Anniversary, Summer Showers and New House

Today's post came about because while prepping for Jay's birthday (read: convincing him that a small party with cousins and a couple of buddies is a fun way to celebrate your birthday and not a reason "lock the door" when everyone comes over.) I realized that today is a blogiversary here at TWOWA.

So, Happy 3rd Anniversary little blog. 

Here's my first post. I always read the first post of any blog I follow or wander over to from the interweb. I don't know why, but I do. so there.

I wish I had some fun exciting news to share to celebrate this occasion, but, alas, like most other Southeasterners we have just been trying to fill the days with what fun we can find. Two weeks of rain and borderline obscene humidity down and at least one more to go according to the forecast.

After being sick for over a week with the stomach bug (Lizzy kept it forever, then Jay over the weekend, then the parents went down early last week), rain, rain and more rain. I've decided to let Jay play in the rain when he wants.

Today we did this.

Rainy sidewalk chalk wearing Mom's boots.

Oh, and he colored them a little.

And since we've been spending so much time INDOORS here's another installment of our home tour.

Enjoy our living room and dining room. Welcome!

The tour of the kitchen and more is here, if you missed it.

If you have any questions, ask away in the comments! I love to hear from y'all and I'm always happy to share resources!

Fun Little Fourth

Happy Fourth of July!

We've had a great day.

Just some family time and lunch with Dede and Papa.

Then hanging out around our house for the evening. 

We did a little research during naptime to find a good spot to watch the Thunder on the Mountain fireworks from Vulcan Park.

We found a great spot (thanks Google!) at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church and had a perfect view and couldn't hear much of the boom (which is awesome with little kids). It began to rain just as we got to the car, which was awesome considering the forecast for today. 

It was fun watching the fireworks with the kids and their short attention span. They did watch them, but Jay was also very into people watching and excited for our little "camp" and "picnic" we had. Lizzy watched and played with her blanket. 

We had a great day. I love seeing these pictures of July 4th over the last few years. 

2011

2012

 

 2013 

Weekend at home

We decided to skip the trip to Nashville and stay home this weekend for Lizzy to get better or at least be sick at home in more familiar surroundings.

I think she's well now.

Actually I think she's at the point where she's better but has become accustomed to the special treatment of being sick.

Like CapriSun whenever and wherever she chooses.

We really enjoyed Kelsey's visit and had fun with KarKar and CJ at our halfway point CFA.

The good news is that Jay invited CJ to his birthday party while we were there, which until this point he has absolutely refused to talk about. I am just planning a very small party for family and a few friends Jay sees frequently and his favorite food. I am looking forward to it! I hope Jay is still on board with everything in a few weeks!

Even the best laid plans...

...are no match for the stomach bug.

I just feel like I need to post this because the last few days have been so busy I might forget what we've been doing.

Sunday morning Lizzy woke with the symptoms of the dreaded stomach virus right before we were to go meet Charles, Mimi, Kelsey and CJ to pick up Kelsey for the week. I tried to get Lizzy to rally, but just as we got in the car, another "wave" hit and cancelled the trip for her.

Joseph and Jay took our place and picked up Kelsey and brought her to our house in time for lunch with the West/Myers crew.

I served Miss Daisy's Turkey Divan, some fresh fruit, corn and green beans all from our local produce stand and Macaroni and Cheese, of course. I also made an angel food cake with pineapple which was good, but super sweet.

Lizzy seemed to rally and spent the rest of Sunday without incident so it was easy for me to send Joseph on his way to head to the gulf for some snapper fishing while we prepared for a fun time with Kelsey.

It rained almost all day Monday, so my plan for the zoo was a wash out. We did take Kelsey to our new Target with the elevator and escalator which was super impressive, then home for some painting, snacking, pool time, a trip to the post office to mail some letters to CJ, out to dinner at Milo's, then to the park and out for ice cream! Whew!!

Tuesday we just played around the house then Kelsey and I had a girls day with lunch at Taziki's and some shopping at the Summit.

We had BIG plans for a full day at the gym and pool with friends today, then again, just as we were ready to hop in the car this morning--Lizzy is sick again.

This time her symptoms were much worse and she seemed absolutely miserable. Jay and Kelsey spent quite a bit of quality time together today away from the little sick crying baby. I hope they had fun.  Honestly, today is/was such a blur. I just know I've never felt sorrier for one of my kids than I was for sweet Lizzy today. I just pray that its over now and that no one else gets whatever she had.

So, despite my big plans this week has been sort of flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants. We've had fun with Kelsey here, even if there have been lots of breaks for extra baths and time to tend to Lizzy.

I have no idea whether we'll make it to Nashville or just meet someone halfway tomorrow to drop Kelsey off. I can't imagine taking care of my sick kids while out of town. I'm just super tired tonight, but need to do ten thousand things because I certainly don't know what kind of surprises tomorrow has in store! I would love a Diet Coke right about now to get things done, but we've stopped buying them and I'm too tired to go out and get some. Perhaps I'll spike my water with some extra lemons and see if that put some pep in my step?!?!

Here's hoping for a smooth rest-of-the-week WITHOUT ANY PLANS! :)

Quickly, really

It late and I'm in the midst of knocking out a few more must-do to-do's tonight but wanted to take a break to browse the blogs  post a few quick things before we get into a very busy week ahead. 

I'm driving to our halfway stop in the morning with the kiddos to meet Charles and Mimi for a bit and pick up Kelsey to bring her for a visit this week while CJ and Karla sleep in a tent at Boy Scout Camp. We have a fun few days planned here, then the kids and I will head to Nashville at the end of the week to deliver Kelsey and spend a few nights with Mimi.

Then-boom, it's July.

So here are a few updates before the real fun begins--

1. We've all become water junkies and I'm really happy about it. Here's what my water looks like these days....

Lemon, strawberries and blueberries. Jay takes his the same way. Roll Tide.

2. I am really looking forward to our Sunday Supper this week for a couple of reasons-

    a. Kelsey will be here

    b. I am using a great recipe from my favorite cookbook

    c. I found a new dessert to try and I am eager to see how it turns out!

3. I've been to the vet a total of 3 times since last Friday. Twice with both kids. Gus is fine but has some very minor eye and ear things requiring drops 3 times a day. We also changed his food and he wasn't consulted first, so he's acting too-good-for-it most days. AND I bathed him today. Just wanted to put that out there. He's a high-maintenance beast these days which was NOT in my summer plan. But, we do love him so!

4. Just in case you were wondering this is what our gorgeous marble island looked like at 10 p.m. on Saturday night. 

(Just to prove that it does not always look as pristine as it does in these pictures.)

5. It seems as if Jay's awesome nap time is slipping away as we approach birthday #3. There have been fits. There have been hour and a half long struggles before he is finally asleep. There have been potty breaks and cups and stories and songs and every excuse in the book. There has NOT been a lot of time for me to do things like laundry (thus the pic above). Since there really is no way to guarantee what nap time is going to be like these days, I feel like there is an adjustment coming to my daily routine. Again. 

6. In case you missed it, Lizzy walked this week. This is still rocking my world. 

7. We went to a birthday party today and Lizzy was taller than several other boys and girls who are all almost 2 or have just turned 2. I was amazed. 

8. I have a zillion other things to do tonight--including breaking a mess of beans and getting the rest of lunch ready. 

Here we go!!

P.S. I taught Jay what a "mess of beans" is while we were at the produce stand this week. He laughed the whole way home. So did I. :)

And we're walking...{15 Months}

Lizzy's first steps came this afternoon after her 15 month checkup! 15 months and 2 days she's off and walking! (Shoutout to Dr. Malone who completely called it--he said at our visit this morning that if I left her alone in a room and walked out that she would walk to follow me. Well, I left Lizzy in the playroom and went down the hall to check on Jay who was refusing to getting ready to nap, when I came out of his room Lizzy was standing, smiling in the doorway of the playroom and started toddling down the hall to me.)

She walked down the hall 3 more times for Jay and I before I thought to grab a camera!

Her checkup went great and she is-
33 inches
25 pounds and 12 ounces
above 90th percentile in head/height/weight

She's gained a few pounds since her last visit and got a good report from the doctor.

She's wearing mostly 24 month and 2T (mostly just swimsuits and PJs) which are a tad big, but fit better than her 18 month clothes right now. Size 5 diapers and size 5 or 6 shoes fit best.

She wakes around 7, sometimes taking a morning nap from 10-11, (I always wake her by 11) and another from 2:30-4, sometimes just waiting and taking one nap starting around 1:30 and lasting until 4:30. Down for the night a little after 8.

She's quiet when Jay is around, but if he's ever gone or sleeping while she's awake she turns into a jabber box. This week she's really started "talking" more and is doing more animal sounds and trying to say more names. She will say eat, more and drink as well.

She blows kisses, knows where her tummy is and still counts the stairs all day long.

She's also taken to crawling up stairs and counting as she does it then stopping on the 3rd or 4th and saying "No ma'am" she'll also just sit on the first step and say "sit, sit,sit" over and over.

She loves to be outside and says swing and slide. I can only imagine that she'll love being outside even more as her walking gives way to running.

She's still such a sweet little happy child. That is unless you are a childcare provider at our gym or church. In which case you only see what a joy she is when I return to pick her up. Things are better, but at 15 months we are still not over the mommy's-gone-meltdown.

She's trying more foods but still eats very very few fruits and veggies. I see a glimmer of hope that this will change soon--she ate some cantaloupe this week and tolerated a strawberry with honey on it today. Cross your fingers for us!!

Father's Day and these funny faces

Another pretty laid-back weekend around the West house.

We celebrated Father's Day by having the Dede and Papa, Jenn, Sean, Weston and Davis and Sean's parents for dinner yesterday.

The boys played in the pool for about an hour before dinner and had a blast, then all ate great--so I feel like that was an "Ah-ha" moment by having them play and swim before dinner instead of trying to force feed three squirmy little fellas who just want to hurry up and get outside.

We served a great dinner of Grilled Salmon, I roasted squash, zucchini, mushrooms, peppers and onions in the oven, as always made mac-n-cheese (and a few chicken nuggets for the under 30 crowd), a yummy huge salad and I picked up a low-carb cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory and made some brownies for dessert.

Today we were at the "exercise place" as Jay calls it, bright and early then off to Whole Foods then home for snack, back to the gym for some pool time before storms come in this afternoon.

Check out this little sun-kissed sister!

Lizzy certainly has my complexion and is turning into a little brown biscuit.

Jay of course favors Joseph in the complexion department and is still a silly little turkey!

Lizzy is officially 15 months old now and goes for her check-up tomorrow. I think she's grown a ton, but we'll see what the doc says.

We're just about a month from Jay's 3rd birthday and he is currently boycotting any plans for a party or even having a birthday all-together.

Let's hope he comes around soon!