You've got to be kidding me!!!

My girls are sick - again. I'm hoping it's just allergies. Abby started on Sunday w/ the runny nose and now Emma this morning. Didn't they just get over being sick?!!! The weather has been crazy and I've been having a lot of sinus headaches over the weekend so I'm hoping it's just allergies. Their bdays are this week!!! They can't be sick for their bdays! Maybe we just did too much last week- wore them out the little buggers. We spent Thursday hangin' out at my Mom's and Friday I had an old friend from High School over. Her dd is 13 months old. So cute. She had a runny nose though - so maybe the girls do have a cold. This sucks. On Saturday, we went to my sis-in-law's for the afternoon and we stayed for supper. The girls just love playing w/ their cousins. And of course, I got my baby fill :) Kendra is getting so big so fast. There was a pic of her on their fridge from when she was born - amazing how much she's grown and changed since Valentine's Day. Yup, she's a Valentine's Baby :) I held her pretty much the whole time I was there. And she was so cute, smiling at me and cooing. Ahhh... a baby. Emma really loved being around her too. Rachel was sooooo good to Emma. Painting and making clay sculptures w/ her. Rachel is definitely Emma's favorite person to be w/. She was just following her around the whole time we were there. I love watching them play together. I really thought Emma & Madison would be closer since they are closer in age but Madi plays much better w/ Abby than w/ Emma. Emma likes all the artsy stuff like Rachel so they just click. They so did not want to come home Saturday night. I still think it's a little too soon for a sleepover. They're both still afraid of Mandy's boyfriend so I can't picture them actually sleeping over there yet. It takes them a good hour to warm up to Mandy too. It was a good day though. And then on Sunday, Abby started w/ the runny nose. Madi called me and asked what we were doing. It was so cute. They usually go to Wright's Chicken Farm every Sunday but the girls didn't want to go. They wanted to come play w/ Emma & Abby. Warned Mandy about Abby maybe coming down w/ a cold but she didn't care so the girls came over. We sent out for pizza. And they threw a "surprise party" for each other. No pics, sorry. I'm actually kind of pictured out lately - does that ever happen to you? Just not in the mood to pull out the camera. I think I'm getting overwhelmed w/ all the pics I already have. I'm running out of room. And well, I still haven't developed any since Easter. Not sure where I'd put them, lol. That's why I signed up for a "Use up your stash" (no buying) challenge on SJ. I need to scrap 50 pages before I purchase new stuff. Can I do it? I hope so. I've only done 6 layouts and 4 cards so far. I need to get my butt in gear! I'm working on 2 layouts for the LSS but I'm kind of stuck on one. I did one for Graduation. Weird pulling out pics from over 10 yrs ago. I think it came out pretty good though. I kept it pretty simple. Here it is:


The other one is for an "All About Me" layout. It should focus more on the journaling about yourself than the actual layout. I'm having a tough time w/ this one - I don't know how she talked me into doing it! It's hard to write about yourself when, well, you don't really know who you are anymore. I remember being so sure about myself back in the day - when I was 18 yrs. old and thought I knew everything. lol. But, I've been kind of struggling these past few years. Being married and then having kids right away. It was really tough and well, rocky for a while. It'll be 5 yrs. this June that we've been married. I've always wanted this but I feel like somehow I lost myself through it all. Kind of hard to explain. I need to just keep the layout fun & light hearted. Don't want to share too much w/ the people looking at it at the store. My mug is on the page so they would definitely know it's about me! We'll see what I can come up w/. I'm running out of time though. I will be counting the graduation one towards the challenge - I did get the paper for free but the flower is from my own stash - so in my opinion that counts! So, now I guess I'm up to 7 layouts! Oooooh - I'm making progress, ha, ha!

Unexpected Delight

So, yesterday was Mother's Day and well judging from past Mother's Days, I wasn't expecting anything to make me smile. In fact since Saturday, I was under the impression that my dh was working Sunday morning. Needless to say he was in the dog house from the minute on! I'm not a materialistic person. It's the little things that matter to me. Being able to sleep in would have been nice - but no he got to do that. Having someone make me breakfast would have been nice - but no he took a shower and I was starving, so I made myself a bagel. I gave the girls breakfast and washed the dishes. Sounds like a great Mother's Day huh? He asked if I was taking a shower anytime soon and I said "I thought you were going to work." But he nicely stated that he'd wait until after I showered. Geez, thanks. So, I took advantage of it and took a nice long, leisurely shower. No kids yelling through the door or coming in every 2 seconds to bug me. It was very nice to be able to shave w/out having to rush or having any interruptions. Yup, I'm taking my time Mr. Well, I honestly didn't expect this when I opened the bathroom door.

That sneaky husband of mine, hurried up, through sandals on the girls, and took them down the street and had them pick me out some flowers. He actually asked Emma which one to get and she said "the big one daddy!" That's my girl! Although I was still mad for him lying to me about going to work - the big jerk! I hate being mad at him and this time he did it on purpose! I really did like the flowers though, so after I got ready, I had him take pics of me & my girls. This is the best one.

Funny thing is I'm not really into flowers, but this really made my day. I especially liked the watering can in it and there was this butterfly made out of green leaves. So cute.

And of course, I just love the picture Emma made for me!

So, we made our rounds to the in-laws to give my mil her gift and stayed for a couple hours, then headed over to my parents house to see my mother. They both loved the scrapbook pages I made for them from the girls. I have to say this was the best Mother's Day yet! Now, if I could only get my dh to surprise me w/out making me mad at him first... Oh and here's a pic of me & my mom. It didn't come out that great but what are you gonna do?

My Beauty Comes from Within...

I'm not perfect - far from it actually. I hate having my picture taken because of this. I can't stop pointing out every blemish and feature I don't like about myself. My mother always says that we are our own worst critics. That is so true. Well, I took pictures of myself yesterday and just viewed them today - those darn batteries died. See what happens when I take self portraits? I kill the batteries, lol. In all seriousness, I need to do this more often - have pictures taken of me. Even if it means I do it myself at an arm's length away. I know I'm a good person on the inside, even a beautiful person and although I don't feel that way about myself on the outside, I know my kids do. They were excited seeing pictures of me - and even if I'm not excited to see them, I know it makes them happy. So, thanks for the challenge Lesle - here's my self portrait.


Oh and I just couldn't resist showing you this one! Cuz this most definitely looks like me. LMAO! I think it was the girls' favorite!

Shhhh...

The girls are still sleeping :) Oh I know it's been over a week. I kept saying I couldn't wait for the nice weather to get here and look what happens - I don't have any time to blog! Well, we haven't been doing anything real exciting. Just blowing bubbles, taking walks, and drawing w/ chalk in the driveway. It's just been good to get outside. We can't play in the yard because my uncle is trying to plant grass - so we go to my parent's house to play a lot. Thankfully they live only 2 streets away - That's where there outdoor toys are anyways. I was hoping this would be the first year that we could play outside now that they've fixed up the place but man, does it take a long time for grass to grow, lol. Anyways, on Sunday we finally went to IParty and bought all the goodies for the girls bday party! Backyardigans of course :) $75 later we were leaving - you should have seen Rob's face! And that was after the 20% coupon I had for the whole purchase. It added up to around $90 something bucks! Geez! It's not cheap to throw a party anymore, is it?!!! Thankfully the girls were only born a day apart - if I had to do the twice a year, I'd be broke! I still haven't figured out what to buy them for presents either. My original idea was a water table. I'm not sure how much my landlords would like that if they're trying to plant grass, ha, ha! And of course, Emma keeps changing her mind about what she wants anyways. Rob said they'll be getting enough presents - why do we need to get them anything? Clearing throat here - CHEAPO! How can I not get them gifts?!!! Besides that, we usually give them the gifts on their actual bdays! It's easier that way, we recognize their bdays on the actual days and it gets them excited for the party that weekend. Oh we also have a graduation the day before the party for my cousin. Next month is going to be real rough, too. We have Father's Day, 3 bdays, our anniversary (5 yrs!), and 2 more graduations. Yup, I'm broke. I don't think I need to say that I have a big family, huh? Oh well, I'll just keep pinching those pennies!

So last Friday, I took the girls to a Family Fun night at the Middle School a town over from us. The Girl Scouts sponsored it and my niece is in the Girl Scouts so they invited us :) Well, I probably shouldn't have gone, lol. I can laugh about it now but let me tell you my oldest dd embarrassed me like I've never been embarrassed before! They were waiting in line to get their faces painted and they were showing soooo much patience. I was oh so proud :) Only one lady was painting the kids faces and well, needless to say it was taking forever................................
So, a nice young girl volunteers to help out - So sweet I thought. She couldn't do what some of the older kids in front of us wanted (snakes) but she took a few for butterflies and hearts. Nice girl. Her Mom was proud. And then, it was Emma's turn. Oh no - wouldn't even look at the girl. I was like "C'mon honey it's your turn - she can paint a rainbow on your face". So, I walked them over near her chair and Emma wouldn't sit in it. O.k. she's being shy I thought. I picked up Abby and plopped her in the chair w/ no problems. Abby was content as can be. What do you want Abby? "Yeah" she says. O.k., a flower or a heart? "Yeah" she says. O.k.- do a flower - what colors pink & blue? "Yeah". She's sooooo easy to please sometimes. It was really cute. So, Abby's all done and it's Emma's turn - I tell her to sit down so the girl can paint her rainbow. She's just staring at me and then says "No! Not her! I don't like HER!" I wanted to crawl in a hole about then. I firmly told her to sit down and let the nice girl paint a rainbow on her face or we're leaving. So, Miss Emma decides to whine and point to the other lady! My kid's going to be 4 right? Is this normal? I was not happy. I repeated what she needed to do and she wouldn't listen so I grabbed her hand to leave. She started sobbing and screaming and well by this time another kid was in the chair. Thankfully my sis-in-law was there and I asked her to grab Abby and I just picked Emma up and carried her all the way to the car... Kicking and Screaming . You'd think I was killing the kid. I got some stares and of course the sympathy looks - thanks for the sympathy looks - you know that's from the people that have been there, done that!

Well, guess who's awake? Yeah not just one of them - both of them. Emma wants to know why she has lines on her skin and Abby's calling them boo boo's. Ha, they're cracking me up. Well, let me share a cute little pic of Abby before I go - Emma was still screaming and crying to Daddy when we got home so no picture of her, lol.




She's holding a card she made at the scrapbooking booth. Oh and you can't see in the pictures but her pinkies are painted purple w/ nail polish. There was a nail painting room (omg the fumes!) and the girls wanted their fingernails painted. Unfortunately, Abby doesn't keep her hands out of her mouth so the Lady asked if she could at least paint her pinkies - Yeah, sure why not. Then Abby was pointing to another one of her nails and the lady asked her "If I paint the other nails, are you going to put them in your mouth?" And Abby replied "Yeah." Ha, ha - not the right answer. She was good about it when the woman told her that she couldn't paint them then. Too funny :) I told Abby we could paint her toe nails the next day but she won't let me - She's all weirded out about people touching her toes. She hates it when I have to cut her toe nails too. But, she's o.k. w/ the tickles and playing footsies. So cute! Oh and Emma got her nails painted green?!!! Ha, ha!