Karate Kid(s)

Class Movie

This is the movie that I made for the teachers and parents for the last day of school.

Unfortunately, this is the best quality that I can upload at the moment. Youtube is giving me grief over the copyrighted songs contained within. Not. Happy.
I'm working on figuring out a way to fix the size and resolution .. but in the meantime ....

Scaling the video to full screen really screws up the quality .. so, for the time being, it's best played "as is".

Halloween

It took me HOURS to make Kaelin's costume .. and she didn't seem too thrilled with the process along the way. Thankfully, once she put it on, she was very happy with it.
Both of thegirls kept changing their minds on what they wanted to be for Halloween, so once they settled on a monster and a frog, I had no choice but to make them. Luckily, I found Reese's frog costume at the craft store while buying feathers for Kaelin's costume. I tried to convince Reese to let me add a crown and a tutu to hers in order to make her "Princess Charming" but she would have none of it. *sigh*
They went trick or treating with their best friends Olivia and Bella and didn't seem to notice that it was raining a bit along the way. Luckily, they're still at the age where Mommy and Daddy can steal all of their candy stash and they're none the wiser for it.

Dragonfly

We have lots of dragonflies outside right now. Not sure why they're all congregating in our backyard, but the girls love chasing them.

Reese channels Mr. Miyagi

The other night we ordered in some Chinese.
Once the girls were finished eating, they opened up their fortune cookies.
Reese handed me her slip of paper and asked what it said. Of course, I told her that it said something along the lines of, "little girls should always listen to their Mom and Dad .. clean up their messes .. sleep in late .." blahblahblah.

She wasn't buying it.

I gave it back to her .. "Fine .. YOU read it."
She looked at it for a second and then started to "read"..

"It says .... If you're a bear .... be a bear!"

I read the actual fortune after she said that ..

"Depart not from the path which fate has you assigned."

Nailed it.
Nice of her to dumb it down for us common folk though.


Apparently we have much to learn from our little sensei.

Birthday Party Video

FINALLY got finished with putting these clips together. It's not the best quality (it looks ridiculously choppy on my computer .. hoping it's this horrid laptop and that it's not a huge problem for others.) ..
and it has a lot of little issues that drive me insane to look at .. buuut ...
it's the best I can do right now.

Working on an old spare laptop right now since my Mac died on me. Not much power on here .. and no great editing software either. I had one heck of a time just throwing together a few clips.
Once I'm back to a computer that will cooperate more, I'll be re-editing and finishing it up.

In the meantime ...
(If it seems choppy, you can try it on YouTube's site .. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2eqDhmSMhA )

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Kaelin has some mad skillz on the dance floor.


Pray for us ... one day she'll be 13.


Reesey at the Waterfall.

We added a new pet to the fold ..

... for two days. I'm not a big fan of capturing creatures .. however, when we came across this little guy it seemed like perfect revenge for two flies that had gotten into the house and were slowly driving me crazy.
We made him a little home and watched with glee as he gobbled those pesky flies up.
Once he was fattened up (and we no longer heard any buzzing noises around the house), we released him in the backyard.

pics and movies soon ..

4th birthday party was a blast! I'm trying to get stuff on the blog .. but progress is being hampered by the fact that I'm working on a spare computer right now. My laptop died .. iPhoto has inexplicably disappeared from this spare .. and I can't find iMovie on here either.
Sooooo .. trying to figure out a way to make it all happen ..
Hopefully tomorrow I'll come up with a solution (because the videos of our little "Rock Stars" dancing are hysterical)!


My babies are 4.

*sniff*

Kaelin's Birthday Photos

Reese's coming soon!

Coming soon ..

Once I'm done planning the girls' birthday party, I'll update with recent pics and stories ..

In the meantime ...

(in the bottom pics, Kaelin decided to wear her teddy bear's glasses one day to be like Reese. The other pics are from the last couple of months .. the only ones that I have access to at the moment thanks to my laptop dying. Cooper and Layne are in a few.)

(click to enlarge)

K & R's First Sleepover!

Cousin Cooper came over tonight for a "spend-the-night-party" with the girls. The girls were BEYOND excited about it. In the morning they all go to camp together so I got off easy!
As Kaelin was falling asleep, she asked if we could do it every night.

Ummm ...
I'm thinking one night with triplets is enough for me. At least for THIS week!

They're pretty darn cute ...

Our Summer so far ... in pictures ...

Big Girl Bikes!



Playing in the sprinkler and swimming at the pool..





Playgrounds ..

Camp with Cooper ..


Trips to get ice cream after dinner ..


Having so much fun that you pass out mid-cupcake...


Learning how to master honeysuckle flowers ..


Catching frogs in the woods with Mommy and Auntie Em ..




Catching worms ..


Giving Mommy pedicures ..


Again .. having so much fun that you just can't help but pass out ...

my little fairies

Kaelin requested that I turn her into a fairy. It came out of nowhere .. she was very insistent .. she was also exhausted...
Add all of that up and you get one big meltdown over the fact that Mommy refuses to shrink you down a couple of feet and give you wings.

Mean Mommy.

Anyhoo .. she got over it and my ears have stopped ringing .. so I guess we're all good.
Decided to throw this together as a consolation prize for K being stuck with us mortals.
She was very excited.






(So much to write about ... I'll get to it soon..
It's been crazy around here the past couple of weeks. Things are settling down now, so it should get easier to keep the updates rolling in.)

busted.

Reese just had an epiphany.

As David was vacuuming up some dirt he tracked in earlier, Reese started excitedly declaring, "somebody's coming!! somebody's coming .. somebody'scomingsomebody'scooooming!!!"

Hmm ... not sure if I should laugh or feel guilty ... or perhaps just hire a maid.

Kaelin is a rock star.

The girls and I headed over to Robert and Monica's house tonight for Robert's birthday. (What?? People don't take three year olds to celebrate someone's 33rd birthday?? Whatever.)
The girls had a blast and we stayed out way past bedtime. I followed their lead though .. they were going strong until about 10pm.
I've always called the girls rock stars when they hang with the "big kids"... and they've been throwing up the 'rock on' sign for years.

Driving home I once again praised their rock star status. They were in the back, two fingers in the air, shouting, "Rock on!" for about 6 minutes.
After that they crashed.

We got home ... I carried them both upstairs.
Reese was out cold, but Kaelin woke briefly as I put her in bed.

As I was leaving the room, I said, "night babe .. see you in the morning."
No response.
I started to close the door .. peeked one last time .. and then I saw it.
Kaelin's arm slowly rising up in the darkness.

There it was .. the rock on hand.

Awesome.

SOMEONE is trying to give me a heart attack.

Apparently one of the girls has Mommy's sense of humor. Not so funny when it's used against me.

First .. a little background ..
The other day, I mentioned to the girls that I'm a tad freaked out by one of their dolls. It kept showing up in different rooms .. always seemed like it was staring at me .. and after a while, the look on it's face seemed to be a smug little warning. "Just wait until we're alone lady.. no one will hear you scream."

I grew up on 80's slasher flicks .. what can I say.

Anyhoo .. Thursday morning I took the girls to school and then came home to make my shopping lists. I was sitting in the family room when all of a sudden I got that creepy "I'm not alone" feeling.
I look up and what do I see sitting on the living room table??

Yep .. psycho killer doll.
(Reading a book, no less ... which totally substantiates my "it comes alive at night" theory.)

I don't know which one did it .. but one of them is in trouble.

Our Easter Egg Hunt

(a little late ..)

We had such a horrible experience last Easter with the egg hunt at Chastain ... so this year we decided to wait a week and have K & R's best friends over for our own little throw down. (Can't beat the after Easter Clearance prices .. perhaps we'll shift all major holidays a week forward in order to cheat the system!)
The girlies had a blast ... and all went well ....

until ....

Two days after the gathering I got a call from Laraleigh. She was sick ...
then it hit her middle one ...
then .....
Stephanie .. (one day before her scheduled c-section!)..
and her little girl, Bella..
LL's sister-in-law
her little boy, Max ..
and then, poor Cooper got it too.

ick.

NO idea what it was that ran through the group .. but only our house and Autumn's house were spared...

until ....

David got it too.
Poor guy .. he wasn't even at the playgroup!
I haven't the slightest why the girls didn't get sick... especially when you consider that whatever made it's way through all the houses must have been left all over the toys here (and Daddy too apparently!)
Thank goodness .. sick twins are not easy!

So .. it was good while it lasted.

I think we may just skip Easter altogether in the coming years.
eesh.


(If you haven't already figured it out ... you can click on each picture to view it larger)





Cooper is apparently unimpressed with my filler selection ...


Going through their baskets ...


Reesey doesn't know what happened to Luceas' chocolate .. (notice the overstuffed cheeks.. uh huh.)

It's when they flash these smiles...

.. that I reconsider having myself committed every day.
Yum.

Lesson of the day.

The ONE time you accidentally use the word "butt" instead of "bootie" while talking to your kids...
(as in, "Listen kid, when I said, "sit down" I meant on your bootie ... not on your head!")
... make sure it isn't while you're at the library.

Rest assured that those little ears that never seem to hear ANYTHING else you say ... well, they'll hear this... and it will amuse them to no end.

Next thing you know, the quiet tranquility of the library will be interrupted by the repetitious sing-song,
"butt butt butt buttbuttbuttbuttBUUUUTTTTTT!"

times two.


*sigh

Baby Julia

(I was just reminded that I forgot to update .. whoops.)

Thanks to everyone who sent P & PTs to the little Miss and her family.
She's out of the hospital and is doing great!
Better than great actually .. Looking at her now, you would never guess that she's been sick since the beginning of the year. Perfection.
After all those tests coming back negative, the Doctors finally decided to just treat her symptoms as a bad case of asthma. (I would have thought that something like asthma would have been brought up earlier .. but hey, I didn't spend all those years in med school ..)
Lo and behold .. it worked! She's finally back to breathing normally. No symptoms lingering .. jus a healthy, happy, perfect little girl.
Finally!



ETA: Nope .. not asthma. LL is waiting to hear from an immunologist now.

Kaelin's Boyfriend

As many of you know, Kaelin is in love with a little boy in her class. In LOVE.
She talks about him incessantly .. calls him her "boyfriend" .. makes up songs about him .. giggles or blushes when someone brings up his name.
The other day after getting dressed for school she went to the mirror, stroked her dress and said, "Shyan is going to looove this dress. He's the cutest boy I ever saw."
I don't know where she gets it from (Okay, okay .. no comments on that one. I get it .. but she's THREE!! I expected the swooning and dramatics when she hit puberty .. but at THREE?!? eesh.)
Anyhoo .. it's pretty darn cute. Her comments are laced with long sighs, head tilts, goofy grins, and dreamy eyes.
I'm starting to think a little Romeo and Juliet at bedtime is in order.

Spring Party .. working on an art project..


Kaelin's reaction to Shyan wanting to finish his picture instead of joining her on the floor for story time. ha.



While we're on the subject of Kaelin's boy-crazy antics ..
I took the girls to a Birthday Party a couple of weeks ago. The kids were sitting at a table waiting for cake and I caught Kaelin slowly scanning the room.
Her eyes stopped on one of the Dads .. and she stared him down.
When he finally turned to look at her she tilted her head, winked at him, and then turned back around.
The adults that caught that little inappropriate display were quiet for a few seconds and then burst out laughing.

Good Lord .. we're in serious trouble when she becomes a teenager.

Prayers and Positive thoughts needed again..

Laraleigh's littlest one is back at Scottish Rite for the THIRD time.
Julia first became sick at the beginning of January. Yes, the poor little babe has been sick for THAT long.
It's hard to imagine.
This time the Doctor's have become determined to figure out once and for all what's behind all of her extreme respiratory symptoms before sending her home again. ('bout damn time if you ask me)

Tomorrow she is scheduled for two tests ... The first being an echocardiogram to look and see if her Patent Ductus Arteriosis has opened back up. ( Simplest terms ... there's a hole in the heart that does not allow blood to travel through the lungs. ) If this shows an opening, it will mean immediate surgery.

The second is a sweat test for Cystic Fibrosis.

They have put a rush on the results and should have those answers by the afternoon.

If all comes back negative on those, the doctors will move on to a swallow study to check for aspiration of food into her lungs. After that will be a brachioscopy to take a good, hard look at the lungs and see is they can find anything that the other tests have missed.
The last test scheduled thus far will be a spinal tap to check for meningitis.

At this point, we're not quite sure what to be hoping for.
All of the "easy stuff" seems to have been ruled out. Hoping/wishing/praying every day that they somehow overlooked a simple cause for all of her symptoms... and that they can resolve her issues with minimal effort.

Please send all you've got to this sweet little girl... prayers/postive thoughts/healing energy/healthy baby vibes .. anything and everything will be truly appreciated.

Kaelin 03-26-09

I'm going to try and get some good updated shots of the girls tomorrow (if the weather permits). Reese has decided to be the "class clown" lately so I'm not getting anything fabulous out of her. Unless you consider pics like this one fabulous ...


sheesh.

First trip to the Dentist

The girlies had their first Dentist appointment last week. They were so excited and did great. Reese was a tad apprehensive once we got in the room, but the second she saw that the chair went up and down she exclaimed, "Rocket Chair!" and tried to talk Kaelin out of going first.
Dr. Roberts said that their teeth are perfect .. phew!
After paying a ridiculous amount of money for an easy 30 minute visit, I'm thinking that next time I'll have the girls scream obnoxiously the entire time... just to make the dentist work a little harder for it.

Kaelin, patiently waiting to be called back.

Reese playing in the waiting room

Kaelin is the first in the chair

Everything looks good!

Reesey's turn in the "rocket chair"

Picking out a prize after the appointment. (Once we got home, Reese pulled three extra prizes out of her pockets. whoops. )