Happy New Year! Lots to do

Happy 2011!

Been awhile since I updated but a lot has gone on! We FINALLY got approval from the bank on the short sale we put an offer in on. We are SO excited. We close January 31 and plan to move in mid-February. There is a LOT to do to get ready, but I actually look forward to it all.

I am so excited for Jenna to have a yard to play in and a pool to swim in. The neighborhood is one we have loved and wanted to be in. It just all fell into place and I am so thankful. I am not as excited to pay the new home insurance rates or property taxes though. LOL

The current owners had SO much stuff in that place that Jeff and I are nervous about what we may see when we have our walk through. Oh well! Guess we will be calling the Salvation Army if there are some “gifts” left behind.

Exhibit A – the 3rd car garage:

We traveled to NC for Christmas and were there for a week. It was a great trip. We were able to spend lots of time with my family, Jeff’s family and I got to see my BFF and eat Japanese food to celebrate her Bday (an annual tradition). Jenna witnessed her first snowfall and we ended up with about 5-6 inches to play in. Just really good memories overall.

We went to the Outback bowl game on New year’s Day - good game and the weather was perfect! 70 degrees in January – THAT is why I moved to FL!

Work is good for both of us. Jenna is fantastic. She is am amazing little girl and just cracks us up every day. She is smart, hilarious and just so much FUN. Sure there are moments of toddlerhood where I want to jump out of a window, but the moments where she grabs me and says “MY MOMMY!” makes up for it.



I hope everyone has a great 2011. We’ll see if I can get better about updating this thing…!

My Free Holiday card!

Oh Ho Ho Christmas Card

Get custom photo Christmas cards online at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Move #1 complete

Phase 1 of "project new house" is complete. We moved from the old house on 11/9 to the townhouse we are renting. We closed on the sale 11/10. So, that stage is officially behind us.

We are all settled in here and now just cross our fingers that our offer goes through on the other house. It being a short sale makes it tough in terms of knowing WHEN things will get approved, etc. We do know that Chase (the bank that owns the short sale) in only looking at our offer right now so that is good.

The thought of moving twice within months is tough but OK by me. It definitely makes you go through stuff and pare down.

It was a bit sad to leave the house on Bridgeton Dr. It was our first house - the place we brought home our first pet, the place we brought home our child and watched her grow from a newborn to a hilarious toddler. But...hopefully great things are on the horizon :)

One Crazy week

Wow. Things have been a bit crazy here this past week or so. In a good way.

We put our house on the market and had an offer in 8 days later. The offer, counter offer, counter offer #2 and acceptance process took A LOT out of us. Stressful and exciting all at the same time.

The couple buying live in IN and want to close Nov 11! Sooooo Jeff and I had to look for a rental ASAP. We ended up snagging the ONLY 3 BR townhouse at the same complex we lived in when we moved to Tampa - kind of cool how things cycled back around.

We had also started looking at houses just to see what was available in the neighborhood we want to be in. There is one short sale that we fell in love with. Well, there were multiple offers in and they did not accept contingent offers blah blah blah. Our agent called the moment we were in contract on our house and found out that the bank MAY likely accept a contingent offer from us and will wait to make decisions until we can formally thorugh our hat in the game.

I am trying not to get my hopes up. I mean it seems to good to be true - house sells in 8 days, we snag the last townhouse in a complex we already know we like (by a matter of minutes according to the property manager) and now we may get to offer on the house we love?

I am not holding my breath bc real estate is so unpredictable. I just hope that things continue to run smoothly. We had the inspection on our house today which I think went well. Now we wait for the appraisal, then for the buyers house in IN to close, then our closing. etc.

Lots of moving parts but it is all very exciting. :)

Sept already!? General update

Time is flying by. I cannot believe it is nearing October. I love it though. Jeff is a happy camper bc football is back on, the weather is going to be perfect for months to come and the holidays are on the horizon.

We have the house on the market. We have been in the hosue for over 6 years and are ready for a change and some more room. There are some crazy good deals out there right now too. We have our eye on some places and will start looking around Sunday. Needless to say, my house is cleaner than it ever has been and a storage unit is full of our extra stuff.

We got an agent preview the first day it was posted; could lead to a showing this weekend. We shall see. We will just go along for the ride and not stress. This will be a change for me and Jeff. We tend to do things quickly - we make decisions fast and do not look back. Not with this - we will have to sit and be patient. UGH.

I have so many pics and videos of Jenna is is immpossible to keep up. Basically, she is the funniest, best child in the world. She is smart and sweet - gets very upset when any animal is in "danger" on her cartoons, etc. But, at the same time she is super tough - can fall off a slide and get up without a whimper. We love her so much and are having so much fun watching her grow up and become this little person. The toddler years are challenging though for sure. I'll post different posts about that :)

Our baby girl is turning 2...!

I spend way too long on projects like these, but I love em :)

Tomorrow is the big day!

Singing!

This clip gets good about 30 seconds in. Jenna starts singing and then informs us of an interesting fact at the very end of the video LOL




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd7nUSUVpRM

"Where is my diaper"?

Yes, about an hour after Miss Jenna went to bed, I hear "Where is my diaper??" in the monitor. I was hoping she was referring to her baby doll, but no...when I turn on the video, I see little baby butt on screen. No pants or diaper in sight.

I walk in there and Jenna says "Where's diaper?!" like she truly did not know where it was. LOL.

I check and yep, the sheets and her blankets are wet. Awesome.

Me: Do you want to sit on the potty?
J: Yes.
Me: Let's go
J: I pee peed.
Me: Yes, but you can pee pee on the potty
*sit J on the potty*
*J immediately stands up*
J: Diaper change?

LOL

Funny stuff I tell ya.

Master Procrastinator

So people that know me well know I used to be a fantastic procrastinator. If it could wait till later, well it did.

Now that I am a Mom, and work full time too, it is quite the opposite. If I have a free minute, I am running around like a crazy woman trying to get things done. If I am at home, it is laundry, dishes, the usual suspects. On work days, I run errands before and after work, over lunch, you name it.

I hope Jenna did not pick up the procrastination gene from me but it would appear by her recent bedtime shenanigans that she did.

Tonight's bedtime routine - after bath, dinner, brush teeth, watch a show, we head to her room. She then insists on several books, then some water, then wants me to give her a high five 22 times in a row, then decided she wanted a different paci, then started to pound on her diaper genie like it was a drum, then asked me to pound on her diaper genie like it was a drum. She then wants to talk about all the animals that are in the painting in her room, touch the fan pulleys....you get the idea.

Once I put her in her crib and tell her she has to go nite nite, she looks at me in pure shock like "HOW DARE YOU WOMAN!"

How am I supposed to deal with all this when she is in a regular bed!? Lord help me.

The things I see on a video monitor

This video monitor is awesome. It is one of those things I tell any pregnant woman she "needs." It used to be great to just watch the baby. Then, it was to determine if she really needed me or if she was just fussing.

Now it is pure entertainment. Jenna will literally run laps around her crib, cover her animals with her blankets, read out loud, you name it. Funny stuff. It is even kind of funny when she throws things out of her crib and then yells "OH Nooooo!"

Tonight, I heard a weird noise coming from the monitor. Jenna has a sippy cup of water in there with her. She was drinking it, but not like a normal child, no. She was putting her blanket OVER the sippy cub and then attempting to drink the water through the blanket. She was working HARD to get that water out. Makes you onder what goes through a toddler's head...!

I guess aqua is so much better when filtered with a fuzzy "binky."

I seriously wish these things had a record button!

Busch Gardens junkies

I am so lucky to live 20 minutes from Busch Gardens...ever since we got our passes and discovered the Sesame Street area, we have literally been almost every weekend. We are becoming pros.

Today we went and I got to meet one of my "online" friends in person for the first time. Kristen and I were part of the same "expecting" club and have kept in touch (along with a lot of the other ladies) throughout the years. Crazy to think I have "known" her since Nov 2007 (when I found out I was pregnant).. and now our daughters are about to turn 2!!

Parenting injuries

So as I am putting Jenna to bed tonight she decided to procrastinate by practicing the body parts. I guess she knows I will not interrupt her if she is doing something "educational".

She proceeded to PULL my hair as hard as possible "Haaaayer."

Pinch my neck "NECK!"

Stab my eyes "Eyyyye. Other eyyyyye."

Sticks her finger in my ear canal "Mommy's ears"

"Glasses!!" and proceeds to rip my glasses in half.

Lastly, she grabs my upper and lower teeth, pulls my mouth apart and yells "YAWN!!!"


Love it injuries and all!

What they don't tell you

You know, there are SO many things they do not put in the pregnancy / parenting books. My best friend luckily filled me in on many things...from childbirth to the recovery to having a toddler. I am STILL discovering things they do not put in the books.

Some I will not go into on a public blog bc they are either gross or inappropriate or both.

One thing I am finding lately is that once the kiddos get to a certain age, you have to ask yourself if you are forming bad habits...with EVERYthing that you do - what you feed them, where you take them, how you discipline them, you name it.

For instance, Jenna has developed a love of the TV. She will now point at any TV and yell "MY TV! TV? TV on!?" Thank God there is no TV at day care so I do not feel that badly about letting her watch a couple shows at night.

She also likes to watch while she eats though. And you know, it is a lot easier if she does. But, Jeff and I have decided we are going to try to practice all of us eating at the dining room table. Dear Lord, the indigestion that leaves me with.

That quote from A Christmas Story rings true: "My mother has not had a warm meal in 15 years." I get it. This is also why we do not go out to eat with Jenna. Not sure when we will be able to do that again without breaking out into sweats.

She is addicted to her blanket and pacifier again - I let her take them in the car but not into other places. Negotiating with a toddler is....interesting.

There are a million examples but I will stop. Sigh!

This blog

So I originally started this as a place to house videos for the grandparents...I realized anyone besides her grandparents are probably bored to tears if they come across this site. LOL

Life is good - busy but so good! My role at work has been quite different lately since our core team of 5 is now a team of 3 since 2 of the girls are out on maternity. Good times (insert sarcasm). But, in all honetsy, it has given me lots of great opportunities.

Jeff leaves this week for his annual golf trip and then will be in Orlando for training the next week. That means i will be holding down the fort here - fingers crossed we all (me, Jenna and Ramsey) stay healthy.

Jenna is hilarious - talking more and more every day. She has her toddler meltdown moments for sure - but overall is just a laid back, happy go lucky little girl. She loves Dora and Yo Gabba Gabba, likes to color, read and go to the park. She is fearless and a true daredevil. She falls, gets hit, goes into the Gulf of mexico and is never phased. So, all that stuff about girls being "easier" or "calmer" I would dare to disagree. But, I love it.

I also think we have the class clown on our hands. She is FUNNY and lives to make people laugh. She just "gets it" already. I foresee many teachers' notes in my future.

:)

Beach baby

Here is Miss Jenna in the Gulf of Mexico. She is a wild woman and LOVEd it - even after she fell under...!

Riding with Mommy!

Loving the water park at Busch Gardens

First Merry Go Round ride

Meeting Cookie Monster