Some of the things I forgot...

It is a lot so, take this as a warning.  I am about to purge 2.5 months of forgotten posts! 

YIKES.

Grab a beer, wine, or whatever gets you through the night and enjoy!

...I forgot how cute they were.

 ...the first time they said "cheeseballs!" for the camera.

...when Mimi got the cutest haircut on earth!

and how awful my iphone camera is

...and how delicious she was afterward.

...drinking beers with great friends!

...that the sun does in fact shine here!

...that we took swim lessons,

and how much we loved it!

...how much we like Caity!

...that some days I put forth lots of effort in the morning.

...to post the F.D.O.S. pictures

first day of school

 Oh, and how I tried to recreate them a week later because 

I was not pleased with the real first day of school pics.

  Yeah, I'm a freak!

How they did not cooperate one little bit!

We NEVER for forget how much we LOVE teacher Janice, and here she is!

Thanksgiving part one

Wake up to two crazies crying out "mama I awake now!!"  Peal myself out of bed, while the gals are carrying on loudly, I brush my teeth, make coffee and get two cups of milk.  When I walk into the room, inevitably one of the girls has undressed herself and wet the bed, the other is screaming "other mommy! other mommy! Not this mommy!!" I struggle with them and try to sing, dance and make them laugh so they might break out of the spell they are in when they wake every morning. After that, anything goes.  Playing at the park, play dough, painting, coloring, yelling, laughing, tantrums, trips to the park, the zoo, the grocery store, Little Gym, school, and then the dreaded afternoon nap.  During this nap I have to get the wash done, clean various parts of the house, think about making dinner, make dinner, run errands, work out, nap, and find my sanity again without a cocktail.  The girls get up once again and we are off, full speed ahead, activities, dinner, and then my favorite time of the day... BEDTIME!!  Not because the day is over but because this is the time they are the sweetest, snuggliest and funniest.  This is when they are tender and give me lots of hugs.  This is when they sit in my lap and listen to books, this is when they tell me "oh mommy, i love you too" when I say I love you.  This is when I know that all of the day's struggles and all the "problems" I think I have melt away with one look, one smile and one kiss from the girls.  This is when I KNOW FOR SURE without a doubt, without hesitation, that I am 100% the best mom for them and they are the best kids for me.  So lucky for us God knew this and made us a family.  I am thankful for every runny nose, dirty diaper, sleepless night , crying fit, puke storm, rule broken, tantrum thrown, and all the other "bad stuff" because with out it I would never appreciate all the tender sweet moments that make it all worthwhile. 

 I love you Marlo and Eme and I am thankful to be your mommy!

The 31 days that got away!

This is a very very late post, but it has to go in the baby book.  So as with all my other late posts, I will change the dates around.  October was super-busy with visitors and fall-ish tomfoolery. We had originally decided to not go the big pumpkin farm route like last year, because it was super-crowded, overpriced, and full of mud.  What better way to welcome fall than to do so locally?  We headed to the Central Market for the great pumpkin weigh-off. Can you even believe that such a thing occurs, not only locally but nationally, and to our luck it was happening just down 99.  We had to share this with our great pal Amy.  Miss Amy is a natural with the girls!   

They had their first hay ride and they LOVED IT!!  They were calling out to the kids in the lot, telling them to "ride the choo choo too".  Like I said, this was their first hay ride.   

 Since they had so much fun playing with hay, the very next weekend 

we trotted off to the local nursery for some more fall festivities.

This time we took Grandma Marcy with us.  

 Hay, that was a lot of fun!!

 The next day we had some special gals come to visit. 

 Marinda!!  and our 'Tepany'!

 Later in the month, the cool breezes blew us over to the Zoo to hang with the Lyden crew!

We monkeyed around

 and pretended to be turtles.

Eme got a little of her holiday baking done.  

We love the apron Miss Angela gave us.

 Pumpkin Night at school is a big hit around here.  

We get to paint, stay up very late and eat pancakes for dinner with Teacher Janice. 

 Look into my eyes!!

Okay, we could not get enough of this place, so we went to the nursery again for the fall festival

Face painting may not be Marlo's thing

 Mimi, on the other hand, thought it was pretty great.

 Someone didn't get the memo about the "fall" theme

 This time the hay ride was actually a hay ride... old pros.

 got milk?

 We just could not bring ourselves to carve pumpkins this year. 

 Really, Andi just did not want to deal with the mess and I did not want them playing with knives. 

 So we did this instead

 pretty nice.

 Then the costume-making began! 

And yes, I made the dress.