Stuffed

We stuffed our weekend full of food & fun & family. Quite a change from last year!

Everyone arrived Wednesday night -- my mom & dad (we missed you Uncle Mark!), Tim's mom & dad and Tim's Aunt Elaine, Uncle Brian, cousin Brian, Jr & Dolly. We began "stuff-your-face-athon 2009" Wednesday night with an array of cheese and my mom's awesome homemade Italian wedding soup. Then we headed out to meet up with some friends for Tim's favorite holiday - Thanksgiving Eve. :)

Thursday we took part in our normal feast, with a few new yummy items added in from the kitchen of chef Tim. The deep fried turkey was awesome as usual, too. We opened up a bottle of wine from our trip and NO ONE GOT SICK THIS YEAR!! Ok, almost no one. Unfortunately my dad was still fighting this nasty bronchitis crap we've all had and he wasn't feeling 100%. But at least he wasn't puking up his meal like last year. Yippee!!

Friday we embarked in our usual favorite sport - Black Friday Shopping!!! Our plan this year was to start at the outlet mall. As you know, I hate people and am not a huge fan of shopping and after looking at all of the ads on Thursday there wasn't anything major we felt like we needed to wait in line for, etc. So we headed out at 5a to arrive at the outlet mall at 6a. Oh it was WONDERFUL! The mall had opened at midnight, so all the crazy peeps had been & gone. We were able to score an awesome parking spot and didn't wait in a line once (shoot . . . I probably shouldn't have shared that. Now our secret "perfect time & place to shop on Black Friday" is out!). The midnight madness sales were still going on through 8a, so we were able to hit up a couple of stores and score. Like Pottery Barn Kids and Kate Spade (where everything was 50% off with another 10% off coupon, which of course I forgot to use. But I still scored a few cool things and my total was under $70!). We spent the rest of the morning hitting up other stores . . . like Stride Rite, where I scored 4 pairs of shoes for B&K for $80!! That is the price of one & a half shoes at the normal store!! I also picked up a couple of gifts for B&K and even brought back a few goodies for Tim!

Friday night we went out to a nice dinner with just the adults and our TN guests left town on Saturday morning. Saturday we relaxed and cleaned up and then hosted a "lets watch Charlie Weis' last game" ND game viewing party. At one point it looked like the "theme" might have been a mistake, but in true ND fashion they pulled out a loss. :)

Sunday was another fun and stuffed day. We went to see the Wildlights at the zoo with our friends. I'll save that for another post.

All in all a very fun long weekend. Of course it still went too fast. Here are a few pictures:

My friend - and fellow twin mom - Sara has stared up a new business. She makes ADORABLE shirts and tutus and party decorations. You have to check out her site: http://peanutandpumpkindesign.blogspot.com/ . I tried to snap some cute pics of B&K in their new shirts, but as you know they are not big into photos. You can go here to get a closer look of the shirts.

Chop Chop, girlie style

We took Bennett for his 3rd haircut and Kendyll for her first a week ago Saturday (11/14). Kendyll HATES to have any type of clippie or bow or pony tail in her hair, so the time had come to properly trim her bangs and get rid of her baby mullet. And God Bless the person who created Cookie Cutters hair place . . .the ladies who work there are angels! I only had to hold K's head a couple of times to let them work their magic. Of course I don't have any proper "finished" pics, but I'll try to snap one, soon.

Still MIA

Still sick, but on the mend. I went back to the dr this week and was treated to a chest Xray (still *just* bronchitis) and some ridiculously expensive heavy duty antibiotics. Thankfully they are working and finally kicking this cold's ass. Unfortunately, B&K have now brought this full circle. . . we took them back to the pedi again yesterday. Mainly because Kendyll was up coughing all night Friday night and Bennett kept tugging on his ear. He still has an EI and is on a heavier duty antibiotic. . . K looked fine (well except for her nasty cough and constant stream of snot coming from her nose). She was up again last night for a long time. . . poor girl can't breathe through her nose and when she breathes though her mouth it causes her to cough. Plus she can't suck her thumb very well while her nose is all stuffed up, too. I tried propping her bed on one end (and giving her a pillow) but she moves around so much I'm afraid neither helped much. I even tried to sleep with her in our extra room . . . yeah, there is a reason why we have a strict "no babies in the bed" rule in our house (the girl never stopped moving!). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we have a better night tonight.

I wanted to update on a couple of fun things (yes, something up lifting!).

- Bennett took 2 - 3 UNASSISTED steps last Tuesday in PT. He has been trying to pull himself up in the center of the room (read: not holding on to anything), he can stand for a bit without holding on to anything and he is a champ at the push toy now. We're super proud of him!

- Kendyll is a little copy-cat -- in many, many ways. She tries to repeat whatever you say (my favorite: she now goes "YUCK! UCK!! GUCK!!!" whenever I change a diaper). When you ask her a question she likes to reply "sure". She's also saying "B's Shoes" like her friend Ava does every morning (normally while she is attempting to put the shoe on B's foot). But our favorite is this . . . one night Bennett fell backward and hit his head on our wood paneling. He started to cry and I went over to comfort him. Kendyll proceeded to walk over to the wall and hit her own head on purpose. Just for the attention. Now this is a fun game. . . at random points in time she'll go over & fake hit her head (as will B) just for the attention. Little stinkers.

Ok, that's all for tonight. I'm exhausted. I'll try to get pics of Kendyll getting her first haircut up this week. In the meantime here are a couple of random pictures from the past week or so:

Also, if you are the thoughts & prayers kind of person please keep my friend Lisa and my Aunt Cindy in your prayers. Both are in ICU in critical condition and really need all of the prayers they can get. Thank you!

Belated Friday the 13th

Yeah, I know, I know! B & K's 21 mo birthday was last Friday, the 13th. I didn't miss it . . . I just (still!) haven't felt up to doing an update. Ask Tim -- he keeps threatening to admit me (and B&K) to "the TB ward". We had a nice & busy weekend -- we took advantage of the many "Friends & Family" coupons going on right now and spent a little time shopping a bit on Saturday (with 2 grumpy toddlers who hate being in their stroller). B&K got their hair cut (I have pics from K's first hair cut . . . basically just getting rid of her baby girl mullet). We visited with some dear friends of Nana & Papa (both of whom used to send me the nicest cards to brighten my day when I was bedrest -- thanks Pam & Larry!!). And we went to little A's birthday party at this massive indoor playground. Whew! (and yes, I realize that is why I probably still haven't shaken this cough. . . I never slow down!).

I promise to work on a proper update this week. B&K are up to some funny stuff these days . . . new words, playing copy cats, almost walking, being baby geniuses and finally climbing up AND down stuff. I also promise to upload some new pictures . . . but for now I'll share these few that Ashley sent to me from last week (did I ever mention she went to school to be a photographer? Yeah, she's really good!!).

This one is funny -- climbing head first down the space shuttle at the mall play area:

Pueeeeze!!!!!

(that is how Bennett says "please")

There are a LOT of picture / cute kid contests out there. And while I feel like my children are are, of course, the cutest I don't normally enter them into such contests (I mean, how unfair for the other kids, right?). But one of my favorite websites (the "My Favs" button on the left there) is having a fall picture contest. And those adorable pics that Ashley took of B&K in the pumpkins was just too good to pass up! So, due to the contest rules, I flipped a coin and picked Kendyll then chose one of the cutest pics of her to submit.

So I'll ask you now -- PLEASE go vote for Kendyll as Picture of the Week! She is pic # 12 (which happens to be my favorite number -- fate, hmmmm). I will admit, there are LOTS of other cute little ones entered into this contest, but stay focused and vote for #12!! :) Hurry, the contest ends tomorrow at 11:59 pm EST.

<----- You can click the button over there or click HERE to visit the site.

Oh and while you are voting, will you also vote for our friends Anna, Ava & Alexis in the Multiples & More Halloween contest (that is the *other* button over to the left). You can click HERE and vote for #38!! They were dressed as the three little kittens who lost their mittens (they were pinned to their backs - so cute!!). :)

Cough, wheeze, cough, cough

Yeah, notice the lack of updates again. It is because not only do B&K still have their coughs, but Tim, Tabasco and myself have all paid a visit to the dr this week. When Tim started breaking out in random hives for 3+ days straight - on top of his wheezy chest - and I started sounding like I've picked up smoking 3 packs a day we figured it might be time to visit the dr. So we both stayed home from work on Wed. and made appointments. Tim earned himself a chest Xray to check for pneumonia (negative) and I earned a nose swab up to my brain checking for h1n1 (also negative). We both have a nasty case of bronchitis, so we've been drugged up and praying we're a healthy home soon. And poor Tabasco has still been battling his ear issues (which we think are caused by seasonal allergies as he gets this way every fall). He earned a trip to the vet yesterday and thankfully there is just a bit of inflammation (and he is down 8 lbs!). So he also has some new drugs to take. Fun, fun times!

I will do my best to update everyone this week on the cute things B&K are up to these days. Hopefully I'll find some energy this week. In the meantime, here are two cute pics.

{Yes, they have on short sleeves here! The weather has been gorgeous this past week -- which is probably another reason why we can't shake these colds!}



{This pic is a bit blurry, but I had to snap B in his snazzy, preppy outfit today. }

Bah humbug!

You may be asking yourself: "Gee, Sara . . . all of the other cute mommy blogs I read have pictures from Halloween on them. Where are yours?!". Well the answer to that is that we don't have any! Last year we went against our plan and dressed B&K up for Halloween (what a WASTE of money!). This year we stuck to our guns and decided not to torture them with some itchy, hot, ridiculous costume. They wore their pumpkin shirts instead. Next year I'm sure we'll come up with something kick-ass. {and sadly, we've been so busy this year that Tim didn't even get a chance to do any wicked-awesome pumpkin carvings like last year, either}.

But to appease your B&K picture fix, here is a cute pic Ashley snapped as I was getting home on Friday.