Adios, Florida!

Ok, so I've got us all packed up and we came with 4 full bags and are leaving with 3 full bags. What is wrong with this picture? I've purchased a ton of stuff, too! Who knows?

We've had a great vacation. We spent one rainy day driving to Aaron's grandparents in Vero Beach (1hr 30mins away) visiting them. Typical with older people, our visit was planned around meals "you kids can come for lunch and stay for dinner, or leave the next day after breakfast..." We opted for leaving after dinner despite Grandma's encouraging words about how easy it would be to stay the night there with three kids and that we "wouldn't need anything". Grandpa is 91 now I believe and despite his age he gets around great and his mind is as sharp as the day he worked as an engineer for dupont helping to invent products we use every single day. The moment from our visit that will stand out in my mind forever is when Grandpa, myself and Austin got into the elevator alone (the "fast" kids were long gone) and Grandpa leaned in to kiss Austin on the cheek. It's the first time they have met Austin and it's just amazing to me that love is just "there". It's a surprisingly long walk from the dining room back to the grandparents room and Jacob and Brody were thrilled with long hallways to run down. Austin wanted to keep up SO BAD. He would instantly fuss to be put down when he saw the boys running and initially he would crawl on hands and knees. Then hands and feet. Then he would sit up and reach his hand out to me, so I would pick him up which resulted in instant tantrum with Austin throwing his head back (fun stuff!). So I would set him down and try to have him walk while holding his hand. Problem is, he walks just fine but he wants to run. Try explaining to a 15 month old that you have to walk before you can run. We survived, but I've got one frustrated baby on my hands.

Tuesday and Wednesday were slightly overcast with occassional sun which works out just fine when you have a bald baby and red head in the family... less concern over total sunscreen coverage ;) We enjoyed our days with mini golf, pool time and ice cream.

Thursday was our last day there and we experienced thunderstorms all day with tornado watches. Aaron was a little antsy, but it gave me plenty of time to do laundry and pack and the boys were perfectly content running around our hotel.

Tomorrow we will head to Mooresville, NC, just north of Charlotte to visit with Sherry & Martin. GPS is calling it an 8hr drive, for us it will be at least 9 with stops and we'll most likely be getting into Charlotte around rush hour which will cause a few more delays.

Cute moments from our trip:

• Aaron handed me his score card from miniature golf. I glance at it and say "what the heck?" He said Jacob is good with numbers, so he let him keep track himself and asked him the score at the end of each hole, which included gems like "FIVE FIVE SIX" and "FOURTY ONE HUNDRED"
  
• Today during our rainy day we were watching a movie Brody claims is scary (Mater Tall Tales). Jacob happens to get off the couch at one point during the movie and Brody says "Jakie, I NEED you"
  
• I totally forgot to bring the boys tennis shoes on our trip (just crocs for Bro and flip flops for Jake), well Bro can wear his crocs with socks so I was mostly concerned about picking up a pair of tennis shoes for Jacob for our time in (cooler) NC. OF COURSE Jacob picks out Lightning McQueen shoes. I didn't care, they were from Target and cheap. We get home and Brody instantly claims ownership. I asked him "Brody would you like a pair of those shoes?" His response? "These ARE my shoes." Needless to say I ventured out at 10pm tonight (after the rain) to buy Brody his own pair.
• Brody chasing the Sand hill crane (?) with NO FEAR that the bird will turn around and peck him.
  
• Brody trading in one scrape for another falling every. single. time. we walked outside.
• Aaron trying to convince Brody to go play anything with him and Brody's response was "Mommy going? Jacob going? Austin going? NO. DON'T LIKE DADDY." With absolutely no remorse at all.
  
• Austin, who refuses to walk, but twice since we've been here has been in the standing position and jumped up and down (in tantrum mode, getting air) and still remained standing.
  
• Brody saying "At Florida, Mommy?" from about Thomsponville (10 miles away) on for the entire extent of the trip.
  
• Jacob being more thrilled to show me the lily pad he caught than any fish he's ever caught.
  

Florida 2011

We survived the drive! We left the house at 7:30 a.m. thursday morning and it was a chilly 2 degrees out. We arrived in Orlando at 4:45 p.m. on Friday and it was a balmy 89 degrees out.... ahhh, it was definitely worth the stress of the drive! The drive really wasn't too bad, it's just really l o n g. We kept talking about flying vs driving and I don't know... at this point with all the crap we bring (bags, carseats, stroller, pack n play) flying really isn't that much more convenient. But you can bet you behind that as soon as these guys are out of carseats we will be taking a plane! When we left our house the roads were still quite snow covered and icy and even once we arrived to the highway (about an hour later) the highway only had one lane clear of snow until a little south of Big Rapids. By Grand Rapids though, I think we had lost the snow completely. We stopped in Cedar Rapids for Breakfast and then just north of Indianapolis for lunch fuel and to switch drivers (from Aaron to me). I drove until just past Nashville and then Aaron took over from there to just south of Chattanooga (Ringgold) where we stopped at 10:30 p.m. for the night. A solid 15 hour day and the kids did great up until we hit traffic/construction that delayed us an hour in TN. The next day we left at 8am and Aaron drove the whole way to our destination in Orlando. Originally we were going to switch when we stopped for lunch in Valdosta but the kids were totally sick of being in the car at this point and Aaron decided I had the harder job of trying to keep the kids happy so he decided he would stay behind the wheel. Brody told me he "had to go pee" about every 2 minutes because he just wanted out of his seat and luckily I was able to call his bluff and we didn't have any accidents! No major slowdowns on this leg of the drive, we were grateful!

Yesterday was Brody's third birthday! We had decided not to do Disney this year and originally I was kind of feeling bad that we would be in Florida on Brody's birthday and NOT taking him to Disney but when we woke up yesterday I realized that he would probably want to do ANYTHING other than get in the car again. Even if it was Disney World! So instead we had a relaxing day of swimming, fishing and playing around. He had a great day, despite falling on the basketball court and getting a mark on his forehead that is a perfect little shape of the flooring (he also has a line down his nose but you can't see it well in the photos). Everyone else is having a good time as well! Jacob is currently on his third round of mini golf with Aaron and Austin has been a pretty happy guy too, despite cutting two teeth! Oh and the best news... so far they have been sleeping great having all three boys in the same room!

March: In like a lion, out like a lamb

But that lamb is a real mean son of a bitch! ;)

I'm making up for my lack of blogging by doing three blog posts in one day ;) Last night we enjoyed a lovely snowstorm complete with thunder and lightning! It even woke Jacob up, but thankfully he went back to sleep and just told me about it this morning. We are leaving tomorrow morning for Florida so we are extremely grateful the storm came last night! We'll be driving to the Tennessee area and spending the night and then making it to Orlando hopefully Friday evening. No plans for disney this trip, we aren't brave enough to face the crowds during peak spring break time ;) But, we are looking forward to not working (Aaron), miniature golf (Jacob), daily ice cream (Brody), swimming & splashing (Austin) and the best mudslides in the USA (me!)... oh ya, and the sun and warmth (hopefully!). We'll keep you posted!

Brody's birthday party!

We celebrated Brody's 3rd birthday last weekend since we'll be in Florida on his actual birthday (March 26th). I can't believe my spirited little guy is three! I love him so much and really enjoy looking at the world through his eyes - he's just so full of life and feels things so deeply (happiness AND anger!!).



Extra icing for Brody!

Oh wow, is Brody sharing here? Oh wait, I think he's trying to take the toy back.
Opening presents is a serious job:
Brody loves his big T-Rex!

My sweetie!
Can you tell someone is a little afraid of the movie?
See the birthday boy now?? ;)

Little Austin!

Skiing with Kimmy Gibbler

Kim and Peggy recently bought some new ski gear and couldn't wait to try it so we all enjoyed some spring skiing at Crystal Mountain! It was Peggy's first time skiing and she did great, aside from a wanting to take the chairlift on a roundtrip ;) Kim sister Jenna and her husband Sean also joined us and Aaron and I had a blast hanging with a group of friends. The weather definitely consisted of a "wintery mix", but we made the best of it! Thanks mom for watching the boys :)

Me and the hubs:



At the Vista:

Kim and I:


On the lift:
Peggy and I:
Another one of Kim and I:
Cute couple, Jenna & Sean:

Visit with the Shadducks

Last weekend we met up with the Shadduck family in Big Rapids, as always it was SO NICE to see them! I often get frustrated that we don't have many friends where we live but what we lack in quantity we sure make up for in quality with our long distance friends :) I love you all!

The highlight of the weekend was when we went to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant and when the hostess said "How many?" and someone answered "10", I thought, no way. There can NOT be that many of us. It's crazy that we are a group of 10 now and 6 people in our group are 5yrs and under!

Here are all the kiddos: Owen (10 months), Kyra (5), Jacob (4), Austin (1), Brody (2) and Leah (3).


We were asked "Are they twins?" lol
Owen is like "Dude, this kid won't share the bus OR the ambulance, what gives?"

Conversations....

Today the boys have been EXTREMELY loud and rowdy, especially during Austin's nap. Jacob brought something up to me and asked me to read it to him. Here is our conversation:

Me: I'm not very happy with you today. I'm not going to read that for you until you promise to start behaving better. What do you need to do to behave better?

Jacob: Please mom, be happy.

Me: No, what do YOU need to do to make me happy?

Jacob: Give you a kiss?

Really? Is it really that hard to figure out that I don't want them to wake up the baby?! Ah, some days it takes everything I have not to scream STFU!!!

********

Earlier today, after Breakfast.

Brody: Gotta go poopies, mommy!

Me: Ok, into the bathroom, c'mon!

Brody begins taking off his underwear and says...

Brody: I've got mud in my underwears!

Awesome.

*******

Last night in the car when I was about to make a phone call:

Me: Ok guys, I need you to be quiet, I'm going to call Sherry. Do you guys remember who Sherry is? The pretty one with the long blond hair?

Boys: Yes.

Me: Do you remember who Sherry's boyfriend is?

Brody: BRODY!!!

******

Last week I assisted at Jacob's preschool. Jacob brought his Blue Angels Airplane for show and tell and took it up to the teacher.

Teacher: Oh my goodness, Jacob is this a U.S. Navy Blue Angel?

Jacob: Yes

Teacher, to the class: Whose daddy works for the Navy?

Child, whose daddy happens to be the one in the Navy: We don't have daddies.