Moving day

We are moving out of our tiny temporary apartment into our new(to us) house. Saturday was moving day. It was the longest day EVER! Luckily for us our friend Lisa was kind enough to volunteer to watch the LGs for us on moving day. I owe her BIG TIME! She has a little girl the same age as Aver and Emerson. She was even brave enough to take all three toddlers out in public. The all three had a melt down in the parking lot of Toys R Us. That all started because of Emerson (Of course it had to be one of MINE!!) Then they went to a park and Lisa did something that I never thought to do...she put them both in a baby swing together...

The day dragged on and on. Needless to say we have a lot of crap! It's like a really crazy Christmas because all of our stuff has been in storage for over a year. Each box is like a surprise. "Oh look here is my shoe horn." Needless to say its been a crazy weekend.

Sad little Emerson

Emerson has this new thing she does when she is sad and getting ready to cry. Her little lips turn down on the sides. It's sweet, sad, and funny all at the same time.

She does this EVERY. TIME we leave and her mom does not leave with us. It is so sweet. She's all happy that we are getting in the car to go somewhere then her mom walks away back to the house and her little lips curl down and she starts crying. VERY SWEET! She is totally ok with Julie going to work every morning, she even waves to her, but she is not ok with us leaving her at home apparently.

I've started doing timeouts when they are doing things that they shouldn't. I tell them if they continue ______ they will get a timeout then I count to 3. On 3 they get a timeout if they have not stopped doing whatever it is that I want them to stop.

Yesterday I decided to stop for lunch with them. We had Thai (my favorite!). When we were sitting waiting for our lunch the girls were very restless and irritable because they were hungry. E kept trying to stand in her highchair and was being very cranky. So I said, "do you want a timeout? If you continue crying you will get a time out. One." and she turned her lips down and turn to hide her face in her seat. It was so funny. This happened 2 or 3 times before lunch actually came. Cracked me up.

Our vacation in California

On our first day in California we went to Grandpa's work and met all his employees and colleagues. Then we went to a park. Emerson saw a dog there and it was virtually impossible to get her to do anything else. She is dog obsessed. Avery and her grandpa did the teeter totter. VERY CUTE! That evening we went to dinner with Grandpa and Nan. We had Mexican and it was Delicious. The girls were wired for sound and they were literally doing laps around the table. Seriously running laps...

The 2nd day of vacation we took the lgs to Disney Land. They loved it thank you very much! Everyone told us they wont remember it, its not worth it. Well, Julie really wanted to do this and I supported her right to take her kids to Disney Land. They had such a great time and loved It's a Small World ride.

We went to Uncle Terry and Aunt Betsy's house for a BBQ. The girls fell in love with this statue and had a great time playing in the fish pond. They even managed to combine these two activities by using the water from the pond to wash the statue...

Nan has a horse and keeps it on this beautiful ranch. There is a vineyard there, a few zebras, and a camel named Rowen. Rowen is about the sweetest animal you will ever meet. The girls (and I) had a blast with all the animals.

Grandpa got us access to a private beach in Malibu. It was a little chilly and foggy, but it was still gorgeous. There was this seagull that was following us around wanting our food. In Florida seagulls travel in packs and if you feed one seagull three thousand attack you. This is not the case in California...or at least not on this day. Also CA seagulls are sooo much bigger then FL seagulls...

I mean look at that thing he is as big as a small dog! We did feed him a Cheeto or two and never got attacked by more seagulls.

We had such a great time in California with our family. We cant wait to go back...maybe the girls could fly on a different plane then us????

Travel hell...take 2

We finally get to fly to California with a our beautiful twin toddlers....ha ha... The flight started with Avery have a total melt down. She was SCREAMING and arching her back. Luckily we were surrounded by parents and kids. This lady turns to me and says can she have a lollipop, but she spelled lollipop and I for the life of me could not figure out what she was spelling. (I was holding Avery after all) Julie looked at the lady and said "LOL...???" Finally the lady said, or more like yelled "LOLLIPOP!" And I was like yes PLEASE!!!! and finally she was quiet. As you may know sugar has a calming effect... for a little bit... then they hit the roof. The rest of the flight that by the way started about a half an hour into their bedtime was them trying to sleep and not being able to so they would cry and hit and act like little crazy people.

At about hour 4 of our flight they both passed out. THANK GOD!!! So we landed in LAX, the craziest airport in the country. They slept through all of the airport.

Grampa and Nan Lisa met us at the airport to help us navigate it. That was soooo nice of them and VERY helpful.

Travel Hell...take 1

I booked our flight to CA about a month ago. It took me like 3 hours to get the flight booked cause I was trying to use Amex points for part of the payment for the two tickets. We planned to have the girls be lap babies cause they are under 2 and the price of just one seat for them was as much as our tickets. (hind sight is always 20/20). It took a long time because we wanted early morning, we wanted a direct flight (from FL). I dont even remember all that was involved but I ended up going through Delta. Had to transfer our Amex points into my Delta sky miles then use them to pay for one ticket and pay for the other ticket on and on it went, but I eventually had 2 tickets from Tampa to California book...so I thought...



Our flight was scheduled for 7am. We got up at 3 to get ready and get the girls into the car and to the airport by 5. We managed to do ALL of this I even made a hellatiously funny joke that early in the morning. We have a HUGE suitcase and Julie commented that it was too heavy. I looked in it and said "it's the camera, you know the camera adds 10 pounds." Yep we were on vacation. Im always funnier on vacation. We get us all in the car and head to the airport.

Upon arrival to the Tampa airport we were stunned at how confusing the tram system is. We had never parked in long-term parking before so we did not remember it being so odd. We get to the counter and the LGs are being EXCELLENT in their stroller. We go to the ticket counter to check our baggage. The lady at the counter (very nice lady) looks a little confused as she looks at my boarding pass and says "out of Orlando?" me, "No, out of Tampa..." her, "out of Orlando." me, "Tampa.." She points to the word on the boarding pass and says "Orlando." I feel all of my blood rush at this moment. I look at Julie and she is as pale as I feel. She tells us we can try to get on the 11am flight out of Tampa but it has a lay over or we could leave RIGHT now and possibly make the Orlando flight. I go into panic mode. We check tickets and it would cost us over $1000 for just one ticket change. So we make the decision to drive to Orlando and try to make the flight in Orlando. Remember that tram.... It was like a living hell trying to get back to the car. We get back to the car and RELOAD everything.

The LGs were really good till Avery got hit in the face with vomit at 90mph on I4. I drove my car like I stole it all the way to the airport in Orlando. Julie got carsick (first time in her life). It was a combination of nerves and my driving Im sure. We left the airport in Tampa at 5:30. We got to the Airport in Orlando at 6:45... too late... there was no way we could make our flight to CA. They have a flight out at 7pm so we booked that. Headed to Gramma's house to nap and recoup before our flight at 7pm.

How does one make this mistake you may ask.... well, I dont know. This is one of the if not THE biggest mistake I have ever made. In my defense I lived in Orlando for about 95% of my life and the word Orlando just never even registered as wrong...