Big Boy Carseat!

Dominick is TOO big for the pumpkin seat now. He's approximately 31" long and 24 lbs. and his legs go up the back seat since he's too long. And don't even get me started about trying to carry that seat with him in it!

So we decided to get a new one. They are expensive!! But my sister told me about a program here in St. Louis called "Safety Stop". It's at Children's Hospital here in St. Louis (on Kingshighway by highway 40) and it's amazing! I will give them the best review ever!

I called them to discuss getting a new car seat installed. I told them that I had heard that they had car seats for sale too. The woman I spoke to said they did and she gave me an appointment time to come in. It's so easy.

They only schedule one appointment at a time, so there's NO WAIT! They have a designated parking spot for Safety Stop so you can pull right up, nice and close. We went in and told them we were there. They checked our old car seat, checking for any new recalls, and we put it in our trunk. Then we went inside the little room.

She told us about the car seats they have (all basic models) and the different car seats that children need through the years. She went in the back and brought out a convertible car seat. She showed us how it worked. How to make the shoulder straps tighter, how to loosen them, how it goes in the car, etc. Then she put Dommie in it to make sure it was at the proper setting (shoulder straps and bottom buckle). Then she and Nick went out to the car to install it. It took them about 10 minutes. And now Nick knows how to do it!

She gave us a packet of information on the various car seats and some other stuff in a bag. All very useful information. Then we went to pay. The BRAND NEW CONVERTIBLE CAR SEAT cost us $25!!!!! Seriously??? Those are normally almost $200.00! And it's a good car seat! It has to be since a hospital gave it to us, right?! :)

It's working out so fantastic already. Dommie is so much more comfortable in it, you can already tell. We love it.

I tried to take pictures with my phone and post them here, but I can't get them to show up...I'll try again in a bit!

Thank you Safety Stop!!

(If anyone is interested in using this amazing service, call this number - 314.454.KIDS or 800.678.KIDS, then press three.)

Exercise

I don't know why, but lately I've been wanting to work out and exercise more and more. I did the half marathon and since then I've wanted to keep going. But I'm ready for a change from just running.

My sister and I just signed up for a spinning class. It's Monday-Wednesday-Friday mornings at 5:30 am to 6:15 am. We did our first one Monday, neither one of us went on Wednesday and we both went again today. I love it. It's hard and I get tired, but I love it.

I'm still playing basketball on Wednesday nights. The new session has started and that's a great workout too. But it's only one night a week.

I'm still playing kickball on Saturdays. I know everyone thinks this is kind of a joke, but you really get a good workout playing kickball! But again, only once a week.

I'm looking for something else to do a few days a week. I've heard great things about Jillian Michaels (the trainer from Biggest Loser) 30 day shred video workout, so I think I'm going to try that and see how I like it. I ordered it off of Amazon.com and should get it early next week. You are supposed to do that workout 4 days a week with other cross training or cardio in between. Well I have spinning! So problem solved.

I was never this motivated when I was an athlete in college, so I really don't know why I'm so motivated now, but I am. I'll let you know how it goes once I get the DVD. I already know that it will probably be hard and I'll hate it at first. But we shall see...

We got ONE!

I can't believe I forgot to blog about this!?!?!

On Saturday morning during the brunch, Dominick did something amazing! He was walking around the coffee table, like he usually does, when he saw me. He turned to me and I held my hands out. He let go of the coffee table and STOOD BY HIMSELF! And as if that wasn't enough he TOOK ONE STEP!!!!

Then he fell into my arms. But hey! It's a start!

We got ONE step. Many more to follow I'm sure! :-)

Sleep

I forgot to tell you all that Dommie is back to sleeping all through the night! Woohoo! It really only lasted a few days. Now we are back on track of getting into bed between 8-9 p.m. and sleeping until at least 6:00 sometimes even later.

Way to go Dom!

Happy Halloween!!

Really early!

My sister and I had the kiddos try on their Halloween costumes on Sunday. Unfortunately, the costumes are so small on the kids that they will probably out grow them by Halloween. Cecilia is a lion and Dommie is a horse. Luckily, Cecilia's Grandma also got her another costume that is bigger. So probably when it gets to be Halloween, Dommie will be the lion and Cecilia will be a bunny. But here's a few pictures of them anyway!




How cute are these kids?!?!?!?!

Lauren and Brian's wedding

My good friends got married on Friday night. It was a beautiful wedding and the reception was a blast. Lauren looked absolutely gorgeous.


The wedding reception was a cocktail style reception and the food was great. They had a sushi bar! I LOVED that part of it! We danced the night away and had a great time. Thanks Lauren and Brian for letting us be a part of your special day!

Also, something I thought was cool (but a lot of people made fun of me for it!) was there was a soap opera star at their wedding. The gentleman who played "Stefano" on Days of our Lives was there. He's a family friend of Lauren's. I grew up being a HUGE follower of Days of our Lives and was therefore thrilled to meet him. So, of course, I have a picture of me and Stefano!



After the reception, our friends Jim and Leslie spent the night at our house. We decided to do a big brunch on Saturday morning with some more friends. Well the breakfast casserole I was making had to be refrigerated over night. Jim and I made it at midnight after drinking all night. Surprisingly, it still turned out great!

Here's me and Jim "cooking":


We all had a great time at brunch. It was nice to hang out and not have to rush off to another event or anything. We were all in sweats and just hanging out. Here are a few pics from brunch:

Me in my "snuggie":


Jim using my "snuggie" as a robe:

(I couldn't even tell you what we're laughing at!)

And one of Jim, Les and Ash:


I honestly have the best friends in the world! Love you guys!!

Vacation!!!

Our vacation is booked!!

Nick and I bought a "revolving timeshare" about a year and a half ago and haven't used it yet! Basically this means we bought "points" to use at various resorts throughout the entire world. We can use the points however we want and we decided we're going to Disney World!

We booked the vacation two days ago and had 24 hours to cancel if we changed our minds. We didn't and I got the confirmation today. It's official!!

We're staying at the Sheraton Vistana Resort in Orlando. We have a 2 bedroom villa with a full kitchen. We're hoping that our friends, Lauren and Brian and their daughter Josie will be coming with Nick, Dom and I. They are getting married on Friday and we thought this could be a fun little honeymoon for them, so I really hope they can come. Plus Dom will need a little girlfriend while we're at Disney! :-)

Here are a few pictures of the resort. It's 16 minutes from the airport (with free shuttles back and forth) and 1 mile from Disney!! It has 13 tennis courts, 7 swimming pools, 7 hot tubs, a miniature golf course, 6 rec centers, 2 snack bars, 1 full service restaurant, a food court, and a grocery store!! I'm so excited! Can you tell?!?! ;-)




The resort is also on a lake, so there's fun stuff to do there besides going to Disney and Sea World. I can't wait!!