2011 Santa picture

As you can tell the girls had a fabulous time! This was after some professional family pics were taken. I will post those when we get them back. Happy holidays everyone!

Turkey days!

We had two Thanksgivings this year. With the whole mess with my family, me and the girls went to their house on Friday. Thursday though, was spent at Hubby's mom's/boyfriend's house. The girls were pretty good over all. They actually had dinner with us. They are so excited about using their spoons and bowls now, it's easy to get them to eat foods they normally wouldn't if it was just on their tray. We discovered Natalie really likes black olives and they both chowed down on sweet potatoes. Here are some pics from the first day...

Friday we went to my parent's place. The girls raced around as usual and had a good ol' time. When it got close to eating time however, they would not stay out of the kitchen. I knew they weren't starving, since they had been snacking  earlier and it was still before their dinner time. They beg worse than dogs, I swear. I finally had to put them in their high chairs, to keep them out of the way. When it was time to eat they did about the same as the day before. They ate good off their spoons and of course gobbled up bread, stuffing and potatoes.  Here are some pics from Friday...

Overall it was a pretty good holiday. I can't believe the girls are a year older already. It doesn't seem like that long ago we had Thanksgiving at our house last time. I also can't believe how much our lives have changed since then. I think we are in a better/happier place, physically and emotionally than we were last year. I'm thankful for my little family and I'm looking forward to what the future holidays will look like!

Hello Long Lost Blogger World!

I can't believe it's been almost two months since my last post. I don't even know where to begin to catch up. I guess the biggest milestones with the girls lately are that they are both walking racing around the house these days. Katie is a climber. Anything she can swing her knee up on she climbs on to. Her favorite thing lately is her high chair. We have the booster seats that strap to regular chairs with trays. She climbs onto the regular chair then sits in the booster seat. If the tray is with the chair she tries to click it on the seat. If its not, she tries buckling herself in with the straps. It makes me so nervous all the time watching her turn and slide down off the chair. I think I'm doing pretty good at not being overprotective, but it's so hard not to hover. Katie has bled a few times since being so mobile. Sadly, they've all been mouth bleeds. Fortunately, nothing has been too bad. Mostly just biting her lip from falling. It is a worst thing to see your child bleed. Ugh. I'm thankful sometimes I don't have a boy since they are so rambunctious.

Natalie thankfully is not a climber. She is perfectly happy following her sister around and watching her climb. They are both little dancers. Any music they hear makes their little bodies wiggle. It is a the cutest thing. They are really starting to interact more with each other too. They laugh and run around the house together, but they also fight and pull each other down and take toys from each other.

Tantrums are in full swing too. They both will lay down on the floor and cry when they are upset. Sometimes they will even bang their heads on the floor in frustration. This is so hard to watch since they usually cry harder since it hurts. I have no idea why they do it. But I don't give them attention for their fits and they seem to get over them fairly quickly.

Tonight we had a breakthrough with utensils. We've had a hard time with getting them to use a spoon with their food. A lot of the problem is we don't give them much food that isn't finger food. Another problem a while ago was that Natalie always threw the spoon on the floor if you tried to put it on her tray. Well tonight I'm proud to announce that Natalie is the first to figure out how to put the spoon in the bowl and bring it to her mouth to eat! I was laughing telling my husband that it was such a proud moment watching her time after time put the spoon in, get some applesauce and put it in her mouth, I was all choked up. Kaitlyn's not quite there yet, but I think she will be soon.

Now to switch gears a bit...this living with PCOS is for the birds! It sucks so bad! With all the financial issues we've had lately and switching jobs and losing my health insurance I haven't been able to afford forking out money for the birth control pills that have kept me sane and not looking like a manly, zit covered, fat girl. Well, I've been fat for a while, but it's getting worse. I think I've been off the pill since July I think. I didn't notice it the first month, but since then my beard and mustache have begun to grow back thicker and darker. I think for me, that's the worst part is the facial hair. I trim and pluck and all that stuff but it just keeps coming back. The last month or so my face has broken out really bad. That is not fun either, especially since I'm a picker and makes it looks so much worse. My dandruff is back, and like I said earlier, I think I'm gaining more weight.

I've been watching old episodes of The Bigg.est Lo.ser on Netflix. It is so inspiring to see really overweight people lose it and change their eating and exercise habits. We have a treadmill and weight bench collecting dust in storage. I've been building up the motivation to get those things dusted off and set up in the garage. I have no excuse to not use them. I have plenty of time during the day. I've been eating terrible lately too. I tend to not have breakfast until at least 10am. It's usually 2-3 bagels with cream cheese while sitting at my desk at work. I come home from work and don't eat lunch until 2 or 3 o'clock in the afternoon. It really varies, it could be a bowl of cereal, a sandwich or some tater tots and chicken strips. I make dinner for the girls at 5pm but Hubby and I usually don't eat until after they go to bed at 8pm.  I have a lot of work to do to change my diet around. I know the things I need to do to change, it's just preparing myself mentally to make the change.

I've felt over the past few months I haven't had much to write about, but now that I'm going I can think of so much. I think this is enough for today though. I'll be back...In the meantime, here are some pics of my sweet (almost) 18 month olds!

16 months old!

Hi ya'll!! I know, I know, I've been a bad blogger the last few months. Life has finally calmed down a bit and I'm just enjoying it :0)

Kaitlyn is walking now (finally!). She has been for a month or so. Natalie can walk when she chooses to, but she still crawls most of the time. I can't wait for her to walk too. It's so nice to be able to let them walk around when we go places or actually get to play outside! Just today I took them over to my parents house. I let Kaitlyn out of the car and she stood there while I got Natalie out. I carried Natalie in and Katie followed me up to the house. That is so much better than packing them both in at the same time.

We are finally a good routine with the girls too. They are sleeping until around 7am, breakfast at 8am. Lunch around 11:30 and nap at noon. They have been sleeping until about 2pm. Dinner is around 5pm, jammies at 7pm and bed between 8-8:30pm. Bed time and nap time is pretty simple now too. We can just lay them down in their cribs and walk away. So nice! Most of the time they don't even make a peep. Hubby told me yesterday at nap time they both went over to their bedroom door with their pacifiers and blankets and laid on the floor.

Meals have been interesting. Breakfast and lunch are pretty easy, but dinner is a challenge. If it's not bread or pasta they aren't really interested. They won't eat meat, or veggies. I tried tricking them and adding a jar of baby food veggies to their Alfredo, but they didn't eat it. I keep offering different foods, but they aren't going for it. Try, try again...

Okay, I'm sure there is more to share, but I will leave you with some pics of their photo shoot from last month.

I'm still here

Hi all!

I'm still here. I've just been uninspired to post lately. Not a whole lot is going on - which is actually is nice for a change. The girls are doing well. Playing...and now fighting with each other. Still no walkers, but Katie is oh so close! When some inspiration hits me I'll post more. In the meantime, I'll leave you with some pics!

I read a book!

I am very excited to announce that since we moved into our new digs, that I've been able to read again!!! I got a Kin.dle for Christmas but hardly used it at all since I couldn't read in bed at our old place and obviously couldn't read while the girls were around.

I finished my first book that I started probably just three days ago last night. It's been so nice to read for a while before I go to bed. I LOVE IT.

Just wanted to share :0D

Our new home sweet home

Well, for the next two years at least we will be calling this new place home. It's an older but mostly updated duplex in town. I am now only 6 minutes away from work, they girls have their own room and most importantly Hubby and I have OUR own room!!!

Hubby is so excited about his new space he dances circles with is arms out all over the house. :0) We also have a single car garage that is finished and a storage shed. We have so much space I don't even know what to do with it all :0) I can finally unpack some boxes that we kept in storage at my parents place. Yay!

The girls are loving the space too. They race all over the palce chasing each other and going from room to room. It's pretty funny.

I think the girls are going to be good friends too. My MIL snapped this pics the other day. I LOVE them :0)

I think we are all going to be a lot happier now in our new home :0)