This Girl is a Guest Blogger!!

You guys, I think I am {finally} a legit blogger because I am being featured on another blog!  I know what you're thinking.  How can someone who posts {maybe} once a month make it as a guest blogger somewhere else? Well, I am kind of asking myself that too.  But lo and behold, today you can find me over at Twin Talk Blog where I will be sharing the boys' birth story.  

I never imagined I would be a Birth Story Sharing Kinda Blogger, but if you are at all interested in a little insight into Henry and Parker's big debut, head on over to Twin Talk Blog today.  And if you are a twin mom yourself, FOR SURE add Twin Talk to your blog list because it is an awesome community of twin moms!  Meredith and Amber, both mothers of twins and even from the DFW area, started the blog together as a way to share and collaborate with other moms on ALL THINGS TWINS.  Like if you were/are super googling during your pregnancy about twin births or wondering what the heck your twin baby bump was going to look like at week 32, then this my friend is the place for you. {Sidenote: I do not want to relive what my belly looked like, ahh}  Meredith and Amber, as well as tons of other twin moms {::cough::me::cough} share everything from their favorite baby products, great ideas for what to feed your littles, and even help you find other Twin Mamas in your area for TWIN PLAY DATES.  Can you even imagine?  I guarantee you will want to be BFFs with all the awesome ladies on Twin Talk.

Ok whew.  Twin mom rant over.  Welcome to any new readers who found me from my guest post and DISCLAIMER: I submitted my birth story post to the blog like months ago, for real.  I don't even remember what all I wrote, so I hope I don't cringe when I read it.  But yes, welcome!

That's me and my husband Mark, Parker (on the left) and Henry (on the right).  

When Meredith emailed me to let me know that my story would be on their blog today, she was like OMG I can't believe your girl turned out to be a boy and I was like OMG I can't believe I actually kind of forgot about all that!!  Or at least I don't think of it that often.  These little guys are so a part of our family that I cannot even dream what it would be like if we had a girl in the mix instead.  The picture above is actually from July 4, taken outside our house.  We recreated a picture we took last year on the fourth, which I posted on social media as an announcement about my pregnancy:

Notice anything different?  Yes, last year we had a blue chair and a pink chair.  This year, we replaced that pink with another blue.  It was a truly shocking and fun surprise to hear that nurse say, "oh they're both boys!" right after our little guys were born.  The brother bond Henry and Parker already share is the best thing ever.  And I don't think Henry even notices that his bed is pink....... ;)

In other news, school inservice starts on Monday for me, so tomorrow is actually my last official day of summer vacation and my last day to be home with the boys.  I am sad but also so excited to start a new year and get back into the swing of the school routine.  We are laying low this weekend and hopefully will have a smooth transition back to my Working Mom schedule.  The boys and I have been busy making the most of our freedom these past several weeks by visiting grandparents, hitting up the pool and taking lots of walks before it gets to be 104 degrees outside.  My parents live on a ranch, and Henry got such a kick out of "driving" their mule around their property every morning we were there, to check on the cows!  

Everyone have a good weekend!  And don't forget to follow Twin Talk.  They are also on Instagram here.  If you are a twin mom and blogger too, leave me your link!  I am always looking for others to follow.  And if you don't have a blog, let me know where you are from.  Any Dallas area moms?  I'd love to get together!  Twins or no twins!

xoxo

It’s a Party for Your Arm!

Friends!

Today I am doing my first ever link-up, and it’s a good one too :)  Earlier this summer I signed up for an “Arm Party” over at Much Love Illy (who is also hosting with Yellow Heart Art).  These ladies had a fun virtual chain letter of sorts that matched me up with a partner, and then we sent each other bracelets for a little “party on the arm” action.  I mean, how fun is that?!  I used to love chain letters when I was little, even though it took me eons to write out the letter 12 times and send it to 12 of my friends (hello, life before computers) and then I would have to wait weeks and weeks to get the 124 postcards, or whatever it promised.  This party was way simpler and way cooler!

First off, my partner Melinda blogs at life sans serif and is super cool.  Here’s why:

{pic from Melinda’s blog}

1. She lives in New Hampshire! That is so far away and so much cooler (literally) than Texas!  Melinda, is is 107 degrees over in NH?  I’m thinking not!

2. She has a cute, fun blog over at life sans serif, where she - wait for it - MAKES HER OWN FONTS!  This is probably the coolest thing ever.  And she is oh-so-clever with her Twitter handle, @melisansserif.  Did you see how she did that?  Fonts.. san serif.. melinda.. love it.

3. She put up with me and my missed deadlines for the bracelet swap. Bah! Melinda, I promise that in real life I am the most punctual person ever, but I really missed the boat with this one.  You see, Melinda told me that her favorite summer memories were her times at summer camp, especially archery and the ropes course.  So I scoured etsy one evening and found a very cute pink rope bracelet, that was all braided and funky and just very cool.  So I was like *Yes!* this is perfect for Melinda.  And I ordered it.  Then 10 days later, it still wasn’t here.  So I started to panic, thinking ok it’s got to be here tomorrow... and still, it didn’t come. Anyways, long story short, I didn’t even notice that I ordered from a shop that is in the United Kingdom and I guess the Olympics were slowing down the mail because it was not. making. it. to. me.  So I quickly found a new bracelet, with an arrow on it {archery for the win!} and zipped it over to Melinda, way past the deadline for this link-up.  You can see it over on her blog, here.  I also love this little arrow bracelet because it totally reminds me of Katniss in the Hunger Games.  And Melinda, I’m so sorry it was late!

4. Melinda rocks because she MADE my bracelet!  And got it to me days before the deadline.  Sigh.  What a winner.

She sent me this handmade bracelet, that is made of leather and lace.  She used my favorite colors {purple and blue} and even included my *other* favorite color: neon!  I like how this bracelet is thick and chunky.  It immediately reminded me of those very cool, nautical, rope bracelets that are popular (JCrew used to have some), which I love.

You can see here that it also has some little silver charms, like the A and “dream” token pictured here.  Fun detail!  I like to layer it up with some other leather/blinging bracelets that I have in my collection.

There you have it! And just for the record, I still haven’t gotten my British rope bracelet.  Once it did finally get here, it was sign-on-delivery and I’m never home when the mail comes, so it is sitting at the post office, just waiting for me to come sign for and pick it up.  Which means I would have to actually get to the post office before they close... which hasn’t happened yet!

Whew.  Thanks Melinda, for the fun swap and the awesome bracelet.  I hope to be blogging friends from across the country!  Check out our swap, and all the others, over at much love, illy and Yellow Heart Art today!