Jenna's first....?

Step? Word? All good, timely guesses but this post is bigger in milestone than any guess.

This is Jenna's. First. Kiss. ha! The lucky boy is Mr. Truett Swain. We went to a friends birthday party a couple of weeks ago and Truett made his move. Oh my...Ryan has already had his moment and has his radar fixed on Truett :) And yes, we would totally approve :)





We had to break it up quickly after this last picture. haha

Oh How Pinteresting!

So I'm sure everyone in the world is on the Pinterest Band-Wagon these days...including myself. I had to discipline myself to wait until the kids were down at night to get on Pinterest when I first discovered it! If I opened it while the kids were in here playing I would totally loose track of time (and them!) yikes. So now it is my fun, me-time activity at night. I've done a ton of recipes that are to die for, but here are some of my favorite "crafts" I have attempted all thanks to Pinterest.

I can't wait until we move. Yes, our house is on the market...I dont think I've mentioned that on here. Having 2 kids at a time did a little altering to our plans for this house. :) I have a ton of pins that I'm dying to do but have had to restrain the Pinterest beast from coming out. No more projects here at this house. Ryan and I both love to do home projects, fix-ups and decorating (me) so Pinterest is both the best and worst thing we could have found! :)

This is Ryan's Fathers Day present last year:

Pinterest Version:

Source: etsy.com via Casey on Pinterest

My Version (and yes, I forgot to do my other "big" handprint...haha):


I LOOOOOVE my picture wall...I stare it all the time and now every night when we go to bed, the twins point and want us to stop to go over everyone they see in the pictures. So we go from picture to picture saying "Mama", "DaDa", "Caden", and "Jenna". Prec! It was so easy and cheap to do! I was eyeing the Gallery wall series at Michaels but each frame, on sale, is like $20! This entire wall cost me $20:) I got the frames at goodwill, bought a $5 pack of matching Scrapbook Paper Pad at Walmart and some spraypaint. Voila! I love how I can change out the pictures anytime a I want so easy.

Pinterest Version:

Source: shanty-2-chic.com via Casey on Pinterest

My Version:





And then Pinterest made Christmas so fun! All of the decorations, recipes, gift ideas! I made these head bow holders for my two nieces and a friend. They were fun to customize and add a headband for a fun gift! They are made from formula cans! hello! I'm making one for Jenna now :)

Pinterest Version:

Source: etsy.com via Tiffany on Pinterest

My Version:

Oh my...

Love these two!

(and dont worry, this is the last post of Christmas-related material...)

Caden's upclose in the Christmas Onesie my Mom made for him...

And Jenna, with "The Jenna Face"

All three of my babies!

Happy New Year! 2012

We made it down to our beloved Oak Island after a pretty non eventful all day car ride down the coast of NC. We love spending New Years at the beach! We have been blessed with wonderful weather, everyone is in vacation mode and it is always such a relaxing time to reflect on the year past and year coming up. Two years in a row now, Ryan and I have tuckered out around 10pm....blame it on the twins! But I promised Aunt Robin and Uncle Brad that one year coming up soon the twins will be THRILLED To stay up and party with them :)

Gigi got the twins some mini chairs for them to use next summer. We decided to bring them out and give them a try. They were adorable for us to get these pictures...until they both tumbled out head first. Bonk! That fun was over quickly...maybe by the summer they will be ready :)





We had fun playing with some of our new toys we brought along from Christmas. We went outside one day and rode bicycles, walked to the sound, walked on the beach...ahhh I miss it so much just typing about it!





My Aunt had purchased a pair of the Huggies "Santa Diapers" so we were trying to go through those and use them up while it was still relatively close to Christmas. I could eat them in these things! Adorable! For whatever reason, my kids LOVE to crawl, chase each other and play with nothing but a diaper on. So we obliged and let them go crazy!





You KNOW a grandchild has a special place in Papa T's heart if he doesn't have a coronary over them touching.the.walls. oh the horror! haha This is one of, if not THEE top pet peeve of my beloved, quirky Father. We love all of his "peculiars" but the touching the walls hang up is no joking matter! That is FOUR hands all over his clean, barely painted walls :) haha



Another exciting year brought in at our favorite place....can't wait to be back!

Christmas with Grandparents

I love it when the kids are with our parents. I love seeing how Grandparents spoil and love on their grandkids. I miss all of mine so much. We extended Christmas as much as we could this year by doing Christmas with my family Monday and Ryan's family on Tuesday. This year we decided to spend the night at the house we were doing Christmas at the next day. By the time we get both kids up, changed, fed, packed and travel to the location, it is time for morning nap...so we just decided to make it easy for the kids (harder for us) and spend the night so they could wake up and be ready for Christmas! It worked our perfectly to be honest. Ryan and I both loved it! It allowed us to preserve our special family time on actual Christmas day while letting the Grandparents have their special "Christmas Mornings" too.

First stop was Gigi and Papa T's. We had extra fun b/c Aunt Robin and Uncle Brad spent the night too!

Papa T and Jenna both doing the "Jenna face"

Sorry we are so boring, Caden...

Someone got us this ridiculous Christmas Chicken that does the chicken dance. The kids love it and yell out for us to turn it on all the time. Im trying to find Mr Chicken a home...maybe in our black trashcan downstairs??? :)

Me and Sis...

Then we packed up and headed to Nana and Papa's house where Uncle Brent and Aunt Courtney spent the night! We missed Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jason and our Cousins...but they had to stay home in SC so Aunt Sarah can grow, grow, grow our twin cousins!!!! We are so excited to see them when they come sometime in Feb or March!

The twins always go straight to the door to see Titan, the Dog. They stand there and bark at him over and over again. It is actually quite precious.

***YES, that is Caden standing on his own! On Christmas Eve, he did it all of a sudden at Mema and Pape's house, then didn't do it for a while, then started up again! So proud of you sweet boy!

Nana and Papa got the twins mini-pillow pets. Jenna fell.in.love! She grabs hers all the time and it is precious!

Jenna understood what to do in the present dept! She could rip some tissue paper out with the best of 'em. Notice, one arm still occupied with holding Pillow Pet.

As I mentioned, my hubby took care of me big time this Christmas! Together with his parents, he got me the necklace I spotted and fell in love with. Its got the twins initial on a medallion and it also comes with a pendant of their birthstone. They were backordered til February so I can't wait for them to come in! I love it! And no, in case you were wondering, the initials dont stand for "Jesus Christ" like my sister thought :) I love Him very much too, but that is not the intent behind the initials :)

Precious picture!

This was taken with my phone but it shows Jenna hogging both Pillow Pets!

The next day we went to go see Ryan's Grandmother where we had his Mom's side of the family Christmas. We are thankful we got to see her and the rest of the family...its a large group so it is quite impressive when you can get most of them in the same town, same room together!


From the nursing home, we packed up and set off on our drive up to VA! We timed it so the first part was nap, then a stop for lunch, then some play time with mom in the back, then the rest of the time was Baby Einstein and Praise Baby DVD's with our new DVD players Gigi and Papa T gave us. PRAISE THE LORD FOR DVD PLAYERS! They are already worth 100x their price tag! The kids loved it and didn't make a peep for 2 hours!



We had such a good time with the Hudgins...we love them so much! The twins did great staying on schedule and playing with Cullen and Cursten. Even though it was cold, we got out of the house and went to Mount Trashmore and played on the swings and tried out the slides.




And from HERE, we tackled a 6 or 7 hour trip down the coast of NC to...our favorite place on earth...Oak Island, the Beach!!!! for New Years! More to come on that later!