First Fish

Ryan has fished a few times with the kids, but has finally warmed up enough and the fish were hungry!   The kids helped him dig up worms in the back yard and they used them as bait.  In just a few minutes Ellie caught her first fish!

 And her second....

 And Graham caught one!!!

And another! (ignore the no pants...he ran down the hill and got them muddy and wanted to take them off so he could see his new undies)

 A few minutes went by and Graham and I were playing soccer in the yard when Ryan started laughing....They caught fish at the same time!

I see lots of fishing days in our future!  Ellie (normally terrified of any animal) even kissed a fish!  Ryan jokingly said "ok give the fish a kiss before we put him back" and she did!!!!

Potty Training the Twins

This past weekend we had zero going on...we are go go go people so this is very rare.  This was the perfect time to lock down at home and tackle potty training.  We have had little potties for a few months and Graham has been interested and occasionally used it, but Ellie had never actually gone (she would sit and read books but definitely not productive).  We started Friday after naps.  During nap time I set up our basement as the potty training zone.  I had toys, lots of snacks and drinks, gifts for #2 and treats for #1.  When the twins woke up we took off their diapers and pants and headed down stairs.  We set a timer to go off every 20 min and we would say "tell us if y'all need to potty"  Graham went every 10 minutes at first and I could tell Ellie was not interested still.  An hour and a half went by and she finally went.  Her face lit up! She was so proud! And she has been rocking it out since then.  She has not had a single accident!!!!  Graham gets a little distracted and has had a few minor accidents but over all did great as well.
Here is our fluid station and #2 gifts!

Candy stash for #1

Lots of books were read over the weekend!

We even ate most meals down stairs!

The images of the two of them on the potty at the same time still cracks me up!
The conversations were also hilarious.  At one point Graham looked down and saw his boy part and then looked over at Ellie and asked me "Mommy where is Ellie's one of these things?"  Ellie responded "Me not need one Bobo"

 This series is my fav.....

By Sunday after naps we let them wear undies and venture upstairs more.  We went to a cookout at a neighbors house and they both did great and used the potty there too!!! (if you look close you can see Bobo has on Ellie's Dorothy costume ruby red slippers)

The biggest test was Monday at school.  My heart was pounding as I came around the corner to see if they were still wearing the same clothes I dropped them off in (meaning they didn't have an accident) and they were!!!!  All the sweet teachers cheered and clapped and kept praising them.  We called Daddy on the way home and we could just tell how proud they were of themselves as well.  Next up....big kid beds!  We may wait a few weeks to tackle this one haha!

Valentines Day

For Valentines I was in charge of the snack for school for G and E's class.  I made this Valentines mix with popcorn, pretzels, M & M's and white chocolate.  

 I made the kids Valentines.   Ellie took stickers and Graham Bubbles!

 They loved opening all their class Valentines and asking who gave them each one.

 My two crazy love bugs.

 Later that day we went to Adam's 4th birthday party.  He had a balloon man who also did magic tricks!  He made Graham Chase from paw patrol.  Graham is obsessed with Paw Patrol!!!

 This kid can eat..and eat...and eat.  He was very pleased when I told him he would be having two dinners.  One at the party and one with his buddy Henry later.

 This patient man was a talented balloon man, but his magic tricks had us all mesmerized and laughing.

 Can't believe this sweet boy is 4.  His mommy always throws the best parties!

Bobo insisted on bringing Ellie a princess balloon since she didn't go to the party.  

 Later that night I took Graham and his buddy Henry out for some Mexican food and we played while the girls were out with their daddies.

Ryan took Ellie to her very first Father Daughter Dance!  

Her best friend Caroline joined her for the night of fun!  Since their mommy was out of town they came to our house to drop off Henry.  These two felt special right away and could not get these sweet smiles off their faces. 

 Ryan did a great job taking lots of cute pics and videos at the dance.

 These two have a mind of their own!!!

 Ryan said they danced and danced and danced until he saw Ellie, Caroline and their friend Ridley laying like this on the dance floor.  Ryan said they were really just taking a break to check out the competition!

What a special night and memory!

 Saturday morning we woke up and headed to The Forks with some other couples for a Valentine getaway.

 I went skeet shooting for the first time.  I love this picture of Emily with her amazing hat and a gun!

 I only tried to shoot a few times, but was proud because I actually hit one!!!

 When we would move from one stand to the next my sweet friend Sarah (who is due with a baby boy any day now) pushed our "ammo baby" which was a stroller with all our bullets and guns.

 Simpson rocked the gun with her prego belly and all.

 Once we got back to the cabins the Edwards made us a welcome cocktail.  It was delicious apple cider (spiked of course).

 We hung out for a while and then got dressed for dinner in the horse stables.

 We shockingly convinced the guys to let us grab a few pictures of the entire group after dinner.  The chef followed us to the stables and I am so glad we did this because we are rarely all together when everyone will cooperate for a picture!!

 These are seriously some of my favorite people in the world.  Don't know what I would do without them.

 Even though they are straight up crazy sometimes....power point!!!

Two week review

I am currently blogging from my dining room table because our office is being renovated.  We decided to go ahead and finish the office in the new house so we could get settled and organized (our main floor seriously lacks storage!)  I finally got Ryan to set up a little temporary office for me so I could download some pictures from our past two weeks.  The kids have had some ridiculously cute moments.  They make me wish I had a twin sibling.  Ellie pushed Bobo down the street and he would direct her where he wanted to go;)

 We attended the best football game I have ever been to.  The last home Panthers game was an absolute blast (wish it could have continued over to the super bowl, but we definitely soaked up every minute of this victory!)  Ryan made his famous pork shoulder!

All the girls from our tailgate. (plus chips photo bomb)

 By the end of the game we were freezing but the crowd was insane and it made you forget that is was that cold out!  

 Last week we celebrated what would have been one year birthday for our sweet friend Madelyn.  She must have had a big party in heaven with all the pink balloons released for her.

 Ryan has had a lot of late nights and meetings lately which means I have gotten to take these two on several dates!  They have never been to Moes so we went after the park one night.

 They love to dress up and "go to a wedding"  and Graham insisted on wearing the red tutu to match his fireman hat!

Last week was also the one year anniversary of when my mom passed.   I still can't believe it has been a year since I went through the worst week of my life and it hit me a lot harder this year reliving those few sad days than I thought.   I decided to spend the day with my girl to cheer me up.   I took her shopping and to lunch and we got our nails painted for the Super Bowl.

While I was gone with Ellie a few friends brought flowers and a gluten free cake for me with cards that really made me appreciate the support I have in good friends.  They always know when you need some encouraging words, fresh flowers or some sugar!
Last Saturday night we attended the third annual Oyster Roast Charity event.  It was a success of course!  And Simpson had wine for us gluten free girls!  Love these girls and am absolutely the luckiest girl to have such amazing girl friends!!!

 And of course last Sunday was the big day....the Super Bowl!

 Several of our friends went to California for the game so we invited the rest over to our house to watch.

 Ryan had everything ready for cocktails and even bought a bottle of champs and sparkling cider (two pregnant girls were attending our party) to toast a victory....sad we never got to pop those bottles!

 Every time we go to the store the kids beg for balloons so we got them all for the party!

 Our basement is the perfect place to watch sports with a big crowd!

 Although the panthers didn't win....or really even show up to the game....I still loved spending time with our friends.  Monday and Tuesday around Charlotte was pretty depressing.  The city really did go all out in preparation for the game.  The kids made something every day for 3 weeks in school that had the panthers logo or colors.  So bummed that after such an amazing season they just totally blew it!  But there is always next year!!!

Ellie's ballet class had parents day where we got to go in the room and watch them during class.  Ellie was such a ham!  She had the biggest smile on her face the entire class and probably said "hey mommy" about 50 times!  I am so proud of her and it is such a joy to see her dance.

 And one of my closest friends turned 40 this week!  Happy Birthday (again) to Corey!  She is kind of my hero and ran a marathon last month so Rachel got these custom bibs made that we all surprised her with at her dinner.

 She is also the biggest Billy Joel fan ever so we got her a cake with his face on it!

 We took Corey to a fun sushi place uptown and the owner is definitely one of  a kind!  Sushi Love!

For her present I came up with this idea.....40 sucks go ahead and wine about it.  Two of her favs are tootsie pops and red wine so it was perfect!