Parties, Births, & Everything in between

We have had a pretty eventful past 5 days this week. It started out on Saturday with a birthday party. Lauren, a girl in my supper club, had a 4th bday party for her son Miles that included a train and water slide bounce house. Delainey had a blast! On the slide especially. After the party we went and looked at some model homes and found one we loved. Too bad the lots that were left were junk. Just a sign from God we shouldn't move. We are so torn on whether we want to move into a bigger house or not. I guess if the perfect one falls in my lap we will pull the trigger, but until then we are happy where we are. 

 Sunday included church (Delainey let me do french braids for the 1st time and I loved how they looked), snuggled at the house, and then went to Gammoe's for family dinner. They finally came back from Cashiers after almost a month gone. She wanted to get as much time in with Delainey as possible before we are gone on our keys trip for a week so D had 2 sleepovers and was with her 2 of the other nights.

Tuesday morning, one of my best friends (we've been friends since we were in 6th grade) had her second daughter. Her older daughter Collins is one of Delainey's best friends and now Blakely will have a best friend that is just 4 months younger. It works out perfectly! Sadie was 7 lb 7 oz and 19 1/2 inches. She is so precious! She looks just like her Daddy.

 Wednesday, we got to see baby Ivy on the 4D ultrasound and Georgia was very excited about seeing her baby sister. Less than 10 weeks till another princess joins the family! My heart is exploding with love for all these baby girls! I think I am obsessed with babies and being pregnant. Hope Dave strikes it rich one day to support all 12 of our kids. LOL Just kidding...well kind of!

 These gems love each other so much!! 

 How cute is this new costume Gammoe bought D! They enjoyed the library, went shopping for some new toys, played in the pool outside, and played dress up. She would not take the costume off for 2 days straight!

 Today, the girls had their last ballet class of the summer and I offered to take Collins for the afternoon to let Alicia adjust to being home with the baby. They came home from the hospital this morning. Mrs. Heather gave the girls little ballet treats for their last class, then we went to Grammy's and swam and ate pizza, then bathed and headed home to go to sleep. The girls have so much fun together!

In the midst of all these activities, I have been packing away for our week long Keys trip that starts tomorrow! It is quite the treat packing for 4 people for 8 days that includes food, places to sleep, dive and fishing equipment...lots of lists have been happening! :)
Anyways we are off tomorrow to enjoy a week away with my entire family! It is going to be so much fun having all the grandkids together. I love this annual tradition and did I mention the last Wednesday of July is my favorite day of the year! It is a lobster feast thats to die for! Follow on instagram over the next week to see whats happening and I will be back to blog after next weekend! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Amelia Island Staycation

Last Wednesday, we headed up to Amelia Island for a little one night girls vacay at the Ritz Carlton. It's only an hour north so Kelli and Georgia decided to come play for the day and head home later that night. We arrived around noon and headed to the pool to swim. They had a nice little splash park area for the kids and then your normal pool. The weather went from nice to bad pretty quickly so instead of calling it a day, we just headed inside to the indoor pool and continued swimming. It had a glass roof over it so you could see the rain as you swam...probably my favorite part of the hotel! :) The weather cleared up and we went back out to the main pool and to walk on the beach. 

 D & I enjoyed some pina coladas while strolling the beach looking for shells. Why not we were on vacation!

 We headed in around 4 to take showers and get ready for dinner. We headed into the Fernandina Beach area to a restaurant called Sliders grill. The food was phenomenal. Probably the best calamari I have ever tasted and Kelli got a pretzel bun cheeseburger with queso on top that was insane! The best part about the restaurant was the playground for the kids to play on. We sat at our table enjoying drinks after we ate while watching D and Georgia run around on the playground! Genius! There was also a great reggae band playing that Georgia danced to for probably a good 30 minutes. After dinner we headed home to hit the hay.

 If you look closely the bar at swings for seats! Very cool place and did I mention it's on the ocean!

 The next morning, Blakely had a feeding that fell at 6:30 and I figured while I was up I might as well make the most of it so I laid her back down and headed to the beach to do a 7 am sunrise yoga class in the sand. It was a really nice view, but definitely harder to balance in the sand! I was back in the room at 8 and by then both girls were up. We had breakfast then headed to the beach & pool again to play.

We checked out at 1pm and headed home to Jacksonville after a nice little night away! We had a great  time with just the girls. Thanks Pops for our night away!

Life through the camera roll

Over the past week, we have just been hanging out doing the usual...my gym, tutoring, ballet, lots of swimming at Grams, and playing at the house. Delainey watched the show Say yes to the dress & insisted she have her own veil to wear around. Luckily mine was just upstairs in storage. One of these days when I have lots of time, I want to do a photoshoot with her in my wedding dress. She is so cute, when I opened my dress bag she said "wow mom it is just beautiful!" I love how well she expresses herself. Baby B is growing up so fast! She is a lively lady who loves to smile and grab at anything she can. 

 Friday, Dave didn't have any surgeries to do so his coworker Joe came over with his family to hang out and go to the pool. D loves playing with the older girls. I was surprised she let them put her in the back seat of her own jeep. LOL good sharing! Big girl also got her first frappucino from starbucks this week. (with no coffee of course)

Friday night we celebrated my friend Amanda's engagement at one of the Jax Beach bars. It was nice to have a night out with all the girls...kid free. We had a good old time busting a move on the dance floor! The food was dynamite too!

 Saturday we had a relaxing morning at the house, then went to the mall to buy Dave some new bathing suits. On the way home, we picked up sushi and had family movie night. I suggested sleeping bags on the floor for the movie and when I came out Dave had a huge air mattress blown up. Delainey loved it!
I just love how Blakely sleeps with her hands in the air if she isn't swaddled.

 Sunday, we were bad and decided to skip church to get to the beach early before it got to crowded and hot. We found an awesome spot with a runoff pool like area for the kids to play in and it was fantastic. This was really the first time Blakely actually got in the water. I love the beach, but boy do I hate cleaning off 2 sandy kids. D was hilarious on the way home. She put a blanket over her head and took a nap on the way home...whatever works!

Blakely is now able to sit in the bumbo!! The tray is nice too so I can put things up there for her to grab. Can you tell Delainey picked out her outfit that day?

 And here is how we take on Costco and grocery shopping. I wear Blakely on my chest and put Delainey in the basket. The carseat just doesn't sit well in the cart and Blakely loves it as long as she is facing out and can see what's going on.

So that is pretty much it as of lately. Tomorrow I'm getting a massage and doing a little one night vacation with Grammy and the girls at Amelia Island. Pops won a free night at the Ritz Carlton in an auction so we are taking advantage. Just planning on hanging by the pool & beach and Delainey is so excited because she loves hotels! I'll be back with pictures of our "staycation."

And here is just a fun little comparison of the 2 girls at exactly the same age. Not too similar in my opinion!

Blakely Ann - 3 Month Update

Height: about 24 1/1 inches
Weight: about 14 pounds
Head Circumference: about 16 inches
Vision: You are really coming to life this past month and are noticing more of your surroundings. You love bright colors especially TV. You will stare in awe at the TV for a long time. I'm not exactly sure how clear you are seeing things, but you seem to notice much more. You also like to look at yourself in the mirror.
Movement: You have finally started to control your hands this month and are grabbing on things that you have stared at so intently these last few weeks. The down side of being able to use your hands is you pull out your paci much more now. You have found your feet and enjoy moving them. You are also trying to roll. You really only roll over your right shoulder and get 3/4 of the way there, but can't seem to get over your arm. It won't be long I'm sure.
Eating Habits/New Foods: Not much has changed in the feeding department. You had a few days of cluster feeding (every 2 hours) last week, but I think it was just the 3 month growth spurt. We are every 3 hours during in the day and still doing 3 ounces. At night you go for about a 6 hour stretch then it is back to every 3 hours. You are still good with the bottle and stopped gas drops several months ago.
Sleeping Patterns: You have started to form more of a routine this past month. You wake up between 8-9 am. You play for a while and then nap around 10 for 1-2 hours. Then you take another long afternoon nap around 2-3 pm for about 1-2 hours and then will do little catnaps in between. You usually have your last feeding around 8-9 pm and then you are off to bed.   You still love to be swaddled. I just ordered some larger swaddleme sacks which are miracle workers. You sleep really well wrapped in your cocoon. I moved you to the crib for 2 days, but then you got sick. You got a cough a few weeks ago so I moved you to the rock n play since it sleeps at an angle. You've been there ever since I'm really planning on moving you to your crib after the keys trip
Sounds/Words: You are still making lots of random sounds and you love smiling at people. Mommy especially.
New discoveries/accomplishments:
-You flew on your 1st plane ride
-You went to your 1st movie theater...and slept through most of it and watched the other part so nicely
-You got your first real cold that was a yucky cough with mucus. I just did a humidifier and the saline spray and a bulb syringe when needed.
-You went out on the boat for the 1st time & seemed to really love it.
-You can move your hands now where you want them to go.
Places you went/Adventures: The adventures continue. We went to Collin's beach condo for the night and had a sleepover and walked on the beach, You went to baby Sadie's baby shower, you celebrated your 1st fathers day, you went to Cashiers, NC on a plane for a 5 day vacation in the mountains.
Clothes: You are growing so fast. Most clothes are 3 months, but we have moved to 6 month sleepers and some onesies. Tall like your big sister! Still in size 2 diapers, but maybe not for too much longer. You are a little chunkier than Delainey was.
Sister updates: Big Sister seems to be doing better with smothering you and being too aggressive with you. She just always wants to touch you and cuddle which can be too rough sometimes. But you are a tough lady! You are starting to smile and make noises when D talks to you so she really likes that. I can't till you start moving and can follow her around and be best friends.
Weekly Pictures:

Cashiers Vacation Recap

We started off our 5 day adventure to Cashiers with a flight out of Orlando while Delainey rode in the car with Gammoe, Paige & Collier (D's 16 yr old cousins she is obsessed with). Blakely did awesome on the flight. She slept the first half, sat and hung out for a little while and then nursed on the way down since she started to fuss a little from the pressure on her ears. We had about a 2 hour drive to Cashiers from Asheville in the rain, but we finally made it around 10 that night.  

The next morning we hung out at the house and caught  up with family before heading into town to do some grocery shopping. It was a pretty rainy day so we just laid low and enjoyed the view of the mountains. The weather was chilly too with a high in the lower 70s. Delainey was greeted by Aunt Linda, Uncle Mel, and Aunt Mary Beth with a bag full of toys so she was in heaven! She had a blow up gecko, crayons (the coolest crayons ever made out of wooden sticks), books, her own frozen plate, cup, and utensils, step stool, toothbrush... They really thought of everything she could possibly want/need. We had a nice dinner at the house and hit the hay early since we were going to church in the morning.

Sunday morning, we went to church at an old methodist church. It was the pastors last Sunday and he requested that a bluegrass band play the music that day. They were really good, but I could have sworn we had transported back to the 1920s in the prohibition days lol. I snapped a few good pictures of the McLaughlin cousins and a good one with Gammoe and all her granddaughters.

After lunch, we headed down to the lake to ride on a pontoon boat and explore the lake. They had some awesome waterfalls we got to go swim near. It was pretty cold though so only D, Gammoe & I got in. We also got to feed some ducks and just cruise around the lake for a few hours. I think that was my favorite adventure of the trip.

After the lake, we headed back to the Trillium Country Club pool where D got to swim and play with her gecko. Monday we relaxed by the pool as well and then headed up to the Landing restaurant at the country club to have dinner and play bingo.

The restaurant has a great view of the lake and the girls snapped some good pictures with Delainey. They even taught her the peace sign. I swear she grew up 3-4 years just by hanging out with the older girls. She acts much more mature now. Someone mentioned they had bingo every Monday night so I jumped at the chance to play, promising that I would win if we did.

Sure enough I bought myself a ticket and Delainey one. Delainey won the very first round and won $6. We played several more rounds until the final round which was the blackout round. And yours truly won the blackout winning $120! I couldn't believe I actually won! So lucky!! As you can tell from the pictures it was some very intense rounds of bingo! :)

Tuesday we slept in and then went out to lunch at the Slab Town Pizza which was such a cute little restaurant and the food was delicious! We hit up the jelly store and then headed home before the rain got us. That evening we all snuggled in bed and watched the semi-finals of the Women's world cup after dinner.

The next morning we woke up early and headed back to Asheville to fly home. I got there in plenty of time so I was not stressed in case if it took D 15 minutes to go through security. She had a great time asking questions on what everything was and running around the airport. Having plenty of time is the key with traveling with 2 solo. D watched a movie on the plane and B was a gem again and slept. Delainey was a little hesitant about the turbulence on the plane, but I played it off like it was fun despite my fears that we were going to die! LOL I will not put my phobias onto my children!!

We were very happy to be back to see Daddy whom we missed so much, but we had a great trip with his side of the family! We were spoiled and loved on and the girls had a great time. Thanks again Aunt Linda, Uncle Mel, and Mary Beth for having us and taking such good care of us. We can't wait to come back up next year!