Happy Birthday Natalie and Abby!

Well, this is only 2.5 months late, but I still wanted to get the birthday post out there for all to see.

It's been 4 years! FOUR YEARS!! I can't believe it. It's absolutely incredible that we have come from this....

Natalie Kimberly 1#5oz, 604 grams, 11.5 inches

Abigail Elianna 1#13.5oz 840grams 12.5 inches

to this!

Abby and Natalie

The girls had a relatively low key birthday, but full of activity. Their birthday was Sunday, May 15, but because of a ballet recital, we had their little party on Saturday.

As in the past two years, it was simple and really just family. Although, this year, I'm thrilled to report that the girls actually have a little friend that we were able to invite. Since meeting at Little Gym last summer, Kenan, Natalie and Abby have been bosom buddies and have enjoyed many a play date between Kenan's house and ours. Her mom, Regan, and I have become close friends which has been wonderful for me as well.

Since Natalie and Abby are all about princesses these days, it was only fitting we had a princess party!

Introducing...the three pretty, pretty princesses!

A great shot of Princess Abby

Our Princess party included a Princess Pinata






great gifts (and thank you hugs)




And, absolutely amazing Princess cakes courtesy of Grammy (my mom)! She did an incredibly job on Snow White (for Natalie) and Aurora aka Sleeping Beauty (for Abby). In Natalie's words, "wow!"

No birthday would be complete without a shot of the little sleeping twins that graced the cake at my baby shower.

Family picture

When it comes to chocolate, the girls are very serious!

Yaya and Grandpa enjoying some cake!

I love this picture of Ben and his family

The girls really enjoyed their party and loved playing Princess with Kenan and all our family. We are so blessed to have so many people who love them so much.

These are the "semi-official" 4 year old pictures - taken on their birthday.

Natalie

Abby

Sisters and Friends Forever

A few more Birthday Day Pictures!

Natalie


Abby

Happy Birthday Natalie and Abby!
We love you so much!

Moving on up....

Blah, blah, blah, bad blogger, blah, blah, blah....

Now that that is out of the way...on to the news.

Today is a momentous occasion. No, it's not their birthday (I still have to blog about that). It's even better. Today is the day we moved their cribs out of their room. Yes, they just turned 4. Yes, they were still in cribs. I figured as long as they still fit, why mess with it. But, a few nights ago, we discovered we were out of pull-ups for the night. Well, we had one left. So, we decided they could go without for the night and practice getting up to go potty. I'll get to how that worked out in a minute.

In order to make getting to the potty easier, we put their mattresses on the floor and the potty nearby on a mat. Sounds like a plan, right? Not so much. The girls were wet by the time Ben went to bed. I checked again around 2 or so, and they were wet again. I think they were wet again in the morning. The next day, I bought more pull-ups. Experiment - over.

But, they seemed to enjoy sleeping out of their cribs, so we left them on the floor. Here's the problem, however, with crib mattresses. They are small. You also have to know that Natalie and Abby are very busy sleepers. They often turn completely around in their cribs. This is not a problem when you are behind bars. It's more of an issue when there is nothing keeping you off the floor. We tired the pillow route, we even tried the laundry basket route, but when I went in to check on them in the middle of the night and I couldn't find Natalie (she was nearly in the middle of the floor), I knew the crib mattresses had to go.

So, without much fanfare, tonight the cribs were disassembled and regulated to the attic. We borrowed a page from Yaya and Grandpa's and brought out the queen air mattress which helpfully came with a built-in pillow back which works great as a bed rail. With princess pillows creating a divide, the girls are now back in the same bed.

Now, we just have to keep them from jumping on it:-)

Wow - I've been a really bad blogger

Looking at the blog history, Mommy has been a very bad girl. It's now May (how did that happen?) and I have made a total of 7 posts. 8 if you count this one. That is not a very good average. I'm determined to fall back on the wagon.

So, what have we all been up to lately...
Well, it's been just over one year since we've moved into our new house. I'm disappointed to say that I have not accomplished half of what I had planned for the first year.

Not Accomplished:
#1 - Unpacking all boxes. - Yes, there are still a few. In my defense, they all contain pictures, which leads me to #2.
#2 -Decorating and hanging pictures including some of the 10,000 plus we have of the girls.
#3 - Painting. We have painted exactly 2 rooms of the 8 rooms that need painting. And don't tell Ben, but I want to paint the hall too, which I suppose makes it 9.
#4 - Cutting down the trees in the yard to make room for girls play set and room to play.
#5 - Building girls' playset. Fortunately, there was one already here, but it is smack in the middle of the yard and I want some additional stuff for it.
#6 - Expanding the deck so we can take advantage, or perhaps, minimize the widely sloping backyard and define the flat areas in a way that are useable.
#7 - Add planters to above mentioned deck to have more room for flowers and vegetables.
#8 - Create patio area to left of deck and add water feature and fire pit area (or designated chimenea spot).
#9 - Organized play room to my satisfaction including learning materials.
#10 - Implement Montessori at home/home school materials for the girls.

Well, I'm sure there are more, but I'm starting to feel bad about myself.

So, to balance, here are some things that have been accomplished in the past year.
#1 - Tamed the jungle of the back yard. You couldn't even see the fence. I've worked my butt off clearing stuff out and Ben and I even took down some trees ourselves. Big trees, I have to say. It was pretty impressive.
#2 - Ben built flower beds on the side and this year the flowers are gorgeous! I love them!!!
#3 - I dug up the unbelievably huge hostas in the front yard and replanted the front beds.
#4 - I created a flower bed around the mailbox.
#5 - I finally bought frames for the black and white photos I printed to go above the fireplace.
#6 - We finally got family room furniture! This took longer than one might think - as in not until September.
#7 - In the same vane...we also finally got a beautiful dining room set - in October.
#8 - We cleaned out the garage! - well, we cleaned it and it gets junky again, but it's way, way, way better.
#9 - I finally got the bookshelves like I always wanted for my own personal library. I now have 5 bookshelves lining the walls of my office. Unfortunately, they are now all full. So, I think I need more. Again, don't tell Ben:-)
#10 - Ben tore out the master bath shower because it was leaking. We haven't rebuilt it yet, but tearing it out was quite a bit so maybe we will get that done in the next year.

As you can see, many of our accomplishments are yard related (as are many of our not-yet-accomplished). I've really spent most of my energy in the yard trying to get things cleaned up and established so we can enjoy it for years to come. When I come in at night, I'm just too tired to do anything else. But, once it gets crazy hot here, the outside work will cease and the inside work begin!

I suppose this is more about Ben and I than the girls, but their environment is about them, right? They have been amazing through all this, actually. They, of course, could care less about the paint or pictures on the walls. They are just happy with their playroom full of toys (however disorganized) and a yard with plenty of dirt to poke around in. They love it when I garden if only because I give them all the worms I find. They have thoroughly enjoyed their new house and yard. They adore their playroom and will spend hours playing in their by themselves. They also love their room too, and will play in there as well, especially in the morning.

Next time I promise to give more Natalie and Abby details, such as what they've been up to as they approach the big 4 - which, I have decided to refuse to accept:-)

A few recent pics

Just Natalie and Abby looking cute!

Abby - she wanted to have her picture taken with KitKat. KitKat was less than enthused.

Natalie and Abby

Natalie - in front of the gigantic hosta I had to dig up. I have 6 or so more bunches similar to this...anyone want some hostas??

Gone Fishin'

The gorgeous weather of late has given us the urge to enjoy the great outdoors. What better way to spend an afternoon than to go fishing! There's a lovely little lake at a nearby subdivision that we love to visit. It also just so happens that Ben's place of work has several small ponds and large lakes. They are situated such that you can feel you are off in the woods somewhere, miles from civilization. Okay, maybe not miles, but at least several thousand feet:-)

Let's start with the most important, and most impressive, catch of the season. That would be my gigantic, nearly record breaking, awe-inspiring Crappie - caught on a worm on the girls 3ft pink, princess fishing road. Prepare to be impressed!

Told ya! Pretty awesome, huh? Here are a few more to put it in perspective.

Here's a link to the current NC Crappie record. I don't think it would have beat it, but it would have been close. We figured mine was about almost 14in. long but we couldn't figure the girth and of course we didn't weigh it. (I have now added a scale to our fishing gear:-))

http://www.ifished.com/blog/new-north-carolina-white-crappie-record

And to give credit where credit is due, the infamous Princess fishing rod.

Most recently, we, along with Grammy, spent an entire Sunday afternoon enjoying the weather, a picnic, and daylight savings time.


The best part of the day just may have been watching the girls eat, an activity of which we never seem to tire. Natalie and Abby both went to town on chicken legs with much gusto.


Natalie finished hers off first, with Abby close behind. Yes, folks, you heard that correctly, they each ate an entire chicken leg. Life's simple pleasures...


We didn't catch any monster fish like mine above, but we did have a great time with a number of small bream, catfish, and bass. Grammy also got in on the action...

Alas, the princess poles did let us down on two occasions. Both mom and I hooked fish that broke the line before we could get them in. I'm not sure what test pound the line is on those poles, but it probably isn't terribly high. That means I was really lucky to catch that crappie (which I think was at least 2-2.5#) or those were some darn big fish that got away!

As mentioned before, the girls' favorite activity is playing with the worms. We now buy 2 containers of worms. One for fishing and one for the girls. The worms for fishing actually end up fairing better since we don't get to all of them! The girls like to create worm families: mommy worms, daddy worms, baby worms, sister worms, etc. They dip them in the water to give them something to drink. And, when they are tired of that (or maybe when the worms stop moving), they often throw the worms into water "to feed the fish". Abby also really enjoys trying to feed the fish when we catch them which involves trying to stuff a worm down the throat of the poor fish we have hooked. I guess it's kind of a consolation prize.

Before anyone worries about their treatment of animals and possible future psychopathic tendencies, I assure everyone that they show great kindness to kitties, puppies, and old people. Their somewhat torturous behavior only extends to worms, and since we are spearing the other worms with hooks, I'm not too worried about it.

Abby giving the worm some water.

Natalie getting worms from their container.more worm fun...

A few random fishing moments

Fishing always brings back great memories for me of my childhood and fishing with my family. My dad and I had a running ledger of who had caught the most fish. We also had a saying, "big enough to catch, big enough to eat". I think we must have caught bigger fish back then because some of the ones we've caught recently would have pushed the reality of that axiom to its limit.

I am so thankful we have introduced this wonderful and relaxing past time to Natalie and Abby. There is nothing better than enjoying the great outdoors. And, of course, everyone needs a few good fish stories to tell...