Tiggrrl's Den

New blog

2011-11-11T18:38:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry I've been MIA lately. I have recently fell in love with/been learning about photography and I've started a blog about it. I can barely keep up with one blog let alone two so this one will probably go on hiatus for a little while.

But please come see me over at Cheekie Monkey Photography. I'd to have some followers and please feel free to comment!!

More than Dryer lint

2011-06-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

Things I have recently found in my dryer:

GoGo's
rocks
Chap stick (unfortunately on more than one occasion)
a SD memory card
a couple of Squinkies
rocks
a box cutter
coins (on the rare occasion)
dollars (on the even *rarer occasion)
rocks
keys
a ball point pen
a small notepad
more rocks
an orange crayon. Or at least what was left of one.

Apparently I need to go through pockets more often.

Pretending

2011-05-19T09:27:00.000-07:00

I'm going to start off by saying this post is going to be a lot of rambling. I just have to get these thoughts out of my head and I figured this was the perfect place to throw them.

For as long as I can remember I have always felt out of place. I don't really have a place that I fit in. Now days its the grownup world that I don't feel like I fit into. I still feel like I'm 17 and now I'm just pretending to be an adult. Sometimes I worry that someone is going to show up and call my bluff.

I feel like a kid in adults clothing. Pretending to be something I'm not. It's weird to be 33 (which I can never remember. It always takes me a little while to figure out how old I really am) but still feel like I'm 17. I keep wondering when that grownup feeling will kick in.

I have 3 kids. I've bought 2 homes and sold 1. I've 7 owned cars. I pay bills pretty responsibly. I've been married for going on 11 years now. I'm technically an adult. So when do I start feeling like one?

Ben and the Dentist

2011-05-07T09:21:00.000-07:00

The other day I was looking into Ben's mouth and noticed that he had cracked a molar at some point. WTF?! When did that happen? I asked him about it and he said he had no idea when it broke but it did scratch his tongue every now and then. He said it didn't hurt.(But then a day or two later he started complaining that his teeth hurt.)We agreed that a dentist appointment was in order. So we were able to get him in on Tuesday the 3rd at noon.

This isn't the first time he's been to the dentist. He had to go before Kindergarten just to get a checkup. This is the first time he's had to have any actual work done. They did the xrays. (which made him gag. But he kept trying!!) Then they brought him back to the room and the dentist looked at his tooth. He said he did need a filing and he could fit us in later that day. Daddy had some work that needed to be done as well so he would be taking Ben.

They get back to the dentist and Jim sits in the room with him until the dentist is ready. They said a lot of the time it's easier if Mom or Dad isn't in the room because then the child can focus solely on the dentist. They got Ben taken care of and all he wanted to do was cuddle with Daddy. Just wanted to be held. Jim got to cuddle him for a few minutes but then had to go get his work done so Ben stayed in the game room by himself. (Our dentist's office is AWESOME! It has a free arcade room for the kids. There are 6 arcade games that don't need any coins and the kids can just play in there.) But Ben didn't really want to be in there he wanted to be with his daddy. Jim was having 2 teeth extracted so he was in his room for a quite a awhile. Ben kept coming in to check on his dad. The dentist would say "Hi Ben!! Daddy's doing great. He'll be done in a few." and Ben would go back to the game room.

After they were done Ben got a little toy and they came home. Ben was Very cuddly and just wanted to lay in his bed. After about an hour he seemed to be better. Although the next day we noticed his cheek was still swollen. Turns out he must have been chewing on his cheek when he was nervous. Now, 4 days later he's still swollen and now we're pretty sure that the inside of his cheek is infected. I called the dentist today and left a message. Hopefully he will call back soon and let us know what to do for it. Poor little guy.

And now Ellie is obsessed with going to the dentist. She keeps telling me she needs to go. I think I'm going to schedule her for her first appointment to see what the dentist is all about. He's a really great dentist so we will see how she does lol.

Attempt at Organization Take 2

2011-05-04T10:08:00.000-07:00

Some of you may remember my last Organization Binder. Well I of course quit using it after awhile but I am trying to get organized again so I created a new one. I couldn't find a good organization binder for a stay at home mom. I don't really need the day broken up into hours. I needed more of a To Do list with an area to write down appointments. This is what I came up with.

Also in the binder I have added a place for important information: Phone Numbers of - School, Doctor, Dentist, Optometrist, etc. Plus birthdays, blood types, Insurance information, etc.

I have monthly calendar pages so I see whats going on for the whole month at a glance. I also have extra blank pages for any notes I may have.

I have the whole thing spiral bound so it lays flat and can be easily opened to just one side.

I'm thinking of possibly making more of these for my friends. If you could create your own what else would it have? What would you remove? Any suggestions would be great! Also let me know if you'd be willing to try my prototype and give me your feedback on it

3 Year Check Up

2011-05-01T09:50:00.000-07:00

Will and Ellie had their 3 year check up on Wednesday. I've been trying to get this post up since then but I couldn't get the pic from my phone to blogger and then something would come up and I would have to walk away from the computer and I'd forget about it until I sat down again but then I didn't have time to work on it so it just kept getting put off. Until now!!!!

Their appointment went well. It was the first well baby appointment for the twins that I've ever done by myself. I usually bring my mom so she can help with one and I deal with the other especially if they are getting shots. But my mom just got over being sick and had tons of work to catch up on. I didn't want to have to make her fit one more thing in to her schedule. (I know she would have if there was any way she could have. She has been so helpful with the twins since day 1, But I knew she had a lot going on and didn't want to add to that)

I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure how to handle both of them and shots but I figured we'd just have to make it work lol.

Their stats:

Will:

Birth

Weight: 5lbs 2 oz - 3rd percentile

Height - 17 inches - 1st percentile

Now:

Weight - 32lbs 6oz - 58th percentile

Height - 37 1/2 inches - 53rd percentile

Ellie:

Birth:

Weight: 4lbs 10 oz - 1st percentile

Height - 16 inches - >1st percentile

Now:

Weight - 29lbs 4 oz - 35th percentile

Height - 37 inches - 49th percentile

They sure are growing quick!!!!

We all survived the shots. Will got his first and I leaned over him and put my face right next to his to calm him and comfort him (since we took the paci's away a couple weeks ago. Planning Fail!!) He got the shot (thankfully it was only one) and I rocked him for a sec. Then I laid him back on table and laid Ellie next to him on the other side. I leaned over both of them, comforting them both. After she got her shot I picked them both up with their blankets and held them for a little while. Then we went out and got stickers and suckers and all was good.

It wasn't ideal but it worked and we all survived. It's interesting the way having twins changes things.

Chest Pains

2011-04-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

For the last 5 or 6 months Ben has been complaining that his chest hurts at recess. No other time of the day. Just the end of recess. I thought maybe there was something happening at recess but I volunteer every Friday and he seems to have a great time. I thought maybe it was all the running, swinging, playing etc. But it doesn't happen after he jumps on the trampoline or rides his scooter.

So we decided to make an appointment for him. The doctor checked him out and said his breathing sounds normal and his lungs sound clear. It's most likely just pain in his chest wall. But he wanted to do an x-ray and an EKG to make sure. He also said to put him on a half a Zantac twice a day for a week. If it doesn't help then discontinue it.

This is a really crappy picture. It was taken with my cell phone. This is Ben getting the chest x-ray. The technician was great. He let Ben go back and look at the x-rays and showed him where his heart, spine and ribs are. Ben was so excited. Then he let Ben pick out a sucker. Ben does not like Root-Beer suckers.

Then we went up for the EKG. For the record, I have never had one of these. I have never seen one done either. So I couldn't even tell him what was going to happen. (I usually prepare him for whatever appointment he has.) He likes to know what is going on and why. This time I had no info for him except "they are going to check your heart." We go in and again the technician is great. He talks to Ben throughout the whole thing telling him what he is doing and why. At the end he even let Ben help take off all of the "stickers" I took this picture of Ben and showed it to him.

He said "It looks like I'm going to be changed into a monster!" He thought it was pretty awesome. He gave Ben two suckers. Ben does like Bubblegum and Banana suckers.

We have another appointment in two weeks to go over the results.

Happy Easter!!!

2011-04-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

We lost Ben's Easter basket so he had to use a jack -o-lantern. He thought it was awesome.

Will couldn't be bothered with finding any more eggs once he discovered they had candy in them.

Who doesn't love Peeps?!

I had taken away the candy and she snuck in to get more.

Trying to get a nice picture before church.

I figured out where Ben got that look from.....Like Father, Like Son

Pretty close to perfection :) (at least in our house)

Birthday party #2

2011-04-26T13:18:00.000-07:00

Birthday party #2 was a big hit as well. This one was with Jim's side of the family. We went for an easier cake this time and since the theme was Captain America (do you know how HARD it is to find Captain America decorations?) we just went with a red white and blue theme.

We couldn't decide what to get the twins for their birthday. We didn't want to get them MORE toys. We are being slowly devoured by the amount of toys we already have. We have a really great sized backyard but there hasn't been anything for them to do in it. So we decided on a trampoline with a ~~cage~~ net.
Jim was still putting it together when people started arriving. Here is Jim, his dad, his cousin Eric and wife Amber helping put it together. (Thank you guys soo much!!!)

All finished!!!! Will and Ellie were the first on it and they LOVED it!! They had so much fun.

Grandpa bought them a climbing toy. It has a telescope, steering wheel, slide and a rock wall. Grandpa and Uncle Scott putting it together.

Will decided he needed to check things out.

Ellie couldn't let him be the only one. (Notice she's actually in a skirt!!! She has shorts underneath it lol) They call this their "Pirate ship"

Auntie Kate showed everyone how to do flips. I love this picture.

Time for the cake!!

Happy Birthday Will and Ellie! We are so blessed to have you as a part of our family.

Goodbye Paci's!!!

2011-04-24T08:03:00.000-07:00

I have another post to write about the 2nd birthday party but I felt this was blog worthy :)

We have gotten rid of the paci's!! I know they are 3 now and probably should have given them up a year or two ago (or in some people's opinions 3 years ago) but Paci's were such a comfort to them that I couldn't bear to take them away.

Will has pretty much used one from day one. It helped a lot when the reflux was really bad. In the beginning the paci was almost bigger than his head. lol

Ellie used hers more as something to chew on. We got to a point during the first year that we rarely even gave her one.

Then at about a year she decided to see what the fuss was about and started stealing them from Will. From that point on she was hooked!

Fast forward - now they are three and its time to get rid of them.

Although Will started out way more dependent on them Ellie quickly caught up in dependence. I built it up for awhile. Telling them that on their birthday we were going to give them to Captain America so he could give them to babies who needed them. They were really excited about this. So bedtime comes on their birthday and we put them to bed without the paci's. they cried for about 15 minutes and fell asleep. I thought "that was easy!"

Then 1:00am comes around. Ellie wakes up screaming/crying for her paci. She's not a big girl. She doesn't care if big girl's get to go on the trampoline. She doesn't care that big girls get to color and play outside. She's a baby and wants her paci. We are up for an hour and a half and she finally falls asleep.

Next evening she loses her mind every time something offends her. She just wants her paci. We hold strong. They fall asleep within 15 minutes again. This time they sleep through the night. (although at 5:30am I wake up to Will in our bed. No thank you! Our bed is full. We are still trying to get Ben out of it. - Another post all together.)

Tonight it has been a week since we took them. They are doing pretty well. Anytime she gets upset she still wants her paci. But we've been able to distract her for the most part. They even found two paci's around the house and I was able to take them away without too much drama. I know they will continue to find them. (There are probably 50 paci's lost around our house. There seems to be a paci black hole that they would get sucked into so we would constantly be buying more.)

Next up: Potty training!!! Any tips/tricks would be totally appreciated!! :)

Birthday Party Number 1

2011-04-19T14:05:00.000-07:00

Since both our families live so close to each other, have so many people and I get overwhelmed easily, we decided to do two separate parties for the twins. One with my family and one with Jim's family. Last year we had everyone at our house and ended up with 52 people!! Needless to say I was quite overwhelmed.

Will and Ellie's (I'm trying to not call them "the Babies" or "the Twins" but that is another post entirely) birthday was actually on Sunday. We decided to do the first party on Friday night at my parents house. My older sister and her family were in town so we got to celebrate with them as well which was really nice. We had a BBQ and then cake and ice cream.

I decided to do a different theme for each party since Will and Ellie are SOOO DIFFERENT! I (moronically) thought this would be easier. (I have NO idea why I thought this would be easier. Nor do I have any idea why I thought two parties would be any less overwhelming than one giant party) So Friday's theme was Thomas the Train. I found a really cute Thomas the Train cake that didn't look tooo hard. Here is my attempt at it.

Will was so excited about his cake that he sang himself "Happy Birthday" then wanted me to give it to him lol.

The kids had tons of fun playing in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. They have an acre so there is tons of room to play. They got to jump on the trampoline and play on the playhouse. They also did races and generally just chased each other around. There were a total of 12 cousins there. Ranging in age from 7 months to 15 years. They all get along really well which makes it so much easier :) Here's some pictures from the party.

Will on one of the play toys in the backyard

Big Brother. I just love this picture

Birthday girl waiting for cake!!

Both waiting for cake. (apparently we couldn't get them to look at our camera. Not one picture had them both lookingat ours. My dad was on that side so I'm hoping he got a ton lol)

Blowing out the candles! They did great. They blew them out on their own! So big!!

Daddy playing with his new Itouch.

Giveaway Pictures

2011-04-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

Really quick (since I want to get to the birthday posts)
Here are the pictures of the prizes. I know Abby already received hers and I'm hoping Lori got hers already.

I made these two necklaces with both of you in mind and I hope you enjoy them.

Abby's

Lori's

(sorry about the quality of the pictures. I forgot to take them at home so I had to use my cell phone lol)

I'm planning to do another giveaway soon!

Update

2011-04-15T14:41:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let Abby and Lori know I mail off their prizes today. Let me know when you get them so I can upload pictures of them. I want them to be a surprise so I can't do it yet.

The Curse has struck again.

We put rug B back out in the living room three days ago.

Last night the dog barfed on it.

I think I'm done with rugs.

Expectations

2011-04-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

I have found as a parent you have to throw out all your expectations.

Before you have kids (as least this is true for me) I KNEW exactly how things were going to be.
My kids wouldn't be THOSE kids. Mine would listen and never talk back. They would be confident and self assured. They would eat everything I told them to. They would have perfect teeth and sleep all through the night from day one. They would never throw tantrums, especially not in the store. They would always stay near the cart and never whine. They wouldn't have pacifiers after the first year. They would would be potty trained by two.
My girls would be girlie. They would love to dress up in pretty dresses. They would play with barbies and babies, They would love princess movies and all things princess-ey. But they would be tough. They would be able defend themselves as well.
My boys would be tough too. They would love cars and superheros. They would love to build things. They would love bugs and dogs. But they would be sweet. They would bring me flowers and give me kisses.

In addition to all of this I knew that even if they weren't exactly what I expected I could at least control me. I knew that because I had gone through infertility and desperately wanted these precious children, that I would always be loving and patient with them. I wouldn't yell or scream.

Like I said you have to throw out all of your expectations. There are many times that my children really are THOSE children. They do throw tantrums, even in the store. I am routinuely outnumbered so I do lose my patience with them more than I'd like to admit. They are some of the world's pickiest eaters. The twins still have pacifiers (although they know Saturday is the last day for them) They aren't potty trained. (We are slowly working on that.)

Ellie is no where near a girlie girl lol. She hates dresses, princesses, barbies, and baby dolls (most of the time). She loves Captain America, superheros, ninjas, zombies, pirates, swords, guns, and the color pink. She is tougher than tough. She is my daredevil who will usually try anything. She is a spitfire and is my child who loves "potty talk." She thinks the word poop is HILARIOUS.

It used to bother me a little that Ellie wasn't as girlie as I had expected, but it doesn't bother me anymore. I'd still love to dress her in pretty dresses but I get such a kick out of seeing what she comes up with. She's so much fun. There"s never a dull moment around here.

Life isnt what I expected but I couldn't imagine it any other way.

Way Back Wednesday

2011-04-13T15:05:00.000-07:00

Way Back Wednesday: About to Pop

Dateline: April 2008 Ben's Age: 2 1/2 Twin's Gest age: 34 weeks This was taken at 34 weeks pregnant with the twins. At this point I measured over 5 feet AROUND. I love Ben's expression in this picture. He was so excited for the babies to be here. I was so exhausted and tired at this point. I was ready for them to be here but I also knew how much I would miss feeling them move inside. I knew it was my last pregnancy so I tried to enjoy it (as much as any 34 week-pregnant-with-twins mom can) C'mon....play along with Way Back When-esday! Click the picture below to see who else is participating.

Winners

There were actually two winners of the "Guess the Movie line" in my last post.

Lori actually answered it first but it was on Facebook. She said "I think I know the movie quote..Was it from Clue? Could be wrong but that popped into my head lol"

The first comment was from Abby who said: Argh!! How frustrating (and a little funny!). :D The quote is from CLUE!! Love that movie. One of the best parts? "Let us out, let us out!" "Let us in, let us in!"

Since you were both right I'm gonna send you both something :) I'm not going to be able to send them out until Friday when I can get to the post office alone. lol I will post pictures of the prizes next week after they get them.

I may be doing another giveaway in the near future.

Cursed

2011-04-09T11:10:00.000-07:00

We have one spot in our house that seems to be cursed. I thought at first it was the rug but it seems I am wrong. (these are actually old pictures but you get the hint.)
Here is the spot in question:

Originally we thought a rug would look nice here. So we went to Target to purchase a nice rug. (actually two, one for the other room as well but you will meet that rug later in this story. He is an intrical part. Why I consider the rug a he I'm not really sure but we'll just go with it for the sake of continuing...) Lovely rug. Great colors. Its actually a little brighter than it looks in this picture. The colors are deep but not this dark.

We have this rug for awhile with no incidents. Then Will gets sick and barfs on it. So the rug gets taken out to be washed. And since we are really on top of things and don't like to procrastinate, the rug sits in the garage for approximately 3 months. Then I accepted an offer to have a demonstration on a Kirby vacuum cleaner.

(Mind you I knew I wasn't going to buy a $2500 vacuum cleaner - even if they could discount it to $1300 because seriously who has that much for a vacuum cleaner? I will say I am impressed with that vacuum and if I ever have that amount of money to blow on a vacuum you know which one I'd be buying. But back to my story which has already way longer than it needs to be.)

So the nice gentleman comes in an cleans both rugs for free! Woohoo!!! I can finally get my rug back in place. So rug gets moved back in and everything looks great again. Then the babies (who aren't babies anymore. They turn 3! can you believe it 3?! in 11 days!!!) get sick. Very sick. Will was first and almost immediately threw up on the rug. So the rug gets moved back to its spot in the garage until the time comes that we can wash it. (mind you this was January that they got sick.)

So last week we are going to have people over and I am cleaning the house. I decide we need a rug back in the family room because it will make it look cozier and that's where everyone hangs out anyway. So I move rug B (remember him? Here's a pic of him. Isn't he nice looking. Beautiful cream color. Again lighter in real life than it shows in the picture) from the living room into the family room.

That very night, Molly (our new dog) barfs on the rug.

Well, to make a long story short...
Too Late!
{oooh, what movie is that from?! First person to guess correctly will win some sort of prize.)

Rug B is now sitting next to Rug A in the garage for a yet undetermined time.

Rejection

2011-04-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

Ben had a rough day yesterday he got put in time out in his room twice. The first time I found this note coming out from under his door. I love his spelling. Let me translate for you "No Mom Allowed" I have to admit I giggled when I saw it. It was so adorable. (I didn't let him see me giggle.)

Later he got put in time out again in his room and this time the note was even harsher. Translation - "No Mom Ever Allowed"

I love that he is using his writing skills. I know he doesn't mean it and in fact it just makes me smile. (It probably shouldn't though. I probably should feel some twinge of pain over the rejection but I don't because I know in 5 minutes he will love me again and I will be allowed in back in his room)

Oh how I love my growing boy.

Way Back Wednesday

2011-04-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

I love going back through old pictures on my computer. I have them sorted by year then by month. Routinely I will go back and see what happened a year ago on this day or two years ago or three, etc. I thought this would be the perfect thing to participate in. Cheryl over at Twinfatuation hosts Way Back Wednesday
(I'm cheating a little and doing 5 picutres instead of 1)

Dateline: April 4, 2006
Ben's Age: 5 months
This was taken at our house in Phoenix right before we moved back to California.

Dateline: April 6, 2007

Ben's Age: 1 1/2 years

Ben and his cousin Evan when we were living in the guest house in my parents backyard.

Dateline: April 5, 2008
Ben's Age: 2 1/2 years old
Ben and his new room. We decided to move Ben into our room right before the twins were born. We figured since we only had 2 rooms it would actually be easier to have them in their own room. He loved his new room.

Dateline: April 6, 2009
Twin's Age: 11 days shy of 1 year
Watching tv.

Dateline: April 4, 2009

Ben's Age: 4 1/2 years

Twin's Age: 13 days shy of 2 years

Easter morning. I love Ellie's expression in this picture. This is Will's first train. We started an obsession that morning lol.

Potty Training and other Changes

2011-04-05T15:52:00.000-07:00

One of my least favorite parts of being a mommy is Potty Training. So you can imagine my dread when we had twins, knowing that I would have to do it with both of them at the same time. (Which is probably why the twins are almost 3 and aren't potty trained yet.)

Well it looks like we are on our way. Two things surprised me about Potty Training. #1 I'm not doing them both together. They decided to do it one at a time. One of them is more ready than the other one. Which leads us to surprise #2. Will is the one who is ready first. We were pretty sure it was going to be Ellie. But she doesn't really have any interest in it. Will on the other hand wants to go all the time (usually right after I take his diaper off to change him) He hasn't pooped on the toilet yet but he's doing pretty good with pee. I think tomorrow we are actually going to try underwear.

I am going to give Ellie a little bit more time. She's starting to get interested so hopefully when Will is done She will be ready to go.

Next up - getting rid of pacifiers. They already know that on their birthday we are getting rid of them. We talk about it all the time. I'm trying to prepare them for it. Its not going to be fun but it's time.

For those of you who read my blog on reader, I updated it, Come check it out and tell me what you think. It's totally different. :)

Over protective Mom

2011-04-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

I have come to realize I am an overprotective mom. I hate having my children out of my sight (execpt with people I trust 100%) If we are in the store and they walk a little too far down the aisle ahead of me I start to panic. I don't like to have them go to friends houses without me. This isn't really a problem yet because Ben's only 5 so it doesn't really happen yet. But I don't see it getting any better when he gets older. I don't like to take walks with them or take them to the park because its really overwhelming for me to keep all three of them within my reach at all times.

Logically I know the chance of someone reaching out and grabbing them is rare but my illogical/emotional brain can't understand that. I am jealous of easy going laid back parents who can let their children run free. I feel like I am doing a disservice to my kids by not letting them have a little more room. I just don't know how to fix this.

I feel pretty safe in our house. I can let them be a little more free. I just wish I knew how to do it outside. Don't get me wrong I have no desire to just let them completely run amok. I don't want my kids to be "those kids" but I would like to trust the outside world a little bit more. To at least be able to take them for walks or to the park without being convinced, if they are more than 6 or 8 feet from me, that someone is going to drive up and kidnap them.

Please tell me I'm not the only mom like this. And if you have any advice I'd LOVE to hear it!

Not babies anymore - Part 3, Ellie

2011-03-28T17:44:00.000-07:00

And now for our little Princess who loves all things gir..... LOL I can't even finish the sentence. She is also almost 3. She loves Superheroes and hates princesses. Her favorite superhero is Captain America.

She hates Barbies and pretty dresses. She does love the color pink and Backyardigans. She is constantly making faces.

She is quite the fiesty one. She's totally full of personality and has an attitude twice her size. She has a temper to match her hair but can be the sweetest little girl when she comes up and hugs me with both arms around my neck and says "I love you Mommy"

She is so much fun and there's never a dull moment with these 3

I sure do love her.

Not babies anymore - Part 2, Will

2011-03-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

Will is going to be 3 next month. I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday we brought them home from the hospital, but it also seems like a lifetime ago.

Will is our sensitive child. He keeps to himself. He can play for hours (maybe not really HOURS but quite awhile) with his Thomas the Train set by himself.

He loves our new dog (yea we got a dog...thats a whole nother "What were you thinking" post lol) He loves my ITouch and knows how to connect to youtube to watch his "Green Anaconda" "Umbrella Bird" or "The Lion sleeps at Night" video.

We are planning to start potty training him soon. He seems to be ready. Which was a surprise. We were pretty sure Ellie would be first but she doesn't really even care.

He loves his Grandpa and is pretty sure he hung the moon. He also loves Grandpa's ITouch and Grandpa's Truck.

He has an awesome sense of humor and loves to make people laugh. He is quite the michevious one as well. He loves to hide from us and is constantly running away during diaper changes.

I love my sweet little guy.

Not babies anymore - Part 1, Ben

2011-03-28T08:13:00.000-07:00

I figured since my last couple post have been more AAM (all about me) posts I do one that just focused on the kids.

They are growing so quickly!!! I can't believe I don't have babies anymore. They are officially "big kids"

Ben is now 5. He's in Kindergarten and loving it. He loves to learn. He can read now (which doesn't help when Mommy and Daddy are trying to spell words to each other so the kids don't understand. Pig Latin here we come!)

I can't get over this smile. It gets me every time.

He loves to do crafts with Mommy. Painting, coloring, cutting, cooking, etc.

He loves his family. He's a great big brother. Him and Ellie are inseperable. She copies everything he does. Thankfully he is generally a really good kid.
I love him so much.

Let's try to revive this blog.....AGAIN

2011-03-28T07:57:00.000-07:00

I wonder how many times you can revive a blog before it really just stays flatlined. I've discovered something about myself. I throw myself into things 110% I do them everyday. I consume myself with them. I've done it with:

Scrapbooking - Ben has 3 scrapbooks for his first 2 years of life
Weight Watchers - I lost 50 pounds in 6 months
Blogging - I blogged almost every day for quite awhile
My bill sheet in Excel - I have at least 8 months of a checkbook that is broken down into categories - its totalled up and I can tell you the exact percentage of our income that went to each category
The list goes on and on.

But once I burn out on something it's next to impossible for me to get back in gear.

Scrapbooking - The twins don't even have one book and Ben's stops at age 2.
Weight Watchers - I'm still paying every month for WW but not only have I not been tracking anything I've put back on about 35 - 40 lbs.
Blogging - This one is self explanitory. I my last post was 8/5/2010
My bill sheet is sporatic at best.

The worst part is I WANT to do all of these things but I can't. Its like there are invisible chains on me that won't let me. Don't get me wrong, its not depression. I'm actually not feeling bad (I did quit taking the medicine. The hot flashes were driving me NUTS) but I can't seem to bring myself to do the things that I want or need to. Even though I know I can do them. In fact I'm actually pretty good at most of them. I know from past experience I can be successful at all of them. If I can bring myself to actually do them. I'm not sure why I can't. But its something I plan to work on.

Is this thing on?

2010-08-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

tap

tap

tap

Is this thing still on? I really am here. I know its been awhile since I last posted. I've been having a rough last couple months. I weaned the twins right after their 2nd birthday (Yep, They really are 2 now!! Where has the time gone? I will have to try to go back and at least do a birthday post for them but I'm not going to make any promises because I can't guaranttee anything (apparently I can't spell either). But I am going to try.) After I weaned them I started slipping into depression. In high school I suffered from depression. I was on Paxil and then Prozac from the time I was 17 until after we got married. I haven't been on any medication since before I got pregnant with Ben. I've done really well though. In the past 5 years I've done 4 cycles of IVF, been pregnant for 17 months, and nursed for 40 months. So my hormones (understandably) have been completely out of whack for awhile. (Maybe out of whack works for me though since I felt better during that time than I have most of my life hahaha)

Since I've weaned them and my hormones have gone back to "normal" things have gone downhill. Let me preface this by saying I never once wanted to hurt my children or myself (or anyone else for that matter). I did not enjoy being a mom. My kids drove me NUTS. I would lose my patience with them alot. I did not enjoy being a wife or a stay at home mom. I was completely unhappy. I put on 20 lbs because I had no motivation. I did the bare minimum around the house (did I mention we bought a house? Another post I need to write) My kids were always dressed and fed but that was about it. I was stuck in my head alot. I wanted to run away from it all. I wanted my old life back. No kids, no responsibilities, no bills, etc. I knew something had to change. But I didn't have the motivation to change it. I couldn't bring myself to pay the bills even though there was money in the account. I just couldn't do it. We got late fees because I couldn't pay them on time. I would finally force myself to pay them after awhile but rarely ever on time. I would sit down to pay them and not be able to physically bring myself to do it. I would lay awake at night worrying about them making myself sick. But still couldn't pay them.

Finally two weeks ago I went to the doctor. My mom told me she was really worried about me and would watch my kids so I could go. I explained the situation to the doctor and she put me on Effexor. The first week was hard. I had headaches and didn't feel the medicine was doing much. I had more motivation but still didn't feel like it was helping. I'm now on week two of the medication and can feel a difference. I still have sporadic headaches, plus hot flashes and I'm a little more tired than normal but I can FEEL a mental difference. I have motivation to clean my house, my bills are paid, I've lost 7 lbs and I'm feeling better.

Things are looking up and hopefully I'll be motivated to keep up with this blog as well. (if this post is any indication then I should be.... lol) I haven't been able to get myself to update this either. I would sit down and open the website but not be able to physically bring myself to type anything. We'll see how this goes....

Just bear with me while I'm trying to figure out myself and my life.. :)

Christmas Tree Farm

2010-01-05T23:20:00.000-08:00

For the first time ever we decided to get a real Christmas tree. We debated just going to one of the many Christmas Tree farms on the side of the road but then we remembered there is a HUGE Christmas Tree farm about a half hour from us. So we bundled all the kids up (relative term. It was cold to us. - probably in the 50s - 60s. I know that's nothing to most of you but we're not used to the cold. :) )

We were lucky when we got there that Santa and Mrs. Claus were there visiting.

Ben got to ride on a pony. The pony was named Spot. We were a little unsure of how he'd do but he LOVED it.

I love this one. He looks so little yet so big.

They had a petting zoo as well. We didn't take the babies in with the little goats. They jumped on quite a few of the people in there and I didn't think that it would be safe (or fun) to try to hold all three kids in there. (Ben didn't want down most of the time.)

Babies watching from the outside.

Looking at the giant turtles

This cracked me up. If you read the sign it says "DO NOT TOUCH THIS ANIMAL" The gate was wide open. Kept looking around for that animal.

I love this one of the twins. They are just so happy in this pic. They really did great. They seemed to have tons of fun.

"Big smiles"

Will and Ellie at their own "petting zoo"

Ben thought this Reindeer was awesome

Picking out the Christmas Tree

Found it!

I love that they were oblivious to Santa right behind them.

Bringing the tree to the car

Santa and Mrs. Claus leaving (Can you see the antlers on their truck?!)

Tree is loaded and ready to go!

Goofy Ellie

Silly Will

Santa leaving. Note the license plate.

It was such a fun time. I loved having a real Christmas tree. I can't wait to do this again next year and start it as a family tradition.

December

2010-01-01T21:49:00.000-08:00

SO I thought Iwould just post pictures of the highlights of December. I went through my D:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents\Kids\Yearly\2009\December\ to find just a couple of pictures to highlight all the fun things we did. 57 pictures later and I think this is gonna be more than one post. (Turns out I picked just about 10% of the pictures. I just checked and I have 652 pictures taken. That was after I realized that every picture we took today wasn't actually in December or 2009 so I had to create a whole new 2010 folder and a new January folder.)
So here are just some random pictures from December. (Then I will do separate posts for each of our Dec adventures) We will see how this goes :) Bear with me... I'm really trying

Our monthly picture.

Playing in the toy box

"hugs"

more hugs

kisses for Daddy

sitting on the ~~dock of the bay~~ coffee table.

kisses

Ben and Santa (The babies were at home, asleep. Horrible I know.)

"Sharing" (Ellie loves it as you can tell by the look on her face)

Getting so big!!

Cuddling with his blankie

Ellie's AWESOME fashion sense. (That is her brother's jacket and shoes and her hat.)

I'll be back tomorrow with more. Probably starting with our trip to the Christmas tree farm. But for now I am off to bed. I am tired

Jump start

2009-12-31T06:31:00.000-08:00

Let's see if I can jump start this thing...... It died so long ago that I'm not sure if I can but I will sure give it my all.

See what seems to happen with me (in almost every aspect of my life) is I find something that I totally love, I get so excited about it and I RUN WITH IT (good thing I don't LOVE scissors, I'd be in major trouble.) Then I tend to burn out and just drop it like a hot potato. I did it with:

scrapbooking. My best friend and I scrapbooked every week for a year (at least I think it was a year) and I did 4 scrapbooks of Ben's first year. Yea 4! Then she moved and I haven't picked up a sticker, a page, a scissor, a pen or anything. Ask me how many scrapbooks I have for the twins? NONE (and there are two of them I should have twice as many books for them.) I guess I just need Alisha to move back so I can get theirs done.. (HINT, HINT)
My organization binder. Remember this get-it-together binder? Yea, hasn't been TOUCHED in months. Ok I lied I touch it all the time. I have to so I can move it off my printer/scanner, then I move it back. The last to do list was dated July 29th and only 2 things are crossed off. Guess how much stuff I still have "to do"? Way to much!
Weight Watchers. I did AMAZING for six months. In fact I lost 50 lbs! I'd tell you to come follow my blog http://chunkymonkeymommy.blogspot.com/ and read all about it but I haven't blogged over there since Sept either. Speaking of which I should probably go update that one too. (Don't worry I'll finish this post first then update that one.... so you probably shouldn't hold your breath on an update over there. But I'll try)
Preschool for Ben. We did it for quite a while and he LOVED it. Then I'm not sure what happened but we stopped. We still did it once or twice but it not regularly. I think the twins got older and it just got hard to schedule it in. Thank goodness for First Baptist Preschool where he now goes three days a week and loves every minute of it. It's awesome.
My online message boards. I was very active on them for awhile. I even kept a journal over there. Then Facebook came along and I started posting over there and I couldn't keep up.
Sewing. Remember all these http://tiggrrl72077.blogspot.com/search/label/Sewing? Haven't touched the sewing machine in MONTHS. I want to. In fact I would love it. There just doesn't seem to be any time.
Hairbows
Jewelry
Baby Bracelets

See it's a horrible trend with me. I don't know how to fix it. I wish I could find something I love and stay with it. But I can't. Maybe that will be my New Year's Resolution. We'll see.

I've been wanting to update this blog for a while now. We've had a really busy and there is so much to talk about. Unfortunately I know me and if I try to go back and update everything I will get overwhelmed and not ever finish this post (Which is why I haven't updated in so long. I wanted to post about everything and the pile was just too high) So instead of sorting through all of it and trying to post about everything I think I will just start over.

Well not really start over, I'm not going to reintroduce myself or anything like that. But I think today will be our new starting point. So here goes....

Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign (and Milestones)

2009-08-04T09:58:00.000-07:00

The babies have really started to pick up on signing. They both can sign baby, more, shoes, and all done. On top of that Will can also sign cracker and Ellie can sign daddy and fish.

I love this stage when they are beginning to communicate. They are starting to say words as well. Will can say cracker. Ellie can say baby, dog, fish and bottle.

They are so much fun. They love to explore and get into ANYTHING they can. Ellie loves to climb on everything. Willl loves to open and close doors and cupboards.

They both are learning to throw tantrums - not my favorite milestone. Even their tantrums are unique though. Ellie bursts into tears and folds in half with her head on the floor. Will plops himself on the the floor and then (carefully) throws himself onto his back. With Will if you ignore him he will stop for a minute to check if you are watching him but after a little while he gets over it. Ellie can go on for quite a while. Her heart is broken and her world is ruined. She doesn't care if you are watching or not she is devastated that she did not get what she wanted( or someone got too close to her)

Will is more friendly. He's willing to go to most anyone. Ellie on the other hand would prefer that most people just leave her alone. She's ok with strangers if someone she knows (and feels really comfortable with) is holding her. But they better not get to close or she throws her tantrum. A poor cashier in Sam's Club learned this the hard way. Ellie screamed for a full 5 minutes just because the lady came up and said hi to her.

They both give kisses. Neither are very free with them. After Will gives a kiss he has to clap - everytime. (His wedding is gonna be interesting, "Now you may kiss your bride - Clap, Clap, Clap!") He gives big open mouthed kisses. Ellie's kisses are closed mouth and more like "Ok I will grace you with a kiss" She just leans in and puts her mouth on yours.

Ellie loves to run up and our legs. Its so cute. She just wraps her arms around your legs and put her head in between your knees. Will doesn't care much for hugs or cuddling. Even if he's hurt or tired.

They are so much fun! It's been so much fun to watch them grow and develop at different stages even though they are the exact same age.

Two new Benisms

2009-07-25T23:17:00.000-07:00

I know I need to update the rest of our Utah Trip but for now I'll just have to leave you with two new Benisms.

B: "Mom I don't want to watch your movies. Your movies are Lame!"

At the store looking at stuffed animals.
B: "Mom, you need one of these."
M: "I'm ok. I don't need one."
B: "But you don't have anyone to cuddle with"
M: "I have Daddy to cuddle with."
B: "But Daddy's not squishy."
M: "yea he is" (LOL)
B: "But he isn't furry."

That boy constantly cracks me up!!

Vacation part 1 - Camping

2009-07-16T21:33:00.000-07:00

I know I've been so horrible about blogging. Coming up, I've got 3 blogs about our vacation, and a couple more about the kids and their achievements. So here is part 1 of our vacation.

We went camping to Bear Creek, UT with my whole family. (Well almost my whole family. We were missing my sister Tarena who had to go and have a baby a couple days before the campout. - I have a new nephew!! Her husband Dan came up with their 3 other kids)
Ben "packed" for himself. He packed sunscreen

A change of underwear (so if he had an accident)

A change of pants for the same reason

and "60" cars. He kept telling me it was 60 cars but I never counted. LOL

It really was a lot of fun even though it POURED off and on the first day. The first night was HORRIBLE. Imagine being in a tent in the pouring rain, 37 degrees with three freezing kids all on a queen sized air mattress. The babies screamed off and on all night long. We got no sleep because even when they feel asleep we were freezing to the point of shivering. Each kid was wearing two pairs of footy pajamas and they were in bed with us. It SUCKED. At 3 am my dad came over and got both babies and drove them around for two hours so we could get some sleep. (have I mentioned I love my daddy?) It was such a hard night.

Day two was so much better. We went for a walk down to the lake. This is Ben and his cousin Jane. They have so much fun together. They are like brother and sister.

We took a family picture with everyone that was there.

Then my parents took one with just the grandkids

This is all the grandkids except for Nytis. My parents have 18 grandkids now. The oldest is 13 and the youngest is less than a month.

The second night we stayed in a cabin. We were traumatized by the first night. This is Will trying to find out what's in the sink. He found out later that it was a freezing cold bath and WAS NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT. (The cabin didn't have hot water so we heated water on the stove but it didn't stay warm for long. The baths were so cold and all three kids screamed through them)

Ellie exploring the cabin.

More random camping pictures

Our family

Ben, Jane and Grace (They were bug hunting)

I have more camping pictures but they won't load. GRRR

Next up Part 2 The Utah Trip!

These feet were made for walking

2009-06-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

and that's just what they'll do!

One of these days these twins are going to walk all over you.

LOL

My babies are walking!!! I got home last night and Will let go of the tv and walked to the middle of the living room. He's been doing it all day today. He keeps letting go of stuff and just walking.

Today Ellie (who has refused to walk TO people - or even take more than two steps) stood up and took 10 steps all by herself across the living room. She still will only walk when SHE wants to and doesn't walk to anyone but she can do it.

Other News:

We are putting an offer on a house tomorrow. I don't want to say much more about it right now because we've been disappointed so much lately in regards to home buying. But if you could put some prayers or good thoughts in for us we'd really appreciate it. We really want this house.

Name that Rash

2009-05-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Ben went to bed with a little bit of a rash on his arm pits. I put some hydrocorizone cream on it and didn't think anything of it. The next morning we woke up to this:

So we added Benadryl (or as Ben calls it "Ben and a Drill") hoping that would cure it. (along with the Hydrocorizone cream)

Later Monday it looks like this:

He's acting fine but that rash isn't going away. We continued all day with the hydrocortzone cream and Benadryl.

But Tuesday we woke up with this

So we were off to the Dr. Here's an interesting piece of info. If you go to the pediatricians office with your child who has an OBVIOUS rash all over - you get right in. You don't have to wait in the waiting room or anything. The receptionist takes you right back to the "Pediatric Rash Room" The nurse came in and said she had no idea what it was. He didn't have a temperature and hadn't been exposed to anything new.

Dr. B came in and said it was definitely an allergic reaction. (Just like my mom said) It was a bad case of hives. We have no idea what triggered it. The only two things that we could think of that may have caused it were - 1. he had a new brand of apple juice and 2. he got a new shirt. But here's the case against either of them. 1. he's had apple juice before. It was just a different brand. 2. The rash wasn't under where his shirt was. It was mainly on his legs, face and arms. Not on his chest or stomach.

So Dr. B said we were doing the right thing giving him Benadryl and hydrocortizone cream. If he swelled up any more (his hands and feet were swollen a little) especially on his face or lips, to bring him right in and they will give him a steriod. He did ask if he could show the medical students Ben's rash. We said that was ok. He brought us out to the medical students and asked them to look at it, figure out what they thought it was, and research it. One of them thought it was a reaction to amoxicilin. But Ben hasn't had any medicine lately. It seemed to puzzle both the medical students and the nurse. Thankfully Dr. B wasn't worried about it.

I brought Ben home and told my mom what the Dr said. She remembered one more thing that it could have been. Ben was stung by a bee on Friday. We got most of the stinger out but not all of it. I'm not sure it could be that because it had been a couple days before the rash started. I called today and left a message for the dr, just to tell him about it. I haven't heard back from him so I guess he isn't worried about it either.

Thankfully today the rash is almost gone. (I didn't get pictures of it today but I will get some tomorrow) It's on his chest a little bit today but now barely on his legs. It's still on his arms but it doesn't look so bad. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be gone completely.

Outakes

2009-05-23T22:39:00.000-07:00

As you can tell from this post I've tried to take pictures of the kids sitting together once a month to see how much they have grown. I've gotten every month except April 2008. Some turn out good. Some turn out not so good. I usually take 4 or 5 pictures each time to hopefully get a good one.

Here is the Month of May 2009

I would have liked it without the pacifiers but this is what I had to go through to get that one

I guess I just have to be happy with what I got :)

Cheap Labor

2009-05-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

I was watching Clean House: Search for the Messiest house in the Country today. It helped to inspire/remind me to clean my bathroom. Ben decided he wanted to help.

The twins were sleeping and I put my gloves on to get to work. Ben had to have his own pair. I knew the big yellow ones wouldn't fit him at all but I remembered I have medical ones (from when my c-section incision wasn't healing) so I let him wear a pair of those.

He did a pretty good job. He cleaned the bathroom sink and counter. Then I cleaned the mirror and toilet. (I wouldn't let him help with that) He wanted to clean the bathtub too but I wouldn't let him - The babies were going to be awake soon. So He climbed into the bathtub and "cleaned" it with his paper towel. Then he turned the bath water on and started sliding all over the bathroom.

At that point cleaning was done.

He's trying to do "thumbs up" here but can't because of the glove lol

Lost track

2009-05-20T21:37:00.001-07:00

I decided right before the twins turned one to quit tracking everything they do. It has been so nice. The spreadsheet has been retired.

That doesn't mean I've stopped tracking completely. We have a little white board on their door and I write down when they go to bed and when they wake up.

I have almost a year's worth of spreadsheets. Thankfully I haven't had to print them all out lol!!

The nicest part is I haven't had to write down a night waking in weeks!! They are sleeping through the night!!! They sleep from 6:30ish through roughly 4:30 -5:00 they nurse then go back to bed until about 6:30 - 7:00. It is so wonderful!! Now if I could just get myself to bed at a decent hour...

Benisms

2009-05-20T21:35:00.000-07:00

I had planned to just do this as a text box on the side but it got too big so I'm doing it as a post. I will update it periodically and just put the updated ones in a different color.

**UPDATED**
5/20/09

At dinner the other night I was trying to get Ben to eat his dinner (That's a whole post in and of itself)
M: Huggy (his imaginary friend) is going to eat all your dinner before you do.
B: Mom - Huggy is PRETEND

Ellie climbed on the table at my parents house
B: Look Mom, Ellie is a table dancer!

B: Cookies are my favorite thing to eat!

2/26/09

We were shopping at Walmart and Jim had Ben and Ellie. I met back up with them after Will and I got our Stuff.

D: I got all the stuff on my list.

M: I didn't have a list so I got whatever I wanted. :)

B: He didn't get ONE SINGLE THING for me.

Ben on the potty while Will and Ellie are crying in the living room

B: Mom, I can't poop with all the screaming

Ben getting off the potty (a different night)

B: Mom, I couldn't drop a dooder.

(Jim heard him say that and ran outside onto the porch knowing he'd be in big trouble for his influence.)

B: Are we going to buy a new house?

M: Not right now sweetie.

B: When this house is crap will we buy a new one?

1/8/09

He wanted me to sing Rock a Bye Baby over and over.
B: What is a cradle?
M: A cradle is a bed for a baby.
B: Then why is it in a tree?
M: Good question. I have no idea.

We were talking about it being Grandpa's Birthday and how we should make a cake for him
M: Should we put a pirate on Grandpa's cake?
B: No I like pirates.
M: What does Grandpa like?
B: Grandma

I was trying to put together a 3D puzzle for him and I was struggling with some of the pieces.
B: Maybe we should have daddy do it. Daddy is cool.

12/9/08
B: It's ready to pee!! My penis is ready to pee!

B: Little games are for little kids, I'm not a little kid. I'm a big kid.

B: My bones are big & I can play the big game now. I ate my dinner so my bones are big now.

B: I'M BIG NOW. I'M THREE. I'M TALL.
(are you seeing a theme here? Ever since he turned three he's obssessed with being "Big")

M: Come here so I can change you into pullups.
B: Change me into pullups?
M: Yes
B: You don't have a magic wand.

10/28/08
B: EEEEEEEEEEEEE!
M: what are you doing?
B: I'm freaking out!

Coming into The Strip inVegas
B: Daddy look at all those temples!

B: Momma! The trees are waving at me!! (it was windy)

B: You need to read a book on the potty Mommy.

M: Pick up your toys or I will take them away.
B: Take them away

B: I want a cheese sandwich with yellow peanut butter.
M: Yellow peanut butter?
B: Branka puts it on my cheese sandwich.
M: Do you mean BUTTER?
B: yea.

Talking about how Grandpa broke his rib
B: That's sad Mommy. Now he can't jump on the trampoline.

B: There's a ball in my penis. I can't squish it

M: What do you want for Lunch?
B: Something good and not greasy.

M: Nice try McFly
B: Nice try, McMommy

B: A little tv will help me calm down.

B: You put your arms open wide and then you hug the baby.

B: I want to take your picture.
M: What do you see in the camera?
B: Your boobies (He was standing on the couch)
M: Move the camera so you can see what you want to take a pic of.
He didn't move the camera.
M: Ben, do you want to take a picture of my boobies?
B: Yea - pull your shirt up.
M: No way. give me that camera.

M: I'm tired of telling you to stop touching your sister.
B: Yea, you are tired Momma. You should go to sleep.

(While watching "Ace of Cakes")
B: That was not a cake. That was a fish. Cakes are not fishes.

B: My finger just kissed my neck.

I can't remember what I said to him but he responded with:
B: You're going down, Tubby
Later
M:Where did you hear that?
B: From my mouth.
M: Who is Tubby?
B: He is a cookie who lives in the forest in a house.

B: Come here so I can kick your bottom.

B: Mommy I want to glow in the dark!
M: So do I baby.

M: Are the babies awake or asleep? (yep I asked it AGAIN)
B: 2, no 3 are awake.
M: 3? Who's the third one?
B: Me!

B: There's something coming out of my butt!!
M: What is it?
B: It's poop!

B: (singing) Goopy on my Poopy!! (and dancing) (Goopy is what we call diaper rash cream)

(During his haircut - which done was under much protesting)
M: You are going to be so handsome.
B: I AM handsome.

In the car (yes I ask this all the time in the car)
M: Is Will asleep?
B: He's awake.
B: He's asleep.
B: He's awake.
B: He's blinking.

M: Give me a second and I will take Ellie from Daddy
B: You don't take babies from people.

Daddy: Who you gonna call?
B: Ghostbusters

D: Stop
B: Hammertime

D: You can't touch this
B: yes I can

(while changing a poopy diaper)
M: You need to tell me when you are poopy
B: I'm poopy.

M: Ben, close the front door.
B: I'm letting the bugs in.

M: Honey, Stop climbing on me
B: I'm not Honey, Daddy's Honey - I'm Ben.

(In the car)
B: Mommy I'm dreaming about you

(In the car)
M: Is Will Sleeping?
B:No
M:Is he looking at you?
B: No
M: What does he look like?
B: A baby

Anyone: Ben, How are you?
B: I'm two

M: Ben are you poopy?
B: No - Are YOU poopy? Is DADDY poopy?

M: Ben go pick up your toys.
B: I can't. I'm a chicken.
M: If you're a chicken then lay an egg.
B: Eggs come from a chicken's butt.

M: Do not touch my keyboard again.
B runs over to his play phone and dials some numbers
B: Grandma you have to help me! Momma's mad at me!

3am
B is totally sounds asleep and starts crying.
M: Baby, Baby wake up. What's wrong?
B: The dinosaur bit me.

M changing B's diaper while on hold with the insurance company
The minute the woman answers
B: MY PENIS! I want to hold my penis

So big!

2009-05-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

I can't believe how big the babies are getting! At their one year appointment Will weighed 22lbs and Ellie weighed 16lbs. She's still tiny for her age but she's grown so much.
They are crusing all over everything. Will has taken a couple steps on his own - multiple times. Ellie has taken one or two steps, but she can stand on her own for quite some time.

They sure do keep me on my toes. This morning I turned around and saw this:

Yep, That's Ellie standing ON her toy. She thought she was so big. She may not be able to walk but that little girl sure can climb...

Will's favorite thing to do is to turn off the TV. We put the toy box in front of the TV to discourage this. As you can see:

In Ben news - My big boy is going to start preschool in September!! I can't

believe he's so big. He'll be going 3 days a week from 9 -12. I think it's going to be harder for me than it will be for him.

He is learning to draw and loves to get his hands on anything he can draw with. A couple weeks ago he was using his Magna Doodle and drew a picture of our cat Wally.

I think it's a pretty good picture :)

Where have my babies gone? They are all growing up so fast!!

New Blog

2009-05-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

So I did it. I created a new blog to follow my weight watchers progress. Here is the new blog http://chunkymonkeymommy.blogspot.com/ come visit me and see how I'm doing!

Happy Birthday Babies!!!

2009-05-17T20:58:00.000-07:00

On April 17, 2009 my babies turned ONE!! I am the mother to One-year old Twins!!I know I can't believe it either. I survived the first year!! From what I hear the first three years are the hardest so one down - two to go!

We had a birthday party for the babies. It was really nice. It was mainly close friends and family. The babies did really well. I made sure it was after their first nap so they would be well rested. They didn't eat any of the cake but that didn't surprise me. They aren't really excited about feeding themselves. But they did play with the cake. Will kept trying to push his away lol.

They got tons of toys and clothes. It was such a nice day. We had a pinata for the big kids, which was a blast. I love spending time with our friends and family. I am so grateful to have such wonderful people in my life.

On to the pictures!

Birthday Boy

Birthday Girl

Decorations

Birthday Cake Before

Birthday Cake During

More During

Cake After

This one cracks me up. I love the icing moustache

Presents

Random Pictures

Ellie's Favorite game

Aunt Kate and Aunt Jill holding babies

Auntie Kate and Ellie

Larry and Will

Daddy and Ellie

Big Brother

Mommy and Ellie

I am alive!

2009-05-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

Surprise! Surprise! I am alive. For some reason I'm still not able to blog. I want to, I really do. I just can't bring myself to do it.

I'm not going to update everything in one post. So hopefully this will be the beginning of a slew of posts! (fingers crossed)

Here's what's new with me:

I've decided to start Weight Watchers. I am going to blog about my progress on a new blog (Ha!Ha! I can't keep up with this one) I will post the link as soon as I get it up and running. Hopefully in a day or so.

My next post will be all about the babies (who are now 1!!!) birthday party and Easter. Also tons of pictures of course!

One Year ago today

2009-04-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

This is from my journal one year ago

"I had my dr appointment today. He's not really worried about Ellie's growth. He said it could just be that she's small and a girl. BUT the Peri has decided he wants them out two weeks earlier than planned sooooo they changed the date to

April 17th!!

I'm a little freaked out. 14 days from today. I can't believe it. I'm a little nervous because that will put them here at 35w6d instead of 37w5d. I am praying they don't have to spend much time in the NICU.

I have a NST on Mon and then another one the next Mon. My next dr appt is next Friday.

I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing yet. I'm still just scared but excited. "

Then later

"I think I'm warming up to the idea. I am still a little freaked/stressed/nervous about it. I think my main concern is that they are going to be here before 36 weeks and that was the magic number in my head. I just have to keep telling myself that it's only ONE day before 36 weeks. I'm still just praying they are ok and there isn't any NICU time or if there is it's just a couple days while I am in the hosp as well. I guess at this point only time will tell. I wonder if it would be worth it to ask for the steriod shots to ensure their lungs are mature? or if it's too late at this point.."

I can't believe it's been a year. They are here and healthy. They didn't have to spend any time in the NICU. It's been an amazing, overwhelming, crazy year.

We are having the twin's first birthday party next Saturday. I still have so much to do to get ready for it.

Gotta love that kid

2009-03-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Jim was playing Guitar Hero and Ben was watching. Jim missed a note. Ben said "Why did you miss that note Daddy?" Jim said "We can't all be perfect" Ben said "My Mommy is"

Gotta love that kid!

Trampoline or Ball pit?

2009-03-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was such a nice day that we played outside most of the day. (That is one of the nice things about Southern California. It was in the 70's all day.) My parents were watching my neice Jane (Her mommy was in the hospital having her little brother - more on him later) Ben and Jane are only about 6 months apart and they have tons of fun together. They love to jump on the "Jumpoline." RIchie and Loralee bought a bunch of balls to go on the trampoline. Ben, Jane and Will loved it, Ellie - not so much. She didn't want to be on the trampoline at all with the balls. She was content to hang out on the outside of the net with Grandma.

Will and Ellie checking out the "ball pit"

Ben and Jane

Ben and Jane bouncing

This is my favorite picture of them. I love how they are up in the air with all the balls flying.

Will

Ben

Will

Ellie and Grandma watching the fun

Ben, Jane and Will

Ellie wanting off the trampoline.

I Googled Myself

2009-03-12T22:36:00.000-07:00

So I did a google search of myself today. Most of the results were things along the lines of "the melody frees my soul" and things like that. But there were a couple that were actually related to me. Some brought back tons of memories.

When we lived in Phoenix we were interviewed for a newspaper article on infertility. Apparently that article was used in another article as well. If you don't want to read the whole article here is the part about us:

"As long as I can remember, all I've ever wanted was to become a mother and have lots of babies," says 26-year-old Melody Frees of Litchfield Park, in the Phoenix area of Arizona, who learned in 2002 that her fallopian tubes are blocked, leaving her infertile. "I see parents with babies, and I wonder if we will ever know the joy of having a child of our own." .....

Mixed messages from doctors, misplaced medical files, and numerous go-rounds with insurance companies taught Frees, the Litchfield Park woman who, at 26, should be in the prime of her fertility, and her husband, Jim, to take notes, make copies of their records, ask questions, and find answers.

The Freeses tried to borrow money to pay for in vitro fertilization (IVF), but were denied, so they moved from Southern California to Litchfield Park in August 2003, found new jobs and plan to buy a home. They'll take out a second mortgage to pay for IVF, starting in 2004, and will do no more than two cycles. The cost will be about $20,000.

Finding out his wife couldn't have children without first having a tubal ligation to remove toxic fluid in the tubes that could hurt a fetus was a blow to Jim. "I'm a fixer. I need to fix things that are broken," he says. "But there was nothing I could ever say or do to turn this around and make it better."

It was interesting to read knowing what I know now. Since that time we've done 4 cycles of IVF and now have 3 children.

I also found the article in People magazine that talked about the INCIID program that allowed us to do the first two cycles. (This one only has the article. It doesn't have the pictures of us) Here is the one that has the pictures.

I remember the hopelessness of not knowing if we'd ever have babies. For Christmas one year our families got together and raised money to put into a "baby fund" for us. On the card they put this poem.

Hope

When roses lose their loveliness
When rivers cease to flow;
When sunlight fails to warm the air,
When stars no longer glow.

When birds cannot take to flight,
When a ruby's luster fades;
When leaves refuse to fall from boughs,
When trees cannot give shade.

When fields of flowers wither,
When clouds cease making rain;
When mountain ranges cast no shadows,
When prairies cannot grow grain.

When these natural wonders end,
When there's no dusk or dawn;
When all life's miracles cease to be....

...Only then will my hope be gone.

I'm so grateful to be where I am now. I'm so thankful for everyone who helped us get to the point we are at now. Without them we wouldn't have the beautiful family we have now.

All that reflection because I decided to google myself.

Super Powers

2009-03-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

While Ben was going potty the other day he told me he was "SuperPeeMan!" He said "When bugs come into the house, I will pee on them!"

Now if you ask him what his super power is he says "Peeing!"

So what's your superpower?

Introducing Pickles the Cheeseball

2009-03-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

Whenever I bring out the camera, Ellie turns into a total cheeseball. Her faces crack me up so I had to get some pictures of them. That girl is so funny.

Too much TV?

2009-03-05T21:28:00.000-08:00

Today a commercial came on for OxyClean and my dad said
"Hey Ben, Who's that?"

Ben said "That's BILLY MAYS!!!"

Of course he can tell you that Billy Mays sells the Big City Slider Station as well. Do you think that kid watches too much tv?

Probably

9 months of pictures

2009-02-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

Every month I take a picture of all three of the kids together. It used to be on the couch every time. Now its on the couch or on the recliner or on the floor but I make sure it's all three of them together. I can't guarantee a smile everytime or even that everyone is looking at the camera but at least they are together. I didn't do it on purpose and I actually missed April the month they were born. I have pictures of them together and of Ben holding each of them but none of them all together. I had done it for a couple months before I realized that I had gotten one every month but now I make a point to do it. I went back through them last night. It was neat to see how much they've all grown. I put together a collage of the last nine months.

The post with no name

2009-02-27T20:47:00.000-08:00

I started this post a week or so ago and just haven't been able to finish it. So I figured I would try to finish it and get it posted. Here goes:

It's been too long since I posted. For some reason I can't seem to find anything to post about. Actually that's not true, There's been stuff to blog about. But I get writers block every time I try to start. Here's our life in bullet points:

Will has 6 teeth now.
Ellie has 4 teeth.
Will can pull himself up on furniture and cruise around.
Will can also crawl on his hands and knees. Up until today he would just do the army crawl.
We've all been sick. Jim got it first, then Ben, Will and me. Ellie barely got sick at all. Jim got it the worst.
Jim almost lost his job but it seems pretty ok now.
Will bit me three or four times while nursing and my right breast was so painful that you can barely touch it. It made me almost cry to nurse on that side. There were two little holes where he bit me. It looked like I was nursing Reneseme (LOL that's for Twilight fans. - I just reread Breaking Dawn) The pediatrician (I mentioned it during an appointment for Ben and the ped knew we were in between primary care doctors so he checked me out. AWESOME DR! ) gave me an antibiotic to cure the infection which took away the pain. Will hasn't bit me in over a week thank goodness! I would cringe every time I'd go to nurse him because I was so scared of being bit again. It was REALLY Painful!
Ellie knows how to clap when you say "Yeah!"
Ellie will copy me and Ben when we shake our head and say "No! No! No!"
Ben had a horrible rash. On his front and his back. I took him to the doctor and it turns out his excema has returned. He gave me a prescription for a cream and told me to coat him in lotion. ( should have remembered that's what we had to do when he was little)
Ellie can pull herself up to standing. We had to lower her crib on Monday. She was still at the highest setting until then.
Ellie can't resist a laundry basket. If there is a full one near her she has to empty it. There's one next to her crib and today when I went in to get her up from her "nap" (she didn't sleep) There were two towels and two sleeper jammies in her crib.
Will said "Mama" today. (I can't say for certain that he knew what he was saying but I was down the hall and he saw me and started crawling to me and he said "MaMa"
We went on a tour of a preschool the other day. Ben will be going in Sept. I think he's pretty excited about it. (Not that I think he's really aware of what preschool is. He knows preschool is learning and fun but he doesn't understand this preschool isn't at our house and Mommy isn't going to be there. )

I think that is our updated life. Now for the part you are really here for - PICTURES:

Standing in their crib (no he's really not THAT much taller than her. I think he's on his toes)

Ellie's stink face

Will trying to watch tv over the table

Ben's monster face

Will's First mohawk

Ben

Ben's rash

My Boys

Ben painting a volcano

Jim and Ben ( I LOVE THIS PICTURE)

Ellie with her crazy smile in the laundry

Is this not the cutest song ever?!

2009-02-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

I have a real post coming soon. But I couldn't resist posting this. My niece sings this song and its so cute! (The way she sings it is so much cuter than these guys but I don't have a video of her singing it so you are stuck with this version)

Peanut Butter and Jelly Song

I’m peanut butter and you are jelly

and we’re so happy on our little piece of bread

I remember the first time that I saw you,

sitting across the cupboard with your other jelly friends

You’re so sweet and I am chunky

You’re low fat, well I’m working on that

Cause I’m peanut butter and you are jelly

And we’re so happy on a little piece of bread

I met grape and strawberry

But you’re raspberry and that’s my favorite kind

Please excuse me for my recent stint with honey

I was looking at the label and not at what was inside

You’re so sweet and I am chunky

You’re low fat, well I’m working on that

Cause I’m peanut butter and you are jelly

And we’re so happy on our little piece of bread

I’m so glad that I discovered, you in the cupboard

I hope you’re glad too

From now on, we’ll be stuck together

But what could be better than being stuck with you

You're so sweet and I am chunky

You’re low fat, well I’m working on that

Cause I’m peanut butter and you are jelly

And we’re so happy on our little piece of bread

Day One Complete

2009-02-26T21:17:00.000-08:00

Jim is in San Fransisco with my brothers Travis and Richie. Travis is an "Exibitor" at the WonderCon2009. Jim and Richie went to help him out. This is the first time since the babies were born that we've been apart overnight. They left this morning and will be gone until Sunday.
Jim has been on vacation this week which has been wonderful. It's been really nice having him home. It's been great having him around so much to help with the kids. Ben has loved having his Daddy home. The only problem is now he's gone for 4 days. So we went from having him home all the time to gone.

I sure do miss him. (Don't tell him but it gets pretty boring around here without that crazy guy.) I don't know what I'd do without him.

We survived the first day. Only 3 days to go. The days are pretty easy to get through since he's normally at work anyway. It's the night that is hard. I get bored, lonely and I tend to suffer from panic attacks. I'm hoping the next 3 nights go by really quickly.

I would die for that

2009-02-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

I've had writers block for a couple weeks now. I have a post started that I promise I will get up in the next day or so. Its basically an update as to our life recently. But in the mean time...

Today has been kind of a rough day. Babies are cranky. Ben has been whiney. Babies took two very short naps and woke up screaming/crying. Ben actually took a nap which means he will be up later tonight. I have tons of baby laundry I need to fold and a house to clean. Needless to say I was feeling a little overwhelmed and to be honest not very happy about being a mom. Then I came across this:

It describes me four years ago perfectly. It put everything back into perspective. I am so thrilled I have been given this chance to be a mother to these three perfect little souls. This is exactly what I've always wanted. It helped to bring me back and remember what I went through to get to this point.

I would die for that.

Way back when

2009-01-25T19:50:00.000-08:00

I met Jim in either 1992 or 1993 (neither of us can remember) My friend Carolyn moved to Moreno Valley and started dating his friend Chris. They were going to go to a "Midnight Bowling" night at the local bowling alley. Carolyn invited me so I could meet Chris' friend Jim. I was only 13 or 14 at the time and wasn't allowed to date yet (I wasn't the most obedient child) I asked my parents if I could go to the Midnight Bowling (The bowling alley would lock everyone in from midnight until about 7 in the morning - if I remember correctly. I didn't do alot of bowling back then - or now for that matter) My parents said No way. So a couple days later I asked if I could spend the night at Carolyn's house. They said I could if we didn't go to the Midnight Bowling thing. So I spent the night at Carolyn's and of course we went to the Midnight Bowling. There I met Jim. He was hilarious. He was the class clown and always made everyone laugh. We "dated" (as much as you can at 13 or 14, living in two different cities, with neither of you having a drivers license) off an on through our sophmore and junior years.

We went to my junior prom together. I can't say I had a good time. We were on the verge of breaking up at that point. I had low self esteem and needed constant attention. He had a sense of humor I didn't appreciate at the time. The combination of those made for a pretty crappy night for me.

We broke up very soon after. Our senior year we didn't have much contact I don't think. He went into the Navy right after High School and I moved to Utah. He wrote me a couple of letters during that time. But I don't think we talked for more than a handful of times from High School through 2000.

Then June 17, 2000 I was driving in Moreno Valley on my way to a friends house. I had my mom's cell phone with me and I was thinking about Jim. Just wondering what happened to him. I called information and gave them his last name. I had no idea if he even still lived in Moreno Valley. I didn't know what his parents names were or anything like that. They said there was one listing for his last name so I went ahead and called it. Of course I got the answering machine and it didn't say any names it just said "You have reached XXX-XXXX please leave a message" Well crap. That didn't help. So I left a message "Hi, I'm looking for Jimmy... My name is Melody... I knew him in high school..." and he picked up the phone. We talked for a few minutes and he invited me to house. (Unknown to me he was actually getting ready to go to his girlfriend's house. Needless to say he got there late) I went over there and we hung out for a couple hours. Then he went to his girlfriends house and I went to my friend's house.

We went out a couple times after that but I wasn't really interested in him. He was awesome to hang out with and we had so much fun but I was dating three other guys at the time and wasn't interested in settling down. At the end of our second date he we to kiss me and I turned my head so he kissed my cheek. He decided if I didn't kiss him by the third date he was gonna find someone else. Thankfully for me, I kissed him on the third date :)

On my 23rd birthday (July 20th) I was still dating Jim and the other 3 guys. (I was mainly dating Jim but I refused to commit lol) I got roses delived to my work from the other three guys. A dozen from one, 23 from another and 24 from the third. I got home and Jim had a bouquet of sun flowers and wild flowers for me. He said "I thought you'd be sick of roses by now" (AWWWW)

In August we went to an amusment park with my brother and his girlfriend. We were still just friends but we were constantly together. He was my best friend and we were pretty much inseperable.

While we were there we were standing in line for the laser tag and I was talking to my brother's girlfriend. The subject of kids came up and I turned to Jim and said "How many kids did we decide we were having? was it 4 or 6?" He said "I believe it was 4" and I went back to talking to her without even batting an eye. Then I stopped and said "Wait, when did we go from just being friends to deciding on kids?" He laughed and said "I don't know, it just happened" and from then on we knew we were getting married.

On August 11th we were going to my friend's mom's house to pick up the engagement ring, (We bought my ring from a pawn shop and her mom had picked it up for us) we were almost there when we rear ended the car in front of us. We totalled the car and Jim broke his arm. Someone called 911 and they had the ambulance come and take us to the hospital. Not before her mom came to the accident site, climbed in the ambulance and handed Jim the ring. He proposed to me there in the ambulance. Both our parent came to the emergency room and thats where they met.

On January 20, 2001 we were married.

We've had our ups and downs since but we are so happy together. I love him so much and I'm so happy that I went to the Midnight Bowling and that I called him. I am so blessed to have him in my life. He is a wonderful husband and father.

This week in Review

2009-01-23T20:47:00.000-08:00

We are all recovering from being sick over here. Jim got it first. He was completely knocked down last weekend. Saturday he didn't even get out of bed. He had a horrible fever and was just completely sick. By Monday he was feeling a little better but since he had been in bed all day Saturday and Sunday he could barely walk on Monday. Jim took care of Ben on Monday while I took the babies to their 9 month appointment. (But I already posted about that here)

Tuesday Ben, Will and I all came down with the same thing Jim had. We have all been horribly congested all week. Ben was running a fever on Tuesday and Wednesday. Poor Will's nose has been gross. (and I HATE snotty noses) Tuesday was also our 8th anniversary. I was meaning to post this whole wonderful post about our anniversary. I still plan to do that post either later tonight or tomorrow.

Wednesday we bought a Cannon Eos Rebel XS as a anniversary present to each other. I am so excited to start using the new camera. It takes AWESOME pictures.

Last night was my sewing class. I am loving learning to sew. I made a sun dress for Ellie Bellie. It is reversible. I love the material for it. It's not finished yet. I still have to add buttons to it and make the diaper covers. Since it's reversible I'm going to make two covers. One in the pink skull material and one in the black polka dot material. I love the dress and can't wait for it to be finished! Here it is:

My mom had me measure her waist and thigh so we could make the diaper cover small enough. Ellie has a 15 inch waist and 8 inch thighs. For the fun of it I decided to measure Will as well. He has a 19 inch waist and 11 inch thighs. Then Ben wanted to be measured as well. He has a 19 inch waist and 11 1/2 inch thighs. My boy have the same size waist and almost the same size thighs!

We are now on friday and slowing feeling better. Ben is still whiney, Ellie just got her third tooth today, Will and I are horribly cranky and Jim has to work tomorrow yuck! Hopefully we will be covered and back to our smiley happy selves soon.

9 months

2009-01-19T19:11:00.000-08:00

Will and Ellie had their 9 month appointment today. The offical stats are:
Will
Weight - 19lbs 8.5oz - 25th %
Length - 27inches - 20%
Head size - 45cm - 45%

Ellie
Weight - 14lbs 5.5oz - not even on the charts.
Length - 26inches - 15%
Head size - 42 1/2cm - 20%

My babies are getting so big!! They are scooting all over the place! Will is really quick. He can sit up on his own. He says "Mamamamama"all the time and his giggle is completely infectious. He has 4 teeth. He's such a chunky little monkey, I love it. Poor little guy has been spitting up again and he's been really grumpy lately so I talked to the doctor about putting him back on the Zantac because I'm pretty sure the reflux is back. He agreed so Will is back on Zantac. This time he's on 1.2mls every 12 hours.

Ellie is so much fun. She is so ticklish. Her laugh is hilarious. She gets so excited and wiggly when she sees someone she likes. She doesn't care for strained baby food but loves anything she can pick up and eat by herself. She has 2 teeth. She's so tiny. She has a newborn size dress that she just barely grew out of. We really are getting our money's worth in clothes on her.

They are so much fun! I can't believe how quickly time has flown by.

Sewing Class #3

2009-01-17T14:05:00.000-08:00

Thursday night I had my third sewing class. I made Ben a blanket. He loves it.

Almost finished

After we tied it.

I'm going to make one for Will next

One Week

2009-01-15T18:39:00.000-08:00

The babies are now on solid foods. In one week they eat a total of 42 jars of baby food, half a box of rice cereal and half a box of oatmeal. For breakfast they each eat one jar of fruit and 1/4 cup of oatmeal mixed together. For dinner they each eat one jar of vegetables mixed with 1/4 cup of rice cereal and one jar of fruit. Sometimes they will share a jar of vegetables instead of each eating their own depending on how hungry they seem.

They each go through 5 -6 diapers a day, which totals 84 diapers a week.

Thankfully Ben is POTTY TRAINED now!!!!! He's been only had 3 accidents since last friday and he's been dry every morning when he wakes up! We only have to buy 2 sizes of diapers now. YEAH!!!!!

We weighed the babies tonight by having my dad stand on the scale then I'd hand him a baby. According to our scale Ellie weighs 13 lbs and Will weighs 20!

Here's a couple cute pictures of them :) Because I can't resist

And the silly ones

Sewing Class #2

2009-01-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

I went to my second sewing class last night. I made a bib for EllieBellie. I'm pretty happy with the results.

It looks hot pink in the picture but it's actually red. I think I'm going to go out tomorrow to JoAnn's and pick up some more fabric to make more bibs. I really like them especially since they are really big.

(I'll be back later to post my thoughts about the comments. Ellie is waking up)

Comments

2009-01-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

I bet you're thinking this is another post where I ~~beg~~ ask for comments. Well you're wrong :) This is asking for advice (ok I guess since I'm asking for you to respond I am in fact ~~begging~~ asking for comments. So I guess you are right.)

How do you handle responding to comments? Do you email the commenter directly or do you just post another comment after them? I feel bad about not responding to comments all the time. I read them and think I need to respond to that but then I can't figure out if I should respond in the comments so everyone can read the response, but what if the commenter doesn't come back to reread the comment section? or should I email the commenter but then everyone doesn't get to read the answer? or should I create a whole new post to answer the comments? Maybe I should do that. I'll write a post where I go through all the comments and respond to each question. I guess that would be more like a question and answer session...

:Sigh:

I think I'm over thinking this whole thing. If I haven't responded to your comments in the past please forgive me, I'm trying to do better.

Just random pictures

2009-01-07T22:02:00.000-08:00

I figured I haven't done a random picture post in awhile. (and if I have oh well here's another one) :)

Daddy and Ben

Ben

Will (how can you resist this smile?)

Will's smile again

Ellie sleeping today

Ellie (I can't believe how big Ellie looks here)

Move over Martha Stewart!

2009-01-04T21:51:00.000-08:00

For Christmas this year, Santa brought me a sewing machine. I've been wanting to learn to sew but haven't had the time, a sewing machine, the room, etc.... Well now I have one of those excuses crossed off the list. I own a sewing machine!!

My mom said she would teach me to sew I just needed to figure out when. So I talked to Jim a couple nights ago about going up to my mom's house one night a week after I put the babies to bed (they go down at 6:30ish) for a sewing lesson. He said "why don't you go up there twice a week? Once during the week and then on Saturday night as well" He didn't even get a chance to finish the sentence and I was on the phone with my mom setting it up.

Last night was my first sewing lesson. We started with something easy - a pillowcase.

Here I am sewing Ben's pillowcase

Here is the finished product

I need to take a picture of it on the pillow.

Next I'm learning to make a bib.... I am loving learning to sew. It really gives me a sense of accomplishment. I love being able to make new things. It also gives me some much needed ME time.

Obligatory Happy New Year post

2009-01-01T19:04:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has a wonderful, safe new year!

I can't believe:
it's 2009
I'm 31
I've been married almost 8 years
14 years ago I was a senior in high school
I have three kids
Ben is 3
Will and Ellie are almost 9 months.
I've done IVF 4 times.
I've been pregnant 3 times.
I've been pregnant with twins.
I've had 2 c-sections.
I weigh mumble, mumble, mumble.
I've bought and sold a house.
I've owned 6 cars.
I quit work to be a stay at home mom.
I've had 3 dogs, 5 cats and numerous fish

I've been thinking about my New Year's resolutions. Of course I have the standard:
1. lose weight and
2. get out of debt

on top of those two I really want to be a better wife and mother. Sometimes I don't feel like I do a good job at either one. I don't have as much patience as I should with my children or my husband. I want to work on strengthening my relationship with Jim. He really is a great guy and I need to remember that more often. I need to make sure I appreciate him more and complain less. I need to make sure he knows how much I love him and support him.

I think the other thing I want to work on this year is to find out who I really am and becoming a stronger Me. 2009 is the year of Becoming Me. I want to work on being happy with who I am.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-27T20:49:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

I've been trying to write this post for a couple days now. I wrote this post yesterday but then our power went out and I lost the whole thing.

We had a really wonderful Christmas this year. We spent it sourrounded by family and friends. This was the first year that Ben really knew what was going on. He was so excited about Santa. It was soawesome to be able to experience the magic of Christmas through his eyes.

He had so much fun making cookies for Santa. He left them out with a note. Daddy wrote the note and he signed his own name (except it turned out Bem)

He woke up at 5:00am so excited because "Santa had come!" We convinced him to stay in bed until 6:00. (by convinced I mean we refused to get up.) I was cuddling with him for awhile and he rolled over to Jim. I pulled him back to my side and he said "I want to cuddle with Daddy. You hug yourself" nice huh?

So we finally let him get up at 6:00. He came out and saw that Santa had responded to his letter.

Then he saw his stocking.

and the tree

He opened his presents from Santa

Then the babies woke up

They opened their stockings (ok, I opened their stockings)

And they played with (ate) their toys

After we opened presents at our house. Then we went to my parents house to open presents up there. At 1:30 we went over to our friend Scott and Bridgette's house. We visited with them for a while. The whole day it was raining really hard so we had to keep running to and from the car. Then at 3:00 we went to Jim's brother's house and had Christmas dinner with Jim's family. We finally got home at 7:00pm and put the babies to bed. Ben went down at 8. Our house looks like ToysRus barfed all over it. but it was a wonderful day. It was so nice to spend Christmas with our families. It was a really busy day but it was wonderful.

We are so blessed to have great families that we live close to. I couldn't imagine a better life. I'm surrounded by the best family and friends a girl could ask for.

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas as well.

Potty Training, Teeth and Weaning

2008-12-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

We've been working on potty training Ben which hasn't been fun. All week I've put him in underwear. If he had two accidents in a day I'd put him in a diaper. So everyday this week he ended up in diapers about noon (one day he made it until 2). I haven't been able to figure out any that would work to get him to pee in the toilet until today. On my friend's facebook page she talked about these bullseyes for the toilet. I though to myself maybe that would work for him. So what I did was found a bullseye clipart. I printed up probably 50 of them. So today he peed in the toilet all day! He stayed dry until 6:00. We had people over, he was watching tv and I forgot to ask him if he needed to pee so I can't really blame him. I am so thrilled! He loved peeing on the targets.

More good news Will has a third tooth! This one is on top. I think he's going to wean himself soon. He will only nurse for a few minutes and then is horribly cranky. I just don't think he's getting enough. I nursed him this afternoon for about 5 minutes then he refused to nurse anymore. He was still so cranky so I made him a 6 ounce bottle and he downed it in minutes. Then he was really happy.

Ellie however wants nothing to do with a bottle. She would rather not eat and wait for me to get home than take a bottle. It will be weird to have one on a bottle and one nursing.

Anyone else wean one and continue to nurse the other?

My spreadsheet

2008-12-18T20:48:00.000-08:00

I got an email from Lisa today asking for a copy of my spreadsheet. I realize I've mentioned my spreadsheets before but I don't think I've ever really described it. So here goes :) (Thanks Lisa for an idea on something to blog about too! I've been in kind of a blogging slump lately)

I keep track of everything that goes into and comes out of the twins. Its another obsession of mine. It really messes me up if I don't have the data for that day.

Here's how the spreadsheet works.
It starts at 6:00am and ends at 5:00am the next morning.

Column B and C are the start and end times for nursing.

Column D is which side Right or Left (I just put R or L)

Column E is if they were really fussing (I didn't always use that column. I started putting y/n for fussy then switched to a color code red was inconsolible, orange was fussy, yellow was mildly fussy, green was happy. Then I quit tracking it all together. I was trying to see if there was a pattern for awhile)

Column F is for if they took a bottle and how many ounces it was. ( I supplemented at first. And now they get one if I'm gone)

Column G is if the bottle was (e) expressed (Breastmilk) or (f) formula

Column H is what time they woke up

Column I is what time they went down

Column J is if they have a wet diaper (I just use y/n)

Column K is if they have a poopy diaper (I use (L)arge, (M)edium, and (S)mall or (N)one)

Column L is the number of diapers in that hour (If they had two poopy diapers in that hour I would put L2 or whatever in column K or Y2 in Column J if they had two wet diapers)

Column M is any other comments - if they got shots or tylenol or what solids they eat (I use it still) It helps to keep track of medicine too.

Row 28 adds up the total amount they had supplemented and Row 31 is the total number of diapers they each had that day.
The twins have been alive for 245 days and I have data for at least 230 days of it. One of these days I will stop keeping track but for now it's really helpful. I really do feel out of sorts if I don't track what they did that day. It's also really helpful when I have to take them to the doctor because I don't have to actually remember anything. I have it all right there.

I know I'm crazy aren't I?

(If you want a copy of my spreadsheet please feel free to email me. I have daily ones and one that is for the whole month. - it is the same spreadsheet but has a new tab for each day. It is on Excel so you will have to have Excel to use it)

Don't bite the hand (or boob) that feeds you

2008-12-12T21:03:00.000-08:00

Ellie has always been a biter but now that the little girl has a tooth it hurts like HELL! I've tried just pulling her off everytime she bites. It doesn't completely work. Any ideas would be great!! How do you get your baby to quit biting you?

What do 1/4 cup and 1/3 cup equal?

2008-12-09T21:05:00.000-08:00

Peace and quiet.

The babies have had a rough couple of days. Yesterday's naps were horrible. Ellie slept for less than two hours. Will took a really good nap in the morning but then two almost 1/2 hour naps for the rest of the day. It was horrible. They were so grumpy.

Today was better. But from 5-6:30 they were NOT HAPPY. They just wanted to be held. Of course that is dinner time and I was hungry. So we put Will in the exersaucer and Ellie in the highchair and gave them both measuring cups. They were thrilled. It was so nice to be able to eat dinner without crying babies.

More Teeth!

2008-12-07T19:55:00.000-08:00

Yep, Miss Ellie Belly (aka Pickles) got her first tooth today!!!!

Here comes Santa Claus

2008-12-06T20:44:00.000-08:00

We got to go see Santa last night. Ben LOVES to see Santa. He has always taken great pictures with Santa. Here he is last year.

This is from this year.

Meeting Santa

Sitting on his lap

All three babies did a great job. No tears even though it was two hours after their bedtime.

Santa was the same last year and this year. Which I think is AWESOME!

These pictures aren't great because they are the ones from our camera. I can't wait to get the ones from the photographer.

(Yep the babies are in their jammies and Ellie is in a hairbow. I figured no one would recognize her if she wasn't lol!)

Just for Channa

2008-12-04T10:48:00.000-08:00

Here is my 29 week pregnant belly with the Twins.

Let me tell you - you look adorable pregnant.

and just for giggles 35weeks 6days (right before we left for the hospital)

Catch up

2008-12-02T21:33:00.000-08:00

It's been way too long since I've updated. Things are going well.

My baby turned 3 and had a great birthday. He had a really fun birthday party. Basically we just had family there but we still had at least 25 people there. It was a Lightening McQueen party (surprise, surprise) Amanda made his cake. This isn't a great picture of it but you get the picture:

This is Ben eating his cake. He wanted the tire

We bought him the Leapster2 for his birthday and he spent quite some time hanging out in the hallway playing his game.

He had tons of fun and got lots of wonderful presents.

Other news and pictures:
Ellie is able to sit up for about a minute on her own!

Will has two teeth!

I got them all dressed in their christmas outfits and wanted to take a picture. I couldn't get one where they were all smiling. These are the two best ones..

(this one cracks me up with Ellie's face.)

I took these pictures of Ellie last night and they cracked me up.

I promise to try to be better at posting. I really need to post about sleep issues (AGAIN! We are back to being up every 2 hours all night long. Which makes them so tired and they are so cranky during the day.) Have I mentioned Twins are HARD?

Ben's first joke.

2008-11-25T14:54:00.001-08:00

Q. What's green with red polka dots?

A. A silly monkey, you silly mommy.

Ben's Birth Story

2008-11-21T13:07:00.000-08:00

Continued from my journal

"At 4:00 we called my parents to let them know we were heading to the hospital.

We went to the hospital with my contractions every two minutes but they only lasted about 30 seconds to a minute. They admitted me to the hospital. I was dilated to 4-5. Ben’s heart rate looked great. Lynnette wasn’t on call so another midwife – Donna – was handling our care. She was nice but we didn’t really like her. I just really wanted Lynnette there. We decided to walk around the hospital to hopefully bring on more contractions. At this point my parents had already left and were headed out. We walked around for awhile, but stopped at each lap so I could pee.

Donna came in to check me about 9:30. My contractions weren’t coming any stronger or closer. In fact they seemed to be lessening. I hadn’t dilated anymore and he was still pretty high. Donna said “We will monitor you for another hour and then we will discuss more options. Keep walking around the hospital” She mentioned inducing labor by either breaking my water or pitocin but said we could discuss it later. We walked around a little more and my parents got there. Donna came back and said she just realized that this was our first baby not our second like she had thought. She said that changed some things. She didn’t want to break my water because Ben was still high and that could make a higher risk of his cord coming first. She said, “why don’t we send you home and see how things progress.” She expected to see us back the same night in active labor. She was on call until 7:00am and then Lynnette would be there.

I was partially disappointed to go home because I just wanted to have my baby but I was relieved because I didn’t want Donna to deliver him, I wanted Lynnette to do it. I was also concerned because my parents were only going to stay the one day – my mom had to work the next day and I wanted them to be there. But at this point there wasn’t a lot we could do either way. My mom decided to reschedule all her appointments for Monday so they could stay. I took a nap from noon until 2:00pm. I was exhausted since I hadn’t slept at all the night before. We went to Wal-Mart so they could buy the stuff they needed to stay the extra day. While we were walking around Wal-Mart I had two contractions. (I really wanted someone to ask me when I was due so I could say “Actually I’m in labor right now” but no one did) We then stopped at Subway to buy dinner but still no real progress.

At about 10:00 we all decided to go to bed. I was awakened at 11:00 with contractions again. I didn’t wake up Jim because he was planning on going to work the next day. The contractions continued to get stronger and closer together.

November 21, 2005

So about 12:00 I woke Jim. I wanted to go sit in the tub and needed his help timing contractions. He went in and ran the water in the tub. I got in for awhile. The contractions continued pretty strong and regular. I began to shake during them. I laid in the tub until about 1:30. The warm water felt really good. I kept a warm wet towel on my stomach to keep me warm since my stomach wasn’t covered with the water.

At 1:30 I was done with the tub but needed to rinse off. (I had put some bath beads in the water and my skin felt horribly oily.) I stood in the shower for a little while. Jim needed to get some sleep because we still weren’t sure if this was real labor or not. I decided the recliner would be more comfortable than the bed, so Jim slept on one side of the sectional sofa and I sat in the recliner. I let him go to sleep and I timed the contractions while trying to relax. I tried walking & sitting & nothing was really comfortable.

At 2:30 I was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep but I couldn’t relax because of the contractions. I went in and woke my mom up so she could do some relaxation techniques on me. My dad woke up also and I asked him to give me a father’s blessing. I don’t remember much of what he said I just remember him saying that he blessed me that the baby would be delivered healthy. I know the blessing gave me peace. My mom worked with me through the contractions until 5:00am. They were coming 5 minutes apart and lasting over a minute each but with her help I was able to sleep in between them. It was amazing because they were just 5 minute naps but they felt like 30 minutes.

At this point we decided to wake Jim and Dad and go to the hospital. My mom was afraid I would go into active labor in the car on the way to the hospital. I was just afraid of getting there too early and not having Lynnette take care of me. We got the hospital and had to be admitted through the ER. It took awhile for them to come and get me. My parents called Jim’s cell phone and asked where we were because they were already upstairs in our room (they went through the OB department and not the ER.) We finally got up to my room and they hooked me up to the monitors.

A little after 7:00 Lynnette walked in and gave me a big hug. I just started crying. I was so happy and relieved to see her. She ripped the blood pressure monitor off me and said “We’re going to get you out of this bed ASAP” She decided to monitor me a little while longer because Ben wasn’t moving much. They gave me some apple juice to see if that would wake him up. They monitored me for a little while longer and then Lynnette helped me to the bathroom. She sat with me in there and helped me through a couple more contractions. She told me that her and her family was out of town this weekend but she kept thinking of us, hoping we hadn’t had him yet. It made me feel really good. I had a couple more contractions after I came out of the bathroom. I had them standing up, holding on to Lynnette. She decided she wanted to check me again so I got back into bed. I was dilated to an 8. I got a shot of Nubain to help with the pain. They put in a heplock to give me the shot. I told them I didn’t want to have an IV because I wanted to be able to get out of bed if I felt the need. I had quite a few more contractions and I began throwing up through some of them.

At one point I had a contraction and I thought that I had wet my pants. I whispered to Jim to get me some washcloths because I thought I had. He got me a bunch from the closet and I put them under me. Then during the next contraction I felt it again. (It was actually somewhat of a relief. It felt good in a weird sort of way) Lynnette was out of the room during this time. When she came back in I told her that I thought I had wet my pants. She laughed a little and said “Well, let’s check. I bet it was your water breaking.” Turns out it was my water that had broken. I was fully dilated but I had a little rim of cervix still left covering his head. She told me to start pushing to see if we could move the cervix.

I believe I started really pushing at about 11:00am. I don’t really think I had much choice in this. My body started pushing. Some point during the pushing stage I accidentally knocked the heplock out. It didn’t really matter because I wasn’t receiving any more pain medication. I had only had the one shot. Pushing was really hard work. They put a bar over the bed called a “squat bar.” Lynnette tied a sheet to the bar and when it came time to push I put one foot on either side of the bar and pulled on the sheet. The bar was attached to either side of the bed and it went over the top. I pushed like that for the better part of 2 and a half hours.

Lynnette could feel is head and there were times that they could even see his head but he wasn’t coming down. Lynnette knew I was exhausted and dehydrated so she ordered an IV. I asked my dad to give me another blessing. Lynnette said that she wanted me to have an epidural so I could rest some and if I hadn’t made progress within the hour she would recommend a c-section. I knew that if Lynnette recommended a c-section then that was what I needed. She knew my stance on c-sections and I trusted her judgment completely. If anyone else would have recommended it I would have questioned them or asked for a second opinion but I knew Lynnette wouldn’t just order one if it wasn’t absolutely necessary.

The anesthesiologist came in and put in the epidural. I had to sit totally still but I kept having contractions through it and couldn’t quite stay still. After he was finished and left I could still feel the contraction. The pain lessened a little bit but not very much. Lynnette said I shouldn’t be feeling as much pain as I was so they called the anesthesiologist back. He had to take out the first epidural and put in a new one. I had contractions through that one too but it worked. The pain was pretty much gone. I could still feel a little pressure but not the pain like before. After another half hour of letting my body do some pushing Lynnette said that a c-section was our best option. She said she knew something just wasn’t right. He should have come down more during the contractions and something was preventing that. We agreed that a c-section was the best way to go. Jim decided that it would be best if he didn’t go in. He knew he wouldn’t be able to handle the sounds, smells, and sights of the c-section. We agreed that my mom would go in with me. Jim and my dad would be in the “viewing room.”

While I was laying on the bed waiting for them to bring me in for surgery I started to cry. My mom and Lynnette asked why I was crying. I told them it wasn’t because of the c-section even though I was disappointed about that. I was crying because my pregnancy was over and I wasn’t ready to not be pregnant anymore. I loved being pregnant so much but I didn’t realize that I had gotten that attached to it.

They wheeled me in to the surgery room and got me all prepped. I was strapped to the table and a sheet was placed in front of me so I couldn’t see what was happening. They began the procedure but they didn’t tell me much. My mom was standing by my head looking over the sheet so she could see what was happening. I kept asking “Is he out yet? Is he out yet?” My mom kept saying “No he’s still cutting”

Finally after what seemed like forever – I heard the sweetest little cry. They brought him over to me and let me kiss him. Then they took him to the nursery while they cleaned and sewed me back up. During the surgery the anesthesiologist saw my dad’s camera (my mom brought it in so Lynnette could take pictures of the surgery). He said, “wow that’s a great camera! That’s a $2000 camera.” It turns out that was the camera that he wanted to buy. He said “Hey Lynnette – I’ll give you $100 for the camera. Heck I’ll give you $1000 for the camera and I’ll still be ahead.” It was really funny.

They took me back to my recovery room and my dad showed me the video he had taken. My mom told me that Ben’s hands and feet were blue when he was born. She also said his face was blue and he wasn’t breathing when he was born which was why it took so long for me to hear him cry. He had been out the whole time I was asking but my mom was so afraid we had lost him that she wouldn’t say anything until she knew. She said he had a huge bruise that covered the entire top of his head from being in the birth canal for 3 hours.

Lynnette came in and said that he had been posterior (His face was facing up not down) and the cord was wrapped around his neck and shoulder. Both of those reasons were why he wouldn’t come down and it was probably good that we didn’t force it.

They finally brought him into me and laid him on my chest. He started nursing right away. He was such a perfect little baby. I can’t say I fell in love with him the minute I saw him because I loved him long before that. I loved him before I saw him on the ultrasound. I loved him before I felt him move. I loved him before I got the positive pregnancy test. I loved him before Dr. Acacio transferred the embryos into my body. I loved him before I saw his embryo picture. I can’t think of a time I didn’t love him even though I didn’t know who he was. My life was never more complete than the day they placed Benjamin Edward into my arms.

Nov 20, 2005 3:19am

2008-11-20T20:43:00.000-08:00

This is from my journal in 2005.

"Well it seems that we may have a baby today. At about 3:00 this afternoon I lost my mucus plug (which looks alot like snot - like alot of snot) yucky.

I got the urge to clean both bathrooms today so I did (That was before losing the plug.)

We decided about 6:30 to go get some dinner and walk around since nothing was really happening. So we went to Weinersnitzel and Petco. We wandered around for awhile and then came home.

I went to look for something in my office and decided it really needed to be cleaned so I spent about 1 1/2 hours cleaning it. Then I came out and did dishes and vaccuumed the living room.

I then went to bed about 11:40. At 1:44 I was awakened by my first REAL contraction. I've had them about every 2 -5 minutes since then. It's 3:28 now and if they keep up until 4:00 then we are going to the hospital. I lost more of my mucus plug about 15 minutes ago. I will write more later.
41 weeks 3 days"

Update and pictures!! Yeah Pictures!

2008-11-18T22:16:00.000-08:00

The mastitis has cleared up pretty much completely. It was morbidly fascinatingly (is that even a word?) gross. But it feels so much better now! I'm still on antibiotics which I have to take 4 times a day on an empty stomach. Timing that (and remembering to take them) is the hardest part.

A couple weeks ago we had family pictures taken by a friend of ours. You can see her work here: Erin T. Photography Here are some of my favorites

Us:

I love this picture. It shows my kids perfectly! :)

My big boy

I wish Will wasn't spitting up in this picture because I love this shot.

Will's face cracks me up in this picture

Our family

Another great one of Ben

Will and Ellie

Mastitis (TMI)

2008-11-15T23:01:00.000-08:00

Thursday night I started feeling a little pain like I had blocked duct. This is probably the 8 or 9th one I've had since I started nursing the twins. I never got one with Ben but now I get them constantly. This time it actually is Mastitis not a blocked duct. Yesterday was horrible. I felt awful. I had a constant headache that wouldn't go away and a temperature of 100.9 I couldn't wear a bra. You couldn't even touch my boob, it was so sore. I called my doctor to make an appointment. The only one they had was in 15 minutes and there was no way I was going to get there in time. They told me to go to Urgent Care so after Jim got home from work I went.

The doctor said it was Mastitis but it wasn't horrible. He was glad I came in when I did. He put me on an antibiotic and told me to follow up with him on Tuesday.

So today I started feeling better except I could still feel the blockage. I took a hot shower this morning and tried to express some milk. What came out was gross. It looked like pus. It was stringy and thick. This evening I sat on the couch and tried to express some more. Nothing would come out of the one blocked "hole" So I kept squeezing. I felt a little pop and a tiny ball of milk came out. Then when I expressed, pus just poured out. It's really gross. I just expressed more and its still stringy and I've had a couple more "pops" then pus/milk pours out. The pressure is lessening. I'm still taking the antibiotic to clear up the infection. Hopefully it will go away soon.

Teeth!

2008-11-15T13:43:00.000-08:00

Will cut his first tooth on Thursday!! I can't believe my babies are old enough for teeth. In two days they will be 7 months old. Where has the time gone?

Finally

2008-11-12T22:04:00.000-08:00

So after messing with it most of the night last night and half of today, I changed my blog background. I had to redo it quite a few times to get it right.

I've been playing with the digital scrapbooking stuff and made the background. (I didn't actually make the papers or the elements. I just put them together)

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Also, I think I figured out how to be able to change it whenever I want without the hassle that I went through this time!
YEA!

Ben

2008-11-11T22:09:00.000-08:00

3 years ago today I was due with Ben. (He didn't arrive for another 10 days. But I was due today)

Time goes so quickly.
I made this scrapbook page for him today

My how times have changed

2008-11-11T14:34:00.000-08:00

My mom sent me this ad

I can't imagine this would pass safety requirements now lol.

Nothing and Everything

2008-11-07T19:15:00.000-08:00

The title says it all. This is really a post about nothing. I can't think of anything to blog about.

The babies are getting huge. Will is rolling EVERYWHERE. The other day I laid him on the ground and sat down to feed Ellie (They were off schedule) I looked up and he was rolling down the hall. He can sit up pretty well on his own. Not for really long periods but for a minute or two now. He LOVES solids, or nursing, or a bottle. Most of the time he will calm down pretty quick with his pacifier. He is in 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. His laugh is infectous. He is completely weaned off of the Zantac.

Ellie is begining to roll more. She isn't quite as mobile as her brother but she's getting there. She loves to touch faces. When Daddy gets home her whole face lights up and she reaches for his face. She doesn't like solids or bottles and is content just nursing. She is in 3-6 month clothes and size 1 diapers. She still steals the pacifier from her brother constantly. She loves to suck on her toes which is so cute to watch. She's a very happy baby.

Here they are sitting up with their toys.

Ben is getting so big! I can't believe my baby will be three this month! He is so much fun. He loves to make people laugh. He pretends he's sleeping on car rides. He can hold it pretty well. He will sit there with his eyes closed and not say anything. Then if you say "are you sleeping?" He will just smile. It's so cute. He is learning to write his name. He LOVES preschool. He loves to learn. He's begining to be less picky with what he eats. He's been more willing to at least TRY different foods which is awesome. It doesn't happen every time but it's more than it was.

I'm learning to do digital scrapbooking (like I really need another hobby) I've been having tons of fun with it. I will have to post some of the pages I've done when I get a chance.

Carving Pumpkins

2008-11-02T21:11:00.000-08:00

This is the first year that Ben has actually gotten to carve a pumpkin with Jim. He had so much fun! I didn't think he'd want to touch the pumpkin "guts" but he wasn't squeamish at all. We went to the pumpkin patch on Wednesday and let him pick out a pumpkin.

(The big pumpkin is Jim's)

He got to draw the design he wanted and then him and Jim carved it.

Getting ready

Cutting the top off

Getting the guts out

I love this smile :)

Helping daddy cut the pumpkin

Finished Product

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T22:28:00.000-07:00

Sick Baby

2008-10-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ellie has been REALLY grumpy the past couple days. Just screaming and wanting to be held constantly. That isn't like her so I know she isn't feeling good. I finally took her to the doctor yesterday because it had lasted for 3 days. She had a temperature of 100.9 but both ears were clear and so was her throat. He said there was no sign of infection in any of them. He said she was probably fighting a virus. He didn't give her anything just told me to treat the symptoms with Tylenol.

She had an ok day after that. I kept her on Tylenol for most of the day. She acted better. I put her to bed at 7:00 like normal. At 7:45 she started crying. I usually give her a llittle bit to see if she will go back to sleep on her own. At 8:00 I went into check on her. Poor baby had thrown up all over herself. (thankfully I now put them to sleep at opposite ends of the crib with their feet together instead of laying them next to each other.)

I called my mom (because Jim was at school) and asked her to come out and help me. I needed her to hold ellie while I changed the sheet on the crib. I couldn't figure out how I was going to do it when Will was still sleeping in it. Mom knew what to do. I took the sheets off Ellie's side of the crib and put the clean sheet on it. Then I put Will on that side of the crib and then pulled the rest of the dirty sheet off Will's side and finished putting the clean one on. Will slept through the whole thing! Talk about Mommy power! I can change the sheets on a crib and not wake the sleeping baby.

She seems to be feeling a little better today. I'm just praying that Will doesn't get it.

Halloween

2008-10-29T21:52:00.000-07:00

We kept saying "this year we are going to buy our Halloween costumes early" So here we are two days until Halloween and guess what we did tonight. We went Halloween shopping.Good intentions...

We went shopping last night at the local Halloween store and came up with almost nothing. Of course if I wanted to be a slutty - just about anything. I could have found an outfit. or if we wanted to pay upwards of $30 for a cheap costume for EACH of the kids we could have found a crappy costume. Neither of these sounded like good options. I was able to find a wicked witch costume for me. YEA!! But nothing for anyone else. (I did get a skirt for Ellie but it has little bats on the bottom and I'm afraid that she will eat them. So maybe next year)

So tonight we went to Target to find costumes. Ben wanted to be either a motorcycle(? How the heck do you do a motorcycle costume?) or a Tyrannosaurus Rex. (Good luck on that one too) Of course couldn't find either of those so Ben is going to be Dale Earnhardt Jr. (not because we are Nascar fans. But Ben loves race car drivers and Dale Earnhardt Jr drives the AMP car (AMP is a Pepsi product)

Will is going to be a bat. It's a really cute costume. It's so soft! It's orange and black. The only thing I don't really care for is the fact that its a sack. (It's 71 right now at 10:35pm. I'm not real worried about him being too cold.)

Jim is going to be Richard Gene Simmons. He's going to be Richard Simmons with Kiss makeup. We found him some SHORT work out shorts and a pink tank top. He's going to pick up an afro tomorrow. (We couldn't find one at Target)

Ellie is going to be a Witch. I found the cutest witch costume. It's a black dress with orange pumpkins on it. It has a green ribbon that laces up the front and a green bow. It's adorable. It fits Ellie perfectly. The only sad part is - it's a dog costume. But it's so cute and she looks adorable in it! You tell me - Can you tell it's a dog costume?

I'm going to put her in black tights and see if I can't find a black diaper cover.

I will post pictures of everyone in their costumes as soon as I can get one.