Its Playtime!

Today, Emily, Jimmy & I met Michelle, Laura & Jim's Mom at McDonalds! We first ate and then the kids went into the play place!

Emily & Laura had SO much fun! They were going through all the tubes and slides, then they just played in the spaceship for about 30 minutes. Jimmy loved hanging out with Grandma & Aunt Michelle!

We all had a wonderful time!

Party at Michele & Shawn's

We were all invited to a BBQ at Michele & Shawn's. My parents met us at 1:15pm and we got ready to head out.

We arrived and were given a tour of the new house. It is beautiful! Michele & Shawn did a wonderful job on it!

In addition to us, there was Shawn's Mom, Shawn's sister and her friend, Michele's parents, Michele's sister Lucia and her family. It was great! I hadn't seen Michele's parents and sister since her 30th birthday party! It was even longer from when my parents saw them.

We had some excellent food and a birthday cake with strawberries and fresh whipped cream for Lucia's son Jack!

Emily had so much fun playing with the boys and Jimmy was loving all the attention! It was a great day!

Fireworks!

Even though I wasn't feeling great, Emily wanted to see fireworks. So we took her to CCM to see their fireworks.

Overall, they put on a pretty good show. They was supposed to go off at 9:45. They didn't go off until 10:00. We got home shortly before 11:00. Emily & Jimmy fell asleep in the car and went right to bed when we got home!

Happy Birthday America!

Yummy!

We (finally!) began Jimmy on rice cereal.

I started with the minimum amount (1 tablespoon cereal/1 tablespoon formula) and he made it clear that was not allowed! He is now on 4 tablespoons cereal/4 tablespoons formula...twice a day. He loves it! He actually grabbed the spoon from me and put it in his own mouth.

Guess who is crawling!

Yep! Jimmy!

The weekend I was in Florida, Jim told me that Jimmy was taking about 4-5 "steps" on his knees! Of course!

So, when I got home, he began crawling all over the place! He now will crawl across the entire living room. And he's getting fast!

My little guy is growing up!

I'm home...

Well, after a wonderful weekend....its back to reality!

What can I say about the weekend? Well, it was amazing!

At various points of the weekend, there were a total of 13 of us! In the condo itself, there were 10 of us. We had a beautiful condo that overlooked the gulf & the sound. The island itself is pretty tiny. There's one way in and one way out....over a very long bridge.

Girls, I had one of the best weekends of my life and I owe it all to each of you! I love you all!

Here are some pictures!

Florida - Day 3!

Today we all woke up early and headed out to breakfast. Where did we go on this wonderful island? IHOP! Okay, so we left the island!

When we returned to the condo, the groups were formed. Some were going jet skiing and parasailing. The rest of us...Debbie, Aggie & myself went to drop Amy off at the airport and then went with Debbie to get her tattoo. While Debbie was getting tattooed, Aggie & I went shopping for souvenirs.

We got back to the shop and Debbie was almost done. Her tattoo looked great! We stopped for food and headed back to the condo to wait for everyone to come back from dinner. From what we heard it was a wild one!

Then, what did we do?! We sat around and talked. We also played a few games...one of which was charades! We laughed so hard.

It was finally time to say goodbye to everyone and head to bed for a very early flight.

I'm so glad I got the opportunity to meet these wonderful women!

Florida - Day 2!

Today, when we all got up, it was time to hit either the spa, dolphin cruise or shopping! Finally, Toni showed up!

I, along with Trisha, Aggie and Tina, was part of the shopping group! It was really hot, but we had fun checking out some of the great stores on Pensacola Beach! We then met up with the Spa group and went to lunch. It wasn't so good!

We finally got back to the condo and the dolphin group showed up. They had an amazing time and had some beautiful pictures and videos.

We all decided to take a trip to the pool and it was worth it! We relaxed a bit and then got ready for dinner. We went to another nice restaurant and had a good meal. This time we all went to the bars. We did some dancing and drinking, but got caught in a downpour!

Overall, we had a good time!

I'm in Florida!

I actually managed to get to the airport on time! I am so impressed, I am never up that early!

I cleared security by 5:40am, found my gate and then just relaxed! We boarded the plane and it took off pretty much on time. I landed in Tampa at 10:20am, found my gate again and just relaxed....well until I saw the plane I was getting on next.

It was a Beech 1900. To anyone who KNEW what this plane looked like and did not tell me....THANKS! I don't mind flying, but this was a little much...even for me. Although this is not my picture (This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License), this was my view...though I was in seat 1F. Yes, that IS the cockpit!

Of course, it just started to downpour when we were coming in to land. That made it extra exciting!

Once I got my bag, I was off to meet Debbie! This is where the fun begins! I texted her to see where she was and when I came around the corner...there she was! We greeted eachother with a hug. We talked a lot while we waited for Michelle & Quincy to show up. They both showed up within minutes of eachother and there was a lot more hugging!

We got the rental car and headed out to the condo, where Melissa, Brandi & Trisha were already waiting. We got there, dropped off our stuff, did more hugging and decided we were hungry. So, Debbie, Michelle, Quincy & I headed out to eat. We went to this great little sports bar called Sidelines.

We got back to the condo and just relaxed on the balcony overlooking the Gulf. It was paradise! We just talked, joked and had fun! This was our view...

The remaining girls, Agata, Amy, Tory, Mimi finally showed up and there was more hugging! We all got ready for our first night dinner. We were going to a place called Portofino Charlies. It was wonderful and I had the best strip steak!

We then divided into two groups. One group went back to the condo and the rest of us hit the bars! We had so much fun and finally ended up at the condo around midnight. It was then that Tina joined us. After some more talking we all went to bed. It was a wonderful day!

I'm Florida bound....

Very early in the morning...I'm leaving for a long weekend in Florida!

My flight leaves Newark Airport at 7:15am, so I have to be in the airport at 5:15am. This means I have to leave my house BY 4:30am.

I'm meeting a bunch of girls that I've never actually met, but I've known some of them for as many as 3.5 years. I met them through a message board when I was pregnant with Emily. Then over the years, I ended up on a private message board with them.

There will be a total of 13 of us. It is very exciting!

Off to the doctor...

So, we had Emily's 3 year appointment & Jimmy's 6 month appointment. Even though Jimmy is almost 7 months, the office was nice enough to let me combine them into one appointment.

Overall, we had two good appointments...

Emily is 31.6 lbs. and 36 inches tall. She passed her eye exam and hearing exam. All her stats look great. She's right where she should be. She had to get no shots, so she was pretty happy about that!

Jimmy is 18.8 lbs and 28 inches long!* We have a big boy here! He's going to catch up to his "big" sister pretty soon. The doctors are pleased with his progress and he's growing right on track. Jimmy, on the other hand, had to get 4 shots and an oral. I know its for his own good, but he's such a happy baby, its hard to hear him cry in pain.

After the doctor, we went to Hooters for lunch. I love their buffalo shrimp and its just what I was in the mood for.

*At Emily's 6 month appointment she was 15.2lbs and 25 inches.

Overall, it was a pretty good day!

Just a new picture of Jimmy...

Its hard to believe that he's almost 7 months! Time sure flies. And, yes, he is always happy!

Its a good day for a party!

Today we had Emily's birthday party! It was quieter than last year, but Emily still had a wonderful time!

The theme this year was Tinkerbell. Emily was all excited for Tinkerbell, until a week before the party. Then she wanted Cinderella. Oh well, maybe next year!

Emily got such wonderful gifts...and she had a ball opening them!

Happy 3rd Birthday Emily!

I can't believe my baby is 3! It seems like just yesterday that I was in the hospital with her.

We had a pretty fun day. We had to run to Party City to pick up some last minute things for her birthday party. She had a ball turning on all the cake toppers and driving me nuts! She picked out her own candles for her cake...she was so excited.

From Party City, we went to BJ's to order the cake and pick up soda and salads.

Finally we ended up at Stop & Shop, for a few last minute items.

We asked Emily what she wanted for dinner. She said McDonalds, so that's what we got her. We even got her a little cake and sang Happy Birthday to her. She managed to blow out all 3 candles!
We had a very busy day.

Looks Good From Where I'm Sitting!

Jimmy is now officially sitting up all by himself. He can even go from a laying down position into a sitting position. He's growing up so fast! It helps when he has someone to chase after!

Happy Friday the 13th!

So today started off in true Friday the 13th fashion.

Jim wakes me up at 6:00am to tell me the car has a flat tire and he has to call AAA. They call back shortly and say its going to be an hour. However, he only had to wait about 15 minutes and Thor (as Jim referred to him!) got everything fixed quickly.

Then, I was actually able to meet my parents and my cousin from Ireland and his girlfriend for lunch at Longhorn. I call Jim and he's able to get off of work and meet us there. Great! So, I get ready, get the kids ready and start to head out. I get a good distance before I realize...I forgot my wallet. I turn around and head back home.

I get home, grab my wallet and start out...again. I give my Dad a call to let him know that I'm going to be 15 minutes late....Yeah right! I made the mistake of getting onto Route 80 and they are doing construction. A lot of construction! So, I get off Route 80 and take back roads the rest of the way, but that made me about 30 minutes late.

Overall, I did have a great lunch! It was nice to see my cousin, I haven't seen him in a while. And in the long run it could have been so much worse!

More pictures!

Since we couldn't get Christmas pictures taken together this year, Michelle & I decided to do pictures for Grandma's 90th birthday. They came out really cute and the girls had a wonderful time!


We then went to Friendly's for lunch and some yummy ice cream.

After the mall, we all went to the cemetary to "talk" to Tony. When we're getting back into the car, Emily says to me, "I miss Uncle Tony."

We then went to the playground. The girls had so much fun! Jimmy slept through most of it and I got sunburned! It was my own stupidity!

Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?

Emily has been looking forward to this for weeks! Today we are meeting Michelle, Laura & Jim's Mom at Pizza Hut to meet Oscar the Grouch!

Once the girls saw him, they wouldn't leave him alone! They had so much fun hugging him, dancing with him, talking to him...etc! It seemed that Oscar enjoyed them too!