We're Official!!

We have some wonderful, awesome, super-duper exciting news.....

You know that little business that Chip (and me too, by association) has been working to start up for the past 3 years, 2 months, and 28 days.... (I totally haven't been counting, or anything- The idea formed New Years Day 2008.... so it's been easy to track. HA!)

Well......... IT'S FINALLY LAUNCHED!!!

http://www.telesaur.com

We are sooooo excited!

So my peeps, this is where you come in: If you have ever thought of telecommuting (working from home- legitimately... none of that 'stuff envelopes from home' type of stuff you see stapled a telephone pole on the street corner), put up your resume.....

Or if you have a business that is offering telecommuting positions, consider posting your positions on our job board.....

Or... if you have none of the above, just spread the word. Help us become a household name (we'd totally appreciate it.... like seriously. Big.)

And... Telesaur even has a blog. How awesome is that. (You can even put it in your blog feeder list.... cause there's some cool informational stuff on there)

http://www.telesaur.com/blog/

Hope you stop by our site, explore, and spread the word!
( a big Thank You in advance!)

Saturday is a special day.....

Yesterday was sooo nice just to have a relaxing day. We never get that around here.... we have four children, so obviously we aren't entitled to it. ;D

Our day started out by the girls quietly playing and giggling in their bedroom. Their Oma and Opa sent them a tea set on Friday.... and it's been a huge hit. (Thanks!) It was so pleasant to wake up to the sound of silly chatter of princesses playing pretend with their royal manners. (Which is a huge change from waking up to "MOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!! SHE IS ______ {insert something annoying} ME!!!!".

We eventually found ourselves eating a late lunch at a Mexican restaurant.... where we stuffed ourselves silly full of wonderful awesomeness. (How is it that Mexicans stay so thin.... when their food is sooooo fattening and delightful?) and ended up at Home Depot buying a vacuum. (It really sucks, by the way.)

We came home and the kids took naps.... and so did I.....

Then I woke up to "Hey honey, I e-mailed Michelle to see if she could babysit so we could go on a date, and she'll be here in 30 minutes". Nice!

We went dream shopping on our date. I LOVE 'poof' shopping. (Remember: "POOF" is when all of our dreams magically come true and we're like uber rich and don't have to worry about anything....cause that will totally happen .....right?) I think Chip and I spent like $30,000 at least. Or...... if 'poof' was here, that's how much we would have spent. What can we say.... we have great taste in furniture. :)

{If you click on the pictures below, it'll take you to the site they are sold at}

This couch is A-W-E-S-O-M-E! And... at a $5000-ish price tag.... it better be. It's got really deep butt cushions... and you just sink into it. Can we say... FAB?!

Who DOESN'T need an awesome shelf? Right?

And this daybed... it was super cozy. We sat on it- Chip on one end and me on the other and pretended that it was in our library at poof-house. We pretended to read (I had a laptop... Chip and Nook or something like that... ), and then we pretended to throw popcorn at each other. It was great.

This other couple passed us as we were practicing our future popcorn fights and said how cool the daybed was. We, of course, agreed. We made some small talk with the other couple for a few minutes. They were pretty pleasant. After the couple left, we discussed stalking them down and forcing them to be our friends for the rest of the night. The daybed was our common ground.
Chip and I still aren't sure what hair/fur this chair is covered in. Chip wanted to get this chair (like $2500) and call it Bessy. I was too disturbed to even sit on the chair.

It would be in his 'man-cave'.... and never re-surface for the rest of it's furry little life.

And of course... who wouldn't want $370 pots? Practical... right?


Well.... that's just some of the stuff anyway....

There is a lot more.... some of it not practical at all.... like this:
Horses without legs. I think Chip and I talked about these horses for a good long while. We had many-a-laugh at their expense.

We stopped the California Pizza Kitchen. I got hit on by our (female) waitress... what can I say, I'm just a hottie. Chip was jealous she wasn't checking HIM out. I think it's okay for him to be jealous every now and then. ;D

Wanna know one of their best kept secrets?? Order their Kid's brownie- ala-mode. It's $1.99 for a huge, soft, warm, gooey, wonderfully lovely brownie of awesomeness with hunks of chocolate inside, covered in delicious vanilla bean ice cream, drizzled with chocolate sauce and a cherry on top. If you order just a regular brownie with ice cream (which is the same thing, including portion size), it's like $7.... but a kid's one? $1.99. (And they say I'm not smarter than the average bear) Sometimes I bring the girls for a little date night out and all we get is the brownie-ala-mode. Ohhhhh sooooo yummy... (I wish I could have another one, right now.)

And we topped of the evening by watching the A-Team in the comfort of our own home.



Date nights are certainly cherished around here... as we get like one (two-max) a year.

I'm so glad I'm married to my best friend. Chip is such a fun guy to pretend shop with!! I can't wait for our next date to roll around. :D

Basically- this Saturday was full of awesome-sauce. Gotta love that. :D

9 Months

So, What may I ask is cuter than one little 9 month old baby?

Answer: TWO 9 month old babies!

(Can you believe these babies are already this old? Crazy, right?)

(Miles on left {white undershirt}, Dexter on Right {red undershirt})

These two babies love to their sisters..... especially Maggie. No matter what is going on- when these guys see Maggie coming with the intent to make them giggle, their faces light up. They always give Maggie super hearty laughs when they are in the car with her. I love driving around with two babies laughing hysterically.

They have both mastered the art of babbling.... and boy do they like to share that talent with the rest of the world (as loudly as they can.) These two have a set of pipes!

We have noticed that they both are not interested in looking at "the baby in the mirror". Our girls were always sooooo excited to see 'the other baby'.... these guys just view those 'other babies' as competition for my time, so they don't really give the other babies the time of day.

As far as their progress with eating: They BOTH HATE baby food. As in, ewww, gross, uber hate.... if they see a spoon coming their way, they close up their mouths as tight as they can get it, close their eyes, and shake their heads. If you happen to get a dollop in their mouths, they instantly start gagging... like huge gagging and dry heaving. If you offer them Cheerios, Gerber crunchies, Gerber little puffs, bread, diced veggies, bananas, cantaloupe, Gerber freeze-dried fruits, & Gerber yogurt drops- they are ALL over it! How funny, huh? They BOTH do this. It's so weird. (This is just the list we've tried so far.... I'm sure there will be more to come.)

They are also both fascinated by the cat. When he walks in the room, the babies swarm him.
It's like a baby mafia- their mission: Corner the cat. Eat the cat.

Dexter:

Some of Dexter's major accomplishments this month are:
-learning to sit up by himself. He loves to show off his skills.
-walking with assistance.
-eating food.
-getting into everything.... I mean, everything.
- army crawling at super mach speeds.
- a total of 6 teeth (with 4 more buds showing)

Miles

Miles' accomplishments:
- he can find and put in his own binkie at night (for the most part)
- he's getting to be lightening fast at army crawling
- eating food
- eating cat food. The boy LOVES wet cat food.
- He has 6 teeth (and 4 buds are showing)
- destroyer of all paper products within reach.

My life with twins feels a little bit like I should be in National Geographic documentary. (I try and narrate it in a fun British accent... it makes it sound more official), I'm constantly comparing these two to fighting turtles -going really, really slowly, reaching for the same object, having a ginormous delayed reaction to being defeated, then crying.... or comparing them to a huge pile of slithering snakes, uncoiling themselves and slinking off to various crevices and mischief- shedding (piles of slime) along the way..... or even comparing them to a pack of vicious hungry piranhas when the seek to destroy, by climbing all over my legs and biting them repeatedly with their razor sharp teeth of death.

(Dexter on left with orange star, Miles on right with red phone)

But overall, my life so far with twins has been a whole lot of fun. It's been an awesome 9 months (so far...... talk to me once they start walking, it might be a different story).

Happy 9 months boys.

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As a 9 month birthday present the insurance company sent us a gift. They finally paid for Miles' delivery! Woot! (Dexter's was finally paid for at the end of November.....) I don't understand the stupidness of insurance, but there ya go.

Adventure Time

So while Chip was in Salt Lake City enjoying many fun things such as:

1) Attending the wedding of two awesome cool people (aka: Brian and Sarah)

2) Dancing with his sweet grandma Louise.

3) Snuggling the newest member of our family, our sweet nephew Ian (Born 1/11/11)

4) Hanging with my brother Scott, his wife Leah, our nephew Rylan (7), niece Maddy (2), and little man Ian- having all sorts of fun with them.

5) Getting stuck in Detroit due to a snow storm, (seriously... does this look like a horrible storm that would keep planes from flying? Yeah... that's what I thought too. Detroit people are weak.) and after a horrible experience of getting a hotel room booked, only to have it denied (due to over-booking) and Chip had to sleep in an airport that was only 3 hours away from home....


I was stuck with the kids having an adventure of my own.

I took the kids, and our friend Erika to the Newport Aquarium in Kentucky.........

Where we got to pet some sharks (They are surprisingly really soft and velvet-y)

Walk through underwater tunnels and have sharks swim over us....

Take some fun pictures as a group (Dexter is in the picture too.... he's just asleep laying down in the back of the stroller)......

Watching fun fish floating around....

Enjoying the frog bog...

and seeing how we measure up to sharks...

We also go to stay in a really swanky hotel in Cincinnati. (High class, all the way baby).... (Where Dexter refused to sleep and screamed the whole flippin' night)

and the next morning we went to Ikea- Where we ate Swedish meatballs (Yumm-0), played with fun toys, and I bought a bookshelf, had a fight with two managers to get a refund (they over charged me for the bookshelf), and eventually drove home.... where I assembled the bookshelf and patiently waited for Chip to get home (patience isn't my virtue).

There was a lot of drama in between A-Z.... but we'll skip all of that and keep on the high notes. :).

I'm just so happy that Chip is home, the shelf is up and organized, and life is almost back to normal.....

Super Hero

Ever feel as if you need a super hero?

Yeah.

I know the feeling.



(FYI: these specific superheroes are Chip's siblings. We made them their outfits for Christmas a few years ago. Don't worry though.... they were super pre-outfit.... we just let them be able to express themselves in an outward manner.)


I will blog about our weekend adventures in a bit. I'm a little tired, and I just got Chip home yesterday....... so..... I'm actually going to sit and talk with him for a bit. Interesting concept, huh?

Day 2

Day 2 of being alone status update:

• We're all alive. (hurray!)
  

• 65 degree weather made for a fun impromptu after school run to the park.- in flip flops and capri's.

• Miles finally ate a "real" breakfast. Too bad it was Finn's tray of wet cat food. What can I say.... Miles is a man who likes meat.
  

• I got Alli to the bus on time this morning. Holla! (I was soooo nervous that I would over sleep.)
  

• I got 2 cavities filled. That makes it 6 down, 9 to go..... stupid twin pregnancy giving me 15 cavities. Ugg. Next Friday 3 more are getting done. (The things we do for kids.... )
  

• All four kids bathed. (All of my kids LOVE tub time, so usually bathing takes for-ev-er.)
  

• All four kids asleep by 8:30 tonight. (this is a way, way awesome thing)

• Chip stayed over night in Detroit last night (he got a flight voucher, an over-night hotel stay, and meal vouchers if he gave up his seat on the plane.)

• I made dessert tonight: fruit smoothies. Yum. It was perfect for a beautiful day like today.

• I've started packing my bags for our fun over night adventure....... and now I must go finish so I can be ready bright and early. :)

(Here's some hints about what we will be doing: A little bit of Swedish in a city known for it's Bengals and a little bit of reef in a state famous for horse races....... )

Stupid Cupid, Orcs, and Elevensies

I've really tried to pretend that I have a cheerful attitude about being with the kids for 5 days.....trying to think of the "fun" the kids and I will have on our upcoming adventure..... but, boy howdy- if life isn't trying it's darnedest to be the wicked witch.

These past two days = way, way sucky.


Valentine's Day might as well have been called Crap Day.

It started without power- literally.... no electricity, home phones didn't work and my cell wasn't charged either... so I had no phone, went to 'my child went to a Valentines Day party without bringing Valentines', to... the 2 stores I went to ran out of cream cheese that I needed for cheesecake... so I had to go to Walmart. (please shoot me now, I feel so... so... dirty), to the boys were screaming their heads off, to I didn't even have time to make the cheesecakes that I had to go to Walmart to get the cream cheese, to the dinner I made got dropped at the bottom of the oven as I was pulling it out and got ruined, to feeling slighted by just about every single one of my family members (both extended and not), to I didn't even get to make my own family Valentines Day cards..... and this was just the edited version. There was a whole lot more poo smeared around the entire day. I even went to bed at 10 because my day was that crappy I didn't even want to be awake for anything else to go wrong.

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Tuesday I'm just going to call "Lord of the Rings Day".

That's how it felt. Well... there were no long haired elves, but there should have been. (I suppose if I ventured in Walmart again, I probably would have found someone suitable to play Legolas.... or at least had the hair part down.)

I had hobbits surrounding me- bothering me about breakfasts, second breakfasts, elevensies, lunch, tea, dinner and supper, ..... the babies who decided to start teething again, and are still mastering the art of crawling- they do a mix of an army crawl/hobble/scoot/ I donno.... but they look a little like Gollum when they are trying to get around. Plus they act like him too.

Always whining and fussing and biting... ripping heads off of things (well... chewing and tearing everything in site.... even down to my table cloth. Dexter bit huge chunks out of it... and shame, shame on me for bringing out TWO diapers to change two babies.... because as I was changing one baby- the other decided to take the non-being used diaper and eat it to shreds. Literally. Shreds.)

Plus you can't turn your back on the Gollum babies or the hobbit girls because they will get into some sort or another of trouble.

After the girls went to bed- wailing like someone getting tortured by Sauron to find out where the ring was- I had had enough.

I had to leave the house before I turned into an Orc and started to chop off heads. It almost happened. Chip's sword glowed blue... indicating an Orc was near.

I went to Barns and Noble at Easton to get a book for Chip- to bring with him on his flight.... (I also got 2 scrapbooking magazines and a quilting magazine... and had a salted caramel hot chocolate from Starbucks..... but that was neither here nor there.)


As I left B&N, I noticed across the street was the Hilton Hotel... who's middle tower was lit up like a mid-day sun in the middle of the night.


To finish off my 'Lord of the Rings day' I pretended that the tower was actual the Eye of Mordor. My goal was to reach my car... which was in the middle of the parking lot- without being seen by the eye.

I think I was successful.

At least there is one successful thing about my day.


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This is going to be a long week.
I'm giving mad props and 'holla's' to single moms right now.

One of Two ways......

Do you see this cute couple?
Adorable, right??

Makes you want to squish their cheekers, huh?

This sweet duo is Brian and Sarah. Brian is Chip's brother (he's a year younger than me), and Sarah is his soon to be wifey. They are getting hitched on Friday........ in Salt Lake City.

Wanna know something? They have some nerve. Love- Schmove. They DIDN'T ask US our input for picking their wedding date when they were planning their wedding. Rude... right?

That's what I thought.

When Sarah and Brian told us they were getting married- Chip and I ruled out flying the whole crew almost immediately. #1- expensive, and #2- we have four children.

Have you ever been sitting on an airplane, minding your own business (looking at the aquarium coffee table that SkyMall has... {that I secretly want btw}), when all of a sudden you see this family come on board the plane- First comes the sweet little 8 year old, skipping ahead excited about the flight- then comes the father carrying an infant (most likely screaming), then comes the unruly 4 year old, nervous for the flight ahead, then comes the mom carrying yet another infant (who is probably wiggling like a worm and desperately looking for an escape hatch)...... and then you look at them, you look at the row of empty seats that is behind you, and you instantly start praying that this family won't be occupying those seats?

Yeah.

So to those passengers on the flights my husband will soon be boarding: You're welcome.

They picked Feb. 18. This means that we won't be driving out as a family- I mean... who in their right mind would drive across the country with 4 children in the winter? Not this family. (and we're pretty nuts... so that says a lot about those who attempt this feat.)


Chip will be flying out on Wednesday.... and we pick him up Sunday night... minutes before bedtime.

Did you read that? 5 days, 4 nights...

Breezi + 4 kids + 5 days+4 nights+by myself= disaster.

This week can go one of two ways....
I'll survive.

or

I won't.

I am planning on the first option.

I've got some fun things up my sleeve for entertainment.
(hint: It includes me pulling Alli out of school on Friday!)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Just FYI to Chip's 3 other unmarried siblings: Any future weddings need to be held in the city in which we (Chip and I) reside.



---------------------------------------------------------------------
p.s. We are SOOOOO excited for Sarah to join our family!
(Even if she IS taking away my title as the one and only 'married-in'... which I have successfully held for the past 9 years... AND FAVORITE daughter-in-law position.... but no worries. My mom-in-law told me that she loved me first. ;D)
I couldn't have hand picked a better gal for Brian. She is completely awesome sauce.
(Do I feel my argyle socks rocking?.....I think so.)

Tunnel Vision

If I haven't said it already, I'll say it again.

I love Target.

I know it's more expensive than Walmart, but seriously, you couldn't pay me enough money to walk INTO a Walmart.... it just gives me the heebie jeebies. (and the Walmart that we have a mile from us oozes all sorts of scary ghetto people...... like the ones from People Of Walmart.com ..... only not so funny)

Anyway- I am deeply in love with Target's after Christmas clearance. All the leftover stuff from Christmas at 75%off.

This year: not only did I buy 99% of the babies and Maggie's birthday gifts.... I bought a collapsible tunnel and matching princess tent. They were $4.97 each. HOLLA!

They are seriously the best $10 I have ever spent. My kids have all enjoyed playing in them. The first couple of nights, the girls both (tried) sleeping in the tent. (it got botched when they didn't listen to the rules and had to move back to their beds).

(never mind the stuff in the background- We made a tent out of blankets and chairs and it was laundry day. That's my excuse, anyway)


Maggie seems to think the babies need to like the tunnel too.

Guess what? They don't. After a few times of getting rolled around in the tunnel- they felt too much like they had been in a clothes dryer... I don't blame them.

But bless Maggie's soul, she just keeps trying to get them to like it.

(Dexter in the tunnel with Mags)

(Miles in the tunnel with Mags)


The boys have a lifetime of getting even with Maggie.

I can't wait to see what the come up with.

Munch

While I'm most certainly not an aficionado on marijuana, I certainly know a thing or two about it.
(How's that for an attention grabber?? lol)

No, No, No... it's not like that. I can honestly say that I have never smoked it. I actually had to live with it though, for a full year. And when I say 'live with it'.. I mean to say that my employer when I was a nanny- who's home office was across the hall from my bedroom (creepy)- was a true chain-smokin'- pot- head. We lived in Philly. He drove up to NYC every week to get "the good stuff". (I mean... really... that much of a difference in quality that you have to drive from Philly to NYC to get it? Whatever... Like I said... I'm not an aficionado.)

My employer (the husband)- smoked it All. Day. Long. It was grody. I have heard some people describe the smell of pot as 'sweet'. That is certainly not the way I would describe it. To me.. It smells like a freshly stepped in, then wiped off the bottom of your sneaker, pile of dog poopy.
There is a certain rank "poo" smell to it.

The only thing that my employer's use of pot made me do... was MUNCH. All. The. Time. Insatiable cravings.

Anyway- When I moved away from Philly to Columbus- I didn't think I'd ever have the problem of 'living across the hallway' from pot.

I was soooooo wrong.

(and no... Chip doesn't smoke pot.)

Our neighborhood is well... 'semi-ghetto'... like a step-or two- up. (look at us, steppin' up!) We get a lot of move ins/move outs as neighbors. (Although, we have been pretty lucky that the lady across the street, and our neighbors to our left- have all lived here about 5-7 years... so we have gotten to know them well, and really like them.) The apartment to the right of us, is one of those 'merry-go-round' apartments (I'm starting to think it's us, not them.). We have had quite the array of characters as our neighbors. One of our favorites was a skinny ol' bitty busy body with gusto as bold as steel- who when we were introducing ourselves to her, told us to just call her "Mama Clarice". And so we did. She was so awesome- that when a driver pulled a hit and run on my car, she got the license plate number.... because she was spying on someone else, and just happened to notice what was going on. .... I'm going off topic. Anyway, the majority of the neighbors that are to the right of us that we've had... just so happen to be pot smokers. Wanna know how I know?? Because our downstairs bathroom vent is on the same line as their downstairs bathroom vent. If our neighbors smoke (either pot or regular cigarettes) it floods into our bathroom.

I really shouldn't be surprised that I gained 50lbs when I was pregnant with Alli- As we had a chain-pot-smoker living next door. Munchy, Munchy, Munchy.

Two nights ago as I was sitting on the couch, I had this irresistible craving for string cheese. I couldn't figure it out. So I went and got some.

4 string-cheeses later, I had to use the bathroom. The smell hit me like a brick wall.

Pot.

Munch. Munch. Munch.



Here we go again.

The Smarter One

I have a secret feeling that Miles may in fact, be way smarter than Dexter.

Is Miles talking yet? No.
Is Miles eating baby food yet? No.
Is Miles walking, potty trained, or writing screen plays yet? No, No, and No.

So why, might you be asking yourself, do I know that Miles is the smarter one of the twins.

Two words:

He Smiles.

We're not talking about a once in a while smile. We're talking... he smiles All. Day. Long.

He's perfectly content to sit and play with toys... knowing he can, if he wanted to actually put forth some effort, tip himself over and start scooting and crawling all over the floor, he could..... but he doesn't. He sits. He plays. He smiles.

Dexter: He wants mom.

If I leave the room, Dexter thinks I went into some black hole and disappeared forever. He sits there... and cries.

If I am sitting near Dexter and I don't just pick him up to hold him (as obviously... I have nothing else to do...) ... he cries.

If I stand up and Dexter sees me moving away from him... he cries.

Each time the cry is swiftly taken care of.......by none other than Maggie. (She only does this if I'm out of the room- going to the bathroom... making bottles... whatever... if I'm out.. she's "in")

Yep. Maggie has taken it upon herself to be the solver of all baby cries. This usually means that she clumsily picks the baby up from his arm pits, dangles him over the floor while his arms are flailing around, and usually trips... and drops him.

No matter what we have done to that 4 year old child to get her to stop.. she doesn't. We have tried time outs, no treats, and even as far as spanking her with a wooden spoon... repeatedly (ouch!), but it still doesn't phase her. She feels the NEED to rescue one of the brothers from tears. (I feel really, really bad for the babies..... like... really bad).

Dexter doesn't learn from his mistakes. Let's just give you the rolling off the bed situation.. That kid will roll off the bed, even if there is no bed to roll off of. He, for some reason, feels the need to be a jumper. Dexter also loves chewing cords. One gave him (I'm assuming by the little short wail of "what the heck just happened to me") a shock. But does the boy stop chasing after cords? Nope. He reminds me of Dug the dog off of "UP"..... "Squirrel!!" (If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about.) Dexter also loves squishing (not yet eating) the cat's wet food. (gross.)

Miles learns from Dexter's mistakes. He has never fallen off of a bed. He hasn't played in cat food. He hasn't been shocked by cords..... and....
He hasn't been picked up and swung around like a flour sack by Maggie..... ultimately plummeting to the floor, by her lack of grace. (She got that lack of grace from me... :D)

He plays dumb.... or in this case "perma-happy".

He's just got that "If I'm always smiling, then you'll not pick me up and drop me" face on.

I say he's a genius.

Well played, Miles. Well played.

I'm thinking Dexter will eventually have a "perma-happy" smile on his face too.... but it will be due to brain trauma.... not evolution.

Cheese-Heads.

My mom is a die-hard Packer fan.
She bought these outfits for my oldest nephew (now -7), and my SIL Leah sent them to me when we had the boys..... (now I have to send them back after the boys grow out of them... as I have a new nephew! woot!)

Seriously... I kid you not. I was photographing these babies for over 30 minutes... and these were the "good" shots.

Can I just mention to you that I dislike this new crawling stage? I also really really hate my new camera....ugg.
The shoot was full of flailing around, crying, and not smiling babies.

Dexter really liked my camera strap.

This will be the faces of Packer Fans across the nation if they lose the Super Bowl tonight.


So... with fingers crossed, I'll say out loud:

GO PACKERS!



*P.s. my children are available to be the billboards for the team of your choice. All you need to do is send me the outfits. :) haha.

The "L" word.

My girls have been struck with it.

Yep.

The "L" word.

LOVE.

It surprises me how quickly the tides have changed with Alli.

If you remember a week or so ago when I wrote about Alli- how she declared she want to grow old by herself and live with cats?

Well- Now for the past 4 days she has been arguing with me about the earliest that she can get married.

"Mom.... how old can I be when I get married?" Alli asked me. "Well," I said, "You can legally get married at 18..... but I would suggest waiting for a little longer... just to make sure that you find the RIGHT prince charming." (I only say this because I fell in love with the WRONG prince charming when I was 18.... only realize that he actually was the real prince's shoe shiner.... not literally.... but yeah)

"How old were you when you got married?" Alli wondered. "Well, Alli- I happened to find your father a little bit early in life... we got married right after I turned 20," I answered. "That's old!" Alli screeched. "Waaaaayyyy tooo old."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah. I want to get married when I'm 16" she said as she stomped her foot.- (in a way that resembled a snotty 16 year old)

"You can't." I told her.

Then she started whining about how cruel it was to torture her by making her get married when she's an old shrew. The nerve.

"Mom- Why does Sleeping Beauty get to marry Prince Phillip.... she's 16. And. And.... Why does Ariel get to marry Prince Erik .... she was 16."

"Alli." I said in a stern voice. "Prince Erik and Prince Phillip were pedophiles. They shouldn't have married those girls. It was against the law."

Somehow I don't think my words of wisdom made Alli have warm and cozy feelings of love inside.

She's still trying to figure out how I can be conned into letting her marry her prince at 16.
-----------------------------------------------------------


Maggie has also been hit by the love bug.

Every time we finish a movie- she gets all goofy eyed and frolics around- dare I say flitters- and with big dreamy eyes, she comes up to me and says: "Mom...... does that movie make you want to fall in love and get married??" She is always batting her eyes and resting her chubby little hands which are tightly joined and resting under her chin... as she is tilting her head slightly to the right, when she asks me this.

"I'm already married, Maggie..... to your father"- I respond.

"He's sooooo handsome"- she says..... then she flits around the room giggling.


Apparently Chip was soooo handsome and Maggie was soooo in love with him, she begged me to make a wedding cake for his birthday cake.

She kept pulling out my cake decorating book- and stopping on a certain cake. The same one every time. "This one, Mom"- Maggie said as she pointed to the purple two layer cake decorated in fondant with mini wedding cakes around the side of the big cake. "He'll LOVE this cake for his birthday." She said swooning.

She was pretty upset to find that as she slept last night, peacefully in her bed, I didn't make Chip a wedding cake for his birthday. I made him a Star Wars cake.

She calmed down a bit after she ate the Yoda piece of cake. I think the force was with her.



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Any strikes from Cupid's arrow at your house?

Ice, Ice, Baby

Columbus got POUNDED by an ice storm on Monday night. Tuesday morning I looked at our cars and they were both encased by 1/2 inch of ice. I couldn't have gone anywhere... if I wanted to.
The rain that poured down Monday night saturated the 2 inches of snow still hanging out.... and made that a solid block of ice as well.
School was canceled on Tuesday... and now today- Wednesday. I'm hoping there is school tomorrow. We're having a touch of cabin fever.

Speaking of ice....
I can't believe I haven't blogged about this yet... I mean, holy cow. I'm such a slacker-head!
I'm going to use my 'babies have been sick, and I've been quilting' card as my excuse.

Two weeks ago- we got to have the most awesome, most fun experience.... like... ever.
I took the girls to Disney Princesses on Ice.

This is something that normally we couldn't afford... I mean at $30+ each ticket for nose bleed seats? No thank you. You're talking to the person who spent like $40 TOTAL for tickets to a Neal Diamond show a few years ago to surprise Chip... and that was... Neal Diamond! Sweet- Caroline, baby.

A friend from our old ward contacted me and said her daughter works for Feld Entertainment (they do the Disney on Ice shows)- and that Princesses on Ice was coming to Columbus... and would we like to go? I said... Heck yes! How much? It was like $7 a ticket! I was pretty sure at that price, we'd be up in the nose bleed section and maybe get to see a spot light or something.... BUT much to my surprise when we arrived- We were like 15 rows back front and center. We could see awesome details!!

As an added bonus- my friend said her daughter could get us backstage to meet a princess..... wait for it...... FOR FREE!!! SCORE!!!

My friend (Susan) called two other ladies in our old ward and extended the same offer-
So we got to sit and hang with friends!

We all had no idea until the day before the event that we'd be together!

My friend Tracie, her Sister-in-law Anna, and I (and of course the kiddos) carpooled down to the arena.

I had heard via Facebook that Glow bracelets and flashy glowing things were all the rage down there...... so I went to the dollar bin and got some. ($1 -vs-$22.... I'm pretty much the winner on that one)- and I stocked my purse to the brim with treats for all the girls too.

Miss Maggie moo was being a goof ball- and we couldn't get a good shot together...
This is as good as it gets!

It was so much fun just hanging with my two princesses. It's hard for me to get quality time in with them since the babies arrived. (Stupid babies..... they act like... such babies... :D)
This was our view.

Keep in mind- my camera is crappy- so we didn't really get all that great of pictures.
(I should probably read my owner's manual... but who has time?)

We were originally supposed to meet just Tinkerbelle. (I know she's not technically a princess.... but the girls LOVE Tinkerbelle. So to them... she pretty much took the cake.)
The girls were pumped!!
(L-R: Alli, Maggie, Tink, Claire, Jocelyn)

BUT
Waiting in the wings was another princess...
MULAN!
Alli and Maggie went over and talked to her while everyone took turns taking pictures with Tink.

In case you are ever wondering: Mulan's favorite color is Pink. Alli asked.
(I got in trouble for taking pictures of a princess without the official Disney Princesses backdrop.... but I don't care. I'm a rebel.)

(The little cutie patootie with my girlies is Abby- another friend from our old ward.)
And who was walking by (on their way to meet another group of people).......
MICKEY AND MINNIE MOUSE!

(They couldn't stop to take 'real' pictures.... but I stole one anyway.)


L-R: Maggie, Claire, Jocelyn, Alli

It was such an awesome night. I'm sooooo extremely thankful that Susan thought of us for this activity!... and that her daughter had sa-weet hook-ups! They pretty much ROCK my argyle socks.