Goodbye 2011

Here's a look back at 2011. What a great year it was! Can't wait to see what 2012 in store!

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30 Days of Thankfulness-30

Day 30- Today I am thankful that I posted my 30 days of thankfulness! It is nice to stop and make sure you are thankful for something every day and doing this challenge made sure I did that. I hope every day from now on I stop and silently think of something I am thankful for. It's been a great month and I can't believe tomorrow is the first day of December! Bring on the Christmas fun!

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Day 29- I am thankful for our trip to the aquarium and wonderful time we had one-on-one with Jacob! He had such a good time seeing everything and having mommy and daddy all to himself!

Jacob and I in front of the big shark mouth at the aquarium!

Jacob loves turtles and he loved seeing them in various exhibits. This turtle seemed to be following him!


Looking for more turtles!


Big turtles!


At the dolphin show!

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Day 28- I am thankful for sales, deals, coupons, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, etc. It feels so good to buy something on a good sale and save money. It does not, however, feel good to realized you missed out on an awesome deal-lol.

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Day 27- Today I am thankful for beautiful weather at the end of November! It was so nice out, we had the windows open, went for a walk, washed the cars, etc. It's always fun when there's a couple, or even one, nice day in the middle of a usually cold time of year!

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Day 26- Today we took Christmas pictures on the beach. I am so thankful for my wonderful friend Missy who took time out her day to take the pics! She is an awesome photographer and I think she got some really cute pictures! Why pay a stranger when you can get someone who knows your children? Jacob also got to hang out with his BFF, Lucas!

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Day 25- I am thankful for sleep! After a long night of Black Friday shopping, I was so ready to go to sleep! My friends and I headed out around midnight and hit tons of store and scored some good deals. I love the late night shopping, but most of all, I love the time spent with my friends. Big thanks to my inlaws for keeping the kids overnight so when I got home I could get some sleep in peace and quiet!

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Day 24- Today is obviously Thanksgiving-the ultimate be thankful day! As I sit here and watch the parade with Jacob, I am thinking back on this last year and how much I have to be thankful for. Last year at this time I was just getting used to the idea of having twins, wondering if they would be boys, girls or one of each. Now I have 2 beautiful, almost 6 month old, baby girls. Last year Jacob was just 1 1/2 and now he is a little person, with thoughts, opinions, questions and full of love and laughter. We have done construction on our house, gone on vacations, gone from two incomes to one, and just enjoyed family and friends. Today we will visit Jesse's family for Thanksgiving and enjoy their company and food! Right now, Jesse is making a dessert and Jacob has learned the joy of licking the spoon. The girls are taking a nap and I am waiting for Santa to come across the screen and kick of the Christmas season! I will miss my family this holiday (my parents are in Ocean City and I will not being seeing my grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins :-( ) Tonight my friends and I will literally shop 'til we drop as we take on Black Friday deals at midnight. This is the 3rd year I have gone and is a new tradition I look forward to. I am so blessed with love and friendship and I look forward to the Christmas season with my babies this year!

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Day 23- Today I am thankful for the awesome lady who cut Jacob's hair. He had a mini meltdown and asked to 'get outta here' and kept saying 'I done!' over and over. She was very patient with him and let him squirt her with the water bottle. His looks cute, just in time for Christmas pics this weekend!

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Day 22- I am thankful for the wonderful day I had today with kids and our friends. We started the day off by picking up Virginia and Kelly-who we haven't seen since JULY!! It was sooo wonderful to see them and see how big Kelly has gotten. Then the 6 of us (I had all 3 off of my kids with me) went to lunch at Applebees. Besides a not-so-friendly hostest, we had a nice time at lunch. Next we headed to our former workplace, BAES, and visited with lots of people there. It's so nice to see friends! After school got out, we loaded back into the car with Missy and Lucas and headed to Chuck E Cheese! The kids had a great time running around and eating pizza (well, actually, I think the adults ate more pizza-lol). It was so nice to catch up and watch the kids interact. We had a fabulous day and my kids are zonked out in bed! :-)

Pictures will be added to this post in the near future :-)

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Day 21- I am thankful for my DVR. There are so many shows I like to watch, but I like to watch them after the kids go to bed and I can have 'me' time. I DVR literally every show I watch because they almost all come on on Mondays and Tuesdays. Then I can spread them out over the whole week. Don't know what I'd do without my DVR!!

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Day 20- Today I am thankful for the Baby Bullet. I ordered one from Kohls and got a great deal because it was on sale and I had a 30% coupon. It is super easy to use, which, if you know me, is a good thing! Today I made bananas for them to try. Bananas seem to be the easiest thing because they do not have to be cooked first-lol. That one banana went so far! I am going to save so much money. Hopefully everything is as easy as the banana!

The Baby Bullet

Alexis on the left, Leah on the right.


Leah liked them!

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Day 19- I am thankful for the Mr. Clean Magic eraser! That thing is amazing! It has taken red colored pencil off our newly painted bedroom walls, marks of the front door from people kicking it shut, marks off of the refrigerator, and it even removed the stain around the drain in the sink. Jacob likes to clean with me, so it's nice they come in a 2 pack form! It is my favorite cleaning product :-)

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Day 18- I am thankful for having another Friday date night! Tonight we have big plans- Christmas shopping, dinner AND a movie. We both want to see Tower Heist. And I want to laugh at all the people in line to see that silly Twilight movie! Let's see if we accomplish everything on the list!

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Day 17- I am thankful for my grandparents and my children's grandparents. So I was having dinner with some friends on Monday and we got to talking about our Thanksgiving plans. That led to a conversation about who had living grandparents. My dad's dad passed long before I was born and I was pretty young when his mom passed. However, I feel very blessed to have grown up around the corner from my mom's parents. I have so many wonderful memories of holidays and sleepovers at my grandparent's house with my siblings and cousins. A lot of people don't get to grow up knowing their grandparents or living so close to them. As of right now, Jacob, Leah and Alexis have 2 sets of grandparents and 5 great grandparents that they see quite often. They even have a great-great grandma, although they have not met her. I can't imagine not having my relationship with my grandparents and I am so thankful that my children are growing up seeing their grandparents pretty much whenever we want.

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Day 16- I am thankful I have learned if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. End of blog today.

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Day 15- Books! In the last year or so I have gotten back into reading and I have read quite a few good books. It is so nice to be able to lose yourself in a good book, to root for the underdog, to hope for that happy ending. I've even helped start a book club and I enjoy getting together, eating some good food and talking about the most recent book. I'm even in a 2 person book club and I love our Skype sessions to discuss the current read! I am teaching Jacob to love books, too. We read every night and I often catch him looking through a book on his own. Here are some of my favorite books!

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Day 14- Today I am thankful for all the mommy groups I belong to, both online and in real life. ;-) It is so nice to be able to ask a question and almost instantly get tons of real life advice, answers and personal stories. Although many of these women I have not met in person, they are all wonderful mothers and that shows in the group chats and threads. And of course there's nothing like calling up mommy friends, or my own mother!, and hashing out the latest things going on in my kids, and their kids, lives. There are def times when I second guess myself or just plain wonder if anyone else is going through the same thing. These awesome ladies help me keep sane!

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Day 13- I almost forgot to do one today, but I am thankful for bedtime. HAHA I know what you're thinking, who doesn't love that time when kids go to bed? But besides that, I love the bedtime routine we have finally settled into. Every other night we do baths. The girls LOVE bath time. They kick and splash and Jacob loves to take baths with them. Tonight I put Leah in first and when I took her out he said "Lexi turn?" And then when I took Lexi out he said "Leah turn again!" Then it's time for the girls to have their last bottle and for Jacob to calm down. I turn out all the lights and the 4 of us sit on the couch together. Jacob and I watch Little Bill or Blue's Clues (thank you DVR!). He loves those shows. We see who spots the clues first and he love maaaaail time on Blues clues or see what Bittle Bill is up to. Then he kisses the girls good night and they go in their cribs, most of the time smiling at me. Then Jacob gets in his bed and says "come in!" so I lay down with him and we read a book. After one more hug and kiss, I say I love you and he finally knows to say "I lobe you" back to me. And then I shut the door and ahhhh peace and quiet! He will sometimes get up and open the door and call for me but after a couple times of telling him to get back in bed, he is out. I love the quiet cuddling time I have with all 3 of my babies after a long day.<3

Leah sitting up like a big girl!



Jacob and Leah


Lexi


Jacob

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Day 12- I am thankful for baby equipment! Bouncy chairs, bumbo seats, SWINGS, etc. These things are life savers, esp with twins! My mom is always saying 'they didn't have that when you were a baby!'

The pretty much only nap in their swings...don't know what I'd do without them!



They love sitting up in their bumbos!

Playing in the jumparoo.


Chillin in a bouncy chair.

30 Days of Thankfulness- 11

Day 11- Today is Veteran's Day so here is a video tribute to the United States Military. I am very thankful for all that they do. My grandfather was in the Navy and I love hearing his stories!

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Day 10- I am thankful for my job. Even though I am not currently working (OK I am actually working every day, just not getting paid in cash for it-lol) I am thankful that CCPS let me take leave of absence. Doing that allows me to return to a teaching position in Calvert County when I am ready (or within a certain number of years). I love, love, love being a teacher and I feel very lucky to have a job I truly enjoy. So many people dislike their job or can't even find one right now. I have also met some of my best friends through teaching, whether is was in college getting our degrees or at the 2 schools I have been at. Eventually when my kids are in school, it will be awesome to have basically the same schedule as they do! I think it's pretty much the best job out there ;-)

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Day 9- Today I am thankful for story time! And all the other free/very cheap activities we've found over the last few months. Jacob loves getting out and doing things with other kids his age and I've enjoyed meeting some new people. We do story time at the library every Wednesday. Jacob loves the craft they have each week, even though it usually gets ripped in the car on the way home-lol. We have been to a preschool fitness trail, an obstacle course, spend some time at the Wilson Ennis Clubhouse playing with all sorts of balls, hula hoops and a moon bounce. We have 2 trips to Cypress Swamp planned and breakfast and dinner with Santa in December. It has been so much fun doing these things with Jacob! He is to the point where he can tell Jesse a lot about what we did during the day. It's so cute!

These are pictures from the obstacle course at the rec center.

Story time--Halloween themed!

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Day 8- Today I am thankful for my friends. I have so many wonderful friends. People I can turn to for help, count on for advice, and have a good time with. Over the years I've become better at picking friends. I have stayed friends with people from college and high school. I think I am lucky to have so many great people in my life. I have come to realize that sharing a past friendship with someone can't be the only reason to have a future friendship with them. I am thankful that I have learned to let people go and move on and just be happy. There's nothing like laughing until you cry, or wanting to cry and having someone make you laugh! I can say without a doubt that most of the friendships I have right now I will have in 5, 10 30 years. Here is a slide show of all my friends!

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Day 7- I am thankful for where I live. Although I would love move to a bigger house with more land, the actual location where I live will be hard to give up. We live within walking distance of the Chesapeake Bay. We can walk down to the boardwalk and let Jacob run, see the ducks play in the sand, etc. There are cute little shops including an ice cream shop and wine shop. We always see people we know out on the boardwalk and it is a fun place to meet up with Jacob's friends. I will miss being able to walk some place from my house. I also love Maryland in general. We are so close to the ocean, mountains and lakes. We have all the weather, which I tolerate for about half of the season before wanting the next one to come. There's nothing like the leaves changing colors, the first flakes of snow or the hot sun shine.

Walking with friends to the boardwalk.


Jacob looking at the water.

3 friends playing in the sand.


At the ice cream shop.



Feeding the ducks.

30 Days of Thankfulness-6

Day 6- I am thankful for Facebook. And e-mail. And blogging, Skype...THE INTERNET! The reason I am thankful for the internet is because it is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family that are far away (or nearby!). Let's face it, life is always moving. Between various schedules, jobs, play dates, pets, obligations, chores, errands, etc it is hard to match times up to talk to people. And who can just hop on a plane and visit people? The internet allows me to send and receive messages from others and we can respond to them when we are free. I can share pictures of my kids, see pictures of other people's lives, play games with friends and even see them live with video chatting. If it weren't for all this great technology I think it would be very hard to keep up-to-date with people's lives. I love looking at people's pictures, it makes me feel kind of like I was there with them. I hope others enjoy looking at my pictures, too!

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Day 5- I am thankful for my family. My mom is the best. She is always there for me, ready to lend a hand, an ear or anything else I need. I think I talk to her almost every day! My dad is always looking out for me and growing up always put his family first. I have 3 brothers ages 25 (almost), 21 and 13. My baby sister is 10-not so much a baby anymore! I love when we all get together and hang out. My parents taught me a lot about unconditional love and I hope I raise my kids to be great adults as my brothers and I turned out to be. We are all hard working, caring people and I hope my kids turn out the same way.

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Day 4- I am thankful for dirty dishes. I heard a song by Scotty McCreery (who I loved on American Idol! I called him as the winner from the beginning.) called Dirty Dishes. I think this song is great so I'm posting the lyrics today because I think it goes along with my 30 days of thankfulness pretty nicely. I posted the video at the bottom, check it out! We are pretty lucky to have dirty dishes, messy living rooms, laundry piled up and a million chores to do!

Dirty Dishes--Scotty McCreery

Mama hollers "Supper time,
And don't make me tell you twice
Wash your hands and wipe your face.
The table's no place for your toys,
And try to use your inside voice,
Don't dig in 'til we say Grace."
So we put down our forks and bowed our heads
And then she prayed the strangest prayer ever said:

"I wanna thank You Lord,
For noisy children and slamming doors,
And clothes scattered all over the floor,
My husband workin' all the time,
Draggin' in dead tired at night,
My never ending messy kitchen
And dirty dishes."

We all got real still and quiet,
And daddy asked "Honey, you alright?"
She said, "Dear, ain't nothing wrong,
Noisy kids are happy kids,
And slamming doors just means we live,
In a warm and loving home,
Your long hours and those dishes in the sink,
Means a job and enough to eat.

So I'm gonna thank You Lord,
For noisy children and slamming doors,
And clothes scattered all over the floor,
My husband workin' all the time,
Draggin' in dead tired at night,
My never ending messy kitchen

For my little busy bees
Beggin' mama, mama can you please?
Always wantin' me to call their name
Loads of laundry pilin' up
Crayons crushed into the rug
In those little sticky kisses
And dirty dishes,
And dirty dishes...

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Day 3- I am thankful for my baby girls-Leah and Alexis. I still to this day am surprised sometimes by the fact that I had twins! These last 5 months have sure been an adventure. They scored me my first (and hopefully only!) helicopter ride, make me feel like a celebrity when I'm out in public and have definitely mastered the art of tag teaming me! They are just the 2 most adorable babies and I love snuggling with them. There are so many things I look forward to doing with them in the future, but I also know I need to cherish these days as they are flying by.

First time holding both girls in the hospital.

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Day 2- I am thankful for Jacob!! He has been making me laugh for over 2 years. Sometimes I wonder where he gets certain things from. I can't believe how big he is already and he is such a good big brother. There's nothing like hearing him say 'I lobe her' as he points to 'Lee-la or Lesis' as he calls them. And most recently they are his 'sersters'. He is really the most happy, easy going kid and I can't wait to continue to watch him grow.

05-21-09 5lbs 1oz

1st Halloween


2nd Halloween


3rd and most recent Halloween


With his 'sersters'