Thursday Things

While Devan is out of town I thought I'd keep tradition alive and put together some Thursday things from my day with CG and Lamlam...

1. I have been on more walks this week then I thought possible. These girls love the sunshine and the fall breeze we are starting to get here. We've been blessed with some great weather this week and we are LOVING it.

2. NAPTIME. Let's just say I have a new respect and appreciation for mother's everywhere. These two girlies wear me out! LOVE them to pieces but I love me some naptime too.

3. This came today. I have always wanted a subscription but because it's weekly it's like a million dollars. Then came along a sweet livingsocial deal and a wicked awesome sister{& brother in law} who bought it for my birthday. Love them...and some celebrity gossip. obvs.

4. Um. They nap twice so it totes gets two spots on my list. The morning nap was so peaceful I could even drink my whole cup of coffee with out having to reheat it. I now understand why my sister is still drinking the same cup of coffee at 4 pm. SO sorry Dev, I now know how rough that is. I also had my computer open with out 4 little hands attacking it. These girls love 'em some technology.

5. Free Coffee! Today we ventured out to help Aunt Karen with some car issues but got a call saying she was good...but we were already in the car and I had a coupon from my birthday. So, off we went to sbucks where the cute little barista convinced me to get a VENTI. 'It's free!' she says. oh boy. {Just a side note, I had two number 3 points on here and had to go back and fix it. A week with her kids and I'm turning in to her.}

6. We love to snuggle around here. These babies have a little of the McLean snuggle gene in 'em. I am constantly getting kissed, cuddled and loved on and I couldn't be happier. Sure I may have drool running down my cheek but I don't mind. I'll take a sloppy kiss from these girls a thousand times a day.

7. I have had the best Thursday and I am a little sad it's our last night with our two little babies. Tomorrow they will be happily sleeping with their Momma and Aunty Noney will be missing them and their sweet little sleeping faces!

we may have been left at home....

Okay, so you've probably heard,we've been left home ALONE! That's right, our mom and dad are somewhere in the Bahamas having a fun filled vacation without us. (Fun filled without us, a contradiction in terms.)
We on the other hand are having a wonderful time! No rules. No bedtime. Ice cream for supper, baths in the kitchen sink, dress up for church, shopping (love wal*mart), 2, sometimes 3 walks in our stroller a day, and our own fisher price app on Grammy's iPad!

Don't you just love auntie noney's new chandelier? I do.

Uncle Gabe drove us around. He's so sweet.

Fall weather in Charlotte. Mom's missing it.

We love the app auntie noney got us!

 Well, maybe there are rules (no knocking each other over and stuff) and bedtime is practically set in stone and mommy made us some really tantalizing dinners but, the other stuff is pretty much true.

We, of course are cuter (way cuter) than we were last week and smarter (way smarter)! We've learned sooo much! You know, stuff like - who we have wrapped around our tiny little fingers, what face says *no thank you or i'll pitch a fit*, how to cry without really crying and how to get what we want with the power of a baby smile.

Grammy bough us some new stride rite shoes...we love them!

We're doing great and loving our tiny 11 month old lives! We can do this! (Only 2 more days!)
                               Mommy's Guest Bloggers,
                                                       Charleigh and Logan


P.S. Love you Mom! Hurry home...and don't forget to bring Dad!

bahamas

*I wrote this on our flight down to the Bahamas on Friday but forgot to post it. That's what pure and utter freedom from responsibility does to you. It just makes you almost lose your mind...

My toes are ready for the Bahamas. But my heart is not. Oh, I forgot to mention we are goingonatripandleavingthegirls? That's because, if maybe I don't say it, it won't be true. When we started planning this trip 9 months ago, it seemed like a good idea. Leave the babies with my mom and sister and enjoy some time with Paul's family. We figured they'd be almost 11 months and we'd be ready. I am not ready. I know they will be just fine but I don't know if I will. People keep saying it will be a nice break for me but, the thing is, I don't feel like I need a 'break' from my babies. {Well, maybe like a 15 minute one where I can use the bathroom, maybe read a chapter in a book, or paint my nails without fearing that one of them has crawled into a highly un-baby-proofed area where they will, without a doubt, find an electrical outlet, find something to eat off the floor (even if it's just been vacuumed) or courageously climb...anything that can possibly be climbed.}

Actually leaving them wasn't the hard part. It felt like I was going to the store or running some errands. Except then I got on a plane to fly 700 miles away from them. And, since then, P-dubs and I have been those people who get away from the kids and then only talk about the kids. 'I think Charleigh's hair is going to look like that little girl's.' 'Do you hear that baby? She sounds just like Logan.' And those people who look at pictures of their kids they just left two hours ago. And those people who are already hanging on every little update from home and then chuckle about it again 20 minutes later. {Our babies are hilarious, don't ya know.} We are lame like that. But that's ok with me. I know we'll have fun and enjoy time with each other. So. Much. Time. But if Logan even  starts walking while we're gone or Charleigh starts standing on her own without me, I may never let them leave my sight again. Not even for kindergarten. Or college. 

So,Grammy and Aunty Noney, if my children achieve any major milestones while I'm gone, please pretend that these things did not happen. And just feign surprise and act thrilled when they do these things in front of me for the first time Friday night. It will bode much better for the sisters' future social lives. And for the little, tiny part of my heart I did not leave in Charlotte. 

walkers: full circle

{Blurry iPhone pictures but precious to my heart anyways.}

'Hey. How come hers doesn't light up and sing songs?'

'I have a turtle one, too. Wanna try it?'

'What? She wasn't talking to me?'

'Let's race!...you're going the wrong way...'

'But I'm still beating Gigi!'

{For the record, Gigi would like a rematch.}

twenty-nine

I have almost zero recollection of my birthday last year. I do know I looked a little something like this and thankles (thigh ankles) were in my near future.

{September 25, 2011

32 weeks

The Beautiful Mess}

 P-dubs looked like this: 

??????

{TBM}

 I can't remember much of my actual birthday. My last before I became a mom. But I know I'll remember a few things from this one. My first as a mom.

  

- A quick goodbye/happy birthday kiss and he's off to work too hard to treat his three girls too good.
- Starbucks in the pouring rain from a sister who's the best friend I don't deserve.

- Nearly identical 'sleepy songs' from a car seat filled back seat.

- Beets and sweet potatoes.

- A 'Happy Birthday' from my mom and a 'Happy Birthday' to my mom. Because now I understand how she treasures her children's birthdays more than any other day.

-Four little hands pulling on my skirt clamoring to be picked up.
- A surprise mani/pedi with a best friend who is a sister to my heart. With Starbucks. All arranged by my husband. 

-Bad tomatoes, a fly in the sweet tea, and a hilarious upscale dinner.

- A whisper-yelled 'Surpise' from a kitchen full of family trying not to wake the sleeping sisters. 
-A happiest of birthdays to begin my last year in my twenties. 

The birthday (husband) that just keeps on giving. Strawberries and Nutella the morning after. He knows me. For real.

nine months

Nine months...

My Little Lam(lam)

14 pounds, 10 ounces

27 inches

My Sweet Peach

15 pounds, 14 ounces

26 and 3/4 inches

one month

two months

three months

four months

five months

six months

seven months

eight months

thursday things

1.  I have a slight obsession with Jim 'n' Nicks Chopped Southern Salad. There was a point right before we moved where I got it at least once a week for lunch because a.) when you add pulled pork and barbecue ranch, it is just so dang good, b.) it has a drive-thru, and c.) it comes with two of those itty, bitty cheesy rolls that I'm sure will be served in heaven in copious amounts. I'm craving one now but we are just far enough away from Jim n' Nick's now to make me rethink it and make my own lunch. P-dubs is happy about that.

2. I joined Pinterest. What?!? And have since wasted my life away looking at a million ideas for closet organization, a hundred work-outs that I will never do, and ten-thousand different recipes for pumpkin pancakes/muffins/doughnuts/anything you can put pumpkin in and make it better {pretty much everything}.

It has the oddly dual effect of inspiring me while at the same time making me feel so utterly uncreative/overwhelmed/completely inadequate. But I love it. I'm one of those who holds out on the thing everyone is doing {Facebook, Instagram, etc.) until the last possible minute and then I become the president of the Fan Club of Pinterest/Facebook/Instagram. 

Since our move, I was in the habit of getting on my sister's Pinterest and Evernote-ing (?) things which is just silly because pinning the ideas would have been much faster and more easily accessible. So I caved, weak person that I am. If you have Pinterest find me! Because I would love to spend way too many minutes looking at your recipes, quotes, cute animal pictures, photo ideas, holiday must-do's....hmm. Maybe don't find me. Like I said. I am weak.

3. Someone in our little house has decided it's a good idea to start sucking her thumb. Just in the past two days. When she was tiny and I wanted her to learn to self-soothe by sucking a finger she would have none of it. It was the paci or nothing. 

Let's not make this a habit, hmmm? 

4. Someone else has mastered the stairs! She's the stair-master. And much like her sister, she has developed a bad habit--where she bites/licks each step on the way up. So funny. So strange. Does she think it helps her? Does it taste good? I guess we'll never know.

I don't have a picture of her climbing the stairs that isn't ridiculously blurry but I DO have this hilarious picture of her with a puff stuck to her face. She ate her whole dinner like that. 

5.  Much like my indifference to getting the internet up and running in the new house, I feel the same about cable. I don't have it on during the day (except for to watch Live with Kelly and Michael) and, if it's on at any other point, there is a 99.99999% chance it is on ESPN or some sporting event. Actually, with the new fancy trial package or whatever it is, we had the chance to watch Hard Knocks about the Miami Dolphins' training camp. As far as I can tell it is pretty much like the Real Housewives of New Jersey (or wherever) except with grown men playing a game. All the gossip and hear-say and hurt feelings and disappointments and 'he's overweight' and 'we're gonna let him have it and see what he's made of' until he throws up a lot. Oh wow. But it sucked me right in and made football immensely more interesting. I guess I just need a little personal/relationship drama with my NFL. 

6.  Speaking of my friend, Kelly Ripa--Michael Strahan is the new co-host. I'll be honest I was rooting for Nich Lachey. I just love him and think he was done wrong by that Jessica Simpson character.  But Michael is really funny and I think it's hilarious how Kelly looks miniature next to him. That would be like if I hung out with my 7'3" sweetheart of a brother-in-law everyday. I would feel miniature. Every day. 

7.  I met up with Warner today to see her new classroom. And then we walked around Baxter Village with the girls and bought cupcakes. Word on the street is that this place was on some food network's Cupcake Wars and won. I will have to investigate that rumor further. 

The lumpy looking one is malted milk ball. It doesn't really look as pretty as the other ones but it's probably the best.