Sweet ride giveaway!

Yeah so I want it as well but I would be thrilled, and somewhat jealous, if one of my blog readers won.
It seems huge but I love how two kiddos can fit in it and I think it would be great for vacations. I am picturing myself riding down the boardwalk somewhere or locally on the montour trail.
So go and enter and hope to win this sweetride.

To market, to market

I've been getting my craft on, besides my bow business, so that has eaten up my blogging time.
Crafts are so much fun, which is great except when you are having fun crafting and neglecting all the not so fun stuff like laundry BLAH.
My crafting kick also means lots of baking and cooking Yum Yum, but not good for the waistline.
Since we've had several weeks of illness, I got out of the dinner habit because it was a wast, but we are on the mend so I am back on the meal planning track. Here is a recent sample-
Kielbasa & HOMEMADE pierogies-so worth the effort! YUM YUM YUM
Chicken Chimichangas
Ravioli Bake-take frozen ravioli and layer it with sauce and cheese, easy and good.
MoJo Chicken & Rice
Sesame steak with asparagus
Sloppy Joes
Garlic Chicken w/ Orzo
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Chili
Mushroom Beef
Roasted Chicken

My grocery challenge was awesome because I learned some important lessons. I learned that I buy too much darn food! Even with menu planning, I get into a mentality of filling my freezer which can be great but not great if you do that every single time you shop. You end up with lots of food, and no plans for that food.
I am determined to keep shopping 1x a month,aside from milk and fresh veggies/fruits, and to use what I have. Instead of researching meal ideas and then shopping, I will look at what I have in my pantry/freezer and then find meals that use those ingredients.
I also now want a new fridge. I have a really pretty side by side stainless steel fridge and I HATE it. The side by side makes it hard to find things and the freezer makes it easy to "lose" things and the baskets are a joke. Since the previous houseowners barely cooked, the fridge just proves my theory that the appliances were purchased for looks as opposed to function-dont even get me started on my oven :)

Where am I going and why am I sitting in this handbasket?

Yeah things feel like they have gone straight to H-E-DOUBLE HOCKEY STICKS. Sleep? yep to HELL. Eating? Yeah express train down south. Discipline? What discipline????

Its kinda like the girls just woke up one day and had a collective thought of "lets totally mess with mommy's mind!". F is refusing to eat dinner. She delights in throwing it on the floor, Thank God for my fat little beagle or else I would be doing a lot more cleaning. Oh yeah Cleaning, that has gone to hell as well.
What is with the flat out refusal to eat dinner? I am doing what you are suppose to. Offer something new along with something they like, well girlfriend decided she doesnt like grilled cheese anymore even though she just ate it two days ago...
The other night it was spaghetti and cheese. Well she didnt like that so here try some cheerios, nope, here have some toast, nope. zip, nada, nothing.
My logic is that if she is hungry, she will eat. It isnt like she goes all day without eating ,she truly delights in breakfast.
We are still having major sleep issues. Last night A was waking up every two hours just screaming. My first thought was that she had the nasty rotovirus that stopped by our house this week, but after the first screaming episode, I started thinking night terrors. Babycenter says that nighterrors are sometimes a sympathy of lack of sleep, which would make sense because her napping has been taken a nose dive as well. I thought we were at the stage of 1 nap a day, but I suspect we will have to go back to 2 if 1 nap means no sleep at night.

As far as discipline. How do you discipline almost 16 month olds? We started timeouts but I know it is just to start a pattern, not something they truly understand. I *try* not to say "No" all the time but when they are climbing on the back of the sofa and attempting to walk acros it, yeah No is what comes out first.
My local library branch is actually having a seminar on toddler behavior, and I will be signing up for it. Hopefully I will pick up some helpful tips.

We are still working on the developmental stuff and I've become worried about verbal development of late. We are doing what the therapist said to do, such as telling them to get the ball, then telling them to get the green ball. I've also been working on them with the names of body parts and animal sounds, along with the signs we've been using since 9 months old. F just seems to grasp thing quicker, which then makes me worry about A. A who was started on the nasal cannula in the NICU, the moved on to the oxygen hood and then eventually ended up on a vent. 34 weekers have a great track record developmentally but as a parent, you cant help but go to the dark, scary parts sometimes. Your fears that are just hiding in the shadows, all the what ifs and what wills. I cant help but think that maybe her breathing issues have now resulted in her delayed development.

I'm Flattered!!

My friend Cara approached me about doing a giveaway with her. I was REALLY flattered that she asked me. The giveaway is up and running over on her blog and it is for this adorable ladybug bow-
Click on the photo for the link to her blog. So go and enter, good luck my friends!

Busy but good

Wow, nothing like starting a business and getting things off with a bang. I had a few etsy sales (yay!) but I also had a handful of custom orders, including 26 ponytail bows for a girls' softball team. cant wait to see the team picture for them!
On the twinsie front, I am really struggling with my two toddlers. They never sit down, except to eat. It is go go go all day which is great and toddlers are active but man oh man, I had no idea! We are also dealing with the dreaded temper tantrums. F had a meltdown after storytime yesterday because I wouldnt let her carry the books around the library. She was clued to my cell phone yesterday and husband didnt want to deal with the screaming if we took it away, so my blackberry ended up covered in toddler goo, yay thanks so much!

We officially had to cancel this month's trip to my hometown, which also means I will be missing the U2 concert. The tickets were a birthday gift to my younger sister, so now she will be going with her husband. My friend is also going and has promised to call me during the concert, great, thanks so much, here is some salt to rub in my wounds ;P
We cancelled the trip because we really need to refocus on building our savings, something that obviously took a hit when we moved to the new house. My friend Sara reminded me that being responsible and delaying fun is hard to the shortrun but in the long term, it means living like no one else, a bit of wisdom I believe she got from Dave Ramsey but it is really true.

Speaking of living like no one else, the grocery challenge is going well. I must admit that I've made two runs to the store. The first was to target. Now I gotta defend myself. The local targets were running a special, for every two boxes of poptarts or nutrigrain bars, you got a free galloon of milk. So yeah I bough some poptarts and nutrigrain bars. The 2nd run was to the local Giant Eagle and it was just to get some bread dough to make an appetizer for a last minute get to gether with the Inlaws. I am really proud of myself though because I stuck to my mission with both trips and surpassed the temptations. I just reminded myself that we didnt need anything else.
Perhaps this grocery challenge has some lessons I didnt foresee.

and the winner is....

well I better get cracking since I have to make THREE headbands! The winner is Sarah, the mommy to three girls, identical triplets!
Sarah, contact me and I can get all your information.

Ya gotta love giveaways!

I blogged about the multiples and more blog party that kicks off on Thursday. Well Jaime is a fellow participant and decided to start her giveaway early and it is too cute. Skip on over to her blog to win a beautiful crocheted hat for your toddler.
http://rannilatriplets.blogspot.com/2009/09/our-1st-give-away.html

Who needs sleep? Ya never gonna get it....

Who needs sleep? Whats that for.
Yeah I am stealing some lines from Barenaked Ladies. Their lyrics seemed appropriate given the state of sleep in this house.
The twinsies are 15 months actual, so 13.5 months corrected. A quick look at moxie shows that there is a common sleep regression period around 13 months, so it seems to jive with what is going on with the girls. They wake up in the middle of the night and SCREAM. It isnt whimpering, it is blood curdling outright screaming. We go in and thus begins the dance. Fine when someone is in there, screaming begins again when we leave. We try to co-sleep, something we've done in the past, but the offender wants nothing to do with that. To them co-sleeping is an invitation to a late night party.
It seems like Ashlyn is having the rougher time, well aside from mommy & daddy, and I know her starting to walk is probably playing a role as well.
Another surprising development is Fiona is clinging to daddy, so much that if he leaves her sight, it is a full out temper tantrum. I have to be honest and say I feel a bit slighted. While they are still beating down the bathroom dorr while I am in there, I dont get the clinging to daddy thing. Is it because he works so much and they are already sensing this? I just feel like a total bad guy when I have to take her out of the office so he can work.