5/11/11: The Mall Carousel

Since we are getting family pictures taken on Sunday with the fabulous Felicia Lewis of FML Photo Design we all needed outfits.  I had gotten some for the girls but my sister and I were still up in the air on what they should wear. So I spent the afternoon traipsing around the mall after two kids that wouldn't listen and one that was hungry, tired, and cranky.  I actually just picked up my two towards the end of the day and told them we were out of there. I really couldn't take another minute of chasing them around. I was freaking exhausted.

We did stop for a bite to eat since Rylee was having a fit and the girls got to ride on the carousel. They each took turns riding in each little car.  Even Rylee joined in! Although, we had to hang out to her which in turn made us quite dizzy. Well at least they enjoyed themselves!!

5/10/11: Work? What's that!?!

This post gets the award for worst picture ever! I needed to get the point across but not have you guys all up in my business, right? I mean frankly you don't care where I am during work hours, do you?

Anywho, I got asked to do some substitute work part-time at a local school while an employee was out on an extended leave. To be honest this couldn't have come at a more perfect time because these kids (while I love them dearly) are starting to drive me nuts.  I went today to fill out my paperwork and meet some of the staff. It's going to be weird going back to work even part-time since I've been at home for the last year but it's time for a little bit of a change-up! Hopefully this will lead to some bigger and better things down the road and if not at least I can shake some of the rust off and sharpen those skills of mine!

5/9/11: Seriously

I can't keep my camera away from this kid!

5/8/11: Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to Kristy!  We started off the morning with Mommy sleeping in to get some rest while Daddy, Morgan, and Rylee spent some time together in the basement. 

The newspaper came and had a nice little article about how much of a Great Mommy Kristy is.  Morgan was asked a few questions about Mommy like what she was good at "Dam" (as in running at the dam at West Branch), what Morgan likes to do with Mommy "bounce in the bouncey house" and how she likes it when she "makes me a good girl." Oh the minds of our kids.

Morgan then delivered the "article" to Mommy in bed for her to see. 

Later that day we started to get ready to go to Grandma Kay's house and Grandma Rosie and Grandpa Ralph (Kristy's grandparents). 

 From the pictures in this post, you can see that it started off good with two nice pictures, then Morgan started to throw a tantrum when she couldn't get her way. 

Kristy did a great job getting a smile in while trying to wrangle Morgan for one last picture. 

Mackenzie was at Grandma Kay's place and her and Morgan decided to hug Rylee (Mackenzie has a fascination with her). 

These are rare picture moments when we can manage to get all three of them sitting together without crying.  

All in all I think it was a good day for Mommy and her day.  Morgan, Rylee, and Daddy do their best to make every day Mommy's day, but hope that this day was extra special. 

5/7/11: Morgan and Ashley's Photoshoot

Ashley was bored enough to come spend the evening with us Saturday. Nothing is more rockin when you are 21 on a Saturday than hanging out with a 30 year old, an almost 30 year old and 2 toddlers. She's still looking for a place to live next year. We voted she could live in our basement and entertain our children. That might end up to be wayy more fun than she can handle during her last semester.

As you can already see Morgan found my camera again and made Ashley take pictures with her. She even made Ashley do some poses.  That second to last picture? She was making Ashley "whip her hair back and forth"  Morgan and Ashley - BFFE!

5/6/11: Baseball Season = Sunflower Seeds

Who doesn't love sunflower seeds? The only downsides are how thirsty I get, how many I consume at one time, and the mess of shells I have when I'm done. I know technically I can buy sunflower seeds all year but some thing just go better with baseball.  For instance, sunflower seeds, hot dogs, beer. Not that I stop drinking beer or eating hot dogs during the winter but nothing screams baseball like a ballpark dog and an $8 beer. Unless you're getting Your Dad's Beer and in that case I think it's something like $4.50 a can.  What a steal!  You know come to think of it, do they even sell seeds in the stadium? I don't know that I've ever seen them.  Perhaps I'm totally blanking. Well if they don't sell them, they should. The End.

5/5/11: A Day at the Dam.

It finally stopped raining for 24 hours here in the O-HI-O and I decided to take advantage and go for a run on the dam. I've only been able to get up there 2-3 times so far this year because of the weather.  Kelly had off work today so her and Mack joined us. Kelly and I got a good run in while I can guarantee the girls caused chaos for my mom.  A 2 seat stroller and 3 kids usually involves some sort of argument. They ended on Rylee and Mackenzie sitting in the stroller while Morgan helped my mom push. Which is a total pain in the ass because like I mentioned before she's bossy independent.  Morgan was sitting pretty nicely on the black part near Rylee and Mackenzie's feet but apparently Rylee didn't like that very much and kept kicking her off. Once we were done running Morgan and Mackenzie got out and ran the rest of the way back to the car with us. What a gorgeous day!

5/4/11: Shopping and Olive Garden

My mom and I decided to take the girls shopping today since we needed to get a baby shower gift for the weekend. Uncle Corey met us at the mall later because he needed some new jeans and Grandma Kathy was nice enough to buy some for him.  Rylee wasn't that thrilled so she decided to take a nap.  Morgan spent a lot of her time picking out shirts for Corey and saying "What about this one? then decided she didn't like it only to  put it back and grab another.  Hey, whatever keeps her entertained!

My mom took us out to Olive Garden afterwards at Morgan's insistence. (I swear Corey and I had nothing to do with that) Paul was super pissed that we went without him. I did bring him home the rest of my alfredo and a bunch of breadsticks so I don't know what his problem is.  I told him to get over it and he was still salty. Whatever.

5/3/11: Morgan's House

Back last fall we got this house at a Kindermusick sale for extremely cheap. It was a great deal but by the time we got it it was too cold and wet to use it outside.  So it sat in the garage all winter and took up a lot of space. Daddy decided it was nice enough to bring it out and set it up for her today. Right now she mostly enjoys sticking her head out the doors/windows. It also has a soccer net and basketball hoop on the side so I'm hoping she'll notice all the other gadgets soon.

5/2/11: Sisterly Love

I really enjoy the first two pictures because in each one a different child looks unsure to be taking a picture with her sister. The last picture is actually quick photo skills on my part.  Two seconds after this Rylee was mad that Morgan was forcing her to lay down on the nap blanket with her. Morgan is what I like to call bossy independent. A few months ago Rylee would have been happy to go along with her but now that she is a full fledged toddler herself she doesn't want to do anything that Morgan wants her to do.  The nerve!  This does not make Morgan very happy.  There are times I'm extremely happy that they can play together now and entertain themselves for short periods of time.  On the other hand there is a lot more screaming and crying. Something tells me that isn't ever going to stop with 2 girls.

We spent the morning in the basement where Morgan spends a lot of the time in her kitchen making me various drinks and meals. She can carry this game on for a long time and well, sometimes Mommy gets tired of it.  By the 5th time of asking me what I wanted to drink next I told her to just surprise me.  She said okay! She then proceeded to go to the other side of the basement (which I thought was weird, but she loses interest in things fast so I thought maybe that was it) and I saw her crouch down. Then I heard her whisper, "1,2,3" and then she jumped up and yelled "SURPRISE!!!" Not exactly what I had had in mind but she did listen and she surprised me!

5/1/11: My first Political Office

So I (Paul) was recently voted into our Homeowner's Association.  I did it because for the past few years I have wanted to know what the hell my money was going towards, where this supposed land that the neighborhood owns was, and wanted to know what was going on behind the scenes.  My goal on the HOA is to make the neighborhood a place I want my kids to grow up.  I don't care about stupid rules that were put in place prior to any residents lived here, so I am not going to be a by-the-book kind of trustee. If it doesn't bother anyone else, I'm good with it. 

I started as a simple trustee, but was quickly bumped to the treasurer, having to collect dues and take care of writing checks for the bills and taxes.  

The picture above is what I took of the sign for our neighborhood, which will be used on the website I am attempting to create.  I plan to utilize polls, forums, and discussion boards to interact with residents as well as giving them the ability to pay their annual dues through Paypal or Google Checkout.  

We also have a few cool projects we are working on. The neighborhood has roughly 11 acres that is unused and will never be developed because of where it is located, so we are constructing a nature trail for residents to walk through.  

4/30/11: Bathing Beauties

The girls right after bath time. 

4/29/11: A Royal Affair

I'm into all this Royal Wedding stuff but not enough to get up at 4am.  Nosireebob.  I did however DVR it and watch it with my little princesses that morning.  I'm carrying on the tradition of watching Royal Weddings as I watched my first (Charles and Diana) when I was 2 days old. I had to keep my streak alive!

Let's be honest, who doesn't love watching a wedding and two people in love getting married? It was so fun to see the outfits and the headpieces and the cars and coaches. All the horses and security and all the people that gathered to catch glimpses. I just thought the whole thing was stunning. It was something nice to watch for once instead of the news with tornadoes and gas prices and the economy.

I did of course have a few opinions:

-Where is all of William's hair?

-What is up with Beatrice's headpiece?

-Kate looked absolutely stunning, she definitely fits the princess role.

-Pippa became quite the fashionista - I loved both her dresses.

-Harry is definitely more attractive than William

-I really wish we could have gotten to see the receptions and luncheons and hear the toasts.

There is so much more and I'm sure I will watch the wedding over again. It's so neat to me to see all the different customs and traditions of other cultures. It would have been really neat to be a bystander out there today and witness it all. It will be interesting to see what the future holds for them.

To Will and Kate!!

4/28/11: Happy Birthday Stu

Today marks Stu's 8th birthday.  This also means that is how long Paul and I have been living together.  Eight.Long.Years. people. ;)  Stu was the first pet that Paul and I owned together.  Stu is actually a really really good cat.  He knows how to get close enough to you without getting in your way.  He's got incredible hair that is so long and soft but never manages to get tangled. Ever.  He's definitely the leader of our house as far as the pets goes and well sometimes the people.  He spends most of his time on the couch or the bed. He loves his treats and will only bother you if the food bowl is empty.  He's always helped Paul and I make our houses feel like homes and he sure has been through a lot with us over the last 8 years. Happy Birthday Stu!!

4/27/11: Happy 11 Months Rylee!

One more month and she's ONE!  Can you believe it!?!  I can't.  You know what else I can't believe?  Where is her hair!? Now, she does have a lot more than she did and it's hard to tell because it's so light.  This is so drastically different from Morgan.  For comparison here is Morgan's 11 month picture.

You can't see the other one but we have TWO full on pigtails in Morgan's hair. They both still share Mommy's love of the Tribe though!  This also becomes the stage where monthly picture taking becomes difficult. Rylee is more interested in scaling the couch and looking out the window because it is far more interesting than whatever I'm doing.  She's a nosy neighbor.

Right now she still loves any and all food.  She loves drinking everything out of a sippy cup (especially if it's Morgan's!) except her formula.  She has developed compassion for the dogs and must think I don't feed them  enough because she always shares her meals with them.  She likes to bounce up and down a lot and can stand on her own and cruises like crazy.  All of this though is on her own will.  If I try to make her stand she decides crawling is for her. 2 seconds later she'll do it on her own.  I'm just waiting for her to take those first steps any day now.  She likes to grin really big and wave hi and bye.  She also likes to say Hi and Bye, Mama and Dada.

Today was also Aunt Kimmie's birthday!! Happy Birthday Kim!!

4/26/11: Extreme Living Room Makeover

Our living room needs a makeover badly.  It's not going to be that extreme but it's time for new carpet.  Since we decided to get the new carpet we figured if we are going to paint it at some point we might as well do it before the new carpet comes.  Our carpet has been through 2 puppies, 2 children, 3 cats, and a Canale. I speak of my friend Ryan who does not miss an opportunity to spill something at any gathering. He doesn't discriminate either, he does it everywhere. Beware.  

Our carpet is not that forgiving either, seeing as it's cream.  It's also not very soft.  Doesn't make it very inviting to kids or adults.  We needed/wanted something soft, multicolored (because hey we all know we still have kids, and pets, and a Canale) and cheap.  When we carpeted our basement downstairs we got great carpet from the back wall at Lowe's.  We decided to venture back there and managed to find some for our living room.  It is the sample you see above.

Our biggest dilemma now is paint.  I definitely want some color in the room.  Right now it's all painter's white. We have grey couches with plum/fuchsia and black accents.  The end tables and TV stand are both black.  We've pretty much decided that the majority of the walls will be painted a beige color and that we would really like an accent color wall behind our main couch.  I wanted to make it something brighter and then adorn the wall with black picture frames and some vinyl designs.  I really thought I wanted to do the plum/fuschia. I bought a sample of this:

While I like it in theory it seems to have more of a pink undertone on the wall.  I think we still may go with it only because I'm tired of trying to decide.  That's a horrible way to make a decision I know but I'm really over it.  Anyone have any ideas?  I need help. I need it fast.

4/25/11: Randomness

This pictures has no story.  I swear this child is not always in her pack n play though. I promise you she wears clothes and gets to come out from there. I'm only able to get so much done with her being mobile.  If she would learn to sit still for 5 minutes things might be different but really, who are we kidding?  That will never happen.

4/24/11: Happy Easter!

The morning started out on a bit of an aggravating note.  We didn't put the girls baskets out until after we got up and let the dogs out (6:30ish). Sometime over the next hour or so a chocolate bunny from Morgan's basket met its makers in Kalie and Ace.  

Dogs:1 Bunny:0 :(   

When the girls woke up Morgan looked for both of their baskets and all the eggs.  They each got a book or two.  Rylee got some sippy cups, a toy story ball, and some candy.  Morgan got Bambi, a bathing suit cover up, some bubbles, a coloring book and some candy.  After our exciting morning we got ready and headed over to my moms for the day. It was nice to be at my moms for the day since she has places for the girls to nap and toys for them to keep themselves busy with.  Morgan's day basically consisted of eating tons of candy and having a day long sugar high. The girls had fun, we had fun, the food was so good, and we all had a great holiday together!