..2010 in q & a..

What did you do in 2010 that you hadn’t done before? - I had babies!! :)

Did anyone close to you give birth? - See #1 :)

Best thing you bought? - Hmm, a pregnancy test? :)

Where did most of your money go? - House and flight school payments

What do you wish you had done more of? - Time with the hubbo

What do you wish you had done less of? - Trying to please other people all the time

What kept you sane? - My pregnancy and my new bakery :)

What made you celebrate? - See above :)

What made you sad? - My mom's heart attack

How was your birthday this year? - Just another day

What would you like to have in 2011 that you didn’t have this year? - 1 year old twins :)

What date from 2010 will be etched in your memory and why? - October 7th.. you all know why :)

What song will remind you of 2010? - Hmm, a good one. Soul Sister by Train because it kinda became the girls' song.

Best new person you met this year? - People.. my daughters :)

Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? - I don't make resolutions. If I want to make a change, I don't want to wait until a certain time of the year to do it.

What would you like to have in 2011 that you lacked in 2010? - DVR.. I miss Martha Stewart on the days I'm at the shop :)

Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier :)
ii. thinner or fatter? Fatter, got a lil' bit more baby fat to shed :)
iii. richer or poorer? Just about the same :)

What was your favorite TV program? - CSI, always

What did you want and get? - Babies!!

What was your favorite film that you watched this year? - Alice in Wonderland

What one experience do you never want to repeat from this year? - Mom's heart attack, scary!

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2010? - XXL, lol. All maternity wear :D

Where were you when 2010 began? - At a friend's house, shooting fireworks

Who were you with? - The hubbo and several friends

What was your favorite month of 2010? - October :)

Did you do a lot of drugs in 2010? - Umm, does an epidural count? :D

What are you most looking forward to in 2011? - Every single minute of it :)

..little teaser..

Just a little something to get you through to the new year! 2011 is going to mean some new things going on around here. One example being more new product reviews AND giveaways! :) Everyone likes free stuff, right? One review I'm excited about is from CSN Stores. CSN is comprised of over 200 websites to help you find whatever you might need, whether it's modern duvet covers, pool toys or Calphalon cookware!

Right now they've even got a bunch of items on Clearance. So if there's something on your "Got To Have" list, then check out CSN Stores. They just might have it! :)

..late merry & early happy..

That's for Christmas and New Year's! :) Hard to believe that at the beginning of the year I wasn't even pregnant. Now I have TWO 2 1/2 month olds. Funny how life works out. I actually took this week off from the shop for "vacation" because the hubbo is off all week. Nothing like getting to sleep in late with him and the girls!

..ho ho ho..

The cutest little elves I've ever seen! You don't even want to know how long it took me to get this shot, but it was worth it :D It's not even the shot I had in mind.. I wanted them in matching outfits. But, I've learned with twins, you take what you can get! :)

..heads up!..

Cute Baby Clothes Alert!!

My Baby Clothes Boutique is having a sale :

15% OFF our entire catalog!

MyBabyClothesBoutique.com is offering 15% off our entire catalog from,

November 22nd - November 24th 2010.

Place your orders before the holiday rush to get first pick of our holiday items before they run out of stock!

Use the discount code below to get 15% OFF any order. Simply enter the code during checkout at MyBabyClothesBoutique.com

* Promo only valid from 11/22/2010 - 11/24/2010. Cannot be combined with other offers. Shipping not included.

DISCOUNT CODE: BEATTHERUSH2010

Cyber Monday – One day only sale –

25% OFF our entire catalog! MyBabyClothesBoutique.com is offering 25% off our entire catalog from, November 29th Use the discount code below to get 25% OFF any order. Simply enter the code during checkout at MyBabyClothesBoutique.com * Promo only valid from 11/29/2010 12am – 12 am est. Cannot be combined with other offers. Shipping not included.

Discount Code: CYBERSALE2010

..growing like weeds..

They don't go back for another doctor visit until the first of December, but I'm pretty sure the girls are both about 6 pounds each now. They will be 6 weeks old Thursday, and it just doesn't seem like they should be that old. I'll blink and they'll be 6 YEARS old! :)

Piper, waving hi to all our friends out in Blog Land :)

Layla, wondering what in the world I'm doing..

It's exciting that they can actually fit into some of their clothes now :)

..some bath time cuteness..

Ok, so as you could assume the girls keep me kinda busy :) Since they were born a little early, they've had more doctor visits than normal, just mainly for weight checks. But they're back up to their birth weights now so everything is going great!

Just wanted to share a couple of cute bath time pictures. And yes, there will be posts that consist of nothing but cute baby pictures. I'm a mommy, that's what I do now :D

Layla, getting coiffed :D

Piper's turn! Love that little curl on top :)

..we have babies!!!..

*Mommy on Cloud 9 over here!*

The girls are snoozing, so I thought I would take a few to post all the good details. They were born Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 36.5 weeks. Piper Ann was born at 1:08pm, weighed 4lbs 12oz, and was 18.5" long. Layla Marie was born six minutes later at 1:14pm, weighed 5lbs 6oz, and was 19.5" long. Piper looks just like Jeff did when he was born, and Layla looks just like I did when I was born. It's really a crazy thing to see :)

Even though it wasn't the norm, the pediatrician and nurses let us take the girls home with us after 48 hours. Even though technically they're "preemies" they all said they have never seen 36-weekers do so well, and they just didn't see a need to keep them. *ahem, superstars!* :D

So today they're 4 days old, had their first doctor visit, and got more good news that they weigh the same as they did when they left the hospital (4lbs 8oz and 5lbs). Good news because they didn't lose as much as most babies do.

Lots more to tell, since I do want to post my birth story, but it's about feeding time again. They may be small, but they like to eat! (They get that from me, lol)

Don't worry, many more pictures to come :)

..well..

It looks like we will have babies tomorrow :D I've been in labor (early stage) for the last couple of days now. I'm having contractions but they're not painful. I'm dilated to 3cm but completely effaced. And I won't go into the gross details, but let's just say Piper is making it known to the Dr. that she's ready to come out!! :)

So I go to the hospital at 5:00am tomorrow to start my induction, if my water doesn't break on its own before that, which it very well could.

Can we say anxious?! :D I'm not nervous, it's the waiting part that's getting me. Now that I know it's happening, I just want to get started, lol. But I'm using tonight to wash some baby clothes and bassinet sheets, get the hospital bag together, and then hopefully get some sleep.

Don't fret though, I will be updating from the hospital if I have time! :D

..acrobats..

I think my girls are going to be contortionists. They make my belly move and change shape in ways I didn't think possible, lol. It makes me wish there was a little tiny camera in there so I could see what they are doing.

I get another ultrasound tomorrow to check their weights. Last ultrasound (which was August 27) they weighed over 3lbs each. They should hopefully be close to 5lbs each now. I'm 34 weeks along at the moment, and my doctor thinks I'll go to 36. Not sure how he knows or why he thinks that, but he's the expert, not me, lol. I guess I'll know more after my visit tomorrow!

..hello september!..

Am I the only one it snuck up on? It was like BAM! Out of nowhere :) I've spent the last couple of weeks just baking cupcakes and babies, lol. Speaking of babies, wanna see something adorable? J and I took a childbirth class, and the last night, he got to see what it was like to swaddle and diaper a baby :)

I think he did a really good job :) Even if he did have the baby squeezed between his knees part of the time, lol. But he'll get plenty of practice very soon.

So, September. Great month :) For me it means:

*Less than 7 weeks til the girls get here

*Mine and J's 4 year wedding anniversary

*New season of CSI!

*New season of Bama football!! Roll Tide!!! :)

Like I said, great month :)

..my one day off..

So we got the shop going and really hit the ground running! We've been open for two weeks now, and I don't have people lining up out the doors, but I do stay busy all day. Not too shabby for a business who's only advertising at the moment is word of mouth and some Facebook time!

So this is the first day I've really had "off" even though the shop is only open Monday - Thursday. I usually spend Fridays and Saturdays working on special order birthday cakes and wedding cakes.

Enough cake talk, let's talk about the babies!!! :D I cannot believe that I only have about 8 weeks left until the girls are here. I mean, 8 weeks at the most! I've had three baby showers, and have been so very blessed with so many wonderful items. Lots of diapers, LOTS of clothes (because who doesn't love buying clothes for twin girls?!) and lots of other goodies.

And because they are just too stinkin' cute, I have to share a couple of the dresses that we got. I'm a sucker for a little girl in a polo dress, lol.

We also got this one in a pink and white stripe as well.

And then we got two of these, and they are just precious..

Ahh, be still my heart :) I can't wait to start playing dress-up :D

With getting the shop set up and open I had to put the nursery on hold, but it's almost done now. That's what I plan on working on today. A super cute new fabric store opened up near me and they carry all of the "designer" brand fabrics, like Heather Bailey, Heather Ross, Anna Maria Horner, and all those. So she has the fabric that I want to use for the nursery, yay!

And, so I don't get any complaints from the peanut gallery (you know who you are!) I leave you with a belly shot :) This one is a couple of weeks old, and yes, I have gotten bigger since. I will take a recent one today! But until that one gets posted, this one can tide you over :)

..my new sign!..

The graphics guys came the other day and put my new shop window sign up. I think it looks great, what do y'all think?

It will look really good once I get my display window all dressed up. That should happen early next week. I'm still pushing to open two weeks from today. I'm gonna try my hardest! :)

..summer blog tour..

Holly from The Work at Home Woman and Abbey from Living My MoMent have put together an amazing Blog Tour. 60 blogs in 60 days, and today is all me! :) But you can see the entire list here to catch up on ones you may have missed.

As for my post for today.. are you tired of hearing about babies yet? Hope not :) The hubbo looked at me last night and said, "You're really enjoying the whole pregnancy thing, aren't you?" I told him I could totally see how women would want to be pregnant all the time. Aside from the sickness in the beginning, being pregnant is a feeling that you just can't describe. It really does have to be felt. And the fact that there's two in there just makes it even more special!

I got to see the girls via ultrasound again at my doctor's appointment yesterday. Layla has flipped so they are now both head down. Maybe they will stay that way for the rest of the pregnancy *fingers crossed* Lol. Piper weighs about 1lb 8oz and Layla weighs about 1lb 10oz. It's hard to believe they're that big already!

And, since I'm all about fun facts that very rarely come up in conversation, here's some "did you know?" stuff about twins!

*Up to 22% of twins are left-handed. In the general populace, only 10% are left-handed. (For the record, hubbo and I are both right-handed)

*Twins do not have to be born on the same dates. The longest gap between birth is 85 days.

*27 lbs. and 12oz. Total is the heaviest combined birth weight of any set of twins. (Eep!)

*Once you've had fraternal twins, you are 3 to 4 times more likely to have another set!

*Female fraternal twins have an increased chance to have fraternal twins at an actual rate of about one in 60 births or more.

And now you know :)

..i'm making this so hard!..

Ok, so, this whole fabric for the girls' room thing.. I'm driving myself crazy with it. I'm still not convinced that I really love any of the fabric choices I posted about previously. Part of that I think is because I discovered the Nicey Jane collection by Heather Bailey. I think it really has that shabby chic feel that I like. The fabric doesn't actually have any birds on it, but it is floral, and it has all of the colors I wanted to use. Check out some of the patterns..

And see, those great patterns are making me want to do things like this..

Patchwork! I want to do patchwork so bad! Check out these awesome patchwork pillows, made by Kathrin of Where Your Heart Is!

They're actually made with lots of the Nicey Jane fabric, and I LOVE them! Ooh ooh ooh, look!! I found this awesome crafty blog called Tiggle Giggles, and look what she made with Nicey Jane!

How gorgeous! I think I might not need any more convincing.. it's just so pretty. So very Cath Kidston :)

**All photos linked to their owners**

..i'm nesting!..

Figuratively and literally I suppose :) In getting ready for the girls to make their appearance, I've finally decided how I'm going to do their nursery. I'm going to do like a shabby chic-ish bird theme. I want to use all different colors so that I'm not limited by anything. The walls are a light khaki color, and the molding and all of the furniture is a dark espresso.

These pictures inspired a lot of what I'm going for (I know these are bedrooms and not nurseries, but you get the idea):

I've got two birdcages that I'm going to paint white, and I've bought a couple of little small things too. I also really want to put a small chandelier in as the light fixture. Nothing like, huge and fancy. Now I'm just stuck on fabric choices for the curtains and crib skirt. I'm trying to find a bird pattern that I can pair with a solid or two, but I've found three that I really like.

First, there's this one.. it's hard to tell , but the background is actually a little on the cream-color side, not totally white. I like that it has several different colors as well as the colors of the walls and furniture.

Then there's this one, which is very bold and would really stand out. Hubbo likes it the best. The only thing I don't like about it, is that it doesn't have any blue in it.

And then last, there's this one. It's mine and hubbo's least favorite, but it is cute and vintage-y looking.

I really wish I could see these fabrics in person. I'm one of those that likes to see and feel stuff, lol. So, give me input!! :D I need thoughts and opinions :)

**Update** Lookie what I found! It's a fabric from the same pattern line as choice #2.. it coordinates and it has blue in it! We might just have to have two patterns and a solid :) FYI the background is white, like the other.

..much ado about nothing..

It's Saturday and I'm being a bum :) I'm sitting here at the computer, entering all kinds of baby giveaways and watching it rain. I'm telling myself that I need a day of doing nothing though.. earlier this week I had the scare of my life. Tuesday afternoon my mom was at my house and told me that she didn't really feel good. She had heartburn really bad. I asked if she wanted to go see her doctor. Of course she said no, and said she would be fine. Early the next morning I got a phone call from my brother saying that mom had hurt so bad all night that she hadn't slept at all, so I rushed to her house, picked her up and took her to the hospital.

My mom had had a heart attack. My mom, who I consider to be young at 52 years old, had a heart attack. We couldn't believe it. Everything happened so fast at the hospital. Once the on-call doctor saw her EKG results he immediately called in a cardiologist, who told us he was rushing her to have an arteriogram. He didn't know how much damage had been done, but the possibilities ranged from stents to open heart surgery. Seriously, I have never been more scared in my life. He didn't waste any time starting the arteriogram, and so for the next 45 minutes we waited to hear something. He came back letting us know that she only had full blockage in one artery, and that they put one stent in and she was going to be fine. She came home from the hospital today, and is on strict orders to take it easy for a while, but she feels really good. Actually, she said she felt better than she has in a long, long time. I guess clearing up an artery can do that :)

The cardiologist let us know that heart attacks are so dangerous for women because most women don't have the "classic" heart attack symptoms, such as a tighness in your chest and numbness in your left arm. He said most women feel like they have heartburn really bad, just like mom did.

On a much happier note, we found out the girls like music :) We've been putting headphones on my belly at night, and the girls move nonstop while the music is playing. It's so incredibly fun :) They're really active anyway. All of the nurses think it's hilarious that they have to chase them to get hearbeats with the Doppler or the ultrasound machines. I've got wiggle worms :D

Off to fix myself a BT sandwich. That's a BLT without the L, since I don't have any :)

Peace, love and koala fuzz y'all!

..isabella oliver review..

So as my belly is getting bigger and bigger, it's getting harder and harder to find clothes to cover it, lol. Well, I happened to stumble upon a maternity clothing company called Isabella Oliver. They make some super cute clothes! Here's a little about them from their website:

Isabella Oliver was launched in 2003, and has since become home to two essential women's wear collections; Isabella Oliver Maternity and Isabella Oliver 365.

The brand was founded by Baukjen de Swaan Arons, Vanessa Knox-Brien and Geoff van Sonsbeeck; three passionate individuals whom aspired to create a clothing brand that women would love to wear.

Every Isabella Oliver piece exudes the brand's ethos; pregnancy style solutions for today's multitasking woman. Timeless classics are given a contemporary twist with ruche and wrap accents to create comfortable and stylish maternity essentials in easy, wearable fabrics. We aim to produce effortlessly chic collections; multifunctional must-haves that provide style confidence when you need it most.

And it's not just me that thinks they make cute clothes. They have clothed some of the most famous pregnant women out there! We're talking Angelina Jolie, Heidi Klum, Jessica Alba and Gwen Stefani just to name a few.

Isabella Oliver sent me their most popular item, the Wrap Around Top, to try out.

I'll have to admit, when I first took the Wrap Around Top out of the box, I thought there was no way it was going to cover all of me, because it comes as one piece that looks like this:

The two long "tails" are the pieces you wrap to completely cover your belly. Well, I tried it on anyway and started wrapping. Let me tell you, this is some seriously stretchy fabric! It just kept going and going! It covered all of my belly and tied into a cute little knot on the side.

So now you're probably wondering, if it's so stretchy, do you feel like you're all wrapped up in an ace bandage or something? Well that answer is nope! This is definitely one of the most comfortable tops I've ever worn. It is snug against the body, but not in a way that feels too tight or constricting. Best of all, after the girls are born, I can still wear this top! So bonus for the dual use! :)

So if you're in need of maternity clothes, and you're tired of the tops that make you look like you're wearing a tent, then check out Isabella Oliver. They carry more than just tops too, including dresses, jeans, bathing suits, and lots more!

Note: I received a complimentary top from Isabella Oliver for the purpose of this review. No other compensation was received for my opinion.

*All photos courtesy of the Isabella Oliver website.

..officially official..

Well the babies definitely cooperated yesterday. We got wide open shots, lol. The ultrasound tech had no doubt that we are having two little girls :) They have gotten so big since the last time I got to see them. And of course they were wiggling all over the place. The tech kept having to chase them down to get good pictures. By the end of the ultrasound they were fighting! One was punching the other in the butt and then she was kicking the other one in the head. Ahh, the joys of little girls :D

It took us forever to come up with one girl name and one boy name. So after finding out we needed another girl name I thought it was going to be a big, drawn out argument and that they might be born and Baby B still might not have a name. But standing in the checkout line at Wal-Mart last night, out of nowhere, Jeff said a name, and we both love it. So, both of our girls have a name...

Piper Ann and Layla Marie :) Their middle names are after mine and his grandmothers. We're going to be swimming in pink around here, and I can't wait :)

..6 days left..

Until I (hopefully) find out what these critters are! I hope they cooperate at the ultrasound Tuesday. I'm supposed to drink 36oz of water before the appointment and go in with a full bladder. Umm, you want me, pregnant with twins, to load up my bladder and then let someone push all over it?! That's going to be torture, lol :) But they said it pushes the babies up and makes them easier to see. I guess whatever gives me an advantage :) I've had three dreams about them so far, and in each one it has been a boy and a girl. I don't know if that's intuition or just me really hoping. I guess we'll find out.

In the meantime it has been wedding after wedding, and lots of prep work trying to get ready for the new shop. Here's some cakes from a wedding last weekend..

The groom is a big turkey hunter, and the wedding had sort of an Asian theme. It was beautiful, lots of light and dark pink everywhere. I loved it. These aren't the best photos, I made them with my phone. The good photos will be on the Sugar on Top website in the next few days. Better lighting and no one's head in the background :D Hope all of my wonderful friends out here in blog land are having a great summer.

Peace, love and koala fuzz y'all!