Kayla's last fling before the ring!

I'm baaaaack!!

I'm sure you all missed me! How could you not?!

So as promised, I have some pictures for you all. We had a ton of fun on the cruise. Sometimes it was a little difficult to make decisions on what to do, but that is to be expected with nine girls in the mix.

 Wig night! 

 The Bride! Love her to pieces! 

 Senor Frogs! 

 LBD night! 

 Loved this frog!

 Even Liz felt little in this chair!

 Love these girls! 

 The whole gang!

The last picture of the cruise, right after we got done singing karaoke at the tops of our lungs!

Liz, Ashley, Jen and I would wake up earlier than the other girls and go get breakfast. It sounds simple enough, but we had so much fun chatting about everything under the sun. I actually looked forward to it each morning! We then would meet up with the other girls and try to make plans for the day. Each night we'd go to dinner and eat until our hearts content then go to karaoke, shows, and finish up by dancing the night away. I am not quite as cut out for all this fun as I used to be, but I surely did give it my all!

My favorite times were when we were all just chatting while relaxing, getting ready, hanging at the beach, and of course eating. We would have the best talks, and I really got to know some freaking awesome girls and learned even more about the amazing girls I already knew. It was so nice to just have some girl time, it's been a long time since I have had that and I valued every second!

I had so much fun, and I can't wait to have even more at the wedding! I can't believe Kayla is getting married in less than two months! I am just so happy for her and Nate, they are so perfect together!

Relationship's change...

It's strange how quickly your life changes without even realizing it. For a while now I have been wanting to write this post but never really had the guts since I have no clue who does and doesn't read them... I have been thinking about how close I used to be to Greg's sister and now I feel like we never talk or see each other at all.

We both ended up being pregnant with our second children at the same time, and I was so excited but then it seemed like we saw less and less of each other. It's not even that we don't see each other often because even when we do the relationship almost seems strained. It could be my imagination but it feels like having babies at the same time has actually made us grow apart?

 I really don't know what else to write, I guess that really is about it...

Something's changed and I don't know what.

Addi is eating!

We went to a speech therapist last week and Addi ate like a pro. Greg and I felt like complete liars. We have been trying to get Addi to eat for forever. So I thought for sure when we went home she would be right back to not eating, but really ever since then she has eaten great. 

Addi used to only eat maybe three full bites, it would take like 20-30 tries to even get her to eat that much. Now she is eating half a container! I am over the moon! I can't believe she is finally into eating, and even gets a little impatient if we aren't feeding her fast enough. 

It's like a night and day difference, I don't know what the speech therapist did to get her into food, or if the appointment just coincidentally coincided with the day she was finally ready to eat. Either way I am very excited to have another eater on my hands! 

Do you ever wake up...

with an overwhelming feeling of love! I woke up this morning, and was watching Aubrey playing in her bed and just had the most overwhelming feeling of love, of just knowing I am so lucky to have my girls and Greg in my life. I then peaked in on Addi, my sweet sleeping Addi! How the heck did I get so lucky to have such a happy, sweet, peaceful baby?

This overwhelming feeling happens to me whenever I have a second of quiet to reflect on things. I think of how much we have, not really things of monetary value but more things like, a roof over our head, a warm bed to sleep in, our girls to cuddle with and love, each other, our families, our health, food to eat, Greg's job, etc...

There are times, I get frustrated that Greg is NOT getting paid what he is worth, but I guess in those times I am forgetting the big picture. We are lucky he has a job, and that job keeps us housed and fed. It's easy to get caught up in what we can and can't afford and how we aren't where we thought we'd be at this point in our lives. We just forget how truly lucky we are.

(Goodness, I think I have become a sappy mess...) :)

So busy, and so exhausted...

These next few weekends are going to be jammed packed. I feel like we have so much going on! You know how much I like to stay busy, but lately I have just been exhausted and thinking of all we have to do is even more exhausting. I am excited about it all, don't get me wrong.

This weekend we don't have a lot of actual plans, but we have a lot of cleaning to do before the Tally girls come to stay Wednesday night. We then leave for Kayla's bachelorette cruise around noon on Thursday. I am so excited about the cruise, but a little nervous too. It takes me a long time to adjust to being on a ship. I get sea sick like woah! So I am hoping I am not spending the majority of the trip with my head in the toilet. I am also nervous about being away from the girls, and having no form of communication with Greg to know how they are doing. Besides all that though, I am really excited. I have been dying to go on a girls trip, we are going to have so much fun! Hopefully I'll take lots of pics to share with you all!

The very next weekend we have Aubrey's Birthday party. So during the week, we have to order all the food and do any last minute errands before the party! I ordered the cake this past week, and I am excited but nervous. I told the lady we were doing zebra and pink, and she was going over what I said before she got of the phone and she kept saying leopard print, and I kept correcting her. SO I am nervous we might end up with a cake that doesn't match anything. I just emailed her, to remind her AGAIN that it is zebra!

Later that night there is a going away party for Emily. I am not overly excited about this one, mostly because it means Emily will be leaving soon. I just try not to think about it.

The next weekend we are going to the Gator basketball game, which I have yet to find babysitters for the girls (oops, better get on that!). It should be a lot of fun, and the end of being crazy busy!!)

Oh and at some point Leslie should be having her baby, so I am hoping that I get to visit and meet him or her! I can't wait to find out what they are having. She knows it kills me not knowing!

So I guess I should be able to relax in ummm... about 4 weeks. But hey, I guess I do LOVE being busy! :)

I Love my Parents!

 I love my parents so much. I am seriously so lucky to have such loving, supportive, positive and amazing parents! I tell my parents everything, and they are always willing to listen and be there for me. It's pretty sad that when something big happens, the first thing I think is I can't wait to tell my parents. They know just what to say! I told them news today and they were so amazing and supportive, and really it means the world to me.

I know I have mentioned before how close I am to my Mom, I truly hope that my girls and I have the same relationship. My Mom and I didn't always get along (we were too much alike at times), but we have come so far to such a great place. She truly is my best friend!

My parents have helped Greg and I so much, and really so have Greg's parents. We are both pretty darn blessed to have such great families who love and care about us so much!

Update on my New Year Resolutions. Goodbye Oreo Cupcakes.

Greg had yesterday off so he finally took the Oreo Cupcakes to work today. They were taunting me. I wanted one SO bad, so I am so glad to see them go. It really took a lot of will power not to eat one.

Look how yummy they looked, I can't believe I resisted! Since the New Year (well really January 2nd, Mary had a get together on January 1st and she made deviled eggs, and I CAN NOT resist deviled eggs, they are beyond yummy!) I have been counting calories on my fitnesspal app and I really think it has helped me stick to it.

I also have been working out, I started the 30 Day Shred, I think it's a little more realistic for me at this time than P90x. Instead of and hour PLUS everyday for 90 days, it is 30 minutes for 30 days.  Let's see if I can stick to this and then maybe move on to P90x. So far I really love it, I am in pain everyday but I like that because then I know I am working hard. I may not be so positive about it when I have to switch to level 2!

So far I am sticking to my resolutions, which may be the longest I have ever lasted (pretty sad because it's only been 15 days). I am trying to stay positive though. Greg has even commented on how well I am doing. He was shocked when I used very little dressing on my salad, cut back on bread and PASTA (which is like unheard of for me, I live for pasta), didn't eat a cupcake, etc.! So far so good! I will make sure to update again in another 15 days! It will keep me honest!

I have some before pics, so I will take a pic tonight to compare and will post those (if there is any difference)! I know you are all dying to see my flabby tummy! :)

Easy Oreo Cupcakes!!

Okay, so you all know by now how untalented I am in the kitchen, well I found this Oreo cupcake recipe and I just had to try it out to see if they were better for Aubrey's party than the cookie dough cupcakes that I made last month. http://moorecraziness.blogspot.com/2011/12/results-review.html. So I used store bought cupcake mix, to simplify it!

So here is the original recipe I was "following"...
It's off of Annie's eats blog. http://annies-eats.com/2010/06/02/cookies-and-cream-cupcakes/  (FYI, She really doesn't recommend substituting or changing the recipe at all because it can mess with the results). This is just one of the reasons I did a test run before Aubrey's birthday, well that and to compare yumminess!

Ok so this is what I did:

I took regular Oreo's...

Twisted enough in half to fill the bottom of each cupcake liner, then put the ones I couldn't break nicely enough in a bag on the side and add some of the other halves (the ones without cream) into the bag. The recipe had asked for 20 chopped Oreo's to mix in, I did about 15 because 20 just seemed like a lot.  I also didn't not cut mine up. I crushed them in the bag, most of them were smaller than quartered (the original recipe says to chop them into quarters) which is how I wanted them. 

 I made the cupcake batter, Pillsbury is my favorite!! 

 Then I folded in the cookies, making sure not to mix it up too much. 

 I am really glad I did less of the cookies, because the batter was super chunky (as you can see) with the 15 so I'm worried if I did more the ratio of batter to cookies might be off. I would hate for the cupcakes to fall apart. 

 I baked for 18 minutes, and they got a little browner than they normally would. So I think next time I will try it for 16-17 minutes, but I think they might not be fully cooked at that point. If they aren't I'll just keep them in, I don't mind a little golden color!

 I frosted them with the cream cheese frosting (Pillsbury again, I just like their cake stuff best).  She made a cream cheese butter cream (I am not a big fan of butter cream, I've come to find out). 

 Once frosted I hade Greg try it first, he is a huge Oreo fan, and I'm counting calories right now so I was trying to resist. 

Greg thought they were great, so I of course HAD to try a bite for myself (for the sake of this post of course)! 

Well let me just tell you, they were AMAZING! I love them, they are a cookies and cream lovers dream! I personally like these just a tad better, the cookie dough ones can be quite heavy and sweet. Greg is taking them to work so all his co-workers can compare them to the cookie dough cupcakes. So I'll let you know what the consensus is. Either way I think I might just make BOTH for Aubrey's birthday, because these were SO simple and yummy! (Oh and they were cooked perfectly even though they were a little dark on top, still super moist!)

I don't like being woken up...

But when Aubrey called for me this morning saying "MAMA, where are you?" "MAAMAAA, I'm stuck!" I couldn't help but laugh! She is so funny! She was "stuck" in bed, she could easily get out if she tried, but she knows she isn't suppossed to. She is such a good girl, I'm one lucky Mama!

Lots of new videos and this is my 100th post! CRAZINESS!

So I know you are all dying to know what is going on in our house (like I don't post enough stuff, lol)! Well wait no longer!

Aubrey catching and throwing! I think we have a future softball player on our hands, and I couldn't be MORE excited! 

Video we made for Dada, it was just too cute that I had to share!

Aubrey using the present that Emily and Daniel got her for Christmas. She loves it! 

Aubrey using the Kitchen Grandma (Mary) got her for Christmas. 

Hi, I love you!

Giggles upon giggles! I was trying to get her to show everyone how she can go from crawling position to sitting. She has done it a handful of times now! 

This is an earlier video, of her almost getting into sitting position. 

Singing! 

Here are a few pics so not to make this post completely pointless for those who don't like to spend time watching videos of other people's children! 

 Now I have two girls who love to swing! 

 Addison's photo shoot with Aubrey! 

Aubrey sleeping so sweetly in her big girl bed! She is obsessed with going to bed now. She puts herself down for naps, and to bed. It's amazing! I am sure the novelty will wear off soon. 

 Holding her own bottle!! 

Some double bow action! 

So after I posted this I realized it was my 100th post! I can't even believe it! I started this blog after I  had Addison. I had a lot in my head that I just needed to get out, and I really wanted to try to document the girls growing up and since I am not big into doing baby books, I thought this was the next best way. The girls are exactly 16 months apart, and I have the hardest time remembering what Aubrey did when and it hasn't even been that long between babies. So hopefully this helps remind me! 

For those who follow my blog, I just want to thank you so much for following along in our journey! :) 

Through Aubrey's Eyes!

So Aubrey decided to take up photography today. She went around snapping pictures. She kept saying "Smile, Cheese!" to everything!

Then she decided to jump and take picture, big no no!

So this is what she came up with...

 I was posting on FB about her taking pictures, she caught me! 

 Didn't even realize she took this one. 

If you notice in one of the pic's I am taking a pic of her taking a pic of me. She was just so cute holding the camera up to her head, right above her eyes so she could still see. Too cute...

 She was getting comfy to take more pics of Addi...

 Then she got up after she saw me taking her pic...

so that she could take a picture of me...

Such a silly amazing girl!