New Cooking Blog!

I created a new cooking blog to follow all my cooking adventures. I have collected recipes for YEARS and now I finally want to start cooking them and posting the recipes and pictures to the blog. Enjoy! Here is the blog address: http://mmhotrecipes.blogspot.com

Girls and their Uncle

My little Red headed babies! I find it funny because lately people are JUST noticing they both have Red hair! I've been saying it forever, and I thought it was obvious in all the pictures that they have Red hair, but so many people have said..."Gosh, I didn't realize they had Red hair." But yes, my babies came into this world with Red hair and it has only gotten more red the older they have gotten and the more their hair has filled in! Ava has curly hair, and Ella has straight hair, I love that it is different, but the same color! :)
This is Ella helping out her Uncle Stephen. He likes to stop over and play with the girls. Basically he is the best, there is no other way to say it! The girls absolutely adore him and you can tell her loves them. He comes in and sometimes doesn't even talk to us and just plays with the girls. He is SUCH a big help always coming to help all of his nieces and nephews all the time.
Here is Ava trying to help uncle Stephen build. Looks like she is tearing it down... :)

Cheese! Ava loves to do laps in the kitchen! Thanks to Aunt Talia and Uncle Jeff for the cutie outfits!

Ella Bella Piggy Tails

As you can see I have been able to fit Ella's hair in piggy tails and I'm super excited about it because she has a little Red mullet growing in the back and it desperately needed to be fixed up into something, so my little baby is now a toddler with toddler looking hair... sigh... where has the time gone?

Dress up!

Ella wearing her crown and purse


Ella likes to hold both crowns


Ava with the crown around her neck, both purses and beads! Does she look happy!


Ava likes to pull the crown down over her eyes... classic Ava


Here is my baby Ava with her crown!


Ava checking with me that she isn't in trouble with both purses!


Purse on her arm


Ava standing with her beads on and her crown!


Ella Rae smiling!


Ava making phone calls on her "play" cell phone!


Ava adjusting her crown


My little noodle running away with her purse


Ella with her crown!
Ava smiling


Ava unsure face!


Ella making sure her crown is on!



Ava with her pout face on, Ella had just tried to get one of the purses back!


Ava with her purses and necklace




Ella trotting around with her crown
Ava
Ava juggling her purses

Whats in a name?

Choosing the names of multiples (like every other aspect of being a multiple parent) is just a little more complicated than choosing a name for a singleton. Not only do you have to consider which name you want to hear yourself repeating (in various tones of voice) for the rest of your life, you have to consider how it sounds along with that of their siblings.

This week, we want to hear about your name-choosing process!

How did you choose your multiples' names?

* Did you stick with family names?
* How do you feel about "matchy" names?
* Did you worry about their names "coordinating?"
* Did you name your babies before you met them, or wait until you saw them to assign names?
* What were your second choices?
* Did you consider the popularity of a name as a deciding factor?





Our names:
Ella Rae and Ava Paige, they are not family names, although I wanted family first names but Daniel didn't like those options, I liked Sophie and Amelia, both family names, but they didn't get passed by the hubby! Rae is Ella's middle name and Ray is the name of my Grandpa on my Mom's side. He died when my mom was 19 but I liked the face of using a family name. I don't like matchy names... so I wouldn't have done like Ella and Bella.. haha, but I do like coordinating names, they are twins, so I wanted them to kinda go together has names... as for the rest of my children, I want their names to kinda go together... so I like Leila, Presly, Eden, that kinda thing. I didn't name the girls before I met them. We actually had the names and then waited an hour or so. I thought i had a system of who was who, but it didn't turn out the way I planned, when I saw that baby that look like Daniel (Ava) I knew she had to be an Ava! They both had Red hair, but I at first thought Ava was the redhead.. turns out Ella's hair was more red and still is. So I am glad we saw their faces before we named them. My other choices for names were: Olivia, Lydia... really as soon as they were girls I KNEW one was Ella Rae and Ava was probably the other. I didn't give a crap about the popularity of the names, they were what I liked and even when some people didn't like them I didn't care, I never care, as long as the parents like the name that is all that should ever matter! Just my opinion!

The word "No" is ringing in my ears!

Soooo, when do you teach your kids to say "no?" Because I think I may have made myself a small mistake.. I taught Ava to say, "no,no" to Daniel once when he was doing something I told the girls not to do. We were just kidding around, but NOW, my sweet spunky little red head says "no, no" to EVERYTHING. I've created a monster! Or, I have created myself. I know my Daddy will find this very hilarious, considering I spent my entire life sassing off to my parents! Now, I have a mini sassy pants... and to top it off, Ella started saying it last night when we asked her for a hug.. she said, "no, no" and shook her head no. At least she isn't doing what Ava is... saying, "no, no" while shaking her head no, no and her finger shaking back and forth... ahhh, the word "No" is ringing in my ears!

Party

My Friend Kourtney's son Turner turned One at the end of December and just had his bday party this past weekend. It was fun to see everyone and she did such a great job with the party. It was Very Hungry Caterpillar themed and my girls went as the Beautiful Butterfly! :) Here is a picture of Ava and I... I will try to post one of Ella when I can get my hands on it!

My Chunky Money Girls Vocabulary! 16 months

My little babies vocabularies have just exploded in the past 4 months, it is so fun to watch! They are 16 months now and Ava weighs 23lbs and Ella weighs 21 lbs. Well, that is what they weigh with shoes, coats, sweaters and jeans on! They are smaller girls but I still think they are chunky. Ava is still super bossy, she really thinks she is boss, Ella is very laid back most of the time, but when it comes to wrestling with Ava, she really brings the heat! Ella gets in there and tackles Ava and they will wrestle on the floor for a long time! Daniel and I just sit back and laugh, thinking, "Where did we get these two sillies from?" Ava and Ella have just come a long way with their language lately, they are able to point out a few colors, red and blue, they can point to several objects like ball, and banana, dog, cat, cow if shown pictures. They can say the sounds to cow, cat, dog, duck, sheep when asked. They like to pretend with play food and build with their blocks/leggo type things. They especially love to rock their babies! They can say the words, cookie,steve,papa,nini,mama,dada,ball,pup pup, quack quack, moo, ba ba, meow, woof woof, night night, lights, balloon, ball, up, nose, eyes, head(they can point to all those body parts) milk, juice, all done, more, they love to blow kisses and give eachother hugs. I know there are way more words they can say, but I am drawing my blank! They are just happy little things really developing their personalities and I love them dearly!

This Christmas season we spent it in Michigan with my family. We got to see my brother in Holland and then came back for the actual Christmas Day here in TX and then were able to spend the next few days with my Brother Jeff and his family from Dallas. Unfortunately around this new year we have all caught some sort of bug, so that left us sick on New Years and yet another year I promised myself I'd do something to celebrate and I haven't! I spent it in bed, under covers, sleeping off my virus!

We wish you and your family a happy and healthy New Year, May 2010 bring you lots of blessings!