Happy #2

Our two have officially turned 2!  It is still surreal some days to think that we have twins.  At about this time 2 years ago, I was officially going into labor (although I had a scheduled c-section, contractions started in full force while they were hooking me up to all the machines).  I was HUGE and very uncomfortable, and was ridiculously thirsty.  While pregnant, I frequently needed water - cold water and knowing that I couldn't eat or drink anything the entire day before the c-section just about killed me.

Flashback to 2 years ago:

All that discomfort for two cute, healthy, little boys:

Pop Quiz - can anyone tell which one is which??

And fast-forward to where we are today - okay, so this is a picture we took last weekend, but it's the most recent picture of both of them somewhat close up!

We had an amazing day yesterday!  The weather was just beautiful so after they took their nap, we headed to the park.  Last year, the boys loved going to the park, but I'm not going to lie - as much as I loved taking them, I was always hoping for less heart attacks at each visit.  The boys were getting courageous and didn't realize that some of their actions could get them hurt if I didn't fly from one side of the playground to the other to stop them in time (if they were at different parts of the play structure - which they almost always were - I tried to strategically stand in the middle of them, in case either one needed me).  We had times where they wanted to walk down the slide, run across the bridge while other little kids were bouncing on it, walk/crawl up and down the stairs, etc.  I was just as tired as they were when we left - but they loved it, so we kept going!

Yesterday, they were a bit confused when we pulled up to the playground - they hadn't been there in so long, but quickly remembered the fun they had.  And I loved seeing them walk right up the stairs, holding onto the railing, go across the bridge, and then down the slide.  They loved the slide last year, but I usually had to go with them at first to show them how fun it was before they'd do it on their own.  They really liked the taller, twisty slide yesterday.  They would go up the steps, over to the slide, down the slide - just to repeat it over, and over, and over.

Sometimes they would go over to the "pirate ship" area of the playground and play with the "ball" (globe) or the steering wheel to the ship, but would then quickly move back over to the slide.  And all of that, without mom's help!

Unfortunately, after an hour, we had to pack up to go - we had to stop at Kroger before dinner, and they were NOT happy about that, but I promised them we'd go back soon.  I was hoping today would be a nicer day so we could go back, but it's not looking good at this point.

Today - nothing huge planned.  This morning, Logan was being ridiculously crazy.  They like to empty out the containers that hold their play food in it and Logan likes to stand on it.  Well, take an empty box and put it on wood floor with a child that isn't wonderfully balanced when standing on things yet, and that spells disaster.  So, as I was trying to get the box from him, he ran from me (go figure) and started cracking up with this hilarious laugh.  Of course he thought it was a game that I was trying to get the box from him, but I did kind of egg him on (no pun intended) just to keep hearing him laugh.  Apparently turning two means more dramatic laughter!



He even laughed like that when Troy changed his diaper, so apparently this laugh is here to stay for a little while!

We'll see what the rest of the day brings, but for now, Happy Easter and Happy 2nd Birthday to my awesome little dudes that keep me smiling every day!

Oh what fun!

It's only our first day on Spring Break, but man, has it been fun so far!  Yesterday, the boys got a gift from Aunt Julie and Uncle Shaun.  Of course while Troy was putting it together, they took advantage of playing with the fun box!

And they love it!  Of course it took them a few minutes to figure out how it worked, and Troy was there to help them move up and down, but they enjoyed it.

It wasn't long before they figured out how to do it all on their own.



Today, it was so nice outside, we had to venture out.  We went for a walk first, but when we got back, they got their first chance to play with their new basketball hoop from the Reaves family.  They loved this new toy too, but I had to quickly find a second ball that would fit in the net because although they aren't bad with sharing, they (Ellis primarily) had no desire to share the new ball!

One last story to share - today, Ellis was very adamant about using the serving spoon for his green beans at lunch.  Of course it is a huge spoon, and anyone that knows Ellis's eating habits knows that he loves to shove as much food in his mouth at a time, as possible.  It was so funny to see him stack all the green beans on his spoon, then try to move that big utensil to his mouth.  Although he is pretty good with a normal spoon, between the fact that he had so many green beans on the spoon and it being a huge spoon, he unfortunately didn't get any in his mouth.  So, what does a toddler do at this point?  Try, try again - and so he did a few more times until he got all the beans from the spoon to his mouth.  Way to persevere Ellis!

I can't even express how excited I am for the next week - no work, warmer temperatures, visiting with friends and family, and the official 2 year birthday for Logan and Ellis.  It doesn't get better than this!

A DINO-mite time!

Yesterday we celebrated the boys 2nd birthday.  It technically isn't until next weekend (Easter to be exact), but we thought it would be easier celebrating on a non-holiday weekend!  

We decided on a dinosaur theme mainly because the boys were in the habit of bringing Troy and I the same two books to read, over and over, and they were both dinosaur related.

Some pre-party fun:

I barely brought the balloons in from the car and the boys eyes lit up and they weren't instantly amused by them!

Time for the guests to show up!  A little bit of playing and some fun with balloons. I've realized now that as long as balloons are at the party, all the kids will have fun - no need for other decorations (at least at this age)!

Morgan did a good job "selling" the balloons too.  The going rate was between $0.50 and $7! =)

Even Delevan kept a balloon in each hand for a while in the afternoon.
Keeping the kids happy is the name of the game!

After a majority of the guests showed up, it was time to eat!  We had dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets for the kids and we had Subway cater subs for the adults.  Then we had a slew of dinosaur-based snacks - pasta salad (pastaraptor salad), fruit (fruitasaurus salad), doritoes (doratadon chips), bugles (dinosaur claws), pretzels with mini-marshmellows at the ends dipped in white chocolate (dinosaur bones), dinosaur fruit snacks, and of course dinosaur cookies.

A picture from the night before when I made them!

After eating, the kids played a bit and then we had cupcakes and ice cream. The boys weren't all about having to sit down, and seemed a bit confused when everyone started singing.  They (with help) blew out their candles and it was time to eat.  Logan started eating his frosting, but never made it down to the cupcake before wanting to get down.  Ellis wanted nothing to do with it.  I cut the cupcake into pieces, but he started whining and just wanted to get down.  So what 2 year old wants nothing to do with cupcakes?  Apparently ours!

Time to open gifts.  Lots of fun stuff from awesome friends and family - including a basketball hoop, t-ball set, touch-and-feel flash cards with shapes, colors, vehicles, an ABC book, shoes, hot wheels cars, cool totes, a play parachute, sidewalk chalk, and some money to put towards their playground set that we are getting for them once this snow melts!  So much fun stuff to play with!

We did learn though that next year we could probably save money and just get big boxes that can be walked on, and some empty bags to put over their heads (I know, this is definitely a safety issue - I'm being sarcastic here), and they will have hours of fun!

A huge thank you to every one who came.  We love you all and glad you could share our fun day with us!  

Only 2 weeks to go...

...until we have official 2 year olds running around here.  Crazy how time flies!

Things have been pretty busy around here, but not a ton of things worth noting, hence the lack of blog updating.  Between that and the crabby mood I was in last weekend, for some unknown reason, I really haven't had any energy to blog.  Either that or when I did think of something to write, I've been too busy to actually do it.

So while I don't have too much to say, here is a little update of our random happenings around here:

Last Friday (the 8th), Val and Delevan came over to hang out after work.  It was so cute to see Delevan walking now.  I still think it's so adorable to see babies as they start to walk and gain their confidence walking.  Before you know it, he will be running around just like Logan and Ellis.  Ellis had a lot of hugs to give away that night.  Lately when people come over, he seems a little hesitant.  Almost like "why are you in my house?".  Well, after he warmed up to Val, he just kept running up to her, giving her hugs.  It was so funny.  One time Del was close to her and I think he was wondering who this kid was giving his mommy a hug.  Too funny!

I finally got my test score back from my 2nd test - 99%!  I was a little upset to originally get it back and see an 81% on it, so I flipped through it to see what I got wrong and only saw one little mark on it.  So I quickly added up the points the professor wrote down for each problem and realized he miscounted - he actually forgot to add the 18 points on the last page.  Phew!  Hopefully I do just as well on the test coming up this Tuesday!

Yesterday was Cole's 3rd birthday party (the son of a friend I used to work with).  It was at a farm and despite the fresh snow we got overnight, it was still fun!  Unfortunately, Mr. Sensitive (aka Ellis) wasn't too much of a fan of the loud noises the goats made, so he didn't make it into the barn.  Apparently all the animal sound books and apps we have weren't enough to prepare him for the real deal.  I was about to take Logan in when all of a sudden, the second we walked in, a goat was literally 2 feet from his face and scared the crap out of him.  That shock, made him do a 180 and run out of the barn himself.  So, after we tried calming them down without much luck, Troy and I took them back to the little classroom area and they hung out inside for a while.  I went back outside to catch up with everyone and caught a glimpse of some of the animals myself.

Despite me trying to repeat "Llama Llama Red Pajama" Ellis was NOT fond of Mr. Llama or his goat friends.

We'd rather stay inside and play.

I wish I got a better picture of this rabbit, but it was seriously the biggest one I've ever seen.  

Another picture of Mr. Llama 

A good ole' game of chase with daddy, inside.

We then went for a little tractor ride and saw some horses.  One of them was really close to the tractor and I just felt Logan grip onto my hands a little tighter, but he didn't make a peep.  Once back inside, the kids had some cake and ice cream.  Logan loved it and ate it up, while Ellis loved running around.

Happy Birthday Cole!

Just a warm-up to eating cake and ice cream next week.  He LOVED it.

Around here, the boys have been really good with playing both with each other and independently.  Logan's favorite toy lately has been the mega-blocks.  He likes to stack them on the "car" piece and see how high he can stack the blocks - then knock it over and try again.  What's so funny is that he really only likes to use the blue pieces and no matter how many times he knocks it over, he likes it when the pieces are level with each other on both sides.  If it isn't level, he takes them off and tries again.  

Ellis's favorite toys have been the play food they got with their kitchen back at Christmas time.  This boy loves his waffles (in real life) and also loves the fake ones.  Not a day goes by where he isn't playing with/carrying around this darn waffle.

Logan has been Mr. Daredevil lately and may seriously be our child that we need to make a conscious effort to keep active.  He uses Troy as his jungle gym, likes to slide off the couch on his belly with nothing below him (like pillows) to catch his fall, stacks up storage containers to walk across, likes to climb on tables and stand up on them, and can sometimes stay awake in his crib for more than 30 minutes after his normal bedtime just jumping away in his crib.  Sure, we could extend his bedtime, but he already is grumpy in the morning when we have to wake him up.  He's content and has very few meltdowns during the course of a day, but dang, I can't wait for the warmer weather so he can run and play outside and exert more energy that way.  Their trampoline sure has gotten some good use over the past few months.  

Ellis on the other hand, has his moments - looks like he got this trait from me.  He does have a few more tantrums than Logan, but also handles having time-out better than Ellis - although I think it's because he has had more timeouts than Logan and knows the routine better, so I'm not really sure that's a good thing!  He has this thing lately of chest bumping Logan and I think Logan really thinks he is going to hug him and then gets upset when he bumps him.  So, sometimes he likes to play rough and sometimes he is my little cuddle bunny.  Whereas Logan could probably be up another 30-60 minutes every night, Ellis could probably go to bed 30-60 minutes before their normal bedtime.  Today, it wasn't even dinner time and Ellis grabbed a pillow off the couch and his blanket and laid it down on the floor to get covered up (and of course I put another blanket on him after that because he looked so cuddly).  

Around 6:30 tonight I was cleaning some grapes and Ellis came up to me with his blanket and stood between me and the counter and just looked up at me.  With that cute little look, I knew he wanted to sit down with me, so how could I resist?  We went and sat down on the couch together.  I love those cuddle times because that is one thing I know won't last forever.  

As for me, like I said, last weekend I was just in a funk.  I couldn't put my finger on the cause of it - just a blah feeling.  Well, this week, although I can't really share everything that has made me happier, I can happily say I'm out of my funk.  When I was watching one of my guilty pleasures, "Biggest Loser" last week, I saw that Jillian Michaels is going to be at the Fox Theater in May.  I always say how I wish she would whip me into shape.  She is one mean trainer sometimes, but I wish I had someone to yell at me and tell me to get off my butt once in a while - I need some motivation to get moving lately.  So, I talked to Nicole and we decided that we are going to go see her in May.  I figure it's the perfect timing because my class will be over, the weather will be getting warmer and I will have no excuse to not get back in shape, especially since school will be ending soon too.  So, I'm looking forward to that - plus an excuse to have a night out with my sister is exciting too!

I also have another math test this week and usually that means that the week before my test, I don't get any chance to do anything but study.  Although this section has it's fair share of formulas to study and tricky things to remember, I definitely feel more confident about this test than the last two, and I haven't had to devote every second of the week/weekend to studying, which has been great!

This weekend I also spent some time preparing for the boy's birthday party next weekend.  I made some cupcake toppers and other little decorations.  I also went shopping for a few things and I'm pretty excited about their party next weekend.  I do have a few more things to do during the week but figured I'd wait until after my test Tuesday to focus on those things.  

Thursday is also the official start of College Basketball Championships.  I usually fill out a bracket to compete with some of Troy's co-workers, and plan to do so this year too.  It's funny because I've won the past two years so this year some of his co-workers asked if I was playing.  What's even funnier is that I literally watch less than 5 games all season and put very little time into researching teams and their season.  I just don't have the time to do that.  So, we'll see if I can win for a 3rd straight year or if my streak is over...

I also got a very nice text message from my mother-in-law.  Without going into details, it definitely put a smile on my face and was greatly appreciated!

And as for my last piece of happy news, which is probably what has made me the happiest over the weekend, I really can't share that yet - I don't want to jinx myself of the possible upcoming opportunity and I don't want the information to really spread too far yet since nothing is definite.  I'll leave those details to share in the coming month or two if anything comes of it.  

Alright, enough for now.  I'm exhausted and need to get to bed.  I hope everyone had a good and safe St. Patrick's Day and hope everyone has a great week.  I also really hope that the Chandler's (who are in Key West) and Mark and Nicole (who are in Jamaica) bring some of the sun and warmth back with them when they return home tomorrow.  I know, it's only March and we have had snow up through April, but I'm over it.