Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Awkwardness

Well, I feel weird writing about this, but since I specifically keep this blog to document all of the cute and funny things our girls do so that when they get big on me, I'll have a record of stuff that I would otherwise forget.

Although this...I think it would be next to impossible to forget.

A lot of people teach their kids the proper terms for male and female body parts. I never taught the girls the right words for a few reasons, one being that I feel uncomfortable using those words, secondly, I hate the sounds of those words (I think I would prefer them to say curse words over those words) and lastly, knowing my girls, they would definitely use those words at inappropriate times (like at church or school).

All this being said...Meredith decided to make up her own words for these body parts. While we were in Florida on vacation, she started calling the male part "an American" (Props to my cousins for the comment about how it does salute!!) But then just a week or so ago, she started calling the female part "a McGraw." Now, I habe NO CLUE where she came up with these words, but her big sister agreed that these are GREAT names to use!

So we have Americans and McGraws. Awesome. But here was the best part:  We were watching the presidential debate last night, and our sweet baby girl was sitting next to her daddy before bed. Everytime they said the word "American", she would start giggling. She looked at Eric and asked, "Why they all talking about Americans??"

Wow, I can't wait until I have to have "the talk" with her one day!!!

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The Raspberry Dumbboy

Meredith kept talking about the " Raspberry Dumbboy".....it wasn't until she mentioned poking his fat tummy that I realized that she was talking about the Pillsbury Doughboy!

Monday, October 1, 2012

Our Family Vacation!

It had been a few years since we had a week-long vacation that was just the 4 of us, and we finally got one a couple weeks ago!  We have a fall break (thank the good Lord!!) and we decided to do one final summer trip to the beach and to Disney World. 

I wish I had jotted down more of the cute things the girls were doing while we were on our trip, but everything was pretty crazy from before we even left the house!  The night before, my mom made me go to urgent care about my thumb, which she thought was getting infected from when I slammed it in a car door at carpool at work a few weeks ago.  Just to appease her and to make sure I was all good to go on our trip, I went.  Saturday night at 9:00, I was getting x-rays at urgent care.  Not only did I have a staph (sp?) infection on my thumb, it was also broken.  Eric was up in Athens at a very late Georgia game, and I was trying to finish up the last of our packing with my now splinted-up thumb.  It's never dull around here!

Anyway, we had a very uneventful drive down to New Smyrna Beach, where we stayed for the first half of the week.  We stayed in an awesome condo (good job, honey!) and had a very relaxing time on the beach and at both the pools in the complex.  There was a little rain every afternoon (typical Florida weather) and the girls kept themselves occupied with Melanie's Little People Nativity set, where the girls kept acting out the story of the first Christmas....how sweet is that??

 
 
At the beach, the girls kept themselves occupied with the sand and doing their "surfing".  We found a crab on the beach that Daddy caught in his hat so we could see him up close, and when Daddy put the crab back down, he was MAD at Daddy, and just kept staring at him.  We thought he was waiting to attack!




We went to the Canaveral National Seashore one day, just for a change of beach, and we got to see a really cool storm rolling in.  We also saw a tortoise crossing the street and we stopped to take pictures and steer him in the right direction so he wouldn't get hit by a car.


 
 
 
So, after seeing a beautiful sunrise on the way out of New Smyrna Beach, we headed towards Orlando to go to Disney World with our two little Disney Princesses!  Now, I didn't get to take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked, by my memory card stopped working about halfway through the day!  And I got sick walking around the Magic Kingdom....not going to go into detail about that, but I wasn't contagious and "manned up" and made it through the rest of the day with my girls because they were having so much fun!  As Eric always says, "It's not a vacation or holiday without you getting sick and/or hurt!" and I didn't disappoint this time....I managed to be hurt AND get sick!  (I don't do anything half-assed! :)  Melanie (our brave girl) went on Space Mountain not just once, but twice!!!!  She went once with Eric and then again with me.  I had never been before, and I don't think I will be going again!  So we figured she would be up for anything.....and the poor baby freaked out on us on Pirates of the Caribbean.  We looked like horrible parents in that ride because our kid was screaming, "NO, NO, I DON'T WANT TO GO!" the whole time. 
 
 
 
Other than that, they had a great time.  Their favorite was "It's a Small World" which I have always loved (I told the girls all about how my aunt Anne had to take Nicole and me on that ride at least 10 times when we were little!) But we only rode that twice this time.
 
We also did the teacups twice, and Eric almost got all of us sick the last time because he spun us so fast.  We did "Gumbo the Flying Elephant" and the racecars, Aladdin's magic carpet ride, along with seeing the 3D Mickey movie, which we all loved. 
 
 
 
 
We had to go to the Hall of Presidents for Daddy, where we had Melanie perturbed because he made us go see "Ogama.  We don't like Ogama, Daddy."  Then after that we went on the Haunted Mansion ride, where Daddy told Melanie very loudly that "The Hall of Presidents with Ogama is scarier than this ride."  (Gotta love it.)  Both girls loved it, which, again, surprised me after Pirates, but hey, whatever works. We also met the one princess both of the girls wanted to see.....Merida.  They both shot arrows (which I don't have pictures of) and met Princess Merida.  Thank goodness for Disney PhotoPass and their own photographers, because we were able to buy a shot of the girls with Merida! So much fun!
 

 We stayed for the parade of lights and the fireworks....right as the fireworks started, the skies opened up and we had to make a run for it! It was a great day, and Daddy was a great navigator, making sure we got to see everything we wanted, and checking all of the wait times on his phone, so our longest wait was about 10 minutes the whole day! 

The next day we were all pretty tired, so we just hung around the resort for awhile and took full advantage of the awesome pools.  Then we headed over to Universal for a late lunch/early dinner at Margaritaville, which was awesome!  The girls had a great time there.


 

 We went back to the resort after that because it had started to rain again, so we went down to the game room and played for awhile, and then went and got ice cream!

 
After the ice cream, we realized it had stopped raining, so we went outside for some late-night swimming!




 
The next day, we got up and spent a few more hours at the pool, and then we got ready and went for Daddy's favorite part of the trip....a place called Ybor City, where the original Columbia restaurant is located.  We went around the city for awhile, then went to eat dinner at Columbia where we also went to see the flamenco show!  SO much fun, and the food was incredible (especially the flan.  Oh my word, that was delicious!!)
 
 
The only sour spot on our whole trip happened that night after dinner.  We had bought the girls flamenco fans before dinner, and Meredith left hers in the car, so I ran back to get it.  While I was walking back, I got stopped at a crosswalk of a very busy street, where I could see the girls and Eric across the street.  Well, a car flew by, and thankfully God was looking out for her, because about 5 seconds after that last car went by Meredith bolted into the street to get to me.  Eric and I both ran after her screaming, and luckily the light had changed and the traffic wasn't coming anymore, but it scared the living you know what out of both of us!  I think I was in some kind of shock because about a half hour later I just started bawling!!  So thankful that she is okay, and we all said a few extra prayers that night.
 
 
BUT....all in all, we had a FANTASTIC trip, and we can't wait to do it again.  My favorite times are with these 3 wonderful, crazy people....I wouldn't change one thing about any of them!!!!
 









Monday, September 10, 2012

Santa's birthday

Melanie woke me up with a very important question on Saturday morning....

"Mommy?  Mommy?  Mommmmmmmy???"
"What's up Mellie girl?"
"When is Santa's birthday???"
"Uhhhhh......I'm not sure, maybe December 25th?"
"No Mommy, that is Jesus' birthday."
"Ok, then it must be December 6th."  (That's St. Nicholas Day.)
"Thanks!"
And she went running off downstairs.
Love my girls!!!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Only Meredith....

So E and I had a pretty busy weekend with him being in a friend's wedding, going to the rehearsal on Thursday and the wedding on Friday, which meant we needed Mom Mom's help to get the kiddos back and forth to softball and all that (thanks again, Mom Mom!)  Anyway, while Mom had them in the car, they started talking about our trip to Florida in a couple weeks (we are going to the beach for September break, and spending a day at Disney World!) so Mom said something about how she wishes she could go to Disney, too.  Melanie said, "We'll bring you back a present!"  Meredith said, "We'll tell you all about it when we get home."  What a little jerk!!

Monday, August 27, 2012

Oh my....


Okay, I honestly have no idea where the last 4 months have gone!  I didn't realize I hadn't posted since APRIL!!!  Summer has been crazy, lots and lots of things have changed in the Rein house, but all in all, everything is GREAT!!!  I am going to try and backtrack and catch up on our fun summer!

May: 
The girls had their ballet recital....and I may be biased, but they were the cutest ballerinas I have ever seen!  They both did a really good job.

I had my lovely Mother's Day lunch with Melanie at her school. So sweet and so much fun!

 



Melanie graduated from preschool.  She was given the virtue of "Leadership".  We thought that was a nice way of saying that she is bossy. :)  In all honesty, that made us so happy that she was considered a leader because that was the main reason we held her back a year with that late birthday of hers!

 
We went up to Chicago for our baby cousin Gannon's christening....the girls had a blast with all of their cousins (and I had fun with mine!!)


 
  Our little girl decided it was time to be a big girl....Meredith got her ears pierced!!  She didn't cry, but when it was all over, she looked at me and said "I shouldn't have done it."  I asked her why, and she said, "Because it really, really hurt!"

 
June:
We had a busy June.....Melanie had VBS at St. Michael's with her friends, and then had a week at Safety Town, which is a program in Cherokee County for rising kindergarteners teaching them, well, how to be safe!  We were SO proud of our Mellie girl....they had a portion of the week where they talked about stranger danger, and they had a test where a "stranger" would come up to them on the playground.  Well, Melanie ran away from the stranger, warned all of her friends, and then went and told the teachers.  I was so incredibly proud of her for being such a smart, brave girl!

 
 
 After that, we went to St. George with Grandma and Grandpa, and had a nice, relaxing week at the beach hanging out with them and Aunt Dorfy and Uncle Al.  We had to leave a couple days early because E and I had to go to Ethan and Sharyn's wedding in Athens, which was an AWESOME weekend.....had a blast hanging out with our friends....we felt like we were in college again!

July:
Well, we have a 4 year old in the house again!  Our little peanut Meredith turned 4!  I can't believe she is already 4!  We were supposed to have a pool party, but it was SO HOT (like 105 degrees) so the flamingo party got moved to our house! 

 
On her actual birthday, we woke up and did the 5k and Tot Trot in downtown Woodstock, which was so much fun (Meredith came in 1st place out of all the 4 year olds, and Melanie came in 2nd overall!) 

 
 
When we got back from that, we went to the pool, then came home and grilled out, then followed by the Canton fireworks.  It was such a nice, relaxing 4th!!
I made a big mistake....I took the girls to the Fernbank Science Musuem with Ashley, Abbie, and Andrew.  Trying to do something educational......the exhibit there this summer was called "The Scoop on Poop."  My girls LOVED it.  Meredith has a fascination with hippos, and there was actually a video of a hippo pooping.  I think it was the highlight of her summer!







While we were driving down to Fernbank that day, I got a very interesting phone call......I GOT A JOB!  I had been praying and waiting all summer to see if enrollment was high enough at St. Michael's, and it finally was!  I am a teacher in a 3 year old classroom.  The only downside was that I had to start pretty much right away, and it didn't give me a lot of time to prep the way I would have liked to, but I didn't care, I had a job!!!

August:
August started off with a bang!  August 1st was Melanie's first day of kindergarten.  She looked so cute.  Eric and I walked her in and then we went to the Boo Hoo breakfast for parents in the cafeteria.  She didn't cry when we left her, but she has been having a difficult time all month.  She wants to be with me, which breaks my heart, but hopefully we will soon be getting past that.  Her teacher, Mrs. McConnell, is wonderful and sweet and very concerned about how sad Melanie is, and makes sure she keeps me constantly updated, which is awesome. 


Our little goose started school on August 7th!  She gets to come to school with Mommy everyday, which is awesome!  She is in Ms. Jennifer's class, but she does get to come to my room for part of the day.  She is doing incredible.  She is so well behaved and does all of her work, which is awesome, and also surprising with how she doesn't listen that well at home!


Our sweet Melanie also turned 6!  Seriously......how did 6 years go by so fast??  We had a watermelon birthday bash at Canvas by U with all of her friends, and it was so much fun!  The kids did a special watermelon painting that was created especially for Melanie.The teacher, Ms. Brooks, gave Melanie her painting so Melanie got 2 watermelon paintings to bring home! 

The next day we went on the boat with Grandma and Grandpa, and Melanie got a new quilt for her bed (ladybugs!!) On her actual birthday, I took the day off work and Daddy and I went to lunch at her school (we brought Chick-fil-A) and I made mini watermelon cupcakes for her class, and we got to sit with our birthday girl at lunch.  That night, we had Mom Mom and the gang over for more watermelon cupcakes, and Melanie got 2 really big gifts...Barbie's Dream House from us, and a Kindle Fire from Mom Mom and Papa!  Super cool! 


OH....and then, the night before she turned 6.....Melanie lost her first tooth!!!  It came out while we were at the pool.  The tooth fairy visited and left 10 dollars (because it was her birthday, she left extra!)

 
We also started our fall season of softball!  And we have 2 big girl softball players on the Bluebirds!  We had our first couple of practices already, they are too cute!  Melanie and Meredith get to play with their friends Lillian and Katelin on the team, too!
 
 
 
 This is basically the Reader's Digest version of our summer, but I think I got everything pretty much covered.  Now that school is back in and we are more on a schedule again, hopefully I won't get this far behind again!!!