Cancelled

I was hoping to be back tonight with great pictures and funny stories about our trip from the zoo, but we didn't go.

It takes four hours to get from where we are to Asheboro and there was a 50% chance of rain all weekend. We just couldn't justify driving all that way on the chance that it would't rain.

It's a good thing we didn't go, because I have come down with a stomach flu. I can't keep anything down and only get relief when I'm sitting or lying on the couch.

I'm so thankful for my SWEET, precious hubby who happened to be off this weekend. He has been Mr. Mom for two days. God Bless him.


So, while I'm battling the plague, I've been watching a marathon of this:

Weekend TV selection is limited folks.

Here's hoping that I feel well by tomorrow because my hubby goes back to work!

Happy Sunday,

Midweek Confessions

Some how or another, I goofed and really messed up my blog. See how all of my side bar is now underneath my posts? Thankfully, I have someone who thinks they can fix it for me. I'm also considering a new heading with pictures. It needs a bit of updating with our family of four :)

Harper came home with his first official school photos and I cried. The teacher told me that he was so good-looking and photogenic and that I would die when I saw the photos. I thought she was just being nice. The pictures make my heart soar. I tried scanning and uploading them, but I'm having problems.

He received a painting kit for his 3rd birthday and I confess that I always cringe over these presents.

I love for him to have a good time, but the mess. Oh, the mess.


I confess that I am about this close to giving up on Photobucket and going with another hosting site. They changed everything about the same time that Blogger changed everything. Too much!!

I am considering trying to get up before Harper in the mornings. With Jimmy's new schedule going from 9am-9pm, I spend my time cooking dinner for us at night instead of just warming up soup and blogging while he (was) at work. The blog has suffered and I don't like that. I have been missing it!

I meant to mention this last week, but my heart nearly stopped when Guiliana and Bill FINALLY announced that they are having a baby!!!!!! I'm so happy for them.


Oh and yes, Jessica Simpson finally had her baby too. I think I just physically feel relieved for that girl. Yay for Maxwell Drew!


The little family and I are heading to the Asheboro Zoo this weekend and I wonder sometimes if I am the only person in the world that has to plan things the way I do. Here is my thought process:

"We have to go this weekend. Jimmy is only off every other weekend. If we don't go now, it'll be too hot by the end of May. If we wait until it's cooler, it'll be around October, but October is busy. Our 5 year anniversary, my birthday, Hollin's 1st birthday. Maybe we can wait until November. But that's only two weekends that he can go and we have to consider Thanksgiving. December is too cold. Should we just wait until next Spring?"

I hope everyone is having a great week! I'm off to research new photo-hosting sites.

Midweek Confessions

Linking up again this week!

1. Poor Jessica Simpson. Is she still pregnant?

I'm pretty sure she announced her pregnancy on Hollin's Halloween birthday. It just seems like she has been pregnant forever. I keep waiting to read that she has finally had that baby.

2. I saw on People.com today that Taylor Hanson and his wife are expecting their 5th child. Phew!

I confess that it's all I can do to handle the two that I have. I can't imagine 5!

3. I confess that today has just been one of those really hard days.

Hollin has not stopped fussing. I just had to let her cry and whine today to be able to get some things done. Harper got into a fight with another little boy at preschool and the teacher actually waved my car out of the regular line-up today so she could talk to me. The director called me last week for the same thing. He FLIPS out when they try to put him in time out. He does it at home too. He kicks, screams and hits the teachers. It's so embarassing and honestly, Jimmy and I don't know what to do. I am seriously considering joining Moms on Call. Advice anyone?

4. On a different note, I bought a really bright color by sinful colors the other day.

(not my nails :)
If there is a color name on it, I didn't see it. I describe it as highlighter pink. I got it at Target for $1.99. Love!

5. I am about 3/4 the way through the Hunger Games and I love it. Now I must go see the movie.

6. Speaking of movies, guess what hubby will begrudgingly take me to see on Friday?

The Lucky One!

Zac Efron just kind of... grew up, didn't he? *Cough*

7. I wore SPF 100 to the beach a few days ago and I still got red. How is that possible?


I hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

The big DAY and a weekend in pictures

Friday was hubby's first day on his day shift. To make things even sweeter, he is in our area. Meaning, he can come by and eat lunch with us at home or we can meet him somewhere!

I would love to say that I was able to take advantage of his absence and make our bed, clean up upstairs, etc, but I can't. We have been out and about for days and it's been so much fun!

My parents came down this weekend to go with the babies and I to the Azalea Festival. I took tons of pictures, but here are just a few.

Azalea Belles are a tradition for the festival.


They even have little ones! I secretly think it would be so fun if Hollin ever did something like this :)






Harper had his first cotton candy.


My babies :)




On a completely different note, I tried to re-do a few pictures of Hollin with her Easter dress on a few days ago. Harper was so occupied with playing on his new tractor, I knew there was no way I could pry him from it to pose with her.

She did pretty well, but she is wiggle worm.




She is REALLY into sticking her tongue out these days.


She has become such a ham at bath time too.


We also took a trip to the beach on Sunday. Harper wasn't really into it, but he did end up having a good time :)


Hollin is always up for an adventure. This girl is loud and proud.




We went back to the beach today and I took pictures, but my computer is really being a pain. I think it has a major virus :(

Anyway, I hope everyone had a great weekend!!

Stay right there!

Ladies and gents, I am still here! We have just been super-duper busy and I will be catching up soon. I also seemed to have misplaced my camera cord so I can't upload any pics at the moment. I have lots of those to share.

Stick with me.

Midweek Confessions

I feel like I am SO behind these days! We have been focusing so much on getting the house ready for Harper's party on Saturday that I still haven't taken Hollin's 5 month pictures. So ashamed.

I'm sitting here watching the pre-One Tree Hill finale show. I can't say that I've been a regular watcher. I've seen episodes every now and then, but I'm still kinda sad. They film in the town where I live :)!

We took our first beach trip today with both babies. It was an uber-FAIL. I didn't have my camera, but it was rough. We've decided that we can't go again unless we have one of these.


I ordered a dress for Hollin to wear for Harper's 3rd birthday and I was SO bummed when the shop owner emailed to say that the fabric is no longer available.
It looked kinda like this :(

At the same time though, it's not a tragedy because we are not John Deere clothes-wearing people haha.

I just picked up the Hunger Games while at Costco today. I never read any of the Twilight books. Not against them or anything, I just thought that Hunger Games may be a little more thought-provoking.

I'm afraid to start reading it for fear that I won't be able to put it down. I may wait until next week when things calm down a little :)

That's all for tonight folks. Tired is the story of my life these days:)

A first.

There is something so special about watching your baby do something for the first time. A few days ago, I took my first baby to the dentist!

I know he's almost three and I know that "technically" he should have gone by his first birthday. I trusted my mommy senses and waited to take him a little later. I'm so glad I did, because he actually let them clean his teeth! He wouldn't sit in the chair, but he compromised and sat on the spinning chair.





The pediatric dentist's office was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was so cheery and fun! There was a saltwater fishtank, playstation and X-box for the older kids and oodles of toys and books, all with an ocean theme.


Jimmy and I are proud of our little monkey. Jimmy was especially happy that Harper didn't seem to share his fear of the dentist. Let's just hope it stays that way!

Accepting it.

**I have no idea why certain words are linking up to other windows. I'm looking into it. Thanks!**



A few days ago, I pulled out the big rubbermaid container that stores all of my opposite -season clothes. I was kind of excited to be pulling out all of my spring and summer clothes so early. While rummaging through them I realized that most of what I have are dresses. Dresses are great because they are roomy, cool, cute and most importantly able to grow with the expanding belly I had last year.

I just wasn't in a dress mood today. We were taking Harper to the park and I knew there would be a lot of bending and pushing swings, etc, so I decided to look at what shorts I had.

I pulled on one pair that were a little tight the summer before last, but I could still wear them ok.

I couldn't button them.

The only other pair that fit were in the dirty laundry.

Jeans were my next option, but the one pair that really fits me best right now was in the dirty laundry. Notice a pattern here? I looked down and saw at least 4 other pairs in the drawer.

There are some really cute American Eagle jeans laying at the very bottom of my "jean drawer." They've been there since I gave birth to Harper in 2009. One of them is exactly like the pair that I wore on my first date with Jimmy. On at least 5 different occasions since Harper was born, I've tried to put them on.

*Tried.*

It ain't happening.

I keep holding out hope that those date jeans will fit again one day.

I think most of us moms can agree that things are just different after having a baby. I'm not back to my pre-pregnancy weight yet, but there was a time, in between my two babies, that I was. Even then, the darn jeans just didn't fit.

My hips are wider. My body is different, even at pre-pregnancy weight.

I can get back down to pre-pregnancy weight, but there's nothing that will make my hips their pre-childbirth size.

So, with that, I've decided to let the date jeans go. Those and many other pre-baby clothes that I'm still hanging onto. (What's up with the shirts getting shorter?)

I'm putting everything in a box tonight and hauling it off to Plato's Closet, or Clothes Mentor tomorrow. With whatever (teeny) amount they give me for them, I'll go ahead and start buying things that actually fit.

I feel a little silly that part of me is sad about this. I'm letting go of tangible things that remind me of the size I used to be. I tend to hang onto things for sentimental reasons, but what good are those clothes to me now?

The truth is, I have two beautiful (and some say identical-looking) babies to show for it. I've got stretch marks and a sometimes sore, but always numb c-section scar hiding under my clothes.

I may never be the size I once was, but that's ok. I think that adopting a new body when you adopt the life of a mom is part of the job description.

Luckily for all of us, blousy tops are usually always "in." :)

Goodnight and

GO PACK!!

Spring into change

The gorgeous weather lately has had me all kinds of motivated. I've been motivated to do everything.

Cook.

Clean.

Try new activities with the kids.

Shop. (quite limited here :)

Get outside.

Make the house a home.

Party plan.

Craft.

It's fun to have motivation to do all of these things, but as we moms know, there just aren't enough hours in the day. So what do we do? We focus one what we can, when we can. One thing suffers so that we can get another thing done and so on and so on.

I convinced hubby to try something I've been wanting to do forever. Here's a hint. It's SO hard to figure out what we've done:)

(Blurry night photo. Best I've got.)


I'm so thrilled with the result and I will share pics as soon as I can take a daylight photo.

It seems like it takes three times as long to get a project done as it used to. I am busy trying to entertain/keep babies happy while Jimmy does most of the work. He can only work so much when he is always sleep deprived, so we do what we can. Our house is a complete wreck and I would be mortified if anyone came over, but we have a pretty hallway to show for it!

The babies have been pretty good the last few days. Hollin decided to have her worst meltdown ever today and I think it may be because she didn't feel well.

(You'd think I would've learned to remove my knee from baby photos.)

She cried for at least 30 minutes, if not more. I did let her cry it out. I picked her up after I couldn't take it anymore and she fell asleep. Oh and Harper was saying, "Mama outside, mama, mama, MAMA!!!" the whole time she was screaming. It was fun.


So, that is life right now. I feel like I am in a constant state of "overwhelmed" since Hollin was born, but things are constantly changing and babies keep growing. I try to adapt as best I can. Some days I think I rock at this whole mom-of-two thing and then some days, not so much. I'm trying to soak in all of these little moments. Even the screaming infant, the demanding preschooler, the dog that needs to be let out at the most inconvenient times and the teeny changes that we make to our home when we can find the time. Maybe even the balls of dog hair I can see under my bed and in corners of the house. Mixed with dried chunks of play-doh.

There are so many changes happening here and it's all (mostly) fun. My mom is moving here permanently next week. More on that here. I'm planning for Harper's 3rd birthday party, Easter, preparing for construction to begin and trying to make my house presentable for all of the above. I may even try to throw in a pool party some time this year. I wish I could invite every single one of you!

I'm not going to flatter myself with thinking that I have a ton of readers, but what are you changing/looking forward to?

Happy Friday,

I might be out of my mind

This year, Easter falls on Sunday, April 8th. Harper's 3rd (wow) birthday is April 5th.

Jimmy and I talked it over and decided that we will celebrate his birthday on Saturday, April 7th and then of course Easter (and all corresponding activities) will be the next day.

This year's birthday party theme is..............


John Deere Tractors!

Truth be told, Harper could care less what KIND of tractor he's looking at, but working with the green and yellow should be fun!

Part of me wants to go all out because I feel like my little boy deserves it.

He really deserves it after learning to say, "If you touch my Sissy, I'll beat you up!"

I'm excited to make our new digs all festive. On the flip side, however, I have to be realistic. How much can I really do in one weekend? I know I can squeeze in a lot, so I just might do that. It's all part of the fun I suppose.

I LOVE preparing for this time of year and especially planning my first baby's party.

Let the fun begin!

Better Days

Over the past few days, things have been going a lot better! First, our rodent problem has been resolved. (Hubby found not one, but TWO in the ductwork housing.)

Harper and I had a really great day yesterday and today was great too. I always feel like I'm going in circles with my blog posts. I blog about the good the bad and the ugly and sometimes feel guilty for venting via the internet. If I only blogged about the good, then it would seem as if I was trying to make my life look perfect. It definitely isn't. I have so much to be thankful for and even though we definitely struggle some days, I never lose sight of how blessed I really am.

All four of us went out to the beach this afternoon to take a few pictures. I have a ton of pictures of Harper and Hollin, but hardly any of Jimmy and I with them. The following pictures are a little Ashlynn-heavy, but that was the point today :) (Jimmy didn't take very many because he says he is awkward.)










(Look at Hollin's face, haha.)












Happy Tuesday!