Still On Vacation

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Emma’s favorite saying this weekend, “It’s OK, Mama – we’re on vacation!” Here is our “vacation” picture at the hotel in Chicago where we attempted to rest up for the remainder of our “vacation.”

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It has been a little bit whirlwind – Detroit to Leslie to Meesh’s to Chicago to Leslie to Meesh’s…and soon back to Leslie and on to Detroit – and then…HOME!

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Em told me that she misses her house and her kitties and her turtle. I kinda do too, but I know that our time with family is a precious commodity these days and I don’t want to waste a minute of it. But I also know the saying, “fish and company both go bad after three days…” and I kind of feel like Mich and DJ are going to want to kick us out before the end of the week comes rolling around.

Addie is having (I know, I know – I’m always saying it…) serious teething issues. We spend most of last night pacing and just trying to get her to stop crying hysterically. Things like that don’t seem like a big deal when we are at home, but it is just harder in somebody else’s house, especially when that somebody else has to get up to go to work in the morning.

I am working on the new pics of my adorable new godson, Will and our cutie little Lauren. It was so fun to see them for a little bit of time this weekend and hang out with them. Of course, it only makes us miss them more. Hopefully tomorrow I can get them up.

Now I am going to go burrow into bed with Emma (we are on vacation, remember, so she gets to sleep with Mama!) and try to sleep before Addie decides to bless me with her screeching presence. By the way it is currently four degrees, not 4-0, just plain 4!! Definitely California dreamin’ tonight!

Four Quarters Make a Whole

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We are missing a piece of our sweet, little family pie. Addie is staying with my parents this weekend while we go to Chicago for my godson Will’s baptism. Originally it was just going to be the girls and I, and since I will be sitting up with Will – and that would probably not go over well with Addie – I asked Nana and Papa if they would keep her.

Then, Jamie was able to switch his schedule around and meet Em and I in Chicago. So we are staying at a really nice hotel having a little vacation before we go out to Kim and Brian’s. Emma is so excited and keeps saying, “Mama, we are on vacation!” – but it just feel strange without Addikins here.
Don’t get me wrong…it was a WONDERFUL night. We got to lounge around, order room service and meet Aunt Vicki and Uncle Dick for coffee. And Emma and I took a long soak in the tub and used every smelly spa soap, shampoo and lotion the hotel provides and, most importantly, we all had a loooong nice, uninterrupted sleep.

Now we are lounging getting ready to go grab some breakfast, it is all very luxurious and leisurely and reminiscent of when we were just a family of three. But as much as I can appreciate a relaxing evening now, it just isn’t right. Emma also said to me last night, “Mama, I miss my Addie.”

I do, too.

Pudding face

City Girls Hit the Country

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This was our view a few mornings ago. Michelle made fun of me for being so excited and grabbing my camera, but it isn’t everyday that we see a deer just wandering through the backyard. The freshly fallen snow…it was just really pretty and peaceful.

Deer in the snow

The new snow also meant that Emma had to go out and play in it. So Michelle outfitted Madey, Em and Addie. It took us a total of 20 minutes to get all of them dressed. Addie lasted 2 minutes. The older girls, maybe…15 minutes longer.

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I think Em got her snow quota for the year. She told me she was excited to go back to California and ride her new bike, “because we don’t have any snow!”

Happy 16-months, Addikins

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Um, normally this would be a lengthy write-up about all of the amazing things you are doing or can do this month. But really the most important thing is something you are NOT doing. Which is sleeping.

I must get some sleep.

Maybe tomorrow I will write about your never-ending cuteness, put up all the Rose Bowl pics, and show off our new beautiful niece/cousin.

But. Now. Must. Sleep.

Cheeeese!

Movies, Candy and All Things Good.

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So, here’s a tip: Dora the Explorer, lollipops, and M&Ms are all Mommy’s best friends on a cross-country plane ride and 2-hour car trip.

I never thought I would bribe my children with candy or some sort of electronic viewing pleasure….until I attempted to travel by myself with a 3 1/2 year old and a (nearly) 16-month old, waking them up from their nice, warm beds at 4:30am, making it to the airport and barely getting all of our baggage onto a plane by 6:25am, flying from Los Angeles to Chicago, refereeing a minor lunchtime meltdown and fight over a stroller at Midway airport, and then sitting on a tarmac for 45 minutes…waiting to take the 32 minute flight to Detroit.  That is about the point I pulled out the M&Ms.

Yes, we are interested – we have even stopped screaming long enough to shove some sweet, sweet chocolate into our mouths.

And, thankfully, at this point we have taken off and reached the magical altitude when you can turn on approved electronic devices. So the laptop came out and both girls settled into a sugar-induced, Dora coma.  Addie even let herself fall asleep.

Success! Ah, Dora – Gracias from the bottom of mi corazon! I may not be winning any mother-of-the-year awards with my tactics, but it sure was a peaceful 29 minutes.

Already a bit behind in the resolution department

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I have been meaning to put up my resolutions for the past few days – one of them was to become more organized and efficient with my time, thus giving me more time to blog, scrapbook and do fun stuff with the girls. Ha! Obviously I have not managed to be very successful with that one these first three days of the New Year.

Of course I have the requisite, lose 15 pounds, eat healthier, get the girls to eat healthier, work out more resolution, too. These I really don’t seem to be having too much of a problem with lately. The gym, and the wonderful “kids klub” have totally been saving my sanity. I’ve gotten some quality workouts in lately, and managed to eat my way through the holidays and even lose weight! So, I think that I can’t, or won’t, count that as a real resolution.

My REAL resolution, the one thing I’m going to work on the hardest is becoming a more “mindful” mommy. I am constantly reminded how quickly life is just passing me by. Every day goes by more quickly than the last, and the girls are determined to leave their babyhood in the dust, whether I like it or not. I just feel like I can’t keep up, and I want to just freeze so many moments. But instead I find myself feverishly trying to get work done in time for a deadline or clean a house, that is really only going to be messy in a few hours, anyhow.

It isn’t until I am sitting enjoying a quiet moment with the girls – or more than likely, a not so quiet moment – or listening to them really truly laugh when I realize this is what I need the most in my life. To live more of those moments, hold on to more of those moments and let go of some of the “dirty laundry” that fills my days.

What about you? Any good resolutions? Any broken ones already?

A year of promise and hope

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Although our Michigan football team didn’t hold up any promises or offer even a glimmer of hope that we could win today, I am still certain that 2007 is going to be a great year!

We had the full Pasadena/Rose Bowl New Year’s experience today. Last night at midnight we wandered downtown and gaped at all of the crazy, poor people camping out on the street for the parade this morning. I mean, sleeping bags in the gutter, on the asphalt – staking out their spot for a glimpse of the floats and bands. It was insane. I have been to a lot of New Year’s Eve celebrations in a lot of big cities, and have never experienced anything like that. I forgot my camera, so I don’t have any pictures, but trust me it was c-r-a-z-y!

After a stop off at a pub for a New Year’s drink and the walk back, it was pretty close to 2am by the time we went to bed. Three short hours later, I woke up thinking that my neighbors were being extremely rude and loud (like we can talk, I’m sure they hate us and our screaming girlies!) and realized it was the PA system for the parade. The parade runs right down our street, literally through our front yard. So not only was it a little inconvenient to have the street closed for portions of yesterday and today, but apparently the parade provides a free “wake-up call” as well. At any rate, we can’t complain, they did give us free bleacher tickets for the parade, and it was worth every little hassle!

The parade was amazing, the girls were so very excited about it all. Emma loved the bands, Addie loved the horses, and they both loved the floats. They were pretty stunning! So that was a great way to start off the year. I’ll try to post pictures tomorrow, between the parade and game today, Jamie and I took 525 pictures between the two of us. So, yeah, I’ll have to do a little paring down and editing of some of them!

The game, well, that did not have as good of results – but it was fun just to get to go to a Rose Bowl game, and hopefully when/if we make it next year we’ll have better luck.

So the first day of January 2007 was pretty good, all-in-all.

Two little sidenotes, for any of you following the J. and his job interviewing that we haven’t talked to in the past week, J. is officially leaving Playboy in a few weeks and will be taking the job of…wait for it…it’s a good one…

CTO of Digital Media for the NFL.

Yes, the NFL, as in National Football League. How crazy is that?? It is an amazing opportunity for him, and I am certain he is going to rise up to the challenge and be absolutely great at the job. He is the first CTO of the NFL, ever! I am so very proud of him, I can’t even describe it. Like I said though, I am certain that this is going to be a great year.

The other sidenote has to do with the new year, in a round about way, I guess. For those of our friends and family who are used to getting a Emma/Addie calendar for Christmas – they are on their way. It hasn’t been lost in the mail. It is just stuck on my hard drive, unable to print and collate themselves, apparently. So, I am working on them feverishly and hopefully I’ll have a stack of them to bring to Michigan when we leave (ack!) this Friday. Can that be right, in 4 short days??

Already the year is flying by…I hope you all had a very safe and fun first day of January. Wishing you lots of love and happiness in the New Year.

Musical Beds

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Lately, a typical night at our house involves everybody in a different bed than they are supposed to be at any given moment. The nighttime shuffle is about as close to musical beds as you can get.

It goes something like this…

7:30pm – Addie is tucked into bed, she might talk for a few minutes, but is usually out pretty quickly.
8:00pm – Emma gets tucked into bed, and after a “cuddle”, one more drink of water, the nightly round-up of bear, blankie, and the “glow” watch, and a run through the myriad of other bedtime-prolonging excuses she has, she is off to sleep land, too.
11:00pm-ish – J. and I fall exhaustedly into bed and Tiger (the cat) makes herself comfortable between my feet.

So far, so good, right?

Then sometime between 1am and 2am, all goes haywire. Addie has been getting up (now we know because she has ear infections – in both ears, poor baby!) and J. and I tag-team trying to get her back to sleep. It usually involves Addie and I on the couch for awhile, J. on the floor with us in the living room, or I finally give up and hand her over to J. and return to bed to try to get a little sleep.

Of course, Tiger is still comfortably asleep in my vacated spot.

Then Emma will come and stand by my side of the bed and whimper until I pull her into bed. She’ll “sleep” (and I use that term very loosely!) with me for awhile and meanwhile, J. will get Addie back to sleep and into her bed. When the flailing and kicking get to be too much, I’ll move Emma out to the couch for the remainder of the night…and J. will still be on the living room floor.

Sometime between all of that and dawn, J. will crawl back into bed with me (and Tiger!) and around 7am, Emma crawls in bed with us, too. We try to be very quiet and let Addie sleep a little more – which is usually about 10 more minutes, thus ending our musical beds for another night as we all get up bleary-eyed and cranky.

Except of course, for Tiger. She gets up and stretches like she just had the most wonderful, dream-filled, uninterrupted sleep. And then she moves out to the living room – to continue her nap schedule.

Some days what I wouldn’t give to be Tiger. Each day I just keep hoping praying for a full night’s sleep.

Maybe tonight will be the night….

A New Little Miracle

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J. and I have a new niece, and the girls have a new cousin!

Michelle had her baby at 8:13am this morning, a little girl weighing 8lbs. 7oz. and 22in. long! They have given “Olga” a new name of Gabriella Marie, (and they will probably call her Ella or Bella).

Alexis called me to tell me the news (well, she left a message, since it was 6am here!) and she sounded so very excited. I haven’t talked with Madey yet to see how she feels, now that she is a big sister, too!

First reports say she looks either like Madey (but with a little less hair) or Uncle Ken (!?) but I made Meesh promise to send a pic soon so we can see her! And of course, we’ll be there next weekend, so I might be able to take a picture (or 200!).

Congratulations Meesh, DJ, Lexer and Madey on your newest, littlest family member!

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Update: Here is the first picture released of Gabella Ella!

Gabella Ella

Still Digging Out

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We are still trying to find our living room floor, and some sleep. After trying to get my courses finished this week and dealing with all of the extra stuff going on, I just don’t have anything left for the blog. Sorry. I’ll post some fun pictures of last week, though. And maybe tomorrow…there’s always the hope that we’ll have a very restful and productive day today…and then maybe I can write tomorrow.

Anticipation