Family Photos

We just had our family photos taken by mommy's friend, Rachel of Brisham Photography. We weren't being very nice to poor Rachel (we needed to show her who's in charge at the Riplet's household) but she is really good and still could keep up with us. I think its because she's mommy to our new friend, Brighton who came over this week and had a play date with us.

Go to Brisham Photography's links below to see a preview of our photos!

Here's the family just click here.

This set is of just mommy & daddy so click here to see them.

We're a Featured Blog the Week!

We are the featured blog of the week this week at This Mama Rocks. Mommy is really excited about this. She has been reading this blog for awhile now and was really happy when she was contacted about being a featured blog. Go check out This Mama Rocks today and add her to your blog list, too!

This week has been a rainy one, with only a few patches of dry weather for us to go out and play. Of course, mommy had other plans for us. She decided because it was cooler weather to put us in one of our product review outfits and do a photo shoot. Needless to say (after seeing the pictures below) we were not thrilled. This was a shoot for Eden's Bouquet. They are a sponsor for our Mid Summer's Blog Party in July- you won't want to miss it!

Vintage Shoes & Dilly Bars

So mommy has been talking to me about the finer things in life, shoes. She loves shoes and tells me that someday I can have any of her designer shoes if we end up with the same size feet. That is exciting, since I'd love to have her Stuart Weitzman heels! But- since I already have some pretty tiny feet, I'm sure they won't fit me anyways. I will however be inheriting her collection of designer hand bags. I cannot wait to fill my closet with her Coach, Kate Spade and Cole Haan bags. When I get a little taller (and figure out how to climb shelves) I'm planning on getting into her closet and playing with all of her shoes and bags!

Anyways- this week, I got my first pair of vintage shoes. Yep, all you 18 month olds out there reading this, I already have a pair of vintage jelly shoes (Circa 1984). G'ma Jean brought them over to my house this past weekend and I was so happy to see them. She first told me they were my moms and I couldn't believe it. They figured out that these shoes must be over 30 years old! That got me thinking though, I have done my fair share of research on the fashion industry and 33 years ago would've been the 70's not the 80's, when jellys were popular. Sure enough, mommy figured out that these were not her shoes, but Auntie Brittany's! The only problem now is, I hope Auntie B doesn't want them back when she has her baby, because I wear them all over the house and LOVE them! Hopefully she has a little boy anyways. (hehe)

Here are a few pictures of me wearing my shoes. Notice the heel on them?! I am already getting down my walk with heels. At first it was so tricky, but now I feel like a natural.

Also this week, g'ma brought us some Dilly Bars. We had never had them before and to be honest, Jordan and I didn't think we were missing out on much. They were cold and the outside was so weird. Neither of us had more then a taste of it. Jack, on the other hand is addicted to them. Check out this video of him eating his very first dilly bar:

Today, The Fabulous Won is doing a tribute to Triplet Moms and guess who got chosen for the tribute? You guessed it, none other then our mommy! You can read the tribute here .

Happy Blogiversary!

This week at one of our favorite, most helpful blogs-Multiples and More is celebrating their 1st Blogiversary! Multiples and More is written by two amazing women who of course, have multiples. They started this very resourceful and fun website for parents of multiples a year ago in April. To celebrate they are throwing a week long party with contests, giveaways and the readers favorite posts of the year.

We decided that since The Riplets are also celebrating a year of blogging in April, that we should join in the fun and have another give away! Since we love all of Haley's items at Sweet Sugar Beet - we asked her if she could do another give away for us. Since she, too is a mom of twin boys, she said she'd love to help us out again and be part of the celebrations. The items at Sweet Sugar Beet are unique gifts for Mother's Day (*hint*hint*) or for a birthday gift and cost less then $20! Infact, most of her items are $12 and $15.


She has a few great new items that we LOVE including these great clutches:

The Ruffle Clutch in Brown Sway or
The Rossette Clutch in Cocoa Wallpaper

This time, we asked her a few questions so our readers could get to know her and her store better.

1. How did you come up with the name of your shop, Sweet Sugar Beet?
When I first thought about starting my own business I wanted to name it based on something that represented me. I grew up on a farm and every summer my brothers and I would work for my dad in the sugar beet fields. It taught us a lot about hard work and how to earn an extra dollar. I thought naming my business "The Sweet Sugar Beet" was a perfect fit! Not only does it represent my past but also my shop carries a lot of little "sweet" things in it!

2. How long have you been sewing/designing items?
For as long as I can remember I've always loved to create things. My mom taught me how to cross stitch when I was 5 years old; although I never really used a sewing machine until about 5 years ago! I really had an itch to learn how to use one and my husband surprised me with one on Easter! My first project was a pair of pajama pants.

3. What is your favorite item from your Shop right now?
My favorite item right now is the Ruffle Clutch. I was looking for a new way to add a little flair to some of my items and thought this added the perfect touch!

4. Since a lot of moms of multiples (MoMs) read our blog, what is one piece of advice you'd give them about having twins?
Hmmm, that's a tough one! My boys will be 1 year old in a week. I don't feel like I should be giving advice, but rather receiving it! One thing that I have realized is that I am better mom when I can find a little time for "me". Whether it's leaving the kids with a grandparent so I can run to the grocery store or just taking a nice shower (with no interruptions!). I find that when I return to the kids I am recharged and ready for what they are going to throw at me.

5. Do you shop on Etsy a lot? If so- what is one of your favorite stores?
I LOVE to shop on Etsy! I have a lot of great things that I've purchased. One of my favorite shops is Tinkerdot Designs. (http://www.etsy.com/shop/tinkerdotdesigns) We are in the process of moving into a new house and I absolutely cannot wait to have Jenni, the owner, design some items for my kids' rooms. I'm in love with the "Be You" canvas!

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Sweet Sugar Beet will give away this medium ruffle cosmetic bag to one lucky reader!

To enter you must go to Sweet Sugar Beet and pick out your favorite item from the store. Then come back to our blog and leave us a comment. There is a list below of what you can do for additional entries, please leave a separate comment for each entry.

For addition entries:
-Add Sweet Sugar Beet to your favorites on Etsy
-Become a follower of Sweet Sugar Beet's blog
-Become a fan of Sweet Sugar Beet on Facebook www.facebook.com/sweetsugarbeet
-Become a follower of The Riplets
-Grab The Riplets button (top right column) and put it on your website or blog and leave us your web address
-Grab Sweet Sugar Beet's button (at the top of our blog on the right) and leave us your web address

We will be taking entries until Friday, April 2nd at 5pm. The winner will be drawn and announced on Saturday, April 3rd. The winner will have until Monday, April 5th at 5pm to contact us to claim your prize. Good Luck!

Sweet Sugar Beet - Give Away!

We have a guest blogger today. Mommy asked if she could do a give away again. We told her fine as long as we get a cut of the deal. hehehe SO-- here she is:

I found this great shop called Sweet Sugar Beet on Etsy and I just LOVE it! I liked it so much that I contacted the owner-Haley Baur and asked her if she'd do a give away on our blog. She was really happy to do it and even more excited when she read our blog. She has twin boys that are 10 months old and a 2 year old daughter! So reading what The Riplets were up to, hit pretty close to home.

Haley started Sweet Sugar Beet in June 2008 as a hobby, but quickly turned it into a successful business. She has worked with many brides doing custom orders as gifts for their bridesmaids and gifts for bridal showers. I know first hand how wonderful she is at doing custom orders. I actually needed an eye glasses case and she not only made me one using the fabric I chose, but also had it made and shipped out within 48 hours of ordering it! I took this from Sweet Sugar Beets's website:


"All of the items are handmade by me using designer fabrics that are vibrant, fun and have a character that reflects my personality."

Haley has generously offered to give away 1 Design your own - Large Cosmetic Bag to a lucky reader. She is also giving all of our readers FREE SHIPPING when you place an order with her. Just enter our code: RIPLETS.

We will be taking entries until Friday, February 19th and the winner will be announced on Saturday, February 20th. Each person has up to 5 ways to enter each.

• Here's how: -Go to Sweet Sugar Beet's Etsy Shop and look around. Come back to our blog and tell us what your favorite item is.


• Grab Sweet Sugar Beet's button and put it on your blog -- leave a comment telling us you did that and the link to your page. The code for Sweet Sugar Beet's button is below her button on our blog (upper right-hand corner)


• Become a follower of The Riplets and leave a comment then you did or are already.


• Become a follower of Sweet Sugar Beet's blog and leave a comment here letting us know.


• Add Sweet Sugar Beet to your Favorites on Etsy

We're Famous!

We told everyone before about entering the Picture of the Week contest on A Few of My Favorite Things blog, right? Well, now we are on today's post and give-away featuring a great Etsy Shop called Peanut and Pumpkin . We already have a few items from this shop so they decided to use pictures of us in our "1" onesies and of Addison in her tutu from the shop!! Look at how cute we are and be sure to check out Peanut and Pumpkin on Etsy. Sara is the owner of the shop and does an AMAZING job hand-crafting all of her products. We actually just got some Holiday onesies in the mail today from her as well. We'll take a few pictures of us in those for another post and we asked mommy if we could wear them to see Santa, too!

Here's the link to A Few of My Favorite Things and to Peanut and Pumkin's Shop. Don't forget to enter the give-away too!

Finally, here are a few more pictures from our family photo shoot that Rachel did for us. Check out more of her work at Brisham Photography. Jack would like me to point out that he seems pretty happy in these shots so he'd like us to "take back" what we said in an earlier post about him being so mad during the shoot.

You CAN teach us new things!

Since our first birthday we've been changing so much and learning a lot of new things. First of all, let me tell you what I have learned to do. I know enough to put my arms up in the air when someone asks "Addison, how big are you?" I know that I am "SOOO BIG!" but I choose to just show them how big instead of saying it. Once daddy saw that I can do that with my arms he decided to teach (really confuse) me how to do "TOUCH DOWN!" when we're watching football. I am also growing my hair out really long. I decided I want to get rid of that "baby" look and go for the longer, more stylish hairdo. Here are a few pictures of me from this week. What do you think? Notice the layers in back and the side swept bangs?






Jack has also been learning how to do "so big!", too. He just finally figured it out yesterday afternoon. He's ok at it, but nothing like my way. I like to bring my arms up like I'm dancing. He just goes straight up. I guess he's just not as coordinated as I am. I am planning to start dance classes with Auntie Dawn soon so I need to show off my moves and much as I can. Jack has also learned how to walk with our push toy. He pushes it all over the living room. He surprised mommy and I last week with his walking. We were emailing on the computer and we saw him walking by with the push toy!!


Jordan is also learning to do A LOT of new things. He is really working on his walking skills. On Monday, mommy saw him taking a step from the push toy to his chair but Jordan told me she scared him by screaming "GOOD JOB JORDAN!" and that's when he fell on his cheek up against the chair. Mommy seems to think Jordan secretly walks when no one is looking because she's been catching him standing in places he couldn't have gotten to on his own. We know the truth, but we are the Riplets and what happens between us STAYS between us. Sorry Mommy!



We also entered a Fall Favorites Picture of the Week contest on a great blog called A Few of My Favorite Things. Its a blog put together by a friend, Danielle who has twin girls. I love this blog because she's always giving-away great things and always giving me new ideas for the kids. She knows so much about all of the latest toys, clothes, and accessories. Anyways- please vote for us! I'm sure we'll be adding our pictures to this Picture of the Week contest a lot but this is our first time, so please check it out!
http://mybabyfaves.blogspot.com/search/label/Picture%20of%20the%20Week


Finally- here are a few pictures from this week. Mommy & Daddy got a kick out of dressing us in these Adidas outfits. We thought they were nice, but mommy & daddy laughed at us saying we looked like Run DMC. We weren't sure if that was a compliment or not?!

Family Pictures

This past weekend we had our family pictures and our 1 year old pictures taken by Rachel from Bisham Photography. Of course the day we took them it was really cold outside so we were kinda crabby. Ok, Jordan wasn't crabby, but boy were Addison and I. We just hated being outside in the cold especially when mommy didn't have mittens or jackets on us for the shoot! Daddy told mommy she needed to have them on, but mommy said that people wouldn't get to see our outfits then. Either way, Rachel did an AMAZING job considering we were crying for a lot of the shots. Check out a sneak peek of the pictures on her photography blog:

Bisham Photography