When "It was an accident" means "Get your camera!"

This little guy was out spraying ants...I leave for one second to throw away a popsicle wrapper, and Ethan meets me with that look all us moms know...wide, solemn eyes, crinkled forehead, curled mouth..."It was an accident!"


When I turned the corner and saw the girls, I could not help but bust out laughing. Honestly, this was the LAST thing I needed on my plate this evening, but it was pretty funny...and the girls thought so, too.

(Audrey has that look on her face b/c of the way she likes to talk these days...everything is all about the "p" and "m" sound...)

Ethan was trying to spray ants in the rocks on the patio, but the mud flew up and splattered the girls....in the outfits they were wearing for the FIRST TIME today, of course....

(I love how Norah looks like she's on a fun roller coaster in this picture)

I was on the fence about going to Ethan's karate lessons tonight since I was pretty worn out (recovering from a stomach bug and not quite up to hauling everyone out for another trip). Let's just say, after I saw this, I knew we were going to play hooky tonight ;)

Girls Giggling at Ethan

Anyone else wish it didn't take so0000 long to upload videos to Blogger?

Audrey and Norah think Ethan is the funniest guy EVER. They are so blessed to have such an awesome big brother!!

This picture freaks me out

Ethan took this picture, and I had to do a double-take at Norah. She looks like a small plastic doll, and for some reason it's creepy.

(and there's those fire fighter pjs again....)

Don't waste your money

Who needs toys when you can have all the fun you need with the free PB catalog?!

Or perhaps this is a shopping habit in its earliest stage??

Our Girls Failed!

Well....they failed at qualifying for Early Childhood Intervention Services. ECI came today to evaluate Audrey and Norah, and they passed with flying colors (which means they don't qualify for the most amazing, fun therapists to visit our home every week. Dang!).

Since they are pre-term, they only need to meet milestones of a 5.5 month old. Our baby prodigies are meeting all milestones for 7 months+, praise God! Three therapists evaluated the girls in several areas, including social/emotional, cognitive, physical, and speech. They were impressed at how well the girls get around (they are well on their way to crawling on all fours, but for now they move around quickly and easily by combat crawling and rolling). One of the therapists commented that our girls are more accomplished "sitters" than her own 7 month old. They were impressed with how the girls look for cause and effect, try to obtain objects, and interact. Overall, it was reassuring to hear they are doing great!

We also got the girls weighed today. Audrey is 14 lbs, 7 oz and Norah is 15 lbs, 14 oz. They both gained 2 lbs in 6 weeks, so that's almost 1 oz/day...Not bad!

Here's a short clip from today. We were in the middle of getting dressed, thus the varying stages of dressedness, if I may use such a word ;)


And here's another one of our sweeties resting. Grandparents and Super Aunts, feel free to stare; all others, pass on by...nothing exciting here! (BTW, the blankets are not commonplace in the cribs. It was chilly during their nap, so I covered their legs since I was able to check on them frequently)

How a 4 year old enjoys his S*tarbucks

Or, as Ethan would correct me, "How an almost 5 year old enjoys his S*tarbucks."

(And why do people put that * in there? I'm just following the trend, people, so if someone could enlighten me, I would appreciate it. I don't even know if I put it in the right place...)

He's all about the Kid's Hot Chocolate with the "plug"...and believe me, he's all about the little green plug. No Plug, No Fun.

Date Night!

Thanks, Mom, for sending us out on a date, and holding us to a promise to do something fun!

Thanks, Rachelle, for offering to keep our little ones and making us feel so comfortable stepping out for a couple hours!

Thanks, kids, for not sending Ms. Rachelle to the loony bin (as far as I'm aware, at least!).

Thanks, Chris, for being cute and making me laugh at dinner. I'm so glad I got to marry my best friend!

Thanks, God, for how you've blessed us so!

Ants in My Pants & Other Creepy Crawly Stories

I normally do not mind little critters running around my house, but lately, I feel like they're running a muck around here.

Ants in My Pants: Yesterday I stood out in the backyard for a few minutes and returned to the house, holding two babies in my arms. I must have been standing on an ant hill outside because suddenly, I felt ants biting my legs. Because I was holding the girls, I couldn't brush them off, and I wanted to panic because I didn't know how many ants were on me. I started to scream to Chris to take the babies because ants were biting me, but he thought I was just being a spaz and laughed at me (not being a jerk; I admit, I do have a history of being spastic). He finally took the babies and put them on the floor, but that made me freak out even more b/c I knew the ants would be crawling off my shoes and onto the carpet. It was really hard to see them because my shoes and pants were black, but I was picking tons of them off my feet. Finally, we got my shoes and pants off, got the girls moved, and vacuumed the carpet. Stupid Fire Ants. End of drama.

Worker Ants: Anyone else in Texas have an invasion of worker ants recently? They are everywhere in our house, walking up walls, on our towels, on the sink, and esp. in the bathroom. There are maybe 5 or 6 floating in our toilet at any one time. The rain must be driving them inside, but they don't seem to do much harm. I just feel violated that they are making their way into our house. Is that an ant I feel crawling up my arm?

Spider Mommy: The other night, I let Sadie back in the house and a HUGE, I mean GIGANTIC, spider came racing in our house. It ran under our couch, so I had Chris lift the couch while I tried to get it, but I couldn't find it. I had a strong feeling that this spider was not welcome in our home, so I kept whining about it, much to Chris' dismay. A bit longer, as we were turning in for bed, I caught sight of the beast and grabbed a glass to trap it (I may not want them in my house, but I wouldn't dare smoosh an innocent spider). As I trapped it, I noticed that I also trapped an itty-bitty-teeny spider at the same time. No, wait, I also trapped one of the beast's babies...and the rest of her babies were hitching a ride on Mama Spider's back....hundreds of them...which gave Mama Spider the appearance of being HUGE, when actually, she just had lots and lots of spiders on her. Gives me chills to think of it! Good call on getting that spider out of here. Is that a spider I feel on my head?

When good boys turn bad

These two are up in their ship looking out for rebels so they can blast them.

This is the boy who I promised would never own a toy weapon....
that came to an end when everything from Legos to forks turned into guns and blasters.

Bedtime Giggles

A little pre-bedtime *jocularity. If only it were this *jovial around here 24/7 :) *That's some vocabulary fun for my little friend, ZZ ;)

It almost (almost, but seriously, not quite) makes me not want them to go to sleep.


These jammies were a bargain at Children's Place--A buck 99! I love these pj's--great, snuggly fit and a zipper. We now own 4 pair in their current size and 2 pair for the next size up.

What? You don't recognize Ethan's pajamas? Where have you been over the last 3 years?

I promise, folks, off the top of my head I can think of the following pj's he owns which are his size: Transformers, Batman, Cars, Astronauts, Dinosaurs
He claims these are his favorites because he likes the buttons. Someone direct me to a pair of button-down jammies, stat!!!

A taste of my own (spilled) medicine

I'm always after Ethan to sit in this exact chair correctly so that he doesn't fall out of it. The times he has fallen, I sigh with exasperation as his fork and noodles or whatever fly about--"Seee, that is why we sit correctly...*nods head and adds additional exasperated sigh as we grab the towel to clean the mess*"

Today, I was holding Audrey AND my very special, very needed Starbucks coffee. I was trying to pull a bit closer to the computer to watch Ethan master Level 7 of G-Force, when out of the blue (I still don't know what the heck happened), me, Audrey, my coffee, and that awful chair are splattered on the floor. I felt the jolt travel from my bum, up my back, through my shoulders, onto my teeth, and out the top of my head. YOWCH!! Luckily, Audrey landed on my lap and cried for just a second from the startle, but I'm still super owwies :(

I guess it's a lesson in compassion and humility...??

Oh, and to add insult to injury, guess how long it had been since I washed the floor? All of about 3 hours. Double boo.

Here's the mess with Sadie, the ever present one-dog clean-up crew.

Peas wash my face

Mr. Muscles :)

"And I am STRONG! See my MUSCLES."

P.S. This is proof that he does own a pair of pj's other than his too-small fire fighter ones

Sister, Sister

Daddy knows EVERYTHING

Ethan was looking forward to this all weekend...Just a coupla guys and car talk.