From one day to the next

It is crazy how much emotions can change from one day to the next or really, in my craziness, one moment to the next.

Yesterday was a great day. I felt like a decent mom who had activities planned for her energy crazed daughter. We went to the park for awhile, ran some errands, had lunch, played with her babies, went for a walk, and finally daddy came home since he had training that day! (Yay for working 6:30-2:30!) We hung out as a family. Went to the mall, ate dinner and walked around. It was just nice. I loved it.

Then today my emotions change. Matt is back to this normal schedule. Mady has been really fussy and constantly chewing on her fingers (her eye teeth are FINALLY coming in!) so I know she doesn't feel good. I make lunch for her to only push it away and not want to eat it. She goes down for an early nap so I know she will be up early and I have to find ways to entertain her. It has just been hard.

On days like today I miss my family (mom, dad, brothers, mother-in-law) so much. Like it hurts so much. I wish we could just hop in the car and head to my parents to swim in the pool for a little bit and do some shopping with Nana. It is always a nice and pleasant distraction and plus we love hangin out with Nana.

I know we are here, in Virginia, for a reason but I am ready to move back to NJ like yesterday. I am ready for Mady to be around her family and grandparents who love her beyond measure. I don't want to be here for, at least, 6 more months but it is not my timing or my plan...at all. I need to Trust.

This is just what is going on in my mind at the moment. I was ready to pack Mady and I's bags and head to NJ this afternoon but then I would be leaving Matt behind on his days off and we already miss him so much during the week that it is not an option.

Oh well...the life must go on.

Little Mommy

Mady has really been into her babies lately. It is so cute to watch her "take care" of them. Hugs, kisses, walks in the stroller, putting them to night night, giving them a pretend bottle. She has become a little mommy. I love just watching her play.

 Taking her baby for a walk

 Tucking them in

 Bottle time (really an icing container)

Finally kisses goodnight

Life lately

Mady's eating lunch and the hubby ran to the post office so I wanted give a little update on life around here lately. Mostly through pictures. Enjoy!

It has been HOT in Virginia the last few days...feeling over 100 for about 3 days. Yuck! I hate heat like that. We did our best to stay cool.

Our pool is opening tomorrow!!! So Mady and I headed to Target to get a puddle jumper! So loved it. She would not let me take it off! We will see how she does tomorrow! (And of course it is going to rain tomorrow. Praying the rain holds off so we can enjoy the pool)

Daddy had drill and work this weekend so Mady and I did our best to help pass the time and keep cool! Yummy Rita's! She just gets so excited. I love it. (Don't worry we didn't get 3 waterices....only 1 split into 3 cups.)

Too hot to cook. Chick fil a it is! Plus, Mady had been asking for french fries for a few days.

Sunday morning we decided to bake cupcakes for when daddy got home that afternoon. She was such my big helper. 

All ready for church in the pretty dress Nana got her. Mady cried when we left church yesterday. I am so glad she loves going and has such a great time!

Finally daddy came home and Mady wanted him to read some books. 

An after dinner fruit bar is a must when it is 100 degrees out and of course no clothes but a diaper is required! (Please excuse my skimpy shorts. It was just too hot!)

And the hubby was finally able to sit and relax and enjoy his beer. =)

Cuddling with daddy is a must.

Those are just a few random pictures and things going on around here. Nothing too exciting (besides packing (ugh) )....and I like it that way!

What a day!

Ok I normally don't recap the days events but yesterday...well yesterday needs to be recapped. It was one of those days where you go...really?!

Mady and I left Jersey around 7:30 in the morning to head back to Virginia. Mady decided however, to get up at 5:00 am and between the time she got up and the time we left, she had me in tears from just completely ignoring me when I am telling her no about something or running away from me when I am trying to dress her or get her ready to leave. Awesome. Plus it is always emotional for me to leave Jersey. I love it there and I love my family more than I can tell you.

Anyways, we get in the car and head out. Everything is fine until about an hour and half into our trip. I can tell Mady is pooping. She is really straining and saying "okay okay." Basically I could tell she was not feeling well but I could not pull over at the time because we were on the high way and no where to go so finally I get onto a road that I can easily pull over into a parking lot.

OMG! Poop EVERYWHERE! Like literally. I think I just stared at it for a second. All over her car seat. Her outfit. Her legs and feet. Mind you, I am by myself. So I clean up what I can with the wipes before taking her out of the seat all the while trying to stop her from touching anything. I strip her down and throw everything away. Clean her up as best as I can and put a fresh diaper and outfit on her. I let her sit in the front passenger seat while I attempt to clean up more of the poop on the car seat. Finally I do the best I can and I lay a blanket over the spot that smells and strap her back in. All in all this probably took 10 to 15 minutes.

Back on the road. But I can tell she is super fussy and seems to not be feeling well. So I am attempting to soothe her while also attempting to drive. Not easy. Finally she falls asleep for about a half hour.

Sleeping with attitude. Oh my Madelyn

The rest of the ride was uneventful. Thank the Lord.

So we get home and I unpack, clean the car seat over, do the laundry. All the good stuff. I let Mady play for about an hour then decide to see if she will go down for a nap. Nope. Screams bloody murder.

Great! I know she is going to be so tired and cranky. Yup, I was right.

We watched movies. Ate fruit bars outside. Played. Made dinner. Got a bath. All the good stuff. Finally at around 5:30 she is in completely melt down mode. So what do we do?! Go to Target.

Chillin with a fruit bar

Can't eat a Popsicle without a stick

I get her strapped in and not even 30 second later she is asleep. Of course she is, SHE IS TIRED!

Lights out!

We do the whole walk around Target to pass time, grab a few things and head back home. By this time it is around 6:30. I let her play for a little while and then decide it is bed time. We do the normal bed time routine. Book. Prayers. Kisses. Bed.

Except. Nope, she was not having it. So I let her cry while I took a quick shower because it was 100 degrees at 5:30 when we went to Target and I felt gross. Anyways, I get out of the shower and she is screaming. So I get her and let her come in my room and then we head downstairs to watch a little bit of a movie. So by, 7:30 I say it is time for bed again. I go upstairs and she starts crying so instead I rock her. She finally falls asleep and I lay her down. She POPS up and starts screaming and crying. Only this time I could tell she was even more tired. The crying and screaming was not as loud and there were breaks inbetween. So I let her cry. I felt bad. I was sitting downstairs crying myself because honestly I didn't know what to do for her. If I continued to rock her and her fall asleep, she would wake up every time I would attempt to put her in the crib so I knew that was not going to work. She was going to have to cry.

I felt like today was one of those initiation days of motherhood. Days where you just don't know what else they are going to throw at you and you just have to roll with the punches.

Needless to say, I hope we have a better day today.

4 years...

Today is our Anniversary. Our 4 year wedding anniversary. As I was driving home today from Jersey I happened to glance at the clock...12:05. We were getting married at that point 4 years ago. So many memories came flooding back to me. It was such a wonderful and magical day.

Matt,

As I am sitting here writing this I don't know where to begin. You have been such an amazing husband, best friend, supporter, encourager, father, and so many other things to me and now to our daughter. We have been through so much in these past 4 years married, or 10 years together. High school graduation College graduation, Bootcamp graduation, getting married, having our daughter, deployment to Kuwait, moving to Virginia. I mean that is crazy and we are only 25! I love living life with you. You make it fun and enjoyable. We never know what is around the corner for us. I am just thankful to have you by my side through all of our trials and tribulations. You compliment me wonderfully. You are truly my better half.

Thank you for the last 4 years. They have been wonderful, trying at times, but none the less wonderful. I cannot wait to grow our family with you. I look forward to the special memories we will share together and with our children.

I love you always.

and Forever.

Independence Day

I love the 4th of July. I love everything it stands for. I love the food. I love the colors. I love being with family. It just makes my heart happy. The only thing missing was Daddy. He has to work today so he is back in Virginia. =( I can't wait until we can finally spend some holidays together.

Anyways, last year we started the tradition of going to the Audubon parade. It is where my mom grew up and I love it. I wish we could move there. The parade is so cute and about 45 minutes long. Perfect!

We met up with my dad's side of the family and enjoyed the parade together.  Mady was such a good girl. I can't believe how big she is and how much she can participate in things now. She loved all of it. Wasn't scared of the fire trucks. Ran to get the candy. Waved her flag. Clapped and danced to the music.

I loved just watching her. Wondering what is going on in her little mind. I love holidays with her. They are always so much more magical with kids.

Anyways....here are some pictures from our morning.

Waiting for the parade to start

Getting some candy

Mady and Nana

Being Patriotic

Mady and Mommy

Excited!

It was such a fun morning. This afternoon is just a long key BBQ and Matt's mom is coming over. More pictures to come I'm sure.

Happy 4th of July!

Thank you to all the men and women who continue to fight for our freedom everyday. They sacrifice so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Not exactly how I pictured it

So this weekend was Matt and I's big weekend "stay-cation." We both had really been looking forward to this weekend and it started out great!

I met my parents on Friday afternoon in Salisbury to drop Mady off. She was thrilled to go with her Nana and Pop Pop. She ran to each of them so excited. It made my heart so happy. I said a quick goodbye (more for my sake) and headed back home. I had a whole 9 hours by myself until the hubby got home from work. So I decided a pedicure sounded great and it felt great. Then I had a hair appointment a little later. It was a nice day of pampering. It was so nice to not have any other responsibilities for a few hours but soon enough I was missing my Madelyn. So of course I called my mom about a hundred times to see how she was doing. She was having a blast...of course!

Saturday...Oh Saturday. Matt took off from work and so we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted. So we headed to Dunkin' to get some breakfast and then to the beach for a little while. It was so nice to just talk and relax and enjoy reading our books. I can't remember the last time we did that...pre-mady most likely. Anyways, we were there for about an hour and half and decided to head back and shower and get some lunch at little Mexican restaurant. This is where we went wrong. We ate lunch and then went to a book store and thrift store. We were having such a nice time and truly just enjoying our time together.

All of sudden I felt horrible. Stomach pains/cramps. Running to the bath room (TMI?...oh well!) and the night went down hill from there. I was up most of the night feeling horrible and yup, I cried. My poor husband. We kind of just hung out the rest of the night, catching up on the Wire.

Sunday morning came and now the hubby felt horrible too. Great! So we both are down and out. We woke up at 8:15! That is so late for us. We got ready and went to great some breakfast. Bad Idea. Back to the house we go to get sick again. Awesome! After that though we were feeling much better so we decided to head to Colonial Williamsburg, which is about an hour away, and walk around.

Silly Hubby

It only took about 15 tries to get one decent picture

Good Lord it was HOT! We walked around for about an hour and then we were both sweating our butts off and figured we would find the outlet shops that were about 15 minutes away. Well once we got there we found out that they lost power so none of the stores were open. No fun. We were both hungry at this point and had felt fine for a few hours. My parents gave us a outback gift card for our anniversary so we headed there. Bad Idea for the hubby. He hardly ate his food and ended up getting sick before we left. So I had to drive home! Ugh. I hate driving and its all highway. In traffic. But I got us home safely while the hubby slept in the car.

We both took a 2 hour nap when we got home. We needed it. We both woke up feeling a whole lot better!  We kind of just hung out the rest of the night. Watched movie. Talked. It was nice honestly.

What a weekend! Not exactly what we had planned. I don't know if we got a stomach bug or whether it was from the Mexican food we had or what. But I know it was horrible!

I am so thankful for the time I did get to spend with Matt this weekend. We both needed it. Even if it was not exactly how I pictured it....because no matter what happens I love spending my life and all the craziness that it is with my favorite person in this whole world.