TOES

I got a pedicure this past weekend.  Mom, sister and I had a girls morning and it was awesome!

it was amazing!  Hubby was a bit shocked when I came home w/ blue toes. lol

 Relaxing :)

 My mom got purple, sister got black and I got blue :)

just the girls

Portraits with the self timer... :)

pearls

Hubby made my 30th birthday super special!  On Tuesday he took us to Moe's for what I thought would be a family dinner.  I got a free meal b/c it was my birthday, the girls ate free b/c kids eat free on Tuesday.  we LOVE Moe's. :)  Then I was surprised w/ 2 of our favorite families.  They joined us for dinner and then we went to one of their houses for cake.  Hubby planned everything and it was perfect!
On Wednesday, my actual birthday, the girls and I just hung around the house, baby had her 1 year check up, then hubby came home with Chinese and Cami cakes. :)  After dinner he told me to sit down and surprised me with this beautiful grey set of pearls.  He chose it all by himself and did a great job!  
We never do anything for our birthdays, in fact, I hate my birthday. lol  BUT he did a great job making my day super special and I cannot wait to wear my pearls!  He hasn't gotten me jewelry since we were dating (over 7 years ago) so I'm super giddy and super impressed with his taste ;)

reflections...

Today, August 15th, is my 30th birthday.  My day has been pretty ordinary, spending it w/ my 2 favorite girls while daddy works.  I did ask daddy to take care of dinner, so we'll see what we'll do. :)

I had to share this picture of the 3 of us :)
Oldest daughter, me, youngest daughter

So today, the day of my 30th, I look back at my life.  First of all, I have to say, the best part about my birthday, is having a twin sister to share my special day with me. :)  She is 3 minutes older than me and never lets me forget it.  We never really got along until we turned 18-19.  By that point she was getting married and I was ready to move 500+ miles away.  Being away from her was the hardest thing I ever did!  We are closer now than we ever were.  I'm so thankful that we get to be moms together and that our kids get to grow up together. :)  I'm thankful we finally figured things out and were able to get along.  We talk daily and if I don't at least get to talk to her for 5 minutes, my day is not complete. :)

I love you sis and am so thankful we get to share this special day!!! 

Weren't we so cute!? lol

I really hated my teens... I mean HATED it!  It's filled with bad memories, things that I can't even allow myself to think about.  But after I turned 19 and then entered my 20's, I changed.  I won't get into details, but my 20's were awesome!  I met my first and only boyfriend and we started dating at 21.  I graduated college at 22 (almost 23).  I married my prince at 23.  At 24 we became home owners! At 26 the most amazing and beautiful little girl entered our lives and made me a mom! At 29 another amazing and beautiful girl entered our lives.  What can I say, I LOVED my 20's!  There were many trials, but I learned so much from them.  God has blessed me so much and I look forward to the next decade. :)

My loves!  The best part of my 20's for sure!  Words cannot express how thankful I am for these 3.  I'm so thankful God blessed me with an amazing husband.  He is my best friend!  He is my prince charming! Watching him with the girls makes me fall in love with him more and more each day.  He is the best daddy in the world and the girls go crazy over him!  

Oh how these 2 just make my heart melt!  I love them!  I'm so thankful God blessed me w/ my girls!  They make my life better.  It doesn't matter what kind of day I'm having, when either one of them gives me their beautiful smile, it all gets better. :)

I had to share this picture.  I mean, seriously, how ridiculously cute is she?! Oh how that smile makes me melt into a giant puddle of mommy mess. :)

So there you go, my 20's all wrapped up in one blog entry...  Super thankful God has chosen to bless me so!  Not too excited about getting older, but excited to see what else God has planned for me. 

boring

Nothing new to post.  Life's boring and that's ok :)
Hopefully in a few weeks/months we'll have some news to post.  We are in the middle of several decisions and changes, but no reason to talk about it b/c we have no idea what will happen.  It's exciting to see where God will take us.  One of the exciting things is that hubby is finishing up his first graphic novel.  To be honest, I'm not sure when the deadline is for him to finish it, but I think his goal is to be finished by the end of the year.  He said the hard part's over, as of yesterday. :)  Once the book is done, we'll look for a publisher.  Super exciting!!!
We are ready for a change, and like I said, excited to see what God has for us.

The girls keep growing like a weed!  Baby sis sometimes forgets she's still a baby ;)  She is SO close to walking, she does so great getting around, as long as she has her walker or furniture or mommy/daddy to hold on to. lol  But she refuses to let go.  And she usually chooses to be carried by mommy, which I am totally ok with :)  about 2-3 weeks before her first birthday I started weaning her.  I LOVE breastfeeding, and she was solely breastfed for these past 12 months.  Which was my goal! I didn't get to do that w/ big sis, she stopped nursing at 9 months on her own, and she was always both breastfed and bottlefed b/c I worked part time.  SO nursing this little one for 12 months is a goal I wanted to accomplish and I'm so happy I was able to do it.  BUT as we're weaning her, we've given her milk in her sippy cup.  I jumped to sippy cup and skipped the bottle b/c I HATE bottles!  For many reasons but mainly, I just hate cleaning them. lol Baby sis loves her milk, but she loves food more.  And these past few days she's been ignoring her sippy cup and wanting to nurse more than she had been.  I've only been nursing her 1-2 a day, some days not at all.  But now she is wanting to nurse more often and is back to waking up 1-2 a night.  It is hard on me!  She started sleeping through the night at about 11 months and it made me SO happy!  11 months of waking up 2-3 times a night did a number on me!  I feel like I"m still catching up on sleep. lol

Anyways, big sis is the same.  Getting more and more independent and wanting to do everything on her own.  It's good and bad at the same time. lol  She loves to help mommy around the house.  And she loves to cook.
She is very into My little pony, lalaloopsy, littlest pet shop... She LOVES to color!  And loves puzzles. It's so fun to see what kind of little person she's becoming.  She loves dinosaurs and parrots.  She wants a pet parrot.  I told her when she's a grown up she can get one. lol

So this turned out longer than I thought.. Perhaps our life isn't that boring, hard to be boring w/ 2 little ones. lol

cake

Months ago I started thinking about baby sister's birthday party.  I knew I wanted black and white.  But I needed a 3rd color.  I originally thought pink, b/c then I'd have all my favorite colors. lol  BUT all of her baby showers were those colors, and I just felt I wanted something different.  I thought of yellow, then thought bumble bees would be perfect!  Thus we got her theme.  I then went on the hunt for a cute cake and found bee hives.  My wonderful mother in law made this cake and it surpassed my expectations.  She always makes amazing cakes, and I'm always sad to cut her cakes.  

Isn't this just adorable?!  I blurred her name out ;)

 This was the cake table, with balloons and her birthday banner w/ her name on top.  My sister made her 12 month photo collage.  :)  

birthday girl cutie!  She had on a shirt w/ a yellow #1 and her name on top.  I don't want to advertise her name on here so I blurred it.. But the pic is still super cute :)

bow and tutu made by mommy :)

Sisters ready to party! :)

Birthday weekend

This Friday was baby sis' 1st birthday.  Friday I took both girls to the museum, then after naptime daddy came home and we went to a local football training camp.  Saturday we had a small family party.  It was a great weekend celebrating our sweet blessing.

Birthday girl cutie!

 sweet sisters

 Bumble bee party!  Nona made the cute bee hive cake!

 Mommy and daddy with the birthday girl

 Our family

 cake time

 birthday cake mess :)

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy 1st birthday to my sweet cuddly baby!  I can't believe how fast a year went.  She has been such a blessing to our family.  I never knew I could love another baby as much as I loved my firstborn, but oh how my heart is full.  I love her to pieces and I dont' know what we did in our family before she came along.. lol

Sweet baby girl these past 12 months.  She changed so much and has totally stolen my heart!!!! 

So thankful I get to be her mom.

reminisce

This week I'm ultra emotional b/c of my sweet baby's 1st birthday. lol  I am thankful for a lively, healthy, cuddly, sweet baby girl.  She is such a sweetie, she loves to hug mommy and I sure do love her hugs.  Her smile is the most amazing thing and makes me melt into a giant puddle of mommy mess.  :)
She has mommy wrapped around all of her fingers...lol

I love this smile!