A week long visit!

One of my former college roommates, Heidi Lyn, came for a visit at the beginning of November. We had such a great time. It was funny after the fact, to think about having a friend staying with her one year old daughter (and hubby came for the weekend) in my basement for a week. I felt like I was 16, and got to have a sleepover! They live in Seattle, so the trip was a welcomed one! The last time we saw them was when we went cabin camping in the Seattle area a little over two years ago.

I can't imagine traveling on a plane with three kids 3 and under- so I'm glad they came here for the trip. Their daughter Petra is so sweet. Having 4 kids in the house didn't mean lots of pictures, or well composed ones. So I have the few here....


On Saturday HL and Dan went on a morning date and headed downtown to see some sights, and then in the afternoon we all visited the American History Museum. Again on the metro with all three kids! It was so nice to have them here....we love getting to spend time with Petra too.

We stopped to eat with all the kids before we got to the museum- can you imagine finding space for 4 kids and 4 adults? It's tricky. Sometimes you have to fight for space!





Caed wasn't all that agreeable for the dads and kids picture...



While HL was here I took the kids on their first metro ride ever. We did it one day when Caed had to go to school, so it was my first trip with all three too! what fun and chaos we had. Finding all the elevators to get in and out of the metro...hysterical. And after we dropped Caed off at school we skipped nap and headed to the building museum in the cold rain! I can't believe it rained the whole week they were here...such is life- and well they are from Seattle, so they know they won't melt...

And the wrong angle gets such a bad view of the weight I need to still loose!! Oh well, worth posting anyway...

We miss you guys!

snow, I'll wash my hair with snow...

My grandmother (yes, you Nana) always tells me that you don't have to take more then one picture of your house in the snow, because it will always look the same. I agree, but can't stop wanting to get pictures of all the beautiful clean white snow...

Here are some shots of the snow we got today...what a fun day! Jon took Caed out to sled in the morning, and I took him out in the late afternoon...and Caed had a great time trying to walk through it all. It tired him out too!

8 months

I still haven't blogged my meager pictures from my former roommate's visit. I'll still get to it.

Here's a quick, albeit late, shot of the twins at 8 mo. We were super sick last week coming home after thanksgiving. The kind of sickness you want every 10 years. (how did we just have a terrible sickness less then 2 years ago? It was so terrible, I won't forget that one!) Anyway, I was impressed I got them both mostly similing.

and here's how they interact lately:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am so thankful for my life and how rich it is. the Lord has truly blessed me.

Hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving! I am sure to have some cute photos. (besides I have the cutest ones from when HL and Petra were here..I still need to post those.)

Look who's moving...

let's just say I'm glad Theron doesn't want to move too. Note to self to make sure children don't slip under furniture now. And you can be assured that Caed did pull his Kitty out of Aldan's hands without replacing it with another toy.

Have I mentioned how much i love this kid? He's a cutie.

Last week

Last week one of my college roomies came for a visit! HL and her 1 yr. old daughter Petra. It was so much fun to have a friend stay with us for a whole week- I feel like I should have been 12- we stayed up late every night, and played hard all day. There were 4 kids in the house! (more on that later)

Aldan got three more teeth- all on top, and all at once. Aldan is now getting himself on his knees and he's scooting around a bit on the floor when he's on his stomach - moving backwards...the steps before moving forward...I think all he wants to do is practice moving. He's not happy just sitting and LOVES when you stand him up. When I try to sit him down he won't bend his knees and insists on standing.

Theron isn't doing much more then what he was. He loves to sit and play and shake and find toys in the bins next to him. It's so funny, but I watched him try to grab a toy that got too far out in front of him, and then he sat back up, and leaned the bin of toys over that was next to him, looked at it for a few seconds and then grabbed something. He was intentional about what he wanted to play with...i loved it. He loves books, and will sit there listening...at the end of reading the shortened board book version of Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Theron gets a big smile. It's like he knows it's crazy all the letters fell out of the tree. He's loving our routine more and more.

Caed is understanding the family dynamic more all the time. It's harder to describe his development because it's a little more complex then crawling and laughing for the first time. He is doing really well and I am really intent on growing his relationship with his brothers these days. He tells us quite frequently that he Loves Us. And it's so sweet, but it really seems like he's saying it because he's grasping more and more how unconditional our love for him is. He'll say it after I discipline him too, which to me is so sweet. I have the oppurtunity to tell him how much I love him after I've had to do something I didn't want to! He likes school a lot and playing with his good friend Aliyah. We are thankful that he is able to develop friendships within our church. Hopefully wherever he ends up going to school next year these relationships will help bridge the transition.

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving. I know Caed gets the holidays more, and it will be fun to have two more babes to celebrate the holidays with. it will be especially nice to be able to see Jon's family and have them see the boys too.

Pictures to come....

They say it's your Birthday...

Today is Mickey Mouse's Birthday!

It also happens to be shared with me. Caed and Jon baked a cake for me last night, and Jon's coming home early to cook dinner. (Shrimp fra Diablo) This morning Jon and Caed gave me my cards and birthday presents. Jon is taking me out to eat in Baltimore on Saturday to a dinner theater that is showing Irving Berlin's White Christmas! I am so excited about this because I LOVE that movie! I watch it during the holiday season and sing "sisters" with my sisters! The funny thing is just the other day I was singing my rendition with the words "brothers"! Jon said he thought I had come across the gift and that's why I was singing it- but I hadn't! He know me!

They also got me a gift card to McDonalds. Funny, huh? It's because I stop there all the time in the drive through to get one of their special coffees. Jon calls it my Starbucks. We don't have any other drive through coffee places as available as McDonalds....the funny thing is, I have one right around the corner from my house- but they don't make the special Cafe drinks there! I have to be intentional about going to one further away...it's probably good for me. Jon is also getting me a new phone- it's one I've wanted since the spring. I am REALLY excited about this. And the other gift to me today is that at 8am, I went to get the twins, and they were still sleeping!! so they slept until 8:45! A nice slow morning around here!

I am truly blessed!

Fun Stuff

Well it's been a good week. The babies continue to grow and grow! It's so funny being out and about and people notice that I have two babies...kind of hesitant to ask me if their twins. I'm usually out without Caed- running my errands after I've dropped Caed at school on Tuesday and Thursdays. I've decided that going home to get them both down for naps is just too much work. I'd rather get out and do stuff, come home (or somewhere) and nurse the babies and head down to pick up Caed. I try to always mention that I have him too though- it seems sad to me to not mention him, my big boy!!


We bathe someone every night except Friday nights. That's the night I make a no bath night. then usually Caed gets cleaned on Saturday mornings, and the babies on Saturday night. Then that kind of creates a backlog on washing come Sunday, because we've got small group Sunday evenings, so no one gets washed again, and then I like to give Caed a bath the nights before he goes to school. So Babies don't get washed again until Tuesday evening. I guess I could bathe them Mondays at some point in the day, I just never feel up to it.

The twins eat twice a day, although i bounce back and forth with a third feeding. Right now I do a "lunch" and a "dinner" breakfast seems hard to add with getting Caed out to school- but I may try to commit to it. I don't know. I guess soon enough I'll be able to throw them pieces of things and they can get a morning "snack". It takes some time though to get them both settled to eat, and then clean and change two. Theron eats pretty neatly, but with Aldan sucking his thumb, he tends to get it everywhere because he likes to suck his thumb after every bite! So you can imagine what that means for spinach...green everywhere!!

They sleep mostly well. We've got them into a nice routine of three books and a song and you lay them down and walk out. I used to put Theron down first because he fusses some before falling asleep, but then I realized he fusses more when he sees the door open and shut when you come in with Aldan. So I've started putting Aldan down first.

That goes pretty well. They don't seem to really effect each other with crying. They do some when they are naturally close to being done with their nap- but it's okay. The situation works. This has always been a dread of mine, having to get two babies to sleep in the same room. Again, my friend Michelle encouraged me that they do get used to it, and it won't bother the other. So half the battle was in my own mind. Once I settled that out, then it seemed that they could do it!

Aldan (above) is a sweet sleeper. He's all cuddly, and loves his lovey. he cuddles the thing right up next to his face like he read some book about how to be the cutest baby ever while sleeping.

Theron is a good sleeper too, definitely more like Caed. It's fun to have the two be so distinctly different. We are so thankful for our kids. There aren't any pictures of Caed because I don't have any different ones then I've posted lately. These photos of the babies are from about a month ago.

Aldan is getting three more teeth! He's not been all that agreeable, and extremely drooly. Just helping him getting through this time, I wish they'd just pop through, they are so close- and I think that's what makes all the pain.

lying around

if you leave something on the ground that is soft by any means, this is what happens..

Halloween costumes

Not the most flattering photos....But the whole situation to get them out and dressed was quite a lot of work....and then to make sure they didn't cry the whole time...I just got the photos I could. And they were well behaved...

theron- our chili pepper


Aldan- Our Peapod


Caed- Our cowboy