Fab Friday!

I am linking up with Laura again this week for Fab Friday. I can't think of anything more fabulous than the fact that it's friday but still lots of great things happening this week so here are all things FABULOUS in no particular order :

• I just found a great deal on Christmas gifts for the girls' cousins (all under age 3). WooHooo for 6 kids off my list at just 7.50 a kid for an item that is normally 20 bucks a piece. In case you're interested in scoring this deal yourself, it ends today: I got the happy napper sets: You get two sets shipped for 14.98. My twins have the pillow pets and LOVE them so hopefully their cousins will be fans of these cuddly guys:

• Fall Festival is tomorrow!! This is my first fall festival. I grew up in MIami and well we don't even have Fall let alone a festival. So I am hoping to start a fun family tradition with my girls.
• I get to see my college roommate this weekend thanks to her baby shower! She normally lives four hours away but she is having her baby shower just an hour from me at her in-laws!

(Us (left and center) at Graduation 2006- just ignore my second round of braces at 22)

• I am wearing my first pair of non-maternity pants in like two years! Okay its two sizes bigger than my pre-babies size but heck I've got buttons again and stuff isn't pouring over my pants!

Well that's all the fabulous I've got for now, but stay tuned for what I hope to be a fun fall festival recap and pics!

15 Months!!

So the twins had their 15 month appointment yesterday. The shots didn't go that bad, the waiting however was rough. Holy smokes whose idea is it to make 15 month olds wait for 30 minutes in the office for the doctor to come in. I'm not talking about the outside waiting room. You know the one with the toys and open space. I'm talking that little room where the doctor sees you. It had been a few months since we were here and they weren't such big "explorers" back then so it didn't occur to me to bring some toys or something to entertain them. I only brought their stuffed Pooh Bear as a soother.

Oh and you see those cabinets in the background. Totally NOT locked! Good thing they were empty although filthy. I spent at least five minutes of my life saying "No, No, Dirty!" until I gave up. Funny how once you give up they lose interest.

Anyways, we survived. The best part is the girls are doing perfect. We are actually in the 90 and 70 percentile for height (Layla is currently a half inch taller) and average for weight and head circumference. This may not be a big deal to some but for my girls this is huge. Please note that those percentile are adjusted for being born at exactly 33 weeks. But at our last appointment, 12 months, we had just hit 33% and before that 9 months we were 14 percent. And well before that my little ones still weren't on the charts. They were born at 33 weeks, Layla was 5 lbs 1 oz and Bree was 4 lbs 10oz. We didn't have many health issues aside from some jaundice and issues eating since we were early they didn't have the strength to finish all their feedings so they were on feeding tubes for a week- rotating feedings. One feeding was tube the other bottle. We spent a total of 12 days in the NICU but we left with two healthy babies. And I get so excited with every milestone they accomplish.

I am so excited to see some new faces peeking at my little blog. I am working on getting an about us section up and hope to post the girls birth stories too. I get very excited to talk to other mommies so feel free to say hi. Odds are if you make your way to my page I'll find my way to yours. i love hearing stories and checking out tips from others. It's funny because all though I have 3 kids- I am pretty new at this mommy thing.

So What Wednesday!

I'm linking up with Shannon for So What Wednesday! This week I'm saying so what to:

• If I had to wash a load of towels twice becuase I left them in the washer for over a day. And then had to dry off with a tshirt that night because those were the only clean towels left.
• I have decided I am not organzing babygirl's drawers because a certain pair f twins favorite game is throw all the clothes out and sit in the drawer.
• I am so super excited for the fall festival we are attending this weekend and have the girls outfits all picked out already.
• I have a camera full of pics and haven't printed one just yet.
• I started redecorating the twins' room and it's still not done. I have lots of stuff that still hasn't made its way on the wall- ie growth charts, canvas prints, adorable owl decals, and frames with no pictures in it yet (see above)
• The rooom isn't going to happen this weekend either because we will be going to the fall festival.
• I cannot motivate myself to paint the house. Everything is still builder beige and its driving me nuts but painting is soooo much work. I can only imagine what it'll be like with two curious little ones around.

So thats it for me. I cannot tell you how much I wish it was Friday! Hope everyone has a fabulous rest of the week.

The First Move...

In blogger world, the people I cyber stalk whose blogs I read have been engaging in a 31 day challenge of their choice and one of my super favorite bloggers, Shannon has been doing a series on being a better wife. I thought on and off about experimenting on a similar challenge but then the hubby would tick me off and I say pfft not gonna happen. Well Friday night- something must have clicked for him ( though he states he got advice from the guys from work on how to get more nookie- lol) but anyways he CLEANED the bathroom.We have lived in this house over a year and he has never cleaned a thing and well it has really changed our lives weekend. That little step made me want to do better. So when he came home later that day I had his favorite crab pretzels waiting for him and that scored me major points. He then took the kids for a wagon ride that evening before baths which again hardly happens. I'm sure most  moms out there agree or maybe its just me but there is something super sexy about a man taking care of his children. So that led to me putting off nightly chores- ie washing the mountain of dishes the next monring instead of that night and I instead cuddled in bed with my hubby for the night and we laughed and watched movies and had adult time. It felt just like before we jumped hyperdrived into parenthood.

It was PERFECTION! And then Sunday rolled around. I was able to wake up before the girls- who slept in later than usual which allowed me to get the dishes done and a cup of coffee before getting all three up to start our day. He went to work as usual but came home for lunch. he even brought me the Sunday paper unasked because he knows I like to go through the ads and collect the coupons. The weekend was everything I had always imagined my life would be. I had a family. A husband who was present and considerate. He even gave the twins a bath (again something he never does) and that little act just lightened my load enough to give me the energy to spend time together. We hung out and watched Dexter and just talked like old times.

To think all this change with just one step.  I wonder if I had made such a step sooner could our relationship be further along. I spend a lot of time being a good homemaker- cooking dinner and cleaning and doing laundry and  a good Mommy that I forget that being those two things doesn't add to being a good wife. Sure it is a part of it making sure he eats and has fresh clothes for work and that our bills get paid but a BIGGER part is making time for us. Doing things for us to make sure our flame doesn't go out. The point I guess I am trying to make it is that we all know all relatiopnships have their ups and downs but it is truly amazing how a small gesture can start the monentum in any given direction.

Fab Friday

Fab Friday link with the lovely Laura!

So I am super excited to be doing my first link up in like FOREVER! But its even better since I get too talk about things that are Fabulous and well I could use a little reminding of all the positives:

1. Definitely super duper excited that its the weekend! Love my job but so excited to just be home with my girls.

2. The Mothers of Twins Club I'm dying too officially join is finally having a Saturday event next weekend (usually their meetings are on Tuesday nights) and I'm planning on going. So looking forward to meeting other twin moms. Plus its a fall festival and that means the girls first pumpkin patch and corn maze and hay rides.

3. Also fabulous- the new camera the husband got me out of guilt for never being around. Its the fanciest camera I ever owned and its easy to use and takes such great pictures which I have been taking lots of.

4. Also the cooler weather is sort of making its way down here pushing out the Georgia heat some which means the girls can finally start playing outside. (excuse the blurry pic- its a pic of my camera screen- I need a usb cord to upload photos from my fancy camera)

5. The cooler weather let me justify buying the girls some fun new fall outfits and I am dying over Crazy 8's Pocketful of Petals line- seriously loving the owl theme. Plus everything I bought was fifty percent off or more plus my 20percent coupon. Buying on sale is a must when I have to buy two of everything (sometimes 3) though I am in luck that babygirl #3 has lots of handme downs from her big sisters that are in super condition.

My keys to Sanity

Sooo... My college roomate is preggers and her baby shower is next weekend. She has decided to wait to find out the sex (Bless her heart- I am too much of a planner for that) But- because she's not saying the sex it makes gift buying a little more difficult because I always want to give something that will be used but its hard to avoid the pinks and blues so I got to thinking what I absolutely loved and HAD to have both when I brought my twins home and babygirl #3.

So here they are in no particular order:

With my twins- I had the Baby Trend double snap and go. We got it for free from my cousin whose twin boys had outgrown it. Its a very basic stroller retails for about 80-100- very reasonable by twin stroller standards and it did everything I needed. Most importantly allowed me to take two twins to doctors appointments on my own by just pulling the carseats out of the car (which meant I never had to wake them up) and locking them in place. Plus its very light ( a lesson I would learn the hard way with the super fancy double I bought about 5 months ago- alas thats a story for another day)

 






Bottles- LOTS of bottles!!!! If you have twins I HIGHLY recommend purchasing enough bottles for the day or atleast half a day. Those few months are tough and I really did sleep when the babies slept which means mommy was not washing bottles after every feeding. I used a few brands as I got a few as gifts and my absolute favorite and the only ones I am still using are the Playtex ventaire narrow. I love the elbow shape- makes for easy positioning in my opinion. Not super expensive. And yes I did try out the Dr. Brown's and Born Free. I actually hated them and the girls had terrible gas from the dr. browns. Oh I also used the NUk natural orthotic ones for baby girl #3- she was breastfed directly where as I pumped exclusively for the twins (I was a chicken back then and the idea of two babies latche on to me freaked me out). If only I had know how easy and bottle free I could have been- because I know not everyone does but I had a wonderful experience breastfeeding baby girl #3. I also recommend a drying rack- I have a munchkin one (6-10) dollars and a microwave sterilizer for the bottles my cousin gave me- I'm a little germ paranoid back then and it just gave me piece of mind.

Also a must have in my book is a bouncey seat. We had two for the twins and I tried out quite a few because the girls loved to rock so I tried getting a fancy one that rocked itself but they HATED it and LOVED the cheapy 25 dollar ones. We started out with one to see if a second was a necessity and it was. Both girls adored it. Still sit in it till this day and they are 15mths. The one on the left (pink) they didnt like as much as on the right and I ended up giving away and buying another one like the one on the right with a different pattern. The one on the left you can tell sits them up straighter and wasn't as "recliney" as the brown one. I also have a swing (just one)- it got used and still does but nothing like the bouncey seats.

 



Also smaller items on my list include:

baby gowns to sleep in- seriously those stupid onesie buttons were tough when I had slept like 20 minutes between night feedings- yes feeding two babies who were premies and ate pretty slow, burping two babies, changing two babies who pooped after EVERY feeding without fail- took forever and they HAD to eat every three hours as we came from the NICU and were underweight.

Sleep Sacks- seriously- I love sleepsacks for the colder months my girls move so much they always kicked their blankets off. Though during the first few months they were so tiny they were swaddled in receiving  blankets.

DIAPERS- Yeah we went go through a LOT of diapers. I prefered the Pampers when I had premie sized and newborn. But I love the Luvs brand for size 1 and above- they don't leak and they are good quality for the price. Let's face it I have three kids in diapers so we can't spend our whole budget on fancy diapers when these work great and seem to fit comfortably. I've bought the Up&Up from target and I'm not a fan- they feel cheap, thin and rough relative to the namebrand diapers. But I will say the protection is the same as in I did not have leaks but I only used those for a day. I was out and forget diapers for #3- she didn't complain.

So there you have it- a small list of things that got me through the first few months with my sanity intact- mostly. I'm sure there are a few more but these I got so much use out of and the investment or gift was worth every penny. After all that- I think I might try to get all pinterest-y and make a diaper cake as my shower gift. I loved the one my friend made me and first I used it for decor in the twins' room and then once they got to the size 1 diapers the size the cake was made of I used those. So stayed tuned for a possible diaper cake post- unless I lose motivation and opt for a bathtime set.

Bragging and B**tching!

Why hello there all!! I know I come and go, but I'm back for now (mostly). Atleast I hope. I just watched the Julie/Julia Project- interesting movie and more inportantly a little blog commitment motivation. If you haven't seen the movie the girl (julie) gives herself one year to do the entire Julia Childs cookbook (all 525 recipes) in one year and blogs about it. Long story short- blog become s a big hit, she writes a book and it gets turned into a movie (true story by the way). Okay I'm not writing a book any time soon- but I do want to make more friends out here in the bloggy world since momma needs more grown ups to talk to.

ANYWAYS- onto my new Sunday feature- Bragging and b*tching!

BRAG: Totally commited to my first pin-pletion. Yep- finally did one of those hundreds of things I pinned. WHat would that be you ask- well I started freezer cooking! Yep- this momma now has 14 meals frozen in my freezer just waiting for a lazy busy day when I need dinner in a pinch. So wooohooo for atleast 14 days of no take out! (upcoming post on the details soon)

B*tch: My MIL works ALL weekend now- so I have 2 14 month olds and a 4 month old to watch solo (hubby works allweekend not that he watches kids anyways) for over 48 hours. My mom took  one of the twins today and let me tell you- having just two kids seriously felt like a vacation.

BRAG: I know every mom thinks their children are future geniuses but I get so excited every time the twins learn something new and friends their ages can't do it yet. The twins can now snap their fingers, climb up and down stairs, and identify a majority of body parts on command- toes, hands, knees, belly, teeth, hair, and nose. Trying to teach them colors.

B*tch: I am beyond jealous of all women whose husbands actually enjoy their kids and help out. Seriously, hubby doesn'tdo anything for the girls. I'm not even just saying it- You know how some women complain because they do 70 and there husbands do 30 or 80- 20. Nope its totall 100- 0. He doesn't feed them any bottles or meals, doesn't do baths, doesn't change diapers. has NEVER watched them on his own EVER! Yeah, so ladies if your man changes one diaper, one bath, one meal, one bedtime any day of the week. I wanna be you cuz this mama is one TIRED single parent!! (I always said I would keep all the bad off my blog but this lady needs a place to vent and this is my little piece of the internet)   

BRAG: My family is AWESOME!!! Seriously, I would be on the verge of a nervous breakdown (not to mention dead broke after payng for childcare) if it wasn't for my mom. MIL, and dad rotating to watch the girls while I go to work.

Anyways, hope everyone had an awesome weekend- would love to hear what your bragging and b*tching about this week.