Why go out when you can stay in?

We didn't want to buy the butterfly Barbie we saw on our movie the other day, so I cut out some cardboard wings and we colored them. I think it looks pretty white trash, especially considering Adri's final touch - taking off Barbie's pants. Why do little girls insist Barbie's don't need their clothes??




Jason is getting old (or as he says, “awesome”). This is manifest by the fact that his friends are starting to turn 30. We both feel old because we don’t really get out of the house anymore for dates and our only attempt last month was thwarted by our niece, Madison. You may feel bad for her because she fell off of the bed and broke her collar bonethat night, but you should really feel bad for us. We were planning on her mom, Loni ,to be our babysitter. We left the girls with Loni’s babysitter, an unwitting friend who took in our other niece, Alli, on short notice because we were already on our way out. We tried to attend a 30th birthday party for Jason’s friend but only got to stay about an hour until we were told we needed to pick up our girls. Maybe one day Gramma Nancy will stop making other plans on the nights she says she can baby sit and THEN Jason and I can go out again. Just kidding, no hard feelings :o) So, instead of going out, we stay in. We rent movies from Redbox at least twice a week and consider that a pretty good time.

Click here to check out a Redbox site where we get codes for free movies.

The girls don’t seem to mind that we have to spend all of our time with them. They are constantly finding cute and/or funny things to do in order to convince us that there is nothing in the world as entertaining as them thus there is no reason to ever leave them. Adri has learned how to play hide and seek although she isn’t very creative about the ‘hiding’ aspect of it all. She will frequently hide in the same place over and over and, when it’s my turn to hide, she will tell me where I am supposed to hide. She is good at counting to ten but is always worried she has left a number out so she will usually count from one to ten, then she’ll start to come out and look only to run back to her counting place to say “and five!” She has stopped taking naps and we are still adjusting to having an earlier bed time to compensate. She is doing well but sometimes I think it throws off her potty training. She loves her sister and is very protective of her. When someone stops us in the grocery store to say hi to the baby Adri will immediately jump in front of her and say in a loud voice, “That’s my baby Jewy-et sisser!” She will shout this at me too if she sees me pinning Juliet down to use the nasal aspirator on her. Let’s be honest, that’s really not a fun time for any of us.

Adri helps me sew a dress (the sheet from out family picture still hanging from the ceiling)

Tinkerbell helps clean the windows

Juliet is striving to keep up with Adri’s accomplishments. Last month she learned to wave – she loves that baby in the mirror who always waves back. She learned to sit up and, shortly thereafter, started crawling. A week later she could pull herself up on any piece of furniture she could get her hands on. Such things have made me realize that I need to reevaluate my baby proofing techniques. She is also starting to imitate sounds that we make. Adri taught her how to blow a raspberry and she loves to make a smacking sound with her lips as if she is giving a kiss. Her most recent accomplishment is shaking her head 'no.'

Happy to eat soda crackers

Our favorite time of day is when Daddy comes home. Juliet gets so excited, and now she can crawl to him while squealing with delight. Adri learned the “I’m so glad when Daddy comes home” song but she repeatedly changes the words to “I clap my hands and shout for Joyce.” Joyce is my mom and, if you don’t know what ‘joy’ is, well I guess Joyce is a good substitute.

Jason still loves his job but he’s been a big help to me too. He’s getting all sorts of new projects at work and he rescues me from the girls when I really need a break. I didn’t know that melt downs were common in mommies but I found that out after having one myself last week. Everyone says it’s normal so I think I’m okay to have a few more kids. We give Jason a break every once in a while by treating him to a pedicure. The picture below is when Adri decided to join him.




As for the kids we have now, I finally got everyone to hold still long enough to take a family picture. I hung a sheet from the ceiling and set our camera on timer mode. Not all of the pictures were great but I think it turned out pretty nice considering what I had to work with! And, yes, that is me in the picture. I cut about 12 inches off of my hair a few weeks ago. I am now familiar with the necessity for the ‘mom haircut’. I love mine so don’t make fun.

My souvenir from Supercuts