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On the road!

We are on our way to Florida!! I was in a wedding all day, and when I was finished we gathered into the car and jumped on the road. After the first stop being in only Buffalo and the next barely at the PA border, I thought we may have never made it this far. I was running on no sleep, but I was wide awake. Drake was feeling pretty sick on the way down, not nauseas because of my driving, but congested and a bad cough. Drake is not a very good sick person. He needs his beauty sleep and when he is sick hes down and out. This left me without my relief driver, which turned out okay. We made it through Pennsylvania, after having to stop at McDonalds/Wal-Mart to feed Madelyn. We continued on and had to get gas in West Virginia, and stretch our legs. Upon arriving in North Carolina, we decided to find a hotel for the evening. I called a few places and one had a great rate, so we headed over. When we arrived the lady told me rooms were $89.90 a night. She was not the hotel that I called. After searching for a little bit and driving to two more hotels, we found a good one, with an indoor pool so the kids could go swimming. Madelyn woke up several times throughout the night, I think she wanted to roll over and was angry she was buckled into her car seat. Jake slept through, only waking when we would stop and fill up. We are gathering up our stuff now, and gonna jump back on the road to finish our trip. We are hoping to get to Kissimmee in the morning, and spend our day at The Animal Kingdom. Wish us luck, as it will be warm, and I am sure we will all be tired. Jake has made me promise him that we will go to Disney first and THEN Florida!! This will work,m because check in is at 4 at our Villa, so we will spend the day at Disney first! Back on the road again!

Earth Day

On Earth Day, the Seneca Park Zoo had some celebrations. We are members, so although it was rainy and gray outside, we decided to take a trip over there. We heard Buddy from the Dinosaur Train was going to be there. They had a scavenger hunt, we had to read the clues, and figure out which animals they were talking about. Jake guessed them all, and got to choose from a cup or a pencil. He chose the pencil!!

Jake got to try on an orangutan coat, fake fur of course!

 Buddy

 Jake and Buddy

 Jake got to see the sea lions going crazy!!

We love our zoo! When we get home from Florida, the new Lion exhibit and Baboon exhibit will be open, and of course, we get to see the Elephants again!

Take me out to the ball game!

Last week, we went to a Red Wings game. It was the kids first time, so we had to buy some baseball hats to show our team some support! The kids looked awfully cute, and Jake and Daddy got to toss the ball around during warmups. It was a daytime game, so the stadium wasn't extremely packed which was really nice!

Jake got to meet Spike, the team mascot!

He even autographed a baseball for him!

The conehead was pretty cool too!

My babes and I

Just us girls!

My two favorite guys!

Two Days Left!

There are only two full days left before we leave for Florida. I am so exicted, but extremely nervous. It's going to be an extremely long drive, and I am not sure how my babes will handle it. I honestly think theyll sleep for most of it, as we are going to try and do the driving at night. Tomorrow is the rehearsal dinner for the closest thing to a "sister" that I have, and then Sat is the wedding. This wouldnt be so bad, except that I am in the wedding, which means that I will be going from Saturday until early Sunday. Im hoping Drake can get a good nap in before the wedding. I am a night person anyways, so it doesn't matter how tired I am all day, I am wide awake come midnight and the early hours of the morning. I have just started packing everything today, so hopefully we wont forget something. Not that there wont be a store if we need something. We have a lot planned this week. One of my best friends is going woth us on the trip. She won't be riding down with us or staying even in the same resort as us, but she will be right down the road. I am excited that Jake will have two of his closest friends there with us, even though they are girls! I'm printing all of our park tickets now, so I can make sure I have them when the time comes.

On another note.
Madelyn has been crawing and pulling herself up since she was about 6 months. She has even started standing on her own in the past two weeks. She will be standing and holding onto something, and then just let go and stand there for about 30 seconds. Once you acknowledge her, or she realizes she'll either grab back on, or fall on her bottom. She's pretty proud of herself, and she looks quite cute doing it. She looks so funny because shes so small, but I cant believe how amazing she is, and just continues to learn new things daily. She can clap and wave hello and goodbye. She even understands when I tell her no to something. She tries to test our limits and laughs at us, but she won't do it (ex: climbing up the stairs) if I say no!

We bought a Strider bike for Jacob a couple of months back, and he absolutely loves it! We take it everywhere with us, it is so light weight, and he can carry it himself and jump on and off without a problem. Hes really getting the nag of it to, he lifts his feet up and balances well. He has a hard time getting himself going on a flat surface, but hes working on it.

We entered a contest, and Madelyn is now also the proud owner of a PINK Strider bike. She tried it on for size but her feet cant reach the ground! We'll hold onto it for later.

We're going to Disney!!

Oh my goodness! We have so much going on. I am in a wedding this weekend, and I feel very unprepared for the entire thing! I dont even know what shoes I will be wearing yet! We also are leaving for Disney this Saturday night, and I can't wait! Who would have ever thought I would be going on two huge trips within months of each other? Not me. We are driving down, we originally had a friend going with us that was splitting the cost of the trip with us, but due to situations out of her control, she isn't able to go. Although, my other girlfriend and her family will be making part of the trip with us, so although we wont be splitting hotels and gas, Jake will still have some friends other than his sister to hang out with while we are in Florida! I can't believe it is almost here. I have so much packing to do, and feel as if I will definitely forget something. All of our tickets are paid for, were going to Disney for 6 days and SeaWorld for 2. Drake's aunt and Uncle live in Orlando, and we are hoping we can meet up with them at some point during the trip. They haven't gotten to meet Madelyn yet, so it shall be exciting. My grandfather and Uncles also lives down there, about an hour and a half Southwest of Orlando, so we are hoping to visit with them as well. I think it has been well over 10 years since I last saw my Poppy!! So Im excited!  I have a lot of packing to do!! 

Snow, Sweets, Sitting and Smiles!

We've been trying to keep pretty busy around here lately. We haven't had much snow, except for one day we had a pretty good amount, so the boys went out to play, while Maddie and I watched from indoors where it was warm.

Jake came in with cold cheeks at one point, so I wrapped him up with my scarf, and he went right back out!

They had a lot of fun, sledding down the hill daddy made. We just bought that sled, and that was the first and last time we used it!!
We made some Valentines before we left for Arizona, and forgot all about them. We found them in the drawer the other day. Jake signed all of them by himself, which was awesome and he did get a lot of practice writing 10 of them. I felt bad we forgot about them, because he really was excited, but they looked super cute on Valentines Day.

When Jake woke up, he came in my room to snuggle. I told him Happy Valentines Day, and he thought about it for a minute, and said hold on mommy. He went downstairs and came back up with his hands behind his back, and said Happy Valentines mommy! He had this cute vase, with a "blooming" pink rose in it, when you push the button it blooms and say I Love You! I sure do have the sweetest little boy!

Madelyn began to sit up on heR own in early Feb, but only for about 10 seconds or so. As of mid-February, she can do it all by herself. Shes getting so big too quick!! Shes still as happy as can be, and such a blast to be around. Shes learning new things every day!

She absolutely adores her brother, and it shows!! They also have a VERY similar profile!! I love their silly faces!

Its been a while...

So we made it home from Arizona, and then all of us got sick. I'm guessing it was from all the germs on the plane, but whatever. Madelyn threw up once, Jake several times, and we all had stuffy noses sore throats and chest congestion. The kids had a pretty decent cough for several days. We are better now, we layed around and got lots of rest to get healthy again. Madelyn's schedule has been pretty out of whack for the last week. She used to go to sleep at 8/8:30 and sleep through the night, and now she goes down after 9, and is awake by 10:30 wants to play and eat and do anything but sleep until about 11:30. At about this time, shell get sleepy and go back to bed for the night. Shes driving me crazy with this. I have tried to get her to sleep less during the day and wake up earlier, but shes waking up by 8, and only sleeping for an hour or so during the day. She is scooting all over the place, so maybe shes sleeping less because shes learning something new, and having a growth spurt?? I don't know. Jacob also broke my flash drive with all my pics as soon as I put them on it, so no pics for now. Hopefully I can get it fixed soon.

Zebras PJs and Ghosts!

Day 11-World Wildlife Zoo and Aquarium

My awesome god parents, Carol and Pete

Aren't they beautiful?

Jake loved that they licked his hand and that he could feed them.

This zoo was pretty amazing. We got to feed the birds apples and the giraffes pellets and and let them lick our hands. We got super close to the Zebras, Rhino and Kangaroos. I wasn't thrilled with the lack of employees, there were an awful lot of people who were feeding the animals whatever they were eating, crackers and cupcakes? Seriously? There were people teasing the baby Lions, and when I explained to Jacob it wasn't nice to tease the animals, somebody said they are cats and like to play. I don't think that its considered playing, with a caged animal, it was teasing. None the less, we had a blast. Our dinner was served next to an albino alligator. I learned that the only adult albino gators are in zoos, because they can't survive in the wild! Jake had fun, hes definitely an animal lover, and Maddie enjoyed the ride.

Day 12-Lounging in our pjs ALL day long

It was a Sunday. A day to relax. Jake wanted to play with all of his cool new toys, and didn't want to get dressed in the process. So he didn't, neither did Maddie. We practiced sitting up a bit, and Lucy hung out to watch us do penguin play! It was a nice relaxing day for all.

Day 13- Mike and Sarahs house
I didn't bring my camera, shame on me, we hung out with the triplets all day, I rearranged their furniture, while Mike took a nap!! Yikes!! He woke up, and liked it!! Woo hoo. I love rearranging rooms, I did my god mothers living room, and she hated it!! I loved it, it had every seat enjoying the fireplace, which she wanted, but she called it a cluster f*ck and said it was to closed in. Shes crazy!( I can say that now because I'm in NY) By the way, who needs a fireplace in Arizona? Crazy right?!?!

Day 14- Goldfield Ghost Town and Ghost Mine?

At Sonic, waiting for the unexperienced roller skater to bring us our food. 

Jacob was bigger than Superstition Mountain

We had a blast at the Goldfield Ghost town and mine. Jacob got to go down in the mine, and learned all about the miners. We had our pictures taken, so we look like old cowboys at a saloon, and we rode a train, and gave us a tour, and history of the town.