All kinds of new!

Our house is slowly coming along. Madeline is in a new school making lots of friends. Lacey Reese is taking ballet and talking so much. Taylor is getting ready for a two month deployment. I am making hair bows, making friends and ready for Fall!

Naked.. again?!

Madeline is going through this stage where she wants to do EVERYTHING herself. She likes to dress herself, usually in winter clothes, about 20 times a day. She does her own hair. She puts hair product in it and one day she probably had 15 bobby pins covering her entire head. She also just randomly walks around naked if she can't find any clothes that are "fancy enough." Today I was sitting in our bedroom going to driving school online (darn ticket!) and I heard Taylor say, "Why are you naked AGAIN?!" Just the way he said it made me laugh out loud. Poor man has to deal with 3 girls doing girly things all of the time! He will never win!

We are Residents of Virginia Again!

Taylor has been relocated and we are very excited to be living in our home state of Virginia again! We bought an adorable house in a golfing community of Suffolk. We have many projects to do but we are loving it!We are close to any shop we could possibly want and our girls are LOVING our huge yard with soft grass and big shade trees!

Men.

My husband and I don't argue much. However something we often argue about it laundry. I ask him not to touch my laundry, the girls laundry or the towels. Does he listen? No. I like to keep the girls laundry and towels seperate. We don't use any scented detergent or dryer sheets on ours. Taylor washed them all together, used dryer sheets that give Madeline congestion causing croup, leaves things in the dryer and then puts clean clothes in the dirty hamper and just piles dirty clothes on top. I don't understand why you would start laundry if you don't plan to finish it? Why not just do what your wife asks and leave the dirty clothes alone? He has a compulsion to overfill the washing machine and then its like he forgets about it. On purpose. Ugh it frustrates me SO badly.

Onto other bad news. We have been patiently waiting to find out where we will be moving in June. On our list we have small cutters, meaning they go out for a week or so at a time. We had all Eastern United States covered, Upstate NY, New Jersey, Georgia, Maine, Iowa, Kentucky, Virginia. Two days ago we found out we got NOTHING on our list. Instead they were lazy and sent us a list of 41 available places. We really need to be on a cutter so Taylor can get sea time to make it to the next rate. However of the 41 only 9 were cutters. And we are talking Alaska, Guam, Oregon and Washington. Nothing even remotely acceptable to me. We are praying to the dear Lord baby Jesus that we will get a cutter in Portsmouth, Virginia. The odds of that don't seem particularly good. Worst case is that we end up with a station again and get no sea time. If that happens I have no doubt I will be floating on the tiny island of Guam or getting chased by moose in Alaska! That is simply the luck I have!!

Yesterday..

I started Weight Watchers at the beginning of January. After a cruise and stress in my life (aka being a stay at home mom LOL) I have since that time gained FIVE pounds. Yesterday I decided it was time to get back with the program. I made both of the girls pb&j sandwiches, yogurt, fresh fruit and a cheese stick. Got them situated at the table and went on to create myself this wonderful, lowfat turkey wrap. I even had shredded lettuce just like Subways! I was so excited! I set mine down on the table and Madeline asked for more drink. I made her a drink and pour myself an unsweet tea (gross right?) I get back to the table and my sweet Lacey has taken my beautifully prepared wrap and thrown it on the floor and both dogs were hovering over it. It was honestly one of the most angry times I have ever been in my entire life! I take her and put her in the bed. Come back down to remake my wrap and I am totally out of deli meat.. Welcome to my life! But my sweet Madeline walks into the kitchen and says, "Mom I really love that shirt! It is so beautiful!" She makes it all worth it! I wouldn't survive without that sweet little girl! Later on she said, "Mom are you happy?" She actually asks me that a lot if Lacey is hurricaning around. I replied, "Yep I'm always happy when I'm with you." Her response was, "I love making you happy!" I have two beautiful, sweet girls! And even though my Lacey Reese is a constant handful, I need to always remind myself they always want to see their mom happy! Love them both!

Born in a Barn.

Today I went and dropped off some donations to the Children's Hospital thrift store. Madeline asked why I took that stuff inside and I told her I was giving it to the babies who lived in incubators like she used to. She said, "Oh I was born in there in the incubator?!" I said, "No not in there. You were born in the hospital and then lived in an incubator until I could take you home." "No.. I was born in a barn like Baby Jesus!!"

Sigh..

It is 2012.. every day of it so far has been a disaster!! We (aka I) just moved this week. Today was the last day we were supposed to be in the house but if still has stuff in it. We hope to get there early tomorrow to clear it out. Taylor had requested off work but they had some testing type of things going on this week. The officer who rated the boats said that Taylor's boat is the cleanest boat he has ever seen in North Carolina! So proud of him! Our townhouse is adorable, way too crowded at the moment, but I am enjoying being in the center of all of the happenin' things. Yesterday DirectTV stood me up, I am in the middle of moving from a big house to a little house and they are 30 minutes away from each other.. I have no time to waste for DirectTV! So in my anger I stormed out of the new house and locked my keys inside! So I had to pay the locksmith $60 to let me back inside! Ugh I was so angry! Luckily our good friends live next door so the girls and I got to hang out over there for a little bit.

Now onto resolutions for the year. I haven't even looked over mine from last year, so I am just starting fresh.

1. Cook at home atleast 6 dinners a week.
2. Drink more water.. and wine!
3. Make sure both of my girls know they are loved and the most important things in my life!
4. Give my husband that same attention!
5. Slow down. Not commit to everything. Spend more time relaxing with my family!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Tomorrow we move from our big 5 bedroom house in Manteo to an itty bitty townhouse in Kitty Hawk! I am super excited but nervous at the same time. This week we had some beautiful days and both girls had such a blast running all over the yard. That is the main thing I will miss. But Kitty Hawk has several amazing parks and it is literally maybe a minute to Madeline's school. So I won't be driving 30 minutes each way to get her to preschool!! The girls will have a mermaid themed room. I am just hoping Madeline will be happy there!! When you make such a big downsized move you realize how much JUNK you have and need to get rid of! It is hard. Taylor has been gone all week and won't get home to help until Wednesday. My parents came down to assist with some babysitting! Hopefully this move will go smoothly!

Catching Up on Lacey Reese's First Birthday

Madeline and Santa

Taylor had stole my bottled orange soda. I said, "give that back!" Madeine said, "Stop Momma, thats Daddys!" I said, "Nope thats Mommas!" "NO!" "Momma is going to tell Santa.." She walked over, grabbed the soda and told Taylor, "Opps thats Mommas!!"

Glitter Pine Cone Mobile

This afternoon Madeline and I made glitter pine cone mobiles! She was so excited to get them all done that most of the ones she did didn't have enough glitter on them! Oh well, its the experience right?! We did gold and red pine cones! You need spray adhesive, glitter, pine cones and bags (plastic or paper.) Spray the adhesive onto the pine cones, place in bag, add glitter and SHAKE!

'tis the season!

It is finally December!! And even more importantly it is finally getting cold! I am so ready for snow and frost to kill all of these mosquitos at our house!! Both of my girls have been sick this week. Madeline has double ear infections and Lacey Reese has croup. No fun and no sleep. We did get to go see Santa last week at Kites with Lights in Nags Head. Madeline asked for a puddle.. yep like the one outside! That is all she wants for Christmas. I guess it is either a good thing or a sign that she has too much already!
We have also baked some sweet treats! We baked sugar cookies that we rolled in sprinkles! What a messy fun time that was!

Tomorrow morning Madeline and I are headed to a cookie exchange. Like I mentioned earlier I have two sick kids and my husband has been at work the past two days so I did not make cookies. Instead we made these sweet treats! They are a pretzel, a Rollo candy and a Christmas colored M&M. You could also do it with Hersey Kisses and I think it would taste best with a Rollo and pecan.. aka a Christmas turtle! Yum!!

Thanksgiving 2011

We had such a great Thanksgiving this year! We spent it with friends who live out in Grandy, which is a much more rural area than where we are! The house was packed with good friends and a lot of kids for Madeline to play with! She had such a great time! We packed the kids sized picnic table and brought them some paper for coloring and paper airplane making! We even got a family picture which rarely happens! We had lots of great friends and food! Madeline had 3 friends her age that she got to run outside with and do lots of playing inside! We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful area and be blessed with such great people in our kids life!



..as you can see, Lacey takes her time getting ready and likes to make it known that Hurricane Lacey made landfall!

Recent Madeline Quotes

Madeline met Santa and asked him for a puddle..

AND-

"I love you baby." -Mama
"I not a baby." -Madeline
"No, but you're my angel." -Mama
"I not an angel, I a barbie!" -Madeline

Madeline really enjoys cooking! She loves to "help Momma" in the kitchen! She pulls up her a chair and gets right on the counter! To celebrate Fall we made pumpkin brownies!

Lacey Reese is ten and a half months old. She says Momma, hello and Daddy. She still likes to wake up during the night.

Speaking of waking up during the night. Last night Madeline didn't sleep, she told me she is afraid of beds! Hope that fear passes soon!!

Too much playing in the hay!

Yesterday Madeline, Lacey and I went to the Grandy pumpkin patch! We had a great time on the tractor ride and picking out our own pumpkins. A little while before we left Madeline came to me complaining that she had hay in her eye. It was a little red but I didn't think much of it. At ballet her teacher brought her out to me and said she was rubbing her eye and it was red. Again I assumed it was fine.. by dinner time she looked like she had a black eye! The urgent care and doctors office were closed so off to the ER we went. Madeline has been to the ER twice now and she loves to go because she gets popsicles! She sat there like a champ while they touched her eye, put drops in it and shined all sorts of crazy lights into it. She was so tough and remained so calm! All of the nurses were coming in and complimenting her! In the end she had a corneal abrasion which should heal up in the next few days.
So today we went to the eye doctor just to check on everything. We passed the hospital and Madeline said, "Momma we passed the doctor, we are on the wrong path!" It was so cute! She is such a doll!

Bring on the Pugs

About a month a go my pug was getting a break from little, snappy dogs. He was just starting to enjoy retirement and his old age..


Then it was abruptly ruined by a new pug named Pugsley. Pugsley is possibly worse than Reina was. He bites and tugs on Otis 20 hours a day. He is very fast and runs laps all through the house. He enjoys going potty in our guest room. I don't think he cares for grass. But he really loves both of our kids. And Madeline thinks "Baby" is the best thing since goldfish shaped bread (which she also loves!) Madeline still asks about Reina and when she is coming home. And when we got Pugsley fixed she wanted to know if he was going to the vet to go to heaven to be with Reina.. and if we could bring Reina home from the vet. It is still very sad and we miss Reina very much. But this new ball of energy has breathed new life back into our house and we all (even Taylor) love him very much!

Nags Head Pumpkin Fair

Last week we went to the Pumpkin Fair in Nags Head! They had a lot of great pumpkins, although we didn't bring any home! We have two trips to the pumpkin patch planned so I was happy Madeline didn't insist on getting a pumpkin from the fair! Madeline mainly played on the playground and she also got to ride a pony named Big Al. It was her first pony ride and she LOVED him! I was very nervous though because no one walked beside my 3 year old who had never been on a horse before! Not safe!




As usual my sweet Lacey got left out of the pictures. I will be so glad when she is toddling around so she can be involved in more. She already is so into everything Madeline is doing I know they will be best friends and have the best time together!

Not a Nice Sissy.

Lacey is a snatcher. She likes to snatch every toy Madeline wants to play with. And she doesn't forget about the toy she wants if you give her another toy, she still goes after Madeline's and will use her entire body to get it. A few minutes ago Madeline pushed Lacey and Lacey bumped her head on the wall. I made Madeline go to time out and she had to say sorry to Lacey. Madeline's apology was, "I so sorry I knocked you out Lacey!"

On this day in 2010..

Madeline moved into her big girl bed!