Just what I wanted to hear

I was playing with the girls on the sofa and we were rolling off and falling onto the carpet. Ry is my little helper and she was trying to help pull me back up on the sofa. She said to me, "Mommy, you're SO heavy!"

Heart Strings

Cory & I are out of town right now and Mimi is watching the girls. She's having all kinds of adventures, including this one that happened in the middle of the night:

Oh, this will tug on your heart strings. I'm sleeping on the sofa and I hear a couple of coughs that could easily be ignored - especially since it was 3:00 a.m. and I didn't get to sleep until 12:30.

Well, after a few more coughs that I could no longer ignore, I filled a couple of sippy cups with water and staggered in to the girls' room to check it out. There was nobody in their bed and it felt like the Twilight Zone because I could hear this distant, muffled cough. I ran back in the family room - no girls. After checking out the living room, their play room, and both bathrooms on this end of the house, I quickly looked in your bedroom - no girls. WHERE ARE THEY??

I turned on their bedroom light and looked more closely. Ree was asleep on the bed, but was horizontal at the bottom of the bed and was easily camouflaged among all the pillows and blankets. Now the hunt was on for Coughing Ryan. Laundry room: empty; all corners of the living/dining room, including under the table: empty.

By this time, there was no coughing to guide me, which greatly impeded my Search and Rescue efforts - that and the darkness, the fact that it was 3 in the morning, my confusion over the whole thing, and tripping over Muffin and Maddie as they 'helped' me. I kept calling Ryan's name, but HEY, these girls don't answer me when they're wide awake and it's the middle of the day!

Okay, she had to be in your bathroom or closet. I knew from the first look that she wasn't in your bed because the bed was made and that in itself was a strange and unsettling sight! This IS the Twilight Zone!! I was closing in on the mystery because she had to be in your bathroom. Well, in my rush to the bathroom, I truly almost stepped on my little RyBoo. She was curled up on one of her blankees with her baby beside her right under that shelf hanging on the wall - fetal position, but face-down, little butt up in the air, sound asleep and sucking her thumb.

Ahhhhhhh..... She must have gotten up during the night to get in bed with Mommy and Daddy and just decided to curl up on the floor since you weren't there. As I gathered her and her baby up to take them back to their bed, she sleepily said, "Hi Mimi..." Tucking her safely back in next to Reese, I told her I love her. "I love you, too, Mimi."

As I was getting ready for bed last night and setting the alarm, I thought I should turn off the lamp in your bedroom and then didn't. So glad I didn't because she could have stumbled all over your dark bedroom looking for you and Cory.

I might sleep in their bed with them tonight..........

Happy V-Day!

I'm going to rename Valentine's Day and call it Ryan's Day. She's such a little lover and she spreads her joy and love to everyone around her. Here she is hugging her sister before we left the house today. She was like this all day, giving hugs and kisses and saying some of the funniest things I've ever heard. We were outside playing with the dogs and Ryan really wanted to kiss Maddie. She said, "Hi Maddie, I'll give you a hug AND a kiss!!" and then proceeded to kiss the dog a few times. Later, Cory and I were doing the bedtime routine w/ the girls and we were putting lotion on Ryan. She was belly laughing and said, "That tickles, guys!" Cory and I just started cracking up. Because she napped today, she stayed up an hour later than Reese did and we had so much fun with her. It was wonderful for us both to have some alone time with her.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband

Cory is an amazing husband and father. I heart this picture that Tami Proffitt took last October. It shows how much the girls adore him and how playful they are together. We are celebrating his 35th birthday tonight and also again this weekend by going out of town. It's always so convenient that his bday falls around Valentine's Day and we can have a fun weekend of celebration.

Happy Birthday, Honey. I’m so glad you were born. I love you so much. Me love you long time.

A crazy night 4 1/2 years ago

I visited my best friend Dana in NYC for Memorial Day Weekend in 2004. This was written by Dana's friend, Carly after our Sunday night out. Dana just resent it to me the other day. Seems like a lifetime ago, but so much fun!

June 1, 2004

I have to write about my weekend – well, not so much my weekend as just Sunday night – simply to record it if nothing else. And I have to do it now before it escapes too much from my memory and I lack the energy or creativity or both or neither to get it all out on paper. This isn't a forced writing so much as I don't know where to begin, though I guess the most appropriate place to begin would be the beginning.

Picture Sunday night. Picture a holiday evening. Picture the West Village on a clear, I-guess-you-could-call-it-summer day. Four cute girls (three blonds, one brunette / three Arizonians, one Californian / three "New Yorkers", one not / Dana, Lisa, Vanessa and me) meet at a family owned Italian restaurant called Piccolo Angelo where the owner remembers Dana and makes a fuss at "the pretty girls." We're seated almost immediately as the fourth member of our party appears. We stuff our faces with home made garlic bread, the kind where the oils drip off the bread. We happily look on as the owner shows us where his restaurant has appeared in magazines. I look out the door in time to notice David Schwimer checking out the menu before walking away in sweaty work out gear. We polish off two bottles of wine. The girls notice Eric Stoltz as he passes the restaurant staring in straight at us. Too bad I don't know who the heck he is. None of the movies they excitedly shout out even ring a bell.

We step out of the restaurant and walk toward the site of Carrie Bradshaw's house on Perry Street in the city. Then we stroll past Sarah Jessica Parker's *real* house. I, of course, play tour guide. I, of course, shouldn't admit that I know where all of this is.

The next stop is Tortilla Flats, a Mexican restaurant with streamers handing from the ceiling every night of the week. Two sailors in from Fleet Week stand to give us their seats. We hurriedly get through our too-strong-not-to-make-a-face margaritas because we have somewhere else to be. We're on a schedule. We wave the bartender, who's on crack, good-bye, give the sailors their seats and leave the bar before we've even been inside for twenty minutes. We hop in the cab, realizing almost immediately that we're going a mere two blocks. Slightly embarrassed, we quickly pay and walk up to the Spice Market ready to go. We're meeting up with Jamie and her boy that's flown in from Miami to sweep her off her feet. Spice Market is everything we've read about. In the heart of the meat packing district, the cobblestone roads make you feel like you've exited New York, yet represent the true meat packing district that has become *the* place to be seen. We make a stop at the bar before Jamie enters and we're ushered into a private room with dramatic lighting and sheer curtains.

Next stop? Suede. We need some dancing so it's the place to be. We get in inside and dance the night away….right next to Olympian Dominic Dawes. She's there and we're practically dancing with her. I feel all my gymnast roots coming back. Maybe we should tumble together. I feel a push…the dance floor is crowded…so I "accidentally" push back just to let the girl know I'm there. Next thing you know, I'm grabbed by both arms as the girl is in my face and screaming, "I'm trying to work here! I'm getting you kicked out." Now, I didn't do this on purpose, but I just didn't acknowledge that she was speaking. I think it made her more mad. I just looked toward the other girls, smiled and kept boogying. Next thing you know, a 9 feet tall African American wearing XXXXXL comes to escort me and my friends out. Whoops. Guess I should've just said I was "sorry." Nah…getting kicked out of a posh club is just so much cooler. Oh man, what a night.

We hop in a cab, determined to keep dancing, and get to Plan B while I complain against my new arch nemesis and chain smoke the whole way there. (I don't smoke. And it was a short ride. So there.) We dance and then decide it's just about time to go home…we've done so much tonight it doesn't seem possible. I have trouble remembering the many places we've briefly stopped at. Outside of Plan B we meet some people who want to keep the night going. They mention going to Club PM, which is a place we thought about going earlier in the evening, so we hope in cabs…back down the meat packing district and stand in line. Long story short: private party, cover charge we weren't willing to pay, cabs, home.

I got home around 2:30 in the morning after talking on the phone with Erin during the ride home. As I paid the cabbie, he yelled to me, "You have a phone addiction." Shocked, I stood staring until it had totally registered. I don't need that grief at the end of the night. Luckily, it was more than enough to get Erin and I laughing as she took care of me and "walked me home."

I then slept in until noon.

Aww…the memories.

I'll never be taken (out of a club) twice,

*Carly Bradshaw*

Who knew...

the pet store could be such a fun outing? Cory is SO sick, so I took R&R w/ me to buy dog food at PETCO and it was a non-stop adventure. We walked through the doors and right away they were so excited because they have little pint-size grocery carts for kids to push around. They took their carts and ran right over to the Cockatoos. There was one fat bird and one skinny bird. Ryan kept saying "The big cockatoo is HUNGRY!" After that, we ran to look at the fishes and Ryan was so excited to find Nemo. Next, we found the chinchillas, ferrets, mice, guinea pigs, and bunnies. Reese yelled out, "Look at the big bunnies, Mommy". They were so thrilled about everything and screaming about all the animals. Thank goodness we were the only ones in the entire store. Seems like I need to take our girls on errand runs more often. There is so much fun to be had in the day to day chores :0)

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Today is my dad's 57th birthday and we had everyone over for spaghetti dinner. It was delicious. We had spaghetti w/ stuffed meatballs, spinach salad w/ goat cheese, nuts, & cranberries, Caprese salad, homemade rolls, and Texas sheet cake for dessert. Holy food! We all tore it up and it was perfect comfort food for a cold, windy, & rainy day like today. Happy birthday, Dad!! We love you so much!

Love & Respect

Cory and I started a 12 week marriage class at our church today. I feel like it's so important to constantly work on our relationship. Sometimes I forget that we're really still newlyweds. We got thrown right into parenthood after marriage and it's been the most amazing experience of our lives, but it's so important to focus on our marriage and make it a priority. The class is about love and respect in your marriage and how wife and husband need both, but men primarily crave respect and women crave love. If men get respect they'll give love, and if women get love they'll give respect. I think it's going to be a wonderful class for us.

Ephesians 5:33
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Horses

I'm sitting in my office right now, at 9:45 pm, and Reese opens the door of her bedroom and screams out "Mommy, where are my horsies? In the family room? In my backpack? Yeah". Translation: My horses are in my backpack in the family room. Go get them for me or I'll stand in the doorway and keep yelling.

I put her & Ry to bed almost an hour ago and thought they were asleep. Little did I know that she's been playing with her toys in the dark while Ry is passed out under a pile of blankets. She is my little Energizer bunny.

Accessories

We ventured out today for a short outing, but R&R would not leave the house until they had ALL their accessories on. This included hats, sunglasses, Dora backpacks filled w/ animals, and a necklace for Reese. Just when I thought we had everything we needed and were on our way out the door, they would find another "must have" item to wear.


Reese

Ryan & Reese

Baby, Mommy--Mommy, Baby

Everything from R&R's perspective is Baby & Mommy or Baby & Daddy. If there are 2 of any object, then one is the mommy and one is the baby. The other day I had a travel size baby powder and Ryan found the larger powder bottle. She said "here's the baby powder, and here's the daddy powder". So now it's baby powder and daddy powder. Today the obsession was a mommy & baby dog figurine that my mom had at her house. They were breakable, but the girls were dying to play with them. They were crying and saying "I want the mommy doggy, I want the baby doggy". Ry is also crazy about lining her babies up perfectly on the couch or the floor and she loves carrying them around in the baby car seat so she can "keep them safe". She's such a good little mommy!

Kat Von D called...

 

and she wants her tattoo artist back.  Ryan sleeved herself with markers and wrote all over her belly.  Of course, our kids are always naked, so it's not a surprise she decided to draw all over her skin.

 

BTW, our house looks like a BOMB went off.  I'm trying to show you in these pictures, but they don't do the mess justice.  It's hilarious!  I'm going to be up the rest of the night cleaning up.  At least it was a no-nap day, so bedtime is rapidly approaching :)

 

We're going to the zoo

The lions were sleeping as you can see and the girls were screaming out, "WAKE UP LIONS, WAKE UP!!" I'm sure that's exactly what they wanted to hear--three toddlers yelling at them through the fence. Every time we go to this lion exhibit I think about Ryan losing her little Adidas shoe when she was 16 mos. old and how I was begging the zoo staff to try to retrieve it. No such luck-the lion thought it was a tasty snack. We're much more careful now. We just stand on the stroller platform and antagonize the sleeping giants.

My little farm girls.

Ryan LOVES the goats way too much. She was obsessed with touching them all over. Look at her standing on this bench trying to get closer. I washed their hands up to their elbows when they were done, but they still smelled like goat.

Mini Me

I think one of the most fascinating things about having identical twins is the difference in their personalities. They have exactly the same DNA and look exactly alike, but R&R are opposites in so many ways. Here's an example: I LOVE dessert and anything sweet and so does my Mini-Me, Reese. Ryan couldn't care less, just like Cory. She'd rather have a 2nd helping of dinner than ice cream or cake. Here are a couple photos of Reese tonight w/ 1/4 of a cupcake I gave her. It was all she could focus on. She got through her dinner and was obsessed w/ eating the cupcake. Look how happy she is once she's gotten her wish! Like I said, "Mini-Me".