Julia's first haircut

Well obviously by now we made it to Maine. Actually the trip went pretty well and we made good time. Relatively speaking since we were traveling with two toddlers. We got in on Monday and have been still been pretty busy. I got a new haircut on Tuesday and Julia got hers today. Her first haircut on Grampa's birthday. Guess we'll remember that date easy enough. She was SO GOOD! The girl that cut her used to do mine when I was little, maybe not Julia's age little, but I was pretty young when she first started doing hair. So it was great to be able to take Julia to her today. Julia and I had been talking for a few days about getting her haircut and she must have liked mine yesterday because she wanted hers "just like Mama's" we didn't take hers quite that short but we did take a few inches off and it's basically the same style. I think she's happy with it. She kept asking me this morning if I had been scared when they did mine, to which I of course replied "no" to, and she kept saying "Mama you don't have big hair anymore?" guess she thought it was "big" instead of "Long" lol. She can be so cute. She sat so still and did everything Lori asked her to do. I was so proud of her. We went out for lunch and ice cream afterwards as a special treat. And where was Devyn this whole time?? Why with Grammie and Grampa of course, so nice of them to keep her and give us a little one on one time with Julia.

When we got back to G and G's Rob and Ri were there! Gosh have they grown. So of course I had to have some pics of them playing with the girls. I love my nephews!! They are so good with my kids and so sweet. I miss them so much when we are so far away. Then we all (and by all I mean, G & G, 4 uncles, 2 aunts, 5 cousins and us) went out to dinner to our favorite pizza place up here for Grampa's birthday. It was great visiting with my brothers, teasing each other and the kids, and spending time together and would you believe I had my camera with me and forgot to take it in?? unbelievable I know but it was kind of nice not to think about it for a change and we'll all be together again this weekend so I'll be sure to get pics then.

We are having a great visit, that I know is going to end all too soon, and the girls are starting to adjust to each other better. We've got a long road to go but I can see progress already so I'm hopeful. I noticed today that Devyn has really started to follow Julia around a lot and wants her attention and I think that's a good sign, though Julia hasn't really noticed it yet. But when we went for her haircut she was so worried that we had left Devyn behind. So there's definitely something there. ;)

Not sure if I'll get a chance to post again soon or not, but I'll try. I still can't dropshots working on this computer, I'll try again on Ray's if I have my memory card reader with me. Maybe I'll have better luck that way. I'll let you know when I get it worked out and more pics and videos loaded. For now I have got to get some rest!!

I put Devyn down for a nap today while I finalized some things for our trip and finished packing. Julia I layed down in my room watching TV as I knew she was no where near ready for a nap and wanted to keep an eye on her. By the way, Julia feels the need to strip when she lays down, guess she likes to be comfortable, no matter how many times we've told her she can take a nap in her clothes, nothing doing. Usually we find pj's but as I was busy today, you can plainly see we didn't. So the typical hour passed and Devyn woke up. We heard her over the monitor and I asked Julia to give her a few minutes to see if she was really awake or if she would go back out. So she did, but then she snuck out anyway and I could hear her in Devyn's room talking to her, I figured that was okay because by this time I knew Devyn was up for good anyway. So I listened for a few minutes then I heard a "thud"...oh my.. I was sure Julia had tried taking Devyn out of the crib by herself so I of course went running in to investigate...the above is what I found! LOL. I should have expected as much as Julia has been begging to get in bed with Devyn daily.. of course she wouldn't dream of staying in the crib when it was hers. So what did I do?? Obviously I went running for the camera! Then talked with Julia about how she really shouldn't do that. At least they were playing nice together :) I found a pair of squeaky shoes for Devyn after we did get up!! She was really loving them, I think more than Julia did. I'll have to load that video another time as it's not letting me tonight. Sorry. I tried twice, but I'm beat and really need to get some sleep, long day in the van tomorrow.

A quick stop at the beach

It was a beautiful day today and we had to go to an appointment and couldn't resist taking the scenic route home. The pass is open again so we could drive the island road all the way home. SWEET! So of course we couldn't resist a quick stop for some pictures. This was Devyn's first stop at the beach. You can see she was not quite sure what to think of walking on the sand, then she wanted to taste the sand! ICK! I'm sure we'll have her acting like a true beach baby in no time at all. You can also see that Julia is quick to make sure Devyn is sharing Daddy.

One quick comment

Just had to share a moment with you before I headed to bed. Got my first real kisses from Devyn tonight!! As I may have mentioned, she is not a kissy, huggy kind of kid. As a matter of fact she is very much the opposite and does not care to be cuddled very often at all. So this is a BIG deal, as we are a very kissy-huggy-lovey kind of family. Tonight after her bath, Daddy brought her to me to lotion, get pjs and settled. Well we have been working on kissing for a while now and I will make a big deal about making the "MMMMMuah" sound..lol.. so tonight when I stood her up, she closed her mouth and started making the MMMMMuah sound and kissed ME!!! And then we played this game for quite awhile!! I was loving that she let me that close to her and that SHE initiated it!!! This was going on while Daddy was bathing Julia so no pics or videos to share of it. But I'm sure it won't be the last time. :)

Please keep us in your prayers, this adjustment is very hard for Julia in particular and right now I feel like I've had to be more referee than Mom. We are working our way through it and I'm making the extra effort to let her know that our love for her has NOT changed at all but that Devyn needed a family too. Big concepts for her little mind to grasp. We definitely have had some rough spots each day. Good spots too of course, a rare moment captured above, but lots of bickering and not wanting to share going on. The things we expected really, but expecting them doesn't necessarily make them easier to handle. I'm sure we'll get through it and her sweet personality will win out but just keep her in your prayers through the transition. Thanks!

Dropshots

Okay, so the rest of the pics are currently loading at Dropshots. Just one problem, you'll have to wade back through every thing you already looked at to find the videos, but they are there too. There are definitely some that are worth the effort. For instance, Devyn eating a frozen lemonade, priceless, there is also one I took from the Celebration Street Party at Magic Kingdom, Julia actually slept through this (I have no idea how, but she did)and we were feeding Devyn when it started. If you watch the video closely you will see Devyn's belly going to the beat, it was TOO FUNNY but you have to watch close because I only caught her on video once doing it. Again, I haven't had too much time to do a lot of editing or cropping, did a few, but not much, so not all the pictures are great, but they give you a pretty good idea of what was going on. Enjoy.

Just a few quick pics

No sorry, I don't have more pics or videos loaded yet, but thought you might like to see a random assortment of our day at Magic Kingdom. It was one heck of a day with lots of up, and a few downs and two very tired parents by the time we left the park at 10 pm. I promise to try to sort through all the pictures, videos and my thoughts and have more for you later. For now, just wanted to say, that yes we made it home, no we haven't really recovered yet, and nope, not going back any time soon. Next time I want the cruise where we can drop the kids off to have fun and Mama and Daddy actually get to find some place to relax too! LOL. yeah right. ;)

Princesses and oh so much more

Finally a few moments to blog! We've been go,go,go and Mama has been much too tired at night to try to mess with the computer. But we did Animal Kingdom today and since it closes early we thought we would head back to the hotel pool to cool down a bit before dinner.. no such luck, Julia passed out just before getting to the hotel (over an hour ago) and has yet to wake up. Then Devyn too went down, so we are likely in for another late night. Guess we wore them right out.

We started out getting here very late on Tuesday night, didn't much care for the hotel we had picked, so got up Wednesday morning,met Miss Kim, Jaiden and Jared, had breakfast and then went looking for a new hotel. No worries, we got one just up the street and still had a great rate. So it's all good. By then the girls needed naps, due to the late night before, so we rested and then met up with Miss Kim again and went to see Fantasmic at Hollywood Studios. Julia LOVED it! I started to worry when I remembered just what the story was and how many villians were in it that Julia would get scared.. nothing doing..she would shout out "Mama look it's the Evil Queen!" or "the dragon!" or whatever and I kept telling her that Mickey was having a bad dream, but that it was okay, because it was MICKEY'S dream and he could change it back to a Good dream" this seemed to work for her as there have been no nightmares here all week. I asked her on the way out if the show was too scary for her and she replied "no Mama I LIKED it!" that's my girl! I did feel bad that I hadn't remembered enough of the show to warn Kim though. I think Jaiden may have been a little scared.:( Devyn was fine as long as the food did not run out. We are finding that this girl has quite the temper and appears very used to getting her own way. Despite that the little imp is such a cutie I can almost understand it. LOL. Daddy has now nicknamed her "stitch!" and it's frighteningly accurate! But really for all the changes and headng right to Disney World, she's actually doing pretty good. This would not have been the ideal to come, but with all the delays, and uncertainity we didn't feel we could plan to come earlier, and with Daddy set to leave us this fall, we were kind of running out of time. We just feel very strongly that Julia is at the perfect stage to do this right now and it would not have been fair to her to miss out this year. I have to say, she is proving us right.

I was a bit nervous that besides the Princesses, she would be excited to meet the characters but get shy when it was actually time.. remember Santa Claus?? But no fear of that, she runs right up and hugs them all! We did Epcot yesterday, mostly just our Princess lunch, walked around the world showcase and then to Nemo and the Sea.. she loved all of it!! Devyn tolerated it, but was actually very good through the lunch and also smiled and waved at the Princesses. Daddy and Devyn skipped Turtle Talk with Crush but Julia and I had so much fun. Defintely not to be missed!

Today, we did Animal Kingdom. We did the Bug's Life show, Julia was not so sure of that one, she's not really fond of bugs, but she did like the butterfly coming right up to us. We took the trail through Asia, saw some tigers (of course, Mama never misses the tigers;) and then went to Camp Mickey and Minnie, great place to meet Mickey and Minnie, we opted for Minnie and then got in line to see the Lion King festival. This was a bit of a wait and hard for the girls but once the show started they were both mesmerized. Devyn's little feet were just kickin' to the music and Julia was in awe of the acrobatics! After that we had lunch, and then decided to find a shady place to watch the parade. The parade was priceless. Julia's arm never stopped waving and once she realized the characters would come over for a hug if you were close enough to the rope, you better believe she was down and standing next to that rope! She also noticed that an older little girl next to us was getting a lot of attention because she was dancing to the music.. so of course little Miss Julia was NOT to be out done and started dancing too! It was hilarious! I think we have some video of that, we'll get that loaded after we get home! After the parade we hiked into Africa for the safari, because we had after all promised Julia animals, we hit it at the perfect time and walked right on the ride. She had a blast and even Devyn was growling in Daddy's lap! LOL.

SO.. you can see why I have two very tired little girls tonight. I've actually shared much more than I intended to, what else is new huh? But since they were asleep I actually have the moment to collect my own thoughts. That seems rare with two these days. Tomorrow we are going to brave the crowds and do Magic Kingdom, we are meeting up with Miss Kim, Jaiden and Jared again for that. It will be good to see them again and talk some more. We haven't had much time since we had decided that we were going to Disney this trip after all. Jaiden by the way is such a cutie, her and Julia seem to get along fine, but I think maybe Jaiden and I have hit it off better. She was so funny while we were waiting for Fantasmic the other night, she would randomly come over and kiss my arm to get my attention. SO CUTE! Jared is such a sweetie and seems like he is trying so hard to be a help to his mom on this trip and be a good big brother and that's not always an easy thing to do. Julia is learning how hard it is to be a good big sister but mostly she's doing pretty good.

I'm not sure if I can get the rest of the pictures onto dropshots from this lap top or not, but if I can that's where they will be. I don't think I have the videos here, like I said, I'll do those from home next week. Take care all. From Orlando...