Peek a boo

Christmas snapshots

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Our Christmas was a lot of fun with Pickle. She spent the season tearing down oranaments from our Christmas tree. We enjoyed the holiday with D's family in town for a week. Grandparents, Uncle Eric and his girlfriend Jess came to visit. They drove 13hours with a sleigh full of gifts. There were gifts, gifts and more gifts. So many that our entire dining room was filled to the brim. Knowing they would buy tons of things we decided to go very sparingly with Lil Pickle. We bought her a few books and Santa brought her a new chair. The chair was a HUGE hit and her grandparents got her a table and chair set that was also a hit. The joke of the day was when she took it upon herself to stand on top of the table and dance vs. sit at the chairs. I hope this isn't setting her up for her future. Lil Picke also loved the cleaning set that Doda and Glenda brought her. She loves to do anything that Mommy does. She spent the day walking around with her new broom but was very annoyed with her fake food. She would take a bite of her fake food and then throw it because it wasn't real however; her cousin Dessa thought the food was really cool. Pickle also received a beautiful engraved bracelet from her Nomie. The bracelet made her feel like a big girl but the box was the real hit! She loved the box that the bracelet came in, so much that she screamed when I took it away from her. She still is a little young for actual presents. It was great to see her play with the random toys and boxes. You never know what will be a hit with toddlers.
Glenda and Doda stopped by on Christmas Eve to drop off presents and we had our friends from Chicago over for Christmas Eve. My brother and his family came over on Christmas day. Needless to say, it was nice seeing all of our family and friends. My brother's daughter, Dessa was such a flirt with everyone. She is the most outgoing little toddler! She hugs and kisses anyone and is so warm and friendly. She is an absolute doll! And then there is our little Pickle. She is very stand-offish. She is just a girl on her own mission. She doesn't try to impress anyone and if she doesn't want anything to do with you it's obvious. She loves her Daddy and Mommy and when we are around she doesn't careless about anyone else. She is also a huge fan of Doda, Uncle Eric and my mom's husband Tom. Forget about it if you are a girl. I love the fact that she is so independant and determined.
Normally during the holidays we go to different houses to spend time with family. It was nice to be at home this Christmas Eve and Christmas. The hustle and bustle can get overwhelming and I have to say, it will be hard to get us to leave in the following times to come.

Bath time!

Pickle loves bath time. She is pretty daring in the tub. She puts her face straight down in the water and trys to drink like a dog.

Baby bootcamp party at Little Gym

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went on a early morning Thanksgiving walk in the cold. We wanted to start a tradition to exercise before stuffing our faces. We were headed to Tommy's for the day to spend time with family.

The face says it all

I have never met a 1year old with such a BIG personality. Pickle is such a stinker! Yesterday we took her to the park. She played on the play set and has learned how to go down the slide backwards all by herself. D put her on the swing and she was having a great time. Laughing like crazy. Well, it was time to leave and he grabbed her to go. She threw the biggest fit we have ever seen. She started slapping D in the face and pinching his nose. Then for the next hour she wouldn't look at him. When he would get in front of her face she would push him away but not make eye contact with him. She holds grudges already!

Feeling overwhelmed? Blogs, emails or facebook??

I received a great question the other day through email from a person who may consider themselves technologically challenged. The question was "what is the difference between email, blogs and facebook". This is a great question that I'm going to try and answer......

A blog is s specific address that you have to check for updates. Similar to a website.

An email is a way to contact one specific person. Email is great in many ways but can also get overwhelming with all the company emails, jokes and junk emails you receive. It seems to always feel like a to do list task.

Facebook is the best way to stay in touch with people in your past or people you currently correspond with. The great thing is that you look for old friends or people contact you to be friends with them. Only your friends can see your profile. FB gives you the option to post things happening in your life, photos, videos, etc. If you want to see what someone specifically is doing you click on their page. If you don't give a crap you ignore them. I like it because it says Frankie is........(fill in the blank) you can see what someone is up to and comment on it. Like my latest was Frankie is shopping for boys names. Any Ideas? And some people commented on names for me. I have found a lot of old friends and it's nice to see what they have been up to. They also have a lot of things to raise money or awareness for different causes. Like there is a green site, you can send trees, plants to your friends and each thing sent raises money for the rain forest and many other causes. Personally I like facebook over my space because I feel that it's a more mature site. It's also more interactive if you choose to interact.

This is the definition I found on Wikpedia for facebook.
Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004.[1] The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. The website's name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus.

I hope this helps everyone and I hope that in may encourage some of you to join facebook! It's a lot of fun.

Just the girls vacation

Pickle and I spent two weeks in Florida visiting my mom. She treated us to a fabulous getaway! The flight was a little tough. Pickle doesn't know how to stay still and the fact that I'm loosing my lap by the day didn't make it easy. We haven't been out to visit my mom yet in Florida so it was a great time to getaway before the new baby comes.

Pickle is quite the onorey one. She wouldn't let Big Mama (grandma) hug or kiss her. My mom isn't very patient either about letting the kids warm up. Big Mama would try, try and try to get kisses from her. Finally, Picke decided she would just hit her to get her away. It ended up being a game to Picke and she would tell Big Mama "GO!" My Mom never let up and Pickle continued having a power struggle with her. I finally told Picke that nobody wins a power struggle over Big Mama. Of course when Pickle wanted a kiss she would head right over to my mom and give her one. It just had to be on her terms. Hmmmm, reminds me of somebody.

The weather was great, 80's almost the entire time. We spent almost everyday at the beach. The beaches were breath taking. I have been to a few beaches and this one is by far the prettiest! The white sand is what did it! Sand like I had never seen before, fine and white. It took Pickle a few days to get used to the sand. At first she would get it all over her and then try to wipe her face clean with her dirty hands. It was hilarious to watch her struggle with the sand. It was EVERYWHERE, that is the only down fall. We would take Thai food to the beach everyday and picnic next to the water. The dolphins would swim by to say hi which was nice to see.

The two weeks went fast but we were eager to get home. Pickle had the Daddy blues and so did I. Toward the end of our trip she would walk around the house saying Dada or when we went shopping she would yell at all the men that would pass us "Dada?". She changed a ton while we were away. She grew a ton and did so many funny things. Needless to say, Daddy was shocked at how much she had grown and changed. He said, "You guys are never leaving me again!"

Attention Mom's to be.......can I just say.......

Can I just say, I'm in love with the store the Pumpkin Patch! They seriously have the cutest kid clothes I have ever seen. They don't have one in the city I live in but about an hour away is the only one in the state. I believe it's an Australian company and they have the greatest ensembles for kids. Bright and lively! Everything is made to coordinate so, you can have a variety of different outfits with a few pieces. Not to mention the quality is top notch. These pieces can be washed and washed and the shape and color stay true! I have noticed as Pickle has started walking that quality does matter. Being a stay at home mom, you have to pick and choose where you spend your money. I have decided that I will sacrifice and buy all of my clothes at Target just to splurge on a few pieces from the Pumpkin Patch. I'm also a huge sucker for clothes at Gymboree, The GAP and Old Navy. Their quality is also made to last!

This is a funny story, I'm a huge fan of purchasing kid items on Craigslist. It's a great way to buy gently used items for a fraction of the cost. Most of Pickles toys have been purchased on Craigslist. I buy anything that can be Clorox down and washed. Well, I see an add stating Gymboree Mom's selling all their gently used kids clothes at a garage sale. So, it's sat morning and I head to the garage sale. It was like nothing I had ever seen, mom's swarming around with arms full of clothing. I look and find a few cute outfits, I then look at the price tags and realize that they want 15+ for their used clothes. I couldn't believe it. I had no idea of the resell value of brand name kids clothes. So, I leave empty handed because of sticker shock. I go home and look on ebay for the same thing and realize the same thing. Pumpkin Patch, Gap and Gymboree selling used at top prices. Who knew?

The photos shown are the latest outfit from the Pumpkin Patch. Cute huh? Thanks again Marcia!

Happy Halloween!

This was Pickle's 2nd Halloween. We decided to go to trick or treat street at a small local town near ours. This is a really quaint town with great little shops and restaurants. We were meeting the baby bootcamp gang for the festivities. We loaded up the kido's in our wagon and they were crowd stopping. ADORABLE!!!!!! One little chic and one mean lion. Both kids are a week apart. We gave them their first lollypops and they were in heaven! At one point I had to take Pickle's candy bag and then she realized it was in her best interest to steal Riley's halloween candy. What a stinker!

Diana's Pumpkin Patch

We made the biggest parenting mistake ever. Watch us on the next evening news. We had been driving for 3 hours on our way home from Glenda's. Pickle had been in the car seat way too long. We were on a mission to find this famous pumpkin patch. By the time we got there Pickle was crabby and wanted out of her seat. F and D unloaded and shut the doors to realize that D had dropped his keys. CRAP the doors were locked and we were in the middle of no where and to top it off........Pickle was in the car. We were in po dunk no where! AHHHHHHH, we freaked out. We called 911 in a panic. Oh my god, we locked our infant in the car. Pickle was silent but huge tears were rolling down her face. She was scared and quite as can be. Sweat was rolling down her forehead. Tears were rolling down my face and I was boo hooing. Within 5 mins a police officer was there to calm us down and within 10min a lock smith was there to save the day.

The pumpkin patch ended up being wonderful! Our two pumpkins only cost us 60 bucks(including locksmith fee's). Not bad I guess, we actually thought it would cost more. We learned our lesson! Carry a spare key!

Happy 63rd Doda.

We all drove down to help Doda celebrate his 63rd birthday. The guys were put to work building a loft for Doda while the girls hung out. On sat, Lily woke up in the middle of the night and cried for an hour straight. She had never done this before. About an hour into the crying we had people at our door to try and rescue us. By this time Lily was so frustrated. Doda walked into our room and Lily reached out with her blankie. Doda scooped her up and she instantly started to settle down. His magic touch was what she needed. By this time we had the whole house awake at 4am so we just woke up and brewed a pot of coffee (all except me, I went back to sleep). She was getting her molars in and was a BEAR! She spent half the time crabby and by the time Sun rolled around she was back to her fun self. Evan and Brody spent their time riding golf carts around and messing around with the guys. Glenda and Doda were happy to have their family all together. Unfortunately, we don't get out to see them very much. It ended up being a cold weekend. Burrrr! We had a great time!