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.

And me without a shower....lovely....

The girls and I go to storytime every Wednesday at the local library. It is a small gathering of about 12 preschool kids and their mothers. None of us really dress up for this and since it was raining today I didn't even bother taking a shower or getting too fixed up (not that I do that anyway). In fact, I pulled my hair back with a man-made headband and that was the extent of my prep work before heading to the library.

Who happens to be at the library when we walk in the door - the Governor of Tennessee along with his entire entourage and about 20 photographers and a news crew. Lovely - the Queer Eye guys would have been appauled by my appearance and - frankly - so was I. So - of course - my cute little girls caught the eye of every photographer in the place so we were definitely noticed. The Governor just "had" to meet the mother of these precious children - great, just great. I don't think any photos were taken specifically of me as they were all focused on the girls, but I'm hoping any film of me spontaneously combusts Mission Impossible style.

For those of you in Tennessee, you may want to take a look in the Tennessean tomorrow to see if you see any lovely pics of the girls - and hopefully NONE of me.

Coloring of the eggs

We took several pictures this weekend so I am back-tracking a bit here. The girls colored eggs on Saturday. It was fun for all as it brought back wonderful memories for me and it was Chris' first time coloring eggs.

The girls did pretty well. Anna put all her concentration onto one egg while Ashlyn had fun dunking about 6 eggs.



They made a bit of a mess, but that is to be expected. However, when we were just about done Ashlyn dumped the entire tub of green dye on herself and the floor. Take a look. It took a while to get the dye off her, but it did finally come off.

They said it couldn't be done....

They said there was NO way I could do it. Well....I have proven them all wrong (including my husband). I was able to put rollers in my girls' hair last night so they could have beautiful curls for church this lovely Easter morning. Yes - as my husband shook his head and scoffed at me - I was able to put over 9 rollers in each girl's hair without having to pin them down. There wasn't a tear shed or a cry heard. They even slept in them!!!! Take a look.....Anna's on the left/Ashlyn's on the right.

And we woke up this morning to beautiful curls to wear with our beautiful dresses. We even have one other Easter event to get dressed up for so I'm hoping the curls will hold up for their other pretty dresses. Pictures of that will be posted later. Here's a pic of the girls before we left for church this morning. Ashlyn is on the left. Anna is on the right.

Happy Easter everyone!

Church can be exhausting....

Our girls LOVE church and we are so thankful for that. They have WONDERFUL Sunday School teachers that sing all kinds of songs with them and that is always a big hit with our girls. Now usually they are pretty tired when we get home, but they tend to play quite a bit before even thinking about settling down for a nap.

Today, we sat around the kitchen table and read the paper while the girls ate their lunch and then played for awhile. Around 12:30 I rounded them up to go upstairs to change into play clothes and calm down a bit while watching part of a Disney movie. After they were settled, I proceeded to start cleaning the house up, laundry, etc. I walked into our bonus room and the girls were watching the movie. I left for NO LONGER THAN 10 minutes, came back into the room and saw this.....

This is Anna

This is Ashlyn

Adorable.

You turn your head for one minute....

Let me start off by saying that the age of three is killing me. Everyone says "Terrible Twos", but the two's were nothing compared to the three's. That being said, let me give you an example of how my two angels (yeah, right) are now conspiring with each other to wreck havoc on our house.

The girls pretty much have free reign over our house. We don't have to worry about them on the stairs and we have toddler-proofed every room - - or so we thought. After lunch the girls usually play while I clean up the kitchen. They typically stay on the same level of the house I'm on (we live in a two-story home), but will occasionally go upstairs. I just make sure to keep tabs on them if I can't hear them playing. Today was no exception. They played downstairs for a while and then headed upstairs. I heard them playing for quite a while and then all got VERY quiet. I think it was quiet for a while because I was in the process of doing loud things (loading the dishwasher, laundry, etc.). I yelled for them and didn't get a response - not a good sign. I heard them moving, but no talking which is VERY odd for our girls. Anyway, I marched upstairs and heard them whispering in the bonus room. When I walked in this is what I saw. Ashlyn is in the pink pants and Anna is in the blue pants (we had just had a messy lunch so I took their tops off at the table).



Now, if you are not sure what this is I will explain. We have a paper shredder upstairs. The "shredder" part comes off the basket and is always off the basket and unplugged when not in use (to avoid any accidents). I shredded several things yesterday and hadn't had a chance to empty the basket. Well - the girls did that for me. There was shredded paper ALL OVER THE PLACE. It looked like a ticker tape parade had taken place in our bonuse room. I actually had to move my treadmill (always kept unplugged when not in use as well and HEAVY) to get all the paper up.

Of course, I wasn't too thrilled with the situation, but it was all I could do not to laugh when I saw the mess and the looks on the faces of the girls when I walked in - priceless. I think they actually thought they wouldn't get caught - hmmmmm....... So this is them "helping Mommy" clean up. Sometimes all you can do is just shake your head......

POTATO Easter Egg Hunt

We could not have had a better day for an Easter Egg Hunt. It was gorgeous outside - warm (around 77 degrees) and sunny. As usual, our POTATO club (Parents of Twins and Triplets Organization) caused quite a scene at the park where we had the hunt. It is always interesting to watch others (without twins/triplets) watching us when we are all together with our kids. Instant birth control for some - ha!

Anyway, we had a great turnout and the girls had a blast. Anna is on the left in this first picture. We are getting ready to start the hunt.



Anna is in the first picture below . She was racing to get those eggs. Ashlyn is in the second picture. She was immediately drawn to the metallic/shiny eggs all the way across the field. My little girl is already going for the "bling".



Our friends Nathan and Amy came with us and were a great help. They actually took most of our pictures and all our video footage. A BIG thank you to them.

A local bank has an Easter Bunny coming next weekend so we are going to go see him. Hopefully Ashlyn will be a little more excited about going to see the Easter Bunny than Santa.

Spring has Sprung in Nashville

It is a GORGEOUS day here in Nashville today. The temperature is in the upper 70's and the girls and I have spent most of the morning in our yard - playing baseball (new t-ball set given to them by Nana), helping mommy rake old leaves and get the patio ready for cookouts, playing basketball and just running around. We've had a BUSY morning. Here's a picture of the A's playing around one of our trees.



So we just finished lunch and are getting ready to take a nap. We plan on heading back outside after. Who knows what we'll get into. Hope everyone has a great day.

So much for being on top of things....

I can't believe it was February when I last posted on here!!!! I HAVE to get better at this, but - in my defense - we've had a crazy March. The first week was spent working on the massive consignment sale my twin/triplet group has each year. I not only sold in the sale, but am also the Treasurer of the group so I have a lot of responsibilities during that time. I also had three projects I was working on for my two part-time gigs that were all due within that next week.

Then - the fun part of the month - we went on a cruise!!! Ah yes - one of the wonderful benefits of being a "certified travel manager" is that I can get some KILLER deals on cruises. We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas to San Juan, St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Maartin and the Bahamas. It was a hard decision to make as we had not been away from the girls for that that long, but the timing was perfect and we haven't had a chance to get away for a husband/wife vacation for a VERY long time. We met some wonderful people on the cruise and had a relaxing time - it was great. And I actually have a bit of tan - not transparent anymore. Here's a picture:



The girls had a great time at Nana's (Chris' mom) while we were gone and didn't seem to mind us being away at all. One of my rationales about leaving the girls was remembering that I used to spend a week with each of my grandparents (Cincinnati and Jackson, Mississippi) during the summers and I had a BALL. I used to think that those weeks were something special my parents did for me. Now I'm starting to realize that maybe they just needed a break....hmmm....genious!

Now I have to insert a picture of the girls here as my family will revolt if I don't. Plus, that's what makes this website so cute. This one was taken by my Dad when he was staying with us before heading down to the Mississippi coast for Disaster Relief. See - they really do love each other. Anna is on the left/Ashlyn on the right.

It's been too long.

Has it really been that long since my last post? Crazy how time flies. Not necessarily when you are having fun, but having twins can have the same effect - ha!

Anyway, our girls looked so cute going to church this morning that we had to take a picture. They don't get to wear these beautiful coats their Nana gave them very often as it is not always that cold in Nashville, but we've had snow and temperatures below 32 degrees so the snow is sticking and Jack Frost has definitely been nipping at our noses.

This is Daddy with the girls. Ashlyn is on the left and Anna is on the right.

Enjoy and I promise to post again soon.

Birthday Bash

I can't believe our babies are 3 years old! My how time flies.

We had a big party last Saturday (January 28th) to celebrate the girls' 3rd birthday and fun was had by all (well - at least I think it was had by all - I didn't actually take a poll). All the grandparents were there as well as some friends - including another set of twins and our future son-in-law (children of a friend of mine from POTATO - Parents of Twins and Triplets Organization).

We had a Diego/Dora jungle/beach cake and I made individual cupcakes for the girls as Anna wanted a Diego cake and Ashlyn wanted a Baby Jaguar cake. I will have to say that they turned out pretty good considering I am no Martha Stewart.

Ashlyn is the top picture with the purple bow and Anna is the lower picture with the green bow.

Help - I'm trapped with two potty training toddlers!

This has been quite a week. Last week the decision was made to dedicate this week to potty training the girls - no short trips to the store, no story time at the library, basically no leaving the house. We were going to dedicate all our time to potty training - period!

It is always good to have dreams.....

The week started off as I had anticipated - lots of messes and much fussing about the messes, but the girls were thrilled with the fact that they could earn stickers for their Potty Posters. Anna actually went in the potty twice and Ashlyn went once. Well - that was the beginning of the end.

Ashlyn decided she wanted NO part of the potty and started "holding it" for several hours which brought back horrible memories of all the issues we had with her and her surgery in May. After the second day of her screaming at me because she was holding it and would not get near a potty I decided to call her pediatric urologist and our pediatrician. Anna was also holding it, but not for near as long and she was not as traumatized by the whole experience as Ashlyn was. I was basically insane after the end of the second day and there were many moments where I found my head in my oven, but after my husband drug me out of there I was fine (kinda).

The urologist and our pediatrician called back with the same advice - don't push Ashlyn any more, but continue with Anna as maybe that would make Ashlyn want to do it more (nothing like peer pressure). So that is what we have been doing. We introduced M & M's to the mix on the second day and that has been a REAL motivator. Since Anna gets one if she sits on the potty for 5 minutes (and she does a great job at sitting for LONG periods of time) then Ashlyn has been more willing to try out the potty sitting process. They get 5 M&M's if they use the bathroom on the potty and a huge parade occurs. Yes - I'm sure many of you are laughing at the thought of us marching around our house singing "Pee Pee" songs at the top of our lungs. I can live with that.

So we are now on day five of potty training boot camp and things are going okay - Anna is still doing a great job and we aren't pushing Ashlyn, but she is coming around. Wish us luck!

Tons of presents, but the styrofoam "bubbles" are the winner...

I have many more pictures to post, but I wanted to get something on the website since I haven't had a chance to lately. We all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. As you can see in this picture, we think the girls (Ashlyn in pink & Anna in blue) liked the little styrafoam packing bubbles better than the presents they got - isn't that always the way.....

We spent Christmas Eve with Papaw (Chris' Dad)& Mamaw Riggs, Uncle Travis and Jamie in McMinnville. We had a great time and the girls were on their best behavior. They must have known Santa was watching closely.

Christmas morning was spent at our house with Grandpa & Grandma Cook (my parents). That is when this picture was taken. They must have played with this stuff for about 15 minutes before we got them to move on with other presents - hysterical.

Nana (Chris' Mom), Pappy, Uncle Spencer and Grammy (Pappy's mom) came over later in the afternoon and we had our Christmas with them. We then ate a big meal and spent most of the time playing with the girls. Actually, Uncle Spencer spent most of the time teaching his brother Chris how to play with his new XBOX - not a small task.

The girls and I went to Pearl, Mississippi (near Jackson) the week after Christmas to spend time with my mother's parents (Mimi & Grandpa Ray to the girls) and my Uncle Steven & Aunt Teresa. That was a great trip as well and I will tell more about that in another post.

I plan on getting many more pictures on here as soon as I get them edited. I'm just glad I was able to finally download them all.

Happy New Year to everyone and God Bless!

At first I was afraid.....I was petrified.....

This post is all about me, but I am putting a picture of the girls on this one just to appease the grandparents (hee hee - Ashlyn is on the left and Anna is on the right - they wanted to take a walk a few weeks ago so I bundled them up and away we went). Anyway, about a week before Thanksgiving my twins & triplets organization (POTATO) had a special shopping event at the Toys R Us. The sale was just for us and there were discounts available and door prizes given away. I even sang Jingle Bells over the intercom system to get a $10 gift card (I have no shame). We had a good time and got some good deals.

Well, I received a call this past Sunday from the manager of the store. She said I had won a doorprize, but had not been back to pick it up. She said someone had tried to call but there was no answer. I told her we had an answering machine and she said whoever called must have dialed the wrong number. So I asked what I had won thinking it would be some sort of small toy as that was what I had seen given out that evening to others. She said, "No - this is a big one - you won a karaoke machine". I said, "wow - you mean one of the ones for the kids?" because I think those are great and I think the girls would enjoy it a little later on once they can read. She said, "No - this is one of the adult version - it is worth over $160.' I about flipped my lid! I was soooooo excited! I LOVE karaoke!!!! I just hope there are some great songs that come with it, like that classic karaoke song - I Will Survive! And all those those enter our house should expect to have to sing a song - get your vocal chords ready!

The Best Laid Plans

So my POTATO group (Parents of Twins & Triplets Organization) had "Breakfast with Santa" yesterday. We were so excited! This would actually be the girls' first encounter with "Santa" so we practiced during the week what we would do when we got to see Santa and sit on his lap. The practice sessions went VERY well - however - when the big day arrived Ashlyn wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with Santa. In fact, when they did the big announcement that Santa was coming into the building I had the camera all ready to capture their expressions when they saw him walk in. Well - Anna was thrilled to see him and waved at Santa with a big grin on her face. Ashlyn looked up from her breakfast plate, gave a very bored look in Santa's direction then went right back to eating. Hmmmm - not quite the reaction we were hoping for.

I got in line to see Santa and when it was close to our turn Anna came right to me all excited. Ashlyn had to be carried to me by Chris where she proceeded to have a hissy fit over the fact that she was going to have to see Santa. We didn't think that would end up being the best picture of Ashlyn (nor did we want her to inflict bodily harm on Santa) so we let her get back to her breakfast with Daddy and Anna and I waited our turn. As you can see in this picture, Anna did a fantastic job with Santa and was such a big girl.

Now if you just close your eyes for a second and then look at the picture again, you can pretend that it is Ashlyn too. I'm seriously thinking about delving deeper into my expertise at PhotoShop and seeing if I can just superimpose Ashlyn onto Santa's lap using her image from another picture....hmmmmm....we'll see.

Photo Shoot - Take One

Well - I don't want to give too much away regarding the girls' Christmas card pictures, but we had a first photo shoot this morning as they were in a pretty good mood and mommy thought it was worth a shot. We realize it will probably take MANY shots to get the one we want so we are trying to start early.

Anyway, they didn't do too bad other than wanting to see each and every picture on our digital camera after I took it, and there was one shot I thought I would go ahead and put on here as it was so sweet. Ashlyn is on the left and Anna is on the right. They can fight like cats and dogs one minute and then tell each other they love each other the next. Never a dull moment!