Elliot's Birthday Weekend Extravaganza

Today my firstborn turned 4! I cannot believe it. We had her party on Friday at Pump it Up. I had asked her a long time ago what she wanted to do for her party and she replied, "I want to go to the bounce house and sit in the Queen chair." So that's what we did. In the past I've always planned the extravagant parties where I end up exhausted. But for this one, I bought a couple of table decorations, balloons, made some cupcakes and didn't look back. It was just as good. And bonus, I actually was able to enjoy it without being a sweaty mess by the end of it. Here's a bunch of pictures that they took. Yes "they" the workers. Not me:)

Her Invite. She still really loves Lightning McQueen

These little cars are seriously a hit. The little ones go crazy for them.

 Easton

 Grandma & Elliot

 Aunt Aly & Asher

Her Actual Birthday-Aug 18

Today Elliot woke up to balloons & streamers. We do this every year. She was pretty excited. We had donuts for breakfast and then got ready for church. When we got back, she walked into the living room to see her new bike! She wheeled around the house for a little bit. I told her we would go outside to ride it tomorrow. We went to my parents house for dinner. Whenever it's someone's birthday, they get to pick what they want for dinner. Well Elliot chose salad. Not your normal Sunday dinner. So we also had Pasta Fagoli & breadsticks. Afterwards, she got her Lightning McQueen cake and opened her presents from Grammy & Papi. She was thrilled to see a Lightning McQueen tent, lady bug flashlight & whistle (she's been asking for a real one for 6 months now). What a wonderful weekend she had. I think she's spoiled :)

 Princess bike with a little seat on top for a baby doll...or her astronaut monkey.

Lunch time she insisted on keeping her helmet on!

 Regina got her this dress for her birthday.

Best Friends--Her cousin Eleanor

A few pictures of me & my girl. Everyone was napping. And I am never in any pictures with my kids, so this was a treat. Happy birthday Elliot Reese!

The Circus

We took Elliot & Davis to the circus. Elliot went last year and remembers every single detail of it, so when we told her we were going, she was SO excited. We decided to let Davis go with us this year because I would have felt bad leaving him, but it was a mistake. He didn't care 1 bit about it. I thought for sure he'd be fascinated, but he was not. The tigers were out doing their tricks & he was staring at the ceiling. Elliot on the other hand was enthralled. She ate an entire bag of cotton candy, and half a bag of popcorn. She was in heaven. This years theme was the Dragon and she kept asking me when he was coming. We had lots of fun, but only lasted to intermission...barely. After Davis kicked the lady's head in front of us twice, I knew we had to get out of there. So we just told Elliot it was over & she was cool with it.

 Elephant doing a little painting.

 Elliot dancing a jig. She is so funny when  she dances. I really should put her in dance class.

 I tried to get a few shots of the kids before things started, but none of them turned out.

 

Davis in true form.

Tea Time

I pulled out my old tea set that I used to play with when I was a little girl (I guess you could call it vintage:). I thought that Elliot would really enjoy a tea party. I told her we had to wear our nice clothes because tea time is supposed to be fancy.  I made some sugar cookies to go along with it and Gatorade was our tea. She invited Perry along, so we had to dress her up too. She had so much fun.

Wisdom Teeth

At my last dentist appointment, I was informed that there had been some movement with my wisdom teeth. The dentist said it would be in my best interest to have them removed, or else later down the road I would be dealing with root canals and things of that sort. I was very displeased with the unexpected news as you can imagine. I thought I would never have to have them removed since I hadn't gotten them in at my age. Sigh. So I just tried not to think about it until the day of. I figured I'd be back on my feet by day 3 at the latest. The day of, I was of course out of it after the procedure. I came home and slept for 2 hours. When I woke up, I felt good enough to go furniture shopping. Hey, we have things to do around here! The next day, my face was more swollen and it just got worse from there. Like this bad...it was even worse in person!

After the weekend had passed and my face hadn't started to deflate (the swelling starting creeping up towards my eye), I went back to my dentist and got new meds. After a couple of days things started to improve.Thank goodness because I really couldn't go out in public looking like this. It has now been 2 weeks and I still have a little swelling, but compared to this picture I'm in good shape.

We Bought a House!

Not sure if anyone still reads my blog, but if you do, you might have noticed that I have been off the grid for the past month. For that reason, I am back dating some of my posts. Several things have factored into my excuse, the biggest one being we are new home owners! We actually closed on June 21st, but did not move in until July 13th. Why did it take us almost a month, you wonder? Because of the painting...oh the painting. We pretty much painted every square inch of our house, including trim work.What a beating! Not to mention that Lane works pretty much 24/7 so it was hard to get things done. And I wasn't much help because of the kids. I would try to go over and paint when they were napping or after they had gone to bed for the night. So it was only like 2 hours here, 2 hours there. It seemed never ending. And I always had this guilt for being away from them so much, and then the guilt of burdening my parents with watching them all the time. So let me go ahead and give a HUGE shout out to my parents for watching them the majority of the time. And another to Lane's dad. He helped a ton!

Now onto the house. Lane calls it our "stepper house". Our plan is to live here 2-5 years. Lane is more on the 2 year end and I'm more on the 5 year end, mainly because I just know it will end up being that long. After that, we will rent it out. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house. It's in the same neighborhood as Lane's dad. Like down the street. And that means it's only about a 3 minute drive to my parent's house. We really love the neighborhood. There's a little pond with ducks and a playground a short walk away. It's really ideal for us right now. 

So I have a long list of projects that I want to get done: put down wood floors, get new counter tops, change back splash, paint kitchen cabinets & laundry room cabinets, stain bathroom cabinets, frame out bathroom mirror, build a bench with cubicles in the laundry room, remove giant bush and plant small tree. I will say we've done a lot already. But none of what I have already mentioned. So it's definitely a work in progress. Heck, some of the things on that list will probably not ever happen. We will see. With that said, I will wait on posting pictures until I have things more in order. Probably a room at a time. But I do have a picture of the front. 

It's so nice to have our own space again! I am forever grateful to my parents for letting us stay with them, but like I said, our own space it great.

Perry at 6 Months

My little sweetsie pie (that's what I'm calling her these days) is doing great! She is the most kissable baby in the world. Thank goodness she is too little to protest because I'm slightly out of control with my kisses. I just can't help it! At this point she is only eating rice cereal once a day. I will start her on veggies as soon as we move. That's my excuse. I've been really lax with her for no real reason. Probably because she's the 3rd child. My doctor asked if she's been practicing sitting up & I said I just tried about 2 seconds ago before you came in. She gets carried around a lot. But I will do better about letting her spend time in the bumpo and just practicing with her in general. I still do tummy time with her a lot, but she'll immediately roll onto her back.We recently stopped swaddling her and now use a sleep sack. I figured she couldn't be swaddled forever. She's adjusting ok to it  but her naps are shorter and she wakes up REALLY early in the mornings! That is not appreciated. She's a tiny little thing but I promise to fatten her up soon!
Weight: 13 lbs 10 oz--7%
Height: 26.5 inches--69%
Head: 16.34 inches--25%

 

Our Fourth

On the 3rd, the kids & I went to see fireworks in Mansfield. Lane had to work so I was on my own. I left Perry with my parents since we would be out so late. Plus I wouldn't be able to handle all 3 by myself. We had such a good time. They had a really good set up with bounce houses everywhere. We rode with Regina & her family and met Amy & her family there. It was nice getting there early because we didn't have to wait in any lines. We had our blanket set out and ate hot dogs, cookies & waited for the fireworks to begin. The kids loved it. We'll definitely do this again next year. Hopefully Lane can join us.

Cru, Elliot & Kelly

Davis' face during the fireworks

Regina brought glow sticks for everyone & Elliot was in heaven.

On the actual 4th, we went over to Lane's stepbrother's house for dinner. The kids had tons of fun swimming & playing with their cousins. We enjoyed seeing Lane's stepbrothers & their families. It's a rare occasion!

I had made Elliot & Perry matching flag shirts about 2 months ago, so I have been waiting for them to be able to wear them! Well about 15 minutes after we got there, Perry's bow fell off her shirt :( This is why I shouldn't waste my time on making things like this.

Switching Beds

In a couple of weeks we will be moving (more on that later). And when we do, we will not have a crib. We gave ours away when we last moved because my parents have one. Anyway, I thought it might be better to go ahead and transition Davis to a big boy bed. Elliot switched over at 18 months. Davis is 20 months. If we hadn't been forced into it, I probably would put this off a bit longer. But I had to go ahead and bite the bullet. So I started it off at nap time yesterday. Of course he didn't stay in his bed and rushed straight to the door as soon as I left the room. I just made sure he couldn't get out and he soon realized he was stuck in there. So he decided to play with his toys for a while. But eventually he fell asleep!...on the floor next to his bed! LOL! Whatever. I'll take it. Here he is below.

 And then last night we tried it again. He did really well. I took the toys out of his room this time. And this time he fell asleep ON the bed. I'm really pleased with how yesterday went. Hopefully it will continue! Here he is again last night.

And here he is at today's nap. He did really well. On the bed again...kind of. 

Half way on the top bed, half way on the bottom bed.

Perry's 2nd Passport Photo

I received a letter the other day stating that the picture we originally took for Perry's passport was not accepted because it was overexposed. We thought that would be the case since we received both Davis & Elliot's passports, but not Perry's. It's a little annoying considering we went to the post office to have the pictures taken by their "passport lady". She's supposed to be the expert on these things. Anyway, I just went to CVS to get them retaken. Hopefully this time it will work! This picture is slightly better than her previous one. I just wish she would have gotten a smile!

Rice Cereal

At 4 months Perry got the go ahead from the doctor to start rice cereal. I decided to wait til 5 months to try it out. She is the 1st to actually LIKE it. All of my other ones made gagging faces after their first taste and never really took to it. Perry on the other hand had nothing but smiles. She even did pretty well with the spoon. Maybe it's because I waited a month. Who knows.

Atlanta

Last week Lane was at a work conference in Atlanta for 4 days and I was able to join him the last 2. We had such a good time and I'm so thankful I got to go. For a while there I was thinking it wasn't meant to be. The night before I left, we had a huge storm and lost power. I had to take a shower and get ready in the dark. No blow drying my hair, so you can imagine how bad I looked. My phone was low on battery since it wasn't able to charge. I finally make it to the airport without any issues. But after we had all boarded the flight attendant makes an announcement that a mechanic is working on one of the engines so we will be delayed. So many things going through my mind like-is this the end for me? Can I get off the plane? Lots of praying went on throughout that entire flight. Luckily I made it to Atlanta safely. I took the rail to the hotel and was so happy when I finally saw Lane. I told him I was pretty proud of myself for making the whole trip solo and not getting lost or having to turn around. When all was said and done I drove myself to the airport, parked in the express parking, did the whole airport thing, found the train and walked about a block to my hotel...all without having to call him for help. He said he would be proud of me if I were 12. I can see we have very different expectations.

Anyway, we had lots of fun. We went to dinner the first night, and to the aquarium and Braves game the second night. I think the aquarium is world renown. They had a dolphin show and lots of different exhibits. It was really cool. The Braves game was very exciting as well. The lead kept changing and we had a grand slam towards the end. We embraced the "chop" and had a great time. I'm so glad Lane and I were able to spend some quality time together and not feel like we had to rush anywhere. Oh and we slept in til 9am 1 day. That made the whole trip worth it!

 We were on the 29th floor & had a great view.

 Dinner at Max Lager's

 

You can't see us but check out the Beluga!

 Whale Shark

 Whale Shark & sting rays

 

My favorite shot. The colors are so vibrant.

 Braves game

 Hard to capture the chop

 This old attendant was too funny. He's dancing here.

Passports

In October we will be going to New Zealand for 2 months. Lane has the opportunity to work over there for his elective months. They pay for his flight, car and apartment. It's a pretty sweet deal and since the housing is taken care of, we decided to bring the whole family. To prepare for this, we had to get the kids' passports. It's so funny to think of children this age having a passport. By the time we actually leave, Elliot will still look like her picture, Davis will look a little different but you can probably still tell, and Perry with look absolutely nothing like her picture! Hopefully that won't cause any problems. 

Anyway, I just had to post them because they're pretty ridiculous looking. Elliot's is decent, but it took the lady forever to take the shot, so her smile had worn off by then. Oh Davis...his face captures his personality at this stage...one big mess! And poor Perry doesn't even look like herself in this shot. And to think these last for 5 years. Chances are this will be the only time they will use them. By then Elliot will be 8, Davis 6 & Perry 5 and they FOR SURE won't look like their photos.

Post Surgery

Surgery is finally over and done with. Everything went well. They called me back and I was in a bed for 3 hours before we finally got things going. It should have only been 1 hour, but my doctor got called to deliver a baby. The nurses were really nice. I picked Lane up from work on my way to the surgery center. He had worked all night. My nurse was so sweet that she got him a bed! The same nurse was so funny too. She said 2 different things that cracked me up. She was getting me warm blankets and said, "if a fat menopausal lady having hot flashes is cold, I bet you are too." At first I thought she was talking about another patient, but then I think she was referring to herself. I didn't ask for clarification. I can't remember the other thing she said, which is too bad because I know it was even funnier. They had already given me meds at that point, so there's no telling what it was. I can't remember anything past being rolled into the OR. Glad about that. I was really sleepy when they woke me up. We got home around 3pm & I went straight to bed until 7pm. I watched a movie and went back to sleep. Not too bad. Hopefully my recovery won't be bad. As of right now I'm feeling pretty decent. My belly button is really sore. That's where they went in. The slightest touch hurts really bad. And my right shoulder is sore. It's from them blowing me up with air. Hopefully that will go away soon.

Potty Trained

I bet you thought I was talking about Davis, right? No, I'm referring to Elliot. It only took OVER A YEAR! Seriously. I remember reading all these blogs that talk about  potty training in a day or week. That was not the case for us. She did great with #1 since forever ago. It's just been #2 that had been giving us problems. There were a few times I thought, "this could be it" & then she would regress. We promised her everything under the sun, but she had her own time table. I would ask her why she wouldn't go & she would either say, "the poo poo is napping" or "I just don't want to". And that was it. She just didn't want to do it. No idea what made her change her mind but no backsies. She's been in big girl panties for a month now. I make her wear the plastic underwear over top of her panties at night, but she's only had 1 accident, so I'm thinking of letting her not wear them anymore. FINALLY, I'm back to buying diapers for just 2 kids!