A Girl's Weekend!

Hatcher's sisters came in town last week and it was SOOOO FUN!! We went to the Shakespeare Museum, the Air & Space Museum (you gotta try the space ice cream), the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, and Mt. Vernon. We went on an amazing free walking tour by a retired professor all around the monuments for 3 hours. We also went to the old post office, Georgetown, Ci-Ci's pizza, Chipotle, and Tyson's Corner. They saw the best of the best. We had so much fun hanging out and they were so sweet to Chick the whole time! I was so sad to see them leave! But I'm happy I get to see them again soon since we're going to Utah on Tuesday!!

We also took tons of pictures. I made the girls make sure they looked fabulous every time we went out so that I could take headshots whenever I wanted...I posted some of my fav's of on my Andrea Marie Photography blog, you gotta check them out!. : )

Chick loved running around the Shakespeare Museum


I love these girls!!! And it was so fun to see Chick so happy.

If you haven't been to Mt. Vernon on President's Day you are missing out, it is one of my FAVORITE things to do in D.C....and it's free!

They do a gun demonstration and we got perfect spots on the lawn....I didn't have my zoom lens on me, we were really this close (yes, Chick got pretty mad at me when they fired the guns at us)

Can I Borrow Some Raffi From Someone?

Chick is on a HUGE singing spree right now. She's singing songs I've never even taught her, like "Mary had a Little Lamb" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Today while we were driving in the car the song by Rihanna "Live Your Life" came on the radio and I heard Chick's tiny voice in the back on my car singing the chorus, "OOOh!! Aaayy ayyy ay!" I started cracking up and turned the music down so I could hear her better and she screamed, "NO!! Turn my music up!!"

So it gets even better....later on my fav song by The All-American Rejects came on "Gives You Hell." Again, I hear Chick's tiny voice in the back of my car singing during the chorus, "Gives you hell, hope gives you hellllll!!" Ok, now my maturity level is REALLY showing through, because I thought it was soooo funny. I was busting up and it just encouraged her. I gotta admit, a tiny part of me was so proud that she was singing a punk rock song...but I knew it wasn't good that she knew those words. It's so hard to discipline when you think your kid is so funny!

I promise I'll be better and not let her sing those words anymore Mom(s)!

Here's a cute video of Chick and her BFF playing while I was babysitting tonight. I titled it "The Duvet Monster," and I'm playing the monster.

Happy Valentine's Day Goose Egg

So on my way out the door to do a photo shoot of Chick with a heart shaped sucker she totally biffed it into a wall and got the biggest goose egg I've ever seen.  I totally flipped out while I watched the bump on her forehead swell out half an inch.  When I got ahold of the doctor she said, "Well I hope you weren't planning on taking any pictures any time soon."  The goose egg was so bad that she even got a bloody nose and a black eye while it healed. : (  She stopped crying when I let her watch the t.v., but I was seriously light headed from the whole ordeal for like 2 hours.

I ended up going out and doing a last minute shoot of her since she healed faster than I thought.  But I am so grateful that Chick doesn't get hurt very often cuz I'm a pretty big wuss.

My sisters in law are still in town with us and we've been having so much fun!  It reminded me that I never posted pictures of when my mom visited a few weeks ago, so here's a few. ; )

And she loved playing tickle games with Grandma

My fav pic from the visit, they were playing a hiding game with the blanket and they LOVED it

We wish Grandma could come over all the time to read to Chick!

Some Changes to the Blog...

I'm switching my blog to using nicknames because I'd like to keep it public, but keep our identities private.  So how do you like it?  Cuz it only took me like 100 hours in front of the computer to come up with the new name and look.  Everyone knows my name is Andrea since it's my company's name....but my hubby is now "Hatcher" and my little girl is now "Chick."  If you guys could refer to them by their nicknames on the blog I'd appreciate it.  The blog is not called "The Hatchers and Their Chick" because some day the blog will be "The Hatchers and Their Hatchlings" and I want it gender neutral. ; )

P.S. Chick and I got in a big fight because I was showing her how I was the red bird, daddy was the blue bird, and she was the pink one.  She was screaming at me, "NOOO!!!  Mommy is BLUE BIRD and Daddy is REEED!!!"  I just thought it was so funny for some reason.   

A Parenting Success!

Hatcher and I accomplished a HUGE feat last week....we got Chick off the binky!!!!!!!  We've been saying for months that we need to take it away from her since she's all grown up.  We were at "Lolli's" house last weekend for "Twizzler's" baptism.  My parents were in town you can see pictures of my dad tossing Chick around on Lolli's blog here and hanging out with all the kids here.  (In case you don't know Lolli is my sister and she has an awesome blog with amazing pictures, hilarious stories about my 5 nieces and nephews, and cool give-aways so you should follow it!)

While we were at Lolli's house we lost the binky!  We could get Chick to bed pretty easily at night without it, but during the day it was tough at nap time.  For a few days straight I would sit during her nap time and listen to her cry for 2 hrs in her crib instead of sleep!  But she's over it finally....no more crying at nap time!  I really haven't felt so proud of myself as a mother in a while.  I just CAN'T believe that she really doesn't use it anymore.  Now that we're on a roll we need to get her potty trained....(just kidding, I'm not that cocky).

I got hit SO HARD by the stomach flu this weekend.  I didn't sleep the entire first night because I was so sick (although I did pass out a few times on the bathroom floor...and that's saying a lot since I'm a princess whose back requires a firm mattress complete with pillow top every night).  Hatcher got so worried about me that he almost took me to the hospital (I couldn't even keep WATER down and lost 4 lbs in the first 24 hrs of this flu).  

When Chick woke up (Hatcher left for work before 5am) I opened the cupboards and threw some boxes of cereal at her and collapsed on the floor again.  She sat and pulled at my hair begging me to get up and get her a bowl, spoon, and milk.  I woke Carley up at 7am and told her I needed emergency all day babysitting and she pulled through for my poor little girl.  I'm almost completely back to myself but I learned an important lesson....GET YOUR FLU SHOT EVERY YEAR!!!!

Here's some pictures of my gorgeous little girl without her binky!



I love, love, love, love, love this girl


Can you tell what she was saying?  "I LOOVE YOU!!"

How did we ever let that silly binky hide this beautiful smile?!

Lots of Wide Angle Shots Here....

So a few days ago I said that Hatcher and I have been having lots of fun...and I didn't elaborate on that until now....  The weekend before Inauguration Hatcher had the whole weekend off and Hatcher surprised me with a trip to Charlottesville to stay in his mission president's cabin.  They have a huge, beautiful piece of land.  We always follow the same routine of feeding the ducks, riding the go cart, and taking lots of pictures. : )  Our trips to the cabin while we've been here have been so awesome!!  There's no way we'll ever be able to think about our time in D.C. without thinking about these weekends of fun.

Hatcher's still busy.  He has to wake up everyday by 4:30am to be at work on time.  And most days I don't see him until 7 or 8pm.  And then when he walks in the door he practically gets attacked by Chick.  She loves playing with him so much!  Despite Hatcher's crazy schedule, I am doing great.  My mom was just here visiting, and my dad came for the weekend.  And my sisters in law are coming for a crazy fun girls' weekend over President's Day.  And then at the end of February I get to go to Utah for two weeks....the first part of the trip being a reunion with my college roommates!  I feel so lucky to be so entertained while my poor husband is so busy and tired.

Me & Hatcher took pictures of ourselves with my wide angle lens while Chick napped...I love this guy!

Ok, definitely my fav pictures of me & Hatcher in a long time....we were having way too much fun

I gave Hatcher a 10 min tutorial on taking headshots and this is what he came up with....I am so happy with it!  I swear my husband is a knowledge sponge.

We were on the go cart...and Chick didn't want to smile
But she LOVED driving fast all over the property