Frankie's First Big Boy Haircut

Let me start with saying i had no idea Frankie was going to get his first haircut today. You might ask, well how would you not know Frankie was getting his first haircut and then i would say frank thought he would surprise me. Daddy always takes Frankie with him when he is going to go cut his hair cut, its kind of been a routine for them on Sundays. BUT... i had no idea he was going to get Frankie's first haircut without me!!! He said he wanted to surprise me but i was a little upset because i wanted to be there. But when he told me he saved some of the hair and took pictures, i wasn't as mad but still i wanted to go. You know me, i don't want to miss a thing but on the other hand, daddy misses a lot when he is away, so i was kind of happy that daddy got his only little, private memory with Frankie. So Frankie got all his flips and straggly hair chopped off and now he is a mature almost 2 year old. He will turn 2 this Friday, June 18th and it feels like i just had him, its crazy how time flies. I guess i just have to accept that he is not my little bouncing baby boy anymore! :( So here it is... my mature toddler losing his precious baby hair, :( :( :(
Somebody mail me a box of tissues please!

Camping at Home?!?!

Jenna has been asking to go camping for like years, at some point we will but as of now, its just too difficult. So we have this little mini kid tent and we decided to set it up in her room so she can sleep in it like she was having a camp out. Frankie had to get in on the action also, so we decided to let him sleep in the tent too, but after a few hours he ended up going in his crib because they were making too much noise, lol. And i dont think he had much interest in actually sleeping in it, he just wanted to play. So before they got settled in their tent, Jenna asked daddy to tell them a scary campfire story well minus the campfire because we are indoors, lol. So daddy told them a not very scary version of "wolfman", it was hilarious because every time Jenna screamed at the scary parts, Frankie screamed a second after and then they would hide under the covers, he is such a copy cat. We let her sleep in it all weekend and she really enjoyed it. She is already asking daddy to set it up again for this upcoming weekend. It was adorable and we love how much they enjoyed it. That's what childhood is all about, just being a kid and enjoying the simple things in life. They keep me young. So here is Jenna and Frankie's indoor camp out....

^Getting ready for bed

^look at that cute little tent with those cute little kids in it

^We thought we would get a quick picture of all of them in the tent, even though Nathan just wanted to get out, I'm lucky i even got this pic. But when you continue to the next picture you will see why...

^ Because he wanted to play with the kitchen set. Frankie and Nathan are always fighting over it and he saw that Frankie was distracted with the tent, so he took advantage.

South Carolina State Museum

On the first Sunday of each month, its only $1 admission to get into the museum, we have been wanting to go for a while and it finally worked out. We had a lot of fun but I'm kinda happy we only payed a dollar to get in because it wasn't the greatest museum ever. But I'm used to the nice ones in Chicago, and lets just face it Columbia has nothing on chitown!!! What can i say, i will always be a Midwestern Chicago gal. You can take the lady outta Chicago but not Chicago outta the lady, right?? Anyways.. here i go off the subject once again... so ill just let the pictures tell the story.....

^Jenna and a woolly mammoth, i hope that's how you spell that, lol

^Jenna and a pirate, I'm surprised she even took a picture with him, i figured she would be too scared

^Jenna and Frankie in a old phone booth, so cute

^I laughed when i saw this picture because frank looks like a weirdo peeking out the door of the mud hut. It cracked me up.

^They were watching a short movie on trains or in Frankie's terms CHOO CHOO

^Don't touch my crackers!!! LOL, isn't that what Nathan's face looks like?

^I think this astronaut scared Frankie a little

^This is Jenna talking to daddy through this crazy dish thing

^ MAMA and her sweet baby Nathan

^We are in front of an old general store

^We explained to jenna this was the one and only time she can hold a real gun other that that stay away from them!!!

Nathan's NICU Party

We got an invitation in the mail to go back to the hospital that Nathan was born and i was bed ridden for months. Let me tell you, I wasn't too excited to go back because i hyperventilate when i just drive past it but it was for a good reason. They were having a celebration for the babies that "graduated" the NICU. It was just a cute, little celebration. There were a lot of other babies there and i felt so bad because some of them still had tubes and monitors. I look at Nathan and realized how blessed i am that he is thriving and healthy. He is so big, strong, and he even is saying some words, like dada, mama, bye bye, and night night. It just brings me back to last year, the day right after i gave birth to Nathan.. Frank wheeled me up to the NICU in a wheelchair because i just had a c-section and was in agonizing pain but i wanted to go see my brand new baby Nathan... he pushed me into the NICU and we saw all these doctors and nurses crowded around Nathan's incubator,my heart dropped. I immediately was stopped before i even passed the front desk by Nathan's nurse, i will never forget that moment because she said to me, "The doctor is working on Nathan, please go into that private room and the doctor will be in to talk to you as soon as he can" I remember turning to frank and for the first time in my life seeing him scared. I could tell he was trying to stay strong for me but i could see pure fear in his eyes. We went and sat down in the private room and i couldn't stop crying but frank kept it together, he is my rock. The doctor came in shortly after and began to explain that Nathan's lung collapsed and he stopped breathing, they had to do an emergency surgery. Also due to all the blood lost from the surgery, he had to have a blood transfusion. I just asked the doctor, is he going to be ok, will he make it? He said Yes, we reacted quickly and he will be just fine, maybe he might have some complications when hes older but he will make it. And now here i am walking into the hospital again with this almost one year old healthy baby boy and remembering that very day where i thought he might not make it. I really wanted to share that story because it shows how far we have come, we both went through so much. I had one of the most complicated, dangerous pregnancies there is and he had a very rough start to his little life. But here we are, healthy, happy, and together. So it was a beautiful, joyful, and blessed experience for us. He is my miracle baby, he was just 3 pounds 15 ounces when he came into this world and now hes 23 pounds and is bigger than Frankie!! :) So here it is, the NICU celebration.



^Daddy and Nathan chilling together.

^Jenna and Frankie just HAD to have some cake!!

^Mama and baby, awwwww we sure have come a long way.

^ FAMILY PICTURE, yay at least everyone was looking!! Now that's another miracle.

^This was a fish tank right in the entrance of the children's hospital, it was cool

^And i wanted to end this blog with nathan when he was just a couple days old, crazy how much he has changed, huh?

Our Memorial Day weekend.

I wish i could say that this memorial day weekend was filled with activities but the weather was very uncooperative. Its the beginning of hurricane season down here in good ole south carolina and everything we wanted to do consisted of being outdoors. So in other words, we didn't do much this weekend. Its kind of depressing because frank doesn't get many long weekends, like EVER!! I had so many things planned but oh well, that's life, huh?? But i guess a long, nice weekend of relaxation wasn't so bad!! We did a couple things though... To begin on Friday was Jenna's last day of school.....pics....

^ It was beach day for the last day of school, so she was supposed to look like she was going to the beach. But i kinda wanted her to be patriotic because of memorial day, so i kinda combined both concepts. So she's beachy/patriotic, it kinda goes, right?? LOL. She had to represent for her dad on her last day of school!! So when Jenna got on her sunglasses, Frankie had to also. And tahh dahh, here is the pic taken right before she was about to go out the door in the morning. Cute, huh??

^ This is just Frankie, isn't he getting big? Had to show you how big he is getting... sooooo........

On Sunday we decided to go see Shrek Forever After, Jenna loves all the shrek movies. So since it was rainy and gloomy, it worked out to be a perfect movie day. The good thing about the shrek movies is that its entertaining for adults also, i laughed quite a bit. Nathan wasn't too thrilled about it but daddy was keeping him somewhat happy. And Frankie, ohh he was loving it...sitting next to his big sister eating twizzlers and popcorn! Also, this was Frankie's first movie and yes i was the weirdo mom that had to bring the camera to the movie theatre because i couldn't bear missing out on this memory... yes i know...I'm weird...frank was embarrassed but hey i got this cute pic to show you all, lol....


And finally on monday, memorial day! We made our flag cake with the strawberries and blueberries. This is becoming a tradition too for many reasons... we are a military family and we know how much we sacrifice and how much frank does also. Not only on memorial day am i reminded of this, its my everyday life. I have an american hero as a husband and I'm damn proud of him. Memorial day for me is not about BBQ's or a long weekend.. its about the fallen soldiers, please remember them. Please thank a soldier when you see one, they deserve it. I'm proud of my country and my hunk of a husband! :) So we make this cake together because the american flag means a lot to my family. Happy Memorial Day to all the soldiers that have served, are serving, and the ones that gave it all for this country. And happy memorial day to everyone! :)..........(pics below)
Here is the cake pics.... oh and please don't mind that Nathan is just in a diaper, LONG STORY!! Also note the red, white, and blue theme with their clothes!! :)

Kindergarten Graduation.

I can not believe my first born baby girl graduated kindergarten today, its bittersweet in a lot of ways. I'm so proud of her and love that she is growing up but on the other hand it is going by too quick for me. Its moments like this where you realize that you blink and they just grow like weeds. It was kind of emotional for me because shes going to FIRST GRADE, I HAVE A FIRST GRADER!!! While frank and i were at the graduation, i looked over at him and said,"We have come a long way since that delivery room where we were holding our brand new baby girl and you were throwing up in the bed pan" He laughed and yes I'm serious frank threw up in a bed pan the whole time i was pushing, he needed the nurses more than me. Ok now I'm totally off the subject, somehow i got on the subject of throw up and pushing out babies... BACK ON TRACK, NICOLE.... OK... So Jenna sang three songs and walked across the stage like a big girl. Its actually called a bridging ceremony, its supposed to represent her going from a little kid to a big one, i guess, it was cute. She looked so proud of herself and she kept waving to me from her seat. It was great and I'm happy that frank was there to see it. I'm happy he didn't have to see it in pictures while he was deployed. So here it is, MY GRADUATING JENNA!! She will be accepting cash and checks for her graduation, HAHA, just kidding. Enjoy the pics... Also i don't have pics of her walking across the bridge because i filmed that instead, for some reason i cant get the video on my blog, sorry :(

Strawberry Picking

We decided to go strawberry picking this weekend, even though i was getting over this terrible bout of stomach flu/dehydration but they were only opened for another two weeks, so i really wanted to get there. I don't know when we would have an opportunity to ever go strawberry picking especially since this is going to be our last summer in south carolina. It was a hot, humid day and while we were there it even started to drizzle a little but it was fun. I would have to say that Jenna and Frankie had the most fun, it was sweet. I would help Frankie pick the strawberries and then he would walk over to Jenna and put them in her bucket. Jenna was in her element, i think she could of stayed there all day. Poor daddy had 23 pound Nathan in a harness which was attached to him and he was bending down picking strawberries, he got quite a work out. By the time it was over, we were all tired and sweating. We filled up two big buckets, which was a lot. As you will see in the pictures, Frankie was sweating and had rosy, red cheeks towards the end. It was a new, fun family outing and we came home ate some strawberries and took a nap. What a perfect day. :)