American History Museum

It was the first day of Aubrey's school spring break and our family drove up to Washington D.C. to meet up with my cousin and her son for the day at the National Museum of American History. Our goal while living out here has been to see as many monuments and museums as possible. Especially when most of them are free attractions! Andrew is almost 4 months old now and I'm finally feeling like it's a good time to get out and travel a bit more again. Here's some of the photos I took on our adventure:

{Sign in front of the museum}

{Girls playing with blocks on a level board}

{Girls playing with magnetic items - a science exhibit of some sorts}

{Gigantic telescope!}

{Jocelyn and her cousin wrestling around in the kid play area}

{My cousin and her son}

{Jocelyn spent much of her time at this table - coloring! :)}

{Jocelyn in front of a train}

{And another train}

{Andrew preferred being held over sitting in the stroller. I sure didn't mind!}

{History on our hometown: Portland!!}

{Cousins & best of buddies}

{Our fam!}

After lunch, we stood in a VERY long line to see the National Treasures of Popular Culture and here are a few pictures I took from there:

{Dorothy's Ruby Slippers from The Wizard of Oz}

{Kermit the Frog! My girls were like "Who???"}

I wish I remembered more of the trip so I could tell you some more things that we saw and did but it's just not coming to me. If you click on the links to the Museum, it will tell you more of what they're showcasing.

Easter

Our family spent Easter going to church in the morning and then having dinner and an Easter egg hunt in the late afternoon with friends. I of course made deviled eggs. Easter doesn't seem complete without them. Had them growing up as a child when going to the grandparents and has been a tradition ever since. Food aside, Easter is one of my favorite celebrations and times to reflect on Christ and all that He has done for us!

{Easter baskets at home}

{Aren't their bunny ears so cute? :)}

{Andrew off in dreamland while at our friends.}

{Let the Easter hunt begin!}

That Darn Mouse!

What was supposed to be just a family movie night turned into something WAY more exciting. We bought the kids The Tale of Despereaux as a surprise for tonight's family movie and boy were they ever excited to find out what we were watching. I even laid out blankets galore for them to lounge on and watch with their little cup of jelly beans. (Yes, we broke out a little bit of Easter candy early! I couldn't resist.)

After the movie ended around 9:30pm (way past their bedtime by the way) and since church is early in the morning, I had to scoot them off to bed quickly. Aubrey was in brushing her teeth and I was in Jocelyn's room reading her a story with Andrew on my left and Jocelyn on my right in her rocking chair. As "Big Dog Little Dog" was coming to an end, out of the corner of my eye I saw something small scurry across her floor. It ran from the side of her bed, out her door and around the corner down the hall to who knows where. I dropped the book (not Andrew!) and chased after it with Andrew in tow and left Jocelyn behind in her chair. What was it you ask? A MOUSE! Does anyone else find it super ironic that we watched a mouse movie to then find a mouse in our house??? Especially since we haven't seen one in our house (let alone upstairs) since we moved into our house 2 1/2 years ago?!?! So naturally I freaked out and accidentally scared Andrew who was falling asleep for bed. We searched high and low and about an hour later as I was putting Andrew to bed finally after having to do some serious rocking, I decided to open our hall closet and check around. I kicked the bottom shelf with my foot (sock on luckily) and it darted out from behind an extra pillow BACK into Jocelyn's room. So John and I (mostly John as I'm terrified at this point and trying to find traps as quick as possible) search high and low in her room WHILE she's sleeping. I put up the baby gate across her bedroom door thinking it would be a good "trap" and as he finally found it behind her bed, it made a b-line for the door again as John followed quickly behind with a q-tip box and lid. This thing was DINKY but I didn't think it was so dinky to jump THROUGH the baby gate holes. Wow did I ever underestimate the powers of a mouse! Where it went next made me shiver even more than before. It went into our bedroom. Which is also Andrew's room. Those that know me know that I absolutely hate rodents and insects. I was petrified at this point. John found it underneath Andrew's changing table and almost had it until it ran into my closest. I swear it's out to torture me as long as it possibly can. So after lots of banging walls and shoes in the closest and searching with a flashlight, it ran out the closet door. The only way we knew this is because John screeched like a girl (who can blame him) as he felt mouse paws jump on his feet as it fled into the night. Or until he found it back again underneath the changing table anyways. He was trying to shove towels in front of the table so it would only have one side to exit. When he looked back under to check and it was GONE! What the heck???? And that's unfortunately where the fiasco left off. My OCD went into overdrive with this ever annoying incident that I decided I had to let it go or I'd literally go crazy. (Trust me, inside I'm still screaming "get the mouse!" but I'm exhausted and with it being Easter Sunday in just a short while, I'm needing all the sleep I can get!) I'm still clueless why we even have mice as I keep our house rather clean! Very frustrating. And we don't even eat upstairs so what is it attracted to? It's 1 in the morning and I have to be up in 6 hours. I don't even know how I'm going to get any sleep knowing there's a mouse on the loose. Looks like this mouse has bravery and courage to escape our attempts. Much like Despereaux! What a night! Can't wait to by some REAL mouse traps. Hate the things but hate mice in the same living quarters even more. Wish me luck! I know I'm going to need it.

HAPPY EASTER everyone! I'm behind in posts but expect to see a few soon as I catch up. :)

Girls Having Fun!

I took Aubrey and Jocelyn to the park in the afternoon to play. Andrew stayed behind with John. It was a little too cold and windy out for him to be outside and not that I didn't want him there with me, it was fun spending some quality time with my two girls. I think their faces say it all! :)

The Benefits of Getting Older?

I was getting Jocelyn ready for her nap today and this is what I heard her say:

"When I get older, I get to drive. AND eat sweettarts!"

I know all about the driving part. Everyday she asks me if she can drive and I reply "when you get older." But the sweettarts? I have no clue! I just think it's funny.

Not Music To My Ears

{Jocelyn today - not feeling well}

Friday I took Jocelyn to go see the doctor because she was complaining of it hurting when she had to pee. Because she's not potty trained yet and can't give a normal pee sample, they decided to do a catheter on her to get it instead. Hearing that tore me to pieces. I hate seeing her in distress and pain. The first try didn't go too well so they had to try another time. Unfortunately, they weren't able to get much from it to run a test so they told me to take her over to the E.R. Great! More words that break my heart! I don't know anyone that particularly LIKES going to the doctors or to the E.R. so I know I can speak for many on this. I rushed to pick up Aubrey from school and then meet John at home. We discussed who was going to take who (Jocelyn to the E.R. & Aubrey to soccer practice). As much as I didn't want to go through it again that day, I knew that I had to take her in and be with her. It was a hard decision to make as I knew this choice would lead me to not having Andrew with me as well. (I refuse to take my babies into the E.R. atmosphere unless they need to be there!) The E.R.'s motto seems to stem from the military's motto: hurry up and wait! (It really isn't their motto; I just like to say it is!) We did a lot of that. Waiting! Fill out paper work, go back and sit and wait for name to be called, go to triage, go back and sit and wait for name to be called again, go to a room, after test - go back and sit and wait for name to be called AGAIN, and then go to a room AGAIN. It got old real fast and 5 hours later they gave us the results: negative for a UTI. I was confused why that was but was thankful at least. The doctor said they were going to let the culture grow over the next few days in case there was something they didn't catch while we were there. And low and behold, he called us yesterday to report that the results changed. That she did indeed have an infection and called in an antibiotic. And it's a good thing too because she spiked a fever in the night and wasn't feeling well at all. It's so hard to see your children sick and in pain. I can still vividly remember her screaming in the E.R. and in the room they put us in. At one point, I had done everything I could do to calm her and at another attempt of distraction, I asked her what her Ritz cracker looked like. "A moon? A sun?" I had asked her. "No mama, it looks like a cracker!" Wow. She sure does point out the obvious doesn't she? :) Today is day one on antibiotics. Let's hope we get this infection to go away soon so I can get my little girl's cute personality back! :/

Saturday Drive

Our first stop on our Saturday afternoon drive: Costco to pick up pictures. We were just a few minutes away from pulling in to the crazy parking lot when Jocelyn got a bit antsy in the backseat.

Jocelyn: My blankie fall down and go BOOM! (sad)
Aubrey: (picked up her blankie and gave it to her)
All of us: (LAUGHING that she said her blankie went BOOM!)
Jocelyn: It's NOT funny kids! NOT. FUNNY!!!

{Andrew all ready to go for our afternoon car ride}

Our next stop was Lowes. Our refrigerator light burnt out a few weeks ago but that wasn't the only reason why I wanted to go! Me go to Lowes? Yes, you heard that correctly! Here's the story. Some time ago, way before I was even pregnant with Andrew, I came across a Weight Watchers scale they had on display to try out before buying. It seemed like we lived there while we were remodeling our kitchen so it wasn't hard for me to find on one of our trips to the store. Since Andrew was born, I've been doing pretty good about keeping up on his baby book. With there not being a 3 month well baby visit and us not owning a scale, I knew that we HAD to go to Lowes so I could check his weight and document it in his book. Go ahead and laugh. But I still consider myself a genius for even thinking of doing this! Even despite the strange looks from the passersby down the isle. While John was locating the light bulbs for the fridge, I was scoping out isle #32 for the scales. Lo and behold I found them. Just 2 isles over since the last time I was there. (Let me reassure you that I don't go that often. I'm not a crazy loon that goes everyday. I'm not that OCD!) Once John and the girls caught up with me, I handed over Andrew to John, took down the display scale off the wall and placed it on the floor. I took a deep breath and hopped on begging them not to laugh as I did so. I'm still trying to loose some baby weight so I'm not confident with my weight yet. The numbers 126 popped up on the screen. Great. No weight loss since he was born 3 months ago. But then again, I haven't been consistent with my exercise routine yet so I have no one else to blame but me and the carrot cake I made last week. :) And no, I didn't eat it all on my own! Once the numbers settled into my brain and I wasn't hyperventilating (not really, just trying to add humor to the already humorous story) John placed Andrew back into my arms and we waited again for the numbers to reappear on the screen. Drum roll please..........142.2! Holy cow! That's a 16.2 pound difference. With him fully clothed and a diaper on, I'm going to assume that he weighs around 15 pounds. He turned 3 months on the 19th of March and at his last well baby on the 20th of February, he weighed in at 13 pounds 3 ounces so he's gained almost 2 pounds in a month. It's looking like he's still climbing the charts well and growing like a weed. Just the previous day at the doctor's office, Jocelyn weighed a whopping 23.7 pounds. So it looks like "baby brother" is going to outweigh his "big sister" (who is now 2 1/2 years old mind you) within his first year of life. I find this to be quite amusing. No wonder Jocelyn calls him a "Big Boy!" Thankfully not TOO big! :)

{Getting Andrew ready for a bath}