Harbor Springs 2010

We went on our annual Harbor Springs trip the first week of August and had a great time! I have to admit, Rob and I were really nervous about the 15 hour drive with Aly. Ansley has always done well and just watches movies the whole time, but Aly isn't the best passenger (which we learned on our St. Simon's trip). Luckily, I worked on putting Aly down in her crib wide awake so she could learn to soothe herself, and it worked perfectly! Aly now can put herself to sleep which really helped for the long car ride. She would only fuss for a couple of minutes and then would be out for a while. It was great, she really did AWESOME and showed us that she really is laid back. Rob and I now take back what we said earlier about her being "high maintenance", she isn't at all.

We had a wonderful time in Harbor Springs visiting Pops and Mimi, Aunt CC & Uncle Boo, as well as the Helton clan :) The weather was probably the worse it has been in the past 7 years of us going up there. It rained half the time which makes it hard to do things with Ansley. But Rob & Mimi took Ansley bowling one day so she was a happy camper. We did venture out to the pool a couple of times with both kids which ended up working out well because we could tag team both girls. When I was there by myself, it was too hard and I just ended up going back to the house. Ansley decided this year that she loved the beach and the cold Michigan water. She had a blast with daddy at the beach...

This year we did a lot of laying low, which I was pretty excited about. I just wanted to relax and catch up on some much needed sleep :) And we knew this year would be a different type of vacation because Aly was so young and really needed her naps! But as always, we can't thank Mimi & Pop's for everything.  We always look forward to the trip and we are very fortunate we were able to make it happen this year. We love you and appreciate all that you do for us!

Here are some of my favorite pics as well as a montage I put together. Sorry it took me so long to get this post up, I took over 400 pictures and it has been hard to find the time to sit down and go through them all. Well, we hope you enjoy!

dinner without the kids :)

Ansley giving her sweet sissy a kiss

the Mautz gang before going to the Pier for dinner

the newlyweds!

Uncle Boo loving on Aly

Aly LOVED the pool

Ansley (3.5 yrs old) & Aly (4 months)

I think this is funny, ofcourse she doesn't know what she is doing (giving mommy the bird!)

Ansley would put the ball so close to the hole :)

Make sure you pause the music on the right side of my toolbar so you can hear the music on the montage below...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Atlanta Trip

A couple of weeks ago we went back home to Atlanta for a week. It was just me and the girls, but Aunt Kelly, Maddie and Hailey were going to be there as well. We ALL stayed at my parent's house which was the first time ever (my dad moved his office to free up a room so we could make it another bedroom). It was definitely a loud house for that week and Maddie and Ansley shared a room. That was interesting to say the least! Ansley was the instigator and was always goofing off. Needless to say, she did not get a lot of sleep that week. But she had a great time with her cousins!

2's peas-in-a-pod

living the life... she had her own tent with a fan blowing on her

I love this face Hailey is making

Aly meets Great-Grandmommy

Aly and Aunt Kelly

While we were in town, we had a high school play date at Lisa's house. Ashley and her kids came over too. It was so much fun, the kids played in the sprinkler (of course it didn't last long, and we had pizza).  I was happy to finally get to meet Mary Ella. She is just precious and is the spitting image of her beautiful mommy :) Thank you Lisa for having us over, we had a great time. I can't believe how many kids we have between the 4 moms....

this picture is funny, Ansley looks like she is praying

sweet Mary Ella (Ashley's daughter)

Ashley and Aly

All the kiddos (from L to R):

Max, Ansley, Madison, Hailey, Griffin, Braden

Mary Ella & Aly (in the front)

Kelly and I also hosted a baby shower at my mom's house for our dear friend Jenifer. She is expecting her first baby in less than a week. She had a great turnout and the shower was perfect! We can't wait for baby Noah to arrive. He is a true blessing!!!

the sign-in book

Kelly & I made this cupcake stand as well as the pom-poms hanging from the chandelier, it all came out really cute!

baby pictures of Jenifer's guests...she had to guess who was who

never too early for baby's 1st football

Jenifer & the hostesses

All of us sporting our adorable aprons Jenifer got us as a hostess gift

We had a lot of fun while we were home, but we also had some not-so-fun times.... I came down with Mastitis, which was horrible but thankfully my Dr called me in a prescription right away. This happened the day before we were throwing the baby shower. And then the afternoon of the baby shower Ansley woke up from her nap with green gunk coming out of her eyes. I knew she had Pink Eye so we had to make a trip to the Urgent Care. Poor thing was absolutely miserable and it was horrible trying to put drops in her eyes. It took three of us to hold her down each time we had to put the drops in.  I am glad it happened over the weekend so my parents could help me. We stayed a couple more days in hopes my drive home would be better with Ansley once she had been on the antibiotics for a little while. Due to the pink eye, we couldn't be around Madison and Hailey :( So Ansley had to say her good bye's to them from the driveway while they were sitting in the car.

Somehow the trip seemed to still go by way too fast! And of course, I never have enough time to visit everyone I want to... We can't wait for our next trip home!