go out all the time but to parties or dinners with friends. It always happens that the girls go in one room to do girl talk and the guys watch a game on TV and hang out. We are never together when we are out socializing. We needed it bad...and it was fantastic! We need to do that more often!

4. I've done a few things to update the house a little bit. I painted 2 end tables black. And did some rearranging of some shelves in our living room. I hope they update the room a bit. I have more planned....

Weird??

 This is a coloring one of my 2 year olds did. The teachers and other parents acted like this was an amazing thing. I do think it is pretty good too. I don't know if this means he is talented artistically or if he just has my husbands tendency to being very detail oriented. Probably the later.... :-)



Resolutions For My House in 2011

I have some goals for 2011. I need to do a little updating to our home. We moved into this house in Sept 2009 from a home that we had custom built. This one was not built by us so it is more difficult than normal to make it feel like our own.

1. Have can lighting intalled in our family room. It is extremely dark in there with only one light from the ceiling fan.
2. At the same time have the electrician change our our ceiling fan. It is a 2 story ceiling so I'm going to have them do it since they will have tall enough ladders.
3. Built-ins or furniture pieces in our Master Bedroom. Somehow a coffee table has been "stored" in our room and my husband puts his laptop on it. We have lots of random boxes still in our room from moving in and we need a place for everything.
4. Have old dining room hutch painted. Decide where I want to use it. Either in the dining room or use the bottom half as game/toy storage in our loft/playroom.
5. New chandelier over our kitchen table.

I've probably forgotten a few things but these are at the top of my mind. I went and looked at ceiling fans yesterday. That is the first piece of the puzzle for the lighting changes.

What do you have planned?

Sickness

Thank goodness it isn't contagious anymore! I almost was going to be lynched by the school and babysitter. I just got back from the doctors office and Caden has Fifths Disease which is a fever followed by a rash. Once the rash is seen he is no longer contagious. Yea!! He can go to school tomorrow! That is very important...Ha Ha!

Harley

Well...our dog didn't make it. He died yesterday...I'm so glad my husband was home. It was his dog before I even met him so he is more attached than I am. Poor dog didn't even get to die in quiet. I didn't know it was happening...my husband was laying with him in our master closet. The boys were screaming for me and I was running back and forth in my bathroom on the tile floors in high heels because we were trying to leave for church. My husband had decided to stay home because Harley wasn't breathing well.  I checked in the closet to say goodbye to my husband and he was crying and saying...he's going now, oh his heart is stopping...oh..he's gone and in the mean time my boys are screaming and trying to open the door. It didn't make it very emotional for me since I had to deal with the kids. I feel bad for my husband and Harley...he was a good dog. He was 11 years old.

Here's a question...is it legal to bury your dog in the backyard?? I have a feeling the HOA wouldn't love it.

New Years Eve

We had a good New Years Eve. This was our 2nd year of having just 3 couples over and including the kids. We do a champagne/sparkling apple juice toast at 8pm and everyone left at about 10:30pm. It is so nice to not worry about babysitters and just have a nice potluck.

We are having a sad situation...our dog has cancer. I've never really been a big pet person. My husband had this dog before we met but I am sad for the dog and for the sadness my husband is feeling. We found out 2 weeks ago and he has quickly gone downhil. I think my husband has decided to have him put down on Monday. This ought to be interesting to see how my boys deal with it. I think I need to start telling them tomorrow about Harley going to Heaven so they can know what is happening. I wonder how much they will understand.