Halloween Event Number 1 - Trick-or-Treating

This is our second Halloween, and already, MUCH more fun than Halloween Number 1 last year. Halloween Number one consisted of 5 minutes of VERY fast picture taking in 90 degree heat ( big difference this year) in our neighbor's fall vignette they set up in their yard. After that, the kids were done, and that was that. Don't get me wrong, they were the cutest bears you ever did see, but it wasn't all that much fun.

We have had so much fun that we have three Halloween events picture-worthy this year. The first is this post. Then I will do two others as well! How fun is that???

On Friday, the local Moms Group that I belong to had an event where we took all the kids to a local retirement community and lets the kids go down each hall and trick-or treat. It was wonderful!! We were there about an hour, and to see the faces of these sweet older people just made my heart melt. The kids did AWESOME. Honestly, they got the hang of trick-or-treating immediately and ran with it. They have no idea what candy is, but by golly they know they must get as much of it as they can and put in in their orange pumpkin. That's the good part. You can't let Jules part with her pumpkin now, but all she wants to do it pull it out, name the colors of everything, and put it back in. Josh just wants to dump his out and run away.

Jules' costume turned out wonderfully. I just love it. Josh was super cute too, but he hated his ears, so those didn't last long. I just tend to love handmade outfits more, and so therefore, because my effort went into Jules', I'm a little more partial to it :) They were the aboslute cutest in their matching Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse Halloween Costumes!! How cute are twins as Mickey and Minnie Mouse?

**I am an idiot yet again, BTW. I ended up accidentally deleting all these pictures from my memory card before I moved them to my October folder. So, I had to do a data recovery of the card and a lot of pictures were corrupted. I know I still have some good ones, but there were some other cute ones of them trick-or-treating, and lots more of Josh too. They are on my phone pics, so thats good***

Jules as Minnie Mouse in her DIY Tulle Dress. (Tutorial of the Minnie transformation coming soon!)

Sweet Josh as Mickey. (check out his candy stash already!) They both had their noses painted, but his was the only one still visible.

Sitting down counting their candy. Jules is already mad, probably candy-related.

All the kiddos! We had a Carmen Miranda, Cowboy, Star Wars. Thomas and Henry, Mr. Potato Head, Nemo, A Princess, Clifford, and Spiderman!

Note how Josh is now not sitting still running around with the kiddos while Jules is  fully aware there are still camera flashes going off.

Isn't she precious? LOVING this costume!!

Stay tuned for Party #2 pictures!!

Vote for us if you love cute kiddos in costumes!!!



Videos from our first trick or treating experience:

Steppin Out Saturday - UT vs USC

Apologies again for no baby pictures on this week of Stepping Out Saturday. We decided kind of last minutes to make it a one day trip, so Saturday was nuts: getting everything together, driving, dropping off babies, then on to the game. The babes were dressed in their UT finest though, and looked super cute (and you will get lots of the CUTEST pictures from this weekend in another post - or two! I heart Halloween!!)

This weekend we lost (again) and I have decided it is much more fun to tailgate rather than partake in that football nonsense. And, we don't go back until The UT vs Vanderbilt game, which is around Thanksgiving, so you don't have to put up with more tailgate photos for a while. (I will be in NYC next Saturday, then Las Vegas the Saturday after that - no joke!)

And, lemme tell ya - It was FREEZING on Saturday. Sure, it got up to the 50's but it was a night game, and very, very cold.

The menu this week:

Chili in the crock pot with all the fixins' like a Petro (if you don't know what a Petro is, well, that sucks) Its Fritos, cheese, sour cream, jalapenos, green onions, tomatoes, lettuce. You can make it as you wish
Hooter's wings
Key Lime Dip w/ graham sticks
Cheese tray
Veggie tray
Fruit tray
Pork Tenderloin with Sister Schubert Rolls

This is why tailgating is so fun too. This is our view. Our tailgate spot it the top of a parking garage that overlooks the Tennessee River.

The gang! Katie has a cool blog about thrifting and fashion, go check her out.

Mi y Mi Madre

Like I said, ya'll, it was COLD. I hate the winter!!
On Moi: Sweater:Cabi//Jeggings (yes, yes I did): Target//Boots: Nicole//Coat: XOXO//Scarf: China Town in NYC//Headband: gifted//Sunglasses: borrowed

Come on, give us a vote please!!


Linking up with another fabulous Mandy over at Harpers Happenings

Our Favorite Things - 20/21 Months Old

These are our favorite things for 20-21 Months old! (I have completely slacked on these posts and am so sorry! Where has the time gone?)

Activites: Oh my, they are into everything lately. They love laughing. They love dancing. They love singing. They love playing chase and getting "scared". They love playing "beep, beep" when you beep their belly button. They LOVE LOVE being outside and can just run around forever. (and this is new, because they used to have to be constantly entertained). They love going to the playground and can slide so shorter that 2,307 times.  They love animals. They love our cat, Gus (we have another one, but she doesn't come near them lol). They love walking around the neighborhood and looking at all the dogs and occasional squirrel. They love just being active! And I love that they love to run around like little crazy people. They are also constantly climbing on things. Their favorite things to do in our living room: climb on the ottomans, climb in our leather recliner, and climb on our upholstered chair. Seriously. They also love going on outings. They love going  the zoo, and love going to indoor play places, like those that  have a bouncy house, or Gymboree. They love their weekly music class and storytime at the library!  

 

At the zoo looking at the pink flamingos

At the playground!

Books: Their love for books is nothing short of amazing. They really, really love them. And I am proud to take credit for it. There is a collection of books in every room in our home. There is always easy access to a book. Their favorites still consist of Sesame Street and Pooh, but they also like Dr. Seuss and any other very colorful books with words and pictures. I bought a book called Boz Says at Goodwill, and they love it too because the whole book is "Boz says clap your hand, hop, etc" and they love going through the book and mimicking everything. We have recently began learning our ABC's and they are rock stars at this. So, any book that has large letters that they can point out is also #1 right now.

Reading with Daddy

Reading with Grampa

Foods: Foods are pretty much the same. They have been better at eating sandwiches. They like most pastas and anything creamy or cheesy, lol. Josh is really good at eating vegetables, while Jules is not so much, which is still ok, because I try to feed them high fat foods because they are still small, and I still obsess over it. They love avocados still. They have recently become obsessed with juice. I don't offer it very much, hardly ever, and if I do, its low sugar without the Satan Blood high fructose corn syrup (hehe, joking, but I do try to avoid it, lol). They don't like sweets much, and if I offer them any type of chocolate to get a taste, you would think I was offering them gasoline. So, I'm not 100% sure these are indeed my kids.  

 

Songs: "If You're Happy and You Know It" has taken the Number 1 spot at our home in the past couple of months. And the cool thing is that you can sing "If You're Happy and You Know It" with ANYTHING!! You can do it with: going to sleep, sit in your chair, touch your head (or other body parts) eat your food, drink your milk, clap your hands, stomp your feet, do a dance, give mommy and hug (shameless). It is an awesome learning song, and also one to help them mind you! :) We also still love Wheels on the Bus and also the ABC song. We also march around the house in a little Mom and Kids parade to "The Ants Go Marching" just about every night. We also do our parade to "The Alphabet Parade" by Melanie Dill (they love this song too) Arts and Crafts: They are now SUPER into coloring, and have done little arts and crafts projects, and they love them! Coloring Wearing our new construction paper crowns! Toys: They are now into a doll/stuffed animal phase and we take them with us wherever we go. Mickey and Minnie Mouse are Jules' favorites, with Minnie being attached to her at all times. Josh is abig fan of Pooh and Elmo and they both want to take everyone with us when we go on our afternoon wagon ride (and yes, almost daily a neighbor has to come to my door with something we have dropped along the way) They are still really into puzzles. Bubbles and balls are also still a favorite. We have a bit outgrown our riding toys, but they still love them. I think new ones on on our Christmas/Birthday list. Jules is really into "dressing up" and loves bracelets, fairy wings, necklaces, etc. Josh also loves them, but not like Jules does! J.J. with Jules A caravan Hanging out with our pal Minnie Hugging Pooh and Piglet Shows: Yo Gabba Gabba is still up there as their favorite show. They also still love their toddler Baby Genius music videos.  They have also started watching a bit of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, which they like now that Mickey and Minnie are a new obsession. We have been watching Sesame Street some, its still a bit too much talking that they like. I have just quit turning Barney on. That solved that. Other than that, we don't watch a lot of TV. They do like music videos and like to watch people sing. They are still obsessed with The Band Perry, and Taylor Swift. They also really like Blake Shelton for some reason, which is weird. Bath: Bathtime is still our favorite time of the day. They splash, they play, and say their letters and numbers and colors. They wash their hair, THEY brush their teeth (they won't allow you to do it anymore). This is just the most fun age yet!! Don't forget to vote!!

Flashback Friday - Sweet Dreams Books

Yes, I know this is a baby blog. And, yes, I know you are here to see pictures of my sweet, precious babes. But, because its Friday, you know I will do an uber fab Flashback Friday post! And I could have posted a flashback picture of my sweet babes from last Halloween (well, okay, here you go...they are so cute!).

Halloween 2010. They were bears. Super cute ones.

My sister and I were recently reminiscing about these oh so cheesy books from our teenager years called the Sweet Dreams, and it cracked me up so bad that I felt I should dedicate a Flashback Friday post about it, since I have read almost every single one of them in my lifetime. Yes, so let's just go ahead and say this is the most pointless blog post in the history of blog posts.

Sweet Dreams was a teenage young-adult love book series that consisted of over 200+ books. They were written from the 1980's until 1996 I read, which is crazy. It makes me giggle to think back on it because it was so cheesy, but the funny thing is that many celebrities got their start in modeling on the books covers. (such as Courtney Cox Arquette, below)

So, here are some of my favorite Sweet Dreams books. I swear, I LOVED THEM. It honestly seems like yesterday! (How old am I??? Please tell me I'm not the only one who remembers these books!) and again, apologies for this being the stupidest blog post ever. Hopefully it will take you down memory lane, and not make you want to un-follow the blog. *We will be back to baby posts tomorrow :)*

This one was themed around sailing



Hehe! here she is! I think this one was about a debate team



A classic - Love on opposite rival teams. Will school loyalty or love win out?

Probably my favorite one :)

Three cheers for votes!! Come on, please?

DIY Tutu! A Do-It-Yourself No-Sew Tutu Dress!

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I am all about these crafty projects as of late! As you know, I had a really, REALLY hard time trying to decide what the twins were going to be this Halloween. I kept going back and forth between three choices: Dorothy and the Lion, Pooh and Piglet, and Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse.  I am normally not a fan of store bought costumes, because I am naturally a creative person at heart. So when I started googling Minnie Mouse costumes on Etsy and Pinterest, and saw these cute Tutu outfits, I was sold! It didn't look that hard to do, so I thought I would give it a shot. This will be Part 1 of two. Part 1 is how make your own DIY Tutu. Part 2 will be transforming this into Minnie Mouse (but have to wait until after she wears it! It will ruin the surprise!)

This was a VERY easy thing to do. I had to idea how easy and cheap it would be! This is also a no-sew tutu dress, which is good for all those people like me who have a very nice sewing machine, but still haven't quite figured out how to use it, lol. So here we go: a very simple, very cheap, very easy no-sew DIY Tutu Dress

Materials needed:

Tulle: You can buy the rolls of 6in tulle, which will be easier. I always go cheaper, so I bought 8 yds of red tulle at Hobby Lobby for $1.39/yd.
Elastic Roll: Around $2
Scissors
Stuff for Minnie costume: Ribbon and Pompoms and Felt (to be continued)

Step 1: Roll the Tulle up into a tube, making sure there aren't any wrinkles and that its even (saw this on YouTube, and its genius)

Step 2: Measure and cut the roll into 6in sections. It doesn't have to be exact. (Here is where it will just be easier to buy the roll, where its already in 6in sections, but I went for cheap)

Step 3: Measure your child, and see how long you will need each section to be. For Jules, it was 23in from her armpit to the floor (I am doing a dress, if you are doing a skirt, measure from their waist to the floor, or to your preference). Then you double that. So, each strip for me was cut to 6in wide, and 46in long. So, you just need to determine how long you want your tutu to be, then double it!

Step 4: Gawk at the big old pile of tulle in your floor

Step 5: Grab a roll of paper towels. This will be great in helping you make your tutu. I will note here that I decided against using the elastic. I got a great idea to use some old head band wraps that Jules wore some as a baby. You attached bows, etc to them. They stretch, are elastic and red! If you do the elastic, just measure your child around, cut the elastic, and you can tie the ends together.

Step 6: Start your Tutu. Double up the strip so that its 23in long, then loop in underneath your waistband and pull the long strip through. So, just loop it thtough, then pull the remainder down. (kind of like you did with old school jelly bracelets, lol!)

Pulling the long part through

The finished loop will look like this.

Step 7: Just keep going and going and going.


And you're done! The amount of tulle you buy will depend of your preference. I wanted mine very full, so I got 8 yards.

Isn't it pretty??? Next I will add pompoms, a halter, and ribbon!

Vote for us if you like to make easy crafts!

Linking up with Bunny Decor