Being content with just being HOME

This past weekend, we had planned (at the last minute) to go to the beach- just the 4 of us- no family, no friends, just us, and we were all really excited! Unfortunately, on Wednesday, Doug's boss announced that there was just too much work, and he didn't feel comfortable letting Doug have Friday off. Now, I hate to be a complainer, but on Thursday, Doug called to let me know that his boss (the same one that had refused to let Doug have Friday off) had taken Thursday AND Friday off to go on a last minute vacation with his wife. I'm sorry, but there is something very, very wrong with that picture... Needless to say, we were not going anywhere.

By Friday evening, I realized that staying home was probably best, since Carrington is getting all 4 of her top teeth in, and having a tough time with fevers and a diaper rash. We decided to instead spend the weekend at the pool, just relaxing. Saturday morning brought us a little baby girl that wasn't feeling well, and 2 kids with opposite nap schedules. Carrington slept 3 hours in the morning, and when she finally woke up, Trey went down for his nap, and this little "off-pattern" continued into Sunday.

So, all of our best thought out plans actually left us with a weekend spent at home- deep cleaning, doing laundry, and organizing closets. SO FUN, right? :) Trey got to watch movies (current favorite- The Bee Movie) and play in the backyard, while Carrington spent most of her time sleeping. It doesn't sound overly fun or glamorous, but we still had a great weekend doing what we wanted to do, right from the start, and that is spending it JUST the 4 of US, together, and that's the best part!

My Happy Kiddos! :)

Here are a few quick pics, since I wasn't able to load all the pictures from the visits with our super fantastic families! :)

Carrington is crawling like crazy, she is attempting to stand all the time, Trey is in love with carrying her around (which terrifies me, but she loves it), and they are almost at the point where they can, sort of, play together. And by play together, I really mean Trey handing her toys, reading her books, picking her up, or pushing her down- loads of fun, right?

I think we are going to spend next weekend at the beach- talk about last minute planning! We have been dying to go, and we promised ourselves we would spend at least one long weekend there, just the 4 of us, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed we can find something fabulous, affordable, and available at the last minute! We'll see!

A Beautiful Day on the Lake

We spent this gorgeous day out on Lake Norman today, and it was just another reminder of how lucky we are to live so close to the water, and how often we don't take full advantage. Doug and I have CONSTANTLY discussed getting a boat, and I think it is safe to finally say that we are leaning more towards "yes" than "no" at this point. We absolutely love the water, Doug loves to fish, and I know we would spend every weekend out there, if we could!

A Visit from our Family!

I've been trying for 2 weeks to load this post, but unfortunately the pics won't load, so I've decided to just post a link to the pics, this one time :).

The title of this post is a little misleading, since we've had several visits from lots of our family memebers lately, but it was the best I could come up with! I'm going to try and pack 4 weeks worth of information into one post, to conserve time and energy, so bare with me!

Uncle Brian, Aunt Melissa, and Rylee all came to stay with us for 5 whole days!!!! We had a ton of fun visiting the Discovery Place Kids, going to the pool, hanging out in the backyard, and taking a boat out on the Lake! It was so much fun, and Trey was seriously in mourning for days after Rylee left! We were reading a book last night, and there was a little girl in the book, and Trey kept pointing and saying "Rylee? Rylee?". He definitely misses his cousin! Even though they love each other to pieces, they did have a few little fights, which crack me up! We all watched Trey and Rylee out on the swingset while they worked out a little argument- there was minor slapping and pushing, and then they were happy as can be to continue playing together. So funny how kid's mind's work! Who knows what upset them to begin with?

As I've mentioned before, Trey has become extremely interested in his potty, and I took the leap a few weeks ago and bought him big boy underware! Thank goodness they sell underware with his favorite characters on them: Toy Story, Nemo, and Yo Gabba Gabba. He loves wearing them, but I think he loves being naked even more :). I am so grateful that potty training seems to be an easy transition for him- Lord knows that most transitions in Trey's world are not quite so easy!

Brian and Kristyn also came to visit over the 4th of July weekend, and again, we had a TON of fun! Trey adores them and again, cried and cried when they left. Now it's gotten to the point that even when we Skype with them and have to say goodbye, he cries. He clearly has separation issues! Trey LOVES fireworks, and for a few days prior to the 4th, we would set off fireworks at night, and each night he would climb up into Aunt Kristyn's lap and watch them go off. We threw our annual 4th of July block party and Trey actually stayed up until MIDNIGHT playing with all the kids and having a great time! I've learned that a house full of party guests and 2 kids is tough work, and thank goodness Uncle Adam was there to keep an eye on Trey, otherwise I'm pretty sure we would have lost him! :)

Uncle Brian and Aunt Kristyn put in a lot of time coaching Carrington on the finer points of crawling, and I am thrilled to announce that she is officially a professional crawler, thanks to their encouragement. We also had to lower her crib, since she is seconds away from fully pully up and standing! Yesterday, I took Carrington to the doctor's office because we thought she may have an ear infection. Turns out, we were wrong, but poor little girl has all 4 of her top teeth coming in at one time! Yikes!!!! She already has her 2 bottom ones, so this will make 6 teeth altogether! She is so mild mannered, that other than a small fever, she has been awesome! On a side note, her weight at 8 months is exactly 16 pounds.

Trey has become more interested in his baby sister lately, and while Uncle Brian and Aunt Kristyn were here, he even went so far as to pick her up and carry her around. Adorable at the time, but now I have to watch him like a hawk, since he has a tendency to randomly pick her up and start walking around the room! We all went out to lunch this past Saturday, and Doug and I heard Trey talking to Carrington in the backseat- which is adorable- and all the sudden we heard "Baby, want bite?" Ummmmm.... NO Baby DOES NOT want a bite! I immediately flung around and found a sour spree candy in Carrington's mouth! I didn't even know he could reach her mouth from his carseat! And where did he get the Sprees???? Oh, the questions I have with no answers...

This week will be our last week of art class- "My Little Picasso", and I'm really going to miss it! Hopefully they will add one more level of classes, and I think I'm going to sign Carrington up for the beginner class in the fall- things to look forward to!

Our coming weeks are going to be busy- we have more family coming to visit and then off to the beach! WooHoo!!!!

Crawling Like a Big Girl!

I am so far behind on blogging, and I think about it constantly, but never have the time to sit down and share the stories that run through my head! Before I let another day go by, I wanted to at least post some cutie pie crawling videos that I took of Carrington. I still can't believe that my sweet baby girl is a crawler! Don't be alarmed by the first video- she did fall head first onto the wood floor, but she's totally fine :). And, of course, this morning she crawled right over to the electrical sockets and attempted to stick her little fingers right inside- JUST like her big brother did! :) Enjoy!

Monday was a BIG day for us!!!

I wanted to write a quick post about the leaps and bounds changes that my children are making! On Monday, June 13th, I woke up like any other morning and started getting ready for the day. When Trey woke up, he walked into my room, pulled down his little jammie shorts, took off his diaper, sat right down on his little potty and went to the bathroom!!!! I was SHOCKED- and he needed no encouragement from me at all! He then refused to put a diaper back on, so we did the pull ups instead. Unfortunately for Trey, I wasn't prepared to spend the day potty training, so off we went and didn't revisit the potty until again last night. When Doug took him upstairs to get ready for bed, Trey again pulled off his pants, pulled down his pullup and went pee pee on the potty! Clearly it is time for us to make some changes, so this Friday, I'm going to spend the day going to the bathroom with Trey every 30 minutes, and I'm kind of looking forward to it! :)

Carrington also had a big day! While Trey was napping, I sat her down on the floor to play while I put together a super fun toy that Aunt Shannon and Uncle Adam had gotten her for Christmas. As I was putting it together, Little Miss Thing decided she couldn't wait any longer and crawled her way across the room to where I was sitting! Again- I was in shock and awe! I know that these things are supposed to happen, and I shouldn't be surprised, but I always am!

So, all in all, it was a great Monday, and I couldn't wait for Doug to get home from work so that I could show off our smarty pants kiddos! :)

Summer Pool time vs. CHRISTMAS! :)

This week we had a very special delivery- a letter from Santa himself, all the way in the North Pole! Of course, we know what a busy man Santa is, but he wanted to tell Trey and Carrington that he knows what good kids they are, and that they should start thinking about what they would like for Christmas. I'm sure that this particular letter's arrival had nothing to do with Uncle Brian and Aunt Kristyn being in Alaska for vacation the past 2 weeks! ;)

Pool season has also arrived, and Trey and Carrington are loving every second of it! I have to admit, Doug is having a pretty good time himself! Enjoy the pics!

Carrington- 7 Months and 2 Weeks Old

I haven't spent any time bragging about Carrington's latest and greatest accomplishments, so here I go! :)She is so close to crawling, I can hardly stand it! She gets up on all fours, rocks back and forth, occassionally goes backwards, but still hasn't actually crawled! She is eating 2 full meals a day- and loves anything with fruit. That girl is in LOVE with peaches, pears, apples, and blueberries! She is also eating table food really well! She feeds herself "poofies" and biscuits, and we even gave her some mashed pototoes this week. When Trey started eating table food, he gagged constantly- I spent more time fishing food out of the back of his throat and cleaning up partially chewed food off the floor than any human should ever have to! Luckily, Carrington has yet to do any choking! Yesterday, Trey threw his sippy cup of juice onto her highchair, and when I looked over, she was sipping away like a pro! I was horrofied that she was drinking juice, while at the same time super impressed that she could just pick up a sippy cup and start drinking! She is also getting her FIRST tooth!!! It's the bottom middle, right tooth, and I'm pretty sure it's been hurting her. She woke up in the middle of the night last night (something she never does), so I went in and held her until she went back to sleep. It was nice having a little bit of "cuddle time" with my baby, since she is definitely not a cuddler!

Trey and Carrington- possibly taking pictures TOGETHER???

When I first imagined having a new baby in the house, I had visions of Trey lovingly holding her and sweetly giving her kisses while wrapping his little arms around her. REALITY CHECK- Trey never wants to hold her, he has no problem quickly planting a kiss on her head while running by, and occasionally he will wrap a

n arm around her leg and drag her around the room. My goal is to get some beautiful pictures of them sitting together and loving one another! I honestly believe that this week, we got one step closer.

Grandma Comes to Visit!

Grandma came to visit us this past week, and the kids had a blast! She spoiled them rotten! They got to eat cheese poofs, take naps in the Family Room, and play in a giant sprinkler ball in the backyard- what are Grandma's for, if not to spoil their grandbabies rotten!

I know my kids had a blast, but the funniest part of all is that they wore Grandma OUT! It's sort of a running joke that Doug and I go to bed insanely early, but I know for a fact that a few nights, Grandma beat us to bed!

Trey woke up every morning asking for "Gamma?" and quickly following that up with "Gamma, outside!" Clearly he expected Grandma to play with him outside all day long, every day! The last morning, he even demanded that I got to work, saying "Mama, work! Gamma, outside!"

Trying to get back a routine!

Summer's are so tough to keep any kind of routine! Between us taking mini-vacations on the weekend, having company, the pool being open... nothing seems consistent!

In an attempt to keep a few things "normal", we joined the next level art class on Mondays, and Trey is having a blast. This class is so much fun, and I am so glad we are able to be a part of it! After art class last week, we went over to the Birkdale Fountains for some water fun before heading home. My intention was to get Trey good and worn out for a nice, long nap that afternoon, but of course that didn't happen. Oh well- maybe next time?

When I was reviewing my pictures later, I realized that the majority of my pictures had a random girl in them- this isn't that odd, considering that there were about 50 kids at the fountains, but what made this particular girl so funny is that in all my pictures, she has her foot in a bucket. Kids crack me up! :)

A Trip to Virginia for Rylee's Birthday!!!

In an attempt to catch up with our happenings in the last few weeks, I'm going to try and make these posts short and sweet. We headed back to Virginia for Memorial Day weekend, and we had a ton of fun! Trey got to spend lots of time with Rylee- who he LOVES! I printed out a few pictures of Trey and Rylee from the last time they were down in NC, and he carries the pictures around and talks to Rylee during the day, so when he actually got to SEE her, he was thrilled. The first thing he did was grab her hand and show her things in Nanijay's backyard. They are so unbelievably cute!

Rylee had a fantastic birthday party at Old Mine Ranch, where they kids got to feed goats, go on a hayride, ride horses, go on a choo-choo train and basically just be crazy! It was perfect!

Carrington spent most of that weekend being loved on by her NaniJay- who spoils that little girl rotten buying her more clothes than any one girl should ever have.

We can't wait to visit again soon!