Ten on Thursday

I'm going to hop on the "Ten" train! Lots of my friends have been doing this lately, so I thought I'd try to come up with 10 interesting tidbits about our lives, too. Well...I said I'd TRY to make them interesting! Ha!

1) We try to take advantage of long weekends, and this one is no different! We're heading out to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, VA tomorrow. I'm super excited b/c there is a Sesame Street section there, and I think Elli will have a blast! PLUS, our little family gets in free thanks to our military man :)

2) Chris's dad & Donna will be joining us on our Virginia adventure...which makes me even more excited!

3) I heard Baby D's heartbeat again today. Such a sweet sound!

4) Only 3 more weeks and we find out if Baby D is a girl or a boy. WooHoo, I can't wait!

5) I made King Ranch Chicken Casserole for the first time last night, and we all LOVED it! Click on the link for the recipe :)

6) After a brief hiatus, I'm going to be turning on my sewing machine again. I know, crazy! I have so many pregnant friends right now that I just can help but drag out the fabric, scissors & thread to make some fun baby gifts!

7) It is my opinion that window treatments really "make" the house. We finally got the last ones hung last night and I can't tell you the difference it has made!! It finally feels like home.

8) We went to a "base brief" last week at Chris's squadron. We heard about the upcoming deployment schedule, and got a preview of all the bases that are available to us. I gotta say, I didn't leave that brief with warm fuzzies! These past 2 years of Chris's training have really spoiled us both (& Elli!). In 5 short months, we'll be back to the "real world" of long days, deployments, TDY's, and typical military life. I know we'll adjust, we always do...I'm just not really looking forward to it.

9) Elli's vocabulary is exploding! She is such a little mimic, and it makes me laugh. Her current favorite words are: boo boo, shoes, choo choo, up please, and Daddy. She says new ones every day, and she knows many more than just these...it's just that she says these particular ones so often that if you're not careful you'll start banging you head against the wall! And she gets louder each time she says one, until she's screaming SHOES and nearly falling down from the giggling. Who taught her that?! Cracks me up!

10) HUGE shopping weekend in store for me! Well, mainly Monday, but I think 1 day of the crazy sales will be plenty. Did you know that Gymboree has everything in stores and online for $12.95 or less? EVERYTHING! And Carter's is having a 60% off sale. Coach has everything 30% off at the outlets, Crazy8 has everything in stores and online at $10.99 and under. It's nuts I tell you...and I plan on being right in the middle of it!!

Happy Memorial Day weekend, friends!!

Well, hello again :)

Did ya miss me?? Or is anyone even still reading since I went on such a long blog hiatus?! I don't really have an excuse...time, I guess. I don't have any :) Ha! It's definitely not lack of content. I feel like our 1st eight weeks here in NC have been so busy that they have absolutely flown by. Do I say that a lot? Maybe I just feel like life is flying by at the moment. I look at my sweet daughter and wonder how she is almost 2 years old. I think about having another baby in 5 months and I'm just in shock! I try so hard to savor every moment, but sometimes I feel like they speed by so quickly that my moments seem like milliseconds. Do y'all feel that way, too? Any tips on how to slow it down?!

Let's see...where do I even begin?? Well, we decided that once we got settled in, one of the first things that we wanted to do was enroll E in Mother's Day Out. The thought was that it would give her a chance to interact with lots of other kids, and would give me a little chance to catch up on mommy things.

Here she is on her first day of "school":

She LOVES it! We chose a really well known program that is run through a local church. We love Ms. Karen, her teacher, and feel very blessed that there was a place for Elli there. I; however, haven't left E there for the full 4 hours yet!! I just can't seem to do it...weird, I know. I thought I would relish the "alone time", but truth be told...I just miss her!

Next up...Easter!! What a fun one we had this year! Had I not left the Easter eggs out all morning to be filled with ants by the time the kiddo's picked them up, it would have been a total success! Ha! Luckily, they weren't biting ants...and as soon as I realized the issue, we promptly ended the "hunt" :) I just gotta say...it's so typical of me!

My girl and I on the BEST holiday of the year. He is RISEN!!!

Elli in her Easter dress and bonnet...I just love little girls in Easter bonnets. Oh, and her daddy picked out the dress! Great job, if you ask me :)

And E hugging her friend Myla. Elli might be the hugging-est little girl I have ever seen. She LOVES a good hug! Just liker her Mama :)

Shortly after Easter, my little brother came out to visit us and we had a GREAT time just hanging out together. I think by the end of his trip he was a little overwhelmed at how tiring a toddler can be :)

Here we are at the Kinston Indians baseball game:

It was E's first one, and she was a big fan (especially of the hot dogs, ice cream & french fries!).

Over the week that Travis was here, Elli also got to go to her very first birthday party :) Happy birthday, Asher!! **She loved the bounce house until the boys wanted to play, too!**

We also went to UNC...a gorgeous campus, and a great day!

And finally, we celebrated Travis's 23rd birthday. I just love him...especially because he didn't mind that I put the candles in his birthday brownies before they had cooled. Ooops :)

So I guess that's it for March & April. I'll pick up in May...hopefully sometime soon :)