Boxers & Babies

Chuckie Cheese..a Germ Infested Adventure....

2011-11-12T21:50:00.000-06:00

Another 'promise for Potty Training, is that the girls would FINALLY get to go to Chuckie Cheese. You see, there are all these commercials about it on tv AND on the way home from Preschool each Thursday. So, the fascination with Chuckie Cheese has been an on-going experience. So, after venturing out last evening to the Mall and our big Adventures at Build-A-Bear, we set off today for Chuckie Cheese. The girls, of course had a blast, while I had an anxiety attack thinking/worrying about all the millions of diseases they could/would catch while there, because despite the whole use hand sanitizer when you first walk in, I am sure there are a million + diseases living on all the rides and climbing equipment...oh well, guess if they catch something, we're not coming back! :)

The girls had a blast! Also, since I'm posting this past when we actually went, I'm proud to note that we thankfully didn't catch any crazy diseases from chuckie cheese....this time! :)

Hope all is well,
J

Dare I say....Potty Trained???

2011-11-12T21:44:00.000-06:00

WELL, it looks like it was/is finally time that we officially admit that our girls are potty trained, only during the day, but man, am I greatful! We just realized the other day that we haven't had an accident in WEEKS, So, we discussed what we should do for a reward. The longest time ago, it was requested that we get a Vidia doll (a fairy from Tinkerbell), but Matt and I kind of felt that they deserved a little bit more exciting reward...so, we took the girls out to dinner at the Galleria and to check out the Disney store (really so I could scope what they had in preparation for the big After-Thanksgiving Day sales. While there, we took the girls to Build-a-Bear for the first time ever and they were able to pick a stuffed animal to make as part of their Potty-Training Reward....of course given that it's ALMOST the holiday season AND we saw Santa at the Mall, they chose to make a Rudolph..so cute, and he talks (not so cute in the middle of the night), but hey, their choice!

Now to start working on night-time training....fun fun!

Enjoying those last Fall Days

2011-11-07T12:27:00.004-06:00

This weekend, we winterized the house/back yard in preparation for winter. Last winter was AWFUL, seriously awful, and to be honest, I'm not thinking that this year will be much better, BUT there's always hope! Anyways, we did what we always do, clean up the leaves, cover all the patio furniture, clean out the gutters, and put away the girls's toys. They were a little disturbed and kept asking if they were going to get to play on their playset this winter. Poor kids. We've been on that thing literally every day since it went up, well, except when it rained. Winter's going to be hard. Being cooped up is hard, then add the additional torture of your playset being in our backyard and it being too nasty for you to go out! Well, I hate to say it, but I forsee many bundled up afternoons this winter in the cold on the playset. Darn it...I HATE WINTER, I HATE being cold, but I guess I'll just have to give in and be a good Mommy...or wait until Daddy's avaliable, but he conveniently doesn't get home until after dark in the winter. Stinker I think he does that on purpose. :)

Here are some pics of our HELPERS!

Hope All is well, and yes, if you are wondering, I'm playing catch up and back dating all the stuff I've been slacking on posting! :)

J

Halloween 2011

2011-11-06T21:51:00.000-06:00

....Halloween this year, dawned on a Monday, which is fine and all, but man, working the day after Halloween, especially when you have little kiddos who are into trick or treating, is ROUGH!

My mom watched the girls for us today (typically Monday's are Neena and PaPa's days, but they were in FL for their annual trek). THIS, was what the girls made with my mom today...FRENCH FRIED EYEBALLS...the girls LOVED them and were super excited to take them next door to the Halloween Party.

-They also sang the crazy "Halloween" song that my mom taught them (that she sang when she was a little girl)..she said that people used to sing songs instead of telling jokes...interesting. Even more interesting was that Mr. Bob's mom AND Mr. Bob knew the song as well...pretty funny. Guess Grammy isn't all that insane! :)

Here we are modeling our Dorothy costumes and getting ready to go to Mr. Bob's Halloween Party before Trick or Treating!

We've taken to calling ALL of our stuffed dogs (and there certainly are a lot) Toto...hilarious.

Daddy...all dressed and ready to trick or treat with his girls!

Mommy and her girls....

A family picture for Halloween, minus Mommy's witch costume from Uncle Ben's party.....

Sydney and Angie....

Ms. Rhonda and the girls....this year she was a Queen....she LOVES Halloween and thus, I suspect is the driving force behind Mr. Bob's yearly Halloween party! The things we do for love!

The super spooky talking head/candy bowl. The girls were fascinated by it!

After bathtime, the girls' had us light the pumpkins so they could see them glow...sadly, that was the last night of our pumpkins as I discovered the next morning that some jerko kids smashed our pumpkins up. Made me so mad and upset that this happned inour neighborhood. :( They certainly were cool looking.

Happy Halloween...maybe next year we can actually be something different from each other! :)

Spaghetti Dinner......

2011-11-03T21:44:00.001-05:00

YAY for spaghetti dinner! On November 2nd, preschool hosted a fundraiser at church in the form of a spaghetti dinner, which was super awesome, especially since Mommy and Daddy allowed us to pick our own DIFFERENT desserts...and they were yummy!

a quick easy dinner for all!

Pumpkin Carving....

2011-10-29T21:49:00.001-05:00

Last year, Matt started a pumpkin carving trend, that he had to uphold this year....by allowing the girls to pick a super cool design out of this kit that we purchased from some friends of ours before they moved. THANKFULLY, for his sake, the girls picked much easier and less time intensive pictures than they did last year! Also, thankfully for Mommy, he's content to carve those pumpkins up, because it's not something that I enjoy all that much.

Therefore, I play the role of the photographer (which is pretty normal around our home)!

Sadly, after all that hard work, some not nice kiddos in our neighborhood, stole our pumpkins and smashed them up. Made me so sad, and mad and I quite honestly felt violated. I know they were only pumpkins, but they were on MY front porch and my girls got some much pleasure from watching them. Made me mad. Oh well, next year they are going on the back patio, it has to be much safer there.

Hope you had a great Halloween!

An Early Halloween run-through......

2011-10-26T12:08:00.000-05:00

This weekend UNCLE Ben had a Halloween Party....we all had a blast! Even more fun was trick-o-treating at Neena and Papa's house before the party, and then going and having a good time at Uncle Ben's party! He has a boxer who looks JUST like Sugar, but much better behaved! :)

HEre are some pictures from before the party....

We lobbied hard for Mommy to dress up, so she did, but she told us that she draws the line at Green face paint, after her experience with Green hairspray as a kid...so we understood! Here's our Family Halloween Picture!

argggghhh......

Good times! :)
J

Silly Neena.....

2011-10-20T12:13:00.002-05:00

Neena, is the one who instilled in Daddy that Halloween is a lot of fun. So, it wasn't surprising when Mommy came home, one fall day in October that Neena had dressed us up for Halloween....sadly, Mommy couldn't convince us to be Kitty-Cat's for Halloween, but we had our hearts set on being Dorothy (and) Glenda (the good witch).....Guess Mommy and Daddy need to start doing some costume shopping....

We sure do make some seriously CUTE Kitty-Cats, don't we? Sadly, Kitty-Cat's don't have cool glittery shoes, which is probably the major draw to being Dorothy! :)

Happy Fall! :)

The Pumpkin Patch...2011 Style!

2011-10-08T19:01:00.000-05:00

Today, we took the girls to the Pumpkin Patch, and as has been our tradition for the last couple years, we went with some of our most favorite people! The girls were super super excited to see Caroline and Aunt Amy and Uncle Keith, especially Sydney who is in LOVE with Uncle Keith these days! :)

I have to say, Rombach's keeps mixing up, when it comes to their Halloween Decorations and fun for the kiddos! This year they added a big dinosaur maze for the kids and several more playsets. The girls all seemed to enjoy them...a lot! This was the first year that we didn't have to race out the week before and purchase hats and winter jackets for the girls, as it was 85. YES, it was 85 today. STRANGE, but true. We're having a little Indian Summer here, especially since it was chilly the previous weekend, enough to wear jackets during the evenings and in the mornings. That is one of the very nice things about fall here, warm days and cool nights and mornings! But I have to say, it wasn't the same since it was so warm! :)

Here we are arriving at the Pumpkin Patch....a good view of the dragon...

Playing around the playset.....

Checking out the pumpkins that are 'THEIR size'...this comes from the fact that my mom picked up two gigantic pumpkins for us this week at the store and told them that those were Mommy and Daddy size pumpkins!

I'm not sure what they thought was cooler...the giant mountain of pumpkins or the witch on top of it........

One of us had a brilliant idea to get a picture of all the girls together...my hats of off to professional photographers (of course they have cameras with faster shutter speeds than me, AND of course to parents of triplets)...how they get a picture with all 3 toddlers smiling and looking at the same place I am not sure....but it was pretty hilarious and made for some great entertainment for a bit..

Poor Caroline...I think she was confused (but looking darned cute today)...the girls were just in a million different directions today!

Climbing on the old-time fire truck...

Sydney, pretending that Uncle Keith is her personal slave...she sure does love him....it's so cute!

OF course, after we took these pictures, I noticed a sign saying, "please do not climb on the giant pumpkins".....oops, guess they should have put one of those signs BOTH ends of the row of giant pumpkins!

Olivia was fascinated by the messy pumpkins....

Driving the tractor...I think they are not supposed to sit on these either. OOPS.

Little Miss Independent...climbing the tractor all on her own...

Not intentionally, we seem to find a new spot every year to have our family Pumpkin Patch pictures taken.....

Notice they seem to suddenly have another family member? Doesn't she look familiar? Apparently Sydney wants to be in Uncle Keith's family picture....so cute...poor Caroline, she's got the GET OFF MY DADDY'S LAP NOW look! So funny!

Showing me that she's scared of the scary guy on the tractor......THANK GOD they got rid of the scary noise making Halloween stuff this year....that traumatized her last year!

After the pumpkin patch we went to Red Robin for lunch...and to get balloons...guess the joke was on us...they were out of balloons today. Darn it....apparently our girls were sick of us today...because they wanted to be with Aunt Amy and Uncle Keith at lunch today!

awwwww....Sydney and Caroline hugging....

We still haven't officially declared what we are going to be for Halloween, it changes daily if not hourly, I've heard Dorothy, Tangled, Tiana, Snow White, Aurora, Buttercup, Pirate, Puppy Dog, cowgirl, Hans Solo, Princess Leia, Jessie.....Guess they want to keep us on their toes.....I did tell both girls that they had to decide in 2 weeks what they are.....and your guess is as good as mine as to what they are going to pick!

Hope All is well....I promise I'll be going back to post some stuff that's happened lately!
J

Celebrating....

2011-10-01T21:06:00.000-05:00

On October 6, 2011, Great-Aunt Sissy will turn 65...that is craziness.....anyhoo...today, some of our family and some close friends of hers got together to celebrate the last 65 years and the years to come. It was a great time, and you could tell Sissy had fun. When the party idea started, due to the time that it was set, it was apparent that the girls (for the sake of all who were attending), would NOT be there because it was starting RIGHT after naptime. HOWEVER, later on, we decided that the girls and Daddy would come down after naptime to visit with everyone......that turned in to PaPa coming up to watch football with Daddy during naptime and then driving them down to his house so that we didn't have two cars...great deal for us!

Here are some pics...some how the girls ended up benefitting from Sissy's party and coming out winners with new skeleton pjs that glow in the dark.....super cool!

Happy 65 Sissy...we look forward to many more birthdays with you!

J

Smores.....

2011-09-29T20:54:00.001-05:00

YUM....for our first official Fall activity, we had a kickoff tonight with our new firepit, that Matt got for Christmas! For YEARS we've said that we wanted a firepit, and I'm not quite sure what kept us from getting one, but finally we have one. I see lots of firepit nights in our future! :) After dinner, Matt started up the firepit and then we made smores with the girls...it was super fun and yummy at the same time....even better was snuggling up together later when the girls were in bed! :) Nothing beats a fire....even smores! :)

Here are some pictures from our smores event....I have to say, it was a little stressful making sure we didn't get INTO the firepit, but I think the girls really understood how dangerous it was...now Sugar, she's a different story.

If you don't have a firepit, I HIGHLY recommend one.....

Hope You're Enjoying Fall too!
J

Fun Times at Grandpa's Farm......

2011-09-10T21:45:00.002-05:00

Ahhhh....another fun, fabulous day at Grandpa and Grandma's farm....we love it here! Here are some pictures of our awesome day! Enjoy!

Hope All is Well,
J

Another Festival...

2011-08-20T21:28:00.001-05:00

Matt and I are foodies, we love food (can't you tell), and part of this love affair is attending fun festivals that have amazing food for us to 'taste'. So, this past weekend, we celebrated the first week of school by attending the Festival of Nations, which is always a good time (Especially for the YUMMY food)! YAY. The girls had so so much fun, hearing the music, watching different performers, AND enjoying whatever yummy food they could sucker us into getting them! :) SURE, they don't necessairly NEED a stroller anymore, but in crowds, it's much easier to keep them contained AND safer to ensure they don't wander off...a.nd quite honestly it's a LONG LONG way for them to walk.

EXHAUSTED, after fun times!

Hope all is well,
J

Last Day of Summer...

2011-08-14T21:13:00.000-05:00

....for me, that is, was today, and since it was my last day off, Matt took the day off too! It was such a great day! We decided that we'd do it up and took the girls to the zoo for the day, which was awesome! However, apparently everyone else decided that today was a great zoo day too! It's so strange going places with the girls now, while they aren't necessairly ready to give up their stroller, they still aren't ready to walk everywhere, so we're learning how to juggle a combination of walking and 'riding'. I must say it makes me nervous, mainly because sometimes we still don't listen too well and then we end up running after them or constantly yelling at them to slow down or come back (which is no fun, at all)...and it's hard to just 'leave' your stroller places and run after them. But, we did well today, I think!

Hanging with Daddy......

All over the zoo they had little learning centers set up where the kids could learn about different animals and then touch their pelt and see what they feel like.

The ever popular carousel....we forgot about the free rides before 10am...next time we'll get their earlier so that the girls can ride more, since the darned thing is $$$ and they love it!

Catching a ride with Daddy.....

Out and about so that we can see the animals in their enclosures better.....

The stingray exhibit was awesome, even if it did stink! Here Matt and the girls are attempting to pet a stingray...I know Olivia got to touch one, but I'm pretty sure Sydney didn't. She was a little freaked out by them!

We ate lunch off the lake....the girls had a great time at lunch....

ahhh....the goats. I HATE goats, I think you should know that (pretty sure I've mentioned this before...it stems from an awful even in my childhood involving my coat, cheezits, stroller, and of course, a goat. It still makes me shudder. Needless to say, that afternoon at Grants Farm ruined goats for me. However, sometimes as parents we make sacrifices for our children. It's tough, but sometimes we have to do it....thus I try really hard for about 30 minutes everytime we go to the zoo to pretend that I like goats, while my girls torture the poor animals who have the misfortune of being zoo goats. I'm not sure a steady food source is worth it, seriously. Those animals have it BAD......imagine thousands of little hands touching you on a regular basis, it would mak you shudder and be evil too!

Sydney was quite facinated with the two kids she saw...she kept telling me they were twins like her and Olivia....it was super duper cute!

This giraffe was HILARIOUS.....was totally into the crowd today...too bad the Mommy and Baby Giraffe weren't, they were hiding in the back of their enclosure, probably trying to get away from the noise.

Riding on a train, riding on a train......next to the carousel, the train was a close second in favorite places at the zoo! YAY..great way to 'see' most of the zoo!

On our way home, we stopped and got some Ted Drewes.....

Ted Drewes was quite a hit, and a perfect way to end such a perfect day! School with kids starts on Monday....wow, did summer go fast!

Hope all is well for you and yours!

Dog Days of Summer

2011-08-02T21:36:00.001-05:00

...by the time our anniversary hits every summer, it seems as if our summer (that seemed SOOOO endless in the first couple weeks of June), has just flown by. :( While I am looking forward to meeting my new kiddos and starting off the school year and having more of a routine, I am so going to miss my summer days with my babies. Another year gone by that I won't get back and some day will be a distant memory for me. :( Boo-hoo. Poor Poor me.

Any way, here are some cute pictures from random times this summer. :)

The girls ADORE their finished playset!

Hope all is well,
J

Toddler Time....

2011-07-29T22:02:00.000-05:00

Tuesdays and Thursdays in the Summer, mean Toddler Time at Grammy's pool, and boy do we LOVE that place. Every Tuesday and Thursday in the summer, from 10-11:30, the Crestwood Pool has Toddler time for kids under 7, and man is a popular and super cool place. For that hour and a half, 35 toddlers and their parents are allowed into the pool while it is closed, to play in their toddler area. To say it's a favorite of ours is an understatement! These are some pics of our last Toddler Time for the summer before Mommy had to return to work...boo.

We are already looking forward to Toddler Time next summer! :)

How Can it BE.....

2011-07-12T22:13:00.001-05:00

That WE are 3? Where did time go? Where did my babies go? Insert sad face here. My little girls are growing up, it's so sad. I remember when the girls were first home from the NICU and Matt was home with me for 2 weeks, one day we were out driving to get something to eat and a quick run in to Babies R Us to get something, and I commented to Matt that I couldn't wait until they were older, envisioning all the fun times we were going to have. He on the other hand said, slow down, let's enjoy them as babies. Shortly after that Darius Rucker's It Won't be Like this for Long came out, and I totally thought back to that conversation. In fact, every time I hear that song, I think back to that conversation and all the long nights of no sleep, and now that those are so far behind, I actually, really, really miss them. I totally get how our parents "miss their babies"...I miss my babies already, and they are ONLY 3. Seems like so little to some, but to me it's so big. The girls are always telling me that they are BIG girls now, and I say, "No, you are MY babies, Mommy's Babies...won't you cuddle/rocky-rocky with me/Snuggle (or any other sort of thing)"...and they typically do, but I know that those days are limited. Poor Mommy. I live for Saturday morning/Sunday morning cuddles (or right now, just summertime cuddles), and, I know from watching my cousin with her 10 and 5 year old that those days are limited for me....but for now, I'm going to milk them for ALL their worth. :)

Anyways, shockingly enough, the girls turned 3 on Sunday, July 10th and we had a Great Great Day! We had the girls pick what they wanted to do...first on the menu, eating out for breakfast and Dinosaur Pancakes (we are super big dinosaur fans these days, and they love this restaurant by our house that makes pancakes in the shape of a triceratops), then we went to the Museum...you know, the one we went to over Easter..the City Museum. They ADORE that place, I'm thinkin' we may be getting a membership soon! :) Then we came home for Naptime and a late lunch and had ice cream for dinner! :) Just what every THREE year old needs! Here are our bazillion pictures from that day! :)

Here we are at the SunnyDay Cafe...eating Breakfast!

The rooftop at the City Museum....Daddy and his girls....it was nasty hot that day, especially on the roof!

looking out off of the roof

The Praying Mantis ontop of the museum is next to a HUGE slide, that thankfully the girls didn't want to go down b/c they would have had to go by theirselves and they wanted to go with Mommy and Daddy...they would have been terrified....however I'm SURE next year they'll be all about it! :)

I have several fears, and while I'm pretty fearless about riding rides, I DO NOT ride the ferris wheel. It scares me, I just hate it. SO, Daddy took the girls by himself, with a stern warning from MOmmy that if they all died I was going to be really pissed......the girls liked it! :)

Playing on the big school bus...this May I went on a field trip with some students and the girls came to see me off, since I was gone for several days. To get to New Orleans, we rode a bus, and as a result of that, my girls are not obsessed with school buses (NOT the kind of bus we rode, but hey, whatever)....and how Mommy works with big kids who ride buses to school...super cute!!

Olivia...my little bus driver!

OF COURSE Sydney has to have her turn!

And just like last time, we HAD to get our face painted! Sydney got a rainbow, mainly I think because the girl in front of her did, but hey, whatever, it was cute!

Olivia on the other hand requested a mermaid. I wondered if the artist was up to the challenge....

....she sure was....here is Miss O's mermaid!

The ever popular Zebra...

Olivia just loves that ball pit (as Mommy shudders b/c of all the germs...I call it the germ pit)!

Sydney and Mommy!

Yeah, now the other one can get nasty old germs from the germ pit (as I remind myself they are having fun, it's their birthday, and I'm off for the summer so no sick days will be required if they get ill from the germ pit).

Mom! Take my picture...I in jail! lol!

Olivia....."hey Mommy...I just slided out of a worm!"

Attempting to get the girls to go see the "SCARY GUY" who stands by the stairs to the slide.......NOTHING could convince them that he wasn't scary....

and, here I introduce you to the SCARY GUY...also known to the museum as Scuba Steve!

Olivia has a tendancy to get over 'Scary' things faster...here she is at the TOP of the slide smiling for the camera...

Checking out the whale's tummy (and the tunnel through the whale)..Olivia declared it too dark to go into....

super big building blocks are COOL!

have to tell you, the sponge pit was closed last time we were here...it scares me WAY more than the ball pit of germs. Just nastiness. Wonder if they EVER clean this stuff....

ah...the infamous train at the City Museum....Sydney rode it 4 times...

and yes the midget conductor was there...wonder if the poor guy ever gets a day off..

Olivia watching Sydney ride the train, she tells me "Mommy, I want to ride the train"...after a long conversation where I reminded her that she didn't like the train last time, she convinces me to put her on the train....

well, at least it made for a good picture....b/c it didn't last long. She just doesn't like the darkness...she's not my adventurer...now Sydney, SHE'S a different story...

Playing in the building blocks one last time as Mommy picks up our art work from earlier (that's still not dry)!...we ALMOST forgot this time, but we came back for it!

Guess we wore out Olivia....Sydney never fell asleep on the ride home, but little Jeni (as Matt calls Olivia), did right away, as per usual. She is so my child. Once she stops moving she is asleep! :)

AFTER Naptime, it was time to bust out their toys from their birthday party...biggest hit of the afternoon (Next to the new food toys and lunch boxes from Aunt Amy and Uncle Keith), was their princess dresses from Gi-Gi...love love love. Super cute! They had so much fun!

Sydney....

Attempting another hug....

Olivia or Miss Fairy Godmother Olivia as she wanted to be called...

ha ha..wonder if he'll EVER see this! :)

WELL, since Sugar wouldn't move, Olivia decided to use her as a pillow....the things we learn every day! :)

It was a fun, exhausting day....but do they REALLY have to be 3???

Hope all is well,

PS...no one got sick from the pit of germs or sponge pit! YAY! Go immune systems go! :)

3rd Birthday Party!

2011-07-11T14:42:00.001-05:00

HUG YOUR SISTER! :) Can I tell you how much I love these pictures? These were even before the party started, I convinced the girls to love each other for Mommy's Camera...and now Mommy and Daddy have super cute new desk pictures for work!

The girls' 3rd birthday party was awesome and they had so much fun, which is the point of these things, right? Their big present for their third birthday is a playset, but it's still be put together, so we didn't get to play with it at their party. These things take time, and man do they have a lot of pieces. I totally get why some parents hire companies to put them together! Too bad for Matt, we didn't do that. Oh well, it gives him some pride, in I did that for my kids...or at least that's what he told me! :)

The girls started out wanting a Mickey Party, and asked me to make them Minnie Dresses, so I bought them dresses to applique Minnie on..THEN they told me they each wanted a different color dress, so since I had 2 more, I made dresses for Stephanie and Caroline, and then made t-shirts with Minnie/Mickey on them for the other little kids who came..Minnie and MIckey are MUCH easier to applique on than Toodie and Foofa, that's for sure. Only took me about an hour to cut out the stuff an affix it to the shirts, and then another hour to sew them on. GO ME! And they were a big hit! Anyways, the party quickly turned into a Disney party, after the girls went to Sams and saw their Princess cupcakes, that's fine! Whatever, it's their party, I just work here! We had tons of yummy food and great times with our friend who came. Thanks to everyone for celebrating with us!

Olivia and Caroline..

We brought out the pool for outside enterainment..the kids loved it...best $20 we spent all summer!

Baby Rachel....and her Mama.

An attempt to get all the girls together for a picture...some of us didn't want to sit still long enough for a picture....

Miss Sydney.....

Miss O..

Listening to everyone sing to them!

Miss Stephanie...

Miss Caroline...

Olivia, sitting on Grandpa's lap...

Sydney.....

The ever famous and much beloved Bryar...it was a super exciting event that Bryar was coming to their party...

And...a family picture to commemorate their 3rd party.......

Tomorrow's the big day, so we're planning on having a Sydney and Olivia Day...stay tuned!
J

the 4th of July.....

2011-07-08T11:08:00.000-05:00

I love the 4th of July, it's one of my most favorite holidays! Thankfully, on our trip to Disneyland, the girls were introduced officially to fireworks and they have decided that they are the coolest thing, EVER! YAY. Like most of our past 4th of Julys for the 10 years that Matt and I have been together, we spent the day with our close friends, who have a beautiful daughter Caroline. She (and my friend Nancy's daughter Stephanie) are the girls' self-proclaimed best-friend.

Here we are getting ready for Caroline to come over and filling up our super cool new pool!

waiting eagerly to get into the water!

Happy Birthday America!

I hope you had a great 4th too!

Backyard Fun....

2011-07-07T11:26:00.000-05:00

I try to get the girls outside at least twice a day, at least before the heat gets to be too much and we'll be housebound for little bits of time because it's way too hot to play outside. Currently, one of our most favorite toys is the t-ball set that I bought them this spring....so cute!

shhh....don't tell the girls, but I definately see a swingset in their future AND a new swimming pool if possible.

Stay Cool,

Daddy's Softball Game...

2011-06-30T11:22:00.001-05:00

So, in the grand scheme of our summer, I have been attempting to get the girls out and about more often and introduce them to new experiences....so, we decided that it would be cool to take the girls' to Daddy's work softball game....it was a 7pm game. So, we packed into the car, stopped and got some McDonalds and headed off to the game in Forest Partk....that said, not sure if this is an experience we'll be repeating anytime soon, but the girls seemed to have a decent time. It was a hard concept to understand that Daddy had to focus on the game and NOT us. Shocker of all Shocker, we were not the center of our Daddy's attention, and we were NOT fans of it.

Maybe next year, they'll like going to the games more....I hope! :)

Summer Adventures....

2011-06-29T10:58:00.001-05:00

After such a fun filled vacation, it took me a whole day to get situated and realized that we were going to need some SERIOUS activities for the summer to keep us occupied! So, I decided that each day we would try and do something special.

Here we are playing at our favorite playground by our house......

After the playground, we may or may not have gotten a special treat, but I can't tell you that! :) It was a lot of fun, but then it started to get a little crowded and I hate being the ONLY parent who watches their kids on the playground, and it was a little past lunch time (which means crabbiness), so we headed out.

Hope All is Well,

Family Reunion

2011-06-05T17:26:00.002-05:00

Today we had Matt's Mom's side of the family's family reunion. As always it was a good time. It helps that Matt actually KNOWS all the people in his extremely large extended family. His Grandma was one of 12 children, and their families are all very close, which is really cool. This is of course the complete opposite of my family reunion that my mom makes us go to each year where I know, oh, approximately 4 people (all of them, with the exception of my mom, over the age of 75)....the girls had a blast, and as you can see by the many thousands of pictures, several outfit changes....what can one expect from our little divas?

Miss O...

Kyra...and O, our new sunglasses are courtesy of Aunt Gretchen and Kyra (they are too small to fit Kyra), so we are benefitting from this!

Sydney hanging on her Neena, as usual...

"Mama...they have a pool, can we swim?" I am a mean mom and made them wait until after lunch to swim.

Testing out the water before we get our lunch....

Miss S

Miss O...

Checking out the camper, they were fascinated by it!

Eating lunch...

"HELPING" Daddy eat his sampling of desserts....thankfully he had intended on sharing with the girls!

It's swimming time....

Running around after spending some time in the pool....Sydney convinced Aunt Gretchen to allow her to 'walk' Chica...poor Chica.

Hope all is well with you....next week is my first full week of summer and we are off on Friday to see Uncle Todd and go to the beach and Disney before we head to Phoenix to see Grandma and GrandDude (who will be at the beach and Disney with us).....

J

Baby Rachel Turns 1!

2011-06-04T19:49:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's already been a year, but my best friend's baby, just turned 1. So scary how fast a year goes, especially since I didn't get to see her all that much (due to fun things like tax season and all the random illnesses all our kids had this winter/spring...it was a rough year). ANwyays, we are hoping that summer and fall are much better times for us so that we can see them more often, especially since the girls love to play with Stephanie and think the idea of having a baby sister is fascinating! :)

Here we are playing in the awesome playroom at Aunt Nancy's house...

Miss Olivia...that kid sure does like tables and chairs!

Miss S

Stephanie, Nora, and Sydney

Cute pic of Aunt Nancy with the girls...

All the kids hanging in the playroom...

In action....

The Birthday girl showing off her mad skills at hovering...she's ALMOST ready to walk!

technically this picture comes BEFORE the one of her standing, but I uploaded them wrong. :(

MIss Stephanie and her partner in crime/cousin Nora

Miss Stephanie and the balloons!

Sydney and the balloons....

Olivia and the balloons....give this kid a balloon or two and she's happy as a clam!

Aunt Nancy and Rachel....

Olivia joining the family picture!

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Drew and all the kiddos...craziness, well, minus Sydney

HERE we have all the kids at the party with Aunt Nancy and Uncle Drew...they look like naturals! Ha ha!

All in all a great party!

AND for the rest of the Memorial Day Weekend.....

2011-06-01T22:13:00.002-05:00

After spending the day at Grandpa and Grandma's farm, we came home (minus a nap), to go to Angie's Birthday party. Angie is our next door neighbor...we love her, and her brother, and her Dad (Mr. Bob) and Her mom (Ms. Rhonda), AND Cooper, the adorable puppy. Shockingly enough we were well behaved and flirted with everyone, while mooching as many sweets as possible! :)

Here we are, dressed up for the party...

Angie and the girls...

on Sunday evening, we went to Grandma Pat's for dinner...one of her friends from Church gave her a whole bunch of her kids old dress up clothes....we sure do love them!

A lazy Monday meant popsicles on the patio...can't wait for summer to get here!

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend, here's to hoping I survive this lovely cold that I picked up.

Down on the Farm....

2011-05-31T13:03:00.001-05:00

For Memorial Day weekend, we spent our Sunday at Grandpa Gale and Grandma Vicki's farm and we had so much fun!

Here we are posing in front of the side of the barn....we got some super cute pictures out of this visit! :) Grandpa mentioned that Grandma had some pictures of the other grandchildren in front of the barn, so could we take some of the girls here too....

I call this the pirate grin....arggggggh!

LOVE your sister! :)

I especially love these next two pics...

Up in the loft with Daddy, we'll have to try these again, not too many came out! BOO.

Riding on the tractor in the hay...almost as cool as seeing the horses!

This is Miss O

Miss S

Feeding the horses. This is the part of the visit where Mommy goes into the house and hides, as she is allergic to horses. Boo. :(

looking out over their domain....so so cute.

Grandpa's Girls!

Monkeying around the farm!

As always, we had a wonderful visit to the farm....it started off kind of rough with the Sydney getting sick on the way down (in her defense she told her Daddy her tummy hurt), but she quickly recovered while at Grandpa's! We played the morning away, had a yummy lunch and then played some more before we headed home. Sadly the 40 minute drive home was NOT a good nap for the girls. Oh well! Off to a birthday party we went!

Hope all is well with you!

We want.....

2011-05-24T13:24:00.000-05:00

A swing set, for our birthday! :) This past weekend, was wonderful! THe girls had so much fun, and Matt and I did as well. We went over to Aunt Amy and Uncle Keith's house on Saturday evening, to spend some time with our BFF, Caroline. And of COURSE we had so much fun! Caroline has recently gotten a swingset, so we have declared that we would like one too. Okay...Mommy and Daddy are working on that, in the mean time, we'll be visiting the park and going over to visit Caroline! WE do feel and agree that a cool playset is a must (newsflash, Mommy's already picked out one...hopefully you like it!).

Arriving....

Olivia...

Sydney and Aunt Amy...

A tough lesson in DON'T WALK in front of the swing, leads to a cut on Olivia's toe and Sydney hysterical because she was knocked dow

Happy Saturday! :)

A Birthday Party....

2011-05-23T15:05:00.002-05:00

Today, we went to a birthday party for our friends Cameron and Collin. They are twins, just like us! They were born 8 weeks before we were, on the same day that Mommy had her surgery to keep us in her tummy. That's kind of cool. We always have fun at their house, they have super cool toys AND a big brother. That's even cooler. The party was even more super cool because our friend Caroline came as well!

A big #3 pretzel to show that the boys are 3 years old! Very yummy!

The theme for the party was trains...here are some yummy train cookies made by their aunt!

Arriving at the party in our party dresses, we are currently obsessed with dresses!

Playing around with our friends...

Olivia checking out the cat...his name is Oliver....poor girls, they want a cat, but Mommy is allergic to cats. :(

Sydney and the dump truck....that's what makes boys houses even more fun....trucks!

Olivia chasing Sydney....

Mommy and Olivia...

Sydney eating pretzel,,,

Olivia loves that bus....

Sydney pushing a car that she SHOULD be riding in, oh well!

Now it's O's turn with the trucks...

Aunt Amy and Caroline, fresh from Family pictures! Caroline is wearing her Stella Stegasauras shirt I made her.

Everyone playing together (well, the girls at least)

All in all a great party! Happy 3rd Birthday Cameron and Collin!

Mother's Day..

2011-05-09T23:42:00.001-05:00

As has been our family tradition, since the girls were born, we have hosted a Mother's Day brunch...and this year was no exception! It was a beautiful day here in STL!

My mom has been watching the girls for the past year on Wednesday's (Matt's mom is still doing Monday's when they are not travelling), and apparently, this week, she and the girls made me a Mother's Day gift, it was very difficult convincing the girls that they couldn't tell me ALL about my present they made me until Sunday....I think it's because I have trained them to tell me all about their day and what they did, etc....it was cute!

Here are the girls, bringing me flowers that 'they' purchased with Grandma Pat.....

Giving me their homemade cards (they may have eaten off one of the flowers (made from fruit loops)....:)

Fruitloop necklaces and a bracelet.....made with red licorice strings and fruitloops...so cute!

EATING my necklace...stinker...they each had to have a bite! :)

"HELPING" get ready for brunch....

it was absolutely beautiful, so we ate brunch outside....the girls ate at 'their' table....Sugar helped too!

The obligatory outfit change, just before naptime....bubbles with Grandma Pat.....

Olivia...played a little baseball with Neena....

Our Mother's Day family picture....we did this BEFORE brunch, while the girls were in a good mood!:)

I had a pretty fabulous Mother's Day....love you babies and Daddy, of course! Thanks for making my Day pretty awesome!

A little Trip to the Farmers Market....

2011-05-07T22:00:00.000-05:00

AHHHH....to start off the weekend, and man was it fun! Today was the first day of the Farmer's Market in Tower Grove Park, and to kick it off, they had invited lots of crafty artists as well as the traditional farmer's market items to be sold. All around it was a great time. Sadly, however we missed some of the stuff because it sold out so fast...I guess next year, we'll know better to get their earlier. A LOT of people told us the best way to shop the Tower Grove Farmers Market is to get there around 8am...ummmm...okay, good to know! One thing that was really cool was that a lot of the people selling baked goods, were selling GLUTEN free stuff..yay for me! :) The girls sure enjoyed it as well!

Eating some gluten free cookies (the kind that don't hurt Mommy's tummy)....

Another even cooler fun fact about the farmers market....it's RIGHT next to a super awesome playground, so the girls sure enjoyed that! Here they are playing around.....

Happy Saturday to all....we came home from the Farmer's Market and all took really long naps, awesome...even better, after feeding the girls dinner, we were off for ICE CREAM..yes, Matt and I had ice cream for dinner....it was decadent....who needs dinner!???

Loving May already!

Antiques....

2011-05-02T12:43:00.004-05:00

Grandpa and Grandma, love antiques, and are quite the collectors. SO, several years ago, they started an antiquing business. Twice a year, they go to place pretty close to our home, that is fun for kids to visit, so we go and join them....these are some pictures of our adventures with Grandpa Gale and Grandma Vicki. Even more exiciting is that cousin Bryar also came along like he did in the fall. Sadly, this festival didn't have as much cool stuff for kids, but it was still fun to visit and eat fun festival food!

We hope you enjoy our pictures.....

Olivia greeting Grandpa...

Sydney snuggling with Grandma

Playing around....

You know it's getting close to time to go, when we want to sit back in our strollers, and when the storms start to roll in....so quickly after this picture was taken, we packed it up. Both girls were passed out by the time we pulled out of our parking space!

We had an amazing time visiting with Grandpa, Grandma, and Cousin Bryar, if you couldn't tell!

Spring is coming.....

2011-05-01T18:11:00.001-05:00

Finally! :) And as always with Spring, comes Grass cutting. I know I talk incessently about how much the girls love Mr. Bob and his family, but finally I have proof! On this lazy Saturday afternoon, here is Miss Sydney imitating her favorite person in the world (for now, no offense Mr. Bob, but she's fickle, however you've been at the top for quite sometime now!). This next series of pictures is my absolute favorite..so adorable!

Sydney setting up top be like Mr. Bob......notice he is noticing her doing this...

Mr. Bob looking all serious as he starts his mower...Sydney's already started cutting the grass on her side of the fence!

And....imitating in it's best form....notice the dogs on BOTH sides of the fence harassing their owners who are 'cutting' the grass....I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture....the dogs make it, seriously! Hilarious!

After playing around for a bit, Daddy decided to bust out the bubble guns that the Easter Bunny so nicely brought the girls....super cool toy, I must say! Everyone loves bubbles, even Sugar!

MORE Mr. Bob harassment....Cooper likes to eat the bubbles like Sugar as well!

Wanna drive your dog nuts? Get a bubble gun....poor Sugar...

Hope you enjoyed our first official taste of Spring....not very sunny, but at least there was no rain for a couple days! :)

Someone Once told me...

2011-04-26T16:27:00.000-05:00

That all good things must come to an end. And sadly, our long weekend with Grandma and GrandDude has come to an end. Boo. Makes me so sad. I wish we got to see them more. :(

Here are some pictures of the girls before Grandma and GrandDude left STL...well, for the airport, b/c my Dad insists on being there 2 hours before hand (boy could I tell you some stories of our escapades to be at the airport INSANELY early, but I'll spare you...however there was the one time that we didn't get something to eat on the way to the airport b/c we didn't have time (b/c there would be food at the airport for sure) and all 9 of us (we had 2 additional people with us)....we starving b/c there wasn't food and our plane was seriously delayed...fun times!

The girls wanted to be fairy princesses for Grandma and GrandDude, so we wore our ballerina dresses (god bless the clearance rack at Old Navy)!

Going Downstairs to visit one last time.....

Playing around in the guest room!

Enjoying our toys that hide out in the basement....we don't visit them very often apparently!

on the way to the airport, my stepmom called me to share how horrible the devestation was from the Good Friday Tornados we had here. Makes me so sad that so many people's lives were changed in an instance. THANKFULLY no one was seriously injured. Of course, this was just fuel for the fire under their pants to try and convince us to move to AZ. Oh, how I wish. Hopefully, in the next couple years, we'll be able to spend more time there (You know, when we're rich b/c we're not paying one whole pay check of mine into daycare (not that it's NOT worth it, b/c it is). But after the girls are in Elementary School, we'll be able to sock more away and working on getting out to see the Grandparents WAY more frequently, AND we'll have the added bonus of GrandDude being retired! YAY!

Looking very forward to our summer vacation at Grandma and GrandDude's house....already!

J

Happy Easter!

2011-04-26T12:36:00.001-05:00

Easter..my favorite time of the year....really, because it's SPRING, but also because of who comes to visit our house! I know I'm behind on my postings, even though it's going to look like I posted this in April, I REALLY am posting this in May, but the last two months, have been craziness at work (MAP testing and then getting my 8th graders transitioned to the high school and signed up for summer school, some days I blink and it's over, and all I KNOW is that I met with students and teachers all day long)! So, anyways I apologize for being so tardy in updating about all the fun we've been having!

Back to programming.....Easter is my favorite time of year, in terms of visitors. For those who come around frequently, you are aware that every Easter weekend, my Dad and Stepmom come in to visit, and it's ALWAYS a grand time. This year, was absolutely no different!

Easter Sunday was so much fun! THis year, the girls were able to spend Easter with ALL of their grandparents, which was awesome! Sadly, they were terribly spolied and are STILL eating Easter candy, minus the pieces that we've both stolen (yes, I just admitted that)! :)

WE had an Easter Egg Hunt and all that Jazz in the morning...and then had cinnamon rolls, which the girls LOVE, and watched the Glee music video that the girls got from the Easter Bunny ALL DAY LONG...and we wonder WHY they are continually asking for glee music and dancing around the house and constantly breaking into song! Everyone took naps and then around 4:30, our guests began arriving....each guest came accompanied by a gift of some sort that the Easter Bunny left at their house for the girls....it was craziness....

My favorite family picture...

Olivia and Mommy and Daddy....she wasn't wanting to be so cooperative!

Sydney and Mommy and Daddy...always willing to HAM it up!

The girls with Grandma and GrandDude...

Showing off their Eggs that they made in the morning with Daddy and GrandDude......

Miss Sydney....

All decked out in some of her many Easter goodies.....

Miss Sydney sharing her Easter goodies with Grandpa....notice HE'S wearing a princess Tiara too!

Opening one of our many Easter Baskets....this set from Grandma Pat....

Neena Bunny, bought us fairy wands....they also doubled as microphones....big big hits!

Miss Olivia...man she was fast in getting that Reese's Easter Bunny opened....

All decked out and playing with her new stuff....

Easter Dinner was Yummy...we had Ham, Asparagus, Deviled Eggs, Jello Salad, Stuffed Mushrooms...and My favorite.....

Guess you can tell we had a great great time! ALL of us!

J

The Easter Bunny

2011-04-26T10:59:00.001-05:00

He Came He came, and of course he spoiled! Apparently, he's ALMOST as cool as Santa, but he brings CANDY, which we rarely get and it's so so yummy. Hopefully Mommy and Daddy will share all our candy!

Checking out the goodies left by the Easter Bunny on the hearth. FAIRY wings and bubble guns are a big hit, THEN there's all the candy....

it took a little while of playing with our toys before we realized that we may be able to sneak in some candy!

After checking out our Easter Baskets, we had an Easter Egg hunt, that was super super cool, especially since the Easter Bunny filled the eggs with jelly beans, peanut butter eggs, WORMS, and mint candies.

Sydney...filling her basket with Eggs she found hidden around the house by the Easter Bunny, he sure did make a lot of eggs!

Miss Olivia, giggling it up!

After the Egg hunt, we cuddled up with GrandDude on the couch...probably because we knew that he wouldn't steal our candy! :) Too bad his eyes are closed in this picture, oh well, at least it's cute!

After Breakfast, Daddy and GrandDude dyed eggs with us...it was awesome...Mommy and Grandma made food for dinner tonight.

Sydney modeling Grandma Carol's turtle necklace that she always manages to finagle from her, the funny thing being, that OLIVIA likes turtles more than Sydney does...guess she's out for the bling!

Looking forward to the rest of Easter....you know, after naptime!

...A LONG Evening...

2011-04-25T16:50:00.023-05:00

After our visit to City Museum, we stopped at Steak and Shake and got lunch and came home, while all the Grandparents went out to lunch on the hill (stinkers, and I noticed that not one of them brought me any yummy leftovers...boo). After lunch, we all took a nice long nap, while Grandma and GrandDude did the obligatory run to Target (I think this was their second run).....when they got back, the girls were up and ready to play! We watched a video and chilled until GrandDude and Grandma Carol came up...well, GrandDude came up first.....and was quickly immersed in Shrek with the girls....

Olivia hanging with Daddy....

Apparently, it's cooler to hang out with GrandDude....

Matt says this picture proves that he really IS my Dad, because like me, whenever he sits still for too long, he falls asleep...Olivia has inherited this trait as well.....Matt calls her Little Jeni.....

HA HA HA...I LOVE this picture...it goes down as one of my most favorite pictures EVER! Sadly, Carol missed it....

ahhhhh..mooching off of Grandparent's a favorite for ALL Grandchildren! Sydney is no different, however she just likes to mooch, doesn't matter WHO it is!

Grandma decided that everything needed a little livening up...so she and GrandDude gave the girls their Easter Presents....a big hit as always. You can tell Grandma has practice at getting awesome stuff, since the girls always LOVE the things she gets them!

YES! New dresses! Awesome....the girls love clothes and Mommy and Daddy LOVE when someone else buys them clothes! :)

Dance Party...

TIRED....

A little later, after present time, my Uncle John and Aunt Nancy, who live in southern Missouri came over to spend the evening...sadly it was an eventful evening, but it reminded me how much I ADORE my finished basement! Here we are hanging out before dinner....

After dinner, we busted out the wine...which we made sure to take downstairs when the sirens went off. My poor Dad was freaking out, especially as Matt and went around the house getting all our tornado stuff (my bag with cash and a couple emergency items and shutting all the doors)...poor guy.

Watching the news....we never even lost satellite, shockingly enough! In 2006, a tornado hit in our neighborhood, so we know what the train sounds like, and it really does sound like that....they were not so happy to hear that when we shared that information. Apparently tornados have a tendancy to hit again in the same places due to the terrain...not good to hear. :(

Playing with our basement toys....and the few that we HAD to bring with us...of course we brought our wubbies and our hippo pillow pets......and a couple more stuffed animals....

Sadly, an area very close to where we used to live was hit pretty badly. All of those families are in our prayers, thankfully no one was killed. Gotta thank the weather service and basements for that. PAY attention people to these weather warnings and PLEASE take them seriously....getting off my soapbox now....

I hope you and your loved ones were not affected,
J

The City Museum....

2011-04-25T12:50:00.058-05:00

Good Friday! Always a great day...this Good Friday, we spent the morning at the City Museum, and man was it cool and fun! The girls had so much, fun and all the adults did too, I'm pretty sure that we all came home and took a nap.

Snuggling with Grandma and GrandDude....

Olivia and GrandDude....checking out the sculptures on the way into the museum.

WHEEE!! Sydney swinging with Neena and Grandma Carol.

The view from outside of the City Museum...a fun interactive museum for kids of ALL ages!

Checking out the turtles in the mermaid pond....

Olivia checking out one of the many tunnels in the museum....as Sydney and I were walking through.

Modeling with Grandma Carol...

Standing on a big Giant turtle....Miss Olivia...

Miss Sydney...

Climbing through the tunnels over the entrance to the City Museum....Olivia....

Sydney and I attempting to climb after Daddy and Olivia...she quickly decided that it was too much work and she'd rather hang out with her Grandparents....

The BALL PIT...or the pit of germs...ick, but the girls loved it!

Miss Olivia....

Miss Sydney....

The girls...well, minus Miss Olivia who was busy painting with her Daddy and PaPa.

Sydney and PaPa....

Olivia and GrandDude....

Sydney, Mommy, and GrandDude...

Sydney, riding the mechanical zebra...

FACE Painting....Sydney chose to have an Octopus painted on her face....seriously I have NEVER seen this kid sit THAT still, in my life! It was amazing!

How beautiful....

During Sydney's face painting experience, Olivia was busy painting pictures with Daddy, so Papa made sure that she was able to get HER face painted too...

Olivia is obsessed with butterflies...guess her choice was appropriate then! :)

Then Pap had to join the fun and got a snake painted on his head...apparently the face painting lady offered the idea up and he decided to go with it!

And Neena and her rose with Papa...

Painting was so so much fun, too bad we forgot their pictures, guess we need to go back and repaint!

After face painting, we took a little break and had some snacks on one of the many benches in the museum.....Sydney hamming it up!

Check out that look Grandma Carol is getting from Olivia...

O....Eating her pretzel with cheese....

Sydney and Grand Dude....

Olivia and Grand Dude...

Sydney.....

Mommy and Olivia....

Mommy and Sydney snuggling.....long long day!

Sydney and Daddy...

At the end of the day, we had the girls ride the small train that they had....all was good, until it went around for more than one lap, and then Miss Olivia was scared and started to cry. It was so sad.

My poor unhappy baby.....

Looking forward to lots of fun this weekend! :P

What a great morning....too bad we had storms in the evening hours that made it not as much fun!

Arrival...

2011-04-22T20:58:00.001-05:00

After eagerly anticipating the arrival of Grandma Carol and GrandDude, the day finally came for them to come to STL, and boy were the girls excited. They woke up on Thursday morning and informed ME that Today was finally the day! No need to tell me that girls, Mommy is just as excited as you are! You see, we haven't seen Grandma and GrandDude since Uncle Sean and Aunt Kelsey's wedding on August 14, that is CRAZINESS! We can't do that anymore, so we're going to need to devise another visit schedule of some sort. For the last month, we've had a calendar to count down to our visit, and the girls were super excited to put a sticker in the box to indicate that we were one day closer to seeing Grandma and GrandDude.

Thankfully, their flight was arriving on the earlier side, 10:30 am. So, I kept the girls home from Georgine's house and we played around all morning long, well, until Neena (who had been out of town for the last 2 weeks, offered to come play with us while Mommy picked up some special desserts for the weekend).

After a quick visit with Grandma and GrandDude and lunch, the girls went down for a 2 hour nap, while Grandma and GrandDude went to get some groceries at Target....here are some pictures of us visiting/playing around in the basement/Guest Suite....then dinner, and dessert to celebrate Grandma's birthday a couple days early....

Checking out the home-made tortillas that Grandma brought for Daddy ....they sure are yummy.

Hanging with GrandDude, while he NAPS! :)

aaaaand...he's out.

One of the special cookies for Grandma Carol's birthday.....gotta love the cookies from the Cakery..

Mommy and Olivia....

Be prepared to be tired....this weekend is sure to generate LOTS of blog postings!
J

A Lazy Weekend...

2011-04-20T21:05:00.000-05:00

A Fun filled, lazy weekend....sadly it was one of those springy weekends where you go from warm to chilly! However, we all had a good time.....

Matt and I spent Sunday getting the house ready for Grandma and GrandDude, which included finally folding ALL the laundry that I had washed in the basement and not folded. Time to move beyond living out of the laundry basket for underware. Seriously, the ONLY people in our home whose laundry is folded on a regular basis and put right away, is the girls. They should be greatful, but they don't understand yet. :)

Putting the laundry baskets to good use....

Enjoying the Hippo tent that Santa brought us...

Gazing longingly out the front door, sadly it't not getting higher than 50 today. :(

What did you do this beautiful, but cool weekend?
J

"Helping"

2011-04-10T20:48:00.000-05:00

"Helping" is the new favorite activity at the moment. As anyone who has a toddler is already aware, often times, Help from a toddler is anything but. So, on this particular afternoon, I had to distract the girls from "helping" Matt and I too much. One of the best ways to prevent helping, I have found is to wear the girls out AND to do activities that they want to help with, during naptime. Sadly, this often means no naptime for Mom or Dad, however things tend to get done faster, which is a win win situation for anyone!

Helping Mommy, by sharing her water with each other and not arguing!

Miss Olivia....

Miss Sydney, "helping" by picking up things off the floor, sadly this was Daddy's disgusting, sweaty rag from yard work. ICK!

Always fun times around here!

BASEBALL!!!

2011-04-09T20:40:00.000-05:00

One random afternoon, I had to get a baby gift for someone at Babies R Us. Since the girls are bigger now, I rarely if ever go there any more, so I did some exploring. While there I discovered a T-Ball set...and decided that the girls HAD to have it....so, I bought it. I drove around with that sucker in my car for weeks before Matt drug it out to play with the girls....it was an instant hit! Automatic love! Thank god, because if they don't end up baseball fans, Daddy is going to NOT be a happy camper! Thankfully, they already know the Cardinal's baseball logo and ADORE Fredbird!

ADORABLE!

Hope you enjoy Baseball season!
J

Our First Family Picnic

2011-04-09T11:22:00.001-05:00

...and MAN was it fun! It was a beautiful Friday afternoon, after a beautiful first full week of April, after all those mantras about April showers bringing May flowers, I was super excited that so far, the first eight days of April had been pretty dry. SO, I begged Matt to leave work at a reasonable time (like by 4:30 if possible), so that we could take the girls to the park and have a picnic....and he came through! :) Daddy made it home by 5:15 and we were off and running to the park, by way of Jimmy Johns for Mom and Dad and McDonald's for the girl's! We had so much fun! We went to Bee Tree Park, down here by our house and it was wonderful....well, until we discovered that it was/is a major cruising place for our local high schoolers, however thankfully they realized the park was taken over by toddlers, and moved to another location in the park (I think)! Remind me that my girls can NEVER go to Bee Tree Park when they are 12 and over, at least without me!

Eating our dinner....well, kind of! :)

Playing around....they LOVE the park, and had so so much fun! :)

The beautiful lake portion of the park....the park is divided into two sections and at the farthest portion of the right side is this beautiful lake, which is quite thankfully at least 1/2 a mile from the playground and CANNOT be seen from the playground either. There is also a nice path around it as well for walking or rollerblading!

AFTER the park, we got some ice cream....it was a big hit and the girls had so much fun!

MIss Olivia playing at the park....

Miss Sydney playing at the park.....

Hopefullyl you've enjoyed this nice weather as much as our family has!
J