New bathroom

It's next to impossible to get any decent photos of the girls' new bathroom. It's such a small space and the lighting is horrid .. so I did what I could. It looks much better in person!
(Searching for the "before" picture .. will that when I find it)




.. and finally .. the living room is no longer a playroom!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Shadows ... Leprechans ... Crackheads ... it's all the same in Alabama.

I love that not only did the news crew actually show the drawing of the leprechan ... but also felt the need to label it "amateur sketch". Awesome.

hmm ..

This just struck me as funny.

wth?!

How is it that one day we can be outside enjoying the warmth and sunshine ... and the next day we end up with this??
Crazy ...


(note: If you are ever taking photos of a kid with a snowball .. and said kid gets THIS look in her eyes .. cover your camera and run. Trust me on this.)

Brilliant Mom move of the day

Tired? Grumpy? Headache from giddy, high pitched toddler noises?
Build a teepee!



I swear, it has been gloriously quiet here for the past 40 minutes.


Eh, I jinxed it. 42.9 minutes ... off to break up a fight that seems to be about which kid likes green beans more. Ack.>

Cuteness

Hangin' at the mall with Cooper

A visit from DFACS is imminent ...

The other day the girls and I were doing our grocery shopping. As we were piling our stuff onto the checkout counter, suddenly Kaelin starts to have a dramatic anxiety attack.

K: "Mommy!! We have to get Daddy beer!"
Me: "Daddy doesn't need beer. How do you know about beer anyway??"
K: "But Mooooooom!" sounding as if she's close to hyperventilating "We have to get it! We have to get him his beeeeeeer!!"
Me: "Kaelin .. calm down .. we don't need beer."
K: "Ooooohhhh .. Daddy will be so mad if we don't get beer!" She slumps down and puts her head in her hands .. still making dramatic breathless whimpering noises.

At this point, I finish unloading the cart and look up.

About 12 people within earshot are staring at us.
They all have that look that tells you that they are both concerned and horrified.
Surely this display is a sure sign that Daddy is a raging alcoholic and we will all be beaten mercilessly when he discovers that his precious beer was not purchased. Should they call the authorities? Follow us home? Oh the humanity!

Thanks kid.


(for the record ...
I have no idea how she knows about beer.
I have no idea why she chose this as her daily Oscar moment.
David is not an alcoholic.
We might need all of you as character witnesses soon.)

Ahhh ..

After uploading the video below, I realized that I haven't bragged about my recent undertaking.
A couple weeks ago, I woke up as my normal, grumpy self .. went downstairs to make the girls breakfast .. and almost broke my neck tripping over a random discarded toy. Par for the coarse in this house for the past three and a half years ... but that day it sent me over the edge.
Around the girls' first birthday, we cleared out the living room and turned it into the girls' playroom. Of course, they loved it .. and while it was nice for them to have a place that was all their own, it was also a nightmare for those of us over two feet tall. The toys would inevitably spill over into every other room downstairs, and frankly, it was not the first impression that I wanted people to have upon entering our home. At the time, I didn't know what else to do with the toys. Their bedroom is too small for everything given that a) there are two of them in there .. and b) they're spoiled rotten and have an overabundance of crap toys.
That morning a few weeks ago was the last straw for me. I decided that I could do without my art room for a while and proceeded to pack away my art desk and supplies (to be pulled out when needed). Everything was cleared out of the bonus room upstairs and their toys moved up there.
Now we have an actual living room again! The clutter is so nicely contained upstairs and (BONUS!) the girls love to go up and play on their own. Now that all of that is out of the way, I feel like it's so much more peaceful downstairs. On top of that, I can et more done during the day considering that a) the girls can play upstairs and not wreck the place behind me as I clean .. and b) I'm no longer overwhelmed with the "to do" list since the toy cleanup is last on the list (if it doesn't get done, we can just close the door!)
Ahhhh ...
I'm now on a kick to get this house completely turned around. Old clothes and toys are being given to friends, taken to consignment, or donated this week ... the clutter is being thinned out of drawers and cabinets .. household repairs and improvements are being chipped away. (Also finally finished the girls' bathroom upstairs .. which had been a horrendous shade of electric purple for years thanks to the previous owners .. ick .. photos of that soon ..)

I can't find a "before" picture of the living room / playroom .. but most of you have seen it in person, so you will understand my excitement here. I'll keep looking and post one if I can find it. I'll also get a picture of the new playroom tomorrow)

Here's the "after" .. (best pic I could get given the lighting)
No toys!

A little enunciation would be helpful ...

(ETA: The baby is Laraleigh's little one .. Miss Julia was hanging with us while the rest of her fam. went to Medieval Times.)

While looking through iPhoto ...

I was looking for a particular photo today and came across these. I remember taking the last picture, but I didn't realize that she had arranged this all by herself. Nice.

(I'm guessing that it's no longer necessary to ask what she might like for her Birthday or Christmas ... she would just appreciate cash to add to her piggy bank boob fund.)

Reesey is getting cake for breakfast ..

Tonight, just before Reese fell asleep, we were snuggled in bed telling stories.
All of a sudden, she interrupts my rendetion of The Three Little Pigs with,

"Mom .. I love chocolate cake."

Okay.

"I love it .. it's my favorite .. and Mom...... you're my favorite girl."

Just as I was about to melt into an immense pool of sentimentality, she added the pièce de résistance ...




"Mommy ...... you're my chocolate cake."




I'm guessing that one will keep her out of trouble for at least four days. I'm also guessing that she'll catch on soon enough and milk it for all it's worth. We're doomed.

Yet again ...

Hope no one is getting sick of watching the girls boogie down ... I can't help but post the videos. Humor me .. they crack me up.

(For those of you who don't speak Reese, she says, "Im going to eat your belly" at the end. No idea where that one came from...)

We're alive.

Finally a free moment to post ... things have been hectic.
I'm in the process of FINALLY getting the girls' bathroom painted and decorated, changing my art room into the playroom (so tired of toys all over downstairs!) and staying sane just trying to keep up with these two.

The girls are great.
Kaelin is apparently full of teenage angst ... "Moooommm ... my day is soooo hard! (throws arms over her head, collapses on the couch and lets out a loud, dramatic "uuuuugh!") All of this after I asked her to put 2 books back on the shelf. She also has a boyfriend in her class. His name is Shyan and she sighs his name ... SIGHS his name. One night at dinner, out of the blue, she said in a breathy voice, "He's just the cutest boy I've ever seen." and then got this dopey far away look in her eyes. Oh dear.

Reese is busying herself with finding out how far she has to push in order to get her parents to break. She has perfected the art of ignoring me to such a degree that I'm planning on getting her hearing tested. I'm about 99% certain that it's her stubborn nature more than her ears ... not sure which diagnosis is worse.
She's a love though .. and I must admit that part of me is extremely impressed by her strong will. As frustrating as it can be for the grown ups, it's nice to see that she doesn't feel that she has to please everyone, all the time. School bullies will have nothing on her.

We had a few flurries the other day. The girls were super excited .. of course, by the time we got on their coats and shoes it was over. Nothing like a Southern snowfall to screw with your fun. Stone Mountain has snow right now ... fake snow, but lots of it. I was really looking forward to taking the girls .... until I looked at the website. $25 per person for two hours. $100 to freeze in fake snow?! Ouch.
Luckily, the girls have the attention spans of goldfish right now and they don't remember how much I talked it up. In the future, I need to remember to check all the details before I go running my mouth. Dodged a whiny bullet this time!

I have a really sick sense of humor ..

... but this ... I don't get it.

Pottery Barn Kids has this lovely ceiling art available for purchase ...




Is it just me or does this seem a tad ... well ... creepy?
I find it hard to believe that the design team who came up with this one failed to see the "OhMyGodOurDogsHaveBeenHanged!" aspect of the two dogs on the right.
I would love to know how many of these they have actually sold.

Yikes.

Welcome to the world!

Tyler had number three! William Ledger came into the world the day after Christmas... and he's adorable!
Congratulations guys!!

Reese now has playground cred.

I left Reese alone with the Dentist for only a few minutes ...
Apparently she made her sad little puppy dog eyes and said that she needed to be "blinged out with a mad set of grillz".

I suppose it's time we wean her off of music videos and Flavor of Love re-runs...

Happy Birthday to me.

Due to a sick hubby, two 3 year olds with atrocious attitudes, and the fact that I'm exhausted from the whirlwind that was Christmas .. my Birthday has been put on hold. Once everyone is back in fighting form, I plan on welcoming the big Three - Five .. er .. Two - One .. in a more festive manner. .

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes!

Getting into the Holiday spirit

She has my sense of humor ..

Kaelin drew this picture the other day ...




I asked her to tell me about it and she said, "This is Santa (on the left). He's standing with Hot Dog man."
Me: "Hot Dog man?"
K: "Yep. He's Santa's beeeeest friend."
Me: "Hmm .. I've never heard of Hot Dog man."
K: "Yeah... because Santa got hungry and ate him. He was DELICIOUS!"


RIP Hot Dog Man.

I swore I would never do this ...

.. but I took a pair of scissors to Kaelin's hair today. For a while I have thought it would look so cute if it fell just to her jawline and it finally got the better of me. After the first cut I realized that there's a reason people go to school for this. First, our "sharp" scissors .. well, apparently not so much. Second, I have no idea how you cut a straight line on a squirmy toddler.
It took a good 20 minutes just to get it to a point where it might be passable at school tomorrow. After that we're racing to the salon and having a professional fix Mommy's shoddy work.
Kaelin must have sensed my trepidation ... about halfway through (completely out of the blue) she exclaimed, "Mooooom! I have to go to schoooool tomorrow! Uuugh."
Thanks for the vote of confidence kid.



After all was said and done, she loved her haircut. Luckily she doesn't know how to work a mirror to see the back. In the photo it actually looks like I did a good job ... but since her head is cocked you can't see that it's a tad uneven. You also can't see the back .. which is pretty sad if you see it up close.
It will be super cute when she gets touched up tomorrow though!

argh.

What about drawing on your face with a blue marker just as we're about to walk out the door constitutes a big smile and the thumbs up sign?
No matter how hard I scrubbed, that stuff stayed put for about 5 hours today.
I think Crayola might want to look up the word "washable" in the dictionary.

Is this how Dahmer started out?

I walked around the corner today and found this ..





As if the scene wasn't disturbing enough, I picked up the heart and it was soaking wet. Apparently someone did a little surgery on the poor Build-A-Bear Rabbit and then helped herself to a taste. Ew.
I asked them who was responsible for the carnage and they each blamed the other. Nice.

Free batteries

(It has been brought to my attention that my link didn't work below. Sorry about that ... it has now been fixed!)

Since so many Christmas presents require batteries, I thought I would post this deal ...
Target has Rayovac batteries in their dollar bins right now. If you visit this link

Rayovac Coupon


you can print out a bunch of the $1.00 off coupons. So .. free 4 packs of batteries.
I used five the other day with no issues. (I'm not sure if the store has a limit on how many you can use at one time, but I'm planning to go back armed with a bunch next time!)
I'm not sure if the Target stores in other areas have the same stock, but Atlanta does. Definitely worth a call to find out!

When Mommy's away ......

The other day I spent hours arranging the girls' new playspace in my art room. All for naught ... I left them to made lunch and came back to find that they had tipped over their playhouse and filled it with every toy in the room. They're lucky that Mommy had already had her requisite three cups of coffee when I found them like this........

Kaelin's "uh-oh, busted" face.

Even when they're in trouble they know to smile for the camera...

Playing with Puppets

(Jim Henson exhibit at the History Center)

Hide and Seek this morning

Reesey thinks that she's well hidden if she just closes her eyes....

Many apologies.

I've been bad about updating. I've gotten many complaints (sorry!) .. so I'm back now.
I've been super stressed the past few weeks .. nothing having to do with David or the girls though .. they're perfectly delightful as usual. Others in my life .. not so delightful. BUT .. I am hereby letting go of the drama. Now back to focusing on the things that really matter in the long run. ahhh.

To catch up (at least the few things I can remember at this late date) please excuse the stream of conciousness that follows.

Get comfortable... here goes ...

1. Reese and Kaelin are LOVING school. They are enjoying their classmates and teachers so much. Reese has a hard time when I pick her up at lunchtime because she wants to go with her teacher, Ms. Schenosky (or "Ms. Ossie" as she calls her) instead of me. Thanks kid. They have a music class on Thursdays that they enjoy and every night after brushing their teeth, they each take a turn singing us songs and showing off dances. Pretty cute.

2. Kaelin is begging for dance lessons. She really wants to take ballet .. but I'm looking for a class that incorporates a few different styles. Something tells me her famous "booty shake" might turn some heads in a strict ballet class.

3. This past week, Kaelin started asking me hat are plans were for the day. Whenever I would throw out a suggestion, her immediate response is the same ..

K: Where we going today Mom?
Me: Maybe the mall?
K: Hmm ... Will there be an audience?
Me: An audience? At the mall??
K: Yeah. Is there an audience there?
Me: Um .. I don't think so.
K: Okay .. I don't think I want to do that today Mom.
Me: Well ... what about going to the playground?
K: Yeah! That would be fun! ..... Is there an audience there?
Me: No audience at he playground babe.
K: Oh ... okay. Maybe we not do that.
Me: Okay .. well .. what do you want to do?
K: Maybe we go to the zoo!
Me: Maybe we could do that.
K: Yea! I'll tell Reesey!

(she runs off to tell her sister ... then moments later peeks her head around the corner.)

K: Mom?
Me: Yeah?

K: Is there an audience at the zoo?

sigh. I give up. I need to find out the age requirements for getting this girl on a stage .. pronto.


4. The girls teacher at school commented the other day about how great the girls are doing. She said that she's so proud of how they look after each other .. and at the amount of love they have for each other. They play with others in the class but if one senses that the other needs her for any reason, she'll run right over with words of encouragement or a hug. Of course, I see that here at home .. but it's nice to know that even when they are in a class full of other kids, they've still "got each other's back" so to speak.
She also said that she's impressed by their artistic talents and that they put far more detail into their drawings and paintings than other kids their age.

5. The girls had their first spend the night party at Grandma's on the 14th. David was in New York and I had a party to go to. It went well... up until bedtime. The girls were having too much fun to get to bed on time .. and stayed up until 9:30. By that point they were overtired and the meltdowns followed. Next time we're going to have a loooong talk about manipulating Grandma before they get to hang at Grandma's for the night .......... and maybe a shot of benadryl.

6. The night after that, David came back from NY and I headed up a little bed and breakfast in Dahlonega with my friend Laraleigh. Being the smart Momma that she is, she has arranged with her husband to take a few "Mommy trips" to keep her sanity since she has a house full of three little ones. Of course, her youngest, Julia, is just a few months old so she went too. My baby fever has reached an all time high lately, so I was more than happy to have some baby love! It was a nice getaway .. relaxing and fun even if it was just for one night. I'm now thinking that she definitely has the right idea and us girls (the big ones!) need to plan a few girl weekends here and there.

I've threatened begged asked politely for Laraleigh to let me "borrow" Miss Julia for an overnight visit. Certainly out of purely selfless motives. She's young, has three kids under four, runs her own business, blah blah blah ... so it's just me being a good friend and wanting to help her get a full night's rest for once. I swear it has nothing to do with any sort of plan to do a test run to see how well we fare with another babe in the house ....... nothing to do with trying to entice David with her adorable little face into adding one more kid to the mix ..... nothing to do with any sort of scheme to run away to Mexico with our new baby. Nope. Purely selfless motives. I swear. (Mental note: Look up the spanish equivalent of "You're right .. she doesn't look like us... but she's the spitting image her late Great Grandfather though.")
Somehow I managed to get her to agree to a FEW night over the next two months. I'm giddy.
The girls will have a blast too .. they love Laraleigh (they call her "LaLa" .. so cute) and ALL her kids .. but especially love the baby. (Perhaps because finally someone is more petite than them!) All of their dolls are now named "Baby Julia" and they play house with them every day.

7. The girls are potty trained! No more diapers around here except for sleeping (which should be going soon). We actually gave up diapers the day after the girls and I returned from our trip to stay with Grandaddy in September. It only took about a week and a half and was a super easy transition.
I'm so thankful that I just let them take the lead and let me know when it was time to go for it. I have two close friends that started their kids right at 2 (our kiddos are almost the same age) and they kept getting on me about it "being time" to get the girls started. I wasn't feeling it from the girls but I bought all the stuff .. potties, dvds, books, etc. It wasn't long after we had all the stuff here that I thought .. why am I letting them talk me into something that just doesn't feel right for any of us??
So I scrapped it and ignored the huffs and puffs of those who had kids the same age who were going through the process.

Fast forward a year and their kids were exactly at the same spot the girls were when we started the process in Sept. They had a year of frustrations, messy accidents and tantrums. I listened to them whine about being stuck in the house for weeks on end trying to get their kids on board.
When the girls showed their interest .. I got them panties and it took a weekend to really get them used to it. I'll take that over house arrest and stress any day. I'm so proud of them. (and dare I say, proud of me for following my instincts .. thankyouverymuch.)

8. Another big accomplishment is Kaelin gave up her pacifier. Since birth she has only used it at bedtime but was very attached to it. I stressed BIG time over having to take it away from her ... seriously ... you would have thought that I was trying to figure out a way to take her right arm from her. It was bad.
I started talking to her about giving it up when Baby Julia entered the world. I thought, "Aha! She can be a big girl and give her paci to a baby who needs it! Perfect!" After all the talks I got cold feet and wondered if perhaps she might hold it against Julia for stealing her precious paci from her. Not good. (Hey .. I already admitted that my thinking on this was a mess .. cut me some slack)
Then I remember the fairy house. I started to tell her about the "Paci Fairy". I told her that one night we could hang her paci on a tree outside and the Paci Fairy would come and get her paci .. then take it to a baby who needed it. The fairy would then leave Kaelin a "big girl present" hanging in the tree as thanks. She was all into the story the first time I told it .. then after that she was into it UNTIL I got to the "then the Fairy will take your paci ..." part. "Take my paci?? TAKE it?!?!"
*sigh* I kept at it hough ... all the while searching high and low for the perfect gift that would take her mind off of the missing paci.
IN the end .. all the stress was for naught. One night she went to bed without it .. an oversight on all our parts .. and that was that. No mention of it whatsoever until about 2 weeks later when just before falling asleep she said, "I want my paci" .. I responded with, "I'll look for it in a minute".. knowing full well she would fall asleep and forget all about it.
So, in the end, one day it was there ... the next day it was gone .. and I, nor Julia, nor a fairy had nothing to do with it... it was all her doing.

It seems that it's always the things I stress about the most that are the easiest things to remedy. You would think I would have gotten that through my head by now. Such is.

Artwork

Some of the girls' more recent masterpieces.

Kaelin's "Airplane"

Reese's drawing of "Daddy climbing a mountain with me"

Kaelin's depiction of "Mommy in the morning with crazy hair" (Sadly, she's right on the money with this one. It looks to me like in addition to my fabulous hairstyle, I am also throwing some sort of fit. I plead the fifth on that part. Surely her choice in the using the color red has more to do with my hair color than my early a.m. mood swings... Right?)

Reese's drawing of "Kaelin with pigtails"




and now Ladies and Gentleman.. I present to you further proof of "the obsession". My all time favorite picture of Kaelin's.....

Her rendition of Aunt Katie ... otherwise known as "Hello Boobs."



Brilliant.

Something to think about

Melissa Etheridge says "You Can Forget My Taxes"