Saturday, April 24, 2010

Plans to look forward to

Saturdays have a way of filling up fast at our house. Each week we talk about what we want to do on the quickly approaching Saturday, and by the time the day finally gets here we have to pick between many things. I like it this way.

Today Emily has soccer pictures, and then her soccer game. After her game, we're heading out to the Sparkleberry Fair. I'm not sure what to expect, as I've never gone, but Emily and Scott went last year and Emily is totally looking forward to going again. Last year I was as big as a house and on bed rest. They went without me, and while I was certainly grateful for Em to have some alone time with her daddy, I remember being bummed that I was by myself and couldn't go.

That said, I'm sure we'll have a great time today.

Oh, and next Saturday is another big event: The twins' FIRST BIRTHDAY! Can't wait! My mom flies in on Friday morning, and we haven't mentioned it to Emily. Our plan is for me to drop Em off at preschool and then pick up my mom from the Columbia airport. Then when I go to pick up Emily my mom will be in the back seat to surprise her! Sounds like fun, right? Just ask my mom how many times she's almost blown it while talking to Emily on the phone! :)

UPDATE:
No sooner than five minutes after I clicked "publish post," it started to rain. No joke. I guess that's why its good to have many potential plans for a Saturday. Oh well. And I also forgot to mention that this Saturday morning was especially fabulous because Scott got up with the twins at their 6 am wake up time, and when I woke up an hour and a half later, I came downstairs to coffee, pancakes, bacon and eggs. Now that is what I call a good husband with a fabulous plan!

Friday, April 23, 2010

Remember this book?



A few months back, Katie posted about a great book that allowed her to enjoy fresh bread every day. You can re-visit her post here. I thought this sounded like a wonderful book, but wanted to check it out from the library to make sure I would use it before making the purchase. Well, apparently the book is very popular because I was put on a huge waiting list. Finally it was my turn, and Scott picked it up from the library for me on the way home from work yesterday.

I tried my first recipe this morning, and will let it rise and chill all afternoon before baking the first loaf this evening. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Katie- Are there any "must bake" recipes that you and John love most?

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Mornings at our house

On preschool mornings we are forced to follow a rather rigid schedule in order to get Emily to school on time. Basically the schedule starts at 6 a.m. and doesn't stop until we're out the door at 8:30. Its the only way to get everybody changed, fed, dressed, and not leave the house in a tornado!

However, Tuesday and Thursdays are non-preschool mornings and I enjoy these mornings very much. Here is a brief insight to how our home looks as my three kiddos enjoy each playing with each other.







Notice that Elsie is in the play room while Eli is in the kitchen. If he makes enough noise, she becomes interested and leans over as far as she can to see what he's up to. She still has very little motivation to crawl as nothing he does is quite THAT interesting!

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Twins update

I haven't posted updates in awhile regarding what the twins are up to these days. I figured it was high time.

I will start with Eli:
- He is ever increasingly aware of his sister... what she is doing, what she wants to play with. On more than one occasion I have watched him stop what he was doing to just sit and watch her. Sometimes when she does something he thinks is funny, he will giggle and smile as he watches. I'm pretty sure this means he loves her very much, which overflows my heart with joy.
- He crawls. and crawls. and crawls. I keep thinking that all this chasing around should make me skinny. He certainly keeps me on my toes! He often crawls over to where I am am pulls on my legs, whining, until I pick him up.
- He is also pulling himself to standing. Whoa. Not quite cruising yet, but its sure to follow for sure!
- Eli loves the front storm door. With the weather being so gorgeous, we often have the front door open to see out through the storm door. Eli loves to walk over to it, pull himself to standing, and bang while he watches the goings on outdoors. The door sometimes doesn't close all the way, which presents a hazard. One day last week I was walking through the living room and saw him sitting on the welcome map on the front porch, looking at me through the storm door with a big proud smile. Needless to say I was scared out of my mind. We now keep the storm door locked.
- He loves outdoors. Anything outdoors is his favorite.
- Eli (and Elsie too) pretty much thinks Emily is the coolest kid on the block. There is nothing that she does that isn't fascinating. They both look at her in awe as she sings, reads, or plays with them. In their eyes, Emily was born first to be the provider of entertainment.

Cute Eli story: While on the beach Elsie and Eli were getting tired, so I put them in our little beach sun hut so they could sleep. Eli wasn't having it, so he sat up and watched me as I patted Elsie's back. Elsie was very tired, and just stayed laying on her tummy. After awhile of patting her back, Eli reached out and gently began patting Elsie's back too. It was simply precious!

Elsie is next:
- Elsie is the most social baby I have ever met. No clue where a child of mine could be so social?!? :) For example, last week we were at the grocery store and I had one of the big carts that has room for two babies to sit in. (LOVE that about Kroger!) I was looking at cereal, all the sudden this lady down the aisle started laughing out loud. She told me that Elsie smiled really big, and craned her neck until the lady caught her eye. When the lady smiled back, Elsie waved her little hand. So cute to see this little girl bring joy to people she doesn't even know. Reminds me so much of Emily!
- She loves to eat! I pretty much give everything we're eating to the babies now, with exceptions for high allergy foods of course. Elsie puts food in her mouth and literally savors her favorite foods. She loves cottage cheese, and rigatoni. She eats all sorts of vegetables with green peas being her favorite. We all love to watch her eat.
-She doesn't move. She literally sits in the same spot until I pick up. She doesn't like to lay on the ground, she like to sit, and that's what she does. She plays with the toys around her, and can reach forward, bending almost in half to reach things in front of her. But no toy is motivating enough to actually try and crawl. She is just too content to sit.
- Elsie's hair in completely out of control. It stands up all over, and the top is much longer than the back and sides, which creates this massive tuft of hair that blows in the wind. And she LOVES when her hair blows in the wind which makes her a huge fan of the ceiling fan!
-Elsie is still very fascinated with textures. Her favorite books are those with different parts to touch and feel. However, she absolutely abhors the grass. Touching the grass is awful, and she throws a massive fit if just one of her toes touches the stuff.
- She is my morning girl. She wakes with a happy grin on her face the moment she wakes. I'm sure she will grow up to annoy her college roommates with her 6 a.m. zest for life, just like I did to my college roommates.

Cute Elsie story: We went to this obnoxious tourist restaurant while on vacation (there is seriously a whole other post that needs to come regarding this restaurant). It was a buffet, so I tried to find things the babies could eat. I brought back a plate and cut up some rigatoni for Elsie and Eli. Elsie thought it was the most splendid food ever! She loved the ricotta cheese. But Eli didn't really care for it as much, and began tossing some of his food on the floor. Elsie didn't mind when he was tossing the green beans on the floor, but every time he tossed a piece of her beloved rigatoni on the floor, she would whine and whimper at the tragedy. She kept looking at me to make it stop, and got upset at Eli for wasting such a yummy item. I couldn't help but laugh!

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Myrtle Beach

Hi friends! Yes, we're still here, and no nothing is wrong. I guess I just let blogging get away from me for a few weeks. Have we been busy? Yes. But hasn't everybody? No excuse really. But I will try to update some of favorite things about the past few weeks by blogging every day this week to catch up!

But first of all, I have to tell you about our fabulous trip to Myrtle Beach. While we've been in South Carolina almost five years, we've never been to Myrtle. I guess we're such big fans of Charleston and Edisto Island that we never consider spending our time in Myrtle. However, Scott went to a conference there last fall and he said he thought the kids would love it. We were gone for three days, which was plenty enough time. It was the perfect chance for us to spend time on our family, just connecting and loving on our kids. Simply perfect!

(before I go any farther, I must admit that I have more than a couple loads of laundry waiting for me, a dishwasher to unload, and a hungry husband. Can you say... procrastination? But I was just so excited to share the pictures from our trip!)

Here are some of my favorites from the day we spent out on the beach. Notice the pictures of the twins before the water touched them, and after. They liked to sit and watch the water more than they liked being wet!
















And I have a funny Emily story that must be told:
Emily came running up to us saying she needed to to pee. Scott explained that she should just pee in the ocean, to which Emily responded, "Seriously?" So off she went, only to return a minute later. "But everybody will see me going potty! That's just ridiculous!" she said. Scott told her to just sit down in the sand in the water, and nobody would ever know. So off she went. She returned one more time, told us we were ridiculous, and then went out for a final time.



I guess Scott and I were busy giving crackers to the babies, because all of the sudden I look up to find Emily, and I see her pulling off her swim suit, right there in the ocean!?! I RUN towards her, yelling at her to stop. She took one look at me, and knowingly said, "I told you this was ridiculous!"

I still don't think she understands that we meant to leave the swim suit on, but whatever. The damage was done. I am still giggling about it!





Lots of fun times on this trip. And I feel so lucky to have three kids who travel as easily as these three! Emily has always been an awesome traveler (did she have a choice?) but to have twins who sleep so well in a hotel and act so well at restaurants is truly a blessing. More than one person told us they would have waited a few years before going on vacation with little ones, but we just shrugged it off and remembered to be thankful for their good car behavior, sleeping habits, and eating routines. Now I guess I just have to get that laundry done, and figure out what we're eating for dinner!

Oh, and the new picture on the top of the blog was taken after breakfast one morning. With early risers like ours, breakfast is before seven. We'd go down to the awesome hotel breakfast, and then take a stroll with the kids still in their jammies. It was a fun way to start the day!