What a Great Visit!

No posts from me for over a week because I was having too much fun!  My mother in law (who is like a mother to me!), her husband, Steve, and their 8 year old twins, Kayla and Cameron were here to visit from Alabama!  They got here a week ago Friday and just left this morning.  We were busy, busy every day having lots of fun together.  Mickey was in heaven, loving every minute with her Mom Mom and playing with her 8 year old aunt and uncle!  The day after they got here, we traveled up to Maryland/Delaware to visit some of Mike's family for a few days.  I realized as we got on the freeway that I had forgotten my camera!!!  I was so bummed!  :-(  So, no pictures from the visit, but it sure was nice seeing everyone nonetheless.  We hadn't seen some of them for many, many years!  My personal favorite was our short visit with Mike's Great Great Aunt Bea who is 92 years old.  She is just so cute and so sweet, and funny to boot!  She had several angels figurines and let all the kids pick some out.  Mickey picked out several, and they are now her prized possessions!  It's so cute.

We had a few days of really nice weather and we took advantage!  The first nice day, we took a trip to the Virginia Zoo.  All the kids had a great time!  Mickey was so cute carrying around her new blue pocketbook and wearing her Coral jacket Mom Mom bought her at Target all day.  She and Kayla carried around some flowers that Kayla picked from a tree and wanted to pose for pictures!  It was adorable.  It was a great day!  Here are some pictures.

Mickey sure loves her Mom Mom!

Mickey with Mom Mom and Pop Pop Steve

Mike with his mom and Mickey

The whole crew!

One with me in it for once!

Mickey is just so cute

Silly brothers!

Pop Pop Steve, the wild animal!

This sign describes Mickey quite well!  LOL

The next day was even better, with 80+ degree weather!  So, we packed everyone up, including Izzie, for Carly and Callie's first trip to the beach!  It was the most perfect beach day!  It was just gorgeous and so relaxing.  The kids had such a great time playing and were even crazy enough to brave playing in the ICE COLD water.  We didn't realize just how nice it was really going to be, or we would have put the kids in bathing suits!  Izzie played and played chasing after her ball and was in absolute doggie heaven!  Carly and Callie really enjoyed the fresh air and new scenery.  Poor Callie did a complete face plant off the blanket into the sand, but she made out OK after we cleaned her up!  Here are the beach pictures.

Kayla and Carly - Carly sure loves her Aunt Kayla!

Carly touching Mom Mom's face ♥

Carly and Callie are enjoying the beach!

Carly making a funny face!  LOL

Kayla 

Kayla and Cameron playing in the water

Izzie with her ball!

Izzie Mama lookin' pretty

Haley and Kayla playing

Mickey and Cameron playing

Sherry and Steve

We did a little shopping and had dinner out a few times too while they were here, which was a treat because we rarely go out to eat these days!  We mostly spent our time just enjoying each other's company and playing with Carly and Callie.  It had been nearly 3 years since we had seen Steve and the kids, so it was just so nice to see them again!  Mickey stuck to her Mom Mom's side like glue and is so upset now that she is gone.  She just keeps crying and saying, "I miss Mom Mom."  It's so sad!  :-(  But we are thankful they were able to make the trip out and hope to see them again very soon!  Mike's Mom is so wonderful - she is like a mom to me.  I lover her to pieces and feel so blessed to have her in my life!

We kept so busy that I didn't even stop to pick up the camera much, which I am kicking myself for now!  I realized I didn't even get one single picture of Callie with Mom Mom!  But, here are some other shots from the week nevertheless.

Uncle Cameron in bed with Mike and the twins one morning

Cameron lovin' on Izzie

Steve and Mike put together this swing while they were here and it
is so much fun!  Here is Mom Mom, cool as she is, giving it a whirl!

In other big news, Carly and Callie are starting to eat "real" food!  Carly seems to especially enjoy it, which is funny because she doesn't care too much for baby food.  Mom Mom says she thinks Miss Carly might just skip the baby food and go right to real food.  She might just be right!  She loves crackers, puffs and biter biscuits, and tonight, she ate the crust from my pizza!  I mean she ate the entire thing!  It's impressive!  Miss Callie LOVES oranges, lemons and limes!  She's not too sure about the puffs and biter biscuits just yet though.  Also, you can see the white of their teeth getting ready to pop through on both of their bottom gums! Exciting - it won't be long and they will have teeth!

Now it is time for me to try to get back into the swing of our daily lives.  Getting back to a routine and doing everything on my own again.  My diet was COMPLETELY blown while they were here, but I got right back on with that today.  Now, I need to get back to my working out starting tomorrow and also working on cleaning and organizing again.  There is still SO much to do!  For now, I am exhausted and am looking forward to relaxing and watching some TV with Mike.  :-)

Uninterrupted Sleep

More to come later for today, but I just had to say, here I sit at 8:35am and BOTH Callie and Carly are still sleeping!! They were put in their crib around 10:45 last night and neither woke up last night.  I sure hope this is the beginning of them both sleeping through the night.  Oh how I have missed the nights of uninterrupted sleep!  I'll keep you posted.

My good little babies didn't wake up until about 9:30 this morning!  I am so proud of them!!!  This transition to crib has been so easy - these 2 are just so laid back. SO different from Mickey who lived by her routine of sleeping with Mommy and HAD to be touching me!  :-)  I love coming in to these cute little faces.  ♥

So, today I worked on tackling Haley and Mickey's bedroom.  Poor Haley Bug - the room is pretty much taken over by Mickey!  But, there is a plan in the future for Haley to have her own room again that she can keep nice and have some privacy.  Anyway - it was a DISASTER.  I worked mostly on cleaning up the area around the closets today and just getting it in semi good looking shape because Mom Mom (Mike's mom), his little brother and sister (8 year old twin boy and girl) and stepdad are coming in town for their spring break tomorrow!  We are SO excited to see them and spend some time with them.  Anyway, the room was a complete eyesore, so I wanted to make it look a little more presentable.  These closets need some serious help in the organization department, but hey, at least it's clean now!  The shoes are completely out of control!  But the organization will come on another day.  Here are the before and afters - gosh the pile of toys in front of the closet was ridiculous!!!

Carly was being a little helper.  ♥

Today we got 3 things delivered too.  The second crib mattress so we can get the second crib up in the babies' room and Carly and Callie's new big girl car seats!  I LOVE THEM!  We got the Britax Marathon 70 in Allison print and they are so cute.  They are super easy to put in the car and easy to adjust.  Super thrilled! I think they look pretty cute in them too (even if the lighting is crappy since it was dark already!)  ♥

Well, Mom Mom is already on her way, driving through the night.  We can't wait for them to arrive in the morning! It's been almost 3 years since we saw Kayla and Cameron (Mike's little brother and sister) and Steve, his stepdad.  We are going to be going up to Maryland with them to visit some family, so I will probably miss a few days.  We are so looking forward to seeing everyone though - just can't say it enough!

Oh, and I almost forgot another great thing about today!  The guys from R.S. Andrews came to start installing the new heating/AC unit!  They will be done tomorrow.  It will sure be nice to get rid of these electricity sucking space heaters!  :-)

Migraines Suck

I have had a problem with migraines for years. However, for the last several years they had subsided. For whatever reason, they are back! Today I had my second in less than a month. I hate them - they are so debilitating! Luckily I had already done my workout when I felt it coming on. I started getting spots in my visions, and I knew it was coming. It's definitely time to make an appointment to get my migraine medication again. I am feeling much better now, but I still have that nagging headache that likes to hang around after a migraine.

So, since I was laid up (as much as I can be laid up with 8 month old twins and a very demanding 3 year old!) most of the day, dinner didn't get made today. I had bought this pizza to try because it actually seems pretty healthy! I wasn't too sure how it was going to taste, but it sure sounded good!

Well, let me tell you, it is DELICIOUS!  I was very pleasantly surprised.  I will definitely be buying some more of these!  Thought I would pass along such a great find.

Even though I didn't get to tackle a big project like I had planned today, I did do a mini one when I was feeling a little better this evening.  I went out to get a load of laundry to fold (our laundry room is in the garage) and thought as I looked at all the crap on top of the washer and dryer that this was a project I could handle today!  Super easy, but makes a huge difference.  :-)

Getting all the kiddos ready for bed now so Mike and I can catch up on Biggest Loser!  :-)  I have this problem that by the time I get everyone in bed I can't stay up long enough to watch the shows we have DVRd with Mike!  I know one thing, I am ready for some peace and quiet tonight!

Ok, I had to come back to post what Mickey said as I was putting her in bed.  She needed to pick out a new blanket because hers was in the wash and she picked out the princess one.  She said, "I love princesses!  I don't like nasty things.  I like pretty things."  ♥  She can be so cute sometimes!

My Disastrous Bedroom - Part 1

I have to admit, this one is kind of embarrassing.  Let me explain.  (Not that there is really any excuse for my room to EVER look like this, but still!)  Problem number 1.  My cat, Carina, is a huge scaredy cat.  So whenever someone comes over or she's just feeling the need to be safe, she likes to hide in my dresser drawers. She likes it so much, in fact, that she learned how to open the drawers all by herself to crawl on in whenever she feels the need.  She lays on my clothes and they get cat hair all over them.  YUCK!  This makes me not want to put my clothes in my drawers.  So, I started piling them on top of my dresser.  That got out of hand quickly, so I started folding a lot of my clothes and stacking them at the top of my closet.  Now, enter problem number 2.  I got pregnant with twins and landed myself on bedrest for 8 weeks.  Reaching to the top of my closet wasn't happening!  So, the clothes began piling up again.  I have been a little overwhelmed/busy learning to juggle this new crazy life, so it wasn't high on my priority list to clean it up!  That all changes now.  :-)  Talk about feeling like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders - WOW!  My dresser is clean and the little area next to my side of the bed too.  I still need to find a place for the box of books and the box of DVDs and CDs, but at least it is clean and looks a lot better!  Now, just the other half of the room and the 2 closets to go!  So, here are my rather embarrassing before and afters from today.  I'm being real here - this is what my house has become!  But I'm fixing it one step at a time.  :-)

(Notice the old dresser that is buckling in the middle!

I'm waiting for the day when it finally just splits in half!  LOL)

I love that Mickey is chillin' on the bed eating carrots as I work!

And here are some fun pictures from today.  Callie was laying in the floor playing with Izzie - just like her big sister, Haley, Callie LOVES the animals!  It's so cute.  ♥  (Excuse the crappy phone pictures!)

Then I saw Carly looking so sweet and cute as she lay in the floor drinking her bottle like a big girl while I helped Callie who still constantly drops her bottle when she tries to feed herself.  What a sweet little baby.  ♥

Today was also a huge milestone for me and the twins!  I bathed them TOGETHER by myself for the first time!  They are sitting up well enough now that I can do it.  It is quite hectic with getting them both out, dried and dressed, but it sure beats the bath one, then bath the next ordeal we've been doing!  They are so cute!

And because a picture just doesn't capture the cuteness, here is a little video!

I also did my workout this morning, in spite of a slightly injured foot.  Not sure what I have done to it, but I'm hoping it will just go away and not hinder me from working out.  I am too into this 30 Day Shred to have to stop now!  I have been going nonstop from the time I got up this morning, so I am ready to hit the sack for real!  It's been a very productive day, and that feels GREAT!