Ruffles have Ridges

Yeah, so I haven't really baby proofed the house for Sadie...and I'm paying for it....with LOTS of messes everywhere I turn! I've done the important stuff...made sure there's nothing dangerous she could get a hold of....covered up plugs..blocked off the dog water bowl. But I'm still careless about leaving food and open drinks within reach of those chubby little hands. Today, I left Sadie alone in the TV room to play while I put Hannah down for a nap upstairs. Obviously, I'd forgotten about bag of chips I'd been pigging out on....don't you judge me! As I was coming downstairs, I heard a crackle, crinkle, crackle noise...and this is what I walked in on!

She had a handful of Sour Cream/Cheddar chips ...just snacking on them like she does it everyday...she even had the giveaway orange mouth and fingers. :)

Hannah's Birthday

Happy Birthday, Hannah Grace! I still cannot believe you are 3 years old. It seems like just yesterday that you were my bald headed little baby crawling around our tiny house in Nashville. Daddy and I love you so very much. We can barely remember how we ever slugged through life before you were born. You have made our world so bright and happy. I hope you know how much you are adored. Look how you've grown!!


Happy 3rd Birthday, Princess!! :)

Princess Party

We've had such a fun weekend! Yesterday was Hannah's 3rd birthday party. She was up and ready for her cake and presents by 7:30am. It was a big treat for her to go to the Dollar Store and pick out some birthday balloons with me...then we picked up her Dora cake. She was so excited for all her family to get here so she could show everyone her balloons and presents. She had such a wonderful time opening presents and chowing down on some cake..and spending time with her grandparents, aunt, uncle, cousin, and best friend. Auntie Ernie gave her the mother load of dress-up princess stuff. Fabulous! Mema and Peepa brought an awesome sandbox...and MomMom and Grandpa gave her a huge pool. So hey- if you can't live at the beach, make one in your own backyard like us :)








Hannah and Katy were so cute together. I'm so glad they love each other-lol. Sure makes my life easier.

Preschool Party

Today I took a cake to Hannah's class to celebrate her birthday. I was originally going to do it next Tuesday (the day after her birthday), but that's Benjamin's actual birthday (another little boy in her class)...so we decided to separate the sugar mania into 2 weeks. She dictated exactly the kind of cake she wanted...I was set on making cupcakes...but she would have none of it. She wanted a GREEN cake with SPRINKLES!!...and nothing else would do. So a green cake with sprinkles it was! She loved having everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to her. She is one of the last ones in her class to turn 3, so she's had to sit through everyone else's party...and finally it was her turn! I love that there are only 6 kids in her class....and 2 teachers. That's awesome....And they are so cute and close with each other. The newest addition to the class is George, the pet tadpole. They are going to watch him grow into a frog. It's hilarious because some of the kids actually think that at any moment, POOF!!- he will magically turn into a frog, so they sit by the tank and watch him all day, waiting for the moment.
I underestimated how tough it would be to carry a baby, a cake, and bag full of juice/plates/napkins all by myself. ...AND it was raining. Not an easy task! Moms really need like 6 arms, you know? After cake, Hannah got to ring the official "Birthday Bell" as we were leaving school.

Peekaboo!

hehe...The girls were playing peekaboo with Chad while I slept in last Saturday morning. They're too cute.

She Stands!

We've been really REALLY sick for the past 5 days. A yucky stomach virus cycled through all four of us...bleh!! It was terrible...but we're better now...and I really don't feel like blogging about it. So instead, I'll stick these pictures up of Sadie STANDING UP!! She's doing it all by herself!

She's pant-less in most of the pics because she had diarrhea (yucky tummy virus) and I'd run out of clean bottoms. Needless to say, this week is all about catching up on filthy laundry and disinfecting/cleaning the house! Catch ya on the flip side.

This and That...

So, I truly think Sadie is going to start walking within the next month or so. Over the past couple of weeks, she's gone from crawling, to monkey walking, to pulling up, to standing on her own. This morning, she used my arm to pull herself into a standing position. I gave her a toy to hold and she absentmindedly let go of my arm and just stood there for a good 4-5 seconds before she wobbled and dropped. I am amazed that she seems to be ready to walk so early! Hannah didn't even start cruising until she was almost a year old. I think Sadie is so determined to keep up with her big sister, that she might just bypass the whole crawling thing. Her unique monkey walk cracks me up. Basically, she's walking like the rest of us, but with her hands on the floor. It's so strange..she prefers that to regular crawling. I haven't taken a good picture to really show you what it looks like, but my mom got a few while she was here last weekend.
Also, just wanted to post this cute picture of Hannah and her friend, Katy. We went to story time yesterday then out for lunch. They were so cute eating their dessert together. For two little girls with totally opposite personalities, they get along really well together...and genuinely miss each other when too much time passes between play dates. They're too cute. After we parted ways yesterday, Hannah asked where Katy was going ...if she was coming over to our house? I said "no- ms. becky and katy have some other stores to go to before they go home. we'll see them later". And Hannah said "but I need her, cuz I love her." lol
Oh- and Hannah drew this the other day and I thought it was so good! She obviously thought it was awesome too, because she went right ahead and stuck it on the fridge herself.

A Vegas Adventure

Phewww, I'm back! We had a fun weekend. I'm glad we decided not to make any plans this time..just relax- because it's easy to become overwhelmed with everything Vegas has to offer! There's way too much stuff to do or see than we'd ever get to accomplish in one visit...or several! We did go to one show on Friday night- Criss Angel..he's an illusionist. I love his TV show, Mind Freak, so I figured the Vegas production would be awesome...but we left the theater disappointed. First of all, he thinks he's God's gift to women...very arrogant and annoying. And there really wasn't much magic in the show....he disappeared a few times, got cut in half, levitated...but puuleasse! Gimme more...it's Vegas, baby! His only saving grace was that Circ de Soleil was involved too, and the dancing was AMAZING. Saturday, we just walked around...went and saw the Lions at MGM Grand, and that evening we saw the Sirens of Treasure Island. Treasure Island is one of the hotel/casinos on the strip and they have a free nightly show outside with pirates and explosions and scantily clad ladies. Fun stuff.
Yesterday was the day that would never end. Chad dropped me off at the airport in Vegas at 8:30 am....my flight left at 10am. I had a layover in Chicago that was delayed forever and when we finally did board the plane, it was totally packed. I chose a window seat, like usual, and the guy who sat beside me ended up falling asleep before the plane even took off ( we were stuck on the tarmac for an eternity waiting to take off). So, as he nodded off, his head gradually got closer and closer to me until I was sure he was going to take a snooze on my shoulder. I crammed myself as close to the window as I could and every time his head would touch my shoulder I would make some jerky movement to wake him up....ugggh...what an uncomfortable situation. Get a pillow, dude. So I finally got home last night near 11pm...after over 12 hours of traveling...arg!
Needless to say, I'm glad to be home. Of course I missed the girls, but I didn't know quite how much I missed them until I saw them this morning. Is it possible that Sadie grew 3 inches in the couple days I was gone?? She looked huge to me this morning when I got her out of her crib! And when I went to get Hannah, she demanded to know where her Mom Mom was...until she realized that I brought her gifts, then she was happy to see me :) Mom had a good weekend with the girls, though I know she'll be catching up on her lost sleep this week. Chad's still in Vegas until Friday...I think this is the longest he's ever been away from the us..over a week! I'll be glad to see him.
So, I didn't take many picture at all this weekend. Here are a few.
These are the adorable residents of the Lion Habitat in MGM Grand. They were napping. Cute!
I thought this was the coolest thing ever. A television inside our bathroom mirror! Okay, I realize that makes me sound like a total hick...but it really doesn't take much to impress me.
And this is us in the casino in the Luxur. We were waiting for the Criss Angel show and the casino was so smoky, we could hardly breathe. We had to sit down so we wouldn't pass out-lol!

Grandparent's Day

Today was Grandparent's Day at Hannah's school. What fun! Grandparents were invited for a breakfast and book fair ...then they got to check out Hannah's classroom. Hannah was so excited to have them all there. Chad's parents (Mema & Mepa) drove up from South Boston, and my Mom came up this morning from VA. Beach. Hannah loved being the center of attention this morning...and she absolutely adores her grandparents. She has music class every Thursday morning, so we were able to observe that, too. So cute!!

So, I fly out to VEGAS tomorrow morning!! whoop whoooop! Leaving the babies with my Mom. She was totally confident that she can handle them for the weekend, but everyone has been wishing her "Good Luck"...so now she's a little scared. lol Glad she took Monday off, so she can sleep all day :)

It's a Bird, It's a Plane....

It's SUPER HANNAH!

She's On the Move!

It's official!- Sadie is a mobile! She's crawling ALL over the place. Here's a short clip of her crawling down the hallway before bath time tonight.


We've been outside enjoying the gorgeous weather for the past couple of days. It's been in the upper 60's/ low 70's yesterday and today. Yesterday, I took the girls to see the ducks at the pond. The geese must have thought we had food to give them, because they kept following us as we walked around the pond. I said "Look, Hannah...the ducks are following us!" Hannah said "I know Mommy, ducks love me." lol
Then we went to the park and I was amazed at how much Hannah has grown over the winter ...last summer she needed help getting up some of the steps or ladders on the play equipment, but yesterday she just bounded straight up without hesitation.
Today was nice too...we went to our make-up class at little gym, story time, shopping...came home and ate lunch outside together. We opened up all the windows and aired out the house. I swear- a soft, warm breeze blowing through my open kitchen window is just heaven! The first warm day after a winter of hibernation can do wonders for your spirit. I know Spring is still a few weeks off...and I know we'll probably have at least another snow day before it truly warms up....but by golly, you could have fooled me today!
Chad was determined on catching up with laundry today....Hannah wanted to get into the laundry basket and be pushed up and down the hallway. That only lasted 5 minutes because my children are heavy...and I got tired of pushing while Hannah bossed me around. "FASTER, MOMMY!!!" But I think their expressions in the second picture are funny.

Fashion Smashion

Hannah's been really into dressing up like a princess. She has a closet full of semi-formal/formal dresses that she has hardly ever worn...lately, she's discovered them and loves putting on her "beeeautiful princess dresses".



Also, the latest accessory is her belt (her "seatbelt", as she would say). She seems to be frustratingly in between sizes. Needs the 4T for length, but even the 3Ts are still a bit big around her waist...so we finally got the poor child a belt. She's very proud of her diamond studded black belt :) Daddy calls it her "kick a$$ belt!"

It's the Little Things...

Over the past week or so, I've been craving a Mommy/Hannah day. Since our Little Gym class ended, we haven't had our special Saturday mornings together. She's been a little extra clingy lately...trying extra hard to get my attention....and I was a frazzled Mommy last week because Chad was gone and I wasn't getting any downtime. So yesterday, I took her out to breakfast, and then we went to story time at the library. Just seeing how excited she gets about those story time puppets makes the drive out to Stephens City well worth it.
I need to start keeping a list of all the amazing things she's saying, lately too! She's getting so good at telling stories about what she did that day or about a book she read ...etc. You should see her tell Chad about her day at school while sitting at the dinner table. It's just precious. I know it's Chad's favorite part of the day.
Something cute that happened this morning: It was my morning to sleep in..so I stumbled downstairs at 9 am (everyone was already up, of course) to make myself a cup of coffee. (I've become addicted). There was an open bottle of pink children's benadryl on the counter beside my mug and somehow I knocked both over while pouring my coffee. Hannah was standing in the kitchen and saw it happen. I sighed heavily and ripped off some paper towels to clean up my mess..(while muttering a few choice words). And my little angel says "Oh Mommy, it's okay. It was just an accident!" ....sigh, Yes Hannah, you're exactly right :)