A Weekend of Fun!

Baby is napping and the boy is away so, you guessed it, I'm blogging!

Sadly, it has mostly just been me and my Caroline this weekend. Poor Josh has a big trial this week that he has been preparing for, and he has spent the majority of the weekend at the office. He's so overworked and so under appreciated by the people he represents. My Irishman won't even get to enjoy St. Patrick's Day this year because it's a jury selection day. Laaaame.

Anywho, Caroline and I have had shopping and park adventures! The shopping adventures have been wonderful one minute and awful the other… once she decides she's done in the stroller she lets it be known… it is accompanied by "no mommy, I don't want to be held either" and "I'm going to run to that magical moving contraption" (escalator, ugh); people stare… it's not pretty. We had a difficult mall outing yesterday and a difficult Babies R Us outing today. Oh, toddlerhood. Look at these adorable photos I got pre-mall-tantrum yesterday:

After the mall meltdown of '14, we went to the park to play and relax before meeting daddy for lunch. She had a BLAST as always. She is getting so independent. She still likes for us to come on the playground with her, and will hold our hand on some of the bigger steps. But she can also climb the steps to the sliding board, get in sliding position, and push herself down completely on her own. The only time she needs our help is to get back on the ground. It makes me happy and breaks my heart at the same time because she's such a big girl! I'm so proud of her, but can't believe how fast she's growing :)

She even let me push her on the swings for a while yesterday while she watched the big kids play. She actually doesn't enjoy swinging unless it's in our laps, but yesterday she seemed relaxed. I love looking at that adorable blonde fuzz while she swings :)

After the park, we met daddy for lunch and came home for a nap. We then headed back out to chase bubbles and play with the dogs in the backyard. She had a blast!!

Sorry the back of our house is so ugly, bwhahahahaha!

Daddy then got home and made us burgers. He was greeted with a HUGE Caroline smile and hug. She gives the BEST hugs. Sadly, he had to work again today but he just texted that he's on his way home now. I know a little one that will be very happy to see her daddy when she wakes up from her nap :)

I'm SUPER excited for our two upcoming summer vacations: In May, we're going to Lake Lure in North Carolina with my family. In August, we're going to the Outer Banks with Josh's family. I know a lot of people that are looking forward to the famous Caroline hugs :) Her high fives are getting quite fantastic, as well. I was told by the owner of Caroline's daycare that Caroline's high fives are impressively enthusiastic. 

Also, a shoutout to my BFF-FoodFriend4Life, who had her ADORABLE baby this weekend. Caroline can't wait to meet her future BFF Jack - he's perfectttt :)

Welcome to the Family, Wrangler.

No, I'm not speaking to our dog Wrangler. I'm speaking to our new car Wrangler! The baby is napping and the boy is away so I'm BLOGGING!

Earlier this week we said goodbye to my beloved Jeep Liberty and hello to our new Jeep Wrangler. Despite the fact that the Liberty was my car, Josh has been driving it since the "Incident of 2012" AKA my freaking car catching on fire. We decided it wasn't safe for pregnant Kaitlin and certainly not safe for little Caroline so she only ever rode in it a handful of times. We took the Liberty to a shop earlier this week who told us there was $3,000 in repairs needed. The Jeep dealership was willing to give us a trade in for the Liberty at almost $5,000. We couldn't justify sinking so much money in repairs into a car that wasn't even worth that much, soooo we decided to trade in. I got tears in my eyes saying goodbye to my Liberty. We've been through a lot together and became good friends. It's listed on the Jeep website right now as for sale and that makes me oddly sad. However, with that being said, we made a smart decision. Look at our dramatic photos saying goodbye to our trusty Liberty.

We are such weirdos.

We were torn between a 2014 Jeep Cherokee and a 2012 Jeep Wrangler. Bottom line: we chose the Wrangler because 1) it was $5000 cheaper than the Cherokee, 2) it's admittedly a sexy beast, and 3) it has a fantastic trade-in value so it's a good investment. Funny thing? The day we bought the Wrangler was the same exact day Nissan cashed our last payment for the Altima. Life has a funny way of working out perfectly sometimes. We went from having one car payment to having one car payment which, due to the trade in and down payment, ended up cheaper! Thanks to our good credit, we got fantastic financing! HOORAY RESPONSIBILITY! Here we are right after purchasing our first car together; it's our first car with both of our names on our title and no parental cosigners. HELLO ADULTHOOD!

That bad boy is super fun to drive (though it has blind spots like whoa) and it's surprisingly great on gas mileage (better than the Liberty even). We bought it thinking it would be Josh's car and I would continue ownership of the Altima. However, I have a thing with falling in love with Wranglers I think to be wacko within a day (happened with our dog, Wrangler, too) and I'm pretty sure it's mine. That FSU Law license plate cover is staying on the Altima, and my ODU license cover is going to be proudly displayed on the Jeep. However, Josh is totally allowed to put this on the trailer hitch. I married SUCH A NERD, you guys :)

Sorry I have been a slacker in blogging but I've decided to only blog about the important stuff and not bore you with the, well, boring stuff! Life has been going swell. My new job is awesome; I feel like I finally am in a job that fits me. I have been designing a new website for my company which makes the graphic design, computer nerd in me SO FREAKING HAPPY and my boss is filled with endless compliments. Josh and I are considering using the new Jeep for a weekend camping (in a cabin considering we have a wild toddler staying in a tent is out of the question) or going to St. George Island. I miss home, as always, but I must admit I am SO GLAD that I have not had to deal with the evil winter you guys have been battling. It has been "chilly" here (in Florida terms 58 degrees is FREEZING) and we have truly been enjoying it. Remember everyone, we have a fantastic air mattress and are always, always, always open for visitors :)

LOVE YOU ALL!

A Beautiful Weekend.

Saturday and Sunday were both beautiful for different reasons this weekend.

Saturday was sunny, warm, and perfect. We enjoyed so much time outside. We shopped, we ate outside, we had deck beer while Caroline moved leaves around the deck. It was a perfectly beautiful day.

Sunday was chillier, rainy, and perfect. We enjoyed so much time inside. We watched TV, played with Caroline, and just relaxed as a family. Sometimes when nasty days force you inside, it becomes the best kind of fun. 

That's all the blabbering I actually feel like doing in this blog. We really didn't do much worth noting, so I'm just going to leave you with these adorable pictures from our first perfect day, Saturday. I posted one on Facebook and will show you guys the chaos that surrounded that one photo. Toddlers are crazy little things!

A rare moment of her NOT trying to run into the road.

Mommy, put me down. I wish to play in the road, please.

I'm gonna wiggle my way right out of your arms, mom.

Mommy's solution to crazy baby: get on my shoulders where you cannot run away, little crazy girl.

AHA! A picture of us that isn't crazy!!

And then she tries to crawl over my head to get to the road. That felt GREAT.

Trying to get a picture of wild thing and Joshua… this was the best we got. She would not be still!

The calmest photo of the two of them. I love the outtakes of our otherwise calm looking family photographs.

Unamused Caroline.

So, Caroline and I randomly decided to play with the Photo Booth on my laptop. Clearly, she was not interested (I made the mistake of doing this around her bedtime. Since I don't have anything interesting to actually blog about, please enjoy these hilarious pictures. They're hilarious to me because she was SOOO unamused. Maybe I'll try this one day when she's happy and awake as a follow-up :)

(she only looks amused here because daddy was standing on the other side of my computer)

That sneaky daddy made her smile again.

How this one didn't make her smile is a mystery.

I joined in on the sleepy sadness.

Family portrait (sorry for Josh's upper-nudity)

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! Despite the sadness conveyed in these photos, Caroline actually had a wonderful, happy, fun-filled weekend. In a nutshell: we ate bacon, we took a day trip to Thomasville Georgia, we filed our taxes (our return will pay off the Altima which means no more car payments for us), we chased bubbles, we colored/ate crayons, we cuddled and snuggled, we taught Caroline where her nose is and she loves pointing at it, we discovered Caroline appreciates the magic of grilled cheese and tomato soup, and we had a perfectly wonderful family weekend. Have a wonderful week, everyone!

Oh dear.

Worst blogger ever Kaitlin has abandoned her blog. In my defense, I have been busy since my last day of work celebration post.

The Wednesday and most-of-the-day Thursday following that post were filled with me cleaning the disaster that was our home office! I'm working from home, so I need a productive area to work in. Our office was far from that; it was more of a storage area slash Josh gaming area. I successfully turned it into an office area slash Josh gaming area (hey, when you only have three bedrooms, some rooms need to be hybrids).

Then that Thursday, I flew to DC to spend the weekend with my favorite Rose gals, and see lots of my friends for a super fun event! Us gals had SO MUCH FUN tourist-ing in DC. We went to the National Archives where we chose Allison's tagline for her future Match.com (even though my brain fart mind has forgotten it) (edit: I have been informed by my sister it was "no idiots, criminals, or paupers.") and checked out the hotties that signed the Declaration of Independence. We then had a nice lunch in the art park (I know it has a more formal name, but I want to call it the art park), where we watched people figure skate. Our favorite was the gliding woman who had dramatic hand motions for each movement she made. She's my new hero, that gliding woman. We then made our way over to the National Gallery of Art where I found my new boyfriend (he was nakie… and stone), said "awww" every time we spotted a dog in a painting, and were basically the coolest tourists ever. It's important to note, we ate some fantastic food while in DC - thai food downstairs from my sister's apartment (sushi nom nom nom), tapas a La Tasca in Chinatown (fried zucchini, steak, scallops nom nom nom) complete with a three-round Happy Hour, and an amazing dinner at Clyde's in Chinatown (oysters nom nom nom). It was a wonderful trip and it was so good to spend quality time with my mom and my sister. My husband was awesome enough to watch Caroline in Florida so she didn't have to make the trip to DC. We're lucky girls having a guy willing to do something like that :)

So, I got back Sunday afternoon and started my new job the next morning. I've been trying to be very good about focusing on doing my work and not letting my mind stray (which happens often working from home… so much around the house I could be working on), which is why I haven't blogged. I have a slow morning since I got a lot done yesterday afternoon, so I have a chance to sneak in a quick blog while I drink my coffee. I really like my new job! The people I work with are more "my kind of people" than the ones at my old job. We actually meet up quite often to work together. So far, I've had two coffee meet ups and two breakfast meet ups (free coffee and breakfasts are a job perk, according to my boss.. heck yes!). It's a good way to catch up on work and have social time while chatting with my coworkers. I have probably chatted more with my new boss these last two weeks than I ever did with my old boss the entire three years I worked at my law firm; it's refreshing. Working from home is nice - the animals truly appreciate it. On gorgeous days, I have always wished I could move my desk outside to work. Yesterday, a sunny, 77 degree day, I actually sat on the porch with my laptop for a bit while working on a spreadsheet. YES!

So, in this entry I have been depriving you of the one thing I know everyone really cares about - Caroline!!! I know she's why everyone reads ;) She's doing SO WELL. She is a pro at waving, loves carrying her duck purse around the house and blowing kisses, can now climb on and off of the couch on her own, and is still the tallest toddler at her daycare. She is SO interactive and actually plays games with us now. She likes getting the mail with me. She follows me down the driveway (although never catches up since I walk so much quicker than her), watches me get the mail, and as soon as I close the mailbox she giggles, turns around, and starts walking back up the driveway because she knows our mission is complete. She's still a bath time enthusiast; she likes throwing every bottle in the tub into the water and then placing them back on the ledge. Every time she gets one on the ledge we clap for her, so she claps too and smiles… best game ever. She is SUCH SUCH SUCH a happy little girl. She loves to read (she points at things on the page and goes "dadadadada" (she's obsessed with the "d" sound lately) mimicking how I read to her). She can now put her building blocks together to create things. She's great at her shape sorter. She made friends in the Chickfila play area (she is so social). And her artwork from daycare keeps getting better by the week. I love my toddler SO MUCH.

Here are some Caroline pictures to make your day brighter <3