From Two to Four

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Lets Sit Down and Catch Up!

Hi everyone, I have been M.I.A and so busy lately. So here's a little catch up.

1st and foremost thanks to my awesome guest blogger who took some stress away from last week!

Now onto catching up, my big events for this year are now over and I can breath again. I am solely responsible for these classes and other then our staff showing up on the morning of to help with registration and taking payments it is all on my shoulders to make sur everything else happens. I deal with sponsors and speakers and large conference centers to coordinate these events and when they come together and no one complains I am a happy girl.

This last Friday we had a little blip at the beginning, as in the entire mic system went down 10 minutes before we were supposed to start, the poor crew was running around and finally had to pull out the old school speakers and HOUR LATE! I was getting so stressed and nervous and being the control freak that I am, couldn't stand that I could not do one little thing about it, and just had to sit there and wait and wait for them to get it up and running.

After the class our family got to enjoy the Great Wolf Lodge and we had a blast, because of the problems that morning they upgraded my room and had chocolate waiting for me when I checked in, that's what you call customer service ;) aka sucking up so I choose them and pay them lots of money next year.

Here are a few pictures of our weekend.

Here are some pictures of our event!

The room all set up with swag!

Water park passes for all!

Introducing our first speaker Dr. Dolphine Oda

And our main speaker Dr. Stanley Malamed!

And here are the pictures from after our class and from our family fun time at Great Wolf Lodge!

So nice to catch up a little with all of you and now I can resume normal blogging and catching up on all of your blogs as well, I've missed you all dearly!

P.S. I totally wore my bikini but I am totally not showing you! ;)

And if you have a moment please vote for us so I can meet more multiple mommies! Hope you all are having a GREAT WEEK!

Monday, September 12, 2011

The Family Pictures That Almost Weren't

A couple of weeks ago we had our wonderful photographer Kristina take our family photos. I had the bright idea of having a beachy family picture, I always see them and LOVE them. So I googled for the best location and finally settled on Fort Worden, just google it and you'll see why I chose it. It had a lighthouse, a sandy beach and blue water. It had been in the mid to high 80's inland so I figured at worst it would be 70-75 at the coast, boy I was SO wrong. We got there and it was windy, SO WINDY and COLD! Kristina is a trooper and bless her heart was so patient with us trying to get the twins happy enough to get a few photos.

So we went as fast as we could and got some family pictures and then a few of Ava and Landon. They were so cold their teeth were chattering (cue mommy guilt). I had such idealic thoughts of beautiful sandy beachy pictures and it was anything but. We would put the twins in the car to warm up and then bribe them with animal crackers.

Kristina ended up with some amazing shots as usually and it was not a total loss as I thought it was going to be. This is why Kristina is and always will be our family photographer and good friend! We may try Fort Worden again some day you know when its actually warm and sunny and isn't windy.

Here are some of my favorite shots she got that day!

And I don't know if any of you live in the PNW but if you do go here and check out Kristina's work, she is pretty much A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Baby Books Can Be Easy- Guest Post

Today I have a great guest post for you guys from Gretchen at That Mama Gretchen, Gretchen is mama to Jemma who is just absolutely adorable! I happen to know Gretchen IRL and she is just as awesome as her blog is! Gretchen and I go way back, like before we were born! We both share October as our birthday month! Today Gretchen has written a great post on baby books, which I am terrible at keeping up. But reading her tips make the task less daunting as it sometimes seems. Enjoy!

I'm sure you can all relate when I say the first year flys by. One minute, your little is a snuggly ball of coo and spit up and the next they are movin' and groovin' all over the living room! What's a mama to do?

During my maternity leave I religiously documented milestones in Jemma's baby book. I printed pictures from her first week of life and secured them on each page with sweet captions and memories of our first moments together. Then long nights turned into naps during the day and before I knew it was February and she was 4 months old! I was preparing to return to work and Jemma's baby book was lacking to say the least. Can anyone relate?

Since returning to work, efficiency has become my middle name. Efficiency is how I created a baby book especially for busy mamas and their busy babies ...

It ain't pretty, but it is functional. This simple binder serves it's purpose by recording memories as they happen. I keep it on my desk at work and review it weekly when I glance over my Outlook. I have 11 (going on 12) memory-filled pages notating many moments of our wonderful days together ...

October 12: First trip to Starbucks

November 22/26: Met her California and Texas cousins

January 15 - Hit 20 pounds of chunky cuteness

February 26 - Dedicated to Jesus at church

March 19 - First time at at hotel

June 1 - Started crawling!

July 16 - Waving to everyone

August 23 - Learning to clap and dance

Want to create your own Busy Mama Baby Book?

You only need a few things ...

1/2 inch binder

12 sheet protectors

Print out of the upcoming 12 months

That's it! Take 5 minutes each week and jot down your favorite memories - all the firsts, doctor appointments, vacations, special mama/baby moments, and developmental milestones. You'll be happy you did!

In addition to my binder baby book I've also kept a blog to document my pregnancy and Jemma's first year. I'd love for you to stop by and follow along

- Facebook - Twitter - Pinterest

Go head on over and show Gretchen some bloggy love!
Happy Thursday y'all (I can say that right)!!

Friday, September 2, 2011

Happ Birthday to My Hubby!

Today is my hubby's birthday! Just a nice day to celebrate my husband, partner in life and baby daddy! Can't belive we have celebrated 5 of his birthday's married and 4 of them before that! Wow!

We have gone from this...