Riding Out the Storm

Here in the Valley, we are riding out the remnants of Hurricane Sandy.  While not my first hurricane, it is definitely one for the record books here.  Even though I haven't really slept for the past 2 nights because Babycakes has been up with a nasty cold, I am wide. freaking. awake. 

The wind is howling and beating the rain against the windows.  The hubs is in the basement with the shop-vac trying to suck up the water as it seeps rolls into the basement.  He really is the best.  He had to roll up the rug, and move all of the furniture (it's our family room) so that he can fight to keep the water at bay. (No pun intended)  All the while he comes upstairs at regular intervals to check on me and Babycakes.  Seriously, how did I get so lucky?

Ugh! Now the lights are flickering and I fear we are about to lose power.  I hope everyone is staying safe and dry.  I will post pics as soon as I can!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Okay, so I'm a week early.  But since I will be in class on the actual day we celebrated with Babycakes tonight.  Since the Hubs works at a high school (my alma mater) the students in one of the clubs hosts a Halloween party for the children of all the staff members.  It was wonderful!  There was costume judging, games, pumpkin painting and trick-or-treating  We had a great time watching Babycakes celebrate her first second Halloween. She was so little last year and she had a cold so we didn't really participate in any Halloween activities.

While I had the cutest ladybug costume my sister-in-law had gotten her last year, I looked high and low for that thing and never did find it.  It's a 2T and she's in 18 months now so maybe she can wear it next year (if I ever find it!)  

Anywho...I thought I would share a few pictures from our celebration:

Before we left for the party I wanted to get a picture of me with my favorite girl!

Babycakes loved her pom-poms!

 

 A little pumpkin painting...

Some fun Halloween games...

And Babycakes' favorite activity of the night - the rice bin!  She kept going back over and over.  She seemed pretty focused in her play.  I may need to come up with one of these for the winter.

Here's wishing everyone a Halloween as awesome as ours!

This past summer my father-in-law passed away after a courageous battle with cancer.  While it was difficult to watch him pass away, it provided us with great comfort to know that he has merely left the earth and that we will all meet again one day.  One of his favorite places to go was to a place know simply as, "The Cabin."  

"The Cabin" is located on the side of a mountain not far from where he spent his time as a boy.  We had made plans to have a family get together in mid-August so we could all spend some time together.  Sadly, my father-in-law passed away a few weeks before the scheduled gathering. Rather than cancel the event we got together anyway so we could celebrate his life and enjoy being a family.  

This was Babycakes' first trip to "The Cabin."  It is definitely rustic (no indoor plumbing, just an outhouse) but it is wonderful to escape the modern world if only for a few hours. I think she enjoyed her first visit...

One of the Hubs' cousin's brought his dog which was a HUGE hit with little miss!

Some of the kids went mushroom hunting.  While I'm not a fan of mushrooms, the Hubs is and he enjoyed them...especially since they were deep fried!

This was Babycakes' first slice of watermelon!  She loved it!

 

Just like her Mama, Babycakes enjoys a chocolate dessert at any opportunity.

While this took place nearly 2 months ago, it was one of the more memorable parts of our rather rocky summer.  I hope to make many more trips to "The Cabin" with Babycakes so she knows the mountains near where her Grandpa grew up.  :-)

WOW!  So much has happened since my last post.  I really wanted to try and blog more, but time is just not something I have a lot of these days.  So I thought I should start with what has been going on in the most recent past and work from there.
Yesterday we found out that Babycakes has Roseola.  She has been sick for more than a week now but it wasn't until the rash really popped out that we found out why she had been so sick.  We had been to the doctor twice and I had been on the phone at least as many times before we finally got (what I feel) the correct diagnosis.
Here is my sweet girl on Sunday afternoon...

We were watching the Redskins (FINALLY) break their losing streak at FedEX Field.  Poor little thing was just feeling rotten. :-(
Apparently once the rash pops out she is no longer contagious and will begin to feel better.  She was a lot more interactive today than she has been so that's a good sign.  I think this knocked her out of commission for a bit so it may be a while before she is back into her regular routine.
Looking forward to posting some pictures of recent adventures soon!