This year for Thanksgiving we met at Auntie Stacey and Uncle Jimmy’s house. Grandma, Grandpa, and The Miltons were missing so it was a smaller group, but somehow still just as loud. The cousins had a GREAT time running around screaming like banshees and jumping all over poor Cousin Trever. The food was delicious (my contributions were the stuffing made from Pioneer Womans website, veggie tray complete with stuffed olives that Shenzie LOVED, cheesecake, and juice for the kids).
After dinner the kids wrote a letter to Santa with their LONG lists of what they want this year. They really got into this (with the exception of Heaten) and it was fun to see what they came up with. I left our letters at Aunties but I think at the top of Shenzie’s list was a Tinkerbell doll. Lucky for her Mama is on top of it and already has one hidden away for Christmas. =) All Heaten wanted was “yeah”. Everything I said he just said “yeah” too. Guess he wants it all!
The kids also got to decorate their Christmas cookies which was a HUGE hit. Heaten had fun decorating but wouldn’t taste his cookie so I had to help him out and eat it. =) Shenzie, of course, had NO trouble eating not one, but two yummy cookies.
Thank you Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins for another wonderful and fun Thanksgiving!
I’ll just rub it in to all of you last minute shoppers that I am done [95%] done with my Christmas shopping. I have a few odds and ends and some secret santa stuff, but other than that I am done, done, done! I planned ahead this year and it feels so good knowing I don’t have to stress out about shopping with the masses.
For all of you who aren’t as awesome as me (just kidding), (sort of), I have the perfect gift idea!
Now husbands/significant others, listen up. I know you don’t really like to have your picture taken and I know you are uncomfortable with me and my camera all up in your face, but guess what?!?!!? Your wife will LOVE YOU if you surprised her with a Gift Certificate for custom photography. Seriously, LOVE YOU!
[The following is said in my best announcer voice like on those medicine commercials telling you all of the bad side effects, only there are NO bad side effects with this gift]
Lesley Barr Photography Gift Certificates are not only a great gift idea for Christmas, but also baby showers, wedding gifts, birthdays, or just because.
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Heaten barely eating because his belly is TOO full of Rice Milk which is ALL he wants to eat/drink.
Heaten dumping an entire cup of Milk on the couch because I took too long to get it to him (to busy trying to get him to eat a little bite of something).
Heaten peeing on the carpet upstairs because he was mad at me.
Heaten pooping on the floor because he refuses to go in the potty.
Being on a wait list for the preschool for who knows how long (I was ready 5 months ago!!!!)
Naps that used to be 3 hours are now 1.5 hours if at all which leaves ZERO time for me to work.
Finding a preschool for the twinzies even if there is a wait list (more on this later).
Registering for a workshop that I’ve wanted to take for over a year!!!!!
One of my oldest and best friends having her baby (3 weeks early) and knowing that everyone is healthy and doing great - and I get to photograph her next week and OH MY HEAVENS she is a HONEY!!!
My awesome husband who hooked up my photo blog to automatically update to my twitter.
Dance time where Shenzie and I dance around like loons to Pink (her favorite).
Recently I found this awesome little brown wicker chair for work and made the mistake of showing Shenzie and Heaten. They have claimed these chairs as their own so wish me luck the next time I need to take them on a Photo Session. =)
*For more adorable cuteness of Shenzie and Heaten you can visit my Photography Blog.
Whew! It sure took me long enough to get around writing about our Halloween (and even worse is I still haven’t documented our first family vacation). So, I’m not much of a Halloween lover which is weird, it just seems like I SHOULD love it. Maybe when twinzies are older and there is not so much drama about it.
Shenzie was a kitty during the actual handing out of the candy.
Anyway, we went the el cheapo route and used the same costume for Heaten as last year (which was a dragon), which was good because after 2 minutes in it he was done. I got a total of 3 photos and that was that.
A few days before Halloween we went to my Mom’s church for their Trunk or Treat. It was SUPER cold out and the kids didn’t have as much fun as I had hoped. Heaten refused his costume so he became a Ninja (since he was dressed in all black). Shenzie was a Fairy Tutu Princess with her tutu, a crown, wings, and a wand. She loved dressing up (no surprise there).
Halloween day we carved our pumpkins (which I will say we kinda suck at the whole pumpkin carving thing) and set them out front with candles which the kids loved (and of course I forgot to take a photo).
Shenzie and Mama’s pumpkin
Daddy and Heatens pumpkin
What the kids DID love was handing out candy. We sat in the doorway and every time a trick or treaters would come up they would get all giddy and yell and laugh. When the scary kids showed up Shenzie would run and grab onto me which was super cute. They had a blast putting candy in the other kids bags.
I’m hopeful next year we’ll actually GO trick or treating and maybe Heaten will be more into playing dress up.
I am part of an awesome Mom’s group and even though we don’t get to hang out with them all that much, we always have fun when we do. One of the things I love most about the group is most of the children are the same age and there are like 6 or more sets of twins. I know it sounds a little silly, but I love hanging out with other Mom’s of twins. They just get it, the whole twin thing. Last week we were able to tour a Fire Station and if your kids are like mine they LOVE Fire Engines and Ambulances like nobodies business. We got to go inside the Fire Truck, see their kitchen (which is very nice and well equipped), their “play” room, watch them get suited up, and spray their water hose. At the end of the tour each child got their own fire hat and badge which was so cute. Now you know I love me some firemen, so I had to hold myself back from asking to see where they sleep (don’t worry, I only imagined me rolling on their beds for like one quick second).
Shenzie and Heaten DID NOT like the fireman in his full gear and mask so no pictures of that. Shenzie was also scared of the water hose, but Heaten loved it.
Once again Shenzie was a little sketchy about sitting on the truck and I had to bribe her with a lolli to get her on there, but of course Heaten loved it.
When Jeff and I created my website (ok, in reality my part was more telling him what to do and less on the actual creation side) we came up with my current logo. It was never anything permanent, just something to use until I got a new one made. I am getting ready to do a HUGE website update and make some changes so I thought now would be a great time to get a real logo. I contacted an awesome graphic designer (Thank You Jen, you Rock!) and got the ball rolling. In the future I plan on [possibly] doing weddings so I wanted something a little less “kiddish” and more grown up. She sent over 6 fabulous designs that were right up the alley of what I told her I wanted, but I just didn’t LOVE any of them. They didn’t jump out at me and they didn’t really feel like me. Then I saw a tree on Shenzie’s shirt (yes, crazy place for inspiration), and that was that. While I thought I wanted something more grown up it turns out I like the playful, colorful, kiddish stuff more so here it is….my fabulous new logo!!
There are so many things I love about it. The colors of course are the ones I hand picked for my website and even though Jeff doesn’t really like them I love them. I wanted something organic, nature-ie, and fun. I know birds are all the rage right now, but I found the BEST stationary that matched my site perfectly and they had a little bird on them so I had her add a small cutout bird that can be changed later if desired. Now I just need to get all of the changes ready and over to my wonderful husband so he can update the site. I plan on having everything live by January 1st so I better get hopping!!!
This week my blog is WAY too negative so today I’ll focus on the good.
Yesterday while Heaten napped Shenzie and I watched Tinkerbell for the first time together. It was magical and so fun to see her little face light up over Tinkerbell and the other fairies. Lately she is REALLY into Princesses, sparkles, and of course anything pink. I never pushed Princess on her so it is funny to see her fascination with them develop. What little girl doesn’t want to be a princess. =)
The twinzies are playing REALLY well together at the park. Gone are the days of my constant helicoptoring. They now run and play and slide and climb with little or no help from me and are getting so independent. I love to see them interact and WANT to play together. They will do their own thing for awhile, but always wind up back together again, laughing and chasing each other around.
I love first thing in the morning when they are both really happy and VERY talkative. It cracks me up to see what they come up with.
I LOVE that Heaten is so compassionate and caring. He sincerely cares about Shenzie’s well being and gets really upset if she is around danger or doing something dangerous. It is so sweet to see him looking out for his Sissy.
I love to play tickle monster and hear their deep belly laughs.
Twins are awesome and I love that they will always have each other.
With work being so crazy I’ve been really bad about taking photos of my own kiddlings. I am going to try REALLY hard to get back to photo documenting my kids growing up. They are only this age once and I want to be able to remember it all thru my blog, video, and photos.
There are SO many wonderful things about this age that I need to focus on instead of complaining about the bad ones. Thank you all SO MUCH for your advice (or as Laura put it, assvice), support, understanding, and help. I really appreciate it and am implementing some new things ASAP!
