Great Accessories

Check out my MIL's website for some great buys on jewelry, flat wallets, and sandals... she's got some great stuff!

www.HeartlandBazaar.com

Two words...

Mommy Graphics

New York

200 posts came and went in my lack of planning surrounding our adventures... but I promise the giveaway is coming soon, I just need to get over sick, teething, ear infected, immunized children and go buy another prize cause the sick, miserable, sleep-deprived husband ate one of the prizes.

Hopefully we will all be germ-free for our next visitors... speaking of which, we have a little gap- anyone up for a visit BEFORE the end of April?! :)

Until then here's our pics from New York, which we are already planning a return trip for since we maybe saw a total of 5 hours of the city and that may be generous!

Friday evening Tyson stayed in with Micah and Hallie while I ventured at with the rest of the bunch (George, Mandy, & kids & her sister Christy & Nate) for a late night excursion to Times Square. I'll let the pictures do the talking, after saying- we will be returning, that Toys R Us is HUGE! I can't wait to take Micah and Hallie in there with the Indoor Ferris Wheel- its bound to be good times!

Here's the pics from our Staten Island Ferry trip...Brooklyn BridgeRandom Old Church in the Financial District on our attempted subway excursion (if anyone has any New York subway knowledge we'd love to hear it, we were totally clueless!) More randomness- we saw Alexander Hamilton's grave in the graveyard next to the church. I still need to figure out what this was, but really whatever it was, it was majestic. Hallie was really excited about this whole excursion can you tell? Our philosophy was- grin and bear it...Our ferry ride back was breathtaking with the sunset, but (there's always a but isn't there!) the battery in the camera died and we forgot the spare at the hotel. The little spear above my head is the statue of liberty.

We topped Sunday off with a swim at George and Mandy's hotel in Baltimore and really we can't wait to go back to New York AND actually see the Poteet's when we aren't all sick!

I knew it was too quiet around here...

Guaranteed to be the best 30 seconds of your day!

After being stuck in a dark hotel room ALL day with sick kids and a sick hubby with The Big Apple sitting right outside our window... we decided to brave the Staten Island Ferry to at least see SOME of New York while we are here. (by the way, we are in NYC this weekend!) This is what Hallie thought of the whole ordeal...

I'm back!!

Did you miss me?? :) Our Internet was having issues this last week, on for a minute off for a minute so I couldn't post anything :( But my new hero, the comcast guy, came and switched out our modem and we're back! My week "off" gave us lots of time to get out and enjoy the gorgeous weather for a couple days and shop for the not so gorgeous weather. We found lots of goodies this week...

Target 75% off clearance was most enjoyable (I love those little orange tags, don't you?!)

And I suffered through horrid DC traffic for 1hr 30min to hit up a HUGE consignment sale. The sale was a wash for me... tons of stuff in one location, but a little overpriced; a long drive, but I only had to go out once; and a HUGE line, but lots of good stuff! So I probably wouldn't drive this far again, but if there is one closer to us I don't think I could stay away!

We got lots of goodies, but the one thing that made the whole trip worth it and makes me smile over and over again are these...

8 bucks for these over the top, ultra adorable, hot pink cowgirl boots!! Pretty sure she's gonna wear them everyday!!

And not to leave Micah out... he got some new kicks too :)
This makes post 196... only a few to go til the giveaway! I've got some great stuff planned! :)

Chesapeake Bay Round 2

The week after our Bridge trip, we headed back out to Chesapeake Bay, I really wanted to go see a lighthouse, but it was too late and the day for such a long trip, so we settled for a shorter trip and took a walk out on a pier in North Beach. Besides the fact that it was super windy, and COLD we had a good time. Micah and Hallie loved it, Hallie kept walking to the sides of the pier pointing and talking excitedly about the water. Micah just plugged away towards the end of the pier lovin' the freedom. We've decided if we end up staying on the East Coast longer, we'll look for a rental on the beach. The commute would be the same for Ty, rentals are a little cheaper AND on the beach, so it could be a good time... that is IF we end up staying. Just a thought on our part, no plans yet...

Daddy and his bubba Random sign I really liked, can I just say how hard it is to try to get a good shot of something when you've got 2 rugrats to herd!

I did some editing with this picture I'll post soon :)

Nearly IMPOSSIBLE to get a good shot of us all! Micah's checking out something way more exciting then me snapping a pic and Hallie wants nothing to do with daddy!

Pointing and talking to the water

Pluggin' away

and they're off!

Zoo Trip

I had to join the forces of zoo pics I've seen lately- everyone's going to the zoo! We went the beginning of Feb on one of our random 60 degree days. It's quite a trip on the metro... around 45 min, with a well intentioned lady who REALLY liked to talk, but it was well worth it! First of all, can't beat the price FREE! And Micah and Hallie absolutely loved it and I'm sure we'll be heading back a few more times with the nicer weather! Enjoy!

**I'm working on a giveaway for my 200th post!! So if I go missing from the blogworld for a little bit, it's probably because I'm working on the giveaway (or out enjoying the 70 degree weather!)

DC Update

I spaced the update on our length of stay, we found out a couple weeks ago, that Ty's orders were extended through May instead of the end of March. We will be here until then for sure, but possibly longer still, there are a bunch of details to figure out since he can't remain on the same set of orders past May. (It's tricky Military lingo and you can thank your lucky stars that I'm sparing you all of the details!)

One thing is for sure, we really could use your prayers... we really want to move back towards home, but don't want to go back to the position we were in before- Ty working WAY TOO many hours, us never seeing him, etc. There have been several job offers for here in the area, and if we moved farther out of the city living expenses would be manageable.

So we need your prayers that something will open up closer to home (if not at home!) with less hours and more pay!

On a positive note, either way we will most likely be back in May for a visit :)

And just in case you forgot how cute our kids are and how much you miss them (and us of course!) here's a pic for ya!

The Bottle Cradle

Where was this device a year ago!? I'm certainly going to keep this in mind if and when we ever decide to have more kids AND we're lucky enough to have multiples again :) Check it out...

http://www.babybottlecradle.com/

Amusement

I've mentioned they are doing construction outside our apartment, well now Micah and Hallie aren't the only one's who sit and stare out the window in amusement all day. Tyson and I have joined them, but we're not watching the construction, we're watching the 20+ cars a day who can't figure out where to go.

As you can see from the photo below, it is a little confusing. They are building an exit from the freeway so before this, there were 2 lanes to the left of the cones- one going in each direction and no exit. Now there is an exit in the middle, which isn't opened yet (I can't even imagine the chaos that will exist when it finally does open!) and ONE lane on each side of the exit the one to the RIGHT (farthest away from us) traffic heads West and the lane on the LEFT (closest to us) heads East. Notice the large cones separating the lanes and the freshly painted BRIGHT yellow double lines... Here they are closer up, you'll also notice in the photo below that there is a sign that clearly states, "KEEP RIGHT." A little confusing, but understandable... we even managed to drive through before we had seen cars doing this and had no problems. (astonishing I know!)

Not so simple for others I'm afraid... I can't tell you how many cars we have seen follow the road to the right past all of those orange signs, SLAM on their brakes, QUICKLY back up and head the wrong way on the LEFT side of the road, please tell me what country we live in again?? I'm pretty sure we're still in the US... right??? But that's not all, (probably the most amusing) but we've seen it all. Some don't even start heading in the right direction, they just continue on the left side of the road even though there is clearly only one lane AND it's on the left side of the road. Some will STOP pause, maybe even back up, and then finally after much thought- head in the right direction.

Really I could go on all day about the amusing antics we've seen, but I think you get the idea and I need to feed the kiddos lunch. So if you get bored at all this week, head on over to our house, we're even taking bets on what each car will do- we could even pop some popcorn and eat some cookies :)

Mama's So Proud!

I don't really consider myself to be an 'artist,' but I guess I could technically be classified as such. I love the art of creating things, I love creating LOTS of things and always have, painting, drawing, sewing, scrapping, stitching, gluing, cutting, crocheting, and so on. With so many loves I don't feel I've ever mastered one, but that's ok with me. I love the process of learning something and applying it and since I usually teach myself, I make many mistakes. But honestly, some of my best work as come from these mistakes.

With all that said I have longed for the day when my children can create along side of me and I can teach them the joys of creating things. Well I am happy to say that day is getting closer! Hallie sat for 15 minutes sitting next to me drawing on this paper. Which I eventually had to take away cause she started chewing on it, but what can I say, she is only 16 months and some change old :)

Museum of American History

We do museum visits often and quickly, usually between morning nap and afternoon nap. Here's how they typically go...

• Morning nap begins, daddy usually sleeps as long as I'll let him :) while I quickly hop in shower, usually grab everything I need to get ready and move Hallie into our closet to sleep. (see naptime post!) Get myself ready and then pack diaper bag.
• Micah and Hallie wake up, we quickly change diapers, put socks, shoes, coats, and hats and gloves if needed. 10 minutes if we're on it.
• Walk to metro, ride it in for a total of 30 minutes with wait time.
• Visit museum, passing out milk, bread, cheese, crackers (of all varieties!), fruit, raisins, and toys all while trying to see what we want to see but keeping it fun for Phil and Lil. Usually an 1 hour depending on the museum and opportunities for them to get out of the stroller.
• Walk back to metro, ride it back breaking out more milk, food, and toys and breaking out the silkies and binkies if needed because its usually past naptime. 30 minutes
• and we're home for a total of approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes or 3 if we're lucky!

We are at the mercy of Micah and Hallie, this was the best museum visit we have had so far... they LOVED the transportation section of the museum and of course Ty loved it and I actually enjoyed it too. This museum has so much more to offer and I personally can't wait to get back there to check out the rest of the exhibits.

In front of the full-size Locomotive

Inside an old Chicago subway car
Straight up Hulk style :)

In case you forgot... still a complete goof!

And I told you... there's a lot of these lately! He braved the stairs with both of them, while I took the elevator with the stroller.
I won!