Last Day: Take This Blog and Shove It

I'm not blogging here anymore...

This blog has been long dead. I haven't shared my true feelings here in ages and ages, however, I am ready to make a new blog home for myself....and I have A LOT to share.

If you're interested, email me at chastity 779 @ yahoo dot com (no spaces).

Day 2747: Hello

One day I'll be a better blogger...that's all I can promise. What have we been up to??

A certain someone turned THREE!!

Easter happened....Baby E

Baby A
We endured our first soccer season...she loved it.
LG took her second year of swim lessons; she did great.
I've started witnessing the sisterly bond these girls are forging. I love it!!

We had our first trip to an amusement park. LG would go every day if it was up to her.
Went to the beach a few times (local beach/lake...no vacations for us this summer :( ).

We played with lots of toys.
The babies have starting doing lots of things, including getting into a sitting position unassisted and staying that way, and of course...making it from one end of the house to the other in 2 seconds flat! I was hoping maybe they'd skip crawling ;). In case you wanted to know, they are now 8 months old. A (left) weighs 17 lbs. 13 oz., and E (right) weighs 17 lbs. 8 oz. . They are right on track and very healthy. I am still breastfeeding exclusively, aside from baby food, and I plan to until they're a year old.
LG starts ballet later this month; she's so excited! She has even come up with her own routine...if you know me on FB, there's a link to a video.
That's about it. Our days are busy. We generally do something fun outside the house three or four weekdays each week. I like to stay busy and the kids seem to be the same way. Life is awesome. Things really aren't all that hard anymore, and I'm enjoying every second!

Day 2658: Long Time, No See

Wow, it's been a while. So much for my New Year's resolution to blog twice a week! Life is just busy, and I guess when I have time to blog, I choose not to bother. So much to say in order to catch up...My three girls are growing up before my very eyes. The twins turned 5 months old last week. Both girls are 100% mobile now, and it is freaking me out! They could both roll from tummy to back when they were around 3 and a half months, but starting around 4 and a half months they started going from back to tummy as well. At first they hated it and would cry like crazy once they got to their tummies, but now...I find them both across the room if I turn my head for five seconds. Yes, it's neat to see them go, but it means I now have to move back into super clean baby mode. I'd forgotten how mobile non-crawlers can be. Seriously crazy times.

At their first Valentine's Day party, Baby A on the left and Baby E on the right:

They suck at napping. That's all I have to say about that. This is Baby A in a rare daytime sleeping moment:
In case you want to know...

Baby A, who started out six ounces lighter, is now the bigger of the two, though only slightly. They are both still in the 50th percentile for weight (perfectly in the middle, not too big, not too small). Baby A is in the 70th percentile for height, and Baby E is in the 75th percentile for height. Doc says they're going to be long and lean like their mama. They are two of the sweetest kids you'll ever meet. They are so social. They coo and laugh and smile at anyone and everyone. They both have very light hair and very light eyes (though A's eyes are lighter). A has more hair, but neither is going to be wearing any hair accessories for quite some time. This picture was taken on Valentine's Day, one year to the day since we found out LG was going to be a big sister. That's Baby E with my husband and Baby A with me.

Most doctors recommend starting some kind of solid food between 4 and 6 months of age (If you want to start sooner or later than that, go ahead), so since I started LG on some cereal at 5 months, I decided to give these girls a shot. We did rice cereal mixed with breast milk for a few days. Baby E on the left, Baby A on the right, and yes, LG helped me feed them.
Baby A:
Baby E:

And we've done pureed carrots a couple of times.

Baby E:
Baby A:

I wouldn't say they're in love with solids yet. They are very interested in food and what everyone around them is eating though. Some evenings they are all about their food, and other nights they fuss and end up getting nearly nothing. So far we only do one meal in the evening when our family sits down for supper. None of us are ready for them to have three meals a day quite yet. Other than that, I'm still exclusively breastfeeding, and people still look at me like I've grown a third eye when they realize that. Some women seem in awe of it, and others seem to almost resent it and feel the need to explain why they couldn't/didn't do it themselves. Believe me, it's nothing I advertise and certainly nothing I brag about. I feel like I need a tattoo on my forehead that says "Hey ladies, feed your child however you want...I DON'T CARE!".

In other equally important news, LG is almost 3!! Her birthday is at the end of this month. We are having a little party for her friends on the Friday before her birthday. She is SO excited! Birthday parties have become her favorite thing, and I'm so excited for to actually attend her own. On her actual birthday, she has her very first soccer game! I signed her up a few days ago, and she asks me every day if it's the day she gets to play soccer. Later that day we'll have a family birthday party.

I must say that having a three year old (almost ) is wild! Sometimes she's a drama queen...
Sometimes she's super mischievous...
and sometimes she's just a doll...

We'll have the parties in our newly finished basement, which is THIS close to being finished. I swear, that project has gone on and on and on. It has driven me crazy, but it will be so nice to have the additional square footage.

I promise I'll try to post more often. I'm sure between me not posting here and not commenting on many blogs, I've probably lost my fair share of readers. I hope to get better!! Send me some love...maybe it'll motivate me ;).

Day 2597: Happy Holidays...a little late

My gosh, I suck. Why I don't just give up this blog is beyond me. I take the time to update our family blog, and I always add my new pictures to Fac.ebook, but I just never take time for this blog. I really do love all you guys, so I can't really explain the lack of posting. It seems that I am always posting an update post, which means you never really know what's going on in my life. I'm going to make up for it though. My #1 resolution for 2009...to blog at least twice a week! I know you will be checking your feed readers 100 times a day waiting for my posts :).

Let's catch up! Since we last talked, we have...

1. Attended several Christmas parties. One was for LG and her little friends....

They made ornaments....

and decorated cookiesand in the case of the babies, just chilled out with mom and her friends
2. Put up the Christmas tree3. Hung out with extended family on several different occasions...and the girls got to see their GREAT-GREAT-Grandfather....how many people can say that?!
4. Spent Christmas Eve with the in-laws and received several noisy toys...
5. Had our first Christmas as a family of 56. Smiled a lot

BabyE
Baby A

7. Did a lot of crafts

8. Celebrated New Year's Eve with friends (until 10 P.M....we're party animals)

There were a couple more key events that I want to blog about separately because they were so noteworthy, but basically that was the gist of the past month or so. Everyone is doing great. LG is getting crazy old, and fast. The twins are 3 months old already. Life is passing me by! Look for me again in a day or two, and I mean that this time!

Day 2573: Mish Mash

Quick update....

If you are one of the people who wanted to exchange Christmas cards but haven't received one from me yet, don't worry; they're on their way next week!

Thanksgiving was pretty awesome. My brother and sister in law made it into town to visit. The twins had a fun time at their first major holiday outing.


Unfortunately, LG was so sick. My poor baby was running high fevers every night (104.6!!). She didn't eat a bit of Thanksgiving dinner. Check out how pitiful she looks here:


She made up for it a few days later though. She has a friend a few doors down, and they invited her over to make cookies.

I decided I really wanted outdoor Christmas lights this year. I wanted something LG would really like, so I went for mostly colored lights instead of the white lights I prefer. I was so proud of myself for putting all the lights up in the dark until my friends informed me that you're supposed to put them up in the dark so you can see what they look like. Oh well, I'm still proud!
We've been getting out of the house for playdates at least once or twice per week. It's not always easy, but she LG really really needs it. I had the cutest pic of LG and her friends from this particular play date, but I can't just post pics of my friends' kids without their knowledge.

LG's current favorite food by far: bananas.
LG apparently only likes the center of an Oreo. I only like the outside. She licks the cookies and then hands them over to me all slobbered and soggy...um...no thanks.


More soon...or eventually...one day...I promise

Day 2558: Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all you Americans! Here are a few pictures to tide you over...

It's been almost a month, but I can't forget to show you LG at Halloween. She had such a great time this year trick or treating. I was going to dress her this year in a store bought Snow White costume, but I decided at the last minute to make her a Little Red Riding Hood costume. The only things I actually had to make were the corset thingy and the cape. She was adorable.



Me and my babies last week at 8 weeks!


Sweet girls, A & E!


Though this picture is slightly misleading, they are both now exactly the same weight and lengthy. They had their 2 month checkup yesterday. They are both 10 lbs. 5 oz, 22 inches long and in the 50th percentile. They weigh nearly a pound more than LG weighed at her 2 month checkup.

Oh...and my prayers were answered (for now). The allergy tests all came back negative...the stool sample was clean after I reintroduced dairy and soy for four days. Hopefully, we're in the clear with no allergies! Just in time for Turkey Day! Have a blessed holiday!

Day 2545: Birth Announcement and a Card Swap

I finally sent out birth announcements last week:


It's hard to really see it here, but at least it'll give you guys their names. I have said before that I really don't mind my readers knowing my kids' names. I just don't want their names to be searchable, so I have to post them in picture form. Please don't mention their names in a comment...that would defeat my entire purpose. Oh, and the top name...it's pronounced Ah-nuh...if I hear Anna one more time I'll scream. In a nutshell...how I decided on their names. I saw E's name a couple of years ago on a little girl's backpack when I took LG to the pediatrician, plus it was the mom's name on Family Ties. I found it funny when at least two of you suggested it when I asked for name help back in the summer, because I had pretty much already decided on it. Now, one of my friends is using it as her daughter's middle name...guess it's getting more popular...grrr. A's name was just a name I came up with, and since my husband thought it was OK, we went with it.

So, I couldn't find a birth announcement that I liked, so I created my own from scratch and then just had them printed at a photo lab. It turned out really cute. I think this is what I'm going to do for my Christmas cards as well. I know you want to see what I come up with for Christmas....

It's that time of year...who wants to swap cards?? I had so much fun receiving cards last year from fellow bloggers. This year I need to be more specific and say that I want to SWAP cards, since last year I had quite a few requests from bloggers that never ended up sending me one in return. So, if you'd like to SWAP cards this year, please leave me a comment or send me an email. I'd love to receive one from you!! I'll send them in the order I receive the comments/emails....people who sent me one last year will receive priority :).