Our first ladies

Check out the girls rocking their Michelle Obama look (remember the White House | Black Market dress from her appearance on The View which instanteously became impossible to buy?).

What's even better about their copycat outfits is that the girls know they're super cute wearing them and the dresses' $9.99 Target price makes the First Lady's $148 price tag seem very haute couture.

Plus, knee socks make everything better!

*More regular (and lengthy) postings to resume as soon as I figure out a way to rid my laptop and our house of viruses.

They are two!

Twins really are twice as nice. Double the fun, double the love, double the cupcakes. Aren't they great?


I vividly remember leaving the hospital with those two babies. The weather was fairly warm for February, and it was late afternoon with the sun shining so bright. The hospital lobby was crowded and their little heads were covered with handmade hats. Now they are babies only in that like-yesterday memory.

Two years of growing, smiling

Love him!
Absolutely adore her!

One last day of one

Today was the last day Trace and Alysse will be one. In about twenty four hours their age will double. All the while, they are doing their best to take it all in.

All the talk of parties, presents and cake. They know there are festivities planned (with a me-meow cake) and that they are going to be two - the full chaos that's bound to ensue they can't possibly imagine.

Typically, on the kids' birthdays, I pull out their baby pictures and bawl my eyes out. I blubber around wondering where the time has gone, and how they could have gotten so big so quickly.

I then have fleeting moments of wishing them to be babies again (a temporary loss of memory and the sleepless nights and endless bottles).

I pulled out the baby pictures today in an attempt to get a jump start on the tears. They didn't come. Instead, I smiled at the fantastic kids that have grown from those teeny tiny babies. I was so overjoyed with what has become that I couldn't cry ... but there's always tomorrow.

Love them

Handmade valentines. A throw back to days when we actually made our own greetings. Remember those lacy paper doilies?

Alena's valentines for her preschool friends were lovely masterpieces. Hearts cut with four-year-old precision; layers joined with lots of glue and care; glitter added with gusto (remnants of which are still in our kitchen); name signed in preschool penmanship. Wonderful ... beautiful ... from the heart.