A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!

Matney wore her new summer shoes the other day and got her first blister. Sweet girl never even acted like it bothered her. When we got home I took her shoes off and her ankle and shoe had a big pile of dried blood on them. She's tough stuff! I think getting to wear a Strawberry Shortcake band-aid made it all better. We won't tell her now that this is just the beginning of blisters in the name of good footwear!

Where's Matney?

I kind of felt like I was playing the old "Where's Waldo" game in my living room last week. Who can find Matney?

Boo! There she is! Who knew the kid could fit into a box? Silly girl!

The Robot Who Saved the Day

Halle Kate was sleeping late yesterday so I decided to go wake her up. When I opened the door of her room I was hit with the worst smell. Poor baby girl had vomited ALL over her bed and slept in it all night long, she'd never cried. Halle Kate, her sheet, bumper and robot were all covered in dried puke. It was so gross. When I picked her up she started crying and didn't stop until I went back to her bed and gave her the vomit covered robot. AGH! I got her downstairs and tried getting her clothes off but she wouldn't let go of Mr. Robot. I wasn't sure what to do until I remember that our friend Kathy had searched several Targets to find another one after seeing HK's attachment to the robot when we were in WR a few months ago. Every mama knows it is ideal to have more than one "lovey", esp in situations like this.
I grabbed a naked HK and we ran back up the stairs. I yanked the nasty robot from her arms and put the new one in...and it never fazed her! (side note- it is impressive just how ragged HK's old robot looks after just a few months of her owning it. Even without puke it looks rough already!) I crossed my fingers and put the old robot in the wash at the same time that HK took her first bath of the day. It two good washings for both of them before they smelled clean. Thankfully the robot came out without much damage.
I was dreading a day of barf but HK never got sick again, never had a fever and never really acted like anything was wrong. So far M and I are fine. THANK GOODNESS!!! Here is HK this morning with her 2 clean robots. Now that she knows there are twins she wants both to carry around. I will have to work on hiding one so that we have a back-up for next time. Thank you Kathy! You and your robot SAVED THE DAY!!!

Halle is ONE!

Our little baby girl is ONE! That is so hard to believe, sniff, sniff. When Matney turned one we (ok, I) knew that there was another little girl right around the corner so it didn't feel the same as HK's bday. What if we don't have any more children and this is our last first birthday? AGH! Both of our babies are growing up way too fast! Since we can't slow down time we'll just enjoy it and yesterday was a great day. These are just the pictures I got off my mom's camera before she left town yesterday. I'll download ours and add them sometime. Here is Halle's birthday in pictures...

Matney and Daddy spend the morning waiting on HK to wake up by bounching on the new outside chair cushins. They were purchased 30 minutes prior to this picture when I made J go back to Home Depot with the ones we'd already purchased weeks ago...that we realize this morning were not the right size! AGH!

Halle Kate woke up to find a new boucing pony from MoMo!!!!

Halle Kate's "smash cake" is complete!

The girls slide across the floor.

Mommy and HK sample the icing for breakfast. YUMMY! The 3 Heald girls have consumed WAY TOO MUCH cake and icing during the last 48 hours!

Birthday Banner complete! I just bought a normal banner from the dollar store and covered it in different scrapbook papers. The pom poms I started for Matney's party in March that we never had. They are super easy (but a big pain) to make!

Gifts for the kiddos coming to party with us! The big kids got their own bowls, spatulas, cake mix, icing and cupcake holders so that they can make cupcakes at home. I know you Moms appreciate that!

The cupcake pops are out on display! I came across these several months ago and planned HK's party all around making them. Although when we made them last weekend I was ready to QUIT and just go buy a cake! They turned out super cute so I'm glad Jared has patience when I don't! Here is the link if you want to try them. They are cake mushed up with icing, shaped to look like cupcaks, dipped in brown chocolate on the bottom and pink on the top. So cute!

A black bean snack!

Our friends are here all the way from Perry!

A table of cupcakes!

The party favors for everyone...cupcake pops again!




Halle Kate in her party dress and bow!

We started with a clean room!

Jared decorated the plate for Halle Kate!

Matney was so excited to see her friend Mylee!

A few attempts at a family photo. HK was much more interested in the balloons and Matney just wanted to eat a cupcake!


Time to eat cake!

Yummy! HK carefully picked the sprinkles off without making too much of a mess. Matney set nearby and helped.


As good as it gets for a family picture!

Halle CRIED when I took her big cupcake away so we let her have a little one to munch on.

Matney and her new favorite hat. Quack, Quack! We are totally prepared for Elmo and his ducks now!

Unwrapping lots of presents!

HK has lots of new toys...and loves the plastic they came in!

We ended with a disaster of a room (and house!).

We'd made all the mess we could inside so we headed out.

Shew, by the end of the day we were clearly so tired we were goofy! Abby and I modeling hats. She's a cute turtle!

Abby brought Matney and My Little Pony and solidified her place as Matney's Favorite Person EVER!

Time to update

I know it is past time to update the blog when Jared is posting from work and using words like "divatastic"! So sorry, it has been a while again, hasn't it? As the girls are getting older some things are becoming much easier. For example, it doesn't take us nearly as long to get out of the house because I don't have to worry about food and bottles. As long as we have access to a grilled cheese I can get us all fed. Other things though are proving to be much more time consuming! For example,

Matney like to help with almost everything right now (except cleaning up her own messes!). She especially likes to throw things away. Not long ago I was cleaning in our bathroom and had some trash. M wanted to help so I handed her a piece of trash and said "please throw this away in the the bathroom". She came back and said she did it so I gave her another piece....we repeated this several times until I realized her hands were wet. She out grew playing in the toilet a while ago so I was really surprised and marched her to the sink. As I did something in the toilet caught my eye and I stopped. Bless her sweet heart. I'd told her to throw it away "in the bathroom" and she had done just that. All the trash right in the toilet. sigh. We got cleaned up and had a wonderful conversation about trash goes in the trash can (right next to the toilet) and poo poo goes in the potty. Lovely.

Now fast forward, another time when I wasn't blogging it was because I was chasing this WILD MONKEY. Do you see HK?

Oh yes, there she is...ON TOP OF THE TABLE. Halle Kate is a wild climber. I am positive she is going to make me have a heart attack soon. This day she climbed on the chair and onto the table and was standing up. Oh my goodness gracious. Matney has never been wild like HK so we had no idea that monkeys can exist in human form. Last week she pulled herself up a folded up step ladder. It looked like she was doing pull-ups/chin-ups as she shimmied herself up. sigh. She scares me.

And, if we aren't cleaning up or chasing Halle Kate then we're up to cute, girly things...like pigtails!

Isn't that so cute?!?!?

We are busy but it is all good stuff. Halle Kate is napping so I have to get the kitchen clean and Matney dressed before she's up or else we'll never get out of this house. I put new batteries in the camera and am downloading the pictures so more posts to come soon!

Getting Too Big

This sweet girl still comes up to just under my waist in height, but she acts as big as her shadow. What a trip. She is very opinionated, from telling her mom that her mom's dress "is not cute" and telling her dad "no wear your hat," she will tell you just what she is thinking at all times. And by all times, I mean all times. Stacey says that if the average woman has to use 10,000 words a day, Matney's quota is more like 50,000.

My Little Pony, Really?

You know its bad when you start cheering for a rare case of hoof and mouth disease to take out the new menagerie of toys located in your living room.

We Call Her Halle Cakes for More Than One Reason

Matney Isn't the Only Diva

Just in case you were wondering, both girls are divatastic.

HK is 11 months!

It seems impossible to me to believe that Halle Cakes just turned 11 months. Of course, it also seems impossible to know that I need to have her bday invites in the mail by the end of the week. Ha! I haven't done much writing on the blog recently (and part of the reason for this blog is for our own "scrapbooking") so I thought I'd do a post on each of the girls.

Halle Kate, or Halle Cakes or Cake-a-roos is SO SWEET. She is a total cuddle bug. If we're laying on the ground she immediately crawls over and onto us and puts her head on our chest. She and Matney do this all day long. So sweet. She gives hugs and kisses all the time. She loves stuffed animals. The robot is still her favorite and she has to have it to sleep but any other animal in the house gets big hugs from her. Between our two girls we are establishing quite a zoo!

She takes two naps, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. All I have to do is put her in bed with her paci and she'll play with her robot (sometimes body slamming him which is so funny to watch on the video monitor) until she falls asleep. She almost never has a paci unless she is sleeping. We put her in bed around 8:30pm and she normally sleeps until 6-7am, drinks a bottle and goes back to bed until about 8am. Unless she is sick I never have to go in her room at night. She is a great sleeper.

When she had all the stomach issues in March and I was trying to avoid going to a GI specialist I stopped all baby food and switched her to very small pieces of solids. This made the biggest difference and she seems to be thriving. She's gaining weight (finally!) and hasn't had anymore tummy problems. I probably don't use a spoon to feed her even once a week because she just won't touch it...unless it is carrying ice cream! There isn't much she won't eat and she loves black beans, cheese, crackers, strawberries and waffles/pancakes. I think that Saturday morning Daddy/daughter pancake breakfasts (otherwise known as "mommy gets to stay asleep time" sounds like a great idea in the next few years!).

Halle Kate walks great pushing something and can stand for several seconds on her own but we have a little time before she's walking. She is certainly our wild child. She already climbs the stairs as quickly as Matney. The Elmo chair has to stay in the middle of the floor because she'll crawl over the top and get on the couch if we aren't careful. She has no fear and is constantly trying to climb something. Many times a day I turn around to find her on top of something new. She terrifies me!

Right now she says Mama and Dada. She can say duck and tries to say lots of words that start with "b" (book, ball, bottle) but those aren't very clear. When she doesn't get what she wants she just stands and screams while she stares straight at us without blinking. Ha!

Her smile and laugh is the best! I cannot begin to express how totally in love with her we all are. Having two littles girls so close together has been the greatest gift. While it has made for a trying year sometimes there is certainly a light at the end of this particular tunnel. The girls LOVE each other. If HK isn't around Matney says "Mom, go get my sister". And when Matney hears her waking up in the monitor she yells, "yeah! My sister is waking up, my sister is waking up. Let's go get her!" and heads for the stairs. I need to video the exchange between the two of them when HK sees Matney in her room, the squeals from them both are precious!