Fun Fridays!

Last Friday I wrote about my all-time favorite snack. This week I'm writing about Micky's. Now, I didn't start to enjoy Fudge Rounds until I was 7. Micky, however, began enjoying his favorite snack in the WOMB. And it's been "Truly Satisfying" ever since:










Yes, the Snickers bar! The #1 selling candy bar of all-time. Sales reach approximately $2.5 billion each year! Apparently, in 1977, Micky's mom accounted for about half those sales :-) and reportedly consumed at least one Snickers a day throughout her pregnancy! Who can blame her really--- they are available in mini size, fun size, and even King size. Way too many options for a woman with strong cravings! Her love for Snickers passed on to Micky, and he's been enjoying them on his own since he got his first tooth!

MIRACLES!!

It is with great joy that I introduce you to

Bradlynn Kate











Born to Scott and Rebekah June 26, 2008 at 1:35 pm, weighing 6pounds 13 ounces. Mom, Dad, and baby are doing great!
Emma saw this pic and actually chuckled-- like she was thinking, "Mom, you won't believe the kinds of trouble she and I are going to get into. Better hold on tight, it'll be a fun ride!"
Oh how I hope so!

Beware of Aqua Girl...

Especially one with blue icing around her lips!


(more pics from the party to come!)

When I "growed" up

(not sure why this whole post is in italics, but I couldn't fix it-- sorry!)


Last night, Chloe asked me and Micky the same question she's been asking for weeks:
"What do you want to be when you growed up?"

We gave the same answer we've been giving:
"We're already grown up. Mommy's a nurse and Daddy's a dentist."

Well, she never likes this answer. So, she proceeds to tell us what we will be.
"I'm going to be a Princess and Daddy will be a Prince. Mom, you can be the Fairy Godmother or Genie if you want."
To which we usually just smile and nod.

These exchanges over the past few weeks have got me thinking about what I used to want to be. And then last Friday, while at a friends house, I was talking to 4 of my closest friends and we realized that, at this time, only one of us is "using" our degree. Afterwards, I thought about it for awhile and I realized we were wrong. The truth is that only one of us is getting PAID money to use our degree. Three of us are stay at home moms (SAHM as dooce says!). I still use my nursing knowledge in caring for my friends and family, and my friends are using their teaching degrees EVERYDAY in how they raise their kids.
These past few years of staying home with Chloe, and now Emma, have been awesome and I wouldn't change it for anything. But I have had the struggle with "self-worth" that I'm sure every stay at home mom has when you think that -- because I'm not bringing home a check maybe I'm not contributing enough to my family. I've tried for 3 years to get over that feeling, and every time I think I've kicked it, it'll rear it's ugly little head again. It doesn't matter how many times Micky tells me I'm doing a great job or how supportive he is, that feeling can eat away at me for days, weeks, forever.... I've gotten better at dealing with it, but I don't think it will ever be gone for good. Maybe that's because when I was growing up I never thought I'd be a SAHM. I wanted to be a meteorologist and work on the Weather Channel. Some girls wanted to be like Debbie Gibson or Kelly Kapowski, not me-- I wanted to be Cheryl Lemke the weekend anchor on the Weather Channel.










I know I could have rocked out the jet-stream moving across the country like nobodies business! But when the time came to go to college, the closest school for meteorology was Georgia Tech. Out of state-- so not only out of price range, but way too far for this mama's girl to go! Who knows, maybe when my girls graduate college I'll go get that meteorology degree and be the "smoking hot granny" on the Weather Channel. But for now, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and realize how lucky I am to get to be here with our girls during this time of their lives, and try to stomp down that ugly little monsters head when he tries to make me doubt myself!
So, the next time Chloe asks me what I'm going to be when I "growed" up, I'm going to simply reply, "FABULOUS!"

Fun Fridays!

My great friend Misty started posting "Time-out Tuesdays" on her blog, in which she posts about things she and her family love. I think this is such a great idea, and figured I'd give it a whirl and start posting Fun Fridays. It'll consist of things I love, Micky loves, or the girls love-- and some things we all love! Thanks for the great idea Misty-- and if this should ever make any money--from the 10 people who read this blog:-)-- I'll be sure to cut you in!
My first Fun Friday item will be my all-time favorite snack. It's been around since 1964 and I believe I've been enjoying them since 1984. I'm pleased to present

Little Debbie® Fudge Rounds!



This cookie, filled with rich, chocolaty goodness, is my go-to snack. It was what I craved most at 3a.m. while pregnant with Emma, and the one thing I gave up for Lent a few years ago. That was my hardest Lent ever! A Fudge Round and a glass of milk always hits the spot! Somehow, it only ranks at #8 on Little Debbie®'s best-seller list. I guarantee I'm doing my part to increase that, and I'm passing this knowledge on to the next generation. Chloe loves them, and something tells me that Emma will too!

The "Perks" of 4 year-old life!

Yesterday was Chloe's fourth birthday, and I still can't believe that we've had this sweet angel in our lives that long! She had a fantastic day and wasted no time telling everyone she saw that it was her birthday! Her school is having "Summertime Fun" this summer on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so this is probably the only year that she'll actually get to go to school on her birthday (unless year-round school comes a calling--boo). So, we definitely had to take some cupcakes for her class to celebrate with at snack time. Chloe got to pick everything out- so we took strawberry cupcakes with rainbow chip icing and Little Mermaid and Flounder sticks in them. It was the first time I'd ever tasted strawberry cake and it was surprisingly good! Chloe's Grammy picked her up from school and we all went to Chuck E Cheez for lunch. That's where Chloe started pointing out things that "only 4 year-olds get to do." There's a big tunnel playset that's pretty high up that she's always been scared to try, but as soon as she saw it she said, "You have to be 4 to do that." And off she went! After using all her tokens she had 60 tickets, and of course she picked a lizard and snake for her prize. She felt she needed to inform us that "only 4 year-olds get GREEN snakes." She spent the day doing things that "only 4 year-olds" can. Like dancing in her new ballerina outfit (from Grammy and Papa) to her new "Princess Dance" game (from Nonnie and Nano). I think she had a great birthday and the partying will continue throughout the week! We're having an Ariel party with a waterslide this weekend. She's invited some of her school friends to share in the fun! That should be interesting! I'll put some pics up as soon as I can-- can't wait to see all those cuties having a blast!

Got some great birthday love from "my Nina" :-)









taking out the shark heads at Chuck E's place (she was defending your honor Wendy!)

Excuse me-- Did you say cornhole?!?

I had no idea that the game I've watched people play while tailgating and hanging out before concerts was called cornhole. And apparently, what I thought were "bean" bags are actually "corn" bags. I'm so glad my cousin Jenn could clear that up for me. Jenn and Jess brought this fun game, as well as ladder golf, to the beach this year. Our backyard was large enough to accommodate these games, and we had almost as much fun playing those as we did surfing at the beach!


Jenn utilizes the side-arm approach










Whereas Micky uses a more traditional follow through







We usually don't go out too much while on vacation. We enjoy just hanging out by the pool at the house, playing cards with the fam, or just sitting around reading books or doing NOTHING. But every year we do go play Putt-Putt-- all 16 of us! When we descend on a Putt-Putt venue, people better watch out. There's usually some sort of wager on the game, but this year we kept it clean. This was Chloe's first year playing, and wouldn't you know, she got a hole in one on every hole. It was quite impressive! Uncle Scott picked the Putt-Putt place this year, and he couldn't have picked a better place for Chloe. The main attraction was a huge pink castle that you actually played a couple of holes in. She was loving it! And she couldn't wait to tell Scott what a "great place" he picked.








Our only other night out, Micky and I took the girls to Broadway for a little ice cream and shopping. Mom and Dad went with us, and we found the David & Goliath store. I fell in love with all the silly shirts, and picked this one up for the girls.














You may have noticed the awesome Snugli I'm carrying Emma in.















My friend, Carla, let me borrow this about a month ago, and Emma has just recently started enjoying riding in it. I love it and it really does provide good back support. Which is important when toting 19 pounds of sweet baby for an hour or so. I've always seen dads using them, but Micky got the job of toting Chloe most of the time-- so I happily took the lighter one for me! Carla hasn't asked for it back so I'm hanging on to it as long as I can, and when Emma outgrows it I'll casually slip it back to her :-) Thanks Carla!

Don't Hassel the Hoff

As I was preparing these pics to post here, I was trying to think of a cute title to enter. When I went to type it in, somehow my cursor had moved to my Google search bar and when I typed in beach baby, up popped lyrics to the David Hasselhoff hit "Beach Baby". You can imagine my surprise, seeing as how I thought he only produced songs in the German language. (Mom- apparently the Germans love him and his music spends like 49 weeks out of the year at #1 there)
:-) But anyway, I think seeing Emma on her very first beach trip is far better than any Hoff song that may have sat atop the charts in Germany last year! Check out the REAL beach baby!

Our first day, Emma's first time on the beach!








Chloe showing Emma that "the water doesn't hurt a bit. See?!?"








Emma's first dip. We think she liked it.








Chillin' with Dad in the cool tent he put up just for her!








Surfer Girl decided to take a break from riding the waves and hangout with little sis for a bit :-)







Grammy's got the good stuff!









Love those curves!












Being so cute is exhausting!

Birthday Month

On June 18,2007, Chloe started asking when it would be her birthday again. We always replied next June. She's asked that same question at least 1,357 times, and we always gave the same answer: June. Well, when it turned June while we were at the beach she fully expected her birthday! So, we've had to change our tactics and remind her that it's actually June 17th. Well, Grammy got wind of this at the beach and decided to appease (by appease I mean spoil!) Chloe by having a Dora party! Just so happened that we of course took Chloe's Dora Mermaid dress and Grammy had brought Dora plates, napkins, and cups. I'm pretty sure she had planned this some time ago! Well, here are some pics from Dora's day-- mainly mom and Chloe making the chocolate pound cake (which as you can tell by Chloe's changes in wardrobe was an all day process)! Everyone played along nicely-- mainly so they could get a piece of that yummy cake!!












Look at the windows and notice that it's dark outside when she finally gets to eat some yummy cake!

Up all night... sleep all day...

Yeah... if only we could sleep all day too! Over the past two weeks, the oldest person in our house and the youngest person in our house have been averaging about 2 hours of uninterrupted sleep for a total of possibly 6 hours all night. This is worse than newborn sleep-- and my body is beginning to shut down. We're trying some new things, and we'll see how it goes. I know I'm not the first parent to lose tons of sleep-- it's just this is a lot harder the second time around. With the first one it didn't matter so much if we had a few rough nights in a row, I could always try to nap when she did. Not true with the second baby. You have to not only be awake all day with the older kid, you have to be able to not bite their head off for just asking for simple things like a cup of juice or say, breakfast 2 hours late! So right now I'm doing the best I can and I have no doubt we will all get through this just fine and eventually look back on it and laugh at how dramatic I am/was about it.
But anyway~~ On a lighter note, we did just get back from a great vacation with my side of the family! The girls loved the beach, especially our surfer girl Chloe! And it was great to have lots of eager hands to help out with Emma during the day-- and mom was usually so sweet in the morning and would let me and Mick go back to sleep for an hour while she watched Emma! I've got lots of pictures to share from our trip and I'll do my best to get those posted here over the next few days.
Emma's sleeping now, so I better hit the bed myself. She's such a cute baby-- and trust me, when you see that sweet smile in the middle of the night you know there's nothing better than this-- not even sleep! Gotta love her!

Here's a sneak peek at our Beach Bums!