stressin'

This is mainly a vent, I'm sure I will feel better once I get it out. We went to IHOP this morning for breakfast. The girls are usually well behaved at least for 2 year olds. It started out very nice. They were sitting in their highchairs enjoying their fruit plate. I guess when they finished they were "done" with breakfast. They wanted out of their seats. I told them sit in your seats your pancakes are coming. No, they wanted nothing to do with sitting. They were literally standing up in their highchairs. So I brought Chloe over to sit with me since I'm trying hard not to cause a scene in the restaurant at 8am. Then of course Kayla wants to sit with Dad. Oh, boy I totally feel myself losing control of this situation. I try to put Kayla back in her seat and she ends up wedging her knees and feet in the leg openings. Therefore she ends up stuck in the seat, I'm trying to get her out and all that is happening is the highchair is lifting off the ground. I think at this point I was laughing to try to cover up my embarrassment, and if I didn't laugh I would probably break down in tears. Shawn finally came and got her unstuck then took her outside to have a "chat". I was able to get Chloe into her chair basically telling her if she doesn't sit down, her friends are not coming over today. After Shawn and Kayla's "chat" she was better. The rest of breakfast went pretty smooth. I told Shawn we are "that" family where people leave the restaurant and probably say those kids are so bad.
Then we had to go to the grocery store, since they have friends coming over today for a play date we had to get snacks. Chloe wanted to walk so for some reason probably to add to my frustration level Shawn let her. Kayla just sat in the cart. Chloe was good until Shawn had to run to the soda aisle to get our free six pack. I thought she went with Shawn, Shawn thought she was with me. All of a sudden I hear her crying..mama..mama...great I'm trying to pay, keep an eye on Kayla and now my other kid is wondering the grocery store. I go to find Chloe and least the bag boy was nice enough to watch Kayla. As I'm walking over to Chloe, Shawn turns around to get her. WTF is going on I'm thinking, excuse my french. Mind you it's only 9am at this point in my day and I already need a drink and I don't drink!!!
Now at this moment 1145am the girls are upstairs. They are supposed to be taking a nap before their friends get here at 1pm. I heard them in the bathroom,went up to investigate and they had gone potty. That's all fine and dandy but Kayla went in their "little potty" and was trying to help by emptying the tinkle into the "big potty" and it dumped all over the floor. So now I'm mopping the bathroom floor.
Oh and did I mention Shawn just left for a golf outing...lucky him!!

Sometimes, I definitely feel like I'm losing control of my kids, they don't listen to me, they listen to Shawn. He only has to say something once and they do it. I have to say if you don't finish your dinner you don't get dessert. I feel like I always have to threaten them with a consequence. Why can't they just eat their dinner. Of course that is just one example. I'm sure if super nanny came here she would say I need her help! I know I've been more lenient with them and haven't really been a stern parent. I always think about when I was pregnant and in the hospital for six weeks, praying everyday we would get to 32weeks so they could get here and be safe. I know how lucky I am to have them here and I know that interferes with my disciplining them. I have to get a grip on the situation though or else by the time they are five they'll be controlling me.
I think I'm pms-ing too, so that isn't helping me either!!! I guess I'm done venting for now, I need to get some laundry done.

Annie shoes

Like most kids, Kayla and Chloe love to dance, listen to music and sing. They are not the type of kids that you put in front of a tv and they will just sit and watch. Which sometimes I wish they would, of course only for my own selfish reasons, maybe so I can clean a bathroom, put some clothes away, etc. That never happens, 10 minutes is usually the max time I have to do something, before they start looking for me.

I used to love the movie Annie when I was a kid, still do actually. Mainly for the singing and just the story in general. I figured the girls would like it too. So, I decided to buy it for the girls, I think it was the cheapest dvd I ever bought, like $8bucks. They love the movie, especially when they are singing or dancing they are glued to the screen. Now I can actually clean an entire bathroom before they start searching for me! :)

They had black shoes for Christmas to wear with their Christmas dresses. After watching Annie they rediscovered these shoes and now they are "Annie shoes". The shoes are a 7, they wear about an 8 now. The poor kids were constantly trying to shove their feet into these shoes. Every time I would hide them, somehow they would reappear. I finally got rid of them, but everyday they ask for their "Annie shoes". I tell them next we go shopping we will buy some. Not realizing black shoes are not the easiest things to buy in the Spring, I couldn't find them anywhere. Plus I didn't want to spend a ton since they really won't be wearing them with any summer outfits.

Shawn took them to Walmart on Saturday and low and behold they had black shoes and for only like $10.00. So of course they come home and jump out of the car to show me their new Annie shoes. Needless to say they have been wearing them everyday, with every outfit. They even wanted to sleep in them.

Oh to be a kid again, when your only worry is wearing your Annie shoes!!!!

Makenna is 1!!!

Makenna is my sister's daughter, she just celebrated her 1st birthday on May 18th. Her birthday party was Sunday. Of course everyone was anticipating her digging into her birthday cake. So the time came for cake, she took a couple tastes and then started crying, she wanted nothing to do with it. I guess you'll have that, not every kid wants to end up a giant ball of icing and cake!

She's probably thinking get me outta this chair, clean me off and tell these people to quit looking at me!

I think my sis was a little bummed, more so because we didn't get a good picture to put in her 1st birthday frame. So before my girls devoured her cake, I told Mar (my sis), let's just do it over tomorrow. She won't be tired, there won't be a ton of people gawking at her and she'll probably have more fun. So she agreed. I packed up her cake and the next day they went to my mom's and had their "do over".

That's more like it!!!! I love messy babies!!

Happy birthday, kiddo!!

Wordless Wednesday

officially potty trained

of course I knocked on wood. They've been wearing big girls pants during the day at least since Christmas, but at night they've been wearing pull-ups. For the past month the girls have been waking up with their pull-ups dry. I've been hesitant to let them sleep with big girl pants on, just in case. Yesterday we were at my mil's for Mother's Day and the girls put their jammies on while we were there. When we got home I forgot about putting pull-ups on. We read our stories and were ready to go up to bed, then it dawned on me oops we forgot pull-ups, I decided to just let them sleep in their undies and see what happens. They went potty before bed and this morning they both woke up dry!!! They were both so excited. Maybe this is the end of the pull-up stage, that would be wonderful!!

busy buzzy bees

and I'm not talking about the girls! Yesterday we were in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner and our neighbor walked up to the door. He said you guys have a problem, wait til you see this. I'm thinking great my cat probably dug up his flowers or maybe part of our roof is falling off. He walks us over to our little pine tree we just transferred to the back yard. Here we see thousands of bumblebees. Wow, I actually think it's really neat considering I've been hearing so many stories about bee population declining. But, I don't necessarily want them to be in my backyard where kids are running around. So I quickly started researching beekeepers and found there is the PA State Beekeeper Association, I didn't even know that existed. I was put in contact with a beekeeper in my area and don't laugh but his last name is Buzza...which is totally appropriate and very cute! He's supposed to come today and take them to his home where he has a hive for them to live in. He wasn't too thrilled when I told them they were in a pine tree, but hopefully he won't have too much trouble. I wanted to call off work so I could be there to watch but my husband would really think I've lost it!!

Last week my mom actually sent me this "bee mail" about saving the bees. I guess it was good they came to my yard since I'm calling a beekeeper, whereas my friend, Jenn would have called an exterminator...ouch!!! Here's the website if you want to check it out http://helpthehoneybees.com/and of course I had to take a picture....this really cool, I know, I'm a nerd!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

look what they did..

This is my mistake because I left the girls unattended for about 20minutes. They were upstairs playing in my bathtub, pretending to take a bath. I really didn't think they could get into too much trouble...I was mistaken. They went into the hall closet and found liquid hand soap, I'm not even sure how they could reach it. Anyway, this is what I found....

I actually had to laugh, there were so many suds we had to scoop them out and throw it the tub!! Of course I had to photograph it for evidence. Especially when their kids are being naughty I can remind them they weren't angels!!! Silly girls.

building a swing set!!

Well I really had nothing to do with the actual building. I was pretty much the gopher, the holder of screws, and drink getter. But for Shawn this was probably a "rite of passage" for him as a dad. Anyone who has attempted building a swing set probably can agree. Since there really wasn't any guys around to assist he was basically on his own. He started by opening 5 gigantic boxes and doing inventory of the many, many pieces. That was the easy part, it only took about 2 hours. Then the directions had at least 60 pages and I guess parts of the directions left little to be desired!!

The first day he worked about 10 hours, long but went well!!

Chloe wanted to help

Day 2: I decided I didn't like where the swing set was, it was too close to the hillside. So we had to move it, he was not too thrilled about that. I think it looks better now, (he does too). That day was about 8 hours. It's almost done!!Day 3 - about 4 hours and was able to finish...yay...the girls finally had their playground (that's what they call it), they were very excited. Shawn was happy to be finished too. Here's finished product...good job, honey!!!

Our trip to the Zoo

We took the girls to the zoo on April 19th. It was one of the 1st warm days this year so far, so we figured it was a good day to go. The girls had a blast, they loved seeing all the animals, even though it was nap time for alot of them. They also had little stations set up for green week. We got two little spruce pine trees (one for each girl) that we planted on our back hillside. It was a fun "family day"! Here some pictures from our day. My husband bought me a new lens for my camera and I was able to get some pretty good photos of

the animals.

my pictures were saved

The wonderful guy at Ritz was able to restore my pictures to my camera card and he even put them on a dvd for me. Not sure how the heck he did it, but he did. That was definently going above and beyond in my book, I have to send him some type of thank you! So, my vacation pictures were saved!!! YAY!

Chloe, Tracey, and Kayla

The girls building "something" with their big cousin Tracey

All the girls with Gram