Each day brings something new...

During my journey of being a twin mom I have had many new lessons to motherhood.  Ethan was never this much work, never so destructive and into everything.  With these two I have had to completely rearrange my life and my house, nothings is left untouched.  I have put things away, I have packed things and put them into storage, I have moved, stacked, put up high, ugh I swear I am so sick of moving things from here to there just for them to find them in the end anyways.  So what is our newest of frustrations...Mr. Dylan climbing out of his crib.  Oh my word what next!?!?  I am at a total loss, I do not think they are ready for toddler beds, and I know I AM NOT!  They are far from listening, and now my one days moment of peace is gone, I can no longer put them in bed and just relax, I am on edge scared he will fall out to the point I swear I woke up over a dozen times last night.  Now I have to toddler proof one more room... theirs, shelves need to be acred to the walls, and the top of the shelf cleared.  I know who doesn't toddler proof their room, well me I guess they never play in there, and we don't keep their toys in there, just cribs and clothes.  One more thing for this mama to do, and one more thing to frazzle me.  I swear they have aged me 10 years at least, ugh TWINS YA GOT TO LOVE EM'!

Almost Christmas...

We are almost there...CHRISTMAS 2010!!!  I can't wait to watch all my boys open their presents this year!  Christmas is my favorite time of year, decorating the tree, the house, baking, and eagerly waiting to see the kids open their presents.  This year it feels a bit different though, no presents under the tree, no baking going on, and no snow.  Here we are mid December and only a touch of snow on the ground, only a couple days of cold weather, and we don't dare put presents under the tree because the twinadoes would shred the paper worse than they are shredding mamas Christmas tree!!!  We are going through a tough time here with the twins not listening and getting into everything.  It takes every ounce of energy I have just to keep them from knocking the tree over, they will NOT leave it alone. Time out after time out and still they do not listen to LEAVE THE TREE ALONE.  Funny thing, okay soooooo NOT FUNNY, but there is no ornaments left towards the bottom of my tree, there are several ornaments that have not survived.  I have spent most of the last couple of weeks enforcing time outs, I can not even count the amount of time outs that we have been through...in one day...it has been a crazy few weeks.  This is so beyond terrible twos, I had no idea two little boys could be so very naughty!  It is starting to pay off, they are beginning to grasp the concept of time out, but the battle is not over yet.  I never would have guessed that having twins would be quite so tasking, exhausting, and so very stressful.  I now have two pack n' plays in my dining room, because one time out spot was just not enough, baby gates get shuffled to block the kitchen, and doors must remain closed.  I am so ready for this stage to end, my days are crazy, my nights are exhausting, and my mind is FRAZZLED.  "Twin brain" is not even the words for it, I forget things, misplace things, and swear I do things that I don't, stress is an everyday occurrence but this too shall pass just like the sleepless nights...I HOPE SOONER than later.  Still I love being a twin mama, but never would I have dreamed my life would change so much.  I spend most my day cooking, cleaning, and chasing them out of all the things they can't get in to.  There is so little time to just spend and enjoy with them, or big brother Ethan.  I try to take every moment that I can just playing with them, or just hanging out with Ethan, but I am truly spread way to thin.  I just tell myself someday I will look back on this and laugh, and maybe even miss it a bit, crazy I know but surly I will.  Right now I just can't wait for soccer to start in a few months so I get to have some much needed one on one time with Ethan.  I am looking forward to coaching his team and having that time to just do something fun with him, he loves soccer, and loves that mom gets to coach him.  We have such great conversations on the way to practices and games!!!  So I am waiting for Christmas to come and go, waiting for spring sports, and waiting for more fun times to come!!!

Snow!!!

SNOW!!!

 It finally snowed!!!

 

Well, maybe not snowed, as much as flurried, but it was fun to play in!!!

Breakfast...

I felt like getting a little creative with breakfast, two scoops of Tin Roof ice cream topped off with a bit of syrup! They loved it, though I did try to make shapes with the pancake batter, that turned out as a disaster!!!

Christmas Crafts...

Ornament Making Fun..

Getting Messy...

I can't believe it but I forgot to do the boys' hand prints when they turned a year!!! We decided to have them do it now and decorate them for Christmas ornaments, and the boys' loved it. They helped mix, smash, shape, and somehow managed to resist eating the dough *laugh*. They had so much fun, and with daddy's time off work we had lots of time to do many fun crafts and make neat Christmas things. We did hand prints, let them finger paint on Christmas bulbs, and they also painted pine cones, they enjoyed the extra time with daddy, and it makes it so much easier to do all that fun stuff with an extra set of hands to help out.

Do We Dare...

Some may think I am crazy, some may even say it to me...but yes I am putting my huge Christmas tree up with all of the gorgeous ornaments too!!!  I have a bit of an obsession with my tree, it must go up before Thanksgiving, we must decorate it as a family, each child must place the star on top with assistance of daddy, so yes we do it three times and of course we get a picture of each time, and it must look just so!  Okay I will give on it looking perfect because I am not completely naive to think that my lil' twinadoes are going to look not touch, but it will go up and it will be fantastically beautiful.  So this is my plan of attack...STAGES!  I will put it up in stages and maybe they will let it be.  I put it up yesterday during nap time, they woke up midway through and scattered all the parts about the house, but it got up and they didn't disturb it much.  Today during nap I thought gee they did so good I last night and today so I will add a few lights, hmmm maybe I jumped the gun.  So the lights did make it a bit more tempting, but still I am impressed they aren't completely taring it apart.  I think I will wait a few days to put the second batch of lights and the ornaments on, so as much as it is bugging the heck out of me, my tree will sit unfinished for a few more days.  It may not be done before Thanksgiving, but it is up and we will get there and you can bet I will be posting pictures of it!!!  YEAH FOR FAMILY HOLIDAY FUN!!! 

18 Months Already...

Smell of cupcakes and cake in the air, lots of extra looks of amazement, the twins will be 18-months-old tomorrow!!!  Every month older they get, and every milestone they hit is a constant reminder of how fast time goes, and how the little babies are dissapearing and growing into little boys so fast.  Dylan and Ashton have went from two tiny babies to crazy busy toddlers, that are walking, climbing, gabbing away, and exploring everything in this last year and a half, and I can't help but wonder what the next year and a half have in store for us.  What they will learn, what they will like or not like, just amazing how much they have changed and grown in such short time.  So there are a few people who think that I am a bit over the top when I made a cake and we even had party hats when they turned 6-months-old, then we did a huge party when they turned a year, and now we are having another little party for them turning 18-months.  Just a fun thing to do to celebrate and I will jump at any reason to have a little party fun!!!  So today the preparation, tomorrow the cake and candle fun just the five of us!!!  Pictures will come tomorrow!

My Boys and Me...

Halloween Party 2010...

The party was a hit, once again!!!  A great day of family fun and pumpkin carving...oh and a little HUSKER watching, was had by all.  All the kids had so much fun, and it is getting a bit easier now that the majority of the kids are old enough to do their own pumpkins now, but the twins still need help from mama and daddy as you can see in the pictures I added.  This day mama was not behind the camera much I was way to busy getting my hands dirty with Ashton Cole on his Jack O' Lantern, and daddy was helping Dylan.  Dylan picked a skeleton and called it a "puppy" and Ashton picked a dragon and called it a "kitty", and Ethan did a scary flame face!!!  And bad mom/photographer moment I forgot to take a picture of them next to their pumpkins.  It was a busy busy day and it was enough work just to get all the pumpkin slime picked up and all the pumpkins gathered together for a shot of them all in the dark.  Oh and to keep everybody safe from crashing into something with all the lights off in the garage, and not to mention the disaster of a mess that was in the house after a day of munching from 16 people and a puppy!!!  But it was worth it to see all the kids having fun and all the cool Jack O' Lanterns!!!  I am so in the Halloween spirit now for sure!  And I will catch a shot of the boys in front of their pumpkins SOON!!!!  So once again the party was a hit, and all the work was worth it for all the kiddos!  This is one family tradition that won't die soon, it is way to much fun!

Pirates in the Park...

More Pirates...

More Pirates...

More Pirates...