The Mountains were "So Beautiful."

The week before last (yes, my blog is overdue because I've been really busy with work and toddler) we spent a week in Sapphire, NC with my family! We absolutely loved the area and had a blast. It was a wonderful vacation. Caroline adored the mountains and the lakes. Every day, when we'd start our daily adventure, she'd sit in the car seat and we'd go over a hill with a view of the mountains and lake and she'd say, "so beautiful." Every time. Unprompted. "So beautiful." We all agreed, Caroline Quinn.

So, here's my favorite kind of post - a vacation post!!

One of the highlights of the trip was being able to spend Mother's Day with my mom and, of course, my babycakes. We had an amaaaaaaaazing brunch with delicious coffee and fantastic omelets. We then had a photoshoot! Every year since Caroline was born, Josh and I have awkward self-timer family photoshoots, but this year we had an actual human to take our photos! Caroline's attention span was a wee bit short, but we got some fantastic photos!

After brunch and the photoshoot, we made our way to a mountain lake to reunite our mermaid with her beloved sand! It was so much fun. The girl truly loves being near the water and playing in the sand and the "so beautiful" mountains in the background just make it even better! She really enjoyed smearing mud all over everyone; that wasn't my favorite part of the outing...

Near Sapphire was a totally charming town called Highlands. We fell in love with the town when we drove through on our way to meet my family, so we insisted we go back and everyone was glad we did. We had a wonderful morning of shopping and had another wonderful meal (salmon sandwich and a delicious local beer... yes, please)! One day, when I somehow become a millionaire, I am going to buy a mountain home in Highlands, yep.

We also went to see Whitewater Falls, which is the tallest waterfall on the east coast. I told Caroline about our planned adventure when she woke up that morning and later I noticed she was talking non-stop about waffles... I finally figured out that "waffles" is Caroline language for "waterfalls." Ugh, so cute. Poor girl isn't much of a hiker quite yet; she fell in the parking lot before we even made our way to the waterfall. Once we got there she was amazing. The waterfall was, you guessed it, "so beautiful!" Josh and Allison kept hiking down the mountain while we took Caroline to a playground. While I wish I could have gone on the hike, I'm always down for a playground trip!

Later that evening, Caroline had her first putt-putt experience! The girl lasted an entire one hole until she decided putt-putt isn't exactly her thing. So, she wandered around, moved everyone's balls, and terrorized the putt-putt course while we all continued playing. It was fun! Can we also just take a moment to celebrate the fact that I WON at putt-putt? Whoa.

We spent a day in Asheville, the downtown Biltmore area to be specific, which is always nice. We love Asheville. We even ate at the same restaurant we went to last year, sat at the same table, all sat in the same seats, and ordered Caroline the same grilled cheese. Look at the photo below at how much she has changed in just a year... amazing! We then went antiquing, which was everyone antiquing while I chased Caroline around the enormous store making sure she didn't break anything. Le sigh...

Later that day, my family was awesome and watched Caroline so we could have a date night! Living in Florida and not knowing many people means we rarely get anyone to watch Caroline so we rarely get date nights. We went to a delicious wine and tapas restaurant. I got two glasses of wine and Josh got two beers (wow, our date nights are crazy). We also split three tapas: pimiento cheese crostini, crab stuffed mushrooms, and avocado and goat cheese crostini (my favorite, OMG, I could have eaten like three more orders of those). Then, we split a lava cake for a dessert. It was a nice date where we talked mostly about Caroline, of course, but could enjoy ourselves without worrying about her melting down.

The next day, we went back to the lake and Allison and I took a canoe out on the lake for an hour! See, when the two of us are together we revert back to children, so I'm sure the people in the rental office thought we were very... special. Our dad made us wear life jackets so we also looked very... special. And I'm sure our giggles were echoing through the mountains the entire time. We actually did really well making our way around the lake. It was incredible fun!! I'm so glad we did that, even though we got some crazy tan lines.

The next day, my parents and Josh took a day trip to Brevard, a cute town we passed through on our way to Asheville, while Allison and I stayed behind to take Caroline to the pool! I felt bad for talking about the pool all week and not yet taking her, so I had to make sure we got there before the trip was over! She had so much fun swimming. She loved relaxing on my back and floating through the water. She is convinced her auntie is a mermaid because of the way her hair floats through the water.

The best parts of vacation were spending time with my family - spending a week with my mom, dad, sister, husband, and babycakes. Some of the best moments were when we were all having deck beers (er, apple juice in Caroline's case) together and relaxing. That's what family vacations are all about!! Caroline loves her family and I'm so glad we all got to spend quality time together.

Vacation and Holiday AKA an Overdue Post.

Hello, all! So, I last updated March 11 (oopsies) so we have a lot to catch up on.

So, I failed to blog about our wonderful vacation in Atlantic Beach, NC. Me and Caroline spent the week with my parents and it was SO much fun. Daddy stayed home to take care of the dogs and work (according to Caroline, daddy was at work literally all week). Caroline is a true beach babe, but she's more interested in the sand than the water... I'm happy with that because I'd rather rinse sand off her at the end of the day than get her out of the water repeatedly considering she's itty bitty and can't swim. She is still talking about "Memaw, Papaw, Beach" and "Build Castles?" (sand castles) constantly. She also loved visiting the aquarium in Atlantic Beach. She loved the alligators, sharks, and sea otters, and especially a giant waterfall they had inside. It was so much fun to spend the week with my parents (wish my sister and hubby could have come, but we'll all be reunited next month for a week in the mountains). They got to see both sides to Miss Caroline: the insanely wild and often seemingly deaf toddler (she seems deaf when the words, "stop," "no," or "don't" are uttered) and the ridiculously sweet, loving side that makes sure to give everyone kisses before she goes to bed. It was a wonderful week and I'm glad we were able to go!

We celebrated Easter and Caroline loved it. She was terrified of the Easter Bunny at her school party, I couldn't even pry her off of me to get her into his (well, her considering the person in the bunny suit) lap. She loved the Easter Egg Hunts we participated in, though. She was one of the first kids in her class to get her 6 allotted Easter Eggs at the school hunt. She didn't do so well at the church Easter Egg Hunt we took her to. She ran past about 50 eggs before finally figuring out what was going on. Easter morning we told her the Easter Bunny visited, so she was very cautious walking into the living room to make sure he had, indeed, left our house. We went to an Easter service at a local church and put Caroline in their Sunday school. It was very nice, though I don't think it was the church for us. We are going to start going to church on Sundays; we think it will be good for Caroline and good for us and, hopefully, a way to make some friends. We just want to make sure we choose the right place... we probably want a traditional church as Josh loves the history associated with them, but we want to make sure we're somewhere that is open and accepting of others... we'll find the right place, it'll be an adventure!

SO, now that our recent events have been shared, let's talk about sweet Caroline!

Miss two-year-old has become very independent. If we go for a walk, she wants to pull the wagon instead of riding in it. If I give her snacks, she has to put them on her plate herself. If she wants milk, she tries to pour it herself (not that I let her do that because she's two, but she's free to get her own cup). She loves being a big girl. Her life motto right now is, "I DO IT!"

She is very into coloring, "my colors," as she calls it. Her favorite thing in her Easter basket was a notepad and pencil; she has been sketching like crazy! "Draw daddy" - she draws giant circles. "Draw mommy" - slightly smaller circles. "Draw a flower" - circles. "Draw a heart" - circles. We're working on it. She is really good at cleaning up after herself when she draws. When she's done coloring, she packs up her books and crayons and puts them away. It's precious!

She is getting SO GOOD at talking, which is making it much easier to communicate. Full sentences are forming, she has mastered nearly every word in her princess word book, and sometimes I can even tell what song she's singing by how clear the words are. I'm really, really proud of her. She has always been very smart, but now she's able to communicate it to us! She's getting to be such a big girl; we're really proud of her.

I have also loved watching her interact with her friends at school. At her Easter party, it was amazing hearing her have conversations with her friends (half seemed like gibberish, but they understood each other) and she played with them on the playground. I love that she knows all of their names. "It's okay, Madison." "Whoa, Lindsay!" "Yay, Kynsley!" I had lunch with her at school earlier this week (because I was a bad mommy and didn't plan lunch for her so I brought her food) and I had a blast watching her have lunch with her friends. She was asking them if their food was good, telling me that they were going pee pee on the potty (my response: "um, maybe you should do that too..." yes, potty training is still a work in progress), and just being silly with her friends. There are definitely days where I still wish she could stay home with me all day, but I know she loves school which makes me happy.

Well, I have to get back to work so it'll be a short and sweet entry from me today. BYE!

Oops, I did it again.

Abandoned the blog.

I finally have a job that keeps me busy, which takes away from blogging time! I don't want to abandon my blog, because it helps me preserve memories (cheesy, yes) and keep everyone afloat of what's going on down here. So, let's recap from, geez, freaking December 10th. Epic abandonment, guys, epic.

Well, seems Christmas has come and gone without a post. BLOGGER FAIL. We had a fantastic Christmas. We stayed in Tallahassee this year and it was actually very nice, though we missed everyone of course. Caroline hit the jackpot this Christmas, getting a tricycle, a play kitchen, dolls, clothes, books, and so so so many other things. Josh and I hit the jackpot, too. It's nice that even though we're far away, and even though we spent Christmas with just the three of us, everyone thought of us. We are lucky technology is so awesome because even though we were away from family this holiday, we still got to see them and talk to them. It makes it a lot easier! Here are some snapshots from our Christmas.

After Christmas of course comes New Years. I failed to make a New Years post, too. I could have made a 2014 "Year in Review" post but, nope, the time has come and gone. That's what archives are for ;) We had a nice, quiet New Years. I had the day off work and Caroline's daycare was open, so we got the opportunity for a toddler-free lunch. We went to a fantastic Thai restaurant and it was nice being just the two of us, even if we did talk about Caroline most of the time. We managed to stay up until midnight, I drank three glasses of champagne (whoa, we've got a badass over here); it was a ~wild~ night (by our lame, old people standards).

Right after New Years, my parents paid us a visit!! They are amazing and drove a truck down to bring us furniture from my grandma's house. So amazingly helpful - Caroline now has an actual dresser and nightstand in her room! It was SO GREAT seeing them. Caroline loves having her Memaw and Papaw here. She still asks about them all the time (the other night she was convinced Memaw was playing in our backyard, which was a wee bit spooky). Unfortunately, the Florida sunshine and warmth hid from them while they were here, and Josh was sick the whole time and I got sick a few days later. BUT, we still had such a fun time seeing them and spending time with them, and I know they loved seeing their sweet Caroline Quinn. My mom and I even got to have a date night where we had food and booze (dirty martini and two glasses of cava for me, whoa), and then men got to go shoot Josh's new gun. It was a very nice time and we miss them.

Like I mentioned above, we both got sick during my parents visit. That was three weeks ago and guess who is still sick: both of us. We are finally feeling human again, but this year has been off to a rough start. I lost my voice for an entire week and finally sound like a female again, bwhahaha! It has been a rough few weeks but we have had a fantastic caretaker: Caroline. I swear the girl has a future in nursing with how well she took care of us. She'd hug me and say, "okay mommy," to help me feel better. One morning mommy was trying to sleep in because she felt icky, and Caroline ran to the bedroom, turned the light on, pulled the covers off me, and said, "wake up, mommy!" Caroline does not approve of sick, lazy parents. Hopefully we're getting better, sounds like it was sinus infections for both of us. We are finally coughing less, and I have been able to stay up past 9 (barely, but I'm getting there), so hopefully we'll actually get to start enjoying 2015 soon, ugh.

In the midst of our sickness, we managed to travel to Clearwater to see Josh's younger brother, girlfriend of two years who we FINALLY got to meet, grandparents, and other family. We managed to have a very enjoyable visit despite being so sick. I had a hard time talking to people because my voice was pretty much nonexistent, but I think they were catching a few words here and there! It's always nice visiting family and we even got a beach day out of it! Caroline loves the beach. She looked for mermaids, got attacked by a wave and decided to sit in the water and cry, and recovered like a beast and covered mommy's feet in sand. We even saw Hulk Hogan (the statue AND the real dude), so bonus celebrity spotting for the win! It was a nice weekend and Caroline was on her best behavior, which made it easy for me and Josh.

So, how is the star of this blog doing? Guys, she's getting to be such a big girl. She is talking SO much now, even when it doesn't make sense you know she's talking with a purpose. She loves bossing us around (in the cutest way, of course). She sat on her potty SO MUCH yesterday so *please* let the potty training begin because I'm so sick of diapers; we're letting her do it on her own time and not forcing it upon her, and it looks like big girl panties may be in her near future! The girl only wants to wear dresses, which makes it hard in the winter when some days mommy just has to force her to wear pants (the fights we get into over pants are crazy). She is just getting so big. It's the little things she does that stick out to me. Saturday, we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch and she knows now to follow the hostess to the table, she helped me go potty and knows now how automated paper towel machines work, and she waved and said bye bye to everyone as we left. It's the simple things like that which make her such a big girl. She still loves Ellie most, loves changing her stuffed animals and dolls' diapers, loves reading books, loves building blocks, loves making us coffee in her kitchen, loves doing morning stretches with mommy, loves picking out her outfits (always a dress), loves telling us what princess she is each day (yesterday she was Aurora), loves being fearless on playgrounds, loves eating anything that has a dipping sauce (sometimes we have to be creative), loves snuggling and kissing, and loves a bajillion other things I can't think of right now. She's my tiny best friend and we love her so much!

Okay, I must get to work now! I apologize for any typos but sometimes autocorrect has a mind of its own and I have no time to proofread. Love and miss you all!

Holy Crap.

I'm Blogging.

I completely abandoned you, poor blog. I actually have a job that keeps me busy, I love spending time with Josh and Caroline on the weekend, and, quite frankly Mr. Blog (I'm making it male, for some reason), I forgot to update you.

Goodness, so what has been going on in the past three months? Yikes, I'm that far behind? Oh, geez. Thankfully, I'm an over-poster on Facebook, and that will help me outline the past three months of our lives into one oversized, overrambled, overdue blog entry!

October meant pumpkin picking! Caroline had fun, except for when it came time to pose for pictures (of course). I am obsessed with all things pumpkins (pumpkin bread, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin beers... yummy). We ended up only getting a couple small pumpkins, chosen by Caroline because it's more about the experience than buying the overpriced pumpkin, anyway ;)

In early October, I made an unexpected trip to Virginia to attend my grandmother's funeral. She was my last remaining grandparent and we will all miss her so much. I am so glad I was able to make the trip to Virginia to share memories of her with my families and, of course, toast Manhattans in her honor. It was such a bittersweet trip home and, despite the circumstances, it was nice being able to spend time with my family and see cousins I hadn't seen in years. Miss you, Nanny!

October meant HALLOWEEN! Our little one went as Superman AKA Supergirl AKA Supertoddler. It was the cutest costume and she was really comfy in it. She had so much fun in her tutu and cape. She had a blast at her school's Halloween carnival: she tried to play games she didn't understand, handed back candy and said "nooo" with a look of disgust, and practiced her photobombing skills. Due to a case of the "terrible twos," we didn't make it out trick or treating, but it was still a fun Halloween. It ended with Josh and I turning the porch lights out at 8pm and hiding from a huge group of trick or treaters that went through the neighborhood at 8:30pm because we're old and uncool like that :)

In November, I turned 29! Eeek, the last year of my 20s! My boss gave me the day off work, which was super nice. I met Josh for lunch complete with a birthday beer, got a beautiful new fossil watch, had a nice lunch at Bonefish (this year, Caroline decided to behave until I was almost done eating, so I didn't spend my entire birthday lunch eating and boozing on my own - improvement over last year!) - it was an awesome birthday :)

Later in November, Caroline turned 2! Tons of details below on our little two year old (because I know that's what you guys really care about). Her birthday fell during our week at the beach, so she got to spend her birthday with her mommy, daddy, memaw, papaw, auntie, and my Aunt Linda. She had a cute nautical cake (which she didn't want a single bite of), blew out her birthday candles like a pro, unwrapped her gifts slowly and inspected each one, and was a true birthday princess. I cannot believe our little girl is already 2.

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving week in the Outer Banks (Rodanthe, NC to be exact) with my family. We loved every minute of it, even the moments of crazy toddler antics. It was so nice to spend a relaxing week with my family. For Thanksgiving, we went to an amazing buffet! I didn't touch the turkey - my plate was filled with shrimp, scallops, and oysters!! Caroline was fuss-tastic, so yes, we were those parents with an iPad in a restaurant to keep her happy. It was a holiday and that's the first time we have ever done it and heck, it allowed us to enjoy our holiday meal so #hatersgonnahate. It was such a nice week, we keep talking about how we wish we could have stayed longer :)

So, let's get to the topic everyone cares about: CAROLINE!

Caroline is 2 years old and still a perfect, little giant. She is 34 pounds and 38.5 inches tall. Basically, huge and the size of a 3 year old. She is healthy (well, except for today, since she's home sick) and beautiful. She is getting more hair, enough for pigtails!

She has become quite the fashionista! She has recently began refusing to wear anything that isn't a dress. She is obsessed with her "Elsa Dresses" (any dress that is blue is an Elsa dress to her) and will sometimes dig through her hamper to find one. Yes, I have sent her to school in sun dresses and tights if we're out of weather appropriate dresses for her to wear. She loves picking out her own clothes and her shoes. She also loves deciding whether mommy is allowed to do her hair in pigtails for the day.

She loves singing. Her favorite is singing Skidamarink-a-dink-a-dink with me, especially the "I love youuuu" part. If she's in a good mood, she'll try to sing Twinkle Twinkle, the Itsy Bitsy Mermaid, or her ABC's.

She definitely has her favorite animated characters (she's not interested in anything on TV that isn't a cartoon these days. She loves Elmo and "Mee Mow" (Mickey Mouse). Disney movies are her favorites, especially anything involving Disney Princesses. "Mermay" (The Little Mermaid) is her favorite movie; I would add how she says Ariel's name, but it has so many vowels grouped together I wouldn't even know where to begin. Second is Frozen with "Anna, Elka, Owaf, and Daddy" (yes, she thinks daddy is a character in Frozen for some reason). She also loves "Ella" (Cinderella), "Rapuhpuh" (Rapunzel), and "Ah-Ora" (Aurora).

She is the perfect mixture of girly girl and tom boy. She loves her dresses, shoes, jewelry, purses, and princesses. But, at the same time, we were told that she loves dirt more than any other child at her school and I often have to scrub it out of her hair at night. She is rough and tough but as sweet as can be.

She is getting very good at speaking and communicating and is learning new words daily. Just this morning she finally said "milk" perfectly (her prior word being "no" for milk). She can say please and thank you, tells us she loves us and gives us kisses, and loves pointing out animals and telling us what sounds they make. She talks constantly, even when it's just gibberish, but the gibberish is becoming more coherent daily, which is awesome! It helps us communicate with her and know what she wants :)

"Mommy" and "Daddy" are her favorite words, and apparently she repeats them all day at school! She tries to say her own name now when she sees pictures of herself, "Leleleline" is her name according to her. She can say "Ellie" and "Tollie" perfectly, but Parker and Wrangler are still both "Che Che."

Speaking of the pets, she still adores Ellie the most. She talks about her on the way home from school and gets so excited to see her when she gets home. She loves the cats and tries to pick them up and gives them a lot of hugs. She's smart and is cautious around Wrangler because he's a grumpy old man, but she loves sneaking him kisses and hugs when he's in a good mood. She loves helping me feed the dogs, loves telling them to sit down and go outside, and has even learned how to close Ellie in her crate.

That's all for now on our precious babycakes. Right now she's grabbing my hand and making watch "Mermay" with her, so off I go! I will try to be better about updating my blog because I do love documenting our lives. So long, for now!