Jenna's Party!

Today we celebrated Jenna's 2nd birthday, a week late! All of our family was here as well some close friends. With 18 adults and 14 kids, our house was packed to say the least, but we wouldn't have wanted it any different! Jenna was a real trooper considering she had only half a nap, was on a sugar high, and that her friends and cousins liked her toys as much as she did! :-) Here are some pictures to show how much fun we had.

Jenna's Butterfly Cake (don't laugh!)

Jenna eating her cake

Jocelyn and Mandi's son Kailer, eating Cheerios

Mandi's daughter Ashlyn with Juliana, playing outside.

Jenna is so big climbing in the swing-set!

Damian shows Jenna her new lawn mower.

The adults, kicking back, drinking beer. Come on? At a kids party? Oh yeah, I supplied it!

Probably her new favorite toy, a stroller and baby. Thanks Doucettes!

Clover Mites

So, about a week or so ago, I was really worn out one evening and after the girls went to bed, I decided to take a hot bath. This is not something I do regularly, but it sounded really nice, especially in a jetted tub. I got into the really hot bath, put my feet up and started to relax. After being in there for about, oh, only 25 seconds, I noticed something odd. At the water level, all the way around, there were little black things floating around. I looked closer and saw that these "things" were also climbing up the side of the tub, above the water level. So, I quickly stood up, jumped out of the tub and yelled for Sam. We examined them closely and noticed that they are actually red in color and really tiny, but they are alive and crawling all over. I drained the tub and washed them all down. I was fully repulsed as well as angry that I didn't get the bath I was hoping for.

Fast forward 1 week (this morning.) As I was getting ready, Jenna was still in her pajamas playing with her doll, blanket, binki, doll's bottle, and more. She told me that the baby needed a bath and wanted to get into our tub, so I put her in with all her toys to pretend to give her baby a bath. She was playing in there for a fair amount of time until I was done and I told her it was time to get out. As I went to pick her up, yep, I noticed them ALL OVER the tub! I freaked out, thinking that they were in her hair, jammies, on her binki, infested in her blanket, etc. And they probably were until I washed everything top to bottom. After I cleaned everything else up, I went to kill the ones still in the tub. I was watching the little suckers and noticed how fast they are considering how tiny they are. But even though they are small, they travel by the hundreds, so it makes them seem huge!

Sam did a little research and found out that they are called Clover Mites. It sounds like they are pretty harmless, but they like this new warmer weather we are having. And oddly enough, they usually are found on the south side of houses. Are bath tub is on the south side wall. So, now, everytime I walk by our tub, I get the heeby-geebies and check to see if I need to wash more down. Gross huh?

Happy Birthday Sam and Jenna!

Genevieve turned 2 today and Sam turned, well, older than that! We had a good day that started off with some last minute errands before a busy weekend. Jenna enjoyed this time with YiaYia and her cousins. Her Nini (Auntie Amy) even bought her a special chocolate milk. This was exciting because she has yet to enjoy milk of any kind, including chocolate (she is definitely not her mother's child!) She drank most of it though, calling it her "juice." After lunch, we put her down for her nap and then brought her new play kitchen into the playroom. When she got up from her nap, we let her open her other gifts (books and clothes) in the livingroom and then asked her to take them to her playroom. When she got into the playroom, she did a total double-take of the kitchen, dropped her clothes and books, and we just now got her away from it. Infact, when we told her it was dinner time, she was content with the hard plastic hamburger, pizza and fruit that come with it! And the best part is that she is sharing well with Jocelyn. I think they will enjoy playing with it together for a long time. And for poor Sam, it is just another day! We will celebrate more next week after our Easter (Pascha) when we can eat lots of good food. Ron and Sarah, (the girl's Godparents) are going to watch them one night for us so we can go out.

We can't forget about Genevieve!

Long lost McCoys

Where have we been, you may be asking. Well, honestly, we had a problem with the computer and downloading pictures. Sam, the master computer fixer took care of the issue but then I had to find time to actually post.

I had a great time in Portland 2 weeks ago! It was a nice little break from the girls as well, but they were greatly missed. They both did really well, maybe too well without me around? :-) It was kindof sad how good Jocelyn did without nursing for 3 days when she was used to it 2 times a day. Sam was Mr. Mom and by the sounds of it, did exceptionally well!

Since I have been back, Jocelyn learned her first word, "mama" and I am so proud! Also, she learned to crawl! Almost overnight! She was moving around by sitting, falling forward, sitting back up, scootching backwards, etc. but now she is a master crawler!

More big news...we officially have a spare bed in the spare bedroom! So now you are welcome to come visit and you don't have to sleep on the floor. Ok, so technically, we have the bed, the mattresses, and even the bedding, but no bed rails yet. They didn't come with the bed and we had to order them seperately. We still have to paint since the bright blue doesn't go so well. I will attach a picture when we are done with that, but one project at a time!

New Favorite Snack

Jenna has been enjoying carob chips. Who would have thought little kids would like them? I tell her that it is chocolate so she thinks she is getting a really cool snack and I am okay with her having it as a treat! I am not so fond of the mess it makes though.

Jocelyn can't sit still in her bumbo anymore so we had to purchase another high chair. They have enjoyed sitting next to each other at meal times.

Tomorrow is going to be a bittersweet day. I am leaving for a Dental Convention in Portland. I will be gone from Wednesday afternoon until Friday night. I am looking forward to the "vacation" but it will be hard not having my family with me. Hopefully, once I get there, I can relax and enjoy myself. Our group at work always has a lot of fun together and Dr. Brown treats us well. But, my babies are still my babies and I will miss them terribly! I have been extremely stressed this past week, making sure I have told everybody, everything they need to know, what Jocelyn eats, when she eats, how she likes to sleep, what both of the girls can and can't do, everything! They are going to be in good hands though and I am not that far away in case of an emergency. Jenna has hit her terrible twos and has thrown many tantrums lately, so I am definitely looking forward to some time away from that. And Jocelyn has been very needy while she goes through her seperation anxiety stage, so I have had her on my hip a lot lately. Anyways, I will be happy to be home Friday night and won't want to leave them for a long time!