Our 7th Anniversary

To celebrate the 7 years of our marriage we booked a night at a downtown hotel. Eric made the reservation at the Marriot using his points he earned while living here in the hotel early last year. We get there and are checking in when the guy at the desk tells us that we don't have a reservation for that night, but that we had one for the previous Wednesday but it was canceled due to no-show. Eric botched the reservation.

So then we are on the phone to the Marriot people and they book us a room at another Marriot hotel about a mile away from where we were. Turns out, we ended up at The Mayflower, the hotel that hosts the Inagural Ball every year. It was old, ornate and seriously beautiful! We lucked out!

We spent the afternoon/evening strolling around Georgetown and going in and out of shops. We ate when we were hungry and went where we wanted. We had no agenda, no time-table, no plan. It was FABULOUS!! Just what we needed.

Easter 2010

This year for the first time we dyed eggs with the kids. I know, I am a bad parent for denying them this tradition for all these years. After Savvy decorated her egg with all manner of stickers, she dropped it on the floor. At that point, she started picking at the shell.

We are definately not professional egg decorators but for a rookie trial, we did our best. Neelah wouldn't keep her hands to herself and almost tipped over the bowls of dye too many times to count. It was a quick activity.

This year we were lucky enough to be invited over for an Easter Egg Hunt and picnic at our friends the Quinns house. They hid over 200 eggs for about 10 kids to find. It was the perfect day for a hunt.

I am not quite sure why Neelah his making that face. I never know with that girl. Savvy looks a bit like the Joker because of the ring of chocolate around her lips.

I adore this picture of Finn. What a great kid he is.

The kids had a great time and really enjoyed being with friends and eating lots of treats. It was the perfect to way to celebrate the secular version of the holiday! We brought home way too much candy though.

Finners!

One of Eric's work friends gave us Guitar Hero. We love free stuff! Eric had Finn pose this way.
Rock On!!

This is a terrible photo but it was the best that I could get out of Finn. He came to me this week, about an hour after he woke up and told me that his tooth had fallen out! I asked him where it was and he said he didn't know. I asked him when it fell out and he told me that it must have fallen out when he was sleeping. I thought for sure he had swallowed it in his sleep. We went to his bed and searched. We found it underneath the bed.

So then I wanted a picture of him with the tooth and getting him to open his eyes, even when the flash went off was "like pulling teeth!" As I was trying to get him to open his eyes, he dropped the tooth and it took me 20 min on my hands and knees searching the carpet to find it. By that time, the photo-op was over and this was all I got. Better than nothing...

We were lucky enough to get this hand-me-down hoop from a neighbor this weekend. Finn was practicing and I was shocked to watch him score two baskets from this distance!! Finn is growing up so fast and becoming a little man. He is embracing all different sports and is really into "practicing" to get better. He dribbles the ball around the house and has made it all the way to 9 dribbles!

Neelah's 3rd Birthday Party

Neelah has left the "Terrible Two's" at least technically. We had a small party for her this weekend. It wasn't too fancy since all her friends were out of town for the Easter holiday. The weather was perfect so we went outside to eat cake and open presents.

New Barbie Slippers!

When I asked Neelah who she wanted to invite to her birthday party, the first person she said was Megan. Megan is one of our favorite babysitters. The girls adore her.

This was the gift I was most excited to give her. I knew it would be a hit. She watches Finn play the Leapster and wishes she could play too. With this computer she can practice up on her letters, numbers and shapes. After just a few minuets, she exclaimed to me "I'M LEARNING!!" I love seeing her so excited about learning new things.

Bubbles in the Spring

Bubbles are a staple on warm Spring afternoons. They keep all the kids busy which is a blessed event around here. I kick back in a beach chair and sip on my Coke. It never lasts quite long enough.

Darling Savannah

Savvy is 22 months old now and has really been neglected when it comes to documenting her sweet life. Being the mom of 3 is proving to be much busier than I could have ever imagined. I practically posted everyday when Finn was this age.

Savvy LOVES books. She talks jibberish to herself and turns the pages. Any book that has animals will do the trick. She loves to drive past the horses, cows and donkeys that are on the way to and from our house. She will look out the window, gasp! and yell "DONK!!" (this means donkey)

Savvy sits with her ankles crossed almost constantly...very elegant and proper my girl is. She dances and sings throughout the day. She loves to be teased and tickled. She has no fear of strange people. Multiple times she has gone up to random "mom" at storytime and sat down right in her lap. Even when she looks across the room and sees that I am there and she is here, she doesn't seem to want to move. She will even go as far as pushing away random "mom's" own kids to defend her spot in the lap.

We don't go ANYWHERE without the "blank". (look familiar Amy?) I do have 2 other pieces of this same material that I substitute when the original gets washed but for the most part, this is GOLD to Savvy.

Cuddling is very important to Savvy. She loves being front and center and doesn't like to share a lap with anyone. Even Uncle Tyler will do. She spreads her love equally.

Although her first word was "mommy" she is definately a daddy's girl. It gets frustrating for Eric when she uses the word "mommy" when asking him for something. Apparently, "mommy" also means "please".

Neelah turns 3

Let me introduce you...this is Neelah. The other day as I was vaccuming, she comes out like this. She is ready and eager to help now that she has her own vaccume. There is no reason not to be fashionable while doing housework! This girl has so much attitude. I really can't explain just how much I love her. I also can't explain how difficult she can be.

Just tonight, at dinner, she repeated the same 3 questions at least 15 times each. She speaks so well that it is hard to understand why she can't ask a question once and have that be it. I forget that she is only 3 and 3 year olds repeat, repeat, repeat!

We are still working on the potty-training...hopefully she will decide to do it before next fall when she has to go to pre-school. Hopefully I won't be changing her diaper when she is 8. Hopefully we won't be broke by then because of all the money we spend diapering her darling little tushy. She will commit when she is ready, I have no doubt.

Something tells me that Neelah won't be too tall. She only has 1 1/2 inches on Savvy and they both are wearing 3T clothing. My kids don't have a chance of having flat bums.

Just this last month she grasped her colors and we are working on alphabet and counting past 20. She loves to read books and always sings herself to sleep. She drives Finn nuts with her constant singing along with the disney movies. For some reason it bugs him but I love that part of her. She is so tender with Savvy and they play so well together (as long as Finn isn't around to bug them).

I am so thankful to have her a part of our family. She dances her way into my heart each and every day. I love you Neelah!

Snowstorm of all SNOWSTORMS!

Today is gorgeous! Bright white snow glittering against a blue sky. Blinding. But we welcome it after the last week of snow. It started last Friday and aside from one afternoon of sun, snowed ever since. Yesterday we endured a record breaking blizzard here and I feel so blessed to say that we didn't loose power once!

The following pictures were taken during that first snowstorm that in total dumped 26inches on us. We took the kids out while Eric and Tyler were trying to keep up with the shoveling. (the operative word there is "trying") Savvy wouldn't step one foot in the snow, she just sat and watched while the others played. She was a little upset by the fact that she couldn't ride the trike in the snow.

Finn lost his boots in the snow at least 10 times.

The kids have a roomy snow cave to play in and a slide made from the 7 foot snow drift. Its a winter wonderland!

Milestones

I love my daughter Neelah. She melts my heart with her smile, eyelashes and blonde curls. Have I mentioned that she is also the bain of my existence? But having said that, today she and I have reached a cease fire. In accordance to potty-training that is. I decided today, after some great encouragement from a friend, to go cold turkey. NO MORE DIAPERS FOR NEELAH.

The last 3 months Neelah has been pooping 5 or 6 times a day. Just a nuggett here, a nuggett there. Although small, they are quite foul smelling as most poops are and so I end up changing her diaper many, many times a day. I cannot afford her diaper changes. I figure that the cost of each diaper is aproximately 0.30 each. Times that by 5 times a day, seven days a week, 4.5 weeks a month...I am spending about $45 a month on Neelah's diapers!! Not to mention the cost of wipes!

In the last 6 months we have tried potty training. It hasn't worked. Just to give you a few examples of why I gave up...

1. She pooped on the table while we had guests over for dinner...and while we were EATING
2. She peed off the balcony and down onto the family room floor and couch
3. She has been known to touch the poop and smear it where ever

I don't list these things to someday embarrass her down the road...although they will. I just need some self assurance that I gave up for good reasons.

Today, I changed yet another nuggett diaper and then didn't replace it. I left her bare-bottomed and she cried in protest for about 20 min. Then she went about her playing. Unlike the other times, she didn't pee on the carpet right away. She held it until dinner. We were sitting at the table and she announces that she "doesn't want to get pee-pee on the chair." So we run into the bathroom to her little potty. She didn't scream and cry. She PEED!!

We congratulated and praised her to no end and I gave her a popsicle even though she didn't eat her dinner. Needless to say, she peed in the potty 3 times more tonight before going to bed. We did have a slight mishap with "toot poop" in her panties but we talked about it and are going from there. I am optimistic. Did I mention she didn't scream when she sat on the potty???!!!

Neelah and I are bonding over pee-pee and poo-poo. It might be the happiest day of my life!

Country Livin'

So when you live on 3 acres of land which has trees all over, you have what we like to call a "slight leaf problem"

Here we have before and after shots of our back yard. Raking up the leaves ourselves wasn't really an option unless we wanted to grow old doing it. I finally gave up on the idea that we could do it ourselves and hired a company that would take care of our "slight leaf problem"

In order to complete our job, this company had 2 guys with blowers and another driving a tractor which plowed the leaves into huge piles. With all 3 guys working continuously, it only took them 4.5 hours to complete our job. Seriously.

Keeping Busy

Eric just sent me a text saying that he was getting on the plane, leaving Afghanistan. We are so excited to have him home and tomorrow won't come quick enough. This morning though we are just passing the time waiting for daddy to return.

Savvy has been practicing her walking so that she is ready to show off for Dad. Neelah is just looking cute with her curls and all.

The girls play so well together. No one can make Savvy laugh like Neelah can. They love to wrestle and tease each other. I hope that their sisterly love lasts through their teens.

Stepping Stones for Savvy

This last week has been a big one for my baby. She not only started to walk but she has simultaneously started using 3 words. MOM, UH OH and HI. I can't say that one of these was her "first", they all happened at once. She is the most darling of all darling babies. So tender and sweet. Neelah was that way too at this age...

I know this is sappy but I can't help but be a little sad that my baby isn't really a baby anymore but more so a toddler. I love that she sleeps through the night and can eat mostly anything that we eat. I love that she is self-entertaining and yet also enjoys playing with her brother and sister. But she doesn't need me like she used to and that is just the tiniest bit heartbreaking.

She is seriously just TOO CUTE!! This isn't the best video of her walking but as always when I get out the camera, the action stops.

Halloween 2009

We really missed Eric again this year. This is the second Halloween he has missed because he is in the Middle East. But celebrate we must! Some friends threw a family Halloween Party tonight and so off we went!

Mom and her Ladybug.

Neelah was a bumble bee for the second year in a row since it fit her better than the ladybug.

Here is Finn's Pre School class all dolled up for the holiday. They paraded around the parking lot and all the parents took pictures and then passed out candy. It was great.

My homework assignment was to make a "house" for the kids to trick-or-treat to. This is my rendition.

Savvy loved watching all the kids parade around while munching on her pig-in-a-blanket.

Neelah also enjoyed the event.