My amazing momma had gifted the big lil' a family season pass which is more than amazing because it basically pays for itself in one big family visit. We can take up to four adults and four children with our pass when the regular admission price is around $28.00! Ummm, score! (thanks momma :)...

I couldn't help but to think that the last time we visited the aquarium the husband and I were celebrating our two yeaar anniversary and I had just started playing with my first camera. Eventhough, the husband swears that we had Cameron when we visited and he promises that he remembers us having a stroller....LOL. So, I showed him proof that he was wrong...HERE...

I loved this pic because it showed how much better my photography has gotten...:) Yayyy for progress people...

Like I said...it was freezing and the bear hat that the new lil' got from his Grammy for Christmas was EverythinG...so cute...

that was our crew...in the bottom right corner...tryin' to get our lives together before we threw ourselves into the super packed aquarium festivites...

my boo's a daddy :)

first we explored the Caribbean Current...

Trying to get decent pictures of the kids and how excited they were was a bit of a challenge. The fight for light and space was a bit rough.

We stopped by to holla at Mighty Mike the alligator. I forgot to get a shot of Mighty Mike but got these cute ones of the lil's...

Kendall Bear was a tad moody. His brother woke him up at 5am and between sleep deprivation and kid overload...I think it was a bit much :/

I LOVE seeing people take point and shoot pictures all super slowly while I shoot and go. The joys of being some what of a professional :)

cute...

and a little shark anatomy...

The Sting Ray Beach club was pretty neat although I think I went in here bymyself. Gotta take the kiddies next visit.

We were running into naptime and it was showing all over the big lil's face, please forgive him...LOL

Then we entered the home of the hippo. It was super stinky in there so I am surprised they were able to smile for this pic... the dad and the sister...

When the big lil' saw the hippo he screamed, "Wook...it's Moto Moto!!!". I laughed SO hard. For those of you who don't know... Moto Moto is the hippo on Madagascar. TOO FUNNY!!!

Finally got in a picture...

Trying to grab some Cherrios for the new lil' who wouldn't let anyone else hold him almost the ENTIRE time. Had to grab snacks to convince him to go to someone else for a bit. (Trying to hold a 25lb toddler in one arm and a camera in the other is rough.)

my favorite part...

they were SO PRETTY...

and look at this baby...

Then we entered the Shark Realm...

Was so pleased with the husband. It is rough the gather kids and navigate through a screaming crowd all while staying patient and enjoying himself. My heart smiled inside. BIG!

the sharks were swiming over us and they were WAY excited...

Momo kept saying, "SHarkkkkkkkkkkkkk!" and if we were anywhere else that could have been a problem. Funny.

no words... I love them...

We had a ton of fun and it was a total reality check that, yes, this is my life now. 

I LOVE IT!

p.s. Anyone have season passes? I'm trying to find more to do with the lil's while keeping hold of my budget. Things can get pricey. I was thinking of also getting a pass to Sesame Place when they open around April. What else do you do with your kids? I can see you guys are reading. I don't bite. Comment. I would love to hear suggestions and thoughts!

XoXo,

Syreena

It seems that I have become a serious product junkie within the last week or so. I've felt totally inspired after stumbling upon hair & beauty blogs like The Beauty Department, Sham I am Glam and Curly Nikki, how can I not try a few things my dog-gone self?!?

We started with the basics, a little foundation, liner, mascara, a bit of blush..you know the deal. Then we figured we would try out a few different shades of lipstick since, I must admit, as a brown girl, I've been a bit afraid of.

Check her out...

is she not super goWageous?!? I totally love the red...just sayin'. I got these mac glossies from my mommy for Christmas and they came in super handy when trying to blend the colors a bit to fit the best with our lips and skin tones.

completely feeling Nars color right now. They seem to be super rich and offer enough color to cover our darker lips and let the lips color really pop. 

This would be a typically look for me. I have ALWAYS done a sheer or nude lip escpecially since I've always thought that my lips were WAY TOO big to add color too but thank God for growing older and wiser and becoming more and more comfortable in my own skin!

So, it was my turn... Fancy...huh??!?

I also added these babies to my bag (also from my momma), which I ADORE! I really like Mally products. She has such pretty colors and her products smell great too! 

I've also been experimenting alot more with my eyes (which has been a bit tricky), since finding and reading and watching every post from Sham I am Glam...thanks boo :)

Just in case you were wondering, I am not a huge foundation person. So, I was ever so grateful when one of my boos told me about Mac's tinted mosturizer.... my fav.

And, I am also completely diggin' these Mally shadow sticks. They glide on really easily and are great for when the whole reg' shadow and brushes and stuff is just a little too much for me in the morning.

So, these are my basics...

What about you? What do you love? Have any bossy beauty blogs/bloggers that I need to know about?!??

XoXo,

Syreena

Moving on with the day. Smoothies for breakfast.... yes please.

and melted provolone on ciabatta...anytime.

the lil's were totally happy with breakfast as well :)

The day seemed to be going so smoothly and then, all of a sudden, the big lil' started actin' a tad bit like a crazy. Everything that his brother tried to play with he took. And not just took but he would snatch it away with a vengeance. What In the WorlD???

It was about my 85 hundredth time telling him the "please, give it back to your brother..." and I could feel my patience running seriously thin. After crying for a bit too long, the new lil' had fallen asleep and I closed my eyes and asked the big lil', ever-so-calmly...

"what is it that mommy can do for you?"

He quickly spouted out, "mommy I wanna race..."

So, I laid the new lil' down in his crib for his nap and I decided to let the big lil' skip his nap time for a lil' quality mommy and me racing cars...

I've also recently found out that the big lil' LOVES the self timer...

we just couldn't get enough...

and this is what happens when he tries it on his own...

this face was definitely worth the extra push for patience on my part...

and we spent nap time racing our little hearts away...

it made for one happy Cammy...

and an even happier momma...

The biggest challenge I encounter is how to "juggle it all". How to divide/share/spread my time and my love, the stress of it all can be a bit much. I've always said that the big lil' has been AMAZING since his little brother arrived. He doesn't often fight for attention and he is so wonderful with him. But, I think that I had started to take that for granted and related his growing older with him not needing as much quality time with his mommy.

I'm so grateful for my little "therapy" session the night before. And, for some reason I feel like I've accomplished so much today. I guess I could say that it's all about the little victories!

Was it difficult for you to juggle your little ones attention/needs etc??? I'm open to any/all suggestions to add to my bag of tricks when things get rough :)

XoXo,

Syreena

The big lil' rises first.

Wakes up daddy. Wakes up mommy. Insist on waking up brother.

The norm. 

I try to ease myself out of bed. No real excitment for the day. This morning, just like every other morning. At home. With my boys. 

Washing faces. Brushing teeth. Dressed. Chores. Down the stairs and ready for breakfast.  

Oatmeal. Cheerios. Daddy says goodbye and he's out the door.  

We read. We sing songs. We play with train tracks as I count down the hours until nap time even though they just woke up. 

I've purposed to take pictures EVERYDAY no matter what. So I snap a few here, and get a few there. 

I watch as he pretends to read from the pages of a beautiful book. Far from tuned in and still counting down until my next "break". 

We stop to color and have a little snack. 

And then back to reading again. 

Finally, nap time rolled around. I quickly changed them, started their favorite flicks and put them down. I plopped myself down on the couch and thanked God for getting me through the morning. I flipped through a few channels and tip-toed upstairs to grab something really quickly. I peeked into the big lil's room for a sec and found this...

Apparently, he did a little reading before he decided to make himself comfortable in his tent and get a little rest in for the day. 

I inched myself back and sat in the chair directly across from my precious baby boy and I cried. I cried at the thought of how ungrateful I had been.

I had taken for granted everything that was so beautiful about this morning. Everything that I had spent so much time wishing would go by quickly. Trying to speed through from morning to nap time and then nap time to bed time.

What had I done? How ungrateful had I become?

This morning...

there was so much beauty right before my eyes. My beautiful, healthy, vibrant, joyous boys. My amazing, loving, devoted, Godly husband... I could go on. 

This morning...

I made one good decision. And, as I downloaded the images from the day, that I forced myself to take, I was able to replay and re-live a morning that should have been filled with gratefulness and joy. 

It is so easy to focus on all of the things that you DON'T have or DON'T get to do. So easy to focus on the people that get to go out and the couples before kids that get to travel and do things on a whim. 

If you're not careful, it's so easy to become so ungrateful in a situation where gratefulness should abound you. 

So, this is me...reminding myself of that very thing...

This morning.

XoXo,

Syreena 

who he heck told you that's...that's personal information. Violation!!!

Then I remember that this little blog of mine is really being read by more than just the tiny green and white Martians on Mars. I've gotten somewhat comfortable with being a "blogger" but the social media part still makes me hesitate. How much do I really want other people to know? What is really necessary to tweet or worthy of a Facebook update?? I don't normally comment on celebrity happenings and major "issues" but I just couldn't help but share my thoughts.

I got back just in time from my night out with the husband to watch Whitney Houston's Homegoing service. Which was nothing short of sad and beautiful all at the same time. I was also privy to the social media play by play as people tweeted and commented on Facebook throughout the entire service. There were so many things about the service that I loved more than I wish to share. But there were two parts that stood out so clearly to me. The first being the genuine words spoken by her "real life" bodyguard mentioning how she gave herself to the world and heartwarmingly pleading for the world to have a little grace with others that do the same. Seriously guy... I could have cried right then!!!!

sidenote: so in love with how goWageous she is in this picture...

{source} 

The second thing that touched me so was the story that Be Be Winans shared about how she selflessly gave of herself and in the height of her career didn't think twice about singing back up for them when they needed a little help. I found this clip (gotta love YouTube) and it touched my heart just to watch and witness the beauty of who she truly was.

I've been thinking about social media and the media in general a lot lately. I have a very interesting love hate relationship with social media that I care not to seriously expand upon however I will briefly explain. In so many ways social media is nothing short of amazing, the ability to connect, share and reach out has never before been so tangible as today but on the down side it also gives the idiots, uninformed and uncompassionate a platform and that just plain sucks. Her ability to set all pride aside and ACT from her heart speaks volumes to the kind of person she really was. We make mistakes. People make mistakes. Life is not easy and darkness is all around you. But grace carries us through and the quick to judge attitude that so many of us adopt today is seriously disheartening.

Seriously!

I struggle, at times, with this blog of mine, with the nature of blogging and opening yourself up to the public in general. It's scary. You are opening yourself up to, not only the good, but the jokes, critics and critisism as well. It's scary. But despite the fact that I am a pretty private person at heart, I do it because of the many people who have told me that my words help them. I do it for the people who write me and call me to tell me that they look forward to my post and that they tried something new because I did or that they thought of something differently because they saw that I challenged myself to think and do differently too.

There is so much beauty in sharing who you are with others. I am constantly encouraged and uplifted by others who choose to share their stories and experiences and I can only hope that I can do the same for someone else. When people share with you in any capacity, weather it be the beauty of someone's voice and music or the openness of someone's personal dreams, hopes or feelings don't be so quick to judge, criticize, critic, tear down etc. watching this video really touched me...

...too much not to share.

XoXo,

Syreena

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G sums up my day today! I'm still sitting here trying to figure out why in the world we hadn't done this sooner. 

Oh yeah, it was because of my silly self who (for some reason) convinced herself that her kids couldn't survive without her. That they would somehow become Russian spies if I'm not around every second of the day to guide them through this cold, cold world that we live in.

Ummmm... yeah, NO! 

If you are a new mommy...please don't do this to yourself. 

You NEED time away, you NEED a break...

I felt like a married woman for the first time in three years. Not just a woman, with kids...and a baby's daddy who just happens to be my husband. There's a difference. Trust me!

Instagram when I just didn't feel like reaching for the camera...

We kept it simple... kept it quite.

Went to a few stores (without two whiny babies :), candy run to Five Below and camped it in the room for the night ;)

MUST.DO.THIS.AGAIN.SOON!!!

Please tell me that I am the only one that takes this long to get away with their husband after having babies. Do you go away often? For some reason I feel like the one nighters are the best. Sadly and cutely enough we were both super excited to get home to our babies. Those dang boys are our world :)

XoXo,

Syreena

Going out with the husband for the night for the first time since the lil's were born!!! Thought this night would never come :) I have to be the only weirdo that took this long before she left her babies over night with someone else. It's been THREE YEARS, ReallY???!!???

XoXo,

Syreena

Having a sick baby is certainly número UNO on my list of things I never wanna experience in my life! I hate it. Everything in me just wants to take all of the pain away and I can't. When my big lil was in the PICU for a couple weeks I really learned how to turn to God for comfort and grasp a better handle on the mess that I was when my babies are sick. After bringing him home form the hospital my anxiety got even worse and it became extremely difficult for me to deal when my babies had any type of health issue from a normal cold to eczema and even watery eyes and runny noses. I was a MESS!!!!

Through the months I have learned that there are certain things that I must do in order to control the stress ball that I become when my boys are not feeling 100%. And yes, it is that serious. I know that it is God's will for his children to be in perfect health even when it comes down to the "common" cold. And, oftentimes I find myself frustrated and sometimes even angry with God (never the way to go, to be angry with God...Lord forgive me :)) when my babies get sick. What I know now, for sure, is that sickness is no part of God. That he doesn't bring it or allow it but what he does do is take it away (if I only believe). What I have also realized is that growing my faith in a certain area and seeing its manifestation in my life are a process. And on that journey to divine health for myself AND my children these are the things I do to cope... to deal... in the meantime...

.Get friendly with the professionals- I adore my doctor and ALL of his staff!!! The secret is that my doctor isn't even a pediatrician!!! I KNOW!!!! Well not really :/ I've had my same doctor since the husband and I married six years ago and when my lil's came along it was only natural that he manage their care just as he has been for the husband and I. I got a lot of slack from other people for not finding a "Pediatrician" but here's the thing... He listens, he cares, he doesn't pretend to know everything, he doesn't rush me out of his office to get to the next patient of the day! We are super close and comfy with the secretaries and one of them the lil's call Grandma Patty (doesn't get much better than that). I even keep in good touch with the Attending Physician that cared for the big lil' during his stay at the PICU. A text message here and there to reminding him of how grateful I am for the quality of care that he showed my baby and my family. These connections have been my saving grace! I have no problems calling my doctors answering service after hours nor any hesitations to bust out a quick text when something just doesn't seem right and I need some advice. These relationships are SO important! Don't be afraid to make sure your doctors know your name and remember exactly who you are even if you were their ba-zillionth patient of the day.

.Don't doubt my mommy instincts- I doubted my mommy instincts once before and I will NEVER DO IT AGAIN!!! I AM my baby's voice and if I don't speak up for them no one else will. If something doesn't seem right....it's not! That's all.

.Nip it in the bud- I don't wait for gi-normous red flags to start waving before I start doing something about it. If my lil's are slowing down, looking a tad strange, moving a bit funny, eyes a bit glassy I get on it. Tylenol is my friend. Cool mist humidifiers, even better. I don't wait until they are full fledged out of commission before I pick up the phone for a quick doctor's visit or a small dose of pain reliever. I also try a lot more preventative things now. Daily multi vitamins, smoothies full of antioxidant packed fruits and nutrient filled veggies, and a regular cleaning of thier billions of toys.

.Trust and Agree- Some times I just can't! Sometimes I just have too much on my plate to take on the "worry" of having a baby that is not feeling so good. I just can't stay up all night making sure his breathing sounds normal, checking his skin for any signs of reaction, counting the minutes until his next dose of medicine, I just can't. So no matter how much I feel like no one can take care of my babies better than I can, the fact is that that's just not true. Times like these I have to trust that the husband can take over and agree that he can decide what's best. This is when I leave all of my worries at the door and rest. I just let thier daddy be the nurse for the day :)

.A little comfort goes a long way- There is nothing quite like a mommy or daddy snuggled up next to you with your favorite blanket and plush animal when you are feeling a little blue. Sick time is snuggle time for sure. 

How do you deal when your babies are sick??

XoXo,

Syreena

that lead to this...

and then a little bit of this... 

LovE him! Last week I picked up a few cork and dry erase boards along with some animal and car stickers for a chore and potty chart for the big lil'...

they turned out pretty cute and the big lil' LOVES them. He has a list of 5 chores to complete every morning. Getting dressed, brushing teeth, making the bed, putting away dirty clothes and cleaning up toys. He gets an animal sticker of his choice for every task he completes.

then it's potty time... the new lil' typically comes along for a quick overview of things to come and some moral support (he's so cute).

The potty station is just above the throne. It holds a few books for reading, clean undies, wipes and treats...

this is when I hang out and do a little waitin'...

I adore that morning face...crusties and all...

the potty chart is marked with 7 slots by time. each time he goes he gets a Car's sticker of his pickin'...

then we brush our teeth...

make our beds...

and dart to the charts for more stickers...

while this guy is still soakin' it all in...

I absolutely LOVE his morning routine, although it's been kind of tough getting other grow people in our house to follow the plan he seems to fall right back into the swing of things every time mommy handles morning so that's good...

then we snap as many pictures as we can...

then it's downstairs for some breaking of the fast...

I started a Pre-school workbook routine with the big lil' that he seems to really like. Each day has it's own designated subject with Wednesdays being field trip day and everyday includes some computer time (ABC Mouse.com is the BOMB!!!)...

we get some money talk in learning about nickels and dimes while the new lil' does a little exploring...

love that the big lil' must have his Cars' slippers but not necessarily on his feet :)

after our lesson, song bible songs and a little free play and snack, it's naptime...

the big lil' normally fixes a palate on the floor with his Cars' pull out sofa, his animals and his blanket and watches his Disney movie of choice for some nap time soothing...

I LOVE our structured morning routine and can't WAIT to get back to them. If you are a SAHM, what's your morning routine? 

XoXo,

Syreena

On another note, I am SERIOUSLY looking forward to feeling better and getting myself and the lil's OUT of the house and having a little fun. I am suffering from some pretty bad cabin fever and what I miss the most around this time is our walks around the neighborhood. 

Oh April and May... you can't come soon enough!

p.s. I HATE viruses and the fact that all you can do is ride them out. Am I the only one out there that feels like someone in her family is sick WAY too often?? AgggHHHH!!!!!

XoXo,

Syreena