Move over Martha!

Move over Martha, Step back She-Ra, Jump aside Julia Child . . . I can make baby food! I don't know what is so terribly liberating and empowering about making my own baby food but man I feel great. I suddenly feel this sense of power now that I don't have to rely on Gerber or Earth's Best or whoever to feed my children. Freedom from "The Man". ;) I've only done peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, and pears, but my creative juices are following and who knows what I'll do next week. Hee-hee. I know, if I was REALLY a woman of power I would have grown my own veggies. Next year.

My Girls!

Our Family Picture

Well, I'm totally coming to terms with the fact that a Christmas card/letter is not going to happen this year. So here's our family picture for 2008! I must say I am very proud of the fact that James is a) in the picture b) not crying c) looking at the camera. So what if he's playing the harmonica. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas From Texas

We had a surprise second Christmas this week. Justin's mom sent us Christmas presents on December 18th, but they sat at the FedEX depot from Dec. 19th until last Tuesday. So we enjoyed a second round of presents. James enjoyed unwrapping everyone's gifts, and the girls enjoyed eating everyone's gifts. ;)

A severe case of Bumbo-buttitis

A new disease has attacked our two year old. It's common symptoms include irrational behavior causing the affected to steal toys from their infant sister's and warped senses of humor causing them to think it's funny to have large pieces of molded foam stuck to their behinds.

No cure has been discovered as of date. If fact we believe it might be progressing aggressively.

Sisters

I think this will be one of my all time favorite pictures of my sisters and myself. It was taken by our mother in September 2007. I feel so lucky to have so many sisters when some women don't have any. Whenever we get together I feel as though we can understand each other in ways only sisters can. i.e. We all speak Chocolate.

Merry Christmas!

Ok, so it's actually the Happy New Year. But since I decided to throw a fondue party for 30 people last night (Not a great idea if you haven't ever made fondue before.) But, hey it's being together that counts right?!? So,we had lump o' cheese. It tasted great, you just couldn't dip in the cheese, it was more cut the cheese. So, point being, I was throwing a party and didn't get any pictures of the party.
Anyway back to Christmas. We had a great Christmas. It was the first year we had a kid who really got the idea of presents. James was totally entranced with his presents, and even more so with his sisters' presents. Here are some pics--in reverse order because I forget to load them the other way around.

Justin with a power tool.

Aunt Debbie with some of her loot. Notice the cool antique suitcase in the background which I covet.
Mommy with the kids.

Grandma breaking in the relaxation wrap Santa brought her for when little James has really done her in.

Grandpa practicing napping with his car napping kit Santa brought him for long trips on the road.

The girls investigate their stocking loot--Mostly stuff for eating solids. Isn't Santa practical?

James takes ownership of his tent and table. It's ok James if you want to stay in there a play for LONG stretches of time.

Kate helps James open his present. Isn't she sweet? Or maybe she's just getting back at him for all the times he's taken her toys away.

Mommy and Daddy lead the kids into to see their stockings on Christmas morning.

Snow Days '08

Ok, so I know the snow has been rained away for over a week now, but I wanted to record our Big Blizzard '08 since I plan on printing off the blog as a journal. As hardened snow veterans from Utah, you wouldn't think a bit of snow--or 12" of it, would slow us down much. Well, it turns out the State of Washington doesn't actually plow the snow if you're not on a major Freeway and every other regular citizen doesn't' have a snow plow to hitch on the front of their rig as in Utah. Since Justin and Grandpa needed the snow worthy cars to go to work everyday, the rest of us were snowed in for 5 days straight. It was actually kind of fun. It felt like an old time Christmas and all pressures at overdoing Christmas were swept away! So, we filled our days with baking, sledding, and sitting by the fire.

Daddy and James get ready to tackle the big hill.

Sledding down the street since no cars could get up it anyway!

Clara, James, & Kate enjoy the fire. That's daddy in the background keeping the girls upright!

Mommy and James make Puppy Chow. Ok, Mommy makes puppy chow and James samples Chocolate chips--notice the chocolate mustache.
Daddy and James brave the snow

Today . . . Much Better

Ok, so I was thinking that yesterday's post was maybe a little too honest. Oh, well. I hope no one thinks worse of me for it. I just wanted to say that to Kate's defense she has been a wonderful sleeper today going down for both her naps like a champ. Ahh, the light at the end of the tunnel . . . What? That doesn't happen until they're 3? Or is it 18? Sigh . . . Here are some happier (mostly) pics

My sister Jeny gave James a couple bags of balls. We put them in the pack-n-play to create a ball pit for him--which he LOVES. (Great idea for anyone with kids and a pack-n-play. BTW) I left the room for a minute and when I came back James had "shared" his balls with Clara. It was really sweet.

I had to get a picture of Kate finally falling asleep yesterday after 2 hours of screaming and refusing to take her nap. See yesterday's post for more details of my delightful day.

Here's Clara with her first bites of solid foods. She LOVES solids.

And you can tell what Kate thinks of solids by the look on her face. Not such a fan.

Ok, I really got online to find a recipe for dinner, so I'll stop being ADD now and get to work. Have a great evening!

My terrible, horrible, very bad, no good day.

Well, my darling daughter Kate decided that for 3 days she was not going to sleep. This upset her very much and me even more. The few times I did get her to sleep during the day it would last about 10 minutes and she'd be up again. During the night she would not sleep unless she was latched on to me. Fine until her sister wants to eat. Two days in row both girls started screaming 20 minutes before Justin had to get up at 3:45 in the morning. He was pretty upset about that one. Finally, at one point yesterday afternoon, when both girls were screaming, I lost it. I'm not proud to admit it, but in the interest of realism, I must say I totally lost it. The exercise bike got beaten by a boppy pillow. It was an ugly crime scene. The totally innocent remote control got in the middle and lost it's innards--which was very frustrating when I wanted to use it a few minutes later and had to go scavenging under the couch to find the batteries. Alas, a much chagrined me ran away to my sister's house later on that night. She dosed me up with lots of her secret recipe fudge and today was much better. The doctor wasn't sure what was wrong with Kate--she broke out in a rash today on top of all things. We think it was a bad reaction to the solid foods we started the girls on last weekend. But, life moves on. Here's a little clip of the sweetheart jumping on her jumperoo as I type.

Some random pics of Mr. Destructo

Well, the past week has been very busy . . . First the holidays with family . . . a visit to Fort Vancouver and the airport museum . . . A trip to the coast to see the maritime museum in Astoria . . . And a round of strep throat and colds and goopy eyes (clogged tear ducts)! So, now that things are settling down and I have gotten to know our local pharmacist very well. It was awesome to see my brother William and Sister-in-law Carrie and their kids. Sorry to send them home with strep thoat. :(

I keep having little thoughts about what to blog about next--James dumping his pee in the bathtub, Kate and Clara fighting over whose hands are whose, James playing baby all day--even asking to have his nose cleaned out with the bulb syringe like his sisters. "Um, James, did you notice they're both crying after I do that?" . . . but the time passes so fast I forget by the time I sit down each night. So, here are some random pics I had on my camera. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Oh, we had 6 month check ups--both girls are 13 lbs. 9 oz. & 24" long. Doing great.

The girls are getting bigger each day so we decided it was time to get out the Jumperoo for them. HA! Doesn't look like they'll get a chance to try it out any time soon . . .

The keyboard is my birthday present from Justin. With all the free time I have . . . . I decided I want to learn to play the piano. I thought it was best to start with a small keyboard, not a big, expensive piano. (Just in case this goes the direction of my great plan to learn knitting--I got as far as one bootie. I need 4.)

Ok, so this is totally a life lesson. How many gum balls do you have to eat to figure out that you don't like them? Apparently about 7. Then again, it usually takes me about 7 bites of yucky store bought birthday cake to figure out--Nope I still don't like it. Take care everyone! Have a great week.

We're all unique

I'll try to get this post out fast before my son ceases to placated by poo-nanda. That's Kung Fu Panda to the rest of us!

So, one of the fun things about having twins is getting to see what habits and developmental stages are individualistic and which are steps all babies go through. The thing that prompted this post was Kate's unique sleeping position:

Kate sleeps bent over backwards like someone has got a string tied from the back of her head pulling her down to her bum. It's sooo cute. It looks way uncomfortable to me, but I guess she must have been this way in the womb so maybe it's familiar. I always said she was my little gymnast!

Another thing that might have caused me personal stress and anxiety if I only had one child at this point is the occasional color of Kate's BM. (That's bowel movement ;P) Every once in awhile it comes out somewhere between neon and pea green. Now, if I only had one child I might stress that I had eaten something toxic that was poisoning my child. But, since Clara has no such color variations, and since nothing else seems to be the matter with Kate, I figure I just got a weirdo-poop child.

It's fun to see the girls develop each in their own way. Clara is much more vocal and loves to talk, blow raspberries and laugh. The other day I caught her chatting it up with her fishy crib toy. (yes, the same crib toy lovingly donated by the Athay cousins, and previously mentioned in a another post for causing a certain amount of distress b/c James would play with it until 12 am. and not go to sleep. Somehow it mysteriously disappeared until just recently. Strange. I digress.) Clara loves her fishy toy and spends long moments discussing the complexities of life with the fish through zurberts and raspberries.

Kate is much more agile and strong. Just this morning I put her inside her play gym next to Clara. When I came back a little while later she was laying outside the play gym facing the opposite direction. Not bad for a 5 month old! Wait--forget I said that. Sloooow down Kate. Nobody gets to crawl until at least 10 months around here. You can start cruising around 18 months and walking around 16 years old. Just in time for your first date. That should give me time to baby proof.

Some of the sweetest moments are when the girls comfort each other. When I tandem nurse Clara will always reach over and hold Kate's hand. They both are thumb suckers and everyone once in awhile they like to reach over and give their sister's fingers a go. Or head. Depends on what is most convenient at the time.

Guess they're following my sentiments when I say "Oh, we make it up as we go along." That's really what I feel like. Some days I feel like the biggest failure when nobody will nap or eat or stop crying or stop ripping the wall paper off the walls. I'll let you guess who is guilty of most of that. Here's a hint. He knows the time out spot on every floor of this house. Well. But other days, like today, when my girls take their naps AT THE SAME TIME and James plays nicely and sings the tiny turtle song 900 times with me I feel like I might not be wrecking my children's lives too much. Either way, we can always start a therapy fund for them, right? Oops, poo-nanda has lost it's magic. Better go before Grandpa's man cave is taken down by a 2 year old. Take care!

Too precious

The other day I couldn't for the life of me get the girls to fall asleep for their afternoon nap. So I decided to give up and just let them play. A little while later I found them like this. I guess I just didn't have the touch that day. That's what sister's are for! I love my little girls sooo much.

And everyone says he looks like his dad!

Halloween and More!

Ok, so this blog is going to be long, but hey that's what you came for right?!? So, first up, James has a new hobby. One day I had James help me "bake." So, now he comes up every so often and asks if he can "help bake." Here is a picture of James baking. I think the apron is excellent bribery material for when he's about 16 and going on his first date. :)


Ok, so I been trying to figure out why my diet is not very successful, despite being a nursing mom of twins. I have 3 theories: 1) One of you has a voodoo doll of me and is using it, 2) Aliens abduct me during the night and force feed me while I sleep, 3) I reward myself with "ice cream" parties waaaay too often. Here is a picture of one such party I had with myself after a particularly difficult night alone with two screaming girls. Ah-hem--it was 11 in the morning when I attended this party. I think I'll have to go with theory #3.

Halloween Picture #1. So, James aka. Dash never made it to Halloween. He fell asleep at 6 pm on the way to the trunk o' treat and never woke up.

Halloween #2 My wonderfully creative and endlessly energized sister Jeny (who has 6 kids of her own to get ready for Halloween) made these adorable costumes for the girls. They are Sugar & Spice shakers. You can't see the shaker caps very well from this direction. And just in case you wanted to know but didn't want to ask--Yes, they are correctly labeled. :) Sorry about the sideways pic.

Justin's father Bill came up to visit this past week. We had a great time showing him around the 'Couv. That's Vancouver to all you non-vancouverites. James loved having Grandpa around to play with and bully around. We went with Grandpa to the Pearson Airport Museum. James had a great time flying the plane and helicopter. Look out down below! Captain James is making his landing.

At James' play group last week one of the gals brought a bag of candy corn and we decoratively spread it out on the cookie sheet around the healthier snacks. Well, James found the candy corn. And just like a pirate with his booty--he wasn't sharing with anyone. See him analyze his plunder. He spent a long time making every last piece of corn fit into that cup!

James is helping Justin and Grandpa fix Auntie Ashley's car window.

Ok, so if you squint really hard and use your imagination you can see James in the window of the guard tower here at Fort Vancouver.
Here is the fam at Fort Vancouver. Thanks for checking out my blog!! BTW--sorry to those of you whose blog's I check out but don't leave comments. I most often have to do my computer browsing single handed with my left hand while nursing.