Random Stuff

So I have been REALLY busy this whole month! But really just these last two days. We got back from the beach and I realized I had 4 days to get ready for my next California trip. I had to make sure the house had groceries, I  had to wrap gifts, buy gifts, figure out who was watching my kids and getting Natalie to preschool, I had to write my maid of honor speech (so scared of that one!!), pick out all the outfits I'm going to wear and then pack them all up. I tend to get a little overwhelmed and stressed out when I have a ton to do but I've been trying to make it fun so I can have time with my girls. I'm so sad that I'm leaving them again. I love getting breaks from the kids and I'm excited about my trip but I just feel like I've been away from them a ton lately. Heidi really doesn't want me to leave. Natalie has never cared and now that Heidi does...it's way harder to leave! Heidi keeps telling me that she's gonna miss me when I'm gone. My poor heart! So tonight she gets to have a sleep over with Mammy to lessen the fact that I'm leaving tomorrow. She has been doing really well in her "big girl" bed so she should be fine at Mom's. Although the other night when we checked on the girls before we went to bed, Shane came out of Heidi's room saying that he couldn't find her. We checked in Natalie's room, we even checked in Dana's room where she and Nokie were both asleep. We couldn't find her anywhere and then Shane found her under her bed fast asleep. It was the cutest thing ever!!

Also I just wanted to say how great Natalie is doing in preschool. She just loves it. Today when I picked her up she was so excited to show me something in her bag. It was homework! She was so happy that she had homework to do. When we got home she showed Colie and Dane. When Heidi woke up Natalie said..."Let me show you this amazing thing I got from school today!" The cutest thing ever. She had to learn her address and then draw a picture of her house.  How long do they love homework?? I don't remember ever liking it. :)

Beach Day

Shane and I took the girls to Myrtle Beach again. We left Tuesday night at 7:30 and then came home Thursday afternoon. A really quick trip. Especially for a 3 1/2 hour drive! Anyway...the girls were really great. The fell asleep on the way there but as soon as we got there Natalie was wide awake because she was so excited about being at the beach. We got them back to sleep at midnight and thankfully they slept till after 8. :) The whole reason we went was to meet up with Shane's friend who is getting deployed. He and his wife have a two kids the same age as our girls and also a little baby boy. It was really nice to spend time with them. The kids had fun playing together at the beach making sand castles and playing in the ocean. We spent pretty much all day Wednesday on the beach just leaving to eat meals. Thursday morning we ran back out to the beach for about a half hour and then back to the hotel for baths and packing up all our stuff to get out of the hotel. We stopped at Johnny Rockets for lunch before heading home. The girls love when the waiters start dancing. They get up in their seats and dance right along with them! It was a crazy trip but we had fun and I'm glad we were able to spend some time with the Cook family.

Having fun splashing in the waves

 Lunch at Johnny Rockets

 

 

On the drive home...coloring in the backseat. They were so good!

A cute video of the girls. We didn't bring a camera this trip but thank goodness for iPhones!

First Day of School

I can't believe Natalie started school today! I am exhausted! Yesterday we spent all day shopping for the stuff she needed. Don't ask me why I waited till the day before...I'm usually much better at that! This morning she woke up and got dressed in her new "back to school" dress. Then I made her a special pancake breakfast and took a ton of pictures before we left for school. She was totally over the pictures! When we got to her classroom she was just ready to walk right in. I had to remind her to give me a kiss goodbye! She was so excited about preschool today but I also felt like she thought it was no big deal. While she was gone I had the craziest day ever! After I dropped her off I came home and made her a cake. I really wanted to make the day special for her. But the cake turned out too dry, I ran out of frosting and decided to make some from whipping cream and vanilla pudding. Amazing by the way. Then the cable guy was here and he kept asking me questions while I was trying to frost the cake. The second that he left I ran out the door to pick Natalie up from school. When I picked her up I had to pry her for information. I took her to McDonalds and got her a McFlurry while we talked about her day. I asked her what her favorite part of the day was and she said recess. I asked her what she did for recess and she said, "Mommy...you know what recess is." :) She said that she met two people, Ella and David and that they were nice. She got to play with play dough, they had story time and sang songs. She loved preschool and said that she couldn't wait to go back. :)

Pictures before breakfast

Heidi wanted her picture taken too :)

Ready to get inside

Done with pictures and ready to go to school!

Then tonight we went to my parents house for swimming and cake. Natalie is so loving the pool! She was a crazy jumping kid. Luke and Matthew showed her how to do a cannon ball. Very cute! I just have to keep reminding her to jump AWAY from the wall. She jumps so close to it sometimes that it scares me to death!  After swimming and dinner we got to her cake. It was so hot that most of the frosting melted down the sides. That's what happens when you use a whipped cream frosting I guess. :) It ended up being a pretty ugly cake but it tasted good and that's all that matters. Natalie was just happy that her name was on it and that she got the first slice! As soon as we got home we had story time and the girls went right to sleep. It was a long day for everyone.

 Jumping to Colie

 Heidi likes to climb in and out over the side of the pool

 This is Natalie's "dive" that looks more like a belly flop :)

 Swimming underwater to Colie

 Cannon Ball!

 My cute girl :)

 I don't know what kind of jump this is but she sure is having fun!

I still can't believe my little girl is in school. Where has the time gone! I have to say...driving her to school this morning my mind jumped to that fact that in no time at all I will be driving her to high school....graduation...college....a wedding. Too much for my mind to comprehend! Thank goodness we only go through one day at a time!

More Swimming

Natalie has been shocking me almost every day this week with her swimming! Today she jumped off the side of the pool into the water. I have been trying to get her to do that all summer. Earlier this week she jumped off the steps into the pool but for some reason the side of the pool scared her. Today Shane held her hand while she jumped in. After about 3 jumps he let go of her hand mid jump. She was so excited that she jumped in by herself she just kept jumping in over and over. She was really proud of herself. :) Then later he came up behind her and picked her up and threw her. She had such a huge grin on her face when she got out of the water. All these crazy steps she's taken in the past 2 weeks. All because we bought her goggles!

 Jumping off the side of the pool

 Love this shot of Shane throwing her in the water!

 Heidi wears goggles too but she doesn't actually go underwater with them. They just leave marks on her face. I don't know what the squished face is for but it sure is cute!

A video of Natalie jumping in the pool. Such a happy girl! I knew she could do it. :)

Busy Busy Busy

The end of summer is moving so fast! There are so many things happening!

First...so much travel! I went to California a week ago to help Hollyann get stuff done for her wedding. We are all heading to the beach next week to spend some time with Shane's friend before he gets deployed. Then the following Tuesday I head back out to California to be part of the pre-wedding festivities. Shane joins me on Friday for the actual wedding. Before coming back home we are heading up north to Lake Tahoe for Shane's cousin Stephania's wedding. So crazy!

Next...Shane is starting school for his Master's on Thursday. He is going to University of Phoenix once a week while working full time and coaching Natalie's soccer team. He will be really busy these next 18 months!

And lastly....Natalie is starting preschool on Monday. (sigh) I am so excited for her but I'm really sad too. I can't believe my little girl is getting so big. I was looking at her baby book today and after I put in pictures for her first day of school it will be complete. COMPLETE!! I can't believe it! We have her open house on Thursday night. We bought her first day of school outfit today. Every day she asks me how many more days till school starts??  Also we have been swimming almost every day and she has turned into a fish. My little girl who was scared to death of the pool at the beginning of the summer has now, in a matter of probably 4 days, decided to dive to the bottom of the shallow end to pick up diving toys. She is swimming underwater, jumping off the steps, loving her new goggles. It's so much fun to see her accomplish so much! Here's a video of her crazy jumping. :)

I'm sure there will be a ton of pictures these next few weeks..with all the fun stuff going on! I'm so excited for all the craziness but I'm also hoping that September will move just a little bit slower! :)

Happy Birthday Gracie!

We celebrated Gracie's birthday yesterday even though it was actually last month (On her real birthday she was in Hawaii). It was supposed to be a swimming day but we had thunderstorms instead. We made do and still had fun. Dad and Bub grilled pizza. So good!! Everyone got to put their own toppings on. I think they grilled at least 10 different pizzas plus a dessert pizza. After dinner Gracie opened her gifts and we had chocolate cupcakes to celebrate. 

 Hanging out with the girls

 Colie's pizza...amazing! Pesto, alfredo, chicken and bacon

 Matthew enjoying his pizza

 Colie enjoying her pizza

 Dad and Bub making the crusts

 Regular pizza crust, nutella spread, white chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips

 Gracie's gifts

 This tasted soo soo good!!

 Gracie moved to Alaska a cute little girl and came back a beautiful 14 year old!

 Nail polish from DeDe

 Natalie drew Gracie a picture

 Heidi was checking out the money that Gracie got. :)

 Gracie poses anytime a camera is pointed her way!

 Making a wish

 Taking a bite

 Chocolate Braces Smile!

 The girls wanted to do a chocolate smile too :)

A Day of Firsts

Today Natalie swam with her head underwater and without her floaties! Yesterday Gracie bought some goggles and Natalie wanted to try them. She had so much fun. She kept putting her face in the water to look underneath. Then today she kept jumping up and down so that her whole face would go under. And then she swam with her face in the water, holding her breath the whole way. Then she decided she didn't want her floaties anymore cause she could just do it on her own. So so cute!! She stayed in the shallow end and kind of walked/swam but she did really well!

 The first time with her goggles....still wearing her floatie. Then swimming with Shane

 So proud of my little girl! Can't believe she is getting so big!

Also today we took the front of Heidi's crib off. So now she is sleeping in a "big girl" bed. We will see how she does and if she gets out of bed a million times tonight. She has known how to climb in and out of her crib for the past 6 months or so so I'm hoping that she just stays in her bed no problem. Here's hoping!!

California Trip

My best friend, Hollyann is getting married at the end of this month so I flew out for a really quick trip to help her get some wedding stuff done. We were go go go the entire time I was there. It was so much fun and so crazy!! We did a ton of driving around from one appointment to the other and filled all that car time with talking. :) We went to her first dress fitting, we went to three different bakeries for cake tasting (She ended up picking BellaDonna which was by far the best tasting cakes!), we shopped for clothes and shoes for her honeymoon, we got the ring for her soon to be husband and we met with her wedding planner to go over the final details. Needless to say when I got home I was exhausted!! The crazy part is that Shane and I will be going back out to California at the end of the month for her wedding and his cousin's wedding which happen to be the same weekend! But...for now...here are a few pictures from my trip. 

 Cuddling with my girls before I left. It was so sweet...they were really sad that I was leaving. They kept saying...I'm gonna miss you mommy! I ended up letting Natalie come with me to the airport just so I could have a little more time with her. :)

 First stop in LA...In N Out!! Always...it's a tradition. :) Later that week Hollyann and I went to RockSugar in Santa Monica. We met up with her friend Rochelle whom I love. I met her the last time I was here and she is the absolute sweetest person! It was a great night of good food and good conversation.

 

We had some people take our picture...thank goodness for camera phones!!

 We went to the beach so I could take some pictures of them as a family and a couple. They turned out pretty good.

 Savannah got tired of taking pictures pretty quick.  This was way more fun for her!

 

We didn't hit Baja Fresh while I was out there but they did take me to Cafe Rio. So good! I think it might be one of my new favorites!!

 Erik took this picture of us on his front porch.

 We walked down to the beach and they were having a surf competition. It was really fun to watch.  Then we grabbed a pizza and watched a movie back at his house. A nice relaxing day to end a crazy busy week!

 

 Flying home the sun was just shining down on Los Angeles. It was so beautiful! These pictures don't even do justice to how amazing it looked. 

When I got back to Atlanta, Colie and the kids were at the airport too. Our flights got in at the same time. It was so fun to come home and have them back! And then when I got back to my parents house my girls came running out to give me hugs. Ahh...it's so good to be home! :)