Halloween Fun!

I must say, this Halloween was the best one I've had for as long as I can remember. Before I had kids, I always enjoyed the idea of handing out candy to the neighborhood kiddies, but when the day arrived, I felt crappy about being child-less, and kept the lights off and the door locked.

Even when the girls were one- and two-years old, I didn't enjoy it much. They were too small to go trick-or-treating and I really didn't want to deal with the door and watching the kids. Last year we handed out a little candy, but we didn't get many kids at the house we were at.

This year was a whole different ball game. Speaking of - congrats Boston! I digress...

This year, we are living in a real live neighborhood, where the neighbors know each other and the kids all play together. It's fabulous. I hope we can stay for a long time. Some of the houses were all decorated up for the holiday. And now that the girls are in preschool, the holiday was built up at school too. They got to dress up on Wednesday for school and had a little party.

Last night, the girls got all dressed up like little princesses (so fitting!) and we walked around to a few houses in the neighborhood. We went early, just before it was dark, so not everyone was home or ready yet. It was just the perfect amount. They got a little bucket load of candy, which the spent the rest of the night sorting and playing with. After we were done going door-to-door we came home, light the pumpkins and flipped our porch light on. There were so many kids, and some of them were so cute!! Every time the doorbell rang or someone knocked the girls raced to the door to help me hold the bowl. They had a blast! Kaitlyn even told be she was ready for bed about an hour before bedtime. I guess she had a little too much excitement.

(Ready to go Mom!)

 

(they are waiting for the doorbell to ring)

 





I really did have a good time. I finally felt like a mom on Halloween. I know that may sound weird, but this was the first time I haven't avoided the holiday. We actually got into it a little this year. Last weekend we made "monster cookies" that were bright colors with those candy googly eyes. We went to a pumpkin patch and painted pumpkins, we've feasted on pumpkin flavored treats and we even carved a couple pumpkins. The house is even decorated a bit.

It was a really fun month, but I'm ready for the rest of the holiday season. These girls are more and more fun the older they get. I can't wait to see their excitement for the rest of the year. It is the best time of the year, after all. :0)

Helloooo!!

Hi All!! I don't know if anyone is still following this lil blog o' mine. It sure has been a while since I've posted anything. Let me give you a recap of what's been going on since last October...

We had the "big holidays" - Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. All were good. Halloween was pretty low key. We hid out at my parents house,who never get one trick or treater. I figured this was my last time not to have to deal with Halloween. I'm sure this year the girls will want to be dressed up and going door to door.

Thanksgiving was nice. We spent it at my MIL's place with all my husband's family. Since the big "event" between my dad and my husband, my family doesn't get any major holidays, on the actual holiday anymore.

Christmas was fun this year. The girls loved the tree and the anticipation of Santa coming and leaving gifts. They were so cute when they got up Christmas morning and saw all the wrapped things under the tree. Christmas Eve morning was spent with my parents (just me and the girls). Christmas day afternoon Hubby's family came over for a bit.

In January, we met with a prospective preschool. We decided we liked them very much. It's an in-home school with 12 kids in the AM class and 12 in the PM class. We decided to do mornings since the girls are still napping. We are now less than a month away from the girls starting preschool. August 15 will be an emotional day for me, I'm sure.

All the holidays seem to be getting better as the girls grow up. They were so cute on Easter. The day before I took them to my parents house to hunt for eggs. My mom went crazy filling a million plastic eggs with all kinds of stuff. They had also colored eggs and those were hidden too, but if they (especially Natalie) picked up and egg and it didn't make noise when it was shaken it was discarded - haha! The girls had colored eggs at our house too, and I planned to hide them for them to find on Easter, but after I saw how little they cared for the "real" eggs, I didn't bother. Thanks Mom... :0)

I got to go on TWO vacations in April this year. My first trip was with my mom and two of my aunts. We took a road trip to San Francisco for a few days. It was my first time away from the kids that long, and the first time Hubby had to watch them alone for that long. Everyone did fine. It was fabulous!  At the end of the month, things worked out perfect for Hubby and I to go to Palm Desert, CA for our own vacation. It was 8 days of bliss!! His mom watched the girls at our house so we could be gone. We decided it definitely needs to be an annual trip. We got to spend a lot of time together and we had a lot of fun. There was no stress and nothing to fight about. Wonderful!!

I do have to say though, the best part about the vacation, was my MIL potty training BOTH kids while we were gone!!! Kaitlyn didn't even need diapers anymore at nap- or night-time. Natalie only wore pull-ups at night-time for a few weeks. They caught on so quick! She used a sticker chart which was a HUGE incentive for them. For a few weeks Natalie had a hard time going #2 on the potty chair. She kept asking for a diaper and would have accidents in her undies after holding it for days. I was almost to the point of bringing her to the doctor because she had tummy pains, but magically on their 3rd birthday, she snapped out of it. It's been a breeze ever since. They are even over the potty chairs and using the "big toilet" all by themselves!! I'm in heaven!

The birthday party - this was fun also. We had a countdown chart we started about 10 days before their birthday and would mark off days as we got closer. They were so excited. We did a Minnie Mouse theme,which was a hit. I also bought one of those at-home helium tanks. They LOVED all the balloons.

At the end of June we finally moved out of our cramped 2 bedroom one bath duplex we were renting into a HUGE 1900 sq ft, 4 bedroom 2.5 bath house we are renting from my aunt. It is so wonderful! They girls have a fenced backyard to play in, their own toy room, and we have our own master bathroom. I can't get over how nice it is to have to much space.

On the 4th of July we decided to take the girls to their first movie at the theatre - Monsters University. They loved it - especially the popcorn and pop (Sprite) they got to devour during the show. Plus, since they are only 3 years old they got in FREE! I guess we need to go to a lot of movies in this next year to take advantage!

Well that about sums up the past 9 months. Thanks for continuing to follow me, even though I haven't been a good blogger the last few years. Here is a pic from last weekend, when the girls got to fish for the first time. The both caught a Bass at the same time!

Helloooo Indian Summer!

We have been dry and warm in my neck of the woods since July. For Western Washington that is amazing. No measurable rainfall since then. Here we are in the second week of October and it's been well into the 70's almost everyday. In fact last week we hit 80. Carazay!

Enough about the weather...The girls are getting extra outside playtime with this nice weather. They have a new playhouse at my parents house. We've been spending a lot of time over there this summer. With it being so dry they get awfully dirty. We seem to leave there with them looking like dirty little orphans.

They love the dirt, rocks, grasshoppers, Grandpa's tractor, picking apples from their trees and driving their little power wheels vehicles. Actually, they don't like to drive them by themselves. They seem to only enjoy it when they're both in the vehicle.

My dad recently dug out a go-kart track in their field. The girls love running laps around it. That seems to be more fun that driving their car around it.

Kaitlyn has been in the "Momma, Momma, Momma!!" phase lately. I can't take my attention away from her for a second with out her tapping me and repeating "Momma" until I pay attention. It was cute for the first day or two, but now it's been at least a month and my patience really wears thin sometimes. I'm trying to teach her to wait until I'm done talking, but she still to young to get it. She has caught on that a lot of the time I try to brush her off with a "Ya...uh huh...wow..." she isn't satisfied with that. Now Natalie is seeing how much attention Katie gets with that so she's starting to do the same thing. Oh boy!!

We've tried breaking the pacifier habit recently. It is going okay, but not as well as I'd hoped. Kaitlyn is obsessed with hers, but she is improving. We've tried taking it away when they get up and they can have it back at bedtime. Natalie is usually cool with that, but K wants hers more often. She'll get so hysterical asking for it, I admit, we give in. She is, however, really good about not leaving the house with it. She'll leave her "wower" as she calls it and her blanket inside when we go out or when we leave. Natalie only really wants her when she's really tired, but during the day she doesn't care.

We transitioned into toddler beds about a month ago. That has went extremely well. Some nights they fall right asleep and we don't hear a peep out of them. Other nights they may play around for a bit, but generally they do really well. They still haven't completely grasped the idea that in the mornings they can get up and I don't need to come in and get them. Kaitlyn will sit up and whine until I open their door. I wish she'd just get up when she was ready...

Another change (wow, I'm realizing we've done a lot lately) is potty training. I actually just started that with them yesterday. I guess, they are actually doing okay. I'm having a hard time relaxing about all the accidents. I swear it's easier to potty train a puppy. Natalie goes to the potty chair on her own and pees a little then stands up and goes the rest on the floor. We started out the day with underwear and no pants. After they went through like 6 pairs in no time flat, we skipped the undies and they ran bottomless. Natalie loved it. Kaitlyn is still a little apprehensive about sitting on the potty with no clothes on. She eventually refused about 10am and we put a diaper back on. When she's got bottoms on, she'll sit on it all day long. Weird.

They had diapers on a nap time and actually wore a diaper until about 6pm yesterday. I took them off again for about an hour last night and they had a successfully couple of goes, but Natalie still wet the floor a couple of times. I don't think Kaitlyn has actually pottied in the chair yet, but I keep encouraging her.

I think this is the hardest thing we've had to do with them since they were born. I think I'd rather deal with getting up in the middle of the night than following them around with carpet cleaner and paper towels. I know today is only day two, but I'm over this training thing already. My friend, who is a mother of three, says the first week is the hardest. I want to cry.

Well, I think that's about all the updates lately. Wish us lots of luck...and lots of patience...in getting through this potty training business.

As always, here's some parting pics:

Three years ago, today...

...I found out I was pregnant. How time has flown by!! I had no idea then how much more of a roller coaster our lives would be for the next couple of years, but we've survived!

Our girls are happy and healthy full-blown toddlers now. My stresses now are what kinds of foods they are eating. Making sure they get their fluoride and vitamins each day. Being a referee - which, by the way, I never thought I'd have that job so soon!! Who knew...

My body is back to the way it was before all the fertility treatments...plus a few pounds and stretch marks (boooooo!!). I'm back on "the pill", back to PMS, and cramps, no libido and all that fun stuff. I'm happy to report my beard and mustache seem to be going away, which is a bonus.

I really hope that PCOS is not hereditary. I really, really, would not like to pass this on to my girls. Life can be hard enough without the challenge of getting pregnant. And really, it's not just the fertility, but having balanced hormones are so important. Our body chemistry is amazing and if one little thing is "off" it can disrupt the whole system.

In other news... we've had a pretty good summer. It's been a little warmer than I'd like, but I can't complain. The girls love to be outside and play in the water. We've spent many days at my parent's house running around, playing with sprinklers, watering cans, pools and...dirt. They have been very dirty girls this summer. Do you know how hard it is to get clumps of dirt out of a girls long hair? Ugg. They love it though, and I really don't mind them being dirty. Soon enough we will be stuck indoors while is pours rain for the next 9 months. This is western Washington...

I am (semi) looking forward to the holidays this year. I still have the battle with scheduling when my parents get to see the girls on the holidays since the whole my husband vs. my dad fiasco. My mom has made Thankgiving easy on me, since she will be out of town. That just leaves Christmas. I think I'll think about that later. Double ugg.

Other than that, things are quiet for our little family. The girls aren't potty trained yet, but we will try again soon. The first attempt didn't go well at all. Neither of them wanted to sit on the potty. We also have decided to keep them in their cribs for a while longer. They aren't trying to climb out yet, but we don't want them to hurt themselves either. Mommy and Daddy do enjoy being able to contain them at nap and bed time...so we are going to hold out a while longer :0)

And because I can't help myself...here are some pictures...

 

Where has the time gone?

Hi All!!

I can't believe it's been almost FIVE months since I've posted!! I am still here and we are all doing well!

Geesh, since I've posted we've all had a birthday, plus Easter Mother's and Father's day and the 4th of July...crazy!  Mommy and Daddy's birthday's were nice. I turned the big 3-0 *gasp*. I don't feel any different, but it's weird to be out of my twenties...

The girls had their SECOND birthday. Can you believe it??? This birthday party was much happier than their first. If you remember, Ms. Kaitlyn did not have a good day. She was grouchy from an interrupted nap. They had a blast this year though. We had just family and a couple of close friends over for punch and cupcakes. I made a cupcake cake in the shape of a butterfly. It turned out pretty cute (pic below). They girls loved having their own cupcake and K devoured hers in a heartbeat. Natalie chowed down too, but she's always a little slower to eat...truthfully, I think she does it to taunt her sister.

They were, as usual, spoiled by all with all the gifts they received. They got two play tents, a wagon, cell phones and more.

They 4th was quiet this year. Normally we go to Hubby's mom's house and watch fireworks on the lake, but this year me and the girls went to my parent's house. They live out in the country, so the noise level would be down, plus my favorite auntie was in town so we wanted to spend time with her. It was hot that day. We BBQ'd and played in the sprinkler. The girls even had a couple of play mates (a 1 yo and almost 3 yo) They loved playing with them.

We finally have a couple little talkers on our hands! Natalie has been saying a few things for quite a while, but Kaitlyn didn't pick it up until just about the day of their birthday. Now she won't be quiet. They can both count to ten (usually) we are working on our letters and colors. They surprise me every day at how smart they are!!

Life is good right now. My job is excellent, the girls are happy and healthy, and Hubby will be going back to school full time in the fall. I couldn't ask for anything more. I'll leave you with a few pictures of my precious, not-so-little, little girls!

21 months old

I cannot believe the girls are almost two already!! The are really growing up fast. They are finally saying some words, not a whole lot but some. I heard a long time ago that twins are slower to talk because they have their own language and babble to each other.

Kaitlyn is a master at puzzles and putting different shaped blocks through their appropriate holes. She also has figured out how to clip buckles together, like in their booster seats.

Natalie learned how to blow a whistle yesterday she is pretty proud of herself whenever she does it. She is the best at holding hands when we go for walks. She loves any kind of fruit we give her.

I really wish they would not throw their cups and plates on the floor when they're done eating. It is really annoying to pick them up along with their scraps of food. The both really hate having their diapers changed and getting their jammies on. They have also discovered jumping in their beds. I don't think a night has gone by in the last month when we haven't put them to bed and they spend 15-30 minutes jumping and giggling. It is actually funny to listen to.

There are so man y other things they are doing these days, I just can't think of them all. They are really changing a lot.

I haven't started the pill again yet. I really need to. I think it's been around nine months since I had a period. Not healthy, I know. My moods have seemed to stabilize, which is so nice. I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that my life has calmed down a bit too. There is not nearly the stress or drama.

Well that's about all I have for tonight. I'll try not to be such a stranger...but no promises :0)

Wacky Winter Storm!!

Last week, you may have heard about the crazy weather that hit western Washington. Normally we'll get a day or two of a dusting to a couple inches of snow that usually melts within a day or two. Last week we got a few inches in about two days then overnight we were hit with at least 12" of snow. Some places got 18"!!! After all the snow hit it got cold. Then the freezing rain started and clung to all the trees. The next thing we know branches are falling off trees and entire trees are toppling over! Nearly everyone in our county lost their power on Thursday. Thankfully, we are right in the middle of town and right next to a school. We got our power on within 28 hours.

Those 28 hours were a little crazy though. We didn't have any source of heat in our place. I assumed we'd get through the night (power went out at 7:30pm) and figure out what to do next in the morning. Well around 1:30am, Katie woke up from a nightmare. It was cold in the house. We snuggled in the recliner with a blanket and tried to sleep. Around 3am, we were still up, I went to check on Natalie and cover her up and she woke up. Hubby was awake since Natalie was crying. The four of us tried to snuggle in our bed...but the girls thought it was time to play. The thermostat was at 58* and the girls hands were cold. I didn't think we were going to get back to sleep any time soon and I couldn't put the girls back in their room. Hubby stayed in the house with the girls and I went outside to dig our car out of the driveway. With all my adrenaline pumping it didn't take too long to do. After multiple attempts at backing up and pulling forward I got the car out of the driveway. We loaded up the girls and I was headed to my parent's place. They didn't have power either, but they have a generator and a wood stove. I realized just after I left that I might not be able to make it to their house in my van. It was now 4am and I called their house. My dad finally answered and by 5:30am he and my mom got through mess and met us in a parking lot. It was a treacherous drive, swerving to miss downed branches and trees. Their road that comes off the main road to their driveway hadn't been plowed. My van dragged the whole way. Their driveway was even worse. I got about halfway down and had to stop. We unloaded the sleepy girls, jumped in my dad's 4x4 SUV and got up to the house.

We stayed there that whole day, overnight, and until about 11am the next day. We got our power back and were so happy to get home. My parents were out of power for 4 days, my MIL and BIL were out for 5 days. Some people still are out of power. Crazy stuff. My girls were troopers. I'm glad they adjusted well to the change.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the girls playing in the snow (when we only had a couple inches) and some pics of our house with the "big" snow.

Happy (belated) New Year!

Hi all! I feel like I say this each time I post, but man, it's been a while! Where to begin...

Christmas was nice. The girls actually liked opening gifts this year. Kaitlyn especially liked tearing the paper. We had a Christmas party at my cousins house with my dad's side of the family (minus the hubby). It was so good to see everyone. We all lived semi close, it's too bad we only get together once a year. The girls did fabulous! They were dressed in their cute holiday dresses and played so well. My cousin has a nice big house complete with a rec-room. They played in there mostly. For a lot of the family, this was the first time they'd seen them since the Christmas party the year before.  Here they are in their dresses before we left the house:

We spent Christmas eve at my parent's house (minus the hubby, again). We were there all day. We had fun watching the girls open their gifts and play with their new toys. Among the favorites is a tea set and some maracas. Natalie loved the noise makers and Katie loved the tea set.

My brother wrestling with the toy packaging...

My mom helping Natalie open her stocking...

Maracas!

Natalie chillin' with her noise makers...

 
Christmas day we spent at home. Hubby and I just got the girls a few things since they are still oblivious to the holiday, and we knew the rest of the family would spoil them. The morning we spent by ourselves, then in the afternoon Hubby's family came over for a couple of hours. It was sure nice not to have to go anywhere that day. That's the first year in a long, long time we haven't had to leave the house.

Here's the girls with Hubby's fam...

The girls loved their new blocks, because they make a big mess...

The crayons were a big hit as well. There were big tantrums thrown when it was time to put them away...

Their first masterpiece...

I don't have any pictures of New Year's particularly because the girls went to bed like any other night, Hubby stayed home, and I went to hang out with some friends. It was a real treat to get away for a while.

So far this year our "luck" seems to be improving. With the last couple of years being so challenging, it's nice to not be stressed out ALL the time.

I hope you all had happy holidays and the new year is treating you well!!

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!