Your Three Words

The Jersey Shore.

It's not just a show on MTV.

I was lucky enough to make it down to the shore twice, recently. Last weekend, I headed down to Cape May {sans husband and kids} with my parents and sister to help celebrate a very special birthday. It was a balmy 105 on the beach that day, but we managed to stay out almost the entire time. It was beautiful.

Here's a picture of my {almost} sister, Reenie, my {real} sister, Kacy, and me:
And another pic of me, talking with my mom and her friends. The ocean was cold!
We had such a great time hanging on the beach and then heading out to dinner to celebrate!

The same week, my sister Kristi and her family had a house in Ocean City for their vacation {well, their vacation #1... they're coming with us to OBX for a week as well. Lucky them!} Carter and I headed to visit them and hang out on the beach for the day. We also managed to eat our way through the Ocean City boardwalk...
One of my new favorite pictures... Carter loves his cousin, Ben!




Pringles on the beach = heaven.
The best pizza place on the planet...

Also, I wanted to note the bathing suit that I'm wearing. If you remember my "Miracle Suit" post back in February, I actually decided to go with "Miracle Suit #4: The El Cheapo Option." However, my wonderful mother in law surprised me with a Spanx gift card at my baby sprinkle, which allowed me to also purchase my all time favorite bathing suit ever- Miracle Suit #2!!

Of course, I ordered them both right away {at full price} just before they went on sale. Totally worth it though. If anyone is thinking about ordering a bathing suit from Spanx, I highly recommend them. They're a great quality, super comfy and now 40% off. Oh, and let's not forget about the fact that they help hold in my floppy belly. They truly are miracle suits...

And, on that note, don't forget to vote for my blog today! I could use a little boost to help keep me on the first page. Thanks lovies...

Me Time

I think every person out there knows that "me time" is very hard to come by. It's even hard to come by when you're not a mom, let alone when you are.

Now, I'm not talking about time spent with the family, or time spent with your hubby... I mean spending time completely by yourself, doing something that you love to do.

When's the last time you did that?

Well, I'm lucky enough to get "me time" about one night a week and it's something that I really look forward too {no offense to my babies or husband, of course!} It usually occurs on Tuesday nights, right after my cuddle time with Carter. Once he falls asleep, I put him in his crib and head downstairs to make sure that Bob is okay with the baby {who is usually fast asleep in her swing.}

And then it happens.

Me time.

What do I do, you may ask? Well I usually grab a glass of wine {a true prerequisite of "me time"} and watch the DVR'd version of the latest Bachelorette {in my defense, how can you NOT drink wine while watching this show?? They drink wine the entire time!}

Yes, that's what I look forward too. Don't judge.

It may sound lame, but it's something that I love to do. Though, after next weeks season finale, I'll have to find a new show to watch. Or maybe I'll actually read that book in my night stand that I've started over about 5 times. Hmm...

Oh, and to all the Bachelorette fans out there.... who are you rooting for? I've been Team Roberto the entire show, but now I think I kind of like Chris! No matter what, I think Ali has two good guys to choose from...

2 Months

First, I apologize for my lack of blogging recently... I have been crazy busy with going back to work and handling 2 kids at the same time. I'm lucky if I can stay up past 8pm {that's a joke... Brynn doesn't go to bed until after 10pm} let alone find time to blog.

But I love blogging, so I'm trying my best!

I will get to your questions {and please keep them coming.... except for Kacy} as soon as humanely possible, but I wanted to share with you a picture of little Miss Brynn from this weekend. She turned 2 months old on Saturday, so I did the usual pose...

Wow, she looks like a big chunky monkey in this picture, but I thought it was cute because she's smiling. Obviously she is getting so big! Growing like a weed, that girl. Sigh. She's doing so many wonderful things, but my favorite is when she stares up at us with her beautiful blue eyes and just talks and smiles. I could talk to my baby girl all day long...

My second favorite, is the fact that she is sleeping so well at night. She usually only wakes up one time {around 4:30am} but there was one blissful night that she slept from 10pm until 7am!!! We hope to see more of that in the very near future, thank you very much.

Also, for comparison, I thought I'd just add her other pictures to this post:

1 Month

2 Weeks

My girl is gaining some lbs, huh?

I think she's saying the same thing about me...

Y3W: Questions for Jenni

ask me anything!

This is something that I've been thinking about doing for awhile, but I just never got around to posting it, I guess. Or maybe it was because I just never thought anyone would be interested in knowing anything else about me. I'm not sure.

Either way, my friend Kristal finally inspired me to do this post so... do you have any questions for me? Anything at all? Perhaps you asked me a question in a post that I just never got around to answering... or maybe there's a topic on here that I never addressed. If so, post it in the comments section and I'll do my best to answer each of your questions!

So, by all means... ask away =)

So, it's been 8 weeks...

So, it's been 8 weeks for Brynn...
I can't believe how much she has changed these past two weeks! Not only does she look bigger {and fatter! :)} but she is talking, smiling, and even laughing so much more now! And boy do we love it!

During Carter's birthday BBQ on Sunday, I was able to capture Brynn just smiling and talking away to her daddy...


Sigh.

Here are a few pictures too...

Pretty girl =)

I have been slacking a little and still haven't taken Carter and Brynn for their next round of immunizations. Hopefully we can take them in the next week or so. Though it will be so sad to see them get their shots {I usually end up crying too} I am eager to see what they both weigh and what percentiles they will be in! I'll keep you posted.

So, it's been 8 weeks for Jenni...
Remember when I posted last Monday about being discouraged with my lack of weight loss on the 30 Day Shred? Well since that post, I have lost 7 POUNDS!!! Woooooo Hoooo! I was completely shocked when I stepped on the scale this weekend and saw that! The only thing that I changed was, instead of doing the 30DS workout everyday, I started doing it every other day. That's right... I started working out LESS and was able to lose MORE.

I'm not asking questions.

So, my post partum weight loss looks something like this...

Weight gained during pregnancy: 23lbs
Initial weight loss {10 days post partum}: -24lbs
Workout weight loss: -7lbs

Total: -8lbs
Goal: -17lbs to go

Whew... I have a long way to go, don't I? Yikes.

Baby steps.

And the winner is...

Congrats, Jeannie! You will receive an email from Steph shortly to start your new blog makeover! I can't wait to see it!

And a big thank you to everyone who entered the "new look, same great blog" giveaway! If you are still in desperate need of a blog makeover, head on over to A Grande Life Goodies for the special introductory pricing offer. Hurry, there are only 5 spots left!

Back to Work

After 8 {very fast} weeks of maternity leave, I am back at work today.

And I miss my babies already.

The good thing about being back at work is that (1) I love my job so I don't mind being here (2) I get to talk to grown-ups all day and (3) my sentences don't end in "...and, no you can't have another cookie."

Oh, and let's not forget the fact that I didn't spill a drop of coffee on myself this morning because Carter wasn't constantly doing "CHEERS!" to my cup.

But I'm still sad. I miss their pretty little faces.

I really shouldn't be complaining... I have a sweet maternity leave deal for an additional 4 weeks, and I am SO SO SO lucky that the kiddos go to my mother-in-law's house on Monday's and my mom's house the rest of the week.

I mean, how wonderful is that?

This is one thing that I do not take for granted. I thank my lucky stars everyday because I know that my babies are with their grandmom's all day while Bob and I are at work. {Thanks GG and Grammy!}

{Carter taking his new Buzz Lightyear to Grammy's this morning}

So, yeah. I'm back at work.

And I miss my babies already.

You're Here, Sweet Boy

July 18, 2008.

6:45pm.

That's when our lives changed forever.

And it seems like you've gone from this...
...to this...
...to this...
... in just a few minutes.

Today is your 2nd birthday, Carter Man. You are doing so many wonderful things... saying "cheers!" every time you drink your juice, saying "thank you" and "bless you" and "puh, puh, please" at the correct times, giving the best hugs and kisses EVER, dancing and singing up a storm {especially to the NBC 10 commercial} helping mommy and daddy with your little sister, giving her lots of hugs and kisses in the sweetest, most caring way, and so much more. I could go on for days about all the things you are doing.

UP and Toy Story are your favorite movies {you even chant "Toy Story 2" when you want to watch it!} chicken nuggets {especially from Wendy's} is your favorite food, Chuggington and Yo Gabba Gabba are your favorite cartoons, "Good Night Moon" is your favorite book... except that you think the moon is a "baseball" =)

You love to play soccer and baseball and you yell "GOALLLLL" every time we watch the games. You love the pool and you like to sneek up and splash everyone when you're in there. You love to cuddle and when you get sleepy at night, you even tell us that you want to go "upstairs to cuddle"... sigh, we love it.

How you have changed our lives, you will never know. We've watched you grow from a beautiful baby to a beautiful little boy. While you're daddy and I are sad that you are growing up so fast, we look forward to watching you grow through each stage of your life. Going to your games, your school plays... anything that you want to do. The sky's the limit for you, sweet boy.

We will always be here for you.

We're your biggest fans.

We love you so much, Carter Man.

Happy Birthday.

Your Three Words

Happy Birthday Carter!
{links to Carter's birth story}

My baby. He's two.

TWO.

How did this happen? I just brought him home from the hospital and now he's TWO.

For this post, I thought I'd just share with you some of my favorite pictures of my beautiful baby boy from this past year. They're in random order, but I think you'll be able to tell which pictures are older and which are newer.... he has just grown SO MUCH this past year.























...and from today...

Oh, Carter... how much I love you, you will never know. Happy Birthday sweet boy.
Love,
Mom
{a.k.a "Bubba"}