An Anniversary of Sorts

Four years ago, on Thanksgiving, I started this blog.

A place to write down the crazy things that happened in our day to day lives, to reflect on the path we have taken to this point, a place for far away family and friend to keep up with our crazies. Mostly, an outlet.

With Facebook, I admit, the blog has taken a bit of a backseat of late, but after glancing back at some of those early posts, I know, I MUST, comeback here more faithfully.

It is amazing how much my boys have grown if four years. And it is so nice to have four years of memories, and thoughts to look back upon.

So today, in addition to my family, friends, health, and happiness, I am Thankful that four years ago I had a few minutes to stop and make this place, I am sure 40 years from now, I will be even more Thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

More images from the holidays

New Year's Eve traditions continue...

During my childhood, I spent almost every New Year's Eve at my cousin's house. We would play games, eat tons of cookies, and food, and play. all. night. long. Some of my fondest memories come from those ultra late nights. (we'd go home in the very wee hours of the morning) For the last couple of years we've started the tradition with the boys, and my cousin's kids. It was a fun night watching the next generation of New Year's Eve-ers, although my boys were begging to go home to bed by 9:30 and we finally gave in and took them home at 10. Maybe next year.





This photo cracks me up, because it was the best, of about 30 pictures in the series. I am not exaggerating. In all of the other 29, SOMEONE was looking away, down, making a funny face, or blinking, and that was just Grammie and Poppa. (I kid) Getting 3 kids 5 and under to look and smile for the camera is quite a challenge. (Alison you are worth every penny)


Again, Auntie Shelley, will you please sit still?!?!? =)



And this is just in here because it was a cute moment and kind of reminds me of a sitcom from the late 60's, early 70's...anyone?, anyone?

Pumpkin Patch 2010

I realize it's been a while since I posted pictures of the boys. They are getting so big and grown up. I need to do more pictures, more consistently, just more.

We took a class field trip to a local Pumpkin Patch, a couple of weeks ago, and the boys, and their classmates had a blast.

Not evidenced by Ryan's face here, but there was a fun hayride.


A cotton seed hill to slide down. (on a side note, I loved watching the multiple sets of twins sharing the saucers, lots of the kids tried to share, but it seemed that the twins were the most successful. It's all that womb sharing, it comes in handy.)


And then there was the pumpkin picking.

I swear they had to touch every. single. pumpkin. twice.


But ultimately we were happy with our choices, and we had a really fun morning with our class.

It smells like Christmas!

There's been a little debate in our house about fake versus real Christmas Trees. Personally, and no offense if you have one, I HATE FAKE CHRISTMAS TREES. HATE. Yes, that is a strong word. I mean it.

As long as I can remember we've had a cut, formerly live Christmas Tree. There is something magical about the smell of pine in your home. The zillions of pine needles to clean up until Easter.

Now that I am older, and more Eco-Friendly/Eco-conscious, I do have my guilt about killing a tree for my enjoyment. And yes, it does seem silly to essentially throw away fifty bucks every year for a tree. But Friday, when we walked into the tree lot, and Ryan shouted, "It smells like Christmas!!!" My guilt went out the window. Yes Ryan, it does smell like Christmas. The Christmases of my past, and the Christmases of your future.

Last year the boys were a little to young to help much with the decorating of the "smell of Christmas." They put on a few ornaments but basically that was it.

Today we tried to get them a bit more involved. It worked to the extent that three year old kids can decorate a tree. It takes a lot more fine motor skills than I realized, and it wasn't until I tried to help my guys get ornaments on the branches that I figured out why hooks are much better than ribbon or string loops.

Ryan, ever the independent one, asked "Will you show me how to hang these ornaments, Mommy. Show me how to do it, please." And he worked and worked until he would get one on a branch.



It got a bit frustrating for both of them so I moved on to, "show me where you want this one to go" and that made the activity move along a wee bit faster. We only put about a third of our ornaments on the tree, I may put more on, or we may go for a minimalist tree this year.



However, we do have a very large grouping of ornaments in this section. I could not convince them to place ornaments anywhere else on the tree. And as part of my "letting it go" and "not passing on my OCD" they are all exactly where they told me to put them. Out of balance yes, happy kids, oh yeah. And that is what really matters.


****Edit: The magic is alive and well. Evan had to sit and look at the tree while drinking his milk, and he had to tell the tree goodnight.


He's always loved the Christmas tree. I think one of his first signs was tree, and one of his first properly used utterance was "Uh, oh" when we took the tree down. I know he cried last year when the tree came down. Stay tuned for the drama come the first of the year!

Christmas Dilemma

I have a dilemma. I don't know what to get the boys for Christmas. Can you believe it? Well, actually, since these kids have just about everything, it is harder than it looks.

This is what I have:

Evan: microphone and stand, and it's red. stocking stuff like cars and a few small stuffed animals.
Ryan: ??????. I've gotten him the same stocking stuff but I cannot come up with a big ticket item for him to save my life!!!

What is wrong with me?

Why can't I find gifts for my guys????

HELP ME!!!

Happy 4th of July

We had a really fun 4th of July. The day started with a trip to Old Poway Park for "An Old Fashioned 4th of July" The boys got to ride the steam engine, do some fun arts and crafts, and more importantly, pick up some American Flags.

We saw some "black speakers" and the band that was playing through them. We had snow cones, and visited with some friends. We were present when the American Flag was raised, and when the National Anthem was played. We were up too close and personal when the 21 gun salute went off. We also were on one of the Train Robbery/Gun fight trains...now we are having gun fights in the family room. (great)

After naps we went to our friends Dylan, Tyler and Colin's house for a barbecue. It was so fun. CRAZY fun. There were 3 sets of twin boys, all born just a few weeks apart. That's 6 three year old boys! Throw in a 2.5 year old girl, 9 month old boy and a 2.5 month old boy, and there were A LOT of kids!

It was so fun, the kids ran through the water, the house, the yard. There was streaking, by the kids only I swear. There was sharing, and taking of turns. There were very few tears, and really, no fights! The kids were so great. There was hugging and laughing, oh the laughter, is there anything better?

We decided that we would play staying up for fireworks by ear. If the boys were happy, and doing okay, we'd try and let them stay up to see the fireworks. They were happy and really having a great time. It was just us and our hosts left at this point, we were reading books, the kids were in jammies, and then the switch was flipped. Ryan was done. "I want to go home and go to bed!" "I want to go home" "I want to go to sleep in my bed" Evan, was game for anything. "I want to see the fireworks!" Tyler he was on a brownie induced sugar high and was doing his happy dance also ready for anything. Dylan, was cool as long as he was sitting in my lap and I was reading.

After asking Ryan if he was SURE he didn't want to try and stay up to see the fireworks, and getting "I want to go to bed!" in response, we honored our childs wishes and took that poor kid to bed. Seriously, what is wrong with this kid, given every opportunity to stay up well past his bed time, and he wants to go to bed! I love that about him. When he is tired, he is tired. He's not going to push himself, he just wants to stay on schedule.

Fortunately for Evan, he was able to see some fireworks from the car windows on the drive home. We even took a quick trip past the high school so they could see a few up close. Ryan, still wanted us to go home.

Everyone had a really nice time. It was such a pleasure to watch the kids play so nicely, have some grown up time, and enjoy great food! (Thanks again guys!)

We came within a half hour this year, maybe next year I can talk Ryan into staying up past his bed time, AND maybe I can convince him that ice cream is yummy.

Kids these days, geesh.

Random assortment of photos from the last few weeks

I mentioned this on Facebook, but it deserves a mention here.

As I was changing Evan's diaper, Ryan says to me, "Mommy, there is a lobster here."
Me: "RE-ally"
Ryan: "Yes, and he is crawling around right here."
Me: Mommy bells going off in my head, quickly closed up the diaper to investigate.

Was I glad I did!

I found this scorpion, quickly closed it up into the bucket of cars and set it outside on the porch.
When Scott got home he discovered it was dead, and posed for this picture.

A couple of days later, Ryan told me to "Get your camera Mommy" He was posing for this picture with his fake lizard.


We've been going to Mommy and Me classes for almost two years, we just finished our last class and it is so bittersweet. The boys have grown so much with the help of our teacher Mrs. B. and their wonderful classmates. They loved going to school, and I hope this leads to a smooth transition next fall when we go to big boy preschool all by ourselves.






This is what happens in the backseat of the car more days than not. It just cracks me up, both of them buried in their books as happy as can be.

Dino Mountain opened and we took a trip there on Memorial Day. The boys were a little apprehensive, the dinosaurs move and growl, but it really made an impression. Every day since Monday, Ryan has asked me if we can go see the Dinosaurs again.


So on Thursday, we went back again, TWICE. (oh and I did it by myself, with NO STROLLER!!)

Ryan really enjoyed the stamping, the stamping his passport, his hands, his shirt, his arms.

This was an unscripted moment, they just decided to hold hands. So sweet it makes my teeth ache.

And finally, a little video of my crazy speed demon. No one taught him to take the turns like that, it appears to be something he just knew how to do. We appear to be in big trouble in about 13 years.

I'm a little late to the party, and other ramblings

Some of you may laugh at me for this because I am so lame, but for others of you I want to share some wisdom that has never been shared with me.

On my Christmas list this year was a food processor. A nice medium sized one. I've owned the small two cup type and recently (last 3 years) used it often for grinding up chicken, or sweet potatoes, one breast or potato at a time...tedious, yes. So I thought hm, what thing do I sort of need, but would never go out an buy for myself because well, do I really need a new kitchen gadget? (I would always answer yes to that question, but Scott feels differently, he tends to go on cleaning binges and I find out when I go to use my jar opener that he has decided that it is unnecessary and absolutely needs to be thrown away, now.) Plus I've got pretty decent knife skills so until recently, (now that I cook in bulk and freeze multiple meals,) it's been easy enough to chop, dice and slice by hand. Any way, I was really happy to get my food processor and even more excited to use it.

So the other day I was at Costco and we needed cheese, as we always do in this dairy loving family. I normally buy the brand name version that comes in cute little 2 pound blocks, however, I'm feeling frugal ($400 in swim lessons will do that to me)so I decided to try the Kirkland cheese. The one that comes in the gigantic 5 pound block of cheese, which automatically makes me thing of the West Wing episode where they have the "big block of cheese day" Which was a great episode on a great TV show. If you ever have a few hours months to spare, I highly recommend the first few seasons of the West Wing. I personally watched every single episode, because I am like that, but some people tired of the series around season 4 or 5. I LOVE Aaron Sorkin, and I have watched all episodes of all his series even if I was the only one. He's doing the Facebook Movie by the way and I am really interested in what he comes up with.

Like I said in the title of this post...ramblings.

Okay, so what to do with a big block of cheese? Well, grate it and freeze it of course. I happen to be the proud owner of 3 deep freezers so there is never usually room in one of them for extra staples. I buy milk on sale (organic 1/2 gallons buy one get one free for $4) and freeze it. Anything else we might use in bulk, chicken, etc. if it's on sale, I stock up. (rambling)

So normally I would have had to grate all of that cheese by hand or freeze it in chunks for grating later (which is okay too). But with my handy new food processor, I grated 5 pounds of cheese in like 10 minutes. The hardest part was getting it into the baggies. Why didn't someone tell me how cool these things are?

I also shredded lettuce and made guacamole, all with a swift push of a button. Wow.

I can't wait to make some vegetarian lasagna, all that shredding of veggies, it will be so fast! So simple, so quick. This thing is AWESOME!

So I need to know what else can I do with this thing?


_______________________________________

Out of the mouths of:

Evan: Evan was SHOCKED to see a blue door (pause for effect) on the BOUNCY.

Ryan: Wait, I have an idea. (runs off)

*****
Evan: All of a sudden Evan woke up and there was a monster.
Me: A Monster?
Evan: A Ryan Monster, and he said "Wake UP!"

*****

Ryan: Mom, ... (yes Ryan has gone from calling me Mommy, all the time to Mom. sigh. they grow up too fast. Thank goodness when he is upset he still calls me Mommy.)

*****

Ryan: (The few mornings and afternoons before Christmas) Wake Up. It's Christmas time!!!!

_________________________

I've got so much rumbling around in my brain to write about, but never enough quiet time, energy, etc. to get it out of my brain through my fingers.

I HAVE to write about Evan's EATING!!! New Year's Eve, and a couple of other things, but for now, I HAVE to go to bed.

Christmas Past...and so is New Year's and at this rate this post will be finished around Valentine's Day.

We had a very busy holiday week. Our 500 mile car trip was, let's just say, not pleasant. In the past we have made the trek in the evening and late into the night. The boys have their snack and are off to dream land. The transfer from car to bed has been made with varying levels of success, however the trip is usually filled with lots of sleep and peaceful time for the adults to read, listen to music, or gasp have adult conversations.

The last few trips have seen a sharp decrease in effectiveness, leading up to this year's disaster. Okay, I exaggerate, not really a disaster, but a trip, leaving me shaking my head, covering my eyes, and begging for children to fall asleep.

We had short naps and then, at about 10:30 we woke up and were raring to go. Evan has become quite a motor mouth. Talking about everything, anything and all the time. He was quite the instigator in the mayhem that filled our Odyssey. We were treated to about 3 hours of the little drummer boy, sung at full voice my Evan, with harmonizing vocals from Ryan. We also had several hundred renditions of the ABC song, A few choruses of Jingle Bells, and the singing of every kind of truck that passed the windows.

About an hour from our destination, the debates started. It went a lot better than the Vice Presidential Debates of 2008, everyone stayed on point.

Evan: Evan First
Ryan: Ryan First
Evan: Evan First
Ryan: Ryan First
Evan: Evan First
Ryan: Ryan First
Evan: Evan First
Ryan: Ryan First
Evan: Evan First
Ryan: Ryan First
Evan: Evan First
Ryan: Ryan First
Evan: EVAN FIRST
Ryan: RYAN FIRST
Evan: EVAN FIRST
Ryan: RYAN FIRST
Evan: EVAN FIRST
Ryan: RYAN FIRST
Evan: EVAN FIRST
Ryan: RYAN FIRST
Evan: EVAN FIRST
Ryan: RYAN FIRST
Evan: EVAN FIRST
Ryan: RYAN FIRST

You get the idea...this went on with "Evan go with Daddy/Ryan go with Daddy" and several other phrases, for the rest of the trip. Now, had it not been 12:30 AM, a good 5 hours past their bed time, it would have been pretty funny. (Even so, it was pretty funny.) I was getting more and more concerned with the lack of sleeping. Knowing full well that Evan was sick, and Ryan was due to catch it any second, knowing that we had a lot of activities planned, and knowing that they would not sleep in at all the next morning, and knowing that I was already exhausted, I knew this was going to be a long, long week.

There were several activities that made the highlight reel for us. The first requires that I mention that we are now members of two train museums 500 miles apart. Yes, with our two trips in one week, and the trip we took over the summer, we've paid for the membership (0r would have had we purchased the membership over the summer)

The second exciting activity was the trampoline place. It was amazing. There were trampolines all over the floor and the walls. The boys and their cousin Madison had a blast. So much so I had to take Evan back for another visit. (He is still asking to go back to the trampoline place.)

Oh, and yes, I only took Evan back. That day the boys couldn't agree on one place to go. Ryan voted for the Train Museum, and Evan the trampoline place, so we split them up. It was really fun. Each boy got our undivided attention, and they got to do the thing THEY wanted to do. I love this and I think we will make an effort to do things with them separately more often. Plus it's a piece of cake with only one kid! ( I found myself trying to parent random children I had so much extra time on my hands.)

We also went to the Zoo, "World Famous" it is not, but it was great fun. There was a ride on train, that of course, we rode on, and it was a manageable place where the boys could walk the entire time. Next to the Zoo is Fairytale Town, a fantastic place for little ones. Slides, things to climb on, play on, all based on Fairytales and children's stories.

More important than the places we went, was all of the time we got to spend with family. The boys loved having time with their Aunts and Uncles, Grand Parents, Great Grand Mother, and Cousin. For us, it was really wonderful to "show off" our little guys. They constantly surprise and amaze us, and it's nice to see other people's reactions to all the things we see everyday.

This age is so amazing, everything is absorbed so quickly, remembered and stored in those sponges they call brains. I'm so glad we are storing some great memories in there.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

The trip home wasn't as bad as the trip there. Except no one napped, and Evan talked the ENTIRE way home. I swear I don't remember what about, just that Scott and I laughed that he would be hoarse the next day. He wasn't.

Fourth of July