Since we're still boring and mundane around here, I decided to do a bit of a photo essay. It's been a while since I innundated you with my kids' cuteness, so hold on to your hats! (and I realize that Mason is woefully under-represented here. It's not that we don't love him, or think that he's less photoworthy. It's just that he doesn't get into nearly as many crazy situations that send me running for the camera!



Mmmmmmm.........bread..........




Last night I left the twins to their own devices while I got their bath ready. When I wet to get them ready, this is what I found. Will had managed to pull a freshly baked loaf of dill french bread off the counter and get through two layers of saran wrap. By the time I found them, they were pulling giant hunks out of the center of the loaf and cramming it into their mouths! I guess they like mommy's homemade bread!



Like a fat kid on a cupcake.....



This is what happens when you give toddlers cupcakes- a delicious chocolate beard!

Peek-a-boo!

Here's some Hays cuteness with one of Daddy's hats



It's naked time!!!!!

I'm pretty sure that Hays has decided to become a nudist. Every time I look at him, he's taking his clothes off. He has become an expert in pants removal, and once the pants go, it's merely a matter of seconds before he's naked as a jaybird. I've tried to thwart him with overalls with only a modicum of success. Onesies are working for now, but once he figures out how to unsnap those, I'm out of options!!!

Strike a pose!

Here's Will modeling his new haircut and his big brother's shoes.

All this in just 100 days....

Mason's class recently celebrated the 100th day of school. Each child had to make a vest that 100 things on it, and here's Mason in his fancy goldfish vest. It is so amazing to see how much he's learned in just 100 days. When he started school, he could barely write his name, couldn't read a word, and still scribbled wildly when he was supposed to be coloring. Now he can read all of the beginning reader books his teacher sends home, he colors neatly in the lines, he can write anything legibly (though he still writes b, d, and s backwards at times!) , he can do simple math and write number to 100, he's amazing! He's growing up so much and I am constantly amazed by the funny, imaginative boy he is becoming. Bring on the next 100 days!!!

Time to make some changes.....

I recently had to rearrange the furniture in the twins' room and this is why. Will always liked peeking out the window while he was supposed to be sleeping. But now that he's taller and more desctructive, mere peeking around the curtains wasn't going to cut it anymore. On this particular afternoon he decided that rather than nap, he'd yank the curtain down, pull out the curtain rod, and beat the window with it. I rearranged their furniture and now nobody sleeps by the window! Soryy for spoiling all your fun, Will!

Cooking with Will and Hays

The twins love to empty out my kitchen cabinets and drawers and pretend to cook. Because of this, my kitchen floor is always strewn with pots and pans, mixing bowls, and various kitchen utensiles. It's messy, but it keeps them occupied, so I've given up on fighting it. Who knows, maybe they'll grow up to be chefs!

Does this bag go with these shoes?

Lately Will's big into headbands and pocketbooks. Here he is sporting his favorite red glitter headband. He loves to throw on a headband, grab one of my purses and his cell phone and tell me "Bye-bye" as he pretends to head out the door! Given this and his fondness for shoes and rearranging furniture, we're thinking he may have a future on the Style channel!!

Ok, so I'm lame and don't post enough. Sorry. But you haven't missed that much. It's been insanely COLD, so we've been staying inside a lot. Honestly, I did not leave the house at all last week- and by the weekend the cabin fever was about to do me in! So the brief update- I redid the kitchen (again). It couldn't be helped. Once the granite was installed I didn't like the blue on the walls. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but inspiration struck a couple of weeks ago when my mom and I went to an antique store. I found this great, hand-painted pendant shade that Matt did a fantastic job installing for me. I repainted the kitchen the same bright apple green in the den in the hopes that it would make the two rooms flow better and seem bigger. I put up some different pictures and accessories that I had in my cache of old home decor pieces. (I never throw pictures or anything away because you never know when you'll have the perfect spot for something!) And voila', new kitchen. I'll post pictures as soon as I take some!

I accomplished something besides finding a new light fixture that day. I also got a store to carry my tutus!!! and this past weekend, while on another outing with my mom, I got another store to carry them! I also realized that before I could go around to all the stores that I think might be interested in them, I needed to get a business card. So my wonderful husband helped me design the cutest business card ever, and they're currently being printed. I'll tell you what, I'm fixin' to be fancy with my business cards and such! So as soon as I get those, I'll be out pimping tutus all over town!!!

As for the kids, they're all good. Will's latest favorite toys are a red glitter headband and one of my pocketbooks. Yeah, we are also wondering if he's going to turn out to be Faaaaaabulous!!! He loves pretty girls, but he'll fight to the death for that glitter headband, so I guess only time will tell!! Hays is good, nothing new to report- oh well, the other morning he decided his bowl of oatmeal worked better as a hat than breakfast, so that was funny (and messy). He also said "Thank you" for the first time today- very cute. Mason got his report card on Friday and he's doing great in school. We're so proud of how he's growing up and becoming such a great reader.

So that's the past couple of weeks in a nutshell. And I'm not even going to lie to you, right now my focus is on building my tutu empire, and things that don't have the potential to make me money, such as this blog, are kind of on the back burner. I'm going to try to post at least every week or two, but I'm not making any promises that I might accidentally break! Y'all pray that lots more stores want tutus and that we make a gazillion dollars on this little endeavor (I know, I know, not bloody likely.)

Mason's Santa haul


The twins' Santa gifts (Seems a bit paltry
next to Mason's spread, but they didn't mind!)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that Santa brought you just what you wanted! We had a very happy (and very busy) holiday here! We did Christmas in installments so we could celebrate with everyone. We started on Wednesday with Matt's dad, his brother, Jonathan, and Jonathan's roommate, Matt. We had pizza and presents, and that's a combo that can't be beat!

We had Christmas parts 2 and 3 on Christmas Eve. Part 2 was breakfast and presents at my parent's house, and part 3 was dinner and presents at Matt's mom's house. At this point, we had already racked up some major loot! Mason got video games from all his grandparents, I got a new steam mop, a fancy-pants breadmaker, and some other cool kitchen tools and such. Matt got clothes and a brand new vacuum cleaner. And no, people weren't trying to tell us that our house is dirty, these are things we asked for! So we went home Christmas Eve and mopped and vacuumed!! After we got Mason to bed, Matt and I spent a fun couple of hours playing all his new video games until it was time for Santa to come. And boy did Santa come! Mason got two more video games, plus a bunch of other toys. The twins favorite things were a shopping cart and a farm magnet set that talks and sings, and the humongous pop-up tent and tunnels set they got from my parents. It's been awfully nice having new stuff to entertain them! Matt's favorite present was his new vacuum. Mine was the CDs from my favorite tv show, Glee- I've been listening to them non-stop ever since!!!

We had Matt's mom, brother and his roommate over for breakfast Christmas morning (Christmas part 4) then we went to my aunt's house on Christmas day (Christmas part 5). It was really great to see every one, but we didn't stay too long because the twins were trying their best to get into things and go up the stairs and a host of other things they're not supposed to do. We were so busy trying to keep them corralled and out of trouble that we didn't get to spend nearly as much time with everyone as we would have liked. After we got home, Matt's mom, his aunt, Jonathan and his roommate came over for dessert (Christmas part 6). We were wiped out after such a busy day.

But the fun and celebration didn't end Christmas day. Matt and I always have some of our friends from high school who are now fabulous New Yorkers come to visit the day after Christmas. They're in town to celebrate the holidays with their families and we grab any opportunity we can get to see them. So they came over for dinner Saturday night (Christmas part 7) and we had a big time catching up.

Today was finally the day that we didn't have to go anywhere, but of course, there's never a day that we don't have to do anything! Today's agenda called for getting the Christmas tree out. It was REALLY crunchy, not to mention it takes up a huge amount of space. So we got that sucker out first thing this morning. I tell you what, we could not have done it without our wonderful Mason. He entertained and played with his brothers for well over an hour while Matt and I got the tree and the giant tree cage down. He was a champ! So as a reward, he got McDonalds for lunch and we all took a trip to the park this afternoon. And tonight we are doing nothing but sitting on our butts for some well deserved rest!

But even though we've had 7 Christmas celebrations, we're not 100% done. Matt's parents are giving us new cabinet doors for Christmas, so we're going to do that over the next few weeks. We got granite counter tops a couple of weeks ago, so cabinets are next, then repainting, then we'll have a fabulous kitchen. It will be the gift that keeps on giving!

Did y'all think I abandoned you? Sorry, but things have been CRAZY around here. So, I'm not sure if I mentioned a while back that I made some tutus for my girlfriends' kids that were quite glam. Well, they turned out so darn cute that I decided to try to make a few bucks off of them. So the past week or two has been spent trying to get the tutu business off the ground while simultaneously doing all the 10,000 things that mommies do to make Christmas happen.
I need everyone to say a prayer for my fledgling tutu empire. My cousin's daughter, Charlotte, was wearing her very glam tutu in Brooklyn, and a store owner was taken with it. She's looking for someone to make tutus and hairbows (oh yeah, I'm also hawking hairbows) for her store, so my cousin, Jane, told her about me! I spoke to the store owner, and hopefully she'll place an order after the holidays!!!! It may come to nothing, but I was very proud that someone liked my tutus enough to want to sell them! But y'all keep your fingers crossed that it happens.
For now, we're trying to get our website up and running. It's still in the very early, VERY rough stages, but you can check it out and see what I'm making. Come see me at www.thetutuzoo.com and order a fabulous custom tutu or hairbow (once we get our order page up!!)

Here's a bit of a virtual Christmas card for all of you- those twins can dance!!!!

http://http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/yVe7dk9BRSyFiJUb

We've decked the halls on our blog!!!

My beloved in-house tech staff

Woohoo!! Check us out with our fancy holiday blog!! One million thanks to Matt, our in-house computer guy, for helping me navigate the murky waters of online scrapbook sites. And I think we finally have it fixed so that you can leave comments without having to jump through flaming hoops! (fingers crossed) Just click on the comment button at the bottom of the post and let me know what you think!! I want to hear from my (hopefully!) friendly readers.

The tree in all its glory being guarded by
the impenetrable tree cage!


Mason and his hot daddy- I'm kinda
diggin' the beard! (and Mason's bandit mask)


Mason's tree in his room


Paige and I in our matching glitter hairbands
It's hard to see mine, but trust me- it's there,
and it's fabulous!!

The tree decorating committee

Sweet Haysie at the tree farm

Sweet Will in the sunshine

The boys in Budda's truck with the tree

We found our tree!

So, the overdue Thanksgiving/Thanksmas post.... We had a great Thanksgiving. My mom had a very full house, and though we were missing a few, we all had a fun, and fattening, day. I swear I ate more I would have thought possible, but I enjoyed it! We were also celebrating my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary- quite a milestone! There was a lot of good company and delicious food, so you really couldn't ask for a better Thanksgiving.

Friday was Thanksmas, and a glorious Thanksmas it was! The weather was just cold enough to make you feel like getting a Christmas tree, and it was a gorgeous and sunny day. Matt's mom and dad came over in the morning and I made biscuits and gravy, then we all headed out to the tree farm. We used to always cut our own tree, but I got tired of wimpy-branched Leyland Cypress trees that can't hold an ornament worth a darn, so we switched to pre-cut Frazer Firs. At the tree farm, you walk into a big barn filled with freshly-cut Christmas trees. The smell is unbelievable! I found our tree immediately- it was literally the first one I looked at. It was gorgeous, but of course I still had to shop around a bit! I couldn't find anything that beat the first tree's perfect fullness, so it was declared this years' winner!

Getting the tree was the easy part. Setting up the giant tree cage, not so much. It required two trips to the hardware store for bolts, and took a fair amount of wrestling to get it put together. My father law said, "We won the cage match!" But they got it done and we stuffed the tree in the stand, then we stuffed our faces. It was Thanksgiving all over again, only in sandwich form. I swear to you, my mother in law probably makes the best dressing I have ever come across. It is truly a thing of beauty, and we were all in food heaven! I honestly think I ate more at that lunch than I did on Thanksgiving, but it was just too good to stop eating!

That evening I made potato soup (lord, am I going to talk about anything but food?) and my parents and Paige and Matt's mom came over to eat and decorate the Christmas tree. Of course, Matt had to make the annual trek to Walmart beforehand to replace all the burned out strands of lights! You'd think by now I'd learn to check the lights before Thanksmas! But he got the lights on and did an excellent job, and the ladies did the decorating. By the time we got done with it, you could barely see any green on the tree! We also helped Mason decorate a little tree in his room, and I spent the rest of the weekend decorating the rest of my house and shopping with my mom. So it was a great holiday weekend, and I was sad to see it come to a close.