Uncle Nate Visits

My little brother Nathan was finally able to come visit us again. I used to only see him on big family holidays, so this is nice getting to see him more often. The girls were not sure about him at first, but they quickly warmed up!

Nate even sat down to look at the fish with the girls while I went to feed the dogs. They had so much fun showing him their fish and Lexi even showed Nathan how the fish say, "Blub, blub, blub!"

Nathan drew a picture for the girls on their MagnaDoodle!

It's the Sanford home and family! :)

Lexi went up to Nathan as she was getting super sleepy and needed to take a nap. She walked right up to him, sort of hugged him, and then burst into tears. It was the "I am so tired!" cry and it was pretty pathetic and sweet. See...

Lilly just looked on as if she wondered what was wrong with her sister.

Uncle Nathan calmed her down...

They had a talk about Bugs Bunny and his eyes, ears, mouth, teeth, etc...

I think she liked his teeth the best...

That is a sleepy face if I ever saw one...

Lilly was more together. Here she is giving me a "cheese" smile while snuggling!

And while we are talking about Lilly, she walks all the time now. Hey Lilly, how much fun is it to walk??

Well I gotta run...Eric and I are going on our big anniversary date tonight!! YEA!!

New Link Buttons

Hey everyone! So, I grew up with 2 very health conscious women in my life...my mother and my grandmother. Both went through breast cancer and as many of you know, that is what killed my mother.

We lived in Austin, Texas, until I was 9 years old. We did most of our grocery shopping at The Whole Foods Market, and I miss that awesome place. I am actually making a fun trip to Austin on Monday to spend some time with my cousin Tyffany and do some shopping for items you just can't get where I live.

I always used to think my grandma and mom might be a bit paranoid. Your mind sure does take a dramatic shift when you have kids of your own. I want to do all that I can to avoid pesticides and harsh and unnecessary chemicals in the products we use in our home. Now, don't get me wrong, I am still going to dye my hair and paint my toenails (I painted them black last week and LOVE it!!)

But I think it is important to limit the amount of crap that I put into my kids world...you know, the world that they still stick in their mouths and suck on. :) How does one go about this? I had no idea...

One day when I was still pregnant, I played around on this website that a good friend had sent me. I was shocked at the chemicals that were in some of the stuff I was using everyday. So I bought a LOT of my babycare items according to the "shopping guides" that I found on this website. I don't think we are perfect over here, but I do feel better about the fact that the shampoo, sunscreen, and diaper ointment I use is not loaded with chemicals and junk.

I was just printing off some shopping guides this morning since I want to get a lot of stuff at Whole Foods next week and saw that they had these buttons for your blog. YEA!!! Now I can share the wealth of information and any of you reading can get the same stuff if you want to. :) I just wanted to share the info in case anyone was interested.

I realize this stuff is usually more expensive, but I will see what I find on Monday and let everyone know if I found some good deals. Have a great day, and enjoy playing with the new buttons!

Baby Sign Language

My girls have been watching us teach them sign language for months and months now. So far they think it's funny to watch us and never seemed to show an interest in doing a sign themselves. We stopped signing "Mommy" and "Daddy" since they vocalize those words so well.

But in the past couple of months the girls have been getting very frustrated with certain things...wanting an item and either not being able to reach it, or not being able to lift it, and wanting more of an item. They are usually wanting more food or more milk in their sippy cups. So lately we have really focused on teaching them to sign "more", "done", and "help".

If they are trying to get a stuffed toy out of a basket and it gets stuck, instead of crying and screaming, hopefully they will learn to sign "Help". We just keep showing them the signs with hopes that they will one day make one back.

Well, I am proud to say that it worked!! Last night at dinner, Lilly started to get upset when she wanted another bite of pasta. It was hard to tell if she was done and just mad, or if she wanted another bite. I asked her if she really wanted more or if she was done. All of the sudden, she signed "More" and accepted the bite from Eric. I was ecstatic!! Then Lexi started doing it! It was awesome. Hopefully they will get the sign for help down soon. I love it that this allows us to alleviate frustrations and still help them with things they need.

The first video is Lexi signing "more". The second video is Lilly signing it. I like how they both have different ways to do it. :) Such smart little girls!

And the firsts keep coming...

Sadly, it had been a while since we had gone to church. We do so love our church too! But with 3 sick, one week at a time, and then a weekend vacation, we just hadn't been in a while. So it occurred to me this past Sunday as I was dressing the girls that this would be their first time at church since they had really been walking everywhere. This could only mean 1 thing...the girls first "graduation" of sorts. They would now be in the ONE YEAR OLD WALKERS class!! That to me is huge. Crazy, I know, but in 9 months they will be in the 2 year olds class and then it's off to kindergarten, high school, and then they are gone. :( Isn't that sad?

So I dressed them up cute, gave lots and lots of tight mommy-hugs, and took pictures of my no-longer-babies-growing-up-too-fast, little girls!

Lilly got tired of walking and plopped down in the hallway after breakfast. Isn't she a doll?!

Here is a smile for Daddy after Lexi walked by and ripped her hairbow out!

Miss Lexi climbed up on the couch to hug her new favorite lamb...

This is now what you get from Lexi when you ask her to say, "Cheese!" Such a big girl!

On Monday, we spent a lot of time playing. Toby is feeling tons better. He has been begging for food and eats about 5-6 times a day right now...YEA!! Lexi took this opportunity to lean in and scare the poor dog to death by giving him a HUGE kiss right on his nose! She was soooooo proud of herself for kissing him. :)

Later that afternoon, Lexi went into her bedroom and closed the door on me..this is a very common occurrence. So, I checked on Lilly again and could hear Lexi giggling in her room. I knew exactly what she was doing (standing on the other side of the door holding the door shut), so I left her alone for about 1 minute. Then she stopped giggling at the door. When I went in to check on her, this is what I saw. Awww!!!

Later that night, we went to the park across the street from our house. It was the girls first time at our park as "walkers". We have been spending our "swing" time at home since it has been so hot. So we put on the pink sneakers, and loaded them into the car. They still LOVE to swing together and still fit in 1 baby swing. :)

Here is Lexi...all smiles and giggles!!

I love the sun shining through the tree!
Miss Lilly smiling for me! She was all smiles too, but was harder to get to look at me. She was very interested in the other Daddy pushing his son next to her. :)

Lilly wanted us to pick her back up...still not sure what to do with the slide. It made her nervous. Lexi didn't care either way...at first!
Lilly loved walking all around. She also liked to hold Eric's hand after falling down on those wood chips so much.
Checking out the wood chips...The first time Lexi put one in her mouth, I took it out and said, "Ewww!!" I told her we couldn't eat those. Then for the rest of the time we were there, if she fell down, she would yell, "Ewwww!!" and dust off her hands.
This is my favorite one of Lexi...
Lilly checking it all out...
Playground, here I come!
When we left, Lexi decided that she LOVED to slide....as long as I held onto her!
It has been a great week so far, and it's only Tuesday! Yea for good weeks! I really needed one!

Sooooo Many Pictures

Since I have taken so many fun pictures over the past few days, I am overwhelmed with what to post on my blog...therefore, enjoy this for the morning!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h64opCwLZCw&feature=fvw

Or here is the video if you just want to listen. It will not show all of the frame though, so you can't read every word. :(

I will post some pics by tonight!! I LOVE this song...and so do the twins!

Compare and Contrast

Some of you may remember these pictures from July 2008. I almost can't fathom them being that tiny anymore. :) Well, they had these adorable little "newborn" sized onesies that were too big for them. Lilly is in the stripes and Lexi is in the hearts....

Lexi used to always snuggle Lilly to her side when they were newborns.

Well, they got the same set of onesies from a friend and they are 18 month size. They are still too big, but super-duper comfortable. Tonight after bath time, we put the girls in the same patterns and tried to take some pictures. First, we laid them side by side and asked them to snuggle with each other. :) Ha ha, ya'll should have seen how that went over...notice Lexi's screams! :)

Then when everyone was in a better mood, Lexi tried to pin Lilly down for a kiss. They ended up cracking up and giggling for a while.