Parenting the second child?

I'm sure I'm not the only one that thought parenting the second child would be similar to parenting the first child.  Boy was I wrong.  While there are similarities;  it's very different most of the time.  I even have two kids of the same gender, but their personalities make a huge difference in the way we have to respond and parent.

For example, take potty training: my girls couldn't have been more different.  My first one had poop accidents for almost 6 months, but never once wet herself.  Right now I'm potty training my younger daughter, and she hasn't had a single poop accident in the 4+ weeks we've been perfecting this thing called being a big girl. As much as I don't enjoy cleaning her accidents, I'm very thankful to not be cleaning up sh** every day.  Let's just say it's been an easier process this time around.

What has your experience been with parenting your second/third/dozen child?  Any tips for parents pregnant with their second child?

What's in your fridge?

First post from my iphone (I'm guessing my thumb will get tired!) Anyway wanted to share my feelings today. I'm working on being real on a daily basis and letting everyone "see" what's in my "refrigerator" so to speak. Healthy stuff, not so healthy stuff, a few things that have expired, and lastly some mysterious something in a Tupperware that is probably gross and doesn't smell so good! What does this all mean metaphorically? Well here goes. We all put on fake facades of perfection. That we're the happiest people and have the best life, especially according to Facebook! But in fact we all have our good and bad, our happy and sad, our past hurts, our past mistakes, our past mishaps along with our hopes, our anxieties, our dreams and our wants. Oh and those needs too. We all want to be loved to be understood and to be cherished. But first we must learn to love ourselves! So that we can be REAL. So today I will try my best to be real and say what's on my mind and heart - excitement for two upcoming jewelry trunk shows, thankfulness that my family has overcome yet another cold, (lingering cough!) worry and sadness for those affected by the bombings at the Boston Marathon, concern for those facing surgeries, peace knowing my small church group meets tonight, and a small pit in my stomach of wondering "whats next?" in my life. But I look to the horizon with hope and a growing trust that life is as it should be. So join me in being real. When you feel sad reach out to someone for comfort! When you have worries, get them off your chest. When you're excited, share that with others.  When you struggle to understand the evil in the world, talk to your God about it. When you feel someone is in need, act upon it to help even when it feels uncomfortable. When you wonder what's just up ahead in life, face it with courage and gratitude. So what's in your fridge today?

Hello Blogging World! I figured what better day than today to post my first blog on this shared moms blog.  Today is the birthday of one of my favorite people in the entire world.  Heather Ray!  She is my younger cousin, by 2 years 4 months.  Growing up she was my best friend.  We spent many days as kids going roller skating, playing at Garrison park, having slumber parties together, ringing in the new year at our grandmother's house, playing dress-up and (I hate to admit this) many MANY trips to McDonald's together for the ever so famous Happy Meals!  She was the cutest little girl with her many talents including sign language, magic acts, modeling, tap dancing and selling Girl Scout cookies! I have so many fond memories of our childhood together.  We went to different elementary and middle schools but were able to reunite in high school and college where we made many more memories.  We were on the drill team together and so many good times on our lunch breaks in high school just being silly teenage girls.  In college, we had so much fun going to football games, college parties and road trips to TX-OU weekend.  Some of those memories I'll leave IN our memories to save embarrassment! Ha! Anyway, we've worked together at interesting places like a car wash and a restaurant and created more memories trying to "grow up" and become adults.  To my sadness, she moved away to marry her now husband of 10 years and live a lovely life in San Diego.  Although I miss her all the time, I'm so thankful for the wonderful life she has with her husband and two adorable girls.  (And I can't wait to go visit them again!) I only wish our daughters (only 9 months apart) could grow up together the way we did.  But hopefully they'll grow closer each time they visit each other on trips to and from Texas and Cali.  Cousins are truly a blessing and I hope they cherish each other the way I cherish Heather.  Maybe one day as adults they'll share a blog together and keep in touch wherever they may end up! So on this day I want to wish a VERY VERY Happy Birthday to Heather! The sweetest, funniest, silliest, smartest friend ever.  She truly is beautiful inside and out.  I love you!!

Ants everywhere!

Normally I would not be excited about having ants everywhere, but Santa brought an ant farm to our house, and we finally have live ants doing their job.

Santa brought us the Fascination AntWorks.  I wish we had ordered live ants before Christmas Day, so we could have started the fun right away, but the hubby thought it would be more fun to try to catch ants.  The girls were excited at the thought of going on an ant hunt.  Little did we know, we can't get ants to come to us in our new house. (Finding ants was never a problem at our old house.) Hubby and the girls put chocolate out at the far end of our backyard.  They checked numerous times a day for 3 days to no avail.  Finally we decided to order ants from AntsAlive.

Once the ants arrived, we were ready to go. The ants got right to work.  Within 36 hours, we had 4 tunnels going with some of the tunnels starting to connect with each other.

My girls love running to their habitat each morning to see what the ants did while they were sleeping.  I can not wait to see how the habitat will turn out.

I would recommend this habitat to anyone that wants pets without the cleanup of cats, dogs, bunnies, or any other pet I can think of.  It's a hit with all four of us.

First Post

Welcome to our blog....

We are very excited about the launch of our new blog.  It's been in the works for months now, and we can't wait to share it with you.

We have lots of ideas.....please take a look and come back often.