Thursday, July 21, 2011

Kerriann needs your help!

Most of our friends and family (and blog readers) have either seen my posts about My Gym on here, or have heard me talk about it.  Going to My Gym is one of Kerriann's favorite activities and I'm so thankful that we have one about 20 minutes from our condo.


Our local My Gym is currently holding a photo contest and I'd really appreciate your support in helping us win!  The winner gets two free months at My Gym (a $150 value) which would be a HUGE help to us financially.  Second place gets one free month ($75 value), and third place gets two weeks free.

Kerriann told me that all she wants for her second birthday from all my readers is to win this contest!  So please, visit THIS LINK, click "Like" at the top of the page to like My Gym Bel Air on Facebook, and then "Like" my photo of Kerriann on their wall (she's wearing the pink top, white shorts, and Daddy's boots).

Thank you so much in advance for your support!  Currently the top photo has 39 likes so that's the number to beat!

Monday, July 18, 2011

POOLesville

On Friday Kerriann and I took a little trip to Poolesville to visit Kevin's aunts and a couple of his cousins.  It's so nice having them semi-close (2 hours... that's close for us haha).  First we went to Julie's and met their new pet bunny, Daisy, for the first time!  Kerriann wasn't very interested in petting Daisy at first, but she slowly started to warm up to her.

After that we stopped to get some lunch, Subway for the adults and a Happy Meal for Kerriann, and then headed to the pool.


This pool was amazing compared to our pool here in Bulle Rock!  Our pool here is very new and clean, but this pool was actually geared towards kids which was great.



Kerriann had a great time playing in the gradual incline pool and going down three different types of slides.  She even learned how to go down backwards which was her favorite.



Marisa and Katie took turns sending her down from the top of the slide and I caught her at the bottom.  These slides were pretty fast and she loved going down them.  This girl has no fear when it comes to the water!


This smaller slide was in the baby pool and she could do it all by herself.  She would slide down either the normal way or on her tummy and then run around and go up the stairs as Julie supervised.  These slides were much more exciting than they look in the photos (which by the way, were taken all by Patty and they are SO GREAT...thank you so much for documenting our day at the pool!).


All of the girls were reminiscing about the times that they spent at this very pool when they were younger.  It was so funny to hear their stories.


I would love to live in Poolesville one day and take advantage of this awesome pool (hint, hint, Kevin...).  And not only did they have four pools, but they also had a great playground inside of the pool gates that Kerriann loved playing on as well.


It was hard to get Kerriann out of the water when it was time to go home.  She lasted a good 2 hours before we decided that it was just too cold for her.  She was shivering but she did not want to leave the pool!


I'm really looking forward to taking her back a few more times this summer.  Hopefully Kevin will be able to join us the next time!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Forsyth Nature Center

Last Monday before we left Kevin's parents, we checked out Forsyth Nature Center in Kingston.  It was really hot so we didn't stay for long, but I think Kerriann really enjoyed seeing the animals (especially the peacock-her favorite) and the pretty flowers!









Friday, July 15, 2011

Lake George: Day 2

Our second day at Lake George was a lot like our first.


We got up early, and then headed back out onto the lake for some more boating!



We anchored at one of the bays again and hung out for a few hours...


...And then had lunch at a restaurant right on the water.  I'm not sure what the name of the place was, but I will say that a few of us were very unsatisfied with our meals, unfortunately.  We ordered the chef's special wrap of the day, and the avocado was bad or something.  Such a letdown!  We originally wanted to eat lunch at the Sagamore, a gorgeous resort on Lake George, but we had bad luck there as well.  We docked our boat and waited almost half an hour for a shuttle to pick us up to take us up to the resort, and in the end we just decided it wasn't worth wasting any more time.  I guess it just wasn't our day!





Overall the weekend was amazing!  It was so great to spend time with Marshall and his family, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect.  Kevin and I are both looking forward to the day when we can go back again.  We actually joked about going back while Kevin is on R&R during his deployment next summer... we'll see! ;)

Momma In Focus: Orange


This week's theme is orange... Kerriann's bathing suit has some orange in it... see?


Alright, so I didn't have time to get creative, but at least I still got a few shots with her this week!  These were taken by Kevin's Aunt Patty at the pool earlier today.  I have a lot more cute ones of Kerriann to share soon!

One Day At A Time

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

My blog is in desperate need of some sort of extreme makeover.  I have no clue what to do other than change my header.  Obviously I have been in the wrong season for some time now.  Any of my fellow bloggers have any sites I can check out that might give me some advice or ideas for how to re-vamp my page?

Thanks in advance!!!

Lake George 2011: Day 1

Over the weekend Kevin and I had the privilege of joining his close friend, Marshall, and his family in Lake George, NY.  Marshall's family goes there every year for a week long vacation and Kevin has been wanting to take me there since we met (and since the last time he joined them in '06).


We drove to Kevin's parent's house on Friday night so they could watch Kerriann while we were away.  When we arrived late that night they surprised Kerriann with a kitchen set and a few other new (to her) toys that she loved!  Seeing her so excited to play made me feel a lot better about leaving her.  We left pretty early the next morning and I think the first few hours were the hardest on me.  After that I got used to the feeling of being away from her and started to relax more.  I know that Kevin and I NEED to take time away every now and then, and I didn't want to miss out on the enjoyment of the trip.  I just kept reminding myself that she was in great hands and allowed myself to start having fun!




We cruised around on the boat, anchored and had a few drinks, had appetizers at a restaurant right on the water, and enjoyed a delicious dinner prepared by Marshall's mom and grandmother that night.





While we were on the lake, we saw a few interesting boat names, including this one that reminded us of all of the drama going on lately with the Casey Anthony trial...."Knot Guilty."


The other main "excitement" of the day was Kevin coming very close to losing his wedding ring.  He and Marshall were playing football in the water and all of a sudden Kevin noticed that he was no longer wearing it.  Marshall volunteered to go back to the boat and get goggles and a snorkel, meanwhile the rest of us on the boat were clueless.  Kevin tried to discourage him because he thought they'd never find it, but as they were getting ready to give up and come back to the boat, Kevin spotted something silver glistening in the sand under the water.  IT WAS HIS RING!  Seriously, him finding it was probably a one in a million chance.  Someone was looking out for him that day!

As the rest of us were sitting on the boat, we saw them jumping for joy and yelling about finding something, but we thought they were just playing a trick on us... haha!

More to come on day 2!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Wordless Wednesday

And a photo challenge... I'm entering this into Allie Photography's challenge for a photo of "Something Patriotic."


I know this might be a stretch to some, but I think a cute photo of a little girl in her daddy's Army boots is pretty patriotic, even though it lacks red, white and blue! ;)

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Shutter Love Tuesday Winner!

So I have a million other things I SHOULD be doing right now besides blogging, but I have a small announcement to make.  I know this might not be nearly as exciting to anyone else as it is to me, but I want to share it anyways.  You might have noticed over the past few months that I've been entering into "photo challenges" or whatever you would like to call them.  I don't have a lot of time to enter these, but sometimes I see a theme and think of a specific photo and can't help but enter.  Anyways, for the first time one of my photos was chosen as a winner!





Click HERE if you'd like to see the proof, and check out the other winners!  My photo was chosen as #8, which I think is pretty cool considering 8 is my lucky number (and Kevin's)!  I'd love to participate in this week's challenge, but the theme is "Just for Kids" and I don't think KA is quite old enough to participate yet, as much as she loves to pretend to take photos just like Mommy and Daddy!

Friday, July 8, 2011

Momma In Focus Friday



This week's Momma In Focus theme is:  Patriotic.  I wish I had some really cute shots of Kerriann modeling her 4th of July outfit, but that is just not the case.  The above photo is from when we were searching for locations for Kerriann's birthday party over the weekend.  She was not in the mood to pose with me, apparently, though I didn't notice she was holding her hand out like that until I put this on the computer hahah!  I hope one day she will enjoy posing with me!


One Day At A Time


Next week's theme is orange so I'm going to have to get creative!  Any ideas?

Kerriann is 23 months (video)

On Sunday Kerriann turned 23 MONTHS!  This is the last "monthly update" that I will probably ever make.  Once you hit 24 months, you have to actually start counting years and half years. :(  I can't believe we are almost at that point!  A little less than one month and we will have a two year old.  It's sad, but at the same time I am really loving the stage she is in now (for the most part).


I'm going to include a video of Kerriann from a few days ago.  She has recently discovered this video on YouTube called "Elmo's Got the Moves" and she is obsessed with it.  It's really short and she asks to watch it over and over again.  When we turn it on her eyes light up and she starts dancing around the room.  This video isn't even her best dancing to it, but you know it's hard to get her to cooperate once the video camera is on (aka my old camera so sorry for the bad quality).  So click the link below to watch the video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAOCg6ahjmI&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

If you want to read what she was doing last month at 22 months, click this link.  I don't want to retype everything so I am just going to include a few new things in this post.

She has started using "I" and "My" example:  "I want to wear this," "My shoes"

Some of Kerriann's favorite activities are:
Going to the beach
Swimming at the pool
Coloring
My Gym class

She is learning more of her colors and can sometimes name blue, pink, purple, yellow, red, blue, and orange.

She loves nail polish and points out when other women are wearing it.  She also likes to name the color they are wearing!

Some of her current favorite foods are:
Bananas
Cheese sticks
Goldfish crackers
Veggie sticks
Cookies (who started giving her these?  she keeps asking for them!)
Peaches
Strawberries


I have officially started planning Kerriann's 2nd birthday bash!  I'm trying not to go overboard, but it's SO HARD!  The party will take place on August 6th at a park close by.  Cross your fingers for a warm (but not hot) and sunny Saturday.  I'm hoping to get the invitations made and sent out in the next week.