October 19, 2013

Winner of the giveaway!

Thanks to everyone who entered our giveaway to Shop Little Pink Dress!

Congratulations to Holly S. who won the $50 gift card to the shop.

I will be giving the hosts your email address!

Congrats again and thanks to Little Pink Dress for hosting! 

Happy Shopping! 

October 13, 2013

Giveaway!

I am so excited to share with you an awesome giveaway!

Little Pink Dress  is a precious boutique that contacted me to give my fabulous readers a $50 gift certificate. Of course I checked out their site and immediately fell in love. 
And obviously I want you guys to have the opportunity to shop with them! 

Have you checked them out yet?
If not, please do!

And to get you even more excited, I've posted a few of my favorite things from their shop.


I just love this black end bracelet! If you know me, you know I love a good silver stacking bracelet. 


Pretty sure this Baby Got Back in Lilac is adorable! 
And with that necklace! Perfection!


Loving this Push It Maxi! 


Oh my goodness!
How badly would I love this tunic?!


And love this one too! 
Could have worn this last weekend to the twins birthday! 


Now it's your turn!
Enter the rafflecopter below to enter the giveaway for a $50 gift card.
Thanks so much to Shop Little Pink Dress for hosting this giveaway! 

October 11, 2013

The Twins 12 Month Update

Happy First Birthday Harper and Hudson!

On September 27, 2013 the twins celebrated their birthday! 
Here is their 12 month recap! 


Both babies continued to be sick much of this past month. Gotta love those daycare germs! Hopefully they will start building up their immune systems!  They are both wearing clothing in sizes 6-9, 9-12, and 12-18.  It really just depends on what it is.  Luckily the Arizona weather hasn't changed much, so they can still wear their summer clothes! They are both in size 3 diapers and can't quite fit in any of the shoes we have for them. I'd guess they are in a size 2 or 3 in shoes... but most of their shoes are 4 or 5 ... so it might be awhile! Both babies are still taking 2 naps a day (an am and a pm) and have just recently transferred from bottles to sippy cups. Harper didn't seem to mind too badly but Hudson is still struggling. That boy and his tantrums. It's a daily battle when I hand him the sippy cup of milk. Not. Happy! And yes, at 12 months we stopped the formula (thank the Lord. That was so expensive with twins! About 50-75 dollars a week on formula!) and started whole milk.  We have started doing the 3 meals a day (or trying....) .  These kids are not fans of eating.  It's another battle. Harper is better than Hudson and although she mostly likes to throw her food on the floor, at least she manages to eat some of it.  Where Hudson has been straight up refusing. Little stinker.  I'm hoping it's because of teething?! 

The Dr. was concerned but not worried about their weight.  He said they both looked healthy and not sickly but were obviously on the small side with their percentiles.  They are both basically the same weight they were at their last appointment 3 months ago. He wants us to really focus on trying to get them to eat more. He said feed them whatever they will eat. He suggest chicken nuggets, fries, etc. Sounds great- but duh- they won't touch it! We are to watch it until the next appointment and if they don't start gaining weight they may have to see a specialist. I'm not worried. Just trying to get them to eat! Stinkers!  

Dear Harper,


My sweet baby girl.  You have the most precious smile that just makes me melt.  You are a lover and love to lean your head into us and just be near. You are still our scardy cat and tend to be more cautious than your brother.  You love attention and love to sing for us.  It's a sweet little soft humming sound. So stinking cute.  You love to play games where you hand me something and then want me to hand it back.  You will do that for a long time.  Your favorite thing to say is still "dada" although when you cry you throw out the occasional  "mama". You also like to say "that". You have 5 teeth and I swear- we never even know when you get them.  You don't make a fuss at all. On that same note, we were at your 12 month dr. appointment and he was shocked to see you had an ear infection - you were happy as clam.  

You can stand by yourself and love to pull yourself up into the standing position.  Your favorite toy is the ball popper you got from your party as well as your stuffed animals. But you pretty much play with everything.  You are really sweet natured but can definitely get mad.  If your brother and you are both trying to get into my lap, you will hit him in the head until he falls off. Little meanie! It's definitely hard not to laugh! You aren't walking by yourself yet, but you can scoot around furniture if the mood strikes you.  It's not often.

At your 12 month appointment you were 29.5 inches long (36th percentile) and 17 lbs (3rd percentile). 

I love you my sweet princess! 


Dear Huddy Buddy,


Oh this month has been a rough one for you.  You spent time in Urgent Care with a double ear infection and a fever of almost 104. You cried hysterically one night and daddy and I had no clue what to do with you.  We took you to the doctor and they couldn't find anything wrong! You are such a hot head. Something wasn't feeling good to you and you were going to make sure we knew it.  The only thing that calmed you down was driving in the car that night. So daddy and I took turns driving you around the neighborhood until you fell asleep. We'd try to bring you in the house and you'd immediately wake up screaming and we'd do it all over again. It.Was.Exhausting. You have also been teething like a maniac.  And unlike your sister, you let us know every pain and discomfort.  You refuse to eat, drink, put anything in your mouth, etc.  You are not a happy camper with these teeth! You are just now getting your fourth tooth. Other than health issues, you have been doing great.  You are a speed demon and crawl like a streak.  You have also started walking (barely).  You are taking like 3-4 steps at a time without assistance. You scream with delight- you are so proud of yourself.  You love to chase your big brother around and do anything he does.  You drive him crazy and vice versa. If he comes near you to kiss you or hug you, you usually scream bloody murder until he leaves.  It's a love/hate relationship.  Also, pretty comical. Your favorite toys are things that you can push and drive around, the ball popper, and anything musical.  You love to make noise! 

Your stats for this month: 29.5 inches long (36th percentile)- same as your sister! You'd think you were twins or something?! Ha.  And your weight was 18 lb. (2nd percentile).

I love you my sweet boy!


The day after your first birthday you got your first haircut! We took you to Cool Cuts for Kids and had them just trim up your long locks.  Such a big boy! 



Ta Da! 
So handsome! 

October 9, 2013

The Twins 11 Month Update


Yep. The above picture pretty much sums up the twins' 11th month.
They were everywhere.
Never a dull moment with these two rascals.
Taking their 11 month pictures turned out to be pretty challenging. 
But for documenting-sake, here they are! 


Both babies had their fair share of the ickies.  They seemed to catch colds their first week in daycare and I don't think their noses stopped running all month.  Harper had an ear infection and had a difficult time adjusting to school.  She refused to nap and didn't want to eat there. 

Both babies learned to hold their bottles within the first week at daycare.  Huddy started "talking" this month- finally!  Like his sis, he mainly said "Dada" but threw out an occasional "Mama".  

Both babies really started moving.  Hudson was a turbo crawler and got such ouchies on his knees from crawing.  Hudson figured out how to to push the toy carts around the house and it quickly became his favorite toy.  He was fearless.  Harper on the other hand would pull herself up and would start to walk, and then quickly get scared and cry until you saved her.  She is so cautious.  


I really slacked on my journaling this month in their calendars so I can't recall much of what else happened this month.  I do know that I cherished my nightly snuggles with the babies.  Because of the them not feeling good, they were always wanting to be rocked to sleep in the rocking chair. And trust me. I was totally okay with this.  I missed my babies! :) 

October 8, 2013

First Grade Updates...

Oh my word.
I am so so sorry for being MIA in blogland.
Life.Has.Been.CrAzY!

This quarter has simply flown by.
And these last few weeks have been especially crazy.
End of the year testing, report card prep, field trip, observation, professional development classes, the twins first birthday, not to mention all 3 kids being totally knocked out cold with the ickies - this Mama was spent!

But hallelujah. I am on Fall Break! 
I just laid the twins down for a nap after our eventful doctor's appointment- 9 shots total. Holy smokes. I have Reagan sitting in front of Paw Patrol and I am sitting down trying to hopefully make a dent in blogging.


Our Harcourt anthology story one week was "All that Corn".  It was a great opportunity to use our inference skills to make a smart guess as to what was in our mystery box.  I just love to see their little wheels turning as I present each clue. After we opened the mystery box the kids got to take turns husking the corn.  Later on in the week we popped popcorn just like in the story.


Above show some math photos from a few weeks ago.  We compared measurement using unfix cubes as well as our bodies.  We also celebrated our achievements in math facts during the school math assembly. 


Apple week turned into apple month!  We had so much fun examining our apples using magnifying glasses, sorting apples by size and color, counting seeds in the apples, weighing our apples, measuring our apples, doing sink/float experiments.... 


taste testing Granny Smith Apples, Golden Delicious Apples, and Red Delicious Apples, graphing our favorites, comparing data, and learning all about Johnny Appleseed.


We sequenced the life cycle of an apple, described apples using adjectives in our bubble map, wrote poems about apples using our adjectives....

had a taste test of all things apples including apples, apple sauce, apple juice, apple chips, and apple pie.  We graphed our favorites and then wrote opinion pieces on which apple food was our favorite.

Looking through these pictures made me realize the other things I didn't take pics of (apple verbs, apple art, informative writing about Johnny Appleseed, etc.) It was a fun filled month and the kids and I loved it!  One of the parents even said they were going to an apple festival this weekend because her daughter was so into apples now! Precious.

I love making learning so hands on and meaningful to the kids.  Thanks to everyone who has shared their awesome printables!