Happy Halloween! (I'm already thinking about Christmas!)

My little Lovelies all done up with matching headbands Mama made last night (and this morning) with felt and feathers. Yeah, I'm that Mom. What can I say, I guess I love having little girls. Jim says they're my little dolls. I say Stella is MUCH too opinionated to be anybodies doll! I'm crossing my fingers that Lula Bug will let me put her in jeans and Toms/Converse! ;)

We will be out Trick-or-Treating with Snow White and a chunky monkey tonight.

Have a fun and safe night tonight and don't forget to pull 24 pieces of candy (per little one) to make a candy garland countdown for December with me!

The little things that get me.

There seem to have been a lot of changes around here lately. In a matter of days Lucy started feeding herself finger food, clapping, jumping in her jumper, scooching on her belly, and saying, "mamamama" (I know it doesn't count as talking or Mama but it's still darling!)

Stella's changes are less measurable but no less noticeable to me. The thing that's really gotten to me lately are her feet! I've been saying she's not a toddler anymore for a while now but the changes in her feet are making me sad. I'm nuts huh? She has kid feet instead of toddler feet and I haven't been able to get over it, Jim's tired of me talking about it! It's funny the stuff that hits you. Before that it was her coloring. She tries to really color things and much like another type A person in our house she wants things to be 'right'. The poor girl couldn't even color a spider for a contest anything but black because that's the color they are and she wants to win. We tried to suggest purple but that wasn't going to fly.

Time is going MUCH too quickly. They're still little and I already stress over and dread the day they leave. The house is so loud with two little girls screeching and though there are moments I'd like a bit of quiet, I can't stand the thought of a Saturday morning in this house without those sounds.

*Lu's my little bread loving girl. Here she's enjoying some Albertsons 4:00 bread like her Mama has so many times. The picture of Stella is from Jim's phone taken last Sunday when I was at a photography class. I love getting glimpses of their time together.

My Lil Pumpkin

I'm posting from my phone again. Jim's hogging the computer, Stella is sleeping on my shoulder, and the fire's crackling! I don't mind except that all of the pictures just pike up at the end.

Lu is getting so big! I swear she looked different when I got her home yesterday and all of the sudden today we have a little one who can feed herself finger food and is beginning to scooch on her belly!

This little girl just OOZES love. She squeals, kicks, and flaps her arms when one if us approach her or talk to her. She is just so darn happy!

Stella loves to feed her and surprisingly Lucy likes Stella feeding her. Stella also loves to play with her which I must admit surprised me a bit given their age difference. Initially I'd hoped to have kids about 2 years apart so they would be able to go to school together for a year. Now, I'm so glad that my plan wasn't THE Plan. I think they're perfect! Stella understands, can help, and appreciate having a sister. She's constantly telling me how much she loves Lu, snuggling her, and playing with her. I've also been pleasantly surprised that we've still had no jealousy issues even though Stella was a total Mama's girl. We are do very blessed!

* edited to add: some words are strange due to iPhones lovely autocorrect and I know that 3rd picture is so blurry but I just had to include it because I adore that smile!

The purpose of blog reading and how Pinterest is taking over...

I first stumbled upon blogs when I was knitting and looking for patterns.  Not long after I fell in love with Google Reader and could quickly and easily add new blogs and check blogs.  I now subscribe to very few of those original knitting blogs but have added "deal" blogs, a few friends, and a lot of DIY/decorating and baking blogs.

At some point, checking Reader became more of a chore.  Now I just mark the deal websites as "read", skim the DIY, and have a few that I save for the end to actually look at.  There are even a few that 90% of the time I leave just feeling annoyed.  I've unsubscribed several times, but I keep thinking that if it's not someone I care to read about their family or leave feeling inspired/happy I'm wasting my time reading.  I already learn FAR more about most people than I ever care to know via Facebook and now we get much fewer interesting and new ideas with Pinterest.

I could share the DARLING headbands I made for the girls this weekend, but anyone who would care about headbands for little girls has probably seen them all over Pinterest.  I feel like pretty soon we're all going to have identical pictures/crafts/food because everyone pins the same things.  This is another reason I think I could cut down on the blogs I read - if there's a great idea, it will show up on Pinterest!

There are things that I LOVE about the interenet and its effect on me as a Mama.  I learn a TON, get questions answered quickly, and get a lot of ideas.  However, I also think that it makes us more competitive.  People are "sharing" what they do, but sometimes it feels more self-promotion?  I can't even come up with a word, but I know that at times it makes me feel like I'm not doing enough.  I'm not home with my girls all day, I don't have amazing home cooked meals every night, I didn't even make the hand-decorated sugar cookies that I bought the cookie cutter for for Lu's baptism (gasp - I let it go...), my photos are professional quality, I haven't sewn/knit them all of the things on my list, and ON and ON. In my heart I know that I'm making choices that are best for our family and that I'm enough for them, but it still leaves me feeling like it's not enough at times.  I need to remind myself that it's not one mom doing all of these and that what I'm doing is enough.

I realize I'm probably sounding negative, and I don't intend to be.  I do enjoy reading blogs and will continue to keep up some of them with people on Facebook, but I think I need to put myself on somewhat of a "tech diet".  I'm finding myself wanting to just turn things off and hunker down with my all too rapidly growing girls.

So, for the handful of people who read this, I apologize if I completely bore you, but this lil blog is going to be pretty much dedicated to documenting the wee ones.  They're

I'm trying to ward off a panic attack!

Jim just called me and told me that he's going to be gone for FOUR nights in November!  I'm trying not to panic (yes, I know there are MUCH worse things that could be happening), but I'm not looking forward to being a single mama for almost a week!  I keep thinking of all of the things I'll be alone for...  trying to get myself and two girls out of the house on time in the mornings, bed times, dinner, I highly dislike going to bed when he's not home, and I may go crazy without having him around to talk to in the evenings.  (not to mention that there's a really good chance the girls won't get baths while he's gone!)

I'm afraid he's going to return home to this:

Go ahead, tell me what a baby I am.  I can take it!

Browsing Etsy

I'm ordering the silver to FINALLY make my bracelet with Lucy's song lyrics on it and decided that I really want a new necklace too.  I made two before Lucy was born.  One I wear daily - it's just two tiny circles with their initials on them.  I do love it and it's perfect for a girl like me who does not really like big flashy blingy necklaces.  I also made one with two larger square pendants and a pearl.  I stamped their names on the squares.  I liked it when I saw a similar one, but I don't actually like to wear it.  It's too loud!  The pieces jingle and jangle all day and make me CRAZY!  So, I went back to Etsy shopping.

Simple:

This isn't the most exciting, but it's classic and has always been popular in the shop.  I like it! 

 I like this one but I'm not sold and I'm afraid it will be as loud as the two squares.

I know there are still two pieces, but I think I really like this one.  I wouldn't put the birthstones though, either pearls or nothing and I don't know if I'd hammer it. 

I kind of like how they just threaded the chain through the washers for this one.  I'd probably add a pearl in the middle and I'm not a fan of the beaded chains.

This is my sister-in-laws.  Again, I like it but I'm not over the moon...

I'm kind of impatient, but then again I guess I should wait until I know what I want.  Anyone seen a stamped Mom's necklace that they love?  I'd love any ideas! (mine will definitely have the new font on it) :)

Products

Yesterday we went to the wedding of one of my all time favorite students (oh wait, teachers don't have favorites). She also just happened to finish college with a math ed degree just months before Lu was born and she was my sub while I was out. She looked gorgeous and the facility was so perfect it almost made me want to get married again, it would definitely be my choice!

Anyway, I'm taking a break from dishes and putting off sewing (I decided to make Stella's Halloween costume and think I'm in WAY over my head). I'm making baby food and thought I'd tell you about something that's making it so much easier this time around. I got this immersion blender from Amazon (love their free 2-day prime shipping!)  It's making baby food making process so much quicker and less messy this time around.  I can't wait to make butternut squash soup with it too!

 

I'm also liking Sally Hansen's Salon Effects.  I put my first pair on Friday night for the wedding Saturday.  They made it through chore day yesterday and still look like they did the first night.  I'm hoping they'll make it through another wedding this Saturday.  They're a bit pricey, but I'm sure I'll do them again sometime. Here's a cell phone pic of them.  Super easy to use!

Walgreens has special edition Halloween ones that Stella and I will most definitely be trying out! How cute are those ghosts?  I think if I cut the strips I can use one pack for both Stella and I.



Finally, I got a few new apps for my phone last week and really like one of them.  I've been using GroceryIQ for a while now for my grocery list and I've really liked it.  I found ZipList though and thoug it's taking a bit to adjust, I think I'm going to like it better because you can link it.  Jim has it on his phone and you log on to you account so you can add to the list from either of our phones or a computer.  The only drawback so far is that while I was shopping yesterday new things kept popping up on my list.  I think I'll need to make sure that he knows that the list needs to be done BEFORE I'm shopping, not while.