VOTE

I Voted!! Have you?

Dan and I went and voted yesterday and the air felt really charged. I don't know if I can adequately describe the feeling but it felt really big and really important. Voting is such a small task.....it took us less than 10 minutes but it is such a huge responsibility and privilege. I've heard people talking about how they can't decide whom to vote for and so they just aren't going to. Seriously, read some more on at least the hot topics and make a decision and vote. You don't have the right to complain that you don't like the way our government is if you don't take any responsibility in choosing who runs it. This is the first election that I'm really excited about, both of the candidates have the opportunity to change our country and it seems like the outcome of the race is going to be a nail biter.

Get your butt out and vote!

Click here to find your early voting location.

Farm experience take two

We went to another farm last week.....this time there was a LOT more to do, and we had such a good time. It's always hard to pick times to get out of the house because Charlotte takes a morning nap, and Maddie naps from around 12:00-2:00 and then Charlotte takes an afternoon nap so most days we can only get out of the house in the late afternoon around 4:00. But, this particular day we decided to skip Maddie's nap and went out hoping for the best!! The farm had 2 bounce houses, a maze, farm animals, a huge 80 foot slide, a train, pony rides, a hayride and pumpkin picking. There were also food stands, duck races and a huge sandbox. My most favorite thing was this indoor room about the size of my living room filled with corn about thigh high (my thigh not Maddie's) 10 kids were allowed in at a time and they could play in the corn like a sandbox. I went in with Maddie and had such a blast.....I kept sinking down into the corn and corn kept getting stuck in the waistband of my pants which was entertaining for Dan who watched me try and get it out!!

It was really really cold that day and add to that, the fact that Charlotte didn't get down for her afternoon nap on time, and Maddie didn't get a nap at all, and Dan and I didn't eat lunch before we went there......after about 3 hours we were DONE. Maddie was acting like a lunatic, Charlotte was crabby and I was starving to death. Both kids fell asleep in the car on the way home and Dan and I drove through and got some food. It was a nice time even though it was pretty hectic. It seems that most outings are hectic for us, but I don't think that can be helped.....at least not until the girls are older and on one nap a day and can handle the stimulus and travel. But we'll keep working on it because I want them to have the experiences and I love having the fun pictures!

In the corn room

It must have felt good to spread out on top of corn

The choo choo train

Maddie making a choo choo sound along with arm gestures.....highly entertaining!
Charlotte sitting up by herself on the train

She wants you to know she liked the train
My sweet girl

Maddie on the hayride

Off to pick a pumpkin

Maddie trying to lift a pumpkin half her size.

The Winning pictures. It takes a lot of shots to get just a couple of decent pictures.

******Out Takes*******

It IS an iphone

So, changes have been running amuck in our house. On a drive to Youngsville on Sunday Dan and I decided that since we hardly use our cell phones, and hardly use our land line phone we were going to get rid of one of them all together, and hopefully use the other more. Bye bye land line. And since we were getting rid of a phone bill we decided that we could afford the data package that is mandatory with the iphones.....so, we have iphones. We went this morning and traded in our LG vu phones for brand spanking new iphone 3Gs and let me tell you, they are so fantastic!!! I thought that the vu would be a good alternative, and I guess it was when I didn't know any better, but now that I am in the know.....HELLO!!!! iphone is so so much better!! I highly reccomend it to anyone who wants to make the investment. The screen is so responsive and there are so many ridiculously cool features......GPS, a pretty good camera (for a cell phone anyway) an 8GB ipod etc. Really coolio. Now we just need to figure out how to use all the cool things. Yeah for iphones.

We have flames

Dan came home from Lowe's yesterday with two sleepy/cranky kids and a fire pit! I thought we were going to just make one in the yard, but he bought a 40-something inch steel fire pit. It's pretty cool....it came with a cover to keep embers from flying about and he also bought 4 large square stone slabs so that we could put the fire pit on our deck. Last night we made a fire and made s'mores and Maddie ran all over the deck in sugar euphoria. Staying away from the fire was a hard concept for her, but we'll keep working on it......especially now since we have a fire pit and can use it all winter! Dan and I stayed outside after we put Maddie to bed enjoying good conversation and a bigger and warmer fire. Below is a picture of the small fire.....can you see the marshmallows? And our bigger fire. I think that fire looks really cool photographed.

A little dose of vitamin C

My darling Charlotte is quickly approaching 5 months old!! It feels like time has both crawled along and flown by. It's nice to have change in seasons to help mark the passing of time....like summer ending and fall beginning also gives our family a new beginning. If we were a business this would be a new quarter! lol Things are getting better overall. Yes, we still have poop issues (we are currently on day 5 with no poop) but Charlotte seems more manageable with her fussiness. She is a smiley girl.....seriously smiles all the time, but she can go from a huge smile to a huge grimace in mere seconds and then back to a smile again just as quickly. She is starting to laugh a lot more which is so freakin' adorable!! She is still nursing, but she also gets a bottle of formula each night before bed. She goes down to sleep for both naps and bedtime with such ease; I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and for her to start protesting.....keeping fingers crossed! Other than having to put the paci back in a couple times a night, she sleeps from 7:00 pm until 6:00 am. We went through the same paci issues with Maddie, and once she is able to grab the paci and put it in her mouth herself, that nighttime task ends.....usually around 7 or 8 months. She is starting to sit up on her own, but she usually ends up folded in half.....which is what Maddie did as well until she got better back strength. She is also really into her feet. She discovered them about a week ago and now she can't get enough of them.....she hasn't started putting them in her mouth yet, but I'm sure that will be the next step! We started her on apples, but stopped because she broke out in a rash and I wasn't sure if it was from the apples or because she is TEETHING!!!! Yoikes.....here we go again! I swear teething is some form of punishment/torture for parents. We'll get through it, but man.....can't kids teethe when they are like 5? lol I’m excited because my mom and dad are coming to visit and arriving tomorrow. They are staying for a few days and they haven't seen Charlotte since she was 5 weeks old. They're gonna be shocked at how big she is and how heavy she is and how darn cute she is. And she is all of those things and more. My little cutie pie!

Hurry up and enjoy myself

I am currently alone in the house. It is blissfully and deliciously quiet. Dan took the girls to Lowe's this morning.....something that he enjoys.....don't really know why because a toddler and an infant in any store is a nightmare for me, but he likes it. And then he is going to get breakfast, maybe biscuits of some kind. Which means that I have a precious hour or so all to myself.....I better hurry up and enjoy myself!!

We did not go camping this weekend. We were all set to go, groceries were bought, camping stuff was brought in from the shed, Maddie got her very own sleeping bag......and then it rained, all day Friday and off and on Saturday and the temperature dropped like 20-30 degrees from highs in the lower 80s to the high yesterday being 54 degrees. Way too cold and wet to be living outside for 2 nights with little ones. We were really bummed, but it was the right decision not to go. We are thinking about rescheduling for the next weekend that Dan has off which is the 31st-2nd.....last year for Halloween it was in the 80s so maybe we'll have better weather then!!

Since we did not get to go away and do camping things, we are going to stay home and do camping things. We are making a fire pit in our backyard using large rocks as the perimeter and we are going to cook our dinner on the fire tonight and then do s'mores and enjoy a big bonfire. We went out and bought some yummy smelling oak firewood from a local guy and I can't wait to burn it and listen to the crackle and pop. We've been planning on putting a fire pit in our back yard, we just haven't gotten to it yet, so what better time than today? We'll bundle up (since it is still cold out.....although sunny today) bring our camping chairs out and spend time together as a family cooking over the fire. I think that Maddie is really going to dig it! And it might very well prepare her for the next time we camp which will hopefully be in 2 weeks.

There has been extra time this weekend since we didn't go away and I've been filling it with a little CD project. I'm organizing all of our music on the computer and putting it into files by artist and starting a music library of sorts. I'm also going through all of our CDs and uploading them onto the computer. This is a HUGE project because we have about 7,000 songs on the computer alone, and that doesn't even count what I'm uploading from our CD collections.....and we probably have 200 or so CDs between the two of us!! The finished product is going to be really awesome though, and this is something that we've wanted to do for a long time, but have never just taken the time to get it done. Currently we have 628 different artists, and 7,200 songs and I've barely started on our CDs. Dan would like to sub-categorize the files by album, but that is a step that will have to come later! One thing at a time.

Well, I best be off. I have my coffee and I'm ready to read the new post secrets in my lovely quiet house! Have a great Sunday!!!

I got tagged

I got tagged.....

Thanks to my friend Becky I get to blog about some of the things that the other half of me (DAN) loves.

So, here goes.....

He loves being a dad and he adores his girls!


I'm pretty sure he thinks that I'm a-ok. (us back in the day!)


Off roading....trailblazing etc.


He likes when there are republicans in the white house!


Traveling...especially with me!


Bubble baths? Nah.....this picture is just too funny to not post.


The great outdoors (yes, he is standing in a HUGE redwood tree)


His drinking hat (pictured here, he is two sheets to the wind)


Working on man projects around the house


Trying new things....even if they make him sick


Water sports


Tyson and Henry


Working outside in the yard and being buff! lol


Camping


Driving fast (and subsequently getting speeding tickets)


Goofing around with friends


Making me laugh till my belly hurts!

He also likes snowboarding, fishing, watching TV, going to the movies, group sports, getting the mail, cooking, cartoons, reading the drudge report, arguing with me over politics.....and pretty much anything that is manly! I think that I'm supposed to tag other people, but I don't really know other people besides Becky who blog with blogger. So, apparently the buck stops here.