Hanging Out With the Babes

We got up this morning and decided that we needed some breakfast. Joli thought that was a good idea too!
I was so excited to have some nasty eggs and bacon!!!

After breakfast we cleaned up the house before Jessica's brother got here. Cole was not all too thrilled that he wasn't being held, but we got him set up with some toys for a short period of time.

Then he got sleepy so I put him in the frontpak while I cleaned and he completely passed out!

Last night we had a meeting on base so Jess, and her brother Cody, and his girlfriend Desiree, took the kids to walk around Coronado. Joli being shy when Cody talked to her.

After we got home Joli decided to have a moment of love.

We put on some music and all danced around. Cole thought it was hilarious.

Another fun day and now we get to start a whole new one!

Old Friends, New Friends, and Wine

Last night I picked up Jess and Cole from the airport and we headed back to Robyn's house to hang out and chat with the girls. I had left Joli there to run down to the airport and Cole was so excited to see her!
At first Joli was very sweet and loving and wanted hugs and kisses. Now he's been here for a little bit and she's jealous and wants all the attention. Yep, two-year-old.

This morning little miss tutu had to be center of attention. I was trying to take pictures of Cole and someone wanted pictures taken of them too!

We didn't really have much a baby seat to set Cole in so while Jess showered and I ate breakfast, I got creative and brought the stroller inside. It actually worked pretty good cause he could sit up and see me and play with his toys on the tray too.

As we were getting ready Jess was showing me Cole's little sunglasses and I'm cracking up cause he totally leaves them on and everything. He's just too cool for school, lol!

One of the things I wanted to do while Jess was here was a movie and wine night with all the girls, so this was the message board today.

I took the tv from my bedroom and put it in Joli's room so that she and the other kids that were going to be here could watch some kid movies. Of course we had to test it out and make sure everything worked okay after I set it up.

There ended up being about five toddlers and two babies. The kids just loved playing in Joli's room and watching movies, and I let them have food in there too. I'm sure I'll be finding a bunch of that tomorrow! Our friend Deanna brought her daughter Isabella that's just a little younger than Joli and the plan was for them to stay the night. So after the other kids left we got Joli and Isabella all set up in their pjs and they just relaxed and watched movies together. Their first slumber party!

The two babies stayed out in the living room with us and those that didn't have babies passed them around when they weren't being fed.

After a little bit we busted out the computer to play around on facebook and look at pics of our guys. We all miss them!

Here is one of the babies being held by Nikki the expert nanny! She's our super baby sitter, we love her!

I decided to be a very stupid woman and started drinking wine before I started cooking. Yeah it's never a good idea to drink when you haven't actually eaten yet. So after a little while the wine caught up to me and I started using dried cranberries and cheese squares as props. I guess I never learned not to play with my food!

We had so much fun though, and I'm so glad everyone came out and had such a good time. I took it as a sign that everyone was having a good time when we didn't actually watch any movies. We played three different movies and no one had any clue what was going on in any of them! So wine night was a hit!! (* surprise, surprise*)

New Shoes, New Shoes

So I finally broke down and bought the adorable pink converse shoes that Target has. I look at them everytime I go and the other night we went and they had one pair left in Joli's size. I took it as a sign and just did it! And you know what? They are sooooooooo CUTE!!!! I'm so glad I got them! You can't really see them all too well in this pic, but Joli's hair looks very cute, and her little outfit was so cute too!
I told her to blow a kiss for daddy and this is what I got.

That's how she kisses. This was on Tuesday and I was so excited because Kacie and Chris were AWESOME and got me a massage for helping Kacie the past few months. So I took Joli over to their house so she could play with Baylie while I got rubbed. She insisted on taking two monkeys!

Then Kacie and I went out for our last dinner together before Chris got home. We were very excited to have some awesome food and neither one of us had to cook for a change.

Here is a picture of the shoes from under the table. Aren't they so cute!?!?!

Since Valentine's Day is over and we're on to St. Patrick's Day I'm finally able to put my chalkboard on the front door! I've decided to put the most used parenting phrase of the day on it. This was today's.

It replaced the "If you don't like, don't eat it" phrase from the past few days. Today we went out to lunch with Chris and Kacie and it was so exciting to see him here in San Diego!!! Joli was absolutely giddy with excitement and for the first ten minutes of lunch all she did was giggle everytime he talked her! Of course I had to put in her an outfit that matched her shoes!

We're so excited that Chris is home. I told Kacie I feel like I can relax a little and not worry about her being alone anymore. I'll still be over there to help with the dog and laundry when she goes into labor, but with Chris home I think we're all a little relieved. Now we just need to see this baby!!! I can't wait! I hope it's a girl because I have the cutest baby clothes for her!! Now that I'm over my pink illness I'm thrilled to see a little baby in it!!

We Got a Box Today!

We are so used to sending boxes to Joe, it's really exciting when we get one! Joe's mom sent us a box of goodies and included was a new dragon! Joli was so excited!! She's been talking about her dragon that got his head ripped off for weeks, but now she's got a new dragon to love!

Here is dragon watching us eat dinner. Apparently he wasn't allowed to eat with us. Joli had him all set up to watch us eat from outside the kitchen.Also in the box were some awesome coasters!! I love them!!! There are eight total!

You see how they match the quilt that Joe's mom made us for our wedding?! They so cute I'm so excited!

Among some of the other items was this cute little pail and bucket. Joli can't wait to use it in the yard. She wanted to water my roses that Joe bought me, but since I had them hanging upside down to dry I didn't think it was such a good idea.

There was also a bunch of other things in the box that were awesome!

Here is one last picture from this morning. I told Joli to go outside to eat her apple and apparently that meant sitting in the stroller.

Joli has had some cute little conversation phrase lately. Last night she climbed up on the couch and said "So, how are you doing?", when I responded "I'm good, how about you?" she then said "I'm fine, thank you!". She's just getting so smart, it's hilarious.

Dumbo and Bambi

We finally renewed our zoo membership and decided to head up to the Wild Animal Park and check out some animals. Joli has been especially chatty lately and asked several questions on the way there including "What are you doing?" and "Where are we going?". When she asked the second question (for 900th time) I responded but saying "I am taking you out to the middle of nowhere to drop you off", she then said "Ummmm.... no thank you". I was very entertained.

One of the other things she talked about was how much she wanted to see some elephants. So first stop... elephants!!! It was actually pretty neat because there were a bunch of them and they were pretty close. I thought maybe part of the reason Joli wanted to see the elephants so bad was because she has been watching Dumbo a lot lately but when I asked her if Dumbo was an elephant she said "No, he's not", then when we came to the rhino exhibit she said "there's Dumbo", so we had a disscusion about Dumbo's ears and whether rhinos or elephants had ears like Dumbo.

While we were looking at the elephants Joe called, so we took a little break to talk to him. Unfortunately for Joe, Joli was completely distracted by all the people to watch and objects to climb.

I decided that instead of bringing the hiking backpack and having to carry it through most of the park without Joli in it, that I would bring the sling for when she got tired. It took us a while, but it turned out okay.

Kacie said it looked like I had two hats on because you could barely see Joli.

Our goal was to walk to the bus that would take us on a tour through their African exhibit and then to walk back, that way we would get some exercise but not too much for Kacie's bouncing belly. She has been discovering the effects of caffeine on a pregnancy the last few days. She's totally craving soda, but then a few hours later I can literally watch her stomach dance! Once we made it to the bus she was very happy! Joli was too!

Another animal that Joli had mentioned she wanted to see while we were there were the "graffs". The Wild Animal Park has a ton and when the bus stopped so we could see them Joli made sure everyone on the bus knew they were there!

This ball is kind of floating on water and Joli loved spinning it. Once we figured out it was actually a globe I showed her where Daddy is and where we are. Of course after that she just pointed to random places on the globe and said "Daddy here" or "We are".

This tree is just a fake tree for the kids to walk through. Just call me a kid at heart!

Joli didn't think it was quite as funny as I did, but I made Kacie take pictures anyway.

Once we made yet another bathroom stop, we headed home and Joli took a nice long three and a half hour nap! At the time I thought it was great, and then it was bedtime...

A Few Things

This has been an interesting week. There had to be a point during deployment in which I would have a meltdown and this week was it. I'm better now, just working past it, looking forward to having my husband home again (hopefully soon), and keeping busy. I'm still somewhat emotionally exhausted and have been horrible about answering the phone or returning the calls. Not because I'm trying to isolate myself (believe me I'm never alone), but because I'm trying to keep busy in a productive way, and it's just hard to get things done when you're on the phone with one more concerned person (not that I don't TOTALLY appriciate everyone's help!). So all that to say that if you do happen to be one of those people that I haven't gotten back to, don't take it personally, I promise to call soon!

We haven't actually spent a whole lot of time home but Joli has still had time to explore Kota's new crate. I don't know why people waste money on playhouses. Buy a doghouse and kill two birds with one stone!
One of Joli's new favorite pair of shoes is my monkey slippers. The only problem is I often can't find them

One of the creative things I did this week was to create more cabinet space for my kitchen! I really wanted to get some kind of shelving unit but those usually cost money, so I remembered that I had Joli's changing table in the laundry and wasn't really doing much with it. So I brought it into the kitchen, put some of my small appliances on the shelves and made a curtain! Doesn't it look nice?!

This morning Joli and I went to watch our friend's son, Ryan so she could go to the DMV. Joli and Ryan are about six months apart but equally as unwilling to take turns, so we came up with a new fun way to share.

Okay I'm off to try and catch up on the sleep I've been missing! Until next time...

Relax and Recover

Last night Joli spent the night with Kacie that I could have a night out with some girlfriends. It was nice to have a break, and Kacie got an idea of what mommyhood is going to bring. Apparently no one slept well. Joli was worried about where I was so when Kacie would get up to go to the bathroom Joli would try to get up. Then she would say "go to Mommy's house?" when Kacie told her I was at Robyn's, Joli would pause and say "go to Robyn's house?". She also spent the whole of the night practically on top of Kacie and shoving her little feet in her side. For a woman that has tiny feet poking her in the belly all day, I guess it wasn't all that comfortable.

When I came to pick her up she was very excited, however she did have to wait until Mickey was over. Once we got home she was right back to hanging out on her porch now that the sun is finally out. At least the stroller is being put to good use.
One of things I didn't anticipate was that Kota would somehow figure out a way to chew through his crate, so when we came home this morning he was at the door to greet us. Luckily he didn't destroy any stuffed animals. He did however decorate the house with tutus and socks! Kota also chewed up one clean diaper! I can't figure out why. So after cleaning up the house and ourselves, Joli and I headed off to buy a new, chew-proof crate. It is enormous! It's bigger than both the dressers!!

After we bought the crate we picked up Kacie and headed to an afternoon of pampering put on by our Family Readiness Group. Joli played hard with the playground and the bounce house and all the other activities they had for the kids. She didn't get to sleep at all so once we headed home she was pretty much done.

After changing Joli and putting her to bed, I cleaned up the house and put away all the goodies I got today including more flowers!

Well I'm finally off to bed and hopefully to catch up on the sleep I've missed out on the past few days.

Happy V Day!!

This is how I started out my day!!!
Joe said he felt bad that he wasn't here and he really wanted to do something for me because I'm so wonderful!! Yay me!!!

Joli is also having a fairly good day. We had some friends come over for a playdate and lunch and the girls played and fought and played and fought, just like little girls do. Once they left Joli was exhausted. I went in to cover her up and discovered that the good little mommy had covered her baby instead!

Of course that other baby looks like it's about to fall off the bed and has no blanket. Maybe it's the neighbors kid, lol!!!

Last night we got Peter Pan in the mail and I was excited to see that Joli LOVED it!!

We actually watched it twice last night before I convinced her it was time for bed. Have a great day!!