I scheduled the kids to get some portraits taken today at the mall. I'll skip to the end and tell you that we did get some really great pictures- and it's a good thing we did because if I had nothing to show for this nightmare-of-a-morning, it might have gotten ugly. Todd and I got up with them kids around 8, got them dressed in their super cute, coordinating outfits, and gave them a light breakfast. All was going smoothly until Benjamin caught sight of the other shirt I was bringing for him to change into: his favorite new orange shirt (the child is addicted to all things orange). He immediately demanded the orange shirt, and when I did not comply he proceeded to throw a 20 minute meltdown, which is always convenient when you are trying to get out the door.

I didn't want to give in. I didn't want to let him think that throwing a tantrum is the way to get what you want. But I was starting to fear that he was crying so hard he would throw up, and I didn't want that. I let him change his shirt, thinking I could try to get him to switch back once we got there. We go out into the garage to get the kids in their seats- and lo and behold, there is a seat missing that Todd took out a few days ago when he was planning on picking up some mulch with the van, but forgot to put back. At this point, we are running just on time. I didn't plan for this type of mishap- the kids are in their carseats (except Ben, who was exploring the garage), and the potty-clock is ticking. They are newly potty trained so we need to get them on a potty every hour or so, and it takes 30 minutes to get to the mall.

Of course, the carseat doesn't want to go in correctly. It was way too loose, and we were having a heck of a time getting it tight. We took turns trying to get it clicked in correctly, both sweating profusely while the kids are getting antsy, they are more than ready to go "bye-bye". Finally, about 20 minutes later, we finally got it in and hit the road. I call the portrait place and say we are running late. They say no problem. Phew.

We arrive at the mall, and as we are pulling into the parking lot, Lily starts throwing up. At first just a little... then, her entire breakfast. (*gag*) It came out of nowhere- she was fine all morning, no temperature, so I am thinking she was just carsick. We quickly pull into a spot, get her out and strip her down. She was a little trooper and barely cried, she just wanted us to clean her off! We got her cleaned up, did our best to forget about the fact that her pukey carseat was going to fester in the heat of the van for an hour or two, and headed inside. My fantasy of coordinating outfits is a thing of the past.

We get inside, and luckily the photographers are very understanding. There's a mom of newborn twins in the waiting area, taking in the scene as my crazy toddlers explored their new surroundings. We were taken back to a shooting area, which was luckily right next to the bathroom, so we were able to take all three kids the potty- no accidents. Twin mom is situated next to us. They are doing all those cute little newborn poses, all swaddled up in crocheted blankets. Next door, my kids are chasing each other around the back of the white screen and refusing to stand still for more than .6 seconds. Todd and I were doing our best to make them stop and smile, but it really wasn't working. Thankfully, our photographer was amazingly patient, and kept shooting even when I was more than ready to throw in the towel. We couldn't get all three kids to sit down next to each other at all, much less smile. I thought we got a few cute individual shots, but I was too busy trying to keep my kids from running away to really know how it was going. They just love to run off.. it's really quite frustrating. Twin mom and dad are now laughing at us in the booth next to us. I am "that mom" and say to them... just you wait, with a grin.

Ben provided us a little comic relief, albeit at the expense of our extremely patient photographer when he ran up behind her while she was bending over to take a photo, and stuck his finger down her butt crack. Awesome. All I could do was laugh and apologize. The kids is a fan of any type of cleavage. By the time we were done, the adults were all sweating, the kids were tired and hungry, and I had no idea if we even had any good shots. We decided to go get lunch in the food court while the pictures were processed.

We went to Johnny Rockets, and wolfed down some sandwiches while trying to keep the kids from rolling around on the floor. I have figured out that sitting in a booth is the best way to do it they can't escape as easily. Back to the portrait place, and the pictures are *almost* ready. But the kiddos are getting antsy.. we wait just long enough to see them, but realize we can't possibly make a decision as to which ones we want while the kids are with us. We have an appointment at 2, so we have to get going and decide to come back later after our appointment.

Get home, drop off the kids with Ploy.

Go to appointment. Grab dinner while we have a little free time.

Pick up photos. We only got one decent shot of them together, but got some great individuals.

Home for bath and bedtime.

Exhausted!!

Family, I have some great photos of the kids coming your way soon. I would love to have posted them here but I didn't get digital images, and my scanner isn't working.

So there you have it.

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Meet Spidergirl and her brothers, The No-Pants boys. I swear, ever since potty training, I cannot keep pants on these kids. And isn't it awesome how Lily can scale the oven door like that? (Thank you, oven lock!)

I don't have a lot of excitement to report at the moment, but I do have a few cute pictures that I took with my new camera. Yes, I broke down and got one. Nothing fancy, just a Nikon Coolpix. It's tiny and has a rechargeable battery. Score.

Takes good action photos:

I am working like crazy getting my prizes organized for the Blog For A Cure Blog Party. Things are looking great so far. I just hope it all comes together and we can raise a ton of money for the LLS! If you want to participate, please grab the button on the right sidebar and post it on your blog to help spread the word- and thanks to those who already have!

Want a sneak peek at some of the awesome prizes I have to give away? Check back tomorrow:) But I will say, I have over $1,500.00 worth of prizes to give away right now!

Please click this button and help me get back into the Top 25 on Top Baby blogs! This will help me get more traffic, and more participation on the blog party!

Cheryl at Twinfatuation hosts a weekly blog carnival known as Makes My Monday, where participants are asked to post something positive, something that "Makes" their Monday.

I had a good one this week:

There's just something about the wholesome fun of macaroni jewelry that makes me smile. I have been dying to do this project with the kids for a while! We used painted ziti and pipe cleaners and it worked like a charm. Lily insisted on wearing every single necklace and bracelet all day for the rest of the day.

And here is something else that makes my Monday- a conversation with Lily before bed tonight:

I still have no idea why all of a sudden she has decided to call me "mama" instead of mommy. I am going to have to start calling her "Lily May". It's still pretty darn cute though, so I don't mind too much.

Oh, the excitement of Green Meadows Farm! I took the kiddos there the other day, and they had so much fun! Green Meadows is a place where the kids can actually touch and hold all the animals, and they even have pony rides, hayrides and a train ride! I think I love that place more than the kids do, actually. But they really had fun too, despite the fact that it was extremely hot (of course, I live in Florida, so when am I going to get used to that? Oh, that's right, never.) and despite the fact that we spent a good chunk of our time there in the restroom. Which was surprisingly clean for a farm.

They actually allow the kids to hold a baby chick, and a baby duck! Lily wanted to hold them so bad but she was a little rough.. She did give her duck a kiss though. It was so cute that I didn't even worry about the duck germs. (Yet.)

Does it get any sweeter than this?

Cameron is very gently with animals...

And, the pony ride! It was all too short, though. Cameron got to ride 'Applejack'! Unfortunately he was the only one I got a picture of on the pony ride. Lily happily took off on a pony with an attendant since we had more kids than adults, and I swear she didn't even look back. So if you want to kidnap my daughter, just bring a pony..otherwise you are screwed.

I was a little nervous that Cameron was going to be nervous- but nope, he loved it too!

They got to chase some goats and ducks around in the pen...

This place is full of old tractors and fire trucks that the kids can climb on and play in.. they were in heaven!

And, then, there was the duck pen. I really should have known it was all going too smoothly. They actually encourage you to try to catch the ducks and pet them (poor things), and Lily was happy to participate. My friend A had Ben (aka "the easy kid"), and I was trying to keep track of Lily and Cameron, but it was in an enclosed pen so I let Lily run free of me.. big mistake. The video below is not that exciting, other than I actually caught a flash of what ended up being a major wipeout, without realizing it. I was focusing on Cameron at the time and I heard another guy go "Ohhh!" (As in, "oh! that's gotta suck!") When I heard it I just knew it had to be in reference to one of my kids.. Lily had slipped and fallen in the "wet" area of the pen.. it was mostly dry in there but she managed to find the slippery spot.When she stood up, she looked like she tried to steal second base; her legs and butt were just covered in... what I am going to say was mud. But it wasn't.

Off to the restrooms, where I proceeded to give her a lower-body bath in the ladies room sink while my poor friend was trying to entertain the boys outside. It was a good chance to get them all to use the potty, (which they did, quite successfully), but we ended up missing the hayride portion of our tour which made me a little sad. Not that I like hay, or riding in the backs of trucks, but I know the kids would have loved that. Ah well, next time.

Here's a video, you can see Lily running around... about 3 seconds from the end, you see her head kind of disappear behind the lady we were talking to- that was the duck mud wipeout.

I had been promising the kids ice cream for days- they are obsessed with it. At dinner, I'll ask Ben to take a bite of his dinner, and he'll look at me with his palms up and say "How 'bout ice cream?" Sigh.

I am glad I have cell phone pictures to look back on, otherwise I would have no idea what we did this week. It's all been a little bit of a blur.

I know there was some lizard catching going on the other night, which creeps me out, but really shouldn't because I used to do my fair share as a child. I came home from work and daddy was in the backyard, catching lizards and giving them to the kids to hold. The kids were actually somewhat gentle, and I am happy to say that no lizards were injured in the process. I did have to tell Lily that the lizard needed to go find his mommy and take a bath in order to get her to let him go.

Did you know if you stroke their bellies, they get paralyzed? It's true, I saw it on Letterman's stupid pet tricks.. Anyway, here's Cameron testing the theory:

We also did some swimming the other day.. the kids just love the water. We opened the door to the pool deck, and Lily and Cameron walked right up to the edge of the pool, where Lily decided to give Cameron a nice firm shove right into the pool. Luckily, he had his swimmies on and I snatched him right out, but seriously... I don't know what I am going to do with her.

And luckily, he's forgiving. We did have a little episode where Cameron wanted to jump into the pool, and dove headfirst, directly into my head, in the deep end. I seriously thought I was going to have a giant black eye because his forehead hit me right on my browbone. I saw stars, said a bad word, teared up, the whole nine. But just a little red mark on both of us, and he was back swimming again 60 seconds later.

The kid has no fear.

How cool is this graphic that my friend Christi came up with for me? (If you have any graphic design needs, check out her business, Step Up Design!) I am working on getting a 125 x 125 button ready so that you guys can grab it and help me spread the word!

Anywho, I have procured about 20 really great prizes so far to give away for this year's Blog For A Cure blog party that I am hosting on my review blog. In case you haven't been by in a while, I am participating in Team In Training, and raising money to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The Blog For A Cure blog party will be an opportunity for bloggers to make connections, gain new readers, win some really cool prizes, and support an amazing charity. An entry into each prize giveaway will be given to each donor that donated at least one dollar to my fundraiser, and comments on the giveaway post, and each additional dollar donated will earn another entry. Last year I raised about 1,000 dollars with this event, and this year, I want to top that!

Donations can be made via PayPal, or directly to my Fundraising page- (directly to the fundraising page is preferable, as it avoids PayPal fees).

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We have been playdatin' it up lately, which is nice. Today we hung out with the Netheros, it was nice to see the kids interacting and having fun together.. Lily and Jill dancing with "Hokey Pokey" Elmo was priceless:

But the highlight by far, was the moment when Amanda and I were sitting on the floor of the playroom, chatting while the kids wandered from room to room, playing..

I started to wonder what Cameron was up to because I hadn't seen him for a minute or two.. when this fleshtone/pink streak sprinted by me, yelling "Ta DAA!"

Yup, that's my boy.

Stripped down naked, except for his sister's dress-up tutu.

He proceeded to show me his plie:

Maybe it's time for me to look for some dress up clothes that don't involve dresses.

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So, I just got home from my first official day of training with Team In Training. Last year when I participated in this program, I wasn't able to make any of the training sessions because I didn't have childcare, and Todd works every single Saturday, so I always had the kids. I managed to get this Saturday off so that I could go today and I hope to be able to attend as many trainings as possible. Even though I don't know anybody yet, it is still good to go and be a part of the group. I had to get up at 6 (s-i-x) this morning, and I was still a little late because my GPS is only slightly better at directions than I am, and the park was a good 45 minutes from my house. (Can I tell you how many times my GPS has gotten me lost? It's ridiculous.)

We ran for 30 minutes, stretched, and then most of the group went on to a shoe clinic at the local running store. I just got new running shoes, so I skipped that part and hit the road. As far as the workout.. yeah, I am not in good shape right now. Perhaps it is because I haven't really run since... well, let's not talk about that. It's ok though because there are people of all levels involved in TNT so I am not alone, and I have plenty of time to train. Last year I walked a good portion of the helf-marathon, so this year my goal is to run the entire thing. I don't care how fast or slow I go, as long as I keep running.

As far as fundraising, I am doing pretty well with procuring prizes for my Blog For A Cure fundraiser, which will be Sept 13th-17th. I have some really cool stuff to give away so farm and getting new prizes every day!

We had our friends, C & J over yesterday for a playdate. They are six months older than our kids, and the sweetest little guys. It took a good hour before our kids actually played together, but once they did it was hysterical. Lily was chasing J around the house, giggling the whole time, and Ben was hanging on to the back of the tricycle, dragging himself along the ground as C pedaled. It was quite humorous.

On the potty-training front... eh, we're doing ok I guess. Lily still won't go #2 on the potty, but she is great with peeing. I am not sure if I should put her back in a diaper between 11-2, which is when she usually has an accident, or just keep letting her have accidents until she learns to go on the potty. I try to sit her on the potty as much as possible during that time, but she doesn't like to sit for long.

The boys are still doing pretty well, except Cameron had a couple accidents yesterday during the playdate. I think he and I were both preoccupied and not as diligent about making sure that he got to the potty every30-40 minutes, and he just isn't that good at holding it yet. Overall, it's ok. I am looking into selling our cloth diaper stash right now. BumGenius 3.0, is anybody's interested.

Here's a good aspect of potty training... they spend so much time in the bathroom, I figured I would get something out of it. Ben thought scrubbing the toilet was great fun. Actually, he did that all on his own, I swear.

OK, it's kind of not funny how behind my blog has gotten. Pleeeease go vote. Please please please.

We had a lovely, yet trying time this morning at the Nickelodeon Hotel, where the kids got to meet the one, the only... Dora the Explorer! The hotel has a "character breakfast" which features Dora, and a few other Nick Jr. characters. Originally the plan was to have all of us go (Todd, me, Ploy, Lily, Ben and Cameron) so that we'd have one adult per child, and then we'd go swimming in the super-amazing waterpark-like swimming pool at the hotel, but Todd ended up taking a work trip to the Camry factory in Lexington so it ended up being just Ploy and I. And let's just say, the kids were not on their best behavior! I am convinced that they know when they have the adults outnumbered and turn up the naughtiness a few notches just to see us sweat. They didn't want to sit in their seats, didn't want to walk holding our hands, and were profusely pissed off because we weren't actually going swimming. We tried to take them to a playground after eating but it was within view of the pool, where they couldn't go, so there was no consoling them. Alas, I did get a couple cute pictures.

Blurry, but cute.