Saturday, March 17, 2012

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! We didn't do much around here. I had my advanced DSLR this afternoon followed by some errands. It was nice to get to do some things on my own. Aniston spent her day with her Nanny & Mimi. From what I hear she slept a lot & played a lot. This morning she did get to open her gift from St. Patrick. Yeah I know it is weird to actually get a gift but I skipped the clothing this year & stuck with Vera Bradley instead. In fact Aniston picked this purse out in December & it has been sitting in my gift closet ever since waiting for this day to arrive. Now we have matching handbags!

Present time!


Perfect box


Unwrapping


Checking out the necklaces


Adorable St. Patrick's Day Bow {Thanks Kate!}


Unfortunately Aniston thought her bow was better off in her purse.


Showing off her new handbag


Woo Hoo to checking off yet another Holiday during deployment! Only 2 Holidays left...I think. On Monday my Mom, Dad, Carey, Leah, Camden, Keira, & Nadia all arrive for a visit! We are so excited to have them! I will be spending tomorrow cleaning & doing laundry.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Kid's OTH

We had a blast at the kid's OTH. I will post the pottery sign we made for Aniston's big girl room when we pick it up next week. I am unfortunately not one of those relaxed Mom's & only let Aniston paint the background. I mean the sign cost $20 & she just liked scraping the paint off with her fingernails as it dried. I look forward to doing it with her again when she is older though {maybe 21 so we can drink wine while we do it.} Since the party was during one of Aniston's days without a nap she was full of energy at the party. She definitely gets super silly like me when she is really sleepy. I was totally bummed because I was looking forward to relaxing & talking with my friends. But instead I had to keep telling her not to touch all the price tags & blank pottery. If she wasn't doing that I was chasing her out the door & around the store. I then decided it was time to call for help & luckily my friend Shannon was there to step in. Once Aniston was with her she was a perfect sweet well-behaved kid. Aniston did behave for me while eating her pizza & cake though so I guess that was good.

P-3 themed cake


Cake & gift bags


Ready to get started


Hard at work. Aniston brought globs & globs of the paint over & I helped spread it out so it would bake evenly. We made a great team.


Tickling her to get her to smile which made her look adorable & me weird. Go figure.


Thanks to Shelia for taking photos at both OTH functions!

Soon I will be ready to photograph Aniston's big girl room but I am waiting for her shelf to be handcrafted by my wonderful friend, Dave. He is the best.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

OTH {Over the hump}

During every deployment there is a party to celebrate reaching the halfway point. It is referred to as OTH or Over the hump & I am happy to say we have reached that point in this deployment. Well we may have celebrated a little early but it was a lot of fun. The Squadron actually separates the adult & children parties which is great for us parents who need a night out. First we did dinner at a Japanese restaurant & then we went bowling. It was a total blast!

Theresa & Me


The Officer's Spouses Club


Christa & Me


Shannon & Me


Julie, Me, & Kristy


Tomorrow we are going to attend the children's party & I will make sure to take lots of photos to share. I am sure it will be interesting since it is at a pottery place where the kids get to decorate their own stuff. I can only imagine the mess Aniston will make!

Parenting Heaven

This.is.what.being.a.parent.is.all.about.

Please take a minute to admire my brand new BOB Revolution SE Duallie.


I bought the single before Aniston was born & never imagined I would love this stroller as much as I love her {my love runs that deep for a stroller - weird I know.} Berek just complained because how much it cost but once we received it & started using it the money didn't matter anymore. Especially once he compared the difference to our City Mini which was only a must have because it was compact - which is what I needed because I drove a Civic. I never forgot the day I heard about how amazing the BOB was from another Mom. It was about 4 years ago when I ran into a friend's sister at Target. She swore it was the best stroller & I actually took notes & remembered this tip. So I knew I was getting the BOB even before I was ready for kids {it came in Navy Blue come on that was enough for me to want to buy it!} Then when I got pregnant with our second sweet baby girl I tried to deny the need to have the double because it isn't practical for shopping or anything but honestly I couldn't deny my love for the BOB. I started to think how could I do my daily walks with two kids? Aniston wouldn't be able to walk to the park or even through our neighborhood. I could put her in the single & then use the Ergo {the other greatest invention} for the baby but what if it was warm out {we do live in Florida people!} I started to come around & think I NEED to have the BOB duallie. After discussing with some Military wives/friends {one who recently had her third & the other pregnant with her second - also a single BOB owner} I was sold. Finally I discussed it with my other neighbor/felllow Military wife, Lindsey, {who never owned a BOB} & felt the total opposite. But after some discussions we both ended up ordering the BOB duallie. Needless to say Berek wasn't too happy when I let him know I ordered our third stroller & that I got a great deal all he heard was that I spent hundreds more on yet another stroller but I quickly changed the subject to see how his custom gold clubs were coming along. The stroller arrived rather quickly & Lindsey & I were both very excited {texting each other all day to see if it had arrived yet} even though we wouldn't be able to use it for a few more months. Obviously our girls were also very excited because they both took one look at the stroller & climbed right in {Wooo Hooo money well spent!} Unfortunately I wasn't camera ready for this moment {I have a feeling it will be repeated.} This is an awesome thing for me because Aniston has the opposite reaction in her City Mini stroller. My friend, Lindsey, has now also ordered a BOB single stroller so that she can start using it right away. She finally gets my obsession. I am just waiting for my bestie April to jump on the BOB bandwagon. :) I have a feeling I won't ever want to part with these strollers because maybe I will babysit if not I will just hold onto them for when I am a Grandmom in twenty-five years. Navy is a classic color right? haha.

Things I love about the BOB

Super large canopy - must have for Florida sun


Amazing bike wheels that allow me to jump 4 inches with a sleepy baby or toddler & not even disturb them.


I also love that Aniston & our other sweet baby girl each have 2 pockets at their disposal but I totally forgot to photograph them! Aniston loves to place her milk & juice for her babies here, her drinks, any snacks, bracelets, etc.

Jacksonville Zoo

This post is a little delayed but on Thursday we went to the Zoo with our friends the Mize & Frank family. We had a blast & all four of the kids were really well behaved. They enjoyed playing hot potato between the 3 strollers we had with us which was fun. I took some pictures but wasn't able to get a whole lot since I had to keep an eye on Aniston too. I am working on getting the pictures Mary took of us as well.

Audrey & Aniston


Brittany, Hudson, & Lola feeding the giraffe


Mary & Audrey's turn


Playing on the elephant


Listening to the Zoo Keepers


Our attempt to get a Mom & Daughter photo on the train. fail.