One of a Kind

I fantasize one day of owning a Silhouette crafty cutting machine which I would use to make funny and adorable clothing for my twinsies.

(peat, repeat; copy, paste; I distract, I destruct; the possibilities are really endless)

It's not that I can't make those cute shirts without a Silhouette, it just takes more time and effort both of which are in short supply around our house.

Well thank goodness for Aunts!

A big thank you to the boys' Aunt Angela for making this one happen.

So funny!

Success

So I decided to live on the edge a little, take a risk, and attempt to take some quality pictures of my children...

all.by.my.self.

I've attempted this before and it has always flopped. 

And flopped big.

(blurry pictures, tears etc.)

Well not this time!

Brace yourselves for some picture overload, because I'm pretty proud of these.

(both the pictures and the children of course)

{Check out that sweet little face! Love the eyebrow in this one. He has always had expressive eyebrows}

{Very intent on that apple! They loved the apples and it kept them from crawling away. Katy: 1, Twins: 0;  Yessss!}

{Gosh I hope Gavin doesn't someday take issue with being the twin in the background here. Promise we love you bud!}

{Love this silly little face!}

{I love that Andrew looks totally freaked out and Gavin is just grinning (check out all those teeth)}

{Yum! Honey crisp apples are the best!}

{Gavin waving 'bye-bye' which I think also means 'Mom, I'm all done with this photo shoot thing!'

{At first they were just sucking on the apples, but then they figured out they could actually bite into them and take chunks out! By the end the apples had all these tiny bites missing.}

{Happy Andrew!}

{Gavin: who doesn't like to look at the camera and smile so getting a good shot of him is always a challenge.}

I'm so pleased with how these turned out. Yeah for Fall!!

I'm a bit behind on the blogging so this post is a little ahead of itself (look forward to some particularly cute pictures of the boys), but I just couldn't wait to post it. 

Tonight was our church's annual trunk or treat and our first time dressing the boys up. These costumes were a labor of love, but I am so pleased with how it all came together.

Without further ado...

The Waldo Family!

{Gavin Waldo}

{Andrew Waldo: Where's Waldo? There he is Mom! He's taking our picture.}

{Mommy Waldo with her sweet Waldo babies}

We had such a great night! We couldn't believe the boys kept their glasses on without a fuss (those were Nathan's creation), but they were just absolutely sweet!

Systematic Desensitization

You might recall from this post that our Mom mentioned we don't like the texture of our front mat.

Well, we feel the same way about grass, but our parents think exposing us to such things is a good idea.

We aren't so sure.

Really, Mom? Is this absolutely necessary?

Hmmmm, well maybe it's not quite as bad as I thought, but I still don't like it.

Look at the bright side, at least we managed to get outside...

NAMI Walk 2011

 A couple weeks ago we had the opportunity to participate in our second NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Walk. The goal of the NAMI Walk is to raise awareness about mental health issues. It was humbling to reflect on those we know personally that struggle with mental health issues as we walked. I was grateful for the opportunity to take some time to remember and think about those who are affected by mental illness and their families.

(Interested in participating in a NAMI Walk? Check out this website)

I love the NAMI Walks because even though they support a rather sobering cause the walks are always fun with lots of life and laughter.

Which is awesome.

{At the end of our walk}

{With one of Nathan's co-workers}

It was fun to see how much the boys have changed since our last NAMI Walk 5 months ago in South Carolina.


{Boys at NAMI Walk October 2011}

{Boys at NAMI Walk May 2011}

{Awwww! So tiny and baby like compared to the present}


{Happy boys October 2011 NAMI Walk}


The boys love to be outside so they were great troopers despite the warm weather. I'm really looking forward to participating in our local NAMI Walk in the coming years.

My Hungry Caterpillar

...but he was still hungry.

Better than Perfect

I've had something of a personal breakthrough in the last couple of weeks that started with this realization:

If I can't do something the way that I want to I usually don't do it at all.

This, my friends, is a problem. As a busy caretaker of twins I often don't have the time or energy to do things just the way I want to, but not doing them at all is unacceptable as well.

It keeps me stuck.
It keeps me from making the changes I want to.
It keeps me from accomplishing things I want to do.
It keeps me from becoming the kind of person I really want to be.

Which is why my house is usually a mess, dinner not on the table as often as I'd like, and it explains the pile of unfinished projects on my sewing desk.

So I say, no more!

Done is better than perfect in my {new} book.

So I started a new blog to sort of track my progress and celebrate my successes as small as they may be.

You are welcome to follow along if you'd like:

doneisbetter.blogspot.com

silly billies

These two do all kinds of funny antics. Most of which we can't/don't capture on film. but I'm trying to be better about breaking out the cameras.

{A picture of the "singing" together. LOVE THIS!! There's a video at the bottom of the post as well.}

{I thought we'd have a little longer before this showed up, but it's here already. Gavin's "cheese" face. He busts it out every time the flash starts going off. Too funny!}

{Handsome Drew! Check out those dimples!!}

{Sweet and silly Gavin}


If you're on facebook you've probably already seen these, but I thought I'd share them here too for those who aren't.

{Dancing babies!}

{Bye-bye}

{Gavin's demon growl}

{Gavin's ridiculously awful, does it just because he can, scream}

{This is what happens when the toilet lid gets left up in the bathroom}

Piano men

I love watching these two "play" the piano with their dad. It is really just too sweet.

I'm hoping they'll be willing to take piano lessons one day. I'll probably make them play duets because that would just be cute!

Gettin creative with toys

So the boys don't like to be in their exersaucers anymore (too confining!), but they still like the toys. So they figured out away around this:



It's good balance training as well since the exersaucer rocks a little bit and with another baby playing at it the movement can be pretty unpredictable at times.

It also serves as an unofficial baby gate, safe guarding our desk with it's many and varied dangers (namely computer cords. What is it with babies and cords?!)

Who knew there were so many uses for an exersaucer?

Human Jungle Gym

Some days I feel like human jungle gym:


{Notice Gavin trying to push Andrew off? Yeah they really like their personal space and personal Mommy time these days}

But the good news is that I really kind of love it.


{Clapping! A favorite activity around these parts.}


I'm not the only thing they are scaling these days. Andrew loves to climb, um, anything. Seriously, he finds the funniest places to lounge  (like sitting backwards in his car seat), he can climb up on me unassisted, zips up the stairs in no time flat (we really have to watch him, he's snuck past us a couple of times!) , empties the book case then climbs in...and you know Gavin is never far behind.

This makes me more than a little nervous about the next year or so with these two!