Dangerous Wind

I almost forgot to post this pic! We went to the mall to hang out for awhile last weekend. Michael and the girls got in this machine that is suppose to be like wind from a tornado. The wind got going super fast, as you can see by the # in the background that says the speed. The girls loved it, so did Michael, and must admit, I kind of wish I would have gotten in too!!



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Bedtime

I know every child avoids bedtime like the plague. No clue why my kids never want to go to bed, but there is always the normal "i need to go to the bathroom", "i need a drink", and many other clever ideas to put off going to bed. they want to talk and talk and talk. tonight, this is the convo at bedtime:

me: Alex, go to sleep.
Alex: Mom, what's 36 minus 12?
me: Alex, go to sleep.
Alex: I know all my spelling words Mom.
me: Alex, go to sleep.

lol, those children never give up!!even if they have to resort to schoolwork as their delay tactics. Pin It Now!

Rare Moments

As any mom knows, it is very important to document their kids' lives because they grow up way too fast. Hence the blog and all the pics. This picture was taken today and it definately is a rare moment.

This, my dear friends, is a picture of Kate. Kate, IN A DRESS. This never happens. Kate is a girl after her momma's heart. Give her a sweatshirt and jeans and she is good to go just about anywhere. But every once in awhile, I will luck out and buy a dress that she loves. This just so happens to be that dress. Oh how I love to see my cute little tomboy Katie May in a dress. Don't worry, with all those scratches and bruises on her legs (summer legs, as my mom used to call them), you won't mistake her for a girly girl....her tomboy style shows thru even in a dress.

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Sweet & Sassy

Tonight a little girl from TRA had a birthday party. This was both a greatly anticipated event and a greatly dreaded event, depending on who you were. For Alex, it was greatly anticipated. She has been couting down the days for this party since she got the invitation. For Kate, who wasn't invited to the party, every reminder of the approaching event was pure torture. I love that they are in seperate classroooms now, but there are downsides such as this. Both of the girls have been dying to go to Sweet and Sassy for a long time, we just haven't gotten around to going yet. My plan was to have my mom take Alex to the party, and I was going to take Kate to do some fun stuff on our own so that she didn't completely miss out. Well, my mom went out of town. and tim had something going on tonight, so I was stuck. I didn't want to leave Alex at the party alone, because I didn't know the parents. But I didn't want Kate to have to sit there and watch the fun without participating. I have been stressing about this for the last 2 days! As soon as we walked in the door, Kate almost started crying. Alex ran off to be with the 15 plus little girls there, and Kate buried her face in my stomach. I am not a big cryer, but I promise I got tears in my eyes. Knowing that my child was heartbroken and I couldn't do anything about it! Well, thank goodness, the birthday girl's mom saw Kate and came over and asked if she wanted to join. You should have seen the grin on Kate's face!!! OH WHAT A RELIEF! LIFE GOES ON!!! The mom told me she had no idea that they were twins and she apologized. I thanked her so many times that I am sure that she thought I was slightly crazy. Crisis averted!
If you have a daughter, or if you are just a girl yourself, and you have never been to Sweet and Sassy. Please go. Like, in the morning. ASAP. It is soooo much fun! They do nails and hair and stuff like that by day, but by night they rock out the birthday parties. I mean ROCK IT OUT!! Blaring JB songs, they gave them facials, manicures, makeovers, they got to sing, dance, and walk the runway. I promise I was tempted to ask if I could join in (I did get glitter in my hair, which I am quite sure I will never get out....). It was seriously the dream party. And trust me, it cost a pretty penny to have that party! Alex told me tonight that the birthday girl said "hope you liked my party, it cost over $200", lol and I'm pretty sure that was an understatement! Tons of fun though! I took lots of pics but I will just share my favorites.

The funniest pics have to be the ones when they had the mask on thier faces, too cute! Also, I am pretty sure there is no such thing as getting a serious pic of Kate, she makes the goofiest faces for pics. and it's quite contagious, everyone that takes a pic with her seems to do the same thing. Kate had the whole store's attention when she got up on stage and started break dancing. The older girls (the party coordinators) told her she was the girl version of Justin Beiber, they loved her dancing and she loved their attention! Kate passed out on the way home from the party, I am pretty sure she passed out during the middle of a sentence. Alex made it home and was in the bed at least 2 minutes before she passed out. What a fun fun night!!!

Oh and one other thing that made today great....we went shoe shopping! Gotta have spring shoes. Kate's favorite pair are these heels, she thinks she is a grownup in them and I just love this pic of them.

What a great start to a fun filled weekend....now bring on Saturday and Sunday!!! Pin It Now!

Stinky Feet

One of my kids has really stinky feet. I won't tell you which one to save her from embarrassment. She's clean, I swear. She just doesn't really approve of socks. So sheeeewWeeeee!!!!! I can be sitting in the front seat and know when she takes her shoes off. Gross, I know. Michael is my witness. In fact, that's how I know he'll love me forever, he smelled hr stinky feet and didn't run away. That's. True. Love.

**Conversation in the car**
me: "(insert child's name here), your feet smell disgusting! Put your shoes back on!"
guilty child: "no they don't. I don't even smell them and I'm a lot closer to them then you are!"


Hahaha! I love my kids, stinky feet and all!! Pin It Now!

Short and sweet

We are loving some softball this year!!!!

I love this picture because it reminds me sooo much of one of my favorite movies as a kid: Little Giants. If you have ever seen the movie, then you will recognize exactly what I am talking about. Go Firecrackers!!!



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Daddy's girls

I must admit, K&A have always been daddy's girls. I mean, yeah, they love me too.....but I am not quite as fun as Tim. The girls love to spend the night with him because he lets them sleep in his bed and they LOVE to cuddle with him. Recently, Alex was crying because she missed her daddy and wanted to cuddle with him. So, Tim got them the best birthday present that we could think of (I won't brag about whose idea it was......lol).....

This is their bed at my mom's house. **Please note, I use the term "bed" loosely, as you can tell it's a fold out couch. Don't worry, it's a really comfty one. BUT DON'T JUDGE US, WE ARE STILL HOUSEHUNTING!!** Anyways, as you can see, there are two pillows on the bed with Tim's face on them. Now the girls can cuddle with him while they sleep. They LOVE this! I actually saw Alex kiss his face goodnight, and they are both stressing about "squishing" him when they sleep on the pillow. Now i will admit that it freaks me out a little to see his face on their bed, lol, but I love that they love it. Anything that makes them sleep better and feel more loved, makes me smile big. I just hope they aren't still sleeping with these pillows when they are adults, cause let's be honest, that would be a tad bit creepy. And now, the pillow pets that they BEGGED me for months to have, are thrown on the floor. Go figure. Pin It Now!

My Monkeys are 8!!!!!

I can't even believe it. seems like just yesterday, I was bringing home these tiny little newborns that I had no idea what to do with....and now they are 8! man, time flies!!!! This year, the girls birthday party is not until April 2 (blame that on me and poor planning and not being able to make up my mind....), but they still enjoyed their actual birthday.....the night before we went to the mall and got a cookie cake for both classes. A cake for 31 kids plus teachers...I knew it wouldn't be cheap. And there's nothing quite like waiting til the last minute....all that aside, the cake was as cute as can be!

Next stop, a trip to Claire's. And if you have girls, don't ever plan on dropping in that store for a cheap gift, you end up with tons of stuff! It was fun though getting new earrings and accessories.

These earrings were special because they were our first pair of DANGLING earrings. The girls were so excited!

They also got  these cute little fingerless gloves.....they are just their style!!

                  This is us the morning before school. They each got $5 to spend at lunch at school.

I took a couple hours off work and went to their school to eat lunch with them. And guess what?? It was pizza day! yay! lol When you have a parent come to eat lunch with you, you get to pick a friend to eat with you and you get to eat outside. We had a girls only lunch.....

Next stop was the mall so that Popo could buy them a present. They convinced her to let them get new bears at Build A Bear...they were soooo excited!! Here's a pic of them with Popo (my mom).

Oh I almost forgot to mention (man, this is an awful scattered post, but in my defense, I am working against bedtime here, while finishing homework....so not the best timing to say the least), the girls were on tv this morning! Their nana sent in their pic so when the news announced the bdays, their pic showed up. They LOVED it. They felt like celebrities, and when we walked into school this morning, a little girl came up to them and said "hey, we saw y'all on the news this morning!" Too cute. I missed it because I was getting ready, but luckily Michael took a pic of the pic for me.....here it is:

Finally, it was time for dinner. We had mexican food, of course. The girls requested that the waiter NOT put whip cream in their faces when they sang (they know all too well what that is like). Boy did those waiters bring it though! They sang awesome and the girls were quite embarassed! What a great memory!!

The last thing we did on this fabulous birthday was take a quick trip to Party City to pick out birthday invitations for their PAR-TAY!!! And guess what they picked???? Of course, Justin Beiber!! Pretty cool invitations if I do say so myself!

Cheers to the age of 8. I am sure it will be a fun and exciting year filled with many many memories.......I am sure to savor every moment because I know it won't be long before I am on here blogging about their 9th birthday......DON'T BLINK!!!


**********VERY IMPORTANT SHOUT OUT TO THE OTHER MARCH BIRTHDAY**********

You are important too Michael, unfortunately this blog is about raising steppe sisters....so you have to settle for a small footnote at the bottom. I love you just the same though!

Don't worry FH....I won't mention how OLD you turned.......

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Spring Forward

What a great weekend! Spring is fast approaching and we couldn't be happier! It's soooo great to come home from work and school and still have time to play outside. Plus, this week the girls are on spring break! Too bad I am never too excited about giving up an hour at daylight savings time....but it's totally worth it once we get adjusted. Plus sometimes the girls end up falling asleep earlier because of the time change!
We had a great time playing outside this weekend. Saturday, we discovered the hiking trails at Wolf River. Oh so much fun! I have always enjoyed the trails at Shelby Farms, but I have never taken the girls. I know how they are and I could just picture them wanting me to carry them when they got tired of walking...so not happening! But we took our bikes to the trails at Wolf River and we had a great time! It's a great spot and the trails are beautiful in the woods. You have to be careful so that you aren't ran over by serious bikers though......

Here are some pics of our day.

We had so much fun on Saturday that we went back again on Sunday! This time without the bikes and the girls hiked forever without complainging one bit.....well, except for complaining about the smell in the port-a-potty, but that's a whole 'nother blog! lol

Now we have a new favorite place!!

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Funniest conversation ever!!

I love listening to K&A's conversations. I hear some funny stuff. Tonight, we were walking from the car into the mall. I was a little behind them as they walked holding hands. **Don't worry, they only liked each other for about 5 minutes, then they started arguing again. But those were some pretty peaceful minutes.** Here is the conversation that I overheard.....

Alex: Hey Kate, we know that lady! (as we walk by some lady in the parking lot)
Kate: No we don't. The lady you are talking about has a much bigger booty.
Alex: (looks back at the lady) Yeah, you're right. She does.
Kate: Told ya.
Alex: Man, that lady was so much fun though....well kind of.


Ok, so I didn't say that it was a long conversation. But it just had me laughing out loud. Don't worry, the lady they were talking about could not hear them although she might have heard me laugh......

**Love those munchkins. Pin It Now!

Are you smarter than a 5th grader???

I often wonder if people could tell K&A apart if they got a really good look at their faces. Of course, to me, they look nothing alike. They don't act alike, sound alike, etc. Tim feels the same way, he can for sure tell his kids apart (except for that one time on the basketball court.....lol). Michael is also, surprisingly great at telling them apart. But I think most people just tell them apart by their personalities. Or by their outfits (which isn't a reliable option since today K wore a skirt to school and A wore pants...).

Now, here's your chance. Tell me who each pic has in it.....you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right!!! Good Luck!!

A)

B)

C)

D)

You can post your guesses on the comments to the blog or on the link on my facebook page.

**Please realize, the person who gets all four correct wins the grand prize of.......ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

**Please also realize, I don't really expect many people to guess so if you are the only one who guesses, then you will win!!! Hooray!!

THANKS FOR PLAYING!! Pin It Now!

K&A Trivia

The girls do so many things that I want to remember forever....with their birthday fast approaching, it is making me realize how many memories we have already made in the short 8 years they have been around. I usually document and remember the big stuff, the fun outings, the main events...but it's the little things that I don't want to forget about either. We don't necessarily do something fun and exciting every week, actually life is typically pretty uneventful during the week. But there is one thing that can be said about K&A, not a day goes by that they don't say something hilarious! They seriously make me laugh out loud everyday. Here are some highlights on my crazy talking twins......

~they often argue over everything and anything and nothing at the same time. they don't do (too) much name calling or hitting or anything like that. but their favorite weapon of defense is the word "ugly"....now just sit back and think about that for a minute. how do you call your sister WHO LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE YOU ugly??? isn't that just silly? this makes me laugh every single time it happens. and even though it is funny to me and you, it is not funny to them at all! I often have to console the "ugly" sister while the "name calling" sister proudly smiles thinking she has accomplished the perfect criticism.......I know that we will all laugh about this one day. Wonder how long it will take them to realize what they are actually saying....

~now this fact is ironic given the fact previously mentioned....they can't tell who is who in pictures. this always baffles me. they bring pictures to me and say "Is that me or sissy?" How can you not know? Especially when I always know exactly which one of them is pictured! I wonder if other twins are like that or if mine are just "special"?! haha

~they LOVE Full House. their favorite saying is "How Rude!"(from Stephanie Tanner).....it's said all the time. Today Kate was not wanting to leave after school care so I told her that she could just stay there but I was leaving. She didn't realize that the school headmaster was standing right behind her. He said, "Kate, do you want to sleep here?" Her response: "Sure, just let me go home and get my pillow.". He said, "No, you don't get a pillow, you have to sleep here on the cold, hard floor." She said, "HOW RUDE." lol as you can see this saying can be used for various reasons....

~they LOVE to sing. they have just about every single song on the radio memorized and they are not afraid to belt it out!

~they loathe baths, brushing their hair, washing their hair, wearing any kind of ponytail holder in their hair, socks, coats, and I am quite positive that I am missing a few things more that they hate.....

~those little girls CAN EAT!!! most kids get happy meals at McDonalds.....K&A get Big Macs and eat the entire thing. Alex will eat just about anything while Kate is not quite as adventurous. Both of them can eat enough shrimp to feed a grown man, I am pretty sure that is their favorite. **I feel sorry for the boys who want to take them out on dates**

~paper. they are obsessed with paper. you want to buy these girls a gift? buy them a notebook and some pens. or even just a package of loose paper. for some reason, they LOVE anything that has to do with writing, drawing, doodling, whatever. of all the toys they have, paper is their favorite

~quotes. there are SO MANY quotes from them that are hilarious that I can't even keep up with them. wish I could. I hope to get better at writing them down. but you just never know when something crazy will come out of their mouths!

QOTD a couple of days ago: Alex said "Mom, can I use some of your money? I like to save mine." haha crazy child

~loudest mouths you have ever heard. My sister once told me I had the loudest mouth she had ever heard.....well, that was before K&A came along....they are like me times 100.

~not only are they loud but they literally never stop talking. we once tried to watch a movie with my friend Natalie and her parents. I warned them that K&A didn't stop talking long enough to watch a movie. Natalie assumed I was exaggerating.......35 questions and only 10 minutes into the movie, she believed me.

~currently one of the girls (names not provided to protect the innocent) has a crush on a boy. well she had a serious talk with me about it. (my mouth was gaping open because the conversation sounded a little too old for me) She explained to me that she liked a boy but that she couldn't let anyone know because her BFF liked the boy too and so she didn't want to hurt her feelings. ~oh young love!!~ it was such a cute conversation and it gave me a glimpse into the future when I am sure we will have many more conversations (probably more than I like) about boys

Okay, I can't think of too many more facts about K&A, although I am sure I will think of more as soon as I post this blog!

I cannot believe that they are fast approaching their 8th birthday. I am really not sure where in the world the time has gone....seems like just yesterday I was worried about where I was going to send them to preschool, and now they are finishing up 2nd grade. If I blink, they will be in high school without me even noticing!!!! Pin It Now!

Oops

Excuse me while I play with my blog a little......for some reason the layouts that I am using aren't working right. Some of my fans (haha) brought it to my attention that they couldn't make comments on my blog. I can't figure it out!! Oh well, it will get fixed eventually...... Pin It Now!

LOL

Conversation between K&A

Now, that's just funny. I don't care who ya are!!!

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And so it begins.......

Texting, that is. My girls LOVE to text (go figure). I can usually get them to settle down at any time by sticking my phone in their hand (yes, I have 2 iPhones so I can entertain them both. you might think that's crazy.....but I think it's smart!). I usually just let them play games....Angry Birds is their all time favorite (Michael and I are slightly addicted too) and recently they started playing some Barbie game. I never really let them text but when they are with Tim, he usually lets them. Last night Alex spent the night with Tim and Kate stayed with me. Last night and this morning, Alex was texting away! This morning she was driving me nuts and at the same time making me almost cry laughing. I hope I never forget moments like this......so of course, as all good mothers do, I documented with a picture and a blog. I know her texts are hard to understand....but just too funny not to share.

***Love that kid......but the only way to get her to stop texting is to stop responding to her! lol and NO, they will not be getting cell phones of their own anytime soon. I can only imagine the calls/texts Tim and I would get if they had one...... Pin It Now!

Oldies but goodies

Since I started this blog as a mother of "older" children, I missed out on some super cute pics on here. So, I wanted to just show off some of my favs.......Enjoy.

That's all folks!

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