Poor MeeMaw

My poor grandmother fell again and is back in the hospital with a chipped bone in her right hip.  Thankfully, she did not injure herself as badly as when she fell in the fall and cracked her pelvis and some vertebrae in her back.   We're hoping she won't be in the hospital for long but she will most likely have a stint in rehab again since she'll be in some pain as she heals.  Again, hopefully it won't be as long as last time and thank goodness her new house is one floor and easy to navigate with an injury.

I know she is looking forward to getting down to see our new house so I hope she'll get well soon so she can visit!

Visiting Saturday

Saturday was a long day, but a very good day!

Jason took my parents to the airport early that morning so they could catch their flight to New Orleans.  I was jealous they were getting out of this cold for a while but happy for them as they always have a good time whenever they go on trips together.  Once Jason returned, we packed up and headed west on 70 to visit my grandmother in Hagerstown.

However, we made a pit stop on the way out there at another community (by our same builder) where our former sales agent, Matt, had recently been moved.  The kids were thrilled to see him and had a great time wandering around a huge and beautiful model.  Check out one of the rooms in the basement.  Bryce loved it (but wouldn't pose for any photos)!!

While it was definitely waaaay too much house for my personal liking, I did really like the way it was decorated and fell in love with the family room wall color - I'm thinking maybe for our kitchen (that's a whole blog post I need to do though): 

Of course Matt gave them snacks and they were happy for the rest of our trip:

We arrived just after noon at MeeMaw's as I told her we would and we had a very nice lunch together.  While we were getting lunch, the girls showed off their twin look that they had self-coordinated for the day (even down to the pig tails):

The kids were just so good all day.  They played nicely together in my grandmother's sun room, were very conversational at lunch, and then Bryce and I played Uno with MeeMaw for over an hour while Bryce ate his weight in grapes.  Later in the afternoon, the kids went and got her mail and then Piper put on a dance show for her.  It was getting into the evening, so we went and got a quick bite to eat at the local Denny's courtesy of MeeMaw and then got ready to make our way back to Baltimore.  The kids even let me snap this photo before we left and it really was representative of the nice day we'd had.  Caroline gave MeeMaw lots of hugs and kisses and was just so sweet to her.  I hope that MeeMaw had as good a day as we did.

We made it back to Baltimore around 9pm and got the kids into bed without issue.  Three cheers for a busy and well spent Saturday!!

Welcome Harper & Lily

How adorable are my nieces???  (Sorry for the delay, I wanted to wait until Jesse & Kelly made their announcement to the world that they had arrived.)

Lily Hope and Harper Grace were born around 9:30am on 2/12/2013!  (I just love their names - just so fitting for two cute little bundles.) They were both in the 5lb range which is just excellent for twins.  I give Kelly a LOT of credit for carrying them to 37 weeks.  Neither baby needed any extra assistance so they avoided the NICU and should get to go home with Kelly when she is released later this week.  I cannot wait to meet them!!!  But I will let Kelly decide when it's okay for us to visit - with or without kids.  She's recovering from a c-section and that by itself is a lot but with trying to get going with breastfeeding TWINS and caring for TWINS, I can only imagine she'll need some space and time to adjust.

My kids, as expected are just thrilled and cannot wait to hold them - especially the girls.  I can't wait to snap some photos of them all together and some of just the babies.  There is nothing like newborns.

I am so happy for Kelly and Jesse - they are going to be wonderful parents!  My kids adore their aunt and uncle and I only hope that I can have as close a relationship with my nieces as Kelly and Jesse do with my kids.

Psst!!!

The twins are coming TODAY.  In fact, like NOW.  Cannot wait to hear that they are here - healthy and safe!  Oh and the names!  What are their names?  My kids are so excited and I feel bad that Caroline and Bryce will have to wait all day in school to hear the news.  They were bouncing off the walls this morning when I left.

Twin Shower

Kelly's twin girl baby shower went beautifully!!  Everything worked out so well - we couldn't have planned it better. I'm so glad we used the community center room near Kelly and her grandmother.  It was the perfect size for exactly 30 people.  Had there been any more, it would have been crowded but it was small enough that decorating was easy and it felt cozy.  The occupancy said 50 and maybe that would have been okay if you didn't have to seat everyone but since we were having lunch there is no way we could have seated any more than we did.  Whew!!  Here's the setup:

Dessert table:

Gift opening (Piper's face when Aunt Kelly opened the gift that she had bought all by herself):

Food!

Close up of the desserts - the cookies were so good!:

 The proud mama (32 weeks!):

The beautiful mama and me!

It really was a lovely afternoon.  Thank goodness we gave ourselves plenty of time that morning to get set up because we used every single second of it.  And the weather really cooperated too giving us sunshine and almost warm temperatures.  (We were so worried planning this for early January that we'd have a snow storm!)

My girls were so helpful and cute too. They each bought Aunt Kelly a gift with their own money and then helped her to open all her gifts.  They also were delighted to make her ribbon hat too.  They really are excited about the impending arrival of their cousins.

Here's hoping those little girls can keep cooking for at least 2 more weeks (if not more) and they arrive safe and healthy!  Cannot wait to meet them!!

Twin Girls!!!

Kelly just announced it on Facebook so now I can post on my blog!  :)  They are having TWO girls!  YAY! (Not that I would have been any less excited for any other scenario - it's just exciting to know!)  We're all wondering now if they will have dark or light hair, brown or blue eyes, and most importantly, straight or curly hair.  Everyone is betting on curls since Kelly has curly hair and Jesse has some definite wave if he were to let it grow out.  Either way, we're going to love them to pieces.  I cannot wait to meet them but next up, I get to help plan the shower!  Here are photos from the gender reveal on Sunday:

Nana and Big Dad all ready to open their baby gender gifts:

The actual moment Sandy saw that Baby A was a girl, my flash didn't work so the picture didn't turn out well but here she is just after finding out:  (The look on her face was so genuinely happy though - I was so bummed it didn't turn out.)

And here's Big Dad with Baby B's ultrasound photo - I love the smile on his face:

Nana and Big Dad showing off their youngest granddaughters:

Piper's reaction - I think this photo speaks for itself:

Caroline was just over the moon.  She cannot wait to get her hands on them!

The "goods":

So Bryce was a bit underwhelmed....but I think he'll enjoy continuing to be the lone grandson though.

Kelly, me and the GIRLS!  Yes, I wore pink that day because my guess was two girls from the start:

So Kelly is 20 weeks now which is more than halfway when you're having twins.  Here's hoping she'll have an uneventful second half of the pregnancy and the babies won't start threatening their impending arrival until Valentine's Day at the earliest.  They're keeping their name thoughts to themselves (don't blame them as we did the same) and we'll be so eager to meet them once Christmas has come and gone.

After they revealed the genders, I unloaded all my baby clothes - goodness, I had a LOT.  Since there won't be any boys, I am going to donate all the baby boy clothes next week.  I've been donating it since 2T for Bryce but had been saving this in case a nephew was coming.  I don't want to lug it to the new house or store it so I think it's best that I pass it along.  I think Kelly was meant to have two girls though - I had SO many girl clothes from both Piper and Caroline.  I hope she'll be able to use a lot of it.  

Two Truths & A Lie

During one of our many Christmas gatherings, my friend Sara mentioned that she often has a hard time getting her two kids to tell me what they did in school that day until she got a tip from a fellow parent at their school about playing a game called "Two Truths & a Lie."  She said that the kids love it and now she actually gets to hear some of the things they do each day in school.  Generally, our kids tell us a lot about what they did but it can't ever hurt to have something else to spark conversation at the dinner table, can it?  So we tried it and I must say, rave reviews!  The kids argue over who gets to go first and they love trying to guess the lie.  Caroline and Bryce are actually pretty good at it.  Jason and I like it but I have to admit I have a very hard time coming up with my truths since my days at work are fairly similar.  Piper, on the other hand, always makes us laugh.  She doesn't quite get the concept of two truths and one lie.  Instead she'll either tell all three truths or all three lies and we have to guess which they are.  And because the lies she tells are pretty darn obvious ("I pooped on the table."  or "I pooped on the roof."), we always know and have a good laugh.  (And why is it always about poop?)

Anyway, so a guy that Jason works with also has 3 kids around our kids' ages.  Jason and Mike exchange war stories all the time.  Jason has said on many occasions that one will tell the other a story and then just be struck by how similar our experiences are.  I'm glad he has someone to commiserate and laugh with from a dad's perspective.  Although Jason comes home with some pretty hilarious stories about Mike and his kids and I always enjoy a good Mike story.  Well, the other night at dinner, Jason told his 2 truths/1lie and one of the truths was that he told Mike about our nightly ritual and he tried it with his family.  Sure enough, his kids loved it too!  And to make it even funnier, his 2 1/2 year old daughter starts her stories every night with "I pooped today" so clearly Piper's stories about pooping aren't anything out of the ordinary.

I love sharing ideas for family time that actually work so maybe this will work well for your family too!  Just watch out if you have a kid under the age of 4, you might hear a lot about poop.

Thanksgiving 2011

As usual, the day started dark and early.  Since the time change my kids do not sleep past 6:30.  Let me rephrase that, since the time change PIPER does not sleep past 6:30.  Which means if Piper is up, Bryce is up. And if Bryce is up EVERYONE is up although Caroline might get another half hour in.  Seriously, when will her body adjust???

But, since I hadn't gone to bed late the night before, I was ready to go when they were and headed downstairs to get started on the monkey bread.  This was a good dish to make with the kids since I was able to split it up evenly - they each got to do a can of the biscuits.  I used a mix of brown and regular sugar and used real butter instead of margarine for the sauce.  (I'm kind of anti-margarine for cooking/baking these days.)  The kids LOVED it and man, did it ever make the house smell good first thing in the morning.  I thought it was decent and not as sweet as I expected based on how much sugar was in it.  I was also surprised it was not more gooey based on how much butter was in it too.  I might try another recipe next time but I don't have to because the kids adored it and ate the leftovers for breakfast today.

The kids were counting down to the parade and I started on the stuffing and then worked onto the sprouts.  Those 3 dishes ended up taking over 3 hours (along with time outs to do things for the kids) so I can't imagine cooking the entire meal myself.  We were ready to go right on time as I planned with the arrival of Santa in the parade being our cue.

When Santa came on screen, Bryce started yelling, "YAY, SANTA!"  Piper ran up to the TV and started squealing, "I love you Santa! I LOVE YOU SANTA!" and then made all kinds of kissing noises.  Caroline, on the other hand, rather loudly says, "Mommy, I think YOU bring all the presents.  Just tell me, okay?"  The younger two didn't seem very phased so I managed to get her alone and just told her that if she chooses not to believe that it's okay but she cannot talk about it to Bryce and Piper because they believe and they love believing.  I think she got my drift and she flippantly shrugged me off.

With that, we got the train back on track and headed out.  95 North was rough in many a patch and the ride to Jason's aunt's took longer than planned.  But we were still one of the first groups there and I had plenty of time to get my dishes into the oven.  Soon after, my ILs, Kelly/Jesse, and Jer/Julie arrived.

Dinner was truly a group effort with everyone contributing 2-3 dishes and all Jason's aunt had to do (aside from host!) was a turkey breast and her green bean casserole.  She has a great house for family get togethers and lots of nifty entertaining gadgets to hold all the food and keep it warm.  Jesse and Kelly brought a deep fried turkey and it was totally delicious.  I'm kind of torn on whether I like a brined bird or deep fried bird better now.

After dinner we took some family shots since it had been so long since Jason's dad's side had all been together. (Thank you handy dandy remote control for not making me rush into the frame!)

Then we got a shot of Jason's immediate family:

I reallllly had hoped maybe, just maybe we'd get a photo of just the 5 of us, but after all the shots we had to take to get these, the kids were DONE with photography.  I'm still on a quest for good holiday card photo.  I just need something to inspire me. We left Jason's aunt's around 6pm planning to stop by my mom's for a visit since it's not too far from our house and we wanted to make sure we saw my grandmother who had come by for the day.  Because my siblings and I take turns with our family and spouse/significant other's family, this was the year that my mom didn't have any kids at her house for dinner.  Thankfully my dad's sister, BIL and my grandmother come so they aren't alone but I know that they'd be happily welcomed at my IL's celebration too.

My kids were so excited to be seeing both sides of the family in one day and rush in the house when we arrived.  Well, Piper didn't and parked herself on the front porch until my mom went out to get her.  She'd fallen asleep on the way there and was a bit grumpy.  My sister and her boyfriend, Will, were already there and my brother and Kelly arrived soon after.  We had a second round of desserts and he kids got to open their annual Hallmark Christmas ornament from my parents.  (My grandmother did the same for each of her grandchildren - I am the proud owner of some very rare Hallmark ornaments because she gave me some of the first in the series that they still produce!)  I love this tradition and my mom picks out such fitting ornaments for them each year.  This year Caroline got a Harry Potter themed ornament, Bryce a Darth Vader Lego ornament, and Piper a Minnie Mouse.  But she was a little upset because she really wanted Snow White - my mom felt terrible but they didn't have any Snow White ornaments this year.  (She was still in her post snooze funk too.)

After that, the kids went down in the basement with my mom, grandmother, aunt, and Kelly.  I soon found them with all four of the women wearing New Year's Eve crowns and the kids playing next to them. (I suspect the children had something to do with it.)

While the rest of us sat and watched the beginning of the Ravens game.  (I wasn't particularly interested/enthused but it was relaxing sitting on the couch and having adult conversations.)

We rounded the kids up around 9pm and all came home and fell into bed.  I felt pretty smart bringing leftover containers with us to both places and brought home a decent amount and selection of Thanksgiving yummies.  I was even more pleased with myself today when they provided lunch AND dinner.  No cooking, hooray!

It was a great day, one that I am thankful for in that I got to spend it with the most important people in my life.  This is probably why Thanksgiving is right up there as one of my favorite holidays.

MeeMaw Visit

Saturday morning we headed up to Hagerstown to visit my grandmother.  We had planned to go last weekend for the annual Mummer's Halloween parade, but because of the snow they cancelled the parade and we thought it was rescheduled for this weekend, so we just postponed our trip.  Later in the weekend we found out that the parade wasn't rescheduled, but we still decided to go since it had been a long time since I'd visited with MeeMaw.

Because the parade was cancelled, MeeMaw took it upon herself to find something fun for the kids to do.  Enter, Monkey Joe's!  Monkey Joe's is a bounce place but different than ones I've been to before.  It is much bigger and has a LOT more bouncy things plus they have open bounce all the time.  All the bounce places around here have very limited open bounce.  They have parties too so it was a bit crowded but the kids didn't seem to mind at all.  They also had two exclusive bouncy things for kids 3 and under only - Piper LOVED those.  The other thing I noticed was that it was WAY cleaner than the other bouncy places I've been to - not that the other ones I've visited have been dirty but this place was pretty clean AND they clean the bouncy things regularly.  In addition, people over 12 years old are not allowed to bounce so I think it keeps the bouncy apparatuses in much better shape!  Plus you don't have obnoxious adults and teenagers hurting the little ones.  I tried to take a lot of photos, but the older two moved too quickly or were in the bouncies so I couldn't capture them. MeeMaw seemed to get a kick out of watching them - especially when they'd kind of jump and slide fast down the slides.

And here's a photo I randomly took.  They were standing in line to get into a bouncy and they were standing so close and all touching each other.  There was just something so cute, protective and caring about it.  Caroline really looked out for Piper on several occasions.

After that, we went back to MeeMaw's for dinner.  The kids ate really well (more on our new eating plan later) and then we got them bathed and let them stay up a little later to play games with MeeMaw and Aunt Sara.  Piper, who was pretty much exhausted at this point, snuggled on MeeMaw's lap for most of the game.

We had some interesting sleeping arrangements to say the least. MeeMaw has 2 extra bedrooms with a double bed in each along with a queen air mattress.  I expected Jason and I would sleep in one bed, a kid in the other and 2 on the air mattress.  Nope.  In the end, Piper and I slept together in one room in a bed.  Bryce slept in the other room in the bed and Jason and Caroline slept on the air mattress in the same room.  None of the kids would sleep "alone" in a bedroom without a parent and they were fighting over who got to sleep on the air mattress.  Originally Jason was in the bed but the older two kids were fooling around so much he separated them.   Piper was a good little bed partner though and slept the whole night without problems although I kept waking up thinking I was going to wake her when I moved around.

Thanks to the time change we were up before 7am, had a nice breakfast (as usual at MeeMaw's!) and then headed out just after 10am.  It was a really nice visit and I love seeing how much the kids enjoy visiting her.  When I was a kid, I just loved that house and my kids really seem to love it too - I especially love that they have found all the "fun" things in the house that we liked as kids - the laundry chute, the big walk/crawl in closet, the back yard.  

Thank you MeeMaw for having us and showing us such a good time!  X O X O

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I like this photo because it's so typical of my family.
There's always someone holding a guitar.

Today is my mom's 60th birthday! Happy Birthday! We all got together on Saturday evening to celebrate and had a really good time. My sister made the most unbelievable dinner that included a kale/cabbage side dish that I have to get the recipe for from my sister. Wine, beer, red velvet cake, ice cream....it was a good night. Will post pics later but wanted to make sure to note the day!

Christmas 2010

A lovely Christmas was had by all and thankfully the storm didn't dump as much snow as expected or as soon as thought and we managed to make it to my grandmother's and back without issue and Lydia arrived safely from Florida!!  So now, here's what you wanted (or at least I'm guessing you want since you read this blog) - photos and stories!

Christmas Eve at my IL's (Nana & Big Dad)

Kids were on great behavior which was a bit startling given how difficult the previous 24 hours had been, but I guess they were getting it out of their system.  After a quick lunch, we opened gifts and of course, the kids went first!  I love this photo - Sandy (Mrs. Claus) getting them started with gifts - they are listening so well!

The kids got so many wonderful things - Ravens long sleeved t-shirts or sweatshirts, books, games, Marvel Comics stuff (Bryce), baby doll crib (Piper), clothes!  They ate a LOT of cookies and candy that day much to my chagrin but I did make sure they ate a decent lunch to start with.  Then later in the afternoon, Sandy's extended family arrived and the kids enjoyed the extra company and excitement.  Although I think all the grownups enjoyed them more.  So full of spirit and fun!  Christmas Eve is the best for that!  Piper conked out on Tom's lap around 7pm and we left soon after to get home in time for Santa.  So cute!

No problems getting anyone to bed and then Jason and I exchanged gifts, which is so nice to do in peace.  Someday we'll do it on Christmas with the kids but right now we'd have no time because as soon as they are done it's time to get all the toys out of their packaging!!  Who cares that mommy got a new lens or daddy got a new golf glove??

Anyway, when we finally got to bed that night, I think I was almost as excited as the kids.  The past couple of years I have a hard time sleeping on Christmas Eve as I'm just so excited for the morning.  I went to bed after midnight, got up with a crying Piper at 2:45 and then had a hard time going back to sleep.  I think after that I only kind of dozed and then was up before 7am waiting for the kids to stir - which Caroline soon did.  She woke Bryce without issue and then woke Piper who was NOT happy to be woken up!  But she came around in time for the annual shot on the steps, but I had to hold her:

They randomly opened stockings first because they are right there on the steps (even though they know the good stuff is in the family room) and then made their way to Christmas land.  Both Caroline and Piper opened their American Girl dolls first!  I was so excited!

Piper finally got her "purple baby" (I had changed the outfit to the one she'd seen in the catalog) and named her "Purple Lola" as she names all her dolls "Lola" but this one must be special as she has a distinct name.  Bryce was excited about all his gifts but I was the happiest when he opened the Monster Truck Ramp and he exclaimed, "This is JUST what I wanted!"  Truth be told that was a last minute pick up for him and it wasn't exactly what I'd wanted to get him, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to get that reaction:

One of the things Piper got was the Olivia dress up set and she promptly put on one of the outfits but when I tried to take her photo, she wouldn't let me.  So naturally, I chased her down.

Bryce was thoroughly happy with his bug sucker too!  Poor kid has no bugs to suck up right now though, but that didn't stop him from playing with it!  Caroline played pretty much all day with her American Girl doll and earlier that morning decided that the doll's name is Emily.  So here, meet Emily:

I'm so proud of how well she's taking care of her already!  (That was part of the deal with getting such a nice doll!)   As the kids played, we called the grandparents to wish them Merry Christmas.  My MIL, Sandy, got on the phone and told the kids that Santa had dropped off 3 gifts at our house overnight from her and they were in the closet.  The kids were so excited and the girls got their American Girl pets and Bryce got a robot. (She didn't want to give them the AG pets the night before, for obvious Santa reasons!)  Then we chatted with my mom and told her we'd be over soon.  It was while I was on the phone that Bryce was laying in the hallway playing with the 3 Zhu Zhu Pets that Jason's Aunt Linda had given the kids the night before. He was having fun with them and then I noticed Piper was playing with them.  Fast forward to later in the morning and Caroline's Zhu Zhu is gone.  I still haven't found it and the mess is fairly cleaned up. I can only guess Piper picked it up and stashed it somewhere.

Anyway, we made it to my mom's by noon and had lunch and waited for my brother and his wife, Kelly, to arrive.  (Lola and Chrissa were there so Piper was entertained with her canine cousin.)  When K&K arrived, it was gift time!  Kids went first, as usual, and they got some great stuff.  The favorites were Bryce's "My First Shaving Kit " (a riot!) and a magic tricks kit.  He even went up in secret with my brother later on and tried to master a few tricks.  I really need to video a few of them for you as he tries so hard to pull them off.  Really adorable!  And then Piper received her Cleaning Trolley.  Hysterical!  She was so excited when she opened it and my mom started getting it out for her, she was kissing my mom's arms and back!  She also refused to open any other gifts!  This is a weird toy as it says "Just Like Home" but I don't know too many people who have a cleaning trolley at home.  More like "Just Like Housekeeping."  All 3 kids were instantly interested and in the time that we've been home, they have all been "cleaning" with it.  Caroline got some more American Girl clothes and played happily by herself  completely into her new doll!

Piper was her usual silly self and got my dad to throw her around a bit (she loves it!):

Oh and here is Caroline in the poofy skirt she was so excited to get:

We got each of the girls the skirt/legging set from Costco and they loved them!  Piper's is purple, of course, and I hope she'll wear it later this week.  They are so darn cute!

After a delicious dinner, we headed home to prepare for today.  We decided the snow might not be so bad and headed west arriving by 11am.  We had our annual gift exchange and gifts from MeeMaw - the kids continued to be on their best behavior and I was so proud of Caroline's developing graciousness and appreciation for gifts.  Piper was thrilled to get her own doll stroller, Caroline some more AG clothes, and Bryce some clothes, musical instruments, and books.  Of course Piper was happy to see baby Flora again but Flora was quickly trumped by Lola's arrival!  But baby time reigned again and Piper got her share of Flora holding, kissing, and poking:

The most exciting part of the day though (for me) was my mom got an accordion!  My uncle owns a music store in KY and gets really cool used instruments.  Mom played the accordion when she was in 4th through 6th grade and picked that thing up like it had been just a few years, not decades since she played!  We all enjoyed the oooom-pa pa tunes she played and had a laugh at how easy she made it seem!  Bryce was VERY interested in it and watched my mother intently.

We decided to head back home by 4pm to make sure we beat any snow we might be getting and have some non-dark driving.  I was sad to leave a little early, but I think we made the right choice. Kids got to bed on time and I had some time to sort through everything, although not really put things away.  Thank goodness recycling day is tomorrow!!  Cardboard out the wazhoo!

And with that, I will end this exhaustingly long post.  Whew.