Our Little Monkeys

Happy Halloween!

Sidekicks

B + I went to our annual Halloween party last night. So much fun to leave the babies at home and enjoy some time ALONE. Last year, I was rocking a gigantic belly bump with my costume, this year I left the bump(s) at home!

She's Coming Out of the Closet

My mother is coming-out-of-the-closet. She is retiring in 15 days. Her office, which was formally a closet, will be vacant after 27 years. As far back as I can remember, she was a working mom. It is hard to even imagine my mom not working. It wasn't her inner-feminist that drove her in the working world. Nope, like a lot of working moms, it was a more a matter of necessity. I think she always wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, but life pushed her in a different direction. She didn't complain about it, rather in true Dotty-Too-Hottie style, she busted ass and excelled in her career. And she impacted hundreds and hundreds of lives in the process. And now, well she gets to do what she always wanted to do in the first place...be at home. And no one deserves it more. People keep asking her what she is going to do when she retires. NOT GO TO WORK PEOPLE! She is going to be a mom, a grammie, a wife and actually have the time to discover what she is truly passionate about. I'm excited to be able to watch my mom get to focus on things that inspire her and not have to think about work. We are going to Cali in a few weeks for her retirement party. I can't wait to see how people choose to honor her. Congrats Mom. You might be one of the hardest working people I know and I couldn't be happier for you.

L + L's Favorite Toy

FINALLY...

Finally I got to do this at Costco... (NO CAR SEATS)

And why is this a big deal you may ask? BECAUSE my normal run to the grocery store goes like this.

1. Forget parking close to the front of the store, I have to park close to a cart. And it can't be a cart with a cup holder either. Those carts don't fit the load I have. Learned that the hard way!

2. Grab the cart and unload baby #1, who is in the carseat, into the bucket of the cart.

3. Get baby #2 and put on the top of the cart.

4. Now I have 40+ pounds already in the cart and here we go...

5. Jam as many groceries as I can in and around the babies. Sometimes I have to hold an additional basket and push the load to make sure I can get it all. Once I even pushed the cart with the babies and pulled another one behind me.

6. Let the unloading begin. First to the car, and five minutes later into my house.

Yeah, it is exhausting, but it's getting better!

Work It

My sis has been taking her little coco to The Little Gym the past few weeks and been raving about it, so today it was our turn. Fortunately my mom is hanging out with us this week while Brian is out being a manly-man in the woods. (Remember I am on Team Deer.) Anyways--she was able to come with me and we had a blast! The kids were adorable and had so much fun. Here they are doing their warm-ups. Daddy will be oh so proud.

Double Trouble

Yep. It's official. I am an absolute sucker for these two faces. Double-trouble for sure.

New Tricks

Lincoln has a new trick--he can CRAWL. He is into everything and can motor around our house like it's nothing. He has been crawling almost two weeks now and mama is busier than ever.

Lila has a new trick--she can CLAP. Our sweet little thing, who loves music, claps when mama sings her favs. She thinks she is pretty hot stuff.

The Patch

This past weekend we took our lil' pumpkins to a local cider mill and pumpkin farm. I'm sure they didn't know what was going on, but they loved the fresh air and new scenery for sure. Lila survived her 1st rock-in-the-mouth experience and Lincoln loved grabbing the dirt. B + I picked some good pumpkins this year and will have our annual pumpkin-carving show-down here shortly.

Friendly times before the carving begins...

The 'Won't-be-on-the-Christmas-card' pic...

Discovering...

Lincoln Scott...

Lila Pearl...

Swishers are Swingers

(Get your mind out of the gutter!)

L + L made their first trip over to the local park with the specific purpose of riding the swings. They loved it! The higher they went the more fun they had. Brian + I enjoyed it too...almost made me wanna become a swinger again.

I Just Gotta Say...

...I love this guy!!! Always busting booty to take care of our family and make our dreams come true. Truly one of the bests.

Hawaii = Bliss

We just returned from another fabulous trip to Hawaii. Hawaii continues to be one of our favorite places. It's only fitting that we love it so much--we honeymooned there, we have vacationed there with our best friends and visited with our parents and families. So it was only natural that we would take our first official Swisher family vacation there as well.

The babies were a dream on both flights and adjusted fabulously to the time change and new surroundings. It was definitely a different experience from our other trips to Hawaii, but it couldn't have been better. Lila's souvenir from the trip was her first two teeth, and the Linc-man learned to crawl on the island.

Here are a few pics from the trip. And Hawaii, we will be back. Oh yes, we will be back.

4 set out to snorkle, but only 3 made it...

These 2 definitely made it...

Swisherzzzz...

We played LOTS of tennis...

A shot of the mama + daddy...

Our little surfer dude on the beach...

The sistas and their babies...

Big Swish + Lil' Swish...

The Pearl-girl...

8 Months

Lila + Lincoln are now 8 months old. Time continues to mystify me with how quickly it passes, but these two are keeping us quite busy and entertained.

Lila is S.W.E.E.T! She is a girl with 1000 smiles. She has her coy smile, her happy smile, her shy smile, her mommy smile, her daddy smile, her Jezzy smile, her Lincoln smile, her silly smile, paci-still-in-the-mouth smile and on and on. We love every one!!! She loves music, singing and dancing with her mama. She can scream loud and be quite the chatterbox one minute and sit quietly and contently the next. Such a chick. She is strong on her tummy, scoots all around and continues to chow down like a champ. Sweet Lila Pearl.

Lincoln is a beast. He is such a dude and he is into everything. He wants what is across the room, what is in daddy's hands, what is hidden behind mama's back, what Lila is holding, etc. He wakes up with a smile and is always ready to go. He is becoming sooooo strong and pulls up on anything and everything. He loves to sit up in his crib at naptime so he doesn't have to sleep. This boy's laugh, well you just have to hear it and you'll be in love.