Sweet Summertime

I thought about going back to my last blog and reading what I wrote so that I could catch the 28 of you up - but that would waste about 20 minutes which is my allotted time for blogging.  And generally I blog with my calendar in front of me so that I can try to remember our comings and goings, but that's not happening either.  But you know what is coming HManifold??? A home tour!!  Sort of...you'll get pictures of the rooms I have taken pictures of.  It is taking a while, because lets be honest, who in the world has a clean house all at one time?? Certainly not us.

But first...confessions.  And bullet lists.  Why not?

• On occasion BML is out of town, or has meetings in the evening that turn into happy hours that go well into the night - and while I miss him... I really love catching up on my liberal talk shows. Oh how I love The Rachel Maddow show.  It's true.  Sorry to disappoint some of you, but I just can't hold it in any longer.  I watched the one with Wendy Davis in Texas and the recent Supreme Court rulings.  I even shed a tear or two.  It was awesome.

• The kids carseats are disgusting.  How do they even get so gross?? What happens back there?  Most of the time I really don't think I want to know, and I know that it's my fault for basically throwing things back there at them so they won't fight each other.  And it doesn't help that everyone brings something into the car and I am the only one that takes anything out.

• Recently, lots of my people have been going on trips.  Which meant a couple weeks ago I headed to and from the airport kind of a lot.  I actually found myself really enjoying the trip - particularly the picking people up part - I love living in Florida for that reason, that I get to be my people's airport pickups instead of them always picking me up.  Plus the cell phone isn't a bad place to spend a quiet 20 minutes.  Once though I drove Aunt T's car and she had an Avett brothers CD in there - I am so rarely in tune with good music these days so P and I enjoyed the new tunes.

• We have been swimming A LOT.  My parents have a salt water pool now which I am pretty thankful for, otherwise my kids would have completely green hair.  And even little L is learning to swim...as in she jumps in by herself or just launches herself off of the steps so you better be ready to catch her - and P since he usually comes barreling in right behind her.  It's the only way to spend the hot hot afternoons this summer.  And popsicles - we eat a lot of popsicles.

• I recently read a book I think titled The Year of Biblical Womanhood - which I thought was pretty funny most of the time but it made several mentioned of another book Radical Homemaking.  This book was on my to-read list on my phone that I never access so I checked it out of the library one time. I returned it without coming even close to finishing it because I quickly realized that since I couldn't sew, didn't have the time, patience, or energy to grow all of my own food and then can it - among other things.  I did however, start making my own laundry detergent which mostly cleans our clothes when I remember to put them in the dryer (or else we walk around all week smelling of mildew...this has happened several times, its disgusting).  But I'm having a stain problem with the kids clothes...back to the drawing board....which means buying stain remover.  No biggie.  Trying to cut down on the budget you know.  

• I think little L would prefer to be raised by her Yay Yay.  She was most distraught when Yay Yay and Granddad were on vacation for a couple of weeks and were no where to be found when we went swimming.  When we picked them up from the airport both kids insisted Yay Yay sit in between their carseats and L hung on for dear life the whole ride home.  For the next several days she was hysterical whenever Yay Yay would leave...Don't go again Yay Yay! She's just getting used to having you back in town!

• I love summer.  Love summer.  I love the 4th of July.  I hope that FTD might blog a little about it - because while I can find the pictures, it'll take me forever but I'll try to include some here.  We are carrying on the neighborhood tradition of a parade - bring your own decorated float which consisted this year of strollers, radio flyers, bikes, & wagons.  We had grandparents, parents, kids, neighbors, aunts, & dogs all stopping traffic around the lake.  We ended the parade with popcorn, popsicles & capri suns - it was awesome.  It also was a looooooong time until fireworks.  Sweet L fell asleep in my arms that night which has never happened in her life.  Good times.

Thats all I have from here friends!  Just kidding.  I'm pregnant.  Yep, baby #3 is on the way!  Most of the 18 of you knew this already I think.  I'm due Jan. 2nd which makes me 16 weeks today I am pretty sure!  Yikes, its hard to keep track.  So probably the guest room which I will show you in a minute will give way to a new baby room, but for now we'll plan on keeping the little one in with us for a bit and then decide if the kids will share a room or if we'll wait on that for a little while.  I'm feeling pretty good these days, tired, but nothing out of the ordinary.  Everytime I ask P if he wants a brother or a sister he responds with "What's a brother?" and "Two, there's two of them!"  Needless to say, we are also now in the market for a new car....BML can't wait to be a minivan family.  I'm in denial about it - but come December I am sure there will be one in our driveway.

Lastly, pictures...because I am too tired to put them next to their bullet point and some may have nothing to do with this post at all...it is what it is...my babes and our house :)  Until next time...in September :)

The house:

Lovely Lucy's room:

Precious Peter's room:

The kitchen:

Living Room / TV / Playroom:

Desk wall :) :

"Sitting room" --> P calls it the talking place, just inside the front door

Kids bathroom:

Clearly we are missing the laundry room, guest room, master bed and bath.  Whoops.  Thought I took pictures, but I didn't.

And now pictures of what we have been up to the last few months!

L finding it difficult to ride in the grass that P pushed her into

7:15am.  It has been raining for 7 days.

T and P on a toddler walk

L being L

P loves water / sand  toys

P leading L gently through the overpass at the science center

silly face

loving our new sunglasses at yay yay and granddads

The last few are some of my favorites since they are of Uncle RBDIII visiting us in his helicopter!  Awesome adventure.

pictures from my phone:

L and her favorite friend Pax

Mr. Conductor is pumped about his train and the forest he built.

The water is freezing, but L will not be deterred.  We're at the Pancake House at Deleon Springs.

This is not a bad way to spend your afternoon.  

This, on the otherhand, is more strenuous.

and here, I've have basically given up for the day.  Look at how much fun they are having!

Some friends invited us to the beach for the day - it was overcast the whole time, but the kids didn't care a bit.

Pool time at the beach.

She does whatever he does - no matter what it is.

Hooray for the 4th of July!

Until next time!  But I promise, at least 2 more times before the baby arrives! :)  Side note: This actually did take me all day to write - so like all of my posts, I am not editing.  At all.  So there.

baby, you can drive my car

I am going to blog backward since who knows how much time I will have and yesterday NEEDS to be blogged about.

After lunch yay yay (LTD) went out to the garage to gather some things and PDL followed immediately after her.  I went out with L to gather him up since he was just in his socks and it was almost nap time.  I put L in P's radio flyer car just to see his reaction which I was sure was going to be no no no no no! up! up! up! but instead he grabbed the handle and took off running down the driveway.  hilarious.

P drove L all the way down to the lake so that she could look at the ducks - we saw in P's words, baby ducks, a mamu duck, and a yay yay duck.  He even turned the car toward the lake so L could see the ducks.  He was also intent that she listen to the radio as she was riding so he stopped every 30 seconds to turn it back on.

Be sure to stay tuned for the video shot by LTD ( yay yay) while she was walking backward toward the lake...

yep, thats yay yay....falling off a ledge and almost into the lake.  P thought it was hysterical.  It was.  :)

Long Time Gone

This post may not be a whole lot of fun, but it has been a long time coming.  Every time I sit down to write someone (P man) wakes up, or the internet is working, or the internet is working but I can't access my computer with my pictures on it.  Forgive me.  It's true, living at 1127 definitely has its perks, but it also has its fair share of trouble too.  I mean, what do you expect when there are 5 adults, 2 kids, & 2 dogs all living under the same roof?  Not to mention the bazillion people in and out and around of the house all day every day.  Throw in a toddler who won't sleep, dogs who are sick sick sick with the rest of the crazy that surrounds us and you can imagine that life is a little hectic here.  In a good kind of way.  Most of the time.

Milestones of our family that I may or may not have already told you all about:

P man: no longer uses a pacifier, and demands to sleep in a big boy bed.  I have two major goals to accomplish with him before this summer, potty training and riding his balance bike.  I haven't concluded yet which adventure will be easier to accomplish - depends on the day.

MLL:  almost 6 months old.  I probably won't be writing again until she actually is 6 months old, so I'm updating you now :)  She's a happy, easy going baby who rarely cries and is always smiling.  She especially smiles at her brother and when no one is looking he can be caught making funny faces in her direction.  Though he really hates it when she grabs a hold of his hair (who can resist!?) Speaking of P's hair - I have yet to go ANYWHERE since that kid was 9 months old without someone commenting on his hair.  And as far as I can tell, everyone had white blonde hair like his when they were young.  Thats the word on the street anyway.

We spend most of our days in the back yard or taking a very slow stroll around the lake close to my parents house.  Sometimes we only make it around the creek but it takes P an hour to do that and its mostly nice to get out in the sunshine.  We are also still swimming at least 3 times a week so I am thinking of putting the kids in swimming lessons (amend my goals to potty training, bike riding, and swimming).

Everyone is still busy adjusting and making friends.  We'll be church hopping soon to find a church home (suggestions??), I'm going to a Bible study, an occasional girls group, date nights, exploring parks with different friends and trying to be somewhat helpful in maintaining the house hold. Its a full time job.  P still loves to bake so we try to do that on occasion but he is less than helpful now that he has discovered that cookie dough tastes delicious.

I'm starting to get a bit anxious living in transition mode since most of my things are still packed away in storage.  BML saved some of my sanity by setting up a small little office space just for me that is far enough away from the action that it takes someone at least 3 minutes for someone to find me - so that's some good quiet time :)  I think we'll start to move our stuff into different storage with more access soon since it is on average 77 degrees here each day and I still have Annapolis winter clothe hanging in my closet.

Aunt T, LTD, MLL, and I are headed up to Pensacola Beach / Gulf Breeze this weekend for our cousins baptism and to see family.  We're looking forward to the time together, but we all will miss the boys!  Especially P...we'll miss everyone, but especially P. :)

I'm attaching some pictures of everyone from LTD's computer - is anyone out there on instagram?  we just started - i put pictures on there fairly often and would love to see some of yours!  Leave your name in the comments (ha, like anyone ever comments :) ) or search for us!


p.s.  how awesome is CMD for doing IMPROV!!??  I about wet my pants just thinking about it.  i could never do what he is doing....we're pretty proud!

p.s.  attaching pictures is frustrating me.  i will try again later.  maybe.

and so it begins...

1127 is quieter today.  BML is back to work, CMD left a week ago, RBD III just walked out the door, FTD has officially started full time school again, and RBD Jr. is back and forth from Jacksonville.  But it was so so so good while it lasted.  P man coined a new word in our family, dobie.  He usually used it when he was really, really happy.  P would walk around the house, most of the time in just a diaper, singing "dobie, dobie, dobie, dobie."  I think it is safe to say that we have all been "dobie" for the past 10 days or so.  But we have to go back.  Back to finding work negotiating contracts, finding work as an actor (know anyone???), providing blankets of freedom, learning, judging, and little person raising, and of course I can't neglect to mention LTD who does all the work holding us together.  We are a thankful bunch, we have many blessings. 

Over the holidays I have loved watching the aunts and uncles play and cuddle with my babies.  I don't know why, but there is something different about watching all of them interact than when someone else is with them.  They each have their own special things they do with the babies, and they are all so so loved and cherished.  So much that I have to tell P most of the day today that they are gone, but they will be back soon to play.  Back soon to watch him try to ride his bike, back soon for tickle fests, and copter, back soon for impromptu trips into the pool, they'll be back soon.  But we'll miss them while they are gone.

Here's a picture of us, minus the judge and BML (busy working.)  We're dobie. (it's about 60 degrees, P made us wear hats.)

Did we fail to mention RBD III is back!!??  He is, safe and sound.  We were too busy being dobie.

Baby girl....too big already for the bear suit.

Baking.  A favorite activity.  P makes great cookies! (apologies to Auntie Tess, who also loves to bake with P, I can't access pictures from NC yet...)

Tee ball.  Keep your hands and face clear!

Boating around sunset.

Copter!!  Uncle RBD III has perfected 2 full rotations of flying high...awesome, and heart pounding.  P always wants "more!"



 I love the uncles with the babies.  Adjusting hats, important piece of outer wear on our walk.

Thanks for keeping up with us during our hiatus!  In other news, both P man and sweet L have been sleeping at the same time for an HOUR!!! I wish they would have told me their plans, I would have taken a nap myself.  But then, you wouldn't get this post and we would lose all 16 of our faithful followers.