We headed down to old St. Augustine for Matt's birthday, Loving the scenery, I thought I would share some of our pictures.

Playing Doctor

Makaela loves her doctor and vet kits so this day she was "checking" us.  Mia is following in Makaela's footsteps, but she like to examine herself.

Power Wheels Fun

I got a text at 8am from a neighbor that a power wheels was being sold at a garage sale, so I threw on clothes and ran down to see what was up. It was being sold for $20, but when we tried it, it didn't run. I left and then the person who was having the garage sale came down to tell me that if I didn't buy it, another neighbor would...that couldn't happen. I bought it and then ordered a new battery. Viola! It works great and the girls are in love with it. I foudn them in the garage just sitting in the jeep one day.

Backyard Cuisine

Makaela decided we needed to eat outside and enjoy the "Hawaii weather" and we gladly gave in. Matt grilled up some pork chops and Makaela helped set the table. 

Don't even try to take food away from Mia.

Hide and Seek

Our new livingroom sofas are recliners so they need to be a bit further away from the wall, so when we play hide and seek, it is an obvious place for the girls to hide.  Too bad they don't realize it is an obvious place to find them.  Love this game!!

Happy St. Patty's Day

We were all decked out, but did little in the way of Irish traditions for St. Patty's Day. First we started by heading to Matt's softball tournament, later played around the neighborhood and finally, headed out to a Mexican restaurant for Sangria (instead of Guiness)- sacriligeous, I know! Regardless, we had a great time.

Softball

When Matt first asked if I wanted to watch a softball tournament he was in, I had images of screaming kids running in different directions, sweating in the sun and being around people who used words I didn't want my kids hearing. Sounded lovely, but I went anyway. I was pleasantly surprised. Makaela met friends immediately and was basically on her own (within my eyesight) and Mia was quite content cheering, waving at her dad and eating during the games.

Matt did great. He had three homeruns and it was very exciting to watch. I think the JAX NAS boys have found themselves a new player.

All was good until I asked another wife to watch Mia while I hurried Makaela off to the restroom. I could hear her screaming the moment I stepped in the restroom and then it took us a while to calm her down even when I got back. This is what I get for trying to skip her nap time. It was a nice quiet ride home (girls slept the whole way).

Some Soccer Progress

Makaela found a friend in soccer, so she has been participating a bit more in soccer practice. She was slow with her dribbling, but was she was trying to hard to stay in control of the ball. She got frustrated during the game though when everyone else was scoring, so when she had her shot, she grabbed the ball and threw it in the goal. The crowd was hysterical.

New Routines

Florida is lovely, but it will take some getting used to. My new job has been insane and I feel like I have no time for my family or myself. I am grateful to have my job, but it has been taxing, so I have had to figure out how I could work in life and work. I have started making the week dinners on Sunday to freeze and defrost or microwave during the week, prepping my lunches for the week and then scheduling chores for specific days. When I lesson plan, I will make sure that I only have one graded writing assignment per week, so I don't get backlogged in the grading. Everything else is a check mark in the book. While my weekend is packed with planning, my weekdays are less stressful and I get to hang out with the girls and go for a run to the park at least a few times during the week.

Matt has been dealing with working one week days and then the next week nights, so his sleeping and schedule is all out of whack. For one week, we don't get to see each other because I leave before he wakes and he gets home when I am asleep (it's like Iraq all over again other than chores get mysteriously done while I'm at work :-) It doesn't look like this is going to change any time soon either.

Makaela is also having a hard time adjusting. She keeps saying we are going to move back to Hawaii because she has been away from her Brookie, Abby, Kenzie, Kaila and Gavin for too long. Tonight I couldn't get her off the phone with Uncle Brian...thankfully, she kept leaning against he phone and kept hanging up on him, otherwise he would have had a tough time getting rid of her.

Mia at Daycare

Mia's daycare provider has two sons and they are a bit rough, but Mia seems to love them. Here is Dylan pulling Mia's hair- a seeming sign of his affection. Jayci, the daycare provider cannot believe how much she eats, but this one day, I came to the house to find a cupcake in Mia's hand. She was loving it (and it seemed to love her) so I had to take pictures. It just reiterates her love of food. When I tried to take the cupcake away from her, she was not happy to say the least.

Makaela's "uh-oh" note

Makaela is very rambunctious, opinionated and willful, but she is darling and articulate and that makes her Makaela. It may be challenging for teachers and people who do not know her, but in the past, her teachers have seen her "light". This teacher, is a bit blunt. We got the first official "bad note" from her teacher. Notice the different pen color indicating the different times during the day Makaela was badly behaved.
So, as a mortified parent, I made her sit down and write an apology letter. It was a good punishment and a good literacy lesson. Now I just hope she follows through.

My Accident Prone Child

Mia is an accident waiting to happen. Honestly, the neighbors crack up when they see her waddling down the street and out of no where, she falls. She does not climb up the stairs like a toddler does, she tries to walk up like an adult which usually ends in a fall. At the playground, I have to follow her because she frequently falls (not only off the steps, but falls between the steps and the handrails- you know, that vertical one foot space...yeah, she falls through that). I picked her up from daycare the other day and her babysitter was all nervous and warned me that she had a "fall". I wasn't too surprised when I saw her face.

Historic St. Augustine

My parents' friends came back through town to pick up my dad and I got a babysitter so I could take them out to historic St. Augustine. We got there to watch a reenactment of the fort battle and it was LOUD, but very quaint. We walked around, stopped at the crazy wine shop (literally, the guy who works there drinks more than he pours) and went to a Cajun restaurant and ate outdoors under lights and with live music. Luckily Matt got off of work early and met us- it was a great night.
My parents' friends, The Hards, fell in love with the town and are coming back down here to see if they want to move here. Now all they have to do is convince my parents to move here too.

Grandparents' visit

My mom came down to visit on Valentine's Day to hang out and help us unpack (and she did that plus watch Mia and cook dinner everyday and do all my laundry and anything else she could find to do). While she was here, we went house hunting for her and my dad (yes, I am unrelentessly trying to persuade people to move here). My dad drove down with friends to pick her up before taking her to a wedding in Orlando. They came back a week later for another week of visiting and it was great to have them here. Makaela enjoyed having grandma snuggle with her at bedtime and she had grandpa to call a "knucklehead" everyday. Candyland was played nightly and we found that Makaela has her father's competitive traits (watch out- she cheats).

Here is Makaela congratulating my mom on her win (we were teaching her to be a good sport).

Uncle Mikey and Auntie Cate

Mike and Cate flew down for a few days to visit. One of the joys of living in Florida is that the family can visit easier. Makaela was in heaven with them both here- it was hard to get her to agree to go to school in the mornings and when I picked her up, the first thing she asked for was them. While they were here, Mia got sick (AGAIN- this time with double ear infections and conjunctivitis) so I was very lucky they were here to watch her while I headed to work. Once the girls went to bed, Matt and I enjoyed the adult conversation and some family bonding time. Unfortunately, we didn't get to take them out to old St. Augustine because we couldn't find a babysitter, but we did have fun playing games around the kitchen table and cooking up dinners- wow how things change.
Here is Mike trying on some of the local attire...I think he would fit in great in FL :-) I wish I had taken more pictures, but for some reason, I keep forgetting to take out the camera.

Mia's Hospital Visit

Mia was supposed to go for a CT scan to determine what was the shadow in her lung Xray, but we were told that her scan was at 1pm and she needed to fast beginning 9pm the night before. Not sure if you know who Mia is, but that girl cannot go an hour without eating (her thighs will attest to that). It was a challenge to keep food from here and the poor girl was miserable. We were all eating in other rooms and hiding our food from her, but she knew what was up. She fell asleep on the way to the hospital and when we got to the children's hospital, she was so enthralled with all the toys and decorations, she totally forgot about the food. She was running around the waiting room in her hospital gown with her diaper hanging out, waving and smiling at everyone. She was so cute.
Because Mia had pneumonia, the anesthesiologist was not super excited to sedate her. Sedating a child is always tricky, but one with a lung issues is even worse. So the peds anesthesiologist pulled all her records and Xrays and had a peds radiologist look at the films. They determined that it was the thymus gland (I'm sure I spelled it wrong) but that it is a gland that shrinks as children get older. I was relieved to hear that because I was freaked out and while it was a pain to have her fast for no reason, it was so worth not having to sedate her. We got her dressed as quickly as we could and headed straight for food. Luckily there was a Chick-Fil-A in the hospital and we didn't waste anytime eating up.

Playgrounds

I love that our neighborhood has playgrounds within walking distance. Makaela likes going so she can "meet new friends", but when kids are there, she tends to play shy and focus on playing with Mia instead. I love watching them run around. Mia has learned to climb the stairs and hit the slides which keeps me on my toes (or rather on the playground itself). Mia's balance is not the best.