There's snow place like home...

Sorry that I haven't been around for the last couple of days.  I have had the most amazing weekend ever.  I am so very blessed that I am able to work from home in such an phenomenal company...then it gets even better...every three months I am able to travel for a weekend to go to training. 

This last weekend was unbelieveable...it changes lives. 

Driving home yesterday I noticed that it was exceptionally cold in Southern CA...very rare regardless of what time of year.  The closer we got to home...the colder it got. 

Our area of Northern CA definitely has its seasons, however we don't get snow very often. 

This is what I woke up to today...looking out our front windows.  How super exciting...after 4 days away from home, I am blessed to come home to snow!

With it being a snow day at school, I was so excited that I got to hang out with my girls all day...we couldn't get our snow gear on quick enough.

There was just one problem though...since moving twice in two months...we didn't know where the girls snow stuff was.  But much to our surprise, a business partner of mine who was not able to make it home last night due to the roads being closed from the snow, was here with a truck full of snow stuff.  You see, my business partner lives in South Lake Tahoe which snows all winter long.  He was so equipped it was rediculous!

He had sleds, beanies, kids gloves, gloves for me, etc.  Not to metion a snow shovel to make a jump in the driveway for the girls to go over.  It was so much fun! 

My neice Skye came over to play with the girls too!  (You can see them all on the sled above on the left)

There truly is SNOW place like home!

                                                            

When they think she's her sister....

Another lesson in the life of twins today...

My girls are 6 years old and they are in different classes in 1st grade.  There are many days that they WANT to dress alike.  Every morning when I am getting them ready for school I will ask them if they want to dress alike or different and around 80% of the time they want to dress alike.

Well, needless to say there are many kids in their classes that know that they have an identical twin sister but truly wouldn't know who was who in the hallway.  Today, as usual, they were dressed alike.  It actually doesn't even matter, they can get to school and walk each other to their classes and their friends try to figure out which one is in their class.  I think it is fun for them to guess so that they make an effort and unfortunately, no one has gotten them right yet...including their teachers. :)

This is where the story begins.  When I was picking the girls up from school today, Erynn was walking toward me and we were going to walk over and get Emilie.  A little boy from Em's class (who is usually really shy) said, "Hi Emilie" to Erynn.  And I wasn't sure if Erynn actually said hi, it appeared that she didn't.  My heart instantly hurt for that little boy that he got enough courage to say hi to Em and then thinks she didn't even say hi back.

So I had to have a talk with my girls...and I said, this is something that is going to happen for the rest of your life.  There will be way more people that can't tell you apart than that can.  So when you are walking through the school...through the store...wherever you are and someone says hi to you and thinks you are your sister, just say hi.  Why?  Because they are going to think that your sister is being rude if you don't.  Now there will be those that really think that you are the other one and it is at that point that I would let them know that they must think that you are your identical twin sister and then let them know that you are not.  Otherwise, it is going to be easier for both of you through life just to say hi to those that say hi in casual passing. :)

What an interesting concept to have to explain to my 6 yr olds.  They totally understood and Erynn actually let me know that she did say hi to that nice boy when he thought she was her sister.  Phew...thank goodness!

Where did my insight come from???  My sister (who is 11 months older than me) married an identical twin...and I ask them a lot of questions about growing up.  Here they are 39 years old, still look exactly alike, sound exactly alike and even though they live an hour and a half away...they own a business together, work together every single day, play together on the weekends, have the same hobbies, buy the same trucks, motorhomes, baja cars...you name it.  And to this day, they still say hi to those that in passing think they are their brother...it just makes life easier I guess.

Way Back When..esday...

I love this picture...it was almost two years ago.  The girls were 4 years old and our baby puppy is an albino boxer, her name is Martini and we love her so much.  She was about 10 weeks old there.

Dive into your digital photos or scan a scrapbook find and play along with Way Back When-esday. Be sure and link back to Twinfatuation to participate in the web-wide reverie...and leave a comment when you do!

Random Tuesday Thoughts...

Oh yes, it is Tuesday again. Woo-hoo! Time for Random Tuesday Thoughts! If you want to get down with your randomness head over the Keely.

*

Why is it that the older people get, the less they get praised.  You will do a pee pee dance with your kids just for going potty and as they start to get older... it starts to turn into, do this, do that without any dances.  I want to be a person of positive influence on my children and others around me...always making them feel better about themselves and helping them believe they can conquer the world.

*

There are times where you wonder if you should actually lighten up a little and let your child ride the bus to school...until days like today.  On the way to school, right in front of the school, there is a huge yellow school bus that looks like it cut a corner too sharp and ended up on the corner and anything that was under the corner.  It is actually lifted up so that half of the tires were not touching the ground.  And the kids were still in it.  It's moments like these that you remember that by riding the bus, you would be putting their lives in someone elses hands.

*

The tortilla's at Costco that you buy that are uncooked...holy cow...those are my downfall.  Once that package is gone I will start the no carb thing again. :)

*

Commit to reading 10 pages of a self help book a day.  You figure if you read 10 pages a day...what will that take, maybe a half an hour at the most.  Then figure that in to a year...3650 pages a year.  That's a lot of books that you could be reading to help better your life, friends and families lives, your children's lives, etc.  Don't under estimate the value of reading books about very successful people.  Whether you want success in parenting, finances, personal growth, the list is endless.  Take that step to commit to yourself going in to the new year...10 pages a day and watch it change your life.

*

My girls are so funny...they are so animated and have such great little personalities.  They are both totally into dance moves.  Erynn's infatuation right now is the dance move of spanking herself...she figures out how to do it several different ways. 

To be concerned or not to be concerned...that is the question.

*

Merry Christmas...there are many people that write Merry X-mas and I have NEVER done that because you are taking the "Christ" out of Christmas.  Just another random thought.

*

Heading to So Cal on Thursday early early morning...ready for a fun filled weekend full of awesome inspiration, motivation and training.  Can't wait!

*

Have a great week all and go get random with the Un Mom

What did he say???

We are a family that likes to decorate for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  It's so much fun and considering that it goes down after New Year's, we have a limited amount of time to enjoy it and want to get the most out of it.

So this year, like all the others...our decorations are up and we have presents under the tree (thanks to Black Friday) and are enjoying Christmas already. 

This evening, my daughter Emilie was in the living room by the Christmas tree and I had just got done trying to figure out where the little thing to turn on the Christmas tree lights were at.  I looked all over however I must admit that I wouldn't be able to find things if they fell out of the sky, landed on my head and started to wiggle.  So I asked my husband, "Babe, where do you turn the Christmas tree lights on at?"  He seemed a little irritated which I didn't really understand...and then he said (mind you the Christmas presents are wrapped)..."It's under the guitar!"  Note: you can see the red package in the above picture to the left of the tree.  My jaw hit the ground as one of my little girls is standing there next to the tree as he is saying this...I said, "What did you just say?"  And he said it again..."I said it's under the guitar."  I immediately asked him to go ahead and tell Emilie what the rest of the presents were while he was at it...and it hit him.

I was mildy friggin furious angry!!

We are really big on forgiving each other when the other asks for forgiveness...but I must admit, tonight was a hard one for me.  LOL  But I forgave him. 

I then had to have a quick talk with Emilie about the present and that if she wanted to forget it until Christmas...that would be great.  We both laughed and then she promised not to tell her sister until they opened them up...we'll see how that goes.

Playing along with Debi of WhoSays8isEnough? on this Baby Picture Sunday.

It's Baby Picture Sunday.
Time to dig out your favorite old photos of your favorite babies in your life and share them :)

Come on! You know you wanna share them ;)

This week's theme:

Why I'm Thankful

 

This was a picture that was taken on April 29th, 2009 on my girls 6th birthday.  I took this on my cell phone so the quality is not the best, but it's still one of my favorite pictures of my little ladies.

They make me so proud every day!

Multiples & More Question of the Week...

Every week Multiples and More posts a Question of the week...whether you are a multiple mom or not, you are welcome to join in on answering the question and then going on over to Multiples and More and linking up.  Below is the question...

 Welcome to our Multiples and More Question of the Week!

Time seems to fly when you have small children, doesn't it? In the midst of changing diapers, doing laundry, cooking, working, planning, etc, it's easy to overlook the special moments that we have with our kids on a daily basis. Today, we want to stop and take a minute to remember and appreciate some of these moments. So, this week's question is:

Describe in detail 5 of the most special moments you have shared with your children.

There have been so many special moments I don't know where to begin...

1)  I guess it would start with them before they have the ability to remember.  When Adam and I were in the hospital and we were told we were having twins...that was one of my most special moments not necessarily shared with them...but none the less, one of my favorites.

2)  Then I was blessed to be able to breast feed my girls.  I actually breastfed them for a year and a week and those moments were some of the most special moments you could ever spend with your babies.  I remember how they would look up at me and more often than not they would hold hands while they were eating.  I fed them "football hold" and decided that if I had to feed them one at a time because they were getting too big then I would not be able to continue breastfeeding because I would have to spend twice as much time feeding them.  As it worked out, they didn't get too big...I just kept scooting their bottoms back and they were able to feed like that for a long time.

3)  I was blessed to stay at home with my girls for the first 3 years of their lives and every single day we were doing something fun.  We never turned on the TV...we went on field trips, went to playgroups, etc.  I remember some of my favorite moments with my girls were on those car rides.  I would never turn on the radio unless they wanted it and I would just listen to them and talk to them the whole time.  It's funny how this time that we spend with our kids can be taken for granted yet it's the best time that we have with our kids.  We would laugh the whole time...they were so funny!

4)  Our vacations every year are the most memorable also!  The phone doesn't ring, there is no computer (keep in mind I work from home) and we have really good "us" time.  We have spent time in Southern CA for a week at San Juan Capistrano and were able to spend a day at Disneyland.  That was awesome and my girls were SO good...we cherish that trip.  Then we have a timeshare in Nevada that we go to when it's snowing and have so much fun just relaxing.  We also went to Kauai for a week and what I loved about that trip is that this island is not commercialized at all, so all of the time we spent together was at the beaches and sight seeing.  There are many more trips that we have spent together and I always look real forward to them every year because it's this time that we make the whole week about our kids.

5)  And this last one might seem really little but it is so big for us...there are many mornings that my girls climb in to bed with me and we just get to sit and talk about what they have been doing, anything that have happened that they need to discuss.  I like to find out what it is that we do that makes them happy and what makes them mad or upset.  It's interesting to find out what your kids perspectives are.  We are able to talk about things that you wouldn't talk about in the normal course of the day.  This is a real special time that I enjoy with my girls and hope that it never ends. :)

To see more answers to this question...head on over to Multiples and More