taking care of a little this and that...

There has been no time to blog lately. I have been too busy juggling all my hats!

Teagan turned 3 months last week. I can't believe how fast she is growing. Check out what she has been working on!

 

:)

Most maternity leaves end after 2-3 months. Well... up until a few weeks ago I had been telling Mark that I was on maternity leave. I have been working hard on getting the books up to date and I am proud to report my receipts folder JUST about empty!

I also worked on created two displays for items that we donated to a very special foundation's benefit auction a few weeks ago.

Sometimes I think I missed my calling by not going into graphic design. I absolutely love playing on Photoshop and creating. Luckily I get to play while making marketing material for our businesses.

I also did some fun work around the house. I finally decorated for summer a couple weeks ago. I got all my sand and shell vase fillers out for the first time in 2 years. Didn't seem right to display these while we were living in the mountains!

But lately most of my time has been spent doing this...

That is right, I am packing like crazy to prepare our family for our summer in Colorado. Did you see the Space Saver Bags. You pack them and the suck all the air out with your vacuum so they take up much less space. They are awesome! Gavin and I had fun seeing our bags shrink away! And yes, those are sweaters you may have spotted in my pile of chaos. I actually had to purchase a bunch of cold weather clothes for little Teagan. After searching in stores around here to no avail (it has been in the 90's here!) I hit the jackpot on the Carter's website. 70% off sale with free shipping! I know she needs it though. I heard from a friend that it snowed there last week! One of the ski areas, A-Basin, is going to be open for the Fourth!!

Speaking of the Fourth... We are taking the day off tomorrow. Our plan is to hang by the pool all day, dinner with the family and then fireworks on the beach with friends. Can't wait! I did drop the hat on preparing for the holiday though. This is the only decoration we have up in our house.

Just couldn't do it when we are leaving for Colorado in 6 days. Yikes!!! Can't do it all, but the day will go on and I will relax by the pool. :)

Hope you Independence Day is a blast!!!

i am still here...

Sorry for being MIA! I am still here, but have been too busy to blog! I am taking advantage of Mark watching Monday Night Football to write a quick post about our drive. I would have more time, but I spent too long looking at recent pictures of my friend Megann's baby. Megann, if you are reading this I need to unsubscribe to your album site because I spend too much time looking at that adorable kid!!!

Obviously we have made it to Florida! Yay! The drive went a lot more smoothly than I had thought it would. Gavin did well!! I alternated between sitting in the front seat and the back with Gavin. The books, activities and especially craft supplies occupied him well. With breakfast, snack and naps in the car it was pretty easy... well... manageable. :) Here is a small snippet of our 4 days driving cross country...

We did some of this...

A lot of this...

More of this...



And yes, this...

Yes, this is Mark and my son rolling around on the floor in an Olive Garden some where in Missouri. Poor guy! We had been driving so much, stopped for lunch and hated to keep him confined to his highchair. We were THOSE parents with THAT kid running around and playing in a resteraunt. Who cares. He deserved it and we will never see those people again!! Actually we sat in an empty area of the restaurant and made friends with the waiter.

Since we have gotten back to Florida we have been working hard getting settled back into our life here. Ugh! Things are never as easy as you hope. Remember the tick situation? Well we still got 'em!! After 4 attempts of treating them ourselves we finally called a professional last Wednesday. Supposedly we have to wait it out as all the life cycles of the little buggers play out. We actually waited to move back into our house until last Thursday. We have been living out of boxes and bags at Mark's mom's house. Bless her for putting up with all of us! We are pretty much unpacked except for things under beds, floors of closets and pictures of the walls due to our pesky bugs. We do tick checks often throughout the day, but today I am excited to announce we found NONE! Yippee. I am looking forward to having no more unwelcome tenants. It is nice to be back though. I went out tonight with some girlfriends to see a speaker and I loved coming home to Gavin's life vest sitting on the kitchen counter. Mark took him paddle boarding tonight. He said Gavin LOVED it. Wish I could of seen my boys enjoying a Florida evening out on the water. :)

rollin', rollin', rollin'...

We are ready to roll! I am so sad to be saying goodbye to the mountains, but I am looking forward to getting back to our home in Florida. We are all packed up and the time is here!! I actually love road trips, as does Mark. I like seeing the changing landscape and having the time sitting next to my hubby sharing new experiences and talking... well maybe not as much this time! Gavin is riding along too! I know, wish us luck!! But I think I am well prepared and well stocked for our drive across the country. I have been collecting toys and activities from Target, consignment shops and from my own creations. I have many button pushing toys, which I usually hate, but they keep Gavin entertained. A keyboard/ "Brainy Baby" laptop toy, driving wheel that plays songs, animal see n' say to name a few.

I also have put together a lap desk full of paper, crayons and stickers and a magnetic board full of fun magnets to play with. We have Gavin's magna doodle, a dry erase board, cars and trucks and other small toys.

I also made a book of of pictures of everyone in our family. Gavin loves to look at pictures and name the different people in them so I thought this would help to keep him entertained too.

 

Oh, and I have TONS of books.

We are going to try to keep to a some what schedule-- breakfast in the car, 1-1 1/2 hour break at lunch time, snack in the car, 1-1 1/2 hour break for dinner and then hopefully Gavin will get tired for bed and fall asleep soon after.We may adjust this as we see how things go. I have a bag packed for picnics or just a stop outside with toys, hats and a blanket.

And this is our ride!! Imagine us for 4 days on the road in this!

Like I said wish us luck and if you have any advice PLEASE send it my way!!

Here we come Florida!!!

the diaper bag is over flowing...

So we are all packed to head down to Denver, but Mark is battling a migraine so I thought I would write this quick post first!

I think one of the most stressful things as a parent is traveling with a baby/toddler. I have talked to many friends about tricks to make the flight the least painful. I am NO expert BELIEVE ME, but Gavin and I have flown a lot, mostly alone, and I have learned some things to make things go more smoothly. I actually was at the park this morning with some friends who shared even more ideas that I will pass along.

The first thing I have found helpful is to have a BIG bag. This is my flying diaper bag. It is huge, actually expands, and has great pockets and compartments. One compartment is insulated for a drink or food. I put all my necessities that I need in easy reach in the front pockets such as antibacterial stuff, snacks and my wallet. I also don't travel with my huge wallet. It is too cumbersome so I take a small pouch that can hold my license, Gavin's papers, credit card and a little cash. Inside I stuff it with as much as I can carry. We haven't broken down to buying a portable DVD player. We are a little old fashioned. I can see how those things would be awesome, but we depend on books, crayons and other activities instead.

Gavin LOVES books so I pack A LOT. I have 14 books packed for this trip. He used to like books with flaps so I would bring books with a lot of those, but now he likes books with a longer story. I also have crayons, paper, stickers etc. A dry erase coloring board, maggna doodle board, finger puppets (which are awesome. the small set is from Ikea), small Sesame Street figurine dolls and other small toys like cell phone and a bunny that hops. I also bring a few other toys for the inside of the airport like cars and stacking barrels.

...someone discovered all the toys I was packing!

And of course one security, snuggly object...

Gavin hasn't picked his yet...

I remember one secret to avoiding problems while teaching were keeping the kids engaged and it is the same while flying. If Gavin starts to get fussy I just pull something new out of my bag. I feel like Mary Poppins! Food is great too. I have lots of figure foods and a drink. I actually like feeding him even meals on the plane because it takes up time. Even when he was on baby food I would bring the container, bib and spoon and do it on the plane. Some other tricks I have learned is to NOT board the plane early. I feel like as much time as you can let them burn ofF some energy in the terminal the better. Even before he was crawling I would lay him out on a blanket just so he was free as much time as possible. I usually wait till last call to board! I also let Gavin choose the pace of activities. If he wants to investigate one page of a book for an hour so be it. I remember one flight he was so entertained by hitting the cover of Green Eggs and Ham. I think that activity shaved off 30 minutes of the flight!! I have also found not to force him to do anything. I used to try to get him to go to sleep when he wasn't ready. He would fuss and fuss so now I just keep him busy and happy and not worry about what we are doing. When Gavin was younger I did end up nursing him on the plane. It was great for his ears and to have him fall asleep. I still try to get him to eat or drink something during takeoff and our descent to help with his ears. My friend today recommended wrapping each item to play with up like a present. She says here son loves to unwrap everything and it takes up a lot of time! She also recommended colorforms for the windows and masking tape which I think is brilliant. She said he loves to tear it off and stick it on everything. I may be picking up a roll tonight!  The only thing that is now a challenge for me to get Gavin to do on the plane is to sleep. Argh!! If you have any secrets to that let me know!!