Today involved:

Tying our tree to the wall.

the end..

Lol it actually wasn't that bad, it did fall down some ornaments did break.  The hubs and I took everything off the tree and redecorated with some Christmas music.  If it was too bad I would have broken out some nog and it would have looked alot worse, lol!

Just another Sat Night

So the hubs and I were sitting around yesterday when we hear a CRASH from the next room; as you probably guessed, it was our Christmas tree.  My heart sunk because we have so many ornaments on there that mean so much to us.  I have ornaments from so many of my trips and important places to us; Ireland, Paris, Switzerland, Germany, our honeymoon, where we got engaged, etc.  We raced in and there was broken glass all over but only 4 ornaments really broke and out of those 4 only 1 was an important one so it was way better than it could have been.  The important one that broke was a blown egg ornament that I purchased for the hubs in Germany but I did buy two different ones so it wasn't even that bad.  I do want to try to make a replacement for it at some point though because it was really pretty.  I'm still breathing a sigh of relief that it wasn't that bad.  

Huh speaking of our trip to Germany I just found out (watching the food channel) that the choir master at the Cologne Cathedral was the person who invented Candy Canes.  Hey, we were there!

Anyway I'm wrapping up our Christmas presents now and getting ready for the big day.  We made peanut butter cups last night.  I'm making mints, caramel-chocolate covered pretzel sticks, muddy buddys, and of course cookies this week.  I have about thirty thousand more things to crochet and knit but I still feel pretty good about having everything done on time.  

Christmas time is here

So the house is decorated, presents are ready for wrapping, all sorts of sweet treats are getting ready to be made. Christmas is upon us. I had a few good friends over last night for our homemade Christmas party. We started last year with two rules; whatever we gave each other had to be either handmade or secondhand and it had to be $5 or less. Sometimes this gets a bit tricky when you try to figure out what to get for people but we always have a good time with it. I got an amazing set of fingerless gloves, a jar mix for Chocolate Chip Bars, an ornament and also will be receiving a crocheted Christmas ornament this week. I love knowing the thought and effort that went into making the gifts, it really makes me feel special and treasured. This year I made some cold processed soap to give away and wrapped it with a crocheted washcloth that I made and tied it with a bow. I'll blog about the soap making later this week. I made most of my gifts for everyone else as well (except the kids, I got their stuff from Non Toxic Tots).  

Today we're going to be doing some Christmas chocolates, watching some Christmas movies then going to a good friends house for some caroling.  I'm excited to get into the swing of the holidays now. :)

Twin Update

The twins are back in the care of the mama.
It was odd waking up and not getting to see their gorgeous little faces and hear one year old laughs but the experience did give us a small glimpse into what it will be as a parent and I want that. I'm going to be taking it slow at home just focusing on making Christmas gifts for now then after the holidays I'll be doing things around the house that we just haven't gotten around to (painting, grouting, putting in a new sink, etc.). When all of that is done I'll be figuring out ways to make an income. I have a few ideas floating around in my brain.

Join the club

So being the frugal, green maven that I am of course I decided that we should use cloth diapers on the twins while they are with us. Yes, you read that right cloth diapers on twins. I never said I was entirely sane. Well this was all going along swimmingly I usually change about 4x a day in cloth then overnight use the disposables. I even told my sister in law today how amazing it was going and how much money we were saving. I should have known. Today after nap Willow woke up with the most monster poo that had me doing the dreaded toilet swish. While doing this horrible little dance things got a bit messy. Needless to say the soap we got from Hershey thats brown and scented like chocolate didn't amuse me as much as it normally does.

Yes its still way cheaper and we will continue but I'm not opening my trap on how easy it is anymore!!!

New Look

So I updated the look here, let me know what you think :)

Wordless Wednesday

TWINS

So yes, we have the twins. We got them last Sunday so its been just over a week now. The first few days were hard as they were getting to know us and we were getting to know them. They are completely adorable and it is a joy to have them around. Its so different though so we are still getting used to it. I am starting to get used to this whole deal of having two extra squirmy appendages with me all the time. The hubs had to learn how to change diapers on a one year old, I know poor guy they are the worst squirmers!! He is doing great and is a wonderful help to me! He even took care of the two of their morning routines today so I could make my nephews pirate birthday cake, which turned out AMAZING! We're taking things as slow as we can and staying around the house as much as we can. Today we went down the shore to my nephews bowling party then to his family party afterwards, which was a LONG day for two little one year olds!! They are both snoozing now and me thinks that they will be sleeping a little later tomorrow (crossing fingers!). They play the most amazing game where I sit on the floor and they walk to the farthest edge of the room that we are in, turn around, and "run" as fast as they can back to me laughing and giggling the whole way, when they get back to me I lift them up and cover them with kisses then the game starts again.
We are extremely blessed to have the support system that we have in friends and family. I don't know how people get by without some amazing people to stand behind them. My parents came over to babysit last night so we could celebrate our first date/engagment anniversary at Hershey Park. We got halfway out and the roads got so bad we decided to eat dinner (Shady Maple YUM!! I love me some Amish food!) and headed back.
Anyway I'm tired but felt bad for not sharing whats up!! I will post pics tomorrow of twins and also cake :)

Busy Busy

Things have been hopping around here but I just wanted to share

Christmas Time

I have been slowly moving away from the whole buy buy buy of Christmas these past couple of years. My friends and I have a gift exchange in which we have to give something that was either made or re-used that you got for $5 or less. How many "things" can one person have. The hubs and I are incredibly blessed and have more than we need, and its true we don't need anymore. We're branching out and I'm going to be making even more gifts this year for family and friends. I've been practicing with my sewing machine and have been getting decent with it. I love this idea of not trying to show your love by buying things but doing it by actually giving your time to show it, then giving your money to the people who really need it. Hmm a Wii or a new well for a village, its not a hard choice.

So Thankful

just one side of our family for my cousin Mo's wedding in August

Reflecting today on the things that God has given me. Our little family is a very blessed one. We are blessed to have a huge loving extended family as well. I'm so thankful for the things that we have a loving marriage, a home to call our own, a crazy little kitten cat. Most importantly I have faith and hope in Jesus, as well as the knowledge that I have a God who loves me as His child. Looking at the sales ads for Black Friday the hubs and I both decided that we don't need anything and that is an amazing place to be. We know that all of our needs have been met and we pray that God would continue to show us how to bless others with the bounty He has given.

Wishing all of you the most wonderful Thanksgiving!

Just popping in to say Hi

So hi!
I'm done with the office as of Friday, been working on getting my house together. It looks great right now. I've been a cleaning fiend the past few days; laundry is completely done, I organized our toys, cds, cleaned the kitchen, vacuumed, scrubbed. I'm currently in the middle of the craziness that is my laundry room. I would post a before picture but to be honest its that bad. I have soooo much stuff in there that I'm finding places for and organizing. I spent a good part of the afternoon organizing my fabric stash and going through craft supplies. I also made 9lbs of sweet potato fries today, yeah, overkill much?!?! Lol, good thing they freeze!!

We also got our Flip Video back in the mail. They ended up sending us a brand new Flip Video, Underwater Case and also another accessory as an "I'm sorry". All in all I'm pretty happy with their customer service and I'm in LOVE with the camera (not so much the UW case). I will be using it a ton with the twinkies. The plan is for them to arrive tomorrow at La Casa de Dirkey. I'm hoping to have the rest of the house in order by the time they get here then I can just focus on getting to know them more (they really have only met me 3 times).

Don't know how much I'll be around in the coming days but if I don't get on I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and make sure to enjoy your families. The hubs and I are planning a very very quiet Thanksgiving, we will probably visit with his family then spend some quiet time with friends later on. My family is all coming over for the twinkies 1st birthday party this Saturday all except My Gracie and My Meggie as they will be in DISNEY WORLD!! Which even I agree is better than Aunt Kristi's house.

Making A Mei Tai

So when we found out we were getting the twins I started wondering how you do certain things.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out grocery shopping.  If you put both of them in the cart where do you put groceries?  I figured that making a baby carrier would be a necessary thing and found a Neat Website that gave general directions on how to make one.  The carrier is made from super soft corduroy, I added an extra pocket in a contrasting fabric/color.  I really like the way it turned out, it was probably the first real quality thing that I've made on my sewing machine.  I'll take a pic with me wearing it next week and once I make sure that it works well and that I like it I am going to make another one using some yummie brown corduroy and a funky contrasting fabric for the days I'm wearing earth tones. :)

As far as costs go, the cord cost about $8 and the contrasting fabric $1.

Holy Moly

I just played on my sewing machine for a few hours and I'm pretty proud and impressed with what came out of it.  The hubs was watching the flyers game so I figured I should tackle one of the crafts that I wanted to get done.  There are about 1,000 more that need to be worked on but hey 1 down 999 to go, right?

I'll update tomorrow with some pictures but be prepared to be wowed with my seamstressocity.  I'm not good with patterns so I loosely based it off of something that I found on the internet.  Let me just say that one of the twins is going to be carried in style. 

Have a wonderful night!

Dirkey

Big Day

Sunset from the other day

Sorry that I've been quiet around the bloggy world this week. There is just so much going on. I'm trying to tie up any loose strings at work and get some projects done around the house. My last day at the office is today, AHHHH! I am looking forward to being home and to having the twins when they come (Wednesday!), its just such a strange thing to think that tomorrow I won't have a leave the house type of job. Although I would have loved to not leave the house this morning when I was cleaning SNOW off of my car and driving to work. The hubs and I have been cleaning (actually mostly laundry), winterizing the house and reorganizing to make room for the two little ones.
As far as the twins go, things are moving along. My poor niece has been running around getting everything in order (power of attorney, medical power of attorney, military id cards for them, doctors, toddler car seats). There is just so much to do with the twins moving up here and her moving down to Southern VA. Please say some prayers for her as this is a really difficult time, I just can't even imagine what she's going through.
As far as our house goes we just put the shrink wrap plastic stuff over our windows and I think I already notice a difference. Yes, we're due for some new windows sometime soon. I'm going to be paying attention to our electric bill and comparing to last year to see if there is a difference in our usage. I also want to insulate our laundry room door (to the outside) more too as its always so drafty in there. We have the twin's room all set to move in the cribs, with a bed in there for my niece for when she's up visiting. There is still a huge to do list but I think I'll be able to get the house in order by the time the twins come.

Our first snow of the year from this morning!!

Weekend Goodness

We went over my brothers house to babysit my adorable nieces this weekend. It had been awhile since we'd seen them so we were soo happy to do it! They are both ridiculously funny. At one point we asked my niece Gracie (5 yrs old) who her favorite uncle was, of course she said Uncle J. So being the loving sister I am I called my brother and put him on speaker and asked her. She pointed at Uncle J but said Uncle Wil, the little stinker :) We read them books, ran around the house, went on a treasure hunt, played eye spy, played red light/green light, played dress up and generally had a very busy weekend, lol.

Meggie wearing the tutu I made her

My pretty princess

She asked Uncle J to read her a book

but didn't like the view sitting next to him

Me and my Gracie, I look surprised here about something!

Meggie cheasin it up for the camera, love the pig tails!

Why its good to have family

So this week we found out that were probably going to get the twins early. In this I realized that I have a good support system around me in my friends and family. My friends are all willing and volunteering to help the hubs and I transition from just us to a family of four (if only for a few months). It makes me really thankful to have them around me, I just feel incredibly loved which is an amazing place to be. I've been researching some groups and I will be joining my local MOP's Group and also The Holistic Mom's Network so that both the kids and I get out and meet some new people!

I'm excited to begin this journey and I'm sure I'll be updating more about this as it comes. Right now my last day of work is November 26th then I will be for the first time in my adult life, without an employer. Such a weird transition :)

I wish I thought of this!

Trust me watching it through is worth it!

A Beautiful Link

Biblical Womanhood gives a nice mini lesson on comparing ourselves to others. How quickly this can move from admiration to resentment, I don't know about you but I don't want to find a place for resentment to live in my life. If there is any I pray that God would completely wipe it out.

Update-Projector Pictures

Looking at the back of our family room behind the couch is our toy center which is why this is Hannah's favorite room. She was very upset that the toys were all covered up during the movie.

This is the projected image, the hubs of course chose Star Wars as his tester movie, lol. After this he moved it back so the screen was about 9 feet wide and 4.5 to 5 feet high. He also hooked it up to our sterio so the sound was pretty good too :)

We watched a movie Sat night then again on Sunday night. Its such a good rainy day thing to do, I definitely want to make it a special treat for us to break it out so it doesn't get old. :)