Mr. Mugsy

Since we decided to lease our house in Trenton instead of selling it, we haven't yet bought a permanent house here in Orlando.  That causes our weekends to be very free!  At home, if we had a free weekend, it was almost always spent working in the yard or updating something on our house.  Being that we have no house maintenance here, we are constantly looking for things to fill our weekends (if we aren't at the beach).  So, during one of our outings in downtown Orlando, we came across a little dog rescue group called Florida Little Dog Rescue.  It's locally owned and basically they scour the pounds rescuing as many dogs as they can.  Many are hurt and hungry.  They adopt the dogs out of the pounds, fully vet them, and place them in one of their foster homes.  Once in a home, they try to get a feel of the personality of the dog, guide potty training, and give lots of love!  This is where we met Mugsy.

When we all decided to adopt a dog, Chris made the request that we adopt one that actually needed adopting.  When he saw Mr. Mugsy that weekend, he knew that this was our dog.  See, Mr. Musgy has only 3 legs.  He was dropped off at the vet with only 3, so FLDR didn't know any details about how he had lost it.  Halle fell in love immediately.  According to Halle, Mugsy was special.  Like her.  Halle calls her little eye "special", and whenever she sees a child/animal with a disability or just something not "perfect" or ordinary, she refers to the disability or abnormality as special.  This isn't a "special" like she is feeling sorry for anyone; she uses her meaning for "special" to mean a blessing.  She was very excited that Mr. Mugsy was so special, like her.  Yeah, Mugsy was the one for us, and FLDR agreed! 

This was the weekend that we met Mr. Mugsy.  He was talking because he was so excited to have some kids to play with!  As long as our visitations went well (they went fantastically!), we were able to take him home later that day!

He has turned out to be an amazing little dog.  He meshed with our family perfectly.  Even Piper, just learning to walk at that time, didn't phase him.  He loves to lie on the back of the couch, and if he is in our bed, he likes to be under the covers that I have at the foot of our bed.



He loves to ride in the car with us, and he prefers to hang his head out of the window while we are driving.  If he can't do that, he is content to find a lap to lie down in.  He hates for the girls to go outside to play without him.  If they leave, he cries at the door for them.  He is just perfect!

At Beach Playalinda

With us living so close to the beach (about 40 minutes), we go quite often.  Our girls, even Piper, absolutely love everything about the beach, and will play for hours.  Plus, it is very relaxing for me! 

We've tried out several public beaches close to Orlando, and found all of them to be clean and nice, but crowded.  We really wanted to get away from a lot of the crowds, and especially find a beach that you weren't allowed to drive on.  (Mommy's annoying safety issues...)  We ended up finding a stretch of beach called Playalinda.  It is located in a national park, and a little farther out than the beaches we had previously been visiting.  The beach is heavenly!  You can't see anything but green (grass/trees), sand, and water!  No hotels, restaurants, cars, or crazy college kids...it was amazingly un-crowded and had a secluded feeling.  We'll definitely be re-visiting.  The only downside was that they don't allow pets, so poor Mr. Mugsy had to remain at home this trip.  Oh, of course, I took my camera, so here are pictures:

One of the reasons that I love to take them to the beach is that they play so well once we are there.  No fighting, screaming, tantrums, or messes...I love it!

Hannah and Halle made Piper her own little wade pool.  Every time the tide would come in it would fill up her little pool.  Piper played in it for the longest time!

Here are a couple of Piper:

And now Halle:

And my big girl, Hannah...  She loves the beach and ocean the most, I think.  It's hard to capture too many pictures of her because she is so busy playing the whole time.  Here, though, she was relaxing and swimming around on her wakeboard. 

Merry *cough, cough* Christmas!

As most of you know, Santa Clause comes to our house on Christmas Eve morning. He brings one wrapped gift and he fills their stockings. (We don't want to rob our kids of the "Santa" magic, but we also want them to understand the real meaning of Christmas.   We think it just helps the kids remember that it isn't all about gifts.)  This year he brought them a game each, and a lap desk each for the big girls.  Hannah was very happy about her new Sequence game!

Christmas Eve evening we went over to Mr. Frank and Lynn's house to have finger foods and play games.  Dave and Katie were there, too, and we had a good time!  As we were getting ready to leave, Lynn hugged Hannah and said that she felt a little warm.  Sure enough, she was running a fever.  By the time we got back home, Halle was also running a fever.  I medicated them both, and hoped that Piper didn't get sick also.

The girls slept later this Christmas morning than they normally do, I guess mainly because they were sick.  I was a little impatient, but they eventually got up and were ready to open gifts!  Halle was very excited about every gift she opened.

Piper, however, didn't enjoy opening gifts.  She didn't think that ripping the paper off was fun.  The girls and I had to help her open every gift.  Once the paper was torn, though, she was curious as to what was inside.

For the rest of the day, the girls were very content to play with their new things and each other.  We could tell that they still didn't feel good, so we took it easy and had a slow, relaxing day.  I was glad that we didn't have to travel, but I did miss our families. 

Even with the sickness, it was a wonderful Christmas.  We are so blessed.





Halloween, Thanksgiving, and then Christmas

For Halloween, we dressed all the girls as a type of bug.  Hannah was a bee, Halle a ladybug, and Piper was a butterfly.  Piper didn't think that the costumes or candy was all that great, but Hannah and Halle were really excited!

Evidently, Baldwin Park (where we live in Orlando) is one of the best places to trick-or-treat as there were kids and adults everywhere.  Some of the bigger houses (and I mean huge) were giving out king size candy bars, and there was a line (yes, I said line) from their front door down the sidewalk at least a block.  After the kids had filled their buckets (it didn't take long), we gave out candy until we ran out and had to turn kids away.  I have never seen anything like that Halloween before.


About a week before Halloween, we bought some small white pumpkins for the girls to carve.  We don't really have a decent outside area here in the apartment to carve big ones, so we went with smalls ones.  It turned out to be brilliant as the girls didn't require as much help cleaning them out or carving them, and they really enjoyed getting to do the majority of the work themselves.  Hannah and Halle were really proud of their work, and Piper seemed to think that her pumpkin (after throughly checking it out) tasted pretty good.



Okay, on to Thanksgiving...

We drove up to Georgia for Thanksgiving and had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister's house.  It was nice to be with everyone again for a while.  It wasn't too cold Thanksgiving Day, so the kids were able to play outside and spread out.  While we were there, Jack and I made Mom an apron with all of the grandkids handprints and names.  It turned out so cute!  I also gave Mom her salt-dough hands that my girls had made for her for Christmas since we aren't going to be traveling back to Georgia for Christmas.  Before we left, Jack had all the kids pile up in front of her tree and she snapped some pictures.  I think it is pretty good considering how many kids we were trying to get calm and happy! 



When we got home from Georgia, I was very eager to get our Christmas decorations out and start decorating for Christmas!  Since we are in an apartment right now, we are using apartment sized trees and things.  I thought that little trees would be boring and disappointing, but I love how they turned out!

So, I guess that's all until Christmas gets here....oh, I can't wait!  I love Christmas time - let the Christmas music begin! 



Happy 9th, Hannah!

Last week, Hannah celebrated her 9th birthday (*sniff*).  Where has all the time gone??  Of course we made some October themed cookies and took them for her to share with her classroom, but other than that, we didn't have any set plans for her birthday weekend.  My aunt and uncle, Ginger and Warren, were in Florida visiting that weekend so we decided just to get all the kids together and let them play.  We all gathered at a resort here in Orlando - The Fountains - and we let the kids swim together for hours.  I think they had really missed each other!  

 

Normally, I give Hannah money for her birthday and we take her shopping on the day that we celebrate her birthday so that she can spend it.  This year she asked that we go ahead and pick out her gifts for her and wrap them.  It was hard!  The older she gets, the harder she is becoming to buy for.  I think I did well, though...at least, I didn't receive any complaints!  Here she is opening her Dork Diaries books.  I think that they were one of her favorite gifts...she reads them constantly!

 

The next day, we gathered at Aunt Lynn and Frank's house.  We celebrated Kristen's birthday, and spent our last day with Warren, Ginger, and the kids before they had to head back to Trenton.  Mr. Frank took all the kids down to the dock and let them all fish, and before it was over, I think every child had caught at least one fish.  They were so happy with themselves! 

I hope that she enjoyed her birthday.  I love that kid so much, and she really is growing up way too fast.

This past weekend, we loaded the girls in the wagon and took a walk to downtown Baldwin.  We had lunch by the lake, and then stopped for some frozen yogurt.  On our way back, we decided to stop and get Piper her very first haircut.  She was so good! This picture was taken right before she was finished. 

I love her new little haircut, it looks so much better!  The lady that cut her hair gave us a cute little certificate with Piper's name and the date.  She also taped some of Piper's cut hair to the certificate.

  The hair cut must have relaxed her, because, on the way back she fell asleep sitting upright in the wagon!  We laid her down into Halle's lap (this thrilled Halle), and we continued walking....but I couldn't help but snap a picture! : )  Love those little faces!!

Yeah, I'm a slacker.

So I know I said I would post more often...yeah, oops.  Life just seems to get in the way of being able to have 30 minutes or so to sit down and type out a post.  So, with that being said, this post might get a little long.  Sorry.  I'll try to do better next time.



In Baldwin Park, the area we live in in Orlando, the school happens to be about a mile away from our townhome.  After the first week of driving Hannah back and forth to school, I decided that it would be better (and more fun) for us to walk back and forth.  On our way is a duck pond that homes lots of ducks, turtles, and various birds.  Everyday we stop and feed either the turtles or the ducks...it just depends on which animal is waiting on us!  This day, it happened to be the ducks!  

 After a week of walking, Hannah asked to ride her scooter while I was walking with Piper.  Sounded good to me, so I went a bought them a helmet each, and the next morning, they rode their scooters!  They are still riding their scooters to and from school every morning and afternoon, and I LOVE it!  So much so that when we buy a house down here, I am going to require that the school be close enough that we can continue to walk.

Hannah is still very much enjoying her new school (Audobon Park Elementary).  Audobon, unlike Davis, uses more technology to help the kids learn.  Hannah is allowed to take her Ipod Touch to school (for learning purposes ONLY) and the classroom has several Ipads that the children are able to use daily.  Instead of writing only in paper journals, the kids are able to learn to format and type.  Also, Audobon has "classes" that the kids go to everyday outside of the classroom.  Hannah's class rotates through an art class, music class, writing lab, technology lab, and of course the media center.  I'm really glad that the school here still feels that there is an importance to art and music.

Since my last post, Piper hit and flew past (it feels that way to me, anyway) the 6 month mark!  Right before she turned 6 months old, she started sitting up.  Boy, was she ever proud of herself!  I guess she thought that since it was so neat that she be able to sit up, that she would go on ahead and start crawling.  So she did.  Within 2 weeks of being able to sit up, she was doing the best little army crawl that I've ever seen.  She is getting around really well with that army crawl, and I began to wonder if she would ever do the "real" crawl...you know, the one where you actually use your knees?  I was waiting for that.  Patiently.  So imagine by amazement when I look up last week and see this...

I'm shocked and she is acting like it is the most natural thing in the world.  Okay, I'll go with it.  She's growing up.  *Sniff*

And lastly, for the last 2 weeks, Chris' parents have been here in Orlando with us.  We have enjoyed them being here so much!  This past weekend we all decided that we would make a trip to the beach with them before they headed out.  Since we had already been to Daytona, we drove over to Cocoa Beach.  It was a gorgeous day, the breeze was blowing nice and steady, and the temperature never got above 85 degrees.  Hannah and Halle absolutely love the beach (well, really anything to do with water).  Piper really likes our pool, but had never been down in the water or sand at the beach.  She loved it!  She couldn't get enough of the sand.  She dug her hands in the sand and the only time they came up was when she was trying to put the handfuls of sand into her mouth.  To try to distract her from eating the sand, we all took her down to the edge of the water and sat close enough that the tide would reach her and cover her legs.  The water kept her busy enough that she didn't eat as much sand.  We really did have a good time, and we were glad that we had a good last weekend with Papaw Bill and Mawmaw Brenda.  I'll leave you with a few pictures of the girls from the beach.

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Haha, I tried...this was the best I could do at getting a picture of all of them together

Halle

Halle is a 4 year old little snot.  She is a very special little snot.  When she asks why God made her eye so little, we tell her it is because she is so special...no one else we know has a special eye.  : )  She has a temper, and she uses it fairly often.  Her voice carries when she uses said temper.  She gets frustrated easily when she can't figure something out, or do something by herself. She fights a lot with her 

older sister mainly because Hannah tries to "do" stuff for her.  She is very determined.  VERY determined!  She likes to help with her little sister, and would love to be big enough to carry her around.  She likes to dress herself, but rarely do the outfit pieces match each other.  She always wants to be in a dress or skirt, but that doesn't stop her from going outside and getting that said dress or skirt nasty.  She likes shoes, or the idea of them anyway, but they never last long.  She is constantly losing them because she takes them off at the weirdest times.  She is very smart and is very excited about starting Pre-K.  There are days when I feel like she is torturing me just to be mean and I'm worried that my strong will won't outlast hers.  Eventually, though, she always comes back to apologize and tell me that she loves me.  When she is happy, she is very happy.  When she is not, however, it's bad. Even after she got mad at me last night, she fell asleep holding my hand.  I'll gladly take the few bad days that come along with all of the good, because I love that little snot, more than she'll ever know.       

Yes, We Made It!

Yes, we made the move down to Orlando, and, Yes, we are still alive!  The trip was exhaustive.  Hannah and Halle are perfect little travelers...Piper, not so much.  About 20 minutes from my Aunt's house, she let loose and was having herself a nasty, loud, large fit.  It was raining like crazy, so I didn't want to stop before we arrived at Lynn's house. (I later found out that that rain/storm had set a record for the most rainfall for Orlando...go figure.)  Five minutes from Lynn's house Piper begins to vomit from all of the screaming.  Vomit.  Is.  Everywhere.  Ugh.  Yes, it was bad.  And gross.  We did, despite the screaming and vomiting, make it to the house and get everything settled. 

We've been down here for almost three weeks now, and we still feel great about our move.  Yes, we miss home.  Yes, we miss our family.  However, this move was essential for our family.  Chris and I gave this decision a lot of thought and prayer, and we both agreed on the decision.  Will we ever move back to Trenton, or to Georgia?  Maybe.  We are living right now for right now, and right now we live in Orlando, Florida.

The week after we moved down Lynn told us about The Celebrity Mascot Games that go on every year in Orlando.  This organization and event raises money to help children and families in this area deal with grief.  Our family knows all too well about that process.  Anyway, the event was awesome and the kids loved it!  A bunch of the college mascots from the NFL, MLB, and NBA were present.  They all competed in different games and competitions and just really interacted with all of the kids.  The picture to the right shows some of the mascots playing Duck-Duck-Goose during the intermission.  It was quite comical!

The next weekend we decided to take our first beach trip.  We drove over to Daytona Beach, and it took us about 40 minutes.  I am not a fan of the sand getting all over me, but I love the relaxed feel of the beach and the sound of the waves.  I covered myself (and the girls) in sunscreen, put up the umbrella, unfolded my chair, and grabbed my book.  It was great!  When we were read to go, we ate at a restaurant right there on the beach (ahhhh-mazing) and then headed home.  I jumped into the shower when I got home and HOLY COW, I started burning.  My legs were fried.  FRIED.  Chris, Hannah, Halle, and Piper look awesome.  Chris, Hannah, and Halle turned brown.  Piper didn't get any sun between her sunscreen and the umbrella.  I, however, looked like I had sat out there all day with nothing on.  Next time I'll apply every 15 minutes.  : )

While the girls were playing in the water, Hannah brushed against a jelly fish.  The tentacles caught her right on the butt cheek, and stung her through her bathing suite.  The sting was very minor and small, but enough to give her a good respect for the animals living in the water.  We walked her up to the lifeguard and she sprayed her vinegar on Hannah's butt cheek, and on to play she went!  With the drive being so short, we will definitely be going to the beach at least one a month, if not twice.  We all really, really enjoyed it. 

So, yeah, we are staying busy and enjoying all that Orlando (and Florida) has to offer.  My only fret at the moment is the fact that we need to sell our house in Trenton.  Know anyone that needs housing in Trenton?  We have a nice house that we would love to sell!  We will have to begin paying rent on our new place down here around October, so we would love to have it sold by then.  As soon as the house sells in Trenton, we will start looking for more permanant housing in Orlando.  The housing market down here for buyers is prime.  Since Chris is enjoying his job, and we are planning on staying here, we feel like there really is no reason not to take advantage of the housing prices.  I'm excited, so hopefully it won't take too long for our house to sell. 

I realize that this post could have probably been 3 different blogs, but heck, I'm busy!  I'll try to do better and keep them shorter. Until then, much love from the Daffrons!

My Little Helpers

With us moving to Florida in about 6 days, I have A LOT to get done before then.  With 3 children, however, it makes the task a little slower.  Fortunately, for me, they have been great about entertaining themselves and each other.  Hannah decided that she would read to Halle and Piper for a while...

Halle loves to listen to Hannah read, and Piper seemed pretty interested, too.  After a few stories, Piper ended up needing to have a clothing and diaper change.  Hannah and Halle were happy to help with that task, also!  It took both of them to get the diaper on the right way, and I don't think that Piper really knew what to think of them!  Mommy always does it a lot faster!

Piper was a good sport through the whole trial and error, and the girls soon figured out how to get it just right.  I'm thankful that they are so helpful...  sometimes it does actually help!  : )

Orlando, Here We Come!

That's right...we're moving to Orlando!  Chris and I found out about a job opening down there last month, so Chris sent his resume in.  The NEXT DAY we got a call from the owner's secretary stating that they would like to set up an interview.  They flew him down to Orlando and Chris was able to walk around the facility and ask questions.  They hashed out money, benefits, expenses...well, everything.  They gave us more than what we were even asking for! 

At this point, it looks like we will be heading down to Orlando (for good) on the 22nd.  Two weeks.  I have so so so so much to do.  At the top of the list, our house needs to sell.  NOW.  Know anyone that needs a home in Trenton?  : ) 

Oh, also, Piper had her 4 month appointment at the end of June.  She weighed 12 lbs 3 oz and is steadily remaining in the 25th percentile.  For her height, she is in the 50th percentile.  Up until the appointment she had yet to roll over (either way).  I was starting to get a little worried.  As I was explaining this to the nurse, I look over and Piper is rolling over!  Little turd.  Milestone reached!  So now she is rolling over from front to back and back to front.  She is playing with and reaching for her toys.  She is also able to get them to her mouth.  We bought a saucer thingy that lets her stand up and spin her seat to different toys...she loves it!   She is still sleeping and eating very well, but still has reflux issues.  All-in-all, she is still doing great!

Piper Marie - 2 and 3 Months (I'm a little behind!)

I'm taking this very rare moment of Piper napping to update the blog that I've gotten very behind on.

At Piper's 2 month appointment she weighed 8 pounds and 15 ounces, which put her in the 25th percentile.  Her height was 21 3/4 inches, and that put her into the 50th percentile. 

Piper is now 3 months old and she weighs 11 pounds and 2 ounces, and is still in the 25th percentile.  Her height is now 23 3/4 inches and she is also still in the 50th percentile. 

She is still such a good baby and such a joy!  She loves to smile and talk.  Hannah seems to be her favorite person right now, as Hannah will act as silly as need be to get a reaction out of Piper.  She really loves to sit in her Bumbo seat, but hates to have to lie down. 

I am still having reflux issues with her and I'm hoping that it will calm down some once we start introducing  fruits and veggies into her diet.  She is still only eating about 4 1/2 ounces (with rice) every 4 hours.  If we don't put rice into the bottle, ALL of the formula comes up almost directly after she is finished.  The rice has helped her reflux a lot, but I always feel like she isn't getting enough to eat.  She is gaining weight just fine, though, and I know that I shouldn't worry.

Piper usually is ready for bed around 9-10, and gets really fussy if she isn't in her own bed.  She normally sleeps all night and is up and ready to eat by 7.  Ever so often, she wants to eat around 5, but those feedings are becoming few and far between.

Piper went on her first lake boating/swimming outing this past Sunday.  She loved the water!  Hopefully she will continue to enjoy the water as much as Hannah and Halle do.

It seems like these past couple of months have went by so fast...I know that her first birthday is going to be here before I know it, and it seems like just yesterday that we brought her home.  Right now we are just enjoying her as much as we can before she starts crawling and getting into everything in sight!

I'm A Little Scared.

This August Halle will start Pre-K at Dade Elementary.  I'm a little scared.  Here, let me explain why.

Hannah is going into 3rd grade this year.  Her Pre-K, Kindergarten, and 1st grade years were full of excitement.  I was at the school A LOT.  She wasn't too terribly bad in Pre-K...she mostly wanted to teach the class instead of her teachers teaching her.  She left Pre-K already reading and feeling very happy with herself. 

Kindergarten was very boring for Hannah.  She refused, and I mean absolutely refused, to do her work unless it challenged her in some way.  If the teacher handed her a coloring sheet or something similiar, she wouldn't do it.  She would however, finish work for the kids sitting at her table.  This happened very frequently.  She sat at a table with a couple of boys and before the teacher figured out what was going on, Hannah had finished more work for those two little boys than she had finished for herself.  This "helpful" nature earned Hannah a seat (by herself) right beside the teacher's desk.  Hannah felt like the teacher really liked her.  It didn't phase her and she still refused to do any "boring" work.  As I look back at the notes that I got from this teacher, I believe Hannah stood in the corner almost every day.  Towards the end of the year she was in trouble so much that she began MEOWING at the teacher anytime the teacher would talk directly to her.  Yes, I said meowing.  Like a cat sound.  Yes.  Like I said, I was at the school A LOT.  Funny thing was, Hannah was (and still is) and exceptional child at home.  I couldn't figure out why this teacher was having so many problems when she was such a great child for me.

Ok, so on to 1st grade.  Hannah had a very amazing teacher that year.  Bless her heart, she was so good with Hannah.  Hannah started the year and all seemed well.  The teacher understood Hannah's aversion to feeling bored and she kept her very busy with work that Hannah loved.  I knew it was too good to last, though.  Every morning Hannah would take a poptart to school for breakfast.  A little boy in 3rd grade noticed this a began to tease her about it every now and then.  One day on the playground this little boy called Hannah "poptart girl".  Hannah tackled (and I mean tackled) this little boy and began scratching him with her nails.  He came away with several scratches and Hannah earned herself a day of suspension.  She had become a bully.  I threatened my child with her life and everything was okay...for a while. 

The next incident had a little girl deciding to tell Hannah all about the word "ass".  Hannah thought that was a very neat word, so after she finished her afternoon work she flipped her paper over and wrote the following sentences, in very neat handwriting and correct punctuation - My mom is an ass.  My dad is an ass.  Halle is an ass.  Mrs. Steele (her teacher), you are an ass.    
Evidently the school was unsure if I would believe a written note, so they photocopied the back of her worksheet and sent the proof home.  I will admit that I laughed a little.  Okay, so I laughed a lot...Chris and I both did. 

Haha, these are just a few of the things that we went through with Hannah her first couple of years.  There were so other many other things that I was at the school for, but these were the ones that stuck out in my mind the most.  Now, to her credit, she was an exceptional 2nd grader.  Not one complaint!   I hope this explains why I am scared-to-death of Halle starting school.  God bless her teacher in advance.  She's going to need it.

Easter Day

Easter morning, we decided to go to church with my mom.  I got up early and proceeded to work on getting 4 girls ready...yes, it took a while.  I was very impressed that I had us all ready and out the door in time!  We even arrived at the church about 15 minutes early!  After church we went to mom's house for lunch and to let the kids hunt eggs.  I also made everybody take the time to make some family photos...we hardly ever get a picture of everyone all together.

This picture has Chris, myself, and our 3 girls.  Also, my sister, Jacqualine, her husband Kenny, and their 4 kiddos.  My much younger two sisters are also in there, along with Mark's grandson that he and my mom are raising.  It may not be the best picture, but I love having it. 

I also took a few of the girls and I think that they turned out pretty good!  I'm kind of proud of myself! 

All of the men went out and hid the eggs together and after the kids filled their baskets, they were all gathered on the porch opening all of the eggs.  We had filled all of the eggs with candy, but the men had a better idea...  Luckily, the kids thought it was just as funny as the men did!

I always hate when a holiday weekend / day comes to an end, because I really enjoy being with our family.  I love all of our kids, and I'm super glad they all love each other and get along so well.  It makes family gatherings so enjoyable!