{beautiful week}

The weather was gorgeous all week and the girls spent almost all waking hours outdoors enjoying the sunshine!  This is what our beautiful week looked like: trip to the zoo with Sara, evening walks to the park with mommy & daddy (& to check out the pre-school the girls will start attending in September), Kenzie sleeping in our bed because she has started waking up from nightmares, mowing the lawn with Daddy, taking baby dolls for a walk and scouting for "cats!", friday night "dinner club" at el jinete with all the kids, a trip to burger farms to pick out flowers & seeds for our vegetable garden ... and to visit the animals, trip to the playground with neighbors, planting flowers and grass seed with friends, reading & picnicing in our teepee in the back yard, ....swing, run, dance, rinse, repeat ....

{a perfect day for graeter's}

Two weekends ago we had snow and today it was 80 degrees. Crazy, but I'll take it!  It was a gorgeous day ... warm, sunny, with blooms bursting into color all around us.  The girls love being outside in this great weather.  Today was also Granny's last day in Cincinnati so we went out to dinner and then capped off her visit with a trip to Graeter's.  We enjoyed our ice cream in Hyde Park Square and then the girls had fun playing with all of the other kids in the square.  It was so fun to watch the girls interact with the older kids.  Kenzie, who is usually a bit more shy around people she doesn't know, marched right up to the older kids playing under the tree and joined in on the fun.  She then called her sissy over to join her.  What a fun evening.

We will miss you Granny!

{happy st. patrick's day!}

We had such a fun-filled day.  The day started off with green milk - those silly leprechauns!  We then took a trip to Hyde Park Square to buy the girls some new sandals.  It was a gorgeous day so we ended up taking a walk and playing in the square for a bit - we just so happened to see the Stealey's drive by and ended up having an impromptu lunch together at The Echo.  Such fun!  I always love to see our four kids together.

After lunch, Granny stayed with the girls while they napped so that Randall and I could stop by Kathryn & Brian's farewell party to wish them well.  We are really going to miss them!  By the time the girls woke up from their nap it was time for our neighborhood St. Patrick's Day/March Madness party.  It was the perfect evening for it.  The girls had a blast playing with all of the neighborhood kids and their toys.  The adults enjoyed some beer and good conversation.  And they even had 3 TV's set up outside so we didn't miss any of the hoops action.  I love our neighbors and love the fact that once the days get longer and the weather warms up that we get to see so much more of them!

{lunch date}

Sara and Granny brought the girls downtown to meet us for lunch on Friday. We had such a fun lunch date! After eating at Margaritas we walked back to the P&G lobby and got Kenzie & Lexi some frozen yogurt. It was a beautiful day so they enjoyed their cold treat out in the P&G gardens. What a great break during our work day ... we'll have to do this more often!

{giddy up! a very happy 2nd birthday party, cowgirl style!}

I love throwing a party … and nothing is better than planning a fun party for my two favorite girls!

I really do enjoy the preparation – the invitation designing, banner sewing, glue-gunning, sign-painting part of planning my girls' parties is fun for me. It lets me use my creative side that I don’t always get to use in my day job :) But the best part is when everything comes together - and friends start arriving and music is playing - and I get to watch my girls take it all in. I love watching their reactions and how they interact with their friends. I love celebrating them!



This year they were both really shy at first and wanted to be carried. But they warmed up after a bit. Lexi’s face lit up when her Daddy came outside in full Sheriff gear. Kenzie was way into the piñata and collecting candy (she was partial to the smarties) in her goody bag. Lexi loved the red velvet cupcakes (especially the cream cheese frosting), while Kenzie preferred the vanilla/chocolate cake and ice cream. They both had a blast galloping around with the big kids on their stick ponies. They loved opening their presents … and it was difficult for me to keep up with them :)



We had a pony corral ...




Fun western photo-booth props ...



Kenzie & Lexi's country store ...




We ate some good grub ...








Made some fun crafts at the Craftin' Corral ...


Pinned the tail on the horse ...


And no party is complete without a little pinata fun!


It was a rootin tootin good time!






Lexi is still trying to perfect showing 2 fingers to match her age ... "TWO!"


So happy that both Omi & Granny could be there for the fun! 

Thanks to all of those - big and small - that joined us for the celebration!  Our house was filled to the brim ... and it felt so nice to have everyone there celebrating our girls!


Party Details:

I created the Invitations, cupcake toppers, birthday banner, favor tags, goodie bag labels, food labels, etc. in PhotoShop using some great free Western fonts from dafont.com.

I made the fabric pennant banners, cake topper pennant banner, pin-the-tail-on-the-horse game, and burlap table runner myself using my new sewing machine.

The photo-booth props were printed from online templates and self mounted on foam board.

Cowgirl boot piñata came from Pinata.com.

Paper goods came from Target & Party Source.

Mini Hay Bales, Apple Crate Baskets, etc. come from Michaels.

Party Favors: Hats, bandanas, sheriff badges and western foam picture frame craft kits came from Oriental Trading. They have a ton of western stuff to choose from. Stick ponies came from Horse.com (they make galloping noises and neigh) and were a big hit. I was looking for the Dollar store version of these but apparently they don’t stock them until late spring/summer so splurged a bit on the nicer ones.

Saddle: lent to us by our neighbors. Thanks Dick, Debbie & Rachel! I really wanted to have live pony rides at the party but given the uncertainty with the weather … esp. since they were forecasting 40 mile per hour winds opted not to have them.

Food: I had planned to make more of the food myself, but when Kenzie was so sick leading up the party decided that I would outsource all of this :)
    - Cake & Cupcakes: Servati bakery
    - Barbeque & sides: City Barbeque
    - Cutout cookies: Diane's Cake Candy & Cookie Supply
    - Cowgirl Caviar: made by my mother & mother in law

Thanks to Sara (our fabulous Nanny) for taking all of the great pictures during the party – thanks to her I was able to actually relax and enjoy the party!

{the greatest show on earth!}

We took our two 2 year olds to the circus on Saturday.  They were so excited and were mesmerized by all of the sights and sounds!  And for me "the greatest show on earth" took place in the 2 seats directly to my right.  While Kenzie and Lexi watched big eyed, open mouthed as elephants paraded, horses ("horseys!)galloped, tigers ("big cats!") leapt, clowns clowned and acrobats performed, I watched them take it all in. 



And for me watching them enjoy the show was so much better than the show itself.  I loved how excited they were.  The fact that Lexi clapped and danced along to the music.  That Kenzie enjoyed the popcorn and lemonade almost as much as the show.  The light up wands that we bought them were also a big hit!


We arrived early enough to go down onto the floor of the arena before the circus started and the girls got to see some acrobats and clowns up close.  They weren't even scared of the clowns, as I thought they might be.  They also watched as Asia the Elephant painted a picture with her trunk!





It was such a fun first trip to the circus, and we're so happy that Granny could join us.  About 2 hours in the girls started to get restless (during the strong man and tightrope acts ... since they don't really get the awe and fear factor yet, I think these acts were a bit boring for them).  We stayed just long enough to see the elephants perform and then we headed out. 


We missed the last 20 minutes or so of the show, but beat the traffic out of the parking garage.  The girls were obviously worn out from all of the excitement because they were both asleep before we even exited the garage :)  I would say that was a very successful first trip to the Circus!

{two times two}

Kenzie & Lexi turned TWO on Saturday. I can't believe my daughters are TWO! We had such a fun birthday celebration weekend with both Omi K and Granny in town.

My mom (Omi) arrived on Thursday night, but after the girls had gone to bed. On Friday morning at about 6:45am, Lexi woke up and started talking in her crib. This is pretty normal, but usually she ends up laying back down and going back to sleep until at least 8am. All of a sudden, I hear giggles coming from the girls room … from both Lexi and Kenzie. My mom was so excited to see the girls that she just couldn’t wait any longer and rushed in at their first peep :) I wanted to be angry … you never wake a sleeping baby toddler twin, right? Plus, I had many things planned in that precious hour … like showering, emptying the dishwasher, etc. … but the girls were so excited to see their Omi and vice versa that I couldn’t be too upset :) They were so loving to my mom, giving her hugs and kisses right away even thought they hadn’t seen her since Thanksgiving. When my mom asked Lexi how old she was going to be on her birthday she immediately answered, “TWO! CAKE!” Too funny, as we usually ask her 2 questions. How old she is going to be? And what she is going to have at her party? I guess she figured she would just answer both questions in one go :)

Since we got an early start on the day we decided to head to Lookout Joe’s for breakfast, before heading to Joseph Beth for story time. The girls had such a great time at breakfast with Omi … and ate more than we did! Sara then met us at the bookstore and stayed there with my mom and the girls while I ran some errands to get ready for their party on Saturday. The girls kept saying “Omi sit!” so that they could sit on her lap and read books.




Granny Gail (Gigi) arrived on Friday afternoon at just the right time during a break in the storms. The girls were very excited that they had 2 grandmothers there when they woke up from their nap. That evening we all went to our favorite local Mexican place for dinner. The girls LOVE their beans (and ate a ton of them) and we asked them to sing happy birthday to the girls. They weren’t too sure about that at first, but once they spotted the ice cream that came along with the song they were sold :)





Saturday was the big day and the girls woke up to a room filled with balloons! Once Lexi overcame her initial shock/fear … they thought that this was the coolest thing ever. I loved it because I think it made them realize that THIS was indeed their birthday. Immediately after we sang happy birthday to them, Lexi asked hopefully, “CAKE?!” While we didn’t have cake for breakfast we did put a candle in their French toast :) We then spent the next couple of hours opening presents … goodness these girls are spoiled! They had a blast playing with their new toys … from leap frog laptops, to gardening and cleaning tools, to a play house, to a princess doll and matching dress up clothes, to new Thomas choo-choo trains … it was a bit overwhelming. It was so funny to watch them. As Lexi was enjoying being a princess, Kenzie preferred the role of Cinderella before the ball …. cleaning in her cowgirl boots :)



After a trip to the bookstore for some play time and lunch, it was time for the girls to nap and the rest of us to furiously prepare for the party. Apparently Lexi was so excited about her party that she did not want to nap … not good since I had quite a lot of work to do to transform our house into the Lemoine Ranch :) Thankfully I was finally able to convince her to nap and somehow we pulled it all off in the nick of time…. thanks to Omi and Gigi’s help!

The party was a success! More pics & details to come in a separate post, but here are a few pictures that Sara took of our little birthday cowgirls … and their Daddy who surprised us all by coming down for the party in full Cowboy/sheriff gear! Love it!



We continued the fun on Sunday with breakfast at the Echo and a trip to the Children’s Museum.




The girls had so much fun … but unfortunately Lexi seems to have brought a bug home from the museum center with her. She started acting cranky on Sunday night and has been running a fever since Monday. Last night she had a 104 fever and was miserable. Lexi is so much more dramatic than Kenzie is when she is sick. Last night she kept wailing, “Hurts Mommy! WHHHHYYYY Mommy?” My poor baby. Although she is now 2 and weights over 26 pounds, she is still my little baby and I just want to make her feel better. During our sleepless night last night I carried her and rocked her and sang to her just as I did when she was a little 6 pound newborn. And when her head would sink into the crevice between my neck and collarbone and her breathing would slow … it brought me right back to those early days. What a ride the past 2 years have been! More on my girls at TWO in a separate post … now back to caring for my sick baby who I hope feels all better very soon. I am so ready for the sick season to be over! I guess I should just be thankful that both Kenzie & Lexi were healthy for their 2nd birthday & party :)

{sick}

We made it 1 year and 359 days without a trip to the ER.  When we left the hospital 2 days after the girls were born I prayed that they would be healthy and that we wouldn't have to return to the hospital.  Being there for a birth is a joyous occassion, but any other visit is usually associated with something not so good.  We have been to Children's Hospital twice in the past week, but thankfully all is looking good again.



Kenzie started running a fever last Saturday.  It stayed at around 101, but other than a fever she really exhibited no other symptoms of being sick.  On Sunday she woke up with a 102 fever, she threw up after drinking her milk and just wanted to be held.  After her nap on Sunday is when things got yucky.  She was burning up when she woke up.  We took her temperature and it was 106.6!  What?!  That couldn't possibly be right?  But after taking it 4 times with 2 different thermometers and calibrating it against our own temperatures on those same thermometers, we realized that this was serious.  We immediately gave Kenzie Motrin and Randall rushed out with her to the ER.  I hated not being able to go with them, but the last thing we wanted to do was expose Lexi to a waiting room full of sick kids.  Thankfully Sara was able to come over shortly thereafter - she is our lifesaver - and I was able to join them at the hospital.  We did a lot of waiting.  By the time they saw Kenzie her fever had come down to 102 but her pulse was very high.  We saw 3 different doctors, but ultimately they sent us home with the diagnosis of "it's probably just a virus"...perscribing alternating acetomenaphin and ibuprofen every 3-4 hours until her fever was under control.  Kenzie was such a good patient ...a very patient patient.  Lexi waited up for her sissy with Sara.  She was very concerned about her sister and so excited when they were reunited.

On Monday morning Kenzie woke up with a 105.5 fever and told me that "pee pee hurts."  I could tell that something just wasn't right with her.  I called our pediatrician and they were able to fit her in that afternoon.  When we got to the doctor's office her temperature was 104.8.  Our doctor was much more concerned than the ER doctor's has been.  She said that typically to have a fever that high she would have to have either a urinary tract infection or a blood infection.  She sent us back to children's hospital - this time for a urinalysis and some blood work.  On Monday Kenzie was a very strong-willed patient.  She does not like going to the doctor and she let them know this and fought them with all her might ... each of the doctor's/nurses said, "Wow, she is really strong."  That's our Kenzie - with her super human baby strength :)  While I was at the doctor and hospital with Kenzie, Lexi and Sara had a special outing together to get frozen jogurt and took a trip to the craft store.  Lexi made her sissy a get well bracelet.  Again, she was relieved when her sister was home.  She alternated between being super sweet - giving her sister hugs and drawing pictured on her back, saying "sissy sick, sissy hospital" and being jealous of the attention that Kenzie was getting and begging "Mommy carry me!" 

We started Kenzie on antibiotics on Monday night anticipating that she had a UTI, and sure enough by late Monday we had received the call that preliminary results indicated just that.  Monday night was a rough night and Kenzie ended up in our bed for most of the night, only being able to sleep on my chest - radiating heat.  On Tuesday morning, she seemed even worse than the past 3 days.  She was just miserable.  I hated having to leave her to go to work.  But I was so pleasantly surprised to receive a text from Sara just a few hours later with Kenzie's smiling face.  It is amazing what a difference some antibiotics and a bit of time can make.  She has continued to regain her signature silliness as the week has progressed. 



I am so happy that I have 2 healthy girls who are ready to celebrate their 2nd birthday tomorrow!  Being back at the hospital this week (even though it was not the same hospital where they were born) brought back so many memories from 2 years ago.  I remember driving to the hospital as 2 and leaving as 4.  What an amazing 2 years we have had since then!