one of those days...

Well at least my husband will be off work soon...

And tomorrow is Friday...

And a 3 day weekend...

Uugh...

A week in iphone pics v.3...

It's that time again, folks... I'm going to really try to focus next week and do as this was intended and document a week with pictures...try, so don't get your hopes up.  Until then just some randomness(which may indicate how my brain works).

one:  Kai hanging out with me unloading groceries in the Mei Tai my Mom made us (isn't she awesome!)
two:  Monday morning Starbucks (eh,who am I kidding, every morning Starbucks - whose judging?)
three:  A leprechaun Elijah feeling stoked about school being out. 

four:  Kai relaxing in the back yard.
five:  Kaden grilling with Daddy.
six:  Kai gets hypnotised with Baby Einstein "Wheels on the Bus" video...seriously, it's like magic.

seven:  Eli fell on on a slug (freak football accident) and got majorly slimed, that stuff is like rubber cement!

eight:  Elijah took this picture.  Kai is looking at him like... why are YOU taking pictures of us now too?!?

nine:  Baked apples for baby food....YUMMY!!

(I realize now that Kai kinda hijacked the pics this week)

Linked up with A good life blog, you can hop on over there and check out a bajillion iphone pics in all their awesomeness.

Gramma in a box...

We Skype with my mom on the regular.  She lives in Montana so it's kinda awesome that she can spy check in on us whenever she wants. 
We always joke that the babies will think their gramma lives in a box.  They used to just sleep or stare out the window but they are starting to interact with her and it's pretty funny.  Actually, it's most funny watching her trying to make them laugh.  She has these little stuffed animals she waves in front of the camera like a puppet show or she sings "Wheels on the Bus".  They are probably thinking "what's this crazy lady doing in there".  They will probably jump out of their diapers when they see her in real life later this summer.

It's pretty much the best free entertainment around....

p.s.  These are the most horrible shots of my mom (and me!) but who looks good on a webcam anyways?

I guess Kaden got a little bored...(actually none of us look too entertained)

School's Ooouuuuuuuut!!

Even if mother nature hasn’t gotten the memo yet…it’s summer break!!

And guess who is most excited?  Well the kids of course.  Nope!  Meeeeeeeeeeeee!

Wait, you say….doesn’t this mean that you have about a bajillion kids hanging around your house all day?  (I’m a poet and didn’t even know it)

Well yes, but…

1.  I work (ahem..."outside the home" as well) so I’m not around said kids all the live long day.

2.   Older kids are easy peasy.

So why am I sooo freakin’ excited?

Laziness.

No more bedtime hassle

No more schedules

No more “crap, just bring down your school clothes you need for tomorrow because I didn’t get to your laundry yet”

Summer break means…

*Just throw something on the grill sometime before dark.

*oh, you only feel like taking a shower every third day? gross, but go for it!

*What? You stayed up until 2 a.m. texting and now you can't pull yourself out of bed?  What-ever!

They get to be lazy, I get to be lazy…everybody wins!

All this won't get me my very own chapter in The Bad Parent Handbook (not yet anyways) because it's short lived.  Isaiah has a grueling football practice schedule ahead of him and Elijah is off to Montana and will promptly be put to work in the hay field.

Sorry, no pictures...I'm too busy jumping for joy.

Man I love summer!

rollin'...

The babies are getting some serious rolls.  These are ooey, gooey, squishey, doughy, i just want to squeeze them all day rolls.

Big chubby cheeks and big round bellies.

Neck rolls and knee rolls and elbow creases.

Chunky little hands and pudgey little feet.

Just look at this deliciousness....

Don't you just want to sqeeeeeeeeze em?!

It's pronounced are-sil-ee-us

And no it's not Greek. 
No he's not named after someone. 
And no it has no particular meaning.

He is my husband and I'd say the daddy of all Fathers.  This day may have been made just for him.

It would be easy for me to talk about how he changes diapers or cleans out the dishwasher but I want to talk about something else. 

How being a father comes so naturally to him.
How it's ingrained into his very being. 
It is just part of who he his. 

When I met him he was a single father, and I was a single mother.  No big deal.  Except it IS a big deal because there are a million single mothers and only a handful of single fathers. 
And know what?  It was no big deal to him.  That is just who he is.

And then there I was...pushing 30 and carrying baggage.  You see...I had a son with no father and the weight of the world on his shoulders.  He didn't jump in and start demanding things.
He just was there...there to be whoever, whatever Elijah needed.  And Elijah needed a father.
And know what? It was no big deal to him.  Because that is just who he is.

Now the babies are here and we have a house full of boys.  I am told alot how lucky I am...lucky to have a husband who is so helpful, so involved and works so hard.  And I am.  But the lucky one's around here are the boys who get to have a father that teaches them by example how to become men and fathers and husbands.

The legacy that a father passes to his children is the true measure of a man.

Fact: It is {not} Friday {anymore}

I'm a slacker.

One of my most favoritest bloggers in the blogosphere is BECKY .  Not only is she the funniest person I've ever (not) met but she has adorable twin boys just a smidgen younger than my adorable twin boys.  And let's face it, when you have twins you have to find the humor in it. 

So, when she came up with the idea to devote Friday's to posting about yourself I thought it was a great idea.  Not just because I want her to read my blog (which I really, really do!!) but what's a "mom-blog" without the mom?!?

Aaaanywho...it was supposed to be on Friday and I'm fully aware it's Saturday and if I don't hurry up it will be Sunday, but better late than never, right?  So here it goes.

I grew up in Montana.
Like legit dirt road, rural Montana.  My address at one point was "rural route 1" or something like that.  When I was a kid we had a party line.  And not the fun kind.  The kind where you share your phone with some folks 5 miles down the road and only one of you can use it at a time.
And cable?  yaaaa, right!  My parents STILL don't have cable.
We ordered our school clothes from the Sears catalog and picked them up like a month later in the back of the Maytag repair shop in the next town over.
My mom taught me how to drive when I was about 12 years old, on the back roads in our Plymouth Reliant station wagon.
We grew a huge garden and butchered our own chickens.  I am still, to this day TERRIFIED of chickens.
Things got more "modern" as I got older but I have absolutely no knowledge of 80's pop culture, seriously none.  The only movies I remember going to until I was far into my teenage years were ET and The Land Before Time.  The only cassettes I had were Tiffany and Jefferson Starship and I played.them.out!
However, I wouldn't trade it for anything.  You learn life lessons in the country that you can't learn anywhere else.  And although I have never watched The Goonies or played Pac-Man I bet I'm the only one of my friends who has seen their dad deliver a baby cow.

p.s.  I know that 98% of the people who read this already know but geesh I trying to make new friends people!
p.p.s. (or is it p.s.s??) You can check out her Fact, which happens to be a hilarious post about how hilarious she is.

HERE!

a week in iphone pics v. 2 (the all babies, all the time edition)

one:  Kai justa singing away...he's gonna be famous (i'm pretty sure).

two:  Kaden attempting to stick at least one, if not both of his fists in his mouth.

three:  laying around trying to prolong having to actually get out of bed on Sunday morning.

four:  Kaden's big noggin.

five:  eh, self explanatory.

six:  Kai's "look how cute I am" look.

seven:  can chunky little baby hands get any cuter?

eight:  holding on for dear life.

nine:  Kaden and Daddy's big Incredible Hulk fists.

ten:  shoot, I put this one in twice...but I'm too lazy to redo it so you get double the cuteness, double the fun.

eleven:  Kaden is like "heeeeeeey" and Kai is thinking "what the heck are you doing?"  I get that same look when someone irritates me in the grocery aisle.

Again, I'm linking up with agoodlifeblog.com 's week in iphone pics...because you can stalk lot's of people's iphone pics which probably makes me obsessed, but it's fun.

Jinxed! I knew it!

Remember yesterday...

When I said THIS ?

Well apparently there are no sleep gods and my Mom is still able to mock me because at 2:45 this morning....double whammy!  Both babies awake. 

My saint of a husband gets up first and I listen through the monitor as he trys to calm whoever is crying...YES, I said whoever because at 2:45 a.m. does it really matter?

Then I hear him coming down the hall:
Him:  "both babies are awake"
Me: "are you serious?"
Him:  "all thanks to your BLOG"

Oooops...

Maybe the sleep gods just don't like gloating...

full disclosure...

I would be doing this blog an injustice if I only posted the cutsie pictures. Like all we do all day is lounge around and take pictures of our perfectly posed and smiling or blissfully sleeping babies.

So, in the interest of full disclosure I have to tell you...
babies cry.

MY babies cry.

Sometimes for no reason whatsoever.  I mean, sometimes they act like it's so hard being zero.

Twins are a lot of work, folks. And because our parenting style can best be described as fly by the seat of your pants parenting we don't really have a set way we deal with it.  Sometimes we pick them up, sometimes we let them cry it out.  Most of the time one of the brothers ends up giving in and coming to their rescue.  Elijah has started just crying back, which happens to work surprisingly well. 

I just can't seem to convince these munchkins that they will NOT starve to death if they have to wait until their brother is done with his bottle.  And feeding them both at the same time...uummm, no.  Have you ever tried to feed a bottle to a balloon?  Me either, but I suspect that is what it's like.  Plus, it's basically impossible to burp a baby with one hand.

In other news...

I'm really afraid to say this publicly in fear that we will jinx ourselves but...the babies are sleeping through the night!!!
Woot Woot!
I know we are extremely lucky being that they are only 4 1/2 months old.  However, it's been 143 days of twice the love but half the sleep. (I really need a t-shirt that says that)

I don't want to come across as whiny and yes mother, I know I didn't sleep through the night until I was 2. 

We know how blessed we are and not a day passes that we lose sight of that fact.  I would gladly trade sleep for their little giggles and smiles any day but for now I'll be praying to the sleep gods that this lasts.

frozen in time...

I've been very reflective this week.  We have a big decision to make...

You see, when you do an IVF cycle and you're really lucky (or just have rockin' ovaries like me) you have more embryos than you need.  They pick the best looking {hmmmm....maybe that's how my babies got so cute?} embryo to transfer and the rest are frozen.

Or to be scientifically correct....cryopreserved.

Well, the first year of, eh.. cry-o-pres-er-va-tion is included in the humongo price tag but after that you have to decide what to do with these little snow babies.
You can either...
1.) discard them
2.) donate them to science
3.) donate them to another couple (adopt them out...I'm not sure of the politically correct way of saying that)
4.) pay boocoo bucks to keep them in the deep freeze.  Well, it's not really thaaaaat expensive but we're on a budget people, we gotz 5 kids here!!

Or of course, knock yourself up.  But we have 4 chillin', or 6 maybe,I can't really remember but that's not particularly relevant.  And we're not trying to make our own football team {because we all know that with our luck they are all boys}, so that's just not gonna happen.

I just can't bring myself to discard them.  First, that's just such a harsh word and it's makes me sad to even think about that. After all, I jabbed myself with 40 needles uh I mean, worked darn hard for them.

I feel about the same (maybe a smidgen better) about donating them to science or research or whatever.  I kinda like the idea of helping other couples who have trouble getting or staying pregnant but I'm not that warm and fuzzy about it to actually do it.

I like the idea of "adopting" them, and I WISH I had the cojones to do that but I am so afraid that I will spend the rest of my life looking at every kid that resembles the babies and wondering if he/she started off as our little 8 cells.  I understand that's completely selfish, but hey, I'm just being honest here!

In my own little perfect world we would just win the lotto or somehow, some way I could convince my husband that's it's waaaay better to spend our golden years with more teenagers instead of traveling or heck, retireing. 

But geesh, I never claimed to be the critical thinker between us too. 

(sorry, no pictures. But no worries!  I'm working on two posts that are jam packed with more cuteness than you can handle.  Plus, keep an eye out this Sunday for my week in iphone pics because this week it's ALL BABIES, ALL THE TIME)

birthday season...

• Birthday Season [burth-dey see-zuhn]
• noun

1. The thirty-one day period in June and July when all the brothers have a birthday
2. The season directly preceding football season

ELIJAH

6/11 (that's today folks!)

Ya, he's has always been this handsome...

Sooo....happy FOURTEENTH b-day to my smart, witty and all around pretty fantastic offspring.

This is about the time in their lives when you start counting the opposite direction; down. 
The years until they become adults...
And {hopefully} move out.
Well I think hopefully.... on one hand you pray you've do a good enough job that they can become productive members of society but really you just want to bawl your eyes out.
....I'll probably do the latter.

(although I do find the thought of less laundry intriguing)

a week in iphone pics - v. 1

one:  Arcelious and the brothers playing a pick up game
two:  Eli lost a tooth.  He got 3 bucks!  I used to get a quarter when I was a kid.
three:  So shiny...for now.   Soooooo freakin excited for high school football!
four:  Chillin'
five:  I really don't have an explaination for this.  Yes, I have the word "fulfillment" on my wall @ work.  not my choice.
six:  Kaden
seven:  Kai
eight:  My husband thinks he's still got game.
nine:  Still missing.....
ten:  I've been waiting all week for this...
eleven:  MY NEW CAMERA!!

I'm linking up to Amy at agoodlifeblog.com's week in iphone pics, cause that's what all the cool kids are doing. And obviously I want to be cool too.

the miracle of science and socks...

I'll get to the socks in a minute.

First...science.

A year ago today was the egg retrieval for our IVF, and it's simply amazing how this:

yes people, that's one embryo!  that's the twins before they became twins!
(taken 5 days later right, before the transfer)

In just one short year became this:

Science Rocks!

There is something very wrong with this picture...

(besides my lack of a pedicure)

I have these socks...what's so special about these socks you ask? 
I wore them for every appointment from the surgery to have my broken down tubes removed until the babies were born, right under those hospital issue slipper socks. 
I mean every.single.appointment.
the retrieval.
the transfer.
every OB appointment.
every ultrasound.
every trip to the hospital. 

I kept them in my purse my entire pregnancy just in case something happened and I had to go to the hospital unexpectedly.

And now one is missing.

I kinda feel like it's God's way of telling me it's ok, relax and enjoy your babies the hard part is over...you made it.

But I'm gonna keep looking...

just a quick post to brag about my babies...

Some days the babies have to go to daycare (oh gasp, the horror!), which means I have to get up super early to get them fed, dressed and packed to go.  Seems easy?  Just try getting two teens, twins and yourself out the door by 6:45 a.m.!

This is where the bragging comes in.

After I get them fed and dressed and in their car seats they,

wait for it…

wait for it….

SIT THERE!

And talk to themselves! .... the entire time I get ready and get the brothers up.

Look, I have proof:



Can you tell who's the morning baby?



Ok, I know that’s really not proof but I pinky swear that was taken this morning.

pictures...

I met Angie a couple years ago, she is a friend of a friend and I instantly fell in love with her work when she took these pictures of Elijah in 2009...

And I could barely stand to wait another year to have her take these pictures of him in 2010...

So you can only imagine that I was biting at the bit to get her out here to take pictures of the babies. 

And as always she left me nearly speechless (imagine that!!)

She somehow has the ability to capture personality traits on film that maybe only a mother sees.  Not only does she effortlessly handcraft precious memories of my children but she is a genuinely nice person and an all around good gal.

To view the complete set go here! Go now!(wait...finish reading my post, then go!)

Here of some of my favorites...

And because I © her so darn much I don't mind sharing her.

You can email her HERE or visit her blog HERE or email me and I can pass along her digits.

sun-less Sunday...

Up here in the pacific northwest Mother Nature is rather stingy with the summer weather and this weekend was supposed to be the first really warm weekend this year.  Since we spent most of our beautiful sunny Saturday running errands I had high hopes for today.  Well...it was sort of a bust.  It was *alright* but not what I had hoped for.


But we still would never waste a day without rain.


Sooo, the babies did what they do best...

And the brothers did what they do best...

And even though it wasn't the bright, shiny day I had hoped for it was still pretty fabulous.

roarin 20's babies...

you gotta start somewhere...

So why am I starting this blog now you ask?
Well...
1.)  I should have started it when I was a teen mom or a single mom or a pregnant with twins mom, but I didn't and now I wish I had.  So there's no time like the present!
2.)  I need an outlet, none of my friends in real life (or my husband for that matter) can possibly find the time or attention span to listen to my random thoughts and excessive gushing about my fab kids.
3.)  I hope to connect with other twin mama's or blended family mama's or all boy mama's or hot mama's (ok ok, maybe not that last one) or pretty much anyone who thinks I'm awesome.
4.)  Some of my family is not exactly, uumm how should I say...Facebook literate, so this is my way of keeping them current in our crazy life.


I will fill it with major pics, videos and updates of my freaking adorable babies and hopefully the ever elusive big brothers. 
So there it is...I hope it turns into something that someone out there finds entertaining.  If not, at least it will remind me what happened last week...because seriously sometimes I can't remember!