Memorial Day

 On Memorial Day, we had a little impromptu get together with our life group.  The Fish's were so nice to let us come to their house...even though they weren't going to be there :)  They have an awesome pool and backyard so it was nice to not have to fight the crowds at the neighborhood pools.  Everyone but the Fish's were there so it was great to spend the day with friends.  I knew Cole would need a little nap during the day, so I put him down at 10:45am....yes, you read that correctly :) He usually takes a nap at 1:00pm but oh well, he slept, my plan worked!  While Cole slept, Nick worked on some sheet rock he had to replace in the garage and Finley and I headed over to swim.  Once Cole woke up, the boys headed over.

Finley with her boyfriend James...just sprawled out on the floor :)

Finley with Ms. Addison....she just turned 2 and is the sweetest girl :)

 We all brought food for a pot luck style lunch and I won't mention who (Patsy...cough cough), introduced Finley to Cheetos Puffs.  I think Finley ate her body weight in cheetos! :)

Dad with his kiddos

Are we surprised that Cole is the only one with dry hair???  He's going to hate me when we start swim lessons again in July!! :)

 After spending several hours at the pool and realizing I forgot to put sunscreen on myself, we decided to head home and get cleaned up for dinner with friends.  Finley took a nap when we got home so she was nice and refreshed for dinner.  We met Beau and Stacey, Whit and Tiff and all the kids at Babe's.  The food tasted SO good that night, I don't know why but I definitely ate way too much.  After dinner we attempted to get some pictures of the kiddos and we actually got quite a few good ones.

Grayson, Finley, Cole, Emily and Joseph

It was a great weekend, so nice to have Nick around for that extra day.  We got a ton of work done around the house, but nobody come by our house because even though we did a lot of work, it looks like a bomb went off in our house.  Trying to purge things out of your house makes a huge mess! :)

I did have to show this video I took of Finley last night, she is really started to talk more and more and communicate and she's just the cutest!

What's Been Going On...

 Last Wednesday was Cole's last day of MDO.  Sad day for mom...and Cole.  Well, I don't think he really understood that he wasn't going to be going back to school for awhile but he acted a little sad when he said bye to Mrs. Lenore and Mrs. Xochitl.  On their last day they had a fun water day planned and the parents were welcome to come watch.  This is when I am so happy to be a stay-at-home mom so I wouldn't miss stuff like this.  I could tell that Cole was so happy that I was there and he kept telling all his friends, "that's my mom" :)  Melts my heart.  

The kids all had a blast playing with the water, here are some pictures.

Mrs. Xochitl and Mrs. Lenore showing the kids all the water fun

Finley even got in on the action!!

 Finley had so much fun, playing with all the big kids.  She's such a mess, she sat in a mud puddle and was absolutely filthy by the time we left.

This is her first ever Popsicle.  She LOVED it!

After the kids were done playing in the water, we went back to their classroom, got everyone cleaned up, then had a pizza party.  

 A couple of Cole's classmates followed Finley around for the longest time, it was so cute.  It is just so funny to watch the difference between boys and girls. Girls just have this instinct to love babies and nurture them, and the boys.....

 the boys were busy doing stuff like this.  Shutting themselves under the play sink.

Later in the week, we had a fun play date with our Mops girls.  The house we went to was absolutely fabulous and every kids dream.  I love doing stuff like this with the kids because it wears them out and they take great naps!!  :)

The rest of our long weekend has been spent with friends.  Pete and Katie and baby James came over for dinner Friday night.  Blake and Emily came over yesterday and we had a great time, and great conversation on the patio after the kids went to bed :).  This morning Nick and I decided to purge our house.  Eventually we want to sell our house (maybe in the near future) so we thought we might as well start organizing, fixing and de-cluttering the house.  Nick spent most of the day cleaning out the garage.  It's just crazy because we moved into this house pretty much immediately after college so we have all our old college stuff that just needs to go in the trash.  I mean, as much as I loved Political Science, I think we can live without those books :)

Tomorrow we have a fun day planned at the pool with friends, so this has definitely been a great weekend and it's nice to just stay home because the next 3 weekends will be crazy ones!!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Virginia

 Last Friday morning, my little lady and I flew out to Virginia.  My parents were going to visit my Aunt Lora and her family in the DC area and then spend a week in Williamsburg.  I kind of invited myself along :)  I would have loved to have gone to Williamsburg with them but Nick had to go to Houston for work and Tracy was headed to London so I had to get back to watch Cole.  Of course we really wanted Cole to come with us but Finley still flies free and flights were pretty expensive.  Finley and I just stayed for the long weekend and it really was a great weekend!  My aunt and her family live at this amazing house and it is absolutely gorgeous!  I love the colonial style and that people don't have fences, everything is so open.

This is sitting on their patio, awesome views!

Their oldest daughter Madison loved playing with Finley.  Finley loved her too!!

One of the mornings, we went to watch their son Bryce play some flag football.  It was a beautiful morning and it was nice to spend some time outside.  The weather was perfect while we were there!

Their other daughter, Brooke.

These girls are the sweetest!  Lora and Gary sure have great kids!!  Love my cousins!! :)

 My parents wanted to take everyone out for dinner one night and we wanted to get the Bare family to try something a little different.  Our family absolutely loves sushi, but the Bare's hadn't really ever tried it so we ventured out and introduced them to the goodness of raw fish!  PLUS, I am finished nursing babies so I can eat whatever I want now!  Yay!!

After dinner we walked around and they showed us some of downtown Leesburg and Finley even stopped to play with some bushes :)

Our last night there, the Bare's had a banquet they had to attend for church so my parents, Finley and I went out, had dinner, drove around and had fun exploring.  

This was the first time I have ever ordered a "meal" for Finley...sniff sniff.  She is growing up too fast!

Mimi and Pap with Finley after dinner

Just hanging out with Papa

Monday mid morning, my parents dropped Finley and I off at the airport and they headed down to Williamsburg.  Again, Finley did great on the flight back!  It helps so much when the people you sit next to actually like children.  I have had my fair share of those people that hate kids and would get bent out of shape if they even got touched by a child.  So having nice people to sit next to that don't mind getting a few pokes, kicks and drooled on make it so much easier to travel!

Tracy picked us up at the airport and Finley was so excited to see her brother!  She has been by his side since we've been back and it's so sweet.

We had a quick dinner with Tracy then said good-bye to her, she was on her way to London for a couple weeks.  

This is how excited the kids are to be back together.

We aren't doing much today, just hanging out, doing lots of laundry...the stuff you do after a trip :)  We are definitely looking forward to having dad home tomorrow, it's so much better when he isn't traveling! :)

Neighbor and water fun

Last week, we spent a lot of time outside.  We are trying to take advantage of the weather before summer really hits here.  Cole loves it because when the older neighbor kids get home from school they all play outside and they all have so much fun.  We mostly play over at Jackson's house and all the kids come over and run around.  Luckily, even though they are all quite a bit older (1st and 3rd graders), they are all so nice to Cole and the little babies.  Jackson let Cole play with his Iron Man helmet and Cole refuses to take it off.  He is in super hero heaven once again.  It's funny because all the kids just call him "Iron Man" now and not even Cole :)

Finley and Kate love watching all the big kids play but it's getting tricky keeping them contained and making sure the older kids don't get run over by cars :(  Ugh....this is why I want to live on a cul de sac or on some acreage!!!  I hate having to worry about fast cars speeding down our road!

Cole even tried to put his helmet on Finley

Seriously, I don't know many 3rd grade boys that would actually sit with a little baby and play with her.  These boys are the sweetest!

Also, last week, we headed over to Susan's house and they have the best back yard!  We played in their backyard a couple times last summer and it's awesome!  They are right on the golf course so they have this huge yard with so many fun things for the kids to play with.  

The best was their giant blow up water slide/bounce house thing.  It's perfect for the kids, even Finley had a blast with it!

This little girl....my am I going to have to keep an eye on this one!!!  This girl has no fear!  I am just so used to Cole is is a very cautious, sensitive child.  Finley has no fear with the water or climbing up slides or being around the older kids.  She is definitely going to keep me on my toes!

Sarah Kate and Cole enjoying  a little capri sun

Isn't this the coolest setup??

There she goes

It's amazing to me how I feel that Finley catches on to things so fast!  Maybe time just goes so much faster with the second child but I swear I don't remember Cole doing this stuff till he was much older.  

Guess we are going to have to keep clothes on her at all times!

While I was packing for our trip to Virginia, I came out and found my children in our ottoman.  I'm not positive how Finley got herself into it but whatever.  Cole was "driving" her around :)

Last, and this is totally random, I have been so impressed with how much Cole is learning at his preschool.  He comes home almost everyday and tells me something new they learned and I love watching him learn and understand what they are teaching him.  Ever since the beginning of school, they send home different colored shapes.  They laminate and put a magnet on them so we can put them on our fridge and work on colors/shapes at home.  Well, a couple months ago, Cole brought home this shape.



Ok, now...I'm pretty sure when he told me it was a "rhombus", my first thought was "what the heck is a rhombus?".  And I'm pretty positive I didn't know what that was when I was 3 years old :)  So yes, my 3 year old IS smarter than me!

The past couple days and Mother's Day

We had a great weekend!  Nick was in Chicago all last week so we were definitely ready for him to be home!  Much respect for my friends that have to do that every week, whew!!  We kept pretty busy while he was gone, but the nights definitely get lonely without him.

Friday was Finley's actual birthday, we didn't really do a whole lot, just hung out at home.  We knew the rest of our weekend would be pretty busy so we just wanted to relax Friday.

Saturday morning, I headed to Katie's house for her 31 party and I'm excited for my new purchases :)

That evening, we had a wedding to go to of some good friends.  We knew there would be a lot of kids there so we decided to take Cole with us.  We left Finley home with our sitter and I don't think she was too happy with us.  She gets super bored when Cole isn't around to entertain her so I knew she wouldn't be a happy camper.  But, she did ok, and went to bed pretty early.  

We had a great time at the wedding....Cole was an absolute hoot!  He loves weddings, mostly because of the dancing.  Yes, he's going to be our little Broadway star some day!  We took so many pictures that night but they are all on the in-laws computer so I'll have to post those later.  They did have a photo booth that Cole was crazy about.  Auntie Em used one of the napkins to make him a cape, and then they had some masks as props for the photo booth, so Cole was in super hero heaven!

Here is just one of the pictures...I can't get the others to scan :(

 We didn't get home till after 11:00pm, so Cole was pretty tired....however, he was up at his usual 7am the next day, ugh!

I don't know if I "accidentally" had one too many glasses of wine Saturday night or what, but I just was feeling off on Sunday, Mother's day.  I felt like my head was in a huge fog, was so sleepy, and just didn't feel myself.

That evening, we met up with Nick's family for dinner to celebrate Mother's day.  It was an excellent restaurant with yummy food...from what I hear :)  About half way through our time at the restaurant, I started feeling super nauseous.  With all the smells and food in my vicinity, I was not feeling well at all!  So when everyone got up to leave, I couldn't have been more relieved so I could just go home.  However, the awesome husbands that we have, had this waiting outside the restaurant for all us girls!!!

 As soon as I realized it was for us, my heart sank....and I was also looking for a bush to possibly puke in.  I felt absolutely horrible because it was such an awesome idea that the guys had, but I knew I couldn't go in the limo.  So, Cole went in my place :)  The driver took Cole and the girls around the city for awhile then headed back to our house to drop everyone off.  Emily sent me this picture while they were in the limo.  

Cheers!!!!

 

 I was beyond bummed I couldn't go along, especially because they said Cole had such a great time.  But I didn't want to have to make any pit stops along the highway.

They did take this picture of me in the limo, so at least I got to sit in it :)

 

 I started to feel a little better on the way home and I truly believe this was all caused by hormones.  I am in the process of weaning Finley right now and I have had the hormones/side effects from hell!  I never had that with Cole but basically I'm having all my old early pregnancy side effects again.  NO....I am not pregnant!!!  I have read that it is very common for women to get like this while weaning, it's just funny that it's way worse with Finley than with Cole.  Girls!!!!!

Not sure how long this will last but it's no fun.  I've been getting those ocular migraines again, every Wednesday, isn't that weird!  Ready for this to be over!

However, when I see my cute, happy, healthy kids snuggling in bed together, I can't help but feel so blessed.  I could just eat them up!

I also have to post this video.  When we were on our way to dinner Sunday night with Nick's family, we had the radio on and Nick noticed that Cole was singing along to the song.  I don't even like this song, so I can't imagine it's on too much in the car, but apparently he knew it.  It's just so sweet because he's holding a rose and singing such a sweet song.  Love this kid!!!

12 Months!

Happy 1 Year birthday Finley Marie!!

I can't believe that one year ago you were born, it sure has gone crazy fast!

You had your one-year well check this morning and it went great!!!  You didn't even have to get any shots, yay!  Here are your stats:

Weight:  21.3 lbs - 54%

Height:  30.25 in - 86%

You have definitely gone down in percentile with weight but about the same for height.  You are going to be our tall, skinny, blonde girl :) (Must come from your dad's side of the family because you DEFINITELY DO NOT get that from me, ha!)

Our doc said that he prefers us to give you coconut milk instead of cow's milk, so that's cool.  Plus, coconut milk is way cheaper than that organic whole milk! :)  I hope you like coconut milk, because your brother sure does.

 You are still wearing 12-18 month clothes, which is so weird to me because Cole was wearing 2T at this point.

Wear a size 4 diaper

Size 4 shoe

You hate wearing your bows....which makes mom sad, but dad happy :)

You are pretty much eating all table foods, doc gave us the ok to start on eggs and fish.

You pretty much like all foods, but don't eat a lot of food.  You eat like a bird.

I am pretty much officially done nursing, THANK GOD!!!  :)  Honey, I've loved it but holy moly you are one hard chick to nurse these past couple months, so we are done!  You are just way too busy!

 I think it's safe to say that you are officially sleeping through the night!  What is it with my babies and not sleeping through the night till they are a year?  You have slept through the night for a whole week straight so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

You are the absolute easiest baby to put down for naps and bed.  We just go lay you down, give you a paci for you mouth and one to hold on to and you put yourself to sleep so easily!

You still take 2 naps a day, but I can't wait till we can cut that morning nap out.

You are babbling so much, you remind me of your cousin Cameron :)  You are saying "mama", "dada", and thanks to Mimi, you are now saying "nooooooo".  It's so funny, but I know it won't be in a couple weeks!

You are officially walking, about 90% of the time.  And now that you are walking, you have become so independent.  I'm scared for our next flight to Virginia next weekend!!

You are still as annoying as ever to your brother.  He literally spends his entire day running away from you....poor kid!

You have definitely started showing off your sassy attitude and again, makes me scared for the future!

We love you so much Finley and are so proud and honored that you belong to us. 

Happy Birthday sweet girl!!!!

Finley's 1st Birthday Party

Finley is about to turn 1 year old this week!  I cannot believe a year has flown by already!  It definitely goes so much faster with your second child.  May is a VERY busy month so we decided to have a little birthday party for Finley on Sunday.  We tried to keep it pretty small, but I still wanted it to be special since we did a big party for Cole's 1st birthday.  I was so grateful my mom came into town for the party because she was a huge help!  Sometimes I don't anticipate the amount of work parties are going to be till the day of and I'm running around like a crazy lady.  So, the extra help was much appreciated!

Here are some of her decorations from her party...

I wanted to keep people out of the kitchen so we set up the food in the family room

I had pretty much made this sign for Cole's 1st birthday party so I kept the letters and found different paper and ribbon and voila!

The candy jars....I'm sure all the parents were happy with me, sending their children home with gobs of candy!  Sorry!

The drink and cake table

Finley's little smash cake was a carrot cake and for the bigger cake we just did white and chocolate but all 3 flavors were wonderful!  Rosie, our cake lady does not disappoint :)

My good friend Ann does a lot of embroidery and I had asked her to make Finley a birthday shirt.  I was tempted to put a "1" on it for a special birthday shirt but I also wanted her to be able to wear it besides that one day...so this is what we came up with and I loved it!  I found the perfect tutu to go with it and I made her bow and she looks absolutely adorable!

 

 

Nick and I with our birthday girl

 I was so excited to watch her dive into her cake, she is not afraid of food or mess so I knew she would go nuts with it.  Cole was very timid of his cake...he hates being messy so watching something totally different was going to be so fun!

Everyone singing Happy Birthday to her

 Just like I thought, she absolutely destroyed her cake!  She didn't waste any time digging into it, however, you can see in this picture that there is none on her face :)  She had more fun playing with the cake than eating it.  She had a few bites and liked it but was more entertained with mashing it between her fingers.

She finally started eating a little bit

Again, so grateful for my mom making the trip down here.  We were sad Papa couldn't make it but we got to talk to him on the phone later that night and told him all about the party.

Mimi is so funny!!

Granddad and Gigi - so grateful for these two!!!!

 After she was done with her cake, she did have quite a bit on her tummy, legs, arms, etc....so we gave her a quite sink bath and she was "kinda" as good as new :)

 Finley opened a few presents and I just wanted to show off a couple....first off, our good friends got her this totally inappropriate (but hilarious), will never leave the house with this on, 2-piece swimsuit :)  We all got a good laugh and of course had to do some modeling.

Yeah, my face says it all.....baha!!!

Finley loves her little Sock Fox, she snuggled with it last night and was so cute!

 Alright, I promised some modeling, here ya go.....

 We all couldn't stop laughing!!!!

The rest of the time was spent playing with her friends, playing outside, eating lots of food and making great memories.

Finley and her neighbor friend Kate.  We are lucky to have great neighbors with someone Finley's age.

We definitely let Finley have way too much sugar yesterday! :)  She had a donut for breakfast, cake, suckers, yikes!

 We had such a great time at Finley's 1st party, and are so grateful for our friends and family that came and were also a big help with getting things ready.  We appreciate everyone so much!  Finley is such a lucky girl to have such wonderful people in her life and we couldn't ask for a better group of people!  Much love!!!  :)