Blissfully Warm Weekend

Is it really January!? We were thrilled at the forecast for the weekend...mid 70s! We decided that although our house was a sorry sight, we had to get out and enjoy it, so planned a trip to the zoo for Saturday. We tried the Dallas Zoo first. I plan to try both and see about deciding on a membership after that. After the months of craziness with Christmas/packing/moving, we were very, VERY ready for a family four outing. :)

We checked out the Wilds of Africa, which I believe is the newest addition to the zoo. The biggest highlight was getting to feed a giraffe! You can see how close they got...it was amazing!

Then we found out it was Bug Days at the zoo and all of it was included with admission (which was only $5 per adult because of a winter discount, woo hoo!) so Lorelei got to try out a bounce house. She liked it at first, but then when more kids got in she decided that was enough. Overall had fun with it though. Then she wanted to get her face painted. Although standing in line is not really ideal, she wanted to do it, so we got through it. She LOVED her butterfly.










Makin got to try out his summer hat! Here we enjoyed a little time near the monkeys and got a glimpse of a tiger. This is also where it went downhill, when Lorelei remembered she still had not gotten to ride the carousel (which they put at the entrance...grrr!) and continued to scream so much we had to leave early, and of course, with her screaming all the way out. At least at the zoo its a mostly sympathetic audience passing you by.






After a short nap in the car she was ready to go again, so we decided to treat her with her first trip for Braum's ice cream! It's pretty much some of the best ice cream you can get, and we hadn't had any since getting back into "Braum's Country." :) We took a quick trip to Target too, in order to help get a bit more organized at home.








Lorelei doing "This Little Piggie" with Makin. So cute!








Had enough fun yet?! Nah, we still had daylight to burn! Since Brad didn't get to go golfing for real, I sent him and Lorelei to the little putting greens at our complex. They both had a great time, and Lorelei even gave him a huge cheer when he made a long putt. Then...they headed home and...Lorelei accidentally threw her golf ball into the crick. And Brad went after it. :) I mean, he is pretty low on his golf ball supply, but I didn't realize he was this desperate. :) Needless to say he was a muddy mess and then proceeded to turn my tub into a mud bath...but did get it all cleaned up. Glad they had a good time before that though!


Great way to start a Sunday morning...just sitting outside blowing some bubbles. :)

















Was trying to get a video of her saying "bubose" (bubbles) because I think its so cute. Then got a bit of Makin as well...


We had such a great treat for us to get out and enjoy and have fun together. Sunday afternoon we cracked down and did a lot of unpacking. Just had to leave the windows open to enjoy it a little bit too. Can't wait to be all unpacked and lots of fun weekends to come!

Jabber Jaws

Lorelei has been a chatterbox for quite some time now, but it just keeps getting better and better (well, most of the time its a good thing, sometimes it comes with a bit of an attitude as well). She has always brightened up our days with smiles and things she does...well now she brightens them even more with things she says.

Questions, Questions, Questions...
Lorelei asks questions all day long. The absolute most popular right now is "What/where dat noise?"She also commonly asks
"Where" to anything and everything...for instance..."Go to time out." "Where?"
"Where did she go?" (when hiding)
"(Makin, etc) Where are you?"
"What dat called?" (anything she does not know the name of she asks)
"Like that?" (when doing something and wants to do it the right way)



Lorisms
P Jelly - Peanut butter and Jelly
Day Goo - Thank you
Tiddy - Spaghetti

Honestly I feel like she comes up with a new one every day that I think is hilarious. :)

What we hear around the house:
Me do dat!
Me too help!
Me help!
Come back right now! (Ugh, she even said it to a dog on our walk the other day)
Hold on tight!

Cuteness:
The other day after she continued to do something I asked her not to do I said, "Aren't little girls supposed to listen to their mommies?" She answered matter-of-factly, "no."

We learned she recognizes the Starbucks logo. As we were driving past one on the hwy to the zoo she shouted out, "Oh! Tarbucks!"

Sunday surprises:
When I told her we were going to church this morning she said "No like church." (big surprise, she has to be quiet there...)
When we got there and sat down she said "Where Jesus?" :)
As we were saying our prayers tonight I was having her repeat after me and I started saying "Thank you for..." and she interjected, "God, Kira, Chase, Emma, Lily, Aunt Heather and Dad." (Sorry to the rest of you but Makin and I didn't make the list either ;) , and no she didn't name them all in a row quickly, I asked if there was anyone else she wanted to be thankful for each time.)

Other non talking related facts about Lorelei:
Everybody is a boy...usually the girls take it pretty well or are just oblivious.

She asks for Mac and Cheese for breakfast almost every morning.

She is fascinated with stacking things. About a month ago at Old Navy as I was checking out she was stacking piggy banks. The other day I was changing Makin's diaper and was worried with how quiet she was. Then I saw the pantry.

I'm pretty sure I thought of about 10 more cute things to add to this just today, so it could be a never-ending post. We love our little chatterbox!

Our Friday Night

This is how we spend our Friday nights...


Getting supper ready for Daddy! :) For some reason supper has become a three person job lately, and its actually a lot of fun for the most part. This evening was especially fun because Lorelei loves to put cheese on top of anything. Her motto is - eat a little, sprinkle a little, eat a little, sprinkle a little. :) Makin loves cheering us on and I even had to work on finishing the wine we bought with Aunt Heather. Cheers for a great weekend coming up!

Bring On The Rice Cereal

We have reached the point where eating supper as a family feels a bit like a form of cruel and unusual punishment as he longingly watches each bite we are taking! I had gotten the rice cereal box but hadn't found a good time to give it a try. Then Makin was trying to take a chocolate chip from Lorelei's hand and getting a lecture, so I decided it was that moment I should give the poor guy something. He was actually way more interested in the high chair than his cereal, until Big Sister decided to feed him...then he loved it. It starts already...sister is way cooler than mom. :) Guess Lorelei has her work cut out for her! ;)

Oh Toodles!

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is one of Lorelei's new favorite shows. This became very obvious in the grocery store the other day, when I asked her (trying to keep her entertained of course) "Can you help me find the..." and she, with no hesitation just yelled out "OH TOODLES!" Oh it cracked me up and pretty much made my day. Toodles is the little thing on the show that helps them anytime they need a "Mouscatool" sp? :) Lets just say we were needing Toodle's help a lot on that shopping trip! :)

Gettin' Out

We have been enjoying some wonderfully mild winter weather, with this week starting out in the mid 50's and creeping up each day including Friday getting to about 70! We have gone to the playground at our apt complex (nothing to write home about, but it has sand so at least we can bring some sand toys and its close-by), taken a walk in the double stroller (see below), and gone to two new parks, which are very close. I plan to keep just plugging "park" into the gps and seeing how many we have near us! Lots of fun. Unfortunately as one of the dads at the playground told me, they have a saying around here, "If you don't like the weather, wait till tomorrow." Next week will be very wintery, so we are just soaking up all the warmth and sunshine while we can!

Makin's face on the top pictures just absolutely cracks me up. Hope you enjoy as well!

Two Peas In A Pod

Woo hoo! I have two new favorite pictures! :)

Well, I'm starting to get a glimpse into what fun it will be with both kids, and cannot wait for it to continue to get better with time.

Right now Makin is totally entertained by his sister. He gets to do lots of big kid things and puts up with lots of things too...like being drug around to a park when he'd rather be napping and banged on the head when his sister can't get out of a swing and he is in the carrier...and a few bumps along the way from his rambunctious sister, but thankfully, he has a short memory, and its pretty much just pure adoration at this point. :)

Lorelei has gotten more and more interactive and caring with Makin. She will show him how to do things "like this" and then shows him. She has no problem telling him "no!" and when he looks longingly at her food will say "No Makin, bigger, have teeth!" :) The road to bossy is not far away I fear. :) She also things its hilarious that he watches her every move, and will walk back and forth just to watch him watch her. :) She also loves to give him kisses on the head and rub his head now that he has a little furry one to rub. :) She is such a good big sister! :)

New Loves

During the move Lorelei found a couple of Care Bears I'd had stashed away and they are two of her new favorite friends. The one on the left is an antique if you can't tell, it was mine as a kid. :) She also now loves a little Strawberry Shortcake who she calls "Shortcake" :)

Umbrellas. Loves them. She tells us its raining and we are going to get all wet if we don't get under with her. :) And of course these are the ideal toy inside an apt already overrun with stuff. ;)

The exasaucer is a HUGE hit with Makin. He enjoys it so much and I love having something new to keep him entertained and plop him into as-needed during the day.

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins...we are just plain addicted. I think I could make them every week, but I know I'd better not...hoping to keep it down to every two or three weeks. :) Thanks again for the recipe Melissa! Lorelei is also infatuated with looking inside the oven at things baking...not sure if we have never had a light that worked or I never knew how to turn it on, but it is great entertainment now!

Aunt Heather Visits Us In Plano

We are very excited that Aunt Heather only lives 3 hours north of us, in Oklahoma City! She came down over the weekend to help us get some more unpacking done. She and I enjoyed doing a little bit of browsing and shopping and then settled in to unpack a lot more on Sunday. Of course she had to fit in a lot of playing with Lorelei as well. As a disclaimer the picture on the bottom right was about the 10th time we tried to get Lorelei to hold her arms out for the picture...which explains Heather's face a bit more. :) Obviously they are very proud of their tower. :) Thanks for a great visit and lots of help and we are so excited to see you again in February!

New House Adventures

I promise to video/take pictures of the apt when its all done...right now there is still much to be unpacked and its not a pretty sight. Something to look forward to when its all done!

Here are just a few little memories we have made in our new house. :)

The kids stretching out in the new space after riding all morning in the car.







Our first supper together at home! Fancy meal of store-bought lasagna, but its one of Lor's favorites! Was SO nice to sit together at a TABLE at HOME after all the days of driving and no furniture. We loved it. :)






While we were waiting for our stuff, I decided Makin HAD to have a bath as it was almost a week since he had one the night before we left. This meant his first sink bath! It was actually a fun little family adventure. He also insisted on standing up instead of sitting. :)

Little story: When we got here and up to our apt for the first time Lorelei ran around the entire place saying "new house! new house!" and then after we showed her her room she laid down and made a carpet angel. :) One of my other little memory made here.

Looking forward to many more!

Grandma And Grandpa

We were very blessed to have Brad's parents offer to come and help us with the move. It was much needed and MUCH appreciated. Of course, the best part was that the kids got to spend lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa!

Fun With Grandma

Grandma enjoyed getting lots of snuggle time in with Makin, and of course, keeping Lorelei occupied as much as possible! She was amazed at how much MORE of a chatterbox Miss Lorelei has become since her last visit.

Fun With Grandpa

Grandpa got to meet Makin for the first time, and enjoyed seeing Lorelei again as it had been just over a year since his last visit! He kept Lorelei very busy and she loved swimming in the pool (despite the arctic temps of the room, at least the water was warm) with him. He also took both kids for lots of walks to keep them busy.

Not nearly enough pictures! I especially can't believe I didn't get one of the three Stahl men together! Will do better next time when I'm hopefully less distracted. :) Lorelei still asks for her grandparents almost every day. We are looking forward to our next visit (maybe to Nebraska!) and SO thankful they came to help us.

Miss you!

The Big Move

Many, MANY boxes and totes are sitting around waiting to be unpacked...but being this far behind blogging is slowly driving me insane...almost as much as not being able to find my hand lotion...so I shall neglect the unpacking and blog instead! (I hear many cheers in my head from you readers who are sick of looking at the same picture every time you check the blog, am I right? :) )

Okay, so THE BIG MOVE.

From VA Beach to Plano, TX it took us 4 days driving. Obviously we made more stops because of the kiddos and had to call it a night fairly early each day to try and get supper, bath and bed at a reasonable time (which usually didn't happen) but by the last day or two we started getting better at making sure to time the stops along with bottles, gas with hotels etc... It wasn't too bad, but we don't hope to do it again any time soon!

I will not go into the stress of dealing with the movers - long story short, took forever to pack up, a week to get it here, overcharged us, and we plan to write a review to keep others from the same thing happening. Guess the saying older and wiser means you learn a lot along the way right!?

Hotel Fun

Lows: lots of hours in the car with two kids antsy to get out, fast food, small backseats for me to squish into, 2 yr old skipping naps and lacking lots of sleep, so...much...to...unpack...

Highs: spending time with family/Grandma and Grandpa who were very helpful (especially to keep the kids entertained after our exhaustion at the end of the day), being to some states we have never been to, a sweet boy who likes to sleep in the car, Lorelei loving sleeping in a big bed by herself and falling asleep with Daddy because he would fall asleep and could ignore her talking and talking, portable dvd players, plenty of margaritas, nice hotels, MORE SPACE

Fun On The Road

You know you've been in the car to long when your 2 year old starts looking for toe jam to keep herself occupied! :)

A Glimpse Into The Unpacking

We are very thankful the movers came Tuesday and we had some extra help with unpacking...did not take a pic in the very beginning but the huge boxes you see were lined up four deep to the wall and a couple even stacked on top. These are the boxes they put our apparently-too-small boxes into and you don't want to know how much THAT cost. Thank goodness Brad's dad got all of them emptied before they left! As you can see we had much work to do in the kitchen. Makin was happy to stay out of the way in his awesome pink Bumbo. Lorelei was "helping" Auntie Di with putting their hangers up...can you guess who dumped the hangers out? And yes, she is in her pink poodle costume. Oh and the pic with Lor on the counter is all of us trying to stay out of the way of the movers bringing stuff up to our apt and sharing some McDonald's chicken nuggets after a horribly long morning at the Post Office getting a money order...again just don't ask...lets just say the fried food and Diet Coke was very necessary for all of us. Thanks for all the help unpacking Sr. Stahls!

Overall, the kids did amazing and we couldn't ask them to do any better. Looking forward to settling in and getting back to normal.

And yes, you may notice we do not have many Grandma and Grandpa pictures on this one...they deserve their own blog post coming up next!

Oh, and in between writing this I found my lotion. Yay! ;)

Picture Of The Day #7

Picture Of The Day #6

Picture Of The Day #5

Picture Of The Day #4

Picture Of The Day #3

Picture Of The Day #2

Picture Of The Day #1

To keep you blogger addicts sane, tried to give you a new cute pic each day to look forward to white we are on the road. :)

See You Later, Our Dear Friends

Being your first child's first friends and your first friends as a new mom, being the moms who you do something with each week and keep you sane through it all, being the fellow moms who go through announcing, "We're pregnant" to "Ugh I'm so fat!" to "Welcome to the world little one", being the families who are there for you when you need special attention watching your daughter for extra doctors appointments, who visit you in the hospital when you have a baby and when your baby has surgery...nothing can replace that sort of thing...and that is being a dear friend.

I know we are looking forward to some fun family vacations for our much needed beach fixes and hopefully a few visits to our new place in Texas, but I want our special families to know that we will miss you very much and we know it just won't be the same having you in our every day lives. Thank you so much for making our lives so much better these last two years. You hold a special place in all of our hearts.

Put a little video together and wanted to share it. Had some other plans, like adding music and a few more pics, but Picassa isn't cooperating and better call it a night.



Here's to visits to Texas from you all (otherwise I can never make muffins!) and trips to the beach for us, and lots of memories to keep on making. :) We will miss you!

Thank Goodness...

For two kids who love Clifford!

Lots of TV watching for these two lately while packing...at least it keeps everyone happy!

Makin At 4 Months Old

Stats:
Weight - 14.6 (75 %)
Height - 25 3/4 (50%)
Head Size - 16 3/4 (50%)

I cannot believe our baby is already 4 months old! This is when it seems like you will just start growing up so fast and I'm trying to cherish every "baby moment" I can while I can still cuddle you to pieces.












At Four Months:
-You still have not rolled over, but seem to get your body going in that general direction sometimes. :)

-Now sleeping on your back in the bassinet in our room but pretty much at least one dryer nap per day.

-Stay awake for about 2 hour stretches on a normal day, but if there is a lot going on you can last much longer.

-Still waking up about once each night, depending on whether we top you off a little bit late you can make it till almost 6 sometimes.

-Seem to have trouble waking up a bit too early (4:30 AM and beyond) and so as long as I pick you up and lay you right next to me in bed you go right back to sleep. This drives me insane as I have NEVER been big on a baby in the bed and always had nightmares about it when Lorelei was a baby, but I need my sleep and you apparently need your cuddle time, so it works for now. :)

-Eating 6-8 oz every 3-4 hours.

-Loves: us clapping your hands and singing, especially ABC's and Row Your Boat; bath-time; standing up; sitting up; your family! Your face just lights up when you smile when you see us, nothing like it :)

-You are still pretty laid back and love to cuddle. Hope to keep it that way little boy!

Princess Party

We had a princess party at the Check's house Friday morning. Sara got the room all decked out with every princess thing her girl's owned and they were all dressed up. Lorelei even wore her Cinderella dress the whole time! After serving us some tea and the girls enjoying a few of the adorable mini cupcakes and muffins they made for us, the girls just preferred to play and do their own thing. Oh and Makin made a pretty good prince too. ;)

Us Girls

Not too often anymore do we get much time with just the two of us, but we try and enjoy it as much as we can when we get a chance. Love you little girl!

New Apt

Needed a packing break, so you get apt pics. The site for the complex is: http://www.bellaridgeview.com/ and we have the Florence floor plan. At least everyone gets their own room now!

These are the two best pics we got emailed from the apt complex. We will have the laminate hard would floors but then the bedrooms are carpeted (for you grandparents who have been complaining, you can stay in their rooms!). Brad is super excited because the complex has a movie theater, putting greens and 24 hour fitness center. I'm super excited about the floors, frig with an ice maker, and wipe-off stove. Either way we are both feeling like kings in our temporary place and hopefully will help us take our time with the house hunt! Still not a lot of extra room for all those toys though! :)

MOMS Group Packing Party

The two kids ready for their friends to come over and help pack...thankfully the counter-top was finally clean. :) My family...does Lorelei look like AJ here or what!?







Erin keeping many of the kiddos entertained while they played the "drums" with tongs etc. They had so much fun with her! I didn't catch any other pictures, but there were 6 moms other than myself who came over to help pack...they got done in a few hours what we would have taken days to get packed. All with many kids running around playing surprisingly well on their own. We were so blessed to have this amazing group of women to be a part of here. Thanks again ladies!

Last Lynnhaven Mall Trip and Fun With Friends

The plan for Monday was a trip to the Lynnhaven Mall to return our HUGE box of unwanted items to JcPenney. (Craziness with ordering stuff for Christmas that got worked out but we ended up with a huge box of stuff, half of which we didn't even order and half of which we got two of...but at least I got one more box for packing out of the deal!) We also needed a trip to Old Navy for socks for Makin and a swimsuit for Lorelei for the hotels on the moving trip. (See! I did need to go to the mall instead of pack, thank you!)

We ended up getting to have way more fun and met our Bonfiglio friends there too! The kids had fun playing with balls and coloring in Old Navy, then a ride on the carousel followed by one on the ice cream truck, as well as lunch out and a short play time at the play area, per Chase's request (he is really the only kid in this bunch that sort of "gets" that we are moving and wanted to get extra time with us).

Thankfully we have a few more fun days planned with our friends to get as much time with them as we can.

P.S. Makin was asleep when we got onto the carousel, otherwise I would not have made him ride on the floor in his car seat. :)

Rocko

I think this pretty much speaks for itself...Lorelei is now like Zoe off of Sesame Street and has a pet rock, named Rocko (just like Zoe). I even played Elmo who always says "It's just a rock!" :)

Boxes and Taking Down Christmas

Of course, the dreaded day of taking down the beautiful Christmas decorations was upon us. To add to the chaos, we are officially MOVING so Brad ran and got some free boxes we found on craigslist, so we had boxes for putting away decorations and lots of empty boxes all over the house...Elizabeth's FAVORITE scenario. ;)

Amazingly enough the kids were actually better for me packing then they had been unpacking! Hooray! I did much of it during nap, but there was still a lot left and Lorelei even helped take down some of the tree. She is still asking nearly every day for Santa to come and sometimes mentions wanting to put something under the three. Christmas was just not long enough!

Along with all of this, to help keep them entertained they got to build a fort with all of our boxes! Lorelei is quite the little builder/stacker so it was a lot of fun for her and Brad. Of course our sweet, mellow boy sat wonderfully in his bouncy seat for all the chaos. They finished off the night having some popcorn in the fort watching a parade and some football. The next day they build a fort again and Lorelei requested football and popcorn. :)