10 Pictures

I saw this on someone else's blog about posting the 10 latest pictures on your cell phone. So I wanted to jump on the bandwagon. Here are my 10 latest pictures (excluded pictures of clothes I was trying to sell). 

Eric sent me this picture of the girls settling in for a nap, together for the first time in the double bed. They did not nap. 

Chloe reading a Dora book. 

Yes! 

Chloe double-fisting. 

Chloe with her crazy hair. She  got paint in her hair at daycare and there wasn't proper time for washing before we went to town to pick up Eric. And of course she pulled out and lose her hair elastic right before we went into the store. 

One of our first nice, spring-like days :)

I gave her a Push Pop to keep her entertained during our hour-long car ride to a friends house last weekend. 

We were pretending to go to sleep with Eric's huge pj pants as our blanket. 

Chloe decided I needed all the puzzle pieces on my chest. 

Annnnd I saved this from the internet cause I love it. 

Silent Sunday: More Engagement and Family Photos

Vacation Long Weekend & Engagement Photos

[ Preview of our engagement/family photoshoot ]

This weekend was amazing. 

On Friday night, two of my best friends arrived, one of them with a 4 month old baby in tow that I was just getting to meet for the first time. Oh how I love babies. Friday night was a low-key night of chatting, eating Chinese food and hanging around home. We were all in bed before 11 o'clock. We're old folks now, folks. 

Saturday morning is when Eric and I left with the girls to get our pictures taken. Mom was awesome and met us at the photoshoot location to watch the girls when we took pictures of just us. I haven't seen all the pictures yet, but I love the preview ones. (I'll post more at the bottom) 

Mom took Chloe when the left the photoshoot, and we took Madi to be dropped off with Eric's Mom. 

Then we were childless. 

We had our dinner, bought some booze and headed home. Slowly, our friends all started to arrive. Drinks were poured, and the BBQ was fired up. BBQ'd burgers and potatoes are some of the best foods you can eat. 

Later on we even had some cake to celebrate "everything", aka my engagement, the birth of a baby 4 months ago, another friend's pregnancy (she's 26 weeks), the birthday that just passed of a friend. 

We had more drinks, played guitar outside on the deck, and played some cards. We were probably all in bed around midnight (old folks) but it was still an amazing night. 

We all had breakfast together Sunday, then got in our cars and went back to our hometown, where Eric and I met up with the girls again for a beach afternoon. When we were through with the beach, we went back to our (free) hotel room and went to the pool almost right away. Eric convinced me to go down the waterslide once (I'm not a big fan) and we went in the hot tub for a bit. 

We ordered some room service and watched Big Brother and ended up in bed at a decent time again. 

We had our breakfast in the morning then met up with Mom, our babies, and my nephew to go to a water park. The same one we took the nephew and Chloe to last year. Everyone had a blast. Madi is like a fish. She's not scared of the water at all, so I'm sure she drank half the pool. She was constantly losing her balance or just throwing herself in the water on purpose, and we'd have to pull her back up but she'd always be laughing. 

Chloe was obsessed with the waterslide, but she was only big enough for one of them. Mom helped me out by catching her at the bottom, and I'd run her back up to the top and send her down again. 

We were there for more than 5 hours. We had tons of snacks and and we were so thankful for the frozen water bottles Eric's Mom sent in a cooler with Madi. Apparently it was crazy hot yesterday, but we never felt it because of being in the water and shade constantly. 

Despite the sunscreen we all wore, Eric still got super burned. 

I could've stayed a lot longer, and the girls probably could've too but it was a long drive home. Madi slept most of the way, Chloe only slept for a little while. It was nice to get home. Today I'm back to work, and back to reality. But not for long, because I'm taking tomorrow off to spend it with friends again. 

Annnnd.. here's more engagement/family pictures. 

Family Pictures

Once upon a time, I mentioned that we took some family photos with Eric's family. I don't have much to say today anyway, so here they are. 

The whole family: Eric, me, his brother's girlfriend, brother in the white hat, two sisters, sister's boyfriend, his mom up front, along with Chloe, Madi and the two other grandchildren of the family. 

Eric's mother and the grandchildren. I love that they treat Chloe like family too.

My Kids Photograph Nicely & Other Happy Things

Over the weekend I took the girls by myself to visit my mom. It was a tad bit spontaneous, since she didn't have a phone for me to call, so I just showed up. 

It was a gorgeous day. Sunny with just a bit of wind. 

For the first time in forever, I had my DSLR camera with me, instead of just my good friend iPhone. Since I'm not very familiar with the camera (my new goal for this summer!) it was hard at first to get any good pictures in the sun, and very little shade to work with. 

In the back corner of mom's yard is a tree with a tree stump next to it. It was the perfect spot to grab a couple of pictures of the girls. 

I can't get over how adorable they turned out. 

So my new goal for the summer is to learn to use my camera to the best of my abilities. I paid enough for the camera, it's time to keep it out and use it daily, instead of just during holidays. 

On an unrelated note, boyfriend had his appointment this morning with Madi's mother and a mediator. They signed a document. She'll be spending every night at our place, but she will be with her mother on Saturdays and Sundays. I feel so much better already just knowing I'll get a bit of time to myself this weekend, and that I'll be able to spend a little more alone time with Chloe again. 

I would've been more than willing to keep Madi some weekends, but not every weekend and every weeknight while her father works. Less than three months ago she didn't live with us at all. I'd rather take my major life changes one slow step at a time, if possible. 

I think this will be much better for my entire family. 

Happy mom = happy life, isn't that what they say? 

Dinner Theatre and Christmas Eve

Christmas is finally over with. I say 'finally' because it was so busy, I could barely enjoy any of it. It was still great though. The girls, and boyfriend and I, were so spoiled by everyone. But more on Christmas later. 

First, I want to recap the days leading up to Christmas. 

On Friday the 21st, boyfriend and I went to the dinner theatre. I scored us free tickets because that's my job - booking the tickets and chasing down people for payments and such. 

The show was absolutely amazing. So funny, and the entire cast was so talented. The food was fine, but I'd go back again and again just for the show. 

We went with boyfriend's best friend and his new girlfriend. I'd like to say we all had a great time. 

We took a few pictures together, and with our girls before leaving them with the babysitter. 

Me and my pretty girl

Daddy and his little girl

We always look awkward together. 

As mentioned in my last post about Madi's tantrums, we went to a small gathering on Sunday to meet up with boyfriend's father. Before going to the party, we rushed to the mall to get the Santa photos out of the way. They did not turn out very nice at all, but those are the joys of toddlers. Neither girl would sit on the seat with Santa or next to him, so for the first time in at least a decade, I got my picture taken with Santa. 

Happy, happy girl

Last year I bought Chloe this shirt. She's 15 months, the shirt is size 6-12. I knew she was small, so I was hoping it would fit this year, and it did. I also bought a bag of used clothes from someone, and unintentionally got the same shirt in Madi's size. We went them to daycare matching on Christmas eve. 

I tried to get a photo with them. They weren't having it. 

They got away. 

Madi left that afternoon to visit with her mother's side of the family. She got a couple of toys and an adorable outfit from them for Christmas. While she was gone, I went shopping with my crazy brother and his girlfriend. He bought us dinner. 

Boyfriend got off work early, so him and I got to relax for awhile after Chloe went to bed. Not long ago, a wore out Madi got home. She slept on boyfriend's shoulder while we talked with her grandmother for awhile, then went right to bed. 

We did up the stockings, got all gifts ready, packed our bags, then it was off to bed to wait for "Santa" to come. 

Men are silly.

It is no secret that I'm a little boring. 

I was reading some blogs this morning about crafts, and activities and the most amazing closet I've ever seen (scroll down near bottom).

Meanwhile, I'm just like... did anything even happen this week worth mentioning? Even just to document for my own sake?

Usually the answer is no. And still is. 

I haven't posted any recent, decent photos of Chloe in awhile. And I have a few, plus like one from the day we put up the tree. Maybe I'll share someday. 

I barely do anything besides work and clean and baby duties. 

But last night I helped boyfriend make biscuits for his daughter. He passed me the measuring cup then I measured, mixed, stuck my hands right in there to mix that gluten-free mess some more. While he watched. Just as all was mixed, and I had a couple of biscuits on the pan, shaping another one in my hands he looks at me with a smirk and says "thank you for helping me make biscuits". 

Oh. Right. So he helped shape the rest. 

Awhile later, when they were done and cooled and we were about to go to bed, we were both in the kitchen. Boyfriend grabbed a garbage bag from under the sink and shook it open. I was half paying attention, but thought nothing of it. I turned back to fill Chloe's bottle with milk, and turned back to him to see him putting the last biscuit in the garbage bag, and twisting it to 'close' it. A garbage bag. 

And then I laughed. And couldn't stop laughing. I finally managed to ask why, and he told me it was because we didn't really have a storage container clean that was big enough to hold them. 

"What about a Ziploc bag?" I asked. He stared at me for a moment with that same smirk on his face, then went in the drawer and pulled out two Ziploc bags while I continued to laugh at him. 

It's the little things. 

And just for fun, here are a few recent, horrible photos of Chloe. 

Someone hopped on the potty herself

This looked like a good place to sit

Chloe helping me clean the bedroom by bringing me the hangers. By walking! 

PS - Enter my Boy Meets World giveaway. Don't make me beg. 

Silent Sunday: A Wedding

You remember my friend M's wedding? Well we recently had a visit and I was able to steal some pictures. They are currently the only pictures I have on my newish computer. Enjoy! 

Me and the bride

My favorite of the girls

I did not know this was taken. I'm drinking and holding a naked baby. How inappropriate. I swear I'm a decent parent.

My 13 month old with the attitude

I mentioned a little while back that we visited my grandfather and took a bunch of pictures in the woods the weekend before Halloween. A lot of the pictures turned out so nice that of course I have to share. 

Chloe's been growing up so much lately.

Last night I was in the kitchen getting her supper ready and she was playing in the hallway. I looked over and all of a sudden she was walking into the kitchen.

She practices her walking all the time now, but still crawls 98% of the time. I think in a few weeks I'll have a full-time walker on my hands.

Oh the trouble we'll be in then.

She's also adopted a bit of an attitude. And by a bit, I mean a lot. 

Girlfriend now throws herself on the floor when she's mad, annoyed, or simply inconvenienced. Sometimes I'll try to put her down on the floor, and she won't sit. She just wants to go right to the floor, whining along the way, not caring if she hits her head. So far, it's still in the amusing stages, but I can see how it'll soon start to get annoying. I'm not a fan of tantrums, but at least they're not too loud. 

Usually I don't pay much attention when she does it. 

Except in Old Navy. It was hard to not pay attention the day she kept dropping to the floor in Old Navy while we were shopping. If I put her in the stroller, she'd arch her back until her body was straight as a board, balancing in the seat of the stroller. 

Yeah, my daughter is that child now. The one you don't get excited about taking into public. 

But like I said, it's still a little amusing to me. 

Besides that, she's all full of dadas and babas and uh ohs and tickle tickles. She loves to talk and make noise, and always wants to be on the move. She's quite the funny little girl.