How low can you go?!?

Mia talked me in to buying her this water limbo sprinkler at the store the other day!
It was a big hit with the kids today!

Love this time of year!

Sleeping Angel

I had to wake Marshall up from his nap so we could pick Mia up from school.

This is how I found him!

I love how he is all snuggled up with his feet crossed.

I like to think this is how he was in my belly!

Love him so...

Random Pics

For those who have been anxiously awaiting some new posts- I am soooo far behind! 

I have a list of 17 posts that I need to do! 

I'm working on it!

In the mean time here are some random pics!

 Love, love this morning hair!

 Playing barbies with his sister ;-)

 Is that a halo?!?!

 Sportin her Life Is Good hat from Bean

 So happy to be facing forward!

I just couldn't make him wait til 2 :-/

 Marhsall's fan club!

These boys were so funny, gathered around singing along to the music on his walker!

 Jammin with daddy on sister's pink guitar!

These 2 are manly enough for it!

15 Month Check

My precious babe had his 15 month check up today!
He weighed in at a whopping 20lbs 1oz and is 29in tall!
Still in the 3rd percentile.
(Mia weighed 20lbs 15oz and was 30 1/2in tall!- and I thought she was little!)
I was a bit nervous for this appointment because at Marshall's 1 year check the doctor reassured me that he would walk soon and that if he wasn't walking by his 15 month check that was when she would start to be concerned.
He isn't walking yet.
He stands up and walks along the walls and furniture all.day.long.
But he will not let go and do it on his own!
Lately he doesn't even want to walk holding our hands.
Well, she checked him out and agreed that he has great strength, balance and coordination.
We think he is just scared to walk.
She gave me some things to try, like give him something to hold in his hands and then encourage him to walk. Maybe he will feel more secure holding on to something?
And I realized yesterday that he will hold my hands and walk in the grass because he doesn't like the way it feels on his hands, so he won't crawl!
So we are just gonna keep working on it.
He will do it when he is ready.
Really I kinda like that he is a little peanut and not walking yet.
He is my baby after all.
The last one I will ever have.
No need to rush things.
As long as he is happy, I am happy!

A girl after my own heart

I love to read.
Always have.
That is why I have always read to my kids.
My sweet Mia has taken after me in this respect!
She loves to read.
And boy can she read.
She is starting kindergarten in a few months and she is reading at a 4th grade level!!!
(I love that brain of hers!)
I have a hard time sometimes finding age appropriate material for her to read.
She is bored with picture books.
And she burns thru her chapter books so fast I can hardly keep up with her!
Well today I dug in to my book boxes in the garage and found the box where I put some books I had hoped to read to my kids some day.
I decided to let her start reading the Lemony Snicket Series!
In 1999 (when I was 24!!) my little neighbor was in 5th grade and reading these books and I picked one up one day at her house and got hooked!
I can't believe my little smarty pants is reading them already!

I could eat her up!!!

Quotes of the day

Between Mia and Grampa I heard some zingers today!
Here are a couple examples:

"It was so cold in our apartment this morning! I had to put the heat on. It was only 75 degrees in there! 
It was freezing!" - Grampa
(Do you think a dry 75 is colder then a humid 75?!?)

Mia was talking about how much she loves our house. She mentioned that not everybody has stairs. I told her that there weren't any stairs in my childhood home.
Her response: "Were stairs not invented yet?" 
Nice.

Adventures in the Mini

It seems that Gramma needs a dresser with a mirror.
So Gramps and I found one on Craigs List.
We all took a little drive this morning to get it!
It came with a chest of drawers also.
It was a tight fit, and at first we tried tying down the back gate on the Mini, but as soon as we pulled on to the main street the rope snapped and up flew the gate.
So I pulled over and had to make an executive decision.
I moved Mia into the front seat...

Folded down her seat, and then I was able to pull the dresser forward enough to close the back gate.
I offered to let Gramps drive, but he is not ready to do that here yet so he insisted that he would be the one to sit among the furniture!

He is such a trooper!
He squished in there, kicked back with his lemonade and smiled the whole way home!
Then me, myself and the luggage cart at their apartment moved all of it in!
Sometimes I really amaze myself at what I can do when I set my mind to it!

Later that night we had G&G over to our house for dinner!
It was wonderful to have them in our home!
Mimi even walked upstairs to see the second floor!
We are all so proud at how well she is doing.
As I have said here before, and to quote Gramps
"That Mim is one tough broad!"
They enjoyed spending time with the kids and loved hearing Mia read!

Me and My Mim

This past week has been so busy.
Helping G&G get settled, driving them to stores, figuring out insurance and just trying to work out the kinks that come with an across country move.
I felt like tho I have been spending lots of time with them, I have really spent much time WITH them.
So tonight after dinner, I kissed the kids and the hubby goodnight and went over for some special 1 on 2 time with them!
It was so wonderful just to visit and relax together for a while!
They are having some hard times with a few of the changes and I just tried to be encouraging and help them see the bright side of things.
WE ARE TOGETHER being the most important!
They reassured me that this is indeed where they want to be, and we all agreed to help each other with the bumps in the road.
Then I got to spend some time snuggling with my Mimi!
It was awesome!

So thankful that she is part of my life!

Marshy Kisses

Mouth wide open, full on kisses!
The.Best.Kisses.Ever.

To do list

Mine has been incredibly long lately.
When I find myself becoming overwhelmed, or having a pity party about all I have to do, I take a deep breath and realize all I have to be thankful for and push on.
Today someone posted this To Do List on Facebook.
It really spoke to me.
Decided it was a keeper!

Dinner with G&G

Tonight we had dinner with G&G in the dining room at their new apartment!
It was really nice!
They are so happy to be here.
It will take some time to adjust and settle in, but they are confident they made the right choice!

Cheers to many happy dinners together!

 It was quite a long walk (for them) from the apartment to the dining room!

Mimi said "Can you believe they make us walk 2 miles just to eat dinner?"!!

It wasn't quite that long ;-) 

Quality time

Since I have been so busy getting things ready for Gram and Gramp, I feel like I have neglected my kiddos a bit. So since the Gs are safely here and needing a day of rest, I took my sweets to Makutu's Island!
(I used to take Finn here all the time when he was little!)
It was so much fun!
There weren't too many people there and the kids loved it!

Marshall was especially drawn to the aquarium!

They have the biggest Angel fish I have ever seen!

 Mia loved the slides!

She was so daring and went down every single one!

Multiple times :)

It was here that Marshall first said Mia's name!!

He and I stuck together, but Mia ran wild and did her own thing.

Sometimes when he and I were up going thru the tunnels I would call for her to find her from up there and make sure she was ok.

One of the times I called "Meee-ya!"

And what do I here from the wee man in front of me?

"Beee-da!"

It was so stinkin cute!

That is how he says here name!

I love it!

And if you ask him what a cow says he says "Booooo"!! 

Think maybe he has his Bs and Ms mixed up?!?

So maybe all this time when I have been thinking he doesn't say my name he really is? It's just when he says baba, he means mama!?!

They're here!!!!!!!!!!

Gram and Gramp's flight was delayed by a few hours :-(
Ultimately this was a good thing for me!
I had some last minute things to do and as usual I crammed too much in to one day!
Mia and I made this sign to welcome them to their new home!

 We were pushing the clock and Mia and I ended up speed walking thru the airport to get to the security waiting area! Dara was there and so were Jessika, Jacksen and Noah!
When I saw them coming I started jumping up and down and waving!
I probably looked pretty silly, but was so excited I just couldn't contain myself!

They were tired after their long day of travel, but soooooo happy to be here and close to their grandkids and great grandkids!!!
Cheers to lots of fun times ahead!

The Big Move

Grampa Vic and Gramma Mimi are moving here from Florida!
We are all so excited!
It has taken lots of preparation.
Grammy has been in Florida for about 2 1/2 months taking care of Mimi- she fell and broke her hip in early Feb and has been in rehab. Then Gramps had hernia repair surgery. On top of all that she has been working on getting them ready to move across the country! They are 90 and 86 years and have lived in their condo for 30+ years!
It is really a big deal!
I have been busy on this side of the country getting their new place ready for them.
Gramps gave me a budget and I got to furnish and decorate their new place!
It was fun, but a LOT of work!
I am please with how it turned out.
I hung some pics of the family in there, brought in a couple of plants and really tried to make the new place nice. I know how hard this is for them and I want them to be comfortable from the moment they walk in to their new place!
I have grown so close to them over the years (they are Caleb's grandparents) and am truly looking forward to them spending their golden years near family!
They get here tomorrow.......

Such a big boy!

I served Marshy his lunch big boy style today!

It wasn't long before the plate was raised above his head and the food was all over the place!
But hey- we're workin on it!