Mother's Day

I had such a nice Mother's Day. I spent the day with my family at my mom and dad's house. My cousin and his wife and their kids were there along with my aunt and uncle. It was such a nice way to spend the day. We went to church with my parents in the morning and then went back to their house for a barbeque.

Hubby gave me my present the night before because he knew we would be gone all day. I got a Smash book!!! If you don't know what one is, they are awesome! They are like scrabooks and journals "smashed" together lol Smash Book. I saw them awhile ago at JoAnn's and have been wanting one ever since. I saw them again at Target (for cheaper than JoAnn's) I love it so much!! I've been having so much fun with mine. Hubby got me a regular sized one and a mini one. I've already got the regular sized one 75% filled lol.


This is my book (as you can see I'm already filling it in)

 The pen! One side is a pen and one side is a glue stick!!! How awesome is that!

 Smash Pads. These are little pads of paper with ideas on certain themes.

Examples of some of the pads.

 Pockets you can buy to glue in the book to keep stuff you don't want to put glue on

 another page from my book

 Tabs and clips

 The pages are all pretty and some have ideas on them as well. Some of the ideas I use some I cover up with other stuff. LOL

I love these books so much and I already know I'm gonna have to buy another one soon.  I really do have the best hubby in the whole world. I am so grateful to be his wife and to be the mother to his children. I couldn't have asked for a better husband.

Help!!!

How do I get them out of my bed?! They all go to sleep in their own rooms. (Well, Ben in one room, Will and Ellie in the other.) They all have the same bedtime routine:

Bath(or shower)
Teeth brushed
Potty
Drink
Story
Song
Prayer
Then Mommy or Daddy leave the room and they fall asleep on their owns. Everything is great until about 2 in the morning. They are like ninja's. Some nights we have no idea when they come in our room until the inevitable happens - they get too hot and want to sleep in between us on TOP of the blankets, meaning we dont get any blankets. or they start squirming and kicking and wanting to sleep on top of mommy.

We have a queen sized bed which is WAY to small for two overweight (but working on it!! :) ) adults, a 6 year old who hates covers, a 4 year old who loves sleeping at the middle of the bed - usually in between my knees with his head on my thigh, and a 4 year old who has to sleep on the edge of the bed but you have to hold her so she doesn't feel like she's falling off.

I'm tired People!!! I don't get enough sleep because of the circus in my bed and neither does Jim which makes him grumpy. That in turn puts me in a bad mood.

They have always slept in their own rooms. (Well Ben shared our room when the twins were born but he had his own area). Come to think of it that's around the time he started coming into our bed. He was about 2. The twins didn't start coming to our bed until they were about 3. Its not because of nightmares or bad dreams or anything like that, they just wake up and waltz on into our room.

Help!!! Any ideas, suggestions, therapy, etc, would be greatly appreciated!!! I want my bed back!!

(Disclaimer - I have no issue with people who choose to cosleep. It can be a wonderful thing and if it is what works for your family - more power to you. This is not working for our family.)

Getting Healthy

About a month ago Jim told me he has been having chest pains. He said one night it woke him up in the middle of the night and it felt like someone was sitting on his chest. Understandably I freaked out. We got him an appointment with our PP to see what she had to say.
He went for his appointment and his blood pressure was 145/110 (Normal is 120/80) Needless to say they were worried too. They did a resting EKG and the results came back normal but she wanted him to go to a cardiologist anyway.
He kind of put off calling the cardiologist. Until he talked to his dad one Saturday (who had a heart attack at 57) his dad told him that His dad (Jim's Grandpa) died of a heart attack at 54 and both of his grandparents on Jim's mom's side died of heart attacks. His dad said "You are calling the cardiologist on Monday" So Jim did (thank you Dad!) They got him right in that same week.
The doctor said he had a textbook cast of CAD. He scheduled Jim for a Stress Test and told him if that came back abnormal they would do an angiogram. Of course at this point I freak out even more. The doctor told Jim to take one aspirin a day and put him on two blood pressure medications. On top of that he has to cut out all energy drinks, caffeine and limit himself to one drink a day.
They did the Stress test last week and thankfully everything came back normal. His blood pressure is closer to the normal range now as well. He has to go back to the cardiologist in three months to recheck everything.
He also got the results of his cholesterol test. His LDL which is supposed to be between 70-100 was 140 so he's on cholesterol meds now too.
Needless to say we've been forced decided to make some lifestyle changes. We've both joined Weight Watchers and are working on losing weight and eating better.

If you've been following me for a while you will know I did WW 3 years ago My abandoned WW blog and was very successful at it. From my highest weight (the day I delivered the twins) at 282, I was able to drop 101 lbs. My lowest weight was 181 in Oct of 2009. Unfortunately I didn't go into it with exactly the correct frame of mind. I kept telling myself when I got down to my goal weight I'd be able to eat whatever I wanted again. WRONG!!! I needed to actually make a lifestyle change and change the way I looked at food completely. Not "until I got to my goal weight" My goal weight was around 170 I believe so I got close but I plateaued and instead of kicking it into high gear I started slacking. Then I just couldn't get myself back into it. I weighed in on Monday at 220.6lbs.(OMG!! How did that happen? Nevermind, I know how it happened)

We've been faithfully doing WW for two days now (Hey, it's something) and as of this morning I'm down to 219.0! Doesn't sound like much but I'm excited - it's 1 1/2 lbs in two days. Jim's going to pick up a treadmill tonight so we both can start doing that.

Here's to getting healthy and fit!!!

Does it get easier?

One of my main questions when the twins were born was always "Does it get easier?" I remember people would stop me when I was out with all of the kids and they would say "I have twins too! But mine are XX age now" I would always ask them my most pressing question (especially when the twins were under a year) "Does it ever get easier?" They would always give me that knowing look and say "it gets easier in some ways and harder in others"

You know what? They were right. I have to say that first year was the hardest. When the twins were babies it took everything out of me just to make it through each day. Especially with Will's reflux. When he had a bad day I wasn't sure how I was going to survive. Lack of sleep, three kids needing their mom, a house that needed cleaning, a husband working two jobs, hoping to shower at least every once in awhile, etc. Saying it was hard is an understatement.

Years two and three were easier but hard in their own ways. Terrible twos x two was not fun. Potty training x two - an adventure (although Ellie only took about a week. Will still has issues at times)

The twins are now 4 and Ben is 6. I have to say it really is a lot easier now. We still have temper tantrums and learning to share issues. But over all I have to say IT DOES GET EASIER!!!

They are now (not that they weren't always) very opinionated. Now they can voice them and they do - Loudly at times. But they are so much fun! It's been awesome to see their personalities develop. All three of them are so different. They all have a great sense of humor and make me laugh every day. I love how much they love each other. With three there does seem to be one left out alot of the time. Usually it's Will but he's pretty content to play with his Thomas Trains alone. He loves trains and waterfalls.  Ben and Ellie are usually off playing Avengers. (She is quite the tomboy. She HATES all things girly and is convinced she is someday going to marry Captain America lol) Ben is in first grade and loves Math and science. He doesn't love writing but likes to read.

If I could give a new twin parent any advice it would be

• Remember this too shall pass. The first year is hard.
• Recruit as much help as possible.
• Find time for yourself to rejuvinate you. It will benefit your children as much as yourself.
• You are not alone in this.
• Dont try to do it all.
• Take as many pictures as you can - the time really does fly quickly and you will forget how tiny they used to be.
• Hug your babies often.
• Encourage your children to grow up to be whatever THEY want to be. Not whatever YOU want them to be. Everyone will be much happier.

I am no way an expert on raising twins but I did survive the first four years and you will too!!

New blog

I'm sorry I've been MIA lately. I have recently fell in love with/been learning about photography and I've started a blog about it. I can barely keep up with one blog let alone two so this one will probably go on hiatus for a little while.

But please come see me over at Cheekie Monkey Photography. I'd to have some followers and please feel free to comment!!

More than Dryer lint

Things I have recently found in my dryer:

• GoGo's
• rocks
• Chap stick (unfortunately on more than one occasion)
• a SD memory card
• a couple of Squinkies
• rocks
• a box cutter
• coins (on the rare occasion)
• dollars (on the even *rarer occasion) 
• rocks
• keys
• a ball point pen
• a small notepad
• more rocks
• an orange crayon. Or at least what was left of one.

Apparently I need to go through pockets more often.

Pretending

I'm going to start off by saying this post is going to be a lot of rambling. I just have to get these thoughts out of my head and I figured this was the perfect place to throw them.

For as long as I can remember I have always felt out of place. I don't really have a place that I fit in. Now days its the grownup world that I don't feel like I fit into. I still feel like I'm 17 and now I'm just pretending to be an adult. Sometimes I worry that someone is going to show up and call my bluff.

I feel like a kid in adults clothing. Pretending to be something I'm not. It's weird to be 33 (which I can never remember. It always takes me a little while to figure out how old I really am) but still feel like I'm 17. I keep wondering when that grownup feeling will kick in.

I have 3 kids. I've bought 2 homes and sold 1. I've 7 owned cars. I pay bills pretty responsibly. I've been married for going on 11 years now. I'm technically an adult. So when do I start feeling like one?