Taken From Another Blog

Everyone,

I saw this list on The Busy Body and had to borrow it. By the end, I was wondering how many on the list I have done. Everything in bold I've done.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (does orchestra count? I think it should.)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (ok, we aren't talking about a huge mountain)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning - either that or just really bad gas.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching (not specifically but seen whales from a cruise ship)
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House (the outside, still trying to get inside)
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby (three actually)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own

Hey, 45 out of 100 isn't bad! Almost half. There are a few things I would like to do, like see Paris and the Great Wall of China. There are things I don't want to do, like sit on a jury or be involved in a law suit.

Still no sign of any more mice. Maybe they don't like organic sugar free peanut butter.

Safire

Ahhh, or is that arg?

Everyone,

We had another day at home today. I had nothing planned. I thought I would be able to play with the kids and have a nice day and hopefully get the boys 7 month old stats and pictures done. Well, the boys woke up at 5am, ate for half an hour or so and by the time I had gotten back into bed, Juice's alarm went off. Normally I just roll right back over and go right back to sleep but I thought I may as well get up and get going so I would have all of nap time to go through my emails. The boys were talking too so I figured I would just get everyone up. Apparently I sleep through their talking and wake up when they wake up AGAIN in the morning because I threw the schedule off.

They napped at 8am. Only for 45 minutes. Not long enough for me to do anything. Especially since I had to get Butterfly all situated and play with her for a few minutes, clean the kitchen from breakfast, wipe the floors down again and clean off the kitchen table.

They napped again at 11:30. But only for about 45 minutes again. I was trying to feed Butterfly and myself lunch when they completely melted down and she ended up eating by herself. Then I ate cold macaroni which is not my favorite. They were up and down until I put Butterfly down for a nap early at 12:15pm because I was DONE. And it was only noon.

I let them fuss/scream/sob for about 20 minutes while I took a moment to myself. I hate doing it, but frankly, I had to have a moment. If I didn't have a moment when they weren't hanging on me or Butterfly wasn't jumping on me or anything like that I was going to run screaming from the house. I tried putting the boys back down but no luck. So I got Butterfly up after an hour or so and we all came downstairs to try and get some pictures of the boys.

No luck. These guys were tired, cross. I think I might have been too because it frustrated me and I had to put the camera away.

And then the internet went out. Ugh. I hate it when the internet goes out because then I can't do anything really. Kind of sad how much I depend on the internet.

Not that I had any free hands to use the internet because the boys were cross and tired and only wanting to be held. Thank heavens my friend, we'll call her Lavender, came over after work. She is my kids eastern Grandma and she helped me so much by holding one of the boys so I didn't have to hold both. We had an adult conversation. Even better! I had a nice hour and half with her and then she left and Juice came home moments later.

The boys were all smiles and laughter for Juice. I started dinner, got the boys down, and ate. I helped Juice clean the kitchen again and then read Butterfly the same book 3 times. This is the first time I've had a chance to sit since my imposed break at noon. No wonder I am so tired and feeling a little frazzled.

My book club is tonight so hopefully I will be able to have a recharge with my friends. And Juice has Friday off since he traveled on Saturday so maybe I can get another recharge then too. I think I need it!

Safire

PS- No mice again today. We are bating the traps with peanut butter but nothing is disturbed. Either we're not putting them in a good place or they just aren't hungry. Juice is going to block off some holes before he leaves again in a week and we're going to get some no touch traps so I can at least set them out at night.

PPS- A very boring entry. Sorry. I'm feeling off.

Tagged

Everyone,

So I've been tagged by my friend Marisa and since I can't think of anything better to write about today, I'll do it. But I refuse to perpetuate the tag. Do it if you'd like.

8 Favorite TV Shows: (I watch most of these either online or by dvd)
1- Ugly Betty
2- Grey's Anatomy
3- Private Practice
4- Northern Exposure
5- Gilmore Girls
6- Pushing Up Daisies
7- The Dog Whisperer
9- Animal Planet (yes I used to watch that station all the time.)

8 Things I Did Yesterday:
1- Freaked out over a mouse.
2- Screamed and watched said mouse jump into the air.
3- Cleaned till I dropped.
4- Changed several diapers (around 9).
5- Blogged.
6- Set up my Christmas cards.
7- Walked to the post office.
8- Watched Professor and Pirate fight over Professor's binky.

8 Things I Look Forward To:
1- Seeing my family again.
2- Having my own mailbox near my house.
3- Having a garage.
4- Not having to worry about mice.
5- Seeing the boys and Butterfly grow up, along with any other siblings.
6- My 10 year anniversary (and hopefully accompanying cruise to Alaska)
7- Having a bigger kitchen table.
8- Having a horse and miles of near by trails to explore.

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1- Red Rock Canyon Grill
2- Canton Delight (Chinese take out)
3- Pizza Hut
4- Chipotle
5- Cheeburger, Cheeburger
6- Baja Fresh
7- Chick-Fil-A
8- Bajio (in Utah)

8 Things on my Wish List:
1- A horse and all accompanying stuff.
2- A bigger mouse free house.
3- A little trip by myself with my Mom and/or BFF Mink to some random place we've never been. (sans kids)
4- An itunes gift card.
5- Awesome lenses for my camera, with image stabilizer.
6- A work out partner.
7- Fios
8- Horseback riding lessons.

There you go Marisa!

A mouse update: no mice in traps today, but we are starting to find droppings around. Juice is thrilled that Soot was so helpful and plans to have her just as helpful if we need her to be. I am freaked over every little movement out of the corner of my eye. I am making plans to try and plug up some more likely holes and we are not leaving dog food out overnight anymore. We need to go get some different traps because I think they are running under the cupboards and the snap traps we have won't spring under there. I am never moving to NYC because apparently they have lots of mice there. (Every single website I read on it was geared towards New Yorkers. Sorry.)

We went to the resource center with friends from my moms group today and that was fun! They had shaving cream out for the craft and Butterfly managed to get it all over. My friend made mention about how Butterfly just really spreads herself out and boy does she ever. She is a boisterous little girl, but happy and friendly. They had a great time together and I had a nice chat. Seriously loving the resource center more this year than last. And I loved it lots last year!

Safire

Drained

Everyone,

One super cross, super bossy, super attitude pre-schooler.
Check.
One very needy boy.
Check.
One very sad boy today (also pretty needy...lots of crying from the boys today.)
Check.
One very long outing.
Check.
Three very short naps.
Check.
One mouse in my living room.
Check.
One scream from me. (which is why they were short naps)
Check.
One hysterical call to Juice to come home and deal with it.
Check.
One very nice Juice who did.
Check.
One very cocky dog who caught and killed mouse.
Check.
One afternoon spent in my bedroom with the door shut.
Check.
One total clean of the living room.
Check.
One half done clean of the kitchen.
Check.
Seven traps set out for tonight.
Check.
Six websites read before freaking out over what they said and stopping.
Check.
One very stressed, very tired, very creeped out mommy.
Check.

Send help.

Safire

Seriously Awesome Deal

Everyone,

I got this tip from another twin blog and I thought I'd pass it along to everyone who reads here. The Britax Marathon car seat in Granite is on sale at Target for $42. They are normally around $380 so you can save around $230. Check it out HERE. If the link doesn't work, just go to Target.com and search for the Britax Marathon seat in Granite.

I passed this along to my brother who bought two for about $90 dollars!

Safire

Wow Rain!

Everyone,

It rained SO hard today.  Sheets and sheets were coming down.  Of course, we were in the car.  And had to go inside.  It's not easy to carry both boys in from the car (we do not have a garage or a drive way, only a parking lot) and getting Butterfly to actually walk to the house is always...interesting.  Our neighbors must think we are crazy.  There have been days when Butterfly is screaming/crying "I don't want to go inside!" and I am pushing her along with one of the car seats.  (Of course, this is always worse on the days that she pitches a fit for going outside.  Fights on either side of the door.)   More often than not, the boys are crying because they are hungry and I've pushed our outting just a little to long.  There have been times when our neighbors will stop walking to their cars or whatever to watch us get to the door.  There were a few college aged girls living in the house next to us who used to laugh whenever I would haul all three kids out the door.  Just you wait girls, your day will come.

Anyway, back to the rain.  Tons of it!  I made Butterfly stay in the car with me in hopes that it would slow down.  We could only stay so long since she had to go potty.  Then it's me running around trying to get everyone inside before the cold sheeting rain melts us.  Butterfly and I were soaked, and the boys carseats were very wet and are now slightly mildewish.  The house is smelling a little like wet dog.  I do not like winter in the east.

JUICE IS HOME!  Yay!  I went to pick him up at the metro (this is after the huge rain storm but it was still drizzling so another dash to the car to avoid major soaking) and the first thing I thought was that he needs a hair cut.  He was so happy to see us though and Butterfly was showing off all evening.  Loud happy noises.  I was able to leave Juice in the car with everyone and run into the grocery store on the way home for an essentials run.  It was the first time I had been without kids in 4 days and it was nice.  On the way out of the store, there was a beautiful rainbow.  Why I don't have my camera strapped to me 24/7 is a good question.  This would have made a beautiful picture.

We bathed everyone tonight which is always tiring.  The boys played with the bath cup and Professor tries to drink from it the whole time.  Pirate turns it over and studies it but Professor knows what this is for and gets mad there is nothing coming out.  The boys went down easy tonight.

Juice taught Butterfly how to play rock-paper-sissors.  I let him put her to bed while I ran off to Lala's house (BFF Vinny's mom).  We watched a series together and chatted.  So fun!  I love being able to have a small break.

When I got home, I planned out my next 3 weeks of meals.  Thanksgiving is coming and I'm cooking for BFF Vinny's family and ourselves.  We plan on playing games all day, watching movies together, playing with babies and kids, and kicking the husbands out with the small ones to the park (weather permiting) so we can cook and chat.  It's nice having good friends around.

Anyway, I am gathering recipies for Thanksgiving and I need to know what I'm making for dinners so I can get all the turkey stuff too.  So far on the menu is turkey, cranberry sauce, rolls, mashed potatoes and gravy, butternut squash puree, cranberry fluff and steamed veggies.  Lala is bringing over desert and drinks.  My question is snacks.  They will be coming over early (around 11am) and we probably won't have dinner until 4pm or so.  What snacky things can I have out so the children don't starve and the husbands don't haunt the kitchen?  I want it to be easy because I think I will be cooking for a few days before and I don't have all that much time on my hands.  Any suggestions?

I love having Juice home.  It's like a huge weight has been lifted.  At least for 2 weeks.  He leaves for another week the first day of December.  Sigh...

Safire

PS- Is it just me or did blogger get rid of spell check??

Lists

Everyone,

I am beat. This solo parenting thing is hard. Especially when I have to figure out what to do with Butterfly while I am putting the boys to bed. She either watches a movie or I'm yelling at her to stop jumping on the bed so these boys will stop laughing at her and eat. Of course, their laughing makes her jump more. They sure do love their big sister.

I think I must be tired. I'm rambling.

Things that got done today:

7 diapers changed
2 breakfasts, lunches, dinners
6 little boxes of Chinese food (yum!)
5 ponies colored
5 naps taken
1 living room vacuumed
1 bed made

Things that did not get done today:
1 sink full of dishes
80 pictures organized
1 kitchen table full of mail (sorry Juice)
1 bank trip

My list of things that got done is a lot bigger than my list that did not. A good but quiet day. Now I'm off to bed!

Safire

PS- Professor is army crawling! He's been moving around for weeks but today was the first time I saw deliberate forward movement. Butterfly crawled like: elbow, elbow, twinkle toes. Professor crawls: elbow, elbow, pop hip into air, drag other leg behind. It's very cute. I need to get a video of it. But my days of not shutting the gates are close to being over!

One Busy Day

Everyone,

What a busy day we had today.  Our original plans were to go to a battlefield near here with my friend Chef and her youngest, AlmondJoy who is a week younger than Butterfly.  BUT, it poured all day today.  So we figured walking around a battlefield in the wet and the muck was no fun.  Off to the thrift store instead!

I love going to the thrift store with Chef.  She finds a bunch and I always come away with bargins.  This time, I did a lot of impulse picking up but was brutal when I went to the check out stand and didn't get half of what I had put in the cart.  Mostly because I got Butterfly an electronic pad plus with math, reading and writing for K-1st grade.  Yes, it's a little old for her.  But I figured she can grow into it.  I thought I'd put it away for her birthday.  I just looked it up on amazon and it is selling for over 100 dollars.  I got it for 15.  It works and has all the parts too!  Awesome deal.

I also got some big legos to put in the boys' stockings (not that they will play with them right now but to help Butterfly understand that there will be toys that we all share), some 3 ring binders for church, a Christmas carol picture book, a Christmas present for Vinny, some side walk chalk (because AlmondJoy got some), and a freezer popsicle maker.  All in all, 25 dollars.  Did I mention I love going to the thrift store with Chef?

One thing I did put back that I almost wish I didn't was a nice brown scarf.  It was very soft and I have lost my super soft black scarf.  But I put it back because it was brown and I really want a black one.  We will have to go again and I can keep looking.

We had lunch in the car and then it was time to go home.  But the boys were sleeping so nice in the car that I was loath to take them out and wake them up.  It's becoming hit or miss if they will stay asleep in their car seats.  More often missing than hitting.  So I sat and talked to Chef while we watched the kids play in the huge pile of leaves.  And then I drove home intending on ordering chinese food for tonight from the car and going to pick it up.  Also the bank was on the list.  Both boys woke up on the way so I figured we would just go home.

Home was playing and preparing for my church activity tonight (thanks Mom!).  I am in charge of the 8-9 year old girls.  They come twice a month in the evening to the church and we have activities for them.  Today we were combined with the 10-11 year old girls and their mothers.  I had a mother against daughter game, where the mothers were asked things the girls should know and the girls were asked things the mothers should know.  So I asked the girls cooking questions, car questions, laundry questions (very basic stuff).  And I asked the moms about texting, music, and books.  I also had challenges for them.  The mom and their daughter raced against each other to see who could change a diaper the fastest (not on my boys, twin dolls), set an alarm clock, jump rope 25 times, sort socks, and do a spelling bee (which we never got to).  We also had desert.  Yum!  They seemed to have a lof of fun.  I know I did.

I did have to bring the kids along which was a little bit of a pain.  Butterfly sat in the corner with all the other kids that moms had to bring and watched a movie.  The boys were passed around between the moms and the girls.  Poor boys.  I had to wake them up from bed to take them and they were unhappy.  Professor especially.  They survived.  They both screamed the whole way home but they survived.  They dropped right off at home and so has Butterfly.  She didn't get a nap today but was very helpful and sweet all day.  Yay.

Of course, after getting everyone in bed, my work did not stop.  There were phone calls to return, dishes to do and milk jugs to put out for our milk man tomorrow.  I also should pick up the living room, clean off the table and put some laundry away but I think I may just go to bed.  It's hard not having someone else around to help me out with these things!

Missing Juice a lot today.  I'm trying to stay busy though so that his time away will just fly by.  And maybe tomorrow night I will be able to get the chinese food that I've been trying to get for days and I'll be able to sit down and watch a movie.  We shall see.

Safire 

What Is Your Baby Thinking?

Everyone,

Isn't that the most interesting question? A few months ago, I actually looked through my mail. I know, I'm not the best at getting let alone going through my mail. (E or otherwise.) But one day I did and I had a postcard from NIH. They were doing a study to see what babies were thinking. I did a language study at the University of Maryland with Butterfly a few times and I thought this would be fun.

We did our second session with them today. The first time, the boys sat and watched different pictures on a tv screen. They seemed to enjoy it and were good boys who didn't cry or hardly even move. Boy they are easy going.

This time, they put sensors on their wrists and on their backs and gave them different weighted objects that look the same. The sensors are to measure their arm movement. It was interesting to see their different personalities come out during the tests.

Pirate was so interested. The researcher would give him a toy and he would study it, eat it, study it some more. And when the researcher tried to take it away from him to do the next toy, he would hold on for dear life. When she did get the toy, he would watch it all the way back to the box and kick his legs in excitement when the toy was coming towards him. So intent the whole time. His eyes miss nothing.

Professor was a little more annoyed by the toy taking. He kept up a steady stream of talking while he had the toy (yes, even with the toy in his mouth) and kept up a steady stream of crying when the researcher took the toy away. He would reach out to her, his blue eyes tearing up, lower lip quivering when she took it and by the time she put it in the box he was full fledged crying. Eyes closed, face red, hand dramatically up on his head. But the instant he saw the toy in front of him he would stop, grab it, and talk. So funny. She had a hard time getting him to take the last one. He kept reaching for it and then looking up at her suspiciously. It was very cute.

They are so unique in their personalities. I find it so interesting to see them together and see how well they compliment each other but are almost opposites. It's interesting to see how Butterfly has an impact on their lives too with the whole toy taking away responses.

Anyone that has a baby 5-8 months old in the area can email me and I can put you in touch with the researcher at NIH. They pay you twenty dollars. Sweet!

Safire

PS- Almost didn't post today. I started this early this afternoon and am now finishing it close to 11pm. Juice has gone away on business and I'm working it solo here for a bit. I miss him because there was a huge cricket in the living room. As much as I tried to ignore it, it was being stupid and kept jumping into the wall making a small thudding noise that was awful so I had to take care of it myself. The horror!

Dearest Butterfly

Everyone,

Butterfly is now 3 and a half years old this month and I thought it would be fun to do a little update on her like I do with the boys each month. When they get older, it seems they don't change so fast but they do change. With alarming rapidity. So here is my update, in letter form.

Dearest Butterfly,

You are now 3 and a half years old. Wow, has it really been that long since you came into our lives small with a head full of dark hair? You have changed so much since that moment we first saw you. Lately, at bed time, you have been asking to hear this story. Of how the doctor put you on my belly and you were crying really loudly. How when I said "Hi Baby Girl." you looked right up at me and calmed right down. How the nurses said you were so quiet after that. How much you looked like me and how I noticed right away you had my hands and feet. At this point, you pipe up and say, "But I have Daddy's eyes!" The color may be Daddy's, honey, but the shape is all me. Or my family's. You are an interesting mix of me and Daddy. We each see things different in you.

One thing is for sure, you have your own mind. You demand to do things your own way. When we took you to vote for our new president this year, you played with two boys at the park before we went inside. Daddy said that you were trying to tell them what to do, and they were not amused to be swept up in your game. But they were. (Side story, you came back to me in line and said, "I played with kids! But they didn't say hello." "Really?" "Yes, they said something else. Um, la la or something like that." "Oh, hola." "Yeah, hola.") Your imagination is amazing. You think of the most interesting things at the most interesting times. You are never far away from a story or a game. You do get mad if someone doesn't play by your rules. And you can't be dissuaded from playing it your way.

You have a best friend, Vinny. He is 5 and I think you are taller than him. But you both have bright blond hair and play so well together. I think a lot of people think I have two sets of twins when he is with us because you guys are just so good together. You always greet each other with a huge hug, almost always falling over in your exuberance to see each other. You are also pretty popular at church. Your teacher says you are the ring leader, sweeping everyone into your world of play. It's going to be a good skill with two baby brothers.

You are a little perturbed that the brothers are starting to play with toys now. You always want to play with what they have. Having two of them just means you bounce back and forth between them and take their toys. We had to institute a rule that you offer them a new toy before you take the one they are playing with. It seems to work well when you remember to do it. You osculate between wanting to be a baby and insisting you are a big girl. We have put up the high chairs for the boys and you insist on eating breakfast in it every morning. Sometimes you want to switch between the chairs mid meal.

You are a good helper, even though you tell people you are not. It's nice to have you get more wipes for the container or give Professor his pacifier if I've got my hands full. You also want to help with inconvenient tasks, like sweeping the floor. Or cleaning the bathroom. Most days I let you help and sweep again when you take a nap. You love to clean the toilet with the little brush and are fairly good at it. You take your dishes to the sink after a meal (after asking "May I be excused?" So cute!) and you unload the clean silverware into the drawer. You love to help me make quiche and baby food.

I am just amazed at all the things you know. You know your numbers to 30, all the letters on sight and how they sound. You can recognize a few words. I don't think it will be long before you are reading. You have several books memorized. You know a lot of songs and enjoy singing in church. You know who each of your brother's are and rarely get it wrong. You know your city, your state, your country, your world. You know your area code. You also know how to push my buttons and drive me up the wall.

You are one amazing little girl. I look forward to seeing what you do with your life. Because whatever it is, it's going to be amazing.

Love,
Mommy

Safire

Day At Home

Everyone,

I declared today a stay at home day and I don't think I stepped foot outside the house. Butterfly did to wave hello to me out our front window when Juice came home. "I want to do what he did!" Other than that, we were inside. I did entertain the idea of going to the bank after the kids woke up from their afternoon nap and I even put clothes on Butterfly so we could do that. But she cried so hard about leaving. She asked me why we had to go and I said to get some things done. She then looked at me with her big brown eyes and tear streaked face and said, "Can't we get things done here?"

You bet! There's always something to do at home. Instead of running errands, we stayed home. I did a load of laundry, which made it into the dryer within an hour of being washed and was actually put away. You hear me right, there was no lingering longer in the basket.

I cleaned the front room in anticipation of friends coming over to play tomorrow. I even cleaned the black hole of our couch. It's where we dump everything when we come in and somehow, it never makes it out again. Well tonight it made it out.

I made baby food again today. I had three yellow squash on my counter for awhile and I wasn't sure what kind of squash they were. Well, I opened up the first one to find a mess of brown mushy goo. Ugh, that one had gone bad. The second one reveled they were spaghetti squash and I baked both of them for an hour. An hour to cool, one and a quarter into the blender with some water and I had 48 oz of baby food. Plus probably another 30 oz with the stuff I ran out of ice cube trays for that I will freeze tomorrow. I love making baby food.

I'm hoping to clean off my kitchen table and maybe clean my downstairs bathroom before bed tonight. I also talked to my BFF Mink for about 2 hours today. It's our bi-weekly phone call. She is about 4 weeks away from having baby girl #2 and I'm thrilled for her. Wish I was there though.

So yes, there is a lot to be done at home. Great idea Butterfly!

Safire

PS- Check out my friend Chef's blog for more links of our family pictures.

Sunday

Everyone,

Today was our big regional meeting with our church. It's called Stake Conference. Last year, we went and I was pregnant with the boys. We sat behind a family with twin boys and an older girl. We watched them a lot seeing how our life will be in the future. Juice and I applauded the guy for coming by himself (as his wife was not around). We enjoyed speculating last year how things would be when our kids were their kids age.

This year, they sat in front of us! They had another boy younger than their twins and at first Juice thought they were triplets. Nope, just 3 very blond boys. They turned around to talk to us and we struck a little friendship up.

At one point, the 12 year old twin boys in our ward walked passed and I wondered at the fact that there were 3 sets of twins, 6 boys in total, within 2 rows. Pretty fun!

Since we had weird church today, the boys did not nap at the right time and they were ready for bed at 5pm. First, we took a few pictures out in the leaves. This was a mistake as every picture Professor is reaching for leaves, and then Juice is pulling them out of his mouth. It happened one too many times and he broke down sobbing. Poor kid. This picture I have was the very first picture. Before he discovered those tasty forbidden leaves! And poor Pirate and his flood pants. The kid grew again and now nothing fits him. So he wears too short pants until his belly grows again to accommodate size 12 month stuff. He's going to be long and skinny that one.

I'm hoping to go to bed early today. It's going to be a busy week!

Safire

Saturday

Everyone,

A few days ago BOTH boys slept through the night. It was amazing. I'm not sure why I didn't blog about it before since it was the very first time that that had happened. They slept from 6pm-5am with a few squeaks and squirms but nothing they couldn't handle themselves. Around 11pm, I poked my head in to make sure they were both still living (yes, still do that) and they were right next to each other, facing each other, arms linked and tushes in the air. It was SO cute. I wanted to take a picture but I feared I would wake them up and then they wouldn't have this momentous occasion for the books. (I did not sleep through the night. I had to break out the pump around midnight and again around 3am for obvious reasons.)

I tell you this now to contrast it to my night last night. Juice and I had date night (Transformers and popcorn) and Professor woke up about 10pm to eat. Okay, we were just getting to the good part when Optimus Prime and MegaTron were fighting and I wrote the end of the movie. He ate quickly, and back into be for him. Juice has been sick so he took some nyquil and we went to be around 10:30pm. Midnight, Professor wakes up again. And as I'm feeding him and nearly falling out of the chair, Pirate starts to fuss and suck his thumb nosily. So I feed him after I'm done with Professor and get back into bed around 12:45pm. 1:15am, Butterfly wakes up crying because she is coughing so bad she can't sleep. I give her some cough medicine and soothe her back down. 3am, she wakes up again and wants more cough medicine. She gets a drink of water instead and some snuggle time. 3:30am, Professor wakes up for his food. 4:15am, just 15 minutes after I got back into my bed, Butterfly is up coughing again. I break out the vapor rub and hope that it helps her to sleep. She's out within a few minutes and I stagger back into bed. 6am rolls around and both Pirate and Professor are talking but happy. I feed them and fall back into bed. I believe around 8:30am all the kids woke up, but I was too groggy to notice the time. I got up close to 9am to get everyone and get the day started. So I got maybe 3 hours of sleep? I feel okay today but tomorrow I'm going to be hurting.

We drove to our old neighbor's house out in the country today and spent the afternoon with her. We love going to Ida's house! They have the biggest back yard and lots of animals to look at and play with. Juice, Ida, Butterfly and Ida's 2 dogs and our dog went out to play. I sat and fed the boys and watched tv. What a treat since we no longer have any tv. We had a yummy dinner of lasagna, salad, bread, and cake. I gave the boys crusts to maul while we ate and Professor ate 2 short pieces and cried when there was no more bread for him. They are so ready for food. (Soon, soon.)

Butterfly spent most of the evening playing with Ida's new dog gates. It has a little door in the gate for small animals to get through. Well, her dog and her foster dog are both small and can fit through that little door. So Butterfly made them go in and out all evening. They were so cute playing and the dogs were good sports. Soot would like a cat for Christmas because they have a few and she couldn't take her eyes off of them.

We left early in the evening because bedtime for kiddos is early. But it was good because I am exhausted and hopefully will get to bed shortly after this publishes.

Like now. Good night!

Safire

Yay Spontenaity!

Everyone,

If you take 2 hours, a beautiful day in Maryland, one cute family, one talented friend/photographer, and one favorite fields, you get this:
And these are just the tips of the ice burg my friends. Chef (as she has changed her names on her blog) is SO GOOD!!

I know you want to. Just stare at them for awhile. I will be joining you. ;)

Safire

Facebook=Time Warp

Everyone,

Apparently I am neglecting my in box. I have 2 accounts I frequent, and one has 75 messages I have yet to read and one has over 250. I hope nothing is important that I'm missing! Where has all of my email time gone? I have two theories. One is the boys are bigger and need more of my attention. Theory two is that Facebook is evil. I'm going with theory two.

I just showed Juice an old friend on Facebook and then we spent the next hour and a half looking for his old friends. And looking at family profiles. Will he get his own profile? Nooo...so I'm friends with his friends so he can hear what's going on with them. I do vaguely know these people since we all went to high school together. And one friend I remember holding hands with my BFF at the time in my basement. I think this is the boy that we broke our close friendship over. Hmm...I wonder if she has a Facebook account.

No! Must sleep! Need to leave Facebook alone! Any of you guys out there want to be my friend?

Safire

The Dairy

Everyone,

So awhile a go we joined my good friend Laura and her family at our dairy. We get milk from them every Friday. Typically we get 2 half gallons of skim, 4 half gallons of 2%, a half gallon of apple cider, and every other week a quart of buttermilk. Yes, we go through all of that in a week. (The buttermilk is for my waffles.) They also have some good butter, bread, yogurt, and meat. You can find out more HERE.

Anyway, every fall and spring they have a little festival. We had been once before and I remember it being small and nice. So I invited Laura along and we had so much fun! Read her account of it here. She did a lot more than we did because we were late getting out. And then we got stuck behind the truck painting lines on the highway. But we made it just in time for lunch!

Butterfly joined all the kids riding circles on the ride on toys they provided. Last time we went, she could have ridden around and around in that barn for hours and been happy. After lunch and some butter making, we headed off to the hay ride. In which I took a bunch of pictures for Laura of her family and Butterfly gave the guy next to me a heart attack by a perceived bouncing out of the tractor. She was fine, just kneeling down looking out a whole and the thing bounced and he thought she was going to go flying out. I figured he made a good point and made her put her feet on the ground which made for a less than enjoyable ride for her. But safer. We like being safe.

After the hay ride, we opted for some ice cream from their store and watched them milk some cows. By then, the boys were ready to go home. We barely touched on what they had to do but we decided now would be a good time to go. Still, it was great and will be going their next year!

We stopped by our old neighbor's house and hung out for a bit on our way home. They live near there and every time we are in their neighborhood (really, only for this) we stop and say hello. It was nice to visit with them!

Safire

PS- Looking through the pictures to post some, I realize that we have absolutely NO pictures of Professor the entire day. He was asleep strapped to Juice's chest tucked in his coat and never woke up until the end. It's hard being the 3rd kid.

Voting!

Everyone,

Juice came home early today and Butterfly met him at the door. "Daddy, today is a special day! We are getting a new leader." Hopefully whoever it is, will be a good one.

I voted today. Juice voted today. We all voted at the same time. We walked down to our polling station with the dog because we are all about combining outings these days. The line was out the door, around the building, and swirled around on the side walk. As we got to the end of the line, people just coming out of the door were saying a 2 hour wait. Outside for most of it. I was never so grateful for the car seats for the boys because they block the wind. I stayed in line with them and Juice took Butterfly and Soot to the elementary school play ground and let both of them run off some steam. Look, another errand combined and checked off!

As I got closer to the door, they came back and joined me. We put Soot in her little dog carrying case and left her in the bottom of the stroller and took her inside with us. Yes, we took the dog voting. No one said anything. I don't even think anyone noticed. They were too busy looking at the boys and all the whining she did was over shadowed by the crying of the boys.

Which was not much. Really, all the kids were wonderful. I bribed Butterfly with a doughnut and she was pretty good. She mostly played but when her attention span ran out, she watched a movie on my ipod. When we got home, I told her thanks for coming to vote with me and she said, "But I didn't do anything." I think she was a little put out that she couldn't vote too.

Only about an hour of wait for us, and then it was walking back home and off to get free doughnuts. The parking lot was horribly packed (since there was a free coffee place in the same parking lot) and we waited in yet another line for our free doughnut. The manager came out and asked us to move the line inside. He stopped everyone after me and locked the doors. We got the last 2 doughnuts in the entire store. They were the good kind too, full of custard with chocolate on it! My favorite! By the time I got there, they were giving out one free doughnut per customer, not per I voted sticker. So I had to buy Butterfly's. As we were sitting there eating our yummy doughnuts, another mom asked me if we had just been voting. I recognized her from the line. We chatted a little bit, and she asked if I was going to go get some coffee. No, thank you. She mentioned that the ice cream place in the same shopping center was giving away free hot chocolate. Oh really? Another mom piped up and said that the grocery store was also offering 10% off your purchase with your sticker. Sweet!

We walked over to the ice cream place in which I totally lied to Butterfly. I told her that the peach ice cream was pink. (The peach was on sale...that is one expensive ice cream place!) It was sort of pink. Just not the pink one she was pointing to. She had ice cream, I had free hot chocolate and we were both worn out.

Home for naps (which everyone did for at least half an hour today) at the same time! Yay! The boys woke up pleasant and we played for a bit and I did some email. Juice came home and we went right out to grocery shopping because 10% off could be good!

Well, turns out you had to have a coupon for the 10% off so no money saving here but at least we were able to get some grocery shopping done. We also had hot dogs at the store so that was good. All in all, a very productive, very busy day.

Juice even rearranged the furniture in our dining area to accommodate 2 high chairs. He swept the floor even. I love him. :)

Safire

Not a Steller Day

Everyone,

I had something planned out for today's post. I can't remember though because it's been one of those days. You know the days where they fates seem to be against you.

It all started with the boys waking up at 6:30am. Oh how I hate daylight savings and the havoc it wrecks on my boys perfectly groomed sleeping schedule. I knew it would happen, but still. 6:30am?! It reminded me of the year that Butterfly was up at 5am every day. Not a fun year. Anyway, they were tired, clingy and Butterfly woke up cranky. (Not unusual. That child is not a good sleeper.)

A short hour later, the boys were screaming and rubbing their eyes as only babies can do. You know, the whole hand over the whole face/nose/eye area? And since they still have colds and are very snotty, we have snot encrusted faces. I put them down for a nap (after wiping as best I could) and take a quick shower. (They also rub on me and well, let's just say it's not pretty.) Butterfly is happiest because she gets to watch her movie at this time.

Shower over, movie over, naps over and now it's play time. Everyone was playing so nicely I thought I would try and make apple bread. Turned out yummy but I could never get the center to come out clean so I hope it's done. Either way, it's very moist. As I was cleaning up, I dropped my hand mixer on the floor. It still works, but rattles. Hmm... And shakes just a little. One day I would love to have a kitchen aid mixer but that won't be in this house.

The boys were ready for yet another nap so I got them down and Butterfly and I played go fish and animals. We also had lunch. She was still in her pjs. No big deal since it was nap time for her. And just as I get her into bed, the boys wake up. And they wake up cross. They want to be held. I changed 5 poopy diapers. They don't want to be put down. Why am I putting them down? Noooo!!!

All the screaming is punctuated with political phone calls. I can not wait until this election is over and I won't have to hear, "This is Governor Yahoist and I'm calling to tell you about option 2." for another year. Butterfly wakes up spiting mad and the boys are yet again rubbing snot all over.

I put them down for a short nap and end up having a huge battle with Butterfly about putting clothes on. See, Juice and I had a plan for tonight. We were going to go grocery shopping right after work. I was going to go pick him up (he took the bus this morning) and then we were going to go out. I was looking forward to having some time outside of the house. But that time does not include Butterfly wearing her pjs.

So huge fight ensues. It wakes up the boys who are cross because they did not sleep. Butterfly had at least 5 time outs in there and I physically had to yank clothes on to her limp and flaying body. All dressed. The boys in their car seats. Shoes on. And I can't find my keys.

I tore the house inside out and upside down looking for my keys. The boys are screaming in their car seats because I was hoping a car ride would put them out. Butterfly is whining at me "Let's go now Mommy! Why aren't we goooing?" Finally I call Juice and tell him I can't find my keys so just come home on the bus. Butterfly reacts to this news by pitching yet another fit (I want to go OUT! I want to go get Daddy! He has to stay at work so we can go get him! Why can't we go NOW?!) I pull the boys out of their car seats, change one more poopy diaper, and feel so stressed out. I put Professor to bed because he can't handle being up one more second and Juice comes home.

He finds my keys in the bottom of my bag in about 10 minutes. Ugh. I fish all of the paper out of Pirate's mouth and take him up to bed too. By that time, I crashed. I think I took a two hour nap. Juice is not happy with me because he had to do the dishes, feed and take care of the 3 year old, and he got out the high chairs for me. He did a lot of work in 2 hours, but it's nothing I haven't done already today.

I'm back off to bed in hopes that tomorrow we will all be in better moods. And hopefully we'll make it out to vote, to the post office, and to the grocery store. Hopefully Butterfly will let us.

Safire

Halloween

Everyone,

Two days late, here are our Halloween pictures. We did not go out trick or treating on Halloween night because everyone was sick. We just stayed home and passed out candy to the four or so groups that came by. Everyone went to bed early.

Actually, I suppose these pictures are from the night before at our church's trunk or treat. We had so much fun! The whole parking lot was almost full and we were able to go around some with Butterfly's best friend Vinny. She has A TON of candy. We had some apple cider, talked, laughed and went home in about an hour. Poor Pirate was crying pretty much the whole night though. I thought maybe his teeth were finally coming in (gums are very swollen and I see the teeth, just nothing poking out) but I think he was just starting to get sick.

Still, it was enough trick or treating for Butterfly. The boys were pirates originally, but were bears for this night because it was cold out. Thanks Nana Great for these cute coats which doubled as cute costumes!

Butterfly was her white princess that she insisted on. Juice wore his man in black costume and got everyone saying Princess Bride quotes. I was going to wear my big blue dress because I figured I wouldn't be nursing there but I ran out of time and just threw on my cowboy hat. Good thing too because Pirate needed some food before we went home. What a great time!

Safire

Day 1 November 1

Everyone,

Tada! November is here! And we started off this month with a bang. A huge cold that is. Both the boys have had a temperature of 101 with medicine, and Butterfly had one of 100 before we went to the doctor. Yes, I took them to the doctor. 20 minutes and 40 dollars later, they have a cold. It was good to go because they were SO miserable. But I kind of suspected they had a cold. Either way, they are feeling better after a second night of no sleep (I am feeling worse...no sleep + cold germs = mommy's sick) but at least they are playing a little bit today and Butterfly is up to her normal antics.

So, a few things about this month. There were a bunch of activities this summer that I never posted on. There have been a few this fall that you have never seen. So a few times I week I plan on doing that. I also want to show off a little bit of my photos so that will probably be once a week. And other than that, we'll just see how it goes.

In sidebar news, (that thing to your left) please become a follower of my blog. Thanks. :) I have updated pictures. Aren't they GREAT? Butterfly is going through a no picture of me phase so I'm happy I caught one of her smiling.

The boys' pictures are from my good friend Laura. We decided to do a mini photo shoot of the boys to see if I could help combat the low light blur somehow. The day was perfect to try that. It was rainy and cold with not a lot of light. Laura got better pictures than I did with her cool flash.

I got 2 good ones. It's so fun to have twins! Sadly, no pictures of Butterfly with them like I kind of wanted. She is not willing to cooperate right now for pictures. Hopefully I'll be able to get one soon for our Christmas card. More on that another day. (Gotta spread out the posts somehow!)

Halloween pictures tomorrow. I just couldn't wait to put these up. See you tomorrow!

Safire

Get Ready...

Everyone,

November is days away. Join me, my Dad and my friend Laura writing 30 days straight. Any other takers?

Safire

PS- There are prizes involved!  And even though I will probably not win one, I like the chance to win one.  And I have the past 2 Novembers written down.  That's a big prize itself!  Last year, Butterfly read the book, we were sick with Ed and I was pregnant with the boys and not saying anything.  The year before, Butterfly was just turning 18 months old, still sleeping in the crib the boys are currently in, and just starting to talk in sentances.  It's really fun for me to go back and read all of these things and try and remember what it was like.  I can't wait to do it this year and get the boys' first November recorded.  :)

Busy Busy Busy

Everyone,

Sorry for the small amount of posts lately. We've been really busy and with the boys getting older, they are demanding more attention. At night, when I normally do post, we've been trying to de-clutter and clean our house. We've cleaned half of our room and the corner in front of pantry so far and thrown away 2 big garbage bags of junk (pack rats should never live in a small house) and made about 20 trips to the attic with stuff. Our goal is to de-junk by mid-November so that we can start inviting people over to play games. Juice is feeling social (weird, I know! I was shocked too) and this is the activity he chose. I told him that was fine as long as we cleaned the house really good. So here we are.

Every night we seem to have something going on.
Monday: FHE
Tuesday: Cleaning night
Wednesday: Game night/book club
Thursday: Church activity night
Friday: Date night
Saturday: Crash and Burn night
Sunday: Go to bed early night

This week along with all the above stuff, I think I have a mom's night out and Halloween to do.

No worries, though. November is coming. Remember November? The month I post every single day? Yeah, it starts Saturday! I have a lot of things that we've been doing out of the house to talk about. And a bunch of pictures to post. This year I'd like my Nablopomo to be a little more organized so I'm saving a few things to do.

Plus, I'm trying to get Christmas all set. I seem to have lost my little address book (Butterfly loves to look at it because it's small and 'just my size mommy!' Sadly, it's also just the size to be lost and I can't find it anywhere). So I'm trying to gather addresses and figuring out who wants cards this year and who doesn't. If you'd like a card, email me at safirecat [at] gmail [dot] com with your address.

I hear the boys crying so I better go.

Safire

6 Months Old!

Everyone,

Really? The boys are a whole half a year? Wow. I just can't believe that we are now closer to their first birthday than their actual birth day. I tried to take their 6 month old shots today but they turned out pretty bad. The light was low and they were moving. Laura, help! I did get a few choice ones. Like this. Maybe I should do pictures before bedtime. And then there is this one.Every time I pointed the camera at Pirate, he grabbed for it. So almost every shot of him has his blurred hands in front of his face. I did manage to get a few cute ones. And here's an update on their stats.


What cute boys we have! They are so happy. Easy going. I guess they have to be with 2 other kids in the house, one of whom is the exact same age (plus or minus 6 minutes). They are on a good sleeping schedule, which helps me actually get through the day. They also go to bed around 6pm, are up only once or twice, and are up for the day around 7:30am. They also have a cute puppy. They have just gotten interested in her and Pirate especially will laugh when she walks past. Of course, he laughs at pretty much anything so I don't know how good of an indicator that is. You decide. They have discovered toys this past month or so. Juice pulled all of our infant toys from the attic the other day and now our house is covered in them. Who knew that they would also be entertainment for the 3 year old as well? She thinks up these elaborate games with them. They are drowning in the pool and someone has to save them. They can't find their parents and are on a quest to search for them. They are in the jungle and need to get home. The boys so far just bat, grab, mash, maul their toys. You know, play with them like they are supposed to be played with.

Professor continues to be my little sweetheart. If someone else is holding him, he will lean in my direction. Not lunge, just lean slow and steady. If he is unhappy and sees me not holding him, he flings back his head and arms and shuts his eyes and cries red faced. This instantly stops as soon as I pick him up and he almost always wants to eat at that time. He is a comfort nurser. He is just starting to be wary of strangers. He recognizes Juice and gives him huge smiles when he comes home from work. On Friday the 17th (day before they were 6 months old), he weighed 15 lbs, 1.5 oz and was 26.5 inches long. His head was 17 inches. This puts him solidly in the 50th percentile for height and weight. He gained exactly 2 lbs which I find interesting. They got 4 shots plus a oral vaccine on Friday. Poor kids. He also has one tooth (the bottom left) all the way through and the bottom right one just barely coming up. He still does not sit up on his own, but has been on his elbows and knees a lot. I have found him on his hands and knees a handful of times. He tries to move his legs when he is up and ends up belly flopping. He rolls like a mad man and prefers to be on his belly. He is still the loud one and chats on long car rides. Or any car rides for that matter. He loves his binkie. You can tell he is smiling because of his really really cute dimples that appear around his binkie. And you can tell he's really happy when he smiles so big his binkie falls out of his mouth. He still wakes up at night to eat (Pirate does not) but I don't mind it too much. I feel like it's our little special alone time and he is just so sweet.

Pirate laughs. He laughs when you pick him up. He laughs when you change his diaper. He laughed at Juice when he shaved his goatee down to a mustache for the Ren Faire. (Juice says to be concise Pirate did a double take and then BELLY laughed when saw that Juice had shaved.) He laughs when you take him out of the car in his car seat. He has this enormous Muppet smile to go along with the laughing. He also opens his eyes really big when he sees something that interests him. His focus and concentration are amazing! He is not easily distracted when he decides he wants something.


On the 17th, he was 15 lbs, 15 oz. Up exactly 2 lbs from last check up. Guess they are getting the same amount of food, huh? His head is also 17 inches around. And he is a whopping 27 and 3/4 inches long. Which means he grew almost 3 inches from his last check. The nurse measured him three times because it's a huge jump for him. (From the 25th percentile to the 80th.) Already he is growing out of the length in the 6-9 month old clothes, but the 12 month old clothes swamp him. Sounds like he got my dad's long torso and our long legs. He is long and skinny already! He doesn't have any teeth, and he really does not sit up on his own. He prefers to be on his belly doing the superman rock. He lifts arms and legs off the ground and kicks his legs to rock forward on his belly. He can push himself up straight armed and often travels backwards this way. He hates it but can't figure out how to change it. He reaches for EVERYTHING. (See above picture.) He is fascinated by food and we will be starting them both on solids soon.

Safire

Pictures....arg!

Everyone,

I think something is wrong with blogger because it will not let me load any pictures up. So I thought, hey, I'll just make myself a little slide show of my pictures! It'll be cute!

So I did. Most of the afternoon was dedicated to making this slide show in between feeding, changing, burping, dodging spit up, playing farm, cutting apples, making dinner, throwing a ball, answering the phone, trying to look at Juice's benefits for next year, dancing with babies, feeding, napping the children, and joining facebook. (Where my slide show came to a screeching halt because facebook is too addicting already. Look me up if you want to be friends.)

Anyway, I finally got the boys down for bed and dinner eaten and cleaned up so I sat down to do the slide show. I finished it, and discovered if I wanted to publish it it would cost me over 50 dollars! Sheesh...these slide show things suck you in with a free account and then don't let you do anything with it. So now instead of 12 of my most favorite photos from this past week in PA, you get 3.

Hey, be happy with 3!
Safire

PS- Professor has a tooth! No wonder he refuses to sleep on his own, hates to be put down, and has a toned down sunny disposition.

Drive Home

Everyone,

The drive home was somewhat eventful. We didn't leave until around 12:30...maybe 1pm. We enjoyed the swimming pool for a good 45 minutes and ran around the hotel room shoving things into every nook and cranny. How is it that I got all of my stuff there in 4 bags, and had to come home with 6? Stuff explodes with kids. It's weird.

Juice took my parents to the airport and drove around through Delaware (small wonder!) and I took the short way home with all of the kids. We talked about maybe switching rolls, and I would drive my parents back to the airport but then what would he do with the kids for hours at home by himself? Especially since 2 of the kids kind of need me every few hours. And I kind of need them too. Anyway, it worked out the best and Juice came home cross and tired.

I came home by way of Gettysburg. It was a beautiful fall day. Both the boys are screaming in the back and Butterfly is complaining that she can't hear her movie. ("They too loud! Make the movie louder!") I saw the sign for Gettysburg: 6 miles and figured I could make it there and find a nice monument to park next to and feed these boys. One mile away, Butterfly starts yelling, "I need to go potty!" Perfect. We were stopping anyway, right?

I am amazed at how long she can hold it because it took me probably half an hour to find parking. Parking that was not 6 lots out in the boonies. It was far enough away from the new visitor's center that I had to pull out my stroller and strap everyone into it and walk about 7 rows of cars up. Everyone is so excited to see the twins and frankly, I've had enough of being the show. It was fun for awhile. Now stop your "aww...twins!" and just move on.

Wow, that came out harsher than I wanted. Apparently it has been bugging me. Will rant later.

As I was waiting in the ladies room for the big stall, several people came up to me and told me they would watch my kids if I had to go. No no no. I will not let strangers watch my children!! I know they were being nice but seriously, do you think anyone would take you up on your offer? In the end, an attendant showed me where the family room is. Whoever invented this with it's baby changer, potty, chair, sink, kid friendly seats is a genius. I changed both boys (both poopy), had Butterfly potty, fed the boys and never even had to leave the room. It was awesome!

I figured since I had gone to all that trouble to get everyone out of the car, I may as well walk around some. The only path I could find was leading to the bus parking lot so we toured that and got back into the car. We then drove around Gettysburg looking for "statues" as Butterfly called them. They aren't hard to find. I took a few pictures, enjoyed the fields of black eyed susans they have there and headed home.

We got here in one piece, although Fern is a little more worse for the wear. Never give your 3 year old a can of chips and expect the back seat to resemble anything like a back seat for awhile. Thankfully, FHE tonight was clean the car so she's back to being her crumb free self. Until we ride in her again.

It took me all day to go grocery shopping and plan my week out. Looks like I've got a lot going on!

Safire

PS- Tried to upload pictures...stupid internet is too slow. Will try again tomorrow.

Pennsylvania Ren Faire

Everyone,

We had a great time (as usual) at the Pennsylvania Ren Faire. This was our second year going. There were a few things that we wanted to see from last year, and a few things that we missed last year. I still don't think we saw everything again this year. We'll try again next year!

The reason why we started going to the PA Ren Faire and not the Maryland one was that it seemed cleaner. More family friendly. The biggest reason is probably so that Juice can wear his sword. They don't allow weapons at the MD Faire. Anyway, we like it. And I'm completely bushed so this will be short.

Juice played with Butterfly's hair, and mine too. We all got dressed up in our costumes. Butterfly was Arwen and got to wear my evenstar necklace. Juice was his Dread Pirate Roberts costume. The boys were little pirates too. And I had a shirt on that said, "Who are you calling a princess?" with a skull and crossbones on it. It was pirate weekend, after all.

My Dad threw some Chinese stars, which he got to do for free because he found a star in the road and took it back to the guy. We waited in a long line at the potty and went to find ourselves some lunch. After lunch, I fed the boys and my mom took Butterfly to the potty again. She was in the stall and started to cry. She did not want to go without me. Ugh. Please someone tell me the whole can't-potty-unless-you-are-there phase will go quickly. I'm so tired of it.

I had just sat down to finish my lunch when my mom called so I had to go help Butterfly and then go finish. By this time, the boys had had it. They had not had really good naps in a few days and they were not happy little boys. We walked towards the "flying chicken", otherwise known as the hippogriff swing. Juice and Butterfly took a ride. I tried to feed the boys again and listened to them cough horribly. Guess who caught colds? Me, and them, and Butterfly. I imagine Juice will probably not be far off.

My dad and Juice fought in the the fencing ring. They pad you up really well, give you a sword and some balloons connected to you and let you whack each other until the balloons are popped. My dad won. They had so much fun and came back to us all smiles.

We then had to go to the potty AGAIN, and this time Butterfly refused to go at all. So I thought I would go. Well she was mad and didn't want me ("Daaaaddyyyyy! I want Daaaaaaddyyyyy!") and opened the door to run out while I was still indisposed. I was NOT happy with her and after I got her back in, got myself put back together I marched her right out to her daddy who she immediately didn't want. Of course. ARG!

We wandered around to look at the shops but they are hard to go into with our big stroller. By this time I had Pirate strapped to me and Professor was whining in the stroller. Butterfly's head kept falling over so she sat in Pirate's seat and fell asleep. All day long we had been doing a scavenger hunt and we didn't want her to miss getting her prize that she worked for. So Juice stood in line with her asleep in the stroller. She got a skull necklace. I fed the boys again and we decided we were done.

We spent all day at the Faire and had a great time! The queen blew the kids all a kiss and Butterfly got several trinkets. We were beat by the end of the day and came back to the hotel early for bed.

We love the Ren Faire!

Safire

Oh the Chocolate!

Everyone,

Guess where we went today? HERSHEY!! Yum yum. I bought a case of 1 lb chocolate bars. Normally I'm not a huge chocolate fan but lately (okay, ever since I couldn't have it!) I've been interested in it. Chocolate world was cool. This was my second time here but Butterfly's first. She was entranced by the little ride with the singing cows. My dad was trying hard not to puke out the side for the corniness of it. She had a great time and now our little fridge is packed with chocolate. Yum!

Butterfly also "made" a little box of kisses which she loved doing. I have pictures, but they are on my camera still.

We also stopped by my mom's old house that she lived in when she was a few months old till she was about 2. We've been here before (last year actually) and so I just sat in the car and fed boys. Mom remembers nothing of the house, except maybe a vague impression of the little alley way next to the house.

We then went back to the hotel to say hello to Juice. Welcome to PA Juice! Butterfly was so excited to see her daddy that she just wanted to stay with him. Since he was not interested in our next outing, she stayed at the hotel with him. And since she was staying, I fed the boys and left them with him too. My dad decided to take a little break too so they all stayed home and my Mom and I drove to Bird-in-Hand, PA.

This is kind of a big Amish community. It was very cool! We didn't have enough time here (a phone call about 10 minutes into the town with a screaming boy in the back ground) but we did stop at a farm and bought home made root beer and saw them driving buggies up and down the main street. That part was cool because the side of the road was rutted from all of the buggies up and down the street. I want to go back and stay in the little inn that was on the main street with chairs in the front lawn so I can sit and watch them go back and forth all day. I'm not all that interested in the Amish, but their HORSES! :)

Safire

SIghtseeing!

Everyone,

My feet are sore. My kids are knocked out. My head hurts just a little bit. I must have been sightseeing today! We were off to Philly today. What an interesting city! Our first stop was the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. We had to stop and get food for us and the boys right when we got there. Butterfly dropped most of her lunch on the ground and we were asked about 3 times about the boys.

We toured Independence Hall. Which meant that my mom listened to the lecture and my dad and I and the kids wandered around and tried to keep Butterfly out of trouble. That girl has boundless energy! We took some kind of cool pictures (still no pictures at the moment...too tired) and enjoyed the square outside some.

By the time we got to the Liberty Bell, Butterfly had had enough. She was just so busy. Maybe I had had enough. I'm not sure. In any case, my dad took some pictures of us in front of the bell and we moved on to another nursing session while Butterfly and my dad ran and ran and ran.

We then decided to walk to to Penn's Landing (where Lord Penn landed, and why Pennsylvania is named what it is) and that was probably not the best choice. It was a long walk for a look at the river. We saw New Jersey. We were also stopped by one very large, very drunk women who tried to touch my boys! I don't mind people looking at them and asking questions, but touching is a no no.

We then walked the long walk back towards our car to find dinner. Dad wanted a cheese steak but did you know that most things close at 5pm downtown? No? Neither did we. So we wandered around trying to find something. And then we were looking for anything but could not find anything.

We lost our car. We couldn't remember where we parked it. We had to ask a police woman if she knew where One Independence Hall was because that's what the building said. She didn't, but suggested we look on our parking ticket for the address. Duh...we had it! She pointed us in the right direction.

One car later, we tried to look for a cheese steak place beyond the Independence Hall area. We found Broad Street, and drove down the Avenue of the Arts in Philly. Cool to see all sorts of art things while we were on the look out for a cheese steak. No such luck. Market Street maybe? Nope. Sigh...we gave up and headed back to the hotel.

We stopped off to feed the boys about 10 minutes later and eat. They screamed when we put them back in their car seats. Maybe too much time in them? We made it back to the hotel in one piece and were in bed a little earlier today than yesterday.

Juice comes up tomorrow. Yay!

Safire

Hello, I'm A State Away

Everyone,

Tell me why I had to drive through Delaware to get to Pennsylvania? And why did it cost me about 12 dollars in tolls? Either way, here we are. I don't know what I was worried about but about 3/4th of the trip I have actually driven it before. I think I was nervous because this was the first road trip I've really done by myself and the kids. I've always had someone else over the age of 12 in the car with me.

Really, I think I was most nervous about the ez pass that was new. I got it to take care of all the tolls. I noticed after I went through the first toll, I was noticeably relaxed. Needless to say, the trip went very smooth.

The boys slept the whole way to the Philly airport, and Butterfly watched the same movie 2 times. We drove through Delaware (small wonder) and through south Philly which was a little scary. I don't know why I was afraid on 1-95 but I was. I got to the airport early and fed the boys in the cell phone lot and when my parents landed, my mom took Butterfly to the bathroom and we were off. It's nice to see my parents again!

We stopped at a mall to eat dinner and buy some straps to put the bags on the roof. My van is not terribly big and after I got ALL of the baby/preschooler (is she really old enough to be a preschooler?!) junk in the car there was no room left for anything else. We barely got my parents in and they decided it wasn't worth it to hold their luggage on their laps for an hour and a half to the hotel so off to the mall for straps and food.

Now, here we are in an awesome hotel room. It has 2 separate rooms, a living room with a pull out couch, a bathroom, and kitchen. We are on the bottom floor, right in the corner so I don't even feel like we are bothering anyone with the crying.

Every one's schedule is off. The boys were ready to sleep at 6pm as always, and I don't think we got them into bed until about 10:30. Mostly because it took us awhile to get to the hotel. And then we had to unload everything, get into pjs, wrangle Butterfly who was bouncing off the walls and people, and fight with the stupid pack and play. Seriously, who thought those things up? They are great, but a pain to put up.

Now I'm off to bed. Sight seeing tomorrow!

Safire

It's late and I'm tired.

Everyone,

Tomorrow I am crazy and driving with all the kids to Pennsylvania to meet up with my parents and have a mini-vaca with them. Every year they always come out in October and do something with us. Last year we went to Chincoteague. This year, Philadelphia. We're all about being tourists here.

Anyway, Fern the Van is packed to the gills already and I only have my stroller, the potty and the pack and play for the boys. Yeah. Why do I think I can do these things?

I'm excited to see my parents again and show off the boys and how much they've grown. And boy have they changed this week! I have pictures, but I can't find my camera cord so you'll have to do with some milestones.

Pirate: He's getting teeth! Or at least, I can see the craters where the two front teeth will be. They are sometimes sharp and sometimes not so he's into peekaboo teeth like Butterfly. Yay horray. He's really not interested in sitting up but refuses to nurse if Butterfly is in the room. She is just so interesting! He laughs all the time. Laughs when you pick him up. Change his diaper, roll him over, walk by, talk to him, smile, tickle, wave, anything. He sucks his thumb and I have to say it's one of the cutest things. I love how he hooks his pointer finger over his nose when he does it. And his eyes are so bright and wondering all the time. He gets me to just stare at things sometimes and wonder what he sees.

Professor: Help me now but this boy is up and rocking on his hands and knees. Yes, you read it right. Oh he doesn't stay up for very long. But he's definitely up. He also stands on his toes and his head and makes his body into an inverted V. And he wiggles. I put him down in the living room and come back to find him in the entry way. I see baby gates in our future. And you should see the looks of loving adoration this kid gives me. It's amazing I get anything done with the amount of time he and I spend loving on each other. Oh Pirate loves me too and loves to put his head on my shoulder and suck his thumb and play with my hair, but Professor's eyes! And his sweet dimpled smile! And his deep chested chuckle! Can't get enough lately.

Butterfly is beginning to resent the fact that I can't play with her as much. I think she is feeling a little lonely. I do try and spend 20 minutes here and there playing and reading with her, but there is only so much I can do. The babies need me so much. I know she does too. And that's why I'm feeling torn these days. It's also why I'm not sleeping great because I stay up and do all the things I put off to be with her. Like laundry or computer time or showering. Or cleaning. Right now we've been running all over to get things ready for this trip and she is not a happy camper. She is also refusing to take her nap and not going to sleep until 11pm (5 nights in a row!!) so she is one cross cookie. She is sweet though and says things like, "Only girls can use this bathroom. Boys can't. We should call Nana and tell her she can come and use this bathroom because only girls can use it." So we did. She will also tell anyone who comes up to us and asks if they are twins "These are my twin brothers, Pirate and Professor. They are babies. I'm Butterfly. I'm 3 years old and I'm NOT the helper." She also said, "Hi, I'm Butterfly. I'm 3 years old and I'm wearing a dress," to our friends who invited us over to watch some tv. He was a good sport and responded, "Hi, I'm B and I'm 37 (???) and I'm wearing pants." It was funny.

I hope the hotel has free wifi so I can blog about our amazing PA adventures. This is our last trip for awhile. I'm feeling a little relieved that we may be able to put away the suitcases for a few months.

Safire

OH! If you're interested in going to another sale, the Norther Virginia Moms of Multiples is having their huge sale on Saturday. See here for information. And if you go, look for a fisher price aquarium high chair or rainforest one in good condition with the little tray toys attached for 50 dollars of less. Pick it up for me and I'll give you 50 plus a little extra for your time. We are going to need that soon.