What a week!

So this week was supposed to be calm and relaxing for a change...yeah...not so much. Monday was ok and even seemed to look like we would have the relaxing week that I had hoped for! Chris and I dropped off my car at the shop to get the shocks replaced while my parents are out of town so that I could borrow Dad's truck. That was the only task on the agenda aside from swimming lessons, so we were golden!



Tuesday...yeah. It was pretty much all downhill from here. We had swimming lessons first thing in the morning...and then Caroline decided to refuse an afternoon nap. Ugh. Chris had an eye exam and got contacts for the first time. So he came home early and managed to sneak in with us to watch Katherine's dance lessons. This was a blessing because Caroline was CRAZY. If I had been by myself I would have lost my mind! She could not sit still for more than 5 seconds at a time, which is not cool when you are sandwiched in a small room like sardines watching the dance lesson while trying to keep a 1 year old entertained a quiet! After dance, we zipped to the mall to buy Chris some new sunglasses, since his current pair are prescription...doesn't work too well with the new contacts! After that, we rushed home and got the girls in bed...thank goodness because both were super tired when we got home.



Wednesday I had a lot of work to do for the shop, plus I needed to run errands and do laundry for Chris's trip to PA this weekend. So we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off...Caroline refused a nap yet again and then I decided to try and make a new dinner. Yeah...total failure. The stuff didn't even look edible, much less taste edible. It was a super healthy recipe, so I should have guessed it would turn out that way, but I didn't. So, we dumped the nasty stuff down the drain, went and picked up my car and then picked up Chinese on the way home. It was another late night in the Hughes household!



Thursday was called insane, running around errands day...and a full on meltdown to top it off. We started out the morning with Caroline waking up at 6:15am...ugh. This of course woke Katherine up over an hour early, so basically we just started the day off wrong. I ran to the bathroom...and I hear a spray bottle being sprayed. I yell to Katherine "Do not spray water in the house." Silence. I hurry up and run back to the kitchen and see a few sprinkles on the kitchen table...not too bad! So I go to pick up Caroline out of the high chair for a nap...yeah the poor kid is SOAKING wet. Her face and hair were drenched. She just looked up at my like "Oh, Hi Mom...I'm all wet! Isn't that funny?" Thank goodness for her sweet temperament! I get her down for a nap and come downstairs to find Katherine running around with scissors...Lord have mercy! So we have time out...and it's only 7:30am! I think at this point I should have just gone back to bed and started over...but I didn't!



We finally made it to swimming lessons at 10 and Katherine flat out refused to listen to anything. She was forced out of the pool for not listening, she and Ms. Carmen had a chat and they tried again...nada. So, then she really was taken out of the pool and lessons were over for the day. Full. On. Meltdown. I'm talking screaming, kicking, throwing herself around, biting, the works. The poor girl that goes after Katherine was absolutely horrified! While I was trying to calm Katherine down, Caroline was attempting to throw Ms. Carmen's camera in the pool...we were definitely a site to see! I finally wrangled both kids into the car and we went home for a much needed nap! After that it was off to Sam's club to stock up on bulk items and to pick up my new glasses! The girls were great on the way to Sam's and during our shopping...but on the way home, Katherine decided to slap Caroline in the face...lovely. We got home and both girls took a MUCH needed nap! I zipped around the house packing up Chris's stuff for the weekend, getting his computer ready and all the other stuff needed. When the girls woke up, we headed for the grocery store. On the way home from the grocery store we stopped and filled up Gray Gray's truck with gas and took it through the car wash...yeah...not their favorite thing. Both girls were SCREAMING. Katherine was in her seat screaming "GO! GO MOM! NOW! GET OUT OF HERE! GOOOOOOO!" By this point, I just thought it was funny...seriously, could I not get a break here?! So we got home, switched car seats over to my car and zipped back to the gas station to fill that one up since Chris was taking it in the morning and had to leave at 4am. We finally got home, got the car seats out of my car and were ready for dinner. I swear it was the longest day, I was so grateful when my head finally hit the pillow!



Friday was Day 1 of no hubby, no parents, and no tv (what was I thinking when I made that the punishment for her behavior on Thursday?! Cartoons are the only way I can get a shower!). Chris made it PA for Steve and Susan's wedding with no problems. Katherine had swimming lessons...and a meltdown. This meltdown caused me to pick Katherine up soaking wet, still in her bathing suit and haul her out to the truck. I put her in her car seat dripping wet and we went home. She was none to happy, but I think it proved a point. Katherine helped me fold clothes and was generally in a good mood! When Caroline woke up from her nap, we all had lunch and played around downstairs. Then both girls took a nap...Praise the Lord! When they woke up we all headed for the mall for a "girls date." We had fun and ended the night with a special treat of ice cream! Once I got the girls down for the night, I had the strong urge to CLEAN. So I did. I had a super clean kitchen and family room when I went to bed! It was very satisfying, but the wake up call at 7am by both girls was so NOT cool. :(



Saturday...was nuts! Our schedule today was jammed full of activities! We did birthday parties, church, shopping, cooking...it was insane. Oh...and did I mention still no tv?! We have managed to survive, but I am absolutely exhausted! I am so excited for my hubby to come home tomorrow I can hardly stand it! Tomorrows agenda includes taking lunch to GiGi and JoeJoe's, nap, and then dinner with Chris and my parents!!! WHOO HOO!!! I cannot wait!!!



On a total side note, I have had to drive either my dad's huge Toyota Tundra pickup or Chris's even bigger GMC Sierra diesel pickup this week. I was really apprehensive about driving either of them all week because they are HUGE...parking with these suckers...are you kidding me?! Well I am happy to report as of 10pm tonight, I DID IT! I didn't even have any close calls!!! Whoo hoo!!! Now let's hope tomorrow goes equally as well and then I get my cute little Honda Pilot back tomorrow night! :)



I'm off to sleep...my pillow is calling my name for a much needed date!

Pictures are up!

I FINALLY posted pictures...and a ton at that, from the past few weeks! Link is to the right under "Hughes Family Photos". Let me know if you need the password.

Enjoy!

Caroline's 1 year check up!

Well we went to the doctor this morning for Caroline's 1 year check up. Good news...she's healthy as a horse and hitting her developmental milestones like a champ! As if we thought anything different! :) She was quite good at the doctor's office and only cried for about 15 seconds when she got her vaccine. What a girl! She has continued on the same long and fairly lean side of things. Her stats now are as follows:

Height: 29 1/2" long (65th %)
Weight: 20 lbs. 5 oz. (50th %)
Head Circumference: 18" (60th %)

We finally got to turn her car seat around to forward facing! Yippee!! She is a MUCH happier traveler now!

Interesting to note are Katherine's stats at this point:
Height: 29 1/4" long
Weight: 17 lbs. 9 oz.
Head: 18 1/2"

So overall Caroline is longer and heavier at this point, but Katherine is winning in the big head department! :) I have a feeling that things will even out as they get older. Looks like we're going to have two very smart, long and lean girls on our hands!! :)

I PROMISE I will post pictures this week...last week was crazy and now that I finally got caught up with work from the shop, I should have time to upload pics! I'll let you know when they are up!!

Until next time!

Katherine and Caroline at 1

Caroline at 1

Katherine at 1

I'd say they are definitely sisters!! Sweet girls!

Happy Birthday Caroline!!!!!!

Caroline turns 1 at 1:32pm today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our sweet, sweet girl!!

We love you!

Mom, Dad and Katherine

Katherine FLOATS!!!!!!!!!

She did it! She floated ALL by herself today!!! WHOO HOO!!!!! The funny thing is she didn't even realize that she was floating all by herself, and her teacher and I weren't going to say anything and ruin it, so after the lesson was over Ms. Carmen said "Hey Katherine, guess what? You earned your crown today!" (We told her when she floated all by herself, she would get a new princess crown.) She looked at me and said "I floated all by, my, my self?" YUP! She was SOO excited. So sweet! So here she is in her princess crown and all her jewels! Way to go Katherine we are SO proud of you!!!

Princess Katherine in her new crown and jewels!

"Look Mom, I can see you through my magic wand!"

4th of July Weekend

Wow, what a weekend! We had a ton of fun, although it was a bit unusual. We were staying with Mom and Dad due to the a/c unit's death at our house. So my parents got an unusual amount of quality time with the girls...I think too much of a good thing can be bad! HA! I think we completely wore out Grammy and Gray Gray and made an absolute mess of their beautiful house! It's basically impossible to keep everything picked up and in one place with two mobile kids. It makes me crazy, but I have decided to not let it bother me as much as I think I am fighting a never ending battle! :)

Anyway, Friday we had a semi-quiet night at our house with a Chinese dinner and then headed over to Grammy and Gray Gray's for bath and bed. We were trying to get the grandparents a little peace and quiet, but unfortunately they were out the entire time we were away. Bummer! They went to visit Jill, Jared, Miles, Megan and Elizabeth who are in town visiting from Virginia! They are staying with GiGi and Joe Joe, so Mom and Dad popped over to say hello before heading home for the night. By the time they got back both girls were conked out and Christopher had headed back across the street to take care of Colby. We were all pooped, so we watched a short movie and then called it a night!

Saturday was busy, busy, with errands, cleaning and prepping for the big 4th cookout at Mom's house on Sunday. We managed to get everything done and headed off to church for the 6pm service. Katherine was SOOOO excited to get back to church! Love it! She was so excited in fact, that she forgot she had to go to the bathroom and made a mess in her pants...lovely. Luckily the church has spare clothes on hand (because I forgot spares!) so she was in a totally new outfit when I went to pick her up! :) Caroline was less enthused about the nursery, but she was super excited when Mommy came to pick her up! She has the sweetest smiles when she sees me again. :) After church we hightailed it home for bath and bed....none of us were sleeping especially great in the new sleeping arrangements, so we were all tired.

Sunday was the 4th! HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY USA!!! We were up early to clean and get ready for the big cookout/birthday celebration with the VA family, GiGi, Joe Joe, and all of us. We had a delicious lunch and then everyone ended up in the pool where Katherine showed off her stellar swimming moves. I swear she is part fish...if only she would FLOAT! Gosh darnit! Katherine L-O-V-E-D playing with Jared, Megan and Elizabeth...and Mom was grateful for some extra hands around to help! Caroline also very much enjoyed playing outside on the porch...so much so that she had BLACK feet, hands and face by the time we took her in for nap. She was quite a mess! We had to have a full bath before she could go down for a nap! We lucked out and managed to get Katherine down for a nap as well, so the grownups were able to sit on the porch and relax while the kiddos napped! We had a great time chatting with Jill, Miles, Jared, Megan and Elizabeth while listening to the fireworks go off in our neighborhood...did I mention that fireworks started at noon?! NOON! Anyway, when the girls woke up we decided that we needed pizza for dinner, so we ordered some and then stuffed ourselves...nothing like a holiday to overeat! Ugh! Finally around 8 or so the girls were DONE, I'm talking sleeping standing up tired. So the VA crew headed out to the River to watch the "real" fireworks, while we put the girls to bed...or so we thought. Did I mention that the fireworks started in our neighborhood at NOON!? Yeah...STILL going at 8:30pm. I figured they would finish by at least 10pm...yeah, not so much. Katherine didn't go to sleep until 11...and that was only because she fell asleep out of pure exhaustion. The fireworks kept going until 1am! That's 13 hours of straight fireworks. Our poor dog and both girls were frazzled by the end of all that racket! I like fireworks, but 13 hours straight?! Seriously?! As soon as I got K to sleep, of course a huge blast of fireworks went off and woke up Caroline. I finally got her back to sleep and then listened to the rest of the fireworks until 1am. Ugh! Talk about worn out!

Monday was a busy day for the Hughes crew. We started the day off at swimming lessons for Katherine. She did AWESOME and got a sticker and a piece of candy for listening so well to Ms. Carmen! Whoo hoo! Still no floating, but we're getting there! :) After swimming we zipped home to pick up Dad and Caroline and we all headed south to the Vero Outlets to get some new clothes for Caroline's first birthday and Katherine since she seems to be growing like a weed! We hit up Carter's and then got a special treat with Subway for lunch. Katherine loves Subway. Then we headed home for naps all around! Both girls took a 2 hour nap and I managed to sneak in an hour and a half. Boy did that feel GREAT! We then went to the Bistro for dinner with my parents and the hit up Toys R Us on the way home so that we could get Caroline's first birthday presents. Katherine picked out one toy for her and we got another from us. The funny thing is that according to Katherine, Caroline sure does want a lot of Princess Dress Up stuff and Disney computer games. HA! She was so funny, she would catch herself saying "I want that!", and then quickly correct herself and say "I mean, Caroline would really like that!" Chris and I were dying laughing. After Toys R Us we headed home for bath and bed. Too bad the bed part didn't stick for long. I went to bed around 10:30pm...Caroline woke up at 11, Katherine woke up at midnight, then Caroline took over for the rest of the night waking at 1, 3, 5, and 6 and finally got up for the day at 7! UGH! That was one LONG night. I felt like I had a newborn again!

We are so glad that the Truslows were able to come down and visit over the 4th! WE had a blast!!!

Pictures will be posted soon on shutterfly...e mail me if you need the address and password. :)

Welcome Home...to no A/C!

So as you can read in the prior post, we were all super excited to get home to our own beds...and much cooler temperatures! It was 105 while we were in Virginia...it was only in the upper 90s here in Florida! What is up with that?!

Anyway, Sunday we were super excited to be home and settled into our normal routine of lunch at Mom's house and then preparing for the week ahead. Monday came and went as a normal day with swimming lessons and errands, while Christopher worked. On Tuesday, I woke up and just felt like something was a little wacky. I didn't think much about it and went about my day. I mentioned to Christopher that the upstairs air conditioning sure did sound funny that morning when I woke up, but he figured it was just my imagination or maybe I just never noticed how it sounded before. I didn't think anything of it, but in the back of my mind I remembered that last year, the Wednesday before July 4th our downstairs A/C went out and it took over a week for them to replace it. Caroline was born (on the 8th) before they replaced the unit! Anyway, we went on and it was cooling fine. Well Wednesday morning I woke up at 4am burning up. I went out and looked at the thermostat...yeah it was 80 degrees at 4am! UGH! So, Chris turned the A/C off since it was just blowing hot air and we called the landlord first thing Wednesday morning. Yeah...Chris called and e mailed 4 times on Wednesday and heard NOTHING from the landlord. We were ticked! We managed to cool the upstairs off enough using fans and the a/c unit blowing air that we could sleep Wednesday night, so we all hoped that they could replace it on Thursday. Chris called multiple times and finally got through to the landlord around lunchtime. They sent the repairman out and guess what the diagnosis was? Dead, as in not going to work again at all. So, now they have to get approval to put in a new unit....and that comes from California. Lovely. The approval finally came in...at 4:45pm on FRIDAY. UGH! So here it is, Monday night and we are still without A/C. We are hoping that it will be put it tomorrow or Wednesday, but their are no guarantees since the supply house was closed today and they have to order the unit tomorrow.

Luckily, my parents are WONDERFUL and live right across the street from us. We since Thursday we have been staying with my parents. Well, by we, I mean, Katherine, Caroline and I. Chris and Colby have been staying in the downstairs bedroom at our house since the a/c works downstairs. I know one thing, we cannot WAIT to get back to our own beds and routine! It takes 10 times longer to do everything when you have to run back and forth between two houses for clothes, diapers and such. It has been nice spending time with my parents, but I am pretty sure they will be glad to have their house back in working order again pronto! It's hard to get anything done with two little munchkins under foot all the time!

Thanks Mom and Dad for putting up with us! :)

Now, we'll just keep praying that we miraculously get an A/C unit in tomorrow so we can go back to our own beds! :)