Saturday, June 30, 2012

Never Too Many Books

Today we did LOTS of packing. We now have around 10 boxes all packed up. I even started packing my books.


Books packed:



vs Books waiting to be packed




Visiting

Yesterday we headed up to see Jeremy grandma in MI. We were going to try to leave somewhat early, but that didn't exactly happen. Since Jeremy's aunt and uncle live on the way to grandma's we stopped off there and had a lovely visit.

From there we headed to the nursing home. Grandma was very alert, but didn't make much sense - she kept talking about having bad combinations and a bad political situation because of two names. She was really cute, though :). She got to meet Natalia and see Leilani again. There was also a little old man in a wheelchair who was blind and determined to get across the street (mind you, we're in the nursing home dining room) to get to a building and wait for his daughter. I "helped him across the road" and back to where he was supposed to be. He was happy then. After helping him, Natalia and I went back over to grandma, Jeremy and Leilani. At one point, grandma said "what's in a name?" so I responded with "a rose, which by any other name would smell as sweet" and she grinned hugely. Then Jeremy started telling her goofy poems

I shot an arrow in the air
It fell to the earth I know not where
But I saw it from afar
In the radiator of my neighbors car


and

I sneezed a sneeze into the air
It fell to the earth I know not where
But hard where the looks of those
In whose vicinity I snoze


and she giggled like a schoolgirl - really adorable.





On the way home, I discovered Natalia LOVES Baby Einstein...but in order for her to see it, I have to hold the DVD player for her. But at least she wasn't screaming about being in the carseat! We got home rather late-ish and Leilani didn't get to sleep until 10, but it meant she slept in until 8 today! We ran errands today (thank goodness for Super WalMarts! get everything done at one place!) They actually had a nice little bath seat for Natalia, so now she and Leilani can take baths together. Leilani is super excited!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Thankful Thursday



I love Natalia's little baby stretches- it's really cute :)

For how good Leilani's been behaving, she's been pretty fantastic this week!

For Jeremy *finally* being able to take paternity leave

All the fun we've been having this week

That we're more than likely going to be going to Florida to visit family pretty soon!

I'm making slow-but-steady progress packing our stuff for our impending but as of now undated move

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Lazy Daze

We decided today would be a great day to just chill at the house. I packed up a couple more boxes (boxes packed: 4), made some yummy polenta-pinto bean pie for dinner, and we watched movies, played and read books. Speaking of readin, I need to finish reading the Felicity books to Leilani. Natalia spent most of the day cuddled up, sleeping on me :) Leilani was a boa conatrictor named Beuh, all wrapped around her daddy's neck.

Just a fun day, chilling as a family. We need some of those on occasion :)

Monday, June 25, 2012

Stay-cation: Aquarium, USS Cod, and the Beach

Today, we decided to check out the Aquarium. On the way there, we were listending to Silly Songs with Larry - Leilani was singing along and every now and then, Natalia would let out a nice coo. It was so super sweet and made me smile :).

There were some really cool fish at the aquarium. Leilani really enjoyed them. She got to pet a lobster, sea star, hermit crab and sting ray.











After that, we down to see the USS Cod, a submarine from the World War 2 era. Leilani loved going through the hatches - she kept calling them "magic mirrors" because they did kinda look like mirrors. Natalia, once again, slept through the whole thing in the Moby.











After that, we went to the beach and got some Honey Hut ice cream (I didn't, but Jeremy and Leilani did). Natalia went forward facing in the Moby for the first time, she seemed to LOVE it! Leilani enjoyed playing chicken with the small, pathetic waves *grin*







We finished the night with pizza and Mr. Poppers Penguin's.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Anniversary

Seven years ago today, I walked down the aisle and married my very own Prince Charming. And just to show how special he is, he bought me my Vitamix today! We both forgot it was our anniversary until we were chilling in the living room and my phone beeped a reminder - but he had already bought the vitamix for me just because he loves me - see what I mean by special AND sweet? :)

Today I dressed the girls in their matching Sunday dresses from my wonderful in-laws! The dresses, I think, are incredibly beautiful and are wonderful quality, too!


Natalia spent the whole service in the Moby, asleep. I think she loves feeling all cozy and cuddled up - makes her feel secure. After all, a baby's natural habitat is it's mother, so of course baby's want to stay as close as possible :)

After church we swung by the house and had some pasta, then went to Costco to get a few things - we actually went for a printer, but wound up getting the Vitamix instead. I can't wait to start using it! I can only imagine the fun I'm going to have with it!!! While we were in the car, apparently Leilani wanted to make sure her stuffed Baby Jaguar didn't get away:


Oh, one more thing....I LOVE YOU HONEY!!!

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Day at the Lake

We went out to a family resort lake today called Clay's Parks. Leilani had a blast! She hated the every hour 15 minute safety check, though! There were all kinds of things in the lake to keep her busy...inflatable slides, trampolines, rings and more! Leilani, somehow, managed to sneak onto the big slide. She LOVED it, but when she went to do it again, she wasn't allowed because of being too small (quick disclaimer -she was with Jeremy in the water and I was on the shore with Natalia, so she wasn't out there all alone *grin*). Boy, was she mad when they told her she wasn't tall enough! She desperately wanted me to go into the water with her, so after I fed Natalia, I decided I could go in for a few minutes while Jeremy finished his food...I made it about 10 steps into the water when "excuse me ma'am, but you have to have a life jacket"...urgh, really??? The life jacket line was only like fifty people long, and with Natalia constantly waking and needing to eat, I wasn't going to wait in line for maybe 10 minutes of water time. I understand it's their policy, but it was still aggravating! Okay, rant over *grin*. It was rather relaxing, hanging on the beach with Natalia. Nothing to call me away from talking to and playing with her :). She seemed to rather enjoy the undivided attention, too.

After playing in the water for a few hours, Leilani played in the sand and on the playground, and had tons of fun! She got her face painted (she told them it was "perfect!"), made a bracelet and made a pair of giant sunglasses :).











Oh, Leilani's new thing is to rhyme every thing. So "the groundy woundy" was "icky nicky". Or, the "dippy wippy" is in the "frdgey widgey". Just a funny little thing she's started doing :)

Friday, June 22, 2012

First Day of Vacation

My hubby's off starting today for two weeks! We started our vacation pretty low-key, with a run to Wal-Mart (can I get a YIPPEE!? lol). Naturally, the WalMart that's closest to the house didn't have the bath seat I wanted for Natalia - actually, they didn't even have a bath seat, period! So for now, the girls still can't take a bath together.

From there, we stopped by the house to grab a sandwich, then on to my dh's work. He had to send out some e-mails, so we all hung out there for a bit. On the way, Leilani asked "Are we going to see daddy make money?" as I started to say "yes" I realized she thought he literally made money, as in, took paper or metal and changed it into currency. I explained that daddy does work and the government pays him money for it. Ah, the mind of a child. Leilani loved hanging there (despite that fact that no money was being made in front of her) because she got to play on the iPad for a bit. Natalia seemed to really enjoy laying on the couch and staring at the ceiling, smiling and talking to the air.

Leilani played with the swivel chair, going around and around and trying to hide from the camera

After that, she took a break and had some yogurt. Natalia seemed to want it *grin*


We went home after that, since we couldn't decide what to do next. We're just gonna relax for the rest of the day...maybe watch a movie and just chill :)

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Thankful Thursday




There are so many things to be thankful for, I could never list them all, but here are a few:

- that my daughters love each other, Leilani loves to hold Natalia and cuddle with her, sing to her, talk to her and explain things to her - and Natalia looks so adoringly at her big sister :)

- that there are so many awesome vegetarian/vegan food choices that are so incredibly healthy!

- for the adorable sound Natalia makes after a sneeze, half sigh half song, it makes me so happy :)

- the way Natalia loves to just stare into my eyes

- Leilani's incredible love for books and learning

- that Leilani LOVES her veggies, fruits and legumes - makes it a bit easier being vegetarian *grin*

- for my hubby, who's amazingly helpful. Obviously, he can't feed the baby since I'm breastfeeding, but he helps keep the kitchen and living room clean, helps put Leilani to bed and is truly amazing!

- for my daughters' adorable-ness :)

- for my Moby, it's a life-saver!!! - I couldn't have walked all over downtown without it!!! (or get any housework done, for that matter!)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Starting to Pack....

Yesterday, Leilani went out on the porch and picked a flower for Natalia and one for herself. She desperately wanted Natalia to wear her flower, so I put it behind her ear:


then I told Leilani I wanted a picture of her with her flower behind her ear:


I may be a bit biased, but I have two of the cutest girls in the world!

I decided to go ahead and start packing for our move...even though we're not sure where we're going or precisely when. I just figure it's better to get as much done as I can while I can. And there's a LOT to pack, too!

We made seitan today, I have a nice easy, no-need-to-knead recipe that takes around twenty minutes. Instead of using wheat flour and having to knead until you get to the gluten stage, just use wheat gluten flour - then it's already there! - saving hours of slaving in the kitchen *grin*. For dinner we had sauteed seitan with green peas & mushrooms and some collard greens from our bucket garden. I was pretty excited to eat some food that we grew! Plus, it was all really yummy :)


We watched Peanuts today, and Leilani kept asking "why doesn't Sally like school?" which reminded me "hey, we ought to do some school!" so...WE DID! I think Leilani has rather missed doing that. We also read more of Happy Birthday, Felicity! and read some more in our manners book. We're also learning Spanish...Leilani's swings between being excited and done with it. But I'm pretty excited! This way, when we got visit my in-laws in Spain (they're missionaries there) I can talk to all their friends and understand whats being said.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I Wanna Get Away....

I'm really wanting to go on vacation - somewhere Disney would be nice *smiles*. I've been entering the HGTV Summer Memories sweepstakes. *fingers crossed*. But since I never win sweepstakes, we'll probably NOT be going to Disneyworld anytime soon. Hopefully we'll be able to do some fun vacation-y stuff soon - my dh is going to be taking the paternity leave he couldn't take before, so we'll have 10 days to pack in the fun. Of course, we still have to figure out what that fun will be (and where), but whatever it is, it's guaranteed to be fun!



Monday, June 18, 2012

Being a Mama :)

Some "mommy" stuff I found *smiles*


this one is tooooo true!!!:



I know I suffer from this delusion *grin*:




I think every mama has this problem, after all, we've given all our brain cells to our children:




Kids can help you get over your fears, it's true lol:




I've said a few of these, myself:




I try to live by this!:




another true one:




one last thought to close this post:

Saturday, June 16, 2012

MAGTF Demo Day

Today started somewhat early(ish). Our initial plan was to get to the airfield around eleven, but at just before nine, my husband called and asked if we could be ready in a few minutes, then from there could we be ready by 9:45. Getting three people, a diaper bag and snacks ready in 45 minutes? Sure, why not? :). Since we couldn't find earphones to cover Natalia's ears (it was NOISY down there) we hung out in the vehicle. Which, since it was around 90, was AWESOME!

There was another martial arts and dog demo today, followed by the USMC Rock Band. Now, I didn't know the words to the songs, but I attempted to sing along because it was getting the biggest grins from Natalia. She didn't care that mama garbled all the lyrics *grin*


After the rock band, the regular band played. There was a team of Marines who ran out and planted the flag just like on Iwo Jima - very awesome!

Of course, because of my position, I could only capture them from the back before they ran :).


Then came the Silent Drill Platoon. We could only watch on the jumbo screen, but they did march right past us




Finally, came the MAGTF Demo itself - and then I was even more glad we were in the car - the aircraft are beautiful, but LOUD.

MV-22 Osprey


Recon jumping in

After the show, when most of the people had cleared out, we got out of the vehicle for a couple minutes and Leilani got to meet a couple of police horses


The girls and I are going to go home tomorrow - I have LOTS of laundry to do, Natalia went through 5 outfits yesterday alone, and a few more today. Her laundry may consist of the smallest clothes, but it makes the biggest loads!