Brush, Brush

Brush, Brush, Brush Your Teeth,

Brush Them Now With Me,

Brush Them Up, Brush Them Down,

Brush Them Clean, Clean, Clean.

Yes, we made up this song when Lily started brushing her teeth and we sing it every.single.night. Emma likes to dance and brush while Lily attempts to sing and brush.

Quite the sight.

*And, no. We don't normally brush our teeth in the kitchen. We were having problems with the bathroom sink:)

A Beach Kinda Saturday

We had a fabulous day enjoying the sun

and you can tell how much by the last picture.

Miss Em was O-U-T.

Summertime Week 8

We played with noodles this week! Lily and Emma played with these macaroni noodles for an hour! Simple activity to keep them busy, busy!

We went to the Gardens this week, and picked the coolest day of the week to go (mid 90s). The girls had fun in the water, we had a picnic lunch in the shade, went through some of their summer mazes that have been set up around the gardens and went into the butterfly house. Very fun day.

Thursday we met Miss Abby and Nathaniel for lunch. It was short and sweet since it was almost the girl's nap times but it was so nice to be able to catch up with them...and Nathaniel is quiet the cutie! Emma seemed to be very smitten with him :).

Friday we had a friend playdate with the Bonfiglio clan. Leah and Emma started to recognize each other and had the bye-bye wave fest at the end. Love that we were able to get the kids for a pic! Remember this one from last summer?

Always Into Something

And, the best time to get into something is when she's running away from her bath.

Emma has found that she can reach the blinds and the light switch if she stands on the pillows and leans over the edge. Doesn't seem to bother anyone but Daddy and I :).

Oh, our sweet Emma. Always into something.

Congratulations, Daddy!

As Lily said all night, "Daddy, we so proud of you. Congratulations!"

Today Mike not only had a big interview for a job in-house but he also got word that he received The Civilian of the Quarter Award. Every group in the Coast Guard's Engineering depts., which are in Norfolk, Oakland CA and Baltimore, nominate one person for this award. This quarter, it was Mike! The first person of his group to ever win!!

We are so very proud of you!

Boo Boo Kisses

Video is a little dark...really dark because our power went out. Yep, in the major heat wave, the major thunderstorm took out our power. Hence, the cooler in the kitchen keeping the milk cold.

So, the video. Emma has been wanting lots and lots of boo boo kisses and we happily oblige. :)

Our Summer Mornings

have been awesome.

These girls have been getting up at a normal time, by 8 and we take our time and usually get out of the house later than normal. But, it's summer. And, school is beginning in a month and though I'm excited for Lily I'm also sad our summer is coming to an end in a month. :( It's going by way too fast for me.

I want more and more of these summer mornings.

Day 4 out of 5

Getting some good Daddy time this weekend.

This is day 4 out of 5 of Daddy's time off.

:) We girls love our guy.

Pumpalumpa Time

This morning Lily and I had some time together, some Pumpalumpa time. I began calling her Pumpalump when she started walking because she reminded me of the Oompa Loompas :) But, now she calls me her Pumpalumpa :). So we had our morning.

I mapped out a few garage sales and we got out pretty early so we could get her a muffin from Panera (nothing for me since I can't eat). We got to a couple and found a few shirts and a few random cheap toys that the girls would like and then we hit the jackpot!

An entire table of barbies! I told her to choose four, since they were a quarter a piece...and then the lady said, I'll give you the entire lot for $5. So, away we went with all of the barbies. An entire box full. Lily has played with these barbies everyday and is definitely on to the next stage of playing. :)

So what did we get for $5? Total of 16 barbies, a car and 6 pieces of furniture for her future barbie house :).

Yay for garage sales :)

Summertime Week 7

What a week...

Saturday: Blueberry Picking! What a fun day we had today. We started off going to another Farmer's Market, some very cool garage sales and then off to Pungo Blueberries. It was so hot that we didn't last long but we got delicious blueberries and blackberries. I'm pretty sure that Emma ate her weight in berries while we were there. The fresh produce that we got from a stand was wonderful too! Can't beat some cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers for 50 cents a piece!

Sunday: Play in the Sprinklers (Fun Can). Pretty self-explanatory but all four of us got in on this. Gotta love that the girls would rather drink water from the sprinkler or our cups than theirs. That's always how it goes, right?

Sunday: Ice Cream for Dinner (Fun Can). Elizabeth informed me that July is National Ice Cream month and the 17th was actually Ice Cream Day. Perfect for fulfilling this can activity. And, did we really have ice cream for dinner. Sort of. We had some Blizzards and all shared some, but this was at 4pm so we had a light dinner later in the evening. 

Monday: Go to the movies (Fun Can). This morning we went to the Central Library to watch Tangled. It was in their auditorium that was very air conditioned, had big comfy seats, lighted stairs and a pretty big projection screen. The girls made it through the entire movie, with only on trip up the steps during the movie, Lily sang every single song (the only one there singing too) and they danced at the end. Love free movies :)

Thursday: I had 2 wisdom teeth pulled (NOT part of the Fun Can). I have been putting this off big time and finally had it done before school begins. The pic above is the evening after, I'm a little swollen and a bit woozy still. I can only eat very soft foods...well, pretty much applesauce and yogurt. I never realized how much I love to eat :).

Friday: Buddy Time. Daddy took yesterday and today off to take care of me and take the girls out for some fun so I could have some quiet time at home. Today, they went off to the mall for some fun since it was so H-O-T outside (like 105 without the heat index). Anyways, they rode the carousel, had their most favorite treat, pretzel and lemonade from Auntie Ann's and pretended to ride the coin operated cars (yes, they're scared of them if they move). All had a wonderful time and good Buddy Time.

Gotta Love

these two little girls who are so close!

And, of course they always seem to give us a good laugh.

Oh, how fun and unpredictable parenting is.

Our Silly Lily

Hey...Silly Lily, it rhymes.

Lily has been very into rhyming!

Yes, this is making me a very happy Mama and I'm breaking out, no dusting off my teacher brain.

Whew, it's been awhile. Thankfully, I have a pretty smart girl on my hands so I'm sure I won't mess her up too much.

My Pretty Girls

and notice the new addition...Emma's friend, BooBoo Bear. Emma named her and now she goes everywhere with us. BooBoo has even helped Emma with her sleeping at night :)

We all LOVE BooBoo Bear.

Look At Me...

I'm a tall girl...

I'm also a smart girl...

Don't tell my Mom and Dad but...

It won't be long until I can turn these knobs to go wherever I want to go.

One Year Ago

As I try to remember last summer, I quickly realized that it's pretty much all a huge blur. So, I went back to remind myself of our lives a year ago and then realized that Lily has been in big girl undies full time since last July.

July 2011

And, as I reread THIS POST I began to get sad. The girls are sooo very big now, especially my Lily. So I decided to look back two years and then three....and then I really got sad.

July 2010

July 2009

July 2008

Oh, how you've grown Miss Lily!



Just a Few More...

See how difficult it's going to be?!?!

Thanks so much to Kathy for capturing our girls :)

We look forward to having her take our family pics for many years to come!!!

Beach Pics!

I'm in love with every single picture that Kathy took of us a few weeks ago.

We got our CD in the mail today and it's going to be very difficult to choose which ones will go on the walls. I have a feeling I'll probably go overborad.

These are just a few of my favs!

Summertime Week 6

This week went so fast that I had a hard time remembering what we did. That's the point of summer, relaxing and having fun. But, then I remembered we spent Tues at the vet for Maci and Thurs at the pediatrician for Emma so that left Mon/Wed/Fri....and it quickly came back to me.

Monday, Mike had off and we went to the beach. We treated ourselves to a day off from lists and housework to enjoy our day with each other. We were so glad that we waited until today to go because we had the entire beach to ourselves. I mean, no one was there. And, the best thing was that it was low tide and the girls were able to play in a little pool made by the sandbars. We also saw more crabs today too. One was in such shallow water that were able to snap a picture, although he was the smallest one we've seen this summer we all still ran away :).

Thursday evening (after getting this cancelled on Wed evening due to rain), we went to 85th St to take a walk and gather shells for our summer shell jar. Due to the storms that went through the area the night before, we had a nice cold front and it was actually chilly and windy. We found some shells but mostly had fun just walking and exploring the dunes. So happy to be a beach family.

Friday we spent with friends that we love. Miss Trish and Leah went with us to the Farmer's Market that is held at the JCC every Friday morning. We didn't know what to expect but we found four or five local farmers selling their produce. YUM. We bought corn that was picked four hours before and dollar tomatoes! The corn was delicious and the girls loved it so much that they had it all over them.

Cuddle Time

Such an awesome thing, watching sisters grow up together.

Our Maci Girl

Yesterday the girls and I took our Maci girl to the vet or the animal doctor as per Lily. This was quite the challenge and would only take this on for a select few and Maci, you're one of them. Our appointment was at 1130, in which we were there 10 minutes early, and got home at 115. Definitely the long appointment that two little girls endured wonderfully without tantrums and also came out of the office with very full bellies from the huge bag of snacks I brought with us. How did I survive?? Books and Food, lots and lots of food. :)

And, why did I do this?

Saturday afternoon, after Maci's nap (yes, she takes a nap under our bed every single day at the same time the girls nap. So funny how she walks down the hall with us and we go into Lily's room as she goes under our bed. They all get up around the same time too.) she was limping. She could hardly put any weight on her back left leg. :( Maci has always had horrible back legs. She hobbles around after she sleeps awkwardly, she puts her back feet together when she runs so that she bunny hops and there are times we need to give her children's tylenol. So, we just figured that she slept wrong and that she needed to work out the kinks. There were times this happened and she would walk and run just fine but then a few days later when she still couldn't put that much weight on that leg, we decided we needed to take her in, thinking then it was a bad sprain or a break of some kind.

So, here we go. First thought from the doc was that she could have torn a ligament in her knee which would either need meds and rest or surgery. They then took x-rays so that they could get a better look. The doc came back with her fancy i pad with the x-rays on it to show me the "ugly pictures".

The good news, she didn't tear anything. The bad and ugly news was that she has the most horrible arthritis ever. To the point where the doc said, "I can't believe that she's walking and that she's so happy"!!!! She showed me healthy, non-arthritic joints and then Maci's... :( Instead of having nice rounded hip joints hers are pretty much pointy mushrooms :( So Maci was experiencing a flare up, maybe caused by one of the pointy things breaking off :(.

Maci is now on Previcox and ready to begin glucosamine. The pain and anti-inflammatory seem to be helping her and we'll see how this supplement helps her joints too. We now know why she is so grumpy too....she doesn't feel good.

We now enter the Senior Dog kinda life with Maci.

15 Months

We so have the ultimate toddler already.

At your well check this week you came in at a whopping....

21 lbs and 11 ozs, the 30%tile

32 inches long, 90%tile and

18 1/2in head, also the 90%tile

You are also:

-Wearing size 4 diapers still, and can fit in clothes ranging from 6-12 mth to 24 mth, you even wear some shorts that are 6-9 mths

-Your hair is growing in rapid speed and is growing in wavy on the top and tight curls along your neck. You seem to like your hair, want to have it brushed like Lily but for some reason believe that any kind of food looks best in your blonde locks.

-You are talking! You have a new range of words like up and down, hot, I Love You, Happy Birthday, thank you. You also have your own version of singing and still love to squeal like a fire engine.

-You have 12 teeth! 4 on the top, 4 on the bottom and the last molar is finally on it's last stage of coming in.

-You are having some real trouble sleeping at night. You are going through a clingy stage where you only want to sleep with us. There is no way we can go into your room to turn on your music and stick the binky in your mouth without you standing to pound your fists on the crib while stomping your feet...and all of this at 2am. So, we have resorted to you crying it out. :( You're a smart girl, I'm hoping you figure this thing out soon.

-You are finally enjoying food. You're more of a salty, carb lovin' girl rather than one with a sweet tooth. You gobble up anything with cheese on it or anything with your little rotini noodles. You also love fruit and raw veggies with dip. You are using forks and spoons with little help and are using the same plates Lily uses. Although despite all of this, you are still the messiest eater in the house and have to get mini-baths after each meal.

-You are extremely coordinated and extremely brave. And, because of this you CLIMB! You climb everything and anything. You can get up on every sofa, you stand on the blue playroom chairs and even tried climbing up onto the table. You have used the rungs under the kitchen chairs to get up onto our laps and you can get into the glider and onto the ottoman in your room. The most impressive thing of all, you haven't had a great fall yet. You know how to slide down on your belly, you know how to step down off of things and do it with great ease.

-You will be introduced to the time-out mat soon. You test us at every turn and wonder what we'll do. When you are told no, you sometimes listen and other times you stare at us and smile only to turn around to do it again. You also bite. It's really your only line of defense against your sister and sometimes when you go in for a kiss you forget and bite down.

-You love, love, love to dance and are very entertaining! This deserves it's very own post!

-You give huge random hugs and kisses! You also are becoming very cuddly and love to turn around and back into our lap :).

-You also adore Lily and Maci.

Love you Emma girl.

Breaking Into Song

Sometimes we listen to the radio.
Sometimes we listen to the kiddie song CD...over and over again.

But then sometimes, we get this. Songs by Lily.
Today she sang about flags, specifically American flags and us.
Too cute for words.

Weekend Projects

Today we got some much needed projects check off of our list.

*Fence

*Front flower bed...weeded (which took two hours) and mulched

*Our Growth Chart (with their fingerprints next to their line)

*Finally, the curtain pull-backs for Lily's curtains (I actually made button holes :) )

Feels good to get things checked off that list.

We've Got Another Ham

Now this little girl will hand us the camera and turn around to pose.

She wants picture after picture taken of her and yep,

she wants to see it to make sure she looks cute :).

Love my little ham!

Summertime Week 5

With Daddy having off Monday and Tuesday we girls had a very short week.

S'mores: (Summer fun can). We made s'mores in the backyard using a little grill. Not the most ideal but it got the job done. We had to go inside to enjoy them due to the huge mosquito population in our backyard. Fun anyway.

We had a very fun playdate with the Bonfiglios. We rode bikes around the block until it started to rain, played inside, followed their cat, Bodie, around everywhere, had delicious banana bread and got to catch up some. :)

We went grocery shopping one day and the other we made a trip to the library and the craft store. Lily is in love with doing special crafts :). My girl after my very own heart :).

Puzzles

We've been working on a few big puzzles for a week or two and finally Miss Emma has gotten the hang of it. She goes back and forth between this puzzle and one other one and is doing really great. She's even attempted, with success, puzzles that have smaller knobs.

Toy of the Week

Funny how toys have their shining moments and then fade out quickly. Then in a few weeks they make another appearance and become the 'it' toy again. Lately, the THING to play with is the dollhouse. But, since it's on it's second week of being awesome, it's probably on it's way out.

Wonder what toy will be next??

Happy Birthday

to Nana!

Happy Bithday, Nana!

We hope you had a wonderful day!

We love you and miss you lots!!!

and, to see how these girls have grown...check out the last time they did this!

Happy Birthday, America!

We had a lovely day today.

We:

1.Went to Lowes to get more fence supplies.

2.Played outside ALL day while Mike worked on the fence.

3. Made a great decision to NOT go to the beach for fireworks! (oh the rain we had!)

4. Watched the movie UP with the girls :)

5. Watched fireworks on tv while the girls dance to the festive 4th of July music.

I am not sure if today has meant as much to me as it did today. I've understood the meaning of the 4th, I am reminded each day of our freedom as the Navy fighter jets fly over our house and I am so grateful for being an American.

But, today was different. As the world is in turmoil. As I watch all of the things happening around the world I thank God that we are not there but instead in the safety of our own home, I could not be more grateful for the life we have. We are so very blessed to be in the position we are and to have the freedoms we do.

As I watched our girls dance this evening and how Lily wanted to sing Happy Birthday at dinner, I realize how much this country should mean to us and to everyone else. I hope in the years (and political elections) to come that the people of this country try to make it the best for our children and grandchildren.

Happy 4th to everyone and

Happy Birthday to the red, white and blue.



Project: Week 1 out of 2

We (mainly Mike) is in the process of installing the last section of privacy fence to our yard. This last piece is way, way, way overdue but it's getting done. :)

And, is there ever a project without a story?

I think not.

So here it is.

Saturday morning Mike went and picked up the rented auger. Augers are much easier than using a manual post hole digger especially in this sandy, thick, horrible soil. Although, after discussing with me (yes, I gave my OK) he rented the 2 person auger. Not until he got it home did we realize that it was meant to be 2 huge muscle bearing construction men that should be using this thing.

This auger stood almost 5 feet tall, weighed a ton (probably only about 70-80 lbs) and was a BEAST that was gas powered!

A picture I found to give you an idea of the size and yes, it was just like this but all you have to do is picture me on one side and Mike on the other. :)

So, this weekend we got to work using our "construction muscles" and started on the fence. And, from the first picture you realize that we did it. We used this monster to sink in 6-8ft fence posts at least 30 inches down into the ground. And, not to mention the one we had to redo since the cement didn't set right :).

Our goal was to get the posts in this holiday weekend...DONE.

Mike even got a little further and started on cross beams and planks :)

Next weekend...hello fence.

Happy July!

Summertime Week 4

To round out the month of June we had a lot of fun this week. In addition to meeting friends at the park on Monday for a humid, sweaty morning :) we:

Did some finger painting.

Yeah, not sure if we'll do this again anytime soon but it was fun for some I suppose. Lil and Em were so excited and as soon as I put paint on their papers the excitement lasted only about 10 minutes. Lily is better about getting things on her hands but still not a huge fan of getting messy. Emma doesn't mind at all getting messy but we had some issues on realizing we should NOT eat the paint. The binky helped some, but for some reason she took it out and then put plenty in her pretty light blonde hair. Like most things fun and messy, clean-up time took a lot longer than the actually activity.



Girls Beach Day.

This week the girls and I made our way to Chic's all by ourselves! A trip that intimidated me a bit but knew that I wanted to give it a try. We got it pretty streamlined so that Lily carried a few things and I carried everything else plus the feisty Miss Emma. This was also the first trip that we put the vests to good use. Made me a lot more comfortable having two kiddos in the water by myself. Lily has really gotten used to the water and is loves jumping the small waves of the bay.

Go to a Restaurant.(Summer Fun Can)

This evening we ventured to Waterside in Downtown Norfolk to have dinner. Lily is loving restaurants and wasn't shy telling our waiter what she wanted to drink, lemonade of course, and that she wanted chicken fingers and french fries to eat. So funny that we all had a good laugh. Emma sat in a booster seat most of the time and did extremely well.

Ferry Ride. (Summer Fun Can)

After a little walk around Town Point Park, listened to some music and people watched we hopped on the Paddlewheel Ferry that took us to Portsmouth. We walked around trying to find an open ice cream shop but ended up taking a half hour walk and then back onto the ferry to go back to Norfolk. The girls loved it and it was a lovely evening out for the fam.