Welcome to Tarrant County

Rockin' Christmas Eve...Late I know!

2012-02-07T05:36:00.000-08:00

Every year we have Christmas with my Mom's family on Christmas but this year we moved it to Christmas Eve. I have to say I enjoyed changing it up! It was also the first year Elayna (my cousin) and I took over planning Christmas. In our family that is kind of a big deal, for the torch to be passed...One Christmas anyways!

First let's start off with SOME of the decor and food!! Thank you Pinterest!

Coconut Cake, AAAMAZING! My grammy would make this every year!

Strawberries Romanoff...to die for. Look this one up!

Stuffed mushrooms, so yummy!

Center Pieces!

The youngest always passes out gifts...the girls helped but mostly Elayna still gets stuck with the tradition!

The girls are ready to OPEN!

Kinley with her new "Strawberry Cake"!

Madelyn LOVES LOVES to color!

Also in our traditions of Christmas, (are you seeing a pattern my family has LOTS of traditions) We ALWAYS have Christmas crackers. They are poppers that have little silly prizes and silly crowns. I used to think this was the oddest thing we did and sure it still is but it makes for silly goofy pictures!

Madelyn

Kinley

I am not sure where Maddie's pants are...

The fam!

After everyone left we got the girls in their Santa Jammies and left cookies out for Santa and they wanted to give food for the reindeer too. All I could think of was cheerios. LOL

Up next Christmas morning!!

Happy Birthday Issac!

2012-01-30T21:17:00.000-08:00

Issac's birthday is the day after Christmas, so the week of Christmas we were happy to get invited to ITZ's (like chucky cheese) to celebrate! It was a ton of fun!

All the toddler stuff was free...we will be going back. They loved it!

My sweet Madelyn

My sweet Kinley

Our friend "riber"(River)

The Birthday boy showing us how old he is!

opening presents!

We love Issac and are so glad we got to be there for his party!

Ridin' with Santa!

2012-01-26T21:34:00.000-08:00

This Christmas some friends of my parents asked the girls to come out to their house for ponies and Santa!! Santa drove them around in a wagon! I actually had to work this week, I work for a week every year at the end of the year for my Dad's company. So Chris and Mimi took them. I heard they LOVED it, they talk about it all the time!!! Thanks Barbara and Jackie.

isn't this so cute?!?!

The girls loved Mrs. Barbara

of course they got to ride a pony!

Madelyn

Kinley

They must be some cool grandparents!!!

December Happenings!

2012-01-24T20:13:00.000-08:00

So like everyone's December ours was full with lots of fun things...We headed to Austin to see Uncle Clint and Aunt Andrea during the holiday season and also be there for Chris Birthday! He turned 30 this year so it was a big birthday, he tried to think of something crazy to do but couldn't think of much. He had already gone Sky-diving.

We also took our Christmas Card pictures there, we just love Austin for places to take pictures! We took them at The Domain, which is an outdoor mall. They had lots of Christmas things going on that weekend. The girls loved it.

The balloon artist...the girls still ask for their balloons (which popped the next day)

We visited Zilker park and saw their "Holiday tree of lights". It's over a 155 feet tall!

Madelyn, looking at the lights!

Kinley with Andrea

We took the girls to see their first official movie (other than summer movies that cost a dollar and you can walk out of, lol) The Muppets!!!

They didn't do all that well. I think Chris and I probably would have left had the other one said let's go. We battled it out till the end (sort of) I think they would have done better at a cartoon movie. plus they are too tiny to keep the seats down.

We had our annual Christmas Aunt Bucket visit and like always she spoils the girls. Forgive the girls attire...it was either early or we were having a Pj day! Kinley is also wearing shoes over her jammies.

They get sidetracked while opening presents!

and the shoes on the wrong feet.

The girls were REALLY excited about this present...DRESS UP!

Kinley

Madelyn

Aunt Bucket with the girls.

25 Days of Christmas

2012-01-17T09:24:00.000-08:00

This year since the girls were unto Christmas so much more than in the past (you know the other two...ha) I decided to do something Christmasy every day leading up to Christmas. I didn't get pictures of everything but there are a few!
Somedays it was small things and somedays it was bigger things...(in no order)

1. listened to Christmas Music
2. watched a Christmas Movie
3. Rode Polar Express
4. We got new ornaments for the tree.
5. wrapped presents

6.Eat Christmas Brownies

7.Go Christmas Shopping

8. Looked at Christmas lights

9. Go to Mimi's to find things in her Advent Calendar.

10. Saw Santa and rode in his wagon (post to come)

11. Going to Holiday in the park.

.12. Making Christmas cookies/baked goods for our friends

13. Opened presents
14.Saw the tree of lights at Zilker park in Austin (post to come)

15. Helped Mimi and Poppy pick out a real Christmas tree.

16. Took Christmas Card pictures

18.Played with window snowman clings (THEY LOVED THIS)

19. Opened Christmas cards.
20. Santa came! (Post to come)
21. Left cookies for Santa and reindeer food for the reindeer(post to come)

We missed a few days but I thought we did pretty good, plus some days we did Christmas things that weren't on our list!

Letter G

2012-01-13T21:56:00.000-08:00

Hey! I know I am WAY behind but really trying to get caught up. We took a MAJOR break from letters since right after Thanksgiving. Hoping to get started next week again. So here is letter G...busy week so didn't do a ton.

We learned about GRASS...and GLUED "GRASS" to the letter G

The girls are getting much better about using GLUE! (this pictures make me sad because during Christmas we took the highchairs to the garage. Where did my babies go?!?!?!)

We learned about the color GREEN this week. They even took a green (looks blue in the picture) bath with the bath color drops. The girls LOVE them!

We wore our GOBBLE shirts (right around Thanksgiving)

It wouldn't be a week in the Tarrant house with out a little GOOFING around!

Polar Express

2012-01-08T20:17:00.000-08:00

During our weekend of marathon holiday events we also got to ride the Polar express! We had a blast with our friends...things get a little crazy with 9 adults and 8 kids but we managed ok!

Our Fam!

They had a show before we boarded the train. I was trying to get a picture of the girls with each of us...but this was the best we got. They were just too excited!

Kinley and Mama!

Madelyn and Sav noticing they are wearing the same P.J's...yes we planned it!

Sav and Kinley

Madelyn was so excited!! They are really excited about trains right now.

Just like the movie Santa walks around and gives each child a silver bell. Kinley wasn't sure about Santa but did better than last year. Madelyn was more excited about seeing Santa and they both LOVED their bells.

This was the best we could do with the picture though...sad!

Kinley

Ethan

Ashley and Sweet Sawyer

Benny Boy!

The Hoag Family

Ok, so this picture is of this elf asking the three younger kids (Carter, Kinley and Madelyn) what they want for Christmas. This entire Christmas ALL and I mean ALL the girls have asked for were towels and cake. Not lying that is it. That was exactly what they told her...she looked at us like we were crazy. Yes the girls have towels already, and I have NO idea where they came up with that.

trying to get one of all of them...at least Carter was paying attention.

About the time we took this picture the people behind me ask...so what kids go with what kids...I explain there were a set of quads and twins and Carter! (ashley and I have gotten asked before if our kids are triplets) She said looks like they are busy and you have your hands full (common response). She then tells me she found out this week that she was having twin girls and she had fun watching our kids play...ha, I think she looked more scared to see what her life would be...lol! I wished her luck and told her to enjoy the baby stage before you have to chase for a living!

Melts my heart...I love that our girls are Bff's!

Most of the time they are friends...we have to break up fights sometimes. Suz I think...err, KNOW we are raising three STRONG willed little girls...Lord help us all!

Better attempt at the 7 kids...

Thank you SO much Hoags and Steeces for letting us tag along on your Christmas fun. We had a blast!

Holiday in the Park...Six flags!

2012-01-02T20:55:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful holiday season this year. The girls really got into everything and it was so much fun to see the magic through their eyes. I LOVED it.

One of my favorite things we did was go to Six flags for Holiday in the park! We have some AWESOME friends who work there and hooked all of us with tickets! We LOVE you Tom and Jill!!!! Thanks!

Our little fam! (thanks Suz for the pictures)

The Steece fam!

We had a BLAST riding the rides and the train! If it looks like we are freezing it's because we were! It was COLD...hey, we are from Texas!

Madelyn and Mama!

The girls are fans of the rides, I am pretty sure! I love getting to see them be excited about them!!!

So do the quads!

Carter was however not always a fan! (He is the one on the left,wide eyed!)

Carter, Drew, and Collin!

I LOVE these picture! Auntie Ashley and Drew!

Auntie Suz and I got away for a ride!!! It was a blast!

You might recognize Suz from The reality TV show Texas Multi Mamas! Tuesday night @7 on We TV! ha, sorry Suz had to throw that one in there!

All the kids loved watching the light/music show on the way out!...Ethan, Drew, Ben and Sav! LOVE THOSE KIDS!

My sweet girlies...Kinley and Madelyn...check out Maddie's cheese face!

We all had a wonderful time at the park with our friends!

Sorry for the delay!

2011-12-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

To say things have been crazy it our lives, might be an understatement...In the grand scheme of things not a huge deal but it shook our world for a bit! It all started the week of Thanksgiving.

Chris's mom was going to be in Austin having Thanksgiving with his brother, so we had it the weekend before with her. We had dinner out.

Kinley with Grandma.

Madelyn, not sure what this silly face is that she is making.

So Thanksgiving morning...Kinley started SCREAMING at 5:00 am. I went into their room and she told me she didn't feel good and needed to go to the doctor (not sure where she got this) I picked her up and she was BURNING up. Pretty soon Madelyn started waking up, I decided we might as well go ahead get up since I figured there wasn't a lot more sleep going to be going on.. So the girls and I made a pallet on the floor and watched Monsters Inc. Pretty sure Kinley after having medicine was the only one that went back to sleep.

After Kinley slept till almost 10 we watched the parade while everyone was getting dinner ready.

Kinley and Poppy

The girls LOVED watching the parade. The only thing that they didn't love was when the commercials or the announcers would come and talk.

Maddie sat like this the entire time.

Poor Madelyn didn't want to stay up for lunch she was so tired due to her sister's wake up call!

she decided to lay on the couch instead.

Good family and good food!

Later that night, I went BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING!!! I went with several of my friends that I have gone with before and took Suz, Ashley, Elayna and my mom shopping for the first time! We had fun and didn't come home till around 8 AM.

Our loot! (sorry picture is from my phone)

And this is where the story takes another turn...The girls and I decided to go visit my family in Oklahoma with my parents. We took my van because it's just easier with the carseats. My family has land/ranch and several members of my family were there for the Thanksgiving. My camera died the first day we were there...the girls LOVED getting to play with cousins and I really wish I would have gotten pictures of that.

On Sunday my dad and I went off to look around, when we came back we were greeted with some bad news. My cousin had hit my van with his BIG truck...

This was the text I sent Chris saying "look at our van, we weren't in it and are fine!"

Basically in about 10 minutes we had changed everything about that day. The girls and I were packed in my aunt's car and riding back with her...my poor parents decided that they could drive it home. After putting tarp and lots of Duct tape they drove (very slowly) home. It took a while to get things figured out with insurance but we learned we weren't going to be keeping our van...To say I took the news badly probably would be a under statement. We didn't want to start all over with payments on a new car especially when we weren't planning on it. Plus we brought our babies home in that van. I know probably silly, ok it is silly!!! I know it is. But it was the truth. After the whole sticky situation was settled and we had money for our car and new carseats. Within one day we had found a GREAT GREAT deal on another car and went looked at it and brought it along with carseats! (post about the new car later)

For several weeks we still had our van in our driveway before the wrecker came to get it.The girls called it our boo boo car. At first they kept saying the dog did it. (my cousins dog) and then they changed their story saying that someone kicked it. They are getting pretty good at telling stories.

BYE BYE Swagger wagon! we will miss you!

Hope I didn't bore you to much with our Thanksgiving adventure (more like November adventure) We are hoping for a less drama filled new year! Tons of Christmas posts...along with learning new letters! However we have taken a few weeks off, hoping to get back to "school" next week.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T21:16:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from The Tarrants!!!!

Tiny Prints!

2011-12-06T09:16:00.000-08:00

The more I look at the Christmas Cards at Tiny prints the more I LOVE them. It is so hard to decide, I love that they aren't the same cards you see everywhere else!

Here are a few of my favs! I had a hard time narrowing it down...

Seriously I would LOVE picking any of these!!!!

We took the girls pictures for our card...so now I have to pick out the card to go with them. I know we are doing this a little late. ugh. We have been sick, had our van totaled all in the last two weeks. We are hanging in there! I have already gotten three Christmas cards in the mail...Our first one to receive was actually a Tiny prints card (thanks Gerwers!) The quality is fantastic and I was very impressed!

So c'mon go check Tiny Prints out for your Christmas card needs!!!!

PS-You will have to wait to see if I pick one of these cards!!!

Fabulous! (F week)

2011-12-01T21:10:00.000-08:00

You know what is fun, walking out of Walmart and realize you just told your 2 year old..."We are going to go home and learn some more F words" And looking over and seeing the older greeter look at me like I was a horrible mom!!! Totally happened! It was pretty bad but funny I have to admit!

Showing our FINGERS!

Painting our letter F's with our FINGER prints...the girls liked this way more than I thought!

FISHING for FISHES...Celery, with peanut butter and goldfish.

This kept them busy, a great rainy day thing!

I have been trying harder to get them to learn what the letters look like instead of just what words start with the letter. I had them jump from F to F.

Making FOOTPRINTS!

On another day we headed to Wal=Mart to look at all the flowers.

Each girl picked out flowers to take home for our porch.

Madelyn and her Flowers.

Kinley! The girls loved their flowers and would just sit on the porch with them!

We also went to look at all the FISHES! They loved this so much we....

brought one home!!!!

Getting the FISH bowl ready.

We had to give the FISH a F name....

Meet FREDDIE the FISH!!!

Freddie the fish now lives in the girls bathroom. They will just go watch him sometimes. The first couple of days they would spend over 30 mins just watching him swim around. One of the best 5 dollar toys ever!

We also made FRENCH toast for lunch that day!

They are really getting into cooking lately. Especially Madelyn.

Our family has had a ROUGH week...I am sure I will blog about it later but that is one reason I am behind. We did the Letter G and H but then have taken a few weeks off from letters. Really hoping next week we start again!

Halloween...the rest of the story!

2011-11-21T11:26:00.000-08:00

This was the first year that the girls cared anything about Halloween. I don't know that they got it entirely but they knew it was fun.

We had a BUSY Halloween weekend...It seemed like we went to EVERY fall festival possible...ha! It was fun but man were we tired. Our first round was with the Steeces! I was worried about the girls would tear up their costumes so we didn't wear them the first day.

Suz rounded up the troops for a little Trunk or Treating.

These dudes CRACKED me up with their mustaches!!! The foursome was so cute!

M and K with the Band! lol

The Hoags met up with us too. Madelyn was so excited to see "CarCar" and run to hug him.

Sweet baby Yodi, Sawyer.

After that festival we ran to a few with Aunt Nell and Issac! The girls love to follow him around so that helped them to learn to say Trick or Treat.

Sweet Maddie and Her Aunt Nell.

Later that weekend, we met up with the Hoags and the Steeces again for their festivals at their church. The Girls wore their costumes this time.

Mama and her little peacocks!

Love this kid!

The gang wondering around!

Stopping for some grub! Good looking bunch!!

On actual Halloween we had our Church's trunk or treating...some of our family that were there.

Our preacher's name is Woody. So he and his wife dressed up as Woody and Jesse from Toy Story. I am pretty sure that made M and K's night!

This is pretty much the girls favorite part...candy!!! They had withdraws the next week!

The Girls had such cute Halloween Outfits this year...

i had to include those pictures!

We all had a wonderful and tiring Halloween!

Tiny Prints Card Giveaway!

2011-11-20T20:30:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about Christmas is picking out Christmas cards!!! I love looking for the PERFECT card. I spent way too long on this every year. It has to be just right! Not to mention the perfect picture to go on them. Every year my awesome BFF Hannah takes our family pictures. If you are in Abilene you should TOTALLY check her out. She is great with our girls. We love using her for family pictures. Seriously having a photographer for a husband and getting someone to take our pictures is a NIGHTMARE. He is so picky. He and Hannah get a long great so it all works out!

Here are a few of my favovites she has taken of us!

Look at my itty bitties...tear!

I get teary eyed looking at these pictures just seeing how far my twinkies have come!! Crazy!

However this year we can't make it to that ole' A town to take pictures :( before needing them for Christmas cards so good old Dada is going to have to take some of the girls for our cards. We decided when taking family pictures it's always better to use someone else! So This year's card will only feature the duo!

Here are a few of my favs he has taken this year!

So if you are in need of a good photographer in the metroplex...I just happen to know one I could set you up with! I will be making Chris take some new ones for our card that are more wintery!

Back to the perfect Christmas card...I have searched a ton of sites and I am always drawn back to Tiny Prints! So I was super excited when I found this amazing deal on my friends blog that they were offering! I'm in love with all their cards in their Christmas line. LOVE!

Aren't they so cute?!?!? I can't wait to take pictures then pick our card!

Right now, Tiny Prints is offering the coolest giveaway! If you blog about their company and the awesome cards, Tiny Prints will give you 50 free cards of your choice! Isn't that that cool!? What are you waiting for...get to Blogging! After you blog fill out this form and they will contact you.

I can't wait to choose our card!!!!

E week!

2011-11-14T20:51:00.000-08:00

Letter E...We had a TON of appointments this week so we didn't do a ton but we still managed to do some letter E things...

Learning how to write the Letter E

EATING a ELEPHANT sandwich!

We learned all about EGGS

I even let them hold one...I think I might have had a heart attack!

They got really into the EGGS

Eating our EGGS...Kinley and one of her "faces"

EGGS!!!

Our letter E for ELEPHANT

We also watched ELMO and a movie about Elephants!

Six Flags

2011-11-12T16:24:00.000-08:00

Growing up where you have an amusement park in your "back yard" you take it for granted! I totally got burned out on going and really haven't wanted to go. However lately I have been thinking about taking the girls, so when our good friend who is a electrician there gave us free tickets we were more than happy to go! Thanks Tom!

The girls and I on the teacups!

I just love this picture...check out the cheese faces!

Maddie Bug!

They loved it but would slide around on the seats! We had to hold on to them.

You can't go to Six Flags and not take a picture in this chair.

For people who wonder how taking a picture with 2 year old twins goes, I give you the following pictures!

So we took the girls on a little ferris wheel in the little kid part of the park. I HATE ferris wheels...I can do roller coasters but HATE ferris wheels!!! Totally freaking out...I hate how you have to wait while everyone gets on and off.

I am not sure the girls loved it but they LOVED all the other rides! Just like their mama!

Ok, they like it better than I did!

Look how much they LOVED this ride!

It was around Halloween so they had a hay maze! They didn't really get it but thought it was fun.

Kinley was TERRIFIED of anything dressed up so she didn't like Bugs...

Madelyn just wanted to give him a hug.

We went up on the tall tower and looked over Ft. Worth and Dallas!

We had a great time and can't wait to get passes next year!

Oct 2011-K and M

2011-11-06T22:04:00.000-08:00

These are the girls official 2.5 pictures. I know they are almost 3 now...gasp, having a tough time admitting that! However all the stats are more current!

Kinley-Kooter, Koo koo, Kinley Margeret, KK (too many)

Oh Kinley, where to begin...DRAMA! Everything is a HUGE deal. I feel like we will see this drama for a while. Sadly I know where she gets it from so it's hard to be mad...SOMETIMES!

LOVES to say NO WAY when she isn't getting her way.

She is also always telling us we "hurt her feelings" when she doesn't get her way.

talks ALL the time...also from me.

Takes longer to warm up to people though.

Counts all the time, and they are usually in the right order.

Loves to dance and we will catch her singing to herself all the time.

Asks to watch TB (TV) all the time and acts like we are abusing her if we say no.

When she is talking about yesterday (or any day other than today) she says the LAST DAY. "we went to the park the last day"

When it's dark in a room she will ask us to turn the "dark off" or if she wants the light off says "turn the dark on"

Wants to do EVERYTHING by herself. I have to work on having patience! She walks in with both legs in one leg hole in panties all the time!

STATS
Weighs around 22 pounds. (not on chart) Tall and so NO pants fit this poor child.
shorts and skirts-6 to 9
Pants - some 18 month and some 24 but have to alter.
shirts-18 and 24 month
shoes-mostly 6
panties-2T (that is the smallest size)

Hardly has any more accidents and only if she is distracted
Has tubes and no ear infections since the tubes. Tubes have been SUCH a blessing to our family!
has all teeth but her two year old molars

Both GIRLS!

Both girls are really coming into being a twin. If that makes any sense. They are starting the weird twin stuff like talking for each other or sympathy pains.

They love each other so much and really don't like to be apart lately. If one isn't where the other can see them they are asking "where sissy" Don't get me wrong they can have a GOOD fight too.

When they wake up in the morning which ever wakes up first will call for me, "mama, I awake" the next one will wake up not see their sister and ask for their her.

They will fight over the same toy even if they have two of them. But then love to share with each other. If you ever give one of them a snack/treat they will ask for one for their sister.

I get told they look identical all the time, even though there is a almost 2 itch height difference!

They both sleep with boppy pillows still. They have been washed so many times they are flat but they LOVE them.

Both still sleep in cribs. Showing NO signs of wanting to change! WOOHOO! I have all their toddler bed stuff ready but at this point wondering if we will just go to twin beds. They look so little in a real bed though.

When I do their hair they say "making my pony hair mama"

Madelyn-Maddie, Mae Mae, Madelyn Clare, Moo Moo, Mooder (way too many nicknames)

Madelyn, my love bug. Don't worry though gives just as much DRAMA but so much quieter about it. Sneaky might be a better word! She does things in her own time and usually does things right but in her own time.

If you ever say you are mad at Madelyn or just act mad she LOSES it. She hates for people to be mad. "I sorry Mama, I sorry" she will grab your face and love on you. I can't decide if she knows what she is doing and gets that is getting her out of things...

When Madelyn talks about later (such as tomorrow or even later that day) she says night..."I wear that pretty (dress) night"

Has to have a blanket. Will take anyone but has one that she LOVES. She calls it her "pink" If she is ever hurt, sleepy or sad that is what she will ask for.

has a pony that she loves too.

Both girls are Mama's girls but Maddie especially.

My little OCD two year old. Can find anything...just ask her she will usually find it. Either because she remembers seeing it or she has put it away. Yesterday at Auntie Suz's house we couldn't find her shoes...they were in her kid's shoe basket of course! She puts everything away...most of the time. FREAKS out if she gets dirty/wet and hates if her shoes get dirty...My mom says I was the same way.

Madelyn has been behind in speech because she was unable to hear well before the tubes. Her speech is improving SOOOOOO much. I love her little raspy voice!

Stats

Weighs around 23 almost 24 pounds. (under 4 percent)
shorts and skirts-6 to 9
Pants - some 18 month and some 24 but have to alter. Actually can wear smaller pants than K because she is almost 2 itches shorter
shirts-18 and 24 month
shoes-mostly 5
panties-2T (that is the smallest size)

Doing so well with not accidents, had a pooping issue but in the last couple of weeks it has gotten TONS better.
Has tubes, however one did fall out. No infections since the tubes.

I love this age and hate it all at the same time. They are hard right now but also so much fun! It's never never a dull moment

Here are all the rest of the pictures. For all of my blog readers who are concerned about what my kids drink. (I know you are out there :) Don't worry it's not soda. We had the bottles and put juice in them. Which I am sure is not right either but there you go...it was for like 5 minutes!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T22:23:00.000-07:00

I was going to wait and do all my Halloween stuff together but I couldn't wait! The girls were peacocks this year. I made their costumes and after putting it off till the week of I finally finished them! I think they turned out great. I usually never end up being happy with anything I make but I have to admit they are cute! HA, sorry a little self promoting! lol

My two pretty peacocks!

Kinley

They were acting goofy, but can you blame them they were wearing feathers!

Sweet Sisters.

Tail feathers!

Their Cheese faces!

Madelyn

The tutu.

We took this video of the girls today...It CRACKS me up. Madelyn is calling her costume her pretty wings, also listen to Kinley boss Madelyn in the end...oh and a very DONE mama comes up in the end. C'mon moms you get it, Halloween is rough sometimes!

Untitled from Elizabeth Tarrant on Vimeo.

The girls would shake their tail feather anytime you ask them. Actually they got so used to us trying to get them to do it they would just start doing it anytime someone new walked up. Oh the tricks we make our kids do!

Happy Halloween from the Tarrant's!

Letter D

2011-10-24T21:46:00.000-07:00

Week D was full of DANDY things to do! Sorry I couldn't resist!

When you are learning the letter D you have to have a trip to Krispy Kreme to watch them make DOUGHNUTS!

The girls really enjoyed getting to watch the DOUGHNUTS crawl go across the assembly line.

And of course getting to eat them

and the cute hats they got to wear!

I put paint inside a ziploc bag and they learned how to write the letter D

This was fun for a long time, We might have to do this again!

Later that week we watched DINOSAUR Train and learned about DINOSAURS. (pretty sure we watched DORA too)

Our Letters this week were DINOSAURS

I found these googly eyes and listening to the girls, you would think that these were the best thing ever!

Of course we had to go feed the DUCKS for D week!

We also couldn't forget about Wilbur the DONKEY!!! The loudest DONKEY in the world.

The girls talk about him for DAYS after we have seen him!

Kinley was scared to feed him but Madelyn did. (My camera died while we were there) :(

D week was DELIGHTFUL!!!

The trip of unfortunate events...and ALOT of fun!

2011-10-18T20:58:00.001-07:00

One of our FAVORITE babysitters Cheyanne, was wanting to go see her family in Arkansas. We talked about it and decided that I would take her and go visit my fellow twin mama friend Kristi at the same time!

We were all packed and ready to go around naptime, totally planned that one!

After driving about 3 hours the girls were getting hungry and needing a potty break. Like any good mom I stopped at McDonald's...ha!

We were in the store for maybe 15 minutes, walk out to the van and it wouldn't start. I panicked and called my Dad, cause let's face it...I could have called Chris who would have told me to call my Dad! He said best case it was by battery or worse case it might be my alternator. So I needed a jump and to drive to a repair place. Ha, it was Sunday evening at this point, who was going to be open. After getting a man to jump me who was NOT at all glad that his wife volunteered him to help. We drove out to hopefully find a place, luckily Wal-mart has a automotive department that is open to 7 on Sundays. I have NEVER been so glad to see a Wal-mart. They tested my battery and decided that I just needed a new battery. So after gladly giving them 100 dollars (I might have paid anything) we were on our way! We finally got there after what seem to be forever!

I woke up before my anyone and decided to take a shower before we had to leave to take Cheyanne the rest of the way...I walked into the bathroom to see this...

My lip was so SWOLLEN. (I can't beliveve I am posting this HORRIBLE picture of me, with no makeup.) It looked worse in person! And no I am not sticking my lip out at all! It lasted almost the entire time I was there. So not many pictures of me! After Dropping Cheyanne off I remember thinking ahh, I can relax the rest of the time and just enjoy my time...wrong! After meeting Kristi in Little rock at Hobby lobby to get supplies for our pinterest craft! I walk out to find a note on my van saying "I witnessed a white Toyota Camry hit your car then drive off" REALLY?!?!?! I couldn't believe it! This was only the first day there, I was a little scared what all could happen before I left!

But, now to the fun stuff!

I have to admit after being in Texas all summer where everything is HOT and all the grass is dead. It was so nice to be in cooler weather and look at green trees and grass!

Lex, K and M playing with Kristi's porch decor

The girls were watching a toddler exercise video...I don't think I have laughed so hard in a while watching them to this!

Madelyn especially was in HEAVEN with all the dress up clothes they had! This mama is going to have to hit up after Halloween sales for Dress up clothes! (notice M and K are in the same dresses, they often chose to dress alike)
Kristi and her girls took us to a super cool park with tunnels! I think from now on my girls will ask to go there every time we go to a park, sorry girls its 6 hours away. They LOVED it!
Lex and Brit are WAY more courageous than Madelyn and Kinley but they still did quite a bit!

I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the week!

Our girls got along great! They loved holding hands wherever we went. At one park we got ask if they were quints and triplets...seriously people there are four of them.
They had this really cool walking bridge over the water. It was so pretty, we wished our Daddy was there with his camera!

Poor Madelyn was just too tired to go on!

We missed naps almost every day. Not to mention my girls are used to always being in a stroller and walked everywhere this week. Considering all that they did pretty good. They were in bed before 7 most days!

Lex and Brittyn started swinging like this...

then of course my younger ones had to copy the big girls!

Poor Ben was outnumbered this week being the only guy in a house of 7 girls...he handled it well!

Reading bedtime stories.

Sweet friends!

We went to this great church that has tubes and things to play with. This is where all of the sudden our luck went bad again.

Madelyn playing with sweet Baby Kinlynn. Seriously a GREAT baby.

Kristi's kids have super human arm strength and have no problem hanging.

Kinley lasted a whopping two seconds.

Madelyn did much better.

but nothing like this...

or this...

It must of been right after this picture, Madelyn started gagging. I knew what that meant and we ran into the bathroom just in time. She threw up and then the diarrhea started.
We thought it might be a one time thing but no it wasn't! She had several more accidents. It got so bad that I even had to go back to diapers for a few days because she couldn't run fast enough. It was so sad anytime I would go to put a diaper back on her she would cry " I big, mama, I big!" it broke my heart, but pull ups are really too big on the girls and it sometimes lets things run out the legs. Gross I know!!!!

She seemed better so we let them play in the water at the park...I think her favorite thing!

This was how we ended everyday...in the bathtub! We usually had 4 very dirty girlies!

This was right before we left all in the SUPER cute shirts Kristi made them!

Of course we add to put Kinlynn into one!

We had a wonderful time playing with our friends. The girls would ask about Lex and Brit every morning for the first couple days of being home. Where my friends mama!? Thank you Kristi, and Ben for letting us three invade your house! Thanks to Kinlynn for letting us stay in her room all week!

The way home was WAY less eventful and I didn't even have Cheyanne to help! Madelyn slept almost 3 hours and Kinley didn't sleep a wink but did fine!

Letter C

2011-10-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, It's been forever, I know!!! We have had a crazy couple of weeks. Basically if it can go wrong it did. If it can break it has, if we could get sick we did. Basically life has happened and I just had no drive to blog at the end of the day. So I am WAY behind...Letter C!!

We watched Hungry Hungry Caterpillar, the girls know the book so well I thought it would be fun to let them watch it. Thank you Youtube!

We played with our magnets again but added the flash cards this time. The girls worked on matching the C on the card with the Magnet.

Our Mimi was off during C week so we went over and ate CARROTS. They also played with a ABC toy we played with when I was a kid.

We also used egg cartons and made CATERPILLARS. The girls LOVED painting.

Side story...Thanks to Pinterest, I decided I would make finger paint. I made it a couple days before we painted this day. Anyways, I opened to container and it was completely covered in mold. Crazy, I don't know what I was thinking making finger paint! ha!

We made our CATS out of the letter C for our ABC book and COLORED them. Had to get another C word into our day!

We COOKED in our kitchen. The girls love their kitchen.
Madelyn got sidetracked and started playing with CARS. Which was ok since it was a C word!
More COOKING!!!
Ok, so my girls like to watch Food network (totally my fault) and we caught a episode of CUPCAKE wars. LOL!

I just wanted to include this picture from C week. It doesn't have anything to do with C's but it was CUTE! Sometimes they get along so well, other times not so much!

Going out of town!

2011-09-29T22:33:00.001-07:00

Since we haven’t been to Austin in a while we decided to head that way for a weekend with the girls. Uncle Clint and Aunt Andrea were working most of the weekend but we found plenty of things to do with the girls. We slept in (one of the mornings) we went shopping and out to lunch. I had been looking online for places to go and found this Amusement park type thing and miniature golf place. I have to admit when we drove up Chris and I didn’t think it was worth stopping but the girls had already seen the horses on the carousel so we were stuck. LOL! Actually the girls had a GREAT time and we were glad we went!

Kinley

Madelyn

They ran around to each ride so excited! They are growing up way too fast.

They decided they wanted to drive different cars on this one.Cracks me up how one minute they can't stand to be without the other then the next they want their own space. I'm betting that won't change.

Madelyn

Kinley

There was a Ferris wheel and we both didn’t think they would like it. They said that if they got on and hated it that they would stop and bring them back…there wasn’t many people there. I think the next two pictures explain how the girls felt about the ride.

Kinley…unsure, but no crying.

Madelyn…LOVE IT!

Riding the Choo Choo train.

The next morning Uncle Clint and Aunt Andrea were off so we went to Don Juan’s for breakfast. This AMAZING place in Austin…it was on Man vs. Food. We watch the show and once we saw it on there we had to try it…We now go anytime we are in town. Tastes so good but you have to wait most of the time.

Waiting in line, wasting time taking pictures.

and playing with sunglasses!

Madelyn with Aunt Andrea

Kinley

Madelyn playing with Uncle Clint

Yummm!!!

We spent the day playing with Clint and Andrea and after a good home cooked dinner we headed home! We had a good trip home and actually got to drive home in a storm…I know that is usually a bad thing but after not seeing rain for the past 6 months (not sure of the actually time but it had been FOREVER) it was nice! We had a great time and looking forward to our next visit down south!

Also I use Window's live writer and it is messing up the pictures and not letting me center them. I think I may have to switch to another program to write blogs. Any suggestions which one?! Thanks!

Letter B

2011-09-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Last week was our second week of learning letters! We are going in order because well it's easier for me! LOL! So we learned letter B!

First we practiced writing B's

Then I had gathered up things that started with the letter B and put them in a bag. We called it their B bag. This went WAY better than I thought. They loved it. In our bags...baby, bed, block, ball, and bows.

They carried around their bags for days.

We learned about bugs and made our letter B, bees! I am putting together a book with the letters they make.

The girls have never really used a glue stick and I was thinking this was going to be a HUGE disaster it actually went much better than I thought.

After making our bees and reading a book about bees. The girls learned that bees made honey so I had some for them to try....

Madelyn was not impressed with honey.

After learning about bees, we headed to the park on a bug hunt. I got the girls bug catchers and they love them. They call them their catchers. Any time they see anything they think is a bug they run to get their catchers.

We actually didn't have any luck at the park...I think it's so hot here even the bugs are staying away!
Actually as luck or not luck would have it, the week we were learning about the letter B and Bees. A bee got into our house during nap time. We killed it but I had to show the girls...They thought it was neat to see the bee. They tell anyone that comes over about the bee.

We live close to a lake and went on another field trip to look at the Boats.
Anytime you ask Madelyn what letter does boat (or any other B word) she says EEEEEEE! When she is saying the letter B she drops the B sound and it just comes out EEEE. For the first couple times I was thought she wasn't getting it and thinking it was the letter E.

There was also a flock of birds! Good day for B's at the Lake!

The next two pictures I had to include because they are just so Kinley!

They had been playing in the dirt so she had some dirt on her face.

I put some soap in the water table for Bubbles! It was the best weather we have had in FOREVER so we were looking for reasons to stay outside!

Madelyn

Kinley

They had a B dinner. Bananas, Blueberries, Broccoli, and Biscuit sandwiches!

It is so fun to watch the girls learn! When I think they aren't paying attention they repeat it all back to me!

A little country and A little Rock and Roll!

2011-09-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

The girls got invited to their friends Reese and Riley's 3rd birthday party recently! We always love getting an excuse to see our friends. They had it at a very cool play place inside a church...we will have to visit there again!

Leave it to my girls to hit up the desserts before playing! I got their cute dresses at Walmart for $3!!! I never find sales like that!

Never fails when I look at pictures after the fact I realize how big my girls are getting...it sure is bittersweet for me!

Kinley

Maddie

Lately the girls are always together...especially when we are out. They are never far behind the other.

I love this picture of all the girls chatting! lol

Can I just tell you how happy this next picture makes me! I have mostly met these women through my blog and I have found a GREAT friendship in all of them...looking forwarded to getting to know Beth better too! I am completely blessed to have this group of women that I call my friends. They know exactly what we are going through having twins, one of the greatest bonds! Anyways back to the picture (I get carried away talking about what these ladies mean to me, and the ones not there!) We have a new member in our group!! Leah, (Amy's sister) who I have enjoyed getting to know everytime I am with her through the last year or two. We invited her to be in our Twin Mama picture this time because she is having twins!!!!!! I am so excited for her! Leah, you are in our prayers...and know you have the biggest twin mama support group already!

We had a wonderful time celebrating R and R's birthday! I was annoyed my camera man husband didn't get any pictures of the details of the party, Amy is my awesome party planning friend!

Letter A

2011-09-13T21:45:00.001-07:00

Last week I started doing a letter of the week with the girls. After deciding we didn’t really want to put the girls in a preschool yet. Due to it being totally expensive for 2 toddlers, and due to the fact that the girls have ECI up to three times a weeks some weeks. We decided not to start the girls this year. That being said I didn’t want them to be behind from the other kids!

Last week we had A week! I decided that we were going to be laid back about time and I am NOT waking them up to have “school” as the girls call it. We start at 10 (as long as they are awake…they have been sleeping till almost 10) and I get the girls dressed for the day…it helps me stay on track! Thanks to some ideas online (mostly pinterest) and a things I learned in some of the elementary ed classes I took in College I was ready to start.

We started the first day playing with letter magnets on cookie sheets. The girls LOVED this and have asked to play with them several times since then. We also sang ABC’s the girls could sing this song FOREVER!

Madelyn

Kinley

Then in the old school tradition we had to have recess….lol! Plus us Texas people were so glad to have under 100 degree weather for a week. It’s back to over a hundred again.

We talked about apples this day. After discussing apples this is what the girls will say about them…The girls answers are from various occasions. Me: Where do Apples come from. Girls: farm and trees. Me: Who picks the apples? Girls: Mommy, Daddy, and Farmers. Me: Who eats apples? Girls: Donkeys, MOOs, Horses, Ponies, dogs, and me. Me: Where does the farmer take the apples once he picks them? Girls : the farm and store.

We went to the farmers market to see all the different apples and to buy some apples. I was disappointed that this farmers market only had two different kinds and they were both red.

After the Farmers market we went home for some more apple fun! I Cut the apples in half and they painted with them using finger paint…my girls are not sure at all about finger paint.

Kinley

Madelyn

When they they were finished with their paintings (which you can’t see but had a Upper and Lower case A on them) I had finished cutting apples for our applesauce. Which took me back to making babyfood!

Just cut up the apples, add a little water and some cinnamon! Boil until soft then mash! The applesauce was way too hot for the girls to eat before nap so they had a afternoon snack!

They also played with all their Animals for our A week as well.(different than the apple day) I had Carter and Saywer then so Carter got to play too. We also watched a movie about animals.

I decided to pick a shape and color each week too. Circle was our shape this time so I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

Before our week started I had picked up some books and DVDs from the library to use during the week. They came in handy because Madelyn started running a fever and wasn’t up for as much this day.

They LOVED watching Clifford the big RED dog.

We practiced drawing circles. Madelyn won the prize for the best circle. She has been drawing them forever.

I had wanted to get shaving cream and dye it red so the girls could play in the tub with it. My mom wondered if they might try to eat it. Which I agreed it was HIGHLY likely. I decided to use ready whip in stead. I drew a circle with the ready whip can then gave them some of the dyed one also.

Our cousin who we we call Aunt Elayna (the girls BFF) was off on this day and came over to visit. She got in on our Red/Circle day as well. She painted the girls toes red! This was a HUGE hit.

Wow! I didn’t realize I had taken so many pictures of our A week! Hope you weren’t too bored! We started B week today! I had centered all the pictures in Live writer but when it posted them some of them were to the left. It wouldn't let me fix them.