Thank You

I have been meaning to post this for awhile now and what better day than today...Thanksgiving.

I have to say thank you to each and every one of you who took care of me and my babies when I was pregnant, having my babies, and especially when I had to go back to the hospital. These people did it all; made meals, took care of Zach, held babies, you name it, they did it. I have the best friends and family ever ever!

My mom - Grana
holding both


Gary's Mom - Granma
holding both


My future sister in law - Diane
holding Olivia

My sister in law Jennifer
holding Abby


My sister in law - Chastity
holding an older Olivia
Sorry! I don't have one of you holding tiny babies :-)


My sister in law Hollie
holding Olivia


My neighbor Jenny
holding Abigail

My BFF Casee
who came to spend the day in the hospital with me
then came again the next day to care for my girls


My good friend Sarah
who keeps me sane on the days that are rough
She has twin 6 year olds and lives right down the street from me.


Our friends Brandie and Scott
who came to the hospital as soon as they heard I was there


My brother in law Jeromy
Who came to the emergency room to be with us
as soon as he heard the words "Congestive Heart Failure"

I am sure I am forgetting someone. Hopefully I got them all.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Sara

Way Back When-esday

Dateline: October 2002
Age: about 6 months give or take a few weeks
I had to share Zachary's own Gerber Baby moment.

Olivia on the left - Abby on the right

Dateline: June 2008
Ages: 2 weeks??
Those were preemie outfits...and they were big. ::sigh::


Play along with Cheryl over at Twinfatuation.
Thank you Cheryl for hosting this fun Weekly posting!

Sara

My Project

I have been a bit busy today working on this...

Hopefully I will have after pictures for you tomorrow.

Sara

From the Man - About the Man

I got this little Meme from Deb. I am going to copy her spin on it and have both of us answer these questions. I answered first in pink. Gary answered in blue and he did not see my answers first. Then I commented back in pink. This should be fun :-)

1. What is your husbands name?
Gary
Gary ____ _____ __ - He put his whole name

2. How long have you guys been married?
2 years
2 yrs, 2 mths, and 1 day - showoff

3. How long did you date?
1 year and 1 month
1 year, 27 days - can you tell he is a precise person?

4. How old is he?
38 - This is a constant form of teasing in our house since there is 7 years difference in our ages.
38

5. Who is taller?
He is - I am a shrimp
Gary

6. Who can sing best?
Not that he is bad, but I am better.
Gary
Oh No, he just thinks he can sing better.

7. Who is smarter?
He is definitely. He is smart smart. Plus he stores useless trivia knowledge in his brain and because of this there is no room for important things like the conversation we had yesterday.
Sara
Huh?

8. Who does laundry?
Neither of us - my mom does it when she comes and helps out every week. But I usually wash and he usually puts up.
Gary
Umm...yeah, now that he mentions it he probably does do more than me

9. Who pays the bills?
He does - and I am so fine with that. I did this in my first marriage and I was so ready for someone to take this responsibility.
Gary

10. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
This should be interesting - I say him because I picture this while standing at the foot of the bed.
Sara
Our point of view was different...hmmm...

11. Who mows the lawn?
He does - always. He enjoys it, but also my hands swell from the vibration of the mower.
Gary

12. Who cooks dinner?
Both - him more than me in previous months. Ever since I started planning meals though I have. Yay me!!
Gary
This actually bummed me a bit. I feel like I have really been trying hard to have meals planned or on the way to being ready when he gets home the past few weeks. Yes, "historically" with the pregnancy and the girls, he has done more but I have been trying so hard.

13. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong?
Oh no, ummm...I say me, but he will disagree. This is a point of disagreement with us. He thinks he is not wrong. If I prove him wrong, he changes his original point just enough to be able to say that he is right. It is not his fault though, his mom does the exact same thing. On this note, I used to be able to say I was wrong very easily, but his confidence that he is right brings out a side in me that has a hard time admitting when I am wrong.
Gary
See #8 - I can admit it! Not surprising that he can't admit that he doesn't admit when he is wrong, huh??

14. Who kissed who first?
::sigh:: He kissed me at the end of our first date ::sigh::
Gary kissed Sara
No doubt here that he made his move first

15. Who wears the pants?
Him - Something else I had to work on from my first marriage. Trusting someone enough to not control everything.
Gary
Again, we both know who is the boss in the house. At least we agree on this!

Well there you go. That was fun to see his perspective, huh?

Sara

Menu Plan Monday

Ok here we go...
Since I went with old stand-bys last week there is really nothing major to note about them except the White Chili. Since I have been making this a long time, I have taken a few liberties with the recipe so I thought I would share them. First of all, I double the recipe for our family, except for a few things. I am not a chili kind of person so I only use half of what the original recipe calls for. I also do not double the red pepper. The added white corn was excellent! It will def be added every time now. I also added sour cream to mine for the first time and it really added a great flavor. There was about 4 servings left over to freeze. This freezes wonderfully! Gary and I absolutly love this recipe. Zachary? Not so much. He tried it then had a ham and cheese sandwich. He has had it before and liked it so we will have it agian.

Ok, so here is this week's menu.

Monday: Hamburger Stew
I got this recipe from a fellow teacher. It is super easy
2 lbs of hamburger meat browned with a little onion
3 cans of Minestrone Soup
2 cans of Ranch Style Beans
2 cans of Rotel - I drain these
1 can of Beef Broth
1 package of Taco Seasoning
Put it all in a pot and heat on the stove. Yummy and easy peasy

Tuesday: Cheesy Crockpot Chicken
This is my new one to try this week.

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/4 tsp garlic powder
Cut chicken into bite size pieces and put into the bottom of the crockpot. Add the rest of the ingredients on top. Cook 8 hours on low. Serve over rice or noodles.

Wednesday:
I am not sure about this day. We will probably have leftovers or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Thursday: Turkey Day with Gary's family
Our part of the menu is Green Bean Casserole, Corn, and Sopapilla Cheesecake (Gary's specialty)
We increase the amount of cinnamon and mix the sugar and cinnamon together for it all. This is so so SO good. Everyone asks for this when Gary comes over.

Friday: Turkey Day with my family
Hmmm...I better see if I am supposed to bring anything this day!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grocery Savings

Yeah, nothing here this week yet. I didn't go last week, so I really have to go this week. I will be going tonight and I will update after I go.


I was a part of a recipe exchange over email so I got some good things to try for next week. Yay!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Sara

Sunday Show and Tell - Happiness Abounds

Cheryl over at Twinspiration gave me this fabulous award. Thank you so so much Cheryl!! Her blog is so great, so if you get a minute go check her out and send her some bloggy love.

The rules are simple.

A.) List six things that make you happy.
B.) Pass the award along to six more bloggers.

I am going to follow suit with her in how she goes about doing this award. You can tell the normal things make me happy; family, my home, etc. I am going to share 6 very simple items that make me truly a happier person. Yes, they are small nothings, but I would sorely miss them if they left.

#1 - Requirements for a warm snuggle on the couch

My sweatshirt blanket and my warm fuzzy socks.

I am not a cold weather person. I love mild weather. Granted Texas does not really have a Winter full of snow, but where we live is like a wind tunnel. I can't even put anything on my front porch without it being blown over. My scarecrow is laying over onto a porch chair as we speak. Hey, he was tired! Anyhoo, back on track here!...I love my sweatshirt blanket. It is made of sweatshirt material. Oh heaven!! And those socks keep my feet toasty warm, along with keeping myself entertained on the hardwood floors by slipping and sliding away. I have about 10 pair and love them!

#2 - Requirements of a Soothing Shower
Warm Vanilla Sugar Body Wash from Bath and Body Works
Satsuma Body Wash from The Body Shop A Loofah Scrubby
Steam - lots of steam

I use the Vanilla all throughout the fall and winter months. Vanilla just smells like fall and winter to me. It is such a comfort thing for me. Then I move onto Satsuma during the summer months. It is summer in a bottle. I looked high and low for a citrus fragrance I love. Some were too lemony or too limey and don't get me started on grapefruit (eww!), but this is the perfect blend of orangey sunshine. I can't explain it :-) And I always used a loofah such as this one.

#3 Kirkland's Home Store

And not just any Kirkland's Home store...this is my very own one in my town. It is the best. Others in the franchise tend to be a little trashy, but this one is great about keeping the store kept up and not cluttered. What's more is that the new displays are put front and center, then they move back to the middle row to make room for the new ones. If things you love have been moved to the third row, you know you had better grab them fast or else you might miss them. I love this store. You know how you find that one store that matches your style perfectly? That is this store for me. I could spend thousands in there!

#4 - Snacks in which ice is a major ingredient.

This is more of a summer thing but I still love them. Anything that has crushed, shaved, or blended ice in it. Icees, Sno-cones, Frapachinos, Slushies, anything. Plain ice is even better. Yum!

#5 My Notebooks and Pens

These are just examples of some of the ones I have. I probably have about 20 empty notebooks just waiting for me to fill with lists and such. Will this keep me froom buying more? Nope!

Oooo, I have two more that I have to share so...

#6 Jelly Belly Jelly Beans

Have you ever had these wonderful little bites of fruity goodness? And not just fruit! Root Beer, Popcorn, Peppermint, Coffee, Bubble Gum, it goes on and on. And the recipes?? Oh yes, you can pop a Buttered Popcorn and 2 Blueberry in your mouth for the taste of a blueberry muffin. OR you want a Mud Pie? Just throw in 2 Chocolate Pudding, 2 Peanut Butter, and 1 Cappuccino. Speaking of Peanut Butter, you can have a PB&J by throwing in a PB and a Grape. YUM!! My personal favs are Pear, Dr. Pepper, Island Punch, and Red Apple. Great fun can be had by digging into a bag full and pulling out one with your eyes closed. Pop it in and guess the flavor. Yes...Good times...good times.

And #6 1/2
Fruity Lip Gloss

I used to eat these when I was little. Now, I just like to spread them on before bed, or when I am out and about. I have many lip balm, gloss, chap stick kinds of things; ever searching for the perfect blend of feel, taste or smell and the softness they bring to my lips. I have to admit, I haven't found it yet. Do you have one that works for you? Share it!

Ok now I bestow this great award on 6 of by bloggy friends. I think your blog is super creative.

Katie at The Harris Boys - She is a master at the camera and capturing special moments.
Linda at Twice the Love - I love how she shares her stories about her precious twins.
Rebecca at Unexplained Infertility - She is a newbie to my blog and I have discovered how hilarious she is!
Sililoquy at She Just Had To Say It - You have to cath up on her and her husband's ongoing debaticle over when to put up their Christmas tree. And if you want to hear an embarrassing story about a baby monitor and an afternoon quickie click here. Oh hilarious!
Tanya at A Day in my Life - How can I not give this one to her even though I am sure she already has gotten it many times.
Annie at Santiago Girls - I love how she puts it in English so I can read it too.
And lastly Deb at Postcards from the Edge - I know you have already gotten this, but I would love to hear your simple pleasures list. :-)

If you don't want to do the simple pleasures one and have a better list then go for it! Romantic, Cooking, Crafts, whatever!! Just have fun and pass it on :-)

I sometimes do Sunday Show and Tell. The fabulous Mel at Stirrup Queens started it all. Her blog is a wonderland of Infertility information and other fun stuff.




Happy Sunday All!

Sara

Friday update on Saturday

Worth The Wait, right??

Umm...by the way, who was that whiny lady in that last post, huh? She was in a funk since she has gotten little sleep with week. I did not mean to make it sound like I was griping about the commenting. I was just worried about people missing a post. Silly, I know, but lack of sleep will due that to a person.

I got my camera to download,finally!! I am not sure what happened but the wizard that usually walks me through the download was not working, so I had to go through Kodak Easy Share. Which is a change, but might actually turn out to be better so a good change. Without further adue

It's Brag About Friday...er...Saturday time!!

I posted earlier in the week about them both rolling and having teeth now! But I captured them rolling on camera yesterday and their teeth and had to share.

Here is the perfect example of their personalities:

Abby all smiles as I hold her mouth open to get a picture of her one

little tooth and the other just barely peaking through.

And...Olivia

She is SO a "don't mess with me" person...AKA - diva!

Here they are rolling:

Are you ready up there mom? Cuz I'm only doing this once!

A little help, mom!


Just a little more!


Whoa!


Success!!

Olivia was super fast about hers and I couldn't get enough pictures really show the process.

Ugh...Ugh...

Over...Over...Over


Yay!!

Here are some after bath pictures that are just too cute.

In the picture on the right she is in the middle of a coo

Olivia has two new favorite things to play with: Toes and Barney - she just grins whenever he sings to her.

Favs of the week:

Olivia - her own Gerber moment

Abigail - her big huge grin

Sorry it took so long to get up today! We actually went to get our pictures made but couldn't get in. And what was I thinking we could walk in a month before Christmas. Geesh!

Sara

Friday Update will be late

My stupid camera will not load the pictures onto my computer, so I am working on fixing that along with changing diapers and playing with babies. :-)

Neurotic thine name is Sara

Yes, I have been worried lately. Who am I worried about? You, my dear...and you...and you over there too. The thing is, I have a gob of posts I want to post, but I see from my live feed that the majority of you get here from your blog, especially my nestie friends. Not all, some come directly or from Google Reader, but those who come from blogs I am sure you have one of those nifty updates on your side bar that tells you I have updated my blog. But here's the deal. When you click to read it, it only shows you that one post. What if I have posted another that day, but you missed it?

::Burying my head under the table::

I know! I know!! World peace? No, I am worried you might miss a post from me. Like the one I posted several weeks ago and no one commented on it. I know it is because it got lost in the shuffle and not because no one wanted to comment on it. No I am not egotistical. But someone always comments and this was a very personal post about our IVF journey and I know that it just got missed.

So what do I do? I want to post about my shoes, my visit to a friend's house (cutest pictures ever!), the blog award I received, the money that is burning a hole in my pocket, the conversation I had with Zachary, not to mention this is Brag About Friday, but I feel like I can only post one a day so that no ones misses anything.

::just going ahead and crawling under the table::

I am sure this stems back to childhood in some way.

::sigh::

Friday Bragging will begin soon, in which you will just click straight to and miss this post altogether which is the whole point of the post...oh forget it.

Sara

Think Thin Thursdays

Week One is over! Remember the part about needing to start small so I can feel successful? Yeah, not so much. I struggled with drinking water every day. Several days I would find myself guzzling before I went to bed. Not good for middle of the night potty breaks when I am feeding babies.

Week Two:
1. Set a new goal and blog about it.
2. Task of the Week:

Tell us one temptation that you were faced with this week.

How did you overcome it?

I was tempted to count tea as water. I mean, it has water in it right? I found that if I put the water in a bottle, I was more likely to drink it.

So my goal for Week 2 is to limit my Halloween candy intake to 2 pieces a day. FWI: I am up 2 pounds. Oy!!

Sara

We have rollers and teeth!

Yes, people. They are officially mobile...sorta. Last Thursday Abby rolled from her back to her front. She is getting to where she will just move all around and move under her floor gym. And imagine our surprise when Olivia skipped the ever popular front to back roll-over and just went straight for the back to front roll-over on Monday. Yay, girls!

We knew the teeth were coming. Olivia had been positively horrid all week last week and the weekend. Little Abby does not complain about much but she was starting to just cry and cry when she would bite down hard on a toy or her fingers. Poor baby. So we were really watching for Abby's tooth to come in first. Monday I reached into her mouth to feel and the nubbies were still there. Just for the fun of it I checked Olivia's too...and low and behold there was a tooth!! I had a serious talk with Abby about how cool it would be for her first tooth to break through the same day as her sisters. So being a very good little girl she worked and worked on it and...hers broke through in the afternoon!! How cool is that?? I had my first true aww twin moment. That they got their first tooth together on the same day was just too cool for words. Olivia's is the bottom right if you are looking into her mouth and Abby's is the bottom left. I want to be sure to get this down in writing so I can see if it is the first tooth they loose as well. I didn't remember which tooth Zachary cut first and wished I had written it down. Also, Olivia's second tooth has already come in as well. She is a bit better now that they are through but still super fussy. I tried to get pictures of the teeth but all I got was their little tongues in the way. They were not having it!

I am kinda all over the place today. I can't tell you how many times I have had to go back and fix spelling and typing errors so far.

Why are Wednesday's so hard? Monday I am rested from the weekend and Tuesday and Thursday is when my mom comes and helps so that leaves Wednesday and Friday. Last Wednesday was hard, too. But I am about to go for a walk with the girls. It is an absolutely beautiful day today. 75 degrees and little wind. I am actually wearing shorts. For once, I am thankful for the Texas weather. If I have time after my walk, I will do Way Back When-esday, but again, who knows?

Sara

Tagged

Aww.. I don't care how corny it is, I love to be tagged. I got tagged by Debbie and Annie for this one. I met Debbie on The Nest Multiples Message Board. This is another one of those good friends on-line, but I know that if we lived closer together she and I would be great friends in real life too. She has two cute cute twin girls and I love reading about them. Annie is my reader from Puerto Rico. She also has cute twin girls. She does a great job doing both Spanish and English on her blog.

Rules:
1. Link to the person who tagged you. - Souza Sisters and Santiago Twin Girls
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about you. - see below
3. Tag 7 random people at the end, and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Here goes:
1. I am a story spoiler
~ I spoil movies for myself. In fact, I go to MovieSpoiler.com and read about movies all the time. If I know for a fact I will be seeing the movie then I will refrain but those are few and far between. I just don't have the time to sit and watch movies anymore but I do like to know about them. I read the end of books as well. These two things frustrate Gary to no end. He actually started me on Movie Spoilers because he refused to tell me how "Million Dollar Baby" ended. So I found out on my own much to his disgust. I was flipping ahead in a book one time and he actually told me to "Respect the book!!" Heh Heh

2. I am an Ebay fan
~ I buy and sell on ebay constantly. It can actually get addicting and if you are not careful you will just start searching the house for random things to sell. My biggest sale was a set of 10 USED pages of Trend brand Scratch and sniff stickers from the 80's. You remember those? They had pictures of food on them like popcorn and root beer. Yeah, they sold for $95. That was a great moment.

3. I was a Donald Duck collector
~ Until #2 happened and I sold the whole collection on Ebay. I started collecting in high school and I had just carted it from house to house in boxes and I was just done with it! I sold about 100 pieces for close to $600 to people from all over the world. One miniature Donald that was less than an inch tall sold for $8. Crazy what people will pay.

4. I was a sensitive child
~ When I was a little girl I thought everything had feelings. When I was allowed to choose a toy I would wrestle within myself over which toy to take. I didn't want any of them to feel left out or abandoned. I also worried about taking them away from their "families" that were on the shelf. God forbid you actually suggest I get rid of one of my own toys. Once my brother and I got rocks (yes, people, ROCKS!) from our driveway to throw out the back of the pickup. I threw only a few of mine and sprinkled them back in their home when I got back. Even as an adult I have thoughts about letting a fly out of my car window. He is a long way from where he got in, you know? Oy! I know, I need help.

5. I love the beach
~ For some people it is the mountains, for others it is the desert; for me there is just something about the beach and the ocean. It touches my soul in a way that just settles a peace over me. I went to Port O'Conner the summer of my divorce and I think that is what started it for me. I just felt my tension melt away when I could hear the sound of the waves. This is the first year that I haven't been to the beach since then and I really really missed it. I would like to retire to a beach somewhere.


6. When I asked Gary for an idea here he suggested that I tell you that I am argumentative. I immediately said "Nuh Uh!" which only confirmed his point, dang it.

7. I am a haggler
~ I actually enjoy haggling over the price of a car. When I bought my car a few years ago, I haggled for hours over the price. We finally left at 11:00 p.m. with the price I wanted.

I tag:(in no particular order)
Monica at Jonas: Life with Two Boys
Meghan at The Tator Tots
Laura at Taylo' 2 Babies
Sarabelle at Mommy of Twins
Tamlyn at A Sublime Life
Sarah at Twins + 2 More = 4 Girls
Jamie at I Never Knew Until I Became a Mom

Feel free to use whatever subject you wish. If you only blog about your kids then tell us random facts about them or your pregnancy. Just play along!

Sara