Another Day, Another Post....

Hello followers!

We haven't been up to much around here....certainly nothing exciting. I suppose I'm just posting to tell everyone that we are alive.

Preston has been super funny lately. It's interesting that over the last month he has really been showing that he understands a lot of what we say. He still isn't talking much {babbling TONS tho} except for the random times, like a couple days ago when he said 'Hi Ya!' to Caleb and I first thing in the morning. But his understanding is growing in leaps and bounds. Today I discovered that he can help me put laundry in the hamper....I smell CHORES soon!!! He also walks himself to his crib when you say 'Ready for bed?' and will pick up things and bring them to you when you ask. He even helps clean up toys if I can keep him motivated enough. Such a smartie pants! He started playing pick-a-boo with us a couple weeks back, and it's super adorable. And these days everything goes on his head....hats, pants, toys you name it! Oh-and also-his 'hand phone' now has buttons to dial...thats what was cracking me up today.

Elli is our sweet little chunk these days...she's started really interacting with small toys, but mainly just loves to watch her brother run circles around her all day. She LOOOOVES attention though and just smiles and laughs when she gets it. She sure is a sweetheart! She's been going through some kind of spurt where she's been waking up in the middle of the night randomly. The funny thing is though-she doesn't wake up and cry-she wakes up and starts talking and laughing to herself. If it weren't so stinking cute I think we'd be alot more frustrated at our lack of sleep.

Caleb and I are just hanging in there. Caleb's working alot again. I'm just trying to keep the house from burning down--or at least stinking. This last weekend we got HD added to our service, so Caleb was pretty happy to watch the Super Bowl that way. I was happy for DVR so that he could fast forward all the replays and watch the whole thing in a quarter of the time.

My mom is doing well-we visited her on Saturday when she was released from the hospital. Doctors have confirmed that it was a stroke on her left side. When we saw her she was doing well and was even able to walk out on the porch {with a walker} and enjoy the beautiful weather we had that day. Sounds like physical therapy will be her new best friend for awhile.

Well alright....aren't you sad that you spent 2 minutes just reading about our monotony? Sorry, no refunds.

In All Our Glory

I Sure Love These Two

Preston and Elliott played together like this for an hour this morning-and nobody got their eye poked out!!!

More of the D-World

G & G with our kiddies.

Swimming....this is how we spent a few minutes everyday.

Elli in ears. Look at those crazy baby blues!

Mickey ears. Good picture, bad souvenir.

Swimming with Dad. Preston would laugh and laugh while walking across the kiddie pool.

got stuck in parade route when trying to leave-so we stayed and watched!

riding the train with grandpa

preston had a blast in this playground....I think this was Mickey's house.

going down the slide. notice the tongue sticking out.

this was Elli most of the time.

Preston in hat. Me from waist down.

"Goose" ready to go for her first swim! Cute swimsuit no?

Me and Ell, half of Presto's face...

riding his first horse.

on the way there playing with his new laptop with grandma.

These Are a Few Of My Favorite Things

...or at least things that are making me smile today....

1)Caleb of course, is Numero Uno. He has taken such good care of us sickies for the past few days. Last night we had Presto up barfing with a high fever 'til 11, and Caleb did most of the barf laundry, snuggled us, went to the store for Pedialite, AND THEN worked until 1 AM. I caught meself a good one.

2)Kroger Chicken Cordon Bleu Packages. Seriously. Awesome. $1.39. 280 calories of pure deliousiocity. I was pissed a couple weeks back when they were out and it took them a week to restock. Boy did I show them yesterday though...I snatched up 10 of these bad boys, and am contemplating going back for the rest of the case. 40 minutes in the oven. Put them on a plate with a big ol' pile of veggies and you will not be hungry for the rest of the day. Love it.

3)J.Lo Glow Perfume. Not the evening version. Not the Miami version. Straight up old school. I may not shower until three in the afternoon most days, but I can still smell a bit like a lady. I don't know why this perfume strikes me so....I think it's cuz it smells like a mom. Not like the mom in a mumu and rollers-the cool mom that everyone likes. Smells like you want to hug her and borrow her shoes.

4)My washer and dryer. After using the guest laundering facility at a very busy hotel a couple times, it sure does make me smile a little bit to not have to pay 10 bucks in quarters to do a couple loads of laundry. Oh, AND my clothers ALWAYS get dry in my dryer. Stupid hotel dryer I wanted to kick....

5)My duvet cover. Best wedding gift ever. You see, my favorite little boy in the whole world barfed on our bed last night, and I almost had to face not sleeping with my big comfy comforter. Thanks to this duvet cover and a good hubby who was ontop of laundry, I got to stay warm and snuggly. We have other bed sets-it's just that this one is a little piece of heaven pie.

6)My ghetto van. Her name is Helen Flo. Thanks to government's silly rules, we lost the ability to legally drive her early last month for a few days. And boy did I miss her! Best car ever-she doesn't ask for much either. A drive to the store every now and then. A tank of gas every 3 weeks. A good washing twice a year. She's not the fanciest ride in town but she has accomplished lots. Her latest was getting 5 adults, 2 kids, 9 suitcases, 1 stroller, and countless bags to the airport safely and semi-comfortably. Plus she randomly waves at us with her windshield wipers. I heart her so.

Those are the things making me smile today. What's making you smile?

DisneyWorld

I didn't end up taking a ton of pictures, but here are a few from the first couple of days with more to come as I steal from others' blogs, and get more off Caleb's phone!



Here we are at Epcot, minus Elli. I don't know why my sweatshirt is rolled up so high...

Preston looking up at the flying Dumbos.

Us and Pluto....see the castle in the background?!

Caleb and Presto on Dumbo. He had more fun playing with the joystick than actually paying attention to how high he was.

All the Hammond clan. We also had Jenny and Wally's family there too.

Our long vacation to DisneyWorld was awesome! It was great to see family and to spend time together as a little family.

The kids did GREAT on the flight there. Elli slept almost the whole way, and Preston even took a little nap himself which is miraculous! We spent the next 4 days going to each of the parks, eating A LOT of food, spending some good time in the hot tub and pool, and enjoying time with family that we don't get to see often.

We didn't really do a whole lot of rides since we didn't spend very much time in the parks-it seemed like by the time we got into a park it was time for diaper changes, food, and nursing so rides were the last things on our minds. I guess that's what happens when you have little ones. We did get to go on a few together as a family like Dumbo, the Carousel, the Teacups(Preston LOOOVED when Caleb made us spin fast), It's a Small World, and Nemo. We also saw a few shows like the Tiki Room, Honey I shrunk the Audience, and It's Tough to Be a Bug. Caleb even caught a couple more adult rides--Space Mountain twice, Tower of Terror, and the Rock N' Roller Coaster but that was it. I felt bad he didn't get to do more, but he was a good sport about it. I think my favorite part of the whole week was that almost every one of he nights we were back in our hotel room in time to see the firework show from the Magic Kingdom castle-we had a pretty good view! So we always made it a point to stop and watch them together.

The last couple of days I came down with some nasty version of the flu and had a rough couple of nights and days. Luckily my sweet hubby and kids stayed at the hotel with me....so we hung out alot in the room, swam for a few minutes, and did a couple short walks around the resort.

The plane ride home was HORRENDOUS though. I still wasn't feeling well, so Caleb packed up all of our things by himself(good doobie), we hopped on the Magical Express to be taken back to the airport and realized that Elli had had a blow out. So we changed her on the bus-no big deal. We then made it through a majorly clastrophobic security screening, and had 10 minutes to sit and eat before we had to start boarding. I was holding Elli, and a sweet Down syndrome girl came and was talking to the two of us for the longest time and next thing I know I look at Preston across from me throwing up all over one of the airport chairs. It was a mad dash to clean up and board the plane, and once we got on the flight attendant {who looked like a fat Sean Penn} chewed us out for having two lap babies in the same row so we kept having to shift around so that we could split up the kids. Preston slept for a little bit but otherwise was a terror. An hour before we landed he ended up barfing all over himself, Caleb, and Jean. And after that was all cleaned up, Caleb had to stand up with him for most of the rest of the flight to keep him happy. It was funny though-that sweet Down Syndrome girl found us on the flight and gave her facebook, email, and telephone number. I thought that was cute.

All in all it was good to see family and have a break from the daily grind, but we are glad to be home. I think we have decided our next theme park vacation won't be until our youngest is out of diapers....so....15 years?? Haha. I'm sure we will get up the courage sooner when Preston and Elli are old enough to enjoy themselves. Perhaps a beach vacation next....someplace quiet and peaceful...or just someplace without buses :)

What We've Been Up To

Presto is currently LOOOVING the car carts at stores....

and throwing rocks in the yard.

Elli Belle is up to her usual cuteness.

Here she is in her new pink polka dot jammies! I heart them! She's been great lately at playing on the floor and has been rolling from back to front for a couple weeks now.

Yesterday we all went to Elli's 4 month checkup. She was a couple weeks late for it, but she weighed just shy of 14 pounds, and was 50% for all her stats.

Tomorrow we leave for Disneyworld for a week, so we (and by 'we' I mean 'me') have been busy cleaning, packing practically everything we own, and trying to work out details. I am pretty proud of myself though-I got 5 days worth of clothes(really more, cuz people need options!), and 7 days worth of snacks, toys, blankets, breakfasts, and diapers into 2 big suitcases and one small one!! Woot Woot! I also got pretty far ahead in my online classes and made it so that I don't have to do any homework all week! YAY!

Caleb's been BUUUSY trying to tie stuff up for work so that he can take a long hiatus. Poor doober has been working until the early hours almost everynight this week. Bad news is, he'll probably have to do it again when we get back to catch up! Bah!

I can't believe that even after trying so hard to remember that yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of meeting Caleb, I still forgot until late last night!!! If you want the gyst of the store, you can click here:

http://conanandcrew.blogspot.com/2009/01/2-years-and-1-day-ago.html Sure do love you Caleb! Thanks for having the guts to say hello!!

Be expecting lotsa pictures when we get back! And say prayers for us on the airplane...no-I'm not afraid of crashing-I'm afraid of our children!!

3 years ago...

I cannot believe I almost forgot--and I've been looking forward to this day for a long time...3 years ago TODAY Caleb and I met!! How fun is that?! I wanted to post the story again and be all mushy, but well...it's late...so I'll just make this note and then go snuggle my hunneybunny. YAY!

Spoiled Birthday Girl

What a good little family I have! I was spoiled up to the wazoo yesterday. And thanks for all the birthday messages-they made my day!

Yesterday, ontop of all my early gifts {my most favorite perfume and a puzzle} I got spoiled with:
-waking up to Caleb singing me 'happy birthday'
-Played with the kids all day
-Caleb and Preston went to get takeout and came home with BEAUTIFUL roses and Sonic
-I was surpised a few hours later to find that they also brought back yummy junk food, sparkling cider, and chocolate cake
-Our neighbors watched the kids for us so we could go out
-Caleb took me to Gecko Grill {my most fav}
-Walked around the temple {sadly discovered that our proposal bench was gone!}
-Went to Walmart to get some stuff for our Disney trip and Caleb bought me 'The Biggest Loser' Wii game {I'm stoked about this, even though it sounds insulting}
-Caleb read his 'Love List' to me {so sweet}

It was a great day!!! It was nice to have some alone time with Caleb--the longest we have had since having Elli--and I felt loved and spoiled!

OH! The very best part of the day was when I was holding Elliott in a standing position on the carpet, Preston turned from across the room-saw her-smiled-ran over to give her a big hug, a kiss on the head and then {deciding that wasn't good enough} bent down and gave her a 'biss' on the lips. Sweet boy. My Hammond boys sure do know how to treat their Hammond ladies!!

Happy Birthday Marie

LOVE LIST
How do I love Thee! Let me list the ways
I would be so lost without you
You’re my reason to get up every morning
You make me smile everyday
You’re sense of humor keeps me constantly entertained
You keep me grounded
You make want to be a better husband
When I think of your love it reminds me of my Heavenly Father’s
My children absolutely adore you.
You’re beauty is unmatched
Your love of snuggles makes me feel always wanted
Your subtle touch and speech makes me feel so alive
Your spontaneity keeps me constantly on my toes
You’re love of all things wholesome makes life so warm
My children are so cute because of you
Your pragmatic way of seeing the world is always helpful
Where I’m weak you’re strong
You’re quick and super smart
You love me like no one could
You encourage my dreams
And all the things that I could never put into words, that I feel and see on a daily basis, but will spend the rest of my life trying to describe….

Happy Birthday My Love, My Lovely and My Eternal Companion