Neil Leslie Diamond!!

This is what started it all.  The cassette tape that we listened to and practically wore out as my family drove through Wyoming, Nebraska and other states to get to my grandpa's cottage in Wisconsin year after year.  

It is Neil Diamond baby, and the Winegar love for him started young!  I knew his music was totally amazing, but I didn't find out just how amazing until a couple of weeks ago.

Back in December my sister schemed a very thoughtful gift and gave Adam and I Neil Diamond tickets for my birthday.  For Christmas, she also gave tickets to my parents and sister and her husband.

It turned out to be perfect timing for the concert in July because Adam finished the bar exam on the 25th and so how perfect to celebrate big on the 28th at the Neil Diamond concert!

It was kind of a big bonding joke with my family and we all had some good laughs that we were going to the concert.

As we were walking in I mentioned to Adam that we were the only people our age at the concert.  He said, "Oh no, look there are some...." then he started to count and point out "one, two, three....oh there's four others."

Yea, we were totally outnumbered by an older crowd, but Neil is just that cool he can draw in all ages.

I left totally pumped.  If you have not seen a Mr. Diamond in concert, go to the next one, if he lives to do another one...he is 71 years old.  I don't doubt that he'll be back though, he was gliding all over that stage and shakin' his pleather covered hips.  Man does he have moves, we were huddled over laughing so hard as he opened his arms and practically floated across the stage.

He definitely knows how to please the crowd with 4 reprises of Sweet Caroline (such a great moment!).  On the last one he didn't even sing, he said jokingly that he was totally sick of the song and that he wasn't going to sing it anymore (pause)..."but you can with my band!"  The crowd just roared it was seriously perfection.

I thought I knew the man well.  I mean, I had even watched a Christmas concert of his years ago in Chicago at my awesome Aunt and Uncle's home.  We were drawn in by Neil then as we dined over Buona Beef.

I had no idea, however, that he wrote Red Red Wine and that UB40 did a cover of it.

He also wrote the classic song sung by the Monkees "I'm a Believer".

Other classics he sung were Shilo, Cracklin' Rosie, and of course Comin' to America!

We were a little disappointed also that we weren't dressed appropriately!  A true fan only wears sequins to the concerts, we will be prepared next time.  I already spotted some sequin shorts in a variety of colors for our next concert.

erika. justin. corinne. me. adam with sweet baby jane

Baby armoir

Years ago I found a pine armoir that I fell in love with.  Little did I know in my single, childless days that I would enjoy using it for our little girls clothes, blankets, shoes, and more later on!

I used it in Caroline's nursery, but didn't for Olive because there wasn't room in our little New Hampshire or Virginia apartments.  

I am excited to use it again in Jane's nursery and the first thing is up, the clothing dividers.  I have 3-12 month dividers that keep the dresses and bubble suits organized.  This keeps the favorite little pieces on display for you each time you open the doors to the armoir so you can enjoy them longer than they fit!  (Jane is already in size 1 diapers and almost out of newborn clothes at weeks.)

I have a set of wooden stamps that I got at PB kids on clearance years ago and that is what I used to stamp the numbers on the paper circles.  

The final outcome is something like this just for an  idea of what you can do! (We are not quite that organized yet, pics to come)

I was absolutely giddy to get out the teeny tiny clothes again.

I am so so grateful for baby Jane and her sisters.

Is it swim lessons yet?

"Is it swim lessons yet?"  This is what we heard every five minutes as we drove down to St. George last week.  Olive is obsessed and it's so fun to see her light up when we do anything at the pool.

While we were waiting for Jane to arrive, we found some swim lessons that fit into our schedule perfectly.  It was also a bonus because a dear friend of mine had her little girl at the same neighborhood pool so we had time to catch up!  Jane came with 2 lessons left and so my incredible mom took the girls for the last two days.

Our girls are little fish and have no fear when it comes to the water.  Having no fear is a bittersweet thing because water and children scare me to death, it can be a fatal combo.  It is also the best combo when they are watched like hawks.  I loved watching them do their ice cream scoop arms and dolphin kicks.  Olive has taken a liking to cannonballs as well after she saw Caroline do one.

She stands at the edge of the pool and yells in her excited toddler voice, "CANNONBALL!"  and then proceeds to jump into the pool.  

Here she is looking like an Olympic swimmer: composed, focused, and intense....and I must say that her toddler belly is a pretty cute one!

Ready, set,

Cannonball!

These two little sunshines made my day each morning when I got to watch them splash around completely giddy.  They cheered each other on and were so proud of each other too.  In St. George we played "Polympics" as Olive said.  Caroline was Missy Franklin and Olive was Rebecca Soni and they gave Michael Phelps (Adam as assigned by Caroline) a run for his money.

Every morning at 7 a.m., Olive would come up and say "I want to go to swim lessons."  Then she would put on goggles and wait until 10.  

Simply to die for!