31 and a little bit of Voodoo Magic

 So no one really believed me

when I said I didn't really want anything,

and I didn't really want to do anything

for my birthday.

A relaxing day 

In my clean house,

with nothing to do

and no where to go

with good food

and a good movie 

sounded so nice.

Ryan kept trying to decide if this was a trick

and if he was going to be in big trouble 

if he didn't plan or do something elaborate.

I really meant it.

So he made me this chicken black bean salad 

I had been craving

and as his gift to me

(I begged him not to spend money)

He said that he would watch all the seasons of this tv show

I have been begging him to watch with me

(and that he has been avoiding like the plague)

and he would not complain

and he would TRY to like it.

(he has totally followed through)

and I have loved hanging out with him 

and watching the show again myself 

I thought it was the best gift EVER

and I was so excited.

Jovan made me some delish Tortilla soup 

and the brownies that we used for my  cake

since I insisted I didn't need a cake.

She also got us tickets to see 

REBA

in concert.

Oh my

I LOVE Reba!

I have since I was a little girl

and she knows it

We are going to have SO MUCH FUN at that concert.

I can't wait!

I also got books

(that I am already almost finished with and love)

and perfume

that was supposed to be a funny joke,

but that I actually love the smell of

and a gift card to the 

Nook and Cranny

(which we all know from previous posts)

I LOVE

and another amazing present arrived the next morning

(Good things do indeed come in pink boxes)

the donuts were part of it,

and a lovely part they were.

 

The maple bars with bacon were AMAZING

I do not lie about such things.

AMAZING 

 

and I liked every one that I tried.

So did the kids

They are only found in Portland

( featured in People magaizine this week as some of the best ever!)

But the realy prize was how they were delivered.

Holly, Cory and Brynley 

Drove them down to me from Oregon

and stayed for the week for their spring break.

another of

my best birthday presents ever!

(I got a lot of those this year)

Yay!

of course I have almost no pics of them

and the ones I do have are coming soon.

What an amazing day! 

I have such good friends and family.

Thanks to them all

and to all the facebookers that left me messages. 

I loved it.

A glimpse

A really quick glimpse.
Via the iphone,
so don't expect too much okay?


The babies are rockin the big kid tub.
Collin loves it


Keegan is not so sure
and had a death grip on Kenna
almost the entire time


Keegan was not happy that I messed with his hair
(so curly these days)
and then
wanted a picture of his valentines day outfit
instead of snuggling him


Collin was cool with it


and so was Cohen.

Lots of love was in the air this day
we all went to see Gnomeo and Juliet

and true to form
Keegan was a pain in the rear,
(a dang cute pain, but still a pain)
would not be quiet
sit still or stop climbing all over everything.

Collin sat in the stroller enthralled with the movie
and thrilled that Kenna was feeding him popcorn

Grandpa Rick and Grandma Becky
came out for presidents day weekend.
the kids were in heaven
So were we!

Dad and Ryan installed a new kitchen faucet
(the other was bad bad bad- think leaky water hose)


and my neighbor was
tossing this baby out for free


so we snatched it right up
and dad and Ryan hung it up.


Then of course we had the standard presidents day fare
Pizza, Cherry Pie, and Ice Cream
and we watched the American President
since our Dave DVD was missing in action

The following weekend
Ryan had some vacation days he had to use or lose
So of course we decided to use them
and we headed up to Oregon
to visit the Holly Doll, Bryner Bug and Cory
and the rest of our fun family that lives up there.

I had great intentions to take pictures of everything.
didn't happen.
But here's a hodge podge

Our first full day there


I discovered
Craft Warehouse
Love, true love


but our trip through heaven was cut short
when Bryn's school called
and said she had bonked her mouth,
and could Holly come


Understatement of the century.
This is after a major clean up
Girlfriend had fallen against a metal step
Knocked out her two front teeth
(that weren't even a smidge loose)
Loosened the others
sliced and diced her lip up
and ripped her whatever its called
that connects your lip to your gums

Ouch

She was a trooper though
even when I was gagging
watching her try to eat a banana
that ended up slimy and smeared with blood
and watching her suck on the chunk of lip
that was hanging down
(the doctor said they don't stitch mouths, but it was bad, real bad)
I had to turn away every time she would do this

We shopped, we went to goodwill,
we ate donuts

And then we took my sick kids to the doctor
and had to pay lots of cash
up front
for anyone to even look at them
Even thought we have insurance
Grrr...


Collin got his first ear infection
and we hope his last.
He was not a happy camper.


Check out Keegan's
massive green snot
MMMmmm...
and fever red cheeks and ear.
Poor Baby


Kenna too.

Sicky vacations are not as fun
as non sicky vacations
Still fun but...


Keegan was enthralled with Mary's cat
Costello was almost as big as Keegan was
and he sat and stared at him forever


We also stopped to leave flowers at
Mom and Grandma's grave
while we were in Dallas
Caden got out of the car and helped out
even though it was raining


Vacation wiped us out


When we got back
Keegan learned how to climb up here
and MAN was he Proud of Himself
as you can see from the grin

They are almost walking
almost.
Any day now its going to get really crazy.

As if it wasn't before.


This big guy had his 4th Birthday
and he reminds us daily sometimes hourly
of all things he can do now.
Now that he is 4, Now that he is big.
Man, I love him.

even though he has randomly thrown up around midnight
two out of the last three nights
and it has been horrible to clean up
(I will spare you the pictures)
ten million times worse than Keegan's Puke Party.
and then insists in the day that he is not sick and feels fine
and has no other symptoms.


Doing my late night clean up routine last week
I found this guy
posed exactly this way.
I was laughing so hard
I had to hold my breath until I made it out of the room
so I wouldn't wake up the boys
He looks like
he is doing some kind of inappropriate dance move
or something
my favorite
is the bum sticking out and the hand posed just so.
I still laugh looking at it.
Its the little things in mommy hood
You know what I mean?

Last but not least


This is what I looked like
this week
last year.
C-R-A-Z-Y
I remember fervently praying
that I would go into labor on my birthday
Yeah, no dice.
But looking back,
What a cool thing that I got to be a part of
Its not every person that gets to grow two babies
and carry them full term
and be able to deliver them without a c-section.
Miracles happen every day.

30 was a very good year.
A growing year
A blessed year
Very Hard
Very Fun
Very emotionally charged with the good and bad

I am a lucky lucky lucky girl
I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Happy Birthday to me.
Here's to hoping 31 is just as great.

Puke Party... His Crib... Midnight

The kid just can't help it
He's a born cheeser


Even when
he has just woken us up at midnight
after rolling his head around


in a huge puke puddle.


He was
happy as a little clam
all through the shower
and through Ryan and I
gagging our way
through changing his bedding
and getting it all in the washer.


He immediately
starts smiling and waving
and trying to grab
anytime he sees a camera
or any kind of picture of himself.

Even when
smelling beyond all nastiness
and with puke dripping from his ears
and covering his jammies.

So glad he was enjoying himself
I seriously wanted to cry.
The only time he cried
was when I put him back in his bed
and turned off the light

Then he was seriously ticked

Blogging Deterents

I have many reasons why I can't seem to catch up on the blog
But the main reasons are named

Collin

and Keegan

They are crawling

they are pulling up on everything and cruising around

they are dumping everything that they can reach

they are eating everything they see

(this does not mean it is all meant to be eaten)

and EVERY time I sit down at the computer

a special alarm must go off

because they immediately crawl in

and hang on my legs whining/crying to be picked up.

The babies are 9 months (well, ten now)

however,

The doctor wouldn't see us this month

because we were 12 minutes late to the appointment.

Yes, 12 minutes

The sign even says,

if you are more than 15 minutes late
you may be asked to reschedule

wasn't even 15 let alone more than 15

Heartless, unfeeling, rude, non compassionate

do not have 5 kids six and under doctors office.

I started crying in the office
and I generally don't cry

because I had worked so hard
to even make it there with 5 kids

and I was so sick I could barely breathe
and I had a fever

and they didn't budge.

Can you tell I am still bitter about this?

Because I am

So we have no official 9 month stats for the twins

But,

They are huge.

Bigger than any of my other babies at this age

Crawling earlier than any of the others
(the week before they were 8 months)

Finally, consistently sleeping from 9pm to 8 am

Did you hear that?

I said

Finally,
consistently sleeping from 9pm to 8am

(Happy Happy Happy dances going on in this house)

Eating everything they can reach
and begging for bites of the rest

They eat buckets of the gerber fruit puffs

and drink GALLONS of formula
I am so lucky I could do breastmilk for 8 months
Who can afford that formula crud times 2?
Its killing our budget

Keegan has 5 teeth
(two on top, three on the bottom)

Collin has 8 teeth
(four on top, four on the bottom)

They crack me up when they are together.

They steal the same toy from each other

back and forth and back and forth

they don't cry,
they just reach and take it back.

Keegan is forever,

forever

pushing Collin over and stealing his binky

even if he already has a binky in his mouth.

and then he takes his out and puts Collin's in.

This seriously ticks Collin off,
and hurts his feelings

He screams
and then big fat tears start rolling down his face

Keegan thinks this is so funny

and laughs
and wiggles and waves the binky around in the air.

They go crazy in the Johnny Jumper things.

Hands in the air

little legs going as fast as they can make them go

jumping jumping jumping

they are so wild they bump into each other

and that makes them swing around

and they giggle and start all over again.

They aren't very snuggly/cuddly anymore

which makes me sad

They love to be held and carried around

but they are in constant wiggly motion in your arms

Climbing up you

or swiveling from side to side
to see everything all at once.

I deserve to have some amazing arms

for all of the hefting and carrying I do.

Too bad I really don't.

I am constantly amazed at how different they are

they look nothing alike

and have VERY different personalities

Collin is a better sleeper
and gets really grouchy when he is tired

He falls asleep almost immediately when I lay him down

and usually wakes up happy and alert

He has darling dimples
and will bust them out every once in a while

but is a pretty serious little fellow

(His cheeser smile)

and it doesn't take much to hurt his feelings.

He will grin when he is happy

but it takes some work to get a giggle

and his rare belly laughs are worth their weight in gold.

He is generally healthy

and although he eats the exact same thing

in the exact same amounts as Keegan

he is a chubber in comparison,

over 20 lbs and you can tell.

He sat up first

Got teeth first

and mastered crawling first

He skipped right over army crawling

and went straight for the real deal.

If you wave at him and say Bye-Bye
he will wave back and say bye-bye

and he raises his eyebrows at you
when you are talking to him

like he is really trying to understand.

His eyes are blue blue blue

and his hair is still blondy blond

I love it.

Keegan is a hit and miss sleeper

he would do great for two nights, bad for three

but has gotten better and better
since getting tubes in his ears.

He crawls around his crib and plays
for a while before conking out
and we usually find him
in the weirdest positions when we check.

He wakes up with wild hair,
flushed cheeks, and glazed over eyes

and it takes him a few minutes to really wake up.

I love this
because it is the only time he will let me squish him close

Keegan has huge eyes with KILLER eye lashes

He is a social bug and just making eye contact with him

gets him so excited that he wiggles and grins

and waves his hands in the air.

Someone saying his name makes him giggle

and any funny face, game of peek-a-boo, or growling voice

can make him belly laugh until he gets the hiccups

He is so easily distracted

that I have a hard time getting him to eat or drink a bottle

because he has to see everything and touch everything.

He is a master jumper and can go forever.

Just saying the words jumpy jumpy
makes him immediately start jumping,

no matter where he is.

He is at least 3 lbs smaller than Collin if not more

and seems wiry and fragile in comparison

He has been following behind Collin in reaching milestones,

but not by much more than a few days.

He HATES being left behind and cries

if you walk by him
when his arms are reaching to be picked up.

If Collin is mad or upset he cries big fat tears

If Keegan is, he throws whopping tantrums.

Arches, kicks, screams,
throws his binky and pushes his blanket away.

When I am not super tired and frustrated,
I think its kind of funny to watch.

His hair is getting longer
and after the bath
or if it gets wet it goes super curly.

Its amazing to me
that it has almost been 10 months.

It has had its moments for sure,

but it is nowhere near the nightmare
that people were saying it would be.

I wish they would stay little longer.

I wish they still liked to be held and snuggled.

I hope that they will keep loving each other

It has been a steep learning curve
and not without tears and frustration

but worth all of the moments,

all of them,
good and bad.

Worth the sleepless nights

and frustrating days
and saggy skin and stretch marks

We've come a long way from there to here
I would do it again in a second

and I think I would try to enjoy it even more