Pink Paint Update

Well, I think I'm going to do it. I'm going to paint their room pink. Marc is still not too sure about this, but since that's what Kayla wants he'll get over it. :) The bedding sets I want to purchase are on backorder until the end of April, so I'll have to wait on paint shopping. I guess that will give Marc a little longer to get used to the idea of having a pink room in his castle.

Pacifiers

Here I am on post number 100. I would never have thought this momentous occasion would have been about pacifiers. Oh well. Today we were moving some things around because we are having our carpets cleaned this week and Marc found a pacifier hiding under our desk upstairs. As a joke he wanted to take it in to someone at work (they were asking if we had any old bottles for a joke, and this is the best we could do). So he brings it downstairs and puts it on the island. Next thing we know Macy is running around grinning with her paci in her mouth and Kayla is SO proud that she got it down for her. Well we get a quick laugh and take it out. If I remember correctly we broke the habit about 5-7 months ago. Marc took it from her and went to put it in his car. What did Macy do? Scream as loud as she can and starts chasing him outside saying "mine, mine." Oh my goodness. She did get over it quickly so I think it will be okay. I probably should have taken a picture...

I Need Some Help

So we are moving the girls into the same room in a couple of months. I've been looking around for some new bedding and I think I have found what I like. Kayla really wants pink walls, but I have ALWAYS said I will never paint a room pink. I have seen many cute rooms that have pink walls, and several of my friends have painted pink walls for their girls. I have always thought that I'd get sick of it. Plus, there is a fine line with the shade of pink that you can put on the wall with out it looking like that disgusting pink medicine. :) Well, now I'm second guessing myself. I need someone to either talk me out of the pink, or talk me into it. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions? I know Kayla really wants it, but I just don't know if Marc and I can look at a big pink room every day.

Dance Class

Last summer I was debating if I should put Kayla in a dance class or not. I decided to wait another year. Well in September she started talking about wanting to take ballet. I never talked to her about it, but I assume she saw some girls at school that were taking dance classes there at the church. Most dance studios run on a school calendar and it is too late to enroll in September. Well about a month ago I saw an advertisement on a van for a dance studio so I checked them out online. Would you believe that they run 3 sessions a year so you can join any time? We went today for a trial class before committing to it. Here is Kayla in the car before we went in. Does she look a little excited?

I had gone in with Kayla last night to see what the studio was like and to inquire about classes. We decided to go back today for the trial class. I was talking to Marc about it and since I was pretty sure she'd like it we decided to go ahead and buy a leotard. I didn't want her to feel strange being the only one not in ballet attire (they had shoes we could borrow for today). So Kayla's wonderful Daddy offered (ON HIS OWN) to stop by the dance store near our house and see if he could find one. There was no way Kayla and I could get before they closed so Marc found this adorable leotard with little bows on the shoulders. He gets extra brownie points for this one! He said he walked in (with Macy) and told the employee that he grew up with all boys and now has only girls and he needed to buy a leotard - whatever that was. I thought that was pretty funny.

This is the best I could do for a picture of the class. It is through one of those one way mirror/window things and it was quite tinted. The girls read a story, got in a costume, then tip-toed around picking up strawberries for their basket. She had a great time so I signed her up for the last session. Now I've got to find some ballet and tap shoes. Any suggestions?

Kids are Stinkin' Funny

This morning we decided to make some cupcakes. I went to grab my box of cake mix and realized I didn't have any. You can't explain to little girls that you've changed your mind when it comes to baking, so we did it the old-fashioned way. I'm glad we did because I really want my girls to gain a love of cooking in a way that a box just doesn't quite provide. Don't get me wrong - I will still continue to buy those boxes.

Macy created a new game for herself yesterday. She runs out of the room, pulls her arm out of her sleeve, and runs back to you laughing. I really don't want to encourage her to take her clothes off and run around, but it was too funny not to laugh. If you put her arm back in she'll run to the other room and do it again.
We loved being able to play outside yesterday afternoon. It was really overcast, but at least it wasn't cold.

All I can think is that she got bored on the car ride. Why else would she take off her socks and pick at the sock fuzz and gunk in between her toes?

A Busy Time

Well, I have no pictures to post. There hasn't been too much going on with the girls. Things have been pretty busy with our construction project. We're adding a closet to our bonus room. It's more like another room, though. We had a good size crawl space above our garage and we are finishing most of it off into a closet. We had a contractor come out to do framing and drywall. Marc did all of the mudding/sanding (boy was that a harder job than he thought), installed lights, and painted. The carpet guy should be here any minute to match carpeting since ours has been discontinued. Hopefully he will install later this week and then all that is left is trim and painting the doors. It's been a few weeks, and I will be glad when it's over and I can uncover everything in the bonus room and give it a good cleaning. I'll also be thrilled to get some of our stuff that was in the crawl space into the back of the closet where there isn't so much dust and yuck. We will eventually move the girls into that room together. Kayla is SO excited that it will be hard to explain to her that she can't move in right now. We're doing this as part of their birthday presents (April and May). Now I have to figure out how I want to decorate. Kayla's tastes (pink and purple walls with polka dots) is a little different from mine. While the dots might be cute I am NOT about to try and paint them.

One Reason I Love Having Girls

Kayla wanted to dress Macy up (after I convinced her I wouldn't fit in the princess dress) and Macy was happy to let her do it. Kayla even managed to clip an earring on her, get a crown on her, and move her hair out of her eyes.

Enjoying the Break

Marc went back to work Monday after 2 weeks off, and let me tell you what an adjustment that was on all of us! I was so used to an extra set of hands and things got done around the house because someone was always entertaining the girls (they are not usually self-entertainers for long). Plus throw in the fact that we now have a construction project going on in our house and things have been a little crazy. Here are a few of the pictures from the fun break we had while Marc was home.

My mom bought the girls lollipops at Cracker Barrel. Kayla wanted hers the moment it was paid for, and Macy knew that under that wrapper was something yummy, so I let them have it in the car. I figured if they were strapped in then they weren't running around the house getting everything sticky! They LOVED them, but we came straight home and took a bath.

We went to an inflatable place and usually Kayla is pretty timid. Not this time! The child FINALLY goes down the slides by herself. Macy is a little to brave for my comfort. She hates just jumping, even if I'm holding here, but give her something to climb on and she is all for it.

We had several days this week with no sunshine and it was pretty dreary, but it was fairly warm outside. The girls had a BLAST playing in the puddles.

For those of you who heard about Marc's little incident, here is the proof. I will have to brag on him. He is up in the new closet space (above the hole) and is doing some electrical work and other things so that the guys can come and put dry wall up tomorrow. Kayla is so excited about being able to move into her new room and we can't seem to get her to understand it will still be a couple of months before we actually make the move.

Dutton Family Photo

There is always one who doesn't look so great in a family shot this big, and this time it was my daughter. Oh well!

Thanks to a little work on Marc's part we managed a couple more members of the family in this shot.

Grammie, Grampie, and all the grandkids.

Christmas

We had such a wonderful and busy Christmas this year. Here are just a few of the MANY pictures that were taken this year. It was so great because Kayla really understood why we celebrate CHRISTmas and Macy is at an age where she had a great time opening her gifts.

The girls are so proud of their gingerbread house. Well, Marc kept Macy in the other room because she just kept eating the candy. I'm also the mama who can't quite hand over all control of this to the kids, thus the house looks pretty similar to the picture of the one on the box it came in. I did the icing and told Kayla how to put the candy on. Maybe next year I can let go a little bit, but Kayla had a great time so all is well.

For those of you who follow Marc's FB page, here is our new "Fluffy the Dog/Cat". She loves the fact that she can actually walk the dog and make it bark and wag it's tail, and we love that our child isn't walking a balloon around the house.

The umbrella was a huge hit with Macy.

Bribery with a candy cane so we could get a picture of them in their Christmas pajamas in front of the tree. Works every time!

I asked for some more food for the girls to play with because Marc and I were tired of chicken and spaghetti as the only options on what they would cook for us. Thanks to Jackie we shouldn't have that problem anymore!

Playing the new Wii thanks to my mom

The first present all of the cousins (well the older ones) at G&G's house was open while the kids were wearing oven mitts. I thought they would get frustrated, but they all LOVED it.

The baby cousins.

My little cutie in pigtails.