9 Month photos

We took the kids to Portrait Innovations in Winter Garden today for their 9 month photos, and it was an experience. It started out well, really well, too well. The photographer we had was the one that got Jill to laugh in all our Christmas photos, so I thought, perfect! No...not really. So here's what happened, I put Jill down next to the block, she was happy, smiling, perfect, then I went to put Aaron down. As I'm putting Aaron down, the photographer asked, "Can I move her?" yeah sure, why not, right? Well he kind of went a little too fast for her liking and freaked her out. It took us almost 45 minutes to finally get her to calm down, seriously. She didn't even want to see the guy, let alone have him take her picture. So another photographer came in, and she was perfect for Jill. It took a few, several clicks of the camera before we got her to smile. All in all they came out really nice, and captured their personalities perfectly. Today aside, I do love this place for portraits of the kids. You walk out with all of your photos 20 minutes after they are taken, plus you get a CD of every photo they took with all rights to duplicate them. How awesome is that?! Anyway, here are some of the photos of the day...hope your day was great!

The "incident" and more

We made an impromptu visit to Epcot yesterday with Lani, Lily, Ben and Cameron. It was actually fairly busy for Epcot. We didn't get a lot of questions/comments/finger points/gasps which was nice, we did get one guy say he was going to pray for us, so that's cool? I hope he's praying for continued patience with dealing with people like him, but prayers for the kids too are always nice! We're also perfecting the art of finding hideaways in the parks to feed the kids without being stared at the whole time. If you are wondering, the back garden area of the UK is very nice, unless the band is playing then it's a mob scene.
There was also an "incident" at the house yesterday. The kids were crawling around the house and I heard this bang. I look over and there it is....Scott's snackmaster (that he has had and used since 1990) on the floor, Aaron's chubby little hand attached and a piece of it on the other side of the room. I debated with myself if I should just leave it and see if he would notice a huge piece of the vent missing off of it or call him and tell him. This was about a five minute internal debate, I ended up taking a photo on my phone and sending it to him. Needless to say my phone lit right up. Hopefully it still works, I don't see why it wouldn't. Below is the damage...In other kiddie news, Jill now plays peek a boo with herself and blanket. Scott plays it with her all the time when he's home and now she plays it by herself too. Aaron is pulling himself up on everything and then screams at you to look at him. He loves climbing up on his exersaucer now and slamming his hands on all the toys. That poor toy...I still can't get over how big they have gotten. Next week they will be 10 months. I seriously feel like we just brought them home. Lani and I were talking about our first playdate and just how much all of the kids have grown. It's such a mixture of emotions, part of me wants them to stay little forever and just be my cuddle monkeys, but the other part wants to see them grow up. Sigh...
Scott and I got to go to dinner last night which was wonderful (thank you again Cathy for the gift card!). We went to P.F. Changs at Mall of Milenia, it was delicious, and I'm not just talking about the pomegrante martini. It's always nice to have a few hours with Scott outside of the house, it reminds me of our carefree pre-baby days. Thanks again to Mimi and PawPaw for watching the munchkins!
That's about it over here, not quite sure what we are doing today but I hope you have a great one!

Thanksgiving Thursday

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It's been a pretty busy week so far, but a lot of good stuff has happened. So this week I am thankful for...

• Whoever visited my blog from Poland. I know that's totally random, but it is my mother land and I think that's awesome.

• All the new visitors to the blog compliments of Saucy, Momblogs and mamablogs. Leave me a comment with your blog and I'll check you out!
  

• The shopping trip to Carters with Mimi. It was a good time and the kids got a ton of cute stuff.

• The Sesame Street 25 years of music celebration DVD. Buy it, it's awesome, no seriously. Just click here. Honestly it's more exciting for the adults than the children. I sang along with pretty much every song on there, and about cried when Jill started clapping and bouncing.

• Scott and everything he has done this week. I've got my fingers crossed for you and I know it'll be awesome!

• Awesome playdates this week. And a big thank you to Lani for having all of us at her house and even making lunch (and a veggie lunch for me since I couldn't eat meat yesterday)!

• Nellie's Dryer Balls. I highly recommend them, they cut your drying time down a lot. Thank you to my wonderful sister Cathy for sending them my way!

Hope you all have a great day and have a lot to be thankful for!

Play along with Nicole at What a trip!

Hey hey the gangs all here!

Lily, Hendrix and Hadden
Hunter and Aaron
Melissa, Ben, Lily and one of the Adams boys
Cameron and Jill, they're buddies
Sleepy Aaron
Jill and Lily being silly in the ball pit
We had a playdate at Lani's house today with the Lyons, Pierce and Adams families. It's amazing to see how much different these playdates have become. It wasn't all that long ago that my kids were like little blobs laying on the play mat while the other kids cruised around. Now, my kids are crawling and standing all over the place, Lani and April's are walking, dancing, talking a lot more and just hilarious and we have new friends to join us. However, one thing that did remain the same was that Aaron fell asleep and stayed asleep during the last half of the playdate. The only difference is it wasn't in the middle of Lani's living room.
Yesterday Mimi and I did our part in helping to stimulate the economy by visiting the Carters store. I was a little bummed that we didn't get a shout out from Obama last night, I mean we did our part, we had to have made a little dent in the deficet, right? I can't wait to see them in their new outfits!
That's about it over here, hope all is well with you!

Way back When-esday: Baby Shower

When: February 24, 2007 in Homewood Illinois

My Mom and sister Cathy threw me a bumble bee themed baby shower. I remember being so nervous about flying up that late in my pregnancy (literally a week before you can't fly anymore) and having flight attendants ask me not to go into labor while on the flight. I have to laugh though looking at this photo because we did a game where you cut a piece of yarn and had to guess how big my belly was (like I didn't already feel like a beached whale). My niece Lorren won I think, but she cheated, she measured it around her waist and then eyeballed my belly. It was such a fun day with great food, which let's face it was all I was concerned with, and great friends/family. Thank you again Mom and Cathy for throwing such a great shower for me!

Play along with Cheryl at Twinfatuation

My Make a Wish story

I started a team for the Walk for Wishes here in Central Florida. The walk is on March 21st and is in Celebration at 10am. If you are local I really encourage you to join us (well right now it's just me) for this walk. There is a $10 registration fee that is due upon signing up, but that $10 is considered a donation to the Make a Wish Foundation. I know I do a lot of charity walks, but honestly this one is very important to me. Make a Wish Foundation is HUGE at Disney, mainly because this is where more kids want to go, and I got to meet a ton of these families while working there. We also had opportunities while on the College Program to go to the Make a Wish Village and stay with the kids while the parents got to have a night out. Let me share my Make a Wish story....
While I was on the College Program at Disney I worked on Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. I did a variety of things there, but on this particular day I was working parade audience control for the 3 o'clock and night time parades. I had a pretty easy station for the afternoon parade and was just walking around talking to the families waiting. Now before the parades, especially during the spring, we have marching bands from across the country play before hand. Well this one band came down and I saw this family stop to watch. It was a mom, dad, a son around 8 and a younger son in a wheelchair who was maybe 5. I got them squeezed into a spot to watch the band before it passed by. I started talking with the parents and they were saying that the band happened to be from their hometown and that was the only reason they stopped, they were actually heading out because there wasn't much for their younger son to do since they didn't want to keep transferring him in and out of his wheelchair for the rides. I started talking about all the rides at all the parks that they wouldn't have to do that and they were super grateful. We kept talking, even during the parade, which the 5 year old slept through (Murphy's law right?) and it just amazed me about their story. Never in a million years did they think they would be able to take their two boys to Disney World, mainly because of the medical expenses of their younger son. It hit me hard, it's something that I guess I always took advantage of. I went to Disney all the time as a kid, and obviously I was healthy and it wasn't an issue. Even now, I have two healthy kids that I can take anywhere and not even have to think about it. But not this family. It was also sad to think that this could be the last time that they would be able to do something like this, who knows how much longer their younger son had. I saw them the following day too at parade, they tracked me down because their son was finally awake so he could watch the parade that time. I fought to get them a seat, it was personal this time for me, and honestly of all the memories I have from working at Disney, that one is still the most vivid. I will never forget the way that boys face looked when the characters came by him and waved to him. I will never forget the way his parents smiled or how many times his older brother said "this is so cool!". I will always carry that family with me, and it is all because of Make a Wish. So I encourage you to help in anyway that you can to help make these kids dreams and wishes, however big or small, come true.

That sure is a lot of babies!

Jill playing with the blanket
Jill in one of the Adams boys hats
Yay!!!
Me and Aaron
Some of the group
Some more of the group
Our crew

We went to Dr. Phillips Park today with some of the other MoM's from GOMOTT. It's a really nice park, they have foam on the playground and lots of shade. They also have a splash park which will be awesome in the summer. A lot of MoM's came today, it was nice to meet some of the ones I hadn't met yet. All of our kids are right around the same age which makes it fun. All I can say is there were a lot of kids, and I mean A LOT. I think with adults included I think there were like 30 of us. A big thank you to Lani for sending me over some of the pictures from today!
The park took up a big chunk of our day today, and definitely made bedtime easier, which is always a good thing.
In other news...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CATHY!!! Today is my sisters birthday (I won't say how old) and I truly hope she had an awesome day.

Just some photos

We went to the Celebration farmers market today with Lani, Lily, Ben, Cameron, April, Brian, Hunter, Hadden and Hendrix. Jill and her buddy Cameron were trying to hold hands, well Jill was trying to hold his hand, he could care less. That's really it, I just wanted to put up these pictures, I thought they were pretty cute.
OH! And CONGRATULATIONS LORREN! My niece's winter guard took 4th in Nashville this weekend, woo hoo!!!

Playing catchup

So it's been a while... Let's see what has happened. Well no more bloody gum mornings so far, always a good sign! Friday the kids got some belated Valentine's Day gifts from Auntie Cathy, Aaron was all about the card and Jill was all about the boo boo ice pack (very fitting). Yesterday we went to the Sand Lake farmers market and Whole Foods with the Pierce family (check out Melissa's blog). There wasn't a whole lot at the farmers market, I kind of find that to be an odd place for one with Whole Foods being literally 3 feet away. It was still a good time, and it was awesome getting to hang out with Melissa, Adam, Evan and Taylor (they're such peanuts, Evan and Taylor, not Melissa and Adam). We got something new at Whole Foods yesterday, it's from a local chef, it was called Salsipepper and it's delicious! We put it on our salmon last night and it was super good. Check out his website he has a ton of stuff and can ship some of it, plus it's all gluten free, double bonus.
We also bought cabinet locks and that will be the project for today I think, well Scott's project anyway. The kids haven't gotten into the cabinets yet, but I know it's just a matter of time, so it's better to nip it in the bud now (is it bud or butt?).
Now, my slight rant...So I went to mass last night and when I go I like those moments before mass to myself for reflection and just decompression. Apparently, and I don't know if it's from all those years at Disney, I have a come talk to me I have an answer for everything all around nice girl face. This woman made a bee line for me and decided to tell me her entire life story before mass, all while saying "I should really be saying my rosary." I wanted to agree so bad and tell her to pray her rosary for me, so I could make it through the mass sitting next to her, but that's not very Christ like now is it? I heard all about her postpartum depression with her first child, severed and reattached foot (seriously), daughters divorce and now engagement to some guy from Morroco that she met at Disney, the history of Clermont, and how long she would be staying with her daughter who happens to live two subdivisions down from me. I've never wanted mass to end so bad in my life, and of course, Murphy's Law, it was a long mass. Sigh...oh well.
Ok, well I need to get ready we are going to the Celebration farmers market with Lani, and I think April. Hope you have a great day!

I thought it was Sunday Bloody Sunday, not Friday!

So it's not even 8 am yet, and all I can say is, it's going to be one heck of a day! I went to get the kids this morning and I saw what I think every mother has nightmares about, blood on the sheets (you thought I was going to say poop, huh?). Aaron had two big spots of blood on the sheet and I almost went into full on panic mode. I had to scale it back otherwise he would have been crying, which would cause Jill to cry and I didn't need that before my coffee. Luckily the blood is from his gums and not some head trauma, like I feared, phew! Then I found myself still in a panic trying to remember what my mom had said when she taught me how to do laundry and how to remove stains. What gets blood out? Well, I can't remember so I have the sheets soaking in some spray and wash and hoping for the best. That reminds me, does anyone know of a super awesome stain remover safe to use on baby clothes? I've been using the spray and wash (with the power of Resolve!) and it's just not cutting it anymore. Ok, well I'm finally going to have my coffee. Here's hoping the rest of the day is less eventful!

Thanksgiving Thursday

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I would say this week has flown by, but no not really. I wonder why that is? Anyway, I am thankful for....

• The Swifer wetjet I got. I swore up and down I would never ever buy one and I would stick with my mop and bucket, but then I had two kids that started crawling and yeah, I'm not pulling out the mop and bucket everyday.

• Gerber Graduate snacks. My kids love them, and I'm thankful that gives me 15 minutes of silence. :)

• All the cards and gifts for the kids on Valentine's day! They loved all of it!

• My Valentine's date with my honey. It was a really good night, and super yummy! I think I may be able to live off of Melting Pot's cheese and chocolate for literally the rest of my life. OH and they gave us a gift bag that had a bar of their white chocolate for fondue in it, it may just tempt me to invest in a fondue pot for the house. May, not probably, just may.

• Good weather yesterday at the park and April's mom being there as an extra set of hands.

• Tax season. I know, right? We filed our return on Saturday and all I have to say is woo hoo!

And on a side note happy birthday to our friend Tracy! Hope it's a great day! And I hope you have a totally fabulous day too!

A walk in the park

Cameron, Jill, Hendrix (in the red), Hadden and April's Mom
Ben, Aaron's back and Cameron (no he wasn't sleeping)
My homegirl Lily
Cameron was playing with the wheels, like all day, seriously.
Jill and Aaron swinging

We went to the Kissimmee Lakefront park today with April, Hunter, Hadden, Hendrix, April's Mom (she was like the grandma to all the kids today it was pretty awesome), Lani, Lily, Ben and Cameron. It was a gorgeous day and honestly, just a perfect day to be at the park. We had a lot of fun just hanging out and playing. We went for a walk after lunch around the lake, which was nice, however, the birds. I don't know if you know this but I have a HUGE phobia of birds. I felt like I was in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" at one point, they were all just coming at us. I hope that situation is taken care of before the March for Babies. While on the topic (nice transition, right?) the crew and I are participating in the March for Babies with March of Dimes at the Kissimmee Lakefront in May. On my side bar (right over there ------->) is a link to my profile page on the March for Babies website. The whole group of us are trying to raise $300 and any help you can give would be wonderful! If you are local and want to join us, you can sign up on our team page (there's a link from my profile), we would love to have you! Ok enough about that...
The kids took big kid baths again and I've realized there are some ground rules that need to laid down. For example, all water in the tub should remain in the tub. Jill is having a hard time with that one. She likes to take the toys and fling them over the side when they are full of water. Ground rule number two...we don't stand or crawl in the tub. Aaron is having a hard time with that one, but that's mainly because his sister hogs all the toys.
That's about it over here. I can't wait for the weekend to be here already, and I'm hoping those 3 powerball tickets I have on my fridge are the winners, come on $105 million! I would say I hope you win the powerball too, but that's not sincere, so I hope you have a great night! :) Oh and underneath is a video of the kids swinging, the wind was pretty vicious, so the sound isn't that great.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Insert clever title here

Ever have one of those days where your mind is running a million miles a minute? Welcome to my day! I'm in the midst of starting a new project (details to follow at a later date, sorry) and my mind is racing. I'm at the point of overload and can't complete a single thought, so I apologize if this post is totally incoherent.
Anyway...
Aaron is in full on whine mode, that top tooth is finally starting to push through. I love my son, don't get me wrong, but that whine...makes me want wine. We should be past it in the next few days though.
I've been trying to work with them on signs, we have the Baby Einstein "My first signs" which is pretty cool, but I think I'm also going to try Sign Time. The kids look at me like I'm crazy, and they probably are a little on the young side, but we'll see.
I'm also in the process of baby proofing...yuck. That's all I have to say. I never realized what a death trap my house is. I have outlet covers up, that was the first thing obviously. I haven't done much else yet, but I know cabinet locks are the next step, joy. I also have to get some padding for the corners of stuff. Jill bopped her face on the corner of the kitchen table and has a nice little bruise on her cheek. I have a feeling my kids are going to be as clutzy as I am. Good news for the ER's in the area, bad news for us.
That's about it over here, off to tend to the whine-o. Hope you have a whine free day!

A day of firsts

Good morning everyone! I'm just glad to see the sun today, yesterday was really gloomy and had me really unmotivated. We did make it to the farmers market though. I think there are more tents every time we go. We met up with Lani and April there which was nice since we hadn't seen them in a while.
The kids are getting better about drinking their own bottles without me holding it for them. I'll tell you what, it's the best! Aaron still has some work to do on it, but honestly I think he would just rather have one of us hold it for him. Jill will take the bottle anywhere and hold it herself.
They also took their first bath together without a bath seat last night. Jill was trying to make a tidal wave or something in the bathtub. She would just sit and kick her legs, which made Aaron mad because whenever she did it he would be reaching for a toy. It was cute to see them playing and splashing. I think this summer will be fun in the pool for sure.
That's about it over here. No real plans yet, but we'll see how the day goes :) Hope you have a great day!

Baby! Baby!! BABY!!!

That bottle just wore her out
Aaron having a snack
My daughter, the bully...
What a handsome smile!
Scott doing some serious cooking at Melting Pot
I lost my food :(
Valentine's Day 2009 :)

So last night was awesome. Scott and I went to one of our favorite places, The Melting Pot, for dinner. I HIGHLY recommend their Pomegranate Cosmo, it's like drinking Kool-Aid, plus it has pomegranate juice, so it's full of antioxidants. The menu was preset for the night, but it had pretty much what we would have ordered anyway. But let me tell you about the table behind us! OH MY GOSH! So I didn't see who they were on the way in, could have cared less, but then she started talking (I think she was on glass of wine number 4 by this point). "Baby, baby, baby, baby, BABY, baby etc..." "Here baby try this. No eat it this way, baby baby baby". Then my darling husband reminded me that it's a good thing they didn't have our table, because nobody puts baby in the corner. He almost had cobb salad all over him, I couldn't stop laughing. But wino aside, it was a great evening. Thanks again to Mimi and PawPaw for sitting for us!
Now onto the kids... We tried some new snacks yesterday, they had the yogurt melts and little crunchers from Gerber. Aaron could care less about anything that crunches, but he sure liked those yogurt melts! I think it may have something to do with his top tooth coming in. I also had them eat their own bottles without Scott or I holding it. Jill did really really well, Aaron, again could have cared less. They are also getting better about cruising around the playard, please don't mention the "w" word though, I'm not ready for that.
Well we are off to the farmers market today and then who knows what. Hope you have a great day!