I hate, I hate, I hate, I HATE

Dolls.
I hate them. They are disgusting, vile, horrible, awful things. So, you can imagine my horrified reaction to this commercial last night. Apparently it's been around for a while, but I just saw it.  Having a DVR is obviously a huge blessing in my life.

Horrifying, right? Ugh. 

A few more random things worth mentioning....

I've decided that I'm grateful that I get to live the majority of my life after the invention of dry shampoo. Seriously, what did people do before it could be found on your grocery store shelf (or what do people do now who don't use it?)? Actually shower? 

I got a sample of this stuff in the mail and I tried it the other day. That stuff is strong. I used it on a load of clothes for the girls and I can still smell it on their clothes even after I've washed the again. It kind of creeps me out. 

Anyone else watching The Walking Dead? The last two episodes have both blown my mind and terrified me. Shane and Rick?! New boy (who by the way, I think they should keep. How could you feel right about sending a teenager into the world like that)?! Blond girl that sits on top of the trailer (what's her name again?)?! That show is intense!

We (Josh and I) need a vacation. Like now yesterday. If someone could make that happen, I'd appreciate it. 

I've got a book report (doesn't that sound so 5th grade) due in a couple of days on a book that I've read 3 pages of. I should probably stop blogging (because we all know how I've rocked at that lately) and start reading. 

The girls went to the doctor today. It was very uncool. 10 shots between the two of them and a two hour appointment (or should I say 3 appointments that lasted 2 hours. I've got the receipt for 3 co-pays to prove it. Grr...)We decided to skip the pediatrician and take them to a regular family doctor. I think I liked it better. I think. There are positives to pediatricians, but I really liked how relaxed the doctor was. She didn't push anything, wasn't concerned about them not really talking, and I wasn't scared to admit that I cloth diaper (I got definite raised eyebrows from our last doctor for that one). I don't know, I think we'll just keep going to the family doctor. Like I said, it was much less stressful and I didn't feel like my kids were being compared to all the other patients. Does that make sense? Oh and by the way they were both about 28 pounds and 32ish inches long. One downside to not going to a pediatrician is that they don't give you cool stickers or pieces of paper to remind you how big your kid is or give you percentiles. Josh just happened to glance at the scale and measuring tape, so it's a complete estimate. But if those are accurate measurements and babycenter is correct, they're in the 50th percentile for height and 75th for weight. Although that seems off to me... Whatever. They're healthy. :)

The girls are rockin' this nursery thing. Every week I'm convinced that somebody is going to come find me, but it never happens. When we go to pick up the girls, they usually start to get fussy because they're dead tired, but I always get a "they did great" report. I'm proud of my little Jubes. 

Remember how I said that Lillian loves our next door neighbor? Well at church this week, she literally clung to his suit because she didn't want to be put down. She cried when he did put her down and then ran up to him two different times with her arms stretched out. Really, she loves him. 

I've hardly taken any pictures in the last week. I've maybe taken 10. And that's a pretty liberal number. Maybe that's why I haven't had anything to blog about. However, here's a few random goodies for your viewing pleasure. 

Sophie

Lillian

Oh and their hair (and skin color) really is the same color. I think in the picture a few posts down, the lighting was just weird and in this one, I used the flash on the picture of Sophie.

And really, this post was originally just going to be about that creepy doll video. Aren't you lucky I couldn't keep my mouth shut? ;)

I have nothing to say.

I've been trying to think of things to blog about for the past two days and nothing has come to mind. Nothing at all. And I haven't even been reading other people's blogs much either. I can't decide if I'm blogged out, wintered out (although I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one loving this mild, mild, mild winter we've been having...) or what, but I really do have nothing I want to blog about. 

So, we'll have another insta dumb. Here's what's been going on at our house lately, according to my iPod. 

Pretty spiffy, eh?

But seriously, I feel like I've blogged about everything under the sun. What to do? What to do?

...

I haven't blogged in a week.

It's true. It's also true that I don't really care, but since I know that *maybe* some of you have been checking this for the latest Brittany and the twins antics, here is a picture to tide you over for a little while.  

I'll be back soon, probably tomorrow. Josh has had quite a long weekend after quite a long week at work, so my desire to blog has been nill to none, but I will try to do a little better. 

Oh and for those of you that watch Sesame Street, you know the episode where Elmo gives up his binky? I'm 100% positive that inspired Sophie to start sucking on her binky again. She hasn't touched the things since she was probably 9 months old, but all of the sudden (a few hours after seeing that episode), she's finding them everywhere and popping them in her mouth. Moral of the story? Television corrupts our youth. Even Elmo can be a horrible, horrible influence. I've been trying to round up all of the strangling binkies, but I swear, every time I turn around she's got another one. Little stink...

Hope you have a happy Wednesday!

I'm a little jealous

This post was written almost two weeks ago. I'm not sure why it's just being published, but it is what it is. :) 

 

The other day while giving the girls a bath, I told Josh, "you know, our girls are really lucky to have a twin." He agreed. I always wanted to be a twin. One of my favorite shows growing up was 'Sister, Sister' and I sometimes pretended that my long lost twin came to live with us. I mean, how cool would that be?

I was at the store last night by myself (that hardly ever happens, so I reeeally relish when it does) and I spotted two girls that looked 7 or so, dressed exactly alike. I sometimes get tired of answering the, "are they twins?" question (and all of the questions that I know will follow), but when I see potential twins, I can't help but ask. Especially if they're girl twins. Instead of asking the mom, I thought I'd ask the girls (and yes, after I asked I realized that that was kind of creeperish of me...). One of the girls got a huge smile on her face and said, "YES! We're twins!". I immediately told them that I had twin girls that were a year old. Their mom looked at me and said, "It only gets better from here!" She talked about how her girls are best friends. They do everything together. They choose to dress identically. They have naturally made the same friends. They don't want separate bedrooms. They sometimes sleep in the same bed together. She even joked that she was pretty sure they'd never date and never get married and be roommates for the rest of their lives. I laughed a little and told her that I think I'd be ok with that.

It makes me excited to see older twins. I remember seeing an elderly set of twins in Logan when I was still pregnant that were dressed in coordinating outfits. They were at least 70 and still shopping together and dressing alike. It made me SO happy! I have a friend who had a church leader who's wife (following this so far...) who called up her twin sister and planned their outfits if they knew they were going to be out in public together. The twin bond can be cheesy, but I think it's amazing. These twin bloggers are proof of the amazing bond.

And currently, as I'm writing this, the girls are giggling hysterically with each other and as much as I want to roll around with them on the floor, I know I'd ruin it. I know they'd stop because sometimes I'm the 'uncool' mom. So, instead I thought I'd write about how amazing twins are. It's something I'll never understand, but I feel privileged to watch it as a mother. Sometimes I still get a little bit sad that I'll never get to experience one child at a time, but that's usually quickly overcome by the happiness that these twins give me. They are a team. They complete our family (for now that is). They've helped Josh and I figure ourselves and our relationship out. I've met so many amazing people through them. And I've been able to offer some 'been there done that' to many new moms. So while there's a tiny part of me that's afraid my girls will wind up like the twins my coworker was so quick to tell me about (twin girls who hated each other. One was pretty, skinny, made cheer leading had boyfriends, etc, while her twin was fat, had bad acne and had only a few friends...) I'm pretty sure my girls will be like the twins I saw at the store. Best friends who spend all night talking in their room and end up falling asleep in the same bed.

Here's one of the most decent Valentine's Day pictures I got yesterday. I literally followed them around for 40 minutes trying to get a nice picture of both of them. Who am I kidding? The definitely have minds of their own. Oh and don't mind Lillian's face. A friend and I did some last minute V-day shopping and I sort of went crazy on the sugary purchases. Obviously, Lillian enjoyed them...

They really are lucky to have an instant best friend from the moment they were born.

And for that, I think I'll always be a little bit jealous of them.

V-day

Putting up a post on Valentine's Day is pretty obligatory for a blogger. Pictures of adorable food, flowers, and other forms of lovey-dovey-ness also help create a stereotypical post. What I've learned over the years though, is that I'm not so stereotypical. I do not like Valentine's Day that much. I do not make cute or adorable food. I do not have that many pictures of Josh and I (although I really want to work on that one. It kind of makes me a sad.) to shower my blog with.

What I do have is 3 people in my family that I laugh with every day. Three people who love me for all my weird quirks that I have to hide from other people. Three people who think I'm their world. And three people who are my world. Valentine's Day is cliche and cheesy and all of those things I don't like, but at the end of the day, I have a lot of love in my life and for that, I am grateful.

I snapped this picture as we were literally heading out the door for church on Sunday. I had wanted to get a cute 'first day of nursery' picture and this is what I frantically got. Oh well, I think these three are the cutest.

And Valentine's Day will always remind me of a time in my life where I suspected there were two. It was about a week(ish) before my ultrasound and I knew something was different. There had to have been a reason that at 11 weeks I could no longer button my pants

And now, that little bit of intuition has turned into two crazy toddlers. What a weird world it is.

Josh bought us a Valentine's Day balloon a few days ago and the girls were obsessed. Sadly all I got was this crappy, low lit instagram picture before I accidentally popped it.

Another thing. I was looking at last year's Valentine's post where I read these prophetic words, "I'll be sure to let you all know when our new bedding is done. It might take a year, but once it is done"

Um.... That bedding is definitely nowhere near being done. I think Josh has given up hope. Lacy, we've GOT to get this thing rollin'....

So there you have it. A post for you this Valentine's Day.

An evening conversation part 3

Britt: "What are you playing?"

 Josh: "I don't know. I have to dig holes to redirect the water so the alligator can take a bath." 

 Britt: "Hmmm..." 

Pause. Pause Pause. 

 Britt: "Your screen is bigger than mine." 

Josh: "I know! I already measured it."

 Britt: "It's really big." 

Josh: "Yep."

 You guys, I don't think you realize just how cool Josh and I are. I mean, remember our other evening conversations here and here?

 See? 

We are oozing with awesomeness.

I thought this post needed a picture, so here's one from back in 2009.

p.s. In our first evening conversation, I mentioned that we were under contract with our house. It seems absolutely bizarre that we've now been here for almost 8 months. Maybe I should clean up a bit and post some pictures. That would require cleaning though, so maybe not... ;)

p.p.s. The girls went to nursery for the first time yesterday. They did great which means church just got a whoooole lot easier. Huzzah!

18

You guys, I literally spent over 3 hours on this original birthday post. I even published it around midnight and guess what? Blogger ate it. I went to edit in a comma that needed to be in the first paragraph and POOF! it was gone. I let out a few curse words as I frantically tried to save it, but it was too late. It vanished. Then, I burst into tears like an idiot. I worked hard on it and neglected other things because of it. I didn't finish and turn in an assignment for school tonight because I wanted this post to be good. So now, I have a late assignment and no post. Currently as I type, I'm both laughing and crying like a fool. It's late, but I'm still determined to get a post up. I know I won't be able to sleep until something is up, so here I go. I'm starting over at 12:28 am.

These girls are 18 months old. They are no longer babies. Not even a little bit. They are toddlers with opinions, attitudes, amazing senses of humor, and budding personalities. They are such fun kids and they get more and more entertaining each day. We absolutely adore them.

Sophie

This girl does not like it when she finishes her cotton candy...

I wish everyone could experience Sophie's vibrant personality. She knows she's funny. She knows when she's the center of attention. She really understands humor. We have several 'inside jokes' between the two of us. Things just as simple as the way we tilt our heads when we look at each other, or the way we stick out our tongue. When I pull one of our little jokes, she giggles. When she pulls one of our little jokes, I'm amazed at how well her little brain works. She remembers things. She gets that it's funny. She gets that it's just between her and her mama.

Or how about the time when she waddled like a penguin to get her sippy cup and was giggling the entire way. She stopped about 3 feet away from it, just to turn around and see if I was watching her. I was and I was laughing. She is such a funny girl.

Sophie points and waves to everything and everyone. She sometimes gets mad when people don't point and wave back. I do a lot of waving during my days because of it. :)

She is starting to follow and copy her little sister more. She's taken Lillian's blanket loving habit and adapted it for herself. She doesn't suck on blankets like Lillian does, but she carries hers around (the pink blanket from this post) and gets really excited when she finds it.

Sophie is a mama's girl. She loves me and if I'm around and she's being held by someone else, she'll usually want to come to me. She's my little buddy.

Lillian

  

 

Oh how Lillian has changed this month. She's drastically different than when 2012 started. She talks, understands just about everything, and is really picking up on sign language. The other day, we were at the store and she saw the candy next to the checkstand (is that what those things are called? I should know, I used to work in a grocery store...) Her eyes got huge, her jaw dropped and after a couple of claps, she looked at me and signed 'please' with more vigor than I've ever seen. It was hysterical and it was legitimate communication. I loved it.

Lillian is a climber. One day I watched as she figured out how to climb on top of our table. She threw her left leg onto our bench and fell. She jumped back up and tried again with success. She was giving herself a standing ovation on top of the bench, when she decided to push it further and get on top of the table. I sat in disbelief as I watched the whole thing happen. I thought our lives were over. Maybe I was right. I wouldn't know though, because the bench has been turned on it's side since. Oh and that's another thing Sophie has followed Lillian in. In a matter of seconds, I had two babies running around on my kitchen table.

Lillian loves men. 3 men specifically. Josh, our next door neighbor and my brother Jason. When Josh leaves for work, she cries and runs from door to door in anticipation of him coming back. When he comes home from the graveyard shift and she knows he's sleeping, she wants to pound on the door to get him to come play. With our neighbor, she finds him at church and likes get on his lap and read stories, or play with his glasses, or take things out of his pocket. She also like to stop by his office (he's our Bishop) and get candy form him. She loves that man. My brother Jason is also a heart-throb to Lillian. He takes her into his room where they eat yummy treats and watch Elmo videos on his computer. We were over there last Sunday and he wasn't home and she stood at the top of the stair whining for him. I took her down to show her that he wasn't there and the whole time she said, "uh-oh!" She loves uncle Jason.

If there is a door to be closed, Lillian will gladly do it. She's got an obsession with closing doors, but gets rather frustrated that she can't open them back up. Someday child, someday...

Lillian loves to eat. She always finishes what Sophie does eat. She's got a particular fondness for chocolate and cotton candy though. She's definitely a female. :)

And together

 

 

 

 

In my original post, I had a cheesy paragraph (or 3) about how these guys are best buddies. How they are twins. I actually have a whole post ready to go (that is, if that doesn't get eaten too...) about how fascinating it is to watch them grow up together. Twins are special. I can't imagine these girls being without their sister. It just wouldn't work. They are perfect for each other. The yig and the yang. I love it. I love that they are friends. I love that they get more excited to see their sister than they do to see me every morning. I love that they jabber away to each other.  I even love that they fight because that means that they are paying attention to each other and that they have each other to fight with. I love it all. I love being the mother of twins. My literal first reaction to the news was, "What are we going to do?!" And you know what? We just do. We do well over a dozen diapers a day. We do double the snacks. Double the sippy cups. Double the laundry. Double the clean up. Double the tears. And yes, double the fun. 

I've loved these past 18 months so much. It seems like these girls have been around forever, yet I can't believe that they're closer to two than they are to one (well, as of 7:56 and 7:58 this morning the will be). I just love them. I love little girls. I love twins. 

Happy half birthday, girls. And yes, since your mother doesn't have a half birthday, yours will be a celebration. 

Aaaaaand I'm done! I'm pushing publish at 1:05 am. This second post isn't as good and I know I left things out, but whatever. I'm probably over dedicated as is. :)

Insta dump

I like instagram

Going Green

Or cheap. :)

Since we started cloth diapering, I've been introduced to a whole new world of DIY ways to use and live on less. I'm not that crunchy, but I'm trying to be better. Along with cloth diapering, we've gone 'old school' with a few other things and I've found that I prefer them to what we used to do...

1. I make our own laundry soap. I got the idea from a noticing that a lot of cloth diaper'ers made their own detergent by using equal parts borax, washing soda and Oxiclean. I tried that and it was awful. Maybe it was me just not knowing how to use it, but it brought the horrid ammonia to our house. I put off the idea of trying it again for regular laundry because of that, but my talented friend, Sharon inspired me again with this post. I figured it was worth a shot because I had a giant box of borax and washing soda that I needed to use up. I tired it and after a few loads, I was hooooked. I made another batch (this time I doubled it) last night and I absolutely love it. It's cheap, gets my clothes clean and I love that I don't have to run out to the store (or the neighbor's house because yes, that's happened) for laundry detergent. A batch of this lasts FOREVER and I still have my giant boxes of borax and washing soda.

2. We switched to bar soap. I'm not sure why in the last 10+ years I've never thought to use bar soap. I've got really dry, sensitive skin and anything with sulfates is a big no no for me. It's kind of annoying to look for body washes that don't have sulfates in them. I know of a few, but I go through them so fast and they can get a bit pricey. One day, while browsing the soap aisle of Wal-Mart, I thought I'd look at bar soap. I'd heard that Olay and Dove were good for sensitive skin, but I wanted to see if they had sulfates. They do not. Apparently that's the ingredient that makes liquid soap lather (or so says my sort of chemist husband) so bar soaps have no need for them. I decided to buy a box of Olay bars to try them out. I figured I'd just use my regular loofah, but was THRILLED to find that they had bar soap loofahs! (except mine's a pretty blue color and was only $2) It's great and I've been using the same bar of soap for over a month and it's only about half way gone. I'm not sure if that counts as 'crunchy' but a box of 6 was only $5-6 and it uses a lot less plastic packaging (i.e. none) and is going to last a LOT longer than a container of liquid soap would. We picked up Josh some 'manly' soap too and both of our loofahs hang from our shower caddy.

3. I've been using washcloths and cloth dish rags a lot more. Sure, paper towels and Clorox wipes are convenient and you can just toss them, but cloth rags clean SO much better. Don't get me wrong, I've always used cloth dish rags, but I hardly ever reach for disposable towels anymore. They just...suck. Even with cleaning solution on them, they don't clean as well as a simple wet rag. It seems like a simple, stupid change, but it really has helped and it's been nice to not buy paper towels as much.


Warning this one could be considered TMI and it's probably the 'hippiest' thing I do although, I think it's probably my favorite. If girly things and talking about periods freak you out, feel free to skip to number 5. :)

4. I started using a Diva Cup instead of tampons. I know, I know. That's weird. And pretty disgusting that I'm talking about it on my blog. But you know what? It's sort of been life changing. You heard that right, life changing and I feel like it needs to be shared. I first read about them on the cloth diapering board on babycenter. People talk a lot about 'mama cloth' (i.e. cloth pads. The thought of that makes me want to vomit and poke my eyeballs out and then vomit 8 more times) but a Diva Cup was something that intrigued me. Let's just say that it's amazing. No more running to the bathroom every 2 hours. No more worrying about be 'stocked' if I'm running out the door. Seriously, life changing. That's really all I can say about it. And a huge plus is that I've only bought one box of tampons since I started using it, so... in 9-10ish months? It's wonderful.

5. I've made and want to make more bath products. The only thing I've really made so far is a sugar scrub, but I've got recipes for bath bombs and even liquid soap that I want to try. The sugar scrub was suuuper easy (3 parts sugar (I would not recommend raw sugar. I've found that it's a teeny bit too abrasive. White, granulated sugar works much better..., one part olive oil and 10ish drops of an essential oil)  I use it every day in the shower and recently have even started using it on  my face at night. Remember my mention of SUPER dry skin? The olive oil works better than any moisturizer I've ever tried and the sugar is the perfect exfoliate. It doesn't clog pores and literally cost me pennies to make. Oh and it can be used as a lip scrub too. I've needed a lot less chapstick since I've started using it. I absolutely love it.

I guess that's about it. I need to get better at cooking from scratch cooking in general, but my pinterest boards are filled with yummy recipes I want to try. That counts for something, right? So these things along with downgrading our phones, couponing, getting a smaller satellite package, eating out less, etc have saved us some serious bucks. Which is good, because we've got to put our yard in this summer and we'd like to squeeze in a family vacation in before the girls turn 2.

Is there anything you do 'crunchy' or 'green' or 'cheap'? Every time I make the a switch like this, I think that it's funny how drastic it seems, but did our moms have Clorox wipes? Heck, a lot of our moms didn't even have disposable diapers available to them like we do today. People have been cleaning, eating and taking care of things these ways for hundreds if not thousands of years and all of the sudden they're a part of this 'Go Green" reform. It makes me smile a little bit.

So, what do you do?

p.s. The girls turn 18 months old on Thursday. Excuse me while I go shut myself in my room and cry.

Cloth diapering... for the millionth time.

Yep, another cloth diaper post. This one will be quick though. I have a little tip that I recently discovered that seems like common sense, but I've never done it and I haven't heard (read) anyone else recommend to do it. Feel free to skip this post if you don't care about cloth diapers or if words like 'urine' and 'fermentation' make you queasy.

So.... If you have a diaper sprayer (which I highly, highly recommend. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't cloth diaper without one) spray every diaper, not just the poopy ones. Why? It really helps cut back the ammonia. When pee sits in fabric for more than a couple of days, it starts to ferment. And that fermentation leads to ammonia which is AWFUL. Microfiber is especially prone to holding in urine even after it's washed. Most people who use microfiber will experience the evils of ammonia sometime while cloth diapering. I did! By rinsing out every diaper, you get rid of the urine that would normally be sitting in your wet bag (or pail) until laundry day. Some people do laundry every day, but others wait every 3 days. That's plenty of opportunity for your diapers to get stinky (not to mention the ammonia burns that infest your baby's bum...). I started rinsing every diaper a couple of months ago and it has made ALL the difference. I haven't used bleach since, and don't always do an extra cold rinse before I wash them. I've had little to no build up and my microfiber smells normal.

I should note that when I say 'every diaper' I mean every synthetic fabric. I don't rinse out my cotton prefolds. Natural fabric, like cotton, doesn't trap urine and washes much easier. In fact, I'm kind of waiting for the day when my microfiber stops holding in water (which they will probably when we're using them with our next kid. And NO that wasn't an announcement...) so I can replace it all with natural fibers, like prefolds. The one down side to prefolds are they don't give the baby the 'stay dry' feel, so I usually lay some fleece down so the cotton doesn't touch the skin (if I don't Lillian will sometimes get rashes). But the positive of prefolds is that they hold a lot, but they are able to 'let go' of the urine and not ferment it to ammonia nastiness.

So there's that little tip for ya. Spraying messy diapers takes maybe 30 seconds, so spraying diapers that are only holding liquid takes maybe 10. I still wash every other day and have started to add a few drops of tea tree oil (a natural antibacterial/antifunal oil) when I add the detergent. The diapers come out clean, stainless and ammonia free.

 So yes, 16ish months later and we are still using the cloth diapers and we still love them.

Days off

I tried to upload this to facebook, but after 3 attempts, I gave up and decided to come to Blogger. The girls LOVE when Josh has days off because he is 3 million times more fun than I am. Take a look.

I love days off.

What our morning looked like

And yes, the lighting was much better before our trip to the grocery store. :)