Wife to One. Mom to Three.

It's been awhile. Here's what I've been up to.

2010-02-13T22:57:00.001-05:00

I know it's been months since I blogged last. I knew I wouldn't really keep up with it! The last couple months have been dedicated to photography. I have really found a passion for it and have decided to go at it full force. I've done about 10 photo shoots in the past 6 weeks and have really loved it. We just got our income tax return so I have purchased an upgraded camera and some necessary accessories for indoor photo shoots. It's really exciting and I can't wait to actually receive my new goodies in the mail.

All the kids are doing great, there really isn't much to say about that. Joshua is doing great in school and the girls are wonderful. They are so sweet and polite. We get compliments on them all the time while we're out in public, about how well they are behaved. Makes me one proud mama.

Anyway, here is some of the photography stuff I've been doing. I'm still just starting out and have a long ways to go but I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far.

There are so many more but I won’t bore you with them. If you are interested, I have created a fan page on Facebook. I show a lot of my work there. www.facebook.com/CynthiaCrainePhotography

Have we forgotten about Thanksgiving?

2009-11-22T21:44:00.003-05:00

I'm completely in the Christmas mood. Of course we're celebrating Thanksgiving and all (it's also Joshua's birthday) but I've taken all my fall decor down and the Christmas tree is up and garland is wrapped around the staircase. Our neighbors have almost all decorated their yards. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

This year, Dusty and I are hosting Thanksgiving dinner for the first time. I'm pretty excited about it. I'm sure the excitement will wear off after this first year though. We have enough house to accommodate everyone, so it's only logical to have it here. We're having a combo celebration though. It's Thanksgiving BUT more importantly, it's my baby boy's 7th birthday!! My Mom also celebrates her birthday the same day, but I'll leave her age off of here ..hehe.

I'll probably put up a little Spiderman decoration for Joshua. I'm making him a chocolate cake and he has also requested an apple pie (I'm leaving that one to my mom) We're all really excited about Tuesday of this week though. We are going to Splash Village! (an indoor water park) The girls haven't really been there before.. well, they were in my belly a couple years ago but I'm sure they won't remember LOL. I know they will LOVE it. This year we are also taking my 14 year old sister. She's excited to get out of school that day =)

Then just 2.5 weeks after Thanksgiving, we celebrate the girl's birthday. They will be 2. Oh boy.. do they ever act it too. Geez. If it's not one thing it's another with those princesses. Addison is definitely giving us a run for our money. We'll probably have a small party. Grandparents, aunts and uncles. Possibly my best friend and her family. I'm excited about that too! We're all done shopping and it's been fun sending out everyone's birthday wish lists. The kids sure do get spoiled this time of year with their birthdays being so close to Christmas and all.

Speaking of my best friend. Her husband lost his job this past week. It's a really crappy situation that lead up to this whole thing. I hate when people lose their job at no fault of their own. I mean, it's one thing when you suck at your job or just half ass things to barely scrape by but when you bust your butt and then in the end get crapped on, that sucks. His job loss also led to my job loss. I babysat their youngest baby a few days a week. It was so sad on Friday after hearing the news. My bff and I just cried as I packed up all the baby's things and sent them on their way. I swear I felt like I would never see the baby again. I know it's silly but I've taken care of her since she was 3 months old and she's almost 13 months now. I know her daddy will find another job but the economy is so bad, it may take awhile. I feel for them and of course I'm selfish and feel bad for myself. Don't forget me Chloe! Cynthia loves you!! =)

Hello? Anyone out there (there.. there……there…..)

2009-11-03T14:08:00.005-05:00

Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve blogged last huh? This is probably just going to be a completely unrelated gathering of ramblings.

Joshua turns 7 at the end of this month. We are going to Splash Village again this year but we are taking the girls this time. They will almost be 2 years old and I know they’ll really enjoy it. We actually pull Joshua from school that day. It always lands on the short work/school week of Thanksgiving, so he doesn’t miss much of anything. Plus it makes it a bit more special too.

Joshua is THIS close to losing another tooth. There is a very good chance that he will be able to sing the song “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” He has only lost 2 so far (bottom) but both top front teeth are loose and one is barely hanging on to dear life.

Addison and Samantha are growing like weeds. Both are talking a lot more. They don’t make full sentences yet but are putting 2 and 3 words together. They definitely get their point across no matter what though =P Addison’s most recent saying is “Ble(sh) you” when you sneeze. It’s super cute. Samantha, on the other hand, is saying a lot of “Shut… UP” to just about anyone and everyone making loud noises. So that’s lovely.

We’ve all completely avoided any illness thus far. We feel pretty good especially since it seems that the entire world is dropping like flies (especially if you get caught up in the media aspect). We’ve only had 4 confirmed cases of H1N1 in our school district. Which oddly enough made the news. Our district never shut down and our attendance is at 95% (according to our superintendent) No one I know IRL and have daily, weekly, or monthly contact with, has been sick either.

I’m still babysitting about 3-4 days a week. It’s hard to believe I’ve been watching little Miss Chloe for 10 months now. She just turned a year old last week. She had a Halloween birthday party. The kids had a lot of fun painting pumpkins, doing a monster egg hunt and enjoying monster cupcakes. Chloe pretty much feels like another family member. She plays with the girls well and they can “fight” like siblings too. It’s really worked out well all around. I get to earn some extra money while being home with the girls anyway. Plus my friend and her husband have someone that can watch the baby last minute. This works out well because my friend is a Nurse and is often asked to come in on her days off, come in early for her shift, work overtime …etc.

Halloween was a blast. It was cold and windy but at least the rain had stopped in time. My mom, sister and I took the kids around to about 10 houses and then I brought the girls back home and Dusty took my sister (13yo) and Joshua throughout the entire neighborhood. We ended up with about 150 trick or treaters here. I was fully prepared..well almost. We had to turn our porch light off about 10 mins early because we ran out of candy. It was just great being outside and seeing all the kids out and about. It was really active. It just made me love our neighborhood even more than I already do. This move has been such a blessing to us.

For those that follow me on Facebook, you may have noticed a status update that I posted

"its so frustrating when someone treats your loved one so terribly and you pretty much have to keep your lips sealed on how you really feel about this particular person because it's their family member. It's kind of like "hey, I can call my brother/sister/mom/dad/cousin stupid but you can't" UGH!! Then they'll forgive them and you are still stewing over the mess??"

I am STILL stewing over the whole mess but can’t go into it. It just makes me mad when someone (especially a closely related family member) treats someone like dirt. I can tell you with 100% honesty that I will never get over it. But I don’t have to, this person isn’t my “problem” except for how it affects the person I love. I feel bad for my loved one that didn’t, doesn’t and probably will never experience the type of relationship that they should have or deserved to experience. It will always be tainted.

Now I will leave you with some recent pictures.

and finally.. Chloe

18 month well baby appt.

2009-06-18T14:55:00.001-04:00

The girls had their well baby appointment yesterday. I had my 13 year old sister go along with me because Dusty was tied up with work all day and couldn’t break away.

Addison was 32 inches tall and 27 pounds.

Samantha was 32 inches tall and 26 pounds.

They are both doing very well. Addison talks SO much more now that she has tubes in her ears. And Samantha is still picking up new words everyday. We talked about the fine and gross motor skills, potty training, eating habits, speech, sleeping habits and overall behavior. Both girls were right on track. The doctor even commented that she thinks Samantha is a bit ahead of the game (which we have always thought) she understands everything. They both follow directions well but Samantha seems to understand pretty much everything we say. For example, I can say “where is brother?” and she says “Jooooosh!”

They both received 2 shots. They both handled them well. Cried but were over it in 30 seconds or less.

I’m going to post a bit about each girl (maybe brag a bit too..lol)

Addison:

Has the cutest little dimples. Her voice is so sweet and girlie. She is finally standing up for herself against Samantha. Is super cuddly. Loves her soymilk or drinking sippies in general. Her diaper output also reflects this ;). She is the first to wake up in the morning and also the first to wake from naptime. She loves hugging her stuffed kitty while she sleeps. She needs to be held and snuggled when she first wakes up. She also finds it funny when she “beats you up” and you “cry”. She is a very good thrower. She was the first to throw over hand and she does it well. She gets scared walking down stairs by herself.

Samantha:

Has beautiful bright blue eyes. Has gorgeous wavy hair. Is a master at stairs- up or down and a lot of the time with no hands. She is definitely our daredevil girl. She loves to climb on anything and everything and will find a way to climb up on stuff by dragging toys over and using as step stools. Will mimic almost everything we do- physically and verbally. She loves to run around wildly with her brother. If we are in the room and she finds something she shouldn’t play with, she immediately brings it to us. She also enjoys “clean up time” I start to sing the song and she starts picking up all her toys and putting them away.

Both girls love to play outside. We have quite the set up in the yard (small yard) and they can play out there for hours while mommy lounges and watches them (and surfs the net with her phone!)

Both girls also love to count. If someone is getting into trouble, I count them down (1, 2, 3- then time out or beating =P ) All I have to do is say 1 and they say two, free!

They also love to play with their purses (some old ones of mine) and put them over their shoulders and say “bye bye” and go running down the hall away from me. They can do this for 20-30 mins at a time.

I don’t have any recent pictures of them that are really great but I’ll share what I have.

Playing at a friends house:

And here is some fun with big brother Josh

Can I just say how much I enjoy having twins? It is SO fun! It’s also a lot of hard work but I think you quickly learn how to multi task. You also learn how to be one step ahead of the game. I’m always thinking ahead. My house may not be organized well but my mind is. If an outing is planned, I can get the job done in no time flat and am usually armed with anything and everything needed for any situation that may arise. I pride myself in the fact that I can get me and the kids ready in less time than most people can get themselves ready with no other responsibilities than themselves. I’m talking fully dressed, hair and makeup, snacks, sippies, extra diapers, wipes, phone, and keys. I think when you’re dealing with multiples, you learn you have to be like this in order to survive.

The first 3 months were torture with the girls. I’m not gonna lie. It was ROUGH. Next to no sleep. Seriously. I was lucky to get 2 hours straight at any given time. From 3-6 months it got easier. I got more like 3-4hrs straight. 6-9 months was 4-6hrs straight and then from 9-12 months, they transitioned to 10-12 hrs straight (which is where we have stayed). They are much more independent. I really enjoy that. I love cuddling babies and taking care of them but I enjoy sitting back and watching them play MUCH MORE! I feel more alive now. I’m no longer in a fog. I’m really just enjoying it!

Addison’s tube surgery

2009-06-01T20:41:00.001-04:00

Today was her surgery. We left the house at 5:30 am. I just snatched her out of her crib and on we went. Luckily there wasn’t too much waiting around. We had to be there at 6am and surgery was set for 7:30am. They had so much to do, that it didn’t really feel like we waited around for 1.5hrs.

We were first taken to her room. Then, after vitals, we were taken to Pre-op where many nurses and doctors came and talked to us. Then Addison was given some medicine (in liquid form) to calm her and make her relax. It made her silly. She was trying to sit upright in her crib (or cage, as it looks!) and kept having to balance herself with her arm. She was so happy and giggly. That made it easier to part ways, for both of us. She didn’t care that we had to leave in a different direction down the hall and we were glad that she was happy.

We were in the waiting room for about 1.5-2hrs. Its a quick surgery but they also did a BAER test

Description:
Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR), sometimes called Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER), measures the 8th (auditory) nerve and brainstem’s response to sound. This testing can be used several ways, including newborn hearing screening, estimation of hearing sensitivity in very young patients, estimation of hearing in difficult-to-test populations, neurodiagnostics to rule out retrocochlear pathology and, sometimes, is used during surgical procedures to monitor the auditory brainstem status.

http://www.everhear.com/procedures/audiology/procedures-audiology-baer.html

Initial results show normal. The surgeon said that he would have more detail at our follow-up in 2 weeks. The results are printed in a graph and need to be analyzed but look normal at first glance.

She was very cranky when she woke from anesthesia. Nothing really helped her calm down. She just eventually got happier as it wore off. She was in recovery for about 15 minutes and then we were taken back to her room. We spent about an hour in her room and then she was discharged.

Here are some pictures from my camera phone.

This is her after her “happy juice”

Daddy and I waiting impatiently in the waiting room

After surgery, back in her room

She pulled her IV out shortly after I took this picture. Little stinker!! It was set to come out anyway. She’s impatient like her mommy.

She did SO well. I am very proud of her. She handled no sippy or food in the morning. She wasn’t able to drink anything until after surgery- around 9am, although she had been up since 5:30.

She took a longer than normal nap today (4hrs) and has been her normal happy self!

What a relief this is all over with! I had myself pretty worked up over it.

Mixture of everything

2009-05-16T21:47:00.001-04:00

I’ve been getting a bit more computer time but I’m finding that I don’t really want to blog. I think it’s because I have so much to say, so I just avoid it altogether because I’m not a big reader/writer, so the task just seemed overwhelming.

Well tonight was a perfect time to catch everything up a bit. Joshua is with his Gaga, the girls are asleep, Dusty is playing Hockey on the Xbox and it’s only 9pm, so why not?

I may not be very organized with this post but at least I’m here and throwing stuff out there.

Birthday

Ok, I survived my birthday. It was actually a great day. 30 doesn’t feel so bad, even if I did wake up with a tweaked back that morning. At least it’s gone now. It hurt like a ‘mother’. What made my day so great? Well, Dusty did the dirty work all day. I didn’t have to change any diapers or pick up after the kids. He took a half day off and took me to lunch at Olive Garden (my favorite restaurant). Around 10am I received a flower delivery from my best friend. What a nice surprise

My favorite flower!! (gerber daisies)

I received a lot of birthday wishes from my online friends. That meant a lot because last year I didn’t receive any birthday wishes from my online girls but this year totally made up for it. I just felt really loved by my friends and family. I received twitter msgs, text msgs, emails, forum posts, facebook wishes and a few phone calls. It just made my day!

I received cooking utensils and a pretty apron from my mom (all things I asked for). Cash from my memaw, a DVD slideshow video of the kids from my MIL, cards and an iPod docking station, frame and Starbucks gift card from my Dad. Dusty got me a Mother’s Ring and photography books. Oh and a ped egg from my brother and fluorescent nail polish (all of which I asked for)

Swim Classes

The classes are going well. Joshua is getting a lot more out of the classes than the girls. But at this point, the girls goal is to be comfortable in the water.

Chicago

A couple weekends ago, we went to Chicago on a family trip. The first night there we invited a couple friends (that live in Chicago) to our hotel to go swimming. It was so fun!

My friend Vanessa was celebrating her birthday so we had cake and ordered Giordano's!

The next day we all went downtown to Navy pier!

We also went to Build a Bear for the first time

Ice Cream

The girls had their first ice cream cone today. They really enjoyed it but Samantha ended up with an allergic reaction. We knew she was allergic to dairy but can handle small amounts without showing any signs of allergy. I figured she wouldn’t eat much of the cone. Poor baby. The spots went away in about 15mins though.

T-ball

Joshua’s coach finally called and his first practice is next week. I’m excited to get the season started. It will be nice to be able to sit on the side lines this time. Last year, Dusty coached the team because they didn’t have enough coaches. What a pain that was! I’m so glad we can just show up to practices and games and not worry about that stuff this year.

New Washer/Dryer

Our washer died on us a couple weeks ago. We ran out quickly and ordered a new one. I figured we might as well get a new dryer. I didn’t want a brand new washer and a 10 year old dryer. Might as well start out new all around. I LOVE them so far. I got a colossal size washer and nice big dryer. Very nice!! I was able to wash like 2 loads worth in one big load. Talk about a time saver! It took almost 2 weeks to get them delivered but luckily my mother in law helped us out a lot. She lives next door and didn’t mind us sending over baskets of dirty clothes. It was nice to go pick up the clean baskets all nice and folded.

Ear Surgery

The next big thing on our calendar is Addison’s tube surgery. It’s scheduled for June 1st at 7:30am. –sigh- I get sick to my stomach just thinking about it. I can’t wait to just get it over with.

Conclusion

I also forgot to mention that I’m bored. I need to pick up a hobby. I’m not saying I have free time. That’s different than being bored. I just want something to delve into. I need some time out of the house, away from the kids and away from responsibility. I don’t like to read, play games or watch movies. I need something else. I’ve thought about going back to school but school sucks. LOL. I possibly may still go and get a CNA before the girls go to school fulltime. I’d love to work in the hospital. But then I love photography. I just don’t know all the techy stuff about it. So, for right now, I’m jumping into the photography world. I’m starting to read guide/handbooks and websites..etc. and I want to start playing around with it. I’ve got Photoshop and hours and hours worth of instructional DVDS on it.

Ok, well that’s about it for tonight. I’m going to go watch some Tivo with the hubby.

I’m going to be 3…0?

2009-04-24T22:50:00.001-04:00

In 3 weeks I will hit the big 3..0. I know it’s not OLD but I also don’t consider 30 to be young either. I remember when my parents turned 30. My parents were on the younger side when they had me. I mean, they weren’t teenagers but compared to my friend’s parents, they were on the younger side. I remember being in school and we would compare our parents ages and I distinctly recall saying my mom was still in her 20’s. Joshua knows my age and my birthday and knows I’m about to be 30. It may not mean much to him now but I’m sure he’ll remember telling his friends how old I am. I obviously remember doing that.

So how is it that I remember that like it happened yesterday and now here I am about to get out of the 20’s forever? I know it’s great that I still feel young. I don’t feel 16 anymore but I definitely feel young enough to be bar hopping and dancing and be careless. Of course, I won’t be and the first morning after, I would say to myself “wow, I’m too old for this crap” but I feel like I could be out there on the dance floor with the young 20’s. They would probably look at me and think that one of their friends brought along their older sister or maybe even their mom?! LOL.. ok, ok, maybe I’m being a little overdramatic but I’m not really ok with turning 30. I’m not ready yet. I had a lot of things I wanted to happen before I hit that age. Well, not a LOT of things, just one big thing.

I wanted to be at my goal weight, tummy tucked and boob lifted. Ok.. there. I said it. Superficial. Growing up, in my mind, I was going to marry young (btw.. people.. DON’T marry young) and wanted to be done having kids by the time I was 25. I wanted to be the younger mom. Well life events made that “goal” impossible. Infertility sucks! Divorce sucks! Getting married young sucks! Getting old sucks! Being overweight sucks! Monday morning sucks! Thai food sucks! Bad customer service sucks!…ok.. maybe I’m going a little overboard.

Anyway, my new goal is to be fit by the time I’m 31. A tummy tuck and boob lift are in my future. Hopefully sooner rather than later because what would be the point when I’m 70, right?

Well, that’s enough bitching about turning 30. I’m sure you guys are rolling your eyes. I know that most of the people that read my blog have already hit that milestone. I’ll get over it. I’ll be fine. (I keep telling myself that)

I guess if this is all I have to complain about (and my stiff neck from sleeping on the recliner last night) then I’m doing pretty dang good. Great family, great hubby, great son, great daughters, great parents, and great friends.

Diet..back at it

2009-04-14T19:32:00.001-04:00

For those wondering, we haven’t stopped. We are back at it again. We did take about 1.5 weeks off. Some of that was because of laziness. I hate grocery shopping (and cleaning toilets.. btw but anywho). It was easy to just say “lets go grab a bite” then came Easter.

We pigged out. No idea how much the weight went up but we are back in the game. We started back up yesterday and have a week’s menu planned. We will weigh back in on Monday of next week. I figured there was no point depressing myself by seeing the bigger number on the scale. So I’ll live in denial and just check the situation next week.

Until then, we’ll be eating well!

Coloring Easter Eggs

2009-04-11T20:51:00.001-04:00

Today Joshua colored Easter eggs. The girls are still too young, so Dusty picked out a Power Ranger Dye Kit. Joshua loved it, of course.

We made an egg with everyone’s name on it too. Unfortunately only the names Addison and Samantha turned out (I did them) and the other names didn’t work out (Joshua hadn’t written hard enough on the egg)

ENT appt and the Easter bunny

2009-04-09T21:31:00.001-04:00

Addison had her ENT appt. The initial exam was normal. All her ear structures are normal. She responded to all his noises and such. She had hearing test and the test suggests that she does have slight hearing loss, most likely due to fluid. She has been put on an antibiotic for 2 weeks and then we follow up with another test and see if there is any improvement and go from there.

We didn’t have to wait too long but it was close to nap time, so she wasn’t very patient at times.

Luckily mommies keys made her happy. She was in the middle of “talking” to me in the picture.

Today we went to see the Easter bunny. I made a joke to Dusty about the Easter bunny being on break when we got there. It happened to us at Christmas time.

Sure enough.. the dang bunny was on break! We had to wait 30 mins for his return. Moods were all that great because they took a short nap. Samantha is terrified of strangers. She reacted just as predicted. Luckily we were able to get a good shot of her though. It’s not the best but it’s good for the situation. 100% better than I expected, so I’m pleased.

Also, earlier today, we took Joshua to see Monsters vs Aliens. It was a cute movie. He enjoyed it. I think he really enjoyed having us to himself. We took him out to eat afterwards. It’s nice to be able to have some non-baby time with him. We all need it.

Ramblings

2009-03-31T13:14:00.001-04:00

My computer time is so limited now that Dusty works from home. Its awesome having him here, but I'm going through computer withdrawls. I have to surf the net from my iPod and blackberry. If I have a very short response, you can bet that I'm on one of those devices.

Dusty's income got cut by 2.5% permanently and then for the month of April (so they say) it will be cut another 10%. It's better than getting laid off, obviously, but it scares me too. Will it be just for the month of April? May it be made into a permanent cut? Will it go lower? It's not like we can't pay our bills or anything, we are just working our way out of credit card debt and that makes it harder to do! But like I said, it could be worse. So I'll take it over layoff any day. It's actually the first time we have been affected by this whole economic mess personally. Well, besides our 401(k) being worthless right now but that should be temporary and it's not like we're close to retirement, so we have plenty of time to bounce back (which the economy always does)

So, to celebrate our lowered income, I've decided to spend lots of money! lol I just bought a Dyson vacuum yesterday. We've been in need of new vacuum for awhile. We have a Kirby vacuum (bought by Dusty pre-Cynthia) it's a piece of junk and I loathe it! I've done a ton of research on vacuums and it's been the best reviewed one there. I've always wanted one since seeing the commercials a few years ago. I never could justify the expense but then seen it on Macys.com (while looking at Coach bags.. hey..my b-day IS coming up) and saw it on close out price. Not too shabby.. oh and free shipping.
Last night I went out with my best friend. We had a nice dinner and margaritas. It was nice to get away from the chaos and relax with a friend and have a couple drinks. I hadn't had a real drink since before the girls were born. I was feeling good after one but then decided one more would do the trick. and it did. lol

Today my bff and I met at Target to get some swimsuits for the kids. I got my first two piece! Before you start hurling at your computer screen, don't worry, it's a full length top and skirt bottom. I'm not going for the sexy look; I'm going for the comfy and well covered up look. I think I succeeded. I got the girls cute NON matching swimsuits (GASP!)
Oh and the reason I bought us all swimsuits (the guys can still wear the ones they have) is because we signed up all the kids for swim lessons. It works out great because the older kids (Josh and his g/f are 6) have their lessons from 10-10:45a and the little kids (15 mths and 6 mths) have their lessons from 10-10:30a on the same day. We don't have to be with the older kids but we do have to be with the babies. So it works out wonderfully. So we get to take care of 6 swim lessons all in one trip! (her 3 kids and my 3 kids)

More talk of money. I have been babysitting her baby 4 days a week. She (bff) had her gall bladder out a couple weeks ago, so I haven't been babysitting in a while. Next week she goes back to work. It's conveniently on the first day of spring break for all of our kids. So, if you thought my afternoons were busy with my 2 girls and the baby before.. now throw in two 6 year olds that get bored easily! I guess it will be a nice trial run for the summer.. holy crap.. the summer! AAAHHH Lots of kids.. hopefully lots of nice weather too. My SIL lives about 10 minutes away and has a huge pool. As long as I have a couple other adults to help, we should be able to go swimming a bunch. That will be nice.

Oh and more on the spending money we shouldn't.. we are going on a mini family vacation in a few weeks to Chicago. We'll meet up with Toni and Vanessa and the kids. It should be awesome! I've been wanting to get out of town and we love Chicago. I've loved Chicago since a few years ago and a bunch of us online girls met up. I've actually been back there every year since (except for the year I was preggo- and believe me, it felt like I was preggo for an entire year) We'll do the Navy Pier, swim at the hotel, and even order room service! I also consider this trip to be a mini preview of how well the girls will travel. In July we are driving down to Alabama to visit my Memaw (that’s grandma for you non-southerners) The trip usually takes about 12 hours. With babies, I travel overnight. Much easier. I have a lot of practice with Joshua. It's worked well for us, so hopefully the girls will cooperate and just sleep (or at least be quiet!). We'll only stay for 3 days. I think that's a good amount of time for a non baby proofed house.
The dieting is going really well still. We love and hate cheat days. Love the food, hate the heartburn. We both slacked on our working out this past week so Dusty only lost a pound and I stayed the same. But I also started cramping and spotting, so I'll blame the female stuff. Oh and speaking of female stuff. Don't you love it when you're wearing a big pad and it shifts out of place and you fix a wedgie or try and resituate and you give yourself a mini wax job from the sticky side of the pad that SHOULD be stuck to your panties? Love it.

I got my hair cut and colored. I loved it the first day and now I look at it and I'm disappointed. I didn't ask for highlights and I got very obvious stripes in my hair. I asked for long bangs (really long- like chin length) and I got this chopping crap on the side. ugh. I'm never happy about my hair when I have it done. I haven't gone back to the same hairdresser in the past 6 years because I'm never happy with the work. Although my bff does agree with these two points (the stripes and blunt chopping), I think it's ultimately because I'm just unhappy with myself. At the salon I just see my face and hair in the mirror. Looks great! Get home and my full length mirror reminds me that I'm still fat and in my lighting at home, I'm still my ole ugly self.

So, I guess I'll leave you on the low note.

15 month well baby visit

2009-03-17T20:37:00.001-04:00

Another pretty good well baby visit. At this point, any appointment that doesn’t end up in the ER, is good by me.

They both got prevnair and DTaP shots. We are on a delayed immunization schedule. Nothing fancy. Our doc is wonderful and is supportive of what we want to do. As I’ve probably mentioned in previous entries, I just hate how so many shots are given in such a short amount of time. The girls aren’t in daycare and don’t get exposed to much outside the house. Their big brother brings home illness from school but I’m not really concerned with him bringing polio home in this day in age.

Anywho…

Addison’s stats

24lbs, 29inches

She was such a good girl. She did well with her shots too. One thing I mentioned to the doc, that I have been concerned about is Addison’s lack of words. She doesn’t say any. She babbles like crazy and “talks” to us but nothing “real”. She also seems to ignore us more than half the time. She understands a lot and can follow simple instructions, I’m just a little worried about her speech and the fact that she seems to ignore me. I usually have to get out 3 or 4 “Addison's” before she’ll look at me. The last Addison! Is loudest. Doc set us up with an ENT and we have her appt on April 8th. This is to rule out excessive fluid in her ears and possibly slight hearing loss. We’ll see.

Now on to Samantha

23lbs 31.25inches

She was her normal emotional self. Scared of everything going on. She did pretty good during the exam. I held her for moral support. Then shot time came. The doc had me leave the room with Addison so she wouldn’t get worked up before it was her turn. In the hall I heard an excessive amount of screams. I was concerned. It turns out that the nurse (both nurse and doc administer the shots together to get them over with) had Dusty hold her legs down. In the middle of the shot, Samantha grabbed one of the syringes and it moved- thus the extra screaming (and blood!) the nurse yelled at Dusty and told him to hold her arms (ok.. wasn’t he directed to the legs?) Anyway, apparently the doc gave the nurse a stern look. Luckily Samantha calmed down quickly afterwards.

Here is a picture of them today. It’s from my cell phone, so it’s pretty crappy quality. They were cute in their St. Patty green dresses!

First day of workouts and weigh in day

2009-03-09T08:14:00.001-04:00

My alarm was set for 5:50am. Unfortunately the girls decided to get up at 4am. Although they did eventually go back to bed, we did not.

I stuck to my plan and got on the treadmill at 6am. I did 31 mins of walking/jogging. It felt great! Came home, showered and here I am. I’m exhausted though. I know that has everything to do with being up since 4am. This stinks!! I know the minute I lay back down, the girls will wake up so why bother, you know?

On another good note.. today was weigh in day!

AND…… another 2.6lbs lost!!

That brings me to :

Diet Update

2009-03-07T21:22:00.001-05:00

We have been doing fabulous! Except for the once a week cheat, we have been sticking to it! We give ourselves one day a week to cheat but with the extra weekly points that weight watchers gives, we don’t exactly go over our points anyway!

Our next weekly weigh in is this coming Monday. But as of right now, Dusty has lost 7+lbs and I have lost 5+lbs!!

Monday morning we also start the treadmill. I plan on getting up at 6am and working out till 7am and then Dusty’s turn from 7-8am. This should work out well for our morning routine of getting Joshua up and ready for school.

More updates to come on our WW journey!! So far, so good!!

6 places I would like to travel…

2009-03-07T21:01:00.002-05:00

6 places I would like to travel to if I had someone trustworthy to watch my children (and if money was no object!)

Nothing too exciting. Just places I hope to see someday.

HAWAII

CABO SAN LUCAS

CRUISE

HOLLYWOOD

NEW YORK CITY

AUSTRALIA

Happy Heavenly B-Day Baby Bailen! (pics includ.)

2009-03-02T13:07:00.005-05:00

It's hard to believe it's been 9 years since I gave birth to that precious little creature. Bailen Joseph would have been celebrating his birthday today. Unfortunately he was taken from this earth way too soon. He was only 3 mths 11 days old.

Birth/Death 3/2/00-6/13/00
Birth Weight 3lbs 4oz & 14.25 inches

Here are some pictures of him.

I have typed out a quick story of what happened. I am just copying and pasting it from 2004, when I originally wrote it.

My pregnancy was textbook perfect up until about 28-29wks. I started showing signs of pre-eclampsia. I was put on full bed rest and written off of work. I was going to my midwives every other day for NST and monitoring. On 3-2 (33wks 5days) my NST was not good, the baby didn't move during the whole test. They just happened to of had a potluck that day and had food in the break-room so the nurse made me a plate in hopes to get the baby active. It didn't work. The brought in the office OB to perform an u/s and she determined I needed to go straight to the hospital for a c-section. (he was breech)

Got in my room at the hospital. Everyone and their cousin showed up I swear!! Anyway, had the c-section. Bailen was rushed out of the room immediately following delivery. They stitched me up and back to my room we went. They came in and said Bailen weighed 3lbs 4oz. They said other than his size he looked perfect. He was only on the vent for 20mins and they said he pulled it out!! Stubborn little guy. He was hooked up to an IV and they had an oz tent over the upper half of his body. He seemed perfect to us. Over the next 40 days of his hospital stay we found out how bad things really were. He was diagnosed with a heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. We were also told he had agenisis of corpus collusom (missing the part of the brain that connects the left and right side together) We had a cold hearted asshole of a dr. that told us this information. I asked him what it meant and he said that the baby would not be able to do anything. He would be stiff as a board, blind, and deaf. We were devestated! He seemed so perfect.......

April 10th, 2000 he got released from the hospital. YAY!!! He had a home nurse that visted every other day. She would come and weigh him and basically check him out and ask me how he was doing. After I believe 10 days the nurse admitted him back to the hospital. His weight had gone down. We spent the next week and 1/2 or so in the PICU. This time we were discharged with oxygen tanks, pulse ox monitor, gavage tubes for feeding and I forgot to mention we already had an apnea monitor. He didn't stay home for long. His pulse ox monitor constantly went off. Because of his heart condition anything over a 75 was good. A regular person runs about 97-100. He was way below the 75 mark. I called his ped and he had us come right in. Instead of admitting us to our local hospital he called an ambulance from Detroit Children's hospital to come and transport him there. I ran home and called Ronnie to come home from work.

After a day at DCH they decided to do a heart catherization. Its a very routine procedure but not for a 5lb baby. Bailen didn't do well with it at all. He required many blood transfusions. Afterwards he was so pale so cold. It was horrible. It took him about a week to recovery. We were sent home. Not even a week later we were back again. This time they decided to go ahead with his open heart surgery. They really wanted to wait until he was at least 10lbs but he couldn't wait, he was getting really bad. He only weighed 6lbs at this point.

He went thru surgery fine but afterwards his heart rate was over 200 for many hours. They said they were trying everything they could to bring it down. They said when the heart over works it can damage the other organs. The next day he was getting so much better. Because of swelling they had to leave his chest open for a couple days before stitching/stapling it back together. He seemed to recovery very well. His surgery was on May 19, 2000 and he was released on June 6th I believe (I would have to check my records) anyway he was off the gavuage feedings, oxygen and pulse ox monitor. He only required his apnea monitor.

On June 11th a friend and I went to Farmer Jacks (grocery store) to pick up some food. When I took Bailen out of the car he was white as a ghost. I told my friend, I don't think he is breathing. She said of course he is Cynthia, he is just sleeping. I shook him and he didn't respond. I RAN in the grocery store and scream to call 911. I was in a panic. I took Bailen out of the car seat and layed him down and started infant CPR (we had to learn it before bringing him home the very first time) then this off duty cop came up and introduced himself and took Bailen from me. He asked what happened to him (from the scars on his chest- it was like 90 degrees and I just had a little onsie on him) I told him "open heart surgery, please help him" He said I can't do CPR on him then. I screamed at him to fucking do something or give him back to me. Finally the paramedics got there and worked on him. By this time it was a good 10 mins from when I noticed he wasn't breathing (too long.....) We were rushed to the ER where the dr. said it wasn't good. I could tell it wasn't. Bailen was very cold ....so cold. After 2 EEG's showed no brain activity, we decided to turn the machine off on June 13, 2000 (6 days before Ronnie's first father's day) We had all of our family and friends there with us. I held him till he stopped breathing. It was the worst day of my life.....and now I am bawling like crazy.

LOVE YOU SWEETHEART!!!

6 things that never fail to make me smile!!!

2009-02-28T13:11:00.005-05:00

I saw this link from someone I follow online. I thought it sounded fun!

These are the six things that never fail to make me smile.

My husband

My son

My baby girls

Olive Garden

Starbucks

Money

Just pics to sum up February

2009-02-28T09:37:00.001-05:00

Another ER visit

2009-02-18T11:39:00.001-05:00

I’m going to go the lazy route on this update. I’m just going to copy and paste from Dusty’s blog (my dh)

Here is his blog: Different Hats

“Samantha is afraid of being forgotten…

… at least that is my working theory behind all of the illness. It seriously seems as if we’re in the emergency room once a month. It’s usually between the 13th and 16th and the only conclusion I can draw is this: She doesn’t want the ER staff to forget her.

When she’s there, laying in our arms looking awful and pathetic, she gets cooed over. It’s a chorus of comments about what beautiful blue eyes she has. I think she’s secretly digging it. Why she is willing to undergo the pain of an IV or blood draws for these compliments is beyond me, but there has got to be some reason.

So obviously Samantha went to the ER last night after our doctor had a chance to give her a once over. She had been on Amoxicillin for a week and was showing no progress. The doctor listened to her and stated that she believed that Samantha had pneumonia. Ugh. Wonderful!

I was at home watching Addison when I got the tearful call that Samantha had to go to the ER again. It’s honestly gotten so common that I was really more disappointed than surprised. I called my mom and asked her to come over and watch Addison so I could get up to the hospital.

Cynthia has been keeping me, and others, updated via her twitter which was, and often is, entertaining. Call me biased, if you want. Here is a link that will quickly become less and less relevant to this content due to the fact that she keeps twittering.

URL: http://twitter.com/Cynthia3200

So I finally get up to the hospital and Samantha has already been triaged and Cynthia has changed an ungodly amount of diapers. Luckily Samantha didn’t waste her whole supply on my wife though, she was happy to share some of that pleasantness with me.

During our first trip to the Diaper Deck I almost slipped in urine which was fun! I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than entertainment value. I let someone at the hospital know and they promptly added a “Caution: Wet Floor” sign, but decided the urine was sterile and thus probably safer than anything else living on that floor and was left to clean itself.

After several hours, we were finally called back and Samantha was taken to an observation room, as opposed to the quick in and out curtain rooms. She laid still as the doctor took her vitals and at least showed a bit of fight at the anal thermometer. On a side note: My GOD! The same stick they put in my mouth has been in other people’s butts with only a small layer of plastic separating the two. For some reason I assumed it was a separate device.

Eventually several heartbreaking moments had to happen. We had to restrain our baby girl so she could get blood work. The nurse sucked too, so she poked around and then moved the needle all around and still couldn’t find anything. Finally, she called in a specialist who got the job done quickly. We also had to restrain her while they placed her IV. And yet more heartbreak when we had to hold her down so they could cath her. Again our nurse was insufficient and called in the specialist who grabbed a smaller cath line. I could have grabbed the first nurse by the neck for trying to cath my baby girl with a cath line too large!

I’m still struggling with how I feel about the fact that at the worst of her pain, she would turn her big blue eyes up to me. I don’t know if those eyes were looking for reassurance, “Dad, what are they doing? Is this okay?” or in recrimination, “Dad, how could you let them do this to me? Why are you just standing there?” I guess there is comfort in the fact that she’s too young to remember this later but at it would have been nice to know what she was thinking at the time.

So long story a bit shorter, we were sent home with a prescription for Azithromycin. I picked it up while Cynthia took Samantha home.

And that brings us to today. I had hoped that the medication would work like a magic bullet of sorts and Samantha would wake up her usual whiny self but morph into our beautiful little smiley mischief making girl, but so far it hasn’t happened. She got to bed around midnight. Slept until 10pm, got up for an hour and a half and has been sleeping since. It’s now 3:25 as I write this. So she’s 4 hours into her latest sleeping spell.

I can’t wait until our little ones are back at 100%. I can only take so much worry. I swear I feel like I haven’t slept in days and I’ve been stealing sleep at every available opportunity. *Big sigh* Well, this too shall pass – and I, for one, can’t wait! “

Weight Watchers

2009-02-15T12:20:00.001-05:00

Dusty and I joined weight watchers online today. It feels good! We tried it last May but I was still breastfeeding and although we both lost weight on it, it was affecting my milk supply and I was having none of that.

We dropped our membership and said to ourselves that we would join back up once I was done nursing. Although I finished this past December, we just now got around to rejoining. We wanted to sign up earlier but never seemed to fit it into our budget. We just got our federal and state tax returns this week so it was the perfect time to rejoin!

Ideally we would both like to lose 75 lbs. In a perfect world, a bit more each but 75lbs is our ultimate goal right now. It’s more realistic. I would have loved to have started earlier because I’d love to be happy with my weight when I turn 30 in May, but that’s not going to happen. So my goal is to have 75lbs gone by New Year’s day 2010. It may or may not be obtainable but I sure as heck am going to try.

Joshua lost his 1st tooth!!

2009-02-15T09:37:00.001-05:00

Whew! Finally!! Not sure what took them so long to become loose but he finally lost one last night. Both bottom front teeth have been loose now for a couple weeks. Last night he let me (ie. I threatened him) play around with the more promising one. I pushed it around and would grab and pull. He would yell “owe! owe!” and pull away from me. The tooth was so ridiculously loose and about to fall out, I couldn’t let him go to sleep like that so I kept trying and finally got it out.

The look on his face was priceless. It was a look of disbelief, shock, surprise and excitement all wrapped up into one.

He was so happy when it was all done. He asked me to take a picture (like I wouldn’t have!! ) and send Gaga a picture message through the phone. I of course, sent it to all the grandparents and a couple friends.

Here it is. The quality isn’t great because I took it on my blackberry:

He was surprised with $20 from the tooth fairy this morning. He was hoping for $10, we said $2 would probably be more realistic but the tooth fairy must have been feeling pretty generous last night.

come one.. it’s his first tooth AND it was Valentine’s Day =P

Sick again..sigh

2009-02-13T17:48:00.001-05:00

They have been sick for a couple weeks but mainly just runny noses and coughing. Samantha's cough started getting worse and sounded deep in her chest. Then yesterday, Addison started throwing up (in the middle of the night) and both running fevers between 99-101 depending.

So we took them both to the doctor and Samantha ended up on some antibiotics for bronchitis. Addison was "wait and see". So we took them home and started Samantha on her meds. Then Addison slowly became lethargic. She just slept and slept and whined and slept. This morning I called the doctor again to update them on Addison and the doctor called in some antibiotics for her as well.

Addison has been sleeping all day off and on but mostly on. She has seriously been up for maybe 45mins-1hr since 10pm last night. When she's up, she drinks her sippy and is giving us plenty of pee pee diapers (and some diarrhea too..fun)

Now Samantha is puking too but hers seems to be the excess mucous in her lungs. It's all mucousy and slimy.. again.. fun times.

Here is a video of Addison. She can barely keep her eyes open at all. She started falling asleep sitting up.

Valentine Girls

2009-02-07T23:17:00.002-05:00

These aren’t our official Valentine’s Day pictures. I will be including Joshua in them, for sure. Here is last years Valentine’s Day picture.

YIKES! I know this sounds bad, but I totally thought they (the girls) were super cute then. Hahaha! They look SO much better now.

Here are the pictures I took of them the other day. They were in goofy moods.

Here Addison decided to get into the bouncy seat I have for the 3 month old little girl I watch. Samantha kindly brought her the XBOX 360 controller to play with.

Samantha looking out through the blinds. We usually have the shades pulled because the girls like to mess with them but the lighting was messing with my picture taking! They love to look out this particularr window because Grandma’s house is next door and they like to check on her and her doggie.

Addison trying to take off her tights. I love it! She is constantly taking off her socks. With tights, I win!

I just thought this was such a clean and sweet picture of Addison. She looks so precious.

Samantha being silly. She is such a happy little girl. She was giggling and getting excited about sitting on the couch.

Here are some other shots:

Here are a couple of “action” shots. You can clearly see who the trouble maker is. As well as with the picture right above this text.

1st pair of shoes!

2009-01-21T20:27:00.002-05:00

Crazy, huh? You're probably thinking, what the heck? 13 months old and have never had a pair of shoes before?

Nope.

The way I see it.. kids don't need to wear shoes before they are walking. Plus, they shouldn't really wear shoes when they are first starting out either. If they were walking outside or in public, it would be totally different but it's winter here and there is no reason for them to be walking outside of the house. So we've saved our money till it was really necessary and that time has come.

The main motivator was the fact that it's freezing cold outside and both girls have decided that they do not like to keep socks on...ever. Not even for a second. It was getting ridiculous putting 4 socks back on constantly while we were out and about running errands.

Here are their new shoes. Size 5!

Addison showing them off

And now she is whining because she feels as if she can't walk anywhere, so she just stays in one place and whines.

Samantha walked around for a bit and seemed to like them but then resorted to crawling again

And then worked at taking them off

Samantha can now take them off easily in the car while we're running errands. Hmmmm...

update to the update of the ER visit =)

2009-01-19T13:10:00.003-05:00

The girls had their follow up appointment on Friday to finish their well baby visit. I brought my 13 year old sister Kellie along with me to help. She didn't have school on Friday (scheduled day off) and Joshua also joined us (school was canceled due to cold weather)

We ended up having to wait an hour to be called back. This is highly unusual for our doctor. She apologized up and down and said that they have a ton of people to see because of what is going around. The girls were so well behaved as they usually are in public (thank goodness!)

She checked Samantha out and everything looked great. Both girls got 2 shots. They administer them at the same time so it's a quick poke and then its all over. They both cried for a second and once I picked them up, they were done.

Sooo.. we are all set until March, when they have their 15 month well baby appt.

update to ER visit

2009-01-14T11:33:00.003-05:00

I called our Dr. this morning to make a follow up appt. Our dr. isn't in again till Friday, so we made an appt for her then. The receptionist said this was only for Samantha. She said that we can talk to the dr. at that time and figure out what to do about the girls well baby visit that we were unable to complete.

Fast forward to about 10 mins ago...

Our dr. just called and asked how Samantha was doing. Which, by the way, she is doing fabulous! She said after consulting with the ER dr. and the peds department, they have come to the conclusion that she did NOT have a seizure and she simply got worked up, held her breath and passed out (which is what I thought from the beginning). They said there would have been more signs afterwards that would have pointed to a seizure, such as being tired or completely lethargic. Samantha had none of those. After I was able to calm her down, she was walking around the office and playing with the magazines while we waited for the paramedics.

WHEW! Even more relief. The dr. also said to bring in Addison so we could finish their well baby visit. She isn't going to charge us for our visit on Friday and just bill insurance as if it all happened on one day. Good news there too! Save us having to pay double co-pays (or is that quadruple co-pays? lol)

well baby visit and a ride on an ambulance

2009-01-13T21:39:00.001-05:00

We just got back from the hospital. We had the girls 12 month well baby visit. They were scheduled last month but ended up having that really bad virus.

So today we go into the doctor and they both got weighed (on the big scale now! ..sniff sniff) Then the dr. came in and we started with Samantha. I held her on the table and our dr. was looking in her ears and checking her eyes, mouth, heart..etc. Then she had me lay her back to check her stomach and crotch area, as usual. As I lie her down, she started crying really hard (she is terrified of strangers) and she completely stopped breathing. Her mouth was open because she was in the middle of crying and her face got super red. She wasn't taking a breath. (she does this sometimes but always snaps out of it in like 2-3 seconds) After about 10-15 seconds she was starting to get a little blueish and the dr. picked her up and I kept saying "is she ok?" over and over again. Then Samantha went limp in her arms. I was freaking out.

The dr. said "get Sherry" I opened the dr. and yelled to get Sherry (the medical assistant) she came running in (I was bawling!) and she told her "call 911, Samantha just had a seizure" Then I started REALLY freaking out.

The dr. gave Samantha back to me. She had come back to and was crying. I tried calming her down but she was pretty worked up (and so was I) and the dr. kept saying over and over again that she was fine but that she wanted her checked out for peace of mind and that she probably would have sent her home after a bit but I was so distraught, she had to send her in to calm me down.

The paramedics got there and I got on the gurney with Samantha on my lap. Dusty took Addison home and had his mom come over to watch her so he could meet us up to the hospital. She was totally fine in the ambulance and was talking and acting normal. The paramedic said he wasn't going to touch her though (unless really needed) because she gets so worked up with new people, especially if they touch her.

We got into the ER (btw.. we were in that same ER exactly one month ago with her) The dr. came right in and I told him the story of what happened. I said TO ME.. it looked like she was crying so hard that she stopped breathing and then passed out. I said I was shocked when the dr. said she had a seizure. He started doing an exam and wanted me to lay her back and she started crying really hard again and stopped breathing for a split second and I picked her right back up again and she calmed right down. I said.. sorry, I am shy about this all now. He did the exam with her on my lap. Said she looked great and they would call our Dr. and ask again what happened and confirm she thought it was a seizure or not. We stayed for 3 hours and were released.

That was TERRIFYING!

I know some kids do this and will tantrum and such till they pass out. Its just so terrifying to watch.

We call our dr. tomorrow to be seen again, as a followup.

I swear they are bottomless pits!

2009-01-11T21:18:00.002-05:00

I'm including Joshua in that statement too. I swear my kids have not stopped eating the past few days. Shortly after each of our meals I hear "Mom, I want a snack" .. um, seriously? We just got done eating! I always ask if he wants a second helping of food because I expect to hear "snack please" and he always passes on more food and claims he is full. Okey dokey.. but why do you want a snack 15 minutes later then?!

Our after dinner dessert tonight was carrot cake. It was so yummy. Joshua gobbled it up and asked for another slice. I told him that he had had enough sugar and needed to get ready to jump in the tub. His response was "Oh.. so 4 bites of cake and 2 raisins is enough?" What a little smart butt. I can't blame him though, I know he got his smart mouth from me. The fruit definitely doesn't fall far from this tree =P

The girls have been eating machines too. For breakfast they shared 3 waffles (eggo size) and a banana and were still begging for more. They also had a full sippie of milk each. I gave them cheerios to snack on and that held them off till nap time. For lunch they had a chicken sandwich and goldfish and some organic fruit thingies. Shortly after that they had more cheerios and then some baby food mixed with milk and bananas. Then they had a small piece of carrot cake and then more cheerios and then they ate dinner awhile later. After I fed them dinner, I got myself a plate and sat on the couch to eat and they both ran over to me and begged for more. OMG.. they ate half of my plate of food too!!!

I half expect them to be a couple inches taller when I get them out of their crib in the morning. Hopefully they'll sleep in a little bit from their full bellies.

I need to go grocery shopping again....

Graco.. love or hate?

2009-01-08T16:19:00.002-05:00

I received this really cute Graco swing for my baby shower. The girls loved it. We stopped using the swings when the girls were 6 months old. This swing was still in perfect looking condition. I ended up selling it to my best girl friend. She had a little girl about 10.5 months after I had my girls.

The motor on the swing apparently had had it's day because it was acting funny at her house. It would run for a few minutes and then just stop. I got online and was about to order a new motor and decided I would call Graco instead. I didn't want to shell out the $30 to replace the motor without at least trying to get Graco to make it right. The swing had only been used for 6 months, it shouldn't be dying already. (and yes, we tried fresh batteries =P )

The guy at Graco quickly said "it's the motor and shouldn't be dying already, I'll send you a new one free of charge" AWESOME... I thought.

I received the new motor about 2 weeks later. Everything seemed great for a couple days and then the swing would stop moving after a minute or two. Ok.. ridiculous! Did they send me a used motor? So.. I call Graco again. The lady was very apologetic and said that she would send me another motor 2 day air. SWEET... so I thought, again.

I received the new motor 2 days later and took it over to my friend's house. Again, everything went well for a couple days and boom! the dang motor stopped AGAIN! By this time, my friend has washed her hands of the swing and wants to buy a new one. I don't blame her. I made things right with her and gave her a jumperoo I had that is still in great condition.

I decided that I'm not giving up with Graco. They WILL make this right with me. I am taking the swing back from my friend and calling Graco again. This time, customer service wasn't as nice as before. The lady I spoke with 20 questioned me. How big is the baby? Where is the swing located? Do you have carpet? Do you push the swing to get it started and then turn the swing on or do you turn the swing on and then give it a push? Besides the baby's weight (9.5lbs) apparently "I" am doing everything wrong. According to her, swings aren't meant for use on carpet.. ok, are you kidding me? I should also be pushing the swing and then be turning it on. Ok, whatever lady. I'm sure THOSE were my problems. (roll eyes)

So today I received the 3rd motor. Crossing my fingers that it works well now. I plan on keeping the swing here because I will be babysitting my friend's little girl 4 days a week starting in 2 weeks.

Back to the title of this blog entry, do we love Graco because they are willing to send me motors free of charge or do we hate them for sending me duds? LOL

Joshua's sleepover

2008-12-31T15:42:00.003-05:00

We've had fun during this break from school and "normal" life. Dusty has been home from work for a couple weeks and of course Joshua is on holiday break from school. My best girl friend, Tyrell is still on maternity leave so we've been having playdates galore! Tyrell's little girl is Joshua's best friend. They've been the best of friends for the past 3.5 years (or is it 4.5?)

I think I've already mentioned that Joshua and Kirstin thought they were married for awhile after Dusty and my wedding since they walked down the aisle together. Here are a couple pictures of them at the wedding..

Anyway, Kirstin stayed the night a couple nights ago and they had a blast. We picked her up and brought her here. They played their Nintendo DS's together and then settled in to watch the movie Hook.

Poor Kirstin woke up when the babies got up. joshua is used to the girls waking up early and it doesn't phase him any...

see...

I LOVE this picture of them! I hope they stay the best of friends for life. MAYBE.. just MAYBE, Kirstin will end up being my daughter-in-law!

We now have 2 walkers!

2008-12-28T22:23:00.003-05:00

Samantha has been walking pretty well for about a week now. Addison had shown interest in walking first, a couple months ago, but has never really seemed comfortable with letting go. Today, she let go and walked about 4 steps. Within 5 minutes she was almost running from one side of the living room to the other!!

Both girls love the attention they get when they walk. We cheer them on all the way! Go baby girls!!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-26T16:54:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful holiday. On Christmas Eve we went to Dusty's cousin's house, where the whole family gathers. We had a great time. I don't have pictures but I've been promised that some will be emailed to me. One of the cousins dressed as Santa and passed out some gifts to the kids and candy to the adults.

He didn't phase the girls one bit. They seemed so over the whole Santa thing =). Joshua, however, stared him up and down. He got his gift, hugged Santa and then came over and whispered to Dusty and I "that is NOT the real Santa" We asked how he could tell..."look at his shoes, those are real people shoes NOT boots"

oh my goodness..details... we just laughed and explained to him that Santa was already busy on the other side of the world delivering presents to children that are asleep right now so he had to send his helpers to visit people over here. He bought it.. for now anyway.

The kids made out like bandits there, thank you Pam, Tina and Nancy!

After there we headed to my dad's house for our traditional Christmas Eve get together. The kids were so well behaved all day. I'm so proud of them all. Here are some pictures to sum up our evening at Bampa's house.

Christmas morning was great too. Joshua was in AWE at the gifts Santa left. The girls didn't understand but they certainly enjoyed playing. Aunt Dena and cousin Arika stopped over to give the kids gifts too. It was nice to see them on Christmas. Thanks guys! Our living room was trashed!!

Guess what Dusty and I did today (the day AFTER Christmas) ? We took a trip to Target for toy organizers!

Santa Claus

2008-12-23T16:28:00.002-05:00

We actually went to see him at Joshua's school about a week or so ago. I've had a hard time getting the picture to scan. It's terrible quality- not sure what is wrong with my scanner.

The reaction was pretty much what we expected. Addison was pretty much fine and Samantha wanted out of there!! Joshua doesn't look thrilled either but that's probably because he had to kneel down. After the picture, he was able to climb up on Santa's lap and ask for a remote control car... WHAT?! Why is this the first I'm hearing of THAT! Oh boy...scrambling around for a remote control car....wish me luck!

So much to catch up on...birthday parties, illness, waterparks..

2008-12-19T15:44:00.002-05:00

Whew! It's been awhile.

This will be a quick run down of what has been happening here. Joshua turned 6 years old on November 26th! What a big boy! To celebrate, we took him to a local indoor water park. This year, we took along his best friend Kirstin. He lovingly refers to her as his wife.

See, when Dusty and I got married almost 2 years ago, Kirstin was the flower girl and Joshua was our ring bearer, so they walked down the aisle together. For awhile, they thought they were actually married to each other. Cute!

So anyway, Kirstin stayed the night with us the night before and we got up early and headed to the water park. It was an awesome time. For the first few hours, there were only about 10 people in the entire place. Even at it's busiest, there were maybe 30 people. Both kids had a blast. We bought a waterproof disposable camera. The shots came out TERRIBLE! I don't recommend them AT ALL. Save your money. At least I have some pictures on my cell phone that came out OK. We're having some problems with our computer right now, so I can't share any of those pictures.

A few days after we went to the water park, we had the girl's 1st birthday party. I have those pictures already uploaded so I can share some of them. The girls had a great time. I was afraid they might get overwhelmed but they didn't. They ate up the attention!

The following weekend was their actual birthday. The poor girls got sick almost immediately after their party. I believe the next day. They were puking and Addison had terrible diarrhea. It seemed to get better and then get worse again. Finally, on their birthday, I couldn't take it anymore. I called our doctor's after hours phone number. She called back almost immediately and said that Samantha needed to go to the ER due to excessive puking and lack of wet diapers. She said we might as well take Addison in too.

Addison threw up in the waiting room. Luckily they got us back pretty quickly. We waited for maybe 10-15 minutes. Samantha was running a 103.5 temp and Addison's was 99.6. They gave Samantha some motrin and then took us to their beds. Samantha didn't last long in her bed before a nurse came and moved her to her own room. She needed more attention. They were really concerned for her. She ended up getting a cath to check her urine, which came back negative. They also had to give her an IV. That was HORRIBLE!. They also did some bloodwork. Her white blood cell count was really high so they knew she had some sort of infection. Because the level was so high, they ended up doing a spinal tap. That, too, came back negative, thank God!

We were sent home about 7hrs later with a script for amoxicillian. Addison was released after about 2 hours. She was fine, just a virus that needed to work it's way out of her system. We had a follow up 3 days later with our doctor. The girls showed definite improvements but still weren't 100%. They both had lost a pound each. We go back in 2 weeks to complete their 1 year well baby exam.

Today, both girls seem to be 100%. They are back to their normal happy selves.

Heartbreaking week

2008-11-28T22:08:00.003-05:00

Thursday, November 20, 2008.

I was having a play date with a friend. As I was packing up the girls, I received a call from my MIL (mother in law). I answered it, figuring it was one of the normal calls I get from her everyday. She was crying hysterically. She just said my name about 3 or 4 times. My heart dropped.

What happened.. she couldn't get the words out fast enough for me. I was panicking. She finally got the words out.

"Lisa was killed this morning. She was killed, Cynthia. She was in a car accident on the way home from dropping the kids off at school"

My stomach knotted up. I started shaking terribly. I could barely think straight. I told Diane that I would be home shortly and would help her in any way I could. She told me she was flying down to Mississippi with Lynne (her sister, Lisa's mother).

I immediately called Dusty. He hurried his work up and headed home.

This is unreal. It's so hard to really wrap my head around this.

Diane is my mother in law, Dusty's mom. She has 3 sisters and a brother. From my point of view, Diane is closest with Lynne. They seem to meet up at least once a week for breakfast and talk on the phone often. Probably every day. Lynne lives just minutes away. Lynne has 1 child. Lisa. Lisa has 2 children. Joey and Meghan. Lisa just moved to Mississippi with her kids last year. Her fiance was transferred through work.

Before they moved, we would get together for the kids birthday every year at Chuck E Cheese's. Joshua loved to play with them. It was always a small get together of close family members. I always enjoyed going and watching the kids have fun together. Last year, we celebrated Meghan's birthday and they moved shortly after that.

We didn't see Lisa and the kids again till this past July. They were excited to come meet the girls for the first time, and of course, play with Joshua too. I am so thankful we got pictures of Lisa and the girls. We will treasure them forever.

Here are a couple from that visit

The accident happened as Lisa was on her way home from dropping the kids off at school. Some one driving in the opposite direction swerved into Lisa's lane and hit her head on. Blunt force trauma to the chest. She died instantly. She was 39.

My heart aches. Lynne is without her only child. A daughter that was like a best friend. They talked every single day. Her poor babies are without their mother. Her fiance is without his love. Her family is without their niece and cousin. Her friends are without a friend that was full of energy, happiness and beauty. My heart just aches for all of them..and myself. But more importantly..them.

I can't shake the thoughts out of my head. I have thought about her and the kids, Craig, Lynne..everyone, for every second since this has happened. It makes no sense to me why things like this happen. What is the reason? Why should these kids grow up with out their mom? She was such a good mother. She was extremely involved in her kids lives, including her fiance's son. Apparently she was known as the "popcorn mom" at the kids school in Mississippi.

Watching all the events happen over this past week have really drained me. I am just so completely heart sick. Some of the stuff that has happened can only be described as a living nightmare. I can't even go into some of the details. But Joey and Meghan, please know that your family loves you so much. We are praying for you both.

To Craig, I can't even imagine the heart ache you are feeling. In a matter of seconds, his life was just torn apart as well. He lost his fiance and both of her kids. I cry just thinking of the silence in his house now.

To Lynne, you are going through something no parent should ever have to face. It's not right to have to bury your own child.

I cry for you, the kids, Craig and everyone affected by this.

I am scared of the same thing happening. I'm scared that my kids will lose me. Nobody should have to grow up with out their mom or their dad. Lisa was doing such a simple thing. Something I do every single day. Take the kids to school. It's scary. We just never know what will happen. In the blink of an eye, everything can change.

I just want to hold my family close and never let go.

p.s. just a note to those picture taking mommies and daddies..please make sure to jump into some photo shots too. especially with your loved ones. I have made sure and set my negative self-image aside and gotten into a few pictures of me and the kids this past week.

RIP laptop

2008-11-11T15:08:00.004-05:00

My beloved laptop died today 11/11/08. It's a pretty sad day around here. I loved my laptop. It was only with us for a short time (6 months) but it had a special place in my house that made it convenient to surf the net, upload pictures, photoshop, IM with friends and most importantly again...surf the net.

Luckily, no information was lost because it gets backed up every night to our home server.

Dusty is currently trying to solve the problem and replace it at a minimal cost. Not the best time of year for this to happen. Joshua's b-day is in 2 weeks, the girls b-day is 2 weeks after that and Christmas is 2 weeks after that.

hmmm... I think my wish list needs to be updated.....

The Election

2008-11-11T11:06:00.004-05:00

Dusty and I decided to get up extra early on election day. Diane came over to watch the girls and we took Joshua with us. We figured it would be good for him to be there while history was made. This election was definitely historical. Either the first woman vice president or the first black president.

Our polls opened at 7am and we were in line at 6:40a. Luckily, the wait wasn't long at all. We were out of there by 7:30a and we were voters # 37 and 38 in our precinct. It was so exciting!

Here was the line in front of us

and here was the line behind us

I'm so glad the election is over and behind us. Although nothing that Dusty and I voted for, won. It's still all good. I just look forward to American recovering (hopefully) from all the crap going on.

Congratulations President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden

Halloween

2008-11-11T10:56:00.004-05:00

A little late...but I didn't want to skip over Halloween. I love Halloween. It's so fun to get the kids dressed up and go trick or treating.

Joshua had a Halloween parade and party at his school. We took the girls there at 1pm to watch brother in the parade. All the kids looked great!! We even got a class picture done.

The girls did so well. They watched all the kids walking by. Most of the kids stopped to comment on the girls. It was cute.

After the parade, we headed out to eat. After going to Applebees, we headed back to Joshua's school to pick him up. We then went to visit my mom at work. She works at a nursing home, so we walked around and let the residents see the kids.

We then went to my dad's house. It's tradition, for us, to trick or treat there. Their neighborhood is really nice (the people and the houses) We didn't even get 1/4 of the way around the neighborhood before heading back home. Joshua got a ton of candy. It was fun this year because there were more people out and about trick or treating. I think it was because it was so warm (for us in Michigan anyway)

Here are some more pictures of the kids.

Clippin' coupons, paying off

2008-10-26T21:06:00.002-04:00

I'm in week, like..um, not sure..maybe 8 or 9 and it's really paying off. My weekly grocery bill is less than $50.00 which is awesome! I'm still stock piling on things that are great deals (free or nearly free) Today Kmart started their double coupons up to $2.00 deal again. We took a trip up there and used all of our Pamper coupons that were over $1.00 (they expire friday anyway) and then I went through all of my coupons that expire soon that were over $1.00 and we were able to score free shampoo, nearly free toothpaste, toothbrushes, toilet paper and some other items.

I love saving so much money. It's nice to look in the pantry and see it fully stocked. We are set on laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, pretty much any cleaning supply, toilet paper, paper towels, frozen veggies, chicken breasts, sausage, campbell soups, cereal, and a bunch of health items (tylenol, dimetapp..etc)

I've got a system down now that works really well for me. I purchase a few Detroit Free Press newspaper and at least one Flint Journal every Sunday. The DFP has a TON more coupons than the FJ. I would say, at least double the amount. It's a strange thing. Coupons are very regional. You definitely want to grab the highest circulated newspaper for your area. I also get a few extra inserts from family/friends that don't use the coupons in their papers.

Anyway, I always thought cutting coupons was a bigger pain than it was worth and always thought that "buying coupons" (newspapers) was kind of defeating the purpose of saving money but I easily make up the cost of the newspapers for the entire month, during one shopping trip. My average savings is over 50%. It feels nice to save so much money!

Happy Birthday Dusty!

2008-10-17T17:09:00.004-04:00

Just a quick little note to my sweetheart.

Happy 29th birthday Dusty!! Hope you've had a good one and here's to your upcoming weekend of celebrations and presents =)

Love,

Cynthia, Joshua, Addison and Samantha

Playdate

2008-10-12T22:19:00.003-04:00

We had a playdate this weekend with a friend that has a little boy who is 3 months younger than the girls. This was the first time the kids have gotten together and I think they played very well for not knowing each other and being the age they are. The little boy's name is Graham.

Here are a couple pictures of the girls. They are a bit blurry but cute!

Poor Graham would cry every time Addison got upset. This happened a couple times. It was kind of cute because he seemed to either be irritated or sympathetic. I'm going with sympathetic!

Samantha seems to be thinking.."oh geez mom, get me away from these crying babies"

Our upset little sweethearts.

I don't want it to appear that Graham cried the entire time, because that's not the case at all. Here he is playing with Samantha.

Sweet baby face

Little man wore himself out!!

Pumpkin Pictures

2008-10-12T22:07:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-30T15:10:00.003-04:00

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

2008-09-19T15:56:00.004-04:00

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

2008-09-16T21:25:00.003-04:00

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-

2008-09-09T09:34:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-07T21:54:00.002-04:00

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

2008-09-07T21:41:00.003-04:00

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.

Full house leads to the start of full mouths

2008-07-29T21:59:00.008-04:00

My Memaw came to visit us this past week from Alabama. Memaw is my Grandma on my Mom's side. It was great to have her here. My Mom and sister also stayed with us. Needless to say, we had a full house.

This was the first time she got to meet the girls. She has been chomping at the bit to get her hands on them. Her husband, my pawpaw, was a twin himself. He had a twin sister. A fun little fact about this is that him and his twin sister were actually his parents 3rd set of twins!! They were the babies of the family. My pawpaw died last year so he never knew that I was pregnant with twins. As far as we know, I am the first family member since my pawpaw's mom, to have twins.

Even at 75 years old, my Memaw sat on the floor and played with the girls every single day. She did everything but change their diapers. I was very impressed!!! Samantha fell asleep on Memaw a few times but this particular time, I took pictures because of the way Samantha was lying. I thought it was SO cute!! Both girls fought sleep a lot with all the commotion going on this past week.

Memaw left today. Her flight was suppose to leave at 5:30 and naturally, it was 2+ hours behind schedule due to bad weather in Atlanta. Sigh...I feel bad because I know she was nervous to begin with and then had to sit on the plane for a couple hours before finally taking off. I just hope the flight itself was smooth.

Here is a picture of Memaw holding both of the girls.

The picture below starts with my brother Jamie, my mom holding Addison, me holding Samantha, Memaw holding Joshua and my sister Kelly in front of us all.

The house is so peaceful right now. I'm laying on one couch with my laptop and Dusty is sitting on the other couch playing pool on the xbox 360. All 3 kids are sleeping and we are taking advantage of the silence. What a crazy week and although I'm happy to be enjoying the silence, I am quite sad that Memaw's visit is already over.

Baby update:

Both girls ended the visit with teeth!! Samantha had her first tooth pop through on Saturday July 26th and Addison's popped through on Sunday the 27th. It pretty much happened with out much complaint from either of them. I expected some major drool and crankiness but that didn't really occur.

Addison and Samantha are starting to scare me with how mobile they are becoming..YIKES!! They aren't crawling but they are rolling around like crazy and Samantha can make it from one side of the living room to the other in just a matter of seconds! Addison got up on all fours today for a split second. They can go from sitting to tummy without falling over... they are actually doing it on purpose.

Addison is babbling a lot too. Her sounds are yayayaya, mamamama, bababababa. They aren't associated with anything yet but it's so cute to hear them. Samantha is our squealer. She is just like mama. I love a good squeal every now and then =) She has also been making a lot of noises too.

-yawn- ok, I'm going to wrap this up now. I'm tired. It's been a long week/day. Good night!

Swimming

2008-07-16T20:49:00.003-04:00

The girls went swimming for the first time today! They seemed to really enjoy it. They were so well behaved as we waited for Joshua and Dusty to have some more splashing fun!

They did so well that we are going back on Friday! Thank goodness it has finally gotten warm enough here (for now anyway) Thank you Aunt Dena for having us over!! =)

T-ball

2008-07-11T20:57:00.002-04:00

T-ball is going pretty good. Dusty is a little tired of coaching it. Next year will be better when we both can just be "parents" of a t-ball player. It would be nice to have help with the girls every time. Anyway...

I took some pictures. Here are some of my favorite ones. Of course I have to throw in a couple pictures of the girls.

Here is my Mom (GAGA) and Joshua before the game

Josh waiting for his turn at bat

Swing batter batter swing

Addison sitting on Gaga's lap

Samantha sitting with Grandma DD

It was definitely nice to have a couple extra set of hands so I could concentrate more on the game and take some pictures.

Happy 4th of July

2008-07-05T11:32:00.004-04:00

Our tradition on the 4th of July is to head out to my dad's house. We usually grab a pancake breakfast during the Fenton Festivities but with having the girls this year, we decided to skip that part. My dad made us waffles with all the fixins at his house instead! They were yummy. We then headed to the parade. We were running a bit late so we ended up having to walk over a mile from our parking spot to the parade. The girls were SO good! They missed their morning nap but you wouldn't have been able to tell. They were so well behaved and smiley.

Here are some pictures.

6 month appt and pictures

2008-06-25T21:36:00.002-04:00

Today was the girl's 6 month well baby exam. They are both doing great! They have been staying right in their own growth curve

Addison weighs 17lbs 1oz and is 24.5 inches in length

Length = between percentile 5 and 10
Weight = between percentile 50 and 75
Head Circumference = in percentile 25

Samantha weighs 15lbs 10oz and is 25 inches

Length = between percentile 10 and 25
Weight = between percentile 25 and 50
Head Circumference = in percentile 25

The doctor had some of their vaccines without preservatives, so we went ahead and did two today. Two is our limit per visit. I won't subject the girls to a ridiculous number of pokes. We are in no hurry to vaccinate. They aren't in daycare or anything. They just need to be caught up by kindergarten and that won't be a problem. I did the same thing with Joshua and it worked out great.

Both girls handled the shots better this time than last time. They cried for just a few seconds and were over it. We gave them extra cuddles this evening and all is well.

The doctor gave us the ok for teething biscuits and such. I was a bit shocked because I don't remember giving Josh baby biscuits this early. The girls are doing great with solid foods. Here is a list of what they've had so far. (by the way- I know most of you guys don't care about these types of details, I do this part mostly for my own records.)

Green beans
Sweet potatoes
Butternut Squash
Carrots
Apples
Bananas

We have been taking it slow with the solids but we are going to pick it up a notch. The girls are totally ready. I also love making the food for them.

Both girls are sitting on their own. They do still get a bit wobbly when they are excited. They are grabbing at everything and it's all going straight into their mouths.

We took the girls to Walmart and had their 6 month pictures taken. We were pretty impressed with Walmart's pictures. They were much better than we expected. We spent a fortune but it's SO worth it.

Here are some of our favorites.

I'm one hot mama

2008-06-11T12:46:00.002-04:00

But not the way I'd like. I have been extremely sick the past few days. I started running a fever, sore throat and really run down. By Monday morning, I was running an extremely high fever. I topped out at 105.5. I couldn't even move. I just cried. Luckily my Mom had the day off and was able to come over and help with the girls for the first part of the day. Dusty was able to come home from work early too.

I went to the doctor and she was amazed by how sick I was. By the time I got in there, my fever was hovering at 103. My heart rate was 160 and my blood pressure was high. She said I was sicker than the average patient and she wanted me to come back the next day. I left with my scripts and went right home to bed.

I went back to the doctor yesterday for my follow-up. She could see some improvement but still classified me as one sick mama. She asked if Dusty was able to take time off work to help. I told her that he did stay home to help me. She offered to write him a sick note for work because I shouldn't be doing anything but resting and drinking lots of liquids.

I am feeling a bit better today. Dusty took today off work again to help. My throat still really hurts and I'm still exhausted. I don't have much energy. I really hope I'm back to normal tomorrow. I don't have time to be this sick!!

First Food!

2008-06-03T14:10:00.005-04:00

We tried green beans on June 1st. The girls were not impressed! lol

I made them myself. I just steamed some green beans and then put them in the blender. I love making my own baby food, it's so easy and cheap!

The first picture is of Samantha. She hated it. She shut her mouth and wouldn't open it back up. She even started to push my hand away, as you can see in the picture.

Addison gave us some nasty faces but still opened her mouth for more!

Don't laugh..we're cool enough to pull it off

2008-05-30T12:33:00.003-04:00

Booster seat laws in Michigan are changing. The bill has been signed and will be in effect starting July 1st. Kids have to be in a carseat/booster until they are either 4'9 or 8 years old. The law was that any child under 4 had to be in a seat. Joshua is 5 1/2 years old. We had him in a booster anyway- because it's safer but once we got the girls in their convertible car seats, we could no longer fit all 3 car seats in the trailblazer (only has the 2nd row seating).

This STINKS! That means we have to purchase a new vehicle with 3rd row seating. Not bad when money is no object, but isn't it always? We had negative equity in the trailblazer because we have only owned it for 1.5 years.

Anyway, we went to the car dealership and test drove several vehicles. Of course we loved the ones that were out of our price range. If we didn't have the negative equity, we would of had a bit more options. But nonetheless. We have a new vehicle.

A van.

yep...

A van.

-sigh-

I'm driving a van.

=(

ok..maybe I'm being a BIT over dramatic. But a VAN? I'm not even thirty yet. I'm cool. I'm hip. I'm NOT your typical "mom" I'm cooler than that. I just happen to drive a van now. So I may appear to be a soccer mom or just an uncool parent- but looks can be deceiving. We BOTH are super cool. I know we can pull this off!

(btw- you will NEVER see a bumper sticker such as "my kid is an honor roll student at..." and not because my kid is stupid...I'm just not THAT nerdy..lol- no offense to those that do sport such a thing =p )

Before:

After:

We tried and survived!!

2008-05-24T22:32:00.004-04:00

Dusty and I LOVE to go out to eat. It's actually one of the things I miss the most since having the twins. Josh loves going to restaurants too. He is very well trained as far as going out to eat is concerned.

We have been wanting to take the girls out to eat but nap time and moods have never seemed to line up right. But.. today was the day!!

Here in Michigan we still have smoking in restaurants (but not for much longer) and I HATE the smell of cigarettes. This deters us too. I don't want the girls around the stench. I know it may sound funny but we kind of need to train them on going out to eat. They need to be familiar with it and know how to behave because it's something that we really love to do. I started Josh early and he knows the "etiquette" and everything quite well. So we decided to start off at a very casual place (but not fast food..blah). A coney island place would be ideal but they are known for a smokers hang out so that is a no go, so we ended up at Big Boys (Shoneys for those in the south!). We went at a very slow part of the day (4pm) and I am serious when I say this, we were in and out within 30 mins (tops!) We ordered quickly- the food came quick and we just about inhaled the food...you multiple's parents know what I mean! lol and then we were out the door headed home. It went beautifully! No whining or fussing or anything. WHEW!

I should have snapped a picture but there should be more outings to come, now that we got our feet wet. We took the girls bumbos and they sat in the booth with us. That worked out great!

Round one- parents (knock on wood!)

-sigh- I'm sick of myself

2008-05-13T15:26:00.002-04:00

Here I am exactly 5 months postpartum and I feel like crap. Specifically speaking..my weight. I've done great with weight loss thus far but it's stalled and I am 100% to blame. I quickly lost all the weight I gained from the pregnancy but I'm not happy. Things really shifted around. Pregnancy has never been good to my body but twin pregnancy is HORRIBLE for it. Dusty and I did nutrisystem a few months back but my breast milk supply dwindled down so I had to stop. I am exclusively breastfeeding two infants and that is my number one priority right now and will be for their entire first year. I have made the decision that although I can't cut back on my calories too much, I am starting an exercise routine tomorrow. Tomorrow is my 29th birthday and I'm not taking it well. I know 29 is still young but I know what is just around the corner. I don't want to be 30. It sounds older. Not old..just sounds "adult" old.

- sigh- anyway, starting tomorrow I will be walking/jogging on our treadmill. I already cleaned it off. The girls have been on alternate schedules during the day, so I will most likely have one baby watching me =)

On nice days, the girls and I will be taking a walk around the neighborhood. They should like that but for me to have a really good jog, I need to either be on the treadmill or be outside NOT pushing a stroller. I actually prefer jogging inside, I don't want to draw attention to myself outside as my saggy boobs slap me in the face...maybe it's time for a sports bra ; )

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T14:10:00.007-04:00

Today is Mother's Day. Mine started off awesome. Addison slept till 7:30am. I got a straight 8 hours of sleep. Of course I got a couple times to check on the girls but other than that- I slept!!

Damon came over and helped Dusty cook breakfast for me and the family. We celebrated Mother's Day for me and Diane (Dusty's mom) today. We celebrated with my mom yesterday. Dusty cleaned up everything from breakfast too. The stove is wiped down and dishes are clean! WOOHOO!! Also, I don't have to change ANY diapers today!! Why isn't Mother's Day more than once a year?? =P

Yesterday we had a little photoshoot with the girls. They were looking especially cute with their new bows, so I couldn't resist!

Isn't it adorable how Addison helped calm her little sister? What a nice big sister she is =)

Another special thing that happened today was my gift from Joshua. Yesterday, Dusty had taken Josh aside and filmed Josh saying sweet things about me. Here is the video

Just a little update

2008-05-06T14:44:00.003-04:00

We got the girls new car seats this past weekend. They were still able to use the infant carriers but honestly, the girls are getting way too heavy to carry in them and the weather has finally changed over to spring, so we decided, why not?

We took the girls with us to pick them out. We went there thinking we were going with Britax and the sales dude quickly changed our minds. The seats we went with are WAY better..lol This seats are the BOMB! They are very user friendly and seem higher end that the Britax we were looking at. Here is a link to the seat we went with Evenflo Triumph Advance Premier

Now granted, they don't have cute covers like the Britax does but everything else seems pretty much the same, if not better and the price tag is WAY better!! We walked out paying almost the same amount for both seats that we were planning on spending for just one of the other seats.

The girls seem to like them too. I think they felt too crunched up in their infant seats. These seats take up a little more room than their old seats so poor big brother, Joshua, is even more squished back there. In fact, starting July 1st, we won't be able to legally drive anywhere as a family because a new law in michigan will take effect. Any child under 8 must be in a booster seat. Our back seat is not big enough (width) to fit 3 car seats. -sigh- We need a vehicle with 3rd row seating but we just bought the trailblazer 1.5 years ago so of course we owe more on the thing than it's worth.

The girls are doing wonderfully. I think they are both pretty close to sitting up. They are 4 months and 3 weeks old and they hate laying down, they want to be sitting up. As long as we have a finger on them for a tad bit of support, they can sit there for quite some time. Life will become much easier once they can sit unassisted. It will be nice to sit them on the floor to play with toys and each other.

They are both teething pretty badly. No teeth yet, just drool and chewing on everything. Luckily sleep has gotten even better. Samantha has slept 11 hours straight for the past few nights. That's been really nice. Addison is still sleeping well too but still gets up after about 8 hours to eat and then she goes right back down.

So..Dusty and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary yesterday. That was really nice. We went to benihana. We had a pretty good time. The Chef wasn't as animated as Dusty has experienced in the past and the family sitting with us complained a lot. But other than that- we really enjoyed ourselves.

Oh, I almost forgot. We signed up Joshua for t-ball. We received a call from the organizer this past weekend and apparently they don't have a coach for the team. The guy asked if I wanted to coach the team. I told him no immediately but told him I would talk to my husband to see if he was interested. I got off the phone and told Dusty. He immediately said no too. lol He ended up calling the guy back and found out that he had called all the parents and no one was interested in coaching. Dusty then decided to agree to coach the team, even though he doesn't know the first thing about t-ball. Dusty doesn't watch baseball and has never shown interest in the sport. (we're a hockey family) The guy wanted Dusty to meet him right then and there, so Dusty ran up to city hall and came home with a stack of papers, roster and equipment. OMG! What have we gotten ourselves into!! We have to plan practices and the whole bit. It's a bit overwhelming, to me, because this is our first year in t-ball so we are seriously flying by the seat of our pants. Dusty called the entire team today and he said everyone seemed really nice. WHEW! What a relief. Our first game is June 10th. I'll keep you guys updated how this goes and of course, I'll be taking tons of pictures!!

Take your child to work day

2008-04-29T13:36:00.003-04:00

Joshua was able to go to work with Dusty on April 24th. National take your son/daughter to work day.

The day started out with getting ready and stopping for coffee (and some hot chocolate) on the way to work.

Working a bit on nickjr.com

Dealing with problem employees...

To Do list

4 Month and 5 year well baby/kid appointment

2008-04-29T13:11:00.003-04:00

We had the kids well baby/kid appointments this past weekend. Everyone checked out well!!

Here are Samantha's stats

Weight 13lbs
Height 23inches
Head 16.5inches

Here are the percentiles according to babycenter. they vary a bit from what the dr. said.

Length = between percentile 5 and 10
Weight = between percentile 10 and 25
Head Circumference = between percentile 50 and 75

Here are Addison's stats

Weight 14lbs 3oz
Height 22.75inches
Head 16.5inches

Length = below percentile 5
Weight = between percentile 50 and 75
Head Circumference = between percentile 50 and 75

They got three shots. We talked about the different types of shots and we got 3 shots that they should have gotten at their 2 month appt but I opted to delay. I chose the combination shot for these shots because they have less perservatives. So three shots..one poke.

We go back in 2 months for their 6 mth appt.

Oh and an update on the swing situation. Both girls have slept through the night EVERY SINGLE night since we moved the swings in the nursery.

Now on to Joshua:

He weighed 42lbs and was 43.5 inches tall

At 5 years and 6 months:your child is 42 pounds, and that is
at the 41st percentile for weight.

your child is 43.5 inches, and that is
at the 34th percentile for height.

He got a HepA shot (which apparently is a new protocol)

Here are some updated pictures.

I give up!!

2008-04-16T13:38:00.004-04:00

Transitioning to the crib went great the first day/night. Now..it's completely beaten me down. I'm exhausted, moody, crabby, short tempered and I give up. Sore-ee (said like Simon Cowell) -shrugs- I'm done. I'm throwing in the towel.

The girls naps went from 3 hours to 30 mins. That does NOT fly with me. Not even a little bit. I need time during the day to do other house stuff, pay bills, BATHE, breathe, go to the potty, maybe even eat a little something.

They were crabby last night and wouldn't go down for anything. The minute we gave up on the cribs and put them both in their swings, they were out and slept 10 hours straight. Then got up and were ready for another nap around 11am. I put them in their cribs and they slept 30 mins. Forget it! I put them back in their swings and they are still sleeping 2 hours later!

I called Dusty and told him that we are taking one of their cribs down, for now, and putting their swings in their rooms. I don't care if it's not the "proper" thing to do. Believe me, I know- consistency is key, but you know what? So is sanity. It wouldn't be so bad if I only had one infant to deal with but I don't..I have two, so the theme in this house is "whatever works" and this works for us. The girls are only 4 months old. We've been wanting to transition them into the nursery and out of our room. Who says they have to be in their cribs? They are happy in their swings and who the heck am I to argue? Happy babies makes happy mommy and you know the ole saying "if momma ain't happy, no one is" so the effect trickles down to the rest of the family.

btw- I still endorse the ocean wonders aquarium, the girls love them.

4 months old!

2008-04-13T13:10:00.002-04:00

The girls are 4 months old today. We decided that they need to move into their own room. The transition actually went pretty smooth. Samantha has taken to it much better than Addison. Although, the problem could be teething. Addison seems to be the most uncomfortable with her teething. Samantha is sleeping in her crib great. She is still sleeping through the night and at least 2 long naps. Addison is sleeping through the night too but has only napped for about an hour or so at a time for the past couple days.

For night time- the girls love the mobiles above their cribs and Addison's plays music BUT it only plays for about 2 minutes. So we went to Target and got the Ocean's Wonder Aquarium with remote control. Here is a picture

The girls are mesmerized by it. They watch the bubbles and lights and drift off to sleep. The remote is AWESOME! We got an aquarium for each crib but only need to use one remote control because it will turn them both on at the same time. It's great!

I would highly recommend this crib toy.

Teething H.E.Double Hockey Sticks

2008-04-09T07:43:00.002-04:00

The girls have been drooling fools the past few weeks. They also have been chewing their hands like crazy. The past couple days, fussiness can be added to the list. Yesterday was torture. They were fussy all day long. They pretty much took turns crying the entire day. There were only short little cat naps here and there. They are awesome sleepers usually at least 2, 2-3 hour naps. Last night was terrible, they both just cried and cried but Addison was the worst. She was screaming!

We called the pediatrician to get the okay for Tylenol. She asked the symptoms and then gave us the go ahead. I ran to Meijer real quick and got some. I came home to a total meltdown by Addison. Dusty was frazzled to say the least. I looked up the dosage and quickly gave both girls some much needed relief. They both seemed to calm down shortly after. Their dose was at 8:30ish and Addison was down for the night by 10pm and Samantha by 11pm. They both slept till 6am and are actually back down now. I just loaded the dishwasher, blogged and now I'm off to nap too.

Poor girl fell asleep sitting up on my lap from pure exhaustion.

On a roll...

2008-04-07T10:53:00.002-04:00

Tummy time around here is pretty much torture. Its a time filled with screaming and crying. We still do it almost everyday even for 5 minutes. So this past Friday (april 4th) I put the girls down on a blanket and they actually didn't cry! Samantha just laid there and cooed at me. Addison was listening hard to her sister too. Then ..woop, samantha was on her back. It scared her because she rolled right into the exersaucer. I calmed her down and put her back on her tummy and then she rolled again! I had moved the saucer so she didn't hit it. She was surprised but was happy about the new view.

WTG Sa-mannie-nannie!

Great day for a walk

2008-04-05T22:05:00.004-04:00

We took the girls and Josh for a walk today. The girls didn't seem to enjoy it earlier. I think Addison was tired and Samantha was still a bit hungry. We walked up to the community mailbox, which is 1/4 a mile away. We were able to make it there and back without too many meltdowns but it wasn't a very pleasant walk because the girls were fussy.

Later in the evening, I decided to take Samantha to the mailbox to drop off some mail I forgot earlier. I figured it would be nice to take one girl at a time to get them used to the outside. Its been so cold, we've been stuck inside for the past 3.5 months. It was slightly windy and sunny, so it takes them time to get used to the elements. She LOVED it! Here are a couple pictures from our walk. Doesn't she look so pretty and so happy?

MIL to the rescue!

2008-04-03T11:35:00.003-04:00

By the way- MIL stands for Mother in Law. Ok... on to how and why she came to our rescue.

The girls have been sleeping through the night (most nights) I would say anywhere between 6-12 hour stretches. It feels like a whole new world now. Getting up every 3 hours gets old after a few months, so this is a welcome change for sure.

There seems to be those times, I would say once or twice a week, that something seems to be wrong. It ALWAYS involves Samantha. Addison is fine as long as she is sleeping right next to me.

So last night Samantha just cried and cried. It wasn't an "I'm tired" cry, it was more of a "something is hurting me" cry. Around 10pm Dusty called his mom, Diane, over to help out. Dusty hasn't been feeling well so he was exhausted. I didn't get more than 2 hours sleep the night before because of Dusty not feeling well. He has been snoring really bad because of a stuffy nose and sore throat. Needless to say, I was exhausted too and could barely keep my eyes open. Addison wasn't quite ready for bed yet. Diane came over and sat with Addison and tried to calm Samantha. Dusty and I went to bed. She assured us that she would wake us if she needed us.

I had the best sleep I've had in ages last night. I feel like a whole new woman! I just put my earplugs in and closed my eyes and away to sleepy land I went...ahhhh..sleep, my long lost BFF!!

We got up at 7ish and the girls were sleeping. Samantha was in her bouncy seat and Addison was sleeping on Diane. Addison loves sleeping next to a warm body.

We're still not quite sure what was wrong with Samantha. Diane ended up stripping her down to nothing and she stopped crying. So was her diaper pinching her? Don't know? She was crying before that diaper was on. She has a scratch on her head that drew blood. Did she scratch herself and it hurt badly? I don't know? She hasn't pooped in almost 24 hrs. Does her belly hurt? Its not hard. Was she over tired? I don't know, she didn't cry like she was tired. Did she miss her Grandma DD? maybe, it had been almost 24 hrs, maybe she was going through withdrawals? -sigh- All I know is that this morning, everything seems to be back in order.

Thank you Grandma DD for your help!! It's great having close family to rely on in times of frustration and exhaustion.

Size comparison

2008-04-02T15:25:00.003-04:00

Seeing the girls everyday, its hard to really see how much they have grown. I can tell by holding them, obviously, but to look at them and say- wow, you have really gotten bigger. Dusty and I have roughly weighed the girls on our scale. I say roughly because its not exactly accurate. We do the whole, weigh ourselves and then hold one of the girls and weigh ourselves again and take the difference...then voila! we have the weight of the girls. The most recent weigh in was surprising. Both girls have at least doubled their weight at only 3 months of age!

Addison's birth weight was 5 lbs. A couple days ago she weighed exactly 13 lbs!
Samantha's birth weight was 6 lbs. Last week at the doctor's, she weighed exactly 12 lbs!

Its crazy to see that Addison has not only caught up with her younger sister, but she has actually passed her in weight! When the girls are wearing onsies and have their cute little chubby legs hanging out, its VERY obvious that Addison weighs more.

Anyway- I thought I would take some comparison pictures today. I didn't use the EXACT same bouncy seat, but they are the same size- just different design fabrics.

Here are the girls when they were 2 weeks old
Here they are today at 3.5 months

Daddy gets a new toy

2008-03-30T22:14:00.000-04:00

Dusty has been wanting to get a front carrier to carry the babies around in. I purchased a couple slings a few months ago but he feels uncomfortable in them. They do take some getting use to and I understand his hesitation. I would rather him use something he feels comfortable in and confident that the girls will not fall out.

We called Grandma over (she lives right next door- how convenient!) we asked if she wanted to stay home with Joshua and one of the girls so we could take just one baby with us to try out carriers at Babies R Us. She happily came over and stayed with Addison. We decided to take Samantha because I have already taken Addison on a shopping trip by herself so, to be fair, we took Samantha on a shopping trip by herself.

Dusty tried on 3-4 carriers and of course he/we decided on the most expensive one. It had great reviews. It was the most comfortable and was the easiest to use. You get what you paid for, right? So now daddy has his carrier and mommy can use her slings.

Here is the one we went with. Samantha has really enjoyed it. Maybe tomorrow Addison will have a chance to take a "ride"

While we were at Babies R Us, this is what Joshua and Addison were up to.

Bath time

2008-03-30T19:28:00.000-04:00

It's really a hit or miss when it comes to bath time. One day the girls seem to love it, the next day it seems to be the most torturous thing in the history of the world.

This day, it was love...

Samantha

All Done for Sa-mannie

Now its Addie ba daddies turn

Brother, Joshua is trying to entertain me..lol

Addie ba daddy all clean!

Trying on mommy's dresses

2008-03-29T19:09:00.001-04:00

I love these! My mom kept dresses of mine from when I was a baby. I have several of them in all different sizes. I had to put the girls in them asap before they outgrew them. Both of the girls did well with the first dress but were pissed off by the time I put the second dress on them..lol

Addison

Samantha

They were pretty upset by the time I put the second dress on them. They look so much alike when they are crying!

Addison

Samantha

Birth day...of the blog

2008-03-29T16:59:00.000-04:00

This is going to start off short and sweet. I want to get this blog up and running because we get asked all the time how we are doing, how the girls are doing and how life is, in general, raising a 5 year old and infant twins. Everyone wants updates and of course, pictures. So, the easiest thing to do is to have one location where everyone can come and see pictures of the kids and get a little update all at the same time.

I will try my best to update at least once a week =)