Sunday Musings

Wow, I've been so lax with the blog lately. It's been so crazy at work and at home that I just haven't gotten to it! So, I have lots to share tonight!

The kids are doing great. Learning so much at their new school (which we LOVE!!) and enjoying having a play room where they can go crazy with the toys! The kids are taking dance classes now which they are enjoying. Meighan loves the idea of being a ballerina and Alex just likes that he gets to wear shoes that make noise lol There was a carnival at their school last weekend which we went to and had a great time. Here are some pictures of their fun ...





Other than the fact that I put Paul's Mustang in a ditch (yes, I'm an idiot & no, there was no major damage besides my pride), it was a great night!

Earlier in the month, my mom and Dave came to visit and we had a great time hanging out for a long weekend. I can't wait til they come back for Halloween!





September has been pretty good. Lots going on at work (and no, I don't know anything about Wachovia or the possibility of another merger/buyout. All I know is what you know which is the reports in the media). Staying busy and continuing to try to finish unpacking with two 3 year olds who'd rather play! Football season has begun (go EAGLES!) so most of our Sunday's are spent with football on in the background. It's beginning to look like fall is coming to St. Louis so we had to stock up on cooler weather clothes for the kids this weekend. I'm soooooo excited for cooler weather although I know that its been pretty tame here this summer!

That's it for now - I have laundry to go fold and episodes of Dexter to watch (have you seen this show??? OMG it's wonderful! Great TV!) I have a lot of scrapbook pages to share but I'll do that in another post. I'll be back soon ...

Happy Labor Day! We're still feverishly getting unpacked and settled into our new home. It still feels like chaos and I have to let it go .... which isn't easy. We will eventually be all unpacked and settled in but it takes time. Especially with 2 toddlers and a full-time job! The long weekend helped a lot - we got amazing amounts done with our extra time! But, there is still much to be done!

I wanted to catch up on posting my recent layouts since its been awhile since I've shared. Here's what I have to show you tonight ... I'll be back with more commentary on the move and our new home but I just don't have the energy right now with everything else that's been going on!

















That's it for now ... more to come!

Tuesday Musings

I just wanted to let everyone know that we're officially in our new place and trying to get unpacked and settled in. I'll be back over the weekend (I hope) to share some pages and tell you more about the move. Just wanted to say hello and tell you all is well in St. Louis - just very busy and surrounded by boxes needing to be unpacked!

Wednesday Musings

We've had a busy week. Linda flew into St. Louis to visit with us and Sami's here for a couple of weeks. It's been great to catch up with them and show them both the city.

First up on the agenda was a day of shopping at West County Mall for me, Sami and Linda. We also went to see Stepbrothers. And Paul was so sweet to watch the kiddos so that we could have an afternoon out together!

Then, they all went to the Zoo while I was at work and had a great time. That evening, we visited the Arch and I formed myself to go up so that I could conquer my fear of heights and do something that scares me. And, I was so proud of Sami who also has a fear of heights. She also went up there and conquered her fear. It was really a neat experience for us and the kids LOVED it. They are still asking to go back.

For some reason, blogger isn't letting me order my pictures right so they're out of order but we'll just go with it ...

This is the Arch. I'm not much of a photographer but I like this photo that I took. I just need to remove that bit of tree in the corner!


And here's our Hollister Girl - Sami! She had lots of fun shopping over the weekend. And reading the newest Twilight book which she read in record time! She gets more and more beautiful every day - inside and out!

And here's Linda with Alex. The kids just loved having her here and getting to spend quality time with her. Last night, she stayed iwth the kiddos so Paul and I could have a night out for ourselves. We saw Dark Knight and it was FANTASTIC!!!!! Definitely recommend it!

We finally received our replacement Wii (thank goodness the one that the twins broke was still under warranty and they replaced it for free!) Here are some photos of us having some Wii fun!

And I just had to throw this one of Alex in bed with that adorable smile. He can be such a sweet boy!

Paul and Sami fighting with sticks by the river (we went down there after the visit to the Arch and hung out awhile).

My loves ... this photo now sits on my desk and I look at it every day to remind me of all the people that I love ...

Our girls on the stairs leading to the arch (see the helicopter in the background - Alex loved it and is obsessed with wanting to go in it!).

Sami waiting for our pod to go back down to the ground after our visit to the Arch. It's pretty close quarters but not uncomfortable. Just different.

Sami conquering her fear and enjoying the view!

I have another great photo of all of us up in the Arch but I can't post it for some reason!!!!! I'll post it later, I promise!

Linda headed back to PA today and we're going to miss her lots! We're so glad she was able to come out and visit with us. Oh, and Linda, if you're reading this, I'll print out a bunch of the photos from your visit and send them to you since we didn't get around to it before you left!

Up next ... we move into the condo on Friday! YAY! We can finally get settled into our home here and have our own things around us! I can't wait!

That is it for tonight. I have lots of pages to share so I'll be back soon to show you what I've been up to!

Wednesday Musings

It's been a rainy, drab day here in St. Louis. The first day we've had rain ALL DAY. It was tough to get out of bed and tough to get through the day. I'm so affected by the weather - I have a hard time staying pepped up when its rainy.

Oh, and I have a weird observation about St. Louis (maybe even the Midwest although I'm not sure). The weather here is really interesting. One minute its sunny and one minute its raining and vice versa. Very strange. And now I have umbrellas hidden EVERYWHERE - because you never know! And the evening storms are amazing - almost every night that we've been here there has been a lightening/thunderstorm. Very interesting. Paul thinks its because its so much flatter here. I don't know. I just think its really interesting. Not that we never had evening storms in Virginia but just not so consistently.

The kids are doing great - Paul took them to check out a daycare today which they really liked (and more importantly he liked). It's very close to where I work and caters to parents who work in the city. We just have to figure out if its the best one in terms of location. Meaning, I'll be driving them there in the morning and evening during rush hour traffic. And Paul would have to come all the way downtown if he needed to pick them up. We're thinking it through now ...

Meighan is very very close to being completely potty trained during the day and doesn't wear pullups at all anymore except to go to sleep. Alex is just beginning to show some interest - Paul has been watching a potty video (called Big Kid Central - LOL) and putting the techniques into practice and it really seems to be working for him. He'll finally go poopy in the potty and almost always goes pee pee. I know, our life is so exciting! We're excited about the progress and glad that they are making progress. By the way, the kids are OBSESSED with this potty video (in fact, they just begged me to put it in before they got ready for bed!). We talk about the potty constantly these days. Amazing how having kids changes your life and your conversations.

Okay, that's it for tonight. I just wanted to check in and say hello! And talk about the potty ... again. LOL

Monday Musings

Hello everyone - Hope you're having a happy Monday! I'm having an okay day today! I'm pretty tired and feeling like I might be getting a summer cold (YUCK!) but I'm trying to rest and hope for the best. I think tonight I'm going to curl up on the sofa and watch some more of the John Adams mini-series which I started last night. It's a wonderful series, by the way, and if you haven't seen it, you'll probably really enjoy it!

Things are going well here in St. Louis - we're getting along well, trying to explore a little and figure this town out! We spent Friday night in Fenton, MO which has a really nice new shopping area - we went to Best Buy and had dinner at Red Robin. The kids were surprisingly well behaved so we all enjoyed the night out. On Saturday, we went over to West County mall and its a really nice mall with a lot of different stores. We had fun seeing what was available. That particular mall will be literally minutes from our new house so we're excited about that (and I think my Mom will love it too since it has a Macy's with 3 (yes, 3!!) floors. She'll be in heaven!).

We spent Sunday here at the house, just hanging out and playing with our new Wii. I've hesitated a lot about buying one but we're all having a great time with it. Paul spent 2 hours playing tennis on Saturday night and got a great workout. It's nice to be able to do something fun together that also gets us off the couch.

Otherwise, we're just getting by and having fun together. I think we may have found a really nice little daycare for the kids. I think Paul is going to take the kids by there this week to check it out. I'll keep you posted! Most of the daycare's we have seen are VERY expensive so we're hoping that this one will work out. We'll just have to see!

Onto the pictures for today -

Alex has a growing collection of figures from Spider-Man and he just added the newest one - Doc Ock - which he's spent days staring at and playing with -




Our beautiful girl, mesmerized by Max and Ruby!

Here are some photos of the kids figuring out the Wii - they actually seem to be 'getting' it and enjoying playing, particularly tennis, bowling and baseball.



And our little girl who decided to show off her newly painted nails and toe nails. She's becoming quite the makeup obsessed little girl - she spent 20 minutes in Sephora with me and wanted a ton of stuff. We settled on one lipstick, 2 lip glosses and a set of brushes. Yikes - we're really in for it now!

Freshly made up with her new eye shadow!

That is it for tonight. I hope you're having a nice day! Be back soon with more ...

Thursday Musings

So things are moving along here in St. Louis. Still can't quite believe that I live in St. Louis but I do. (hee hee) Work is going well, Paul and the kids are doing well although I think they are all 3 ready for us to find a nice daycare for the kids to spend a couple of days a week. They need the socialization and Paul needs a break! And, we're one step closer to that day because after looking around we have found a condo to rent! YAY us! It's really nice - bigger than our house was and has a lot of space which we really need! It's 3 floors - a main floor with the usual (kitchen, living room, dining room, half bath, a upstairs with 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths, and a lower level with a big rec room, a storage/laundry room, a full bath and another bedroom/office space. The other nice thing is that the condo folks do all the yard work and snow removal so that's one less thing for us to deal with. And, there is a pool which the kids will LOVE! We are in the process of filling out the paperwork but it looks like we'll have our own place by mid August! Then, we can get settled in and start feeling more at home here. But, now, we can go ahead and enroll the kiddos in a school near our new house so that they can start getting out and socializing with other kids again. And Paul can look into going back to school or going back to work - whichever he decides to do. Now, I'll miss living rent and utility free but it will be nice to have all of our things around us again and officially begin our new life here.

Here are some new pictures to show you what the kiddos have been up to ...

Here is Alex - still obsessed with Spider-Man and wearing his outfit from Halloween whenever he can (although its getting so small on him, we might have to spring for a new one lol).

On our deck, being Spider-Man and web slinging -

And our beautiful Megs with a big grin as usual. Man, this girl can TALK. From the moment she wakes up until the moment she falls asleep she is talking UP A STORM. It's exhausting! Telling me any and every thing that enters into her adorable little mind!

Now, this is the fort that Daddy built for the kids using our dining room table and LOTS of pillows, blankets and sheets. They LOVED it for awhile. Thought it was the coolest thing ever!

Here they are enjoying it, laughing all the way!

Oh, and I must tell you about Alex's new superhero outfit - a PowerRanger - a RED PowerRanger. One glance and he fell in love. Now he tramps all over the apartment wearing it. His favorite thing is to stand on our bed and look in the bureau mirror, watching himself be a PowerRanger. He cracks us up!

And Meighan is obsessed with makeup. It's all my fault, actually. She hangs out with me in the morning while I get ready for work, talking and telling me everything and anything. Then, she noticed me putting on my makeup and now she's obsessed! She insisted that she needed her own makeup so we bought her some powder, a lipstick and a makeup bag. She loves to 'do' her makeup. I just hope she doesn't become as obsessed as me. I'm a little tooooooo fascinated with makeup products. Yikes.

Ahhh ... the joys of being a toddler. The world is out to get you and keep you from having fun so you throw yourself to the ground, scream NO over and over, while crying and generally being obnoxious. Gotta love it! Please say that 4 years old is easier than 3 years old. 3 years old has been a bear! They are either the most wonderful, sweet, curious little people or they are the most obnoxious, ornery, disagreeable little monsters. There is very rarely an in between. It's a good thing we love them so much! And the wonderful moments really do make up for the monsterous ones. But, it's tough sometimes.

I'm going to go - Paul and I are going to watch a movie tonight so we need to get watching since I have to be up early tomorrow! Be back soon ...