My little nose junky

Abby has always loved to explore her nose. As soon as she figured out she had little holes there just perfect for her fingers, it was her new favorite thing to do.

In her Easter dress...nice

More recently in the swing

Now it is not just her finger. She has put peas, a raisin, pieces of paper, the doll's hair...anything she can get her hands on. I can usually get whatever out pretty quickly with the nose sucker or tweezers...umm...yes...tweezers to get the raisin out. SO much FUN!

So when she put a corner of a snack wrapper up there a few weeks ago, I moved fast to get it out, but not fast enough because...SNIFF...up it went. I tried to get it with the nose sucker but that just made it worse. Because it was a sliver of shiny plastic-like paper it was not coming out!

Man, oh man, was I ever furious with her! I had kept them out of the germ ridden Dr's office during this whole flu outbreak and here I had to go get a piece of foil from her nose?!? Ugh! But even the Dr didn't even see the stupid thing. They flushed out her nose with saline (which I learned later is the LAST thing you want to do) with no luck.

She sent us home with instructions and a warning: If it wasn't out in the next 2 days, then we were headed to a Ear, Nose, and Throat Dr. where they would put a little camera up her nose. Oh boy!

You see where this is going, right? Abby and I had an excellent adventure to the ENT. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing. Flashes of surgery and putting her out went through my mind.

Poor little sucker has NO idea what she is in for...

In the special children's area of the waiting room

She barely stopped long enough for me to snap pictures

She watched another little boy on this in fascination.
As soon as he moved on she was right there to take over for him.
She just couldn't figure it out though and DID NOT want my help.
Little miss independent

Playing Peek-a-Boo

She had to try out the chair

I took a break from taking pictures for a bit while the Dr. looked up her nose, then threaded a camera up in there. Before they did that they asked me if this was my first child, which I found amusing and insulting at the same time. My self of years ago when Zachary was my only child was insulted by the fact that this should make any difference at all. However, my self of today knows that it does make a difference as moms do tend to loosen up a bit over time. I briefly wondered if this applies to first time moms of twins. I think in that case you would have to be a little loose because your attention is so split, you don't really have time to be worried so much...or do you?? Hmmm... Alright, moving on.

A nurse held her as the Dr thoroughly searched with a long bendy camera. She did great, crying but not horribly so. He didn't see it, which meant she had already swallowed it or sneezed it out when we weren't looking. Nothing like a huge, traumatizing procedure for nothing, huh, Abby?

She charmed the whole staff with her big eyes. One of the office people dug around in the storage closet and gave her a toy phone. Which she totally fell in love with.

You can see a little of her red eyes from crying here.

Oh, so tired from her adventure

I hoped that this experience was traumatic enough to scare her away from it from now on. But oh no...no. Her daddy was telling his mom about it and she was listening. She went and got a toy duck, sat in front of him and tried to stick it up her nose. ::sigh::

Check it out!

I did some work on the blog today so come check it out if you read in a reader. Also, 4 good MOM friends of mine are in the top 20 at the sight. I would LOVE to be there with them. One of the is #1!! Heather is at #8. Congrats, girls! Not that I want to BEAT them or anything, just JOIN them. So, every time you click the link, it records a vote for me. No need to go and do anything else. AND you can do it every day...you know, if the urge hits you or anything.

Sibling Rivalry and Love

Here are the videos I promised. Sibling Rivalry already. Is it ok to say that I actually at some level think these are funny? I know I shouldn't.

The first one is a little long, over a minute but so so worth it in the end. Abby had not had a very good nap and she was cra.nky. OH! She didn't want Olivia anywhere near her. Not even to talk to her! The last 5 seconds make it all worth it, so hang in there.

Awwww!!! And just like that her bad mood was over.

And so you don't think that Abby is always the tormentor, here is Olivia keeping a phone away from Abby. She is a mess and a half here. Be sure to watch her face when I tell her not to hit. Oh man, can I see that face in her terrible three years, plus her teenage ones. Of course, Abby is right there throwing things all over in her frustration.

Heh heh heh

My Zachary

Finally! I got the pictures. I have been working on this one since yesterday. I realize the blog has been a bit one sided lately, so today's post is all about my other child, you know the one. Zachary, my beautiful boy who-is-in-2nd-grade-and-now-has-attitude-and-takes-forever-to-do-homework-and-doesn't-want-to-do-chores. Yes that's him alright.

In the middle of a story about school

He has learned how to ride his bike without training wheels...finally. No one can accuse this child of being reckless, let me tell you. Gary taught him. I am not sure who was more thrilled.

Here he is accepting some patches and belt buckles at Cup Scouts.

Here he is doing his Cup Scout thing

He also made a boat to race. He sanded it down, painted it, and put it all together. Again, Gary helped him with all that boy stuff.



Gary and him went on a camp out. I cannot believe he made it all night. He did great!




My big boy (sniff sniff)

I am in Trouble

Yes, yes, I didn't post yesterday! My camera cord is missing and my computer is not wanting to upload anything right now. Grrr...stay tuned.

Eeek! It's 11:45!!

Really fast post so I can get it under the deadline...

This is Olivia dancing. Abby dances a tiny bit at the beginning then gets distracted by a toy.

My little Livvy has some moves! She does not get this from me! I love how she can't quite figure out what is making the ABCs start. She just pushes everything until it starts.






P.S. I have a couple of HILARIOUS videos coming of the two of them torturing each other.

Halloween Outakes

So I attempted to get some pictures in the little ladies' Halloween outfits. Bwahaha!!

Smile at Mommy!

Look at Olivia, sitting there all still

Abby, quick, quick! Get over there by Olivia. Hurry!
STAY Olivia!

OK! Abby is sitting...
Olivia!! Smile at Mommy!!

Ohhh...::sigh::

No, Abby! Stay! I'll get Olivia!

OK...wait...WHERE'S ABBY??

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I do love this picture of the two of them heading off together.

And I also got short sleeved shirts because this IS Texas after all.
We never know if it will be cold or hot in October.
Oh the dog ears!

Abby was too too busy with her dolls to even look my way

Here is another of Olivia with her bows in.

This girl loves her bling

Trick or Treat

I bet you thought I wouldn't post, huh? Mmmm??

My laptop has been SO SLOOOOOWWWWW today. But it's here now.

We had a blast Trick or Treating this year. We went to our friends the Logans. Casee and I used to work together and have been good friends for 10 years (wow!). Zachary's friend, Spencer was born on Halloween. We have spent many a Halloween celebrating with our friends.

The girls dressed up as Tulip Fairies.
Olivia in her costume
Abby in hers

Zachary dressed up as a Mobster with scars

I threw together a gypsy get-up
Casee is The Queen of Hearts
Angela (Spencer's Aunt) is a beautiful cow.

We did attempt to get a picture of the 3 kids together

We went on a hayride around the neighborhood to do the whole Trick or Treat thing. SO much fun!

Abby sat quietly on Daddy's lap the entire time

Olivia didn't :-)
Check out that hand trying her hardest to get out of my grasp!
She wanted to go go go.

Finally she settled down with Casee and was content to snuggle
Olivia hummed and sang to Casee - So Cute!

The girls first experience.
They had NO clue what was going on.
Abby tried to go in the house. Hee hee!

Here is Zachary with the whole group

Zachary and the birthday boy

The birthday boy without his mask

Zachary with Aubree

Casee with me and Olivia

Daddy with both girls.

Little Miss Abby

The best one of both of them

And one of the not-so-great-ones

Makes My Monday - Abby Dancing

The Abby Dance is what we call this. Whenever we say "Abby Dance!" she goes into a fit of stomping and laughing while she tries to dance.

Follow along with Cheryl at Twinfatuation.

National Blog Posting Month

Ah, yes...Here it is again. The month of November. Dare I even try for a post a day??

Oh yes...yes, I do dare.

I did this last year. It was so fun and I never ran out of things to blog about. I am hoping this will get me out of my blogging slump. I have SO many things I need to share, not only for YOU, dear readers, but myself for record keeping purposes.


What?? Are you surprised the baby books are still empty?? Yeah, I thought not.

So here we go again. Let's have fun, shall we?? And if you want to join in the fun...go here for all the info.



P.S. If you read my blog in your email or in a reader, you MUST come see my new header. It is divine, if I do say so myself...

The one where I scare Olivia with my toes

Olivia has always had a strange fear of painted toenails. When she was a crawler, she would try to cover up my mom's toes. This fear was taken to a whole new depth when I painted my toe nails black for Halloween and just cause I am cool like that.

See? Aren't they pretty?

Olivia does not think so. Keep in mind that my toes have been painted for about a week here. This is not a first reaction.

Poor Olivia - And I am going to comfort her not to chase her with them. But she had a purpose, to get the rag that I used to wash off their trays. She decided to take matters into her own hands. Toward the end she blows her nose with it.

Hopefully she will get over this by the time it's time to paint her own.

Way Back When-esday - Pottery Barn Chairs

I have decided that catching up from summer posts is kinda like celebrating "Way Back", right? Right?? Well, I say so. And I realize some of you got this in your readers or email on Sunday. I was actually planning ahead and accidentally posted it instead of saving it. A h well, enjoy it again...

Here is a long overdue post about a summer purchase we were super excited about. One of the things we wanted the girls to have was soft chairs. We really really wanted Pottery Barn Chairs

We have heard great things about them, but you have to buy the slipcover plus the soft inserts. Grand total is around $160 for each chair. Umm, yeah... I'll wait for you to pick yourself up off the floor. There was NO WAY I was spending that much for a chair. No way, no how. I looked around a bit more and realized that I could get a smaller Pottery Barn Chair for about $100. Still no go. I couldn't do it. Then, they went on sale bringing them down to $80 a chair. Hmmm..better, but still way too much for our budget. I was so bummed.

THEN I remembered I had racked up a butt load of points on MyPoints That is a whole nother pt! So I cashed in my points for a $100 gift card to Pottery Barn Kids. Am I a genius or what?? I was so excited!

We decided to head to Dallas to the store there instead of ordering on line. Shipping was almost as much as the chairs! I walked in and fell in love with everything there. Rugs, dolls, kitchen toys, books, bed sets, lighting - Oh my so loverly! Focus, Sara! They had a green gingham floor model that the girls tried out for size. I really wanted to get a pink dotted one for Abby and a purple doted one for Olivia. Of course, these are their signature colors. But Abby fell in love with the green one. She cried when we would try to put it back up on the shelf. We even brought a pink one over and she pushed it out of the way and pulled the green one back down. Too funny! She knows what she wants at least. Heaven help me for the future if this is how she is at 1!

Even better was the fact that if we bought the floor model we got a discount. This just keeps getting better and better! I gave up my original plan of pink and purple (go me!) and settled on green and pink gingham. Would you like to know how much we ended up paying??

$45

A piece, you ask? NO! That is total with tax and everything! I know!! I was super excited! What a deal! I loves me some deals, you know!

So now I have to share the wonderful pictures of them sitting quietly in them smiling for the camera right? Bwahahahah!! You kow better than that! But I did my best and here they are.

This was back in August when we first got them.

Olivia posing, but nope, not smiling

They love to read their books in them.

They are good for standing in, too.

These were just a few weeks ago

Sometimes they end up in the same chair watching TV

They take a break from TV watching to cuddle up

I love this one

But soon Abby wants to get back to her TV watching

"Seriously, Mom. Can you do something here?"

So I do.
Lounging is the way Olivia likes to lay in hers.

I'll get all caught up some day :-)

Play along with Cheryl

New Fun Things

Last week I got to have a girl's night of shopping and chatting with my good friend, Linda. We went to the Just Between Friends Sale (Umm...yes, another one. Shut it!) I found a few things and they are quickly becoming favorites.

Both girls love to wear their shoes inside. They have to have them on when ever they catch a glimpse of one. I really don't want them wearing shoes all day. I think their little feet need room to grow and they walk better without shoes. But Winter and cold floors are coming up so I knew I need a solution.

Enter my solution for $2 each!! I am IN LOVE with these crochet shoes. They are soft with ties so that I can tighten them. Not too hot like house shoes would be. I really don't want sweaty stinky feet. PERFECT!!


What's better is they love them too! I asked Abby to show me her shoes.

Check out that pointed foot!

Do I have a budding ballerina? or a model??

I also got this super fun water table. It has a pump and I got it for a steal! $25! Of course, when I got it home it didn't work. Grrr!! This is what really sucks about consignment sales. Not everyone is as honest as they should be. But I opened up that bad boy and fixed it!! Oh yes I did. Go handy man, er woman! The small rudder inside the pump had come apart. No problem! New batteries and that baby was ready to go. We got to use this on the last day of really warm weather around here last week.


I seriously had to shoo the big kids away (that is the girl next door there too, Tierney). They were TAKING THEIR TOYS. Seriously! The big kids were very politely taking the containers away from the girls. Shoo, big kids!!

Clothes soon became soaked and so we just took them off.

I love how they play side by side.

I included this picture so you can see how long Olivia's hair is in front.

They love it! Another really great thing is the pump has a timer so it doesn't run down the battery! Genius! Of course, the girls soon figured out where to push to bring the water back. I think I will try to fill it with corn or rice for them at some point since it is too cold for water now. And maybe sand in the Spring! The pump can come off so it doesn't get all yucky.


AND...I had to include these two. They love to kiss, but they are so quick I usually don't capture it. This was before bath time so Abby was already undressed but Olivia wasn't yet. And yes, they were climbing on their stroller. Little mountain goats...

Another cute shot. You can really see the difference in their heights here. I think they are doing the whole nose chin kissing more than mouth kissing here.


New fun things "Make My Monday". Play along!

Using Spoons

My big big girls are using spoons!
They take it VERY seriously.

Olivia has to see what Abby is up to

Notice how messy Olivia is
Normal learning-to-eat mess, right?

Yeah, Abby doesn't believe in a mess. Period.

So far we have tried yogurt, potato soup, Cheerios with milk, guacamole, and taco soup. The taco soup was tasty but tore through their little systems. Wow! The gas and the sleep that night were bad so no more of that family favorite.

Also notice we have a lefty AND a righty. It should be very interesting as they start writing. My nephew is a lefty. I bet she got it from him ;-).

Camera Hogs

One day Olivia decided to try out sitting in a basket. She gets into everything!!

Along comes Abby...

She feels the need to tell Daddy that Olivia is sitting inside a basket!

I decide to take one more picture...

Abby thinks she should be in the picture too

How does Olivia feel about Abby's interruption?

How does Abby feel about Abby's interruption?

I guess we are all scene stealers in this house.

September in Pictures

I have such good intentions. But, well...you know. So I decided to do all the best pictures from September. (I am working on a summer one too)

And let me just say, my girls are happy. I didn't get one picture of them smiling and in some of them they are just plain glowering!

The girls got Cabbage Patch Babies.

What's that you say? You can't see them?? That is because they WILL not show them to me when I have my camera up. Will.not. Do you see the death grip Abby has below? That is because I dared to turn hers around!

They do love them. They love and rock and sing to them. They are such little Mommies! I wasn't expecting that so soon.

They love to push them around in their strollers

They also love their purses. They think they are big girls, especially Abby
She walks around with her arm in the air so it won't fall off.

Or maybe on her foot ;-)

Meanwhile, Olivia is busy climbing. Everything. Every.thing.

They love to wear shoes all day long.
They go to the basket where their shoes are and bring them to me.
Abby discovered Q-tips

And walked around with one hanging out of her ear.

Zachary did his annual Fun Run
The girls were happy to cheer him on. Really. They were.

He ran 47 laps this time.

He also joined Boy Scouts!

But see that shaggy mess under his hat?
We got that fixed...

Things were very quiet in the kitchen the other day so I had to go investigate...

See, Mom? It all just fell out of here!

I guess Abby wanted to get her own picture of the mess

Here is a video of a true representation of how most days go. Abby taking things, Olivia tattling, Olivia then trying to rectify the situation, and Abby...umm...not going for it.

Abby once again has Strep. Ugh!! I am thinking that a trip to the Ear, Nose, and Throat Doc is in the near future. She may be a carrier. Wonderful! Good news is that Olivia does not have it.

My Great Deals

I got some great deals at the "Just Between Friends" Sale. My number 1 want was already gone when I got there. DANG! It was a wooden holder for dress-up clothes. It had a rod and everything. So cute!! There were also a few tall containers full of drawers that we all were wanting, but again, gone in the first few minutes. ::sigh:: I may have to see about working next time so that I can get in first!

So I got a desk for Zachary. This has been needed for awhile now. It was $14!! It is a computer desk. I am going to *try* to paint it (??) We'll see...

Here are our Christmas dresses for this year. Too cute!! And I love that they are short-sleeved, because here in Texas you never know what kind of weather it will be. We can put a little sweater with it if we need to.



And here is a great big group of stuff
~#2 umbrella stroller, #3 stroller in all (and don't even suggest that I am putting my stroller addiction off on them),
~Cash Register
~Little People's House
~Two Little People's Mini-vans complete with mama and babies - SO glad I got two
~1 huge bag of play food for $10, and I smaller bag for $2
~A vet set - which is really just a carrier with a ton of regular dr stuff in it, but it has some really good dr stuff, so it was worth it.
~2 pink stools for them to use to wash hands and other stuff.
~the Barney and the phone are repeats of favorite toys we have already
~a magic wand
~a vaccum to match the one left from Zachary's toddlerhood.
~a Strawberry Shortcake tent
~2 shelves that will go on our Kid's Wall in our stairway.
~a fabric box to use with our shelf system. We already have some others
Not pictured: a Dustbuster that really works. It is SO cool and Abby really uses it when I use mine. Olivia just likes to have it on as background noise. Also some toddler spoons and plate set, safety latches for the cabinets, and a safety thing that goes over a power strip.

Here is the tent put up

I know Abby's face says otherwise but they really do love it.

And some clothes as well that I didn't get a picture of. It is not nearly the pile I usually get. I got winter PJs for $1.50 each from Carter's, Children' Pllace, Gap, and Old Navy. I got several long sleeved outfits with pants or leggings. I got both of their Winter Coats for $8 each. Big heavy nice Winter coats, in their colors!! Yay! I got light fleece jackets, too for $4, two pairs of shoes for $4 and $5. And and and AND...I scored their Halloween costumes for $20 for the both of them. Tulip Fairies! Awwww!!
I was at the sale for 5 hours. Until after midnight. And no, I wasn't the last one in line, though they did come around and shoo me toward the front. I didn't even get to look at Zachary's sizes. To give you an idea of how many clothes are there: Do you know the store Ross? There are rows and rows of clothes instead of them being on individual racks. So picture 1 row at one of these types of stores. There was the equivalent of 5 racks, front and back, just of size 18 mth size! Can you imagine wading through all that? It was tough but someone had to do it :-)

And I am such a freak about matching stuff that I was looking at both sizes and trying to match things up. Ugh! Needless to say, I didn't get many things that matched.

And I saved the best news for last. I made $900 from my stuff that I took to sell (!!!!). I know!! All of our big stuff sold, plus a lot of clothes and toys. The only big thing I brought home was the Double Snap and Go. I brought home about 1/3 of the clothes and other items. Shoes did not do well, but that is probably because there was literally piles and piles of each size of shoes with containers underneath as well. It was pretty overwhelming to shop with SO much stuff to sort through.

But that's ok...you wanna know why?? Well, sure you do! That is because I am a Super Savvy Consignor. This means that I take my leftovers to other sales around the Metroplex. There are 4 more within the next month. And what is the best part? I have the same consignor number for all the sales. This means there is no replacing tags for every sale. Ummm, yeah. How great is that??

I have been slowly catching up on blog reading. And I know that some of my readers used my blog roll to visit other sites. I will have that back up soon.

Sniffles and Snuggles

Lots of sniffling noses that run like faucets around here. And it is 10x worse because now they wipe at their own noses. Ewwww!! They need a lot more snuggling, too, so I have had little time to blog. The story of my life, right?

I got some great deals at the "Just Between Friends" sale Wednesday night. I was there for 5 hours!! I was one of the last ones out, but there were about 6 people in line behind me. Hey, no reason to get into the hour long line (oh yes, it sure was) when I could be shopping right? And I didn't even look at Zach's clothes or walk back through for a final look like I usually do. I will post some pictures soon of all the booty. I refrained from buying any strollers (and there was one I would have liked). As of last night, I have made $430. And that is only 70% of the sales. They update the computer every night and tonight is the first time that the public can get in. The past two nights have just been pre-sales. I wanna go back!! Gary nixed that real quick. Dang your level headedness, Gary!!

Ok so now on to some cute pictures. The girls have started loving hats and anything really that goes on their head...or their butt, whatever.

Abby bring me the swim diaper and have this look.
No words are necessary to get her point across.

On the head it goes

And Olivia has to have one as well, per Abby bringing me another one and pointing to Olivia.

Abby will wear it for a long time. Olivia? Not so much...

But that's ok, cuz look at how cute she is!!


An attempt at a self-portrait with the ladies.

New Videos

Olivia cracks herself up dancing

Olivia "talks on the phone"

Abby comes in at the end and says "that?" and "shoes"

This is one of Olivia babbling and them both dancing.

At the very end they start to fight over the toy :-)

"Just Between Friends" Sale

Is there even anyone still reading here?? Other than my mom? and Gary?? I hope so. But I know I have been a bad blogger. Hopefully I will have time this week to catch up.

I am tagging tagging tagging for the local "Just Between Friends" sale. Remember last year when I my mom spent a butt load of money on a TON of clothes? So they wore maybe 10% of all that stuff. What was I thinking buying 3 month old babies jeans, huh?? And why did they need 8 pairs? I def got all caught up in the hunt for bargains. Plus, Abby started wearing a size above Olivia so all the matching clothes were pretty much useless. I SO did not need all those clothes since they mostly lived in their very comfy, warm sleepers last winter. Have I learned my lesson? Hmmm...maybe?

SO...I am tagging all those clothes from last year hoping that someone else will be as dumb...er, I mean, SMART to jump on these great deals.

We are also selling all our baby stuff; swings (Oh, how I loved thee), bath seats, bouncers, Bumbos, excersaucers, walkers, bottles, blankets, car seats. All things baby because...

::big deep breath::

We're done.

We decided that financially, emotionally, physically, mentally our family is just right.
And if not then we can buy everything again, right?

This called for me to open tubs of Zachary's old clothes I was saving in case of a boy baby. I am letting a lot of these things go (yay, me!) So needless to say, we have a ton of things to sell...a TON! 375 tags to be exact so far. And that doesn't even count the groups of things, that is just the number of tags.

OH, and I am selling 2 strollers, so I am only a crazy owner of 6 strollers now. But really 2 don't count since they are single umbrella strollers, right? So we really only have 4 serious strollers. That's not too many, is it? And we would only have 3 if Gary and I could agree on which side by side stroller we want to keep. So let's knock that on down to 3 really. 3? Not bad at all!!

Ok, we really bird walked there, didn't we.

I also paid for sign printing for the sale so technically I am a volunteer. That means I get to shop a full day earlier than anyone else. There is only 1 group going in before me. Aww yeah! Can you say great deals??

I am making my own list of things to buy at the sale. I am amazed at how much they are already pretending. They love on dolls and mix things in bowls with spoons. They even pretend to feed us and each other! I was not prepared for them to do that quite yet. So those of you out there that have experience with older girls; what should I be looking for as far as toys? What toys are favorites for 1-2 year old girls? Zachary was into his trains and tractors at their age so I need a little help here.

And here are a few cute pictures of the girls. They got some new wheels. And before you go thinking this is just another "stroller" type thing, it's NOT.

They love it.
I know it doesn't look like it, but they really do.
It was nap time.