Aquarium - Outside fun with Mommy and Daddy

It ended up being a beautiful day, so we decided to spend some time outside to break up the Aquarium a little! Lara had a blast and they had plenty of room for everyone to run around!

Miss Independent wanted to go down all of the stairs by herself. "My do it myself daddy!"

Crazy girl with Crazy hair and a crazy Daddy!

Pretty girl!

Hmmm... not sure this is the best choice!

We were apparently having a very serious conversation...

I love her! I can't believe I am going to have another precious girl in just a few more weeks!

Silly goose!

The monkey!

Aquarium - Penguins and Sharks!

Lara's favorite exhibit by far was the penguins! I think she could have sat and watched them for hours! When we got there, they must have just fed them because they were very active, walking around, jumping in and out of the water, swimming all over. She loved every minute. Too bad there were about 200 people in a tiny room trying to see... she didn't seem to notice though!

Swimming penguin!

She was trying to "walk" like a penguin :-)

So cool!

Lara also thought the sharks were pretty cool, although she wasn't sure if they were scary or nice... I think she ultimately thought they were nice, but it might have taken a little convincing ;-)

Hanging out in the shark cage. Seriously, she is so strong, I had a hard time getting her to let go! ha!

Yikes!

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Aquarium - Sting Rays and Butterflies!

Two of Lara's favorite exhibits were petting the sting rays and the butterflies!

Trying to get the Sting Ray to come close... "Come HERE fish!"

Almost touching one...

She got scared when it finally came close enough for her to touch... ha!

"Wash hands Mommy..."

This is the only good picture we got in the butterfly exhibit... There were tons of beautiful butterflies in there, and she kept holding her hands up trying to get them to land on her. SO cute! Unfortunately we never had one land on us, but she did enjoy watching them (and the little birds) fly around!

Chattanooga - Fun times in the Aquarium!

We saw SO many different sea critters! I was worried that Lara might get bored after just a few minutes, but that was definitely not the case! She enjoyed every moment, but definitely had her favorite attractions!

I'm sure you can't see him, but Nemo IS in there ;-)

Showing Nemo to Mari. She doesn't quite understand that Mari can't see yet! ;-)

Looking at something... Too bad that even with my fabulous camera it is difficult to get good pictures of Lara + fish in a dark room!

"A turtle Mommy, a TURTLE!"

Looking at the colorful sting rays with Daddy

Does she not have the coolest hair ever?! :-)

Getting sleepy... but still going strong!

Beautiful birds in one of the rooms!

Watching something very intently... or trying not to fall asleep!

They had so many cool places for her to get up on and look at all of the different fish! Such a fun place!

I'm pretty sure that there was an alligator in there, and I'm pretty sure that I might have accidentally said to her that he was going to get her... it took some convincing for the next half hour that the fish were not actually going to get her... I forget that she is getting old enough to think these things through these days...

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Chattanooga - Ready for the Aquarium!

Getting ready to go into the Aquarium! I was so excited to see how Lara was going to react to all of the fish, sharks, penguins, frogs, etc. She loves to point all of these things out in the books that we read, but we hadn't been to an aquarium since she was about 10 months old, so I was hoping she was going to enjoy it!!!

Lara and Lucas climbing the bridge outside of the Aquarium entrance. You might have to click on the picture to see it bigger to see them!

Getting ready to go in!

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Chattanooga - Fun times at the Hotel!

We decided semi-spontaneously that we were going to take a weekend trip with Lara to Chattanooga. I had Monday off for President's day, plus this was pretty much our last free weekend before Mari gets here. I wanted to have one last "hoorah" before we have two kids, plus make this a fun "All-about-Lara" weekend!

We found a couple of friends to come let Hailey out a few times a day while we were gone (I almost forgot about her! Oops!) Then on Friday we came home from work and started packing/searching for a hotel... yes, I said spontaneous! That's the funnest kind of trip isn't it?

Anyways, Lucas found us a GREAT hotel that was a little bit outside of town, but had a King Suite (i.e. Lara slept on the sofa bed in another room from us!) This just seems to work out better for all of us, especially since Lara typically goes to bed between 7:30 and 8:00... and I wake up with every breath that she takes... In a typical hotel environment, it is kind of hard to find much to do that won't wake up a two year old when you are sharing a room!

Well, we set off for Chattanooga around 8:30 (It's about a 2 hour drive). This usually works out better so Lara sleeps the majority of the way. We arrived at the hotel at 11:30 (I always forget that there is a time change when we go that far east) and apparently they had "cancelled" our reservation... Grrrrrr... Well, it ended up working out fine after some negotiating! We got our King Suite for the first night and Lucas convinced them to give us TWO regular queen rooms for the price of one for the second night.

The hotel was very nice, and we will definitely be staying there again any time that we go to Chattanooga and looking for that hotel chain every where we go. It was Staybridge Suites.

Anyways, back to our trip!

Lara loved that there was a plce for her to sit and that I had brought her yogurt and milk (I mean how could I ever leave home without those key items!)

They did have a fantastic continental breakfast that we utilized a little later in the morning (i.e. not 6am!)

Catching a little Super Why before we headed out to the Aquarium. She was very excited, "Mommy! Super Why! Like Home!!!!" :-)

We had a great time at the Aquarium on Saturday (many more posts to come about this!) and ate lunch at Cheeburger Cheeburger! Lara was quite the trooper as always and was in a great mood the whole day, especially considering that we skipped naptime, and ate lunch and dinner really late. Needless to say she was more than ready to go to bed that night!

One of our favorite things about the hotel was that it had an indoor pool! Of course I never thought to take my camera down there when we went, but Lara and Lucas had a good time splashing around in the pool and I soaked my feet in the hot tub! So nice! :-)

We had a late dinner at Cracker Barrel (right next to the hotel) and all shared a big plate of pancakes!

We ended up using the speaker phone between the two rooms on the second night as a baby monitor until we were ready to go to bed, then Lucas headed down to Room #2 to sleep in the same room as Lara, and left me my very own room and bed! I can definitely say I got a wonderful night's sleep! Thank you dear! :-)

They even let us have late check out (2pm) on Sunday so we were able to let Lara take a good nap before we headed out!

On our way out of town we stopped at a local BBQ restaurant (Sticky Fingers) and Lucas got the all you can eat ribs.

Overall it was a fabulous trip where we got to concentrate on just having fun with Lara! I think she really enjoyed it and is still talking about it a week later! :-)

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A Name for Boo2!!!

Well, we have finally come to a decision! We have finally decided what this little girl who we have so lovingly been calling "Boo2" is going to be called.

Anyways her official name will be:

Boo Two Folegatti

Haha just kidding! Although, I do think Boo Two has a nice ring to it don't you think?!

Mari Luiza Folegatti

Yes, I know, another name that will always be pronounced wrong, but we really like it, so people will just have to get used to it! :-) Mari will be pronounced maa-ree (not Mary).

We thought LONG and hard about this name, and had a hard time coming up with the perfect name for this little one!

The middle name was pretty easy, since Lara's middle name is after my Grandmother, we thought it would be fitting to name this one after Lucas' Grandmother (and sister!)

The first name was a hard choice, and we had several different options that we continually threw around, but this is the one that we kept coming back to, plus we can honor Lucas' mom this way as well, since her first name is Maria!

We love it and hope you do as well, but if not, I'm sure you will grow to love it! ;-)

Valentine's Day

We didn't do anything for Valentine's this year besides Lara insisting that we "Buy cupcakes for DAAADDY!" while we were shopping, but Lara did have a cute Valentine's party at school. Basically it's a glorified snack time with all kinds of yummy treats that I would never let her eat on a regular basis, plus they hand out little valentine's for their friends. You see this plate of food? She ate every single bite (minus the jello, which as you can see from the pictures she's not a big fan...)

Needless to say, she wasn't too thrilled about eating dinner just a couple hours later!

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day!

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French Braids!

Lara finally is to the point where she can sit still enough for me to do fun things with her hair! One morning while watching Super Why of course she let me put full french braids in her hair. I have to say that I am REALLY out of practice and that braiding curly hair is WAY harder than braiding straight hair, but I think it looks fairly good considering I'm out of practice, she was definitely not "still", and her hair is ridiculously crazy these days! ;-)

This brings back so many memories of my mom braiding my hair when I was young. I think Lara's a bit younger than I was when Mom braided my hair, especially since I didn't have ANY hair until I was Lara's age ;-)

February Fun!

Just a few random pictures from February so far!

Curly Sue still LOVES reading!

Where did Lara go?!

"Peek-a-boo Mommy!"

Daddy's turn!

Haha - What an outfit! Cute shirt, cow panties, 1 snowman sock, crazy hair and Daddy's flip flops :-)

Loves this book from Mrs. Stacey - We'll find out in just a few short weeks if she is indeed ready for baby...

Throwing the "Yellow Duck! for Hailey!"

Lara the carpenter... Apparently she has seen Daddy put things in his pockets while he's working on projects in the garage... She's a little obsessed with pockets right now, and always let's me know if something she is wearing has pockets, and how many :-)