Friday, April 30, 2010

2 weeks to go!!

2 weeks left and we are only $355 from our goal!

We had 3 more donations today. Josh (another friend from work) came up huge today! Thank you, Josh!

Laurie, a fellow twin parent also donated today. Laurie and her girls also survived Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome. Their family was an inspiration to us very early on. When we were diagnosed and found Laurie and her family on a TTTS support website, we focused on their story. Laurie helped us through some difficult times with encouraging words and pictures and stories about her beautiful twin girls. Thank you Laurie for being an inspiration to us and to so many others!

And "Mr. Anonymous" strikes again. Thank you for your support as always, "Mr. Anonymous!"

Today was a typical day...lots of playing in the morning, a short afternoon nap, and tons of shenanigans in the evening. I have the weekend off so we'll be doing some real fun stuff soon. For now, just more pictures of the girls in the middle of their evening shenanigans.

And I had nothing to do with these outfits. The girls grabbed their baseball gear and found their hats and started playing themselves. I just grabbed the camera.









Quick trip to Target. The girls and I stayed in the car while Lisa ran in. I couldn't resist getting a picture of my cuties in their sunglasses.

Something just happened that I have to write down so I don't forget later. I was changing Katy's diaper and Alyssa was doing something that I asked her to stop. So I reached up and grabbed her shirt to pull her back. She of course started pouting/crying because she got corrected. Katy watches this and gets mad at me and says "DON'T PUSH DOWN MY DER!!" ... "YOU SAY SORRY TO MY DER!!"

Apparently, little sister is the tough one! It was hard not to react but that was pretty cute.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Another birthday celebration!!

My mom's birthday was today! Happy birthday, Mom! It sounded like she had a great day. We even got to spend some time with her on a video conference call which is always special.

Another big day today with donations from Dave S (friend at work) and Linda W. (a friend of a friend...so that's extra special that the word is getting out). We also had another pledge that says a check is in the mail and another possible pledge...both friends of Amy that are going to donate to our cause. I think we're going to blow right by our goal of $3000!!! Way to go team!!

Today, the girls had their 3 year check-up. They both weighed 27.4 pounds. Katy actually measured a quarter inch taller (I personally think she just has better posture). Katy is 36 and 3/4 inches and Alyssa is 36 and 1/2 inches. They are getting up into the 15% percentile on their weight and 30th to 50th percentile on their height!! It wasn't too long ago that they were still well below the chart!

While we were waiting for Mom to get home from their night on the town, we had a little tea party with the Longaberger tea set that Mom had sent for the girls.






Here's our video chat with my mom.

I wanted to share this picture cause you can actually see Mom's cat that the girls were trying to pet. Ignore the sick guy on the right side wiping the sweat from his forehead.

I also donated another $8 to get us to a nice round $2500!! I couldn't stand being at a odd number. Come on, guys! Let's blow by $3000!!!!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Spring has sprung!

We are posting tonight because of donations from Lesley and Lilian! Lesley is a dear friend of ours from Texas and Lilian is a fellow twin mommy here in AK. Thanks for thinking of us today ladies!

Today, just a couple random pics. Not sure why Alyssa is smelling the remote.

Then, she had to show Lambie how to ride the blue ball.


The girls had to try on Lisa's new shoes.



Got a picture of the tail end of a minor tantrum after Katy wouldn't share the shoes.

Then a little dress up for good measure.




$2400!! I can't believe how many people have contributed so far but it's going to take all of you to get us up to our goal. Don't put it off too much longer!!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Luncheon success!!!

Today was our second annual luncheon at my office, the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Anchorage. Lisa and I put on quite the spread of goodies...with some assistance. We need to thank 3 families that contributed the desserts; Alberta and her husband Rick made two amazing cakes, Michelle made a huge batch of cookies, and Kristi also made a delicious batch.

Lisa made two slow cooker meals. The first was a repeat from last year...a Caribbean Jerk Chicken Sandwich. The second is a favorite around our house but we have never made it in mass quantities...a Root Beer BBQ Beef.

We charged $10 per person to get in the door and managed to raise quite a bit of money. For the day, we collected $392!!! WOW!!

There were many people that threw in to our donation jar today but I know a few of these people made more substantial donations including Sam Albanese, Louise, Alberta, and Christian. Thank you everybody for making the luncheon another huge success!!

After only 3 hours of sleep last night, I am off to bed early tonight! The girls felt better today...good enough to stay for the whole lunch. They crashed hard afterward (well we all did).

Here are the girls showing a little impatience as we set up everything.






Looking stylish as ever.


Overall, a great day. I'm so happy we took this on again this year and it paid off huge. Thank you again to everyone who contributed!

A special request

For a Sunday, today was a HUGE day! First, we'd like to thank Shaun for his huge contribution! Shaun has always been curious about our girls and checking in on them every now and then. He's like an uncle or something. He's just a great guy with a huge heart! Thanks Shaun!!

The second donation came with a request. Brooke (of Sacramento, CA) requested that the girls do a tribute to Bret Michaels. You see, for those of you who aren't female and didn't grow up in the late 80s and early 90s, Bret Michaels is kind of a sex symbol. Not sure how else to say that or how else to explain Brooke's strange request other than setting that foundation. Recently, Bret Michaels suffered from a brain hemorrhage and is still in critical condition. Brooke is obviously concerned for him so requested a tribute from the girls. I found a great song on my ipod and asked the girls to dance...and dance they did! So turn it up, Brooke! This one is for you...and Bret Michaels. ...and thank you, Brooke!
The other request was for Katy to tell Bret Michaels to put his jammies on. If we get that on video, we'd receive a BONUS! No problem.

Good story. Some of you know that our new tv (from spring of last year) fell apart on us in the fall. We went back and forth with Samsung and eventually they just sent us a check for the full price of the tv...even though it was working fine! The only problem is that the glass was not properly installed and the frame around it was bulging out. They decided that it would be cheaper to send us a check for the price of the tv rather than replacing it. Ok. Well, that worked out great for us until this morning when we found that the glass had slid down again. Tonight, Lisa and I took the whole thing apart ourselves to try and fix it...and we DID!!! After we took out the 50 or so screws and peeled back the adhesive stuff, it was obvious where they didn't correctly assemble the glass and the frame. Problem solved! Here was mid way through the process when we were still unsure of the outcome but it worked out great. Thanks Samsung for the free TV!!


I've been going through some older pictures and reorganizing. Here are a few that Sam took one evening while we were playing with the new flash.





Tomorrow is HUGE! I should say 'today' because it's 1:15am right now and I have to be up for work in 4 hours. The luncheon is today...only problem is the girls are SICK!! I KNOW!! Alyssa got a runny nose on Saturday and Katy woke up this morning with one too. Luckily, only low grade fevers of 99ish but they are MISERABLE! As you can probable tell from the videos, they are all snot nosed and gross. Poor things. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they'll be able to make it to the luncheon. But the food is currently in the slow cookers (I can smell it and it smells sooooo good!!). Hopefully that will be enough to get everybody to donate big tomorrow. We'll see. Wish us luck and pray that the girls start feeling better fast.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

YOU PUT YOUR JAMMIES ON!!!

Yeah, that was a great video. Every now and then the girls do something that we think is hilarious but we're never quite sure if everyone else will see the humor. Glad to see you got it too.

Well today's post is in honor of a very special little boy. Our long time friends Amy and Dave have a 4 year old named Jacob and he is an avid follower of the blog. According to Amy, he loved watching that last video so much that he asked to see more funny videos. Amy said that we wouldn't post anymore until we got more donations. Wouldn't you know it...that little tiger went to his piggy bank and got out $5!!! What a great little kid!! On top of that, their whole family walked in their March for Babies event in St. Louis today. So this post is in honor of a very special boy (and his parents)! Thanks Jacob!!

Lisa took the afternoon/evening off to get a much deserved pedicure and then do some grocery shopping for our luncheon on Monday. While she was gone, I tried to get some funny videos and this was the best I could do.

I was recording this first one...and was just about to stop and delete it when Katy went into her Jammy tantrum again. Not nearly as funny as the original but still pretty cute.

This second one...well, there is some high pitched screams so you have been warned. I was whistling and the girls thought they would try. But it's not just screaming. Katy saves the day again.

After Lisa got home, the girls just HAD to have their toenails done too. So they got their first pedicure this evening.




They tried to get me to have my nails done too, but I declined. I had to convince them that it is a Mommy and little girls treat to have their nails done. Whew...they bought it.

One more day until the luncheon. Most of the food is purchased and we have 3 crock pots standing by. It's gonna be sooooooo good.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

ANOTHER snow storm

...and a couple donations. Actually, a couple people pre-paid for the luncheon on Monday. But...our total went up today so I thought I'd make a quick post.

Lisa took the girls to dance class today and they tried on their elephant costumes for the first time. It didn't go as smoothly as she hoped...mainly because the girls didn't like how the straps felt on their shoulders. So she didn't have the good camera because she was hoping to get a video of them rehearsing...it didn't go too well. So all we got were these few shots.





I hope the other moms don't mind us sharing the pics of their girls. They are ADORABLE! You can see the frowns on Katy and Alyssa. They just aren't sure about the costumes yet.

The recital is the day after the walk so we have some time to figure it out. Let's get some more donations! TGIF!