So much to catch up on

I haven't written consistently since I had my tonsils out, but I've tried to take notes along the way. I figured it might be good to just get caught up today and fill in the gaps later. :)

We had the family visit for almost a whole week. It was nice to see everyone together at once. It was one of the better visits that we had in a few years. The kids were older and got along better. My youngest is mobile and is not attached to me. I was actually able to hang out for the first time in a couple visits.

All of my oldest "kids" are 13 this year. It's mind-boggling. All of them seem to have grown up quite a bit in the last year. Even seeing the interactions between the kids was different. They seem to relate better and enjoy each other more. The younger kids basically played with Reagan and Maddy most of the visit. They walked around and helped them out. Reagan is totally independent (or she tells me she is) so while she hung out and played, she refused help most of the time. Maddy, however, enjoyed all the special attention from the girls and younger kids. They played with her endlessly and just enjoyed their time together. Katie especially loved playing with Maddy. She told me constantly how cute she was and how fun she was. Thank you Katie.

The grown-ups seemed to do better too. We actually didn't even try to do a "major meal" for Christmas. I think because we decided not to plan anything, it made life a lot easier. Since I was still recovering from surgery, I pulled myself out of any driver position and it made my days a lot nicer. The ladies all agreed that it was much easier to not plan so much and just let the days go and enjoy each other - that's what it is all about after all.

My girls grew so much in the last two weeks. Reagan turned four. Ugh. She turned four. My little girl, my baby is four!!! I can't stand it. I look at her and still see my little baby that was my Christmas present a few years ago and today she is running around telling me how much she doesn't need my help. Sniff. My mama's girl is getting bigger. The other thing - she looks like a six year old.  She so tall and her little face is so grown up that it shocks me at times. She is such an awesome kid. I love her so much it hurts sometimes. She's my baby.

Maddy is one. That's another shocker. She hit that first year and breezed right through it. She is hilarious. She is goofy and inquisitive. She has such an infectious laugh that I must tickle her at times just to hear it. She gets into everything and is babbling more and more. She seems to have her own language. I can only imagine at times what she really is saying and thinks most of the time. She is so fun to watch. She loves her big sisters and loves chasing them and loving them. I think the thing that makes the Maddy is the "Love the..." and her silly laugh. I love my littlest angel.

Going out

Jim and I went to the Pinnacle function last night. We took a ride on the Cincinnati Dinner Train through scenic Cincy. The train rode about 10 mph and wobbled back and forth. I discovered pretty quickly that the slow movement messed with my eyes. Odd. I just didn't look out the window. We enjoyed the company and loved the fact that we were out for the evening without the kids.

My parents came up at 5pm to hang out with the kids. When we got home, the living room was littered with toys and mom was asleep in the guest bed upstairs. All was quiet. Dad was sitting down on the couch watching a movie just enjoying the quiet I bet.

They had a great time playing with the kids. I could tell by the living room.

Happy Anniversary to me and my hubby

Tonight, Jim and I went out to celebrate Friday the 13th! It's our anniversary... kinda. We actually got married on the 15th, but we tend to celebrate Friday the 13th because it's the anniversary of our first date. Happy Anniversary to us!

Woo hooo!

Easter Sunday fun

We had a great Easter. It was our first year with Jordan sharing the holiday with our family. We had Papa Thomas and Wanda down on Saturday for dinner. Then we had Mimi and Papa up for dinner on Sunday after church. The kids played and ate way too much candy. All in all, it was a wonderful day. Happy Easter everyone.

Happy Easter

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter! Celebrate Jesus rising from the grave! He came to save!

Tornado sirens but no tornado

This morning, we got up very early due to the crazy thunderstorm. I got restless probably about 5:00 am, but decided at 5:30 am that I couldn't sleep anymore. The wind was so harsh that it felt like it might blow the house down. Not too long after I decided I couldn't sleep, Jim woke up too.

We walked out into the living room and went to go check on the girls when the alarms went off. Great! So he got Reagan and I got Maddy and we headed to the basement. Tornado right!? NO!!!

Oh my. We turned on the TV and it said "we know your alarms are going off, but there have not been any tornados reported". Ugh. Better safe than sorry I guess, but man am I grumpy today without sleep.

Parents. Pizza. Fire.

Somehow those three words should not go together, but they do tonight. We went down to my parents for the evening to eat pizza and chill out. The girls and I got down there about 6:00 pm. Dad showed up shortly after that with the pizzas. Jim was right behind him.

I had just pulled Maddy out of her car seat and was in the living room changing her on the ottoman. I realized half way through changing her that there was a weird smell in the house. It smelled as if someone had lit a match right under my nose. I looked at Jim and said "what's that smell. it smells like fire."

We both turned around and saw smoke coming from the oven. Crap! My mom had put the two pizza boxes in the short oven. Ugh! Dad opened the door and flames came out.

I immediately told Reagan to get to the front door and to stand next to the fresh air. She did. She didn't even question. She ran. I grabbed Maddy, half dressed, and put her in her car seat and headed for the door myself.

The girls and I took off and went home. I was the only one that smelled like smoke. That was only because I went into the kitchen to get the diaper bag.

Needless to say, we teased mom a LOT!

Christmas Day 2010

This morning, Reagan got up and thought that Santa had not come. She was upstairs crying. Jordan had to talk her into going downstairs to look for stockings that were hung with care. They were. Once she saw the mantel, she was ready for the day.

The girls were excited to get their presents. Reagan got hung up on the stocking - candy and stickers. Too funny. Once we got to the basement, we opened up gifts. Again, Reagan wasn't too interested. She wanted to continue to eat her candy and play with her stickers. I think I wore a Minnie Mouse sticker all day.

Once we were done opening presents at our house, we were off to my parents. Once we got there, it was pure craziness. Both of my brothers' families were in town and ready to open the gifts from Mimi and Pawpaw. Dinner and presents were the usual drama. The kids got a ton of stuff. I enjoyed watching Reagan play.

After that, we took off for Connie's house. There we had some more craziness. The good thing is that it was much quieter. It was just a small gathering with food and fun. We had a great time. Maddy got a play mat from Grandma. She LOVED it. She had a place to play. Reagan got a game from them that looked like a ton of fun. Papaw Thomas played with Reagan a lot. He really enjoyed her. She did pretty well considering the day.

She almost fell asleep on the way home, but as soon as we hit the main road into our subdivision, she popped up. Darn. The family came up after and played until late. Both Jordan and Reagan went to bed pretty late. They had a super busy day. We all did.

Tomorrow is Reagan's party and then we get a break.

All in all, we had a great Christmas with our families. We are totally blessed with how many folks we have around us. :)

Christmas Eve

We had a pretty lazy day. We've been prepping for the holidays for two weeks. Everything we did this year was last minute, so we are still working on wrapping presents this morning.

Maddy has been patient with me. I usually spend a ton of time with her on the floor. I haven't done much of that in the last few days because of all we have to do. I can tell too. Whenever I get her on the floor or interact with her, she completely lights up. Guilt!

So tonight, we are going to Papaw Carman's house for dinner and fun. I expect all the normal stuff. It will be good to see the family. I hope all goes well.

Christmas season 2010

We put up our tree last night with the help of the two older girls. Actually, both trees. We put the big one in the basement this year. We decided to have a cozy Christmas instead of putting the tree in the main area. I like it much better. The girls did a good job putting the ornaments on. They, of course, argued about where to put ornaments. I thought it was funny. :)

We also took Reagan to her first Christmas program at the church. It was about 90 minutes of singing. She didn't pay any attention. She played on the iPod the entire time. Ooops. At least she was good.

Thankgiving and First Snow

We had a great Thanksgiving today. Aunt Wanda and Papa Thomas came down to visit and share in some food. We found out the hard way that it takes days to thaw a frozen turkey. Whoops. Jim had to do the "quick thaw" method in the sink last night to get the turkey ready to cook. It wasn't that big of a deal. We are both up until at least midnight between baby and video games (you figure out who was doing what). :)

I tried a couple new recipes - sour cream and chive potatoes and a cranberry dressing. Hmmm. The potatoes turned out okay. I personally would not make them again. The cranberry sauce was really good. It actually had an entire orange (including the rind) ground up in the mix. The green bean casserole never tasted so good.

Maddy was held the entire time - Wanda held her for the first 30 minutes she was here. She did that until her arms got tired. Then once she woke up and ate, Papa held her until they left. Reagan showed Papa the entire upstairs - including showing off her bedroom.

We had a really nice time visiting with the family. It was a true treat to have them here in our home.

Chicken and no bottle

Tonight, we went out to eat with my parents - Me, Maddy and Reagan. Reagan and my mom played in the playroom while dad and I ate. Nice. Once I got done eating, Ms. Maddy decided that she was hungry. Of course, I totally forgot a bottle. Nice huh. So needless to say, we were rushing out of the restaurant to get home. :)

Dualling contractions

Tonight we went out with Paul and Emily. Em and I are due three weeks apart. It's nice because we will be off from work at the same time together again. Hopefully with the second kid we can be more relaxed.

Anyway, we got our parents to take our kids and took off for downtown. We had Boi Na Braza (all you can eat meat) and walked around the Square a bit. I honestly didn't think I could eat as much as I did.

The funny thing was that we both ended up having contractions one after the other at times. I stood up from dinner and almost immediately had one while trying to walk to the bathroom. We decided that the "girls" were trying to talk to each other.

Get away weekend

So this weekend Jim and I went to Great Wolf Lodge. We struggled for a couple weeks to find any place (spa or other) that had reservations available. This was the only place that was open. It actually only had two rooms left which I found funny.

We dropped Reagan off with my parents on Saturday afternoon and came home to pack and drive to Mason. Mason... lame. But guess what - it was awesome. I loved it. There were kids running around (they weren't mine). There were babies crying (they weren't mine). There was a water park with lots for us to do (huge plus).

We got there and immediately went to the water park. It was wonderful. It had a lazy river, hot tubs, water coasters, obstacle course, kid areas, wave pool and just tons of fun for all. We stayed at the water park until we played enough and then got ready to have a "date". Yes a date.

We went to Outback and saw "The Karate Kid" (a total waste for me and Jim, but a date none-the-less). We had a nice time. We came back and crawled into bed and just relaxed. How nice.

We slept in Sunday til 9am. Holy Cow - that just never happens. :) We got up, ate, and swam. I got my toes done (me time) and Jim took a nap. Again, stuff we can never do. We ate a late lunch and then went right back to the pool. Again, lots of fun.

Jim rode the water coasters several times and loved them. We played until late and ran up to the restaurant about 830pm to eat dinner. After that, we watched "Date Night" and relaxed again.

Of course we slept in again on Monday, got up and ate about 10am. Wow. The cool thing about that place was that we could play until the park closed at 10pm on our check out day. Perfect. We ran down to grab Reagan and brought her back up to play all evening. We didn't get home until almost 930 pm on Monday. We were all tired and done for the night. Whew!

I am so happy we took the chance to go. It was a better get away than I expected. I had fun with Jim, relaxed and missed my girl. :)

Reagan & Sean's first date (LOL)

Tonight, we met the Cahills out for a visit at the Newport Aquarium. Both Reagan and Sean we very excited to see each other. This was also Reagan's first trip to the Aquarium. When Sean arrived, she giggled with glee and they both ran to each other.

Both kids had a great time looking at the fish. They held hands and even hugged at times. Emily dubbed this "their first date". Awwww.

Reagan's favorite part (probably) was the shark petting area. She wanted to dive into the water with the sharks. She got such a kick out of being able to pet them. I think the other part she enjoyed was the large fish tank. She loved crawling into the bubble to watch the fish.

Unfortunately, I left the camera in the car so I had to use my camera phone (which stinks). I'll post some pics later.

New Years!

It's January 1st - that means a few things to me. 1) I made it through another year and Christmas season. 2) My daughter is 2years old which makes me wonder where time goes. and 3) I'm going to be 40 this year. Whoops.

So sweet

Tonight, we went up to Papa Carman's house to celebrate Christmas. We had a really nice time. We all ate a good dinner and opened presents soon after. Rhonda also was able to hang out with us for a while which was nice since we never see her. She's quite a treat to be around. I love her sense of humor.

Rhonda got Reagan an awesome music box kit with a drum. Reagan LOVED it. She banged on that thing FOREVER. And boy was it loud. Hmmm. She even had Gama and Papa on the floor with her playing a tune. And yes, I got pics.

Later, when we were leaving, I asked Reagan if she loved Gama. She said "I love Gama and I love Papa too". Awwwwww

Thanksgiving Fun

Our Thanksgiving started off quite busy. Jim and I got up before the kids and started working on the appetizer for our dinner and getting a french toast breakfast together. I didn't feel like I even slowed down enough to eat - we had a lot to do by 10am.

Once we were all up and fed, we packed the car headed for the Grandma's house in Indiana. We got there about 11:30am and hung out all day. Reagan did really well. She played and played and played. She spent tons of time with Grandma's dogs. Jordan played games on my phone most of the time and Jim chatted with everyone (and played with the dogs too).

Reagan actually ate a full bowl of mac and cheese for the first time and even had a bite of clam dip. Yep - clam dip. I freaked out. Papa Thomas had Reagan on his lap and was feeding her mac and cheese when he just, out of the blue, took a spoonful of dip and popped it in her mouth. I put my hands over my face and said "that has clams in it!" Ohhhh. I had to breathe. She was fine. Of course. Papa didn't know not to do that... oh well. I've given her strawberries, so I guess I can't say anything :).

Anyway, she read books and played a lot with Papa. He even taught her how to do the wheelbarrow game - he picked up her feet and taught her how to walk with her hands. So darn cute.

Aunt Wanda gave her a music book that played some cool classical music. Every time Reagan would hit a button, she'd dance where she was the whole time that it played.

We left about 5pm and Reagan promptly fell asleep in the car. She was zonked! The thing that cracks me up now - she in bed and talking up a storm. No nap - extremely tired but talking. Hmmm.

Sean - my buddy Sean

Last night, after running some fun errands, we dropped by Paul and Emily's house to pick up the speakers for our new basement. Turned out that Mr. Sean was still up and ready to go. I asked Reagan if she wanted to see Sean and she lit up like a lightbulb.

So we all climbed out of the car and piled in the front door. The kids were off and running. They played and giggled. We went upstairs and saw Sean's playroom (very cool Em!). It was nice. We actually hadn't seen each other in a month - I'm guessing. So it was nice to let the kids play and chat with some grownups too.

Mimi and Papa finally

Today we finally got to see Mimi and Papa. Papa was sick the week before and out house had it the next week. TOday was the first time that we all were well at the same time. Reagan was THRILLED!!!

We got down there this morning in time for a snack of donuts and banas. Then it was play time for Reagan. They wonderfully offered to let us run to the store without her, so Jim and I took off. We got back and she was already eating lunch with Mimi and Papa. We played for a bit longer and then went upstairs for a nap.

She had a fantastic time with them. Once her nap was over, she was up and ready to go again. She played hard until Jim came back to get us. We colored and ran around all evening. I think her favorite saying today was "No ma'am! - time out!!"

:) what a nice day.