Spring cleaning

It's that time to update our blog photo. Say goodbye to our Christmas 2007 photo! Of course it is way too cute to delete, so here it is:

Mommy's little helper!

Emily is becoming Mommy's little helper. Not only does she like to help load the dishwasher, she also likes to push the clothes into the dryer (I set them on the door and she pushes them in.) If we could just work on folding clothes, cooking, and scrubbing the floors...

Rewind one week....

I am so far behind that I need to track back to January 28....Girl's night with some of the other moms from my moms of multiples club. No one needs a drink more than we do...and my raspberry margarita did not disappoint. YUM! I could have used a triple!

We had a big party to attend on Saturday (the same day we had to trek up to Plano to reselect our tile and granite) for Izzy and Maddie's first birthday. I think the cubs had a lot of fun. I didn't even manage to get any good pictures of the birthday girls...they were buried in presents most of the time. Because I was chasing Z-man around most of the time I didn't get many pics of the cubs either. Here are the few I managed to get:

Zach trying his hardest to be the center of attention:


Zach caught red handed with someone else's water. Thief:


Emily caught red handed running off with my cell phone (she even managed to call Kelli with it). The other thief:


Outside playing with bubbles:


We drove by the house on our way home and snapped a few more pics of the monsters cubs.

Zach screaming in delight. He loves hearing his echo!


Emily on the run:


Who's there, Emily?


The cubs are fascinated by something:


Checking out the stairs:


Zach working his way upstairs:


We did our very best that day to wear the cubs out and they were exhausted by bedtime. We all welcomed a good night's sleep.

The next Monday was another night out with the girls. It almost sounds like mom has a social life, doesn't it? It also came with another raspberry margarita...those things are yummy!

On Wednesday Emily had a Doctor appointment with her new pediatrician. We just wanted to get her established and meet the Doctor. I love our new Doctor and wish we would have switched a long time ago. She listened to all of my questions, she played with Emily, and actually answered all of my questions. Amazing!

On Thursday I took the cubs to a place called Paradise Pond. It is a little play area at one of the churches in Grapevine. It had a big jungle gym, a bounce house, and lots of little "stations" for the cubs to play. Emily had a great time in the "grocery store". She looked at every item before she decided it was good enough to go into her shopping cart. She took that shopping cart everywhere with her. They had a "dress up" station and an area full of Legos. I tried my hardest to get Zach to play in the jungle gym or the bounce house but he was perfectly content running around the place. He must have ran 100 laps around that place. I was exhausted chasing after him. This is also an activity that requires an extra person to help keep an eye on both cubs. Luckily Emily was content in the grocery store area so I had time to run after Zach. If I go back I am going to dress them in bright neon yellow T-shirts so they will be easier to spot. Or maybe I will just get them implanted with a homing device.

They giveth and they taketh away.

Who said building a house was fun? Sure, it was a little fun to pick out all the things that would go in it (except for the part where you doubt every decision you make) but the fun comes to a screeching halt when there is a problem.

First the Travertine:
I received an email late Friday afternoon notifying us that there is a problem with our Travertine -- the batch they received was defective. We were given three options: 1) Wait for a month for the new shipment, 2) Upgrade to the next class of travertine tile at no charge, or 3) Pick a completely new tile. So on Saturday we drove out to Plano to see if we liked the upgraded travertine. Steve and I both decided that it would be fine. It had a little more gray color in it than our original tile selection, but it would work better that the other two options we were given.

Now to the Granite:
Not even 10 minutes after I got the email about the tile I received another email about the granite: "One more thing…our granite rep has brought to our attention that currently the Golden Pearl granite is coming out slightly different than our show room sample. I have a sample of it here for you and I wanted to bring this to your attention so that there are no “surprises” when it is installed". Apparently there are now random splotches of rust color throughout the granite. Steve and I looked at the "new" sample and we both hated it...instantly. There is no way the rust color was going to go with the mahogany cabinets. Steve and I informed them that we would rather select a different granite than be stuck with one we didn't like, so we selected another color. Now all we had to do was wait until Monday to find out if they were going to let us change it. It was a good thing that I received an email on Monday letting us know that they were going to let us change the granite. GOOD THING!! There is nothing worse than a redhead spinning off into outer space over ugly granite countertops. Somebody must have warned them.

And back to the travertine:
Then, yesterday I received an email about the upgraded tile: "Hi again…it looks like the tile that you came in to look at on Saturday is now on back order. I apologize for this…but I do have good news…the original selection will now be available by Friday, so we can have that installed for you." WHAT??? Not only did we drive all the way out to Plano (with the cubs) but now we aren't even getting our free upgrade. UGH!! They giveth and then they taketh away. What will it be next?

Missing sock alert

With Zach being sick last week and the days just running together I am admitting that I did not fold last week's cub laundry. I know my Mom just gasped. Sorry Mom! Luckily the cubs have enough clothes that it wasn't really an issue. After washing a second full load of cub laundry yesterday it was time to get them folded and put away. Hanging and folding two full loads of cub laundry is a lot of work. When I was finished I discovered that I had 16 socks without a match. SIXTEEN! How is that even possible?? So now we are on high alert for sock thieves. Must be the same guy that stole all of our baby clothes hangers.

Human jungle gym

Today while I was on the floor playing with the cubs I learned one thing. If I were to collapse to the floor and become unresponsive (heaven forbid), my cubs would not be alarmed in any way, and would instead climb all over me (with the cat) as if I were a jungle gym. Now I can't get that "Your Body is a Wonderland" song out of my head. Just great!

March of Dimes

On April 18, 2009, we will be participating in the "March for Babies" walk at Farrington Field in Fort Worth, in support of the March of Dimes. We encourage you to join us, in honor of all the little miracles that are brought into this world too soon. For those of you who can walk with us, we look so forward to seeing you there!

Please link to my page at http://www.marchforbabies.org/personal_page.asp?w=161013381&u=pairoflittlemiracles (or cut and paste) to join us in supporting the March of Dimes. There is no fee to walk with us but they do appreciate donations.