Pinch Me

When I was a little girl dreaming about how my life would be I never imagined it would be so wonderfully blessed. I am so proud of my kids, my husband and my life.

Look how beautiful my daughter is and talented she made the dress she is wearing, here's how: I took an old blanket and cut it and made a bow then I tied knots down the back of it... then put a head band around it.. and spray painted it.

I recently got a phone call that my name was selected to win a free session with a local photographer. I figured it would be a great way to waste a morning plus get some pics of the twins. We have only taken family pictures once and have never had the twins pictures taken. These aren't the best but at least we have some cute pics showing their personality. When we get back down to Texas we will have some really cute pics taken by Freckles Fotography......... I can't wait!

Silent Sunday!

Kiki snuck up from the basement. I guess he has cabin fever too. I open the door for him to go outside and he runs the other direction.

Just another day in paradise!

Y e a r i g h t! I hate this weather. The twins had their last day of swimming so like a good mommy I went in the pool with them and then HAD to go to Wal Mart to buy diapers. The weather has been crap all week and I have been putting it off for days. Freakin sucks because the kids hate wearing their jackets in their car seats so it's take the jackets off, put the kids in, drive to the bank, take the kids out, put jackets on, go back to car, take jackets off, drive to wal mart, take kids out, put jackets on, run through parking lot while being hit in the face by freezing rain, go into Wal Mart get the stuff we need oh no Preston lost his boot. Go to customer service make an announcement for boys green frog boot. No such luck. Find frog boot in the clearence section by the toys. Run back to car oh no I parked over the drain thing, stand in ankle deep water removing coats and strapping wet screaming kids into car seats. Get into car turn radio up so I can't hear the wet screaming kids and take a deep breath and drive home. Both kids asleep before we get on the highway! Ahhhhh peace.

What have we been up too?

Not much. We have been going to playgroup, McDonald's, the YMCA. For the most part we have been trying to stay busy playing and getting ready for the move. The weather last week was pretty nice so we got out a few days but this week has been rainy with temps around 35. Here are a couple of videos to hold you over until I have something interesting to blog about.

Silent Sunday

After an hour of door banging, standing at the gate calling 'mommmmmmy', bed jumping...... she sleeps.

Snowy day blanket fun!

A beautiful picture of Ashley taken by Freckles Fotography

Blogs I read........

I am a blog stalker, there I said it! I can sit all day and read other's peoples business, scrap booking techniques, tips on how to redecorate a room or advice on motherhood. For those that are blog stalkers like me you must have Google Reader. Go to google.com and sign in or create an account. Once you have done this you can add stuff to your google page, one of those contents is google reader. I tell ya this makes reading blogs a snap. When you see a blog you like you can click on follow or if there isn't a follow button just copy and paste the link into your add a subscription section of google reader. I am currently following 80 blogs. BUT all 80 blogs are not updated everyday and some I should delete because they NEVER get updated.

Here are a few blogs that have caught my eye this week:

The kid's art display is something I am definitely going to do when we move to the new house.

Kristen's post today, Do Hard Things really made me think. Go read for yourself and see what you think. Here is a little quote from her post "Instead of expecting greatness, we do something worse, we reward our 10 year old for picking up dirty clothes off the floor and our 7 year old for cleaning his plate. I'm not pointing fingers here, we've done it too, but in reading this life-changing book, I realized this has to stop in our home."

Check out this free deal that I found at couponsavingsgame.com from Canvas People. A free 8x10 canvas and 50% second canvas. I have some pictures that Aaron took when we first moved to St. John's that I would look really nice on canvas.

Happy Friday I hope your weekend is wonderful. The twins are taking a good nap, we went swimming then to McDonald's for lunch. As soon as they get up we are heading outside, it's a beautiful blue, not a cloud in the sky, sun shining day!!!! Still 28 degrees but hey that's why they invented snow pants.

Multiples and More traveling tips

Multiples and More question of the week: travel tips

*Did you find it helpful to travel at night?

When we used to go to LA we would travel right after a meal (breakfast or lunch)

*Did you bring a pack'n'play for each child? What were the sleeping arrangements?

As far as sleep it doesn't matter if we travel by plane or car we don't usually bring pack and plays. When we go to TX by plane we borrow 2 pack and plays from family. When the twins were babies my mother in law got 2 pack and plays to keep at her house. It's so worth it not to travel with them. There have been a few vacations that we questioned weather to bring them or not. We have been to Disney and didn't bring them there because they had pack and plays. We often go down to a beach house and have had to bring them because we weren't able to borrow them or the place didn't provide them.

*Did you try to preserve your kids' schedules as much as possible?

YES. No matter where we were if it was time to eat they ate. This makes things much easier when traveling. Always keep snack on hand for those pre meal meltdowns.

*Any tricks for getting your kids to sleep in a new environment?

We have always tried to keep them on schedule but if they don't sleep then they don't sleep. I have found that my kids usually sleep better on vacation than they do at home only because they are so exhausted by the end of the day.

*Do you have any "special" toys that you brought with you to avoid a meltdown?

TOYS are a must for travel I usually carry a backpack as my carry on because it's just easier to keep up with. I go and buy toys that my kids haven't seen before. Last time we flew I got them each a Disney activity pack that had markers, stickers and stamps. I would usually freak out about them having this stuff at home but on the plane who cares. I wiped down the seat and are with a baby wipe before we exited the plane and it was all good. These stickers kept my kids occupied for the whole flight.

*Are you more lenient with your kids on trips than you are at home?

Yes it's just easier. I will give my kids french fries for every meal if it keeps them occupied while in the airport or on a plane.

*What items do you find indispensable for traveling? When the twins were younger and we travelled with their car seats so that they could use them on the plane we purchased the Go Go Babyz wheel attachments for the car seats. It turns any car seat into a stroller so you don't have to travel with a stroller. We bought an double umbrella stroller to keep at my sisters since that is where we stay when we go to TX from Canada. Now that the twins are older and don't need the car seat to sit on the plane seat we purchased the Kids Fly Safe Harness. They are great and they can use them until they are 4 years old. I find it so much easer to use these than the airplane seat belt. It turns the airplane seatbelt into a 5 point harness which my kids are more inclined to sit and stay in.

Twin separation= bedtime success!

Finally got fed up and separated the twins for bedtime. They are always separate for nap time only because Lily doesn't always nap. Preston falls asleep within minutes, Lily not so much! Tonight I put them to bed at 7:50 and at 8:30 still heard the pitter patter and jumping off the bed of little feet. I went to the garage got the extra gate, turned on every light up stairs and opened their door. All I could hear was "momma whata doin? momma?" I wanted to leave them guessing. I got the gate all set up and announced to Lily to gather her blankets because she was moving to a new bed. Both asked where's Laaaalllly, where's Dedson once they were in different beds but after about 10 minutes they were both asleep. Ahhhhh silence!!!!!!!

Maybe this will be practice since when we get to the new house they will have their own room.

Silent Sunday

Railway Coastal Museum

Freckles Fotography NEWBORN SESSION GIVEAWAY!

Freckles Fotography is giving away a free newborn session to one lucky winner. This is an awesome contest. To enter go to Freckles Fotography blog and leave a comment, easy peasy!
Freckles Fotography Giveaway

These crazy days!

These few weeks since I have been back in Canada from Houston have been full of decisions. We have been trying to decide what is the best time for us to pack up and leave the frozen tundra we have called home for 2 years. We still have the house here until April 14th and we didn't really want to just pack up and go back to Houston with Aaron still being here. What we have decided to do is stay here until April 1st then fly down together, Kiki and all, to Houston then go to Louisiana for Easter. Our stuff will be packed and loaded on March 29th-31st. This works out best and Aaron will actually be in Houston next week to close on the house.

As a family we are all doing well. Ashley has adjusted fully to life back in Texas. She is loving being with family down there. She misses us but is happy down there. Ashley and my brother have even started bike riding at night around the trails in the neighborhood. Preston and Lily are growing like weeds it is so funny to hear some of the things those two say. Lily's latest is "dats phunny" with an obnoxious laugh. Preston is a jumper. The kid will jump from the table if I let him. Every where we go he is jump, jump, jump!

Nap time is still a struggle. I really think that they just don't burn enough energy in the morning to go down for a nap by 12:30. They wake up at 7:30 and with the crappy weather we don't leave the house everyday. I have tried quiet time, just separating them and letting them play in separate rooms but Lily gets up and stands at the door and yells for Preston and when he is sleeping she wakes him up. Once we are in Texas I will put them in separate rooms but for now it's just nap time that they are separated. Preston is pretty good about napping but Lily is not she could stay up 12 hours straight with no nap. She isn't pleasant at 6:00 but she can stay up. I am seriously considering just dropping nap all together. I mean it's not really fun (not that it's supposed to be) for any of us. I am making trips upstairs every 10 mins to close doors, put clothes back on, change diapers, put them back in bed.

Tomorrow we are going to a playgroup and I plan to burn some of that toddler energy hopefully that will work.

Silent Sunday!