Here is the truth…I hate when I am so busy that I don’t have time to blog right after an event.  Ultimately what ends up happening is that I still find it important to include the event in my blog, but it becomes more of a chore as each day passes and brings me further away from the event.  So I sit here on a Tuesday night (granted it will probably be the end of the week before I finish my blog) on my couch, laptop on my lap, under DJ (the name of our comforter that I have had since I was 10, which “happened” to be the same comforter that D.J. Tanner from Full House (who I wanted to be by the way) had) and I attempt to write my blog.  Justin is out of town and Avery and Emerson have come in my room at least six times in the past two hours since I put them to bed so I’ll be lucky if I finish this paragraph before I fall asleep on the couch.

So October….October 5 Justin and I woke up at 3:45 a.m. to make our 6:00 a.m. flight to TURKS and CAICOS!  We had wanted to go away just the two of us for our 5 year anniversary.  Well Harper came along and was 6 weeks old at the time of our 5 year anniversary.  We figured we would do something for our 6 year anniversary instead. That too didn’t happen as we had just moved and were trying to figure out our financial situation with our mortgage and expenses.  Naturally we figured we would do something for our 7 year anniversary instead and when spring came around this year, we actually started planning for it. I had seen pics of Turks and Caicos beaches the past few years and while I knew we wanted to go to the Caribbean for this trip, I thought Turks and Caicos was out of my league.   But once we started planning, we quickly realized that Turks and Caicos was the place for us.  I even bought a skimpy one piece, if there is such a thing.  I’ve reached a point in my life where my time for wearing two pieces is over….the last time I wore I two piece I rocked it…we were in Greece in 2010…I was 30 years old and not once did I think to myself that that would be the last time I would wear a two piece.  Since then I’ve been wearing mom bathing suits…yes, one’s with a little skirt portion at the bottom….cute but certainly a mom bathing suit. I feel great about my body now, with the exception of my stomach and my boobs, which I have a lot of excess skin:(.  Anyway, I didn’t want to wear a mom bathing suit to Turks and Caicos and while I did bring one bikini that I wore once in seclusion, I found a hot one piece that certainly wasn’t your ordinary one piece.  I figured I have many years ahead of me to continue wearing my mom bathing suit.

We spent 5 days/4 nights in pure luxury.  Our upgrade to a 1500 suite was more space than we knew what to do with especially considering we spent most our time outside.  The beaches were breathtaking.  The trip there was actually quite easy and we were at the hotel by 1:00.  Justin and I just looked at each other with the same thought, which was “why don’t we do this more often”?  Literally once we were there it just seemed so easy. 

We spent plenty of time at the beach…

We spent some time at the pool…..there were more kids at the resort that I would have liked and a few of them were being loud and I was trying to relax thus I wrapped the towel around my head (my legs were slightly burned thus the towel around my legs).  Justin thought I looked  like Aunt Jemima!

We went to the Local Fish Fry Thursday night via the beach!  I ate a lot of fish tacos and conch while there. 

We went out to eat three times for dinner…twice to the same restaurant which was just a short walk on the beach….once to a sister restaurant of the hotel where we were staying.

We did a snorkeling excursion and saw some of the most beautiful beach scenery that I have ever seen before.  It was breathtaking.

And of course we had fun just being silly and trying to re-create a picture that we took on our first real trip together to Mexico in 2007.

While I missed the kids, I was completely okay with being away from them.  I knew they were in good hands and it was nice to truly be able to relax, get some good sleep, connect with Justin, and not have to worry about work, making dinner or lunches, doing laundry, putting kids to bed, or doing laundry.

The week after we got back, we met with “Bridgette” who two weeks earlier had done a family portrait session of our family.  We had never done family pictures before and while it was pricy, I knew that this was something not only would I not regret, but something I wanted to do periodically to capture our awesome loving family through the years.  We ended up buying 20 digital images in addition to the two canvases we bought. We’ve slowly been blowing them up and putting them around the house…our house is truly becoming a home and I love it. Here are some of the images that we purchased (primarily the ones we haven’t put up around the house…yet)!

We had the photo session on our anniversary actually and it was really special….Justin and I have been together for almost 15 years, married for 7, and we have three beautiful little girls.  I feel so blessed and these pictures capture our love for life and one another.

In mid-October we took the girls to the Reston Pumpkin Patch, where they had fun jumping in the moon bounce, playing on the slide, going for a ride on the train, and doing funny poses for the camera.

The following weekend in October we went to visit GiGi, which I blogged about separately.

Then the last weekend in October was Halloween!  The girls changed their minds on what they wanted to be almost daily, if not more, for weeks leading up to Halloween.  I finally let it stop bothering me as I realized they were having fun with it and I realized that we had quite a few dress up clothes that I could work with to come up with a handful of last minute costume ideas. 

In the end, Avery was a witch…although she didn’t want to wear her hat, or use her broom.  Emerson was Belle from Beauty and the Beast.  And Harper was Anna from Frozen.  My sister and Gabo were visiting from London and they joined in the Halloween celebration.  By the way, they are ENGAGED!!

Halloween fell on a Saturday this year and since we had been so busy the week before, we hadn’t yet had a chance to carve our pumpkins.  My idea was to carve them Saturday with my sister and Gabo.  There was definitely more basketball and soccer playing occurring than there was pumpkin carving.

Justin carved all three of them though….mostly by himself….

Apparently Avery was less than impressed with his pumpkin carving skills….

She carried a pumpkin…

As Emerson played ball in the street with Lauren and Gabo…

Lauren was practicing her mad basketball skills….I must say I was impressed…I think she is a better dribbler at age 33 then she was at age 12!

The girls got dressed and we took a few pictures of everyone including Ludmilla before she went off to her bar crawl.

We failed to get individual pictures of the girls this year….truthfully I was way less stressed about us getting ready then last year so I don’t know if I really forgot as much as I was enjoying going with the flow and was okay not to try to get them to take individual pictures in which I knew they likely wouldn’t want to take.

The evening was fun….Gabo had never experienced Halloween before and we joked that this Halloween experience wasn’t the norm…he was truly experiencing a 5 star Halloween.  It started out with a “dinner” costume party at our neighbors, followed by trick or treating in the neighborhood, where multiple houses were handing out adult beverages, followed by a bonfire in the cul-de-sac.

Here is Joe Dirt himself.

Day after Halloween was November….hard to believe it is November already.  Justin and I went out to dinner Monday night with them to celebrate their engagement before they headed to NY and back to London.  Girls spent the night at my parents which they love!  Tuesday morning Justin left for Nashville and I been playing single parent in the eveningsL.  The weather has been gorgeous the past few days…sunny, 70 degrees, no wind….best fall weather a person could ask for.  I’ve worked from home the past two days so I was able to manage to take a 45 minute walk each day around lunch time and it was glorious.  Being outside in great weather always puts me in a good mood.  While I know the cold darker days are approaching, I’m hopeful that November brings more fall like weather than winter weather. And if winter weather is what November brings, I hope we take advantage by making lots of crock pot recipes and homemade chocolate chip cookies!

Today I am in just one of those moods where I am truly in love with these little humans that I have the privilege of raising.  It is so amazing to be able to watch each of my daughter’s personalities blossom.  It’s the little things that have brought such joy to my face the past few days.  Sunday evening I took Harper to her first birthday party where her sisters were not there to accompany her.  We stopped off at Wegman’s on the way home where not only was she my little helper in the cart, but also we were engaged in conversation during the whole hour in a half we were shopping.  We got home at 8:30 and instead of falling asleep on the way home, she was wide awake as Justin and I put away the groceries.  She was full of energy running in circles around the main floor singing ABC’s and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Today I worked from home and I decided to have Ludmila leave Harper at home this afternoon so she could nap while the older girls went to ballet.  I was going to put her down right away but for a moment, I realized that I say too often “I’m about to join a call” or “I have to get to my next meeting” and our discussion (she is now talking in full sentences) was so joyful….she was so precious….we sat in her chair and read five books while we rocked and read.  

Last night when I got home from work and wasn’t in the best mood, Avery and Emerson were each singing their own made up songs as the circled around the first floor as I cooked dinner.  My mood immediately changed as I was listening to and watching these awesome little humans.  

Don’t get me wrong…they often push my buttons…in fact, this is almost a daily occurrence but they bring me so much joy…I literally have so much love for them that I have to remind myself not to squeeze them so tight…I just like to get every last inch of love!

Saturday morning on our way to the gym, Avery and Emerson started talking about parks. A few different ones were discussed as well as the fact that we hadn’t visited a few of them in some time.  Anyway, Justin and I decided to fit going to Frying Pan Park into our day Sunday.  Here is Ms. Independent walking ahead of the gang.

And here is the slower of the gang.  Avery who decided to dress herself that this morning in a bathing suit, wanted us to be chickens.  So here we are saying “bok bok”.  

And yes that is Harper wearing a tutu.  Once we agreed to let Avery wear a bathing suit and a mismatched skirt, Harper too wanted her pick at her outfit.

Just Harper and me strolling along.  I’ve been bringing back the bun lately (sorry Justin)….but it’s a low side bun so that isn’t really a bun right?!?!?

While Avery took a little break in the stroller…..

And Emerson took in the sights of the goat…

Joined by Harper who wanted to do exactly as Eme was doing….

Followed by a stop riding the stationary tractors…..

They were having fun until the boy in the green shirt came along.  He was actually very nice and asked the girls if he could join them.  I said yes and he was trying to teach them about the tractor parts and then play a game with them.  Emerson and Harper wanted nothing to do with him as can be evidenced by their facial expressions.  I later tried to tell Emerson that he was just a nice boy wanting to play….I think a stranger being so nice was a little bit uncomfortable for her. 

We then headed towards the carousel.  As many times as we have been to Frying Pan Park previously, we have never ridden the carousel.  It only runs a few times an hour at most and today was the first time the timing worked out well.  The girls ALL had a blast as we rode it.  They were giggling and smiling and it was contagious.  

As we were riding it, I felt carefree and just loved the fact that at this moment in time, my girls were loving life and had no other cares in the world.  To be a kid on a carousel….that’s how we should all live life.

The girls then played on the playground for a little while. 

Ms. Independent who didn’t eat that much of her picnic lunch got hungry while she was playing on the playground and decided to go help herself to the remaining crackers in the stroller bag. Apparently she was eating and meditating at the same time. 

To be a kid on a carousel….

This past Sunday was truly a Sunday Funday.  Our morning started out rising early to go to our 4^th Annual Foundation Fighting Blindness Vision Walk.  Emerson was actually the first to get up telling us that she wanted to get up early so we weren’t late to the Vision Walk.  While we woke early, it certainly wasn’t the crack of dawn.  I think it was about 7:15 and we still got out of the house fairly easily by 8:40…..granted we didn’t eat breakfast at home as we knew they would have cereal bars and fruit that the girls would eat at the event, but even so getting out of the house is becoming easier and easier.   We took both strollers although Emerson walked probably about 2/3 of the 3 mile walk mostly with Papa as her buddy.  We were so proud of her.  Avery would get out for seconds at a time only to get back in moments later.  Harper wanted to get out at times but we wouldn’t let her.  The weather was gorgeous and it really was a good energetic start to the day. On the way home, all girls soundly slept in the car seats for close to an hour.

Later that afternoon we went to Meadowlark.  Normally when I go to Meadowlark, I want to walk as much as I can but since we already had done quite a bit of walking already, I was a little more content to just enjoy stopping and doing whatever the girls wanted to stop and investigate.  Meadowlark was packed…I have never seen so many people there at once….we even had to park on the over flow parking area.  Anyway, the girls had a great time exploring and running around.

I tried to get their picture on “the bench” that Justin and I took our first pictures on as a married couple.

Here are some of my favorite pics from the afternoon.

While they enjoyed Meadowlark, they really wanted to go to a park that had swings so after Meadowlark we stopped at the local park by Trap road.  Justin and I were trying to recall if we had been there since having Harper and neither of us thought so.  It was really fun to see Harper climbing and going down the slides.  Every time she turned a corner, she would say to whoever was there…hello…it was super adorable. The girls had a great time and it warms my heart when they are having so much fun.

One highlight of the day was that I didn’t cook all day!  And we didn’t eat a single meal at our kitchen table.  We spend a lot of time prepping meals and cleaning up our kitchen and while I do enjoy cooking, every once in a while it is awesome to see just how much additional time can be spent doing other things doing the day when no cooking or eating occurs in our kitchen.  Breakfast and lunch were at the Vision Walk.  And we picked up some Chinese Food earlier in the day when we were out and we ate in the backyard on paper plates for dinner. Seriously not having to sweep the floor even once Sunday was pretty darn awesome.

In Spring 2010 just as Justin and I were starting to think about starting a family, we randomly went to Glen Echo Park one weekend afternoon.  We walked around and explored the old train and the art galleries and both us couldn’t help but think that this would be a great place to come with our future kids one day. Fast forward exactly five years and three kids later, and we went back to Glen Echo for a second time, the first time since having kids….kind of funny that we had three kids by the time we went back, but that’s us:).  We had high expectations that it would be a fun event for our family as we both recalled how we felt five years ago.

While Justin and I both enjoyed the hour plus we were at the park as we love being outside with the kids, we both couldn’t help but feel an overall sense of disappointment.  The park was an amusement park starting in the early 1900’s so it still has the old amusement park look.  Today the park has art studios, dance classes, a small playground, a restored carousel, and other visual arts and performing arts classes.  But unless you go on a family day or another time where there is a big event, there truly isn’t a whole lot to do unless you plan for one of the classes in advances.  They did have a puppet show while we were there but it was recommended for kids ages five and over.  Anyway, we tried to get a few pics of the ladies together…these were the results…

They had lots of picnic tables so we had our little picnic….Harper loved her hot dog with ketchup….

Emerson was a little moody at times while we there….she really wanted a cupcake and Mommy and Daddy said no…

Avery only ate chips and clementines and was a happy camper….

After lunch, the girls were eager to play on the playground.  It was actually a weak playground in comparison to many of the playgrounds that we have closer to home; however, the girls enjoyed it (especially the swings) as you can see from these happy faces.