Photoshoot

I've always enjoyed taking the twins to get their photos taken. When they were younger, we would always take them to Sears, but that got to be so expensive. Last year I started at a local gym taking Zumba classes and I met an awesome lady named Kristi. Turns out we're cousins (Small town, y'know...). She owns Allure Photography so I wanted to see what her professional eye could capture that Sears couldn't. And boy, did she deliver!

Funny Things My Kids Have Said *October Edition*

*Watching the Halloween Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 & Thing 2 come on*
Emma: "Look Mommy! It's Emma and Olivia!"


Emma stuck her hand in the toilet of a porta-potty. Her hand is forever uncleeeeeeen!


Emma informed us that she is "Green Lantern Strawberry". She is wearing a Green Lantern mask with a Strawberry Shortcake costume on.


Emma: "Daddy, Olivia got a sad face today."
Ricky: "Why's that?"
Emma: "Because she was scribble scrabbin'."


Olivia: "It's EVIL!!!"
Emma: "That's not evil. That's a Pop-Tart."


*Liv comes to me from watching "LarryBoy and the Fib From Outerspace"*
Liv: *shows me empty hands* Look, it's my friend The Fib."
Me: *pretends to take a bite from The Fib*
Liv: "NO!! He's my friend! He's not a cheese puff!!!"


Em & Liv: "Ahh, Bats! It's bats!"
Me: "Girlies, go run in there and tell Daddy, 'We can't stop here, this is Bat Country!'"
Em and Liv: "*indistinguishable*BAT COUNTRY!!!"


Emma: "I'm wearing Daddy's underpants."
Me: "What?"
*Emma pulls up Rapunzel dress, revealing Ricky's Pac-Man boxers*
Me: "Well, okay then."


Olivia: "Mommy, I can't find my Sweet Hearts."
Me: "Emma, share the Sweet Tarts with your sister."
Emma: "Okay." *to Olivia* "That'll be 50 dollars."


Olivia: "I wanna see The Super Friends at the superhero store."


*In the car this morning*
Me: "Emma, what did you learn in High-Hat?"
Em: "'A'. 'Ah'. 'A' is for monkey."
Liv: "No, 'A' is for apple and alligator."
Em: "In High-Hat I tell a story about a monkey.
Liv: "Emma, I love you. 'A' is for apple."


*in the car*
Emma: "Mommy, look at my mustache."
Me: *turns to see where she wiped snot across her upper lip*
Me: "Gross."
Me: *turns around a second time to see mustache gone and her mouth making a chewing motion*
Me: "EMMA! Don't eat your...ugh, nevermind."


*From inside a big cardboard box*Ricky: "Are we in a hobo house?"
Em and Liv: "Yes."
Ricky: "Are you hobos?"
Liv: "No, I'm Olivia."


Emma: "I'm cold."
Me: "Okay, let's get dressed for school then."
Emma: "No, I need a blanket."
Me: "No, you need to get dressed."
Emma: "No."
Me: "Do you want a yellow light this morning?"
Emma: "Yes."
Me: *glares*
Emma: "No."


*Abby the cat is sneezing in the living room*
Emma: "The cat is sick."
Me: "He's okay, he's just sneezing."
Emma: "He needs a doughnut."


Olivia: "Get me some more water."
Me: "What's the magic word?"
Olivia: "Pocus Pocus."


Olivia: "I'm Superman-Girl!"


Olivia: ""You wanna go see Spooky-Do?"


*As heard from the living room while Ricky checked on Emma in the bathroom*
Emma: "Daddy, come see!"
Ricky: "Ew, ew, put that away!"


*Emma comes out of her room with a princess wand*
Emma: *flings wand forward* "Magic! Magic!"
Me: "Don't you mean, 'Magic Missle'?"
Emma: "No. Magic! Magic!"


*Olivia comes out with a mouthful of cake*
Me: "Olivia, did you ask for that cake?"
Liv: "No."
Me: "No more cake."
*A little later*
Liv: "May I have some cake please?"
Me: *looks at her*
Liv: "It's my birthday."
Me: "No it's not."
Liv: "It's Pop-Pop's birthday."
Me: *looks at her*
Liv: "Sammi's birthday......you're birthday...Happy Birthday Mommy!"

Happy Halloween, From The Batman Family

Funny Things My Kids Have Said *September Edition*

Olivia: "Daddy wants 'fah-zon-yah' for dinner."
Emma: "Yeah, daddy wants 'buzz-on-yah'"
Me: "Well, alrighty then."


*stall tactic #124 tonight*
Emma: "Mommy, I need to go potty."
Me: "Okay, go."
Emma: "Mommy, I poop in the potty!"
Me: "Good job!
Emma: "Come see!"
Ricky: *laughter*


*As I was getting their cough medicine this morning*
Emma: "Two girlies, one medicine."


Emma: "Mommy, I need to go to the hospital."
Me: "Why's that?"
Emma: "I need to buy some vanilla ice cream."


*Kiddos came home with a free kids meal from Loco's certificate*
Me: "Look girlies, you get a free kids meal."
Olivia: "Wow! I get to eat dinner!"
Me: *facepalm*


*Emma's block tower fell over and broke*
Emma: "They exploded!"


*Emma accidentally hits Olivia in the mouth while playing*
Olivia: "Mommy! My body!"


Me: "Look girlies. Look what I bought today."
Emma: "Thor!"
Me: "Yeah, that's right."
Emma & Olivia: "Put it on!"
Me: "You wanna watch it now?"
Emma and Olivia: "Yeah!!!"


Emma: "Daddy lives at Mommy's house."


*I bring Olivia a bowl with animal crackers*
*She looks at them and puts her fist in the air*
Olivia: SCORE!!!


Emma: "I want Makatos."
Me: "You want to eat at Makatos?"
Emma: "No, I want to eat makatos" *points to tv singing about avocados*
Me: "Ohhhh"


*The kids are reaching a new low to stay out of bed*
Olivia: "I need a drink of water"
Me: "Get in bed."
Emma: "You tuck me in?"
Me: "Get in bed."
Olivia: "Kiss and hug."
Me: "Get in bed,"
Emma: "Daddy, I need metal!"
Ricky: "I got this one. "

Funny Things My Kids Have Said *August Edition*

*I sit down on the couch to watch some tv after the kids are in bed*
*knocking on bedroom door*
Olivia: "Mommy!! I can't find my boobies! Where are my boobies??!"
Me: "They're right there." *point to her shirt*
Olivia: "Oh. Okay." *gets back in bed*


Me: "What are you doing?"
Olivia: "I'm Daddy! *in deeper voice* It's bedtime. Get ready for stories!"


*At Speech today a larger man came in with his daughter. Not unusual, since we've seen them all summer*
Emma: "You're a big guy! You're too big for that chair!"


*Ricky picks up Emma after walking in the door from work*
Emma: "You just hugged my poop, Daddy."


Emma: "Daddy, I'm gonna come sit with you. I need a doughnut."
Ricky: "Are you going to go to the store to get your doughnut?"
Emma: "Yes."


Me: "What movie did you girls just put on?"
Emma: "Iron Maiden"


Olivia: "Daddy! Where's my boobies??"


*Emma comes in wearing cupcake pajamas that she wasn't wearing last night*
Emma: "I'm a cupcake!"


*At 7:50am this is what I hear*
Emma: "Mommy! Wake up! The sun is up!"
*And then I hear "Pebble and the Penguin" on in the living room.*


*Last night after dinner*
Emma: "Mommy, I want a brownie."
Me: "Did you eat all your dinner?"
Emma: "No...yes" *shifts gaze to floor*
Me: "Did you eat all your dinner?"
Emma: "Yes."
Me: "Are you lying to me."
Emma: "Yes."


*During prayers on the phone with Mom*
Mom: "God bless Mommy and Daddy"
Em and Liv: "God bless Mommy and Daddy."
Mom: "God bless Emma and Olivia"
Emma: "God bless Olivia and Batman."
Mom: "God bless everyone"
Olivia: "God bless everyone, and Superman."


*Watching a preview for "The Hunchback of Notre Dame 2"
Emma: "Is that the "Fox and the Lamb?"
Me: "No, that is not "Fox and the Hound."


Emma: "I hear funder Mommy."


*Watching "Oliver and Company", the poodle Georgette introduction song*
Olivia: "Is that you Mommy??"


Me: "Emma, do you need to being everything you own with you?"
Emma: "Yes."


Me: "If I hear Daddy's drawer open again, you're both getting kicked out of our room."
Emma: "No, Mommy! Don't kick me!"


*imitating Bugs Bunny*
Olivia: "Mehhhhh, what's up Jack?"


Em always finds excuses to come out of her room. Tonight, I have to admit, was the best.
Em: "Mommy, I want Olivia to lay down with me."
Me: "But she is sleeping. Let her sleep."
Emma: "But I want my sister."
I go into their room and Liv is awake this time and Em asks if she can lay down with Liv. Liv says No. So she asks again, this time it's a yes. Em crawls in bed with her, gets comfy, gets in Liv's face and say, "I love you sister!" And they hugged.

Home Management Binder

Another thing that I have been stealing from the organizing blogs I have been reading is a "Home Management Binder".

While cleaning out my craft room the first day, I came across almost all the tools needed to make my own HMB. Every person's HMB will have the same basic elements but will be tailored to the specific home needs. Here's the links that I used when researching the binders:

Clean & Scentsible: Organize Everything-Family Binder

I Heart Organizing: March Challenge: Project "Household Binder"

Love to Save: THO: Home Management Binder

Flashy Sparkles: Home Operations Manual- Complete

Organized Home: Suggested Dividers for a Household Notebook

I used those as inspiration for what I wanted inside my binder. Then I went here to get the printables to fill out in my book.

Life...Your Way Printables

Before printing I filled out the information that I knew. Then I put them in the notebook. Any time I need to change information, I write it on the pages. I'm planning on re-typing and printing once every 6 months or so to update all the information. I still need to print the address forms but the rest of the books printables are complete to me.

Two days later and it has been a giant help.

Clean, Clean, Clean!

It is amazing what reading things on the internet can do for motivation. I never realized how reading certain blogs would motivate me to get things done around the house. I always figured that wasting time on the internet was just that, wasting time. But lately I've been checking out organizing blogs. Seeing how all these people are cleaning up their spaces has got me wanting to do the same thing. So I did.

First, two days ago, I started with my night stand. After finding some books stuffed in there, that turned into me going through my bookshelf in our room. On the shelf I found some of Ricky's things so I had to go through his night stand. I left the top drawer of his alone since that's the one he uses the most for all his random stuff. I'll get him to go through that another day.

After cleaning those three areas, I went to put things in my closet and I realized that there was a lot of space in there that I was covering up, mostly by my wedding dress. I still need to get in there and replace she shelf that literally fell out of the wall last year, but I still managed to make a lot more space even with it gone. The dress got moved to the top shelf and things just got moved around from there. Between our two closets I made plenty of room for more clothes that I expect to buy since I'm losing weight again. (I told myself I was only going to weigh myself once a month, but I gave in and did it the other day 187lbs. That's a 13lb loss so far!)


The closets put me on a roll. Next came our bathroom cabinets. I had a ton of lotion that had been given to me as gifts. There was some in there from 2003! I will say that no matter what the fragrance says on the bottle, after a certain period of time all lotion will start to smell exactly the same, gross. I was only able to salvage about 6 bottles. 2 of which I kept and I plan on giving away the other bottles to anyone that wants them.

Later that night I got started on my craft room, aka Giant Clutter Room. I got 4 plastic bags of stuff out and vowed to continue on it again. Which I did today. I got a construction grade garbage bag of things taken out today. I re-organized all my fabric too. That took forever. I do need to get more baggies though. I love putting things in baggies so it helps to have a full stock of them. I managed to put everything that's left to go through in the center of the room, so the next time I get in there I should be able to get it all finished.

-Britney Marie