Product Review: { HUMIDIFIER }

Verdict: It's a must-have. And get a nice one!

A humidifier is another thing that I didn't register for but quickly found out was a necessity. It didn't even come to mind when I made my checklist of "Things for Baby" and checked it twice in those final days before my first baby's arrival. Since she made her debut in late October, it was only a few weeks before her first cold. Baby colds are the WORST! They not only feel terrible and have no idea why, but can't even blow all the snot out of their little noses. And as much as you want to give them some magic medicine to make it all better right then and there, the "perscription" is always the same: Use a nasal aspirator to suck out the junk; Elevate baby's head for sleeping; Use saline drops in the nose; Run a cool mist humidifier.

Since we didn't already have a humidifier (totally should have registered for one), I did what every parent recently hit with the reality of massive new baby expenses would do. I ran to Walgreens and bought the cheapest one I could find. HUGE mistake! It covered the entire room with "white dust" every time we ran it (which was basically all winter long). I got to be best friends with my Swiffer Duster quick and in a hurry!

When the NEXT cold season came around, my mother-in-law sweetly offered to let us have this better humidifier by Bionaire that she had purchased. It works wonderfully and leaves no dust at all. It also serves as a noise machine. The twins got so addicted to the sound that we now run it every time they sleep. Maybe this will help ward off the colds this fall (fingers crossed).

Crazy for Crochet

I don't do change well. I never have. And we're about to be shifting into a different kind of schedule starting next week. Laney is starting her new preschool on Tuesday and the boys are starting Mother's Day Out at our church the next week. Then, Laney is starting ballet the next week (I. Am. So. Excited). I know these changes seem pretty little and silly to be nervouse about, but I am. My "babies" are all so little still and throwing a new thing at them just kind of rocks their worlds. I worry about dropping them off at these new places for the first time and I worry that they will feel scared and feel like I'm abandoning them. I KNOW that by the second week of this new schedule, they'll all be totally fine and loving life, but I'm still just anxious about it all. I guess it's just part of mama-hood.

I've always been a busy bee and need something to be "doing" at all times, especially when I'm nervous about something. I guess I just need something to take my mind off the uneasiness. This time around, I decided to try to learn to crochet, and can I just tell you, I'm going crochet cRaZy. I can't stop. I don't know very many stitches yet, but have been spending a lot of time watching 80-year-old ladies on YouTube and I think I'm getting the general hang of it. The thing that amazes me the most is that these old ladies can not only work computers, but know how to post videos to YouTube! Go girls! I'm certain I have already technologically peaked and am on a steady decline at age 25. And who am I kidding? I probably couldn't figure out how to post on YouTube NOW. So, go Grannies go!

At first, I just worked on a bunch of little scrap pieces practicing different crochet stitches (like single, double, and half double). I finally finished my actual first "project" two days ago! And it didn't take very long at all! Perfect project for this fickle crafter.

It's a cowl. Which is funny because I seriously always thought shirts had "cow" necks until I read the word in this pattern and had a little epiphany that they're called COWL neck shirts. Mind. Blown. I mean, it makes sense, now. Nothing about it looks like a cow. I really am the dumbest smart person ever. Ha.

Product Review: { PACI CLIPS }

VERDICT: Buy them! Buy 1000 of them.

Ok, I guess you will just need 500 since you're probably not having twins. But, seriously, these things are life savers. They come in a variety of price ranges. I have some really pretty (I mean handsome) ones that I love and also some really plain ones that work just fine, too. If you're crafty, you can even make them. My first baby never took a pacifier. So pacis were a new adventure for me with the twins. Paci, binky, bobo, plug. No matter what you call it, that thing is important. And you're going to want to have easy access to it.

I got 2 pacifier clips at my baby shower for the boys. I hadn't even registered for them! And I didn't realize how essential they were until the boys were about 6 months old. I swear I picked pacis up off the floor, washed them, and put them back in mouths 50 times a day. I guess I just thought that's what everybody did. Then one day it clicked:

Didn't I get something that would make this situation less awful? YES. The paci clips!

I went and dug them out of the bottom of the closet and I don't know if a day has gone by since that P & B haven't been "clipped up."

I was skeptical at first because I thought this would make the boys more dependent on their pacis. On the contrary, though, I think they have them in their mouths LESS when they're clipped onto their shirts. It's a way for them to carry the pacis around and know they can have them at any time without  having to have it in their mouth for safe keeping. Before the clips, they sucked on them all the time because they knew it would be left somewhere if they didn't "hold onto it."

Sure, they stretch out the boys' shirts sometimes, but it's worth it to me. Mine are getting so worn out now that I'm even thinking about cutting the hardware out of them and sewing a new "strap" on them with some spare ribbon I have. Always a project in the making...

We probably only have about six more months of these clips, though. Then we'll start the process of making the pacis go bye-bye (gasp).

Example

Baby Product Reviews

I don't claim to be any sort of expert on being a mother. I do claim to have tried just about every baby product on the market these days. With one daughter and twin boys all under the age of 3, I am the target market for virtually every baby item out there. Girl things, boy things, things for multiples, you name it. And trust me, those companies are darn good at making you feel like you need to buy everything that's out there for baby. Plus, it doesn't help that I'm the girl who gets sucked in by every infomercial and actually calls those numbers and buys stuff sometimes haha (Perfect Brownie Pan, what what!). My advice (that I need to follow more): DON'T GIVE IN TO THE MARKETING SCHEME MADNESS!

I wish I had somebody to guide me better on what to register for. I was the first of my friends to have kids and I felt completely lost and overwhelmed by the massive amounts of "stuff" out there. My mom and MIL helped the best they could, but the baby game had changed so much since they were playing. They were almost just as overwhelmed as I was.

Since I've already had several friends ask about my experiences with different products, I've decided to add a section to the ole blog. Under this new "Product Reviews" label, I'll post my opinions about the products I've received/bought. My hope is that maybe I can save a young clueless new mama like myself a buck or two. Or three.

My Boys

Guys, I'm so behind on loading pictures onto my computer. The Macbook finally crashed back in April or so (boooo) and we were computer-less up until 2 weeks ago. So now that I'm finally getting to dump my camera onto this new computer, I'm finding so many pictures that I simply have to blog about. I just died when I saw these that I took of my boys on Easter. I know. That's a long time ago. But look at these troopers letting me dress them up all matchy-matchy! How long do you think they'll go for that? Junior high? High school? Ha. I won't hold my breath.

It's Brooks in both of the pictures with one baby. Parker slept all day and didn't want to take part in the full photo shoot, I guess.

It's hard to handle all this handome in one house. My heart explodes often. :)

Hello Splash Pad!

So Abilene finally caught up and got a splash pad. Hallelujah! It opened this past weekend. We went on Sunday evening with a family from our new Life Group. This park is nothing to write home about, but we'll definitely go back. Just enough water to cool the kids off on these 100+ days.

Laney held true to this new "girly girl" phase she's in and barely got wet. That girl wears me out sometimes. She swears she had fun, though, and can't wait to go back. I'm calling it a win.



Look...TWINS!

I love when I'm out in public with the boys and random people point at us and say to their shopping buddy, "Look! Twins!" It always catches me off guard. You think I'd get used to it, but this is just my every day life. I don't go around being overly aware of the fact that I have two babies instead of one. It feels normal to me because...it's my life. Ha. I'm sure I would do the same exact thing, though, if I ran across triplets or quadruplets.

Don't get me wrong. It doesn't make me mad or hurt my feelings or anything like that. The people who do it are always smiling and sometimes even look like they might just come right on over to eat my little duo up. Or snatch them up (yikes). It's just awkward. I mean, how am I supposed to respond to that? Should I wave? Should I say something to them even though they aren't speaking to me? Should I keep walking?

Maybe I'll just start charging admission so everybody can "STEP RIGHT UP and SEE THE TWIN BABIES!" :)

Casserole Carrier

I've been getting that craft itch again, lately. I do this often. I won't do a single crafty thing for months on end, then all of a sudden, BAM. Hobby Lobby every day. Glue guns plugged in everywhere. Sewing machine living on the kitchen table. I think this most recent craft spree was brought on by watch Tori Spelling's new show Craft Wars.

Marshall loves it. Ha. Hahaha.

He's been really great about letting me go craft crazy 24/7, though. I think he's just learned that if he can weather the storm of scrapbook paper and ribbons for a few days, I'll get sick of it and then he'll be able to eat dinner, once again, on a table that Michael's craft store didn't just throw up all over. He really is a trooper.

I digress. The point of all this is...I want to be good at sewing so badly. I've never had a formal sewing lesson. I didn't even take home-ec in high school. The few solid skills I do know I managed to pick up from my mom and I've just been able teach myself the rest by trial and error. And by "the rest," I mean just enough to get me through a sewing project. My seams aren't ever straight and I usually have to curse my machine a few thousand times before finishing my work, but I'm getting there. Each time I have fewer fights with my bobbin.

My most recent project was a casserole dish carrier. I originally saw the idea on TAYLORMADE. But she used the tutorial from 2 Little Hooligans. With a few tweaks from Homemade by Jill. So I just shamelessly copied all of the those crafty ladies and came up with this! I'm so happy with how it turned out! I mean, for me, any sewing project that doesn't end up in the garbage is a success. I got the fabric from Hobby Lobby and plan to make a pillow or something out of the left overs. We'll see if that ever actually happens. As for this casserole carrier, I think it might be my Christmas present to my MIL. It looks like something she would like. Plus, there are some killer casseroles she makes that can be carried around in that thing!

I Moustache You for a Photo

Here are the pictures Nathan got from the mustache photo booth at the boys' first birthday party! We have some wonderful family and friends who traveled just to come help us celebrate this milestone in our lives. I mean, what's a party without awesome guests? The husbands were great sports and even played along by taking some photo booth pics ('preciate cha...really). If you are in some of these photos and would like to download them from the website, let me know and I'll tell ya how! Once again, THANKS to everybody who helped us celebrate our handsome little misters!

The Little Misters are ONE!

I love first birthdays. They're so...important. To me, at least. And with the twins it felt TWICE as important! Sure, babies won't remember their first birthday parties. But I will remember it. And for us it was just as much for celebrating OUR making it through that first year of having 3 babies under 3. Phew!

So we had a Mustache / Little Mister party and did it big. The invitation said "Happy Birthday, Little Men!" We had yummy food and, of course, LOTS of sweets. We also had a mustache themed photo booth, but those pictures are for the next post.

{CREDIT}

The party idea, invitation, and many of the party decorations were designed by Le Partie Sugar (amazing). And one of my former students, Nathan Carroll, took the pictures at the party. Go visit his site. He's great!

I'm going to break this party up into 2 posts so I don't overload you with pics. Here are the pictures of some of the decorations:

We're SO proud of our little miracles for making it through their first year of life and adding SO much joy to our lives along the way. I couldn't imagine life without them. We had a rough start (with Brooks in the hospital for 2 weeks), but you wouldn't even know it, now. Our boys are BIG, happy, handsome, and so loving! Thank you, Jesus.