Jumping Fleas and Dancing Feet

Yesterday, I woke up to discover Tater had fleas! Gross. He must have gotten them at the kennel when we went home for the wedding. So after giving Tater a flea bath, Caroline and I spent the morning trying to make sure the carpet and linens(which I had just washed the night before)were bug free. We needed a "dance break" in the middle of cleaning to bring some joy to the situation....success!


Caroline decided to walk in my shoes for a day....literally. She always tries to do it with my tennis shoes but they are too bulky. These slip-ons were a perfect fit.


Justin has Saturday off this week, so we are running in a Turkey Trot 5K tomorrow morning. I usually only run 2 miles, so I hope I make it=)

Wedding weekend

We met my parents at the airport on Friday afternoon, changed in the airport bathroom, handed them our luggage and our child and quickly jumped on Marta to get to the Rehearsal on time. Thanks for being good sports about that mom and dad! We had the Rehearsal Dinner at The Porter, one of Shawn and Jillian's favorite little bars. We ate and drank until my tummy was about to pop....and then giggled when DOD (Dear Old Dad...Justin's Dad)got the ten mile long receipt=) Thanks DOD!


Meanwhile, Caroline was playing with Nana, Papa, Uncle Joe, Aunt Carrie, TJ, and Allyson. My sweet girl arriving at Nana and Papa's....

Playing with her cousins....

Doing a little cooking during her vest treatment....


The wedding was beautiful...not that Caroline saw any of it. She dumped her cheese puffs all over the floor, danced on them to crunch them up and then started putting them all away. I forgot my "snack trap," which I NEVER leave home without. All you moms out there know what a big mistake that is. She didn't make a peep, so despite the royal mess, I consider this a success!

Mommy and her "baby" girl....doesn't she look beautiful in the dress Atty made her.

Kim, Jillian, Justin, Shawn, Caroline and I. Please look at how stunning Jillian looks in that dress!

Princess Caroline...one of the employees gave her this crown and an inflatable guitar while we were cuttin'a rug on the dance floor.

Family Photo...


Mom and Dad took Caroline home with them after dinner so Justin and I could be "free" for the night. The weekend was SO busy, but equally as wonderful. All we did was eat, drink and be merry....sounds good to me! We are looking forward to going home over Christmas to enjoy friends and family again....just at a slightly slower pace=) Congrats again Shawn and Jillian. We love you both!

Getting Up and Cleaning Up

Caroline cracks me up in the morning these days. I know she is up when I hear her glo-worm start singing. When I go in, she jumps up and shows me how she has ripped open the back of her glo-worm(where you turn the music on and off). Then she collects ALL of her blankets. She cries if we don't grab them all out of the crib..and she knows if I missed one!


She spilled some water on the floor the other day while we were in my bedroom. I took the cup from her and without missing a beat she ran into the bathroom to get my washcloth off the counter. She went right over to the spot and started wiping it up without any direction from me. Hilarious....between cleaning up Tater pukes (he has some regular reflux issues) and her food, I can't say that I am surprised! Justin says she has surpassed Tater in her "usefulness" now that she can clean up and throw things in the trash=)


We finally got her HINI shot this morning(the clinic just got it in this past week), but she isn't completely protected for another 4 weeks when she gets a second dose. So far so good, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. She did well and enjoyed McDonalds for lunch as a special treat. Man can that girl put down some french fries=)

Learning to Color

Caroline has recently taken up "coloring"(AKA scribbling). Even more fun than coloring is pulling ALL the crayons out of the box. She hid them down in her booster seat, so it is covered in shades of green, blue, and red now too. I guess I should be thankful she didn't decorate the walls....yet! Here she is making a picture she gave to daddy when he got home from work. She has to keep the binkie in her mouth or she'll try to eat the crayons..I guess she thinks they are flavored!


Justin's brother got married this weekend in Atlanta, so we made the trip down to celebrate with the family. Of course, I forgot the camera. My mom is sending me some pictures, so I'll post about our trip when I get them. We had a WONDERFUL time and the wedding was beautiful!

Halloween Weekend

After the 2nd rainiest October in MO history, the skies finally cleared for Halloween weekend. Plus, Caroline finally gave her cold bug the boot, and she is back to normal! Saturday morning, Caroline helped clean out her pumpkin. She was very hesitant at first. We had to coax her over to look at all the seeds.

Then, she would only pull them out of my hand.

Before we knew it, she was powerlifting the entire pumpkin and digging right in.

She mostly let Daddy scoop out the goo and then she would dump it in the bag. You can tell by her dancing feet that she is ready for her next scoop right away!

That afternoon we cleaned and roasted the pumpkin seeds...yummy. Saturday night we went on post to do a little trick or treating. I didn't take any new pictures since I took so many at the "trunk or treat," but she looked just as adorable in her ladybug costume. It was a perfect, crisp fall evening and Caroline loved it. I don't think she had a clue that she was getting candy, but she was more than happy to take it and put it in her treat bag.


Sunday afternoon, we decided to tackle the 10 million leaves that have taken over our yard. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, so it actually wasn't that bad. Plus, we got to teach Caroline how to play in the leaves this year. At first, she would just stand at the edge of the leaf pile. Then she would walk through my piles and spread out my hard work. Finally, she sat down right in the middle of this huge pile...you could barely see her little head sticking out! I had to jump in next to her for a quick picture.


Yesterday we went shopping for outfits for Justin's brother's wedding this weekend and then watched Daddy kick the game winning field goal at his football game. Today was library morning and tonight we are headed to the gym to watch daddy play volleyball..I think I'll run around the track to burn off all this chocolate I've been eating=)

The Cold Bug Found Us

Caroline has been sick since last Friday with a head cold. Unfortunately, it has moved into her chest and caused a nasty "wet" cough. I had a local doctor listen to her lungs Tuesday and she said they sound clear...wonderful news. Then I called her pulmonologist, and she said the mucus can get in the trachea but not actually all the way down in her lungs. For now we are doing extra breathing treatments to get the mucus out. Oh, nose sucking too..man do kids hate that(and I can't blame them!). To translate...all this is actually good news...so far it isn't anything we need to be overly concerned about. (Insert sigh of relief here!)

It has been raining SO much here lately, so I finally just brought Caroline's car (usually reserved for outside play) inside. Yesterday morning, she was watching Dora in her car while she got her treatment.


She has created her very own "Drive-In" theater! Way to make the best of it girl!

Mealtime and Supply SGT

Caroline has recently discovered a love for ketchup. Sometimes she dips her food very nicely, and other times she ends up looking like this.....


Here some foods Caroline eats lately for her High Calorie diet. Some are delicious and others are plain disgusting. As you can tell, we add butter, cheese and peanut butter to just about anything.

Breakfast foods:
* Eggs w/ whipping cream, butter, cheese and bacon bits
* 2 sausage links (6g of fat each, loves and eats every day!)
* Whole milk yogurt
* Fruit (sometimes smothered in whipped cream or peanut butter)
* 4% Fat Cottage Cheese
* Dunkin Sticks or Honey Buns

Lunch and Dinner Meals:
* Ramen w/ added REAL butter
* Corn Dogs & Chicken nuggets
* French Fries cooked in oil
* Spam, Vienna Sausage, and other "mystery meats" like liverwurst
* Any casserole we eat with extra butter and cheese on top
* Fett. alfredo w/ extra butter
* Totinos Pizza
* Ravioli w/ cheddar cheese on top

Snacks:
* Brownies
* Ice Cream
* Cheddar cheese cubes (10g of fat in 1 cubic inch)
* Whole Milk pudding
* Bananas and Peanut Butter
* Crackers when I am on the go and without enzymes

She has also become our little supply sergeant. She loves bringing us items and moving them all over the house. Yesterday, she moved all her books from her room to the family room and made several piles if kitchen utensils. She decided to sit in her book basket once all the manual labor was complete!


Here she is getting into her box of high calorie instant breakfast shakes. Look at that cheesy smile! They went from the box, to the coffee table to the lazy boy and to the kitchen before I put them away. Oh, they came with her FREE CF vitamins. I'm a little ashamed to admit how excited I was over this box of shakes and vitamins arriving...I finally found a program that would send them to us for free with proof of purchase for Creon(her enzymes). After searching and talking with insurance for a couple months, it felt like such a victory!

Oh, we also enjoyed watching the Steelers beat the previously undefeated Minnesota Vikings! Go Pittsburgh!!