Thanksgiving break "to-do" list

Today is my last day at work of the week. Tomorrow, I will begin my Thanksgiving break. The girls are having a feast at their school, and I can't wait to go with them. Their class is responsible for making the applesauce, and following my slacker-mom canned veggie mishap, I made sure to send each of my girls with the required two apples.

Outside of giving thanks for the many many blessings in my life (I give much thanks for my wonderful family and friends), I have a bunch of things that I hope to accomplish with this extra time. First, and most importantly, my house is still scary. It desperately needs a good cleaning. While my girlies are eating breakfast and catching up on their am cartoons/coloring tomorrow morning, I intend to be washing linens and vacuuming the house. The only thing I dislike about that task is hauling the heavy vacuum up the stairs. Perhaps I can get Carl to bring it all the way up tonight, and I can work my way down. I also want to finish making my Christmas napkins and get a good start on my winter napkins tomorrow. I have already cut all of the fabric, so now I just need to pin and sew. Those two tasks, paired with the Thanksgiving feast at preschool, making dinner, and relaxing with Carl sound totally do-able.

I am really looking forward to Thanksgiving day. Although Carl will be playing his usual football game with his buddies, Mindy and Dan went to NE and Travis will be in NY with Nicole's fam, I am thankful to be able to spend the morning watching the parade with my girlies, eating cinnamon buns and carrying on the tradition that Mindy introduced to me during our Disney days. As an added bonus, TU's marching band will be in the parade...just before Santa. Keep an eye out for them! This is a HUGE honor as only ONE university band was chosen from the ENTIRE country...I am sooo excited! The girls and I will spend the early afternoon making stuffing and baking desserts for my mom's house later that evening. Although it will be a small gathering for dinner, I am excited.

On Friday, the girls and I are on our own again. While Carl is at work, we plan on taking down all of the fall decor and decorate for Christmas (sans the tree of course). Carl will come home to Christmas and a yummy soup made from Thanksgiving leftovers... I'm going to try to coax him to go to the dump on Saturday to get rid of a few things, but the rest of the weekend can be spent relaxing...did I mention that i'm pretty much DONE my Christmas shopping? So we can relax and enjoy our holiday season! Although I do need to finish Slate's stocking.

I am looking forward to a December of friends and family. Wendy is coming to visit, Dan, Mindy and Travis will be home for Christmas this year, book club has planned a cookie exchange, the girls are having their first "friends from school" birthday party, Carl has a job that he enjoys...we have a lot to look forward to, and be thankful for!

My house is a mess

My house is a mess...an absolute mess. I'm not really sure how exactly it got that way. It's not cluttered and the girls toys are put away...for the most part, but it is just dirty. The kitchen counters are clean, but the floors need a good scrub. The living room needs to be dusted and vacuumed. The family room needs a good vacuuming as well. The upstairs just needs a complete cleaning. The master is in good shape, but since the new beds, Carl and I haven't had a chance to vacuum and the girls rooms desperately need some good vacuuming. I'm not even going to comment on the bathroom.

Perhaps, since I took the day off on Wednesday, I will have some time to get some cleaning done around the girls Thanksgiving party at school. Can't wait for the holiday when I'll get a bit of a break.

big girl beds!

Last night, Carl and I went out and bought the girlies big girl beds. It has been something that we've been planning and price checking (very important since with twins you always seem to need to buy expensive furniture items in twos) and finally were ready to take the plunge. The beds were a complete suprise to my little girlies, who were completely psyched to see them with their beautiful bedding (courtesy of my mother in law) in their big girl rooms (catching a trend that everything in our home is "big girl" something or other).

While I am super excited for the girls, I think these new beds will take more getting used to than I thought. The change in Laney's room is very visable as I walk down the hallway, and I must admit, although I thought I was ready for my little bitties to be growing up, I'm not sure that I am as ready as I thought. I know I can't keep them little forever, and this event will just be added to the list that we have already passed. For now, the new beds are daily reminders that my babies aren't quite babies anymore.

Seussical

The girls and I are going to Seussical this afternoon. I am sooo excited to do something special with them, just the three of us! They are already dressed up and ready to go, I just need to leave work (although I'll be here for the next few hours). I have never seen Seussical, but I'm sure we'll love it! I'm ready for the weekend...although its two days away, and I actually have to come into work for a few hours on Friday for Open House :(

Oh well!

eek! the Christmas bug already!?

It seems I have caught the Christmas bug already. I blame it on the Christmas related emails I have been receiving as well as the Christmas decor at the local stores. Yesterday, I did a little Christmas shopping for the fam, and when we went out last night to Target, we bought the puppy dog an ornament for our tree (he is part of our family now). In our defense, it was a bulldog christmas ornament, and how often do you see those?

I need to wait to set out my decor until after Thanksgiving...hopefully I'll have the new table by then at least!

Birthday weekend~

Birthday weekend was super busy and super fun. I worked from home on Friday. I still love working from home because I feel like I'm spending more time with the kiddos. The only bummer, I work at odd times - early in the am, during naptime, when carl gets home and sometimes into the pm, after bedtime of course. This past Friday was busy. The girlies and I spent the morning waiting for the internet guy, who of course never came. Then, we needed to make something for the bake sale at their school/ our church on Saturday. Bake sale items needed to be dropped off by 5 pm on Friday evening...which didn't seem so bad. We decided to make pumpkin bars filled with chocolate icing (the chocolate icing was turned into butterscotch icing when I realized I didn't have any chocolate). My two excellent bakers helped me through the whole process, measuring and stirring and helping me make a complete mess. Poor slate even ended up with some splatters of pumpkin on him. Luckily pumpkin bars turned out well, but I couldn't leave the house because I was waiting for the mortgage refinance guy....

The girls and I had lunch, and then I put them down for a late nap. I read some folders and then decided that the living room needed a vacuum. I dragged the vacuum upstairs and started vacumming furiously and then, I spilled Laney's leftover chocolate milk on Slate. Poor doggy ended up in the kitchen again getting his fur wiped off. The girls were tired after a late night at Ky's playing with Maddie so they took a nice long nap. Mortgage guy received the wrong paperwork from our homeowners insurance (of course) so re-fi is rescheduled. I almost missed the deadline for bake sale items..whew. Oh! and I forgot to put the dinner in the crockpot, so girlies and I headed to cheesey's to pick up the super yummy family pack. Lucky Carl got home from work and and had pizza, wings, salad and diet coke waiting for him.

On Saturday, Carl had to work, so the girls and I headed to Reading Day at school all by ourselves. The invite said for everyone to wear their pjs, so we did. Well, I was the ONLY parent wearing my pjs...at least the teachers wore theirs! Laney and Alie seemed to have a great time. They chose some snacks at the bake sale. Laney made her own book, we colored, had hands painted and played bingo.

When we got home it was back in the kitchen to work on birthday dinner. We had Thanksgiving food...soo delish. I even used fancy china, pretty table cloth and crystal punch bowl. I had such a great time. Carl did a wonderful job with the turkey and stuffing. My mashed potatoes were a little spicy-don't ask.

Sunday was my bday! The girls rushed in to wish me happy bday in the am, and then we had duncan donuts for breakfast (sooo healthy, I know). We just hung out together for the day. The girls and I spent a lot of the afternoon playing with Slate in the backyard. Then we headed to the in-laws for lasagna and cake...yum-o. I was sooo happy to be in my comfy bed last night.

I just couldn't help myself

Slate came with a coach collar...yes, from the coach store, complete with a coach tag. Anyone who knows me knows that coach is not really my style. We left his coach collar on, until yesterday. I ran out and purchased a few plain collars and then ran over to the fabric store and bought some seasonal ribbons. Last night, I made Slate a "fall" collar (which he is wearing now) and a Christmas collar. I LOVE them. Since I've been in this diy mood for the past 6-8 months or so, I decided, why not make something personal for my pup?

The girls came into my room this morning and loved Slate's new flair! Alie cracks me up. She is Slate's unofficial interpreter. She loves to tell me when he's hungry, sleepy, sad or needs to play. The girls are really into helping in the morning and now that we have added some additional steps to our morning routine, they are even greater helpers. They both LOVE to push the button on the coffee grinder to grind my coffee beans. They argue over who is allowed to turn the coffee machine on. They love to feed Slate and Alie even helped me put the jug of milk away this morning. They are great helpers in the evening too. They both love to set the dinner table. Laney particularly likes to set out the napkins.

They crack me up...I love them!

Excited!

I'm so excited! This weekend is my birthday and we are having a few friends over on Saturday night to celebrate. I am planning to make turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, an appetizer and of course dessert. I am crossing my fingers that my new table will arrive in time (although I don't think I'm that lucky). I am using this uber fancy punch bowl that I received as a gift for our wedding, but have never used before to make a cider-tea alcoholic punch. I figured I might as well bring it out since I have punch cups from Carl's grandmother now.

I am really enjoying the fall weather since we've returned from Florida. Last night for dinner we tried a pasta with a pumpkin sauce...noone liked it, except for Laney. Tonight, we're making an autumn veggie stew. Hopefully that will turn out better than last nights meal. I even remembered to buy bread for the side. I almost lost the bread to my curious doggy as he was sniffing my groceries when I brought them home the other day.

The girls have been helping me walk Slate and have enjoyed "taking care of him" so far. He's a great walker, and doesn't pull on the leash, so we'll let Laney or Alie hold his leash for small portions of the walk. They have loved to play with him and pet him and are always wondering where he is. He on the other hand is learning that eating Barbie shoes is a no no. He does love them, and especially enjoys the enthusiasm they have for feeding him. If they had their way, he'd be eating milkbones all day long. He's really been a great addition to our family.

we're back from Disney

October flew by in our household. I spent much of it away and Carl spent some of it sick. Luckily, everyone was healthy for our trip to Disney World. We went for six nights and seven days and stayed in the Coronado Springs resort. The girls absolutely had the best time. They loved Small World, Peter Pan's Flight, Pirates of the Carribean, fireworks, Finding Nemo, etc. They ADORED meeting the characters. Carl and I bought them each their own autograph book which doubles as a photo album. I just need to get all of their pics developed so that I can slide them in next to the corresponding autograph. We did a character lunch with Winnie the Pooh and friends, a breakfast with Lilo and Stitch and dinner with the classic characthers at Chef Mickey's. We ate at some other really great places as well (I highly recommend the dining plan). I loved that we were able to find so many characters hanging out in the different parks...the girls thought that was great. Laney LOVED watching tinkerbell fly from the castle. I loved being able to spend time with the fam uninterrupted for a full week!

As a special treat on Halloween, we took the girls to the "Pirate league" where they were made up to be pirates. Laney loved it. Alie was excited to be a pirate, but wasn't so sure about having her make up done. They looked adorable when they were all finished!

And in other news, we're the proud owners of a dog. We adopted a three and a half year old english bulldog. His owner was moving away and couldn't take him due to weight restictions in her new place. The girls and Carl spent some time with him while I was in CT and we were able to bring him home yesterday. So far, he's been such a good boy!

Now, to catch up on all of my work!