A Nice Visit

In the yard..

The girls had fun playing in their grandparents' yard today. Nothing beats a cardboard box! These girls are just getting too big!

Happy Birthday Jen!

Today is my best friend Jen's birthday! She's the best. So creative, and such an amazing friend. This was one of our first forays into digital photography, back in college! Pale beauties, we were (and still are)! Happy Birthday, Jen!

First comes love, then comes marriage.....

....then comes Madison in a baby carriage! A big congratulations to our dear friends, Aarin and Donavan, on the arrival of their sweet baby girl. We've all been anxiously awaiting her, and she arrived fashionably late! I get to call her Maddie, as I'll obviously be her favorite honorary auntie. Well, I know she'll like me loads better than Megan.

What??

Doesn't everyone go to bed like this?

Stuff = Good

Addicted. Very addicted. Thanks, Donavan!



When you've got two, Target is where you get your shoes! They grow out of them overnight. They have so many cute sandals right now. We got these.
Mommy got some of this. I'm trying to drink more water and less Diet Coke. However, I still need my caffeine kick. This has green tea and calcium. We shall see.

WalkAmerica

I'm walking in the March of Dimes walk this spring, and I'd love your support. Charlotte and Rachel were born at 34 weeks, and received excelled Neonatal care--thanks, in part, to the March of Dimes. Please take a moment to visit my page (also in my "links" section). This is such an important organization.

Wal-Mart...who knew?

So my best friend Jen is an optometrist, and she just so happens to work in an office in a Wal-Mart Vision Center. She always has these cute little do-dads and outfits for Becca, and it seems like whenever I ask where she got them, the answer is almost always "Wal-Mart!"

I hate going to Wal-Mart during regular shopping hours, but I'm starting to go VERY early in the morning to scope out good deals. Well, after reading Stephanie Klein's blog, I found out that some cute clothes can be found there as well! Seriously, who knew?

I picked up this cute top...



AND this cute skirt to go with it...




and not to worry--I got some of this so that my legs aren't the same color as the skirt!

Of course, the girls stocked up on some favorites...


we call these "go-gos"


Plus, we got the cutest bug lanterns, but I couldn't find a picture. I'll take one later. Have a great day!

Coloring is FUN!

We're diggin' the Crayola Mini Twistables and the giant drawing pad from Target. Good stuff.

Two pregnant ladies.

Donavan and Sabrina, showing off the bellies. Aren't they all cute and glowy?

How cool is she?

Kelli Ferguson has this cool website up now, as she's begun 'staging' homes for the fortunate folks out in Tennessee. We've all seen "Sell This House" and "Take This House and Sell It," and I'm trying hard to stage this place appropriately. With two almost two year-olds, this pretty much equates to living in parallel dimensions. There's the toys thrown hither and yon and half-eaten apples on the floor life that we lead each night, then there's the pristine all-the-toys-are-stacked-Tetris-style in all of the closets home that exists while we're at work. I'm trying so desperately to channel my Inner Kelli! If only she wasn't in Tennessee.

So are we THAT crazy????

...yeah, pretty much.

I'm freaking out, people! Freaking OUT!!!!

We are getting so good at this party thing!

One of our "BFFs," Kara Mae, had her 2nd birthday party a while back. The girls had a great time! Does it get much better than strawberry cupcakes with green frosting??? Kara had a Strawberry Shortcake-themed party, so those were a must. She also got a great tricycle, and spent most of the party running around in a helmet, kneepads, and elbow pads. It's just so hard to believe that we're all turning TWO! There's a new guard coming in--Donavan is about to have her little Sweet Pea any day now, Sabrina is right behind her, then Jen! I can't wait!

By Golly, they could be TWINS!

Okay, people always look at me like I'm nuts when I say this--but we honestly don't know if these two bubs are identical or fraternal. "What????" you gasp. Yes. When you have twins, you'll find out that there are only TWO surefire ways to know whether you have ID twins or fraternals. To you folks out there saying, "Well surely boy/girl twins are ALWAYS fraternal!" I say, "Ha!" There are actually instances when there CAN be boy/girl ID twins. It's a whole extra chromosome falling off thing that you don't really want to go into...

Unless you have an amnio (which I didn't), or have their little cheekies swabbed for DNA (which isn't neccessary, so therefore not provided at the hospital), you just don't know for sure. People will say, "Well, were they in two sacs, or..?" That's a gray area, as well. There was a membrane between them that was evident on the sonogram, but they could have been in two separate sacs (chorion), or that may just have been the sacs within the sac (amnion). My doctor didn't say, "Hey, look! Two sacs!" It was more about whisking them through the window to the NICU that counting the sacs. Placentas can fuse, the list goes on....

So, we left it at that. We figured that, if we were in doubt, we'd have them tested later. We could definitely tell them apart in infancy, and even now. But again, they also have the same hair/eye color, same exact skin tone, and look more and more alike each day. ID twins don't always look EXACTLY alike, as some traits are inherited from Mom after the egg has split. While they have the same DNA, one might be taller, or sound different. There are really several factors involved.
However, now that we are starting to take note of how much they DO look alike, our curiousity is getting the better of us. We're considering shelling out the 150 smackers to put the debate to rest, once and for all!

He's at it again...

...PaPa and his hats.

Four Decades, People!

That's forty years to you and me, Russ.


My wonderful parents have been married for FORTY YEARS today! FORTY! How great is that? They are the best parents a girl could ask for and their marriage is still going strong. I wanted to post their wedding picture, but came across this picture while scanning some old family photos. Are we rockin' the gold chair, or what? Do take note of the orange curains and the shag rug. And my mom...quite the hottie with the Farrah hair! Good times.


Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! We love you!

Something you wouldn't change...

That was the dare this week at The Digi Dares . So I chose Adrian's hair. The photo is a bit of an exaggeration. It was a day on the lake with the waverunner, so it was wild and free! We call it his Fabio picture. But it's so very true. His hair makes him HIM. He just had a birthday recently (he's a New Year's baby), but I was out of it, blogging-wise. So--Happy Birthday, my love!

And this is just cute...

...Rachel bundled up in her eskimo coat.

I call it "Charlottude"

Back when I was pregnant, we always teased that Rachel would be the trouble-maker. She was Twin B, and was always the difficult one during sonograms, and was always lying transverse or breech (we both ended up breech). When the girls were born, Rachel was beet red, while Charlotte was a serene pink. Rachel was the more vocal of the two, and is fond of shouting at people on her phone. Char is always smiling at newcomers, while Rachel sizes them up with quite the serious face. All who meet Charlotte have dubbed her "the smiley one" or "the friendly one." Well...the worm has turned, my friends! Charlotte is turning into one fiesty little gal. She's still very friendly and sweet as pie--until her sister gets near her favorite toys. We're working on it, and she's getting better. But, who knew???

Very bad blogger...

I've been on vacation, but I've been a very bad blogger. I'd been holding off on posting Christmas pictures in hopes of dazzling you all with some Christmas scrapbook pages, but I seem to be in a big ol' creative rut! Sooooo...here are a few pictures from Christmas. The girls got a TON of goodies, including a new slide from PaPa and Grammy. The first two pictures basically sum it up--it's either the subject of intense love or heated conflict! We're learning. We also had our first cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Yummy!