Finally A Sunny Day!

We finally had nice, sunny weather today in Florida. It was about 75 degrees and just beautiful. I was going to go to the gym, but Rachel had thrown up at some point last night or this morning. I didn't know if she had caught what the Lantz's had or if something just upset her tummy. It seems to be a one time thing, but I didn't want to take her to kid's club at the gym just in case. So, we went to Publix and then a wagon ride to the park. She wanted to wear a hat and left it on the entire time!

She loves the big kids playground best and found two little boys to play with.





We had a fun time together and I got some exercise still. Walking to the park will be one thing I am going to miss about this house. As for now, I need to grade some tests.

Update

We have been busy preparing to move. Our closing was supposed to be tomorrow, but it got moved to Tuesday. I am bummed about that because I was looking forward to having the weekend to get things ready and moved. Oh well, I get to close and then head off to work. We got permission to do make some changes inside the house. We painted the family room, the office, and in the middle of painting the master bedroom. Matt will be tiling the laundry room this weekend. We got a few walls textured (to match the rest of the walls) and got all of the carpets cleaned. The floors were a mess, but the carpets looked brand new now that they have been vacuumed and cleaned. I am really pleased and apparently, the carpets were not the cheap stuff and have excellent padding underneath. I am really happy with our carpet cleaner! Matt is going to start redoing the master bath in the near future as that will be our first major project. The kitchen is hideous (think bright yellow with yellow on some of the cabinet faces) and designed really poorly. However, that one is going to cost a little bit more, so we will be saving for it. I still don't have any pictures of it, but perhaps I will remember to take some next time I am over there. For now, I am working on packing up this house. We booked our cruise, which we are sooo excited for! I am no longer running in my half marathon due to an injured knee, so I gave my spot to a friend. I am still going over to Orlando for girl's night with Katie. We are going shopping at the outlet malls, dinner, and hanging out with NO KIDS! Fun stuff, but then I will come home Saturday morning and back to real life. School is going great and we are already approaching midterms. Rachel is being a handful/pain in the butt this week and I have no clue why. She was a little better today, but we are definitely nearing the 2 year mark. She is healthy, unlike the Lantz family and hopefully we are not going to be sick since they were over on Tuesday morning.

This is our new spot to read together! And yes, her sunglasses are upside down.

Tickle Tickle

Sesame Street Safari Fun!

The weather looked gloomy, but Lauren and I and our three cuties made the trek to Busch Gardens. It sprinkled a tiny bit on the way there, so I was not at all encouraged that this was the right day to be there. As we pulled in the parking lot, we both noticed a lot of old people. As we entered the park, we noticed even more old people. It must have been senior day. They were obviously not going to the same places we were, so it turned out to be a great day for our adventure! We saw the animals first, which Kate ended up being afraid of. One of the workers came over by the hyenas and they thought they were being fed, so we got a great up close look at them. Well, Kate peeked through her hands.

Rachel is still not into watching Sesame Street, but she was all about the characters. She ran right up to Big Bird and gave him a big hug!



After kind of eating lunch and watching the show, we took more pictures! They did not seem to get the concept of pose with Abby, but turn around and look at the camera too.
They rode the swings, cars, the carousel, eggs, and tried to jump on this huge bouncy thing. Every time we go back, they get better with it. Some day they will actually move away from the corner.







This nice employee helping her jump!


We had a really fun day and it actually turned out to be kind of sunny and warm. We weren't as sweaty as usual, but the girls could have gone in the water area. Good thing there is always next time, especially when you have a pass.

My Crazy Girl

This crazy girl got into her top drawer of her dresser and pulled out all of its contents to play with during her nap. Most of the things in that drawer were bows. Imagine her actually wanting to put a bow in her hair. Well, she wanted to wear four of them. So, I let her. She wore them to the bank, CVS, and Publix without touching them once. I could not believe it.

Yum Yum!

This girl got a fudge covered Oreo today for dessert and she really enjoyed it! I don't know how she could have possibly gotten so much chocolate all over her face, but it doesn't surprise me.




Hiding her smile.
She was sliding on the floor. Maybe going for a yoga pose?

Hats On to Rachel!

I finally have some picture to share with you. Of course, Rachel loves to be naked or near naked. I still think it is okay and cute, so I let her run around in a diaper sometimes. Usually the diaper will be removed within a few minutes though.



Rachel likes wearing these hats she got for her first birthday. She is too cute, but especially like to wear them backwards. She has trouble getting them on her head, so many times, they just sit on top of her head.



Cool stuff!
Her new bean bag chair! Mom, Lauren, and I spent the day shopping at Target on Saturday. We had some money makers and I need to buy something to absorb the overage. They didn't have a two tiered step stool like I was really looking for, so I thought that this bean bag chair would be great for her new playroom in the new house.


This morning was the first time she really stood in front of the TV engrossed. She is normally not a big TV watcher unless you put her in her high chair and feed her. She watch two Baby Einstein movies and I was busy cleaning the floors! It was great!

Since we are renting our house out to somebody soon hopefully, we decided that the door in our family room needed to be replaced. Matt talked them down at Home Depot to $100 and him and DJ installed it yesterday. Looks much better.

And then there were none

So, I know I have been slacking on blogging, but I am busy and now sick with a cold. It seems that everyone I know has been sick with either a cold or stomach bug the past two weeks. I haven't had a cold in a long time, but I am really grateful for all of the free cold medicine we have. I just got some more today. Rachel doesn't have a runny nose, but a little cough. She now likes to blow her nose straight into her hand if a Kleenex isn't available. Ugh.

Our fish tank got some sort of parasite called ich and we noticed it one night on two of the fish. Well, we started treating the tank the next day and two of them died. A few nights later, Lord Voldemort died. The trigger was doing well and we had treated the tank for about 4 or 5 days straight. Matt gets up the next morning and finds the last fish dead. So, there are no fish left. He put the tank on Craigslist and if he can't sell it on there, it will be at the garage sale on Feb 5 at Lauren's. Frustrating to spend the money and have them all die.

Other news: After I attempted to find space to put Rachel's old toys to make room for her new toys, I told Matt that I wanted to maybe find a bigger house. Well, we started looking about 2 weeks ago and put an offer on one on Friday. It was a nice, new house on an acre in Plant city. I wasn't crazy about the location, but Matt seemed to really like and I like everything else about the house. I started thinking more and more about it after we put in the offer, secretly hoping it wouldn't be accepted. The next night, I told Matt about a house that was for sale that I had driven by and he knew exactly which one I was talking about. We have always both really liked this home. We talked to our agent (she is awesome and up working even at midnight) and we saw the house on Sunday afternoon. We absolutely loved it and put an offer on it immediately. It is a short sale, which can take awhile, but our contract was accepted and we should be closing within a month. The house is a two story, almost 2600 square feet, built in 1988 on .82 acres. It is just a little north and west of our house (only about a 5 minute drive). I can still shop at my favorite Publix (that is important to me), be close to work and family, and the price was awesome! I am really excited about it, but we still need a renter for our house. So, please pray for that.

That is all for now. Rachel is into everything and can be quite the troublemaker. She is too curious and I am hoping this stage is going to end soon. She wears me out, especially when I am sick.