Thanksgiving Travels!

Hey y'all!!! I'm back.... sort of! I have lots of blog catching up to do, and I'm so ready to get back into a steady swing of blogging. I'm determined to play catch up this week and then get back to regular blog posts next week! I feel like i've left everyone just hanging around. Even though, my life isn't really that interesting!

 

Last Tuesday, Gretchen celebrated her Thanksgiving lunch at kindergarten. She made a little Indian vest, necklace, and headdress and was so excited to show it off! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it to her lunch because of my full time work schedule, but DJ was able to go! He actually surprised Gretchen and she was so thrilled!

She has this little boyfriend, Conner, and the first thing she said when she saw her daddy walk in was, "Conner, you need to ask my daddy if you can marry me?!" Apparently, she yelled it loud enough for the entire class to hear, and it not only embarrassed my husband, but Conner's family as well. His dad told him not to talk to DJ for another 30 years.

Tuesday night I headed home to work on laundry and to pack for our trip. Let me tell you, it is a CHORE to pack for four girls for five days! I did get some cuddle time with Addy during the process though!

 

I woke up around 6:30 on Wednesday morning to finish packing. I had packed everyone's clothes but my own. Then I loaded everything into the car and we started our 4 hour journey to Gee's house.

I have so many people tell me that I'm brave to travel with all three girls by myself, but I do it all the time, and aside for maybe an hour total (when Megan decides to cry over a silly reason) the trip isn't bad at all. Adalyn sleeps the entire time. Gretchen watches a movie and plays quietly in the back seat, and Megan, well, she either plays, watches t.v, cries and screams, takes off her shoes, and looks out the window for cows.

 

We typically stop about two hours into the trip so we can take a bathroom break or get something to eat.

And sometimes, Meggie falls asleep.

 

Once she woke up, we finally stopped to eat!

Gretchen had been telling me for an hour that she was hungry, so I tossed her a package of fruit snacks to tie her over. I have a few exits that I try to stop at, and this was not one of them, but there was a McDonald's and the girls were starvin, so we stopped here. I took them to the bathroom and then we ordered Happy Meals and ate.

 

I realized that fast food with three girls is not fast at all. We were there for at least an hour.

Once we got back in the car, the girls watched a movie again, but toward the end Megan was becoming very frustrated that she could not get out of her seat! I sang Feliz Navidad at the top of my lungs to try to entertain her. Obviously, I failed.

 

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post and see what happened once we finally arrived!

 

By: Unknown On 10.01

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Arkansas Trip....

My mom took Gretchen and Megan home with her on the 10th. It gave DJ and I a day with Addy and a day to rest. On Friday, when Addy was one week old, she took her first road trip to her Gee and Papaw's house in Arkansas.

Addy did so great in the car! I was so nervous, because Meggie was horrible on road trips! (She still can be.) But, Addy only woke up once to be fed, and then slept the rest of the way to Gee's house!

When we arrived, I was able to feed her, and then my grandmother held her for the first time. I just love this picture of her with my two little girls. 

My mom invited my aunt, uncle, and a few cousins over for dinner, and it was enjoyable chatting with them and letting them see, hold and spoil Addy.... they also spoiled the other girls too!

Here's my brother holding Addy. She was just so tiny in his arms!

That evening, we went down to my brother's house, which they are currently building. I can't wait to see it finished!

It was pretty late when we got to bed, and Addy slept with us most of the night, and Meggie was up super early the next morning, as were DJ and Gretchen.

DJ and G left to go to visit his dad at the lake because we weren't able to make it over there this summer. #lakewithdrawls

I'm glad they were able to go and have the time with each other and with his dad & stepmom. G tubed and DJ put her in ski's, but she didn't like that she couldn't kick her feet in them, so she never tried to get up in them..... maybe next summer!

Saturday morning, we spent some time being lazy, and then got dressed for some shopping and errands!

MC is in love with her baby sister!

Addy's first shopping trip!

Meggie in the car!

We went to Belks and TJ Maxx, then had lunch at Chick Fil A, and ran to Hobby Lobby, and to my sister in law's work to check Addy's weight (She's back up to birth weight.), and finally went to Kroger.

The girls were so good and I was so proud of how Megan behaved and how good Addy was!

We spent the rest of Saturday hanging out and relaxing and taking naps.

We decided to skip church Sunday, and i'm pretty sure we spent half the morning getting dressed. My mom had to run back into town, and to distract Megan, I took her to the bathroom to straighten her hair and ended up putting her hair in a ponytail.

She kept telling me her hair was, "hot". 

And, then she told me how pretty she is! #sheisright

My mom and I did some embroidery and appliqueing on Sunday afternoon, and I found Meggie's baby laying beside Addy on the bed.

DJ and G arrived home around 4 on Sunday afternoon and we grilled steaks for dinner, then went to the pool to swim. 

Addy and I hung out outside watching everyone swim.

The girls had tons of fun jumping in and going down the slide!

It was a late night on Sunday, and another super early morning on Monday. Megan woke up at 6 am and we could not get her back to sleep!

I ended up taking a nap on the couch, and then we got dressed and packed to head home. 

It was a joy to have Megan sleep in the car most of the way! We even told G that she had to take a nap before she could turn the DVD player on. Addy did great in the car as well, and we stopped halfway to eat lunch, then the girls watched a movie and I was able to take a nap before we came home.

I'm so glad that we were able to drive down and visit with our family! I feel like we can never see them enough, but it is so hard to travel with the girls sometimes! I'm not going to lie though, I was so relieved to be home on Monday because I knew that we'd finally be able to get in a routine with the girls!

By: Unknown On 06.00

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Road Trip! (& some tips)

I know I posted a few pictures from my iPhone last week of our road trip to Indiana, but I thought i'd post a few more and try to go into some more detail. 

I think I've learned pretty well on how to keep the girls entertained while we are traveling. We travel so often to visit family, that G does so well in the car anyway! But, i'll share a few of my tips.

~ Eat at your house, clean it up, and leave. You don't want to leave and then stop within an hour because you or your kids are hungry.
~ Pack a travel snack bag. I used lots of travel containers, and emptied out cereal boxes, brought fruit snacks, oranges, yogurt & breakfast bars. We also packed a cooler for drinks, and I had sippy cups already filled. Make sure that everything is within reach.
~ I let G choose toys for the trip. I wanted her to choose so she would be interested in them. She was allowed one bag. She chose a few books, potato head (all the pieces fit nicely inside), a small magna doodle, and a doll.
~ I also let her choose about 5 DVDs, and we recently purchased a new one that I saved for the trip.
~ I purchased a few goodies as surprises along the way. One was a tinker bell coloring book and another was gummy bears. Our hotel was near a mall, and I told G that she could pick out three types of candy the night before our trip back. At random intervals, I would give her the candy bag for a few minutes, and then take it away. That way, she didn't eat tons of candy at a time, and it continued to be a treat.
~ Make sure your kids potty at every stop. When filling up with gas, get them out of their car seats and let them walk. I made a game with G and had her take giant steps, march, anything to get her legs moving. We let MC crawl around in the back (watching her of course and being there so she couldn't fall out.)
~ MC hates the car, but we recently purchased her big-girl carseat and head rest DVD players, which I think really helped her. We also brought her favorite sleep toy, to provide comfort in the car. She had a paci clipped to her clothes and to her carseat, so she couldn't loose one!

 Thankfully, they'll sleep at least for one hour! Although, MC slept longer than that.

 Here are the girls playing in the back of the car while we are taking potty breaks and filling up with gas.

At some point in the trip, I realized it was Mother's day, and that we would be going through St. Louis. We happened to be in St. Louis for DJ's convention on my very first Mother's day, so I thought it would be neat to stop and take pictures.

Plus, it was good to stretch our legs again. At this point, we had traveled from Joplin to St. Louis without stopping, and I think we were all ready to get out of the car!

After this stop, we drove two more hours to Effingham, IL and spent the night. We should've stopped right past St. Louis to at least eat, but if that was our one mistake, then it wasn't a bad one! We ended up eating at Ruby Tuesday, and I do recommend it while traveling, or even with young kids. It's not a typical place we eat, but I can add on a salad bar, and share my meal with the girls, and the three of us still have plenty of eat. The girls enjoyed cucumbers, grapes, cheese, eggs, and mini pieces of ham.

I also don't make them go to bed as soon as we get to the hotel. After all, they've been cooped up in a car all day, so we either swim for a bit or just play in the room. This evening we face-timed with DJ's mom, and the girls didn't get in bed until around 10:30, but I also knew there would be more car time in the morning, where they could rest, and that we would be having naps once we go to our destination. I try to be flexible with the schedule during our travels, but also try to keep meal and snack times consistent. We can always catch up on sleep when we get home!

By: Unknown On 05.00

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