Friday Favorites-Busy Week!

It's Friday and I'm sharing a few favorites from our week!  We've had a BUSY week and we're trying to cram everything in before we go back to school in two weeks.  I declared today a PJ and movie day because it's gloomy out and I'm tired from the week!  Here's a look back at all the fun things we did...

1. We went to the county fair that I grew up going to!  It's actually the county my mom grew up in and I always went there as a kid so now my mom and I take the girls every year!

 

They enjoyed seeing all the animals!

 

Petting goats was a favorite!

2. We had a playdate with one of our daycare friends!  She will be two in a few months and is closest in age to the girls at daycare.  We went to a trampoline park and the girls were SO excited to see each other!  They started laughing, running around in circles, and hugging when they saw each other!  Trampolines are a favorite here and we love going to the trampoline park!

 

When you're stuck in the bubble pit, you gotta help a sister out!  Natalie thought it was funny to grab Noelle and try to drag her out.

 

3. More animals!  We had a girls day with Nana and Aunt Chessie.  We went to a little kids farm near us where we got to slide, pet animals, feed goats, ride a hayride and ride ponies!

 

Hay ride time!

 

Noelle & Natalie 

 

I really wanted to bring this one home...he was so little and cute!

 

Waving to their adoring fans

 

The farm had several rides and one of them was a pony ride.  I asked the girls if they wanted to ride the pony, thinking they'd say no.  They watched another little girl ride the pony and Noelle said no but Natalie said yes!  I was surprised but we went into the pen and she was lifted onto the pony.  I thought for sure she'd start crying and want down immediately but nope!  She rode that pony like she was meant for the saddle!  Doesn't she look like she's on an adventure with her backpack and sunglasses?!  I walked next to her but she really didn't need me to.  She LOVED it!  Noelle still didn't want to ride but I'm so proud of Natalie for trying it!

 

Cowgirl in the making.  I sent Ben this picture and he said, "oh no, the horse craze is starting!"

4.  My last favorite for today is finishing a big and fun vinyl project for a friend!  I have a Silhouette Cameo printer and it does soooooo many cool things.  Right now I mainly cut vinyl with it and make different projects.  I'm currently working on Christmas gifts (insert pat on the back here!) and I have a long list of things I want to try with it, including glass etching!

About 3 weeks ago one of my friends asked me if I would make some glasses for her and her fiance to ask their friends to be in their wedding party.  I made a total of 33 glasses (not all for the wedding party, some are for other people and I threw a few fun ones in for them) and there are a few more things I'm going to make for them to complete it once the items get here.  I had so much fun doing it and I don't know anyone does this as a business because it is hard!  To get the placement right, the fonts, all of it!  I had fun doing it for her though!

 

Happy Friday y'all!  Enjoy your weekend!

 

 

Friday Favorites-I'm Back!

Hey y'all, I'm back!  It was a nice break but I actually did miss blogging!  So I'm back and here to stay for the meantime at least.  Today I thought I'd link up with one of my favorite bloggers, Andrea over at Momfessionals and share a few Friday Favorites!

1. Blogging - Ok, so I did miss it which surprised me.  I thought my little hiatus would be nice and refreshing, which it was, but my mind kept going back to my blog, especially when I read other blogs.  So I'm back but I'm giving myself grace to not post EVERY. SINGLE. THING. we do as a family.  In the past, especially since the girls were born, I felt like I needed to document every single thing we did together so that one day we could look back and enjoy the memories but that also made it stressful, especially since I was always late in blogging about it.  So I'm giving myself grace to post when I want about what I want, do more link-ups, share some recipes, etc. and just enjoy blogging for what it is.

2. Summer -  we LOVE summer around here!  I'm trying not to think about how there are only 3 weeks left until I go back to work :( and just trying to enjoy these last few weeks together.  I'm pretty sure we're going to have to practice waking up at 6:30am and not watching Mickey in the morning the week before the girls go back to Ms. Sara!  They love Mickey and we've gotten into the bad habit of watching a few episodes in the morning while they eat breakfast and I get some stuff done around the house.  They're also used to sleeping in till 7:30-8am so we have some work to do!

This summer we've had swim lessons, Mommy & Me gymnastics camp, ice cream, beach time (we only made it once this year, boo-hoo!), putting together a playset, landscaping around some trees (which is really hard when it feels like over 100!), and more!  We went to Dutch Wonderland, a little kiddie theme park in PA, for two days and sadly the girls did not enjoy the rides.  They weren't brave enough to try a ride on their own and while there are several family rides there, many of them are too tall for the girls so I think we went on about 5 rides and the water park the two days we were there.  I really hope they didn't inherit their dad's "I hate rides" gene!

3. Letter Boards - So I've been seeing these pop up on Instangram, Facebook, etc. and really wanted one!!!  I used an Amazon giftcard to buy one and made Ben hang it up right away.  Look how cute it is?!  I'm envisioning fun quotes, Christmas countdowns, birthday messages, and more.

Happy Friday everyone!  Enjoy the weekend!

Friday Favorites: One year ago today...

 I only have one Friday Favorite to share today!  Linking up with my wanna-be friends Andrea, Narci, and Erika!  One year ago today we went to our doctor's appointment to find out the gender of our baby!  We were going to have the technician seal it in an envelope and reveal it at a gender reveal party two days later.  While we were walking into the appointment, I jokingly told Ben, "Well, I guess this is our last chance to find out if there are twins!"  He replied, "That's not funny!"  See, the entire pregnancy so far I kept feeling like there were two babies in there.  Two sonogram appointments and one heartbeat appointment showed that there was only one, healthy baby, so I thought my mother's intuition was waaayyy off.  About 30 minutes later, we found out that my intuition was correct!  We were expecting identical twins!  And a few days later, we found out they were identical twin girls.  You can read more about our gender reveal party here.


Since we knew we had a BIG secret to share, I set up a camera to video tape the audience's reaction and asked one of my best friends to video tape us with the video camera.  I finally put both of them together in a little video to share.  I tried to put the video right on here from YouTube but it kept telling me it was private, which it's not!  So click Gender Reveal Party to see it.

 

7 weeks...only one baby (I asked a nurse about the second shady blob after we knew there were two, and she said that was something else, not the second baby, because they weren't close enough together)

 

11 weeks...still only one baby...

15 weeks we had a heartbeat appointment and only one heart beat was heard...

 

19.5 weeks...and BAM!  Then there were two :) This is the first picture of our little aliens together.  Noelle (Baby A) is on the left, Natalie (Baby B) is on the right.

 

Natalie on top, Noelle's head on the bottom.

This is definitely a day I'll never forget.  Happy Friday!

Five for Friday!: July 31st Edition

Happy Friday!  I'm back to link up with Andrea, Narci, and Erika for my Friday Favorites!

 

1. Our family time that we had in Tampa last week!  The trip was sudden and unexpected since it happened because Ben's Grandma Bonnie but we spent four days in Tampa with Ben's whole family.  You can read about our trip (and the babies' first flight!) here and here.

2. After we got back from Tampa, the girls and I headed to the beach for a few days with my parents!  I love the beach and I keep thinking about how much fun (and tiring!) it will be in a few years!

 

3. This one is kind of a favorite and not favorite at the same time!  I only have two weeks of summer left before I head back to work and I am looking forward to it and not looking forward to it at the same time.  I love my girls but I love my job too and can't wait to meet my newest batch of first graders!  I already have so many ideas going on in my brain that I need to get a notebook to start writing them all down!

4. Sitting up!  Natalie and Noelle have started sitting up with (a lot) of assistance!  I've been practicing with them, especially since their six month photos are next week and I'd love for them to be able to sit up in them!  We were able to get both of them sitting up at the same time and the progression of pictures is hilarious!

 

Sitting up!

 

Sitting up and smiling!

 

One starts to fall backwards, one starts to fall sideways...

 

Boom!  Baby down, baby down!

5. I am excited to see this face again!

 

Riley stayed with my parents while we were in Tampa.  My dad brought her up to us Monday morning and about 15 minutes after she arrived, we left for the beach!  She got to stay home with Ben while we were at the beach but I missed her!  I was so happy to come home yesterday to her and cuddle up with my first born!

That's my Friday!  We have a few plans this weekend but not much.  Most of it will be devoted to unpacking from our back to back trips, cleaning, and working on our sitting skills.  Happy Friday y'all!

Friday Favorites! First Timer Here...

First timer here...I'm going to be linking up with Andrea, Narci, and Erika for the first time to share my favorites from the week!  Here we go!!!!

 1. Celebrating my daddy's birthday!  His birthday was Wednesday and we met my parents in Annapolis for dinner at the Bonefish Grill...so good!  I had never been there before and my friend had recommended to me the Bang Bang Shrimp as an appetizer.  That. was. DELICIOUS!  Definitely get it if you go.  Ben wasn't able to go because of work but my brother met me at our house and we rode to dinner in our new minivan!!!  Which brings me to #2...

 

2. Our new minivan!  Since finding out we were having twins, Ben and I knew that we would have to get a bigger vehicle eventually.  He has a 2 door Acura RSX (sporty looking car) and I have a 4 door Honda Civic...neither one is a good sized car for four people and a dog!  For awhile we were going back and forth between a small SUV, like a CR-V or a minivan and I finally decided on the minivan.  I've never wanted a minivan but have decided to embrace it and it's pretty nice!  This past weekend we found a 2013 Toyota Sienna that we liked, went to look at it, and bought it!  We said goodbye to my car, Ruby, and hello to the minivan!  Name is still pending...

 

3. I got to catch up with a few friends this week that I haven't seen in awhile!  My friend Kayla and I met at the mall and grabbed lunch, walked around, and caught up!  Kayla and I met freshman year when we lived on the same floor in the dorm and quickly realized we were sisters from another mister.  We have many of the same loves and roomed together in college.  And today, I am having lunch with my friend Megan to catch up before she starts graduate school!  Megan and I also met in college and were roommates at one point!  I'm looking forward to catching up with her.

4.  I don't really call this a favorite but it is a check off of my Summer To-Do list.  I took Riley to the vet yesterday for her yearly shots.  I had to get them in ASAP because we are anticipating a trip to see family in the near future and I need her up-to-date to be able to board her.  I was planning on taking her on a weekend so Ben could watch the girls but I needed to reschedule her appointment so I had to figure out how to take her and two babies into the vet's office.  So I tried out our TwinGo Carrier!  I've used it a few times before but the awesome thing about this carrier is that it can be worn as two front carriers, two back carriers, or you can snap them together and wear two babies at once!  I've used them as front carriers before but Thursday was the first time I used them as a double carrier.

 

They loved it so much they fell asleep.

5.  My last one does not qualify as a favorite but as an unfavorite.  I mentioned on Wednesday that Ben's grandma isn't doing well.  She lives in Texas and his dad was able to get there on Wednesday so all of her kids are with her.  We are in the process of making plans to travel to Texas soon to be with family.  So please keep her in your prayers, that she is at peace and as pain-free as possible.  And also for us as we plan to travel by plane with two babies for the first time.  Thank you!

Thanks friends and Happy Friday!