A Little This...A Little That

After a long absence...a few computers...and a busy life...I'm back. 

This is my sweet dog, Molly.  She has a few passions in life.  Well...two really.  Tennis balls and Stuffed animals.  I found some TY toys at the local dollar store and got a few for my sweet B.  She soon had little interest and in them and then Molly took over.  In this case it was miss piggy.  She took her outside.  To bed.  Well pretty much anywhere she went the piggy was sure to follow.  Our other dog Jazzy has a different approach to stuffed animals.  She sees them as a target to destroy.  To shred. To demolish.  Despite Molly being very protective of her miss piggy, Jazzy soon found her and eyes were torn off, and limbs were dismembered.  So sadly we had to retire her beloved pig. 

This little gem has been a project that my hubby has been working on.  He's been refinishing these old antique Railroad Carts.  I think he's completed 4 now.  Each one of them has held different stories.  True pieces of history.  I loved having it in our living room for a coffee table! However, it is NOT to have with a toddler roaming about.  I love the industrial look...but that will have to be another time.  But didn't he do a great job? Yes, I think so.

My little girl loves books!  She's curious, and loves to learn.  My love of sign language has overflowed on her I think.  She does pretty good with talking for her age, but she's really picked up on signs.  It melts my heart seeing those tiny dimpled hands form those signs.  I remember the first time she signed "milk."  It was so precious.  As a sign language interpreter major in college there's nothing more that could have filled my heart more.  I'm so excited to teach her more and to be able to expose her to the Deaf community and culture. 

I always love it when my nieces are able to come over. Even though this visit was short, it was oh so sweet!  Living a few hours apart I cherish the moments.  I can't believe how big they're all getting.  Each one of them are so unique and perfect.  The youngest of my sisters' just turned one.  I see time pass so quickly with my little one, but I see it even more when I see my nieces. 

 My hubby and I were able to get away for a night to Chicago with some good friends of ours.  I brought my camera but was slightly under the weather and decided to focus on the trip itself and not take a ton of pictures.  This picture is the skyline of Chicago from the Shedd Aquarium.  It was beautiful weather for the "windy city" in March.  I loved the early sneak peak of summer that we had.

 I love that sandles were brought out.  Pant legs rolled up.  Chairs taken out of the garage, dusted off, and placed on the deck.  Ahhh...summer.  80 degrees in March in Michigan.  Yes, please!  And thank you. 

 Playgrounds have become a new passion in our house.  They're wonderful in more ways than one.  They're entertainers, a way to meet little friends, and best of all, they almost guarantee a good night sleep.  For everyone. 

Happy Monday!

A Merry Christmas

Merry (late) Christmas!

After almost 100 pictures (at least!) one finally turned out.  I know it's normal to take a lot of pictures, but I would think...or hope that I could get a few more than just 1 turn out.  I love snapping pictures, but since little B is getting wiser older she's learning how to move at the perfect moment for that blurrrrred affect.  Smarty pants.

Anyways, Merry (late) Christmas!

We were able to spend Christmas morning in a tropical paradise.  Well...close enough.  Florida!  How I loved waking up in the morning, looking out the window at a palm tree.  Yes, a palm tree.  We decided to venture down to Florida to spend Christmas with his Grandparents that reside there in the winter.  My in-laws also came down.  It was such a nice and relaxing time.    We had somy fun adventures, and hours upon hours of relaxing as a family. 

The drive down seemed like it took forever...but 21 hours straight is kind of forever in a car with a 16 month old (even though she did great). 

I think I'd be embaressed to tell you how many graham crackers she ate...how many movies she watched...how many pacifiers we had in the back seat for her...BUT we made it!  And we all still loved eachother by time we arrived. 

Bonus.

Golfing is one of those things for my man.  I think he would eat, sleep, breathe golf if he could. It was the first thing he did as soon as he got out of the car.  Unpacked his golf clubs.  Went out back. Hit them clear over the canal on the other side of the road in the picture. 

Not bad.

 I hope no one is blinded by my our pastiness.  No need for wearing shorts in Michigan at the end of December.  That's besides the point.  I love these HUGE trees! They're found everywhere on Boca Grande. 

 Golf carts are the easiest way to navigate on the island since it's so small.  There's specific roads just for the golf carts that make it really nice and convenient. Little B got to be captain with Daddy since she wasn't a fan of anything the first part of the trip.  Including golf cart rides.  It took about 3 days for her to adjust to everything and be the happy little B she usually is. 

 This is the hotel that we stayed at...and just steps out of our room was a canal off of the ocean.  Which is so beautiful and relaxing and wonderful...however, it is a non stop chasing and holding hands with a toddler who has no interest in those things.  That's a pretty exhausting rest.
 

 We went to bed really early that night, try to recover from the long trip still.  That led to a early wake up.  I mean a early wake up.  Like 4 am early.  I haven't been up at that time (thankfully!) since Little B was a new born.  We decided to go fishing.  We had a baby monitor that reached perfectly and a fishing pole.  I wanted just to sit next to Kaleb and chat.  After he casted out a few times with no success, I thought it would be fun to do the same. I wanted to be cool.  He put the line out and told me to hold it while he went to go get a pole for me.  Sure enough, as soon as he left my line got snagged.  UGH!  Not cool!  Then it started to move...and I got excited.  Kaleb came over to see me and the pole struggling.  He couldn't believe it.  He had spend about 2 hours the night before fishing with not much luck.  I just go in there with a line that was already out for me and hold the pole and I snagged a fish.  Ha!  It still makes me smile.  That is me and my man holding my big catch of the day! 

 Drum roll please...

 These are the first pictures I've posted since I chopped my hair off.  That should be another post in itself.  It's taken a few months of adjustment to it.  But it's been fun.  Something different.  Something unique for me. 

 Ice cream is always a favorite for Baleigh.  She was pretty stoked when Grandma bought her her first ice cream cone.  What a cute mess she was!

 It always nice to see beautiful flowers.  But there's something about seeing them outside at the end of December that brings real joy.  You really makes you stop and enjoy them all. 

 On Christmas day we saw this manger scene that you could walk around.  Baleigh was so interested in all the animals...and the baby.  She loves babies.  She loved baby Jesus. 

 We spent lots of time at the beach.  We were able to stay at a house right on the ocean with family.  It. Was. Amazing.   Nothing better than walking out to that white warm sand to that beautiful water whenever you wanted to.  The waves crashing at night was the most perfect noise to drift to sleep by.  Oh, and I love the few curls that Baleigh had with the humidity.  Perfect. 

 

We loved shelling in the early morning.  Finding all of those treasures the ocean left behind was so much fun.  I have a few crafts that I want to tackle with some of the shells that we found. My favorite shells were the coquina shells.  The have such amazing colors and designs on them.

We woke up Christmas day in Florida.  We did it before.  I swore I would never do it again with kids.  But there we were.  No snow.  80 degrees.  We had a wonderful time together.  With family.  Our family.  We went to the beach after a big Christmas Luncheon at the Grandparents church.  We hiked for a few miles on the beach.  It was so beautiful.  And that sunset made the trip worth it.  God has such wonderful things for us to enjoy.  I'm so thankful for that. 

I love my family.  I love our time that we're able to spend together just enjoying life.

I love my nieces.  That's a good thing too.  Why you ask?  Becuase I have nine of them.  Nine beautiful nieces.  Here are a few pictures I took of a few of those beautiful girls right before Christmas...