scrapbook page

Just the newest & I won!! Look soon before Guy removes his photo...

Here's an oldie from the log ride at Disney World. I love it! We can be soooo goofy sometimes.


The first fruit went over just as I expected... They loved it! The 'I won' is because we just scored some fabulous local apples from Heidi that are the both sweet and tart (like me lol :-) and two good sized pumpkins from the hay ride. One is a large white one with a thicker and tastier meat, and the other is a funny shaped normal orange pumpkin. I think it looks like a child's toy from olden days. A top. Tomorrow they will get their first pumpkin which means I have to cut them both up for the freezer and the next few days food. I really need to get an upright freezer for when we get good deals like this. Why only an upright? Chest freezers swallow your food making it impossible to really see or access what you have. I also scored a new child's bike seat from Buttons & Bows in Garner!!! I had sold just enough stuff to get it. The main thing we sold was the swing we bought the babies which they had nothing but disdain for. Only one more bike seat to find then we can take up biking again!!! I can't wait. It has now been just over a year since we tried it when I was 6 weeks pregnant. That sure didn't work. My down below muscles were all doing the super stretch to accommodate the twins so exercise during pregnancy was not possible for me despite my grand ideas.

We may actually have found a rhythm and routine! How cool would that be after 6 months?? Guy is extra fabulous and all week has fed the kids when he got home from work about 5 am. So here goes for the current routine break down. I'll start from the official waking:

Wake around 8:00 am play in crib for around 20 minutes
Bottle the next 40 minutes around 6 oz each
Around 9:30 some runny food mixed with rice cereal
Play time
Around 10-11 go down for a nap lasting from 30min to an hour and a half
Bottle around 11-11:30 6 oz each
Nap around 12-1pm either short or long depending on how the first one went
Play time
Bottle around 3-4 pm 6 oz each
Runny food around 5-6
play time
Nap around 5-7pm again can be short or long
bottle around 6-7pm 6 oz each
Play hard time only with people (usually mommy) anytime they are awake after 5 pm
Runny food - oatmeal
Bottle 9 pm 4-6 oz each
Sleep 9-11 pm will go down. Madison is usually awake 1-2 hours longer
Bottle around 12-1 am 6 oz each
Sleep
Bottle around 5 am 6 oz each
sleep until 8 ish am

Some days I can keep them together and some days they get 'off' each others time.

Madison has finally officially found her feet. She is also roaming around the crib and turning on/off her own Ocean Wonders crib entertainer like Blake. Blake has officially found his winkie last night during his bath. He kept trying to get it again but fell just short of reaching it most 'Bam Bam' like swings he took at it. lol He is certainly living up to his new nick name. Madison is definitely grown into the 18 month sleepers this week. Guy thinks I have them in tooo baggy of clothes, but I'm telling you they fit pretty darn good. Blake has also really grown out of the few 9 month sleepers he was in. I kept thinking 'we need girl clothes, we need girl clothes' that I didn't add up how many sleepers Blake has in the 18 month size. Luckily he does have 1 and about 3 12 month ones. The 12 month one he had on last night looked about 2 inches too short in both the arms and legs this morning. We'll see how they come out on the giant kids scale next week at their 6 month appointment. Madison is still about an inch taller then Blake. She is also losing her cancer patient look with the hair coming in better with only a few patchy places left. She is also starting to talk a lot instead of a little especially at the end of a bottle. Blake is now pooing at least 3 times a day. What a stinker!

There are more things they are doing, but it is time for their morning apples!! Yum yum.

Maren tagged anyone who read her blog post

I had to post a photo from our wedding. Here we are with our parents in San Diego. Loved it!

Sorry, sorry, sorry

Besides the drama I started by picking a fight with my sister things have been really crazy here. I am still over 750 photos behind. And my problem is still growing!!! We recently took the babies 6 month photos, we went on a hay ride/pumpkin patch and had a Halloween party at church. Today was so beautiful outside too. And I am also trying to get into digital scrapbooking to top it all off!!! ha ha. It is pure craziness. The posts and photos will come. OF that I am certain. The question is just.... When?

Sample business card

Some photos

First day of making the babies food!

Runny food is going great. They already had cereal to combat the acid reflux. We have introduced peas, carrots, squash and green beans. Tonight we had our first home made carrots. I can't believe how easy it was to pop some in the rice cooker/steamer and blend it up with our Magic Bullet. The Magic Bullet is really cool because it has a built in storage system in the same containers I blend it up in. I've decided not to do the freezing because twins eat more and I just steam enough to make 3-4 meals of a certain item. Also, I can steam several different foods together at the same time without making them a mixed food. We will wait a couple more weeks for that since we started solids a bit early. Currently we are doing morning and right before bed feedings. The babies have added about 2 hours to their first sleep of the night since starting the runny foods.

Oh me Oh my

"1, 2, 3, 4 I declare a thumb war!"

LOL Doesn't this photo look like they are playing that game?

This a photo of Blake with his gang banger sister Mady!

Below is the slide show of our photos from before the trip to Phoenix when we had a play date with Allison and Anderson.




It's official. The babies have both thoroughly found each other! Most of the time they are much more gentle with each other then with anyone or anything else. The rest of us are subject to excruciating full fist pinches, kicks and head butts!

This last 10 days while we were in Phoenix the babies have gained a ton of new skills. They are having times of sitting with little to no support. They are loving their runny food. We have almost eliminated the cereal in their formula and are happily mixing it with their veggies now. Blake is a great eater. Madison has her tongue in the way quite a lot despite being the better eater to begin with. Both of them definitely know what food is and are eagerly waiting for the day they can have some of ours. We have already received complaints from them when we deny them what we are eating. The babies love to play with each other and also are enjoying taking their naps together. Blake is fantastic at reaching successfully for items with one or both hands. Both of them know how to move their bears from one hand to the other, but that hasn't quite translated to everything else. Blake has also found his feet and his wing ding once during a diaper change. Madison finally started rolling onto her side more often. She still gets just as much enjoyment out of watching others have a good time as she does participating herself.

They both appear to have grown an inch while we were gone as we had to raise the exersaucer up to the tallest height. What?!!?!?! They are only going to turn 6 months later this week! lol. I bet we are in for quite a surprise at their 6 month appointment in a couple of weeks.

Our trip was very nice. We started out with a great visit with most of our family at my cousin Ty's house after a brief stop at Aunt Madelynn's house. Most of the family from Aunt Mady's came with us to Ty's for some pizza and chatting! We stayed at a nice Marriott (thanks Grandma!!!!) with my mom by their houses since it is an hours drive away from my mom's. The next day we all caravaned up to Sedona Arizona just like the old days! After getting some fried chicken we all headed over to Slide Rock for a picnic. The kids were the only ones brave enough to go down the slide because of the cold water. Slide rock is a natural slide carved out of the rock by Oak Creek. Guy got pretty wet rescuing all the kids before the slide ran into a deep pool. I have quite a few photos I'll share in the next few days hopefully with some captions.

After returning from Sedona we picked up the truck we borrowed from my Aunt Karen and headed to Andy, Melissa and Madelyn's house for the night. We didn't get to visit much that night as it was pretty late. The next day we hung out with Melissa and Madelyn. Guy did his 'fix/do stuff around the house' that we all love so much about him. We got our first taste of Native New Yorker honey hot wings that Monday night. Tuesday morning we headed out after a lovely relaxing morning with a load of laundry done to Mando, Aleesha, Ethan and Jaxson's house. Aleesha's parents were also visiting from NC. All the boys had just come home from an overnight camping trip. We all lounged about visiting that day and night. Brother Bake made what I call Indian Fry bread and what they call Scones for supper. Yum yum...

Wednesday Guy and I ate at Native New Yorker for our second round of tasty wings before heading over to my cousin Steve's house. There we met my mom and grandma to visit with Aunt Jean, Steve, Gretchen and their three girls Ashlynn, Katie and Jaquiline. While there we visited, played on the trampoline and had the babies get their feet wet in the pool. We all headed out to dinner at my mom's favorite restaurant, Texas Roadhouse, because she is a steak fiend. After dinner we took a few family photos of the Lairds. Unfortunately we took to long eating and missed most of the good light. Sheesh. Hopefully I can work some magic on them. The two guys helped a woman get into her car who was locked out before we left the neighborhood lake.

Thursday started out with the babies having upset tummies. We hung out most of the day before heading to Abuelo's for some Mexican fare. It was not as I remembered it at all. That night started my uh oh as noted below. Friday and Saturday we hung out at the house. Saturday I searched for a while to find a babysitter so we could go meet my mom for the evening, but did not find anyone on short notice. Melissa & Andy had volunteered, but her grandma passed away calling them away to Cali. Sunday we also hung around the house....

Monday we met up with Aunt Karen, Jennifer (Ty's girlfriend) and their boys for some lunch. After lunch we headed back to Ty's house where Aunt Madelynn met us. About 4:30 we headed over to my friend Christina's house to get a look see at her twins and visit for a while. She also bestowed upon us some lovely hand me downs for Madison!!! From there we packed up and headed home Tuesday morning. Since arriving back at home we have settled in and gotten down to the business of living life in Raleigh. The babies seem to be happy they are home.

The rest of my 'Oh me Oh my' pertains to two parts of our trip. The first is we got the stomach flu which manifested itself by the babies throwing up for about 12 hours. As soon as they started to feel better my tummy turned sour. I spent about 12 hours with peeeooop and projectile vomit followed by another 12 hours recovery. About the time I began to feel better Guy came down with it spending the better part of 36 hours on the toilet, but thankfully not throwing up. My mom followed him with her own toilet time. Oh, and about the time Guy got ill I developed pink eye! After $70 in an out of state and weekend medical diagnosis and prescription it is now almost gone. The second part is all about how we started to have second thoughts of moving to Phoenix to have those completely obliterated (forever, I think, this time) by my sister! This may sound very harsh, but after spending more money then 1/2 of what Guy brings home each month it was such a huge disappointment.

Finally - Atlanta trip photos!!!

Here is the link to the album with the Atlanta photos. There are captions on most of the photos telling who they are and/or what is going on. Enjoy.

Trip to Atlamta