The Rollins World

Happy Birthday, Charlotte!

2011-11-18T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's hard for me to believe that four years ago today, we were holding this sweet little baby for the first time.

We made the mistake of blinking and now she's already four. I'm not sure how it happened, but our baby is no longer a baby. She's officially a big girl and does not hesitate in telling you so.

She's a snuggler, thumb-sucker and she still loves her cross.

She is spunky, sassy, and full of life. She loves playing with Naomi and teaching her new things. Here, she is apparently teaching her the art of hide-and-seek.

She loves to sing and even makes up her own praise and worship songs. While not always theologically accurate ;-) it is so sweet to hear her sing praises to our King.

I'm not sure where she gets it from, but she has bossy tendencies. Here, she is telling the girl behind her to "Sshh!" because Charlotte felt like she was singing too loudly during the performance.

She keeps us in stitches with the things she says. Here is a sampling of some Charlotte-isms that will give you a glimpse into her personality...

"My back is a disaster... my neck is killing me!" (Dramatic, much?)

"Mommy, how do you spell PUPPY?" I tell her "P-U-P-P-Y. "Mommy, when we get home, can Naomi cuddle with her P-U-P-P-Y?"

"When you get blood on you, and you fall down, and your eyes close, and your tongue sticks out... That means you are SO dead!"

"Daddy, if you give me a dollar, I will play something else with you."

When I was spending many hours of the day on the couch with "morning" sickness, she asked, "Mommy, what can I do to make you feel better?"

One day last month she helped me make dinner and I asked her what she thought her Daddy would say when we told him. "I think he'll say, 'Oh snap!'"

She saw a tattoo on the foot of a friend of mine and came to tell me, "Mommy, I've never drawn on myself before," then proceeded to ask how old she needed to be to have writing on her.

She saw the Siri icon on Jared's iPad and said, "Daddy, push that button. You can ask her questions." (We don't have Siri on our phones but she's seen the commercials and has already figured out how it works!)

Sweet Charlotte, we love you so much. We're excited to see how the Lord uses all that passion He's given you!

Forever and a Day

2011-11-17T12:58:00.001-05:00

Here are some pictures of the goings-on around here the last few weeks...

Charlotte is in Awana Cubbies and is loving every minute of it! She is memorizing a new verse or two each week and constantly amazes us with some of the things she shares or questions she asks.

At the first sign of cold, we built a fire in the fireplace and made some s'mores, using this recipe. The girls loved it and ask constantly if we can build a fire, assuming that the where there's fire, there's s'mores!

Charlotte is in a stage where she either wants to help you do anything and everything, or she wants nothing to do with obeying and good luck trying to get a simple task from her accomplished. This picture shows her and Naomi in very eager to help moods. Jared has been doing their laundry lately (yes, I know, how lucky am I?!), and he's been getting them to help hang up the clothes. I'm not even letting the fact that the shirts and dresses aren't all facing the same direction bother me. Too much anyway :)

I consider myself a fairly crafty person who can usually whip up something cute in a matter of minutes. Pride cometh before the fall, though. I waited until the day of Halloween to start their costumes. I had to dye some socks, stuff them, sew them, and attach them with ribbon to hang from their arms. Easy, right?

They're pink spiders, can't you tell?! Martha Stewart, I have failed you.

But at least their bags turned out cute!

This is what happens when you tell a three year old that she can play quietly in her room at bedtime. You find her in a bed full of potato head pieces.

Movie night with Daddy, popcorn, and Veggie Tales. It doesn't get much better in their books!

My Bump, My Bump, My Lovely Baby Bump (Check It Out)

2011-09-28T16:25:00.002-04:00

Belly shots from 16 weeks

I have just returned home from a sonogram and doctor's appointment and am so excited to announce that we will be having GIRL #3! The tea parties, princesses, and frou-frou have already taken over this house so I'm trying to wrap my mind around it happening to the next degree. Baby Girl, who is unfortunately nameless because Jared and I aren't going to name her "Flower", no matter how much Charlotte wants us to, looks completely healthy. She slept through the entire sonogram, despite the sonogram tech poking and prodding and trying to wake her up, so I'm hoping she'll be a good sleeper!

Naomi is still a bit clueless about all the goings-on, but will finally point to my belly instead of her own when asked where the baby is. Upon learning that she would have another sister, Charlotte said, "But I wanted a brother..." She later confirmed that this was only so she would have someone to be her "Prince" :) During the sonogram, we pointed out Baby Girl's backbone to Charlotte and she said, "It looks like corn!"

We're beyond excited for how God is blessing us. Now we get to decide on a name and figure out how to decorate Baby Girl's room and Charlotte & Naomi's "big girl" room!

Thanks to Fergie for the inspiration for the blog title... or rather a T-shirt I saw with it written on it. Funny stuff!

Charlotte at VBS

2011-07-29T08:57:00.002-04:00

Here is the video of Charlotte that I mentioned. The first verse we taught Charlotte and what we refer to as "her verse" is John 3:16. She knew the verse she was supposed to say, we even practiced with her saying it to her teacher that morning, but I guess in that moment she just reverted back to the good 'ol John 3:16 :)

We're Still Here!

2011-07-27T09:36:00.007-04:00

Sorry for the lack in posting lately. I've been out of commission for a few weeks. Here's why...

Yup! I'm preggers again! We're all thrilled, including the girls. Well, mainly Charlotte. Naomi is still clueless to all that's going on. Charlotte shared the news with the family, which was especially cute. We stopped by my Dad & stepmom, Bobbie's, house on the 4th of July and in the middle of a conversation Charlotte just blurted out, "And guess what? Mommy has a baby in her belly!" And later that day while we were out at Lake Swan Camp, where Jared's dad is the new camp director, his dad prayed for our meal and after "Amen" Charlotte said, "You forgot to pray for the new baby in Mommy's belly!"

Other things that have gone on around here...

The girls and I have kept very busy.
Naomi has had much business to tend to.

And I've been teaching the girls important things, like how to curl your hair. Life is rough, I tell ya what.

Back in June, we went down to Gissy Springs, southwest (I think?) of Ocala. It's owned by some good friends of my grandparents on my dad's side and they invited all of the Meng family to come down for my grandfather's 90th birthday party.
Pop, all embarrassed that such a fuss was made over him :)

And this is part of the spring area. The whole setup out there is beautiful! Kayaks, snorkel gear, rope swing, that screened in area for the food, camping area with a volleyball court... It is beautiful!

Also in June, we drove over to Gainesville to watch Megan pinned as an officer in the Gainesville Police Department. She kicked butt in the academy and had the fastest hiring process in the history of the department. And now she's packing heat!

Charlotte went to VBS at our church and had a blast! The Sunday afterwards, all the kids sang some songs and shared some verses they learned throughout the week. Charlotte was one of the kids they asked to share her verse. We have a cute video of that that I'll try to upload soon. From the picture, you can see how into the songs and motions she got!

And, in other exciting news... we have a new niece! Katie Joy was born on June 10th and weighed a whopping 5 lbs 6 oz! She is tiny and precious and just perfect!

That about sums up the past month or two around here. We've been busy but the last couple weeks have slowed down a lot with the pregnancy hitting me hard. The nausea seems better than it was with Charlotte and Naomi but it's still wiping me out. It seems to be getting a little better so hopefully I'm on the upswing! I have my first appointment next week and will hopefully have some alien-like ultrasound pictures to share!

Another Disney Day

2011-06-13T15:30:00.006-04:00

Last week the girls and I met up with Arin and her kids for our last Disney day for a couple months. We have the weekday season passes which have blackout dates during the summer. We're not too sad about missing the summer months because it's not even the middle of the summer and it's already ridiculously hot!

We started our day at Hollywood Studios and ran straight for Toy Story Midway Mania, a ride that we missed the last time we went because the line was ridiculously long. We got there around 9:45 and the fast passes were already for 6:10 that evening. The wait time said 70 minutes and we figured that would be the shortest the line would be all day so we hopped in line and heard the "cast member" standing there tell someone else the wait was only 30 minutes. Yay!
Here is the best shot I could get of 4 kids under the age of 5.

Asa is such a sweet little guy!

Charlotte and Anson with Annie and Leo from Little Einsteins. Naomi and Ella were not having anything to do with them. Naomi likes the characters from a distance. She gets so excited to see them, especially Mickey & Minnie, but getting close to them freaks her out!

At one point, the kids decided they wanted to play ring around the rosie. Here's how that went down...
Naomi wanted to play too!

But Naomi wanted to go straight to her favorite part of the game. Instead of "we all fall down" it was just Naomi falling down.

So the older three continued on...

They fell down...

And Naomi came over to join in on the fun part once again!

Then we went to meet Winnie the Pooh. All except Naomi were big fans!

After lunch, Arin and I did something crazy and park hopped with the five kids. Did I mention that it was just us with the kids? As in, no Dusty or Jared. From Hollywood Studios there are two ways to get to Magic Kingdom. Drive your car to the MK parking lot, take a tram (because we would have gotten there later in the day and would have been in a parking lot too far away to walk), then jump on the monorail that will take you to the park. Or take a bus to the monorail. Both the tram and the bus require folding up the stroller, which with Jared's help isn't as big of a deal, but I had the double jogging stroller (it maneuvers really easily through the parks) and it doesn't fold up very compactly and you have to lean it just right or hold it so it doesn't fly open. We survived, but it wasn't the easiest process.

After we did a few rides at Magic Kingdom we went on a hunt for ice cream and caught the end of the parade. This was Charlotte seeing the princesses. Homegirl likes her princesses.

As we were leaving the park, we saw that the wait to meet Mickey was only 5 minutes so we decided to hop in line. Five minutes was actually 10-15 minutes, and of course, like any Disney attraction, you leave through a gift shop. The process of picking out a souvenir took another 10-15 minutes so our 5 minute stop to meet Mickey turned into quite an ordeal. But not as much of an ordeal as it was getting back to the cars... When we went to MK, the bus wasn't too crowded. But the reverse route had a bus full of people. And I had that big ol' honkin' stroller to try to finagle with. I had a couple people offer me their seats because I was holding Naomi but I told them I better stand by the stroller to make sure it didn't unfold. It wasn't the most pleasant ride, but I survived and only fell on the people behind me... twice. I bet they didn't think they'd be getting a lap dance as they left the Magic Kingdom!

3-Year-Olds Are Gross

2011-06-13T09:02:00.002-04:00

I mentioned this little story on Facebook and Twitter, but just in case there's anyone who doesn't follow me on either of those, I have to share this little gem that Charlotte said a month or so ago...

She was sitting on the potty and told me, "Mommy, it's like my poopie has its own swimming pool... Oh, here come more friends!"

Potty humor from a three-year-old. Gross, but coming from her, incredibly funny.

New York City {Part 3}

2011-06-12T21:48:00.008-04:00

Roughly a month has passed so it's about time for another blog post, huh?! How about I tell you about our fabulous final day in NYC? It was incredible. Lots more walking. So incredible.

We walked out of the hotel and couldn't see the tops of the buildings. The fog was crazy.We had planned on going up in the Empire State Building but knew we wouldn't be able to see anything so figured paying the money to see fog would be a waste. :(

But that definitely didn't put a damper on what was to come...
Breakfast at Tiffany's! I've talked about doing this for years. If I had a bucket list, it would have been on it. We made a stop by Starbuck's so I could grab a muffin to eat in front of the store. I'm pretty sure Jared was horribly embarrassed to take this picture. People might have been staring. Whatever, I was happy!

We went up to the sixth floor (six floors?!!) so I could get my ring cleaned in the lounge. Yup, a lounge. They used the same term for their bathrooms. When I saw a sign for the "Men's Lounge" I thought it was a waiting room with big screen TV's and Sports Illustrated's laying around. Nope, it's just where they keep their toilets. But if the Women's Lounge was any indication, the men's lounge might have been the nicest bathroom those men ever use!

From Tiffany we headed to Times Square. Not a short walk, mind you. But it was fun to see all of the beautiful churches. Seriously, these are just amazing!

We made it to Times Square. Huge, I tell ya. Lots of lights. I'm sure you know that, but for real, it's big.

We had lunch at John's Pizzeria and had the Hawaiian (with sauce). It was delicious. We were seated in the front area of the restaurant so we didn't see how beautiful that place is.

After lunch we headed to this place!
The Gershwin Theater to see Wicked!

I was able to snap a couple pictures of the set before the camera police came and told me to put my camera away.

Can you tell from the pictures how close our seats were?! I don't think we could have gotten much better than that. The show was incredible! Even Jared, who doesn't care much for musicals, enjoyed it. I think I smiled through the whole thing. I read the book in college and have the soundtrack so I knew the story and the songs, but seeing it on stage was just amazing. The actors, the costumes, the music, the set... it just brought everything to life. We got a flyer in the mail advertising Wicked coming to Jacksonville next year and I'll definitely be going to see it when it comes to town! I would love to have the voice and talent to perform on stage like this. It just looks like they have so much fun and what a rush it would be!

After the show we went to the hotel and fought over who was going to pick where we ate dinner. Neither of us were craving anything in particular so we called the front desk of the hotel to get some recommendations. The woman asked what we were in the mood for... She kind of laughed when I told her nothing in particular, just wanted to know what was good that was close. There's a hundred of every type of good restaurant near you where ever you are in the city. We ended up eating... I don't remember where. I got some pasta something or other and Jared had something with lobster in it. Both were good. No pictures of the food, but here we are!

On Monday we spent hours in the air port because of weather delays. The Delta terminal at La Guardia airport is not meant to hold the amount of people who were there when we were. There weren't nearly enough seats for everyone, so there were people sitting all along the walls, from the food court area to the gates. There was even a large group of high schoolers laying on the floor in the middle.

We finally made it home and were excited to see our girls!
Charlotte was excited about the souvenir we brought her. She enjoyed being the "Statue of Delivery". Yesterday she was playing with the globe and told me that she wanted to find a new place to live. I asked her where she would rather live and she told me at the "Statue of Delivery" :)

Naomi didn't care so much about it, so I used her hat and became Lady Liberty myself.

Cheesin'.The end!

New York City {Part 2}

2011-05-17T16:26:00.017-04:00

We spent the majority of our Saturday in New York standing and walking around the city. To say that we were tired at the end of the day is an understatement! But we saw so much and had a wonderful time, so it's hard to complain.

Grand Central Station
We became experts at the subway system while we were there. Okay, maybe not so much. We had to ask some people for advice on how to get to such and such a place once or twice, but for our first time taking public transit on such a large scale, I think we did pretty well.

Immediately inside Grand Central.

There was a space like this to the left and right of the area in the picture above. I think you can rent this hall out for events. Can you imagine a wedding reception there? I don't know the price, but I'm sure it would be out of our budget!

And this is [a small part of] the main area of Grand Central. The terminals for all of the subways are off of the hallways and down a flight of stairs or two (or five!).
The subways had a variety of smells, none of them pleasant. Urine, fish, crotch...

After taking the subway down to Battery Park, we bought our tickets for the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We didn't buy tickets ahead of time and saw on the website that they have a limited number of tickets to buy the day-of. We weren't sure we'd even be able to get tickets to get into the monument, but we did get there in time for those. We were informed, however, that tickets to climb up to the crown are sold out through September!

While in the [very long] security line for the Statue, we saw this memorial in the harbor for the Merchant Marines. Pop, my grandfather on my Dad's side, was in the Merchant Marines, so it was neat to see this.

The view of the Statue and Ellis Island across the harbor.

A view of the city as we took off to Liberty Island.

This is the security line we stood in to get onto the boat. We had to go through security once again when we entered the monument.

A view of the city. I've seen pictures of it and even looked at Manhattan on google maps, but you just can't get a feel for how BIG this city is until you're there. As I flew in on Friday, it was as if the pilot was doing his best to give me a great view of the city. Each block of the city has huge buildings right next to each other, and then the blocks just keep going on and on. It was incredible to see!

Lady Liberty herself. Something else I've seen tons of pictures of, but just did not realize the size of until I saw it in person.

A torch of years past. Retired in 1986 (I think??).

Her face is an entire story tall.

Looking up her robe from the top of the pedestal upon which she stands.

Us cheesin'.

I look like I'm about to fall.

My lunch. Southwest chicken panini with fries. Fries were good. Panini was good. Would have probably been better if it were fresh or at least hot.

Then we hopped on the boat and cruised over to Ellis Island. It was pretty incredible.
These are some of the trunks and luggage that were brought with some immigrants. Not sure if the immigrants just decided they didn't need them anymore or if they were donated or what. But anyway.

This cartoon cracks me up.
"You can't come in. The quota for 1620 is full." After a few years of having so many immigrants come in, there were limits put in place to control how many people came in and from where (some countries that weren't as friendly with ours had lower quotas).

Little shoes of some babies and children who passed through the Island. I think Kelly mentioned these shoes when she recapped her trip to NYC. They were adorable!
We read some journal entries and one of them talked about the voyage across the Atlantic. It mentioned a baby being born on the ship. I cannot even imagine! Some of these people were coming across in the dead of winter, so to deliver at that time in a place with no heat and and no clean hospital... it blows my mind and makes me grateful for modern healthcare, as expensive as it is!

A chart that shows the number of immigrants who settled in certain towns in the year 1903. Jacksonville had 15. Brunswick, GA had 1!

There were some documents that had the names of the immigrants, male or female, where they were coming from, etc. Not quite halfway down in this picture is someone who just went by "Marg!".
"How do you spell your name?"

"M-A-R-G-Exclamation point"

After Ellis Island we walked around the financial district for a bit. We may or may not have taken a wrong turn or two while we were there, but we just chalk it up to seeing more of the city.
This is Trinity Church, the one in National Treasure with the underground lair that contained lots of treasure. Remember it? I loved those movies. I've heard rumors of a third one coming out this Christmas!
Aren't these windows beautiful?!

We spent about ten minutes walking around the graveyard.
Some of the gravestones were marked in the 1700s. It was burned in the fire of 1776 when the British seized non-Anglican churches and used them as prisons and barracks. We think that's why some of the tombstones were brown and falling apart and others were just algaefied. Some of the ones that were burned looked like they would fall apart if they were touched. Source

Just down the street from Trinity Church is Ground Zero. This is going to be the new World Trade Center. The artists' renderings of it look amazing.

New York Stock Exchange. We were there on Saturday so it was closed. Otherwise we would have been in the thick of it yelling, "Buy! Sell!" We would have fit right in.

And this... this is the most wonderful place on earth! Tiffany & Co.!
This isn't the original store, it's the one on Wall Street. We weren't planning to go into this store, but we happened past it and the sparkles lured us (read: me) in. The architecture of the interior is just amazing! Marble staircase, beautiful columns... It was gorgeous! The displays and cabinets and things looked a little dated, but I think that's the modern look (that I'm not a huge fan of) they were going for. Do you see those things floating from the ceiling? They had sparkles and jewels all over them so when you walked into the store all you saw above you was bling. Even if you don't buy anything, it's such a fun place to wander through!

Cute side street.

After all the walking downtown we went to the hotel to change shoes. At least I did. Even my comfortable wedding day shoes were killing me by lunchtime. (Wedding day shoes are the most comfortable cute flats I can find that I wear when I'm coordinating a wedding. I haven't found a heel that's comfortable enough for me to wear all day and not be dying by the end of the night of a wedding.) We hopped on the subway and headed up to Central Park. One of the first things we saw was this bride.
Black feathers on her head with a gown that looks like lingerie with a poofy skirt. I know every person has their own style, but seriously?! This was just ridiculous. She had four photographers, a videographer, and a coordinator with her. This was the second of four brides we saw on Saturday. I'm guessing each of them had a huge budget to have a NYC wedding!

The Boat House in Central Park. Do you recognize this from 27 Dresses?

A castle in the middle of Central Park. Can you imagine a wedding there?! There was one going on but we weren't close enough for me to see any of the decor.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
The detail on the buildings is incredible. Faces and gargoyles looking down at you.

Where we got dinner on Saturday night. Good burgers!
RC Cola and Chocolate Soda! The chocolate soda tasted like carbonated Yoo-Hoo. Jared was a big fan!

And that was our Saturday! We were exhausted and wiped out, but again, it's kind of hard to complain when you're in NYC!

New York City {Part 1}

2011-05-17T10:06:00.012-04:00

Jared had a conference in Jersey City last week and I flew up to New York City on Friday so we could have a weekend with just the two of us. Thanks to Toto & Auntie Mel and Grammy & Grampy who split the weekend watching the girls!

Be prepared because I took about 250 pictures and prepare to show you lots of them! If you follow me on Twitter, you'll have likely seen many of these pictures and some of my thoughts on the city, but for those who don't stalk me via all avenues of social media, I'm going to say it all again. It's going to be a sort of narration of the mind of Brittany... so Jared (who I doubt reads the blog) and Shannon might be the only ones who find any sort of humor in it.

Here we go!

The most pointless curtain ever. It's more of a psychological barrier between First Class and Steerage. In case there was any doubt, I was back with the steerage.

Snacks on a plane. Notice the ingredient and allergy warning. Peanuts. Processed in a plant that produces peanuts. Not sure how else they'd do it...

I saw three "I ♥ NY" within the first five minutes of being in New York. I'm pretty sure it's what the locals wear, so I made a mental note to get one before I left the city.

I flew into La Guardia and was on my way to the bus stop when I saw this fella!
Yeah, that's me and Timmy Tebow. Just another usual Friday, hanging with a Heisman Trophy winner. But I played it so cool. Here's how our conversation went...
Brittany: Hi Timmy... (because those close to him call him Timmy)
Timmy: Hi.
Brittany: I'm sorry to bother you, but my husband and I are huge fans!
Timmy: Oh, thank you! (genuinely sweet)
Brittany: We're both alumni and we just think you're great... Can I get a picture with you?
Timmy: Sure! (So maybe he didn't say this with an exclamation, but he made it seem as if I wasn't the bother that I likely was)
Then his brother or friend or someone who I'm sure has taken hundreds of pictures of strangers with Timmy snapped the picture with my phone. And I thanked him and was walking on Cloud 9 for hours as I tweeted and texted and called everyone to tell them about how cool I (thought I) was because I just saw a celebrity. Not a bad start to the New York weekend!

After taking a bus, I hopped on the 7. That's what the locals call the train that takes them from Flushing Queens (as in, the place where Fran Fine Sheffield is from. I looked for her and Doug Heffernan, but didn't see either of them. Bummer.) into Manhattan.
This is where the locals do their art apparently.

I finally made it to the sidewalks of the city and saw this street sign. I immediately wanted to start singing, "Tell all the gang at 42nd Street that I will soon be there!"
The fun of that quickly faded when I realized I didn't really know where I was. I mean, other than the obvious, at the corner of 42nd Street and Madison. I had the address for the hotel and my trusty iPhone with the directions. But the directions were something like, "Walk south towards..." and I couldn't get oriented with which direction I was facing. And don't forget that I had my luggage and was looking around in total awe of the city I was in. I knew it was just a wee bit obvious that I wasn't from around there so that made me prime mugging material so I was glaring at everyone walking by me like they had intent to take all of my possessions. It took me a minute but I figured out where I was going and made my way to the hotel where I met my knight in shining armor. I made it from the airport to the hotel, taking a bus and a subway, all by myself. I'm a big kid now!

We stayed at the Eastgate Tower Hotel in the Murray Hill area of Manhattan. I think this used to be a residential condo building because all of the rooms are suites with small kitchens. Though a little dated, our room was plenty big.

We bought some cereal and milk and had breakfast in the room while there (they have a few dishes and pans in the cabinets). It was nice to take our time getting ready in the mornings and not be starving.

Jared was excited to explain to me all of the material that they went over at the conference. He talked for a couple hours and I took a nap for a couple hours. :) Just kidding. He spared me all of that, knowing that my eyes would quickly roll to the back of my head.

We took about a 30 minute walk to the Laut, a Malaysian-Thai restaurant that I scouted out. I'm going to pretend to be Shannon and tell you what we ate...

Roti canai, the most delicious thing in the world. It's simple, an Indian pancake, but it's crispy in some parts, doughy in others, and you dip it in that wonderful curry sauce and it's a party for your mouth. But the thing about roti is it's tricky to make. At least we haven't figured out the secret. We can imitate the chicken and some other parts of this Malaysian meal, but the roti is a mystery. Dusty & Arin have tried several times, and they've even gotten one of the secret ingredients from the owner of a Malaysian restaurant in Atlanta, but I don't think they've been able to recreate it yet. So, as simple as this little ditty is, it's a rare treat for us to eat. The Laut did not disappoint!

Chicken satay

Every other time we've eaten it, we've had the peanut sauce on the side. They lathered it right on the chicken. Delicious!

And instead of a mint at the end of the meal, they gave us a piece of ginger candy. This was like a sticky burning delicious fire in my mouth. Not sure how else to describe it. It was a bit spicy but was pretty good.

After dinner, Jared and I walked around Union Square Park.

We saw Ghandi going for a walk, Andy Warhol doing some shopping, and George Washington riding a horse.

Red church doors were everywhere. Loved them.

Random cute side street. So charming.

As Jared and I walked around the city we kept asking each other, "How much do you think an apartment in that building costs?" I looked this one up on Zillow . It was built in 1898 and isn't currently on the market but has an estimated value of $3.98 Million. Whoa.

Empire State Building! We planned to go there on Sunday or Monday but it was rainy and foggy both days so we knew we wouldn't be able to see anything from up there.

Spikes on some stairs near our hotel. Not how we say "Welcome" in the South!

Monks in sneaks and flops... not something you see too often. Unless you're in New York City. I saw monks at the hotel, monks at the Statue of Liberty eating burgers, and several other places around town. Must have been a convention.

Thus concludes the first day of our trip. I will try to get the rest up tomorrow!

Shower Recipes

2011-04-14T14:33:00.002-04:00

Last month when I threw a shower for Mandy, I had several requests for some of the recipes. It's taken me a month, but I'm finally getting around to it, thanks to a reminder from Becky. I didn't really measure anything, just threw it all together, but don't think that I'm one of those cooks who can just whip things up like that. These are probably the only things that I make without measuring. Everything else, I need a recipe in front of me!

I believe Becky's favorite was the chicken salad croissants. I like my chicken salad to be sweet, with a little fruity flavor. Boil some chicken breasts (one pack from my Publix has 3 breasts in it) with some garlic (a good sized clove or two small cloves) and onions (half of one onion, diced or sliced -- however you can do it and not cry). This gives it lots of flavor and keeps it moist. I tend to overcook my meat because I'm always scared I'm not going to cook it enough and will then get my whole family sick. So I let it boil for a good 30 minutes or so. When it's done, I pour out the hot water and let cold water run on it for a bit to help cool it off. Let it soak in some cool water, then when the chicken is cold enough to handle, shred it. I usually start tearing it with two forks, but usually end up using my hands as it seems to be quicker. And now for the actual ingredients... Mayonnaise and sour cream (about 1/3 C. each); a stalk or two of celery, cut in half lengthwise, then diced up into small pices; grapes, cut into halves or fourths, about 1/3 - 1/2 C; about 1 tsp. of cinnamon; and maybe a Tbsp. of sugar. I'm really just guessing on the amounts. Just use whatever amount looks good and makes the concoction nice and moist and sweet and a bit fruity. I've used apples and pears in place of or in addition to the grapes and it's always been delicious with that little bite of sweet in there. In my opinion, the fruit is what sets the chicken salad apart from some of the others that are bland and, in my opinion, gross. After much taste testing along the way, spoon the mixture onto sliced croissants.

The other recipe that was a hit from the shower was the Monte Cristo Quesedilla. Seriously, I could eat this every day. Combine equal parts (1 Tbsp-ish) of honey, strawberry preserves, and dijon mustard. I'm usually not a fan of dijon. I'm more of a plain yellow mustard kind of gal. But the dijon with the whole kernals just works in this recipe. It gives it just a little bite, but the honey and the preserves tame down that kick of flavor that I usually can't stand. Spread some of the combined delicousness on a tortilla. Layer one slice of turkey and ham lunch meats, then a slice of cheese. I used American-Swiss for the shower, but have also done it with provolone and it's equally delicious. Then fold in half and heat in a skillet with melted butter. Flip halfway so that the cheese gets melty and the tortilla gets golden brown. Or if you have a fancy quesedilla maker like Mandy received at her shower, it'll make it much easier for you! Let it cool a little before you slice it, else all the goodness of the cheese and the spread will ooze out.

I used a sandwich my friend made for me as inspiration. Construct it the same way, using bread instead of the tortilla. Then dunk the sandwich in a french toast type of batter (eggs and milk) and cook. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. Yum.

Let me know if you make them and how they turn out. I love baby/bridal shower foods. They're probably some of my favorites!

The Bug

2011-03-20T16:12:00.004-04:00

[Weak Stomach Alert! Don't read this post if you have a weak stomach!]

I thought we were extra lucky because we had managed to avoid all of the nasty bugs that went around this winter. We had a few colds between the four of us, but nothing too major. Until a few days ago...

Friday at lunchtime Naomi didn't want to eat and I shortly figured out why. She had an upset tummy and lost her breakfast. I thought it was just the biscuits and gravy that didn't agree with her stomach, because she acted completely fine afterwards. She continued to expel any and all food/drink from her stomach throughout the afternoon, but was acting completely normal so I just assumed it was the food she ate that her little tummy couldn't handle. By the time Jared got home from work, her stomach had settled down and she ate her dinner fine.

Saturday morning was uneventful, all seemed well, so we headed up to the church picnic. We had a blast, even though our Home Bible Study's volleyball team didn't win the tournament (I'm not bitter!) and my chili didn't win the cook-off (though I did win it back in 2008! Still like bragging about that:).

Naomi playing at the picnic

After lunch and playing three volleyball games in the hot sun, we headed home and all rested for a bit. I felt crummy with a headache and nausea and spent most of the afternoon on the couch. Before bed Charlotte told me her tummy hurt. She always has an ailment of some sort or another (at least in her head), so I didn't think much of it. But after about 5 minutes of being in bed, she opened her bedroom door and told me she didn't feel good. Then she puked. I rushed her to the bathroom and avoided a huge mess to clean. I hoped that was the end of it and put her back to bed, but she started crying a little while later because she had thrown up in bed. :( So I piled some blankets on the floor in our bedroom for her to sleep in there for the night. But there wasn't much sleeping that went on because she got sick several times throughout the night. Around 4:00 her stomach settled enough for her to sleep till 8:30. She was absolutely pitiful through the night. "Mommy, I don't want to feel sick any more. Can you make me feel better?" Oh, it broke my heart :( On top of that, I was feeling the worst I have in a long time. You know that feeling you have about a minute before you throw up? I had that all night long. Not fun.

Charlotte threw up once after breakfast but has since seemed okay. Unfortunately, the bug has passed on to Jared and he's been feeling rotten all day. I've felt better today, but I think made the mistake of eating too much too soon and now I'm feeling crummy again. At least the girls seem to be feeling better. It's easier to wallow in your own misery when you don't have to take care of sick little ones too.

Naomi crawled onto the couch to give Charlotte a hug. The random hugs they give each other melt my heart.

Charlotte fell asleep on the living room floor this afternoon

Mandy's Getting Married!

2011-03-16T20:13:00.002-04:00

My sweet cousin, Mandy, is getting married and we've spent a few weekends celebrating together before the wedding. It's been a blast. The festivities began with a bridal shower I hosted a few weekends ago.

Here's the spread... Mixed greens with strawberries, almonds and creamy poppy seed dressing, chicken satay with peanut sauce, Monte Cristo quesedillas with sour cream, chicken salad croissants, veggies, strawberries & grapes, punch, and cupcakes.

And some of the decorations. Tissue paper pom poms a la Martha Stewart. (Horrible lighting, sorry about that)

"Soon to be Mrs. Scott" banner

Mandy opening some gifts

I printed the RSVP cards on 5x7 index cards and designed them as postcards. The front said, "Mandy loves to cook/So give her a recipe from your book/Breakfast, lunch or dinner for two/When she cooks it, she will think of you!" I also put a note not to say anything about the recipe collection to her so that it would be a surprise. And on the back were the lines for the guests to write their favorite recipe. I bought a plain blue scrapbook album from Hobby Lobby (50% off!), and found an antique handkerchief with pretty crocheting along the edge and a fork and spoon from an antique store. I used a hammer to flatten the fork and spoon, and put them on top of the folded up hankie, and used wire to attach them to the album (through a hole that I drilled... yeah, I use power tools. I'm cool like that). The inside of the album was very plain, with just one or two recipes per page and some cute kitchen-y stickers. It was simple but turned out really cute (or so I think), and I think Mandy really liked it.

Mandy's Nana, her mom (Aunt Diane), and her mother-in-law to-be

As per tradition with my friends, whenever one of us gets married, we spend a weekend down at Disney. We did it before my and Shannon's weddings so I knew it wouldn't be much of a surprise for Mandy to see this sign...
But we didn't give her any details about the weekend so there were still some surprises.

She didn't know we'd be eating at The Wave of American Flavors.

And she didn't know that we'd be busting a move to the Wii Just Dance 2 back in the hotel room.

Mandy has dancing skills.

Me? I don't have dancing skills, but I have lots of fun!

Kristina shaking her boo-tay!

Danielle... Not really sure what to say about this one other than she was REALLY excited about something!

Shannon takes her dance moves very seriously.

We made Mandy get dressed blindfolded. Only she had to get dressed in underclothes. Over her clothes. She'd wring my neck if I showed the rest of the pictures from this game.

This was the view right outside our hotel room. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside and it was beautiful!

Our whole group: Shannon, Danielle, Mandy, Kristina, and me. On Saturday night we had dinner at Kouzzina, one of Cat Cora's delicious restaurants. The meal was amazing!

I absolutely love these girls and it was great to spend some time with them. We hardly see each other any more, so a whole weekend together was fantastic!

What's Happening

2011-03-04T13:48:00.003-05:00

Once again, it's been forever since an update. Rather than trying to fill you in on everything that's happened, I'll give you the short version:

Christmas, Jesus, presents, church, our tenure as nursery coordinators ended (can I get an "Amen! Hallelujah!"), girls growing big, lots of fun, seeing family, times of pulling hair out with attitude of a three-year-old and stubbornness of a one-year-old, Charlotte's talking our ears off, Naomi's not talking with words but saying so much with her expressions. Yup, that about sums it up. Now, on to some pictures...

Charlotte loves to play dress up. This picture of her wearing Ariel's wedding dress makes me want to cry because I know one day she will be wearing a real wedding dress and my heart can't handle that thought right now.

Naomi is getting lots of personality of her own! She's not as strong-willed as Charlotte but still has a streak of stubborn running through her. She likes to dress up, but usually favors a particular tutu with a matching headband. When she wears it, she twirls and dances and it's just about the cutest thing ever. I'll try to get the video uploaded soon.

We took a trip to Hollywood Studios last week so we've now officially been to all of the parks with our weekday passes. We didn't get to do everything there that we wanted so we'll definitely be going back.

Naomi and I had fun hanging out in the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" play area

Ella, Anson & Charlotte enjoying an ice cream break. The weather was just about perfect the day we went. In the 70s with a breeze almost the entire day. We're enjoying the Spring weather while we have it because we know it won't last long here! Soon it'll be 90s and above with lots of humidity!

We stopped to see Sully & Mike from Monsters, Inc. The kids all ran straight for Sully and all gave him a big hug.

The girls and I said hi to Mickey. Well, Charlotte said hi. Naomi cried and clung to me for dear life. She used to adore seeing the characters, but the past two trips she has not been a fan, though she does love to hug on the stuffed Minnie Mouses (Minnie Mice? What's the right way to word it that implies we have more than one?) we have around here!

A couple weekends ago the girls spent a lot of time outside helping Jared with some yard work. Translation: Jared raked the leaves while the girls played on the swing set. But Charlotte did take a break from all that swinging to traipse through the huge pile of leaves.

The girls are becoming master Twister players.

So there's a snippit of our lives right now. Hopefully the next post won't be two months away!

Happy Thanksgiving (Two Months Late)

2011-01-04T16:04:00.006-05:00

We spent Thanksgiving day at my Dad's house. After a HUGE dinner, we played some croquet. Charlotte has croquet skills!

Jared and my Dad giving Charlotte some pointers

Charlotte taking Naomi for a ride in the wagon

Charlotte and Naomi going for a ride. They both loved the wagon!

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we had Jared's family over to our house. It was my first time roasting a turkey so I was nervous, but it turned out great. For some reason it doesn't look browned enough in the picture, but in person it looked (and tasted!) delicious.

I love getting out the china! This was the first time we used every place setting (we had 13 adults and 6 kids/babies to feed)!

Mid-meal. Again, a TON of food!

We also got together with my mom's family, but the only pictures I took from that day were when we were playing the Wii "Just Dance" game, and I was given strict instructions that those pictures, as hilarious as they are, must remain private within the family :)

Super Cool Party People!

2011-01-04T15:38:00.008-05:00

The girls party (a month and a half ago...) was so much fun. We invited the family and a few of the girls' friends from our home Bible study group at church. With a few friends and our big families, there were a ton of people here! It was a blast! The evening, in pictures...

Cupcakes and chocolate-covered marshmallows

Pom-pom garland

Naomi with her Auntie Mel, Toto, and Grammy

Charlotte, taking it all in... all the people, all the presents!

Princess Charlotte with her friend Princess Averie and cousin Prince James (with a pink scepter, poor thing. Welcome to the house of Girls!)

Minnie Mouse in the house! My sweet cousin, Mandy, volunteered (or maybe I begged her) to dress up as Minnie Mouse. We borrowed the dress from Kelly, a friend of mine from high school, who dressed up for her niece's party. Charlotte was beyond excited to see her favorite character! When she answered the door and saw Minnie there, she just kind of stared with a "Is she really here?!" look on her face. Priceless!

Charlotte, taking pictures with a Minnie camera, one of her presents

Having a blast digging into each present she was given

Naomi having a blast digging into her first cupcake!

Baby's first sugar!

"Minnie, can you believe this is the first sugar they've given me?!"

I'm still trying to get all the cake off her hands

Ella enjoying the cupcakes!

Sweet James with his Mama

Recap

2011-01-04T15:24:00.002-05:00

It has been a ridiculously long time since I last posted. (Don't I start every blog post with a similar sentence?) We've been busy around here, as has everyone, I'm sure, with the holidays that came and went in a whirlwind. Jared took off a few days before Christmas and didn't have to go back in until January 3rd, so we had lots of family time. The little ones in the home don't allow for much "down time" so I kept telling Jared that he would be doing cartwheels out of the house come Monday morning. (He assured me no gymnastics were done).

Because it's been so long since I've posted, I've missed a few important events: Charlotte's 3rd birthday, Naomi's 1st birthday, the girls' combined birthday party (we had a celebrity here!), Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I feel like all of these need a post of their own, but I have yet to upload any pictures. And I know a post is hardly a post without any pictures (especially pictures of the girls), so then I just put off posting for another day. And that's how it's ended up being a month a half since I last shared what we've been up to, 'cause I know you're all dieing to know! Anyway, we're here and doing well. And for the grandmothers and those who only come here to see Charlotte and Naomi, I'll try to get some pictures up soon!

Animal Kingdom

2010-11-15T14:44:00.008-05:00

Kids at the start of the day

When you get up close to the tree, you can see animals carved all over it. It is quite incredible!

Daddy helping Charlotte get a better view

Where Naomi enjoyed the safari ride

Chilling with Mickey. Charlotte LOVES seeing him!

Showing off the binoculars that Anson let her borrow

Naomi was mostly interested in getting his ear

The girls trying to see the river

Obligatory showing off pose. Just look at those chunky legs!

Dusty & Arin & Co. riding the dinosaurs

Sporting Daddy's shades

Going for a ride in DinosaurLand

Charlotte wiped out mid-day

That's a lot of bull

Can you find the hidden Mickey? (You'll probably need to enlarge the photo)

The best we could get of all the kids with the glasses on for the "Bug's Life" show. I didn't heed the advice of a friend that this show isn't appropriate for little ones. Charlotte was crawling into Jared's lap and hiding her face in his shoulder :/

Charlotte & Ella hugging goodbye

The Goings-On

2010-11-02T10:05:00.011-04:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged for a month. Sheesh! Here's a quick update:

I got a new vacuum!
All of this is just from our living room! And I had vacuumed with our old vacuum right before this just to see how much more the new one would get. Gross, isn't it?!

Naomi has been adorable. She's cruising along holding onto furniture and has even taken a step or two here and there by herself. Her first step was two weeks ago at 10.5 months old.

We spent a day at Animal Kingdom! I'll try to post more pictures from this day soon. We had a blast!

The girls are so cute together! They have the occasional squabble, but for the most part Naomi thinks Charlotte is the greatest thing since sliced bread and Charlotte loves her baby sister to pieces. Melts my heart!

We went camping and fishing! I use the term "camping" loosely since we were in a cabin with a kitchen, bathroom and shower, but it only had one bedroom so we were roughing it :) Hopefully this will get its own post so I can show you all the cute pictures from this trip as well.

Jared had surgery on his eye. See that white tissue stuff (called a pterygium) encroaching on the cornea? He had that removed. It was only on the surface of the eye and was a quick, routine procedure, but there were two stitches and a graft involved. The surgery went very well and his eye is healing as it should. As the stitches are dissolving, he said it doesn't feel like there's something in his eye as much anymore, so hopefully it's just a matter of time as the redness from the surgery fades away, though this will likely take a couple months.

Charlotte has showed her natural inclination for style. Snow White head band, Minnie Mouse shirt, purple and green tutu, and mommy's boots. She cracks me up.

The girls went Trick-or-Treating! I made their costumes and, if I do say so myself, these girls are the cutest little punkins I've ever seen. Naomi's bow was made by a friend of mine who has an etsy shop. She makes some of the cutest bows! Naomi was just along for the ride, but Charlotte has been excited about trick-or-treating for a while and she had a blast. After a couple houses she said that we could go home because her bag was full. We went to a few more and she picked up on the pattern of getting candy from each house we went to. Then when I asked her if she was ready to go home she replied, "I think we need to go to twelve more." Random number, but she wanted more candy!
I can't get over how much Charlotte looks like I did growing up. Compare the picture above with the one below. Mini Me!

Disney With Grammy

2010-09-30T14:47:00.000-04:00

Last week my mom went down to the Magic Kingdom with me and the girls. We had an absolute blast! Charlotte adores her Grammy and asked about going to Disney World with her for days before we left. Here are some pictures from our day.

The sky-writing we saw from the parking lot

Mom and the girls seeing Mickey & Minnie. This is becoming my favorite part of the parks. Charlotte loves seeing them!

Reason #128 why Grammy is cooler than Mommy: She crawls into tiny spaces to play

Meeting the princesses

Naomi sharing her cantaloupe with Grammy

Charlotte having a blast with her Grammy on Dumbo

Some of the construction going on at the back of the park. This will eventually have an area for some more of the princesses. I believe it will include a "Be Our Guest" restaurant from Beauty & the Beast (which comes out again next week, by the way!), a ride from The Little Mermaid, and something for Princess Aurora, but I can't remember what exactly.

Carousel!

Pirate Goofy

Reason #376 why Grammy is cooler than Mommy: Grammy plays in the water

Cooling off

Charlotte seeing Mickey & Minnie in the parade

At the end of the day, finishing off her cantaloupe

Rollins Weddings

2010-09-27T08:15:00.000-04:00

Many moons ago we went to some fantastic weddings to celebrate new additions to the Rollins family. Because I slack and don't blog often, I'm just now getting around to uploading the pictures. Better late than never... And the quality of the pictures are horrible because I was holding a squirming baby while taking most of them.

Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel and Vanessa Rollins

We traveled up to Nashville to see Nathaniel and Vanessa get married. It was such a beautiful ceremony! We enjoyed seeing several aunts and uncles and lots of cousins.

Uncle Tim and Aunt Cindy

Andrew

James (This is the best shot I could get of him? Seriously need to work on my photog skills!)

Alex. He's a handsome little guy and by that smile, I'm going to guess he knows it :)

Chris

Nick & Hannah

Benjamin

Emily

All of them are members of the Tim & Cindy Rollins clan. (Their oldest, Tim and his family, could not be there because of his service in the military.) "Be fruitful and multiply!"

Naomi showing off in the parking lot of the church

Alex dancing with Charlotte. She hardly left the dance floor all night!

Naomi and Kristina (another Rollins cousin)

At the end of August we traveled up to Chicago to see the wedding of Jamie and Nate in her parent's back yard. It was a beautiful and very special ceremony. They were actually married a week before at Nate's parent's home so that his mom could be there to see them get married. She was battling pancreatic cancer and couldn't make the trip from her home in Indiana to Chicago. Thanks to Skype, though, she was able to see the second ceremony as well. She wasn't able to be there to celebrate the wedding with the rest of the family, but she is now part of the eternal celebration in Heaven. Praise the Lord!

The only picture I got of the bride and groom. I'm going to use the squirmy baby excuse again.

Naomi enjoying a snuggle with Uncle Bennie

Naomi flirting with Uncle John, who I'm pretty sure she thought was her Pop.

After the ceremony and a nap back at the hotel, we headed into downtown Chicago for a couple hours.

Orange and blue sunset. God is definitely a Gator fan.

How we set up the hotel room so the TV wouldn't bother Naomi while she slept

Naomi, on her first flight, doing a little light reading. She got a little fussy on one of the legs of the trip, but overall was a great traveler. (Because we'd have to pay for a ticket for Charlotte, she stayed back home with her Grammy and Grampy and had an absolute blast! This trip was the longest I had been away from her so I was more than anxious to have my big girl in my arms again!)

Gator Football 2010

2010-09-14T10:52:00.001-04:00

We celebrated the first Gator game of the season with Dusty & Arin, Chad & Amber, and all the kids here at our house. The game was a little stressful, but we won and had a great time with the family.

Daddy and his girls!

Naomi, making a very important call

Charlotte, modeling the tutu I made her

Hanging out

Charlotte and Ella, dressing up and getting glam

Appropriate outdoor attire

The dads took the kids out back to catch some fish

Charlotte looked, but absolutely would not touch the fish!

Disney - Part II

2010-09-10T09:22:00.000-04:00

Jared and Naomi showing off and looking cute

Charlotte couldn't fight the nap off any longer.

This little moment melted my heart. Daddy fixing his little girl's hair :) I guarantee the only reason he did this is because he knew I made those little ears for the girls and was hoping they'd wear them throughout the day. Such a wonderful father and husband!

This is the sky as we were leaving. I don't know if it was a spotlight thingamajig (according to spell-check, "thingamajig" is a word! Who knew?!) or clouds, but how neat does that sky look!

We bought weekday passes so we can get into all four of their parks Monday - Friday, with the exception of some block-out dates. The block-out dates are the times that school is out, so during the summer, two weeks at Christmas, and two weeks during the spring. It's so crowded during those times that we likely wouldn't go then anyway. I'm quite excited about it! I'm trying to decide when our next trip should be. Jared says he needs more than a week to recover. He's a Disney light-weight like that :)

Disney - Part I

2010-09-09T22:20:00.000-04:00

We took a trip to Disney on Tuesday with Dusty & Arin & co. and had such a wonderful day! It was just a wee bit hot (in the 90s, as is typical for a Florida September) and it rained, but only for about 10 minutes. Then the skies cleared and we were off to ride some more rides and sweat a little more :)

Our sweet little family in front of the castle. This was right when we got there, which is why we aren't yet drenched in sweat.

The first stop: The Carousel! Both girls loved it.

Next on the agenda: Dumbo! Naomi was not so much a fan of this one. She had to be strapped in while sitting on my lap. She wanted to be held facing me, so that ride was not enjoyable for the two of us. But Charlotte loved it!

Then we met Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse! Charlotte was beyond excited! Her "fabrite" show is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she loves all things Mickey and Minnie. She walked right up and gave Minnie a hug. Naomi preferred slobbering on their noses and grabbing their ears. It was worth the trip down there to see the girls' reaction to them!

After that, we saw the princesses. Charlotte enjoyed meeting them, but I guess didn't feel the need to smile. The princesses did such a wonderful job greeting the kids. They totally play the part with the dainty movements and gestures, but don't hesitate to squat down to talk with them, calling the kids "little princesses and princes". It's so sweet.
Cinderella.

Jasmine. With her belly button and tummy looking like that, I'm going to guess she hasn't had kids :)

Aurora. This made me wonder when the last time I saw Sleeping Beauty was. It had to be at least 15 years ago.

Naomi looking super cute with her ears that I made her on (these didn't last very long into the day). She's also showing off the two tiny teeth she has coming in!

Naomi falling asleep...

Fighting it just a little...

Giving in to the exhaustion...

And she's out for the count!

Charlotte and Jared on the People Mover

Charlotte didn't want to pose for me to get a good shot of her with the castle in the background, so this is the best I got.

More pictures to come tomorrow. It's late and I'm tired.

What's Going On

2010-09-01T20:24:00.005-04:00

With my infrequent postings, I tend to forget about all the happenings of our family, so I'll just look back through some pictures and give a recap on what's been going on around here.

1. Spending time together. Aww :) The girls both light up when their daddy gets home from work. It's adorable to watch.

2. I tried on a dress I bought on our honeymoon. It still fits...

Sort of...
I'm no good at taking pictures of myself, especially of my back, but that zipper made it about halfway up.

3. We've been to the pool a few more times. Naomi is super cute sporting Jared's shades. (This is definitely a posed shot. It lasted about 0.20837 seconds).

4. August was my month of weddings. I coordinated two, was assistant florist and reception coordinator at another, and was a guest at a fourth. And two of the weddings were on the same weekend! It was a lot of fun, but I'll enjoy a nice little break before the next wedding I'm coordinating (not till February). Here's a sample of what I did as assistant florist/reception coordinator (Amber, my sister-in-law, and her cousin, Sarah, have started Sweet Aroma, a floral business after doing the flowers for several weddings within the past year. They do amazing work and can do a lot within a small budget!)

And here is the only picture from the wedding I coordinated this past weekend.
Emily and Alan, two friends from our church, were married in a very personal and sweet ceremony. I was probably more nervous with this wedding than I have been with any others I've done before. There were four reasons for this: 1. Two friends were getting married and I wanted their day to be extra perfect. 2. More than half of the bridal party and probably half of the guests were friends of ours from church. This meant that if anything were to go wrong, every time they saw me (twice a week for some of them), they could say, "Hey, way to screw up their ceremony!" 3. It was the first time my church-folk saw me "in my element" and I didn't want to look incompetent. I don't mind looking incompetent as a mother or nursery coordinator, my usual elements, but looking incompetent as a coordinator would not be acceptable! 4. It was a crazy busy weekend with having to leave the reception early to catch a flight for another wedding (that post will come soon... you know, the "Brittany version of soon") so that just added to the nerves. But the ceremony turned out beautifully and what I saw of the reception was fantastic as well.

5. Naomi is almost 9 months and is at such a fun stage. She's crawling, pulling herself up and walking along furniture. This translates to getting into everything. She loves to play in Charlotte's room, which Charlotte is usually quite happy about. One day after waking up from a nap, Naomi crawled into Charlotte's room but didn't see her in there, so she started crying. It melts my heart to see how much they love each other! (I have no idea why the picture looks funky here. Technology hates me.)

Hi, I'm Brittany

2010-08-14T21:46:00.000-04:00

I know you've probably forgotten who I am since I haven't posted anything in a while. I've been ~~busy~~ lazy. My bad. Here are some of the goings-on as of late...

1. Naomi is pulling herself up on furniture and walking around while holding onto the furniture and is just plain growing up too fast. She's as cute as can be with her chubby little cheeks and her chunky thighs. Though she does seem to be losing some of the pudge now that she's so mobile. The crease of her thighs used to go almost all the way around her thigh and now it doesn't. That makes me kind of sad.

2. Charlotte has started potty training! We started the training on Tuesday after the I stole the idea from Arin to set a timer, reward her for being dry and then reward her if she does her business on the potty (rewards have been in the form of a chocolate chip or a mini marshmallow). As long as I remember to set the timer and put her on the potty, she has done really well. She will go almost every time she is put on. But if we do not initiate putting her on, she has an accident. I think that since she can make herself go when she's on the toilet (or "tool-let" in her words), she knows what the urge to go feels like. She's only had one accident when we were out of the house, which was an accident of the worst kind because it involved poop. (Yup, I'm a mom, so I talk about poop.) She has had constipation issues for months. Maybe close to a year now. We've been to the doctor about it a couple times. Miralax is her friend. So with the constipation issues, when she feels the urge to go, she almost always tries to hold it in (which makes the constipation worse and it's a vicious cycle). So, the situation was her having had Miralax for three days, needing to go, but the only option was the "scary tool-let" in the bookstore. She has a fear of the big commercial toilets in stores and restaurants, even though I carry around a foldable potty seat that goes over the regular toilet. As soon as we walked into the store I took her to the bathroom because it had been an hour and a half or so since she last went. She saw the loud, scary toilets and magically didn't need to go anymore. And despite all her efforts of holding it in, she wasn't able to so I had the task of trying to get Charlotte cleaned up in the bathroom (thankfully it was a bookstore's bathroom and was about as clean of a restroom you can find in public) and trying to convince her to sit on the potty to finish her business, all the while holding a baby because I wouldn't dare set her down on that bathroom floor, no matter how clean it looked. It was a stressful, messy, stinky situation. It was not my favorite day of motherhood. And I will be sure to remind Charlotte about that one day when she has kids and is slowly being driven insane too.

3. We went to the pool this morning and Charlotte had a blast. She has such an imagination and it is really starting to show. She was "driving" around in her crab float. Jared directed the float over to the stairs and told her it was a drive thru window and told her she could order some food. She said, "No, let's go inside!" Jared asked where the inside was. She said it was the chairs on the other side of the pool. So they went and sat down at the chairs and she said, "We have to order!" She walked over to a different chair and pretended to talk to someone, picked up a tray, then went to sit by her daddy. He asked what it was and she told him, "A Chick-fil-A sandwich!" (We really should buy stock in the place.) Jared asked what they have to do before they ate and she told him, "Pray". He folded his hands to pray and she said, "No Daddy, you have to put your tray down!" He asked her where to put the tray and she told him it went behind him. So he put the tray down and prayed. When they finished eating Jared asked if she was ready to go. She told him, "Daddy, we have to put the trash away!" So she began to gather all the "trash" and throw it in the trash can (the corner of the pool). Then she hopped back in the crab and drove over to Mommy and Naomi :)

4. Naomi is waving, and it's pretty darned cute.

5. We're going to be in bed before 10:00 on a Saturday night. We're old foagies, I tell ya.

6. I'll post some pictures of the girls before too long, but not tonight. Because, after all, it is almost 10:00!

Go Gators!

2010-07-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

I haven't been regular in my posting for a while, so I've neglected to mention the fact that Naomi is now mobile. She's been scooting around for at least a month now and has finally gotten the hang of keeping her knees tucked up underneath her to crawl. She's pulling herself up on the coffee table (and has fallen backwards many times) and standing in her crib (fell overboard... gave her Mama a heart attack on that one!). So she's getting around the house and getting into everything these days.

A week or two ago she scooted her way into the foyer, one of her favorite spots, because of the stack of Southern Livings and the gator head. She managed to pull them down before we realized what she was doing. Once we did, I ran for the camera of course, and Jared chuckled and said, "Go Gators!" Charlotte, poor thing, has her mommy and daddy's (very corny) sense of humor because she thought that was hilarious! We think it was the first time that she has heard a joke (or pun or slightly ironic statement) and actually "got" it :)

(I swear my kids are not always naked... We're really not as redneck as we seem.)

Eat More Chikin!

2010-07-28T08:00:00.000-04:00

A couple weeks ago, Chick-Fil-A had their Cow Appreciation Day. Dress like a cow - get free chicken? You know I'm there! And since Naomi is too little to protest and Charlotte likes dressing up, they got free chicken too (Charlotte and I split Naomi's:). Jared apparently has too much dignity for things such as dressing like a cow because, for the second year in a row, he refused to don black spots and ears for the sake of free food. (Hey Hun, that's two extra meals that we paid for. Just think: we could be that much closer to retirement...)

Cutest CowBaby ever!

Charlotte called me a cow... the one time anyone can say that and me not get offended!

Charlotte LOVED this! The next time that we went to Chick-Fil-A she was telling me we couldn't go because we weren't dressed like cows :)

Here is last year's photo. I can't believe how much she's changed!

Me and My Girls

2010-07-27T13:30:00.004-04:00

Can you tell who's who?

Dad Life

2010-07-21T22:49:00.002-04:00

Our Pastor told us about this video. We had to pause it because we were laughing too hard to hear it :)

Nursing Babies

2010-07-10T16:24:00.003-04:00

Jared walked into Charlotte's room the other day to find this...

"Baby doll eat my boobie too!"

At least it wasn't in public...

3rd of July

2010-07-09T09:35:00.006-04:00

4th of July festivities in Keystone... that were actually on the 3rd of July :)

Waiting for the parade

Cuddling with Grammy

Trying to get into a pack of Runts

Cuddling with Auntie Mel

James and Charlotte - he's 6 months younger than her and already taller than her

The dresses and bows I made for the girls - Aren't they adorable?!

Charlotte playing soccer... She had bracelets on her left arm and would not swing that arm at all, I suppose for fear of losing them.

Jared had the following Monday off so we went to the pool that morning

Look at that face! She's adorable!

Pool Fun

2010-06-23T07:05:00.003-04:00

We took the girls to the pool in our neighborhood a few weeks ago and they both had a blast. I think they are going to be little water bugs this summer!

Don't worry, Jared is sitting right beside Naomi and his hand is underneath the water holding her :)

Oh My Word

2010-06-17T09:45:00.003-04:00

A little while ago we had two Jehovah's Witnesses ring our doorbell. A high school or college aged boy and girl. I answered the door and thanked them for their invitation to a huge event they have every year on the UF campus. Charlotte ran up beside me and the girl told her hello and kind of giggled. It wasn't until a few minutes after they left that I realized that all Charlotte had on was her pajama top. No bottoms. Not even a diaper! She had been sitting on the potty right before that and I told her to get a diaper from her closet and bring it back to me. She didn't and I got distracted so she was running around like a redneck child for a few minutes. And now there are two JW's who think I'm nutso.

I swear we're not white trash.

Dimwits

2010-06-12T19:33:00.002-04:00

**I will share a funny story with you, but only on one condition: You must not think any less of Jared or me, especially in regards to our intelligence. We both have college degrees (he has lots of 'em, actually!) and are pretty smart folks. But there was a time when neither of us were thinking clearly and a lot of ridiculousness ensued.**

Shortly after we moved into our house, we needed to replace the light bulbs in our dining room. The fixture was on a dimming switch, so I went to Lowe's in search of dimming light bulbs. I searched the whole row of light bulbs in the store and could not find any that specified they were of the "dimming variety". I was peeved. Seriously, how could Lowe's not have them?!

I told Jared when he got home from work, so off we went to a specialty lighting store near our house. A fancy lighting store that sold light fixtures that were crazy expensive. We walked around for a couple minutes, looking for the light bulb section of the store. When we couldn't find it, we went up to the counter to ask for help.

"Do you have any light bulbs? The dimming kind?" I asked. The clerk gave me a puzzled look.

"We don't sell light bulbs... but all light bulbs will dim." We were shocked. Was he pulling our leg? "I'll go to the back and see if we have any light bulbs. How many do you need?"

"Four." And what do you know, he came back with four light bulbs for us. After we left, I'm sure he told all of his co-workers about the two idiots who came into the uppity special lighting store asking for light bulbs. "The dimming kind".

**There you go. The tale of two dimwits who wanted dimming light bulbs. I swear we're not idiots. For real. Please don't think less of us. If you're ever in our home, please turn on and be amazed by our fancy dimming dining room light. We have indoor plumbing that I bet will impress you too.**

Peek-A-Boo

2010-06-04T17:21:00.001-04:00

Quite possibly the cutest thing ever.

Go Fly A Kite

2010-06-02T22:37:00.004-04:00

Stink Eye Things

2010-06-02T22:20:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I noticed some goopy mess coming out of Naomi's left eye and this morning it was an even goopier, crusty mess. After a phone call and visit to the doctor to confirm that it is pink eye, I made a visit to the pharmacy for the meds and a visit to the health food store for some herbal stuff that will hopefully prevent the rest of us from getting the nasty mess. The bright side of it all is that the doctor recommended Jared not go into work for a day just to make sure he doesn't have it and doesn't spread it. This evening I was trying to tell him that I hated that he was home because one of our girls was sick, but that I was glad he was home with us. But he stopped me when the only words I had gotten out were, "I hate that you're home..." and threw a sarcastic hissy fit. Much like the time he did when I was telling him that although painting was a pain, I really liked doing things with him, though it came out, "It's a pain, but I enjoy spending the time with you." Somehow the words and thoughts are lost in translation between my brain and mouth.

Anyway, lots has been happening lately but I just ~~can't seem to find~~ haven't made the time to post the cute pictures and videos of it all. Maybe with Jared home I'll be able to get some of it posted tomorrow. Nah, that's pretty unlikely since one of the fun facets of pink eye is that it is very contagious so I'll be washing sheets and blankets and wiping down toys and shampooing carpets and such things tomorrow. And did I mention Naomi is just a sweet ball of sunshine when she's not feeling well? Oh, I didn't mention that? That's good, 'cause if I had said anything along those lines it would have been a lie. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of her back when she didn't have a nasty eye infection and was being her cute little self.

One Year

2010-05-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

Today is the one-year anniversary of the due date for the sweet child we lost. The passing of time has made it easier, but the loss of our baby still hurts. I wonder if the pain will get less once we are done having children and our family is "complete". But for now it sort of feels like something is missing.

And while I am sad that I was never able to hold that baby in my arms and watch her grow and see her smile, I now have Naomi to hold and her smile brings a joy to my heart that I didn't think was possible. God's plans are different, but so much better than my own.

Naomi is Famous!

2010-05-20T08:58:00.002-04:00

So you know how I said that we met the Pioneer Woman and that she even tweeted me about how amazing Naomi is? She not only posted some cute pictures, but she gave Naomi her own blog post! I'm such a happy mama! And still star struck. And my love handles are getting bigger from the things I've made from her cookbook :) It's delicious!

I'm Not Sure

2010-05-17T08:00:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure when this little girl grew up. I must have pricked my finger on a spinning wheel and fallen asleep for a while, because it really does not seem like she should be this big already.

How To Anger A Breastfed Baby

2010-05-15T10:28:00.002-04:00

Give her one of these...

We've waited too long to introduce the bottle to Naomi so now, at 5 months old, she wants nothing of it. The screaming and stiffening of the entire body that accompanies an attempted feeding would make you think we were feeding her mud. I even bought that bottle up there - it's supposed to feel and work like a real breast, even giving the feeling of the "let down" for them. She was interested in it, even chewed and gnawed on the nipple of it a little, but once some of the milk (breast milk, mind you!) got in her mouth, she wasn't having any more of that.

Jared spent at least 30 minutes with her screaming, trying to get her to take the bottle. She finally started drinking it a little, but was very slow doing so and was easily distracted. We're going to keep trying to give her one feeding from a bottle each day. If anyone has any wisdom on this matter, please pass it along!

Star Struck

2010-05-13T14:48:00.005-04:00

I am so star struck right now. And just a wee bit on Cloud 9. I met the Pioneer Woman yesterday! I've been slightly obsessed with her blog for a while now. If you haven't been to her site, you have to check it out. She's a city girl who ended up marrying a cattle rancher so now she's living out in the country with her husband, four kids, and lots of cows. Her writing is hilarious and she has a whole section on her blog about photography. She dumbs down the basics of working a digital SLR camera so that even I can understand it. We bought a nice camera a few months back and through her articles on things like aperture and shutter speed, one day I might just know how to take a decent picture!

Anyway, back to my star-struck-ness. I saw on PW's site (PW = Pioneer Woman... she calls herself that, I'm not some crazy stalker fan giving her a cutesy nickname:) that she was going to be in Orlando having a book signing and it was during the time that Dusty & Arin & co. were going to be in Deland, so I saw a two-bird-one-stone situation on my hands. Jared took the day off work and we headed to Deland. We had a great time visiting with them, seeing their new house that is in the process of being fixed up for them to move into (it's going to be so adorable!), and looking at a potential vacation spot on the river. After our visit, we headed to Orlando to meet Ree (PW's real name)!

We got there at 6:15 (it started at 6:00) and did not leave the book store until right at 10:00. I kept thinking, "We drove all this way. I don't want to have driven all the way to Orlando to buy a book I could have bought in Jacksonville." And Jared, my sweet, sweet husband was so patient and said he didn't mind waiting. So we waited. And waited.

And then we finally met her! See, the thing about her book signings is that she often takes pictures of some of the people who come to meet and she puts the pictures on her blog. And I've noticed that she tends to favor a certain group of people: babies. And what do you know, we just happened to have two cute little girls, in particular, one adorable baby who was being oh so smiley. And when Jared showed off the little trick he's done with both his girls, Ree grabbed her camera and started snapping pictures.

She had been there for longer than we had with a smile on her face the entire time, and I heard her tell someone a few people ahead of us that she had to take her youngest to the ER the night before and they didn't get back from that till 7:30 that morning, and that was after two days at Universal Studios so I know she was exhausted. But she was still as sweet as could be and I was star-struck! I said something super cool like, "Hi". At least I didn't spill any hot tea on her lap. I only now wish I had thought to buy a handful of books to have her sign for the ladies in my family and my friends as Christmas or birthday gifts!

My star-struck-ness was taken taken to the level of Cloud 9, when on the way home I saw that she tweeted me!

I had tweeted... "We met the P-Dub! @thepioneerwoman was so sweet and she took some pics of Naomi standing in Jared's hand :)"

To which she replied... "@therollinsworld That was an incredible baby trick! I'll be posting photos for sure. Nothing short of amazing."

So I'll now be stalking her blog even more, waiting to see my baby and her chunky thighs on ThePioneerWoman.com

(I made her French breakfast puffs for breakfast this morning... HEAVENLY!)

New Paint Job

2010-05-10T11:32:00.008-04:00

I'm never ever painting ever again. I'm done. Over it. We've lived in our home for almost three years now, and for almost three years we've said, "Why on Earth did they choose such a blah shade of beige? Why did they paint the trim such a dull color? I'm being choked by taupe." So instead of complaining about it and talking about how much we didn't like it, we finally did something about it. And you will probably laugh when you see the pictures because you really can't see much difference in the Before & Afters. The foyer, dining, and long wall the piano is on is a light yellow and the rest of the living room is a light grey with a slight hint of a green. It's a subtle change, but it freshens and lightens the room up a lot. And because every design show you will ever watch will mention the word "zen", I'll go ahead and just say that the colors lend a real zen feel to the space.

BEFORE
The foyer

Dining room

Living room

Living room... with the addition of a step ladder and the old blankets to be used as drop cloths

AFTER

Did you notice those nice and high 12-foot vaulted ceilings? They were one of the selling points of the house for us. A great architectural feature. Also, a great pain in the rear to paint. Or so I assume. My nearly 6 foot tall husband was stretched up on a ladder doing that part. So, no more painting for us ever again. We're done. Most likely. Except that our bedroom is still beige. And the trim of our bedroom is painted in the exact same color! Who does that?! The taupe is choking me once again. I'm off to look at paint samples.

All in the Family

2010-05-03T14:52:00.006-04:00

This is what happens when you grow up in a small town...

What this chart doesn't show is that Gavin, who is now my brother-in-law, was also my date to the senior prom and that he graduated with me, Shannon, and Kristina. If they wouldn't kill each other within the first week of marriage, I'd say that Gavin and Kristina should get married to add another colored line into the mix.

John 3:16

2010-04-29T14:38:00.001-04:00

(Pause or stop the music before you press play)

Rollins Women Weekend

2010-04-20T07:00:00.000-04:00

The women of the Rollins family had a weekend getaway to Charleston, SC! I had never been to the city before and was just blown away by how beautiful it is! It reminded me a lot of Savannah, but it's much bigger and there is so much more to see. We arrived to our hotel, the Hampton Inn in the historic district, on Friday evening and left Sunday around lunch. We spent all day Saturday walking around, but I think we only made it down two or three streets. This is due largely due to our need to stop in every store we passed to do some shopping :) It was great to spend some time with just the ladies of the family!

Check out that packing job! We have two strollers and two pack & plays in there, along with the luggage for three women and two babies!

Our whole group... Me with Naomi, Mom, Arin with Asa (the only boy we allowed), Mel (adopted into the family whether she likes it or not), Megan, Whitney (another adoptee), and Amber. Megan pointed out that aside from the mommas with the babies, no one in our group was blood-related. (Picture stolen from Arin's blog).

The Rollins sisters-in-law (yet again, stolen from Arin's blog! Arin, how pale does Amber make us look?!)

Naomi and Asa, ready to hit the town

King Street, where we spent the first half of Saturday shopping

Farmer's Market on King Street

The Market, where we spent the second half of Saturday shopping

Gucci, where we did not do any shopping!

Asa was a little upset so Naomi lent him her thumb

Interesting fact: State Street used to be named Union Street. Sometime shortly before the Civil War (or the "War of Northern Aggression" as it is referred to here in the South), they changed the name for obvious reasons

As we rode past this house on our horse-drawn carriage tour we created our ideal Saturday... sitting on the porch sipping on lemonade and sweet tea, in rocking chairs, watching the children in their matching outfits play in the perfectly manicured lawn, with a nice breeze blowing in from the harbor through the oak trees. We call the children in to let them know it is time to take their naps and they politely reply, "Yes, ma'am!" The men come in from their day of fishing, proudly showing the dinner they've caught for the family :)

I'm looking forward to the Second Annual Rollins Women Weekend!

Happy Easter (two weeks later)

2010-04-19T17:27:00.004-04:00

We had a very nice, relaxing Easter (two weeks ago... better late than never, eh?). For the past few years we have spent Easter over in Keystone visiting family, but this year we stayed in Jax for the whole day. We had a great morning of worship with our church family, celebrating the resurrection of our Lord. My mom came to our church and to our house for lunch afterwards. We invited her to have lunch with us and somehow she ended up bringing the majority of the food. I'm not sure how that worked out, but I'm not complaining! Here are a few pictures from the rest of the day...

Naomi snuggled with her Grammy

We put Charlotte in an old t-shirt to dye eggs and she slipped on Jared's flip flops. Poor thing looked like a little orphan child!

Charlotte had a blast dying the eggs. Most of them ended up the same color because she liked to dip the eggs into every color. (By the way, how genius is the wisk idea?! I saw it on someone's blog and it made for a much less messy time of egg-dying than those little wire holders do.)

Charlotte hunted for the eggs

Charlotte dropped the eggs

And afterwards Charlotte was given her Easter basket: Veggie Tale's An Easter Carol, some stickers, a couple small board books, and some candy.

Cutie Patooties

2010-04-01T11:15:00.008-04:00

We took Charlotte to the park near our house to ride her tricycle. There's just a little bit more room there than on our back porch :)

Charlotte let Naomi have a turn

Taking Naomi for a ride

"I got a rock." (Name that movie!)

The first time Naomi rolled over!

What's Going On

2010-03-31T21:48:00.002-04:00

Things continue to be busy around here with I'm not even sure what, so my blog-slacking continues. I will try to upload some pictures and maybe even a video or two soon, but for now, here are some highlights of what's going on...

1. Charlotte is talking nonstop. She has been for about a year now, but the words are more clear and she's using more and more words each day. She keeps us laughing with what she says and how she says it. She's adorable and she knows it. When she realizes something she has said makes us laugh, she repeats it over and over to get more laughs. It quickly gets to the point where it's not cute anymore, but she rarely stops when there might still be a laugh or two left in us.

2. I pulled the exersaucer out of the attic today and Naomi has been having a field day with it. Charlotte has even enjoyed showing her how to play with the toys on it and it makes me smile to watch them play together already. I am amazed at how well Charlotte has transitioned into her role as a big sister and how loving she is towards Naomi. This morning while I was holding Naomi, Charlotte told me, "Put Sister down here," as she pointed to the bouncy seat, so that I could make breakfast for her. There have been a few of those moments, but other than that, Charlotte has just loved her sister to pieces.

3. I have become a Chick-fil-A addict. I've bought lunch from there at least five times within the past two weeks. Jared asked me if I heard that their sales had gone up 50%, and started telling me about this article he read that said they've been able to target it to their Florida locations and that their Jacksonville locations were now the most profitable and they've pinpointed it to the repeat customers at the restaurant on Southside Blvd., specifically the woman in the Toyota minivan who has been going through the drive-through every day. I thought he was serious until he got to the part about Southside Blvd. He thinks he's so funny... :)

4. Last week Naomi mastered the skill of rolling over, but she isn't really a fan of being on her stomach, so she would then fuss about the predicament of being on her tummy and not knowing how to get back over. She is finally tolerating being on her tummy more and has even started lifting her head to look around and see what is in front of her to grab and play with. This is a skill that comes at an earlier age for many babies, but not all babies are 16.5 pounds before they are 4 months old! She's a chunk and I love it! She continues to have issues if I eat any dairy, but they seem to be getting better. Hopefully I will not be banned from milkshakes and chocolate for the year that I plan to nurse her!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2010-03-24T08:13:00.004-04:00

Here are a few cute things Charlotte said yesterday that still have me smiling:

We were getting ready to eat lunch and Charlotte quickly went through her prayer, "Kank-ku (Thank you) Mommy, Daddy, Sister. Amen. Kank-ku food. Amen!" I asked her who we prayed to and she knowingly answered, "God... and Jesus." Then I asked her who Jesus was, and she replied, "God's Son." So yeah, our two-year-old is saved :) I know she doesn't get it at this point but it does make a momma's heart happy to know that she is making connections about some things that can be quite difficult to understand.

And while I was at my Bible study yesterday evening, Jared took Charlotte to the playground in our neighborhood. She looked up and said, "Daddy! The moon! It's pretty!" Then reached up and said, "Can't reach it... Turtle stool?!" Her Auntie Arin and Uncle Dusty gave her a stool for Christmas in the shape of a turtle. (Arin's parents make them, along with lots of other great toys and furniture!). A little later she saw an airplane fly over and again reached up, said she couldn't reach it, and asked for her stool. :)

I love that kid!!

Blog Slacker

2010-03-19T15:30:00.005-04:00

Hi, I'm Brittany and I'm a blog slacker. Things have been busy around here. I'm not sure how, but our schedule seems to get filled up quickly. Here are some random photos and stories from the last couple weeks...

(I uploaded the pictures to photobucket, 'cause I heard that's what the cool people do, and I'm still figuring it out, so I apologize for how HUGE the pictures are. If you click on them you should be able to see the entire picture.)

Charlotte had fun playing a new game at Toto & Pop's house. Ping pong paddle and a softball: Softpongball?

Anson did some worm tracking :)

Charlotte and Anson pulling bark off the tree and playing in the sap. Charlotte started crying when she realized all the adults had gone inside (for no more than a minute)

Charlotte went on a boat ride with Daddy, Uncle Dusty and Anson... no actual pictures of the boat ride because I was getting that on video

Looking for fish

Charlotte gave lessons on being cool. Lesson 1: Get some cool shades.

Lesson Two: Hang out with cool people.

Naomi got lots of snuggles from her Toto

The men made a delicious dinner for us!

Charlotte has had a great time riding her tricycle on the back porch

Naomi found her feet!

I've been enjoying my girls :) How funny is Naomi's expression?!

Naomi has gotten even cuter! I took her to the doctor's office a couple days ago to get a shot and at not even 3.5 months, she weighs 16 pounds 4 ounces! I just love those rolls on her legs!

Something that Charlotte would surely tell you if she saw you in person (but I don't have any pictures of) is that she saw Mickey Mouse! Her Grammy and Grampy (my mom and stepdad) took her to Mickey's Rockin' Road Show a week ago and she had a blast! In true grandparent fashion, they sent her home with a plethora of Mickey loot and she's been walking on air from seeing her favorite characters. The Sunday after the show, our pastor was saying hello to Charlotte but she would not reply with so much as a smile. We kept coaxing her, trying to get her to say something, but she didn't say a thing until we told her to tell the pastor who she saw last night. Then she excitedly went into a long explanation of seeing Mickey and "Goopy" and "Cinnerwella".

Jared and I have noticed that she's picking up on some of the phrases and mannerisms from watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She says "Oh boy!" (she gets this one from Donald) and last night she was being really silly with the way she walked and it looked an awful lot like she was imitating Daisy. Silly girl.

Councilman Gavin Rollins!

2010-03-04T21:04:00.007-05:00

Gavin won his re-election to Keystone Heights' City Council! We were hoping he wouldn't have a running mate so that this election would be a little less stressful than the last, but there were a certain few (the mayor and every other member on the council) who did everything in their power to make sure Gavin had competition and lost. Half of their plan worked. :)

On Tuesday we went into Keystone to help him hold signs, shake hands and kiss babies. The babies being kissed all had the last name of Rollins, but that's beside the point. The weather was not very kind, but the efforts the day of and the many weeks beforehand were not in vain because he won 160-105. (There are 1400 registered voters in the city and that's all that showed up to vote. Isn't that pitiful?!)

Some pictures from the day...

Gavin did a wonderful job campaigning, but I'm pretty sure this waving toddler is what put him over the top

Amber and I discussed potential candidates for the next position to be filled: Mrs. Gavin Rollins!

Charlotte spying on the competition with some "nonky-yers"

Whitney, Stephanie & her boys, Gavin & Charlotte

James, another Rollins baby that was kissed :)

Stephanie and Charlie hosted a victory party for Gavin. They have the most beautiful home and are always so gracious and welcoming of guests, even if they're not there (I've watched Gator games and nursed babies in their home while they weren't there. They're just super cool people like that).

While Stephanie took Wyatt to t-ball practice, I may or may not have (I definitely did) gone around and taken a few pictures of her decorations to copy them.

I know this is only the beginning of Gavin's career in changing the world. I don't want to say his career will only be in politics because Gavin is involved in so much more than that. We'll just say he's at the beginning of changing this world. The good kind of change. Not that bogus kind of change for the worst (not worse... worst!) that America is getting now. ::Steps off soapbox::

Congratulations, Gavin!!

Marineland

2010-03-03T09:56:00.004-05:00

On Sunday, Marineland had a Family Day (which means getting in for free) so we drove straight there after church to see the dolphins. It is a small park and I don't think they were expecting the size of crowd that was there. It was packed in front of the dolphin tanks, so much so that it was nearly impossible to move in some places. The dolphin "show" was quite short, far from what you would expect at SeaWorld, but it was still neat to see and I think Charlotte really enjoyed it. If nothing else, it got us out of the house on a sunny afternoon. The small stretch of A1A we drove is beautiful and we saw a house that we're going to base the exterior of the house we build in 8 or so years on. Until we see something we like better and change our minds next year :)

Naomi really enjoyed it. She went crazy over the dolphins. Oohing and ahhing. Or it could have just been because of gas.

While we waited for the dolphin show, Charlotte had to make sure that her cross was safe and sound buckled up in her stroller.

Five Year Anniversary

2010-02-26T19:58:00.004-05:00

Last Thursday was the five year anniversary of the doctor telling Jared that the tumor he felt was most likely testicular cancer. It seems like it was forever ago and just yesterday all at the same time. Jared was amazing through the entire process of the surgery, a summer of chemotherapy, and yet another surgery. He did a ton of research, read countless articles, talked to multiple doctors, but ultimately trusted the Lord through it all. At one point when his tumor markers were not where the doctor wanted them to be, the doctor casually mentioned something to the effect of, "You may have a particular type of cancer that doesn't respond to treatment." Jared pondered that for all of about ten minutes before he fell asleep during his chemo session. When he awoke and the doctor had some more test results, he was told that everything was looking good. What would have been a terrible time of waiting for most people, even Christians, Jared resolved that if it was untreatable, he knew where he would be headed and was secure in that. So he took a nap.

I am so thankful that the Lord's plan for him did not end there. Even though the survival rate is very high if it is caught and treated early, something like 98%, there are those who don't make it through. Many who do are not able to have children. Jared made it through and is the father to two beautiful girls. Our God is so good.

At one of his many chemo treatments

After his RPLND (retroperitoneal lymph node dissection: a removal of the lymph nodes in the lower abdomen)

Atlanta Weekend

2010-02-23T14:32:00.012-05:00

Last weekend when it was so extremely cold, we went up to Atlanta to visit with Dusty & Arin and to meet the newest addition to their family, sweet little Asa! It snowed on us on the way up there and by Saturday morning, the kids had some beautiful snow to play in. Here are some pictures from our weekend...

Anson, Charlotte, and Ella, cuddled up watching some Saturday morning cartoons

Charlotte called the snow "snow ma'am"... Like "snow man", but a lady??

Sweet Ella playing in the snow

Dusty and Ella working on a snow man... this is about as big as he got. We grew tired and cold very quickly out there!

We went to eat at our favorite restaraunt, the Penang. Penang is the name of the island in Malaysia where Jared's family lived as missionaries and where he proposed to me. We always get the same thing when we eat there. Roti canai, a crispy Indian style pancake served with a curry chicken potato sauce...

...and chicken satay, skewered grilled chicken served with a peanut sauce.

Other than going out for dinner on Saturday night, we mostly just stayed in and relaxed. We were all quite tired!

Here is sweet little Asa! He has the cutest wrinkly forehead you've ever seen! He was born at 6 pounds 14 ounces, so Arin has had the smallest and largest babies in the family (Anson was a whopping 10 pounds 3 ounces)!

Arin opening up some Play-Doh for the kids. She amazed me with how much energy she had only three weeks after having a baby!

Asa and Naomi, 3 weeks and 2 months, respectively. Just a little bit of a size difference between the two!

The Lakewood house, a.k.a. The Money Pit. We're thrilled to not own this anymore but still like to drive by whenever we're up there to celebrate!

Happy Birthday, Grammy!

2010-02-16T11:46:00.002-05:00

The girls and I were planning to go to Gainesville today but I have some stupid sore throat, sinusy, painful eustachian tube sort of germ that I don't want to spread. The main reason for our trip to Gainesville was to see my mom, the girls' Grammy, and to take her out to lunch on her birthday. Happy Birthday, Mom! Since she can't see the girls in person, I figured this video would be the next best thing.

Photo Recap

2010-02-08T12:45:00.005-05:00

I cleaned out the girls' closets... Naomi has already outgrown all of these clothes!

The hangers from Charlotte's outgrown outfits. She still had lots of 12 month size clothes hanging up. I might need to clear it out more often. :/

Is there anything cuter than this?!

Charlotte likes to put Mickey and his gang with Dora and her crew in the same plastic zip-up tote that she refers to as their "house". Apparently, the tough economy has affected the cartoon characters as well and they're now teaming up and sharing homes.

Love this smile!

Charlotte in her "tig tails"... Nope, not a typo. She calls them "tig tails" :)

Snoozing in Daddy's arms

Saturdays are perfect for building forts

Reading inside the fort

Sweet sisters

Singing about Zacchaeus, with the mandatory hand motions. "Zacchaeus, you come down..."

"My Daddy is hilarious!"

They're both smitten

And we'll close it with a Charlotte story... She is at the stage where she's repeating everything she hears. Yesterday as I was changing her Pull-Up, she told me, "Oh my goodness! I pee-pee!" Oh my goodness... she must have picked that one up from her father :)

The Fast Life

2010-02-07T20:57:00.002-05:00

I really hate that I get around to blogging so infrequently because I feel like so much happens between posts that when I do update there's just so much to tell you and it would need to be a novel's length to cover everything. So here are some highlights...

Naomi has been sleeping really well. I feed her right before we go to bed, around 10 or 11:00, and though she gives me trouble sometimes in getting to sleep, once she does fall asleep, she has been sleeping till 5:45 or 6:00. On Saturday, she even slept till 7:00! I know some people say a child as young as her should be getting fed more often, but she's getting plenty of food - she weighs 15 pounds at 2 months old! Jared continues to be the Master Swaddler and has also added Master Sleep-Inducer to his list of titles. Quite often Naomi will be asleep in my arms but the minute I put her down she wakes up. Jared has the magic touch with the butt-patting though because she almost always goes right to sleep and stays asleep when he puts her down. I will be sending his boss notification this week that Jared will be working from home from now on so that he can swaddle and put Naomi down for all of her naps.

I have started a Bible study with some ladies in our church and am really enjoying it. We're reading With the Master in the School of Tested Faith by Susan Heck on the book of James. It is fantastic! I actually started it several months ago with another group of ladies, but the pregnancy made me lazy and after we got into the second chapter (of James, not just the study book:), I sort of phased out. But most of the ladies in this group are in our Home Bible Study so I see them on Sunday evenings and I think the accountability will help me.

Jared and I have officially taken over as nursery coordinators at church! We were informed shortly after Charlotte was born and we volunteered to work in the nursery that we were being "groomed" to take over as coordinators. Well, there wasn't much grooming that went on and we were able to dodge the bullet when they were looking for the next replacements, but they ~~suckered us into it~~ assured us of the blessing it was to the families and what a blessing it would be to us as well. :) I kid, I kid. We're really excited about it and are doing our best to learn the ropes as quickly as possible. In addition to the usual difficulties of workers not showing up and finding replacements, we have the added challenge of a very fertile membership that has recently grown with the addition of several new families with multiple children themselves and not enough space to fit everyone in. Oh, and throw in the fact that Jared and I don't know all of the workers so when someone suggests finding So-and-So to fill in, we have no idea who So-and-So is. We've only been going to the church for two and a half years, you can't expect us to know people yet! There are several challenges, but I believe that Jared will be a wonderful head of this ministry. He is very organized and has an eye for recognizing how things can be done more efficiently so that will be a huge asset. And me, well I'm the trusty side-kick who will change the bulletin boards once a quarter and wash and fold the sheets for the infants each week :)

I have started Jillian Michael's The Shred workout! It's a 30-day workout that only takes 20 minutes each day. Yesterday was Day 1 and tomorrow will be Day 2. Haha, did you catch that? Yeah, I'm skipping a day already. We hosted our Home Bible Study tonight so we spent our time after church making sure the house was presentable for guests. Am I the only whose house is only spic-and-span when they have company coming? It drives Jared nuts. "Why don't we keep it clean for us?" Yes, I often leave dishes in the sink, have an unmopped floor, and a ring around the toilet bowls, but I don't want other people to know that! Anyway, I was running around cleaning and tidying (Jared was helping too, what a sweet, patient and very wonderful husband I have!) and because of the Super Bowl, we had people here later than usual and I don't like to work out or exercise to0 late in the evenings because it makes me wired and then I can't sleep runonfragmentsentence. There will always be an excuse, I know, but I really do want to stick to it. I am sick of this post-baby body of mine. I might tape two pictures to the TV while I'm working out: one of me before babies and one of me now. That way, when Jillian is kicking my butt and making me hate her, I can look at the picture and remember that I hate my stomach and thighs even more.

Charlotte has been almost two weeks without her beloved Mickey Mouse! I haven't even turned the TV on during the day since her tantrum over him. That's huge for me, folks! I have a tendency to turn the TV on and leave it on, even if it's not being watched. You'd think with less time spent with my rear in front of the TV that I would get more things done around the house. Nah, I just find other ways to waste my time, like cutting up an old shirt of mine into a dress for Charlotte. And I say "waste" because that project was exactly that. A waste. It ended up being a total flop. Oh well.

Alright, well that's all I can think to share now... See, even doing the highlights, it still turns into a novel. I'm chatty even in blogland. Sheesh! I'll try to post pictures of the girls tomorrow but I'm too tired to mess with all that mess tonight. Naomi, not wanting us to get too comfortable with a good night's sleep, changed things up by waking at 3:00 a.m. to eat and then again at 5:00, at which time she felt it would be fun to party till 6:30. After that and a busy day today, I am really hoping for some uninterrupted sleep! Night, ya'll!

Perfect Couple Contest - Vote Now!

2010-02-01T10:18:00.003-05:00

We need your help! Go vote for Jared and I for the "Perfect Couple" contest over on Taryn Lewis's blog!

Taryn Lewis Photography

If we win, we'll get a photo session with Taryn and some free prints. Taryn is a photographer from our hometown and does some amazing work. While you're voting for us, check out some of her other work as well! She also has a great deal going on for high school juniors and seniors if anyone needs some senior portraits done.

Stuffy Noses

2010-01-30T22:42:00.002-05:00

Both of the girls currently have stuffy noses. It's pitifully sad. One is also sneezing and doesn't yet understand or heed the advice of "cover your mouth". The other is too young to understand that she has the ability of breathing through her nose. So when we lay her down to sleep and the congestion gets at its worst, she begins coughing and gagging. I fear I will be spending the night "sleeping" in the recliner, holding her in an upright position so she will get some rest. In hopes of preventing this, I have a nice tent/fort around her bassinet with the warm humidifier going strong. And words cannot express how much she dislikes the nasal aspirator. But her screaming sure can. I'm not sure if her hoarse-sounding cries are from screaming so much as I've been sucking the snot out of her nose or just part of this cold. Combine this with the issues she's having with dairy/reflux/nausea/heartburn/indigestion/whatever else I'm not really sure, and you can imagine the fun we're having.

You've Got To Be Kidding Me!

2010-01-27T17:13:00.003-05:00

To "SableHairAngel" who left the following comment to my previous post...

I don't exactly think Mickey Mouse is the problem, just bad parenting.

Really, she's a kid. They have idols. That's why there is Barney, Mickey Mouse, etc.

Would you like it better if she obsessed over Paris Hilton?

Are you even serious?! You may find it appropriate to have your child walk all over you to get whatever he or she wants, but in our house and home, it is not acceptable. To give a screaming child whatever she is screaming for is only going to reinforce that behavior. While I find her infatuation with Mickey cute, when it gets to the point of her screaming bloody murder because she is being made to lay down for her nap instead of watching his show, I am going to restrict her access to him.

Idolatry is not something that is acceptable in this home. We are teaching her to love the Lord and have no other gods before Him. Other people doing something is not a reason for us to raise our children in the same manner.

You don't know anything about me, my child, or my family other than what you have read in one blog post, so do not tell me how to raise my children.

Good Times

2010-01-26T09:46:00.008-05:00

A backpack, two purses, and sunglasses...I have a feeling she's going to like playing dress up

This past Saturday morning we went to the park to let her run around and play

It was quite windy at the park so we had Naomi bundled up in blankets. Jared said she looked like an old British judge.

My Mom had MLK, Jr. Day off so she came up and spent the day with us. As a grandmother, she's willing to pay the arm and a leg price to ride the "choo choo" in the mall with Charlotte. Now that Charlotte has ridden it, we probably won't be able to convince her that those are just hired actors in the train and we're not allowed to ride it. Thanks, Mom... ;)

It's hard to believe how fast our girls are growing up. Naomi turned 7 weeks old yesterday and is already over 14 pounds! At Charlotte's 2 month appointment she weighed only 10 pounds, so Naomi is our little chunk :) Along with her dairy issues, I think she also has some reflux, which has made some feedings loads of fun. There are times when she will nurse on one side, then just start fussing and pulling away, even though she acts like she wants to eat more. It's quite frustrating for the both of us. I had her on a nice 4-hour feeding schedule and by day 3 or 4 of that she even slept through the night (Hallelujah!), but then the reflux came rearing its ugly head and I thought it might be better to have smaller feedings more often. She usually has at least one fussy period each day, most often at night. Thankfully they don't last too long and are usually subsided by a tight swaddle and holding her on her side. She fusses for the first 30 seconds or so after she's swaddled, but then gives in to the comfort and snugness (snugness... it's a word) of the swaddle. And I have to "give props" (give props... I am so hip and with it!) to Jared, who is the official swaddler of the Rollins home. His swaddles last much longer and keep her much happier than mine. I'm swaddle deficient :/

Charlotte is at such a fun stage right now! She is talking up a storm. The words she says and how she says them keep us constantly laughing. She saw a box of bells I bought on clearance so I put one on a string for her to play with. She calls it a "jimmy bell". She's started calling us by our first names, which is amusing but something we're working to stop. Oh, and her obsession with Mickey Mouse is getting comical. After church on Sunday, we asked her what she did at church. Her response was, "Play wif fiends Roman, Hannah... Mickey Mouse!" Roman was there, Hannah was not, and Mickey, well, I didn't see him walking around, but who knows! Along with her talking keeping us laughing are her giggles. She has the most infectious laugh. Someone even came over to our table in a restaurant to tell us that they couldn't see her or what she was laughing at, but they were laughing just from hearing her laugh.

----
I typed up everything above the dotted line this morning before we left for lunch with Jared. When we returned home I let her watch an episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse while I fed Naomi before nap time. I was hoping to coordinate her nap with Naomi's so that I could get in a good nap as well. No such luck. She started crying as soon as I put her down, which she has done for the past three days, but is very unusual for her before now. But she fought the nap with a vengeance. I'm talking blood-curdling screaming like someone was trying to chop her leg off. I blame Mickey Mouse. She was screaming and crying, asking for Mickey. She received a few spankings through the ordeal (probably deserved a few more than she actually got) because she wouldn't lay down when I told her to, was screaming ridiculously and needlessly, and just being an all-around brat. At one point I walked into her room just in time to catch her throwing her cross and blanket overboard as she was trying to climb over herself (she climbed over Sunday afternoon too...). I told her that was not acceptable, but a few minutes later I was in my and Jared's room wrapping up Naomi for her nap (which we all now know was a pretty lame swaddling job) and in walks Charlotte, like nothing is out of the ordinary. I was at my wit's end by that point so after putting Naomi to bed, I made Charlotte pick up all of her toys in the living room and put them in her room. I let her grab her crayons and one coloring book to bring out to the living room and told her that was the only thing she would be allowed to play with for the rest of the day and there would be no Mickey Mouse either. Over the next five minutes she asked to go into her room twice and for Mickey once. But it didn't take long for her to look like this...

So after that outburst about Mickey, I no longer find her obsession with him comical. His show is banned from our house for an undetermined number of days. She may not understand the correlation between no Mickey for the rest of the week and her bad behavior today, but it's not a bad idea to limit how much she sees of him anyway. Geez, I didn't think we'd have to worry about her obsessing over boys for at least ten more years! So now the question is do we convert the crib to a toddler bed, keep her in the crib (with the paranoid mother in me worrying about her breaking her neck on one of her dives overboard), or buy a crib tent (with that same paranoid mother worried about the fire hazard of having her zipped up in anything)?

I'm going to a ladies' Bible study tonight on James. Tonight's verses are James 1:2-4...
"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing."

Appropriate timing, no?

I'm Kind of a Big Deal!

2010-01-15T08:29:00.003-05:00

Yesterday evening I realized my cell phone was in my purse in my closet so I checked it just to make sure I didn't have any missed calls or texts. I saw that I had 5 missed calls and 3 voicemails and started to get worried. I rarely get called on my cell but when I do it's usually my mom (Hi, Mom!) and she'll call our home line if I don't answer the cell. So I hurriedly check the voicemails and they were all about the same thing...

My senior year high school weightlifting team was voted Gainesville Sun's Girls' Weightlifting Team of the Decade!

2004 Keystone Heights High School: In the inaugural season of the sport, the Indians finished as the FHSAA state runners-up. They are the only area team to finish second at the state finals and Keystone Heights' 22 points is the highest point total by a state runner up in the six-year existence of the sport. Brittany Meng won an individual state championship at the 119-pound weight class. She bench pressed a then-state record of 135 pounds and added a state-finals record of 165 pounds in the clean (which was was discontinued after that season in favor for the clean and jerk) for a 300-pound total. Jaime Grogan (270-pound total) was the state runner up to Meng, while Erica Seypura (340) was the state runner up in the 183-pound class. Kayla Couey (345) placed third in the 139-pound class, with Kasey Fagan sixth (345) in the unlimited class, Meagan Greer seventh (225) at 101 pounds and Kristina Ford seventh (320) at 199 pounds. Other Keystone Heights lifters that qualified for the state meet included Renee Dowell (250) in the 129-pound class, Brenda Ward (275) in the 139-pound class, Ashlee Grant (285) in the 154-pound class and Liza Wheeler (315) in the 199-pound class.

“I think that season was a season of a lifetime. To have that many athletes working towards a common purpose with an awesome work ethic, that's a coach's dream. They were an awesome group of kids, they had the heart of a lion and they were a lot of fun to coach.”— Terri Parrish, coach

The article is a bit deceptive saying that the sport has only been in existence for six years. It has only been sanctioned, recognized by the FHSAA as a sport, for six years. Before that, north and south Florida each had a "State Competition". I lifted on the team from my 8th grade to senior year and in those five years, I only lost one regular season meet. It was to a fellow teammate, Jaime Grogan, who took second place to me every meet, so although I was disappointed to not take first, I was really excited to lose to her. I probably would have cried if I lost to anyone else, but I could be happy for her so it took the sting away :) Enough bragging on myself...

Something else that the article doesn't mention is that our team was undeafeated in the regular season. But not just for the 2004 season. Keystone hadn't lost a meet in the (at the time) 8 years of its existence. I'm not sure if they're still undefeated, but I know they were for at least several years afterwards. Keystone breeds some strong chicks!

I love being able to say that I was a state champion weightlifter. It's something that I realize has no eternal significance, but it always makes me smile to see the look on people's faces when they hear that a 5'1" non-body-builder-type competed in weightlifting and actually won a state championsihp. Have you ever played the game "Two Truths and a Lie" as an ice breaker? Me winning State is always one of my truths. My lie is usually that my mom is an ex-nun :)

Why My House Is A Mess

2010-01-14T08:12:00.004-05:00

Because my free time is spent taking pictures like this instead of cleaning :)

But when you have little girls with smiles like these, how could you want to do anything else?

Our BIG Little Girl

2010-01-12T11:21:00.003-05:00

Charlotte at 2.5 months
Photo by Pam Saxon

Naomi, in the same outfit, at one month and four days, and she fills it out completely! I can't believe how much bigger Naomi is than Charlotte was!

Our Girls

2010-01-10T12:58:00.006-05:00

Here are some pictures of our girls from the past few weeks. I'll eventually get around to posting about all of our Christmas adventures, but it might be a couple more days. I have a list that is miles long of things that I need to get done around the house. If any of the mommas out there have any advice for how to keep the kiddos alive and well and a clean home with at least one home-cooked meal a day, please pass your wisdom on!

Making pancakes
I think we'll have another thumb-sucker on our hands

"I ♥ Daddy"
Adorable bow by BOWquet. Viviane is a friend of mine from church and she makes the cutest bows you've ever seen! Lots of the cute boutique style bows without the uppity boutique price :)

Building towers just to knock over

Charlotte's first taste of Nutella... Have you had that stuff before? It's a hazlenut chocolate spread and straight from Heaven. SO good!

After Naomi's first bath. She cried a little bit during her first bath, gave one protest cry during her second, but has since seemed to enjoy bathtime. It's quite the change from Charlotte who cried during bathtime for probably her first year.

I love this face!

She fell asleep with her arm propped up like that

Charlotte fell asleep watching some morning cartoons :)

Charlotte insisted that Naomi wanted to hold her drink

One of Naomi's sweet smiles! Still not sure that they're intentional, but how precious is this! We have an almost identical picture of Charlotte and Jared (with more of his face showing:)

Charlotte's bedhead a few mornings ago. Bad hairday, much?

Sisterly love!

Charlotte rarely smiles for pictures when asked to, so of course when she finally is smiling, Naomi has a scowl on her face

We went for sushi last night and Charlotte had a blast playing with the chop sticks

She decided to take her nap early again today... I don't know why she won't just tell me she's tired!

And a quick story... This morning Charlotte was being just a little too quiet so I went in her room to check on her. She was standing on the back of her rocking horse, about a height of 2 feet off the ground, so that she could reach the light switch. The turtle stool her Auntie Arin and Uncle Dusty gave her for Christmas was out in the garage so she had to make due with what she had available. I suppose the rocking horse was the next best thing.

Naomi's First Month

2010-01-08T00:03:00.001-05:00

It has been forever and a day since I last posted, but I'm just going to play the "new baby card". How long can I get away with that? ;) I'll try to do a post to catch up on all the goings-on of Christmas, but today's post must be about our sweet second born. It's hard to believe that Naomi is one month old today! I have loved how shortly after Jared and I were married and then when Charlotte and Naomi were born, it didn't take long to not remember what it was like before each of those life-changing events. Did that make any sense?

Naomi, as sweet as can be, has lost her status as the perfect child :) She's not been too bad, but has started to show her fussy side. I think most of her fussing, though, can be attributed to gassiness. For some reason she doesn't latch well on the left side so she ends up taking in a lot of air. I think I'll see a lactation consultant pretty soon to try to get it figured out. She has also started to show her preference for being held. While I do love to cuddle with and hold her, there are times when I have to get myself ready or change Charlotte's diaper or cook dinner (though in all honesty, I haven't been doing much cooking lately!) and I just can't hold her. She's much better about being put down for a little while than Charlotte was, but still causes some frustration, though I'm sure all babies do.

She has given us some of the cutest smiles in the world, but I'm not positive any of them were deliberate yet. I don't care, though, I'm enjoying them whenever they come. :) Jared and I have spent lots of time on the couch just staring at and laughing at the faces she makes.

Charlotte is still being as sweet as can be with Naomi. If I get Charlotte out of her crib in the mornings and don't have Naomi in my arms, she asks, "Where's Sisser?" (We've yet to convince her that "Sisser" is actually named "Naomi"). She hates to hear Naomi cry and is sometimes too helpful in trying to calm her down by bouncing the bouncy seat or swinging the swing a little too much. A few days ago I was walking Naomi around the living room to calm her down and noticed my little Mini Me with her baby doll copying my every move. When I swayed, she swayed. When I shushed, she shushed. She gives Naomi kisses all the time and has even started sharing her cross. For those who know how attached Charlotte is to her "Comfort Cross", you know that's a big deal!

This first month as a mother of two has been a lot of fun, but it is quite exhausting, as expected. There just aren't enough hours in the day for feedings, burpings, laundry, cleaning, cooking, and that long lost thing called sleeping. The feedings and burpings can't be neglected, but the latter items definitely have been. I'm blessed with a wonderfully patient and understanding husband who has picked up the slack and taken care of a lot of it for me. Unfortunately, he's at the beginning of his two busiest weeks at work so we'll both be exhausted come mid-January.

Well, I tried to get this posted on her one month birthday, but I just looked at the clock and saw that it's 12:01. I'm gonna whip out that "new baby card" again :) But because it's so late, I'll save the picture posting for tomorrow. Well, most likely not tomorrow, but hopefully it won't be another two weeks before I get around to blogging again!

Naomi Faye

2009-12-20T21:08:00.004-05:00

Two weeks ago at this time, I was starting to have some contractions. In one sense it seems like forever ago, but in another it seems like just yesterday. I realize that makes little to no sense, but oh well. These past two weeks have been a blast. I'm really enjoying having two girls, and by God's grace, it hasn't been as challenging as I thought it would be. Getting up in the mornings is difficult, but thanks to DVR we have an endless supply of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so I can lay on the couch and rest some more for an episode or two (or three or four...), knowing Charlotte won't be roaming around the house getting into trouble. I usually hit a brick wall in the afternoon, but the timing of Charlotte's nap with Naomi's feedings and naps have allowed me to sleep for an hour on most days.

Charlotte is still loving on her baby sister, but is not yet convinced that her name is Naomi. A coworker of Jared's asked her what her sister's name is and Charlotte answered "Baby". She still runs over to Naomi whenever she fusses or cries, which isn't often, and tells her, "It's okay, Baby." On the way home from the store yesterday, Naomi had a couple minutes of loud screaming, which Charlotte hadn't heard from her sister, and it really upset her. She has such a sweet heart :)

But enough talk, here's what everyone really wants... (they're in reverse order with the most recent first... I'm too lazy to change the order).

She managed to escape the swaddle

Look at those lips and cheeks!

Can you see the spit bubble?!

Staring at her Papa

Cuddling with her Grandmom

Charlotte holding Naomi for the first time

Giving Naomi some shade

Kissing her baby sister :)

Those cheeks!

The hospital picture... they managed one shot with her eyes open

Life With Two

2009-12-16T07:42:00.005-05:00

WARNING: Gushy, hormonal momma bragging on her babies in an excessively long post with no pictures. (Don't worry grandmas, I'll post more pictures in a day or two!)

I have officially survived my first week home with a toddler and a baby! Granted, this is only the second day I've been by myself with the girls all day, but still, quite the accomplishment, no?

Naomi is doing wonderfully. She has such a sweet disposition already and is a very relaxed and calm baby. She seems to be a typical second-born. The only times she has really fussed were when she had lots of air in her tummy or had an upset stomach from me eating too much dairy (Charlotte has issues with milk, as do I, but I didn't realize this until I weaned her to whole milk... What I thought was acid reflux when she was younger, I'm now pretty sure was lactose intolerance). But other than those couple of times of spitting up and burping enough air to fill a Macy's balloon, she hasn't really complained much. She is a cuddler, which I love, but she's also content to sit in her bouncy seat and look around.

Naomi is quite expressive. Her facial expressions crack us up. She's very ticklish, especially on her neck and cheeks, so of course she is ~~tortured~~ tickled constantly by her Daddy. And I know they say babies can't smile or laugh at this age, but I am dead serious, she giggled in her sleep on Monday night. The belly and chest were bouncing, she had the biggest smile on her face, and she even made a giggling sound. Oh how I wish we had it on video! It was priceless!

How She's Sleeping and Eating

Naomi is a great sleeper! She has slept through just about everything. Jared was blowing off the back porch and the only thing between him and Naomi in her bassinet was about three feet and a sliding glass door. She was not phased one bit. Nor has she been phased by Charlotte's giggles, squeals, and loud talking.

Because she is such a great sleeper, she has a hard time waking up enough to take a full feeding through the night, so she tends to wake up every 2 hours. Last night I let her squirm for a little while and she got herself back to sleep so that when she did wake up to eat around the 3 hour mark, she was a more awake and ate more. I have a tendency to be a bit delirious through the night though, so when I hear her stir, I jump up thinking she needs to eat right away. After trying to wake her for a couple minutes, I've had enough time to come to and realize there's no waking her.

Breastfeeding has been much easier this time around. Not nearly as difficult or painful. For some reason she doesn't have a great latch on the left side so she takes in more air, but it seems to be getting better.

How Charlotte Is Adjusting

Charlotte has done a great job adjusting to the role of big sister. We have yet to convince her that her name is "Naomi" rather than "Baby", even though we talked about Naomi for months. She hasn't made the connection that the two are one and the same. :) She loves giving her kisses and gets very concerned when Naomi fusses or cries. She comforts her by saying, "It's okay, Baby. It's okay." Melts a Momma's heart! She hasn't shown any aggression towards Naomi and there haven't been any displays of jealousy. The only hint of anything of the sort was yesterday when I was feeding Naomi and Charlotte wanted me to see something in her room. I told her I had to finish feeding Naomi but as soon as I was done I would go with her. She looked at me with the most serious expression on her face and said, "Baby night-night. Baby in bed," telling me to just put the baby in her bed. It was a simple solution in her mind!

It took her a few days to realize that Naomi would be sticking around. One morning when either Jared or one of our moms was here, I walked out of the bedroom with Naomi in my arms, and when Charlotte saw her she said, "Baby again?!" Yes, Baby again... and you may notice a trend of Baby again from here on out :)

Labor and Delivery

I've had lots of questions about the labor and delivery. I guess that's what happens when you're only 5'1" and you birth a 9 lb. 3 oz. baby! I started having contractions around 9:45 on Sunday evening. They were 3-5 minutes apart but weren't really intense as far as contractions go. They continued throughout the night but didn't get any more intense for a while, and even started to get more time between them. I got really scared that it was false labor, especially since we had called/texted some of the family and we had 4 people here awaiting her arrival. Around 6 a.m. Monday morning they got much more intense and I was certain she would be born that day (December 7th, Pearl Harbor day and Charlotte's due date). We left for the hospital right at 8:00 and thankfully traffic was not an issue. I started bawling on the way there because I realized I had just hugged Charlotte for the last time as my only child. That still makes me tear up. Hormonal much?

The nurse checked my dilation and said that I was 7 cm dilated. I could have done cartwheels! When they first checked me with Charlotte I was 2-3 and progressed very slowly. Having all those small numbers behind me was so encouraging. By the time the doctor came in to check me, I was at 8 and he went ahead and broke my water. It wasn't long before I was at 9, then seemed to hang out around there forever. I felt the urge to push before the cervix was completely gone so I had to fight through that. Torture. Pure torture. Especially since the nurse was demonstrating how to blow through the contractions by blowing right in my face. I'm too nice to say anything, even in labor, but in my head I was throwing a pack of Tic-Tacs at her.

After maybe 15 minutes or so of feeling like I needed to push, I finally got the green light and began pushing away. It only took 15 minutes of pushing (as opposed to 20 with Charlotte), but it was much more intense and painful this time around. I guess an extra two pounds squeezing out will do that. I'm also really bad about pushing "with my face"- holding my breath and tightening all the muscles in my face while I push- so I managed to pop a blood vessel (or two or three) in my eye, which I did with Charlotte as well, but this time I also got lots of splotchy freckly bruise type marks on my face. They're faded now, but let me tell ya, I was scary looking for a few days! Red eye with a splotchy, swollen face. It wasn't pretty, ya'll!

Funny story about being pretty during labor... Shannon came to meet her niece and complimented the pearl earrings I was wearing. I laughed and told her that I had been planning for a while to wear them when I delivered Naomi. I had looked back at the pictures right after Charlotte was born and realized how horrible I looked. At the time, I couldn't have cared any less about that, but now when I see myself in those pictures I think, "Yikes!" And the Southern gal that I am, I believe pearls not only make any woman look better, they'll make you feel prettier too. So for the last month the only earrings I would wear were my ridiculously fake pearls so I would be ready for labor the moment it happened :) (Hindsight: The pearls really didn't do much for me looking better. They're pretty, but apparently not miracle workers.)

Almost immediately after delivering Charlotte I was sure that I would want to do that again. In the middle of delivering Naomi and even for a few days afterwards, I was pretty sure that would be my last delivery. It was just so much more intense this time around that I knew the rest of our children would be adopted. But a week has passed and I'm on board with the possibility of another pregnancy and delivery. The recovery has been much easier this time. I'm exhausted, yes, but I feel better than I did after Charlotte.

I was able to have another completely natural, drug-free delivery, which I am very grateful for, but I do have to give a lot of credit to my wonderful husband who coached and encouraged me through it all. After my delivery with Charlotte, he kept saying that Tim Tebow wore Brittany Rollins pajamas (a reference to the "Chuck Norris wears Tim Tebow pajamas" saying that was so popular amongst those in the Gator Nation). Naomi's birth was right after a game that doesn't need to be remembered so no Tebow references were made this time, but Jared was encouraging and supportive throughout the entire process. I know I would not have been able to make it through naturally if he weren't by my side.

Life With Our Girls

Having two is not as challenging as I expected it to be. Granted we're only one week into it, but things seem easier this time around. I'm not as nervous or anxious, I don't feel the need to call the pediatrician for every little spit up. I feel like I can enjoy it more now that we're parenting experts ;) But I really am enjoying it so much. I love saying "our girls." I love snuggling with a tiny baby again. I love seeing Charlotte give her baby sister kisses. I love that we're experiencing all of this for the second time at the same time of year that we did with Charlotte. I love the shock that I get when I put down Naomi and pick up Charlotte. She's not a baby anymore and having Naomi has made me realize just how far from the baby stage Charlotte really is. It has made me appreciate how much she is growing and changing, even within this past week.

God is so good to us. I can't get over how great of a life we have.

Welcome Naomi Faye!

2009-12-10T19:17:00.006-05:00

Naomi Faye Rollins
Born 12/07/09 at 10:18 a.m.
9 lbs, 3 oz
21.5 inches

She is finally here! God has continued to bless our family beyond what we could imagine. I just cannot get over how much love I feel for my husband and my girls. Girls, did you catch that? It's plural. We have two now!

The hospital wouldn't allow any children under 5 in the labor/delivery area, so it was Wednesday before Charlotte was able to meet her little sister. Wednesday also happened to be our 3rd wedding anniversary! On the way home with my wonderful husband sitting beside me, our two daughters sitting in the back seat, and the first time we were all together as a family of four, it was easy to say that it was one of the best days of my life.

I'll post more pictures later, but here are a few to hold you over...

Her Daddy is already smitten

Snuggling with her Grammy

Meeting her Toto

Charlotte loves giving Naomi kisses and loved that she came home wearing a bracelet

Her Name Is...

2009-12-03T08:21:00.002-05:00

Thanks to everyone who voted in the poll for Naomi's middle name! Kate was by far the most popular, with Lynn and Anne following, respectively. We also had a write-in for "Olivia" (thanks Stephanie!), but were really only drawn to a one syllable middle name for some reason. Having a one syllable middle name will be easier to yell when she's getting into trouble :) We also realized that we were favoring names with a long A sound. So after much deliberation, our daughter's name shall be...

Naomi Faye!

Yeah, I know, hate us that it wasn't even on the list. We fell in love with it a day or so after I made the poll. But that was one of the rules, remember? "As the ones who contributed DNA to this child, we reserve the right to pick the least popular, the one you didn't vote for, or one that isn't even on the list."

Faye also happens to be the middle name of my best friend, but I got her permission and she's on board with it too :) We weren't seeking out to use a name of someone in the family or someone we know (we actually tried to avoid that, as illustrated by us not using the name Olivia as a first name), but our families are too large and we know too many people to completely avoid that. And if Naomi will have to have a namesake, she could do much worse than her Aunt Shannon.

Whew! What a load off now that we have our child named! Now we're ready for the labor and delivery part... take a hint, Uterus!

STILL pregnant

2009-12-01T07:00:00.002-05:00

Charlotte came three weeks early so I am in disbelief that I am still pregnant. Seriously. Every pregnancy is different, I know that. I've had so many women tell me, "Oh, my first was three days early, my second was a week late..." But I always silently thought, "Yeah, but three weeks early is a little different than three days or even one week." Then Jared's boss had to go and tell Jared that one of his kids came three weeks early and the other one came two days late. Heart-Breaking. So I'm trying to get it into my head that I might be dealing with the aches, pains, and discomforts of pregnancy for two or more weeks still. But I'm still hoping, praying, and keeping my fingers crossed that Naomi will be here sooner rather than later! In the meantime, I'll do my best to focus on enjoying the movements, kicks, and hiccups that carrying such a blessing brings.

Pretend like the lighting isn't absolutely horrific and that the mirror doesn't have toothpaste splattered all over it. But look how low I'm carrying her! It has to be soon, right?

Christmas Traditions

2009-11-30T19:22:00.007-05:00

The day after Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year! And definitely not because of the after Christmas sales. I'm not brave enough (or crazy enough:) to go out in the wee hours of the morning and jab some elbows into other mommas on a mission for the latest toys. We continued our family tradition of going to WalMart to "cut" our tree. I don't know if it was because we went to the newer (nicer!) store that was recently opened near us, but WalMart was much busier this year than it was in years past. It wasn't horribly busy, but the past two years the store was practically dead so it was a little bit of a shocker.

Anyway, we got our tree, along with a few tree-decorating essentials (sugar cookies and egg nog). While we were picking out the tree, I saw a pile of limb clippings off in the corner. They had some trees on display to show the different sizes, so I'm assuming the clippings were from those few trees. Jared laughed at me, but I snatched those things up! There was no one out there for me to ask if it was okay for me to take them, but the way they were just haphazardly tossed to the side, I can only imagine they were going to be thrown away. I didn't want those beauties bio-degrading in a landfill without serving some purpose for greater beauty, so I'm giving them a home throughout our home. On the mantel. Maybe a wreath. Who knows :)

We got home and thus began the decorating. Except not till the next day. Actually, the day after that. Sunday. That's when we decorated. On Friday we were too tired. On Saturday we went over to Lake City to have our third and final Thanksgiving meal. This time with some of the local Rollins family. Charlotte had a blast playing with James, and has since not stopped asking about him, Toto, Pop, and Mel ("May-el" as Charlotte says, with a little Southern accent). On the drive home, Charlotte started screaming for no reason. She's not the best travel companion. We stopped in Baldwin to let her get out of her car seat and go to the bathroom, hoping that she might just have to poop. No poop, but she did calm down, until we tried to put her back in her car seat. She started freaking out again. We asked if she wanted the baby's seat to ride beside her. It was just tossed in the backseat, but after we snapped it in the seat beside her she calmed down. Strange child.

So, Sunday afternoon we finally began the decorating of the tree. And here come the pictures...

Charlotte glitterfied. All of this glitter was previously on a Mickey Mouse ornament. I am expecting to find some glitter in the toilet in the next day or two.

You might notice the red puffy eye in the above picture. She got into a fight with another mosquito. The mosquito won. This is what it looked like this morning.
Please disregard the fact that she was wearing the same outfit this morning as she was last night. I may or may not have been too lazy to put pajamas on her before bedtime. And this may or may not be the first time this has happened.

I'm sure you can't even tell, but her favorite ornaments were the blue, glittery balls.

She saw the topper, recognized it as a star, and from then on has been calling it a hat

Hanging an ornament other than a blue, glittery ball

We ended the evening by reading a musical book, "O Little Town of Bethlehem" to her

This time of year is special to begin with, but having a child to share in the excitement makes it all the more fun and special. She gets excited about seeing the decorations, lighted trees, and all the hooplah of the season. I know that's not what it's all about (it's really the hokey-pokey, right? haha:), and we're doing our best to teach her what the true meaning is, but it's so much more fun for me now that I have a family of my own who I can enjoy it with (or "with who/whom I can enjoy it", since you're not supposed to use a preposition to end a sentence with :)... I know that's the rule, but dadgummit, sometimes it just sounds better with a preposition at the end. And do you really expect someone who uses a word like "dadgummit" to follow all the rules of grammar?)

Funny Book

2009-11-27T08:00:00.002-05:00

Now that we are officially in the holiday season, which is heavily based on family traditions, I thought I would share with everyone one of our family traditions. It's not something specific to this time of year, but a fun tradition nonetheless.

While Jared, his brothers and sister were growing up, his parents kept a "Funny Book" for their family. They wrote down all of the funny things the kids said or did to make sure they wouldn't forget them and be able to recall them to their prom dates :) It's something that we've started for our family as well, and now that Charlotte has started talking, we've been adding to it more frequently. A lot of the stories aren't as funny when written out, but it at least helps us remember each story, and we can remember how funny it was at the time. Even if it was a "You had to be there..." sort of thing.

Here are a few stories from our Rollins Funny Book...

Prior to Brittany’s Lingerie Shower, Jared asked…“Do women try on the lingerie for each other at a lingerie shower?”

On the Honeymoon, leaning back in his kayak off the coast of Maui while gently rocking back in forth in the swell, Jared mused…“This is just like lying in a hammock, only uncomfortable.”

One night in September of 2007 we were going over our family verse (Col 3:17-20) and Jared asked Brittany if she thought she was submissive. Of course she said she was, so he asked her to give him an example of how/when she was submissive. She said "No, I don't wanna!"

While working together in the nursery at Grace Community Church, Brittany was watching one of the children, Zack, play with a ball. It was inflatable and clear and had two smaller balls inside of it. Brittany asked him, “Are you having fun with that ball, Zack?” Jared replied, “I don’t know that I would call it that…” because he thought she had said, “Are you having fun with that ball sac?”

While watching the pre-game activities of a Florida State football game, Charlotte saw the flame lit on the spear and ran up to the TV and began trying to blow it out. (Approximately 22 months old)

While loading up the van to go visit family, Jared and Brittany were making several trips in and out of the garage. Charlotte could tell we were all going somewhere and grew tired of the in and out (and the let-down of when we would come back inside), so she looked to her Daddy and asked, “Hey! Wanna go?!” (2 years old)**

**A prime example of something that you just can't explain how funny it was in words. But just having this story written down will help us remember her expression and the tiresome sound in her voice as she was asking if we would like to go already.

And in full disclosure, I must admit that I have the most entries in our Funny Book. Apparently, I say more dumb things than Jared. Or at least the dumb things I say are funnier or more memorable. Such a good thing to be the best at, right?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-26T20:03:00.009-05:00

I hope everyone has as many things to be thankful for as we do. I could list them all, but I don't want to make ya'll jealous and start coveting my life. My life sure isn't perfect, but seriously, I have it so good and am grateful to the Lord for His blessings.

We started off the morning by watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving while eating homemade bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits. I remember seeing the Great Pumpkin and A Charlie Brown Christmas as a child, but I think this may have been the first time I saw A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. It's hilarious, folks. Jared and I were cracking up throughout the whole thing. "A must-see family movie," says Brittany.

We had planned to have Thanksgiving lunch with my stepmom's family today, but because of her stepdad's health, the lunch at his place ended up being canceled. So plans changed sort of last minute to spend the day with my dad's family over in Hampton instead. My Dad is the oldest of 11 kids. Nope, not a typo. 11. As in eleven. They grew up on a farm so I guess needed the extra help for milking cows :) Anyway, I suppose when you have 11 kids and an umpteen number of grandkids (in the upwards of 25... plus those who've married... plus the great-grandbabies), you get used to last minute guests. And like every Southern family, there's always way more food than can be eaten. So we spent the afternoon visiting with the few who were there (only 25 or so. A very small crowd for a Meng gathering.). Charlotte enjoyed chasing Pop's dog around the house. Pop's dog endured being chased around the house by Charlotte.

Like all grandparents, Grandma and Pop have lots of pictures of their grandkids around the house. Jared was holding Charlotte and pointed to the picture below and asked her who it was.

Charlotte, very confidentely, answered, "Charlotte!"

Can you say "Mini-Me"?!

Seriously, how cute is that picture of Aaron and I? Our arms around each other and everything. I'm pretty sure candy or ice cream was involved to get that pose :)

ABCs and 123s

2009-11-24T08:08:00.003-05:00

No comments about my awful singing, the unmade bed, or clothes hangers scattered on the floor. I was going to get the mess cleaned up, but just decided to keep it real for you :)

Naomi's Middle Name

2009-11-23T10:29:00.003-05:00

Naomi still does not have a middle name. Poor thing. But we now have a list of names that we like! Baby steps, right? ("Baby steps", how appropriate...)

Naomi Anne Rollins
Naomi Kate Rollins
Naomi Lynn Rollins

I've put a poll up on the right hand side of the page. Please vote for your favorite! The only rule is that you can't be offended if we don't pick the one you chose or whichever one wins. As the ones who contributed DNA to this child, we reserve the right to pick the least popular, the one you didn't vote for, or one that isn't even on the list. Contributing DNA makes one pretty powerful in these situations.

Picking a name this time around has been quite the challenge. With Charlotte, the name Charlotte popped into my head, I asked Jared how he liked it, he said it was a winner. A couple days later, he asked how I liked Michelle for a middle name. Thus was Charlotte Michelle. Naomi, on the other hand, was not quite as simple. We had a list of names we liked but none that we really loved. Actually, Naomi was never actually on the list. We had seen it several times on baby name websites and books, but it never popped out to us enough to put it on the list. Then one day, Ta-Da! There it was, suggested to me by Nymbler, a website that you can enter up to six names that you like and it will give a list of an infinite number of names that it thinks you might like as well. I seriously spent hours on that site. I saw Naomi, fell in love, e-mailed it to Jared, he like it, that was that. Whew! I never understood the parents who made lists of names and couldn't decide. You hear a name, you like it, that's your kid's name! Unfortunately, not always.

Funny story. Not super funny. Just sort of, huh, that's kind of funny...

The one name that Jared and I both really liked was Olivia. But there is a little girl in our church a few months younger than Charlotte named Olivia and we didn't want to be the copy-cat couple, especially since they would be so close in age. So Olivia wasn't an option.

A name that I liked from the beginning was Claire. But I didn't like the sound of Claire Rollins. The "r" sound at the end of Claire and beginning of Rollins was too hard to say. So that wasn't an option.

The other name that I really liked that Jared never got on board with was Vanessa. His reason? It made him think of the character on the Cosby Show and he didn't want someone else to come to mind when he heard his daughter's name. Okay, I can respect that.

But once he said that I realized that three of my favorite names were all characters from the Cosby Show. How funny is that?! I know, not super funny, but sort of, huh, that's kind of funny... Right? Humor me, folks.