Motherhood – Page 5

Taco Twosday- Camden and Ella’s 2nd Birthday

Camden and Ella turned 2 this week!!! How is that even possible?

Doesn’t it seem like they were just born?

Or just turned one? You can read about their 1st Birthday here.

We had a small party for them and their 3 grandparents came all the way to SC to celebrate for a few days. It was perfect! I know the kiddos were so happy and felt so loved! The theme was Taco Twosday.

Here are some pictures from the party.

Invite is from Rainy Lain Designs.

Balloon banner is from Cactus Fiesta.

Table runner is from Fantasy Fabric Designs.

Succulent Tea Light Candles are from Fabulous Little Party.

I bought the vegetable cans off eBay.

Piñatas are from Target.

Balloons are from Cactus Fiesta. I made the fringe backdrop, instructions are below.

I made this backdrop using four poster boards, tissue paper, and tape. The first step is taping the poster boards together. Make sure all your tissue paper is the same size, then fold in half lengthwise. To make the fringe, cut a straight line up the tissue paper starting on the end that isn’t folded. Leave two inches uncut at the top and cut in one-inch sections along the length of your tissue paper. Tape the fringe to the poster board starting at the bottom of the poster boards. Keep adding layers until the poster board is covered. Easy peasy!

We had a lot of fun with the backdrop!

This is a tradition we started last year and continued…celebrating another year as twin parents!

The original four…

How cute are they? Their shirts and Judd’s shirt are from Printing 4 Fun.

How cute are these little candle favors from Fabulous Little Party?

I made these little tacos using taco shells and colored packing paper.

Runner is from Fantasy Fabric Designs and cans are from eBay!

I love when all of my ideas come together!

Dos cupcake toppers and food tent cards are from Bells n Berries. How cute are those?

The cactus juice is green Hawaiian Punch, pineapple juice, and ginger ale.

Cupcake toppers from Bells n Berries.

And for our taco bar…

Food card tents are are from Bells n Berries.

Yay for a wonderful fiesta for our two dos year olds!!

Now more about the rest of their long birthday weekend…The night before their birthday, we did a photo session and we told them all about how much they were wanted.

The next morning, Lovey and Grumps arrived. We woke Camden and Ella up with balloons and streamers hanging from their door. They were SO happy! Ella even kept saying “I happy”, over and over!

They had birthday pancakes for breakfast!

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out at home.

My dad and Judd worked on their new playground which was a birthday gift from Lovey and Grumps.

Later, Pappy (Judd’s dad) arrived! Camden and Ella were over the moon to have everyone here!

The next few days were spent celebrating, playing inside with their new toys…

Playing outside on their new playground…

Eating and eating…

And just being together…we wish it was their birthday every day!

Happy 2^ndBirthday, Camden and Ella! We love you SOOOOOO much!

2018 in Review

I decided I should do a year in review post, this will be fun to look back on! Honestly, I wish I had one for every year. 2018 was a great and busy year! Lets take a look…

January

Judd got offered an amazing job in Charleston which he accepted!

We decided we wanted to build a house so we flew down to Charleston to interview builders, pick a lot, and design our home!

February

Camden and Ella turned 1! We had the cutest little party for them, you can read about that here.

March

This wasn’t my favorite month. It was super gloomy where we were living and we had to say goodbye to Grandma Burns. We miss her so much!

April

We took our first vacation as a family of four (unless our babymoon to Hawaii counts lol). We went to a waterpark in Canada and had the best time. You can read more about that here.

May

We put our first home on the market and it sold within 48 hours! We LOVED this house!

We went to PA to visit Judd’s family! We had the best time!

June

I turned 30 and Judd turned 31. We celebrated by renting a huge house in Florida with my parents. You can read about that here.

We also went to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, it was amazing! You can read about that here.

July

This was a crazy busy month! We wanted to see all of our friends and family prior to moving.

We had a lot of friends come visit and stay with us!

We went to a Dragon’s Game and spent time with family.

We played with Camden and Ella’s cousins! It makes me pretty sad these four won’t be raised in the same town.

We moved to Charleston! Our house wasn’t complete so we stayed in a 2 bedroom furnished rental until it was done. The apartment was nice but the lack of space was driving us crazy!

August

We spent a lot of time exploring our new city!

We took weekend trips to Hilton Head and Savannah.

At the very end of August, we moved into our new home!

September

This month was spent getting settled, decorating, and going swimming A LOT! We have a pool in our neighborhood which is so much fun!

We also went through our first hurricane. Thankfully, it hardly hit us but we were pretty terrified.

October

I celebrated one year as being a SAHM! Best decision I ever made, you can read about my first year here.

We had family pictures taken on the beach!

We celebrated Halloween. My mom made their adorable costumes!

November

This month was insanely busy!

We took a vacation on the biggest cruise ship in the world! You can read about that here. Thanks again to Royal Caribbean for this amazing opportunity!

London completed a 3 week dog training program! She did amazing and we are so proud of her new manners!

We went to Disney World. You can read about that here.

We celebrated Thanksgiving!

December

We had a lot of visitors come to SC to celebrate Christmas with us!

2018 was an exciting year but I have a feeling 2019 will be even better! Wishing you all a wonderful New Year! Thanks for following along!

Holidays 2018

Does anyone else feel like October-December just flies by? I swear we were just planning their Halloween costumes and now were putting away Christmas decorations! sigh. Sorry for the long post, next year I’m going to do better at blogging on a regular basis! 🙂

Just thought I’d share some pictures from Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!

Camden and Ella were Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm this year for Halloween! How cute are they?

For Thanksgiving, we stayed home but thankfully my parents were able to come stay with us.

We went and saw Santa…I thought it was going to be craziness but the kids did fabulous!

We went shopping downtown! It was so cool that we could shop outside in the middle of winter! #IloveCharelston

We spent a lot of time in our Christmas pajamas because why not?

We ate a bunch of cookies and decided which kind to leave out for Santa.

The week before Christmas, Pappy (Judd’s dad) came and stayed with us! We had a great time celebrating Christmas with him and showing him our new city.

After Pappy left, my parents came to celebrate with us. We celebrated Christmas a day late because Judd had to work. I was worried it would feel weird but it didn’t!

My mom made Italian for Christmas Eve (our tradition) and we opened stockings.

We read Christmas books…

And we looked for Santa… 😉

The next morning we opened presents! It was so fun seeing the kiddos so excited!

My dad (Camden and Ella call him Grumps) made his annual Christmas breakfast- donuts!

We went to the beach in the afternoon and then had seafood for dinner!

We spent the evening and the following days hanging out at home!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas!! We miss our family and friends back in the midwest, we hope to see you all this summer! Thanks for following our family blog! <3

Winter Favorites 2018

A few months ago, I shared my Fall Favorites and today I’m sharing my Winter Favorites! I’m sharing a bunch of randomness from Christmas items to a new dress to my favorite mascara… 🙂

Lazy One Matching Pajamas– I am going to always be that mom that gets the family matching Christmas pajamas every year! #sorrynotsorry This year we got our pajamas from LazyOne and plan to get them from here again in the future. The designs are so fun and they are super comfortable.
Personalized Children’s Books from Hooray Heroes- Reading to Camden and Ella is one of my most favorite things. I found these personalized children’s books that are perfect! My kids love these and they have several stories in each book so I don’t get tired of reading the same stories over and over.
Picasso Tiles– I thought this looked like a fun and educational toy for my kiddos but I was worried it might be a little too young for them. I was wrong, they LOVE It at 20 months. Ella loves building tall towers and Camden loves making designs and looking through the pieces at all the different colors. Actually, my husband and my dad played with these for over a hour when they arrived at our house. It’s one of those toys that I think our kids will play with for years and years!
Upright Go– I’ve never had the best posture, I blame being a competitive swimmer, it’s always been something that I’ve worked on but I noticed my back has been hurting a lot lately from picking up and carrying my kiddos so I decided to try this little device and its done wonders! It lets me know when I’m not standing in a good position and also tracks everything on my phone.
Dress with Sleeves– I wore this for our family pictures and my Instagram messages exploded asking where this was from!It’s from Amazon! I love the way it looks and it is so comfortable! I’m wearing a small.
Self Tan Purity Bronzing Water Mousse– I naturally have fair skin but I also tan very easily. During winter, I always feel pale so I put on this self-tanner about once a week and it does wonders. This is the first self-tanner I have found that goes on smoothly, doesn’t smell, and best of all it doesn’t turn your sheets brown, it’s clear! Amazon doesn’t carry it yet so I buy it at Ulta.
Thread Tank Pineapple Shirt– I’m all about comfortable t-shirts, I wear these almost daily at home. A lot of my shirts are from Thread Tank including this one because they are cute and super comfortable. Being a part of the #ttcsisterhood for years, I grew to love pineapples and this shirt makes me think of all the friends I made during my journey to motherhood.
Better Than Sex Mascara– My mom got me hooked on this mascara! It’s dark and thick and makes your eyelashes really pop. 🙂
Wood Wall Art Sign– I have been asked a million times where this is from so I thought I’d share! It’s one of my favorite things in our home.
Ring Doorbell– We got this for our house and I have to admit at first, I was a little skeptical. We use this daily to see who is at our door before I answer it and we can also see who was at our door when we aren’t home. We absolutely love this and it’s worth every penny!

Top 10 Things to Do in Charleston with Toddlers

Y’all, I am so blessed to call Charleston home, not only is it absolutely beautiful but there is so much to do! Now that we’ve finally gotten settled in our new home, we’ve had a lot of time to explore Charleston with our kiddos! I decided to share the Top 10 Things to Do in Charleston with Toddlers! Whether you live in Charleston or are coming for vacation, there is a lot to do in this city with toddlers! Here are my Top 10…

South Carolina Aquarium– We had the best day spent here! The South Carolina Aquarium is beautiful and has a ton of exhibits for all ages. Camden and Ella loved looking at all the “fishies”. They even have several areas where you can touch the stingrays and starfish. We went behind the scenes and learned about how they manage the day to day operations, it was absolutely incredible how they take care of everything. The staff was so kind, patient, and informative. I can’t say enough good things.
Rolly Pollies of Summerville– This place is SO fun! We’ve been here twice so far and participated in the Bumblebees and Butterflies combo class and loved it! The class consists of singing, dancing, climbing, and gymnastics. The staff was so patient with all of the kids and every kid that I saw loved it! Not only is this place great for kids, it’s great for parents to get out of the house and interact with other parents! They also have open gym time, a preschool, parent’s night out, and many other special events. We will be signing our kiddos up for more classes in the future.
Outslide In– This is a new AMAZING 7,000 square foot indoor play place in the Citadel Mall. Camden and Ella had an absolute blast here! They even cried when we had to leave. They designed this place perfectly, it features a giant play structure with 4 slides, 3 party rooms, a toddler area, and a mini city for imagination play! They even have a cafe with WIFI and lounge that serves coffee, snacks, beer, and wine. My kids loved every part. Trust me, your kids will LOVE this place! I have to mention how clean it was! I was amazed. I usually cringe at play places but it was SPOTLESS! I can’t wait to go back.
Magnolia Plantation and Gardens– Talk about one of the prettiest places, I’ve ever seen! We took the kids in their stroller and walked around for a few hours. We all loved it, there is so much to see. We took the Rice Field Boat Tour and saw a bunch of HUGE alligators, did the self-guided tour around the Swamp Garden- talk about beautiful, and just walked around the rest of the plantation. This is definitely a place we will be taking our family to when they visit.
Palmetto Carriage Ride– We took a carriage ride in downtown Charleston one evening and then got dinner afterwards, talk about the perfect evening! The carriage ride was so fun. Camden and Ella were completely entertained by the horses and looking at everything from the carriage and Judd and I got an informative and entertaining tour of Charleston. We will be encouraging all of our family and friends who visit to take a carriage ride, it was so fun for all ages!
Isle of Palms County Park– Both Camden and Ella LOVE the beach and this beach is very child friendly. They have parking, playground, bathrooms, food/drinks, and even a playground. Depending on the time of the year, you can also rent umbrellas and chairs. Plus, can’t ever go wrong with the beach, right?
Explore Downtown Charleston– This is MY FAVORITE thing to do in Charleston. I could walk the streets of Charleston for hours and hours. There are markets, shops, restaurants, parks, beautiful houses, paths along the water… you name it, we have it! We love to drive here to just walk around all the beautiful streets, shop, as well as eat seafood! Camden and Ella specifically love Waterfront Park, there is so much to see and there is a fountain they love to play at and there are also swings in the park. You can’t go wrong with visiting downtown Charleston!
Folly Beach County Park– This is probably my favorite beach in Charleston! It’s beautiful and has such a fun vibe. We park at the park because there are bathrooms but parking is easy to find up and down the beach. There are also umbrellas and chairs to rent depending on the season.
Historic Downtown Summerville– I love that I can call Summerville our home, it has such personality! The downtown is the absolute cutest! We love taking the kiddos “downtown” to walk around, visit the market on Saturday morning, or try a new place to eat.
Gahagan Park’s Plantation Playground– Talk about a fun playground for all ages in Summerville! There is so much to do and a lot of the park is in the shade- score! There are also tons of places to sit and they have restrooms right there.

As you can tell, I love Charleston and moving here was one of the best decisions Judd and I have ever made!

Follow me on Instagram to see more of our Charleston adventures, @mytwinmomadventures

1 Year as a Stay-At-Home Mom

It’s officially been one year since I became a stay-at-home mom (SAHM)! I feel like I just blinked and an entire year has passed! This has me feeling ALL THE FEELS! Today, I’m answering a few questions that I often get asked, sharing a short review of the past year, and sharing a few random thoughts/opinions from other stay-at-home friends.

What is the hardest part? I became a stay at home because I wanted to spend more time with our kids and I didn’t want to miss any more special moments. But… I was naïve and honestly thought my life would become drastically easier, I was in for a rude awakening. I had a stressful job but being at home all day chasing two toddlers around is way more exhausting than work ever was. There has been so many times that I thought “what I would give to be at work right now.” My husband jokes when the kids are being a handful that he can’t wait to head into work to get a “break”. What we mean by “getting a break” is when you have twin toddlers, it’s nonstop. Working isn’t technically a “break” but it’s a change in pace, it’s a change in scenery. When you’re a stay at home mom, you don’t ever really get a change in scenery, you’re always with your kids and you never have any me time. At work, I at least had time by myself and time to not be focusing on my kiddos.
How do you afford to stay home? My husband and I have always lived off of one income even when we were both working full time. We made the decision while we were engaged that one of our incomes would just go straight into savings for the future. When we decided that it was best that I stay at home while the kids were young, we just said goodbye to less money going into our savings. A big thing for me is I didn’t want our family to make any sacrifices financially for me not working… if we had to cut out anything in our life or change our lifestyle in any way then I would or will go back to work.
What’s the best part of being a stay-at-home mom? Not waking up at 5 am anymore… just kidding! The best part by far is spending my days with Camden and Ella! I am so grateful for this extra time I get with them. I will never take being a stay at home mom for granted!

This picture was my last day of work (even though technically I’m employed until January 2019, my wonderful work approved a leave of absence for a year in case I change my mind), it was so exciting to come home and realize I could spend 100% of my days focused on my little family. Can you tell how happy I was? This will forever be one of my favorite pictures because I was filled with joy and so excited for the future.

Soon after, we celebrated the kiddos first holidays…

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Christmas

Judd got an amazing job offer in Charleston and we started building our dream home.

We played, played, and played.

Camden and Ella turned 1 and we had the cutest little birthday party for them! You can read more about this here.

They were both teething hard around their birthday! 🙁

We were so proud of surviving the first year as twin parents!

We took our first international vacation as a family of 4 to Canada.

We played hard…

They kept growing and growing.

We went on vacation to Florida. You can read about that here.

We stayed very busy playing at home, visiting family, and going places…

We sold our first home and moved to SC!

We couldn’t be happier in Charleston! Our days are spent at the beach or at our new home…

The area we moved to is a kid (and SAHM) dreamland. We live in a master planned community… the neighborhoods all have pools, playgrounds, ponds, and bike trails connecting everything that we have access to. When the kids are older, we will get to ride our bikes (or a golf cart) to school every day! SO fun, right?

I am so excited to see what the next year brings us.

As you can tell, I love being a SAHM. I won’t do this for forever but for now it’s perfect for me and it’s perfect for our family! I am going to continue to soak up every minute with my two miracles…

I asked my Instagram SAHM friends if they had anything they’d like to share for this post. Here are some of their thoughts:

“It’s the best job in the world!”
“If you can somehow swing it financially, do it! You won’t regret it.”
“It’s not all glamorous! Somedays I am so happy and somedays I cry.”
“It can be lonely. I miss interacting with people.”
“Your kids are only little once. When days are tough, I remind myself that someday I won’t be at home with them. That puts everything in perspective.”
“I am a SAHM. That doesn’t mean I am uneducated, I have a PhD. That doesn’t mean I am lazy, I don’t get lunch breaks. I chose to be this and I’m proud!”
“I used to worry about my career potential being wasted but then I realized, the workforce will always be there. My son won’t always be young.”
“It’s the best and the hardest job in the world.”
“It’s best for our family that I stay a home. I miss my job but my daughters need me.”
“You can’t forget about self-care, as a SAHM we usually get put on the backburner.”
“Oh my, there is no down time, no lunch. I feel like my days fly by.”
“THIS IS NOT A VACATION!”
“I worry everyday if I’m doing enough but when I see how well my kids are doing, I know I’m doing plenty.”
“The days go SOOOO damn fast and the years even faster.”
“Even though we want to be home with our children, it doesn’t mean we don’t need a break too. Sometimes we want a break and need one.”

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