2 years ago Today

Happy Birthday Little Princess!!

You actually slept all the way through the night in your big girl bed 9:30-7:30. This is a first for you, I hope it becomes a regular routine. You came downstairs and got lots of hugs and happy birthday songs. I also decided to put a candle in your oatmeal, you thought that was pretty cool! I can't wait for what the rest of the day holds for you, I think you'll be excited!

Here you are at your 1st Birthday party, I can't believe how much you've grown in just one year. You're still a little peanut, a tiny little thing, with a whole lot of attitude!

Eat cake!

On October 29, 2006 at 10:13 AM you came into this world. You were a lot smaller than they told me you were going to be, they told me to expect an 8 pounder and here you are at a tiny

5 lbs 12 oz and 18 inches long. I was in labor for almost 12 hours with you, not a fast labor like with Ethan and Riley, but you were definitely worth the wait. Just looking at these old pictures makes me a little teary eyed because I realize how fast you're growing up right before my eyes. I look forward to many more birthdays, but don't grow up too fast!

I love you!

Tomorrow

I can't believe that Caroline turns 2 tomorrow! My baby is growing up so fast. I remember when I was pregnant with her and now she's almost another year older. She's coming into her own, she's got quite a personality and by personality I mean attitude. She wouldn't go to sleep in her bed last night. Every time I put her in her bed she would stay for about 5 minutes and then come back in our room. Finally, around 1:30 I just put her in bed with me, it was the only hope of getting any sleep myself. I'm dragging this morning. I might have more than one cup of coffee today just to keep going.
In other news, Ethan has decided that he wanted to have a tray lunch at school. I was a little hesitant at first, but I checked out the menu and asked him if he would eat it and he said yes. After I picked him up yesterday I asked him about his lunch. He was so excited that he had salad, he didn't remember what else he ate, so that must have been some salad. They also only serve milk to drink and Ethan is NOT a milk drinker. I asked him if he had milk, he said "there was plenty of it". I asked if he drank it, and he said he did a little. We'll see how today's lunch goes and if he still wants to keep it up. It's a whole lot easier on me and Peyton not to have to pack his lunch and it's actually cheaper than buying stuff for his lunch, so we'll see how much longer he wants to keep it up.
To add a little about Riley, she's really not up to anything these days. She still goes to ballet once a week and loves it, but lately she's been moping around the house and telling me she's bored. I've been trying my hardest to find things for her and Caroline to do. I took the girls for a walk around the neighborhood (well, down the street and back) last Sunday and Riley rode her princess bike the whole way. She had a blast and now that she's had a little taste of it, she wants to do it everyday. I would love to get them out to walk every day, but there's one little problem. There is so much construction going on, and the workers drive down our street like it's a race track, it makes me nervous to think of us on the street and the sidewalks are only finished in front of the houses that are done and that's not very many. I'm looking forward to the neighborhood filling out and less construction going on.

Costumes and a day out

So on Saturday, Riley and I had a day out, just the 2 of us. We went to Panera for lunch and then hit the outlet mall. We're all in need of some fall clothes. I headed straight for Ann Taylor Loft and got some cute shirts and new jeans, my jeans are so big now that I can pull them off without unbuttoning them. Next we headed to Old Navy, I was looking for some long sleeved shirts for Peyton, I couldn't even think once we walked through the door, there were so many people and so much stuff strewn everywhere. I did notice their rack of Halloween costumes with a big $5 sign above them. I found Ethan a bat costume. The kids has such a hard time deciding things, so I called Peyton to ask him to ask him if that was ok, he said it was and seemed pretty excited about it. Next we hit Gymboree, only bad thing about the Gymboree outlet is that they have last season's clothes and the girls already had almost everything in the store, so I got Ethan a couple of long sleeved shirts. After that we headed to Target. I stopped and got her some popcorn first, we've started doing that just about every time we go now, it's the best $1.50, it keeps the kids busy and helps me get my shopping done faster. I was in search of costumes for the girls. I knew that I wanted Caroline to be Little Red Riding Hood, it's such a cute costume and she's adorable in it. Riley had the hardest time picking out a costume. She wanted to be a fairy. There were 2 fairy costumes, Wood Fairy and Sherbet Fairy. She wanted to know why the wood fairy was called Wood Fairy, I told her it was because the costume was brown, I don't know! We left the Halloween area and went to the dress-up area of the toys. I was trying my hardest to get her to be a ballerina, she has everything at home already, we could just buy her a pretty tutu and be done with it, but she wasn't having that. She didn't find what she wanted in the toy section so we went back to the costume section and she decided on the Sherbet Fairy, but surprise, it's pink, purple and green and all sparkly unlike the brown wood fairy. We had to run to AC Moore after that to get some adhesive and then we headed home. Peyton and the kids were watching the football game when we got home. I was trying my clothes on to show him and came to one outfit that I saw in the window and just had to have. I put it on and he looked at me and said "wow, 80s". After that comment, the outfit will be going back this week. Just goes to show you how much the salespeople want to sell their stuff, none of them mentioned that I looked like I stepped out of an 80's exercise tape. I got a pink and gray striped short sleeve sweater and black leggings. Honestly now that I'm typing this "what was I thinking" and to add more on top, Peyton asked "where are your leg warmers." LOL

Chocolate Baby

This is what happens when Daddy sits Caroline at the dining room table with chocolate pudding, while I'm making pancakes for dinner, and then walks back into the living room to finish playing his game on his playstation. He came around the corner and just yelled, "Oh no". I knew she had done something, and he told me to come see. She was standing in her chair, looking straight ahead. She wouldn't make eye contact with anyone. We just started laughing. He snatched her up and I ran to grab the camera, definitely have to document this one. Up to the bath right after this! She's not even officially 2 yet. I might need some medication to get through her 2s if it's already starting like this.

Hurricane Caroline

Oh My Word! Yesterday was quite an experience. Caroline managed, in a few short hours, to terrorize our whole house. I was on a cleaning spree yesterday and most of it was cleaning up behind her. I started the day cleaning Peyton's office. She brought me a bandaid, she calls them bams. I was wondering where she got it from and walked into the kitchen and she dumped the whole box on the floor, it was one of the HUGE boxes from Sam's with every size imaginable. Next she had a capri sun and was squeezing it on the floor just so she could soak it up with a paper towel. Then she moved on to the living room. She grabbed a box of crackers, one that was almost completely eaten, so all that was left were crumbs, and dumped them on the carpet and then stepped all over them. So I lugged the vacuum from the office to the LR to clean that up and then decided to clean out the couch cushions while I was in there and there was a pen between the cushions. While I'm vacuuming I turn to look at her and she has said pen and is writing all over herself. UGH! Next she decided to fill the dog's water bowl with his food and managed to spill the food all over the pantry in the process. After the dog ate all the food out of his bowl I took him outside to relieve himself and turned to check on Caroline on the porch and she's standing in his outside water bowl. She brought a cup outside and was filling up the cup and pouring it on my table and chairs outside and all over the floor and herself. Then she dipped a big cupful and took a big swig, I just about gagged. So I had to bring her inside and strip her down and redress her. In the time that it took for me to get a new diaper and the wipes she peed on the floor. Then we had lunch, fairly uneventful, and about an hour break from messes. After we picked Ethan up from school the kids went upstairs to play and Caroline came downstairs soaking wet from the chest down and the tips of her hair were wet. I ran upstairs to find out how she got wet and Riley informs me that she was in their sink with the water on, she took a stuffed animal with her and he's soaking wet too. So I strip her again, repeat earlier today, she peed on the floor again, only this time it was in the playroom. I locked all the doors to any room that had access to a bathroom and put the dog's food up on the top shelf in the pantry. Here's hoping that today is a little calmer.

Nix the previous statement, she just pushed the panic button on the alarm system and ADT just called us. She's turning 2 in 11 days, I hope this is not a preview of what's to come, I hope she gets it out of her system by the time she turns 2.

Ethan's First Fish

Aren't they cute!!

My Husband, the Genius

So, we just got back from a week in Louisiana. We left Friday night, stayed the night in Montgomery and were at Peyton's parents' on Saturday. We left the kids with his mom and sister. Peyton and his dad, brother and cousin were headed to the LSU football game, and I was headed to New Orleans for Sheena's bachelorette party. LSU won, and I had a night out without the kids, it was a win win. We stayed with his family until Thursday morning and then headed to New Orleans for Sheena's wedding weekend. My family was flying in and Sheena and I were picking them up from the airport. We had the rehearsal dinner that night. We went downtown on Friday night to Pat O'Brien's so Peyton could get a hurricane glass to replace the one he broke when we were moving. That was the one thing on his list to get done while we were down there.
Saturday, the girls headed to Aunt Cheryl's shop to get our hair done and Peyton, Ethan, Kevin, Little Kevin and Uncle Mike went fishing. Ethan and L. Kevin caught a fish. I'll have to post the pic later, it's so cute. The wedding was beautiful, the ceremony was short and sweet, the food was good, and it's always great when we get to see family that we haven't seen in months, and even years in some cases. We headed back on Sunday morning, 13 hours in the car, the kids did really well considering. We got in around 11:30 PM. Ok, here's where the post title comes in. I was very meticulous about deleting enough old shows off of the DVR so that we could record all of our shows and watch them when we got back. I even went to the extent of recording certain shows that I watch separately downstairs and the ones we both watch upstairs. So we come into the bedroom and I notice the tv says that it's acquiring satellite connection and then downloading. It didn't dawn on me until I hit the list button to see how we were going to plan this week to catch up on our shows and watch the new ones that if the DVR was refreshing that we lost power. I asked Peyton about it and he said that he unplugged everything before we left so that it would be ok if we got struck by lightning or who knows what else can happen to a tv while you're on vacation. I slowly told him that since he did that, it didn't record any of the shows that I set up. He got a blank, I can't believe I did that, look on his face. I believe his exact words were "I'm an idiot". Then he looks at me and says, "NOOO, it didn't record The Unit."