Here’s Kamryn testing out the water. It was a bit cold-

The Froggie Slide was a HUGE hit-

Mikey waiting his turn-

I LOVE the look on Mikey’s face. He actually looks scared- YA RIGHT, he has NO fear of the water-

“Watch me swim under water Miss Sandy!”-

So, I was a little worried that Braeden would not have much fun at a “kiddie” water park, but I actually think he had the most fun thanks to this cool obstacle course they had for the “BIG kids only”-

“Umm, ya, not the best time for a picture Mom!”-

“I think I can, I think I can!”-

Aw MAN!-

After all that work, he was ready for a break on the Lazy River-

More fun-

The best part about playing in the water and sun? LONG naps I had to wake Kamryn up at 5pm after a 3 hour nap.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Mike’s Mom and Aunt are driving up tomorrow to pick up the boys and bring them to SC for the week. It’s the last full week of summer before school and preschool start and I know Mike’s parents have missed the boys terribly. I am not sure who’s more excited, the boys knowing they will be spoiled rotten for a week, or me, having 5 nights (after work) CHILD FREE. I was so spoiled having Mike’s Mom right down the road for so long to help with the boys, these past couple months with NO help have been an adjustment. LOVE my guys like crazy, but I am going to enjoy every quiet, peaceful moment they are gone next week

I spent most of Saturday hanging pictures and other decor. Mike was working an extra shift so I took advantage of not having to be quiet while he slept. The mini cordless screw driver we bought (that was less than $10) was well worth the $ and worked great. So, here are the pictures of the house now- look back at the “before” ones to see the difference. It’s all still a work in progress, but we’ll just do what we can when time and $ allow.

Master Bedroom-

Mike and I’s Bathroom-

Everyone has tried out this bathtub but me-

Braeden’s Bedroom-

He has waited since Christmas to hang the two pictures on the wall. One is a collage of Chase Utley that Mike and I gave him and the other is a picture of Citizen’s Bank Park (aka home of the Phillies) that Nana got him-

This is my favorite (all jersey’s he has outgrown). He is so SWEET and wants to please everyone so his little heart is divided when it comes to MLB. He loves the Tigers because all the Deslippe’s (and my sister and her husband) love the Tigers. He loves the White Sox because his Daddy Aaron and all of his Step-Mom’s family love the White Sox and of course he loves the Phillies because he is SMART- Ha Ha, AND because Mike and I and the rest of the family love the Phillies-

Just in case he is ever REALLY conflicted as to who he likes most and if for some reason the Phillies ever go head to head with the White Sox or the Tigers in the play-offs, I hung the Phillies jersey the highest and took a close up of THIS

We are hoping this train quilt will help entice Mikey to sleep in his OWN bed ALONE-

Stairway-

Kitchen-

Dining Room-

The books in the basket are a collection of mine. They are of various cities I have either lived in, visited, or have family in. The majority are of Charleston, but Nancy and Aaron gave me one of Chicago (Braeden has visited- not me), my brother’s girlfriend gave me one of San Francisco (where they live), one of the Biltmore Estate (where Mike took me for my 30th Birthday), I bought one when we were in DC earlier this month and am still waiting on my sister to find one of Winnipeg (where she lives and where we lived for 8 years). I need to get one of The Villages too- hint, hint Mom and Dad

Living Room-

Office/Playroom-

2nd Floor Bath-

First Floor Hall/Entryway-

This is another collection I started. They are little wooden pieces of Charleston, and now Virginia/DC. The ones on the left are of different places in Charleston. The one to the far right is the White House and the one to the left of it is the “Welcome to VA” sign-

First Floor Bath (in entryway/hallway)-

Front Door-

Den on First Floor-

Laundry Area (in Den)-

SO, now that we are settled, what’s next? Mike’s Mom is coming to get the boys this Saturday for a week. School starts the Tuesday after Labor Day (Thursday for Mikey) so they are going to go have one last Hurrah before all that craziness begins. After a long busy summer, I am totally looking forward to the break. Braeden also has baseball tryouts this Saturday and will start practicing and playing in a few weeks. Both boys are with me at Kamryn’s this week and we will try and do a fun outing each day so we don’t all drive each other nuts.

SUCCESS= Mikey being COMPLETELY potty trained. Although he’s been pee pee potty trained (without a SINGLE accident to report) for almost a month, he refused to poop on the potty. He hadn’t gone in over 5 days and FINALLY (after I had to threaten- although I had fully intended to- take him to the Dr. because I thought he was compacted from holding it) he POOPED on the potty. He is just SO incredibly stubborn (gee, wonder where he gets that from) and while he knew he couldn’t poop in his pull up and didn’t want to get in trouble he was NOT ready to go on the toilet. It happened for the first time last Wed and he’s been “good to go” haha ever since. We are SO SO proud of him. Mike took him to Target the day he first pooped (as we promised we’d do if he pooped on the potty) and he chose this Toy Story 3 Shake N’ Go race track. He LOVES it- we LOVE not having to buy or change diapers.

Success= My JOB! I LOVE it. It has worked out so so well. Kamryn is so well behaved and FUN to be around. The other day Mike was off and Mikey stayed with him so Kamryn and I had a girl date. We went to Target and I was actually able to take my time. There was no whining, no crying, no pouting, no complaining- who KNEW 3 year olds like this existed?! We went to lunch at a little Mexican place (her choice) and sat outside. Hard to believe this is what I get PAID to do. On the flip side I DID (without being asked) clean out the fridge at Lori’s house, so we are all benefiting from the situation.

Success= having TWO of the same chairs so 2 preschoolers don’t fight over the one-

They do get along most of the time. Mikey is definitely not as laid back and easy going as Kamryn, but for the most part, their different personalities compliment each other.

Success= getting Braeden all registered for school. After FINALLY getting my hands on all the necessary documents (I had NO CLUE it would require so much paper work to transfer from one state to another), I registered Braeden this morning. He starts THIRD grade in 18 days. He’s a lucky kid because the school he was at in SC started this past Monday. He has been enjoying baseball camp this week. They play ball in the mornings and then swim and play in the gym in the afternoons. Tom Masterson, a former Pittsburgh Pirate headed the camp and is teaching the kids some great techniques.

I am ready for the weekend! Since it was way hot in the house last weekend and most of this week, I didn’t get much of anything accomplished. I fully intend for my next blog entry to be the one with the pictures of the new house. I WILL hang pictures and wall decor this weekend and take pictures to post.

Here they are hard at work-

Our back yard looks SO amazing now. THANK YOU-

My Mom spotted this birds nest under our deck. There were little chicks in it

We took a little break and had breakfast at another great little restuarant near us called Mimi’s Cafe. They have AWESOME breakfast food. When Mike woke up, we packed up the car and headed to DC to meet Aunt Lisa and Uncle Lorne. We were all so excited to see them.

The boys are SO lucky to have such a great aunt who ADORES them. She spoils them Here’s Mikey in the Winnipeg Blue Bomber shirt aunt Lisa brought him. He wanted to put it on right away-

We all went to dinner in China Town (Fuddruckers)

Here’s a picture of all of us. We are just missing Jack

On Monday we went to Baltimore. We had a baseball game to go to in the evening and decided to go early so we could walk around the water front in downtown Baltimore. I apologize for SO many pictures, but my sister can not have a Facebook account since she is an attorney and my parents don’t have one, so you may have already seen these on my Facebook page. This is the only way I can share pictures with ALL the family.

They boys always love spotting a fountain-

The especially LOVED this one. I’ve learned to always bring a spare set of clothes for BOTH boys. Poor Braeden was walking around in wet underwear and shorts for hours-

Mike and I took advantage of having someone to take our picture-

We ate lunch at Hardrock Cafe. My sister wanted to go to a Hardrock Cafe in every city to at least buy a shirt (she and Lorne and Lorne’s aunt and uncle are on a 5-week baseball stadium tour and DC was one of their stops)-

Mikey was rockin’ with his shades on while he ate lunch-

After lunch we walked over to the Nation Aquarium. It was really cool. They had a huge open pool with turtles, sting rays and fish. There was a leaf floating in the pool and Mikey said, “Oh NO Daddy that fish is dead”

Shark Tank. Braeden said the sharks looked “creepy”-

This is one of my favorite tanks (see my boys and their little hands? We had to keep telling Mikey not to tap on the tanks)-

Mikey wasn’t too fond of the alligator-

But he loved seeing the divers in the tanks-

They even had Flamingos and Parrots out in the open-

Mikey LOVED seeing the “Nemo” fish. I tried to take a picture of the tank, but ALL the kids were crowded around it. Braeden loved the baseball he got with the Aquarium painted on it.

After the Aquarium we headed to the baseball game. The Orioles were playing the White Sox. Braeden’s Daddy Aaron and Step-Mom Nancy live in Chicago and are HUGE White Sox fans so of course Braeden was cheering for them.

Braeden in front of the Babe Ruth Statue-

The boys LOVE Aunt Lisa-

Family Photo op (a rarity)-

We’ve discovered recently that Mikey loves ice cream (anything to fatten him up a bit)-

Braeden smiling even when his team was down-

Mikey tried to help the Sox with a comeback by wearing the Rally Cap (I didn’t know what it was, but Braeden did- turn your hat inside out). It worked too. The White Sox scored runs and the game went into the 10th inning (and then then they lost)

Tuesday we went on another Double Decker bus tour. We went on a different bus than the one I went on with my brother’s girlfriend in June and this time we got to see the White House-

Enjoying the tour even though it was HOT!-

After the tour and lunch, Aunt Lisa took the boys into the Spy Museum store and bought them a few things and then we walked to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. It was one of the coolest places I’ve been to. The wax figures look SO real.

A wax figure of Madame Tussaud-

George Washington-

Thomas Jefferson-

Lincoln-

Braeden is getting SO tall-

Rosevelt-

Lisa and MLK, Jr.-

Rosa Parks. B was interested in her glasses and Mikey was a little scared of her old wrinkled hands-

Reagan-

Nixon. This is HILARIOUS-

Bush-

The Clintons

Another Bush-

Our President and First Lady with Braeden-

Both boys thought this was SO cool-

He’ll either be President-

Or MLB Baseball Player-

An Astronaut wouldn’t be so bad either-

OR, maybe, JUST maybe, the boys will form a famous BOY Band-

I took this picture for you Mom-

Mikey just HAD to have a miniature version of the Double Decker bus (which he referred to as the “Decker” bus)-

Lisa and Mike in front of the Crime and Punishment Museum (it closed right as we got there. It looked really neat so we’ll have to go back)-

After the Wax museum, a short rest and dinner together, it was time to say goodbye (which gets harder and harder each time we visit). Braeden stayed with my parents and sister for 2 more nights, but Mike and I had to get home and back to work. We just want to say thank you SO SO much to my parents, sister and brother-in-law for all you did for US while you were here. It was also really nice to meet Lorne’s uncle Ray and Aunt Deb. They are fantastic people and we enjoyed spending a few days getting to know them. We love you ALL and miss you already.

Whew! Now I know why I procrastinated on putting this blog together, it took HOURS!

Lori was so sweet to make this bed up for Mikey to nap in while we are over there. It is SO cute. The sooner we can get Mikey back to falling asleep without Mommy the better- the bed is perfect for HIM, but a little small for me to join.

The little Princess who has so quickly stolen my heart- She has such LONG beautiful hair!

So, I am off today (Lori and her family went to the lake for the weekend) and my parents were supposed to be driving in yesterday. My Mom’s sister passed away and therefore they had to fly to Canada for the funeral. They will be flying into DC tomorrow morning. After a very sad few days for my Mom, I am looking forward to her having some fun with her daughters, son-in-laws and grandsons. My sister and brother-in-law come in on Sunday and we are all staying downtown DC until Tues. I am REALLY looking forward to it. Here’s the boys watching Night at the Museum 2 (it was filmed in DC at the Smithsonian Museum and we are going to go there this weekend so Braeden is really interested in the movie).

My Mom sent us a great little package and there were Toy Story and Cars lolipops in it for Mikey. Needless to say, he LOVED them-

Some BIG news- since Mikey has conquered potty training, we were able to enroll him into an awesome preschool. It is Christian based which is even better. Kamryn will be attening Tues, Thurs and Fri mornings in the “older 3′s” classroom and Mikey will attend Tues and Thurs in the “younger 3′s” class. SO, that means that from 9-11:45 2 days a week, I am FREE! Haha! Really, I am most excited that Mikey will be able to atten a school that is church based and has a great reputation for their preschool curriculum. Woo Hoo! So, after Labor Day, he will be a new Lamb at Little Lamb’s Village Preschool. I am SO excited for him. Let’s just hope he is as excited.

We’ve started getting ready for school-

Check back for pictures of our visit with my parents and my sister. I PROMISE I will post pictures of the new house soon. We just have to hang some pictures and other wall decor, but for the most part we are all settled. Braeden has been LOVING the fact that his two newest buddies (one is 8 and one is 9) live across the street and 2 doors down. He spent 3 hours outside today playing basketball and baseball. Mama loves that I can look out the bay window and spy on them every now and then. Since we live in an end unit town house, they play in the grassy area next to us.

Have a great week!

Speaking of cash, starting tomorrow I will be assisting with the income in our household again. I begin a new full-time nanny job. The family has one little girl who will be 4 in November. Her name is Kamryn and she is precious. Since Mike’s Mom cared for two little girls (Sayelor 3 and Piper 1) while caring for Mikey, Mikey has always favored playing with little girls. I think the two will be great buddies. I am very excited to have my attention on my children (and little Kamy of course). The past couple months have been so busy that Mikey has kinda had to just go with the flow (and it hasn’t been much fun for him). Braeden has been gone and comes home TOMORROW. I am looking forward to taking all 3 kiddos to the pool, and other fun places around town. Btw, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Virginia and the city we live in (Bristow/Gainesville). We have crazy hot days here, but unlike Charleston, we also have cooler days mixed in and most nights it actually DOES cool down. It’s nice to have a little break in the heat rather than straight HOT weather June-September. I might feel different about the weather come winter when we are dealing with snow and ice and COLD, but for now, I am happy.

It has been a very BIG week for Mikey. I think we can safely say he is potty trained. YAY!!!!! We started on Monday and after he peed in his big boy underwear twice, we thought we were going to have some trouble and went back to pull-ups and forcing him to pee pee (or at least try) every 30 minutes. THEN, out of the blue on Wednesday he said, “Daddy I have to go potty.” That was the very first time he ever initiated going on the potty. We cheered, we hollered, we sang and danced and Mikey LOVED it! So much so that he has not peed at all in his pull up since. He has told us every time he has to pee. We are SO proud of him. We have yet to conquer pooping on the potty (we just KNOW that it will only take him doing it once and he will have it). Mike has promised him a BIG Buzz light Year if he can show us he can poop on the “Big Boy” toilet. As much as he LOVES Buzz right now, I think it’s only a matter of time.

Along with diapers, we’ve also bid farewell to Mikey’s car seats and have moved on to the high back booster. He meets the height, age, and weight requirements so we decided to go ahead and make the switch. This has made my life SO much easier. I LOVE not having to change diapers (and will love the savings), but I think I just may love the fact that Mikey can now get in and out of his seat all by himself even more!

Finally on Friday after we sat at the DMV for 2 hours to get our driver’s license switched to VA (we are officially no longer South Carolinians); after we enjoyed lunch at the coolest outside ice cream place (think back to like the 50′s) and grocery shopped at the BEST grocery store I’ve ever been to (Wegman’s)- it has a wine bar and a sushi bar IN the store and an M &M display where you can choose what colors you want and the same kind of display with jelly belly jelly beans; we took Mikey to the pool. We owed him BIG time for being so patient all week while we moved in and unpacked. While at the pool, Mike took Mikey’s vest off in the shallow end (he could touch) and told Mikey to swim to him- He DID under water without putting his feet down. We are signing him up for swimming lessons and trust he will be swimming by himself after just a few classes.

We really did have a great week. Even though it involved a lot of work, it was so nice to spend 6 full days with Mike. He went back to work last night. I am not really sure how I am going to retrain my body to adjust to the early mornings that will begin tomorrow (I’ve been going to bed around 10 or 11pm- Mikey too and sleeping until 10 or 11am- Mikey too). Back to reality I guess. It doesn’t seem so bad thinking about work when A) I get to be WITH my kids the whole time I am working (minus when they are in school) and B) the first week is a 4 day week and the second, a 3 day week (my parents, sister and brother in law are coming in town and I am off this Friday and next Monday and Tuesday). Lori is the BEST person to call “Boss”

Have a great week everyone! Praying for safe travels for my parents and sister and Braeden. Did I mention just how excited I am that my little man comes home TOMORROW!!!!! He’s been gone since June 13, BUT has been spoiled rotten and has had so much fun.

I WILL be having that bottle of wine tonight. It is quite possible I will have the whole bottle too. Check out these pictures. We’ll call them the “before” pictures so we can remember all the work it took to get to pictures we’ll post when things get organized- aka the “after” pictures.

All I want to know is WHEN, WHY, HOW and WHERE all this stuff came from. I mean it when I say the boys are getting one thing for Christmas this year, I will not buy another article of clothing for a LONG time and we truly NEED nothing at all any time soon (except maybe some prayers that Mike and I get through sorting through and putting all this stuff away without one of us filing for divorce).

Braeden’s Room-to-be

Mikey’s Room-to-be

Master Bedroom-to-be

Living Room-to-be

Kitchen-to-be

Rec Room-to-be

Garage-to-be

Mikey has been in HEAVEN because he has toys that he loves, but hasn’t seen in months. I think he played with almost every single one for about a minute each. He was so excited knowing his train table was coming on the moving truck. He was on the lookout every time they men walked in with something. Here he is having his much anticipated reunion with his favorite toy!

K, don’t give up on me, it may be awhile before I post again…..

Btw, the title of this blog happens to be the lyrics to the song I sing to him over and over with total enthusiasm (picture me dancing and all) every time we are in the bathroom and he is sitting on the toilet. Mikey LOVES it. He also loves when I hold “Bear” to the toilet and pretend he is peeing too. Hey, whatever works at this point. Braeden was 3 years and a month when he was totally potty trained (I mean wearing underwear all day and never having an accident- wearing pull ups at night and rarely having an accident). It took me about 2 days to potty train him, but he had been working on it a lot at the daycare he was attending. Mikey is 3 years and 2 months and not doing so bad considering A) he is a boy B) he has never attended school and C) has parents that have been slackers and just felt diapers were easier these past 6 months. Hopefully my next post is that he is all trained. Wish us luck.

Mikey loves our new tub and has been the only one to try it out so far. Bless his sweet heart, he wants to swim so bad, but we’ve just been crazy busy moving in. He loves the tub because it’s big enough that he can swim. Mike is off for the next week (only having to work this Sunday because they were short handed) and I don’t care if we still have stuff lined to the ceilings to be put away, we WILL hit the new pool.

I saw this bottle of wine at Target yesterday and had to get it. First of all, it’s wine and I LOVE wine, second it has a pink cork wrapper- I LOVE pink and third- I am a middle sister (well I am a sister and a middle child) Can’t wait to try it out. Heck it may be tonight because as I am typing this, the movers are unloading the truck and there is stuff EVERYWHERE. Maybe the overwhelmed feeling is back?! Nah, I ain’t going back to that.

The kitchen came with this built in wine rack so if anyone feels like sending a house-warming gift, I’ve got 7 more slots to fill (8 if I DO drink that bottle tonight) Haha!

This magnet on our fridge states perfectly how Mike and I feel right now. It has been an incredible journey getting to where we are right now. The past 6 months have had so many ups and downs, but if we can look at each other and feel in our hearts that Life IS Good, then we are very blessed.

Oh, just so you don’t think my complaining is unwarranted, let me add that Mike has been working through all this (and many over-time shifts too), I’ve had my 3 year old side kick on my heels AND we’ve had a broken AC unit. Thursday and Friday were absolutely horrible- I was pouring sweat trying to get things done. The tech came out Saturday afternoon and discovered the system was broken, non repairable and had to be replaced. He was able to rig it up to where we could have cool air until the new system came in and could be installed. We had to set it to 50 degrees and it hasn’t dropped lower than 70 (which is fine temperature wise, but it means the system is working extra hard and therefore our bill will be outrageous). ****sigh****
and Mikey, oh my sweet Mikey, not sure WHAT his deal is. Is it a 3 year old thing? Is he just confused about what’s going on? Or is he mad because we are so busy and not able to give him 100 percent attention? Who knows, but he has been SASSY, talking back, disobeying and just being a MONSTER most of the time- for ME that is, he listens and is perfect for Mike. Ha! Us Moms are just not gary “scary” enough I guess.

So, some good news? We are making serious progress! The deep cleaning is done, the big projects are done (Mike just cleaned and swept out the garage- last big task), and now, we wait for the movers to get here so we can start putting things away. Also, Mike is off all next week, Braeden comes home in a week and a half (he actually miss us now- YAY), my parents come the first weekend in Aug and my sister and her husband come a few days later. So, a week into all this, I can say we are OK.

Here’s Mikey helping Daddy paint the pantry-

Check back for the finished product.

We finally got word from the Realtor on the house we are renting and it will be ready for us on Thursday- Yep 2 days!!!! We’ve been homeless for 5 months. Don’t get me wrong, we are SO incredibly thankful that we had family and friends to take us in, but we are more than ready to have our own space again. We leave Adrianne’s with all our stuff on Thursday and the movers come on Friday morning. Mike will be working on Thursday and Friday, off Saturday, work Sunday and then he’s off next Monday-Sat. It’s going to be a lot of work, but we are up for the challenge and really looking forward to seeing how our new home all comes together. I think Mikey will be entertained by all the toys he hasn’t seen or played with in months. It will be like Christmas for him. Stay tuned for pictures. I took some pictures of the house when we went to look at it (with the owners things in it), but I will make you wait to see OUR product.

Mikey has loved wearing his footie pjs. Since it’s cold in the basement at Adrianne’s (not complaining since it’s MUCH better than the 100 degree heat outside) we pulled out the winter pjs. When he posed for this picture, he said, “I’m a cutie!” Mama sure thinks so!

Speaking of Cutie, I am really REALLY missing my other cutie. Braeden wanted to stay in Panama City longer and since his summer break is extended in VA (school doesn’t start until Sept 8 as opposed to mid August in SC) I figured he’d have more fun in FL than he would here moving, unpacking, etc. Aunt Heather took this great picture of him at the beach and I stole it from her Facebook photos. Thanks Heather.

Since our new house is about 45 minutes away from where we are now, we’ve tried to go back to a few of the places we really liked that are over here. We LOVE National Harbor. It’s a little place on the water with shops, restaurants, entertainment, fountains, etc. We went last Saturday night and ate dinner at a great restaurant on the water. There’s these neat little statues that the kids like to climb on and Mikey jumped right into the fun.

We saw the most beautiful sunset. I still love this bridge that takes you from VA to MD-

So, wish us luck moving.