Happy New Year!!!

Wow!!! The holidays sure did come and go!

Sooo, what's been going on with me?

I'm still huge.... growing more and more everyday. C-section scheduled for February 9 (2 days before my due date). I can't wait for it to get here. Pregnancy really isn't for me! Ha!

Christmas was great! Little Girl got her first gifts... some booties and this ginormous bear (from her 2 grandmothers of course). The boys had a ball!! Jordie was dying for a skateboard, but well, we all know what a bad idea that would be. So, Uncle H got him a 3 wheeled scooter instead. When he opened it, Jordie said, with the utmost sincerity, "this is exactly what I really wanted!" He is so cute!! LOL Really though, what 3 year old says stuff like that?? lol Since the boys are moving into their new "boys room," they got all new bedding and pj's to match. Really, they are so cute!!

Umm, what else??
Still in physical therapy, but I'm gonna stop at least til after the baby's born. I'm too big to do many of the exercises and I can do what they've taught me at home. If I'm still in pain after some of this weight comes off, then I'll go back.

Ummmmmm, I guess that's it. My last day of work is Jan. 22.... so I'm counting down the days til a little bit of freedom before I have 3 babies in the house... Wowzers!! 3 babies!

Til next time.. here are a few highlights from our annual Christmas breakfast. Enjoy!

Dirty Thirty

Me & Ty at my bday eve dinner

It has arrived. I am no longer in my twenties. Very mixed emotions about this.... especially since it was only a special day to me. Perhaps I should have made my virtual countdown into a real countdown so my family and friends would remember that this day is actually kinda important. I mean, you only turn 30 once... oh well No use in crying over spilled milk. It would have been nice to at least have a birthday cake though.... :-\

I did celebrate some though! Ty took me out on Saturday night for a wonderful dinner on the water. We dined, he drank, we talked - and actually discussed things other than the kids... it was a really nice night. We got home a little before 11 and he said he wanted to give me my gift at midnight. Uhhh, as I like to say - good luck with that! I was asleep like 5 seconds after he said that! lol

my bday dinner!! soooo yummy!!!
*fat girl grin*

Anyway, I woke up on my actual bday and Sweetie Pie Ty gave me an envelope. Wanna know what was inside?? 2 tickets to see Maxwell!!!!! I ADORE Maxwell!!! I saw him in concert like 8 or 9 years ago and could NOT wait to see him again. At that concert, an up and coming Alicia Keys opened for him. This time, Chrisette Michele and Robin Thicke are the openers. I've seen Chrisette before and she puts on a really good show, but I have never seen Robin - and I am sooo looking forward to seeing him. He's so talented... I wonder what he's like on stage. Should be a good time! YAY ME!

You know a blog post wouldn't be complete without a cute kiddie anecdote! So, after church the boys and I went to IHOP for a quick lunch before going to our next church service. I was craving pancakes and I would NOT be denied! Not on my birthday!! LOL So we're there and the boys are just speaking to EVERYONE!! They're friendly kids, but they were in overdrive! At one point, Jordie tells one of the waiters (not our waiter), "It's my mommy's birthday!" It was so cute... he was so proud! LOL Fast forward to the end of our meal.... and who comes over?? Like 5 waiters singing happy birthday to me! It was so nice (since no one in my real life sang to me) and really quite pitiful all at once. I can only imagine the discussion they had before they came out...
guy 1: "hey guys, it's this preggo chick's bday today. let's sing to her!"
guy 2: "dude, why??"
guy 1: "b/c she's preggo and it's her bday and she's out there alone with 2 toddlers! i bet this would make her day!!"
guy 2: "how sad is that??!?! ok, let's do it!"

After they sang, this really old guy came up asking if he could give Jordie a dollar for his bday and another dollar to his brother. I told him that was very nice of him, but it's actually my bday and Jordie told the waiters. Old guy was all smiles! He was so proud of Jordie for speaking up... you'da thought he was his grandfather or something!! LOL Needless to say, I made 2 bucks at lunch!! haha

So, even though that's all to report on my 30th birthday, it was still a nice day. My uncle was installed as pastor at a church in Delaware so I got to witness some of that and also see some family that came in for that occasion. You know the boys were too excited to see MomB and Dadu! I'm glad we were able to attend (even though we left early.... toddlers working off no naps around dinnertime - yeah, it was time to go).

AND, today is my grandparents' 62nd wedding anniversary!!! Yep, you read that correctly - 62 years of wedded bliss!!! And I say bliss with the greatest amount of writer's privilege EVER! lol

All in all, it's been a nice weekend - but what I'm really excited for is next weekend!!! Maxwell, I'm coming for you - big belly and all!!! lol



So, if you're reading this and think I'm not grateful for my nice bday dinner and concert tickets.. you are mistaken. I'm very grateful, but still a bit hurt that no one thought me turning 30 was a big deal. I mean, can I get a song?? a cake?? something?? And yes, my parents and in-laws gave me cards and little tokens to acknowledge my bday - but if y'all can't tell by now - I am about the TIME and TOGETHERNESS wayyyyy more than the gifts! I'll take the $$ in the cards though! LOL

Ok, vent over. I'm 30 & I'm dealing...

Hiatus Much

Sooooo, we went on a bit of a summer hiatus. But, now we're back! A hiatus from what you're asking...... why our monthly dinner and a movie of course! lol

On Friday, we resumed our tradition by bringing back our inaugural movie a year ago... Finding Nemo! The boys LOVE this movie (& so do I), so we had a definite winner. I love a good success story! :-)

On Saturday, we all headed out to Sesame Place. It's so close, but we've never been before. I had never even been as a kid.... such a deprived childhood! LOL Anyway, the boys had the BEST TIME EVER! Jordan is so cute... he slept the whole way there, but woke up just as we were parking. Of course, each section of the parking lot has its own Sesame Street character which is the first thing he saw as he awakened from his slumber. And he asked me, "Mom are we at Sesame Street Place?" Now this wouldn't be a big deal, except I NEVER told him we were coming here!!! LOL As with most of my kiddie anecdotes..... I guess you had to be there. Too cute though.

Anyway, we enter the park and are fully expecting the boys to run wild and cause all sorts of chaos. Soooooooo not the case. They were such good boys!! The weather wasn't really in our favor (cloudy and cool) so the boys couldn't get the full experience, but they loved it just the same. And on top of the good behavior, they weren't even scared of any of the rides! I knew Aaron wouldn't be, but I was a little unsure of Jordan. I couldn't really ride too many rides myself (darn rules for preggo ladies), but I still had a blast! Soooooo much fun!!! I had such a great time, I think we're gonna try to go back next month - maybe in time for Halloween. We'll see about that though.

All in all, a GREAT weekend!!!!! I love family time! lol

p.s. we find out what we're having on Friday.... stay tuned! :-P

Beach Much

What a fantastic weekend!!! Gorgeous weather, super fun family, lovely little boys to surround me.... all is great when spending a day at the beach!!

This was the boys first trip EVER, and really my first in a very very very long time! I haven't been to a local beach since 1998!!! and I LOVE the beach! I haven't been to any kind of beach since our trip to Hawaii..... and that was 5 years ago. What have I been doing all this time??? Like I said, I love the beach!!

Well, we packed up the car and headed out on our trek for some fun in the sun. The drive wasn't so bad - even if we did leave 90 minutes late. ggrrrrrr Once we got within 5 miles of the ocean, however, all of that changed. It took us at least 45 minutes to make it those last 5 miles and another 30 minutes to find parking.

WHEW! We finally made it! We set up our chairs, laid out our towels, took out all the sand toys, slathered on sunblock and bug spray... we were READY!

Next up, throwing the boys in the ocean. Now, the boys LOVE water. They love to play in the tub and their little pool in the backyard. They even (quasi) enjoyed taking swimming lessons at the Y. They had never really seen the ocean up close before though, so I didn't know how they'd react. Let me re-phrase that - I knew EXACTLY how they'd react, but I was hoping they'd surprise me.

Aaron HATED HATED HATED the water! To get anywhere near it, someone had to hold him and they could not under any circumstances bend down. He had to be at least 4 feet in the air! He is too much. Jordan HATED HATED the water!! He would only get close enough for his big toes to get slightly damp. Since he was at least standing on his own, I figured he would probably warm up to it before we had to leave.

Since the water was out of the plan, we commenced to making sand castles. Rather my mom and the boys. I tried to get involved, but I just couldn't muster the energy or the enthusiasm required for such a task. I participated as marginally as possible. haha

Anyway, a GREAT day was had by all. And just like I thought, Jordie finally warmed up to the ocean. He actually went pretty far in. Aaron on the other hand, was just happy to stick his head in the sand (which he did over and over).

I can't wait to take them back to the beach!!!!

Oh yeah, and I've NEVER seen the Jersey Shore look so clean in my life!!! I don't know what they've done with it, but the water doesn't look half as mirky as it used to. I was pleasantly surprised..... we are definitely going back!

Check us out!

Funnin' Much

I CANNOT believe it's August already...
Why is the summer going by so fast???

Ok, so I know I said I've been doing a whole bunch of nothing... but I also said we've been sooo busy! Yes, I know I'm a walking contradiction... just work with me! LOL I'm in a delicate state! *snicker*


So, here's what we've been up to for the past couple of weeks..
SO! MUCH! FUN!

Well, this little guy turned 1!! I can't believe how time is flying! I swear he was just born like yesterday!! For realss!

Anyway, he had a barnyard themed party. It was so cute and the boys had a GREAT time!!! Leave it to party planner extraordinaire, Tif, to make a first bday party the event of the season. Ha!

What else... the annual family reunion. Every year we hang out on the Chesapeake for a weekend and play catch up. When we went I was only 11 weeks preggo, but I looked at least 4 months. at least. They say you get bigger earlier with each pregnancy, but DAYUM!! LOL

Anyway, look at these groups of guys and gals. Can you spot la preggocita?

What else?? Oh yeah! Fridays!!!
Can I please tell you how we went to Friday's one night and they had a face painter, a balloon artist and Pablo from The Backyardigans!!! At Fridays! Annnddd it was Tuesday, so kids eat free!! SCORE! Take a look...

Holiday Weekend

Happy Belated Independence Day all!! I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend as much as I did!!! I love long weekends.... even though I probably work even harder on my days off then when I'm in the office! haha

So, we had a great holiday weekend... parades, impromptu bbq, a little rest, ice cream galore.. just fun times.

I had Friday off (woo hoo!), so Ty & I took the boys down to Penn's Landing for the annual All You Can Eat ice cream fundraiser. It was so hot and there were soooooo many people! This is the 9th or 10th year they're doing this, and this is the most people I've ever seen there. It is for a good cause, so I didn't mind the wait. Well, we get in there and I am in ice cream heaven! Y'all know I have a sweet tooth... I almost fell out from all the ice cream I ate. I tried a few flavors of water ice (I'm not the biggest water ice fan though), I had my fave, Haagen Dasz strawberry.. I also had chocolate, cookies and cream, this strawberry lemonade popcicle thing, vanilla, more cookies and cream.. YUM!!!

GG & her Pook waiting for their ice cream

It was hot as blazes out, but we were just getting started!!

On the 4th, we set up our chairs to watch the town parade. Did I mention that it starts in front of our house?? Yep, it does! So the boys get to watch them line up the fire trucks and the bands and all the other revelers. We've also gotten used to our town "neighbors"setting up their chairs in front of our house as well.. *neighborly side eye*

The firemen are always so nice and let the boys sit inside the trucks. They just LOVE it!! I can't blame them - I secretly wish they'd let Mom in one of those trucks! Ha Ha

After all those festivities, we actually found some time to rest. Mom was pooped!!! (but in a good way) I had to get ready for our next series of adventures - might we actually make it to the beach this year??? One can hope!!!

Whatcha Doin'?

a little of this...

a little of that...

a whole lot of this...

and a smidgen of that...

YIKES!


Yaaawwwwnnnn! All that activity sure makes a PinkGirl tired!!

Fantastico!

(this pic is a little shadow-y, but I love it!)


Our long weekend was muy fantastico! How was yours?
We went up the NJT (NJ Turnpike for those of you not familiar) to pay a visit to my dear old dad (verrry old! ha!) and my lovely mom. Seriously, what a great time!!

The boys (true to form) did NOT want to leave!!!! We literally had to drag them out of the house kicking and screaming.
So, what made the weekend so grand? I got to sleep my little heart out. Nothing like being able to sleep uninteruppted for once. or twice.

Actually, that's not true. On Sunday morning, Jordan came into our room and woke me up. BUT, he just came in because he was "trying to find MomB and Dadu." He didn't even want us!! Score! I got to go back to sleep....

I also got to see my friend Z. We've been friends since 1984... she's dope. We are very different, but I think that's why we get along so well... we complement each other.
So, she's due with her second baby boy at the end of June. She's super prego! She's getting ready to move too, so she has tons on her plate. It was great seeing her though. All the boys got to play together, which was hilarious! I wish we lived closer so they could play together more often, but she's not trying to move to Philly and I can't afford to move back to Jersey! We've all seen this right.... Well, we don't live that large (not yet anyway), but North Jersey (where I'm from) is just too expensive.

ANYWAY....

The boys had a great time too. They got to wear down their grandparents and just "wow" them with their intelligence and boundless energy. oh yeah, and their complete disregard for authority.

a little see-saw time...

a little baseball time...

SWWIIINNNG Jordie!


Jordie running the bases (WITH the bat!)

Dadu running the bases. Run, Dadu, Run!

And I gotta say it was nice to have all my boys together all at the same time. I'm just sorry I didn't get a good shot of my brother.... Next time. Here are my other 4 boys though!

Since the month is quickly coming to a close, we decided to do May's dinner and a movie while on our trip. This month's feature, Bolt. Jordan saw this in the movies, so he was really excited to see it again! (or so we thought).

The boys getting ready to watch our movie

We ate our dinner first, then all gathered in the den (me, Ty, the boys, MomB and Dadu too). The movie started, we watched. The doorbell rang, it took 3 people to answer the door (2 under 3 feet tall).

It was Uncle Aych! So long Bolt.

My big brother came in toting bags like he was Santa Claus or something. Since he didn't get to see Jordie on his birthday, he didn't dare enter the house empty-handed. Jordie got the obligatory pajamas (for some reason, he ALWAYS needs pj's), and he got him this and this. Jordie loves Little People and he loves animals - so this gift was PERFECT! Of course with new toys, or any toys for that matter, we must reinforce the principle of sharing. Jordie let Aaron play with 2 of the animals. One for each hand. Isn't he generous!! LOL

So, all in all, the weekend was a success! No major attitudes, not too many tears, good weather, good company.... what more could I ask for?

Ohhhh, that's right! A blog post wouldn't be complete without some some mention of an ailment. I was fine the whole weekend... until I woke up Monday morning. I woke up feeling dehydrated and hung over. I spent the next 5 hours spilling my guts from the upshoot and the downspout - if you get my drift! *wink* Since then, I feel super nauseous each time I eat... no matter what I eat. Not sure what kind of bug I have, but I'd like him to vacate the premises... asap!