Personality

Little One is almost 22 months.  Nuts.

Her verbal skills are crazy.  She is speaking in sentences.  Strangers can understand her easily (most of the time).

And she is funny.

She calls inanimate objects.  "Cup!  Where are you?"  "Butterfly (wings)!  Where are you?"  We were Skyping with my parents tonight and every time my dad left the screen it was, "Papa!  Papa!!!!! Where are you?"  Poor Fenway gets it too.  All. Day. Long.  Clearly she doesn't have an issue with her verbal skills ...can't imagine where she gets that strength from.

She loves to make people laugh.  She is adorable and tickles you and says, "Tickle, Tickle!"  Oh my word is it adorable.  Yes, I'm partial.  I'll get it on video just to prove it to you.

She is now telling us (on her own), "I wuv (love) you!"  Oh my word.  Melt my heart.  Yesterday in the car, she said, "Daddy, I love you!" and then, "Mommy, I love you!" and finally, "Big One (of course she used her actual name), I love you"  Cue tears.

Just the last few days she started fake sneezing.  Cracks me up.

And I have to tell you, Big One was never really a cuddler.  She would give hugs and kisses for sure, but they would be fleeting.  She had things to do.  LO?  She really gives the best hugs.  You can just feel the love radiating from her.

LO has a whole lot of personality for not quite two years old.  She is going to keep us on our toes, no doubt about it!

Date!

So I saw a deal on one of those fabulous deal sites several weeks ago.  I instantly knew I had to purchase it. What for you ask?  A trip to a shooting range!

I have wanted to learn to shoot a gun for years.  Surprised?

So the Hubster and I went and had a fabulous time!  I was a little worried that the Hubster wasn't going to have such a great time because he has a lot of experience with guns from his prior military days.  I was wrong though, it has been a few years since he has been shooting and I think he liked teaching me too.

We shot a semi-automatic .22 (I think?).  Nice and easy for me!

The guy next to us was shooting this fancy shmancy .45 with a laser that made me jump every. single. time. he shot.  Nuts.

These were my first five shots.  Not bad for a beginning, huh?

We will for sure go again.

Please note the first shot was actually the one up top.  I found my groove after that!

Campcation

I grew up tent camping.  We'd go for a week or two at a time.  Our family would meet up with another family that lived hours away.  I remember having a blast.  Lots of great memories.  Swimming in the lake.  Floating docks that had slides that would go into the water.  Hours of playing Spoons.  And always, Maine lobster.  Yum.

I'm sure part of the reason we camped was because it was a fairly inexpensive vacation.  Especially once you have all of your equipment.  We purchased our tent when I was pregnant with Big One.  We got it on sale and I was a little concerned we wouldn't all fit when we went this summer (still toting around that fabulous Pack-N-Play.  Sigh.) but we pawned BO off on our friends.

When I finally got the Hubster's schedule in May my girlfriend and I planned a dual family trip.  We did some research and found a family friendly campground with lots of activities for the kids.  Oh did I mention that?  Lots of kids.  Five of them.  All four years old and under.  Heh.

My girlfriend and I did a lot of prep work.  Making sure we had all of the equipment available and we baked for days.  Days.

So... pawning off Big One.  My fabulous girlfriend's idea.  Her oldest is the same age as BO.  And they have twin boys that are a couple months older than Little One.  So they had two PnPs.  Ugh.  That meant splitting up for them.  That also meant extra space in one of their tents.  So the big kids got to have a fun camping sleepover!

We had a really good time despite torrential rains/storm on Friday night.  It just meant for a muddy Saturday morning.  Fortunately the temperature was amazingly perfect.  And there was a kid friendly waterpark!  My kids were in Heaven.

It was a great trip.  We decided to pack up and leave a night early.  More rain was on the way and it wasn't supposed to stop until the next day.  Packing up in the rain when everything was wet and muddy did not seem like a lot of fun.  The rain started as we finished packing up the car.

We learned many things.

Here is my list:
1.  Plan on eating kielbasa.  And lots of it.  Really that is all the adults ate.
2.  Plan on cooking lots of hot dogs because that is all the kids wanted to eat.
3.  Only bake banana bread.  Everything else went untouched.
4.  Bring rain boots for the girls.
5.  Get your reservation in early and get a lot that doesn't have a giant light that will shine on you like the next Coming all night long.
6.  Oh and reserve that golf cart again too.  That may have been the only thing that kept the kids from driving the parents crazy.  Heh.  

All nine of us fit!  I wonder if that will be the case next year...

Going camping with Polish friends is a fabulous idea come lunch or dinner time!

Please ignore the towel over our tent entrance.  The Hubster prefers to sleep in a cave-like environment.  

Luggage Rack

My parents have these very cool luggage racks that they picked up at an Estate Sale several months ago.  The Hubster and I fell in love with them.  I mean, having a place to put your suitcase?  Awesome.  Hey, I'm a pretty simple girl.  Easy to please.

So of course the Hubster decided to make some!  I mean, why not right?

Without any plans or drawings he just built them!  Incredible.

The pieces that the luggage sits on actually lift up so the entire rack just collapses to fit in smaller spaces.  Brilliant.

They haven't been broken in yet... so who is coming to visit?

Last Edition

So yesterday, the Hubster and I took the girls to a carpet and tile warehouse in the area to see if they had tiles for our bathroom remodel.  We didn't find any that we liked.

But.

Oh my word!  The rugs!  How ridiculous is it that I was in heaven?  After going around and around the warehouse for the better part of 2 hours I talked the Hubster into getting a 9x12 lime green carpet bound while we waited for $139!  And also a light pink 6x9 for Big One's room and a brighter/dark pink for Little One's room for $69 each!

A steal I tell ya!

And we have a coupon for some magical unknown percentage off (between 5-40%).  So the Hubster is going to bring it by this week for even more of a discount!

The playroom looks fantastic!  The rug really pulls it all together and it looks so much more inviting!

What do you think?

Vacation

We went on vacation for a few days.  Several hours away from home.  The girls did awesome in the car.  For that the Hubster and I were incredibly grateful!

We went to the beach.  We swam in pools.  We walked on a pier.  We did a carriage ride.  We stayed at a super nice cottage as well.  Two bedrooms, full kitchen.  Fabulous.  And we stuck Little One in our closet.  Worked out perfectly!  Hey, it was a huge closet!

We had a really nice trip.  My parents even visited for a couple of days.  I don't get to see them as often as I would like, so it made a good trip even better!  

The girls with my parents!

With the Hubster

Carriage tour.  It was HOT.

I missed the memo on wearing my glasses.

My girl

Can you see the ship in the distance?

An afterthought picture after the pool.

Stranger Bob offered to take our pic.  Thanks Bob!

They were watching the surfers.  It had just stormed.

Who knew your heart could live outside of your body.  Twice.

Sisters

They were obsessed with watching the water under the grate!  Memorized!

Our famous "Do It Yourself" shot.

Daddy was chasing her with the camera.  She thought it was hysterical!

Love.

Beach Day!

Little One loved filling the pails!

Daddy and Big One built lots of castles - one for each of the Disney princesses.  Little One loved knocking them over!

Swinging at 9:30pm?  Why not!

It was our first vacation just the four of us; normally, we visit a set of grandparents.  It was a little chaotic.  Taking an almost two year old out to eat for several days in a row is hard work!  And the girls were both done with being stuck in the car too.  

But we made it back in one piece!  And had a really nice time.  We cannot wait to go back again!

Permanent Fixture

Two posts in one day!  Boy are you lucky!!

So the Hubster went to work today... only to call me when he got there to tell me he doesn't work today.  Whoops!

He came home, ate the fabulous dinner I made, and started moving stuff in the laundry room.

I was quickly asked for help.  We have a lot of crap in the laundry room.  The majority is going to be thrown out.  Geesh.  What did I think I was going to need 17 pasta sauce jars for???  I hope it is recycling week!  Anyway....

After pushing things around and moving them this way and that way and several curse words we got the pedestal in.  And then we got the dryer up pretty easily.  Until we realized one of the shelves needed to come down.  Fine.  Sigh.  All the more reason to get rid of those 17 jars, right?

Then we called the neighbor (at 9:15 at night.  Oops.) and he and his 19 year old son came over.  Thank goodness.  The washer was up in no time.  But goodness do they make those dang things heavy!

I'll stop rambling.  Here it is!

And let me tell you.  It is never moving again.  Permanent fixture.

Smaller Project

Before we really get moving on the bathroom at the end of the month, the Hubster decided to make a laundry pedestal.

I am super duper excited about this.

Which is probably really super duper lame.  But I'm ok with that.  I will embrace it.

When we bought our fancy front loading pair just over three years ago I wanted the pedestal.  Of course.  And I don't remember how much extra it was.  But it was not in our newly one income home budget.  So we skipped it.  And I have been stooping ever since while doing the laundry (insert whine and cheese joke here).

So with the fabulous invention of pinterest I found a link to make a pedestal!

Thank you Ana White!  Here it is!

I'm not sure I'll put cute words on the front.  But the Hubster has done a great job.  I wanted it white so it would match the cabinets we have in there.

Please excuse the messy garage.

I have not quite figured out how we are going to get the washer/dryer on top.  We may have to enlist some help from friends.  Those suckers are heavy.  

But man.  I cannot wait to see how it looks!