I finally have a few minutes to update a bit..

Life is so hectic these days. I try and keep my blog up to date as much as possible but I'm telling you..the minute I get a break from life, the computer is the last thing I think about. I have a couple weeks worth of my celebrity magazines to catch up on (hey, at least I'm reading, right? lol)

So anyway, what has been going on with us? Nothing really exciting. I recently signed up on this site called Grocerygame.com. You pay for a membership and every week you get a list of items at rock bottom prices. My local stores are Meijer, Kroger, Walgreens and Rite Aid. The idea is to pair up coupons with sale items to get the "rock bottom" price. Then you stockpile on these items while they are at that special price.

I must say that is requires a bit of time but so far, it's been well worth it. I'm in week 3 of the "game" and have spent not one penny more on groceries or health/beauty items than I normally do but I have at least 2 years worth of toothpaste, body wash, shampoo/conditioner, grooming items, medicine...etc. And months worth of diapers, soup, pop, chicken..etc Pretty cool!!

If you want to check it out, go to www.grocerygame.com. If you do decide to sign up, they have a referral program. If you don't have anyone else referring you, you could always put my email in (Cynthia3200@gmail.com)

Here is Addison helping me shop today (Samantha was in the stroller)




Joshua:

He is doing great! He hasn't had any problems at school since the first week. The rewards chart is working like a charm. So far his rewards have consisted of the movies, Grand Blanc Family Fun Fest, going out to eat and having video game night. His goal is to earn ice skating but the family has been sick the past couple weeks so we wanted to wait till everyone was well enough.

Girls:

They are both doing good too. They are almost done with their antibiotics. They both started improving within a day of getting them. It was miserable.

They have both slept through the night the past 2 nights and have had 2 days of good naps. This helps me out so much. I hope the trend continues.

They are no longer eating baby food now. We have a few things of it left and it will get used but they are eating regular people food now and are loving it. They have both mastered the sippie and I can't wait till the bottle is completely gone. I'm so sick of washing the Dr. Brown's. They are the best bottles but they require so many pieces, it's a pain to wash them.

Both of the girls are cruising all over the place. I'm sure it won't be long till they take their first steps.

I'm in the process of planning their first birthday party. It will be the typical princess girl theme. I'm going to attempt to make them tutu's. We'll see how that goes.

Dusty:

He is finally getting over his illness. He had a sinus infection and bad ear infection. He has been sick for 3 weeks now. I think he is definitely over the hump.

We have been talking the past few days about his left over vacation days for the year. He has to take them because his company does not roll over vacation days. He had 12.5 days left! So we sat down today, while he was at work and hammered out what days he should take. How fun! This is his last full week of work for the rest of the year. Every week from here on out is a maximum 4 days and minimum of 0 days. He gets some good days off work automatically, so once we paired those with vacation days- he gets 2.5 weeks off in December, 1.5 weeks off in November and countless 3, 4 or even 5 day weekends from here on out. WOOHOO!!

His 29th birthday is coming up (Oct 17th). He has already received his b-day present from me. For father's day this year, he asked for a PSP ($200). Due to the price, we combined father's day with his birthday. He also bought an accessory or two (case and maybe something else) so he is all set there. I know Josh wants to get him something and I'm sure we'll go shopping but that's all I'll say on that (Dusty.. I know you're reading..) We'll do the traditional dinner with my dad. Get together with my Mom and most likely, dinner with his mom (and possibly his brother- who knows)

I'm sick of politics

It doesn't matter which party or person you are supporting. This isn't a debate about who is the better candidate because, who the heck knows!? We all just know who seems to side with our own beliefs the best. I'm just SO sick of the constant arguing. It's not even debating, it's flat out arguing that is happening everywhere. I'm tired of signing on to some of the online boards I frequent and see non stop bickering about each candidate. Name calling, accusations and then the occasional chuckle I get out of the people who say "if so and so wins, we're moving out of the country" Oh please, give me a break. Does anyone ever follow through with this threat? Is it really a threat or a promise? Who knows, who cares.






I'm excited to see the debates and I'm really excited to cast my vote. Who knows if my vote will mean anything because the state I live in always swings to the other side.

November can't get here fast enough!

9 month well baby appt

The girls had their 9 month well baby exam today. They passed with flying colors. I just can't believe how big they have gotten. Here are their stats when they were born

Addison- 5lbs, 16.5inches long (below the percentile chart)
Samantha- 6lbs, 19 inches long (25th percentile)

Today:

Addison- 20lbs 1oz and 27.25 inches tall (95th percentile)
Samantha- 18lbs 13.5oz and 27.5 inches tall (75th percentile)

We asked our doctor all kinds of questions. When should we introduce eggs? Closer to a year, she said. How about yogurt and cheese? We gave the girls Yo Baby yogurt twice now and Samantha gets these red blotches around her mouth. The Dr. told us to try soy products for now. We could just give them both soy to make it easier. I also asked about introducing regular milk. I know they need breastmilk up to a year but since our next appt isn't until the girls are a year old, I wanted to ask now so we can be prepared. I was kind of shocked when she said we could start transitioning to regular milk around 10mths. Although, we need to do soy because of Samantha. She just suggested we start with an ounce of soy milk mixed with 7ounces of breastmilk and then slowly increase the soy milk till their entire sippie is just soy. We will then attempt to switch to regular milk around 15 months.

I am SO excited to start transitioning because I'm tired of pumping all the time and the more soy milk they get, the less I have to pump.

Also, no shots. We skipped them this time. We are taking shots slowly. No need to hurry through them since the girls aren't in daycare.

Here are a few pictures of them today after their appt. Don't they look so sweet and innocent? LOL




I also wanted to add that Samantha now has 5 teeth and Addison still has 3. They are both loving paddy cake and Samantha claps her hands a lot. It's cute because she tends to hold one hand steady and slaps with the other one.

Samantha is babbling a lot and says sounds like "da da" "ma ma" "ba ba" and "Bob" <-- not sure who Bob is and where he came from but it seems to be a term of endearment for her. So if you're around her and she yells out Bob, take it as a compliment (we do!)

Addison loves to sing and does it often throughout the day.

-YAWN-

I am so tired this morning. I should be napping but I can't. Addison is up and playing. Joshua also doesn't have school today. Why do teachers need a professional development day after 4 days of school? -shrug-

I slept on the couch last night. We are sleep training Addison because she is up several times a night to eat and she doesn't need it. Last night was my night "on". She gave me no problems but her sister did!

I had a long day yesterday. Dusty has training classes this week and has a 1.5-2 hr commute each way to the training location. He was gone from 8-7 yesterday and today he left at 7 and I don't expect him home till 7pm. This makes for a long day here at home. I've been having really bad back problems for the past several months. I've been in physical therapy for the past 3 weeks. Just having the bad back, makes everything a bit more difficult, add that to no relief in the late afternoon- makes for one tired mama.

So anyway, of course, Samantha would give me troubles last night. I know the poor girl is cutting teeth (I think 3 at once) I laid down early (9:30pm) and went right to sleep. Samantha woke up at 11:45pm. I went and got her (we aren't sleep training her- she sleeps through the night consistently- so this was odd) I brought her to the couch and laid her on me. She was very whiny. I gave her some tylenol since she couldn't have motrin again yet. I also made her a small bottle. She really didn't want that either. I fought with her until around 2am and couldn't take it anymore. I brought out the pack n play and just put her in it. There was nothing I could do for her. She had medicine, new diaper, and a bottle. She cried and cried. -sigh- I then resorted to turning on baby einsteen. She was mezmerized and stopped instantly. We went through Baby Mozart and then Galileo. With only a couple minutes left of Galileo, Samantha just flopped forward (she was sitting the whole time in the pack n play) she flopped forward and just went to sleep. It was so funny. I turned the TV off. I checked my cell phone for the time- it was 4:02am. We had been up for 4 hours and 17 mins and now finally..sleep.

(baby crying)..check the time..4:34am. You have GOT to be kidding me! Now it was Addison's turn. This was actually good for her. She lasted till 4:30am. It wouldn't have been so bad if I had been sleeping this whole time. But of course not.. why should mommy ever get a break.

Luckily she went back down after a diaper change and milk. ..ahh..sleep again.

5:10am, Samantha's turn again. Oh...My...God..

I picked her up and laid her on my chest and luckily she went back to sleep. I am NOT moving. Stay still (I told myself) just go to sleep (who cares if I am uncomfortable- take the sleep where you can get it)

Then I hear Dusty walk by to get to the kitchen for breakfast (current time- 6ish) by the time he walked out the door to work- it was 7am and Samantha was up for the day.

Lets count

9:30pm- 11:45pm = 2hrs 15 mins

4:02a-4:34a = 32 mins

4:45-5:10a = 25 mins

5:11a- 6a = 49 mins

total sleep = 4 hrs 1 min of sleep that was completely broken.

Today..will...be...torture

Update on Addison and Samantha

The girls are doing awesome. They are both crawling around everywhere and getting into everything. They are both pulling up on everything and ..um...getting into EVERYTHING!!

Both of them have 3 teeth- 2 on the bottom and 1 on the top.

Samantha waves hi and bye and Addison loves to give open mouth kisses.

Here are some recent pictures of them.

Update on Joshua

Joshua started school this past week. We ended up holding him back in Kindergarten because he started to struggle the second half of last year. We started him in Kindergarten at the age of 4. He was the youngest in his class last year. I feel really good about holding him back. He doesn't turn 6 until the end of November, which is the average age of his class.

I figured he would do awesome. He will probably be pretty bored the first half of the year. I ended up getting a call from his teacher at the end of the day on Friday. She told me that she has had problems with Josh all week and that on Friday, he argued with his music teacher on a couple different occasions. I was SO disappointed and shocked! Joshua is such a well behaved boy, that this caught me totally off guard.

SOoooo..we have implemented a reward chart. Each day that goes by that I don't hear something negative from the school, he gets a sticker. If he gets a sticker each day of the week, he gets a reward at the end of the week. He gets a choice of what to do. Whatever it is, it will NOT involve his sisters. This is just an activity that he gets to do with us (or one on one) He already knows what he wants to do next weekend if he succeeds- the movies!

Here are a couple pictures of him from his first day.