Resolutions

I normally don't do resolutions at the New Year... they're made to be broken, yada yada yada... like my cookbook resolution (the last one I made... and broke).

For whatever reason I've decided on a few resolutions (goals) for this upcoming year...

1. I'd like to waste less food.  When I was doing my cookbook resolution, I was doing an AWESOME job with meal planning - it was flexible, well thought out, and utilized the small kitchen space we had in our old house.  When we discovered Avery's food allergies, the meal plan went out the window, and so did my resolution.  Now, almost three years later I'm just barely getting back to a meal plan (it's really spotty) - but I feel like if I can plan it out better, I won't find food spoiling before I get to it.  I just feel so wasteful when I throw out perfectly good food.

2.  Blog more - I'm sure my family agrees...  If you look at the 'blog archive' on the right side of the page, you can see how my blogging has dwindled...

3.  Read more - I have always loved reading, but as any parent knows, it's not always easy to find QUIET time to read other than the books I read to the kids - I need to make a conscious effort to read for myself!

4.  I want to spend more time working on my OWN pictures.  I feel like such a picture hoard.  Friends and family think it's great that I take so many pictures, but they NEVER see any of them because they get lost in the abyss that is my time warp... and I always feel like my pictures have to be edited and 'perfect' before I show them to anyone.  So, I either need to suck it up and not worry about them being 'perfect' when I send them out, or I need to do a better job of allocating time to edit them.  (I chose the latter)

Here is an example:  I took this picture of Evan in February 2012...  I hadn't even looked at it until last week...

5.  Print my stinkin' pictures and put them in any kind of album... I was so good at that before the girls were born... and then they were born.  Avery and I were looking through Evan's photo album from his 1st year and she kept asking which picture was of her... when my answer continued to be that's not you, that's Evan, she started to cry.  Then I started to cry.  I need to print some stinkin' pictures of the girls and put them in any kind of album.  (see #4, these work hand-in-hand)

such is life...

I miss blogging so much.....

This image and the story behind it captures so much of why I haven't been blogging... like, at all.


The girls have been resisting naps with every ounce of willpower in their little bodies, and I have been desperately trying to hang on to naps with every ounce of I-just-need-a-freakin'-break-and-oh-by-the-way-I-need-to-get-my-work-done-while-you-sleep.

So today, Avery was practically begging me to take a nap - I figured as much since the girls don't seem to sleep any longer at night when they don't take a nap, and eventually it catches up with them.  About the 4th or 5th time Avery came running out of her room screaming because 'Brynn touched me' or 'Brynn hit me' or 'Brynn won't let me sleep' or 'Brynn slammed my leg in the door' I set her up in my room so she could sleep in peace. 

Brynn was NOT happy.  'I miss my sister' 'I need my sister' 'I promise I will sleep like my sister'  uh... no.  So I left her in her room to play by herself and after it got really quiet for a long period of time... this is how I found her:


So yeah, I really miss blogging.  I miss writing about all the crazy things my children do - but at this time in my life, I'm just managing all the crazy things they do and not really getting a chance to write about it... but this feels good to write... really, really good.

Their big day!

Today was a big day in our house... 

I no longer have the ability to say I have 2 2-year olds... and I can no longer blame all the tantrums, misbehaving and general mayhem on the fact my girls are two....

...now I can blame it on the fact they are THREE!  :)

Happy Birthday to my little sweethearts...

I can only imagine life without both of you in it would be unbearably boring...

I love you and all the craziness you girls have brought into my life!

it's sooooooooo them...

As frustrating as it is to attempt a photo shoot with my own children...

...it's totally worth the effort to capture at least one image that wraps their little personalities up in a bow:

P.S... for my family who has been REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEALY patient with my lack of posting... I am making an effort to get back on track ~ I just downloaded a month's worth of pictures in the last couple days, and I'm attempting to get them managed... :)

10 on 2sday

A little more catch up...

1.  The last several weeks Brynn has decided she likes her bed enough to sleep in it now!  No more shoving a body out of the way when I open the door to check on the girls at night!

2.  Avery and Brynn love practicing their ABC's and 123's.  Brynn counted from 1 - 13, occasionally skipping 4 & 5, skipping 14 & 15 and hitting a random 16.  Avery's V's sound more like B's...

3.  I haven't taken the girls to get their hair cut yet.  As you can see, their hair can be a little unruly at times... but I'm ok with that for now...

4.  Avery has been such a little helper and a sweetheart.  She saw 2 skittles on the table, and asked for a special treat.  When I gave her one, she walked around, grabbed the other one and said "this one is for Brynnie".  And she actually gave it to her!!  Every time we have a snack, or do just about anything, she always wants to be the one that gives whatever it is to Brynn!

5.  Evan started t-ball a couple weeks ago, and had his first game tonight.  We had some nasty weather moving in, but we were able to get each team through a round of batting and field play.  I tell ya, getting a bunch of 5 year olds to focus on what they have no idea how to do is interesting... glad it's not me that has to do it!  Notice in the last picture where the bat is as Evan is running to home plate...

6.  We had our first smores grill out of the season last weekend...

7.  We've even been able to get the water play going...

8.  I've been working on clearing this out:

9.  To look like this:

(I have 1/2 a garden planted, but no picture of it yet...)  EXCITING!!  :)

10.  And this little man is getting ready to graduate from preschool...  watch out world!!  

 

bath time is fun time

To cut, or not to cut

I was really loving the way the light was hitting the girls' hair the other day while playing outside... it made me laugh a little because it kind of accentuated the craziness of Avery's hair.

If you are wondering why I keep talking about their hair it's because I have been considering getting it cut for the first time, and I'm sort of having a hard time with it.  It's the only thing left that's still baby-ish... and I'm kind of hanging on for dear life...

...that, and I can't decide if I should attempt to cut it myself, or take them somewhere else.  I have terrible memories (ok, I don't actually remember it, but I do have photographic evidence) of unevenly cut bangs as a child, and I could never do that to them... (I'm sure the fact that I never sat still for my Mom had NOTHING to do with it...)

10 on 2sday

1.  We are finally getting some decent weather around here... and we are hoping this is the last we see of this stuff...

 and this stuff...

so we can do more of this stuff...

and this stuff...

...except, without the coats on!

2.  Brynn figured out how to open the refrigerator.  Then she showed Avery.  For some reason they only open it when I'm around... which is totally the opposite of what they normally do... which is to wait.  until I'm not around.  then get into trouble.  weird.

3.  Let me tell you something about this girl... her hair is going crAYzay...

4.  Let me tell you something about this girl... she's an AWESOME bubble blower...

5.  Let me tell you something about this boy... when he puts his mind to something... he does it... even if it's as 'little' as the tight rope game on our wii fit...

6.  Last week I met up with a couple photographer friends to play around with our cameras and learn from each other... and while we were there I asked if I could get some head shots for my website while we all had our cameras out... and one of the shots is posted here!!  Let me just say... I do NOT make a good subject... it was hard not to go into dork mode with the camera pointed at me...  :)

7. While playing hide-and-seek Evan says to me... "Mommy, hide someplace special... where I can find you."

8.  Recently the girls have been very interested in numbers... letters a little bit, but mostly numbers.  Brynn started counting one day... 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8... and Avery comes up and chimes in... 9!  Another speechless moment...

9.  Sometimes I take random pictures of the girls hair, just because.  I thought about doing a post with the progression from birth to now (which I may still do)... but for now, A little more of Avery's crazy hair:

10.  The recent tragedy in Japan has had me glued to the news these days... and I realized just how impressionable kids can be when Evan asked me... "what if I die?"  Ugh.  I was not prepared for that.  Fortunately he accepted and moved on when I told him he doesn't need to worry about that right now. 

to the potty we go...

This is how we spent the better part of our morning while Evan was in preschool...

...just hanging out...

...which is a big step for Brynn since she hasn't really cared for the 'big girl potty' until recently.  And they fought... at one point they both tried to sit on the big toilet at the same time.  

Brynn was very proud of herself that she could get on and off the potty all by herself.  And then she peed.  Unfortunately it was during one of the times she was off the potty...

Then Avery peed... in the little potty, and when I was all excited and giving her praise, she started freaking out... a little like she did with the candles on her birthday cupcake... except this time she had the freedom to get up and run away...

I am NOT ready to potty train, I repeat... NOT READY!

the Drawers

I mentioned a while back that I had to move the dresser around in Brynn & Avery's room in an attempt to minimize the destruction.


Well, it was driving me crazy that I couldn't use all that glorious drawer space since the drawers were facing the wall.  So I finally decided to tempt fate and turn the dresser around not too long ago.  I still didn't put much in the drawers... some summer clothes, spare wipes that are sealed shut, stuff like that.


No surprise, they routinely yank all that stuff out and throw it around their room.


The dresser isn't exactly fully functional anyway.  During their destructive period they used the dresser as a ladder and broke one of the drawers.  Since I had the drawers turned around, we didn't get into any hurry to fix it... out of sight, out of mind.




Weeeeellll...






...turns out maybe we should fix the drawer:

The birthday girls...

Guess what we did today?

We turned TWO!!!!

 Mommy says we aren't supposed to grow up so fast... but we don't listen.  I mean, really, we have to grow into our new tricycles and all!!

And we really want to be able to help daddy clear the snow someday...

heh, heh... just kidding... we'll let Evan do that...

Mommy also says we need to work on sharing... see... we can do that!!

My Mommy tells me that I have a big heart, and I'm kind of a momma's girl ~ and I totally agree, I'm always trying to be her helper.  Sometimes I like to hang out by myself with my nose in a book.  I really like to sing and dance, and my Mommy thinks my fake laugh is adorable.  Mommy puts me in a big girl bed at night, but I usually just sleep on the floor behind the door.  Who likes sleeping where they are supposed to anyway?  Mommy and Daddy keep telling me to "use your words," and it kind of makes me mad when they do, but I sure have been trying!!  I use my manners really well and say peez & tank-uuu all the time!  I like to push buttons too.... mommy says the literal and figurative kind, but I don't really know what that means.  I really like to color, especially when Mommy leaves her planner and a pen within my reach!  Goldmine!!  Mommy says I have a really good pincher grasp, I guess since I was first given a crayon or something ~ and she can always tell my coloring from Evan & Avery's.  I'm pretty laid back, like Daddy, and I don't talk much unless I have a reason to, and Mommy seems to think I have a bit of a temper... not sure if I agree or not.  But I do know I'm loved a lot... but really, could you resist this face?

They gave me a really neat cupcake tonight for my birthday, and I figured out how to blow out the candle!

Well I like to be a little mischievous, although I usually feel bad and end up telling on myself.  Like when I find Mommy's phone where I can reach it, I usually play with it a little bit, then take it straight to Mommy!  I really love Evan & Brynn.  I tell them hi every morning and give them hugs.  I like to repeat everything Evan says, well, anything anyone says for that matter.  I prefer to talk in full sentences, and unless I get into my mumble-everything moods I can usually get what I want if I ask nice enough!  I really like to take baths, and my hair gets really curly when I get out!  I sure hope I grow out of my food allergies some day... I've been noticing everyone else eating bananas and cheese and peanuts and I really want some of that too!!  Mommy says I'm the most determined child she knows.  She's right.  If I don't get what I want the first time, I just wait for the right moment when Mommy isn't paying attention.  And I get it.  I really like to jump and tumble.  Mommy says I do things with GUSTO ~ like when she goes to change my stinky diaper, I like to jump over to her and plop right on my bottom! My mommy is always sticking a camera in my face, she thinks it's hard to get me to smile for her... but I don't think so... well, maybe a little!

They also stuck a cupcake in my face tonight and I really didn't like the fire... but once they got rid of those things, I sure liked to eat it!!

Singing along...

Last week my cousin, Kelsey, posted an adorable video on her blog with a little girl and her dad singing. Well, yesterday the duo was on Ellen ~ and Avery & Brynn were glued to the screen watching them, and Brynn even tried to sing along a couple times!!

The Toddler Beds

Like I said on my 10on2sday post, we moved the girls into their toddler beds a couple weekends ago.

Let's just say I wasn't real happy about the move, mostly because it wasn't on our timing, it was on theirs... and I wasn't, and am still not ready for this move.

So... on to Day 1:

We got their beds set up in the morning so we could do a trial run at nap time, and it didn't go well... let me show you:

 

So we removed all their toys.

That night I think they were so exhausted from not taking a nap, it only took 2 trips into their room to get them to stay there and finally go to sleep.

Day 2:

Nap time wasn't any better than the previous day, minus all the toys scattered around since we had taken them out of their room.





...and we wound up pulling the changing table out when we found them both playing on top of it together!



Day 3, or 4 (I can't remember):

Probably the worst day.  They decided to yank everything out of the dresser drawers, and continued to use those drawers as a ladder to reach all the pretty breakable things that I was stupid enough to keep on top of their dresser....







...the dresser got turned around and the breakable things removed, and while we were at it, we figured a way to keep them out of their closet as well:

 



A week later:

Nap times are still challenging, but on top of that, Brynn started to lay down behind the door and fall asleep at night.  I don't know if she decided she doesn't like her bed, or if she's trying to peek under the door and listen to what's going on outside...



This was a day I forgot to clip the closet door closed and of course they figured it out and pulled their diaper bag out and started rifling through it...



We knew it would take some time, and eventually they'll get it, and I can go back to a less-stressful nap time and bed time routine (in my dream world) ~ but I will admit it was pretty cute to see them both peacefully sleeping together in the same bed one night, although not cute enough for me to leave them that way!



Two weeks in:

Today was the first day I didn't have to go into the girls room at nap time and tell them to get back in their beds.  It might be a fluke, or maybe they are just used to the new beds now?  Either way, I'll take it when I can get it!!