Hurricane Sandy

This morning is when we started seeing the first of Hurricane Sandy. It was down pouring, but it wasn't too windy. The wind has slowly been picking up through out the day and it's been a steady down pour all day already. (It's been great fun trying to get the dogs outside) 

Already last night, they started closing schools and other events in the area. Courtney was even told he didn't need to come into work, unless he was needed. So, it's been nice to have him home with us during this hurricane, because last year during the hurricane, he had to go into work, while McKaila and I watched the storm from home. 

Right now, 4:00 p.m. the wind is picking up. We already can see that there are trees down in the neighborhood and the creek behind our house is filling up really fast and it's also moving pretty fast. We took some pictures of the creek before we ate lunch, so it's filled up a lot more since then, but I wanted to show you all a little bit of what's happening around here.

Keep in mind that there was barely any water in the creek before the hurricane hit

The news is saying that it's just going to be getting worse as the night goes on. Possibly the strongest of the storms will come around 8 tonight. So, what we are seeing now, is probably nothing to what we will see later. Will try to keep the you all up to date as much as possible on the storms, as long as we have electricity. 

Baltimore Aquarium

Just like last year, we decided to take McKaila to the aquarium for her birthday! Our little girl has so many toys, so instead of treating her to more toys, we treated her to a trip to see all the fishes! 

Last year, McKaila enjoyed looking at all the fishes, but this year, she enjoyed it even more! She had so much fun running to each new tank and checking out all the different colors of the fish. Plus, she would pick out where each pumpkin was in each tank.

McKaila loved watching the big turtles swimming around with the big fish

McKaila found Nemo all the way in the back! 

McKaila especially loved the sharks. She started growling at them after she saw their sharp teeth

Dolphin Discovery

Waiting to watch the dolphins

The 3 dolphins that performed for us

Jelly Fish Invasion

Bunch of Jelly Fish

McKaila and Grandma P. watching the Jelly Fish

Daddy and McKaila looking out at all the boats

It was a really fun trip back to Baltimore because we probably won't get the chance to get back there before we move to MS. McKaila had a great time looking at all the fish and running around Baltimore. We even drove around the city for awhile before heading back to Waldorf. All the bars were pack with people dressed in their Halloween costumes. We think they were all partying in peparation of the hurrican coming. While driving through the city, every couple blocks you would see piles of dirt with people surrounding them. They were filling up their sand bags for their houses and buisnesses. It was pretty crazy to see, but what blew my mind, there were lots of boats still in the water. 

Good luck to all you who are in the path of Hurricane Sandy!

Pumpkin Carving

Finally, last night, we carved our pumpkins. Amber had off work so she joined in on the fun! This was the first time McKaila was introduced to the fun of carving a pumpkin, because last year we never got around to carving our pumpkins. 

McKaila dug her hands into her pumpkin a few different times, but after that she had enough of it. She wasn't  too interested in digging out the guts of the pumpkin. She did have a lot of fun helping Grandma P. collect all the pumpkin seeds for us to cook up and eat later though. 

Jo having fun digging out the guts of her pumpkin

Pumpkin carving fun

Creating a masterpiece

Final products!! Courtney's Avengers pumpkin and my ghost pumpkin

Amber's star pumpkin and McKaila's silly pumpkin carved by daddy

Happy Birthday McKaila Rose

I still amazes me that our little pumpkin is 2 years old. On this day, I always think back to that first time I saw McKaila and held her for the very first time. Who knew someone so little could change your life forever! She is everything Courtney and I ever dreamed of and more.

She is one incredible little girl with a huge personality. Loves to play with cars, Minnie Mouse, Smurf, and blocks. She has taken a liking to doing puzzles and coloring. But her favorite thing to do is run around outside! She is always up for an adventure, just like her father.

McKaila Rose, I love you forever and always! Happy 2nd Birthday Babes!!

The moment our lifes changed forever, in the best way possible! 

Grandma and Grandpa Kuipers sent McKaila a package in the mail for her birthday! She had to wait a couple days to open her presents, but she was very eager to open them.

She also had presents waiting for her from Auntie Amber on her birthday.

First time really getting into unwrapping presents

McKaila loved all the Minnie Mouse outfits from Auntie Amber

McKaila loved the Smurf card from Grandma and Grandpa Kuipers. It plays the Smurf song, so that's all we've been hearing non stop

McKaila's first Barbie

She was very excited when she opened this present

McKaila had a great birthday, even though it consist of her going to the doctor for her 2 year appointment. 

25 lbs and 34 inches

Tomorrow, the Correa's are going to be coming over to enjoy some cake and ice cream to celebrate McKaila's birthday and then this weekend we will be taking McKaila to the aquarium. That is our present from Mommy and Daddy. She has enough toys, so we wanted to do something for her that we knew she was going to love. Even though last year, we brought her to the aquarium, we thought she would enjoy it much more this year, so we are taking her there again! Can't wait to see her eyes light up with all the fishes she sees in her books!

Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center

This past weekend, was a busy one for us! We had a garage sale preparing for our move in February, that included us, Amber, and the Correa Family. It was a great success. We all made a lot of money and got rid of a lot, but ofcoarse there is still lots that we can get rid of. 

A hour after our garage sale ended, we were in the car heading to Baltimore to pick up Courtney's mom from the airport. She came to visit for a week and be here to help celebrate McKaila's birthday. It's so nice to have her here to help out and play with McKaila. And McKaila loves it! She's been having so much fun playing with Grandma P. 

We didn't really have anything planned for Sunday, so that morning we decided to get in the car and head to Virginia and hit up the Air and Space Muesum. It's always a hit with McKaila with all the planes and Grandma P. hadn't been there before, so it was a win win.

Dulles Airport with all the beautiful fall colors

This was McKaila's favorite spot. The observation deck. She just sat there and watched all the planes fly by in front of her

Grandma P.

Watching the airplanes

Always so cool to see the space shuttle Discovery

McKaila had a ball. She loved running around and looking at all the planes on the ground and way up in the air. She is a plane lover that is for sure!

What a good, but busy weekend! I'm sure we are going to have many of these kind of weekends because there are so many different places that we want to go before we leave the D.C. area! 

10 weeks

This pregnancy has been completely different then when I was pregnant with McKaila. With McKaila, I was sick for the first 3 months. I didn't have an appetite, the little food I did eat, I couldn't keep down along with water.

This time around, I feel sick, but I can still eat. There are days where I want to eat everything, then there are days where I don't want to eat at all because I don't feel good. Thank goodness for Courtney, because he takes care of McKaila and everything else when he gets home from work! He is a big help, that is for sure!!

McKaila is already pointing to mommy's belly and saying "BABY" 

It's the cutest thing, and love it!! 

Cedar Hill Farm

Last weekend, we decided to head out and pick out our pumpkins for Fall. We headed back to the same place we went last year, Cedar Hill Farm. Last year, we just went there to pick out pumpkins, which ended up with us, just picking the pumpkins that they had already picked. This year, we decided to do the petting zoo and the hay ride.

McKaila loved the petting zoo. There weren't a whole lot of animals, other then cows and goats, but McKaila enjoyed it. After a little bit, McKaila even got enough nerve to start feeding the cows, which was adorable!

McKaila feeding the cows

McKaila loves to swing, so while we were waiting for the hay ride, McKaila enjoyed sometime on the swing!

Off to the hay ride we go! It was about a 45 minute ride, which took us through the farm and to the pumpkin patch. Once we were at the pumpkin patch, we headed off to find our perfect pumpkins! McKaila had tons of fun looking at all the pumpkins!

McKaila found her perfect pumpkin :)

It was a great time at Cedar Hill Farm, we will miss going her come next fall, since we will be in Mississippi! Now, it has come the time to carve our pumpkins, which we will be doing this weekend, hopefully!