Thanksgiving

We are home from our Thanksgiving with family in Oklahoma. We had a great time. We saw tons of family and ate tons of food. It was fabulous!

On Thursday, we had a low key day with lunch and naps (even me). We even got the traditional paper with Black Friday ads. We poured over them to decide where we were going to go. Thursday evening, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa Potter's to eat and visit some more. The girls love playing with their great grandparents.

On Friday, my sister, mom and brother-in-law were out of the house by 3:30 am to go to the mall. We waited in the cold for 30 minutes for the mall to open. We shopped there until 7:00 am and then picked up my niece and nephew. My kids were smart and were still asleep. We shopped with them more and then went home and napped. Then out again to buy cowboy boots for the girls. Then lunch and then out again! We really shopped!

On Saturday, we had lunch with my cousins. It was a great lunch and then on to watch the OSU vs OU game.

On Sunday, we traveled to see my grandma and have lunch. She lives out in the country and the girls loved playing with her kitty and doggie. They also loved playing outside with Sydney and Sam.

Of course, I forget to bring out the camera until the very last day and only get these pictures of the kids on the swing. I tried to take enough until I got the right one.

The Cough

Well, its that time of year for us to battle the cough for little Gracie. Last year, we discovered that she took after her daddy for respiratory issues. The doctor diagnosed it as Reactive Airway Disease which is similar to asthma. Last year, we had about 4 ER visits to help her through some attacks.

This year, we started seeing a pediatric pulminologist. He is a great doctor and has put her on some great medicine that seems to control her breathing. He also switched us to a puffer (inhaler). Which is great because that means no more 30 minute breathing treatments! Now she and Wes are on most of the same medicine!

Now, we just have this yucky sounding cough. She is breathing fine, she just gets the old lady hacker cough. It sounds terrible but she is still fine and running around! We have figured out the difference between the ok cough and the gotta do something quick cough.

The thing that I have learned the most from these little girls is that everything is trial and error. Nothing is a given and if it's not broke don't try and fix it!

Dinner Conversation

While we were eating our spaghetti dinner tonight, I thought we had a really funny conversation. Before dinner, I turned off the TV. I told the girls after dinner we would watch Sesame Street (one of their favorite shows along with Olivia and Wonder Pets). Spaghetti is one of their favorite meals. So after a couple of helpings, Gracie is ready to get down. Then the conversation goes like this.

G: Want down. Sesame Street
Me: You can get down but you have to wait for L to finish before we can watch
G: Hurry up L! (with arm gestures)
L: (Silently stuffing her face with spaghetti and the sauce is all over her face)
G: I go over to L. (she was on the other side of the table from L)
Me: OK
G: (with shocked expression) L FACE!
Me: It's dirty isn't it?
G: Yes, napkin please.
Me: Are you going to clean her up?
G: Yes. (She then proceeds to wipe L down with her napkin while G's face still has sauce on it.)
G: (When finished) All done-Sesame Street!
Me: L are you done.
L: (Still eating) No.
G: GET UP!
(L keeps eating and her face keeps getting dirty. G gets mad and keeps wiping L's face.)
L: All done!

At this point, we all head to the bathroom to wash up. Then we sit down and turn on Sesame Street. All is well in the Potter house.

Announcing....

My new Etsy shop Monkeybee Designs. I've actually had it for a while but have let it sit for too long. I finally got updated pictures (thanks to LiaLezon Photography). Allison came out to the house and took pictures for me. She is so awesome.

As some of you may know, I've been beading for several years now and have sold stuff off and on for awhile. Most of what I do, I give as gifts. I make stuff but then don't wear a lot of it because I feel self conscious. Do people tell me it's nice because it is or because they know I made it. Now, other people can enjoy my work!

Some of the stuff on the site.

Beaded Jewelry

Custom Photo Necklaces

Glass Pendants

Come check out my shop, Monkeybee Designs!

Our Busy Weekend

Every weekend, I tell Wes that we are going to take it easy and then it becomes a whirl wind of activities. On Friday night, we went to the circus. It was the first time the girls have been and they really liked it. They stayed up late and weren't fussy at all. They really loved the animals. It was a bit chilly and there weren't many people there.

The girls are playing at McDonald's with their friend Lauren.

On Saturday, we got up really early to have our pictures taken Allison at Lia Lezon Photography. She took AWESOME pictures. Because it was chilly, the girls wore their hats and coats the whole time. I decided to make their hats cuter by making a flower on each. It turned out really well.

That night, we had a Sunday school pot luck dinner. It was really fun and the girls loved playing with all the kids!

Sunday, we went to church and then celebrated our friend Chandler's 3rd birthday at the Children's Museum. The girls had a blast playing. Here they are going down the slide in their own way. For people who ask me if the girls are starting to show different personalities, this is a good representation of how they are different. Lizzie goes down face first and Gracie doesn't.

Lizzie going down the slide

Gracie going down the slide

Happy Halloween

What a busy week we had ending with a busy Halloween weekend. First Gracie came down with croup and Wes had to leave town. That meant my next call was to Grandma and Papa to come for a visit. They happily came. We had a busy week with Daddy coming home on Friday.

We picked him up from the airport and headed straight to a Halloween Party. Our wonderful friends from our Sunday school class invited tons of kids to eat, decorate cookies and play. Here are the girls decorating cookies.

On Saturday, Wes went to the FC Dallas playoff game and I stayed with the girls. After the game, we met up with friends for dinner. It was a crazy night with 6 kids and 6 adults. It was the second night in a row to be up way past their bed time.

On Sunday (Halloween), we went trick or treating with the Shers, the Halsteads, and the Popes. We first ate dinner and then headed out in search of candy. It was quite a quest. We had to travel a couple of streets over to find anyone giving it out.

Here is a group shot of course no one co-operates.

This is Gracie running down the side walk to the next house. The wised up to us trying to skip a house or two.

This is Lizzie with "hands in pockets". She didn't want to hold my hand because she discovered her pocket. She kept them in there most the night.


The girls and I walking down the street. Wes took the pictures that's why my head is cut off. I'm not even that tall.....

Trying to get the girls to take a good picture with me. It didn't work out as planned.

The girls really loved Halloween this year. They are starting to get it. They loved their costumes and getting candy. Now for the third night in a row they are up really late. I hope this next week goes well for me... The nice thing about staying home with them is I don't have to worry about getting them up early for school.

Twins at the Zoo!

On Friday, Amy invited us to the zoo to meet up with some other twin mommies. It was a crazy time. The girls loved to see the animals. They saw almost all the animals in the book Good Night Gorilla, including the Gorilla! They got a close up view and loved it. They kept saying "good night gorilla". They would wave and say hi to all the other animals. It was so much fun to watch them. It was the first time they understood all the animals.

It was fun to meet all the other women and kids. They were all really sweet.

My sweeties

The whole gang

Playing Dress Up!

The girls love their dress up clothes. They love hats, shoes, socks or anything. They put on my high heels and walk better than me. They put on Wes' cowboy boots stomp around.

Here are some pictures of dress up.

Lizzie with sunglasses and fire helmet

Lizzie

Gracie with her glasses and hat

Gracie and her bracelets.

Our First Hair Cut

Getting our hair cut is a family affair. Wes and I have gone together to get our hair cut since we were first married. We go to Cristi Figueroa where she owns Salon Amis. She opened up the salon a couple of years ago and it's beautiful.

The girls don't have much hair but it has been getting a little unruly lately. Lizzie had pieces that were always in her eyes that needed to be cut. Because we have always taken the girls with us, they love Cristi. She is really sweet to them even though they are always trying to break something. She put them in the chair and put a cape on them. They thought that was amazing. They have watched mommy and daddy sitting in the chair with the cape on so they thought they were big girls.

Here is Lizzie sitting sweetly in the chair. She held really still for Cristi.

Gracie wouldn't keep her head still. She kept trying to look around and flipping her hair.

I love Gracie looking up at Cristi to see what she is doing.

They love sitting in the chair that goes up and down. It was really fun for them.

Pumpkins with Twins

Today was the Fall Fest for my multiples group. Amy and I are the co-chairs of children socials. This is one of our "big" events for the year. We both love to plan parties so this was our thing.

We picked a cute pumpkin patch here at the Rejoice Lutheran Church. The church let us use everything free! It was great. We had the pumpkins, a great picnic table and a playground. The kids loved it.

Here are some pictures from today.

We get this same shot every year. We use to all fit in the shot better.

Lizzie holding hands with Reese

Gracie holding Riley's hand. Gracie was a social butterfly. She loved the party and ran around to everyone!

My sweeties and me

The sweeties and Wes

The whole group

What I've been up to....

I've been busy crafting lately making jewelry. See my finished products.

I liked the key necklaces so when I saw this charm for $3, I knew what to do.

I saw on a blog something similar to this necklace and wanted to make my own. It's buttons and a chain

Here are some flowers I made for Halloween.

I made this one for a friend's birthday.

8 Years

Eight years ago today, Wes and I got married. We married 11 months after we met and haven't slowed down yet. We have been through a lot together; career changes, going back to school, new jobs, infertility, pregnancy complications and twins. Through all this, we still love each other and being together.

Going to see the pumpkins

Amy and I decided to take our kids to see the pumpkins at the Arboretum. We decided to do something new and take 1 car with all 4 kids. So here is the math, 2 adults and 4 toddlers in one mini van. Are we crazy or what? It was quite comical as we put the cars seats in, fit 2 double strollers and all the kids. At one point Gracie threw here sippy out of the car, where it rolled under the car and I had to crawl under to get it.

Finally we get everything in the car (after 2 tries of getting the strollers in) and we are off. We are making good time until we hit traffic that has 635 shut down in both directions. I exit and the GPS keeps trying to get me to go back on the freeway. After being in the car for about an hour, we get to the Arboretum. The girls have a blast and play in the pumpkins. It was fun, we had lunch and then head home (the fruit snacks helped). The girls laugh and talk all the way home except for Reese who fell asleep. All the girls kept saying "Reese wake up". It was so cute!

Once we get back, we have to take all of Amy's stuff out and pray the girls will take a nap. I was lucky and they did.

Children's Museum

On Friday, we went to the Children's Museum with Amy, Reese and Riley. We made the long drive to Dallas and parked our cars. We wandered around for a bit because we didn't know which building it was in in Fair Park. We finally found it and all the girls loved it. The girls loved exploring and see all that the museum had to offer.

After we had enough, we decided it was time for lunch. We decided to go to the Old Mill Inn that is next to the museum. It was great! We were treated like queens. They helped us to our table, cleaned up our messes, gave us complimentary fruit and told us how lovely our girls were. Amy and I wanted to eat there every day!

Here are some pictures of the fun.

Our friends Reese and Riley with Lizzie. Gracie was "driving" the fire truck.

Walking on the balance beam

Walking through spider webs

The fun water table. They all loved this and wanted to go back.

Rocking on horses

After lunch, notice Lizzie still eating? All the other kids were done and she wasn't. I finally just let her take it with here

These moments are hard to come by....

Look no fighting!

Sick Day 2

We had big plans for this weekend. We thought about going to the zoo in the morning and then meeting friends for Grapefest in Grapevine. All that was canceled when we started day 2 of Gracie's virus with a temperature of 105. She had another icky day. However, she did feel better today than yesterday. I hope she will be fever free soon.

Lizzie on the other hand has been great but with all the attention Gracie is getting, Lizzie has been acting out a little. She has been talking up a storm. I took her shopping this morning while Daddy took Gracie for a walk in the wagon. The girls missed each other but were good. We called home at one point and Lizzie wanted to talk to Gracie. They were cute. Then this evening, Wes took Lizzie to the grocery store to pick up some stuff for dinner. They had a great time. Lizzie asked what everything was on the shelves.

Lizzie with dinner all over her face. It must have been good because she shoveled it in like crazy.

Poor little Gracie loving on Daddy.

Sick day

I should have known that last night was not going to be good. I went to my MPOM dinner and had to leave the girls with a sitter. Wes was out of town for work. I get home around 11:00 and the sitter tells me that Gracie has a fever. She gave her Motrin and put her in bed. After I heard that, I knew that I was going to be up all night.

Around 11:30 pm, I gave her another dose of Motrin and tried to decide if I was going to sleep in their room. Because Gracie has a history of fibrile seizures and reactive airway disease, we have to keep on top of her fever so it won't spike and cause her to seize. I finally decide to stay with Gracie in her bed. Big mistake. The Motrin starts working and she starts playing. Finally, around 1:30 am, I went to my bed and woke up at 3:30 am for more Motrin. Again, I decide to try and lay down with Gracie to make sure she is fine. Then Lizzie wakes up and tries to crawl in bed with us. Around 4:45, I go back to my bed so the girls will go to sleep and sleep until 7:00.

The girls get up at 7:30 am and Gracie still has a fever. I decide to give her a lukewarm bath and Lizzie decides she wants in too. I give them breakfast and make an appointment to see Dr. Jim. We eat fast and get dressed to make the appointment

We get to the office and Gracie weighs in at 30 lbs. I ask to have Lizzie weighed and she was 30 1/2 lbs. We see the doctor and he checks Gracie's ears. She tells him she wants Lizzie's ears checked too. So because he is a great doctor, he complies with the 2 year old. It was one of the bright spots of the miserable day. We find out she doesn't have the flu and it's just the random virus with fever and a tiny cough. We pack up our stuff, walk out to the car and get in to find out it is dead. Fortunately, I have AAA. We trudge back into the office, call and 15 minutes later (and several scuffles in the waiting room), the tow truck shows up and jumps the van. We all get back in and head home.

At this point, I call Wes and break down crying. I'm better now. Slowly I'm learning that when you have twins, you learn to make it through anything.