The Fountain of Youth

We had a BIG day yesterday. A POTATO friend invited us to go along with her and some other friends and their kids to Centennial Park and Bi-Centennial Park near downtown Nashville. Both are wonderful parks and I can safely say I have not taken full advantage of them. We have visited Centennial Park several times to feed the MANY ducks and geese, but I had not taken the girls to Bi-Centennial Park to play in the fountain area at all - Bad Mommy!

Anyway, we had a wonderful time. We started at Centennial Park feeding the ducks and geese in record time - amazing how quickly 8-9 kids go through a truckload of bread. I'm sure those birds had some queasy tummies by the time we left. We then went over to that park's playground area which is very nice. We then picnic-ed near the playground area and then loaded up the kiddies to go over to Bi-Centennial's Park to play in the fountains. Oh - did I mention it was 90 degrees in Nashville yesterday?

It sounds a bit odd to let your kids play in a fountain, but Bi-Centennial Park's fountain area is different. You'll see in the photos.

Daddy and Miss Amy brought their lunches to the park and watched the festivities as they were so close. It took the girls a while to realize their Daddy was there - funny.

Here are a few pics of our day. Just click on them to make the bigger. The first one gives you an idea of what the fountain area looks like. The second is Ashlyn getting her back wet and the third is Anna playing in the grated area where you can walk around.

New picture format

Hello all - I have found a new way to display some of our photos in a slideshow format. I know there may be a few of you that won't be able to view those photos in that format, so I will still be posting pics here, but I made another Blog that will contain the slideshows. I will provide a link to that site each time a put pictures on here and there. Here's the website if you would like to save it as a favorite now.

www.riggsslides.blogspot.com

In fact, I have already placed two slideshows on that site. I put one on there of more pictures of the girls playing with the worms and the other one is of our trip to Mamaw & Papaw Riggs' house in McMinnville yesterday. The girls had a great time and went fishing at the lake on the property. It is gorgeous up there. Here are a couple pics from yesterday for those that aren't able to view the slideshows.










So, check out the new blog and let me know what you think.

Worms, worms, worms

My girls have been "helping" me pull the numerous weeds in our flower beds. They remembered that in the spring when I was planting flowers that I showed them the worms I found. So - of course - they wanted to see some more worms.

Ashlyn loved the worms and was creating her own little worm family - brother, sister, mommy, daddy - very cute. Anna was more than happy to sit back and watch Ashlyn, but was not happy with me because I couldn't find her any "clean" worms. Yes - Anna is her Daddy all over. I tried to explain that worms live in the dirt which is why they are dirty, but that wasn't going to fly with her. She wanted me to give them a bath before even thinking of handing them to her. She did finally hold a couple worms, but not for long.

Here are a few pictures of our afternoon with the worms. The first is Ashlyn (rt) explaining to Anna (lt) that it is okay that the worms are dirty. The second is Anna holding her worm up, and the third is Ashlyn holding her "Big Daddy" worm up.

This could be addictive....

So - we are starting our third full week of pre-school. The girls and I are all loving it and I couldn't be happier about the whole situation. We were a bit apprehensive about how the girls would react to being in different classes, but they love it and would be more than happy to tell any of you how "cool" it is to have separate teachers and friends in their own classes.

And Mommy is enjoying her "me" time as well. I've been trying to scrapbook on a semi-regular basis and that is what I did with a big part of my 4 1/2 free hours yesterday. Here are a few of my creations from yesterday:




















So I am quite proud of myself and hope to keep it up as I still have newborn pictures to scrapbook - AUGH!

Rock Me Amadeus

You Scored 50% Correct

You are a solid child of the 80s You'd never confuse Tiffany from Debbie And while you may not know Prince's first #1 hit You know every word to Little Red Corvette

How Much Do You Know About 80s Music?

This was a fun little questionnaire to do. I actually thought I would do better than this, but I guess the mounds of hairspray in my BIG hair and the bright neon clothes I was wearing in the 80's marred my memory. Check it out and see how well you do.

Whomever invented preschool....

...is a GENIOUS!!! I know it is only 4 1/2 hours two days a week, but I am loving it so much. And the girls are having a ball - just ask them. They think it is so "cool" that they each get their own teacher and they have so much fun telling each other what they did in their class. It is hysterical. Plus, I found out today that they are both playing with other kids now instead of just each other (during recess when all the 3 year olds are together). That was something we were concerned about prior to preschool so that information is great to hear. In places like Sunday School they tend to only play with each other instead of making new friends. This is one of the reasons we decided to try separating them now. And it seems to be going well.

And I forgot how many errands you can get done without twins in tow. I was able to go to over six places (i.e. post office, bank, Target, etc.) within three hours. That NEVER would have happened if I had the girls with me. Now that is not to say that they aren't good helpers. It just tends to take MUCH longer to do things when they are with me. But I wouldn't trade my little helpers for anything and I actually enjoy our little outings - well - most of them anyway.

So Thursday is the next day of preschool and I hope to actually do some scrapbooking during my free time. I have all this "stuff" ready for me to use, but just haven't made the time to sit down and do anything about it. We'll see.....

And - just so the grandparents don't yell at me (kidding) - I've attached a couple "silly face" pictures of the girls. Ashlyn is in the pink and Anna is in the yellow.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm......

These are the moments that just make me shake my head....

For those of you with little ones you can understand that a box of Dixie cups (about $2-$3) can be a WONDERFUL toy. Our girls play with them all the time - typically stacking them.

This is Anna on our stairs. Anna is VERY MUCH like her Daddy and for those of you who don't know Chris that well let me just say that he is a bit - well - anal. That's a bit of a crude term, but that truly is the best way to describe him. Anyway, I constantly find Anna doing things that Chris would do. This picture is a prime example of that.

Not only has she lined the cups up on the stairs in freakishly straight lines, but she has also divided them up by their color and the characters on the cups (in this case, Lion King cups). She has basically booby-trapped our stairs and has a fit whenever one of us tries to go up or down them. "Be careful Mommy", "Don't hurt the cups Mommy".

She does this every time we get the cups out now and it is all I can do to stop myself from knocking a couple over just to see what kind of reaction I would get (I'm so mean!).

1st Day of Preschool!

The long wait is over and our big girls started preschool today! 4 1/2 hours, two days a week. We have been talking about it for months and the day finally arrived. They were so excited and had a great time. And the teachers told us they did great.

They are in separate classes which is a huge debate among multiple parents, but they are LOVING it. They think it is so "cool" that they each have their own teacher and their own set of friends in their respective classes. They talked all the way home about what each of them did. The good thing is that the 3-year-old classes have recess outside together so they are able to see each other once during those 4 1/2 hours. Apparently they ran to each other and hugged each other like they hadn't seen one another for 10 years when they entered recess - hysterical. They do the same thing at home if they are apart for more than 10 minutes.

Anyway - this picture is right before we left this morning. They are wearing their Spiderman backpacks. That's right - Spiderman. They were told to pick out whichever backpack they wanted and those are the ones they wanted. I was actually quite impressed that they chose a strong, super-hero type backpack, but Daddy was a little bothered that his "dainty flowers" didn't choose something a little more feminine. Girl power Daddy!

Ashlyn is Anna's biggest cheerleader

Didn't want to leave Ashlyn out as she has been a great help this week while we've been potty-training Anna. She cheers with us and jumps up and down with us - basically makes as big of a fool out of herself as we do. I would hate to find out there are hidden cameras in this house after this week - oh my.

Anyway, we've had two pics of Anna on here lately and I didn't want to leave Ashlyn out. This is a picture of Ashlyn and I while we were in Maysville a few weeks ago. We don't get many shots of us together and I thought this one was pretty good.

Hallelujah!

I have not wanted to post this for a couple days as I didn't want to jinx it, but Anna Caitlyn Riggs is now potty trained!!!! That's right folks - start the music, cue the confetti and proceed with the parade. This little girl (as precious and innocent as she may look in this picture) has been the most stubborn person I've ever known.

Preschool starts next week and I had almost succumb to the fact that she may not be able to go if she wasn't potty trained. We have tried EVERYTHING to get her to go. Finally, Monday morning she decided she was done with "baby diapers" and wanted "big girl panties". I took her comment with a grain of salt (and about 3 pitchers of margaritas since her behavior has made me start drinking heavily - kidding) as she had made this statement before, but after MANY minutes (adding up to several hours) sitting on the potty that day she finally did it! And she has been doing it ever since. Amazing. Just goes to show you that children will be potty trained when they are ready to be potty trained and there is not much you can do about it.

So we are all VERY happy at the Riggs household this week and Anna is extremely proud of herself. Yee haw!

Too funny not to post

While we were in Kentucky, my Dad and I took the girls to my parents' church so they could play in their children's room for a little while (it was really hot outside and the girls were just starting to feel better so I didn't want to chance them getting out, all hot and then sick again).

Anyway, Anna found these goggles (not sure where they were in the room). We didn't even know she found them until we turned around and saw her riding on the push tricycle as pictured here. Hysterical!

Enjoy!

What a week!

The girls and I spent last week in Kentucky with my parents. We had an exciting week planned, but a summer cold (or a bad allergy attack) took over the girls and we didn't get to do too much but recover. That was fine as Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) were able to spend a lot of time with girls reading and snuggling - always fun.

We were able to see Mom-Mom (Chris' grandmother) and Nana (Chris' Mom) rode up with us to help with the trip from Tennessee - thank goodness.

I have some great pics so I will post those now and give more details about the trip (not that there are too many to give) later.

Above is Grandpa (my Dad) and Ashlyn watering the flowers on the back deck.

Above is Grandma (my Mom) and Anna being silly.

Above is Anna (left) and Ashlyn (right) playing with Mom Mom (Chris' grandmother) and her teddy bear.

And these are of the girls (Anna Left/Ashlyn Right) at Dairy Queen on Sunday night. They made quite the scene. There is a jukebox in this DQ and right before we left the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise" by Jimmy Buffett came on. Well - it is not widely known - but my girls and I like to put on any Jimmy Buffett CD and dance around the house. This is one of our favorite things to do actually. So when the music started, the girls started dancing - hysterical. The good patrons of DQ that evening didn't realize they were getting a frozen treat and a show - ha!

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream

Yesterday marked the return of the Martha O'Bryan Ice Cream Crankin' in Franklin, TN. Basically, several Presbyterian churches get together along with a few sponsors - mainly Purity Dairy - and bring ALL kinds of homemade ice cream to a LARGE park-like area in Franklin. For your donation you get a small cup and a spoon. Then you go from table to table to get samples of all the ice cream - YUM! They also have bands playing and jugglers to entertain everyone as we gorge ourselves on ice cream. The flavors range from the very basics - vanilla/chocolate - to the extreme - cinnamon pepper & Barney in a blender. My favorite was the banana split flavor and the key lime pie flavor. They were GREAT! You actually get to vote on your favorite and the votes and the judges decide on a winner which will be a new Purity Dairy ice cream flavor.



Nana and Pappy met us there to enjoy the afternoon and I can tell you Chris and Pappy definitely got their money's worth. I think they sampled EVERY flavor there and there were at least 100 different ice cream stations around that place. Pictured above is our group (other than me) including our daughters who ate every colored popsicle there was. From left to right - Anna, Nana, Chris, Pappy, Ashlyn.

Snip, Snip

My little girls look so grown up!!!! Ashlyn is in the picture on the left and Anna is on the right.

Yesterday, we got the girls' hair cut for the very first time. I just haven't been able to bring myself to cut it over the past 3 1/2 years til now. But they are supposed to start pre-school in September and the long, long hair was getting hard for all of us to deal with. So it was time to bite the bullet.

We've been talking about it with the girls for a couple of weeks to get them ready and they seemed to be pretty excited about it other than Ashlyn thinking a haircut would turn her into a boy - funny. Plus, we planned on donating a large chunk of it to Heartstrings which is basically the Locks of Love associated with Vanderbilt Hospital here in Nashville. We showed the girls the pictures of the little girls that are sick and don't have any hair and they both seemed eager to help.

I thought for sure I would cry, but I was able to control myself. It was also a little hectic as the girls got their hair cut at the same time so I was bouncing back and forth between them to make sure they were doing okay. Anna was a little hesitant at first, but did great and Ashlyn was a little ham and kept flipping her new "do" back and forth in front of the mirror - kinda made it hard for the stylist to get a straight line going with her hair.

Here a couple pics of our new grown up angels. I just LOVE their cuts and am so proud of them! We (me, Grandma and Grandpa Cook) took them to Chuck E. Cheese afterward as a reward and they wore themselves out. And they wore us out as well.

Picture time

It has been a while since I last posted pics of the girls, so I thought I had better get some shots on here before all the grandparents start sending hate mail.

These were taken Saturday afternoon when Nana (Chris' mom) and Grammy (Pappy's mom) came to see us for a short visit. Nana got the girls some cute horse toys and this is them playing with them.




















Above is Anna playing with one of her horses.





















This is Ashlyn playing with her horses and their gated area.

Watch out Meredith - Here I come (I hope)

My husband has been on me for quite some time about trying out for a game show. One in particular has been the Who Wants to be a Millionaire show. We only really talked about it when it first came out (evening show with Regis), but it recently came up again.

Chris discovered the show was having auditions in Nashville last Friday from 9am - 4pm. I was in the middle of Vacation Bible School chaos when he told me about it and I told him he was nuts to think I would go right after I got out of the last day of Bible School. He kept pressuring me and I agreed that I would go to Opry Mills (large shopping mall area where the auditions were being held) and see what the line was like. I basically went to make him stop talking about it and figured that if the line was too long then I would just go shopping - no big deal.

When I got to the location there were TONS of people in line. I talked to the lady from the show at the start of the line and told her that I knew she had answered a bazillion questions, but that I had just come from VBS craziness and was wondering how long of a wait I was in for. She told me that I actually shouldn't have to wait too long as they were taking in 200 at a time for testing and there were a few spots still available for the next group that would be going in within the next 30-60 minutes. I figured I would stick it out. As I started talking to people in line I realized some of them had already been waiting almost two hours as each group took quite a bit of time in the testing area once they got in there. And there were a few in line that knew people that had taken the test earlier in the day and told them how hard it was and that only a few people actually passed the test. hmmmm....2 - 3 hours of my life that I will never get back only to be told I didn't pass the test - great!

Once we were finally allowed into the testing area (inside a Dave & Buster's conference room area) we were crammed into rows of folding chairs (cumfy). Then a large envelope and a testing sheet were handed to us. The show was actually testing for two types of show: a special movie-lovers week of shows and the regular shows. The movie one was first- 30 questions in 10 minutes. I felt like I knew a lot of the answers, but had no doubt that I didn't pass that one. They took up that test and handed out the regular show test. This one was pretty hard, but (amazingly) I actually knew a lot of the answers - not sure how that happened, but if any of you know who Bob Ross is then you will understand my joy in knowing the answer to What shade of color is Cerulean?

So both tests were over and we had to wait around for the test results - great, more wasted time - I don't have many moments alone without my kiddies (they were at Nana's) and I'm sitting in a room with 200 strangers when I could be out having a good time.

We were given a numbered magnet when we came in and that was the number we had to put on our tests along with our names. Mine was 185. The tests were finally scored and the producer that was leading the testing started calling out the numbers for those that passed the movie portion of the test - about 4-5 people. Then they started calling out those that passed the regular test. "Number 1, Number 122, Number 67, Number 185"......"WHAT!!!!!" I yelled out loud. Surely there had been some sort of mistake. But no - they had called my number. Holy cow! I couldn't believe it.

Those of us who had their number called out were told to go into another smaller room where we would be interviewed by a producer of the show. Of course at this point I am still amazed that my number was called. A guy with a polaroid camera took each of our pictures so we could put them with our questionnaire that we had filled out while waiting in line. So we had a quick interview with the producer and were then told we would be getting a letter from the show within the next 2-3 weeks letting us know if we would definitely be a part of the contestant "pool".

So now I am just waiting to hear from them hoping to be a part of that contestant pool. I still can't get over all of this, but my husband is having quite a good time telling me, "I told you so". He is also quizzing me whenever possible on various trivia questions and letting me know when the Millionaire show is on during the day so I can "study up". Oh my.

Feel free to email me with any random trivia questions as I know I'll need the help. Even if I get on the show I am terrified that I will be the person that gets out on the $100 question - ha!

The Attack of the Vacation Bible Schoolers

It feels like forever since I posted, but I do actually have a good reason as to my tardiness. Vacation Bible School (Arctic Edge theme) has been going on at our church this week - oh my!

When I was younger I remembered going to VBS and having a ball and then I grew up and helped teach for a few years at our small church in Kentucky. It has been a long time, but I thought I might be able to help. At first we didn't think that was possible as our church's VBS wasn't taking any children younger than 4 (our girlies are 3), but we found out the Sunday before it started that anyone teaching or volunteering to help during VBS could bring all their kids under the age of 4 and there would be a class/childcare provided. Yeah - I told the person in charge of VBS that I would be more than happy to help (what was I thinking...), but didn't want to teach as there would be NO WAY for me to prepare considering VBS started the next morning.

Day One - I was basically a runner all day (great way to get in some exercise) and that suited me just fine. I jumped in where needed and ran supplies back and forth across the church's property. I was "pooped" by the end of the day, but was glad that I was able to help.

Day Two - "We need you to teach 1st grade." WHAT???? Those were the first words uttered to me when I came into church on Tuesday morning. "We think you would make a great teacher (which I'm translating to "we are desperate and you seem like just the type of sucker that would do this" - ha) and there are WAY too many kids (over 40) in the one class we have going right now. We have to split them up." Oh my, oh my, oh my.

I always knew I did not want to be a teacher while in school. Both my parents were educators (now retired) and loved their careers, but I had no doubt in my mind that God did NOT want me to be a teacher.

God has one great sense of humor.

The 1st graders about killed me. I won't bore you with all the details, but I have even more respect for teachers of all grades now that I have endured even just this very short time "playing teacher". Mary (one of my best friends from college and a SUPERB elementary school teacher) - I have no clue how you do it and you are a SAINT!!!!!

Once I got my footing it actually ended up being a pretty good week, but I am exhausted. Not to get too preachy, but I am glad that there were lots of kids there that - from what I can tell - would have had no contact with God or any sort of church had we not had VBS as accessible as it was.

Fast forward to Day 5 - Friday - Final Day - Yeehaw! As a part of VBS, the kids have music time every day where our Director of Music and his two helpers teach the kids some really cute songs that have LOTS of hand and dance motions with them. Being the dork that I am, I jump right in and do all this stuff with them - it is kinda fun after all. Well - again - God has one great sense of humor - the Music Director comes up to me at the end of the day and asks if I would get up with him at church Sunday night (this is when we are having our VBS finale program) and do all the songs with him as one of his helpers will not be there. What????? He says that he can tell I have such a good time dancing and singing with the kids that I would be the perfect person for the job (again, they are desperate and I apparently have "sucker" written across my forehead). "Sure" comes out of my mouth and I immediately start looking around for the person that just said that. Oh - I SAID THAT! So now I will be performing Sunday night in front of everyone. Heaven help me - literally...

God Bless America!

We had a great day yesterday. We started off with the neighborhood parade that included a firetruck, ambulance and lots of kids on decorated bikes. Then we spent the rest of the morning playing outside (in the 94 degree heat).

Later in the afternoon, Mamaw & Papaw Riggs, Uncle Travis and Jamie came over for a cookout. We ate WAY too much food, but had a good time. Then we went to Mt. Juliet to see the fireworks. They were VERY good - lasted about 40-45 minutes and the girls loved it. Of course, they lost interest after about 20 minutes, but they still had a good time.

Here are a few pictures.


Anna (L) & Ashlyn (R) posing in their 4th of July outfits.


Ashlyn showing off for Mamaw.


Anna pulling on Papaw's mustache.


Uncle Travis and Anna goofing off at the fireworks.

Papaw and Ashlyn watching the fireworks display in Mt. Juliet.

Just call me Mrs. Science!

You Passed 8th Grade Science

Congratulations, you got 7/8 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Science?

Wow - I actually did much better than I thought. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself. Thanks to Jen & Bill Beschman for the link.

Ready, Set, Go!

Chris works downtown and just recently found out about these races (on foot) for adults and children that are hosted at Vanderbilt University (close to downtown) every Thursday evening. We decided it might be something fun for the girls to try (not to mention help wear them out before bedtime) so the girls and I met Daddy at Centennial Park beforehand for a picnic dinner and to feed the ducks, and then we headed down the street for the track.

Now let me tell you there were some SERIOUS runners there. The event is sponsored by the Nashville Runner's Club so that is to be expected, but there were also quite a few little kids. They have a series of races and the ones that the kiddies participate in are the 100 M Dash and the 200 M dash. The girls did the 100 M dash and had a ball. Plus, there were a few races before theirs so they spent that time playing in the infield with the ball we brought with us.

This pic is of the start of their race. Anna is in yellow and Ashlyn is in pink.

Fun with Nana

Nana (Chris' Mom) came for a visit yesterday afternoon and had such a good time with the girls. They were playing around on our bed when I took this shot. Ashlyn is on the left/Anna on the right.

And - I have found an amazing new site. http://vickysdeals.blogspot.com/ This lady is from Alabama and finds the most amazing deals. I don't know how she does it, but I plan on taking advantage of her knowledge when it comes to my Christmas shopping. Check it out!

Waving the White Flag

Seven Days! Seven complete days dedicated to potty training Anna and - yes - she has won. We have been held hostage in our own home by this little girl and we have HAD IT! The battle is over. We are throwing in the towel. I have read more information about potty training, and potty training twins specifically, over the past several days and have come to the conclusion that Anna is rebelling against Ashlyn's ease in using the potty. Apparently when twins potty train and one learns more quickly/easily than the other, then the other twin decides she is going to show her independence by refusing to use the potty on the terms of her parents. Our family is a prime example of this. The reading continued on to say that the best way to deal with this situation is to completely stop the potty training process, sit her down, explain that she is now in control of her "potty training destiny" and don't mention it again. So that is what we have done. I HATE that we had to "give up", but I am thrilled that we can resume a half-way normal life again.

Now, if little miss potty pooper doesn't decide to use the potty before she is supposed to go to preschool in September then someone needs to be starting a fund for my mental health as the only thing getting me through the craziness of raising twin toddlers has been the knowledge that they will be going to school two days a week for five hours a day. I have REALLY been looking forward to that "me" time coming my way and if Anna can't go potty by then I can kiss it all goodbye - lovely. Now that may sound selfish, but I don't really care. "Me" time is precious and very rare for mommies and I was SO going to cherish every second of it.

Having vented as much as I am willing to at this point, I have attached a picture of the girls playing in the sprinkler this past weekend. They had a great time. Ashlyn is on the left/Anna on the right.

Poor Matt

That Matt video was great wasn't it? I accidentally deleted him when trying to add an official title to that post and just haven't gotten around to going back to youtube.com and having them send me the video box again. Here's a clearer version for you anyway.

www.wherethehellismatt.com

This means war!

I can't believe I am posting twice in one day, but the occasion calls for it. Today I have declared toddler war against my daughter (Anna - pictured here). Yes - she seems innocent enough, but she's a tricky little thing. Potty training has been an issue with our girls for several months now. Finally, Ashlyn has gotten the hang of things, but Anna is being the stubborn little girl that she is and has been holding out. In fact, I have to be partially impressed with her dedication to "pee-peeing" abstinance. At least she is committed.

Today I stepped over the line in the sand. I told Anna, "No more diapers!" Now she is not too thrilled with my decision, but I think she is realizing that I am not budging on this one. Anna is perfectly aware of exactly what she needs to do to go to the bathroom. There are even times when she will remind Ashlyn to "flush potty" or "wash hands" when Ash happens to forget (are you kidding me). This girl has been playing us like a harp and I'm over it!

Be sure to check back in a couple of days to see if Anna has caved to the pressure or if she has put me in a mental home. Either result should be interesting reading.

Quarantined Family

This has been a crazy week and a half. To make a LONG story short, our entire family has been sick with ear infections, bronchitis and sinus infections - lovely. So my girls and I have major cabin fever and are itching to get out into the real world as soon as possible. I'm trying to keep us in one more day just to make sure we are 100% healthy before venturing out into germ-land once again.

The bad thing is that my parents were down here house/dog-sitting for two weeks and really didn't get to spend too much "fun" time with their grandchildren because we were all pretty puny.

So, since I haven't posted any pictures of the girls for a while, I had better get some on here. We celebrated my Dad's birthday (Flag Day) while they were here. The girls helped decorate the cake (using every sprinkle in the package).



And then helped Grandpa blow out the candles.

One down....one to go....

Well - we didn't want to jinx it by announcing it too soon, but Ashlyn is potty trained! Hallellujah! We had tried this once before with both of them - not long before their third birthday - but had to stop as Ashlyn was holding her urine and her urologist said he didn't want to "stress" her system just yet after all she went through with her issues last year. And since Anna wasn't going to have ANY part of potty training without Ashlyn, we had to stop. Anyway, we had her checkup with that doctor last week and he gave us the go ahead to start again.

Last Tuesday evening we were discussing the girls' teachers for the upcoming fall 2-day preschool. They have not been to "school" before so this is a big deal. We have brought the whole preschool thing up before, but I wanted to re-emphasize the fact that if they don't use the potty then they can't go to school. I said at the dinner table, "...but what do you have to do before you can go to school?" Ashlyn answered quickly, "Go PeePee in the potty!!!!". And then she told us she wanted to go. So - you don't have to ask me twice - I scoop her up and take her into the bathroom where she goes peepee in the potty - YEAH! And she's been doing it ever since. We've had a couple little accidents, but nothing in the past couple of days.

We even developed a chart system as they have both been wanting to go to the Nashville Zoo and see the new giraffes. They adore giraffes so we decided to use this to our advantage. The chart had 25 boxes on it and as soon as either girl filled all the boxes they could go to the zoo and see the giraffes. Ashlyn filled her final square up today (see below).



Now you will also notice that Anna's chart (right behind Ashlyn's head) has zero, zip, nada squares filled. That is because she is being a stubborn little critter (no clue where she got that). She knows EXACTLY what she's doing as she has been "peepee" in the potty before and is just doing this to exert her control over this issue. Well - Mommy's not playin' that! We've been talking about the zoo trip ALL day today and have brought it up during this past week as well trying to encourage Anna to get some stickers on her chart. Anna's not happy about being left behind with Mommy while Daddy takes her to the zoo, but she's not too eager to do much about it. However, I think we have come up with a way to encourage her even more. We invited Chris' Mom (Nana) to go with Ashlyn & Chris to the zoo. That will probably devastate Anna and traumatize her for life when she sees them all leaving together, but she can tell Oprah all about it when she gets older. If it gets her going to the potty then it is all worth it. Nana and Grandma (my mom) think we are being a bit cruel, but you gotta get tough sometimes. Tough love baby!

So I'll give you an update on how tomorrow goes - for both Ashlyn at the zoo and Anna at home with me. Should be interesting....

Pool Time

Mommy got a bit creative and decided to get the kiddie pool out of the garage, spray off any icky bugs and fill the sucker up so the girls can get in the cool water on these hot days (in the 90's lately). Anyway, the creative part came when I decided to slip the pool under the girls' swingset slide. Not terribly creative - I agree - but the girls seemed to like it. Plus, Mommy and Daddy were able to get a little sun. Here are a few pics of our morning adventure. Anna is in the background on the first picture, Anna is the second picture and Ashlyn is the last picture.

I love not having to Cook!

Yesterday was a big day for us. Chris' Mom-Mom (Linda's Mother) and Tantie (Linda's Sister Sherry) came to visit us. They had been in Alabama at Sherry's house and were coming back through this area to go back to Manchester (Ohio). Anyway, we went out to eat at Famous Dave's for lunch - great BBQ. Then we came back to our house and visited for a while before they had to head back to Murfreesboro to get ready for their trip back home. We were glad to get to spend time with them while they were here and here are a few pics from their visit.

Then we headed to our friends' housewarming party in Franklin. Their new home is gorgeous and each time we've gone there we have left talking about how we wish we lived closer to them (Franklin is about an hour away). They grilled out and we all had a blast. Here's a lovely photo of the "girls" hanging out on the hammock. I could have stayed in that hammock all night.

We really enjoyed spending time with our family and friends, but I have to be a bit selfish and admit that the fact that I didn't have to cook for two meals made the day even better. Hallelujah!

I am not known for my artistic skill

But I have to say that I am very impressed with myself right now. I have never considered myself a very creative person which is a shame as I come from an extremely creative/artistic family. There are musicians, artists, singers and actors all within my immediate family. Now I have played my share of instruments and sung at church and in high school without any boos. I was also able to pass art class without too much ridicule, but I am not accomplished within any of these areas.

Lately, I have been trying to get involved in scrapbooking. I have done a few things, but nothing too elaborate. I purchased two very nice scrapbooks when the girls were born with every intention of keeping them both updated for the girls so I could pass them down to them when they got older. Well - that hasn't quite panned out. I've made a few attempts, but haven't dedicated the time I need to. Now that has changed.

As a kick-in-the-pants way to start my endeavor I signed up for a scrapbooking class at the scrapbooking store down the street. It was a great class and I had a good time. The teacher gave some great pointers and more importantly told me not to feel guilty about not keeping things current. Scrapbooking is supposed to be fun - not a chore. And I have found that if I have samples of pages in front of me I am able to pull parts of each sample page to make my own creation which actually ends up looking pretty good. Here are the pages I did.



So, I'm hitting the ground running. I'm trying to get my stuff organized and hope to get moving on these scrapbooks.

Church Nursery Attacks Parents!

Ok - that is slightly overstated, but you will understand shortly.

As in most churches, the parents of children that go to the nursery/toddler rooms take turns caring for the children. We belong to a fairly large church (First Baptist Church Mt. Juliet) so we usually have to take our turn in the toddler room once every 3-4 months which is very fair. Well, this past Sunday (Mother's Day) we showed up at the toddler room and there wasn't anyone in there. We waited a few minutes and another mother came in to drop off her son. She asked if we were taking care of the kids that day and we explained we were not so she stayed in the room with us. Another Dad came in and joined our waiting game. About 2 minutes before church was supposed to start the childcare director came in and said the couple that was supposed to watch our little ones had not come in yet. He then proceeded to ask Chris and I if we would mind staying. I was really looking forward to a twin-free church service, but there were only 4 total kids in the room so I didn't think it would be too tough. The other two parents left and we were ready to start playing with our small group of kiddos - or so we thought.

Within the next 5 minutes - I kid you not - 10 more children showed up. We had little ones everywhere! Some were thrilled to be away from their parents and others had to be consoled. Chris and I just kept looking at each other and shaking our heads at the whole thing - hysterical. We probably did over 25 head counts just to make sure we had the right number of kids in the room. So much for my peaceful Mother's Day church experience.

Anyway, the kids were actually great and we had very few scuffles. I will tell you this though, there is no better birth control then serving in the toddler room when there are 14 children in there and only you and your husband are watching them all.

Now, since I can 't have two posts in a row without a picture of the girls (or I will have mutiny from the grandparents), I have attached a pic of the girls from our recent trip to northern Kentucky. We went to the Cincinnati Zoo one of the days we were there and had a great time. The girls LOVED the giraffes and the gorillas the best. I thought this was a cute one of them walking down one of the zoo's paths. Anna is on the left and Ashlyn is on the right.

Hope all the mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day.