Oh my goodness....

The stress!!! AAAAHHH!!!! If you have ever bought a house, then you know what I'm talking about.

If you've ever moved (especially with children), then you know what I'm talking about. 

Adam and I are both ridiculously stressed right now between the purging, the financial stress and the figuring out what's going on before he leaves, while he's gone and when he gets back.

Luckily we have awesome friends and family who have been helping us and will be helping us for the big move. Do any of my faithful, loyal, totally awesome, super amazing readers have any tips for us? I bet you can't wait to see before and after pictures, can you??

PEE YOU ARR GEE EEE!

Purging...that's what I've been attempting to do lately. We found out that the house is pretty much ours and we are just waiting to close. So, in order to prepare ourselves for the *big move* we are purging an epic ton of crap!

It feels great and is a little sad all at the same time. I definitely do NOT want to bring all my clutter to the new house. I don't form deep emotional attachments to some inanimate objects like some people do so it's a lot easier for me to get rid of things. It is sad to see some items go but I know we don't need them and won't use them again in the foreseeable future.

I go through toys about twice a year because I can not *stand* tons of toy clutter. We still have more than I like but I get rid of broken toys, toys that are missing pieces and toys that are super loud or otherwise obnoxious.  Usually right before birthdays and Christmas when I know a giant toy influx is coming. One thing I do have a tough time getting rid of is books. I will keep a book until is beyond repair. This only applies to kid books though. I want to get rid of all my books and Adam's books. They take up WAY to much space and we will most likely never read them again. I'm working on getting Adam to agree with me though.

So, look forward to me discussing many, many aspects of the move. Yay for us!

Pictures

Yesterday I wrote about my weekend, today I'll show you a few bits and pieces from it. 

Nice!!

The weather this weekend was absolutely GORGEOUS! Weather wise, this was seriously my idea of the perfect weekend. We didn't do a whole lot, at least not as much as I wanted to. Saturday we went up to Peoples State Forest in Barkhamsted. That was fun. We had a picnic lunch, Miranda attempted to fly her kite a bit (it wasn't very breezy but she got it up a bit) and we went for a nice small hike.

Yesterday we stayed home but we spent a good portion of the day outside either next to Elliott's water table or hanging out with friends. I want to thank our good friends and neighbors for feeding us dinner and allowing us to hang out with them today! It was great!

The First Sign

Yesterday I think I saw my first sign that Elliott may be getting to closer to wanting to walk.

What do you think? Is this a sign??

~*~*~*~

Today is super nice and I'm really hoping to go for a family bike ride when Adam gets home. Miranda is getting better at riding her bike with no training wheels. I'll get a video of that to show you all too. I feel bad because my blog seems to be dominated by Elliott. I'll try to get more Miranda in here. Or more Maverick! Remember him? Poor neglected puppy.

The Bane of My Existence!!

Laundry is the bane of my existence. I know that if I could just get into a load a day routine, everything would be fine. If I could actually do a wash, dry, fold and put away routine every single day I wouldn't have a laundry problem. I know this. The problem is that, I will probably never get into that routine.

My current laundry routine is as follows: wait until it builds up into a huge mess and no one in the family has any clothes. Wash it all down to the last loads which usually sit in the washer/dryer for a couple days. Bring all the clean laundry upstairs and dump it all into the pack and play. Dig through the pack and play for a couple weeks for clothes until I get fed up and fold my clothes and the kids clothes. Put those away at some point. Adam is in charge of towels, sheets and his clothes. These stay in their consecutive piles for (what feels like) forever! And then usually it starts all over. There is always piles of laundry all over my house. Dirty, clean, whatever. There is always laundry everywhere! I hate it!!

 

I know other moms out there can commiserate with me. So, today I want you to comment about all your laundry aggravations! Let it all out! I wanna hear it all. 

Thirteen.

Hey, remember that time about a week ago when I felt bad for missing ONE day of blogging? HAHAHAHA! Wasn't that HI-LAIR-EEE-US????

Yeah ... -.-'

So, my littlest man turned a whopping thirteen months old today. The fish pillow pictures have ended however, so I have none of those to show you. I will give you a quick rundown of his development however!

*EATING* - Besides that dribbling issue that I wrote about recently, all is the same here. His appetite has not changed. He still eats everything and anything. 

*SLEEPING* - He's been really weird with his sleeping schedule lately. If we are out and about, doing stuff, he's fine. He could go just about all day with little to no naps. However, if we're just sitting around at home, he needs upwards of 3 naps a day!? Weird!! It's like he's bored and figures he might as well take a nap because there is nothing better going on. Usually within an hour of waking up in the morning he wants to go back down for a morning snooze. Then after lunch he's ready for another. By dinner time he's whiny, cranky and tired again but we make him wait until bedtime. Occasionally his nap times will allow a quick 45 minute to an hour long nap from 4-5 but not usually.

*ACTIVITY / MILESTONES* - No walking. Nada. Zip. Niltch. Nothing. He's been trying to talk a whole lot more though and his signing has improved. He likes to practice coloring and he knows how to play with a toy car correctly. He is advancing, just not in the gross motor skill department.

*CLOTHING* - The same. 

*TEETH* - Seven. Four on top, three on bottom.

So, not really that much to report. Sorry. Development kinda slows during this time in a baby's life. However, you can bet that I will blog like crazy once he starts walking! I'm both nervous and excited. Anxious and yet cautious. I want him to but I don't. It's weird. He'll do it when he's ready, I suppose.

Miranda has been doing really well lately too. She's really blossomed into such an amazing little kid. I still can't believe she's five. It's crazy! I have a FIVE year old. She definitely still has her trying moments but they are getting fewer and farther between. I've been practicing with 1-2-3 Magic lately and it REALLY works.

In other news, it seems like we are one step closer to being homeowners. I know I've been saying this for a while, but if all goes well we might close by the end of the month. Exciting! Wish us luck!

Aw, so close ...

I was doing so well! I had a post going every single weekday! Yesterday I failed you all. I'm sorry.

To make up for it, here are a bunch of Instagram photos from the past few days: 

Here's a quick rundown of our activites:

Saturday we had our weekly donut date with my dad and stepmom. Then we went to go visit with my aunt. Afterwards we drove to Essex to go visit Thomas the train!

Sunday was BUSY! We did the March for Babies in the morning, came home for lunch, went bowling with Adam's family and did dinner at the hibachi for his mom's birthday. We followed that up with cake and presents at their house. 

Monday we went to Sturbridge Village. Adam is away again this week and he FINALLY left me the car. It was in Sturbridge though so we made a day of it. On the way back to avoid traffic we stopped at the mall to let the kids play. Nicole and I caught up on Once Upon a Time after the kids went to bed.

Yesterday was quiet. I met up with Stacey at the library in the afternoon. That was about the most exciting thing of my day.

Today was even quieter. I went downtown after dinner to pick up some odds and ends and fulfill my chinese food craving.

Ta-da! You're all caught up now! Yay!

Lucky Number Seven

These are actual words from the Hallmark card my husband gave me for our anniversary. I love it and I think it speaks a lot of truth.

"Stuff only boring old married people like us understand. That Friday night is actually the perfect time to go grocery shopping. That no one else can drive you crazy quite like the person you love most in the world. That it's wonderful to have someone you can always lean on ... and possibly fall asleep on. That it's hard to beat waking up beside the person who's given you so many of the best days of your life. That date night, although a nice idea, bears little resemblance to an actual date. That the ten-thousandth kiss, in its own quiet way, is just as sweet as the first. That "for better or worse" really means "for better or worse". That love takes work. And time. A lifetime, to be exact."

 Everybody say it with me now ... AWWWW! Isn't my husband sweet?? He also gave me other great news, but I will not share that on my blog. There are some things that need to remain private.

There are also some things that don't. Like the fantastic gift he got me!!


DIAMOND EARRINGS!! You know you're jealous!!

So, even though my hubby is back in Maine for our anniversary, it was still amazing and I can not tell you how much I love my husband and how lucky I feel to have him in my life.

I will leave you with our song that we've had picked out for us since we met. All the words still ring very true to me.

Happy Anniversary Adam! *muah*

Recent happenings

Adam and I went out on a quick date a little while back. We went out to Buffalo Wild Wings, Cold Stone Creamery and Best Buy.

At Best Buy, Adam bought me a brand new laptop to help me pass the time while he is away for work. This is how I have been getting up new blog posts so much lately!!

We bought Elliott some cute new sneakers.

 

Elliott was extremely happy all week and never threw any tantrums ... 

We went to a birthday party.

Miranda had her face painted. 

I nostalgia'd over a toy we once owned. 

There was a wicked awesome homemade cake.

We played with the party favors. 

We went to a Daffodil Festival and we had to ride a shuttle bus. 

We played at the mall.

And, Miranda went to her very first opening day of fishing! Maybe I can get Adam to write a blog post all about it, since I wasn't there.