The circus

Sunday night we took the girls to a small circus that came through the area. The production was a bit hokey but also cute. Both girls really loved it. Reese’s best friend Reagan and her parents joined us. I love that Reese loves Reagan so much and they are so cute together. They fight in true 2 year old fashion about 20% of the time but are always so happy to see each other and sad to see each other go and the majority of the time they play so well together. We rode the elephant, me included. I have to say the elephant ride did not feel very safe even with me being up there with them, I am glad we all made it off unscathed. Reese and Reagan rode the ponies and the train (the train was their favorite) and they fed the animals. The circus was pretty entertaining for all of us. The girls eyes were glued to the acts, even Ella’s. As you can see from the family shot Reese couldn’t take her eyes off of the action even long enough for a photo. We all had a blast and I am glad that we went.

 

Ella did NOT want to sit still for a photo of their cute new, matching skeleton jammies so she is a bit upset but look at how adorable they are.

This girl is getting so big. As long as you are not trying to make her do something that she doesn’t want to do she is such a smiley, giggly and happy baby. I love my girls!

My 30th

My husband is truly the best that I could have found. I certainly did not settle. Not only for special events but every day he is so good to me and our family and I truly feel so blessed. But, this post is all about how much he spoiled me for my 30th birthday.

In June he began the spoiling by surprising me with my 1st 30th birthday gift, an iPad. He did this early because we were going on vacation and he knew this could come in handy when trying to entertain a toddler on a long journey of flights to get to the beach. This was something I was not expecting but have been wanting for a couple of years. Needless to say I was so excited.

My birthday fell on a Monday this year. I knew that he had some things planned because he was flying my middle sister in for the weekend, and I knew he would make it a big deal since we made his 30th a big deal. A few weeks before the weekend of my birthday my youngest sister mentioned something about my party. She quickly realized I fully expected a party but knew nothing about a party. About a week before my birthday my middle sister called me to ask me what she should pack…she went on to ask if I knew of any plans aside from the boat on Saturday. I told her I knew nothing about the weekend, including the boat. So at that point I thought we were having a boat party on Saturday, I was excited.

On Friday afternoon I left work a bit early to pick up the girls and take them to play at the playground. I was dressed in business wear so I needed to stop by the house first to change into something more appropriate to play with 2 little girls at the park. I came home to Neal putting together a new sound system (lightning struck our previous one a couple of months ago see here http://kellyandneal.blogspot.com/2012/08/lightning-strikes.html) with amazing New York décor everywhere, a perfectly manicured lawn, a 30 hanging on the front door and balloons. He was frustrated to say the least. He had planned for me to come home and discover it all a couple of hours before the party but he was hoping to have it all together before I got home. He said he was just planning to have me go to our room to get ready and was going to tell me to come out around 7. I told him that I was truly surprised and was not expecting any of it. I told him about how my sister’s had slipped and that I was expecting a boat party. So I changed quickly and told him I would be back home with the girls at about 6.

The girls and I had a lot of fun at the park for about an hour. I then told Reese that we had big balloons at the house, to entice her to leave the park. She was pretty excited about the balloons when we got home. Neal did an AMAZING job of decorating everything beautifully…he really could go into party planning, though he may have heart failure because he gets so stressed trying to make everything so perfect. Every detail was thought of and it all looked so great. He hired 2 of Reese and Ella’s teachers to play with the kids upstairs. He even coordinated to have one of my best friends come in from Conway. He did a photo booth with a New York shower curtain as the back drop. It was a really fun evening.

On Saturday he had planned to go out on a boat with my sisters and my 2 college roommates and their families. Unfortunately the weather was bad. So we cancelled the boat and went to Crystal Bridges instead. That evening we all went to Fayetteville for dinner.

I also took the day off on Monday, my actual birthday. I kept the girls out of school for the morning and just hung out with them. I took them to school at lunch and went to lunch with Neal. I then went home and took a long nap. Neal came home early and we went and got the girls early. We went to Fast Lanes and let Reese plan the toddler games and get tickets in order to pick a prize with from the prize store. We all had fun doing this. We then went to a low key bar b q place for dinner. It was a great day.

I had a really great weekend. I am so glad that I got to spend time with both of my Sisters. I wish that I was able to see Carrie more often and I am glad to have Chelsea so close. So far 30 has been amazing. Ella is to an age now that she needs less attention. She is a bit more independent than I am ready for but it has been really fun to be able to engage more with both girls so it allows me to feel like I can do more things that I need to get done when I need to do it.

A week and a half after my birthday I met Neal in New York for a long weekend (he was there for work for a week and a half). My Mom came up to stay with the girls. Reese had tough moments with both of her parents being away, bedtime being a hard time for her, but both girls enjoyed spending time with their Emmie. We truly had a great weekend. I somehow didn’t get a single picture while I was there. We had a great weekend of shopping, eating and we saw the Mary Poppin’s Broadway Production. The weekend wore me out and I was so ready to see my girls but it was really good time with my husband.

Singles Friday

This week I am linking up with kellyskornerblog.com. This is a blog that I have fallen in love with because she, like me, struggled with infertility and then was blessed with two beautiful girls. Her girls are close in age like mine and are about 6 months ahead of mine, so it is a bit like a glimpse into my future. I have a lot of fun seeing what new things her girls are into. Periodically she does something called singles week. It is a chance to link blogs up and post things about your single friends that you want to find a match for. Her success in doing this is quite impressive…5 marriages have come out of this!

For a long time I have wanted to get my friend Crystal on this just to see what might happen. Crystal is from a small town in Oklahoma. She is fun, laid back, funny, adventurous and driven. She is one of those girls that loves being pampered and all the fun things that go along with being a girl but also loves going to a baseball game or camping in the woods. Like I said earlier she is from a small town and grew up doing fun outdoorsy things but she also recently lived in New York for 3 years and I have a feeling she would go back if given the chance. She is open to new adventures but also enjoys her current situation. She works in Visual Merchandising for Walmart. She is pretty great with kids also, she has 2 nieces that she loves spending time with and entertaining. If you are interested, please post a little bit about yourself and your email in the comments below.

He's hoping for a golfer

Twice a year Neal has to travel to New York for market trips for work. His job really has not been travel intensive (outside of these 2 trips) and I am so thankful for that. Having 2 girls alone is a lot of work. I am so thankful to have my Sister here who graciously helped me with bedtime more than once while Neal was gone and my Mom who came up for 4 days to cover some of it while I went to New York (part of my 30th birthday celebration which I will blog separately about soon) to spend the weekend with my hubs.

Neal arrived home on Wednesday around 8:45 in the evening. Reese and I greeted him outside, Ella had enough and fell asleep around 7:45. We were both so happy to have him home. On Wednesday Neal kept the girls out of school for the morning and then let Ella go to school for some of the afternoon while he took Reese out to golf and break in her new clubs that he got for her. He said that the trip consisted of laying on the driving range, playing in the sand and retrieving the balls out of the holes. She did agree to taking about 4 shots. He is considering it a success because she says that she had a fun time and will go again. I love that he wants her to love this sport that he loves so much. Hopefully one of the girls will take to it, through all of his efforts, and he will have a golfing buddy & maybe the other will be my spa and shopping buddy :).

We've got a walker!

I've been meaning to blog about this for weeks but life has been busy. Ella is officially a full time walker! She began taking 5-8 steps during the last week of being 9 months. About 2 weeks later (her second week of 10 months) she pretty much had it. She is still a bit wobbly but walks all over the place. She seems so little to be walking around but it is so cute.

Walking definitely changes things. She seems so much more independent. She also seems more curious because she sees things from a whole new perspective and can get around to things that she's interested so much quicker. All in all it has been a good thing because she just seems more content playing independently and with her sister longer than before...allowing me to get a bit more done. She also seems more interested in what the big kids are doing now that she can walk over to them and stand up around them. She is just getting way too big way too fast :(.

I plan to come back to this post and upload a video, once I figure out how to post working videos on to here.

I am also late posting about my 30th but that is coming soon.