Picture with Santa

It is what it is....

This is not the greatest picture in the world, but it definitely captured how my girls were at that particular moment. Kaylee with her Chandler smile, and Ainslee wanting to get back into momma's arms as fast as possible. Maybe next year will be better

Ainslee wanted nothing to do with him, and Kaylee was only sitting there because she knew he had a lillipop for her afterwards.

note to self: dont dress them in RED when Santa is wearing red too, I'm such an idiot, I dont know what I was thinking

These were taken after around the mall

Cold Sock Treatment

If I could shout about this from the roof tops I DEFINITELY would!

I am a believer! I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first, just a tiny bit, but thought it wouldnt hurt to try. Cold Sock Treatments are my new bestest friend!

Have you ever had a child, or yourself for that matter, with a runny nose. I mean one of those noses that drips like a faucet, that are ever too present this time of year? Well that was what we were dealing with in Ainlsee for the past I dont even know how long. I was avoiding going back to the doctor for her to be prescribed yet ANOTHER form of medication. I am at my wits end with giving them meds (I think I have posted about that before, so I wont get all into that now). Anyways so I laid awake in bed one night sacrificing my beloved sleep to research ways that I could help my precious baby breathe (especially at night). I mean who loves getting their brains sucked out through their nose 3-4 times a night with a booger getter? i had tried all the usual tricks: humidifier, vicks pad in the humidifier, booger getter, saline drops, and vicks on the chest and feet (actually not vicks, but an organic version, I am in LOVE with these products we use the shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and chest rub). Nothing seemed to really help the problem for more than a matter of minutes. I know Ainslee was sick of struggling to breathe, she was having trouble eating and sucking as well. Poor baby was dying for relief, and I was determined to find something to help her. So I laid awake searching the internet on my blackberry in bed, and found this Cold Sock Treatment for nasal congestion. This is one of the "home remedies" I have found that I already had all the supplies at home, so i figured I would give it a try. Let me just tell you that this is so awesome! In case you havent figured it out already, I really really recommend you try this with your little ones if you ever have the need. I mean who would have thought that putting your child to bed with wet socks would be enough to do the trick? Without medicine and without side effects!
The first time I tried this was before her nap. This particular day she took 2 naps, so I did it before each of them. I noticed a difference after the first treatment though. That afternoon we went to get our allergy shots and my parents were there getting there's as well. My dad was holding Ainslee, turned to my mom, and commented on the fact that Ainslee's nose was completely clear. My parents had been around her for the previous 3 days and seen how bad her nose was running. I hadnt even told my parents about the Cold Socks Treatment before they noticed it for themselves! That's how good it works! So for the next 2 nights I decided to do it at night before bed only and I am so proud and happy to say that she is doing so much better now! So not only does it require things that you most likely have around your house already (and NO Ainslee does not have a pair of wool socks, I used a pair of mine and folded them down), its cheap, easy, pain free, you can do it as often as you want without any negative effects, it is just great all around. I thought I would tell you all about and hope that you can benefit from it as much as we have. But please if you do try it, let me know how it works for you.

Restful Night Sleep

Last night I took the opportunity to test out Kaylee's new bed (sorry I havent taken any pics of her room since the addition arrived). Kaylee was spending the night out at my moms house because Amma and Abba wanted to take her to breakfast with Santa, and the 8 o'clock start time in Cville was just much earlier than I cared for. So they agreed to take her, and she hated it! Imagine that! Well she liked the whole eating part, but the Santa part was a bit too frightening for her. "Santa's too scary," were her exact words.
Ok so back to the bed thing. I decided to try out her new bed, and at first I hated it. I couldnt believe that she had slept one single solitary nap in it let alone an entire night! I was in so much pain, my shoulder hurt, my neck hurt, my hip hurt, pretty much the ENTIRE left side of my body hurt. I tried not one but THREE different pillows, I couldnt get comfortable, even with ol' faithful BIG BLUE, thats my body pillow, that Marcus just ADORES! HA! He wishes I would find a new pillow, cause it seems to take up too much of his part of the bed. I, on the other hand, love it. When I got pregnant with Ainslee and had a hard time getting comfortable in the bed, i tried using it, and havent been able to part with it since. Maybe Santa will bring me one of those tempurpedic pillows I have my eye on. Anyways......so I had my fav pillow and even brought our duvet in her room too, but I could NOT get comfortable. Ainslee decided to wake up for a little midnight snack, and magically after that I fell asleep quickly and dont remember a thing after that. I woke up not remembering any tossing and turning or sleeplessness, and I felt GREAT in the morning! Now some of the "greatness" I was feeling could be attributed to the fact that I only had Ainslee in the morning, but I truely think that it was because of the bed. Now I cant cast my vote too quick, I feel like I need at least one more night in the bed to see if I really do like it. I will say that the smell is definitely one of its weak points. It still (after a week) has that really strong chemically smell, I wish we would have gotten it when the weather was nice enough to leave the windows open to vent out some of that smell. I do think that when it is time for a new bed for us, we will most likely be leaning towards the tempurpedic type.

Still waiting

I am sitting here waiting for Kaylee's mattress to arrive. The UPS man is not cooperating with my busy schedule today. I need him to hurry up and get here so I can leave to go run all my errands today. Costco, 2 different banks, allergy shots, moms house, and dropping my mom off at my brother's school is all on the agenda today. But if I cant get out of the house I wont get any of those done. I have already missed taking Kaylee to gymnastics today (thanks Ceire and mom for taking her AGAIN for me) and to story time/ craft. We were going to take Kaylee to the Collierville Christmas Parade, but that seems to have dropped off of our list......there's always next year.

I have been busy all morning getting Kaylee's room ready for her bed: took apart the crib, took apart the select comfort mattress, ironed the bed skirt, vacuumed, and washed sheets. I am looking forward to switching her tonight. I sure hope that bed arrives because if not she will be sleeping on the floor. I'm beginning to think I took apart her crib a little prematurely. Oh well, I'm sure it will all work out. Did I mention that I got an email yesterday saying that the mattress we bought for her just went on sale. A whooping 90 BUCKS off! And we bought the bed 4 days too early. I am going to call Costco to see if they will give me the sale price and save me from returning the bed and buying it again at the discounted price. I mean that $90 could be put to use on A LOT of different things......it's worth a shot, right?!

Kaylee slept in a "big girl bed" for the first time last night. it was sort of an accident, but she did it. We were all over at my parents house for my brothers birthday and she asked that my sister put her down to bed. We obviously failed to tell Mary that she was still sleeping in the crib at night. Nevertheless Mary put her to bed in the big bed and that was where she stayed all night. Well until 6:30 this morning! I cant figure out why she has been getting up so early, it is driving me crazy! I am a little bit more at ease about the big switch as the time approaches, I'm actually a little excited about it. It is kind of funny when my mom told me she went in to get her this morning and Kaylee was not in the crib, but she could hear her crying. It took mom a few minutes to realize that Kaylee was in her new room. Ha!

Now an update on my phone situation. Last week I was in the Verizon store helping Marcus's mom with her phone. I asked when I would be eligible for my upgrade, just out of curiosity. My phone was still working and everything was fine, I was just wondering. She told me that I would get my $100 credit on December 14th. Wouldn't you know it that like 2 days after that my phone started not working. It would go from not receiving calls/ texts/ emails, to being able to make and receive phone calls, to a mixture sending/ receiving all of the above, basically I never knew what sort of options would be available to me at any given time. I managed like this for a couple of days, and finally we took it in to Verizon. They said that "this sort of thing happens with Blackberry Pearls, and we aren't exactly sure why or how to fix it. It's time for a new phone." WHAT!?! I was pissed, I love my little phone, and I knew I wasn't going to get a phone before my $100 deal which was 3 weeks away. We decided to switch my phone temporarily to one of Marcus' old blackberrys (which is a piece of crap might i add). And this phone has been Kaylee's "play phone" for the past 2 years, so you can only imagine the condition it is in, not to mention the look on her face when she realized that it is mommy's phone and she cant play with it anymore. So for now I am stuck with this phone, cant take or receive picture messages, and I don't have any of my phone numbers programmed in it (still waiting on Marcus to transfer them from my old phone). I am looking forward to getting my new phone December 14th, I cant decide if I am getting the Droid or the Blackberry Storm. I'll keep you posted.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

My day yesterday (and today)

Needless to say I have still been SWAMPED! I find something to cram into every single second of the day......wait have i even peed yet today? I thought I would give you a little play by play of what exactly I'm talking about......since I cant come up with anything better to write about at this very moment.

Ainslee is still not completely over her ear infections, Im not sure if that is the cause of her night wakings or if it is something else, either way it doesnt matter, she has been BLESSING me with at least TWO wakings each night (every now and then she adds the clingly phase to her night wakings, man those are the fun nights.....haha). So last night (Wednesday morning) was no different. I was up with her at about 4 am, after nursing her and putting her back down, I had trouble falling back to sleep, I tossed and turned until about 6, when I heard Marcus come home, for some reason that was when I fell asleep. Kaylee woke up about 6:50, Marcus kept her occupied for me to let me sleep for about 30 more minutes. I got out of bed, thinking there was no way I was going to make it through the day. I was so exhausted I could hardly think straight. But nevertheless I had chores and kids that needed my attention. I put my mommy hat on and began my day. Kaylee did not wake up in the bestest of moods, that seems to be the theme with her lately, I couldnt do anything right in her eyes that morning. While she ate breakfast, and I nibbled on mine, I emptied the dishwasher, loaded it, started a load of laundry, swept and vacuumed the kitchen, dining room (its really a play room), and living room. By this time Ainslee was waking up, so had to give her breakfast, and tried to finish up the dishes while feeding her. Then I spent about 5 seconds daydreaming about getting the girls down for a nap at the same time and me being able to get a little snooze in myself, and that 5 seconds made me really happy and more energized. We cleaned up after breakfast. By this time the laundry was ready to go into the dryer and a new load into the washer. I had already gotten a few emails on my "replacement" blackberry (more on my phone predicament later) telling me some of my eBay customers had paid me which meant that I needed to print postage and pack up 4 orders worth of photos. So upstairs we all went, thats where the "office" is with the printer, we are still working on wireless printing capabilities which would make my life much easier. The old desktop computer upstairs has a mind of its own, sometimes it connects to the internet and other times it doesnt. I have a few troubleshooting tips in my bag of tricks, but yesterday none of them seemed to be working. I fiddled around with it until the girls had enough, then I went to play with them in the play room for awhile (AKA 8 minutes). I snuck back into the office, tried something new, and wha-la it worked. i printed all my postage left a few feedbacks, and just as I was finishing up I hear Kaylee say "momma Ainslee's got dirties on her jujamma's!" Just as I turn the corner to enter the hall I look up and see Ainslee's face completely covered in blackish blue something. I had NO IDEA what it was. I whisked her into the bathroom, got her cleaned up, and then inquired about the origin of the said "dirties." Kaylee escorted me to the bench seat under the front window, apparently when Ainslee pulled up on the seat, and began licking/ chewing/ "making out with" the wood flooring which covers the bench seat, the stain came off. I tried wiping the "dirties" and was making it worse by trying to clean it up. The "dirties" were now all over the trim......ugh it was a mess. After that, we picked up the play room a bit, I brought my postage i printed and we all headed downstairs. I packed up my 4 packages. Set Kaylee up on the couch watching Curious George, I mopped the wood and tile. Just about that time the laundry was ready to move to the dryer, and another load to go in. Then i remembered I still needed to get down our Christmas decorations. I havent really "decorated" at all this year, that has sorta been a combination of: I'm too lazy and all our boxes are behind a wall in our make-shift attic that we built thinking that we were moving to Hawaii. I started trying to organize it a couple of times before, but didnt get very far. Marcus claims that he is "too big" to fit back there, so he isnt much help to me. I was able to get i think 5 of the boxes out, and the attic area I was able to clear I cleaned with the shop vac. Why track all that dirty and nastiness all around? I was so tired I couldnt bring the boxes downstairs to unpack. I looked at the clock and saw it was just about nap time for Ainslee. Kaylee has been going through one of those phases where she doesnt eat much, well that phase ended, now she is a BOTTOMLESS pit! She was dying for her 4th breakfast/ morning snack. I set her up on the couch with another episode of Curious George while I nursed Ainslee and put her to bed. By the time I was done with Ainslee, Kaylee still wasnt finished eating, one thing led to another and then it was like 30 minutes later. I finally told Kaylee it was bedtime, I got her down, practically ran to my room, and just as I am about to climb into the bed, Ainslee wakes up. This was obviously one of those days she is reverting back to her 2 naps/ day schedule. So I go get her, put her on the potty (oh BTW she can now do the sign for all done when she is on the potty), let her play around on the floor while I got some eBay stuff ready for my next listing. Then it was time for her lunch, in between lunch bites I did another switch-a-roo with the laundry. After lunch I did some more computer work for my eBay stuff while she played contently on the floor, trying to eat the computer cords every few minutes but was easily distracted by a nearby toy. Kaylee woke up, she had her lunch, and we played, colored, cooked (she is really interested in helping out in the kitchen these days). I was stalling as much as I could before I knew it was time to wake Marcus up. Ainslee was ready to go down for her afternoon nap, so it was off to bed for her. I put Kaylee in the bed with Marcus (a few minutes early), I jumped in the shower. Marcus got ready to leave for his hair cut appointment and then work. I hate it when he has to leave so early, I am ready for my little break in the day, but dont get one when he has something early to go to. I started dinner for the girls, Ainslee woke up from her nap. I stalled some more, trying desperately to make it to bedtime. They surprisingly were ready for their dinner early, and were showing signs of an earlier than usual bedtime too, at last they decided to give me some sort of a "break". I made them grilled chicken (courteous of the George Foreman grill, there was no way my butt was going outside to grill), plain steamed broccoli (I was going to add cheese, but was instructed not to by you-know-who), and pasta with a four cheese tomato sauce (at the request of you-know-who). And let me just tell you that between the 2 of them they ate the ENTIRE chicken breast (and it wasnt a wimpy little piece of chicken either), about 1 cup broccoli, and 2 cups of pasta. I dont think either of them came up for air during the entire meal. Kaylee had herself a little something for dessert too. We went upstairs for a quick little "tea party, " and began our bedtime routine shortly after that. I had both kids in bed before 6pm. I sat down on the couch to relax for about 5 minutes, and then got my dinner ready. i usually eat with them, but tonight I just wasnt hungry at 4pm when they were ready to eat. I ate my dinner on a TV tray, while watching the Biggest Loser episode from the night before. When I was done eating I sat on the couch doing MORE eBay listings until about 9pm. Why is it that I can be so tired all day, but I get my 3rd wind at night and stay up so late doing "things" when I could be sleeping?
I had decided earlier in the day that I was going to try Kaylee without her nighttime diaper (she stays dry nearly EVERY night). I told myself that I would wake her up to pee before I went to bed. So I got completely ready for bed and went in to wake her to go to the bathroom, she didnt even open her eyes, I carried her to the potty with her head on my shoulder and face burried in my neck, she peed and I put her back in the crib, I dont think she even knew what happened. Before bed I gave Kaylee the speech "call for mommy if you need to go potty, mommy will come get you." I was nervous about her being diaperless, I felt like I needed to listen extra good in case she woke up and needed to pee. At 3 am I woke up to what I thought was her screaming for me. I ran into her room (not quietly) and she was fast asleep, I felt her to see if she was still dry and she was. I left her room and thought to myself "I cant believe Ainslee has not woken up yet." I decided I either needed to pump or nurse her, so I opted for the latter. I woke up Ainslee changed and nursed her and put her back to bed. What I should have done was gotten Kaylee up to pee too, but i didnt. I climbed back into bed and fell back to sleep. Marcus woke me up when he was climbing into bed just before 7. He said he heard Kaylee, so he went in to get her, she had just peed. Darn it! He stripped her down and the bed. Our 1st attempt failed. I got up started breakfast, got Kaylee ready for school, the car loaded for a day "in town" (that means we dont come home all day). I received an email before we left the house saying that Kaylee's mattress that we ordered was being shipped. YAY! I was so excited, I had to check the UPS website for the estimated delivery day, and wouldnt you know it they said it was going to be delivered TODAY! I couldnt believe that they did not give me more notice for the delivery of a mattress that I.HAVE.TO.SIGN.FOR!!! We loaded up in the car and headed off to school. Please tell me how I can be so early to drop her off to school (almost every time) but be late to pick her up. Is that a sign? Am I subconsciously trying to get rid of my child for longer? I'm sure there is some sort of good psychological explanation for that. After we dropped off Kaylee, Ainslee and I ran into WalMart for some diapers, I have been putting off getting diapers because I really want to get a few cloth diapers, but just havent come to grips with forking over that much money for them yet. I know that I will save money in the long run with them, but I just havent made that leap. After WalMart we went to grandmas to hang out. Ainslee played with my mom and dad for a few minutes before it was nap time. I put her down and headed for the computer for more eBay work, did I mention I got a raise, I didnt even have to ask for it, he just gave me an extra 5%. Nothing like more money to get me motivated to sell more. Ainslee always takes good long naps at moms house, and her computer is so much faster when it comes to my website I use for eBaying. I was able to get lots done during nap, I took a break to eat my lunch, and was snagged by my mom for a little game of billards on the Wii, before Ainslee woke up. She woke up shortly after, and was ready for lunch. Then we had to go to Auntie Ceire's to pick out my accessories for our Saturday date night. By then it was time to pick up Kaylee from school. Our new routine includes a visit to the chiropractor after school. I've started getting "worked on" too, man my neck and back are in bad bad shape. I couldnt pass up the deal my chiropractor was offering.....3 for 1. He said he would treat the girls for free if i became a patient again. I used to get treatments back in high school, and have needed to go back. I never have been able to justify spending that kind of money on doctor's visits. But when he offered to treat all 3 of us for the price of one, and he claims to be able to help with the girls ear infections, I figured I could at least give it a try. So for now we are all being treated, and I am praying that it works! After the chiropractor we went back to my moms house for my little brother's 18th family birthday party/ dinner. We had a great time eating/ visiting/ playing the Wii/ laughing, it really was a great time. But had to end early for us, as usual, when the girls were ready to go to bed. Kaylee was spending the night at grandmas so she could go to gymnastics in the morning, while I sit and wait for Mr. UPS man to deliver the mattress. So here I sit, in a completely quiet house to write a quick little post, before I start working on some eBay listings, and I look down and it is 10pm! I have been writing this crazy obnoxiously long drawn out post for I dont even know how long. I am going to skip my eBay stuff for tonight and as soon as I click on "publish post" I am heading for my bed.

so sorry to bore you with all of that, but I have come to find that this blog is not only a tool I use to keep people informed, it is a sort of therapy for me, and a way that I can keep track of what is going on in our crazy life, I can look back at these posts and see what we were doing, when I have long forgotten what it was like to have an almost 3 year old and an almost 10 month old.......gosh I LOVE my life and am so thankful for all the craziness!

Wordless Wednesday

Checking out the bears in the new "Teton Trek"

She loved every minute of the zoo

Cutest baby EVER!

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September 2008 - our last trip to the Memphis Zoo

We had a FANTASTIC time and were thrilled that it didnt end like our last trip! And now we are members so we will be back many more times!

The 4-1-1 on AZ

In case I havent told you yet, one of the MANY nicknames for Ainslee is "AZ." Kaylee is actually the one who came up with it, because in the beginning she could not pronounce her name correctly. And I guess it just stuck!

I thought I would take a few minutes out and get you up-to-date on what is going on with the happiest baby in the world!

• First of all, I cant believe she is 9 1/2 months old! HOL-E-COW!
• She crawls at the speed of light......seriously! I try and watch to see how she moves so fast, and cant figure out how she does it.
• She has had an ear infection for "at least" 9 weeks now. It could be longer! I thought she might be better, but then again, today she was showing signs that she isnt. She has had 2 rounds of antibiotics and 2 shots of antibiotics. I just dont know what to do about those DARN ears. I am terrified that she will follow in Kaylee's footsteps. And I hate hate HATE giving her those antibiotics. I know that is not the best thing for her, they dont even help, and I fell like they are doing more harm than good. I get sick to my stomach everytime I give her those meds, there has got to be a better (more natural) way. I have tried researching online (but dont have too much time to really read what I want to read). If anyone out there has ANY ideas, I am ALL EARS!!! no pun intended
• I took them both to see a chiropractor today! You might have just reread that a few times, but you read correctly the first time. I didnt just wake up and say "I'm going to take the girls to see a chiropractor today." This is what happened. Like I said I have been SICK about giving Ainslee meds lately, and I was texting with my mom about it, she just so happened to be at the chiropractor. She mentioned it to him and he suggested that I bring them in for a consultation. I used to see this practicular chiropractor when I was in high school. So I brought them in today and learned A LOT! Marcus and I are in the process of discussing their future in regards to the chiropractor. I would really like to give it a shot, he says that he can definitely help with the ear infections.
• She is pooping/ peeing more and more on the potty. She is telling me when she has to go, as opposed to me just taking her or me "knowing" she has to go. She loves to sit on the potty and even tells me when she is all done.
• STILL NO TEETH! And not quite sure there are any in the making. All those times I thought she was teething, it was really her ears. I am such a horrible mom for not knowing!
• No signs of walking either
• She eats SO much! She is like the enegizer bunny when it comes to eating......it's C.R.A.Z.Y!!!
• Despite all of her cuteness she was told by an old lady today, and I quote, "you sure are cute, but not as cute as my puppy!"
• I can hear her snoring THROUGH THE WALL!
• She is a little sociallite like her sister, wants to be the center of attention, have everyone notice her, and ga-ga over her. And if you don't she will FIND a way to get your attention.
• She is seriously the happiest baby, despite all the pain she must be in, she is still so happy. We have seen 3 doctors about those darn ears, and they all say how bad (especially the right) it looks. I just want to take her pain away.
• She is still a HUGE mommas girl
• Drama Queen! She can get the tears flowing even before she starts crying. And they just pour out of her. It melts my heart!
• When she doing something she knows she shouldnt be, she laughs! She is going to be a handful!
• She is down to 1 nap a day, well for the most part. There is still a random day here and there where she will take 2 shorter naps. But she usually just takes 1 good long nap.

I'm sure there was more things I wanted to tell you about her, but they have left my ever shrinking brain for now.

Have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

In case I dont get around to blogging again before then

I know I havent been the best blogger lately, in fact this isnt the only area of my life that I have neglected recently. I feel like something has happened, there are no longer 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. My days are more like 10 hours long and there are only like 4 of them; I have to CRAM in 24 hours worth of stuff into each one of them. Most days I find it hard to find time to go to the bathroom, let alone get the things done that are on my list. So I apologize, mostly to my friends, who I have been DYING to get together with....but havent.

Story Time at the Fire Station

Every Friday, well almost every Friday, Kaylee goes to gymnastics and then to story time on the square. Yesterdays story time was special, it wasnt held at the usual coffee shop, it was at the fire station. Kaylee was so excited about getting to go to the fire house and see the fire trucks, but we got much more than we were hoping for during our visit.
Once a month at story time one of the shops on the square, Village Toy Maker, does a drawing for a toy; the children who turn in a coloring page get entered for this drawing. Well back up, let me just start from the beginning. We started packing up and getting dressed after gymnastics about 15 minutes early, we wanted to make sure not to be too late for story time, and when lugging around 2 kiddos you dont get anywhere fast. As we were walking up to the fire station Ms. Kelly was telling us to hurry, they were about to start without us (good thing I gave myself a little extra time by leaving gymnastics early). Kaylee turned in her coloring page and wouldnt you know that was the 1st thing on the agenda. The name was drawn and it was KAYLEE's. She won a Melissa and Doug fire puzzle, I didnt get a picture of her with her prize, but here's what the puzzle looks like, I swear she has her father's luck!After the fire fighter read the story we got to TOUR the fire station. Kaylee was thrilled with this, and what she loved even more was that there was a fire fighter that was answering all 100 questions she had to ask. What's that? Why this? What's that for? What in there? Can I have something to eat? She even asked if she could use their bathroom. Kaylee has a weird obsession with using the bathroom EVERYWHERE she goes.

She was scared to sit in the fire truck at first, but then she REFUSED to get down.

Her picture was in the Collierville paper from one of the story times last month, I am STILL trying to get my hands on that photo. And yesterday they took a picture of all of us in front of one of the fire engines, and Im hoping to get a copy of it as well. Such a fun (FREE!) little activity for a Friday morning. If any readers out there are in the Collierville area and want to join us for gymnastics and story time (there is also a craft and snack time after the story, but we dont stay for that), contact me and I can give you all the details.

Boston

warning another LOOOONGG post ahead........

Here is a compilation of some of the pictures we took on our last trip to Boston. Some are from the camera, and some are from our phones (AKA crappy quality). This trip was short......VERY short! We barely had time to adjust, before we had to come home again. note to self: make trips with 2 small children, longer than 5 days. We actually didnt take any pictures with our big camera, except at the game, and after 600+ pictures that day, I guess we felt the camera needed a break. I'm not kidding when I said we have more than 600 pictures of a FOOTBALL game and NONE of our beautiful children! Oh well, at least we have the game FULLY documented! Ha! I wont bore you with all 600+ pictures (no thanks required), but I did pick a handful to show. As you know Marcus' birthday was just the other day, and this was his present from his big sis. She and Harry got ON THE FIELD PASSES for pregame. But the beauty of it was not only that we had access to the field during warm-up, it was that they choose the game where THEIR favorite team (Patriots) and our favorite team (Dolphins) were playing each other. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?! So this was my first NFL experience, and let me tell you it was pretty awesome. We wont talk about what the outcome of the game was, but it was a darn good game, and we had a BLAST!

The weather was beautiful, I mean unseasonable warm and not a cloud in the sky. We were actually warm in our long sleeves. It was quite funny that friends' of mine (from here) went up for a game a few weeks ago and they got caught in a freak blizzard snow stormy thing at that game. So the picture above is us on the field (obviously) before the game started. Marcus was so excited that he actually smiled for pictures. ha!

Where's Crista you might ask?

OHHH there she is. I have no idea why she was never in the "group pictures"



I caught this shot on my phone......Jason Taylor......I just love this guy! He is my favorite, and is much more fun to watch in person than on TV.

Marcus snapped this great shot of Jason

and here we are in our seats, Marcus decided to show some respect while we were on the field and save his Dolphins attire til we were in our seats

We had such a fantastic time at the game!

Thanks HARRY and CRISTA!!!

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Here are a few of the pictures we took during the rest of our trip. Like I said before we didnt do much this trip. We made it to an outlet mall for some shopping, the Children's Museum (AKA germ fest), and to my new favorite restaurant for some delicious GF food. Besides that we pretty much just chilled at home, Crista had a friend from home come into town for work so she joined us for dinner one night, and then they invited one of the "cousins" and his family over for another night. It was a really really nice visit!

Ainslee was chillin' in an Adirondack chair, but she doesnt sit still for long anymore, even if mommy wants to snap a picture

Kaylee playing in the water at the Children's Museum, she LOVES that place. She talks about it ALL.THE.TIME!

Ainslee had WAY more fun in the infant area this time. She was much more mobile, and the PERFECT age for it. Kaylee was almost the exact same age when we brought her. I should dig up some of those pictures.

Marcus just couldnt resist joining in on the fun!

Here is Kaylee at LLBean, she found her soul mate. She was asking him to buy her some shoes.

Kaylee was prepared for hours of shopping at the outlet mall.

Here are a few of the videos....

She sort of got distracted by that darn baby in the mirror, but once she got back on track she made it over the bumps and down the ramp with grace.

I couldve stayed there all day watching this baby play. She LOVED it, and I LOVED watching her explore. Im just amazed at how well she gets around now, there's no slowing her down now oh boy!

We made it to a park on our last day, and it man was it chilly. I wasnt quite prepared for the weather after all the beautiful days we had before that. This video might make those who get motion sick a little queasy, sorry about that. She had so much fun in that swing.

And I had to share this one with you. This is an area in the Children's Museum where you can paint with water. After a few seconds the water disappears. Such a GREAT idea, no cleanup involved, I gotta figure out how to get one of those at home. I asked Kaylee to draw a "K" for Kaylee, when she messed up and drew a "T" she told me it was Jesus. I'm not exactly sure what the circles are that she drew but she assured me that the cross was Jesus.

M&M's

When I got home yesterday, I was greeted by Kaylee at the door. She was holding a bowl of M&M's. She said "look mommy, I have M&M's." I said "I see that, why do you have M&M's?" Kaylee said "I cried so daddy gave me M&M's!" I looked at Marcus for some sort of explanation, his side of the story is that Kaylee was crying because she wanted to give Tahoe the oil we pour over his food, and Marcus wouldnt let her (because he only gets it in the mornings). So she started to cry and the M&M's came after that. Who do you believe?