Snow Day!

Well we definitely didn't get as much snow as they were expecting but it was enough. The girls and all got all bundled up with about 4-5 layers of clothing each and headed out to explore. Claire was so excited to try out her new sled that she got from grandma and grandpa for Christmas. We took it across the street to our neighbors house and had a great time using the hill in their backyard. The sled is really fast, Claire's first go at it had her flying down the hill into the creek. Luckily she didn't get scared by it and wanted to keep going (but with one of the bigger kids to slow her down). Paige didn't care too much for the whole experience as you will tell from the pictures. She liked it better last year when she was 7 months or so and just sat in it and laughed. Oh well next year they will both love sledding and hopefully Claire will be big enough to stop herself and Paige from going into the creek. :)

Breaking Point

That's it I am officially at the end of my rope. My girls are driving me absolutely CRAZY!! Every minute of my day I have at least one of them with me. I don't know how many times I have heard "that is sweet, they love their mommy." Well, we all need some me time from time to time and I can't remember the last time I had some. Now if you call staying up until midnight reading than yes, but then I am just exhausted the next day and that isn't much fun for the girls or me.

I use to count down the minutes until Cory walked in the door from work thinking I would finally get some relief. However, it doesn't matter if he is home they still want mommy. Don't get me wrong the girls love their daddy and are happy to see him and might go off with him for 15 minutes if I am lucky. Then they are right back by my side whining for me to hold them or to sit on my lap. At bedtime they want me to brush their teeth, me to read the books and me to put them to bed! Now please realize that I don't hold any of this against Cory because I know he is more than willing to help out and do the bedtime routine, but then the melt downs start. This than causes me even more stress then causing me to step in and just do it so they will go to sleep and I might get some quiet time.

I am in definite need of a vacation. Up until recently I didn't understand how moms could leave their kids for a week. If someone asked me to go with them on a trip I would jump at the chance. Anyone, Anyone?? If nothing else I think I might just need a girls night out with a few, okay maybe a lot of cocktails. I have gotten to the point that I am just so tired and overwhelmed that I don't feel like a fun mom anymore. I miss the warm weather and being able to go to the park, Zoo or Grant's Farm. I mean come on if it is going to be this darn cold, in the 20's, than at least let's get some snow out of it and be able to go outside and have some fun!!

Oh well at least I have a meeting for work on Monday that I get to go to for 2 hours. I will be able to drive in the car with the radio blaring listening to music and singing along without being interrupted and having my ear talked off the whole way. And on Tuesday I am getting together with a bunch of moms from Claire's preschool class so we can drink coffee, eat bagels and just talk. It is always nice to hear that other moms feel the same way that you do. Okay sorry that you all had to read my whining and complaining but I do feel better that I got to get all this off my chest. I love my girls more than I could ever imagine possible but some times all moms need a break right??

Update!

I know that I have been bad at blogging lately and it is all Stephenie Meyer's fault. For those of you who don't know who that is, she is the author to the "Twilight" book series. My neighbor was nice enough to loan me the first 3 books of the series (there are 4 total) and I have not been able to put them down. So many friends warned me not to start because I would get sucked right in. I didn't listen to the warnings thinking to myself they can't be any better than the "Harry Potter" series and I was able to put them down without too much trouble. WRONG!! I am completely addicted to these books. I started reading them last Wednesday and I am already half way through book 3 (Kelli whenever you are done with the 4th book I will gladly take it off your hands). I have been staying up to 12am or 1am reading these books knowing very well that my children will be up and ready to start their day in about 6 hours but I just can't stop! As soon as I get Paige down for her nap in the afternoon and get Claire preoccupied with something, I have the book open just hoping to get at least an hour of reading in. I keep telling myself to slow down and enjoy them because once I am done there is no more. It doesn't help I can't slow down there are SO many questions. What happens with Edward and Bella, does she stay mortal or become a vampire, do Edward and Jacob end up fighting over Bella and if they do who wins?? And of course I want to know if Edward and Bella end up taking their relationship to the next level so to speak. Now for those of you who have read the series, please don't answer any of my questions even though you already know how it turns out. I am dying to see the movie and think that I am going with my dad this Sunday to see it! I feel kind of silly, here I am a 31 year old mom of 2 being completely obsessed with books there where written for teenagers, oh well I am over it.

So here is a quick run down on what has been happening with the Montgomery's over the past week or so!

I have preschool registration for Claire this coming Saturday and I am trying to decide if I want/should put her in the 3 days a week program or 4. I would like to get her in the M,W,F morning class and then put Paige in the M,W class as well. I don't know what I will do with myself for 2.5 hours twice a week but I am sure I will find something to occupy my time. For all those moms out there who told me that they disagree with the saying "terrible 2's" and they think that it is more appropriate to say "terrible 3's" I agree with you 100%. Claire has been testing the boundaries A LOT lately and I am about to lose my mind with this daughter of mine. She is definitely coming into her own and discovering that she has her own thoughts and ideas for things and isn't afraid to express them. Just yesterday I packed her lunch for school (Tues. is her long day so she stays for lunch) she always has the same thing, butter sandwich (yes I know), string cheese, chips, and a juice. Some days I will pack some raisins or pudding as well. When she got in the car after school she started telling me that the cheese I gave her was gross (I had gotten it from Target instead of the grocery store, but is there really a difference, according to both Cory and Claire there is) and that she threw it away and that I had given her the wrong kind of juice so she didn't drink it and had water instead. I did run out of her favorite juice but still had some from awhile ago that according to Claire is strawberry flavored and gross! I mean come on for the love of god, what happened for being thankful for what you are given. We had to have a talk about that, but honestly as hard headed and opinionated as she is I really think it just went in one ear and out the other.

Paige has a new word/phrase to her vocabulary everyday and has become quite the little snuggler. Her latest is "shake your booty", "no more" and she loves to tell us to "stop" doing something that she doesn't like. Example being that she just told Claire to stop singing, guess she doesn't care for it to much! Yesterday while we were in the car waiting in the carpool line to get Claire from school, I was trying to read my book (big surprise) and she was telling me to tickle her, too cute! The two of us are starting an 8 week class at My Gym tomorrow and I am sure she is going to LOVE it. Anytime a song comes on that has a good beat to it she just starts dancing and running all around. She will come into the office and try to turn the computer speakers on saying "I dance, you mommy" she loves to dance. I can't believe she is 21 months already, before I know it April will be here and I will be planning her 2nd birthday. Oh my baby is growing up way to fast!!

I meant to watch the inauguration yesterday and was total off on my times. I thought it started at noon but to my surprise it started at 11am. I totally missed Obama mess up on his oath but did hear it on the radio. Can you imagine how nervous he must have been I mean HELLO how many of millions of people were watching! I did turn it on around 2:30pm when the parade was starting and Claire asked what I was watching. I thought to myself how to explain this whole process to a 3 year old but to my surprise they had watch some of it at school and she already knew that we were watching the new President of the United States. I am sure she had no idea what that meant but at least I didn't have to rack my brain as to what to say to her. I was curious to see if he was going to walk the last part of the parade route like all the presidents have in the past. I know that they were very concerned about his well being as they are with all the presidents, but with him being the first African American in office the risk was even higher. I was very pleased to see that he and Michelle did walk the last leg as all the presidents have in the past. I was sad to see George Bush get on the plane and way good bye. I wondered what he must have been feeling at the moment. I am sure his emotions were running high with sadness and relief.
I started my diet last week and lost 5 lbs. This week hasn't been going as well and I am actually feeling dizzy today I wonder if the lack of food is starting to take a toll on my body. I am sure that the fact that I am sleep deprived isn't helping any either.

I realize that I haven't mentioned anything about Cory but there really isn't anything to report. He is busy with work and doing great! He makes us all laugh on a daily basis especially when we are watching American Idol.

Well that is it for us here at the Montgomery's, so much for a quick update! I will try to be a better blogger in the up coming days but I can't promise anything until I am finished with the series. :)

Lunch with Dad

Yesterday the girls and I went downtown to have lunch with Cory. Claire was SO excited she has been wanting to go since before I broke my foot. Poor thing knew that we couldn't go until my foot was all better and that day had finally come! I packed up lunch for both the girls in Claire's princess lunch box which she was all excited to show everyone and we were city bound. We haven't been down since Cory got his new office and the whole CDG (customer development group) department moved to a different building. We had a really nice lunch and then walked around to see the building, etc. We met quite a few ladies that all work right around Cory's office. It was very interesting for Cory and I to see Claire and Paige interact with the women. Claire was pretty quite and shy where Paige was sitting in the middle of the floor being a total ham..... If anything Cory and I both thought that Paige would have been the shy/quite one and Claire more outgoing, it was just the opposite. We ended up staying for a little over and hour and then headed home. Cory told Claire that we can come back in the spring to feed the fish (Purina has a HUGE Koi pond)and see some dogs out playing in the dog yard. When Cory got home from work Claire told him thank you for letting us to see him at work and asked how much longer until spring would be here!

Claire wanted to wear her pink necklace for daddy!

Paige saying "cheese"

Cory takes a lot of Claire's art projects to work and hangs them on his wall

Daddy and his girls!

My Sweet Claire

Cory and I let Claire stay up with us last night and watch the first hour or so of American Idol. She absolutely LOVED spending the time with just the two of us, we had ice cream and a lot of laughs. I warned Claire before we started watching the show that daddy was going to laugh a lot. Well my warning was correct and any of you who know Cory well know his loud cackle which is very contagious. As we were watching the show Claire said a few things that were too cute. There was a young man that tried out toward the very beginning and his hair was very different??? As Cory was laughing at his singing/dancing/hair flopping around, Claire was just mesmerized by how much hair he had and how curly it was. She turned to me and said "wow, he has curly hair like me, but mines not so big". I told her that she is lucky that she has pretty curly hair and also lucky that she doesn't have as much as that man. Then she wanted to know how he got his hair to stand up so high and be so bouncy. One of the first conversations that Claire and I had this morning was about that man on the show last night with the crazy hair!!
A little later in the show they were showing clips of some of the auditions that they had that were bad and one of them was a quick clip of a black women who was very overweight and had on a really short shirt so you saw a lot of her stomach. When Cory saw her is said "oh lord", Claire turns to him and said "don't say oh lord daddy it is okay I think she is just having a baby". Isn't it fun to see the world through a toddlers eyes, they are still so non influenced by the world and naive.

Back on the Wagon

Well today is the day that I am getting back on my diet. After I had Paige back in April of 07 I went on a major diet starting in July and by Jan. of 08 I had lost 40 lbs.... I wanted to lose another 15-20 but was just happy that I was maintaining the weight that I had lost and hadn't gained any back. That was until this fall/winter when I fell and broke my foot. Back in October I broke two bones in my foot making it so that I could no longer go to the gym. I was very upset knowing that I would start to gain my weight back. I was fine until the holidays hit, over Thanksgiving I gained about 3-5 lbs and then another 5 over Christmas, so 10 total. Even though my doctor has not released me to start back to the gym until February 1st I can still start watching what I am eating now. So starting today Monday, January 12th Cory and I have started a competition to see who can lose 10 lbs first. I know, I know everyone keeps telling me that I am crazy for making this bet with my husband because everyone knows that men lose weight a lot faster than women. However, starting in two weeks I will be going back to the gym and Cory doesn't go to the gym because he is too tired by the time he gets home from work. So yes, he may have an advantage for the next few weeks but then we should be on a pretty even playing field. I will keep you all posted as to how we are doing and who meets the goal of 10 lbs first....
I want to go ahead and apologize now to anyone that I may be crabby to over the next week or so. After all my body is going to be wondering what the he** I am doing to it and I am going to be STARVING!!

Diapers, Diapers and More Diapers!

I am so done changing dirty diapers. Over the past 3 days I kid you not I have changed 7 dirty diapers and it is only 1pm on day 3. I realize that letting Paige eat Cinnamon Raisin Bread and Grapes both in the same day is just asking for trouble, but come on!! Last night she had a major blow out, thank god we were heading for the bath when I realized it. How do you explain to a 20 month old that she can't eat her favorite bread or fruit because you are tired of the smell and clean up??

Life without the mini van

I had to take the Sienna into the dealership on Monday because the driver side door has been making this horrible popping sound. I found out back in December when I took it in for an oil change that there has been a recall on this exact thing due to something breaking inside the door. They told me that it would just be a 1 day job and they could give me a loaner car.
Monday morning the girls and headed over to drop off the van for our 9am appointment and might I add that we got there at exactly 9, yeah me!! Anyway we head inside signed the forms for the loaner saying that I have car insurance and that none of my children will be driving the car (gee I don't know Claire might take it for a spin with the neighbor kids)..and head out to see what kind of car they are loaning us. I was a little hesitant as to what car I would receive thinking it was going to be small and impossible to get around with two little ones. Much to my surprise they gave me a 2008 Camry. It is very nice and I had a flashback to about a year and a half ago when I had my Camry before we got the Sienna. Getting around with just Claire in the Camry was okay but I just knew that with Paige we would need more space. I thought this would be a good opportunity to see if my theory of needing a bigger car with more room was correct and IT WAS!! Today is day 3 of a 1 day job mind you and I am ready for my van back. I miss being able to walk toward the car hit the unlock and door open buttons so by the time we have reached the van the side door has opened and the girls can just crawl right up inside and get into their seats. I miss Claire being able to get out of her seat once we have gotten to our destination and hitting the button to open her door all by herself. I miss having all the extra storage space in the very back for my groceries and stroller. Don't get me wrong the Camry has a really nice size truck, but I couldn't fit my double stroller in it today when we went to the mall, I had to take the single and Claire had to walk/jog beside me....
At first Claire was all excited about the Camry and was telling everyone that we got a new car, yeah one with huge writing on the back window that says "Seeger Toyota Courtesy Car". I kept telling her that we were only going to have this car for a few days until my van was fixed but she insisted that we keep it for a few weeks. However, today when we were on our way home from the mall she told me that she didn't like that car anymore and was ready for us to get the van back. Could it be that she can't get the door open by herself from the inside or out? Maybe that she can't see out the window because both she and Paige are so low down in the seat? I agree 100% and am going to call this afternoon to see what the hold up is. I mean come on you can't tell a mom that it is only going to be a 1 day job and turn it into to 3 or 4 don't they understand they are taking away one of the few things that makes my life SO much easier............

Happy New Year!!

Happy 2009, we decided to celebrate by staying in and having some of our friends over for dinner and drinks, we had a really nice time and even managed to stay up until midnight! After we had dinner and dessert and the girls were in bed we decided to bring out the board game "Party Lines". It is a great game and for those of you who haven't played it, you really should give it a try. We had so much fun laughing at each others answers, it was a great way to start off the new year. We watched the ball drop in New York at both their midnight and ours. We also heard fireworks that we going off near by. I hope everyone has a GREAT 2009.