Oh how I love you, California!

California was our last, and most fun trip (in my opinion) of the summer. We drove though, and man, is that a long drive with two 1 year old babies!! They really did amazing, considering.

We took 2.5 days to get there. We left after the babies ate dinner on night 1, and we stopped in Midland TX the 1^st night, Tucson AZ the 2^nd, and we made it to Anaheim the 3^rd night. 

The first night was a little crazy. We knew we were going to be getting to our hotel really late, so Matt called them earlier in the day to let them know that we would appreciate if they would go ahead and set up 2 cribs in our room because we were going to be coming in very late with twins. They told him that wouldn’t be a problem at all. Well? When we got there, we were informed that they only had 1 crib. That was sooooo nice of them to call and let us know that there would only be one crib waiting on us. UGH. So? We put Ryleigh in the crib, and Reagan slept in the bed with us. We never co-slept at all, so I wasn’t sure how she would do…but it was kind of amazing. She curled up right beside me and slept the entire night.  She is such a good baby! :) Too bad I’m against co-sleeping, or I’d just snuggle a baby every night! Anyway, we ended up getting that hotel stay free. :)

The rest of the trip there was pretty uneventful. We did have a few baby meltdowns because they were tired of being in their car seats, but I can’t really blame them! I was tired of being in the car too! I went and sat on the floorboard of the car, in between their seats, and that made them a little happier. It was kind of a snug fit for my big ole booty though! :)

We stayed at the hyatt summerfield suites in Anaheim. It was a pretty nice place. They had a really nice hot breakfast buffet, so we went down and ate breakfast every morning. The weather was soooo beautiful, so we sat outside in the courtyard at a table with an umbrella. It was so relaxing, and the babies loved eating outside. It was such a great way to start the mornings!!

Our first full day in California, we went sightseeing! We went to long beach and walked on this beautiful pier, where you could see The Queen Mary, then after lunch, we went to the Hollywood walk of fame, and we went to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, so I could reenact “Pretty Woman”,  and then went to Santa Monica Pier. We had a busy, fun day!!

The next day, was my 30^th Birthday! 30!!! Ugh. :) We had a great day! We went and had lunch at the rain forest café in down town Disney, we went to the Aquarium of the pacific, and we ate dinner at Bubba Gump’s shrimping co. It was such an amazing day with my family!

After those 2 days of fun stuffs, we were all 4 wore out, so the next day, we stayed at our hotel most of the day and relaxed.

The next day, we drove to San Diego. I have never been to San Diego, and I was so excited about going!! On our way there, we stopped in Oceanside, which is an adorable little beach town!! We went out on their famous pier, that is the longest on the west coast, at 1954 feet long! It was so gorgeous. At the very end of the pier, there is a restaurant called Ruby’s Diner. That’s where we had lunch. We were literally out on the ocean. It was amazing! Another really cool thing, while we were eating, we got to watch the fisherman outside the window. They caught some HUGE fish while we were eating, including a baby shark and a sting ray!! So cool!

Once we got to San Diego, we got settled into our hotel, another Hyatt summerfield suites…and then we went to night at the San Diego Zoo!! That zoo is AMAZING. I loved it so much. It has so many animals you don’t see at other zoos. Some of my favorites were the koala bears, the lions, and the PANDA BEARS!!!

The next day, we went to Sea World. I was soooo excited!! It was so much fun! I loved the cute, cheesy shows and feeding the sea lions! My favorite thing at Sea World though, was the sea turtle exhibit. If I haven’t already mentioned this, I LOVE sea turtles. They had soooo many, all different sizes and kinds. It was amazing, and I literally could have sat and watched them swimming around all day. I took about a million pictures of them! :)

As much fun as we were having in California, by the next day…we were completely wore out and ready to head home. I was extremely sad to leave, but I really wanted home too.  We had such an amazing time, and it was soooo nice to escape the Texas heat for a while. I loved San Diego more than any place we have ever been. I was honestly trying to talk Matt into moving there the entire time we were visiting. I *need* beaches and 70 degree weather year-around. I got a little depressed once we got home because it’s so frikin hot here! The babies *loved* being outside, and we just can’t do that here during the summer. :( Boo!

In conclusion, we had a BLAST, and I would move to San Diego in a second…if Matt were on board. I doubt I will ever be able to drag him away from Texas permanently though. 

Long Beach

Long Beach

My birthday cake. :)

I love this picture!

Oceanside, CA

Koala Bear!!

He was scary!

I had so much fun feeding the sea lions!

Sea Turtles!!

Oh crap, I'm old.

 I’ve been dreading turning 30 since I was about 21. Seriously. All through my 20’s, I was saying, “I’m almost 30”. Now? I really *am* 30. I have always thought that turning 30 would throw me into some kind of deep depression or something. But really? All I felt on my birthday was happiness. I am so thankful for how my life has turned out. I married the man of my dreams, I went to college, and now, I have the 2 most beautiful little one year old girls I’ve ever laid eyes on. I am so blessed. I don’t even care that I turned 30! I guess I let all of the crazy emotion out when Ryleigh and Reagan turned 1….and then I just got to feel happy when I turned 30. 

I really had an amazing day. We had breakfast out in the courtyard at our hotel. I’m so in love with California weather. I love being outside, and there are just too many months in Texas that are miserable. We went to Downtown Disney and did some shopping and had lunch at the Rainforest café. I had never been to one, and it was a very cute place. Matt surprised me by having them sing to me and bring me a huge piece of cake…I think they call it the volcano, or something. It was sooooo yum.

We also went to the aquarium of the pacific, it was pretty nice….nicer than the Dallas aquarium, but not as nice as the Florida one. And to end the day, we ate at Bubba Gump’s Shrimping co. I love sea food, Mattie? Not so much…so it was a nice treat for my birthday.

We really had a great day!! I love my family so very much! And? I actually look forward to what my 30’s will bring. Life is good, y'all!

1 Year Well Visit

Ryleigh and Reagan went in for their 1 year well visit today. Everything is going great! Ryleigh weighs 19 lbs 3 oz (20%) and is 30 inches long (75%). Reagan is 24 lbs 1 oz (90%) and 29 ½ inches long (50-75%). They are growing like crazy! :)

I talked to her about the fact that I’m concerned that neither of them are walking yet (Reagan is not even close!!!), and she told me I shouldn’t worry, so that eased my mind about that a little. It’s just so impossible not to compare them to other babies…and each other.  Ugh! They were born a month early for one thing, but Reagan, especially, doesn’t seem very motivated at this point. She’s fine with crawling…and she doesn’t have to go far to play with her sister. I dunno. 

So, during the appointment, the doctor asked if I had them completely off of baby food yet. Ummm, I didn’t know I was supposed to have them off of baby food! We have introduced a lot of solid foods, but I was still feeding them a lot of baby food. She said stop, so we did. It was a lot of change all at once, but Ryleigh and Reagan were awesome and transitioned pretty seamlessly! We switched from formula to milk, bottles to sippy cups, and baby food and solids to completely solids. And? We did this all while we were on vacation. We decided to try it…but if they were showing hesitation, not to push it…but they really showed no hesitation to any of the changes. I guess they were ready. They are such big girls!!!!! 

No more bottles, formula or baby food! Yippeeeee!

Happy Birthday Babies!!!

Today, my sweet baby girls turned ONE!! I seriously can’t even believe that a year has already past. It went waaaaaaay too fast. I have loved every second of this year, and I have to say, it just keeps getting better every day. I am having the time of my life playing with them, snuggling with them and watching them learn and grow. 

Their little personalities have really blossomed so much, and they are seriously such a joy to be around. It’s impossible not to have a smile on my face every single time I see them.

For their first birthday party, we went with a really cute owl theme, “Look whoooo’s turning 1!” It was so cute. I found an amazing cake maker in Plano. Her bakery is called Takes the Cakes by Millie. I contacted her kind of last minute, and she was willing to take on the cake. I was so grateful, and what’s so amazing about it is that I had this exact vision of what I wanted in my head….and she completely exceeded my expectations!! The cake was even more amazing than I could of dreamed. It was soooo yummy too! It was a total hit at the party.

We had a house full of family and friends there to celebrate. I was kind of stressed leading up to the party because we have a double divorce situation in my family, and I invited both sides of the family…which is really the first time they have all gotten together like that. Everything went so smoothly though. Everyone got along and I’m pretty sure everyone, including Ryleigh and Reagan, had a great time!

Ryleigh and Reagan’s personalities shined through at the party. Reagan was happy to be passed around to everyone. Ryleigh? Not so much. :) She was fine as long as she was on Mommy’s hip.

They received some amazing gifts! Soooo many adorable clothes!!! They are set with clothes for a while. Yay! My brother got them some adorable pink converse chuck taylors. And they got toys galore!! Matt and I got them tricycles that can be pushed now, and will convert as they grow older. They are adorable.  Ryleigh happily sat in my lap while we opened presents, and Reagan crawled around saying hi to everyone and playing in the wrapping paper. :)

Neither of them really knew what to think about their smash cakes! They both played in them, but didn’t really each much of them. 

Their outfits were adorable….but NOT what I had planned for them to wear! I ordered these really cute customized shirts that matched the party theme, with their names on them…but I had my old address on my paypal account (oops!), and they got lost in the mail. I didn’t find out we wouldn’t get them in time until late Friday night (the night before the party). My awesome aunt Julie took me to Target the morning of their party, and bought the adorable outfit that they wore. Sometimes, you just have to improvise!! It all worked out. I was so sad that their shirts didn't come in time, but they looked adorable anyway.

Overall, I really couldn’t have asked for the party to go any better than it did. I was so happy with everything. It was truly a bittersweet day for me, but I know I’m going to enjoy this next year of their lives so much!!

Happy Birthday Babies!!!!

Sooooo cute!!!

I had everyone fill out a card. I wrote this poem all by myself! :)

She loved the balloons!

Pretty girl! :)

My mommy

She was clapping.

Reagan had so much fun in the wrapping paper!

I was having an "OMG- I can't believe my babies are ONE" moment

Florida Vacation - Take 2

The day after Brett and Melissa’s wedding, we flew back to Florida. Which…is oddly where Melissa and Brett went for their honeymoon too. We booked a trip while they were going to be on their honeymoon on purpose…and we planned on going to Florida…but a different part of the state. We did not plan on crashing their honeymoon!!!  But somewhere along the way, it was decided that we should stay in the same area that they were, so we could all hang out a few times while we were all in Florida. So? That’s what we ended up doing. They went to siesta key, and we stayed like 10 minutes down the road in Sarasota. The beaches there were absolutely gorgeous. The sand was so white and soft, and the water was so clear. Aaaaaahhhh, I’m meant to live on a beach. 

We didn’t bug them their entire honeymoon, but we did do a few really fun things. Well, Brett and I did! Matt was nice enough to take care of R&R while I was having fun…and Melissa is just a wuss! Haha First we went para-sailing, which was amazing!!! We were so high up; we could see the entire city….and we could also see fish swimming in the ocean below us. It was beautiful. I expected it to be scary, but more than anything, it was relaxing! I loved it!!

The next day, we went to the Florida Aquarium. It was the nicest aquarium we’ve ever been to! They have this program there called swimming with the fishes, and Brett and I did it. We got to get into diving gear and swim with the fishies in one of their largest tanks. People inside the aquarium could see us swimming around, and we were in the tank right beside all of the sharks, so you could swim over to the wire divider and see the sharks…basically in the same water we were in. Brett and I agreed that we enjoyed it even more than para-sailing. It made me want to get certified in diving and do that sort of thing more often.

We stayed in Florida a few more days than Brett and Melissa, so after they left, we explored different parts of Florida. First, we went to Captiva Island. I fell in love. It’s one of the most gorgeous little beach towns I have ever seen. Apparently Captiva Island is the place that inspired Jimmy Buffet to write “Cheeseburger in paradise”. It seriously was paradise. I’d move there and live the beach town lifestyle in a heartbeat! Random fact about me: I'm kind of obsessed with sea turtles. I love them. I was so excited, because on a beach we stopped at on Captiva Island, I saw a few places roped off on the beach where a sea turtle had laid eggs!!

Next, we drove the Florida Keys, all the way to Key West. It was a really gorgeous. Water everywhere. We drove to the southernmost point of the continental US. Kind of cool! On our way back from Key West, we drove on this everglades highway…which was kind of scary…and interesting. We saw signs for panther crossings! Panthers!! Here in Texas, we have deer crossings, but I had never seen a panther one before. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any panthers though. I did count 11 alligators, 2 bunnies and an owl. Fun times.  Ryleigh and Reagan have been more places before they turn one than I had been at age 25!! It was a very fun vacation!!

On the flight home, the babies were perfect. No crying at all. We were on the very front row of the plane, and we waited until last to get off, because we were waiting for our stroller that was gate checked…and we had so many passengers compliment us on how well behaved they were.

And, pictures.....

It takes so. much. luggage to travel with 2 babies!!!

 

 

 

Being goofy.

Feeling a little scared.

We were soooooo high up!!

My BFF

They creep me out, but I think this picture is gorgeous.

Brett and I swimming with the fishies.

Nemo!!! :)