They are FINALLY in big girl beds!!

Was I the only mom with 4 year olds still in cribs? We have been talking about moving the girls out of their cribs for a year now. They have been able to climb out of them for a long time. They never did it at night though... Well except Maggie. Because little miss Maggie still comes in our room at night. We bought them blow up beds a couple years ago for when we go on vacation. I got the bright idea to have one set up for her in our room. Instead of her kicking hubby out of bed... It works out fine. She comes in and gets right in her bed. We call it her "little bed".

We finally bit the bullet this past weekend. We ended up buying bunk bed instead of using the conversion kit that came with their cribs. The room they are in is on the small side (our whole house is on the small side). I have to admit, I'm not crazy about the idea of bunk beds. Mostly cause I can't really reach Charlotte (she is on the top bunk). I have to buy a step stool to keep in their room. But on the other hand the bunk beds fit so well in that room that I like them at the same time. Charlotte and Maggie LOVE them! The first night Charlotte kept saying "I'm climbing the bean stalk"!!

Now that the cribs are gone there is nothing in the house that screams "baby". No more bottles. Or diapers. Or pull ups. Or cribs... It make me sad. My little babies are babies anymore. They are big girls. Although they will always be my babies <3








ps... I took some other pictures of their beds but my camera kept giving me an error message. I have to send it in to be repaired :(

Did I tell you about the time the girls cut their hair??

You read that right. The girls cut their hair.

The other day Brian and I were downstairs catching up on some of our shows and the girls were up in their room playing. Or so we thought... We looked at each other and said, "it's way too quiet up there". So I went to investigate. I just about fell over when I saw Charlotte sitting on top of the changing table (which I use for storage in our bathroom since I don't have a linen closet) scissors in hand, cutting her hair. I just about died... Charlotte's hair was all over the floor and Maggie's was in the trash can.

Here's all the hair in the trash can:



I should note that the scissors were well hidden. I have a small plastic tote thingy with all their hair bows/headbands/barrettes in it. The scissors were on the bottom of that. On top of the changing table. Out of reach. Unless Charlotte climbs on it... I immediately moved the tote and the scissors to another spot.

We were lucky. The damage was not that bad. I took them to Walmart to get a hair cut. The hairdresser could blend the hair they cut on the sides and we had to take a little bit of length off the back. Maggie was so worried we would have to cut her princess hair.

Lesson learned? If it's too quiet they are probably doing something they shouldn't be doing. And always keep scissors out of reach!!

Finished product:

My name is Debbie and I am a bad blogger...

I don't know why I have stopped blogging. I guess part of me feels like I don't have a lot to say. Or it could be that I am addicted to Facebook. I still read blogs but I don't keep up with my own... Maybe I can change that. Baby steps right?

In my last post I said I would talk about our Disney trip. So here it goes:

We went to Disney last October/November. We were there for 12 magical days. My mom decided to join us this year. The girls loved having Gree with us. We drove of coarse (although this will be the last year we can do that). On the way there we stopped in Maryland for the night and I was able to meet up with Dawn (a woman I met online about 6 years ago) and her little girl Avery.





The second night of the journey we stopped in South Carolina. And on the third day we finally made it to Disney. We stayed at the Boardwalk for 7 nights of our trip. We love that resort. It is so beautiful and relaxing there. We booked a 1 bedroom suite (which is huge) standard view. Which meant looking out of our balcony we looked at the front of the resort. The view isn't bad. To be honest I really don't care what we look at. I love that resort so much. And the girls love that there is a big tub in the room. We love getting a suite because we have a full kitchen and a washer/dryer.

If you look closely you can see the tops of the buildings in Japan at EPCOT.




We did a split stay this vacation and also stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge-Kindani Village. That resort is amazing! And very beautiful. We stayed in a 1 bedroom suite there also. It seemed bigger than the one at the Boardwalk. The decor at AKL is much darker then the decor at the Boardwalk. Dark woods and such. But very beautiful. They have a savannah right there at the resort. There are different viewing areas for you to look/watch animals. The girls loved that. You can get rooms with a savannah view but they were all sold out when we were there... There are so many places to see the animals though. The pool area there is awesome! So much fun for the kids. The only thing I didn't like about the resort is it's kind far away from things. Except the Animal Kingdom theme park. We are so used to being able to walk to EPCOT and Hollywood Studios (from the Boardwalk). I am glad we tried a new resort but I think Boardwalk is home for us. Here are some pictures from the AKL:

Is this thing on?

I can't believe I haven't posted since July. I guess I was just feeling like I didn't have much to say. So instead of feeling like I need to post everyday I am going to post when I have things to say. Make sense?

We had an awesome summer. The girls LOVE the swimming pool! And so do I. It was great being able to just walk out of the house and just in the pool when it was hot out. It was a sad day when we had to close it for the winter. Next summer we are going to build a deck. Can't wait for that!

The girls started school in September. The first couple of days were rough for Maggie. They have never really been away from me. There were many tears shed but after 3 days she started to really like it. Now she loves school. Charlotte has loved it since day 1. She cries when we get home. She loves playing with all her friends. She is such a social butterfly. I can already see changes in them since they started school. It's really amazing to watch your kids grow.





They also celebrated their 4th birthday in September. 4 years old... It seems like yesterday we brought them home from the hospital. We had a Princess/Rapunzel birthday party with family and friends. The girls loved having all their cousins here playing. It was really cute.




I think I am going to stop now. Next post will be all about our trip to Disney :)

I don't feel good today...

This is what Charlotte told me today. I think she has a summer cold. The poor thing just got over an ear infection a couple weeks ago. And Maggie had swimmers ear. She seems to be better now. Of coarse we are having the hottest weather of the summer. So poor Charlotte. She's sick and sweaty. And she doesn't really want to swim. Thank goodness we have an air conditioner in their bedroom.

We are pretty excited here in the Souza household. We are going camping next month!! My dad asked us if we would be interested in doing a big family trip to Papoose Pond and of coarse we said yes! So it will be my niece Ellie, my dad, my stepmother, her kids and their families!! There will be 19 of us! It should be fun! We used to camp at this campground all the time when I was a kid. I loved it there! I have so many wonderful memories of that place... Now I will make some more with my family!

And you know what else?? 98 days or 14 weeks till DISNEY!!

Summertime

I don't know if I mentioned that we bought a swimming pool or not. Back in February one of the local pool companies was having a great sale on pools. We bit the bullet and bought one. It's been a bit of a headache but we really do love it! We didn't realize how much it costs to put up a pool... Oh well! The girls love it. Especially Maggie. I am surprised she hasn't grown fins yet!

MIA...

Sorry I haven't been around much lately... There have been many times when I have logged into Blogger to post but just didn't feel like writing. I have been in a bit of a funk. Those around me probably didn't notice it but I knew I wasn't feeling myself. I went to the doctors and asked to be put on meds. Depression is such a bitch. And she started rearing her ugly head a few months ago...

Every since Brian and I started trying to have a baby I have felt a little down. Infertility is awful. Every time someone announced they were pregnant I would just shut down. I would cry for days. Always wondering when it would be our turn. I watched my two BFF's have 2 children, two of my nieces have babies, my aunt had a baby plus the countless co-workers have babies. It became painful. I pulled away from people. I needed to protect myself. I love my friends. Michelle and Nichole are like family to me. And of coarse I love my nieces. But it was so hard.

We started IF (infertility) treatments in December of 2002. I remember being so hopeful. We did 6 rounds of IUI's. Let down after let down. Every time we got a negative pregnancy test, I felt like someone had kicked me in the stomach. I felt like I was letting Brian down. It was my body that wasn't getting pregnant. After the 6th IUI, my OB suggested we see a reproductive endocrinologist.

We met with Dr Hartog in the spring of 2003. As soon as I met her I loved her. She was straight forward but she had a warmth about her. And I LOVED my nurse, Laura Jean. She was great. It was like talking to my mom. I made a friend in Laura Jean. We did our first IVF cycle in October of 2003. We were beyond excited! Everything went pretty smoothly. But it didn't work. We did our next cycle in March of 2004. That was a disaster. We didn't even think we were going to have embryos to transfer. I was defeated. Again, I couldn't help but wonder why? Why was this happening to us? I needed a break. A break from the needles. A break from the ultrasounds. A break from IVF...

That fall was great. We took an amazing family trip to Disney World. While we were there we watched the Red Sox beat the Yankees after being down 3 games. Then we watched as they won the World Series. I felt totally recharged. I know that probably sounds weird but in a way watching them win gave me hope. I needed just a little more time but I knew we would be cycling again.

The spring of 2005 we got all our ducks in a row to start our next cycle. It was a bumpy road but it all worked out. In August we got what we had been working so hard to get... BFP!

I'm not going to go to deep into what happened. You all know that we lost the babies. It was the darkest time of my life. My heart was truly broken. I couldn't believe we were given such an amazing gift to have it taken away from us. I was angry. I was sad. There were so many emotions going through my head. And now when I found out someone was expecting I would just break down. and I would be out of it for a couple days.

My niece got pregnant right before the 1 year anniversary of Brian and Lillian's death. She called Brian and told him first. So he prepared me. But I couldn't talk to her. I was thrilled for her. Beyond happy. but it was so hard for me. It wasn't jealousy. I just couldn't understand how it was so easy for some people but so hard for us. I couldn't hear her say the words. I was afraid if I did it would kill me. We ended up talking on Christmas Eve. I remember her saying she wanted her aunt back. We are very close. and that killed me too. I asked her to just give me some time. We were gearing up to cycle again. And we all know how that turned out. My niece had her son in June. The girls were born in September.

Infertility is a horrible disease. It's almost crippling. Until you have been through it you can't understand. To want something so bad and not be able to have it. To want a child of your own and it just not happening the way "it's suppose" to happen. And even though I have kids it still stings a little when I hear that people are pregnant.