Operation Baby's Room/General Decluttering

And so it begins. I know we must create a mess in order to make any progress, but this makes me crazy. I hate looking at it, it makes me break into a cold sweat every time I enter what will eventually be the nursery. I am feeling the pressure to get things done. I will be 30 weeks along on Tuesday and I have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me where I won't be able to really work on the room. I will be in Colorado for 12 days, we might go to Atlanta for Labor Day and I am in the process of planning Abigail's 3rd birthday party! Plus, Abby starts preschool when we get home from Colorado. I guess that is a good thing for the progress of the room though, since I will have Tues and Thurs. free to get some things done! If anyone has an eye for decorating, or wants to come over to help, please be my guest!!!

Ben and Angela's Condo Warming

Last weekend we headed down toward Ft. Walton Beach for a condo warming party. Angela is a new addition to Andrew's office and he is her sponsor. Her husband Ben is also Air Force and they were both stationed with Sam and Brian at F.E. Warren in Cheyenne, what a small Air Force. Anyway, they are living it up while they are here in Florida. They have a beautiful condo right on the water with spectacular views. They put on a great a party and were wonderful hosts' providing yummy food and good drinks! Hopefully next time we go over we can hit up their gorgeous pool :)

P.S.--I stole the majority of these pictures from Sam, thanks!!!

Our gracious hosts, Ben and Angela

The spectacular view from their balcony

Abby enjoying some juicy watermelon out on the patio

A few of the kiddos watching a movie. Well, the girls are watching a movie, Nolan seems more interested in the pretty ladies he is hanging with!

Crestview Creek

We finally made it over to the creek here in Crestview. I say finally because I had originally heard about it last summer while I was in Colorado and then totally forgot about till some other gals mentioned it recently. Sam and I were all prepared with lunch, beach chairs, swimsuits, sunscreen, and towels and 2 toddlers in tow to go last Friday but changed our minds when we got there. For some reason it seemed a bit creepy to us when we pulled up by ourselves on Friday morning. I don't know if it was the weather which was making everything look dark and gray or if we are just a couple of chickens, but either way we opted to wait till one or both of the guys could come with us. It just so happens that Sat. worked out well for all of us and so we loaded up the car once again and headed to the creek. I don't know why it seemed so creepy on Friday because on Saturday it looked just fine and I think Andrew and Brian though we were crazy. Anyhow, we had a lot of fun. The water is very shallow and perfect for the kids to splash around in. They played in the water and in the sand and even took a little tubing trip down the "river". Its awesome that the creek is so close and this is definitely a place we will be going back to. In fact, we might head over there tomorrow!

Our beach site

Ahh, this is fun! The water was really chilly to me but it didn't seem to bother Abby at all!

The boys and the kids talking a walk down the creek

Family photo minus Bucky, he was there but just not in this picture

Floating down the creek

Abby's Top Ten

Abigail's Top Ten List for her little sister's name, as recited during her bath with Daddy tonight

1. Nana (Nah-nah)
2. Dewy
3. Charlie
4. Jewy
5. Kristen
6. Dottie
7. Noey
8. Tary (Tah-rei)
9. Kara
10. Jarry (Jar-rei)

Triple Play Indoor playground

We finally found an indoor playground to go to. Its not the closest, its a little West of Pensacola about 45 minutes away from our house, but its totally worth the drive. It is basically a bunch of blowup bouncer's and slides, but theres also some toys for the kids to play with like train tables, doll houses, and cozy coupe cars. Abby was a bit shy at first and hung out near the doll house for a while but then she finally got brave when Tristan went down the Firetruck slide with her, then she was all about the slides and bouncer's. Some of them were pretty tall and the kids flew down them, Abby had a blast. They even have workers there that get in the bouncer's with the kids and help them if they get stuck or scared which is awesome because that means I don't have to crawl around in there! We happened to go on Character day and at the end of the play session they have a meet and greet with some "characters". The day we went the character was Minnie mouse, and Abby was actually excited to see her and gave her a hug. This was the first character that she wasn't afraid of, including Santa and the Easter Bunny. I guess its time to make a trip to Disney in the near future! Anyway, since Triple Play isn't very close we decided to make an entire day of being in Pensacola and hit up Chick-fil-a for lunch with Tristan and Nadia and then did some shopping at Target (where they were having an amazing sale on toys) and we ended the day with a little ice cream from Coldstone. It was an awesome day and this is definitely a place will be going back to!

A view of some of the bouncers and slides

Abby playing with the dollhouse at the beginning of the play session

In the Princess bouncer

The firetruck slide

Abby and Tristan....he was the one who got her to go down the slide! Thanks Tristan!!!

Abby giving Minnie Mouse a hug

Abby and Tristan hugging goodbye after our ice cream. It was so cute, they would run up to each other every time we got out of the car or to a new place. and hug like they hadn't seen each other in ages. They were very sweet to each each other all day!

July's Ramdom Ramblings

• Abby was sitting on the couch with an icepack for one of her boo-boo's. (She really didn't need the icepack but, it has princesses on it, and they always help you feel better!) In her most dramatic voice she exclaimed to me "This ALWAYS happens to me!" referring to getting boo-boo's. Its tough being two!!
• Abby has a bad habit of sticking her hair in her mouth or her nose. Whenever I tell her to take her hair out of mouth or her nose she just looks at me and says "Oh, sorry Mommy." I don't even think she realizes she is doing it.
• Lately, when Abby gets in trouble for something and she starts crying she has been saying "Zoe got a boo-boo". I have no idea what this means or where it came from. When she finally figured out that wasn't having any effect on us she is now telling me I scared her when she gets in trouble.
  
• Abby had just gotten out of the tub and she was standing on her stool getting ready to brush her teeth with just her towel on. She started twisting and smiling at herself in the mirror and then said to me, "look at my boobies. What do you think they are for?" I responded with "well, everyone has them." She then looked at me and said "Well, Nolan doesn't!"
• We took Abby for a walk and Abby asked if she could marry me. I told Andrew about it one night at dinner and she was listening (as they always do) and then said "Well, I can marry Mommy and Daddy!" I guess she felt sorry for leaving Andrew out!
  

Sneaky Pete

We had a repeat of last week in Destin, except this time we had Sam and Nolan along for the fun. First we went to the free movie which was Surf's Up. It was very cute, but I think it was still a little too grown up and long for the kiddos. In fact, I think Sam and I enjoyed it more than they did! After the movie we hit up the splash pad so the kids could run around and burn off some energy while they stayed cool. Sam and I weren't so lucky, I can't speak for her, but I was HOT! It wasn't overcast like it was last week and I just wasn't able to stand it for as long. After a while we headed to Panera for lunch and that is where the title of the post comes into play.

The kids had been good during lunch but for some reason they wanted to take their shoes off in the restaurant. This is actually a running theme for Abby and she usually asks first and is pretty good about listening to me when I say no. Anyway, we got through all our lunch and we were sharing a cookie and the kids started acting a bit weird. They were turning away from Sam and I and giggling, I didn't think much of it. But then, Sam noticed that Nolan's shoes were off and he got in a little bit of trouble for not listening. All the while, I was oblivious and until I got up to do something I hadn't noticed Abby's shoes were off too. She was totally letting Nolan take the fall for something they both did wrong! I gave Abby a talking to as well and as we were getting ready to leave the man at the table next to us started to chuckle and said to us "I just have to say, I was very entertained watching you all during your lunch. I was trying to figure out who was in charge." I said to him, "Well, obviously its the two 2 year olds!" And then he said to me, "Yeah, I figured as much. Especially when the little girl turned her head from you as she was taking off her shoes and said under her breath, well Mommy can't see me now." What a sneaky little girl!!!! We all had a good laugh, but I think I am in trouble in the years to come if she is already thinking like that!