GASP.....A new blog post!!

Wowsa!! May? Really? That was the last time I did a blog post on here? Well that's just shameful and I am very sorry but holy busy whirlwind couple of months we have been having around here!

So to bring you up to speed...Yes we moved in, we went on our annual summer trip back to Luverne and snuck a little trip to the beach in there too. Lot's of fun was had by all and the boys continued their love for the sand on the beach and their total disdain for the ocean or gulf water! Weird to me because they are all about some pool action!

My business has been booming and that has a lot to do with why there has not been a blog post recently. I feel like any downtime I have I am editing pictures, posting those and then the cycle just starts back up again. The sessions seem to come in waves...like a ton of them all together and then like 2-3 weeks with nothing then another boom. I guess that's just how the business works I suppose.

The boys have been growing and changing soooo much lately. Carter is full on talking and repeating EVERYTHING I say it seems. (no bad words yet thank GOD!) They have been loving the playground across the street a lot and the weather is finally cooling off a wee bit so it's not too bad at night. We of course have been doing our usual play dates but those have even slacked off a little because everyone has been so busy this summer and some of my mom friends have gone back to work:( Makes me sad that my day is not far off (well a few years)! I rejoined a local gym finally...yes much needed... and the boys have been going to the kids club while I work out. They love going there and always have a great time and it gives me a little "ME" time even if it's only for an hour and a half, it's still my time to myself and I love it!

On the gym note...my friend Amber and I have decided to train for our first half marathon. I know I'm a lunatic because the last long race I did was a 10K and I wanted to DIE after that but it was July in Atlanta in 100% humidity so that MAY have had something to do with it. We will be running the Disney Princess Half Marathon in February so there is plenty of time to get in gear! I just hope I can finish the damn thing without being picked up by the pace car people.!! haha!!

I will leave you with a few pics from our Sea World trip over the weekend. The boys had a blast...much more into it since the last trip we made in January. It was nice because we got there around 9:30 and left right at noon...it was plenty of time to see all of the exhibits just didn't make it to any shows this time but next time that will be our goal.

How to Survive a Move with Two 2 Year Olds and A Traveling Husband

Number 1. Have an amazing Dad that watches your two 2 year olds every weekend for almost an entire month
Number 2. Have AMAZING friends that give up their precious weekends to help you remodel, paint and move your entire house in a day
Number 3. Have an also amazing Mom who is really good at said painting and paints trim and cut's in like pablo picasso! Oh she and her husband also grout some tile like nobody's business!
Number 4. Have multiple move experience, and when I say multiple moves I mean more moves in the last 15 years to count on 3 hands people!! Ya I can pack a house like you wouldn't believe! I should start another business!
Number 5 and probably the most important of them all....... PATIENCE AND LOTS AND LOTS OF RED WINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whew!! What a crazy ride this whole homeowning thing has been! But I have to say it feels so good to wake up everyday in "OUR" house and to see all of the hard work of the last month really pay off! I actually got that warm fuzzy feeling the first night that I was here looking around at our beautiful home (not much to some but to me it's the best!) I love it all...honestly! I love the new tile, the new colors in almost every room, the new carpet, the new appliances (thank you Craigslist), the new countertop finish, the new ceiling fans, the new light fixtures, the new bathroom vanity and the super cute pottery barn kids shower curtain that I've been eyeing for over a year not needing a shower curtain and being very sad about it. (old house had shower doors). I love that the boys new room is going to be thier big boy football house divided inspired room. I love the gallon and a half of Navy Blue paint that I had to apply to HALF of the boys wall!! Lesson learned...PRIME the walls ANDREA!!! I love the Alligator themed bathroom..sorry no Elephants in here!! LOL! I even love my super cluttered guest room/office space just because!!

I know most of the people that helped us don't read this but I also know that most of my family does and I am so grateful for everything that each and every one of them have done. If it weren't for my Dad I'm not sure how all of this would have gone down. If it weren't for my Mom our ceilings would have paint all over them and our baseboards would look like pooh. Oh and Daryl would probably still be laying grout! If it weren't for my insanely handy sister in law April poor Daryl would probably still be tiling too!!! LOL!!

There are pics on C & C's Shutterfly share site over to the right of the page if anyone is interested!!! I'm so glad that it's all over...NO WAIT...it's only just begun.... Poor Daryl's honeydew list is getting pretty long:)

Our House.....

A few months back I had posted that we put an offer in on a house. Well that one didn't work out but another house in the same neighborhood did and we are now homeowners!! Woohoo!! We actually closed a little over two weeks ago but I am just now getting around to posting about it!

it was a bank owned home so it needed a little work and some updating that seems to be taking over our lives as we know them! We decided to re tile the kitchen and the guest bath, with the master bath waiting until next year sometime. We have also painted every room except the living room/foyer/great room area because I actually like the color in there. And of course we have had to replace just about every chandelier and ceiling fan since they are all pretty much straight out of the 1980's! The yard needs a ton of work and we still have to redo the kitchen counter tops and install the new bathroom vanity...all before May 23rd..Moving Day! Oh I guess I forgot to mention that Daryl will be going out of town, AGAIN, FOR A WEEK!!! AAAAGGGG!!! So we are running out of time to get all of this done! Oh and I forgot the new carpet that has to be installed as well!! Luckily there is only carpet in the bedrooms and the dining room which will become a playroom instead! I'm ecstatic about the boys having an actual playroom instead of my entire living room being taken over with toys! Oh and there are no stairs....ALLELUIA!! No more lugging the boys up and down, no more worrying that they will fall on the stairs, and no more laundry upstairs!

We are definitely learning a lot of things about home improvement! I'm starting to get on a first name basis with all of the Home Depot employees! Not something one should brag about though!

I keep being asked for pics and trust me I have some pics (of course I do right?) but I am not posting any pics until I have the "after" pics to show how it is all supposed to look! So bare with me a couple more weeks and I will have something to show you!

Happy 2nd Birthday Boys!

Where have the last two years gone? How did my little tiny preemies turn into these super cool little "boys"? :::sighs:::

We celebrated with a great MIckey Mouse themed party at one of our favorite parks here in town. All of the boys twin buddies came to celebrate along with other friends and family that made the day special too! My dad, or as the boys and Hayden like to call him, "Rock" got the boys a bounce house for their party and that was a huge hit with all of the kiddos, except Cam and Carter! Figures!! Then we had a suprise visit from the Fire Department! No need to worry though, my friend's husband is a Firefighter and he came by to say hi and show the kids the truck! No emergencies!! haha!! After the party we went back to our house to open all of our goodies! The boys of course got a ton of great stuff! Some of the things they got were puzzles, books, bubble machines, PJ's, clothes, Thomas the Train stuff, playdoh, Mickey Mouse stuff and lot's of gift cards to Toys R Us!

Then on Sunday we ventured out to Disney for the very first time with the boys! I have to say I was very nervous and stressed about the whole idea of taking them to Disney. The boys are very hot and cold with things like that. Sometimes they love it, and well most of the time they hate it! But today they LOVED it! We didn't start out too hot though. While we were waiting for our friend Gina to get us in (her hubby works there and has free passes) the boys had a total random freak out! Screaming like crazy kicking in the stroller! I was not happy. But once we got into the park they did amazing!!

We took everyones advice and headed over to Fantasyland first to knock out all of the kiddie rides that get busy during the day. It was perfect! Hardly any lines at all! We hit Small World, The Caraousel and the Teacups all before lunch. After lunch we went on The People Mover (I know this is not the name now but when I was a kid that's what it was called) then headed over to check on the line at the Jungle Cruise. While we waited for our fast pass time we hoped on Alladin's Magic Carpets. THis is basically just like Dumbo only 4 people can ride instead of just two. The boys loved that one! After that I had decided I really wanted to take them on Pirates of the Carribbean! I know you would think I'm crazy but I thought what the heck! I always rode it everytime I ever went to Disney as a kid so why not start the tradition with my boys? Well they did ok, but not great! It's a little dark and scary for them so I wouldn't recommend it for two year olds!! haha! After that we went over to Mickey's Toon Town and let the boys run around, or at least stand around. They were exhausted by this point and really just stood there at the play area! So we decided to make our way towards Main Street to hop on the train that goes around the entire park for our last ride. They liked it but like I said, they were so tired I don't think they even realized they were on a train!

Before we left I had to get the boys their very first personalized Mickey Mouse Ears! They were not interested in them whatsoever...shocking I know! We had to take the monorail back to Epcot because we had parked over there so that Gina could meet us to get us in. On the ride back Carter fell asleep in my arms, which made me very happy because he hasn't done that in about a year! Cam zonked out in the stroller and missed the entire ride home!

I have updated CAm and Carter's shutterfly share site if you want to see all of the pics from the last two days. The link is over to the left of the page. I will be adding more pics to that site in the next few days so stay tuned for more:)

All in all I think the boys had an amazing birthday weekend! Thank you to all of our friends and family that celebrated with us and made the weekend even more special!

Happy Birthday Cameron and Carter!

CHOO-CHOO!!!!!!

For most of the day yesterday that was just about all you heard from Cameron and Carter! Yesterday was our big Day Out With Thomas the Train! We had to get up super early since we had to be in Tampa by 8:45am for our 9:45 train ride. I am so glad we did it early because when we got off of our train ride it was crazy crowded!

When we arrived the whole place looked like someone threw up Thomas the Train! LOL!! There was train stuff everywhere! The boys went straight for the train table tent and spent a good part of the morning playing there. They also had an activity tent with trains in the sand, sand boxes, and some kind of painting arts and crafts (stayed far away from that part..lol) There was also bounce houses, ball pits, story telling and a hay ride.

The boys had such a good time. The only meltdown we had was when we had to pull them away to go get in line for our actual train ride....they were having too much fun playing with all of the other stuff! We sat in an open air car so the boys could see out really well. Cam seemed to love the train ride and Carter was a little unsure about it. It took about 10 minutes for Carter to loosen up on the actual ride itself.

Dad of course had to get all of the boys their official Day with Thomas t-shirts as well as a couple of other souvenirs! $70 later we had shirts,bowls and an official Thomas train whistle!

After the festivities we met up with some of the "coasties" part of my family for lunch at P.F. Changs. That was, well, an adventure to say the least. They boys had been up since about 6am, no nap and had been totally overloaded with activities so by the time we sat down for lunch they were spent. Lunch was not fun but it was great to see my family:)

It was a great day and I can't wait to take the boys next year!

Happy Easter 2010

Well we had a very busy Easter weekend! It started out on Friday when I met up with a few of my twin mama friends at a local park for a huge Easter Egg hunt! I was hesitant to do this solo but everyone else was going so I thought what the heck! We even practiced egg hunting during the week! Well as expected, Cam loved it and Carter, well Carter hated it! I literally chased him all over the park begging him to take his basket to get some eggs! NOPE...not having it! Luckily my friend Amber joined us and her daughter is older so she was able to help me!

On Saturday we had my Dad, Grandma, Brother, Sis in Law and my nephew Hayden over for Daryl's world famous smoked ribs! WE were also able to take them over to see the new house and everyone really liked it!

Then on Sunday we headed over to my Mom's which is a bit of an Easter tradition for us. We always do brunch and a Easter Egg hunt there as well. That hunt went over just about as good as the first one! LOL!

The Easter Bunny was very good to the boys too! They each got a Mr. Potato Head, new toothbrushes, Peeps, new hot wheels cars, Thomas the train take along train, books, bubbles and a fun Egg light up toy.

It was a great weekend for our family and I hope it was for yours as well:)

Day Out with Thomas!

I am so excited I can't stand it!! I was looking around one of my favorite message boards and saw that Thomas the Train was coming to Tampa! Last time I had checked a few months back the closest location was Miami and there was no way in hell I was driving 4 hours to see a train. Especially with the boys being so young and the possibility of them not really being into it! But then when I saw it was only an hour and a half drive I was sold!

For a whopping $20 per person (thank God kids under two are free) you get a 25 minute ride on a real Thomas the Train as well as lot's of other activities for the kiddos! My Dad, Brother, Sis-in Law and nephew Hayden will be joining us for the day as well! We are going next weekend so be sure to check back for the pics and update on how the boys do!

So You Think You Can Dance?

Just some fun in the backyard

The weather is FINALLY warming up around these parts! Which to me is just crazy to say because hello it's Florida right? Well apparently we have had the coldest March on record and trust me...it was! WE are back into the high 70s now and the boys are loving our backyard time! Mom loves it to except that I have to "scoop" the yard before we go out everyday. (two dogs with lots of bodily waste).

This is where we sit out and watch the airplanes, listen to our neighbors (lol) and watch the birds fly over! They are definitely outdoors men in training. (that will make Daryl's family very happy)

Knock Knock....anyone here?

WOW is all I can say!! No update in almost 2 months? I am sooo ashamed!! You know what the biggest problem with my blog is now? It has toooo much competition! Between the boys, buying a house and my work picking up I just don't have any free time to "blog"!! I feel horrible about it actually. This blog has been such a great way to chronicle the boys lives over the last two years and slowly but surely it's getting less and less "updates". I want to be better, no I will be better about it! I swear!

I really don't even know where to begin really because it's been so long! So I will just give you a run down of the things we have been doing lately!

March has been full of birthday party after birthday party! And most of them have been twin birthdays so that has meant double gifts! Not to worry though, I budgeted for the month of March a long time ago! We have been insanely busy just about every weekend! If we didn't have a party to go to I had a photo shoot or something! That's actually been great because the business is really kicking into gear and I am just thrilled!

The downside to running a photography business is my picture taking of my own kids has really dwindled! I mean BADLY!! It's awful and you would think I would use them as models for practice, and don't get me wrong I do, but just not near enough! I think the last pics I took was in February!! GASP!!!!

The boys are growing and it's happening waaayy to fast! The personalities are constantly changing and shining through! Their vocabulary is also growing everyday. WE are onto two word phrases now so that's good! I get a lot of "Was that" or if you ask Carter where his brother is he points to Cam and says "Rite derr" (aka right there). They also love to say "I see" whenever they see something! They love dogs and point out every dog we see. They are obsessed with the airplanes that fly over the house but they still can't say that one yet. I get a tongue twisted version of it so it just comes out like a spit!

They are still in love with all thing Thomas the Train but not as obsessed as they were back around December. (Thank God!!)

We have done lot's of new activities over the past month or so including a local puppet show which the boys really enjoyed! They really like going to the store now and they want to ride in the carts, not the stroller! Which is fine because I am sooo over lugging a stroller around!

We are also getting ready for their second birthday party! How is that possible? Ugh! We are doing a Mickey Mouse theme since we will also be taking the boys to Disney for the first time the day before their birthday!

On a family side note we have found a house and are set to close on April 30th! We are soooo excited! So if you think I was bad about blogging recently just wait until we actually get the keys to the house and move in. You can imagine we will be spending every waking moment fixing and redoing the house!

That's about it for now. I have a ton of videos that I am going to try and get uploaded sometime this week or weekend! They are hilarious and I'm sure you will enjoy!

Sea World

After many failed attempts to go to Sea World these past few weeks, we finally managed to get out there on Sunday!! My grandma gave all of us annual passes for Christmas this year! How great is that?

The boys did great, they seemed to enjoy looking at all of the animals but they weren't all about touching anything! We made the mistake of not getting there until 11ish so that meant that the boys skipped thier naps on Sunday but even with that they still did pretty good! They loved looking at the sea lioins which they kept calling dogs! I think because they had whiskers and noses that sort of resembled a dog's face I guess...who knows!!??

We skipped the shows this time since it was more of a scouting trip for me. I say scouting because I wanted to see what I could do if I didn't have any help with me! When my Mom's group meets we all have two kiddos so we aren't any help to each other really!! LOL!!

All in all it was a great day and can't wait to go back for some more fun!

Merry Christmas...only 3 weeks late!

Well now I am getting emails from my mom asking about an update and yes she is right...I really need one! Although I am not sure where to start! I guess we will start with Christmas! We did Christmas Eve at my mom's house which is a family tradition. Then we hosted Christmas Breakfast with my Dad, Grandma, Bro, Sis-in law and my nephew. After that we took naps (all of us) and headed over to my brothers for his annual Christmas festivities. Then the day after Christmas we packed up the car and headed out to Alabama for the weekend to see Daryl's family! Quite a whirlwind couple of days there!

The boys of course made out like bandits! They are very into Thomas the Train now so they got a lot of Thomas stuff! New trains, toys, Thomas Pj's..the works! They also got Cozy Coupes, ride on four wheelers, a new table to eat/play at and much much more!

Once all the hustle and bustle of the holidays had calmed down we put an offer in on a house! Yay! The only thing is it's a short sale so we basically have to just sit and wait for the bank to decide if they like our offer! It's so annoying just sitting here waiting and if they say no we are back to square one! The house is great! It's in a great neighborhood, in the area that we want to be in and the deal we would be getting would knock your socks off! So please cross your fingers for us! OH and one huge thing about the house....it has a huge separate PLAYROOM!! Woooohooo!! No more toys taking over my living room! Well I know there will still be toys but not to the extent that it is now! I mean I have an train table as an end table people!!

The boys are doing great. Finally getting over a pretty nasty cold that turned into double ear infections for both of them. They were some pitiful little dudes the past couple of weeks! We were stuck in the house on lock down for about a week and a half so you can imagine I was going crazy! This week was the first that we had been out since New Years! Of course I know you all know how cold it has been here for the last 2 weeks. We had snow and sleet last Saturday although I only saw the sleet! Still it has been freaking freezing here! But happy to report that today it will be back into the 70s thank God!!

Here are a few pics from our Christmas break!