ghetto superstar

Since I am Claire's milk supply, she is coming with us on our trip to the Bahamas, making her the littlest person ever to need a passport. We've have been spending WAY too much time lately in the downtown Fort Myers ghetto trying to get this accomplished. Today was our third try and once again we struck out. First I need to get a copy of her birth certificate so that I can get her passport. Sounds easy enough, right? We went today and spent two hours in the waiting room at the vital statistics office trying to get a copy. I left the house at the crack of dawn so that I could get there early and avoid the wait. We got right in and filled out the forms, paid and were all ready to go until.........the printer brokedown!!! We waited for two hours with all of the riff raff (my favorite was the three year old girl wearing NOTHING but a diaper and drinking coke out of a bottle accompanied by her hair net wearing father and playboy bunny diaper bag carrying mother) that frequent government offices until I finally decided to try again tomorrow, which will be our fourth attempt at getting this done. Luckily, Emma was in school and Madeline is the comedian in the family who kept everyone in the waiting room entertained. She was actually disappointed when it was time to leave. She could've sat there all day putting on a show for her admirers. I, on the other hand, thought "I could sit here for another hour and MAYBE they'll get the printer fixed or I could go to Old Navy for an hour before Emma gets out of school." You guessed it....Old Navy won!!

simple pleasures

Ryan got home a little early from work today. I LOVE when that happens! He was home in time to catch the tail end of naptime, so we got to float together in the pool in peace and quiet for a little while!!! When the girls woke up we went on a family walk to get ice cream at 7-11. Emma rode her bike and Ry and I took turns pulling the two little ones in the wagon. We always laugh when Emma is on her bike, because she looks so nerdy with her enormous Strawberry Shortcake helmet on and her skinny legs wobbling around as she pedals. It's so fun to watch her ride because she takes on this whole "adventerous/the world is mine to explore" attitude when she is on her bike. She rides around and comments on the world around her like she is taking it all in. At one point a lady drove by us and Emma looks at her with her nose turned up and says to us, "Hmmm that lady looks kinda like interesting". Or, "See that bird? It is so still on the water and it looks like a statue, but it's actually a real bird." She also loves to search out anything pink that she can find out in the big world. Today we saw a few pink lounge chairs out by somebody's pool. Too cool. Doing these simple things with my whole family are what I love the most :)

the new and improved me

Lately I have been in a very contemplative state of mind. I think that it has a lot to do with the fact that I will be turning 30 in a few months and I don't really know how that happened! Whatever the reason, I am all in favor of embracing the new, older me and being intentional about my life rather than feeling like life is passing me by. Some of my goals are silly things, like to be in the best shape of my life, to give up my lifelong love of fast food and actually care about what foods I put into my body, to get good at yoga, to get pedicures more often so that I don't gross people out by my nasty feet :) But then there are the things that matter. For example, I have been horrible at friendships all of my life (as most of you reading this probably know). I don't know what it is...I don't know if I was always so close with my mom and my sister that I didn't "need" my friends, or if I am just too selfish or too lazy or too intimidated or what. But one thing is for sure that I always fail at sticking it out for the long run. I want to really start being intentional in my friendships so that they don't fizzle out over time. I am so thankful for all of the old friends that I have been in touch with recently and how great it is that sometimes you can pick up where you left off. I desperately want to raise my daughters to be passionate about their walk with God and I want that for myself as well. I want to study the Bible and apply it to my life. I want my husband to be glad everyday that he chose me to spend his life with and I want to make him proud that I am his wife. I want to show my parents that I am thankful for the way they raised me and the childhood that I was given. I want my in-laws to know how much I love being a part of their family. The list could go on for days...these are just a few things that are on my heart right now as I slowly realize that I am approaching a new decade in my life and before I know it I will be middle aged and I don't want to look back on this time of my life with any regrets. Is that possible?

"boots"

Madeline now goes by "Boots" in our house. Can you guess why?!

the park!

After school today, we met Dana and Madeline at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and then I took the girls to the park. It was way too hot and buggy out, so we only stayed for about 10 minutes. They had fun while it lasted. Notice Mad's new boots that she wears EVERYWHERE these days!

first day of school

Her backpack is bigger than she is!

Hip Hop Harry

Playing at Emma's school


Yesterday was Emma's first day of school. I can't believe that she is going to school FIVE days a week now and that next year at this time she will be in Kindergarten. My baby is growing up so fast. I have been so emotional this week just thinking about how big she is getting. It doesn't seem like that long ago that it was just me and my baby spending the day with Vicky and Ellie, going shopping and swimming and hanging out at Starbucks. Now I have two other kids at home, and that "baby" goes off to school without me everyday. When did that happen?! When did my carefree life of being a new mom with my little baby turn into me being the mother of three whose life revolves around a school year calendar? I know it is such a cliche, but time really does go by way too quickly. I feel like I am going to wake up one day and my kids are going to be all grown up.

To top it all off, Emma also started Hip Hop classes yesterday. Goodbye tutus and leotards, hello cami's, leggings and booty shaking. She came home from class yesterday singing High School Musical songs with HUGE attitude....really?

Madeline is happy and content to be home with Claire and I while Emma is at school, but at the same time she walks around talking about wanting to go to school but being too little. On Friday night we went to an open house at Emma's school and while Emma just sat shyly at the table, Madeline was the life of the party running all around and playing with everything in sight. Then yesterday when we took Emma to dance, Madeline wore a pair of dance shoes and stood outside the door saying,"I dance. I hip hop." She can't wait to be able to do all of the things that her big sister does!

Claire is feeling much better this week. We were at the doctor again last week with a double ear infection, but the meds seem to be working well because she is all smiles as usual.

There are only four days of bootcamp left and I am gonna be devastated when it's over. I love working out in general, but the crazy workouts this month have topped them all. Last night we were running through sand with weighted bars over our heads, jumping hurdles over bushes, jumping over walls at construction sights...crazy stuff. Did I mention that it was 93 degrees outside with about 110% humidity? I love it!! I finally am able to wear all of my clothes again...now I'm working on being happy with the way they fit ;)

help!

How do I get my pictures to appear at the end of my post and not the beginning? I can't figure it out!

rain rain go away

Emma's Masterpiece

Maddy's masterpiece ;)

They took it upon themselves to go to the bathroom to clean up

Today was a long day! We were housebound all day thanks to the tropical storm. School was cancelled and the daycare at the gym was closed along with pretty much every other place in town. So...what do you do all day at home with a preschooler, a toddler and a baby? You paint! One of the girls favorite things to do is paint....Emma loves to be creative and Madeline loves to make a mess. I let them loose with some paints for a while and they had so much fun. I think it took me longer to clean it up than they actually spent making the mess :)

two months

Today was Claire's two month check up at the doctor. All in all, it was a good visit. She is in the 90th percentile for both height and weight...no big surprise, all of our girls were big babies. She had to get three shots and she only screamed for a minute, but then she fell fast asleep and had a pretty lazy day. She did have a fever tonight...hopefully it will be gone tomorrow. I can't believe she's two months old already :(

Madeline was hilarious in the doctor's office. She made up songs the whole time about everything she saw, all to the tune of "twinkle twinkle". The doctor and I were cracking up at her. She's quite the songwriter :)

emma's first sleepover

...sort of. Emma and her best friend Madeline have been contemplating the idea of a sleepover for a while and they decided to give it a try tonight. They had tons of fun playing with sidewalk chalk, playing games on the computer and swimming in the dark. All was great until bedtime (10:00...super late for 4 year olds ;) ) when Emma got a little freaked out and suddendly had a stomach ache/itchy skin/madeline wasn't being quiet enought/etc. and called me to come pick her up. Luckily I was right down the road at Target so I went right away to pick her up and by the time I had gotten there, she was already asleep. I took her home anyway.....I didn't want to risk a 2am wake-up call! I had a feeling that they weren't quite ready for a sleepover, but they were so sold on the idea that we thought we'd give it a try...I think we'll have to wait a little while longer. I have to admit, I'm glad to have her home in her own bed tonight. As I was driving her home I was remembering sleepovers at Sara's house when we were in middle school, playing light as a feather and crank calling the toll free operators. I can't believe that now we all have daughter of our own who will one day be doing those things themselves. Crazy.

juggling act

Let me start off by saying that Madeline takes a three hour nap every day. That said, since she is sick today, I expect her to sleep AT LEAST that long, if not longer considering her fever, the lack of sleep last night and the fact that she is taking Benadryl today. WRONG! An hour into their naptime, Madeline woke up screaming out for me. I, who was feeding Claire at the time, quickly put her down and ran in to quiet down Madeline so that she wouldn't wake up Emma who was asleep on the top bunk above her. Claire, not happy that I put her down, starts screaming which wakes Madeline up again which then wakes Emma up. Just as Madeline is starting to settle down, Emma comes back into the bedroom to start playing with toys?! So needless to say, we are all now awake hours before we should be and everyone's cranky. Did I mention that at the start of all this, Claire pooped all over my leg so throughout this whole ordeal I have been wearing poop smeared jeans? Oh, the joys of motherhood. Only two hours left until Ryan comes home to relieve me and I head off to bootcamp.....

just another manic monday

can you tell who's sick and who's not?




loving the dragon playground



posing with the mannequins


sleepy baby


So today it's Madeline's turn to be sick. She was up last night with a terrible cough and a fever and she is prone to having respiratory issues, so I knew that a trip to the doctor was inevitable. Once again, the whole gang spent the morning sitting in the doctor's office. Madeline was coughing so hard that she threw up all over me and all over herself in the carseat on the way home. The doc loaded us up with meds though, so hopefully she'll be back to normal in no time.

Emma was devastated on the way home from the doctor that we weren't gonna have enough fun today. She was heartbroken driving past the library, Barnes & Noble and Chick Fil A knowing that we couldn't go anywhere but home to let Maddy get some rest. So far we're having a lazy day at home watching movies in our jammies and eating popcorn. I have to admit, sometimes I love a good sick day when you have an excuse to just be lazy :)

We had a pretty low key weekend. Ryan and I both had the shopping bug on Sunday, so we took the girls to Coconut Point. They had fun playing at the "dragon playground", going to the Disney store and of course going to Starbucks. Claire slept the entire time...she took a six hour nap! And best of all, Ryan and I actually got to do some shopping for ourselves :) Emma was a ham all day, wanting to pose for pictures. Here are a few...

my baby's sick :(

Claire had her first "sick" visit at the doctor today:( She has been up the past two nights doing this scary coughing/ gagging/ choking/puking thing so I took her in this morning to get checked out. It turns out that she has an ear infection and the drainage is causing the coughing which then causes the gagging and choking,etc. My poor baby. She also has thrush in her mouth, so she will be on several medications for the next week. The nurse said that her cough will get worse before it gets better, so it looks like we have a few restless nights ahead of us...fun. It breaks my heart to see her not feeling well...she's way too little to be sick :( She's a trooper, though. Other than her struggle with the coughing fits, she isn't cranky at all. She loves to smile at us and is starting to make those cute little cooing sounds. My favorite part of the day with her is when I am nursing her and she stares up at me the whole time. Every now and then she'll take a break to smile and coo at me and then she'll start eating again. She's so precious!

you know it's time to potty train when....

*"yucky mommy, i pooped" is part of her daily vocabulary
*she sees a diaper and screams "ew, gross!"
*she takes her diaper off every chance she gets...even if she has to pull down her pants to do it
*she tries to change her own dirty diaper and comes running to you with a wipe full of poop

Sounds great in theory, but then you put her on the potty and she yells, "No like the potty, mommy. No like it!".

AAAHHH! If she wasn't so cute, she might be driving me crazy right now.

aaahh...sisters

Or should I say pirates?! Emma and Madeline are so close..I love it. My sister and I have always had a really close relationship and I love that my daughters will get to experience that for themselves. The girls have bunkbeds in their room, and when we put them to bed at night we can always hear them giggling and talking with each other. Tonight they were acting like pirates and Madeline would yell "heave" and then Emma would yell "ho" and they just kept repeating it over and over and over again until one of them finally fell asleep :)

white trash

I am oficially white trash. So, tonight was Ryan's last night out of town and my friend Dana's husband Matt is also away. That said, Dana told us about a new restaurant that just opened and was having a grand opening party tonight with free food and wanted to know if I wanted to meet them there for dinner. She said the pizza is great, her daughter loved it, etc. Sounds great, right? Free dinner, hanging out with friends, pizza is pretty kid friendly. So we show up right from bootcamp and I am DRIPPING in sweat...(I would be mortified to go into McDonald's looking like I did) and it turns out that this "pizza" place is in reality this really trendy new bar/restaurant that is having a red carpet grand opening party with these beautiful seven feet tall women in their slinky black dresses working the door. Everyone inside is there all dressed up, sipping their wine, enjoying a night out and here we are, the sweaty crew in gym clothes with FOUR kids (needless to say, the ONLY kids in the place). As I lugged around my baby in her carseat while chasing my two other kids around I couldn't even make eye contact with a single person there because I was so embarrassed by my white trashness. Serves me right for going out in public like a scrub. Never again!

reminiscing

This is an old pic that I just found of Emma's first day of school last year. Was it really less than a year ago that Madeline was bald and couldn't walk and Claire wasn't even in the picture yet? I never realized how quickly time flies until I had kids. Before I know it they will be all grown up. Slow down!

home again...just in time for torture

We're back! We had a great last day in Orlando today. The girls started off the morning by making pancakes with Grammy (loaded with chocolate chips and sprinkles, of course!), playing Pop Pop's drums and playing "freeze dance" (Emma's idea...since when does she know what freeze dance is?!). After all of that excitement, we went to visit Pop Pop at work to say goodbye. My mom and I spent the morning shopping and then after lunch we hit the road. All three girls slept almost the ENTIRE way home, which made a great trip for me! I had a good three hours of peace and quiet to drink my starbucks, listen to music and do a few crunches. Yes, it is possible to do crunches while you drive...leave it to me to figure out how! I know I am a loser, but if you went from a size 1 to a size I dont even know what in 9 short months, you would also do anything it takes to make the weight go away!!! Which leads me to boot camp. Our first night was tonight...it was so hard, I loved every second of it. The meal plan Ed put us on is insane...I can pretty much eat NOTHING for the month of August. I don't care, though....our trip to Atlantis is in 8 weeks and I am determined to be back to normal by then! I have lost about 54 of my 70 pounds so far and I am hoping that this torture will be enough to take the rest off. Yes, I said 70. Yes, I am the fattest pregnant person that ever existed. Yes, that is why I am never having another child.

Daddy comes home in two more days! We all miss him so much and are sad without him here. I am glad that we went away for a few days to make the time pass faster, but now that we are home I am ready for Ryan to be home too. It was great to spend the past few days with my parents. We all had a great time and I know that it meant a lot to them to have us there. It was good to see them in such good spirits :)

so much fun..so little time

We have had a busy weekend while Ryan's been away! On Saturday, the girls and I drove up to Orlando to see my parents. The girls were great in the car...it was a huge blessing. I couldn't have asked for a better trip with them. We spent Saturday afternoon with my mom at Downtown Disney. The girls had a blast! Emma decided to dress up like Belle for the day, and I want everyone to give me props for allowing it!! She left the house that morning in a cute little Crewcuts outfit, and ended up walking around in public in a bright yellow tulle dress that was about two sizes too small and plastic high heels that were five sizes too big. Mommy's ego took a big hit, but Emma loved every second of it. She even walked around singing songs about what a beautiful princess she was. Madeline was so excited to be there that I think she stopped breathing a few times....she would scream and then hold her breath and shake with excitement. She kept yelling, "Disney, Mommy, Disney"! And this was just Downtown Disney, I can't imagine her excitement when we take her to the Magic Kingdom.

Today we went to Sea World with Grammy and Pop Pop. We only planned on staying for a few hours, but we were having so much fun that we decided to stay all day. My dad was even wanting to stay longer, and that's saying a lot! Madeline loved Shamu and Emma loved to watch the animals do tricks at the Pet's Ahoy show. Claire made it easy on us and slept the entire time we were there. The girls took a long nap in the stroller while we were there, but by the time we left they were still ready for bed. I bet they'll sleep good tonight!

Emma and Madeline both loved spending these past few days with Grammy and Pop Pop and will be sad to go home tomorrow. We have a busy couple of days ahead...my month long Boot Camp starts tomorrow and Emma has school on Tuesday and dance camp on Wednesday, so we need to head home:( Maybe we'll have to come back again with Daddy in a few weeks for another visit.

daddy's little girls

We took the girls to play mini golf last night. Ryan is leaving today for a business trip in Chicago and he wanted to do something special with the girls for his last night home. The three of them played and Claire and I tagged along to watch. Emma (who's goal in life this past month has been to learn how to play golf like daddy) had a blast playing with a pink ball and Madeline had no concept of what she was doing...she ended up throwing her ball at every hole rather than hitting it with the club. They loved every minute of it! I always love to watch Ryan with the girls. He is so great with them and it is so special to know that they are growing up with a daddy that is so invested in their lives. As for me, I have no idea how I will survive the next 5 days without his help. That said, we are heading up to Orlando to visit my parents for a few days. We haven't been up there in a few months and I know we'll have lots of fun and the girls will love it. It's driving four hours with three kids that's the hard part!