Steppin Out Saturday - Williamson County Fair

Saturday was yet another first for us! The babes got to ride their first "ride"! We were the southern cliche on Saturday. I haven't attended a county fair since I was probably in the 6th grade. They come every year, of course, but I haven't wanted to brave it since 6th grade, lol. But, now that I have sweet little two year olds, I was SUPER pumped to try it out.

The Williamson County Fair is a big deal around here. It's held in Franklin, and has lots of rides, animal things, and lots of other "fair" type things like funnel cakes and prize games. We stuck to the kiddie stuff, and let me say I was SUPER impressed by how much they could do! I didn't have high hopes since they are still so little, but I have to give the Fair props, it was so much fun. There were about 3-4 rides that were age/size appropriate, which was plenty for them. And the best part was the HUGE exhibit called "Little 1's Farming". I was obsessed with this! The babes got to go through this huge barn and experience all it takes to be a farmer (in a pretend way): feed chickens, milk cows, ride a tractor, fish, grow and pick vegetables, and then sell them to the local farmers market. It was precious! There was also tons of animals for them to see as well.

So, yes, we were the total cliche, but it was uber fun. A fabulous time for sure.

Happy Jules on the "boats" - this was their first experience and they were so excited!

Wearing our little farmers aprons preparing to be a farmer. We have our baskets ready!

Brushing the sheep and gathering wool

"Oooo, I got a fish!! - Thanks Daddy" - Jules

Hanging out in the John Deere tractor. Rite of passage, no?

Seriously, we are the cliche.

Hehe. My little piglet

Playing in the corn.

SOS
On Moi:
Top: boutique in Savannah, TN//Tank: H and M//Necklace: Stella and Dot//Jeans: Vera Wang

Oh my. For those who know me, know what seeing this did to me. I was like a kid at Christmas. I am obsessed with pigs, and actually used to have one for a teeny amount of time. This also reaffirmed my stance on no pork for moi.

On the fish ride!

He is precious, no?

He was giggling the entire time.

Precious girl.

On the airplane ride!

In Other News...

We did it. We got a new house! Excellent size, excellent location. Offer was accepted, and home inspection is done. So, now it's "official". For those that keep up, this has been a long, LONG process. We have been looking since before the babes were born.

We live about a mile from the Williamson County line. While that doesn't mean much to you people, it does around here. When you enter Williamson County, you are also entering some of the best public school systems in the nation. But, you also paid more to live there. So, we have been pretty picky. We have been really picky on location (not wanting to be "too" far out), picky on price, and picky on size. We have put two offers on two houses in the past two years. One we backed out of, and one we were too late on*

*the housing market in Brentwood in Williamson County is NUTS. It's definitely a seller's market. The house we lost we put an offer on it 24 hours after it was listed - and we were still too late. The house we now have we put an offer on it less than 48 hours after it was listed, and it already had other offers. We just won that one. Crazy, I know!! So, that it why it's been such a crazy mess of house hunters over here. It moves TOO fast and you really have to be on top of it. Good houses only last a few days on the market.

Back to our house! It's going to be awesome. We are pretty much gutting it and re-doing most of the inside. It's fun for me, not so much fun for Jake. The babies love it. It's funny, they have been with us each time we looked at the house, which is odd, but kind of cool. They were there when we looked at it, and again when we met with a contractor there, and then again during the home inspection. They are used to the house already and love it. After the third time, Josh had a MELTDOWN in his car seat in our driveway, because he did NOT want to go to the "old house" - he wanted to only got to the "new" house.

Hysterical.

So, a new journey begins for us. It's going to be bitter-sweet, because this was the home we brought the babies home to from the hospital, and this was where they spent almost 3 years of the first of their life. It's where they took their first steps, first crawl, first bath, first food, first birthday party, second birthday party, first two Christmases, everything!! It was a wonderful home for us. When we moved in 7 years ago, I knew which bedroom would be the nursery. It only took us 5 years to fill it up with babes!

I will probably be posting some "house memories" of the babes over the next few weeks. After all, this is their baby book, and I don't want them to forget it!

The new house will be fabulous though. More space, and lots of room for them to run around in and be their crazy selves. A decision will have to be made on if I am ready to separate them into two rooms...(hmmmm, not yet, I don't think, even though they need it - doh!)

Oh, and p.s., if you follow me on Pinterest (@apstribling) - I apologize for flooding your stream with endless home idea pictures, lol.

And, p.p.s. Our house is on the market! Pass it on if you know anyone looking :)

Steppin Out Saturday - Nashville Zoo (yet again) and photo bombs

I know you guys are SHOCKED that we stepped out to the zoo...again. I promise I really haven't been in a while - it's been too hot! However, this Saturday was Ice Day at the zoo, which is supposed be all sorts of fun ice sculptures, activities, visits by Shrek and other characters, etc. So we thought we would check it out since Mimi was in town. Turns out, some of Nashville's finest also wanted to check it out too, so hopefully you will enjoy the photo bombs!

This was all pre-nap. Post nap, we did the usual pool thing at Old Natchez followed by pizza with friends at Nashville Pizza Co. Yum!

After waiting in line for so long, SOMEONE had to get their pic made with Shrek, lol! The babes were having none of it.

However, after some coaxing, Josh volunteered. Although, he looks absolutely petrified, lol.

Photobomb #1 - Girl in Pink is having NONE of Jules. "oooh, girl, you better watch yo step" Jules looks ready to pounce.

This cool cat is waiting on the machine to get done.

So is this precious munchkin.

Yummmmm! And also: eyelashes.

Mimi and the babes! Photobomb #2: WOW. Take a gander to the right. I have no words. This is not a good representation of Nashville, ya'll!! Promise!

Cuties.

P.S. so, apparently it was THIS trip in which my babes could walk around the zoo and didn't want to be "strolled". Who knew they were this old?  This was a good excuse to try out the bamboo as a photo backdrop :)

And seriously? I die.

Photobomb #3:  The ginger photobomb. OMG. Can we talk about her top? How about her middriff? Sandals? All of the above? And the fact she is probably under 8??? What?

Me and the babes looking at the flamingos. On Moi: One of my fave casual easy dresses from H and M. I have had it forever and I love it so very much. Hope you guys had an awesome weekend!

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Linking to Harpers Happenings, The Pleated Poppy, and Monday Mingle

Steppin Out Saturday - SUPER WHY!

Yes, I know this is almost a week late. Sometimes (lots of times) when I take lots of pictures its very intimidating. They all are just sitting in my camera going EDIT ME, EDIT ME!! So, it takes a while to sit down and do it. Anywho...

Saturday was a BIG first for us. We went to our first live show! My Mom sent me the Groupon link to their show in Knoxville at the historic Tennessee Theater. I didn't even know they had a live show, much less that they were coming to Knoxville. So, I decided to buy them and make a little trip out of it. The show was awesome. My babes love Super Why. (For those that don't know about it - its probably one of the most educational shows out there). We had such a good time...almost.

I will take this time to say how freaking $#@$%*( we were at the theater. The show was supposed to start at 3:30. We got in line at 3:15 - outside the theater is 100 degree weather - and did not get in until 4:15. They could not handle the amount of Groupon customers, something that they SHOULD have planned for ahead of time, and did not. There are some thing I can tolerate, but customer service is not one of them. There is just no excuse. We, along with BABIES and TODDLERS were OUTSIDE the theater, in 100 degree weather for an hour. NOT acceptable. The show didn't end up starting until about 10 til 4, but but the time we got through the door we missed 25 minutes of the show, along with others. And we even had VIP tickets!! Jake tried complaining, to no avail. He even called the big manager on Monday and he couldn't have cared less. It's very, very sad. The Tennessee Theater is one of those icons I grew up with that I am so proud of. But we just had a horrible experience there, and the lack of compassion was ridiculous.

Okay, off soap box and back to what is important - babes!

This is such a memorable moment for me, it really sucks the experience was so bad. Boo,



Me and the babes!
On Me: Top: Sweet T Boutique//Jeans: Lauren Conrad//Shoes: Charles David

She's such a cutie. I took more pictures of her than Josh. She was an angel while her brother was possssed by Satan. Understandable, given the heat though.

On Jules: Top: Etsy//Pants: Matilda Jane//Shoes: Stride Rite//Bunny: Home
On Josh: Top: Janie and Jack//Shorts: Masters//Shoes: Tommy Hilfiger
I wish I could get more of them side-by-side. They are were all matchy/matchy and super twinny - so cute!

The Show!

They had such a good time. They did so good. I was worried!

Meeting "Pig" - Notice Jules' face on the left. Adorbs.

Princess Pea. They both got hugs.

Red Riding Hood.

Super Why!!! Jules is trying hard to do her arms like Super Why, lol.

Me and the babes with Princess Pea!

The Tacos

For some reason, when the babies were old enough to sleep with a blanket, we have called them "tacos". If we were smart people, we would have called them burritos, since they are clearly that. (Have you even seen a rolled up taco?)

I digress...Anywho, from the get go, we have referred to blankets as tacos. Such as,

"Are you ready for your taco?" "Do you want your taco?" "Taco time!".

This is referred to the time after baths or after swimming or before bed when the babies get all wrapped up and snuggly in either their bath towel or blankets. It's funny because I'm not sure they even know the word "blanket". They call them tacos, and we do too. It could be our blue taco or pink taco, etc.

Bed Time is "Taco Time!" and they get all wrapped up when they lie in their cribs :)

It's funny and precious, and our little thing we do around here.

Jules is her pink taco (not allowed to think vulgarly thanks)

Polka dot taco!

Steppin Out Saturday - Don't Break the Law

This weekend FLEW by - light at lightening speed. The weather was terrible, which didn't help either. It has rained for the past week. This weekend was another golf tournament for Jake, so he played golf during the days, and I met him on Friday just for a bit at Hillwood Country Club for some drinks and appetizers. Saturday night was the big dinner/dancing party there (he only came in second place, boo!) But he got rained out/delayed several times, so it was just a yucky weekend.

My Saturday was spent ALL DAY at the Williamson County traffic school learning about safe driving. It's as fun as it sounds, I promise. While very informative, I have now learned to not speed :)

Not a lot of pictures from this weekend unfortunately. We did look at a house and put an offer on it this morning (fingers crossed!!) We didn't really do anything fun with the kiddos due to rain and traffic school :( But here is a couple of pics of Jake and I at the party Saturday night.

Sunday I met my girlfriend to finally partake in the yumminess that was Magic Mike :)

Where is my summer going????? Stop time!

Dress: Alatr'd State//Necklace: Danielle Stevens//Cuff: Tory Burch (borrowed from my sis-in-law) :)

Linking up with Harpers Happenings, The Pleated Poppy and Monday Mingle

Raindrops are Falling...

I am a singer, so to speak. Music is a big part of my life, and also my babies'. We sing ALL the time. Our naptime/bedtime routine is two books, one snuggle song (one song while we rock/snuggle) then two songs once they are in their crib. We also sing a lot during the day too, of course. That's being said, I am always teaching them new songs.

Two of our raining songs we sing are "Raindrops keep falling on my head" and "It's raining it's pouring, the old man is snoring". They love them, and especially love to sing them when it's raining. (They also love to sing "Raindrops keep falling on my head" at bedtime because they get head tickles too)

They love the rain. They love jumping in puddles and love singing their rain songs and love, LOVE umbrellas, especially Josh. Don't really know what that's about but he is obsessed with umbrellas.

This week, since it's been raining so much we have had to get out my umbrella to use. And, for those that have toddler twins, I have been pretty perplexed on how to deal with toddlers, my purse, an umbrella, etc while raining.

Do I leave one toddler in the car while I carry the other one while holding the umbrella? Can't really do that unless we are at home only. Do I hold one and let the other one walk? Then who holds the umbrella? We are still all getting wet in this scenario. (I realize you normal moms probably don't think about stuff like this, but I do!) So, I do the only reasonable thing I can think of: Teach the babies to hold the umbrella TOGETHER, while I sacrifice myself to the rain.

Worth it, don't you think?