Mini "vacation"

My parents went out of town (they own an RV) camping and gave us permission to stay out at their house with free pool rights :) Seth kept calling it our "condo" haha! It really was a lot of fun and we got to enjoy the pool a whole, whole bunch! We even got to swim while the girls napped, that was the funnest part :) The girls loved the pool. I think Stevie could actually swim if she could get over her fear a little bit more. She "gets" the concept of kicking her feet and moving her arms. She HATES floaties and absolutely refuses to wear them. We tried ignoring her and thought that after a while she would just forget about it, but nope, not this girl!! She didn't mind wearing the bathing suit with the built in vest, but I didn't think it really held her up all that well and I was still holding her the whole time. She thinks that she can swim though, she will push off the steps and leap out to swim, it's really pretty funny. You have to watch her like a hawk. Neela is pretty content on just sitting in the float and soaking up the sun. She is a very happy baby in the pool. We even woke her up from her morning nap, and stuck her straight in the pool and she was all smiles and kicking and splashing around. I don't even think that I would be that happy with being woke up like that! We unfortunately did not get much pictures, because it kinda took all our effort to just prevent them from not going crazy in the pool. We are both still nervous with them around water. I would love to do swimming lessons with them. I think it is a life long survival skill that is totally worth the time and effort. I was super old before I could swim (like 11) and still am not all that great of a swimmer (especially with a big 'ol pregnant belly weighing me down, haha).

Swimming (Megow house style)

Lately it has been so HOTT! We living walking distance from a really nice park, but almost every time we go there, the girls get so hot and start saying, "I hot, I hot". Even the swings are so hot that I have to put a blanket underneath them for them to swing on them (pretty much the only time that it is convenient that my girls carry around "blankies" haha. The slides are also way too hot to slide down. So here lately most days we hit up our own back yard for some shade (it is mostly ALL shade back there) and some water. I love this pool because it is the hard plastic kind so Neela can prop up against it without it tipping over, but it is big enough for the girls to have a lot of room in it. I debated (for a ridiculously long time) at Wal-Mart on rather or not to get this one or the one that had the build in slide with it. The built in slide took up so much of the room for sitting in it, so I opted for this one and just moved the girls slide from their room outside to slide down into the pool. They LOVE it!! Neela can climb up the slide all by herself, she usually just sits up at the top and claps her hands and smiles and waves and whatever else a 10 month old can come up with to do. She still needs some assistance to actually slide down the slide, but she is pretty entertained either way. So while they play/swim I can soak up some rays and take some cute pics :) I don't take very many, b/c I don't want to be too distracted and something happen. They are both still very young and the water still scares me a little even though it is a baby pool, I am always "on guard"!!

Daddy had a Pirate Party to host, all girls LOVE him in this costume for some reason, I guess us girls have a thing for Pirates or something? Here is Neela telling him, "bye bye" before he leaves

Neela hanging up at the top like usual :) Stevie kept wanting to fill up "baby's bowl" with water using a pitcher, but "baby" didn't really like the fact that Sissy had to hold onto the bowl to fill it up, it is pretty comical trying to ration out their actions to each other, I am not the best mediator for a 10 month old and a 26 month old :)

She kept wanting to play with this rag for some reason, she's so silly

My first collage I have ever made!! Look at those cheekies!!

We are going to my parents this weekend to swim in their pool, it is an in ground pool, so they can actually "swim", while it is bigger and fun, they are not quite as easy to watch in that one, hee hee.

Photographer in the making!

My girls love taking pictures and posing for them. We do have a pretty nice camera and most people would probably never allow their child to play with their camera, but I like to see what she can capture. And I always monitor her, usually I do end up giving her our old camera to do as she wishes with it, here are some pics that she took today:

Frosty the snowman is all over our house!

Tigger!
She is training Neela to like a blankie too :) but really :(

Can you tell what her favorite subject was....her Sissy!

We are attempting to potty train her before little brother comes in August, THREE in diapers will not be cheap, even though we do supplement with cloth diapers, still not fun having THREE bottoms to change :P


I was able to get one of her:

This morning

This morning, like most mornings, while Neela took her morning nap, Stevie and I did some sort of "structured learning". I got my degree in Early Childhood and Special Education (one class away from my Master's degree, which by the way one day I have to finish), so I love to teach my children, it is one of my favorite things to do with them, is discover their learning style and teach to it. I must admit that Stevie Joy is a very fast learner, stubborn, but as long as she is interested in what you are teaching her she can catch on so quick! I follow the Children's Learning Activities, blog, so usually I do a lot from there, and then see little crafts here and there that I think would be fun to do with her. She knows all her colors (struggled with green for a while though, most of her numbers (can't say 7 for some reason? but can find it if you ask her "where's seven"), and just about all of her alphabet letters. It's so cute, because when she sees the letter "S" she says, "S...for Stevie"!! You can't tell that I am a proud Mommy can you? She is so much fun. I really need to find a time in the day to have a structured learning time where it is just Neela and I, but I haven't been good about that. I know it's not a good excuse, but I guess I think that Neela is going to learn everything so fast because she is always with big sister who is teaching her everything (they are 15 months apart). Neela can now say, "Mama, Dada, up, bye bye, Jay Jay, and ball". I only really have Stevie to compare her to, but I think she is doing pretty well in the oral area. She is also pointing very well, which is an excellent instrument to teaching words. Her attention span is no where near what Stevie's was at that age. Stevie already had her favorite books that she would sit still for and "read" with Mommy and Daddy over and over again. Neela, on the other hand, you can barely get through the story one time, before she is saying, "up up" and arching her back to get up. So some structured time in a high chair, or learning area, I think would really help her focusing skills.
This morning Stevie and I worked with stickers and counting (one to one correspondence). She is getting the hang of it. When I asked her how many cookies she wanted this afternoon, she replied, "3 cookies" and held up three fingers, when I giggled and only gave her one cookie, she raised her brow and said, "No, no one cookie??" I was so happy with her I did end up giving her 3 cookies, but they are just those little sugar free wafer cookies, so I think she is fine ;)

Our Story

Seth and I knew each other in high school, but I thought that he was pretty much a goody goody dork! I was kinda a partier/bad girl type back then (I know it's so hard to believe now). Anyways he does admit that he knew who I was and had a mini crush on me and even waited for me to walk by to my bus just to catch a glimpse at me, isn't that sweet**.


I went through a pretty rebellious stage for about 2 years after high school (I am down playing it really, I was VERY rebellious!). I did have a guy friend whose girlfriend was "not so rebellious" and we ended up being pretty good friends with one another. That's how Seth and I met (through her, April). We were asked by her boyfriend to throw her a surprise birthday party. We had never really even hung out all that much or knew each other, but you would never had known that by looking at us....we had a BLAST!! It was so much fun. He ended up staying at my house and hanging out all the time after that. I did not have any desire what so ever to date him, but I did think hanging out with him sober was just as much fun hanging out with all my other friends being "not so sober".

How I looked when we first started hanging out

We were inseparable for a year. He did finally start to develop feelings for me when we went on a road trip, he saw me playing with some kids that had some sort of disabilities and he said that he instantly fell in love with me. He did not tell me right away though. He waited until we got back from the trip. He dropped me off at my house one night (he use to drive a Volkswagon bus) and left a note inside my purse that expressed his love for me! OMG< onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvrb0U0PMob4q6B6xbvC2tGPr8bb0aJvVwghFjWQTEdGCM1hz2-DNIQ3jUwI8YOQKIiS5I_pWk2pHncGdVcU8TopWXdaeTLsnNRHPHhcraIeOONzAFVkCMNrUYcqyfi1cRq4zxNJLEdns/s1600/seth+dumb.jpg">
The kids with disabilities that I was playing with when he fell in love with me
Us in the bus

A while went by before we could really hang out again, I think actually like a few months, which was really tough considering we were each others best friend and we hung out together everyday. I am not sure how we got to hanging out again, I think I just called him and asked him to come over b/c my parents were out of town and I was having some friends over. He came and I think we both just missed our friendship so much that we just "Made" it happen and not be weird.
Things were back to normal, Thank God! and speaking of God, I was starting to really get back to wanting a relationship with Him. I had gone to church with Seth a couple of times at his church and immediately fell in love with everything about it and everything about Jesus. I was really happy :)
We helped one of our friends move into her new apartment one night. Seth picked me up (oh yeah I guess I should mention that I lost my license for 6 months due to a speeding ticket and I lived ALL the way out in Hahira so it was hard to find rides most of the time, but Seth was always willing to come and get me no matter what, and his bus only drove like 50 mph max, so it took him forever to get out there to my house, isn't he an angel?). When he picked me up, I was wearing some "moving man" clothes (overalls, rugged shirt, painted on beard and mustache). We were always doing silly stuff like that. Anyways, we helped her move and ended up lying on the floor in her apartment living room taking a break. We were lying close to each other and talking and then suddenly the moment came that I NEVER thought would EVER happen, I wanted to kiss Seth!! It was crazy! We kissed, and at that exact moment we just knew, I know it sounds so cliche but it's the absolute truth!! After the kiss he told me how pretty I was, which is so random to me, b/c no one had ever really told me that I was "pretty" after kissing me. It was really sweet. I fell in love with him after one kiss, he is a good kisser. I must be one too because a little while after kissing, he threw up because he said that he was just so excited to finally have me. The next day, he asked me to marry him! How crazy is that! and I said, YES, how even crazier is that!??!? I guess when you know you know :)

Us on a date, we got all dressed up and walked around down town (this is actually my mom's wedding dress)

We couldn't tell everyone in the same day that we decided that we now "like" each other and are dating, that also by the way we are getting married. They would've thought we were nuts!! So we had to have a month or two to be "dating", which really we were engaged (for real, he bought me a ring and all that same day!). We did tell everyone we were getting engaged and that we were getting married. People still thought we were nuts, but oh well! My sister actually did not even believe us, even on the day of our wedding she was still so sure that we were playing a joke on everyone, I am a pretty big prankster, but that would have been a mighty big joke :)
I loved our wedding, Seth actually should take most of the credit for it, he was the director/designer/groom/everything!!

Our wedding:
We had a sixties themed wedding, because no one really had much money and we thought it would be really fun this way :) There was face painting, beads, hair braiding, tie dye, the whole sixties package, It was a blast!! We always talk about how it is our funnest day EVER!! I love my husband more than words can say, he is my best friend, soul mate, walking partner in life!! He's the best and I thank God for him everyday (and for my change in heart).

We will post other entry about our wedding story and honeymoon later... Stay tuned