DC Trip 2011

We are fortunate that every year Jeremy's mom takes us and the entire family (Jeremy's 2 brothers, their wives, his step-dad, and the 5 kids) on a trip the week of July 4th. We are usually gone from Saturday July 2nd- Saturday July 9th.

ALL expenses are paid. If we drive, she gives us each a gas card. If we fly, she buys our tickets. Hotels are paid for or she rents a huge house for us to stay in. If we need rental cars, she pays. On top of all that she gives us EACH spending money usually $100.

This year we are taking an auto train out of Sanford, Florida and arriving in Stockton, Virginia. I'm not to thrilled about taking the auto train with an 8 month old, but it will be an experience.

We are staying in Oakton, Virginia about 15 minutes from Washington, D.C. She rented a 7,500 square foot house (yes, you read that right, 7,500 HOLY CRAP.) It's a 5 bedroom 5.5 bath house. Here are some pictures I stole from the rental website.

Sitting on 2 acres.

Recreation Room

Patio by the pool

The auto train is a 17 hour ride. Blah. I shouldn't complain because this is all paid for, but I would just rather fly!

This is the "dining room" of the train. All meals are included.

We are loading our cars on the train too.

And this would be the rooms we sleep in for the night. 

I've read the reviews and everyone says it's wonderful & the food is delish. I hope they're right! 

For whoever has been to DC what are the "must sees?" I'm stoked for this trip! Hell, I'm stoked every year we go somewhere different!

First Christmas with the 3 of us

Our Christmas was awesome!

Christmas Eve we went to my brother in law's house, ate dinner & opened gifts. Rylee scored some new clothes and a few toys. One of them was this tunnel she can crawl through once she starts crawling. It's pretty cool. I got a Macy's gift card. =)

The past two nights Rylee has slept for 6 hours straight! THANK GOD! I'm pretty excited. I hope she keeps it up. Her last nursing has been around 7pm and she goes to bed around 9pm and sleeps until 4:30am! Nurses for a bit then, then goes back to sleep until around 8am.

Christmas morning we woke up at 8am and opened gifts! We bought her clothes, books and toys! I can't wait until next year when she can open her own gifts & get really excited!

We went to my aunt's house around 10am and opened gifts & had breakfast there. Rylee got clothes, toys & her play mat (well she received this early.) I got money & perfume from Victoria's Secret.


We went to my mother in law's house after. This is where we ALL get spoiled. Rylee got MORE clothes, MORE toys & her first money to put into her own bank account! They even filled her stocking with tons of candy and McDonald's gift cards. I guess we will eat the candy and McDonald's....  We received money, a shit ton of gift cards, new luggage set and our trip to D.C. the week of July 4th.

After that my dad came over and he bought Rylee this pretty pearl bracelet from Zales Jewelers and clothes!

We went to my moms after & she got more clothes and toys! She definitely made out like a bandit this year. I'm already excited for next year!

Jeremy is awesome. We always exchange gifts. I suppose we are still little kids at heart. I love shopping for him and he loves shopping for me. I love that he can go shopping for me and pick out clothes & I will love them!

A few of my favorite gifts this year are:

The Beaba baby food maker, storage containers & that book.

My "Rylee" (pretty sure it's spelled Riley) fossil watch.

My new Costa Del Mar "Isabela" sun glasses!

And the best gift of all...

My adorable as ever 11 week old.

I won't bore you with all of these Christmas photos, but here are a few of my favorite.

Four Generations.

Our niece Morgan. She loved her gifts from us!

HOMEMADE apple crisp. SO YUM!

Christmas Cookies!

I love baking. I just made these pretty sugar cookies with icing on top as Rylee was watching me.

Chubsters!

Want to know how to make these?

Well, the icing should be more red & green for Christmas, but no matter how many drops of food coloring I put in the icing it wouldn't change! Oh well. They will still be yumm-o.

All you need is a roll of sugar cookie dough, cut in about 1-2 inch pieces, lay about 2 inches apart and bake for 12 minutes on 350 degrees.

Once the cookies are cooled just spread the icing on top...then ENJOY!

Before/In between/After

Link up!

I need some motivation to help me tone up and lose the last couple pounds I have left so I decided to create this & whenever I am needing help I can take a look at this.

Left to right: NYE 2010, 5 weeks pregnant (the day I found out, 2/21/2010), 36w5d pregnant (1 day before I delivered), and the last 2 are me now. 

I just want to get my flat tummy back and my thighs to go down a bit, but I've always had big thighs so that may never happen. 

The weekend has finally arrived...

Thank god today is Friday! Know what that means??

Lots and lots of shopping going on tonight to finish my Christmas! I love this time of the year.

So far I have bought:

Jeremy: wang anchor (fishing stuff), chest freezer (because he says my boob milk is taking up too much freezer space..ha ha), two pairs of jeans and 1 shirt. I need to get him a few more things...maybe some lotto tickets for his stocking? I need stocking stuffer ideas!!!
Mom: A calendar & photo book of Rylee I made on Shutterfly. Tonight I will get her some shirts & goodies from Victoria's Secret.
Rylee: books, toys & clothes!

And we've bought for more people, but they don't matter that much. ;-)

Here is a cute video of Rylee today playing on her play mat =)

I'm linking up to

miscellany Monday- Randoms

1) Jobs, Moving..

We've been offered this opportunity to move to Orlando in 3 or so years. It's still a while away so there's plenty of time to discuss all of our options, but we both think that it would be for the best and to get out of this town..time for a change. I've lived in this same town my ENTIRE life. Jeremy's job will be building a new warehouse and he may be able to move his supervisor job up there. I'm excited, but I can't get my hopes up because they just started building it so a lot can change.

2) Weather

What in the hell is up with this weather?! It's 20mph wind and in the 40's! I like cold weather, but this is freezing to me! This is Florida & it surely doesn't feel like it right now. Tonight we have a freeze warning. I guess it's better than a blizzard warning!

3) Rylee

She's getting so big. I'm in the process of putting her newborn clothes away. =( All of her newborn sleepers are put away because she's too long for them, but she can still fit into most of her newborn clothes. The 0-3 months are still a little big. I want her to get big, but then I want her to stay small. I'm going to miss my little cuddle bug. It's so crazy to think 9 weeks ago I was in the hospital holding her and she was so tiny. She's a monster now! ;-)

Silly faces. Love them.

First day of work.

It wasn't so bad. I was exhausted by the end though. I forgot how tiring serving is! I haven't done it in 4 long years. It paid off by the end of my shift though. =) 

Jeremy watched her yesterday, all day long, it was a first. He kept feeding her every 2 hours..bad daddy. Well, she did eat, but I think she will eat whenever & wherever. Hopefully he does better today and let's her take a nap because he didn't yesterday. Every time she tried to sleep he woke her up by going somewhere! I told him she needs her long nap during the day. Let's see if he listens........

Daddy was making Rylee laugh and smile this morning.

Fun Friday!

Happy Friday Y'all!

Today, Friday, I'm going to sit at home with my little baby and cuddle her up. She just smiled at me with her big gums showing and mouth wide open..SO CUTE! Maybe Jeremy will take us out to dinner tonight. =)

This isn't the pic from today, but it was a smile just like this! This was taken with my phone a month or so ago so the quality sucks.

Saturday, I'll be starting my job! I'll work 10:30am-4:00pm. I'm excited, but nervous to leave Rylee for so long. This will be the first time I left her for so long! I'm sure daddy will take good care of her. After work we're going to a friends house for a birthday dinner.

This is probably what they'll do all day.

Sunday, I work again from 10:30am-4:00pm. No plans after! 

This is the inside of the restaurant I work at.

I love my weekends especially when Jeremy doesn't fish because then it's just the three of us. 

Shots =(

Rylee had her 2 month shots yesterday. It was pitiful. She did okay for the 1st shot, cried for the 2nd shot, then literally screamed bloody murder for the 3rd. Why can't they have all of these shots in just 1 needle?! Poor baby. She stopped crying finally then we put her in the car and she screamed the entire way home. When I got home I nursed her then she passed out for an hour, woke up screaming so I nursed her again (this was the only thing I could do to keep her from crying.) Then she slept from 12:45-4:45 then I woke her up to check her temperature and feed her and she passed out from 5:30-8:30 when I woke her again to get her in bed. Of course the last time I woke her she didn't want to go back to bed, she finally did. Then she woke up at 12am,3:30am, and 7am. What a LONG night.

She's been getting better and only getting up 1x-2x a night. I guess she slept entirely too long yesterday, but I felt bad for waking her up because she would just scream. I'm glad that's over.

In February she gets her 4 month shots. =( I'm not looking forward to that.

Big news!

My little baby is 2 months old...already!

Before I get started, Rylee is laying in her play pen just talking and playing away and all of a sudden we hear a big boom. Guess what? Rylee just took a big ol' crap for daddy! =)

Today we went Christmas shopping with my meme and she slept the entire time! Picture quality sucks since this was taken with my blackberry, but she's so cute and it was so cold today, and yes, by cold I mean 30 degrees.

I just realized I always say how cute she is and people probably get tired of hearing it, but I could care less. =) Jeremy and I tell each other every night we are so glad we have a cute baby and not an ugly one. I do believe there are some not so cute babies out there.....

Time is flying. Every day (if we don't go anywhere) we wake up around 8a-9a, nurse her, then she's back to sleep until 11am or so then she's up for the day until around 2pm, then it's nap time again! Daddy comes home at 4pm and she's usually in bed by 9pm-10pm.

Big news!

I can officially announce I'm quitting Coca-Cola! I am BEYOND relieved. After much contemplating about this decision I have come to realize this is the best thing. I do have good benefits, good pay, etc, but I don't think it can even compare to being able to be home with her everyday and seeing all of her "firsts". I think I am very lucky to be able to do this. I'm still going to be working, but only 3 nights a week and for about 5-6 hours each night. I will make about the same amount of money as I do now working 40 hours a week. SWEET! 

I haven't worked since late September so this is going to be a bit weird going back to work. Maybe it will help me lose my last few pounds of pregnancy weight! 

Tomorrow she gets her 2 month shots. I'm sad for her. I hope I don't cry. =(

Diesel trying to figure out what the heck is going on.

And she's had enough.. 

Jobs...

I'm having a really hard time dealing with the fact that I may have to go back to work. It's not that I mind working, but I do not want to put her in daycare. Here's a few scenarios:

1) If I go back to Coke it will be December 16th. I will work 9am-6pm Monday-Friday. Jeremy will take her to daycare about 6-6:30am and then pick her up around 5:30pm. I will get home around 6:30pm everyday. Then it's time to cook dinner, take a shower, bathe her, feed her and it's time for bed around 8pm. That means I will get a whooping 1-2 hours with her. What is wrong with that picture? Someone else will be raising her, not me..not the person that should. Oh, and daycare does cost $800 a month. So after paying that and paying bills I will only bring home around $100-200 a month.

or

2) If I can find a restaurant job I would work 3-4 days a week, 5-6 hours a night. Jeremy would watch her at night while I work and I would go to school, mainly online. Problem? No one is hiring! Literally. I have went to Chilis, Outback, Mimis Cafe, Buca Di Beppo, and Hooters with no luck. I did go back to Carrabba's the other day and he told me to come back the beginning of December, so I will try Friday and (fingers crossed) he will let me come back. I see me going back there to be the only way I can get out of going back to Coke.

I am so aggravated with him that he's telling me I have to work. We would be okay if I didn't. We would have to re-prioritize how we spend money, but we could do it. He doesn't want to back down from spending what we do and buying what we do. He could buy cheaper jeans than from Buckle (and don't mistake me, I love Buckle and every pair of jeans I have are from there, but if I have to buy cheaper ones to be able to stay home..I will.) I think if I go back to Coke I am going to hold resentment against him and I don't want to do that.

I don't trust people, maybe that's my problem. And, no, we have no one else to watch her.

He thinks life's hard now? Wait until December 16th. I don't make him get up for night feedings now because he works & I understand that, but if I go back he WILL get up every other night with her and feed her. He says "If I get up at 1am I can't go back to sleep, but you can." Yeah? Well, too bad. It's going to change here soon. You will just have to get up at 1am and stay up then, not my problem. I feel bad for being like this, but I can't help it. He doesn't know what it's like for her to wake up at 3am and not want to go back to sleep. I do all of that now. I get up and go in the living room so he can still sleep. I don't even have a concept of time anymore.

I could go on and on about this, but i'll stop now.

Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for. My life is beyond blessed, but on with the good stuff..

We went to my moms today and helped cook. I LOVE homemade food. Everything we had was fresh and homemade; turkey, corn casserole, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes and sweet potato souffle. I'm stuffed to the rim!

Rylee was so cute

Then she decided to explode a big one..all over her, me, daddy and her bouncer.

Now she's passed out in her bouncer sleeping :) 

6 week pictures!

She loves sticking her tongue out.

Look at those big kissable lips!!!

And this is my adorable 18 month old niece!!