4/21/12

Today shaped up to be a pretty great Saturday. The girls and I spent the morning hanging out around the house. They hung out in their play room for a while, we did the usual coloring, chasing making  mess. They were a little bit more rowdy than the last few days, but we survived.

My mom offered to take them for the day/overnight, so after lunch I dropped them off with her. It was definitely weird being in the house, especially overnight, without anybody else. Way to quiet, that's for sure!

My freedom for the night was very exciting...a couple loads of laundry, dishes, cleaning up around the house. Oh so fun! I did take a break from all that fun to go hang out with my BFF for a while. I had some venting to do, and we had some catching up to do, so it was nice to hang out with her for a while. It does not happen nearly enough!

I played on the computer for a while before heading off to bed. Just hoping my body would cooperate and actually sleep in for a while! One can hope!

We finally tried out the little magic paint set Amelia got for her birthday last year. Olivia thought it was amazing, and worked really hard on her picture! Of course, I had to show off my amazing skills as well...

4/20/12

Another wonderful Friday! Started off with my weekly weigh in, and I was down another 1.8 lbs this week, for a total of 19.6. I fell .5 short of my first goal, which bummed be out a bit, but at least I know I'm close! There's always next week, and the scale is moving in the right direction!

We started off our morning heading to Perkins for breakfast. The girls LOVE going out to eat, so they usually do pretty well. Amelia didn't eat too well though, I think her teeth were bothering her. She ate a nice big chunk of my muffin though! Probably better for both of us :)

After breakfast we hung out at home for a big and the girls tore apart the house. You know, the usual. We ate some lunch, and they went down for a nice LONG nap. I took the time to do our checkbooks, pay some bills and just catch up on some shows.

We had a quiet night as well. We played some games, did some coloring, watched some shows. The girls were BFF's all night long, which always makes life easier. I wasn't in a cooking mood today, so we splurged on some Taco Bell for dinner. I hadn't eaten there FOREVER. Surprisingly I was able to eat much less than I used to :) The girls love it, so it's a win/win!

It was time for baths and bed shortly after arriving back home. Olivia and I hung out on the couch for a bit after Amelia went down, she definitely loves her one on one time, so she was pretty happy. I just spent the night catching up on more shows. My DVR is going down quickly with all of this alone time!

The girls helped themselves to the treat shelf in the kitchen, and enjoyed some peeps. They think they are pretty sneaky...

4/19/12

Well, today was my Friday at work! It was a nice, short workweek, if only they could all be like that!

I again left work early to get my workout in and get some stuff done around the house before picking up the girls. Tonight was my kickboxing video, but I didn't make it all the way through this time. I just felt completely drained, and my legs were killing me. I do love the video, but I don't think it gives enough variety for me. It's just constant kicks and punches, it wears me out too fast. Hopefully next time I can push myself through it.

After picking up the girls, they spent some time playing outside before we settled in for dinner and some relaxation before  baths and bed. So, another pretty low key day. I did get some exciting news from Amelia's teachers today. I guess she's woken up from her naps dry a few times, so they've been putting her on the potty...and she's actually gone a few times :) We're going to actually work on putty training this summer, when she turns 2, but it's nice to know between watching her sister, and the school working with her, she won't be afraid of it or anything. Hopefully she'll be as easy as Olivia was! It will be so nice to get a break from diapers!

Here are some pictures of the girls picking "flowers" in the neighbors yard....and bird watching. Amelia LOVES bird watching. LOL

4/18/12

Well, one of my goals while Christian is away is to break the girls of their waking during the night habits. I am not a fan of "crying it out", but I also don't believe at toddler-stage it qualifies as crying it out anymore. I believe that at this point, it's most important that they actually get their sleep, a good full night of sleep, especially on school nights. So, last night, the girls both woke up right as I was going to bed. They cried and yelled for a while, I shouted in that everything was OK and they needed to go back to sleep, and a few minutes later they were both out. Not another peep the rest of the night. Hopefully I can work with them this week and get them over it before Christian comes home - he's too much of a softy.

I weight in at work today for our Biggest Loser Challenge and I was down 4 lbs from 2 weeks ago! YAY, I liked that for sure! I also went to lunch with a few co-workers to celebrate a birthday - we went to Ruby Tuesday for the salad bar and YUMMY! So, the day definitely flew by today. I was off early again to workout and relax a while before picking up the girls.

The girls were a little less cooperative tonight. They were annoying each other all night long and wouldn't eat at dinner. Until they were "sent to bed" - then they scarfed it right down! Another habit I'll be working on breaking.

We did have a little break in the fighting. My stepmom sent the girls some coloring pages in the mail, so they opened up envelopes and got to work :)

4/17/12

Well, Christian is off on his travels. Of course, not without a few bumps. Apparently they were very confused on what to do during their Chicago layover - very apparent when he called me from baggage claim. No dear, you don't get your baggage. He said they had a pretty turbulent landing/end of the flight. But, they did land safe and sound.

The word day actually flew by - hopefully a trend for the week. I left early to get home, get my workout in and get a little something done before I had to pick up the girls. The girls were very well-behaved tonight, which made for a great start to our week of girls only club. The played together, ate well, took their baths and went to bed like perfect little angels. Let's see how long this lasts!

The girls got ahold of the Easter stuff (that I still haven't put away...) and had a ball tonight. Who new baskets, plastic eggs and dye cups could be so exciting!

4/16/12

Monday - and I had a raging case of the Monday's ALL day long. The only thing that got me through the day was the fact that this is going to be a short week for me. I'm leaving work early tomorrow-Thursday, Friday is my day off and I'm taking next Monday off to have a day ALL to myself after a long week of single parenting...before the husband comes home. The thought of this time off is so exciting for me!

Christian left work early today to run to Menards and pick up the girls a little early - he had a LOT to do before he leaves tomorrow. When I got home, he was off to pick up his travel companion. His dad is bringing them to the airport in the morning, so it was easier for him to just stay at our house. While he was gone, I got my workout in while the girls played in their playroom.

They arrived home as I was finishing up, so we all had some dinner and Christian started packing. They made a quick trip to Target and Walmart for some traveling needs while I got the girls bathed and ready for bed. After he said his goodbye's to them, they passed right out, Christian and Lorenzo fixed the broken hose in the laundry room and I slipped into bed for the night. Christian leaves bright and early in the morning, so we'll see how things go!

Olivia did spike another fever today. She was pretty warm when I dropped them off this morning, and it got a little worse as the night went on. Nothing like Easter though. She was complaining that her head hurts - I really hope that she doesn't develop my migraines - that would just kill me!

4/15/12

Sunday has come too soon! Especially because the girls did not sleep well last night at all. They were both up several times throughout the night - too much partying I suppose! You could tell Amelia's teeth were just killing her - she wasn't talking much and was biting on her gums, her rash was pretty prominent and she had a low grade fever all day. She was quite a cuddle bug, that's for sure!

They were both up for the day pretty early. Somebody else in our house decided to drink a bit too much yesterday/last night so, like usual, I was left to care for the girls all morning. Was not happy about that...not at all.

I did some laundry and some random cleaning up throughout the day. Once Christian finally pulled himself off the couch, we got the girls some lunch and down for their naps, then took to the basement to finally start getting everything back in order. We got the playroom put back together, hooked up the TV/surround sound, got the girls' princess stuff set up (well, most of it) and did a little picking up in the laundry room. Still a TON left to do, but we're getting there.

We spent the evening just hanging out with the girls, eating dinner and relaxing. And then, a new mishap. As I mentioned, I did laundry all day. I had out last load, Christian's jeans in the washer and was going to just leave them to dry tomorrow. I realized that we left the baby monitor downstairs, so I had to go down stairs to get that. As soon as I opened the door, I hear water. RAN back to the laundry room (after the disaster a couple months ago) and found water spraying EVERYWHERE. The hose running from the cold water pipe to the washer sprung a leak. Christian came down to turn the water off and help clean up. CHAOS. It's a good thing I had to get the monitor, otherwise who knows what kind of disaster we would have had on our hands :(

Rico was holding Christian's luggage hostage tonight. Looks like somebody else wants to head for the border too!

4/14/12

This morning was pretty low key. The girls played in their room for a while after they woke up, so I was able to take my time peeling myself out of bed. We had some breakfast and hung out, cleaned up a little. The usual. Christian was off to get his haircut while I got the girls down for their naps a little early.

Then, we were all off to a birthday party!! Love birthday parties!! Today my friend Melissa's little boy turned 1, so exciting :) The girls had such a great time playing with all of the other kids, and it was such a fun party. We ended up staying there fairly late talking with everybody and letting the kids play. Melissa and her husband have so many friends with kids there age - Christian and I were SO jealous - I'd give anything to have that. I'm hoping as the girls are in school, and once they start playing sports and stuff we'll start making connections with other parents around us.

The girls passed out on our way home from the party and went right to bed. Christian's friend stopped over and they hung out downstairs for a bit while I caught up on my DVR. Great day!

Here are some pics from the party...

4/13/12

Friday, sweet Friday! It never gets less amazing. To top it off, today was weigh in day...I was down another 2 lbs for a total of 17.8! YES - damn it feels good!

This week was a pretty long week at work. Things are somewhat slow right now, which is VERY unusual for me. I spent the last couple years barely getting my head above water - actually keeping up on everything is a definite change of pace for me. Christian hasn't heard anything on his job interview yet, so we have no idea what's going on there. He was approached about the possibility of going back to overnights though. He said he really doesn't want to go back to overnights, but I find the proposition interesting. He would work Monday-Thursday nights, so he'd be off Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He'd be able to watch the girls on Monday's, we'd still have our weekends together - not so bad. He would definitely have to have a decent pay increase to make it worth the change - and exhaustion, though. And, it's nearly impossible to get back on days, which is another issue as the girls get older. He'd miss out on a lot of their stuff once they're in school/sports if he was working overnights. I guess we'll see what happens.

We had a pretty relaxing evening together. The girls played down in their room for a while (well, destroyed their room really). Christian and I had a little movie night when they went to bed. We watched "Bad Teacher" for some laughs - I'd heard back things about it, but I actually thought it was pretty funny. Lots of good laughs.

The girls found their old baby playmat in the spare bedroom and had a BLAST with it. It was hilarious.

4/12/12

Another pretty low key, boring day for us.

Again, Christian was off to his mom's with the girls for dinner tonight. She made some rice and stuff - since I weigh in tomorrow, I said NO WAY to that, which gave me the house to myself for the evening. I got my kickboxing workout in - which still TOTALLY kicks my butt. Ate a little dinner and hung out for a bit.

The girls went right into the bath when they got home. Their new bathing suits came in the mail today. Last year these "SnapMe" suits were featured on babysteals.com and I bought them each one. I LOVE these suits...I'm not a fan of two piece swim suits, but one piece's are always such a pain. These snap on the bottom so it makes diaper changes/potty breaks super easy. LOVE them. Olivia's from last year still fits her, but I got her another one, of course. Of course they wanted to try them on right away - SO, we went "swimming" in the tub rather than taking a bath tonight. LOL