Wednesday, April 25, 2012

And Life Goes On...

Things have been crazy around here since the tornado hit my town a week and a half ago. Doctor's appointments have been cancelled, Vivian's shots have been delayed, and more. But through it all, this town has come together and proved to the world that complete strangers can show love and support when times are hard.

I've put off posting about Easter, so I'll update everyone on what our girls did for Easter, then catch up with what we've been doing this month!

The Saturday before Easter, Caitlin and I colored eggs together! Rosalie is still to little to participate, but I'm looking forward to coloring eggs with her next year! I decided to make the color for the eggs this year. (check out the recipe on my craft blog here!) I let Caitlin color some eggs with crayons while I got the colors ready!

The face she made when my tea kettle started to whistle!
A while ago, I found an idea on Pinterest to use a whisk to dunk eggs into the color water. I thought I'd give Caity a chance to try it out and see if she liked it or not!


Turns out, she wanted to use spoons instead. She wanted to put the egg on the newspaper to dry and she couldn't get the egg out of the whisk on her own. So we took the old-fashion route and used spoons! The colors turned out FANTASTIC!


We were going to have a small hunt with them in our backyard, but we ended up getting too busy and by the time we got home, it was already time to get the girls ready for bed. But that was just fine! As soon as we got the girls to bed, we set out their Easter Baskets!


I loaded them up with the candy they asked for! Eggs filled with jelly beans, Peeps, Peeps Bunnies, Ring Pops, and some Easter straws! I set them on the table and had my camera ready to capture their faces the next morning!

Easter morning was a little different than usual. Rosalie got up before Caitlin. This NEVER happens. Usually Caity wakes up first, yells for me, and wakes Rosie up in the process. But this time, Rosie called for me quietly and I gave her her basket first!


Rosalie got to pick the basket she wanted! She took everything out of her basket and examined each candy filled egg while shouting, "EGGGGGGGG!" at the top of her lungs! I should have had the video camera ready instead!

Caity woke up almost and hour later, and to avoid Rosalie attacking Caity's basket, I had to put Caity's on a chair in the middle of the floor and corral Rosie behind me. But Caity didn't even notice her basket until I told her about! But when she found it, she shouted, "EGGGGGGGSSS!" Too funny!


We got the girls breakfast and dressed them in the Easter dresses Grandma A made for them! But in the picture below, Caitlin is wearing cousin Shelly's dress that Grandma made about 13 years ago! Caity's dress still needed a button on the back, so Grandma brought her dress to church!


When we got back from church, I put the girls down for nap and made colored deviled eggs and cupcakes for our family dinner that night! (Also on my craft blog!)


As soon as I was done making all those goodies, we loaded up the girls and went to Grandma's house for an Easter Egg hunt in her yard! The girls were WAY pumped! It was Rosie's very first egg hunt! My niece and nephews hid the eggs around the yard, but they hid the golden egg really well. Guess who found it!


And the GOLDEN Easter Egg was found by:



VIVIAN!!!!!!


It was hidden in the trampoline net so my hubby had to get it. He had Vivi in his hands, so she found it first! Vivian = WINNING! She even tried to eat it! She didn't let go of the egg for quite a while!


Vivian has been growing quite a bit this month! She's doing the same thing my other girls did. She'll be tired so I feed her, burp her, and try to rock her to sleep. But she won't... so then she gets BEYOND upset because she's so tired that I have to set her on the couch with her binky and walk away. When I come back to her once she's quieted down, these are a few examples of what I find:


The funniest photo I took was when I thought she was gassy, so I gave her some drops and laid her on the couch with her bink. She was calm, so I watched a movie. I looked over at her after a few minutes and this is what I saw:


I almost woke her up because I was laughing so hard! She used the dropper as her bink! She can fall asleep in the most random positions and places!

Another milestone for our baby this month was that she ate baby food for the first time! She owned an entire jar of applesauce and wanted more! Seems crazy that she'll be eating on her own soon enough!


A friend of mine had shoulder surgery this month and asked me to watch her two kiddos while she recoups. I agreed and her little girl and little boy are so great to watch! Caitlin has made a new best friend!


Her little guy is so, so stinking cute! He just loves on Vivian all day! And boy does he LOVE marshmallows!


Rosie (our Ninja) got her first birthday present in the mail! It arrived early, but I couldn't wait to give it to her! I found a cute site on Etsy called Twistyfishies. The lady behind the store is Kristie and she makes handmade Amigurumi, Kawaii Plush, and original art. She is TALENTED! And Rosalie LOVED her little pink Ninja!


We went to a friend's reception last Friday in Lenox. The girls had a blast getting ready for it. I asked Caity and Rosie to pick out their outfits and this is what they picked:


The girls had a blast at the reception, too! Fruit, juice, running around, and dancing! Oh, and last but not least, CAKE! Caity wanted to stay until they could have a piece of cake. We got home late, but both girls ate the entire piece of cake they got!

The next morning, Caitlin kept trying to climb on top of Vivian. I had to stop her each time. After the 100th attempt, I asked her, "Why do you keep doing that?!" She responded, "Let me show you!" So I let her climb on top of Vivian and Caity shouted, "SISTER SANDWICH!!!!" I lost it! I laughed so, SO hard! I told her to do it again for the camera and this is the shot I got:


Caitlin cracks me up! She's so, so funny! And she just adores her sisters! I'm still working on getting her to WANT to potty train. She has gone on the potty and will if I ask her, but most of the time, she just doesn't want to. I don't want to force her and make going to the potty some kind of punishment... but I'm running out of ideas. I've taken her every few hours for her to sit on the potty for 30 minutes and not go, put on her diaper, and finally go. We have tried putting her in just panties and that didn't work... we've tried rewards with no success, naked training with no success... She's over 3 years now. She knows the entire alphabet, she can count to 20, and more, but she just won't potty train. HELP! I need some ideas!

This past Sunday I switched the girls' clothes around since each one of them needed to bump up a size. It took me ALL. DAY. It was ridiculous! But I sorted through all their clothes and I now have a keep pile and a garage sale pile ready to go! In moving the girls up, I realize Rosalie and Vivian had some matching clothes! And boy did Rosalie love wearing the same thing as her baby sissy!


So now that we're caught up on the girls, I thought I'd give an update on Charles and I.  We've both been dealing with seasonal allergies and they are kicking our butts! It's made it hard to go to sleep at night and hard to wake up in the morning. So most of this month has been spent using up a ridiculous amount of tissues, eye drops, and orange juice. But we are getting better. 

We have also decided that we want to start losing weight together. We have said this before, but it is time. Time for a change. Time to start focusing on bettering our lives so that we can live to see our kids grow up. We have started eating less and walking more as a start, but once we get our allergies under control, we're going to start working out again. It's just kinda hard to work out when I can't breathe while sitting down!

I'm still having issues with my postpartum depression. I've tried weaning myself off of the pills only to find that I really should be taking them right now. And it sucks having to admit that I need them in order to not sit and cry all day, or move and be super angry all day. I hate the highs and lows. More the lows than the highs. I started have major anxiety/panic attacks. My pulse would race all day long. So even though I'm mentally ready to not be taking any pills, my body is saying, "NOT YET!" 

I look forward to the point in this journey when things will be better. I pray each night that tomorrow will be that day. I will know when it's here. I will know. And it will be GLORIOUS!

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Tornado 4-14-2012

I just want everyone in the blog world to know that my family is safe after the tornado that hit our town last night around 7:00 p.m.

We were warned a few days before that severe weather and tornadoes were a serious risk to our area. I used the day to prepare our home and pack tornado bags just in case we had to go to the basement. By the time 7:00 rolled around, our power went out.

As soon as the power went out, hail, rain, and wind started pouring (and I mean POURING) down. The color outside was a scary shade of green/grey and then the wind got really, really terrible. I looked at Charles and said, "I think we need to get to the basement NOW!" He looked at me and said, "I think you're right."  I grabbed Vivian (who was napping at the time) and looked outside when everything stopped. Charles and I just looked at each other. We didn't know what was going on.

We got our storm radio wound up and found a radio station that said that our county was in a Tornado Warning... but it only had 2 more minutes until it was over. I said, "Do you think that was  a tornado or a micro-burst?!" We weren't sure.

We didn't have power or phones until about 9:30 last night and I updated my Facebook to let everyone know that we were fine.

We heard a little while later that it was a confirmed tornado that hit under a mile away from our house.

We were all upstairs when it hit. The sirens NEVER went off.

We are extremely lucky.

This morning Charles went outside. He came back in to tell me that the tree in our backyard was knocked over and landed on our neighbor's shed. I got the camera and started snapping photos. Here are the before and after photos of our tree.

Our tree before the tornado
The Tree after it fell over from the winds caused by the tornado.
Our neighbor's shed... or what's left of it...
The inside of our tree was rotten... probably why it knocked over so easily.
The inside of our tree was rotten... probably why it knocked over so easily.
Our Neighbor's shed with the contents in the yard.
I've cried and cried today in gratitude for the preservation of our lives and our home. The damage around town is bad. Our hospital got hit as well as the college, some apartments, homes, and cars. I am not sure about injuries or fatalities, but I'll keep everyone updated on what I find via Facebook. Thank you to everyone who has emailed, Facebook messaged, and called me to check on our family. We have great friends and family.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday Caitlin

We celebrated our oldest daughter's birthday a few weeks ago! A few months before her birthday, I put out photos of all Caitlin's favorite characters (The Little Mermaid, Dora, Rapunzel, Belle, etc.). After taking her time to decide, she finally chose Belle. I started planning and getting things ready for her party.

I've recently discovered digi-scrapbooking and came across a site that has free kits to download. I let Caity pick out the kit she wanted and she went with the Energy kit! I loved it! I knew it'd go really well with Belle and it had a ton of colors in it! I searched the internet for a good site with Disney clip-art. I found some really stellar ones! I've pinned them onto my Fun Stuff board.

I made her invite first. She picked out the Belle she wanted and I did the rest! Here is the final design!


I think it turned out great! I worked really hard on it! I'm still new to digi-scrapbooking, but I've come a long way! I even made cupcake toppers using the same software! They were a hit!

I broke down a bought a Wilton Dress Cake Mold and used it to have a trial run for Caity's Belle cake. It turned out great, but I needed more batter to make the dress fuller. The cake was easy to decorate. I'm not sure what tip number I used, but I used a medium size petal tip. Here's my amazing "how-to" that I made in paint!

I used a toothpick in step 2.
This is how the cake turned out! I used frosting to make her top. I just piped frosting onto her body and smoothed it out with my finger dipped in water. It was super easy to make!


Everything turned out fantastic for her party! The day was gorgeous, we had a fantastic turnout, and Caitlin got a ton of presents! Here are some photos from her big day!

Pink cupcakes with "sparkles" as requested by the birthday girl!

We served a fruit platter (Pineapple, Grapes, and Strawberries), a veggie platter (Carrots, Celery, and Ranch dip), Mexican dip with chips, and the cake.



Watching Beauty and the Beast!










Caitlin had a BLAST! The girls all did very well! I played Beauty and the Beast on the TV and that kept the littler ones from going too crazy!

It seems crazy that my little baby has grown so much! I am literally speechless when I look at my beautiful daughter. She's come a long way in the three years she's been with us. From coming too early and being right on time, she sure takes my breath away! I love you, Caitlin Nadine!

8 months pregnant with Caitlin
Caitlin born at 35 weeks, 6 days
Caitlin on her first birthday
Caitlin on her second birthday
Caitlin on her third birthday
Here's to many, many, many more birthdays with my firstborn! I cannot wait to see how my little lady grows up and what she plans to do with her life! She makes me so proud!