Ducks, Daddy, and Days of Nothing

Worked all weekend. Brain is mush. So here is the quick, terribly written version of what has been going on over the last few days.

On Friday we took a trip to the duck pond and play ground. We played on the playground for a little while until Drew decided that the ducks were a little bit hungry. So we then headed from the playground over towards the "BIG" dock. All of the geese (or ducks, not sure what they were - yes, I don't know the difference) were on one side of the pond and as we started walking they all started swimming across the pond towards us. They totally knew that we had food and were coming to feed them. So they swam across the pond...

and Drew and Ellie waited.

Then the ducks got over to our side of the pond and were not at all shy and would come up to us and practically get the bread out of our hand. Then all of a sudden, one goose started hissing at us. Katie and I glanced at each other with that "not so sure about this anymore" look and decided that we should proceed to the dock quickly. At the same time, Drew and Ellie decided that they weren't so sure about these little animals either and both decided to jump in our arms. So we quickly walked back toward the car instead of the dock (really, because Katie and I were scared of the geese - no, I am not kidding - they were very territorial). We got back near the car, the geese got in the water, and we decided to take a break and feed them from the smaller dock that was right beside our car. Did this for a few minutes and decided to take another shot at going to the "BIG" dock. We knew that we could get to the "BIG" dock faster than the geese could swim to the side, get out of the water, and get near us. So we gather up the kids (Katie carrying Ellie, me pushing the stroller, and Drew walking closely by my side), put the bread in the stroller, and quickly walked (all but ran) to the dock. Yes, absolultely ridiculous! All because we, the adults, were scared of the geese! It was quite comical that Drew and Ellie were looking toward us for security and we were just as scared of these geese as they were, if not more! Once we made it to the dock, everyone had a great time feeding the fish, turtles and geese!

While I worked this weekend, Kevin was home with the babies. We had a party at our neighbors last night and of course I forgot my camera. But it was really fun, I just don't have the pictures to prove it. I got home tonight and Drew did a "Fashion Show" for me and I got to see all of the school clothes that he had gotten with Daddy today. It was bitter sweet - I was sad that I wasn't the one to take him shopping to get his school clothes, but I also love the fact that he got to go shopping with Daddy. And yes, I know that I am incredibly lucky to have a husband that will take the kids shopping for school clothes (but he didn't get the "true experience" since Ellie was with Nanny and Poppy). Drew was so excited over his new clothes, he would come out and tell me what this outfit was for (cold weather, hot weather, church etc.) and say "Fashion" with his arms spread out as he soared across the room. It was so cute!

Tonight the kids had dinner and a movie in the bonus room while Kevin and I fixed dinner downstairs. Well, Kevin fixed dinner - I filled the wine glasses :). So this is how we started. Kids confined to they seats so that Emmy would still be in one piece when we got back upstairs. Food and drink for everyone, Emmy with a full belly.

Note: Ellie's hands in the applesauce (all over the tray, by the way)

So I am sitting on the sofa, reviewing my pictures for my blog post, literally inches away from Ellie and I look down to see this:

Why eat applesauce when you can play in it?

Or shampoo with it?

Why use your hands when you can just dump the whole bowl?

I knew that she was playing with her food, but she took it to an entirely new level!

A little more "Monkey see, monkey do!".... Gotta love the old Duck Hunt game ;)

Hope that everyone had a great weekend!

Love to all!

Three Months Ago Today...

One sweet little girl was brought into our lives to remind us (yet again!) that we are totally not in control of this operation. Yes, Emmy, along with her older brother and sister, remind us on a daily basis that THEY are the ones running the show now! And boy is it fun!

So, here is what little Emmy is doing these days:
-eating at 8am, 12noon, 4pm, and 8pm - FINALLY a schedule that suits Mommy just great! loving that 12 hour stretch at night :)
-cooing A LOT!
-loves playing Patty Cake
-becoming more and more interactive by laughing at her brother and sister
-holding her head up and gaining more upper body strength
-she still love her bouncy seat
-wants to be left alone-swaddled up tightly to sleep for naps and at night (thank goodness for the Kiddopatamus swaddling blankets!)
-laughing at her Mommy when she is all up in her face talking like a silly woman




I can't believe it has been three months already! Not a day goes by that I don't thank my lucky stars for this little angel!

Love to all!

Mega, Major, MASSIVE Meltdowns

Oh. My. Goodness. I have never wiped so many tears from little cheeks, shushed crying babies/toddlers/preschoolers all at once, or threatened bedtime at 4:30 so many times in my life!!! The kids have been awesome for the past several weeks with very few meltdowns, tantrums, etc. But when it rains, it pours. And it has definitely poured today, well this afternoon at least. My patience can handle a lot, but all three crying at once for longer than about 10 minutes is more than my frazzled Mommy Mind can take - especially at 4pm when Daddy won't be home until 7pm and my wine bottle is EMPTY (from the night before, not today... come on, I'm not that bad people...well not yet at least)! AHHHHHHH! I will spare you the details of each child's meltdown, but let's just say that nothing would please Ellie, Drew would play with his friends until midnight and STILL cry when it is time to go home, and Emmy is just a hungry little baby!

When we have days like this, and we really don't that often, I have to step back and remember how incredibly lucky I am to have three happy, healthy children that I love more than anything in the world. And I am truly grateful and feel blessed by the grace of God each and every day. I know that there are people out there that have lost their children and would give anything in this world for a day full of meltdowns. Like Katie, who lost her daughter Reese last week, only days after she was born. Or Angie who lost her daughter last year, only hours after she was born. I do not know these women, but their stories have touched my heart and I pray for them and their families. My heart aches for them and for all parents that have had to bury a child - it just isn't right. So, while some days at home might be better than others, I am grateful for every day.

Though today's post might come across as negative, or nasty, or boring, or whatever, please know that those are not my intentions. That is just what happened, here, in our house, today. Pretty uneventful and boring, but it is what it is. Which got me thinking, why blog?

I blog NOT for others to read...but I am glad that some do and hope that you enjoy it
I blog NOT to post pictures of my children for everyone to see...but they are cute, aren't they;)
I blog NOT to win awards...clearly I am not and will not
I blog NOT to vent...I have a fabulous husband who is a great listener (and a saint if you ask me)
I blog NOT to advertise and make money...but wouldn't turn it down if it started coming my way

I blog for three reasons: Drew, Ellie, and Emmy. I blog so that my children might one day begin to understand how very much I love them. I blog to document our days together so that they can look back and see how much fun we had together (or how their meltdowns nearly sent Mommy off the deep end). I blog the memories that we have created. I blog at night when I am sitting on the couch, in my little corner, and thanking God for all that he has given me. I blog so that through my writing, my children may one day understand how much they mean to me.

I cherish each and every day I have with my children, meltdowns and all. Therefore, I blog.

Love to all!

Tame than Mane

Look who got a haircut!!!

After looking at her wild hair in the pictures I posted earlier in the week, I decided it was time...past time... for this little lady to get her first haircut! Doesn't she look cute? Too bad she won't keep the bow in her hair! In fact, I had to put it in 3 times to get these 3 pictures. Each time for her to let me put in the bow, look at me, smile, say "Cheese!" and then pull it out and bring it to me! Ellie will have nothing to do with bows...sigh! I couldn't wait for her to have enough hair to put a big old bow in and now that she does, she will have nothing to do with anything in her hair :( Oh well, I still have Emmy and will try to start training her a little earlier :)

There has been a lot of "monkey see, monkey do" going on around here lately! Everything that Drew does, Ellie must copy. It is really kind of funny when she follows him into his room as he is punished and sent to time out. Drew stomps down the hall to his room crying with Ellie closely following and crying a fake little cry to copy her big brother! So is this still considered "time out" if they are in there together? playing? laughing? I think not!

Like I said, "Monkey see, monkey do" all day long :)

Hope all is well!

Love to all!

Complete Randomness

We had a great weekend of doing lots of nothing! Since we had been out of town for a while, our yard needed a little TLC. I am beginning to think that the potato vine is trying to take over. Remember this:

We planted this in June and have done nothing to it since. When we got home from the beach last week it looked like this:

Can you BELIEVE that? I was shocked by how fast it grew. I must say that I do love the bright green color of the vine, but I think it is a little much for the size of the other plants in that bed.

Katie and I also started my "closet project" which will take much longer than one weekend to complete - will post pictures when it is done (probably sometime in 2020!). We did start by cleaning out the shoes so that it is possible to actually WALK in the closet. Is this not ridiculous? We reduced my shoe collection to 46 pairs - this is progress, I am not even sure of how many I got rid of. No wonder Ellie has a slight shoe fetish!

We had dinner with friends in the neighborhood last night and I will refrain from posting those incriminating picutres ;) But I will share an AWESOME recipe from the night. This is a modified version of a dip Ann cooked at the beach and I think she said that she got it from our friend Lori and her mom Susan. No picutures to share - it was gobbled up so fast I didn't have a chance to pull out my camera! It is TO DIE FOR!!!

Buffalo Chicken Dip
2 blocks cream cheese

2 (10oz) cans of chicken

Bar-B-Q sauce

ranch dressing

Frank's Red Hot sauce ("I put that sh** on everything" - you know that commercial?)

1 and 1/2 cups cheddar cheese

Spread the cream cheese on the bottom layer of a 9x13 or a round baking dish (I used a round pie plate). Drain and rinse the chicken and mix in bar-b-q sauce, ranch dressing and hot sauce. I just made it to taste like I wanted it to - so you can use as much or as little as you want of these three ingredients. Most of the online recipes that I looked at called for about 3/4 cup of hot sauce and ranch, but since I added the bar-b-q sauce, I used a little less -- anyway, just make it to suit your taste! Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Serve with Fritos scoops! SOOOOOO good :) Thanks Ann, Lori and Susan!

And we have finally decided that Miss Ellie Bell has GOT to get a haircut! What do you think?

WILD HAIR!!!

Yes she was in the chocolate...AGAIN! We will post pictures of her new haircut soon!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Love to all!

Wine a little (or a lot!)...You'll Feel Better

Until the next morning! This weekend we had a bachelorette party for Amy and visited three of Virginia's finest wineries. Had some good food, great wine, and an awesome time with lots of fun girls :) We started at Keswick vineyards. This was may favorite vineyard and Keswick had, in my opinion, the best wines. The vineyard had 6 wines that we tasted, all of which were very good. My favorite two were their 2007 Concensus and the Viogneir (a very nice white wine). We then ventured to Barboursville. Again, very good wine and A LOT of people tasting at this vineyard. I think there were about 16 or 18 wines we tasted here. Thankfully the size of a tasting was only a sip or two (unlike Keswick, where we were given a little more to taste). Had they given us much more, I am not sure we would have made it to our final vineyard. Our last stop was Burnley. They two had quite a few wines to taste. Burnley had numerous dessert wines. I typically do not prefer a "sweet" wine, but there were a couple that I liked here.


So here is the bachelorette all ready to go! (I will leave out any pictures that tell what she REALLY did this weekend ;)



We started off the weekend on Friday night and had dinner/drinks at Bar Louies. I have finally found a place that has zucchini sticks comparable to those at Maggiano's! They were awesome. We hung out there Friday night but headed in early to get some rest for the next day. Our fabulous party planner (Ann did a fabulous job, I might add) had arranged for a limobus to pick us up at the hotel, drive us to three different wineries, and have us back at the hotel in time for dinner. So here is the party planner herself on the red carpet consulting with Guilly (our driver).


Ann, Amy, Liz and Brook ready for some wine


Self portrait on the limobus


Doing a little tasting

After our wine tastings, we headed out to a piano bar. I must say that I am a HUGE fan of piano bars and think that they are so much fun. I love good music and the pianists are usually really funny. We had a good time listening to the music,

Watching the bachelorette dance,

And dancing a little.

Hope everyone had a great day!

Love to all!

Back To Reality

Oh how I miss the ocean! But it is back to reality for this group. We had a great time at the beach and loved spending time with our families. Drew and Ellie are brown as biscuits and Emmy has changed so much in the past few weeks. I now need a vacation from my vacation, but it was all worth it :)

This picture says it all - baby bottles and wine bottles :) Heaven!

Hope everyone has a terrific Monday!

Love to all!