The weekend...finally

Callee is ready to go.

Okay so I finally get to blog about my weekend. My friend Ashley who was in the accident with me came into town to visit. I love when Ashley comes to town and so do my kids, especially Taylor. One thing you need to know is Ashley didn't always live in Pittsburgh. We met our Freshman year of college and have been friends ever since. I spent a lot of time with Ashley even after having Taylor because the girl loves kids. It was never an inconvenience that I had Taylor. She majored in early childhood education and now works as a nanny for a wonderful family, so Taylor was and still is always included in our outings. Very rarely do I leave my kids with Mike when Ashley is around because it isn't an issue with her. I love that about her. I never feel like I have to sacrifice my time with them to hang out with a friend. Also, Ashley is content hanging around my house so I never feel as if I am ignoring Mike either. She really is a great friend.

Taylor just chillin'!!!

Taylor became extremely close to Ashley in the months following the accident. As I have said before, Callee screamed for 9 1/2 months. Well, the first 4 or so months, Mike was on midnights and the child didn't care that nobody was there to walk with her, she still screamed at 12, 2, 4, and 6 a.m. It was really rough to know that she would quiet down if you would walk with her, but I could hardly walk myself and wouldn't walk with her because I fell all the time. That is where Ashley came in. I don't know if it was out of guilt (she was driving) or that she was just that good of a friend, I like to think the latter because she didn't do anything wrong and did everything to avoid the accident, but if she wasn't at school or work, she was at our house helping out. I had people who helped out beside her, but most of them were family. She is the only friend who would spend hours on end at my house helping with the baby or helping with dishes, baths, stories, playing, anything I needed. I appreciated all of that and mostly the company that she kept me. It is really hard after having a baby to feel like yourself again and when your husband is doing everything he can to support his family, he can't always be there. She helped me to not fall in too big of a funk. She would tell me to go to bed about 10 and she would either be there all night or at least until 3 or so. I would sleep that entire time. It was the greatest 5 hours of sleep ever! I knew my baby would be taken care of and yes I felt guilty letting her stay up all night with her, but I knew if I didn't get those few hours of sleep Taylor and Callee would have an irritated, crabby mother all the time and Callee would sense that and cry that much more.

She loves cookies!!!

Okay, that is not where this post was supposed to go, but apparently I needed to get it out or something. Anyways, Ashley picked up dinner on her way into town and we all had great food. My sister-in-law, who has also became friends with Ashley was there too. My sister came later. If you can't tell, Ashley is like having another sister. My mother even invited her to all our family things when she lived an hour and a half from her family. Ashley has just kinda been adopted and her mother has kinda adopted me too. Okay I digressed again. We had a great night sitting around talking and laughing. We got up Saturday morning and took Taylor to dance class. When we got home from there, it was time for Callee to take a nap. Ashley and I sat outside and watched Taylor ride her bike for a couple hours while Callee slept.

Ashley and Taylor at dinner. Gotta love the beer sign right over their heads in the background.

After Callee got up it was time to go get something to eat and say goodbye to Ashley. She had to go watch the kids she used to watch when she lived around here so her visit was short lived. We had dinner, talked, laughed, and took pictures. It was a really good visit with her, but as usual, it didn't last long enough. When you are used to having somebody around at least 5 days a week, 16 hours just seems to fly by.

Callee being rotten and getting everything out from under the sink:After Ashley left, Mike, me, Josh, CJ, Casia, Taylor, Callee, and Emma decided to go for a walk. First of all, it was like 105 degrees. We decided to take a two mile walk with 4 kids and a dog, and along the way, we picked up Kara and Makayla. Can you even imagine how much fun this walk was not? Everybody made it back alive, but only after much bickering and complaining. I was in bed by 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night and it felt great. I have been so exhausted lately, so the early bedtime was welcomed with open arms.

We went to church Sunday, as always, and I went to my Grandma's for dinner. My aunt had brought her new puppy with her. He is so cute. His name is Gizmo and here he is:

I hope everyone elses weekend and now week have been good. This post is a lot longer than I expected it to be. Sorry about that.

I almost forgot....Go Tribe....they eliminated the Yankees in game 4 last night. I hope this is their year! Maybe I'll post about my love for the Indians tomorrow, complete with pics from the game I went to last year about a month before I had Callee. Let me tell you how comfortable I was, but I still loved every minute of it.

O-H...........I-O

It was a busy weekend again, but it actually felt like I had a weekend, which was nice. Friday night the girls and I hung out at Kara and Jason's house so Taylor and Makayla could play. We ended up going to the mall to get a few things and we actually found a new Mr. Bunny (which is now a green bear!) For any of you who didn't know, Taylor has had the softest stuffed bunny since she was a baby. She has had to take it everywhere with her and it started to look pretty gross over the years. She lost it about 3 weeks ago and has been devastated. We have looked for a replacement one, but nothing seems as soft or as good as Mr. Bunny. We were at JC Penney Friday night and there was a big rack of stuffed animals. I happened to see a green one (Taylor's favorite color) and went over to touch it, low and behold it felt just like Mr. Bunny used to feel before he was drug through the mud and dirt! She was so happy to have her new playmate. Here is a picture of Taylor with her new bear.She drives Mike crazy with it because even though he is a bear, she still calls him Mr. Bunny. I don't see what this is hurting, but it drives Mike absolutely insane.

Saturday was a good day. Mike slept in because he stayed up too late cleaning the toy room and kitchen counter. I got the girls up, breakfast, bathed and we headed out the door to pick up a few things from the store. On our way to the store, we picked up my brother because the girl that works at the grocery store, he has a crush on. He agreed to come home with me afterwards to keep an eye on the girls while I got the food together. I, like other bloggers I have been reading, love fall. I made two pans of lasagna (we were having company) and a crock pot full of chili. I don't like lasagna, because I don't like spaghetti sauce and wouldn't you know, it's my husbands favorite food. So the chili was for me; my brother and dad love it too so my brother took some of it home with him.

Mike's friend is in the air force and stationed in England so we don't get to see him too often. He was home when I had Taylor, he came home right before and spent about a month and a half here, and he came home with his wife in toe on 9/12. We knew we'd see them this weekend we just weren't sure which day. They ended up coming over on Saturday to watch the Ohio State game and my food I made wasn't eaten. We ended up going to eat at Cracker Barrel, they have such good food, I love it. On a whole different note, do not take a one year old when her bed time is in an hour and expect her to be happy. Callee screamed from the second I put her in the chair until I got her out. It was so embarassing because everyone kept staring at us. So if anyone was at the Cracker Barrel we were at on Saturday night, I aplolgize for my child's behavior.

I felt bad for Randy's wife Mai because Taylor kept getting in her face over dinner. She was sitting between Randy and Taylor and Randy kept asking her questions so Taylor would lean over Mai, in her face leaning, and answer his question. That was definately a challenge to try and explain to her that it was rude and you shouldn't do that. In her 3 year old mind, she was being polite by making sure Randy could hear her answer. It was overall not too bad considering the restaurant was crowded and we took three kids ages 5, 3, and 1 with us.

We went back to our house for a little more visiting and then wrapped up the evening. Saturday we are supposed to be going to the football hall of fame, but I think Mike is just going to go with them. They want to leave at 10 and Taylor starts her dance class this week which is from 10:30 - 11:10. I don't think I'll be going, but maybe we can go to the park or something afterwards. It should be another good weekend. Here are some pictures of Saturday. We took the girls to a parade on Sunday, but that will be my blog for tomorrow because it has taken me about 4 hours to do this post because there is a lot going on at work today.

This is Callee when she stole Randy's hat.

Mike, Randy, Mai, and Emma (in her OSU collar.)Callee talking on the phone.

Randy and Callee playing keep away with Callee's jacket!

I have 37,000 (an exaggeration) more pictures of this weekend, but I think I've bored you enough with the pictures.

Guess who's back...

EMMA! We gave Emma to a lady who desperately wanted a small dog as a companion and thought it would be good for her blood pressure about a month ago. Saturday she stopped by our house with Emma in tow and said she couldn't keep her anymore. She asked if we wanted her back or if she should take her to the pound. Well, I must admit I was torn because we got rid of her because Callee is allergic to her, but I also couldn't bear to see her go to the pound. I decided to let her stay and if Callee starts getting sick or rashes again, we will have to find somewhere else for her to go. Emma is just going to have to be bathed all the time to try and keep as much dander off of her as possible.

I think Emma just wanted to come home because the woman was telling me all these horror stories that are just not Emma. She tore up the woman's leather couch and she ripped a hole in the material on her boxspring and climbed up in there. I know Emma is a little hyper and annoying but she has never destroyed anything of ours. I just couldn't believe it. So, now that she is home she spends her days running from Callee. We have not had one single accident, which used to happen often, and her and Mike are getting along which never happened before. The one problem is Callee developed a rash on her belly and chest last night. We don't know if it was from the dog or a heat rash, but we'll have to keep an eye on it.

I don't know if the lady beat Emma or if she just really wanted to come home so that's why she tore stuff up, but that is really out of character for her. She has never damaged a single thing in our home and as rough as the girls are with her, she has never bitten them. She is one of the best dogs I have ever seen around kids, maybe she just doesn't like adults. Hopefully everything continues to go well and Callee's rash was just a heat rash!