My mom was in town this weekend, I love hearing the stories she tells of her friends who drink their morning coffee with my blog posts each morning. Blogging is a lot of work without much reward. But I don’t do it for the recognition, I do it for down the road.
Even now, I will click on a “you may also like” box and read a post I wrote months ago. I know one day when I no longer write I will be glad I can look back and have it all there, categorized and archived forever. But for now, I love writing and I know that my readers love reading because you vote! 
And because you vote I have stayed on page one of Top Baby Blogs and even moved up recently to #12! Thank you, Thank you! A special thank you to Safta and Saba, Nana and Grandaddy, and Debbie and Susan who are a few of the many who make a point to vote everyday from each of their devices.The biggest compliment you can give a blogger is more exposure, lots of new people have found my blog via Top Baby Blogs.
Family and Friends
Just want to share some of my recent favorites from Instagram. I am gearing up to make my first Instagram book using Blurb. I have almost 700 photos I’ve instagramed, I think probably 600 of them are of the girls. I’ll have to cut some, it’s not going to be an easy task.
I love this one of Jordan on the slide. Without socks on she can climb up to the slide platform but doesn’t quite understand that she can fall off so we help her once she reaches the top to safely get down the slide.
Talia isn’t as into climbing, she would rather us just put her on the platform and help her down the slide.
Talia learns a new trick from Mommy.
Jordan’s technique for going down the steps.
Teddy seams to be shrinking
My little snuggle bug, Jordan
Present from Abba
Lovely love
A southern wedding, my childhood friend got married this past weekend in my hometown. We had a great weekend playing with our girls, celebrating Dori and her new groom Brian and seeing lots of friends and family.
And lastly for today, Abba little snuggle bug, Talia. Yes, they all said it would happen, one twin prefers mommy and the other daddy. Thus is the case in our house.
A labor day post
We have been enjoying our fun filled weekend of spending time together with our little family. We went to the splash park and are going back again, spent the day at the lake with friends, and sitting out back on our fab new deck! Which I will share this week!
Enjoy your Monday off!
Baby’s are cute
I’m am Elizabeth the babies oldest cousin and we are in north Carolina for our ant mindys wedding both me my sister my brother me and the babies will be in the wedding. It is really fun to play with the babies because they are such happy little girls! The babies do cry but only when they are hungry. I think that Julie and Yasha are taking a really good care of talia and jordan!
Spring time Family outing
Before we were married and had kids we use to love to get in the car and drive somewhere new, find a new state park to go on a hike through or stop in a country restaurant and eat what the locals eat. Since the babies arrived we have yet to take a day road trip, not because we don’t think the babies would be good, but because if you are driving in the car you can’t hold the babies and play with them. Our babies are great in the car, they usually just fall asleep, unless they are hungry, then they scream like it’s the end of the world. If we are not almost to our destination or the screaming just gets too us too much, then I can sit in the back and give them bottles as we drive along. We only do this now that they are six months old and are good at eating and breathing at the same time. Up until about 4 months they had to eat on their sides to avoid getting too much in their mouth at once and not being able to swallow and breath. See this post on how we did that. I know, it’s not smart to feed a baby while you are driving, because god forbid they do start to choke you have to get off the road before you can get them out of their car seat to get the food out. BUT, we are only feeding them formula in the car, not any solids!
It’s not any bigger of a risk than strapping a baby into a highchair and feeding them solids, to get to a choking baby out of a highchair you have to take off the try and unhook them before you can clear the food from their throat, I’m sure they will outlaw all straps in highchair eventually and make us wait until babies are sitting up completely on their own and make us feed them on the floor surrounded by padding, hehe, that would be awful. My husband, the girls nanny and my self are all infant CPR certified.
Back to my point, we still love to get out and see new things on the weekend but have found a much more relaxing way to do this with two babies in tow, local festivals. These spring time festivals are a great alternative, we get to see some art, eat fun foods and people watch in the company of friends while enjoying our babies all day long. And to top it off, babies that are exhausted from a fun day out and about sleep all night long! Our girls have slept from 8pm to at least 5:30 for the past four nights. Usually they sleep longer, until 6:30 or 7! I still feel tiered at the end of the day, but not all day long anymore. And coffee always helps.
Our family room
Here is the house decorating update I’ve been promising you. Just to catch everyone up to speed we moved into this new to us house in July when I was five months pregnant. By that time it was already impossible for me to pack a box, unpack a box or put anything away, it all got put somewhere and left. Now that I am no longer pregnant and have two babies to take care of I have to find bits of spare time to organize and decorate our house. Slowly, slowly, little by little, we are getting things done and making our house a home.
Here’s what the living room was,
And here’s what it looks like now,
The large picture in this image is a canvas painted with chalkboard paint. The art can be changed. It’s the same canvas I use when taking the girls monthly pictures. The small picture I bought at an art auction. I have no idea what it is but I love the texture and the frame!
I made the curtains myself.
Six panels plus hardware cost me a grand total of $250, and 30 minutes of my time (and 1/2 a day of my dad and husbands- to install the hardware. Thanks Dad and Husband). The panels took no time because they are not sewn. I was in a hurry to get them up so I cut the length long enough to one day hem them but folded that extra at the top for now. The sides are just twisted back.
the fabric is from fabric.com. It’s Waverly indoor outdoor fabric so it’s coated which makes it stiff, it gives it a nice drape without being backed at all. 18 yards cost $168 after a coupon which I found by googling fabric.com coupons and free shipping. The rod supports and rings are from bed bath and beyond.
The rod supports were $6 each, and the packs of rings were $8 each. Each ring comes with a clip, so I clipped them over the folded fabric.
It looks fine and no one ever looks at the rings. Once I get around to hemming them I can use drapery hooks if I want a more polished look.
The rod is 1/2 inch copper pipe from home depot. It’s $12 for a 10ft length and it’s easy to cut to length with a saw. The separate pieces can be connected with $.50 connectors.
We still have a long way to go filling white wall space.
Here are few pieces I’ve added so far. These two pictures we purchased this summer at the neighborhood art festival, frames were $14 for both from Khols.
And to make sure that conversation by the water cooler never gets dull, I added a few photos I took while living in Brooklyn of our little coffee shop on our block.
We hope you have a great weekend.
Happy Friday!
Do you have any DIY decorating or home improvement plans for the weekend? Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!
Every Friday
Fridays are a special time in our house, not just because it’s the start of the weekend but because it’s the start of the day of rest. What that means is different for each family, but for ours it means a big dinner, be it with family or with friends, there is always a lot of yummy food and deserts. It means lighting the candles and welcoming this day of rest and relaxation and maybe a fun outing too. It means that we start dinner with prayers and a song, and now that the girls are a part of our lives it also means that each week before Shabbat dinner my husband and I get to bless our girls with a special blessing just for children from their parents, asking that they grow to be strong and independent and to one day have families of their own who will look forward to gathering around the Shabbat table.
The girls first Shabbat with family was a big event, and by big I mean there were a lot of people and cousins! And they finally got to wear their super cute Zara baby dresses that Safta gave them!
The first of many
Yesterday was the first day my husband and I and the girls were home all alone together. It was actually kind if nice. Hectic, yes. Nothing much got done, but it was Thanksgiving, not a day for chores, laundry and remodeling projects can wait. We did take our first holiday family photo, I look forward to many more like this for all the years to come.
And one more thing I am thankful for,
I got my face back.
The facial paralysis on the right side of my face caused by the Bells Palsy virus has improved almost 100%. The paralysis started the day after we came home from he hospital and started to improve about four weeks later. I took the prescribed prednisone pack starting day one and a recommended valtrex course starting day three. I also did face exercise and massage several times a day, but it wasn’t until I read that vitamin B-12 can help clear up the symptoms and started taking a daily supplement that I noticed any improvement. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I don’t care I’m just glad I can smile at our girls.
Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!
Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and your families. I love thanksgiving, it’s probably my favorite holiday. It’s about being an American, being thankful for all that you have, enjoying your family and friends company and eating yummy food. What’s not to like?!
This years thanksgiving celebration is a little bittersweet for me, you see I’m not with my mom, dad, sisters, nieces, nephew, aunts, uncles and cousins like I have been on this holiday for the past 32 years, no this years what I do have is my husband and our two children celebrating at our new home. That is a whole heart full to be thankful for! We decided not to go with the family to the lake for the long weekend because exposing the girls so young to so many people and children in close quarters just isn’t a risk we are willing to take right now. So while we miss our family, we are doing what we know is best for our new little family.
I have been trying to find the words to say why I am thankful for the the things and people in my life but it’s not easy. I can say thank you all day long to the family who has come to help and support us over the last six crazy weeks, but it doesn’t even begin to show our gratitude. And then there are the girls, I mean really, we would have been as grateful as humanly possible to have a new baby and here we are with two. Every day, a hundred times a day, when I am holding a baby I think to myself or sometimes say out loud how amazing it is that I have such a beautiful, perfect, amazing little baby-then I remember I have a whole other one, who is just as beautiful, perfect and amazing. And again, I ask myself the same question I have asked for the past 9 months, “how did we get two babies?” its an answer I’ll never get, but a question I will always be thankful to ask.
So, what does one do to occupy time (Ha, as if I need to find a way to fill time), a CRAFT PROJECT! I turned my little baby girls into little Indians. Just like the native American Indians welcome the new settlers to their land our little girls will soon welcome friends and family to their world.
Trying to take decent photos of babies is no easy task, each time I try to create a cute baby scene I am once again impressed by professional baby photographers and how they manage to get such sweet pictures of infants. My girls were not exactly thrilled with this set up, hence the face plugs. But we will keep trying : )
Happy Thanksgiving
Last year my sister participated in a cookie swap, I never knew what this was until she told me about it. What a great idea! Everyone comes with a few dozen of one kind of cookie an everyone leaves with about six different kids of cookies, or more if there are more people. I told her to make sure I am invited next year, and she remembered! Today she invited me, for five weeks from now, I told her I couldn’t commit, but I’d let her know ; ) Ha! Maybe next year!
She did share her cookie plan with me and it is so cute that I have to share it with you.
Bacon and eggs!
Instructions are available at the creators blog
http://nancyvnjourney.blogspot.com/2011/07/family-faves-bacon-eggs.html
Have fun! Let me know how they turn out!
