FLORIDA Part 3: Family Pictures

This was such a nice family vacation. And Nicolynn is such a spoiled little girl. She has the whole family wrapped around her little finger. And I mean that literally when she grabs their finger and says "walk". :)

Nicolynn and Aunt Kelli (who has been living in Costa Rica):

Nicolynn and DADDY:

Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Tony (out for dinner):

Papa and Nicolynn:

Mommy and Nicolynn:

Josh and Me:

Baba, Papa, and Nicolynn:

FLORIDA Part 2: Fun stuff we've done.

NICOLYNN AND THE LITTLE GECKO:

There are lots of these little lizards in Florida. This one Uncle Tony helped Nicolynn hold and play with.

Nicolynn and I even showered with one by the pool this week :) I didn't see it until Nicolynn started saying "Lizard, Lizard, Lizard" and she backed away from the wall. Sure enough, there was a lizard in our shower. And of course the next thing out of her mouth is "Hold it?"

ICE  CREAM:

Ok, so we also had LOTS and LOTS of ice cream on vacation. I have been told that ice cream always fits in the cracks (even after a large dinner) and Nicolynn would definitely agree with that. Nicolynn especially loved this day because we bought her her very own ice cream cone to eat by herself.

PAPA CAUGHT A POMPANO FISH:

"Hold it???"

MORE POOL TIME:

BAGEL WORLD AWESOMENESS:
This is the breakfast of champions, or just the breakfast Josh and I have been craving for the last year. (Everything Bagel, egg, cheese and sausage... yum yum!)

MID-MORNING BINGO: I WON!!!!
Almost every other day, the resort has BINGO on the pool deck. And I actually won my very first BINGO game on this trip. I ended up winning a popcorn popper for the grill... not something I will ever use. But it was still lots of fun playing.

 COMING HOME:
So we decided to take a different route home, and it felt like we were never going to leave GEORGIA! (I decided "It's the state that never lets you leave...") This is a picture of our dreaded Atlanta part of the trip.

It's not a good picture, but it the best one I have that can give you an idea on how much fun driving was in that city. :) 

The rest of our drive home was successful, except for the part where Nicolynn threw up twice...

The first time was not so bad, BUT the second time... well I still have nightmare about having to clean that up again. Thankfully we were 2 hours from home, but that also meant it was pitch black (since we drove straight thru the night) and it was SOOOOO COLD again. We cleaned her and the car up as best as we could at a rest area. And then did more dreaded cleaning at 5:00am when we got home. 

She was so good about it all though. We're not sure if it was a bug or if she got car sick or both.

But for the most part, driving went pretty well!!!

FLORIDA Part 1: Daily Life on Vacation.

FLORIDA IS AWESOME!!!!!

This year we were able to go to Florida for about 2 weeks. We figure this is our "Last Hurrah" before little Baby H comes. And we are making the most of it. :)

Every morning starts out with BAGEL WORLD!!! And I do mean every morning. Bagel World is so close to the resort that we walk there and bring our breakfast back to the resort to eat on the sunny pool deck. The bagels are baked fresh daily, and there are so many different options.

Next we get ready for the pool.
Here Nicolynn is singing and dancing on the bed before Pool Time:

Then it is POOL TIME!!!! Nicolynn normally starts out playing in the pool while Josh and I start out getting HOT in the 80+ degree sun. Then we jump in the pool to join Nicolynn.

If it's not a pool day, its a BEACH DAY!!! Nicolynn loves the beach. The first few days she wanted to catch the seagulls. She would chase them and say "Hold it, Hold it". I felt so bad for her because she would just start to cry when she couldn't catch the birds. She wanted to hold them so badly. And because she was running so much on the sand, she got blisters on every one of her toes. :( Although she was in pain she was such a trooper with the blisters. She enjoyed wearing band-aids, and her new light up sandals. So at least that went over well.

Nicolynn also surprised me in the sand. She is such a girly girl who does not like to be dirty at all. And she LOVED being buried by Uncle Tony and Daddy. I couldn't believe it.

Here she even looks bored :)

Next is nap time, and Josh and I take turns staying in the room for Nicolynn's 2 hour naps. Or we both stayed in the room together and played skip-bo. It worked out quite well.

Then we head out for an early dinner somewhere. There are so many great restuarants to choose from. And we made it to almost all of them. And after dinner we came back to play cards, or play corn hole, or walk in the beach, or just to hang out.

Next we sleep and start all over with Bagel World in the morning!!! This is the life :)

PLAYWORLD

Well this post is coming quite late (just like lots of mine do). I am in awe of the people that post things daily or sometimes even the weekly ones. I guess I'm not quite that organized YET! Someday, I hope to be crazy organized. But in the mean time I am just constantly organizing, which is not the same thing...

So this month Nicolynn and I met a good friend of mine and her son at PlayWorld! Nicolynn had so much fun. And it wasn't very expensive. We will definitely be going back.

Nicolynn loved the jungle vehicle where she kept wanting to kiss all the animals.

They also had about 9 of these little houses that Nicolynn enjoyed playing in. She just went from one to the other, to the other and the other...

And I think Nicolynn's favorite thing was this large slide. I couldn't believe how many times she went up it. I thought she would go up twice and we would have to go home because she was so exhausted. But she was such a good little sport, I bet she did it around 10 times.

And for a little update on Baby H:
I'm now 26 weeks pregnant. And that means Baby H is just under 2lbs and somewhere around 14inches long. That means she is one crazy skinny baby!!! But I've read that this is when she is starting to gain more fat on her.
My doctor says everything is looking good, but he won't be surprised if I have her early also. And she seems pretty healthy to me because she kicks me ALL THE TIME. So that's a good thing, but somewhat hard to sleep during. :)
I can't imagine the day when I will truly be blogging about 2 little girls instead of just the one. I better get more organized before then, or you'll never read anything new from here again. :)

Our Humungous Snowman!!!!

My dad (Papa to Nicolynn) is such a kid. About a week ago I get a call from him wanting to know if Nicolynn wanted to come out and play :) So he came over with my mom, and helped us build this snowman!!! Actually, he pretty much built the whole thing. Josh had to help put the balls on top of eachother, since I am pregers and not too strong. It was so much fun tho, and it didn't take long at all. If you drive by, it's still in the yard!

Nicolynn Laughing

Well, I am having a hard time getting this video to finish editing. It is a 4 min video of Nicolynn laughing, and I'm trying to shrink it down to 2 min. But I just want to put it on the blog now. So if you look at it in the near future, sorry because once again, this is a long one. But ENJOY!

Nicolynn Reading

Ok everyone, this post is for my sister Kelli, who is living in Costa Rica right now. She never gets to hear Nicolynn talk because whenever we skype her, Nicolynn just looks at the picture and doesn't want to say hi. So my big disclaimer is this is a LONG video... But Nicolynn is talking almost the whole time.

Happy Birthday Nicolynn

Our Baby Girl is 2 years old now. And we are so proud to be her parents. We love her so much, and she is such a blessing to us.

Now I'm going to brag a little bit about how wonderful Nicolynn is, and how good Josh and I have it, so if you don't want to hear it--- look away now!

Josh and I are truly blessed by God. We have (in our eyes) the most wonderful and amazing child. She truly does bring us joy every single day. And I am so thankful that God has allowed us to be her parents for the last 2 years.

Now, I feel even more blessed, because I get to spend all of my days with this awesome kid! And I truly LOVE spending my days with her. She is so much fun to be around. Nicolynn is talking so much now and I just love to hear her little voice. She is also starting to sing! And it is so wonderful to hear. (I know I am her mommy, so I am totally bias) But I just love this little girl to pieces.

Some of my favorite days are when we have no plans, and we get to stay home all day. Staying home, playing with her, acting silly, or teaching her something new, is the best.
(And since I'm pregnant and I'm in the whole "nesting phase", it makes me enjoy staying home with no plans even more.)
Plus, Nicolynn plays so well by herself!!! Sometimes I'm playing with her, and she goes somewhere else and chooses to play by herself. I end up building a really tall lego tower, and she is giving a bottle to her babies. :) But the next thing I know, I'm making her babies a lego bed and we're back playing together again. Life is good.

Now of course, there are those times where life doesn't always seem to be as good... and that's because we're in the "disciplining years" where we get to constantly train Nicolynn to do what is right. And I have got to say, this stage is scary. You have to be so consistant in EVERYTHING. And that is hard to do. It's never fun to realize that everything I do (or don't do), shapes Nicolynn to either be a blessing or a burden to others. YIKES!!!!! But we're trying, and every now and then we get a glimps of how our effort are paying off. And that is totally worth it.

Right now my favorite is when I get to hear her say "Yes Mommy," or "Thankyou", without being prompted. That is the best. I love this 2 year old stage! It is great!!!

And yes, I know I'm pathetic cause I don't like to be without Nicolynn. But I wouldn't feel as blessed if I always wanted to get rid of her, or wanted to drop her off at someone else's house either. So I don't mind being pathetic.

We love our Nicolynn, and we can't wait to spend many more years with her.
Thank you God!!!!

Nicolynn 2 year Pictures

A Beautiful Picture of my Beautiful Baby!!!

Hey Everyone!!! Nicolynn is going to be 2 years old in 10 days!!!! And most of you know, Nicolynn does not do well getting her pictures taken. (disclaimer... she is getting better) But the last time we went to get her pictures taken (granted it was almost a year ago) we had to go back to the studio a second time, and she still would not smile for the camera, and she just cried. The photographer warned me that children are normally worse for their 2 year pictures... BAH HA HA! This can not be and will not be with my child, right? But either way I was determined to at least get 1 or 2 good pictures of her at home before I went out to get her pictures taken at a studio. (I stress out about it every time. I hate it.) So I thought I could survive at home pictures... But instead of getting stressed out, I got worn out.
I did get a couple of good ones, but I am so picky that once I get them printed I'm sure I won't be ok with them. (But we will see) I used to work at a photo lab, and I got very used to nit-picking photographs. Now it is a curse I must suffer with the rest of my life.
Anyway, I did decide to break down and try to get her pictures taken at a studio once more this year too. But if that doesn't go well, I don't need to stress out because I will fall back on these. And she did smile great for me here!

A slightly blurry good one.

A really fun one! (Not lady like, I know...)

Gender Reveal Party

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

Friday Feb 8 we had our family and some friends over to reveal the gender of our new baby. Josh and I had the ultrasound in the afternoon, and the party came a few hours afterwards. 

Josh and I are so excited to have another girl. I am so happy that Nicolynn is going to have a sister. I love having a sister. It think sisters have such a special bond, and I'm so excited for my girls!!!! Now we can't wait to actually meet our new addition.

The party went great. 

Here are some of the "Prego Snack" I had out for everyone.

Chocolate covered Cakeballs

Chocolate covered marshmallows

Salty-Popcorn, Crunchy-Chips, Sour-Pickles, Spicy-Doritos, & Sweet-Choc. Stuff

And we also had "Name your Vote" poster where people could guess if we're having a boy or a girl and then name their guess. Thanks for all your "helpful" names :)

And for the BIG REVEAL: I had a friend make cupcakes and I filled them with pink frosting after the ultrasound. I also was able to skype my sister into the party, since she is living in Costa Rica right now. 

Thank you everyone for coming and Celebrating with us. We had a good time and hope you did too!!!!

Camera Fun with Mama!!