Friday Fun Day

Just in case you were ever wondering what you would have looked like in yearbooks of times past, feel free to check it out at www.yearbookyourself.com. SO FUNNY!

1952

1962

1976

My personal favorite - 1986

1994

Hope everyone has a wonderful Friday!

Army of One

***UPDATED with video***

Belle has recently been going through the rigors of boot camp. She is trying desperately to demonstrate herself as Private Belle, Army of One. Her first newly acquired boot camp skill is: army crawling. Today I was reading while we were playing on the floor and she really wanted my book. Every time I pushed it a little bit away she would army crawl right to it. She got about five feet before looking up at me like "could you just let me have the book". She gets pretty frustrated and so I have a feeling that any day now she will be really "on the move".

This was taken from today. Please excuse the outift, Belle's jeans were in the dryer afer a water incident.

Private Belle has a second boot camp skill. She is practicing covert operations. Shall we demonstrate.

My how much larger your bottom has become Belle!

I mean seriously child, do you have a "growth"?
Oh, I see you are trying to smuggle your ducky into your crib via your jammies.

After Belle's bath, she tends to be a little fussy through getting dried off and dressed. Mark is the dryer and dresser and we give her various toys or paci's to keep her entertained while he carries out her duties. After Mark had snapped her up, I heard him dying laughing in her bathroom. Somehow he had snapped her ducky up in her jammies with her. We were literally rolling we were both laughing so hard! This precious little girl will always keep us on our toes, and our house will surely be anything but dull!

P.S. Mark notified me later that this was not the first time Belle had gotten a toy/paci snapped up in her jammies with him! :)

Well... It Sure Sounded Great

Have you ever come across a recipe that just sounded so wonderful? This week I came across a recipe for these cute little truffles made with cake and icing. I guess I should have been a little suspicious that they were called "Cake Balls". In hindsight, that is where I went wrong. They looked so easy to make, and the majority of the 279 reviews talked about how incredible they were. Well 2 hours later, my kitchen looks like I decided to remodel with chocolate. The mess is now cleaned up and the disaster is safely in the trash.

I will finish with a Public Service Announcement: Whenever a recipe is titled Cake Balls it is probably not going to be a real winner!

Seven Months and Counting

Warning - extremely long post ahead.

Happy 7-Month Birthday Sweet Girl!!! 5 more months and you can actually eat the cake too!
You are growing and changing so much. You have become so active and your personality is shining through. (Please excuse the sumo wrestler diaper style we have going. Belle is too long for the size ones but really too small for a two. We go with the two and they just look super goofy.)
Sitting with daddy while he is studying for school.
Such a daddy's girl. Her face lights up when she hears the garage door open in the evenings because she knows it means that daddy is home. It is so sweet to watch the biggest smile spread across her face.

Learning to "stand" more and more.

We are still working on sitting up, but her pediatrician says this may take a bit longer since she is still pretty tiny.

Belle is not cuddly at all. At night sometimes she falls asleep while eating, and I cherish this moment when she snuggles into my neck and I can feel her sweet little breath. Probably my favorite moment when it comes around.

Belle is very perplexed by clapping. She makes the funniest faces when someone claps near her.

Crawling is just around the corner.



I love to hear her sweet giggle. She thinks people saying "boo" is hilarious.

Check out the pictures of the twins in the post below (if you have made it this far)!

Introducing...

Jake Thomas

born at 12:25 pm

6 pounds 1 ounce

18 inches

Mallory Claire

born at 12:26 pm

4 pounds 12 ounces

17 3/4 inches long

Two little snuggle bunnies

Product Junkie

Once you get over the initial shock that I am posting yet again... I have some new favorites to share with you all.

In no particular order
1. Mrs. Meyers Cleaning Products in Lavender and Baby Blossom Scent. These products are not only safe in the home, but they smell excellent. I am not one to really enjoy cleaning, but the products smell so good that I actually want to clean. Mom, it is a miracle! The only downside is they are harder to come by in stores. I have found them at Fresh Market and Bed Bath and Beyond, but the selection is rather limited. Happy Cleaning!!
2. Nic's Sticks. I love to have painted nails. Unfortunately with nursing painted nails are frowned upon, so with the time it takes to get my nails just right it is honestly not worth it. These sticks are so quick and easy. I am not great at "coloring between the lines" when it comes to nail painting and these are pretty much flawless for me. They come in a wide variety of colors. The best thing I like about them is that they are small enough to pop in your purse for quick touch ups. Check out my hands folks because they might have painted nails a little more often thanks to these little gems making it quick and easy. I was able to find them in store at Ulta and Super Target.
3. Sally Hansen Diamond Strength Nails. In the spirit of all things nail color...I have been on the quest for a TRULY chip free nail polish for my toes. In my own very scientific experiment I have found this to hold up and last the longest. The polish is a little on the thicker side which makes it look slightly more like you got a pedicure.
4. Oil of Olay Thermal Pedicure. While we are on feet lets keep the ball rolling. With a seventh month old, getting to go out and get a regular pedicure is well...next to impossible. This in-shower foot scrub is awesome and works great to soften the skin and remove calluses.
5. Archer Farm's Spearmint Water. While some might find this gross, others like me find it absolutely wonderful. Every time I take a sip I want to scream out "refreshing". This is definitely better served chilled, and is a perfect drink for those hot summer days.

I hope you enjoy these as much as I have!!

I'll post Belle's 7-month pictures on Saturday night and some pictures of the twins too!

I'm Going to be an Aunt... times two!

I know, I know, long time no post. We have been so busy around here lately. I am leaving this Thursday to go to Dallas for the birth of my niece and nephew. I am very excited about being there for this exciting event in our family. It will be so awesome to finally meet sweet Mallory and Jake. I know that Justin and Allison are full of excitement and anticipation. Please be praying for a safe delivery and that the babies will be healthy. I will try to post this weekend if I get a moment. On Saturday, I will post Belle's 7-month picture.

Attention, Attention, Read All About It

Since I posted such a cute video of little Belle yesterday, I thought I would post something a little more serious today. I want to let all you moms out there in on a little secret I discovered this weekend. When we were registering for Belle's arrival we selected a set of bottles that we had heard rave reviews about. After using them for a few weeks we started hearing all the scary news about BPA in bottles. I waited and waited and dear Dr. Browns finally started making a BPA free plastic bottle. I put myself immediately on the waiting list, and a month later I was the proud owner of some safer plastic.
Unfortunately, this left me with 12 bottles sitting around that I would not be using ever again. That is where my little discovery comes in to play. Babies R Us will exchange BPA free bottles with the bottles you have at home (that are proud members of the unsafe plastic family). You do not have to have a receipt. The only requirements is that Babies R Us sell that brand of bottle, they must be clean, and all parts must be present. They will do an even exchange within the same brand, or you can exchange for a different brand and pay the difference. This means if you had Avent bottles and hated them (since they leak like crazy) you could exchange for Dr. Browns or Born Free and only pay the difference. They are not advertising this and there is no end date yet. Even if your baby is off bottles now go ahead and exchange because you can have the safe bottles for the next baby. So go forth and exchange!

Make You Wanna Jump, Jump

Belle has played in this jumper for quite some time now. All of the sudden yesterday she realized that it is meant to jump in. She has just taken off and goes wild! Now when we hold her up to stand she just tries to jump. Apparently everything is meant for jumping now. This video is so cute and shows how happy she really is. Enjoy and excuse my silly voice, but she had me laughing so hard.