NC 1

In honor of Buddy and LeLe coming to visit us this weekend, I thought I would FINALLY get around to writing about our journey to North Carolina back in June.

Oops.  

In June we spent a ridiculous amount of time in the car and drove to see my sister and brother in law.  We loaded up everything but the kitchen sink and traveled to the tiny town of New Bern NC for a few days.  On the way up there we stopped at CFA in some random spot in SC or NC and had dinner.  Our first stop was Charlotte and a visit with some dear friends who we used to babysit when they were MY kids' ages!  

My girls.

Morgan--who was barely a year old when we first met her.

So sad and so happy she's all grown up!

Our dear friend Brandon had QUITE a time with Spencer.  She is so friendly and he was happy to help entertain while she played!  He made us an awesome breakfast of s'mores french toast, bacon, eggs, coffee, etc.  It was FABULOUS!  Charlotte was our halfway point and we spent the night with the Hess crew before we made the rest of the journey to New Bern.

Clearly Elizabeth enjoyed herself...

Big Girl Bed

My baby girl moved from her baby bed to the big girl bed shortly before Spencer was born.  This is a great visual of what it looks like when she sleeps.  Crazy.  Just all over the place.  Also, we are down to TWO pacis in this house and she keeps chewing on them.  After the last one is gone, its gone forever.  I'm thinking that we might lose them all before we go to Hilton Head next week... and they will be gone forever.  Yes?  Does that make me a bad parent?  Probably yes.  Ask me if I'm real concerned.... wait, actually don't.  

Laundry for the masses...

Sometimes the best part of my day is coming home while these two are still sleeping.  I can do laundry and load the dishwasher before I get to hug and kiss all my littles.  I hate waking them up, but sometimes it is necessary.  Like this one below, I have to wake her before gymnastics every week.  Never fails.  She loves to sleep.  She goes to bed willingly.  She is a strange breed, but I love her.  

The above child was pouting because I was still doing I said laundry and wasn't going to stop until I finished sorting it.  He says, 'I don't like you doing laundry Mommy.'  Me either bug.  Hayes is so helpful with the laundry though. He's only 4, so I don't let him do much as far as the chemicals are concerned, but he helps in other ways. He sorta the dirty stuff into baskets.  He helps to swap the clothes over from washer to dryer. He also helps to fold things, match socks, and put his clothes away. I don't plan on doing his laundry forever, so I love that he's interested in helping. 

Not so sure Libby will feel the same way!

Naps and Selfies

Sometimes I know she has played hard because she naps like this.

And when I get to grandma's house at 4:30 to pick her up she is still snoring.

So I let her sleep, because who really wants to wake up a princess?

Hayes and I just take a lot of selfies while we wait for princess to awaken.

He makes silly faces because he likes to look at himself in the camera.

I just laugh a lot and try to make myself look attractive.

Age 31.

I have forehead wrinkles and 75 chins.

That's attractive, right?

Baby turns 2.

I remember her birth in great detail.

I was so thankful to be alert and ready to spend time with her once she arrived.

Her sweet little face is stuck in my brain.

Should have known she would like to eat, she had 2 chins at birth.  

Mommy sleep is possibly the most important sleep in the world.

I don't remember this moment in time, but I'm sure glad it was captured via picture.

I feel like love just exudes from this picture.

I love those two with my whole mommy heart.

Siblings.

Something about this bond is so special and very important.

There are days when he tries to kill her, but I know he loves her.

See, love?

I can see his shiny cheek smiling from here.

Happy Birthday sweet baby girl.

I love you more than you will know.

Until you have your own princess... 

Then we can talk about it.

Baby pooped in the tub.

This kid right here has a mind of her own. 

She's crazy affectionate and fiercely independent. 

She's also very sensitive and doesn't like to be yelled at.

Last night at Grandma's house she got a little too excited about the bath and jumped up.

Then she slipped and landed on her bottom.

Hard.

Poor kid came up crying and was a little traumatized.

About 3 seconds after we are trying to console her we hear Hayes saying, 'Baby pooped in the tub."

So apparently, she literally scared the poop out of herself.

I wasn't sure that was possible, but now I know that it is.

After cleaning up the poop and the tub we had do-over with bathtime.

 

Happy baby girl.

Clean bathtub.

Thanks Aunt Ellie!

 

On Saturday we got to keep baby Kendall.

It was our first time getting to watch her since she was born!

Hayes was a little bit too excited for that event.

When Kendall's parents left Hayes says, 'We get to keep Kendall?'

With big eyes and a huge smile he hugged her!

It was a good afternoon.

Kendall tried to stay awake for the long haul, but the swing and the sunshine were too much.

Also, my children used me as a launching pad Sunday morning before church.

It was craziness.

Whaaaaa? It's Wednesday

Our Spring Break was FULL of crazy days.  

They usually started like this.

Jammies, brushing teeth, and smiles.

And most of those days we didn't even change out of the jammies.

Clothing=optional.

So, yeah.

She's the cutest kid ever.

Gap teeth and all.

Spring Break Goals

We moved in August. 

I have yet to paint any of the house on the inside.

It is beginning to annoy me.

Mind you, I'm the WORST about starting a project and not every finishing it.

THE.  WORST. 

Just ask my husband, it is probably the most annoying trait I have.

I have grand ideas about things.

Very lofty ideas.

And I start the project, get about 1/3 of the way through, and find something else to do.

Maybe I just have extreme adult A.D.D.

Either way, I'm beginning to annoy myself.

So, I have a week off from school and I have a to do list.

Here's hoping I'm going to check at LEAST half of them off the list. 

My goal is 100% completion, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't get it all done.

Clearly, #4 & #5 take priority.  :) 

And I can't take good care of the babies if I don't take care of me.

# 6 & #7 are also pretty important as well. 

The rest are just things I want to get done.

Here's hoping the babies take long naps during the week!

I love baby sleep.

I love it when their little faces are flushed and they have their sweet blankets by their faces.

I often wonder if they get sleeping genes.

Do they sleep like me?

If the above pictures are any indicators, no.

They sleep just like their Daddy.

Sometimes I remember how tiny they were when they were sleeping.

Hayes rarely fell asleep anywhere other than his bed or the carseat.

There was one rare moment when he slept in the living room floor.

And another where he fell asleep sitting straight up in his high chair.

How do they manage to find the strange crib positions?

Arm slung up over the bumper and squished into the corner...

 She always loved sleeping on her belly.

And I've let her sleep there since the beginning.

And sometimes you find them sleeping like crazy people right beside their Daddy.

Again, weird crib sleep.

He was always busting out of his crib!

I loved to creep into his room and see how he had managed to fall asleep.

Sometimes when I'm having a rough day as a mom or just a person in general I creep into the babies' rooms.

I like to watch them sleep and breathe quietly.

Sometimes I open the doors as quietly as I can and tip toe to the edge of their beds.

I find myself sometimes sitting there for much longer than I'd planned.

Sometimes I find myself in their rooms going to put things away or going to get dirty clothes.

And instead I'll stand watching them sleep and forget why I even went in there to begin with!

I love to catch them sleeping in a crazy position.

Or all wrapped up in their blankets and sheets.

There is something peaceful and comforting about watching them snooze.

It is one of my most favorite things in the whole world.

I love being their momma and watching them sleep.

It reminds me how precious they are.

It reminds me to be thankful that my floors are dirty.

That I have fingerprints on every surface imaginable.

That the crumbs and goop on the floor is a blessing.

It reminds me that they are not my worry, but a blessing.

They look at sleep as though they are missing something.

The next big thing, the time with toys, the time with their parents...

They don't have a worry.

They don't stress about anything.

They just sleep.

Peacefully, sometimes all night long, but peacefully even if for just an hour.

It is a glorious thing that baby sleep or toddler sleep as I have these days.

I miss the days of baby sleep.

Disney Day 3. Wednesday....

We ventured to Hollywood Studios to see the Star Wars ride for hubby.

We weren't even into the park before we got to meet Minnie!

Hayes and Elizabeth were thrilled!

It was a great start to our day.

This is the Muppets fountain.

I think Miss Piggy is beautiful, always have.

We watched The Muppets 3D show & Elizabeth LOVED it.

She giggled and bounced around the whole entire time.

Daddy rode the Star Wars ride.

Also, took his picture on this weird Star Wars thing.

Then he spent about 3 hours in line trying to enterain this girl.

Well, not 3 hours, probably more like 20 minutes.

Kid is not patient.

Stabbing daddy with his own glasses.

Making faces at each other.

Daddy wins!

Look at her grin!

Hayes got to meet Phineas and Ferb.

We LOVE them and want to live where they do.

They get 100 days of summer vacation.

We only get about 60....

Elizabeth wasn't really sure about those guys and bailed on them pretty quickly.

See.

So we took a family photo instead!

She was also terrified of Mike and Sully.

Can't say that I blame her, Sully was huge and Mike was just creepy looking.

I truly felt sorry for the cast member who gets the Mike job.

Also, I want to know how the cast member moves those arms!

Tricky!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!

Coming up next, Buzz & Woody.

We rode the Toy Story Mania ride and had a blast.

Thankfully we did a fast pass for that one so we didn't have to wait too long.

To say he was a little excited would be a huge understatement.

They both squealed and gazed lovingly through the windows as we waited.

Hayes meet Buzz.

Hayes was speechless.

Woody and Hayes discussing his Mr Potato Head shirt.

Good choice for that day Mom!

Elizabeth went RIGHT to Buzz and hugged him!

Family picture!

At least I've got Daryk trained to look at the cameras and smile...

Art of Animation studios drawing and coloring in the pictures of the Disney characters.

She wasn't really feeling it...

We got to meet our favorite Neverland character, Jake!

We also got to see a Disney Jr interactive show and my kids loved it.

It was really dark and no flashes were allowed, so no pictures of that.

But there was lots of dancing and singing along with Mickey and crew!

After nap time we headed out to the pool for some water fun.

I believe she had a good time in that fountain!

Hayes had a blast squishing it underneath his feet.

They both look like they are pretty relaxed at this point.

Squishy fountain face!

When we planned this trip to Disney World I had nightmares visions about riding Its a Small World.

I love that ride.

Who doesn't?

But that creepy little song sticks with you for dayssssssssssssssss.....

So, we rode Wednesday night after dinner and a few other rides.

I had promised my mother in law that we would ride and tell her all about it.

The little people loved it.

Elizabeth was asleep in that pink coat draped over my shoulder.

Hayes looked like that for most of the ride.

He squealed and laughed and yelled out about all the animals as we rode along.

We also rode Under the Sea with Ariel that evening.

Clam shells are the preferred method of travel in the ocean.