Lake Weekend, Sort of...

We had planned a lake weekend with our friends, but it turned into just a lake day for most of us. My family came to visit for a few days and we got to spend some time with Lance & Kristin before they move to North Carolina. I'm happy for them and will enjoy visiting them there, but we will miss seeing them. We wanted to spend as much time with them as we could, so we stayed home Friday night and got up early Saturday to go to the lake.

It was a gorgeous day. Perfect for swimming, riding around in the boats, laying around, talking, eating, and playing with the kids. It's rare these days that we can all get together. Nathan's still nursing a slightly hurt ankle, so he couldn't wakeboard. He spend most of the day taking pictures with our new camera. Here are a few of those. I need to get a photo editing program and zoom in on some of these.

More Camping Pictures...

Camping Preview!

I don't have time to do a full blog on our camping trip, but here's a little preview of what we did. We took Kaleigh with us to Heber Springs and left the babies with Nana & Poppa (Thanks again!) We also borrowed their camper. That's about the only camping I do these days. It was a great weekend.

What to do if you have extra babies lying around the house...







Have a slumber party!
Kaleigh is starting to realize how much fun her sisters are going to be. Of course they are probably more cooperative now than they will be in a few years! It's so cute to watch them together.








We had a busy but fun weekend. My sister got back from Austria and my grandparents came from Alabama to visit so we all got together at our house on Saturday. Of course Sunday was Mother's Day and we had Nathan's family over. He cooked a great meal and took good care of me on behalf of our girls. It will be nice when they can do it themselves :)

Birthday Fun & A Day on the Town

My 30th birthday was Thursday. Nathan is already planning a weekend getaway to Hot Springs for next weekend and I thought that was the main celebration so we didn't have much planned for my actual birthday. Just dinner at home and I was going to get coffee with some of my friends who gave me some nice presents. Little did I know when I got back to the house there was a whole slew of people waiting for me! Many of my friends and family were there and we had cake and ice cream and snacks in the backyard. It was so nice and made me feel very special. Nathan did great!

My parents stayed in town until today and my dad wanted to go out to eat. Instead of just going to a restaurant we decided to enjoy our lovely city of Little Rock and the gorgeous weather. We went downtown to the RiverMarket and got some food and ate outside by the river. Then we shopped the market a little then walked along the river. They have really fixed up a great play area for kids! There is a huge slide and all these tunnels leading different ways, then rocks to climb back up. There is a "fountain" where water shoots up periodically from the ground. We watched some kids playing in the water and tried to get Kaleigh to run through but she wasn't having it! I would definitely like to go back and have her bring a bathing suit next time. We got some ice cream then went home.

Yesterday Gretchen came over and did a photo shoot for us. It was the first time we've had anybody take family pictures, and of course she got tons of just the kids. She did a great job. There is a little preview here at her photography blog.
It was fun. The babies did great, much better than I expected. Kaleigh wasn't as "into it" as I would have expected, but she did good. I love Gretchen's style. She just captures the essence of people. Poor Nathan had a root canal yesterday morning. Please pray for him, they weren't able to finish and he has to go to a specialist tomorrow to get the rest of it done. Every time he goes back to the dentist we get more bad news (& spend lots of $$). He takes excellent care of his teeth, he just inherited "difficult" teeth.

Here are some Easter pictures. My Dad got this amazing basket from the high school in Bearden. They were doing a fund raiser and all the stuff was donated for the baskets. It had so many books in it and nice things. Kaleigh is wearing the Ariel gown that Lance & Kristin brought her from DisneyWorld. She loves it. And of course the family shot Easter day. Since it was pouring down rain we couldn't get the outside picture that I really wanted. It was a nice weekend.
Don't forget to look at our pictures on Gretchen's photography blog!

Random Post

The last few weeks have been crazy busy. Nobody warned me that twins at 6 months were harder than twins at 3 months?!? Here's just a little of what's been going on...

We got together with some of our best friends. We always try to get certain pictures when we're together. The picture of the kids with Ben is just a fun tradition. We thought about trying to get ALL the kids in, but that probably wouldn't have worked! I love these people. We laugh so much when we're together. It's a little harder these days, but worth the trouble.

We had Maddie over to play with Kaleigh the other day. Those two are such sweet friends. They played great together and I loved listening to their little conversations. Look at the second picture what Maddie is wearing. Is that a match made in heaven or what?!









We've been selling a lot on ebay. We hit up a garage sale last Friday and found all sorts of interesting things to sell. The best so far was $3 camera lenses sold for $25 plus S&H. We may not get rich that way, but it's fun! I'm also in a dispute with someone that I bought from. I bought a PC game and it never came. He won't respond. I'm pretty sure he's scamming a bunch of people... Or maybe he just overdid it and I'm being cynical. We'll see. I actually called ebay on him though.

Funny Kaleigh story.. Nathan had been letting his facial hair grow for a while and finally shaved the other day (with some encouragement from me). Afterward he went into the LR where Kaleigh was and sat down next to her. He had his shirt off. He asked Kaleigh "Do you notice anything different about me?" She looked him over and finally said "I don't know." He said "I shaved the hair off my face". She thought for a second and looked at him again then said "Oh Daddy, did you put it on your arms?"

Gotta keep it in perspective...

This week's just been a bit of a "down" week for me. Anyone else feel that way? Spring break when you don't get a spring break is just not fun. My bible study was cancelled, I had no bunko, no playdates, no class meetings, no projects of any kind. The only time I left the house this week was to go shopping. And not fun shopping. I did get to see Ashley & her baby for a few minutes. It's just too hard to get out and do anything with all three kids. We went on a disastrous walk down the street one afternoon.
We were supposed to go to the lake last night where Nathan's parents were camping, but then it was supposed to rain so we didn't go. We were going to go to Garvan Gardens today but saw that it was going to be a little cold so we switched that. Then we decided to go to the lake instead, until we were reminded how cold 40 degrees is. Not fun. Plus Nathan had (or got to) go out a couple of evenings, which just makes my day with the girls that much longer. The only highlights of the week was seeing our friends Andy & Liz last night. They came over to visit for a while, which was a good "pick me up".

I know that I need to keep it in perspective. Everyone's fairly healthy, we have lots to look forward to, and I will soon be complaining about how much I have to do. God has been very good to our family. Which leads me to the next issue...

I also have been very burdened for a lot of other people lately. I know that I just need to pray for them and do what I can for them, then give it to God, but it's hard for me to do that "turning over" part. Every time I hear about sick babies or babies dying or broken marriages and people with financial troubles, I really carry it around with me. Maybe I'm supposed to be doing more? Like I said, it's been a down week.

Here's a little bit of cheerfullness - aren't the pigtails so cute?!

Miscellaneous Happenings

One other thing I wanted to accomplish while Kaleigh was gone was to get some pictures of Avery & Alexis. We did a photo shoot & I ended up with a few good ones (out of many).
The second one just captures them both perfectly. I have a feeling Alexis will be picking on Avery their whole lives.










I also got to some garage sales and found some beautiful smocked & Strasburg dresses for the twins. They don't exactly match but they will coordinate. I got 6 pairs of shoes that looked brand new. I also found a bunch of clothes for Kaleigh for $1 a piece, including some bathing suits, 2 cheerleading outfits and another smocked dress. I also found a set of sheets for Kaleigh's bed that match her bedding for 2.50 (including pillowcases).










I sold two smocked preemie outfits on ebay. We bought them new for $10 each and sold them for $30 total after Avery & Alexis wore them a couple of times. Not bad. It made me laugh that the lady who bought them emailed me & said they were for her heirloom reborn dolls! Then I got to researching those dolls. Serious business!

Kaleigh came home! She wanted to play outside. We disagreed about what she should wear. She won.

Project Completed!

Many of you who know me may have noticed that I'm not very good at following through on projects. Well, I am happy to announce that I finally completed something that I have been working on since my pregnancy with the twins. These are the letters to hang in Kaleigh's new room. The last step is to actually hang them. . .












And, I actually completed a new project that I just started yesterday! I wanted a bow hanger for Kaleigh's room. The ones on ebay are $20 and I just can't pay that right now, so I found some things at WalMart and made this one for about $7. It may not be as cute, but I saved $$ and I can brag that I made it myself. I noticed after I painted it brown that it looks a little like a football, but I'm hoping with all the bows hanging off it that you wouldn't notice that.










The reason I'm able to get all this done is b/c Kaleigh is gone with my parents for about 5 days. It is amazing how little work the twins are compared to their 3 year old sister! It doesn't hurt that they still sleep about 7 hours during the day. I'm determined to make the most of this time. Since she's been gone I've done those projects, listed some things for sale on ebay & craigslist, cleaned, and rearranged the LR furniture with Nathan. I still have many more things I want to do. I'll let you know how that goes!

Sickness

We've been dealing with a lot of sickness around our house lately. Surprisingly, it's not the two preemie babies who have had it worst, it's my 3 year old who has been really healthy up till now. We are spending a lot on doctor copays. It's been about 3 weeks since Kaleigh got RSV. She had a temp of 103.5 and a bad cough. She never got completely over it but was a lot better, then Monday I noticed a lot of gunk coming out of her eye. Pink eye. Then yesterday she threw up, and last night was running high fever again. We will be going back to the doctor later today.
In the meantime, Avery got the cough, but never got full blown RSV, thanks to the Synagis shot. She did have a slight ear infection and had to take antibiotics. Alexis got the same thing a few days later. We had to go out of town so I never took her to the doctor. They are both still congested but not bad. My mom predicted correctly that Alexis did not take it as well as Avery. She is definitely the more emotional one so far. But what I love is that one minute she will be fussing, then I will lean down & talk to her and she smiles like this









We went to Missouri over the weekend to visit family. It was a good trip and I'm glad we went, even though the babies made it a little stressful. Here is a picture of Kaleigh with her cousins Andrei, Ashley & Angelica. They are so sweet. I really wish we lived closer so she could spend more time with them.

Deal of the Week

I went to Walgreens today and got all of this for $9 total! At least it will be after I get all my rebates back. Most of it was free. How's that for a deal? In case you can't see, it's two packs of diapers, a 12 pack of double roll toilet paper, 3 shampoos, conditioner, hair gel, 2 pain medicines, allergy medicine, toothpaste, gum, and 2 air freshener systems.
Many thanks to Lisa, Tara & others who helped make this possible :)

I liked the guesses on the picture of Kaleigh. It was kind of a trick question. Unless you've heard me talk about it, you would never know that I found Kaleigh "picking Avery's toe jam". I know - gross, right? Nathan brought up toe jam one time and Kaleigh is a little bit obsessed with it.

Fun Craft & Finding Bargains!

Yesterday Kaleigh and I made a puzzle. First we found a flower catalog and Kaleigh cut out pictures that she liked from the catalog. Then we covered a piece of cardboard with glue & glued the pictures on the cardboard. Then, I used a box cutter & made puzzle pieces. Viola! A cute original puzzle plus good training in cutting, glueing, and working a puzzle. Fun!










Also yesterday, my very gracious mother-in-law, Patti, came over and watched the girls and let me have lunch with Nathan & do a little shopping in North Little Rock. I got to spend about in hour in my favorite store - 1/2 of 1/2 Name Brand Clothing. Shopping there is an adventure. They get clothes from store buyouts and some damaged items. Some of the things are fine, some have stains, or may be missing a button, or have big holes. You just have to look everything over carefully. Everything starts out at 1/4 of retail and continues to get cheaper & cheaper. I got these six items for $38 and they are all perfectly fine! I'm not kidding when I say it's pretty much spoiled us for shopping anywhere else. You just have to plan to stay a while looking through gobs of clothes. I was there for over an hour but I could have stayed much longer.






Quiz : Guess what is happening in this picture?

Happy Birthday, Nathan!
I'm so glad God created you! Me & the girls are so lucky to have you. Well, I'm lucky, and they wouldn't exist without you... Anyway, you are my best friend and a hard worker and lots of fun. Hope this is a great day for you.

Today is Nathan's birthday (obviously). Since we celebrated with his family Saturday and will celebrate with my family this coming Saturday, we didn't do much today. I told him I would make breakfast for him, so we had french toast this morning. Then I made chicken spaghetti and some other things for supper. Nothing spectacular - the point is, I cooked. Then, Kaleigh and I surprised him with some creme brulee that we made. I thought it turned out well. We sorta surprised him. I learned this year not to tell Kaleigh any secrets. She gets excited about things and forgets when she's not supposed to say something. I asked Avery & Alexis if they could just be quiet & sweet in honor of his birthday, but they must have another gift in mind because they chose to pass on that one. They are sweet, of course, just haven't been exactly quiet.

How to make banana bread with a 3-year old and two babies...

1. Assemble ingredients while dodging 3 year old who is "helping" but mostly standing right in front of the drawer or cabinet that I need to get something out of and pulling random items out of the refrigerator like pickles and chocolate syrup.
2. Put passy back in mouth of fussy baby
3. Wash my hands and toddler's hands
4. Add first & 2nd ingredient
5. Wait while toddler has to suddenly go potty
6. Go to check on the other baby who is fussing. She's soaking wet. Change her clothes and diaper.
7. Add third ingredient
8. Realize that we didn't wash our hands after changing a diaper and going potty so repeat step 3.
9. Dump contaminated ingredients out and start over.
10. Add first 3 ingredients again then let toddler help with the egg.
11. Big mistake. Eggshell in mixture
12. Dump out and start over again.
13. Add the ingredients again.
14. This time we make it to 4th ingredient.
15. Babies need passies.
16. Next ingredient - bananas. Try to add as much as possible while toddler is trying to eat as much as possible.
17. Wait while toddler adds chunks of banana 2 at a time with a measuring spoon.
18. Wait
19. Okay, add the rest of the ingredients without drama.
20. Stop to feed babies.
21. Start the bread maker.
22. Clean up Kitchen while toddler messes up more.
23. Sit down and breathe a sigh of relief that it's almost time for bed - oh wait - does that clock say 11:15 a.m.?!

Some New Pictures - We had a little photo shoot on Saturday when it was so pretty outside. We had the nicest day with not much to do, just relaxing and spending time together.

If you are on facebook, most of these are probably repeats. I've started using facebook a lot more lately so be sure & check out my profile every once in a while if you have an account.

Today Kaleigh made some valentines for family. She had fun picking out stickers and decorating and practicing writing the word "love" on some of them.
For lunch Kaleigh dipped a pickle in cottage cheese. Yum. Then she asked me what I had eaten and I told her quesedillas. She said "I want some". I said "Sorry, I already ate them. I asked earlier if you wanted some". Then she said "Oh, but we can go to the hospital and the doctors can get the quesedillas out of your belly and then I can eat them." Nice.

Avery & Alexis have gotten a lot more fun lately, making noises and smiling.

I've written down a few of the funny things Kaleigh has said to us lately. At least we laughed... Hope you enjoy.

Nathan: Kaleigh, your dress is pretty. Where did you get it?
Kaleigh (w/no hesitation): Me and Maddie got it at J.C. Penney's.
What is funny about this is - the dress wasn't from Penney's, I have no idea how she knows about Penney's b/c we don't shop there much, and I never call it "J.C. Penney's". Random.

Kaleigh is in the bathtub sticking out her belly.
Me: What's in your belly?
K: A baby (of course!)
Me: How did a baby get in there?!
K (thinking, then a revelation): I swallowed it!
Me (laughing): Oh, you swallowed it and it grew.
K: Yes, but don't worry. I didn't chew on her.

This one is my favorite -
Me: Kaleigh, do you want to do yoga with me in a minute?
K: Okay. We're gonna make yoga?
Me: Not make yoga, do yoga.
K: Okay. . . Then do get to eat it?