Busy Summer Update

Well today is my laze around the house day so thought I’d update my good ol’ blog!

This past week has been very busy! But also very fun. Last weekend we went to the Clackamas County Fair with the girls and my parents and my Aunt Darlene. The girls got to have some close encounters with animals which they really enjoyed. And silly me only took 4 pictures of the whole event! I swear, I suck at taking pictures! For whatever reason most days that camera never makes it out of it’s case, and when it does I only remember to use it a few times. More on that later!

Then this week I really got down to business with finishing the girl’s clothes shopping. I went out practically every day this week! Some days with the girls, and some days by myself after DJ woke up for the day. The girls really enjoy going out now so most of the time I took them along. It seems like mid-morning is crack up time, but if I take them out somewhere they are perfectly happy. Otherwise they spend time in the living room fighting over who gets to play with which toy. I checked out the local consignment shop for the first time. I wasn’t super impressed with their prices, but I’m pretty sure it would be a good deal if I brought in clothes to sell. So I bought most of their clothes at Kohl’s and Walmart. I made quite a few bargain ‘scores’!

Then I went out to my mom’s on Thursday to visit with one of our dear family friends and her 5 year old granddaughter who had been asking to see the girls. We had a nice lunch together, and the girls had a lot of fun exploring Grandma & Grandpa’s house. Ziva really liked the freedom of no gates there! We also went down to the outlet mall and I found some shoes on sale for the girls. Their first pair of shoes!

Then Saturday DJ & I took the girls to the zoo with my parents along for the ride! We had a blast! And the girls did too! Anya really had a good time watching Packy the elephant and Ziva squealed with delight at the giraffe. Afterwards we went out to dinner, and the girls ate one full restaurant size serving of mac & cheese, a serving of chicken strips and 2 packages of orange segments that I brought along! Holy moley those girls can put it away! And of course, we didn’t take ANY pictures at the zoo! My dad took some, so at least there’s evidence that we were at the zoo! I swear, we need to hire a camera crew to follow us around! Our hands are just too full most of the time to take pictures. There are soooo many times that I think to myself, “That would make a good picture!” But I’m always holding a baby at the time so it just doesn’t happen.

Then Sunday was my grandma’s 92^nd birthday party! It was at my Aunt Charlotte’s house in Gervais, OR. Again, the girls loved the fact that they didn’t have gates! Ziva was walking all over the place finding things that were breakable. My mom and I spent the entire time following each of them around making sure they didn’t get into too much trouble. It was fun though! And we got to introduce a lot of people to the girls who hadn’t met them before.

To top off our Sunday evening Anya decided to take her first few steps! She walked back and forth between me and DJ several times. But then she started to get so excited that she started jumping and couldn’t even stand up because she was so thrilled with herself! It was so precious!

In the process of all this fun over the last 2 weeks I’ve only lost 5 lbs. Which I guess is ok, but I only lost 1 lbs. over the last week because every time I went out I was cheating on my diet! That’s the trouble with leaving the house, there’s always naughty things to eat! So I’m going to try and do better this week, we’ll see if I stick to my guns.

14 Months Old!

The girls are 14 months old today, time flies when your having fun! They’re at such a fun age right now and I’m really enjoying them a lot. They’re very smiley and fun. Most of the day is spent playing and laughing.

Ziva is now walking! She’s been walking pretty well for the past week and at this point walks more than she crawls. She’s also learned how to clap her hands which is very cute! Anya is still watching Ziva walk around and hasn’t decided to give it a try yet. She’s also working on clapping, whenever people clap she waves her arms in the air!

They’re both doing great with eating table foods. They’ll clear their trays in 15 minutes and Ziva will start taking her bib off when she’s done.

We hosted a really fun BBQ with some old friends from Portland Christian HS. We had a great time eating junk food and shootin’ the breeze. If you’re interested in coming to our next shindig you are more than welcome!

We had a garage sale and sold a lot of the girl’s old baby things. Most of the big ticket items sold, but we still have a LOT of baby clothes left. So if you know anyone in the area who needs some pink clothes have them contact me!

DJ and I are still pushing ahead with our weight loss! DJ’s about 4 lbs. from his goal weight, and I’m officially back to my pre-pregnancy weight! I’ve lost a grand total of 25 lbs! I’m still pushing on though, I’d like to lose another 20 and get back to when I felt the healthiest. But it’s been really nice to be thinner. I went shopping the other day and I was able to fit into some pants that I realized were the same size I used to wear. Such a good feeling! So now my next task is to go through my old clothes and find out what fits now and what doesn’t… and what is so out of date that I need to get rid of!

I just finished cleaning out our pantry and making a huge food donation to our church’s food cupboard. So our kitchen is all cleaned out and somewhat organized now. Then I’ll move on to my closet, and then the den… The den is horrible and DJ keeps harping on me to clean it out. Collecting papers is my weakness… I swear they follow me wherever I go. Right now I’m surrounded by piles of mail that I haven’t gone through and stacks of bills that I’ve already paid… I desperately need a system. I may resort to hiring someone to help me because my ADD riddled brain just can’t handle it. I hate doing that because I feel like I SHOULD be able to do it myself, but years pass and nothing changes so maybe it’s time to call for backup.

I Have A Climber!

Oh CRAP I have a climber! Today I was in the other room checking my email while the girls were watching Sesame Street and I heard this unusual noise. It was a strange enough noise that the dogs napping at my feet jumped. So I went in to check on the kiddos. Ziva was ON the couch reaching for things on the end table and getting ready to climb over onto the end table! Apparently she's decided to skip walking and go straight to climbing. She was being very careful and deliberate about what she was doing though and only managed to knock over a picture frame (that was the strange noise).

So I decided to call my mom and share with her this exciting story, and as I was talking to her on the phone I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head to see Ziva STANDING on top of one of our little storage cubes on the other side of the couch! This was maybe less than 5 minutes after I caught her on the couch. Dang it! Now that she's figured out how to do it she's going to be trying it ALL the time! I'm seriously in some deep doo doo! I'm sure it'll only be a matter of time before Anya sees Ziva climbing and decides it looks like fun.

I hope I start growing some eyes on the back of my head.