Courtney likes dirt too!

Sydney must have told Cj how great dirt was because today she was all into it!

the doll house

Sarah made Emily this wonderful doll house and last Christmas they gave it to Samantha and the girls, fully stocked with all the handmade furniture and 10 dolls with lots of clothes. It is just magical to watch Sam play dolls, I was never into dolls as a kid so it blows me away. It's probably the only thing that Sam will play by herself for about an hour. Here she is setting them up for a party!

princess jewelry box

Lately Sam has really loved her princess jewelry box but she doesnt want the twins to get near it so she tries to put it up high but it isnt always high enough so now she sits on her bed with it and watches her go around and around. such a girlie girl!

Doubletalk II

This morning was my doubletalk class. the twins had runny noses so they spent the morning w Kris while I went to the class. There was one other mom there by herself too. The twins were great for Kris but didnt sleep at all so they slept the whole way home and then I sat out on the grass in front of the house for 30 minutes while they slept in the car...I was getting hunger so I moved them into the house...and they stayed asleep for another hour and a half! Great nap. they totally skipped lunch so they are having a bottle right now while I am typing. At class today Karen, the teacher, called me an anomaly. I guess I am doing things a little different then most people. Today she said we werent suppose to do spices until after they are one and I've made them chicken curry. I read somewhere that it is okay to start experimenting, they loved it! She also said we arent suppose to do wheat either, after the anomaly comment I didnt say anything but I have been giving them biter biscuits, waffles, pancakes, toast, bagels etc... I guess since wheat is a common allergen that "they" are telling people to wait until they are a year old. Last week I told everybody that the twins only drink 12-16 oz of formula a day and I guess 24 is the minimum. I had talked to the doc about at there 9 month check up and he said as long as they are getting calcium from other products that was just fine. It works for us. We have good sleepers, pretty much and happy growing girls so it going great. It's just funny sitting in a room full of other moms and they are looking at you like your crazy...curry! It's a great class though and the women are all wonderful moms going through the trials and tribulations just like me!

Lunch on the lawn

I brought my camera today but forgot to take pictures-ugh! Last week Jack called up and asked us to go to "lunch on the lawn" at his school today. So I packed up all the kiddos and we headed over there. We went to the Smiths first, Kris had a bunch of stuff she wanted to give me and get out of her house. We scored, we got so much great stuff! Lots of leapfrog stuff, videos, games, books...she said if I didnt want any of it I could jsut sell it this weekend at the twins sale. She also had the Pates old toy box full thomas the train stuff. I am totally going to use the toy box and I'll probably give away the train stuff...with jack jordan and blake playing with them over the years they arent in the best shape to sell but someone will enjoy them anyways! After I packed up my car we headed to quiznos and foster freeze to pick up lunches for us and the boys. When we got there and Sam was shy at first but warmed up and played w the boys on the playground. By the time we got back to the car it was almost time for Kris to pick jordan up so I kept her and went and got a few things at the grocery store so I wouldnt have to unload everyone! clever! Picked up Jordan and hung out at the house for a little bit longer. Sam found Kris's make up and has such a "pretty" face now! They all napped on the way home, the twins transfered into there beds but sam woke up and is now watching cartoons! oh what a long tiring but fun day! Sorry no photos though!

Twins and Siblings playgroup

Today I hosted the twins and siblings play group. There were 5 moms. 10 twins. 5 siblings. Our backyard was meyhem but everybody seemed to have a grand ol' time. Lincoln and Jacob picked a bunch of cherry tomatoes. I had to keep an eye on Syd because all she wanted to do was crawl over to the tasty dirt! At one point she crawled over to the pea gravel and put her mouth down ready to take a bite of the ground!

everybody has their eyes on jacob on the rings

jacob on the rings!

all these babies and they are all girls!

up then down

good times!

I did get the twins down for early naps this afternoon (Sam has pretty much given them up unless we drive somewhere which I am thinking about doing in about 15 minutes) Sydney woke up after an hour and Samantha went in and woke Courtney up shortly after Syd woke up after I specifically told her not to go into my room because Cj was still sleeping in the port a crib in there. We put the port a crib in our room over the weekend for daytime naps. I was finding if they slept in the same room whoever woke up first inevitably woke the other up evne if the other was still tired. I have no clue on what to do with Samantha sometimes. I gave her a long time out and she cant watch tv for the rest of the day for waking Cj up. I find the only way she'll do what I say is to yell but I really hate doing that. Jon says I should just pop open a bottle of wine (ha ha)...just think what my life is going to be like when I have two going through this terrible two's thing. I think I will definetly buy some stock in a vineyard then! But now they are all outside playing so cute that it's hard to stay mad. It is amazing how much Sam loves to play with Syd and Cj now. She sure wishes they'd be able to walk though...

Dirt

It was such a beautiful afternoon that we spent a good portion of it outside. I planted tomatoes at the beginning of the summer and while we were in WA they finally got ripe. Well Jon couldnt keep up with eating the big ones so there were alot that were rotten on the vine but the cherry tomatoes are perfect so I spent a good portion of the afternoon picking tomatoes and cleaning up the rotten ones. Sydney and Courtney loved crawling around out there. it's really hard keeping up with them, they both wanted to eat the pea gravel so I kept moving them from one side of the yard but they would crawl all the way back. They really enjoyed watching me pick the tomatoes and as you can see Sydney loves dirt!
Syd is jsut standing there eating dirt!
This reminds me of Boo. When I was nannying Emily(Peepers) and Emilie (Boo). Boo loved to eat dirt and one day Sarah as asked Emily a bunch of questions and one of them was "who eats dirt" the answer was worms but Peepers says "Boo!" it was really funny! Now my daughter loves dirt. I washed her up, put her down and went into the house to put the wash cloth away and when I came back out she had crawled alll the way back to the same spot and was eating more dirt! Samantha thought that was really funny!

Singing and Dancing

This morning before we went to play group Samantha and Sydney were dancing to the music while Courtney was singing! It was super cute but practically everything they do I think is super cute!

toddling times

Sam really missed all her friends from Mondays "toddling times" play group. We met at the park today and at first she was a little shy but warmed up fairly quickly. It starts at 10 so the twins ended up falling asleep on the way there. They slept in the car for 45 minutes or so. We were at Greenridge Park so I just pulled really close to the playground and kept the windows down. Fun times!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday!

What a busy few days. Friday afternoon we all played in the twins room. They have this puzzle that they love to take apart. It's the perfect size for them. They are really good at taking the pieces out of the puzzle but not so good at putting it together!

we headed over to the Woods in the afternoon. Boo found something that Courtney and Sydney really liked...a mirror!
as you can see Sydney just loves to smile!
When we got there Boo was making a cake from scratch. Sam thought it was very tasty (so did I) It did take her three tries to make the frosting. the first time the oil and chocolate seperated, the second time she forgot the 3 cups of powdered sugar and the third time was the charm!
After we left the Woods we had to get home to Sam and her Daddy could go to gymnastics. Sam sure loves that class. we did it last spring and she has been wanting to go all summer.
As you can see she is really into brushing her teeth. Sometimes its such a chore but other times she wont let go of the brush!

Satrday morning I got up and went into the garage and started getting all this baby stuff organzied for the twins sale next weekend, this is the first time I will be selling at the sale so I didnt realize how much time it takes to label everything. I still have about 3-4 hours worth of tagging to do. I'll be doing a little each night and during nap times! The one thing I have learned is when I put things away now keep them on the hangers! I had one friend who sold stuff at her twins club and she said it was the hardest 150 she ever made especially since we have to work the sale too! but its all worth it...its good for the club and I am getting rid of all my stuff!

We were invited to Anthony and Diegos 1st birthday party on Saturday.(parents are Jenny and Tony) The party was at this place called the Little Red Ranch (I think thats the name) it was a neat place. I had never been there before. It's this great picnic area that has a pool, pony rides, face painting, a dunk tank, tug o war and a buffett of food. The weather wasnt the greatest but there was plenty of covered area. Sam especially loved the cake! I met Jenny through my twins club and they live in Castro Valley. Very cute little boys! Looking forward to fun times with them.
Sam loves riding on her daddys shoulders!
After a quick trip through Costco (only $25 over budget this time) after the party we headed home got the kids fed and they were all in bed by 8:15! It was so nice. Jon and I had time to a netflix that we've had for awhile and the best thing was Sydney slept the whole night and didnt wake up until 7:45 am, Courtney 8:45 and Sam 9:10! so we all got great sleep. Sam and I went to Superfranks and met Julie, Taylor , Dominic and Jack and Emily. It was great that the Pate kids came down becasue it gave Julie and time to visit since we didnt have to run around and watch our kiddos. Jon kept the twins with him at home since they are pretty easy to watch and he was just watching football while the twins napped and crawled around!

Mary came over on Sunday afternoon to visit us, Sydney was the lucky one and got her picture taken with her! we went to pleasanton to pick up wine at bevmo. they are having there 5 cent sale (buy one get the other for 5 cents...what a deal) so I stocked up! The we drove up to San Ramon for Nations burgers! tasty tasty! All in all it was a very fun weekend.

Sam's at Debbies

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Sam is at Debbies today. She goes every Thursday so I get some time with jsut the twins. While she was away the twins played in her room! This morning was our first Doubletalk 2 class. it's a 6 week course that we are taking up in Walnut Creek. There are 9 other moms with twins in it. all of us have twins that are between 6 months and 9 months. I took the first class last winter when the twins were 6 weeks and they were almost the youngest now they are almost the oldest. there is another set that are 6 days older. It should be a fun getting to know everybody and learning some tips and such!

9 month check

The twins went and saw Dr. Selcer today.

Sydney is now 29 inches tall (90%)
20 lbs 14 oz (80%)
and her head is 17 1/4 inches

Courtney is now 27 1/2 inches tall (50%)
17 lbs 1 z (25%)
and her head is 16 1/2 inches

He said they are doing really well. Right on target with all the milestones, crawling, pulling to a stand, grasping with fingers and thumb etc. He did say that since Courtney hasnt caught up to Sydney by now she'll probably always be a little smaller thne Sydney which is fine and she is on the charts. I did ask about Sydneys belly button and he said it was probably left over umbilical cord and not to worry unless it starts oozing. He said a pediatric surgeon probably wouldnt do anythig about it now but if it bothers her when shes older she can get it fixed. (we probably should start saving for that elective surgery now)...when she's a teenager she'll probably think it's the ugliest thing on the earth and no one else will even see it!

We made it!

The journey was long but we pulled into the driveway at 5:30 am! We left Bellingham around 12:30...after a quick stop at the Greek festival for gyros. The kids were ok. Sam wanted out of her carseat pretty much the whole time and she figured out that we'd take her out if she had to the bathroom so she went about 50 times! I took a nice little nap and let jon deal with it for awhile! We got to Woodland, Wa around 5:30 and Namy and Papa got all set up in the rv park. It was drizzling but that didnt stop Jon and sam from walking down to the river. The twins stretched their little legs crawling around the motor home. We fed the twins and were off around 6:30. We made a stop around 7:30 for a quick drive thru Wendys. Once the sun was down for good Sam wanted the light on. She talked about it for about an hour so we finally pulled into a gas station and they had a litttle light for 9 bucks which I thought was too much so we went across the street to Kmart and I ended up buying this really bright lantern for $7 but I had to buy 4 D size batteries for $6 so it ended up being more then the cheapo one at the gas station. It was too bright and she got bored with it after about 10 minutes...go figure. She finally fell asleep around 9. I drove for a little bit but Jon got the worst of it from Midnight to 4 am. He's not a coffee drinker so it really kicked in for him. I drove the last hour and half and boy was it great to walk through the door. I carried Sam into her bed and she asked me what I was doing so I told her it was still night time and she had to go back to sleep and I left the room to help with the twins. We got everyone down and I checked back in with Sam and she had one of her Dora sandals on and she couldnt find the other one so I had to turn the light on to find it. SHe put it on and crawled back into bed and slept. Syd woke up at 730 and Jon took care of her while everyone else woke up an hour later. At afternoon nap time we shut Sam into her room, put the twins down and we all took a nap! Boy did we need it. Then we headed to the Pates to get Big dog and had dinner. Sam was so excited to see them. After a quick stop at Windmill Farms we got home, jon got the kids bathed and ready for bed while I ran to Safeway for groceries. Got home and made some baby food now it's off to bed I go! Glad to be home!!

Going Back to Cali...

Namy and Papa decided that they didnt want us to leave but we have to so they are towing us to Oregon. They wanted to be with us a little bit longer! They are going to go "camping" on the Columbia River for a couple nights...I tried to talk them into driving us all the way home but they didnt want to drive that far.

Baptism Day

The twins got baptized this morning by Pastor Carl Fischer. He was the minister at my church growing up. He baptized, confirmed and married me. He also baptized Samantha Kay. Sydney bit him during the holy water ritual! He is a twin also! It was a fun little party and everybody seemed to enjoy themselves. It was great to introduce the twins to a lot of family and friends as always time flies when you are having fun and I didnt get to chat with everyone!

Max, Sydney, Alexa Kay, Liz, Jon, Samantha, Alyssa, Courtney and Mitch

Our niece and nephew Alyssa Marie and Mitchel Lloyd Brehm are Courtney Joy's Godparents

Our niece and nephew Alexa Kay and Max David are Sydney Elizabeth's Godparents

Syd, Sam, cousin Trinity and Courtney. Trinity Hughes is 2 months older then the twins, boy are they going to have fun when they get older!

Such Cuties!

Courtney!

Sydney!

Me and my handsome brothers Lex and Lance!

Princess panties

On Sunday when I took the diapers away from Samantha I told her when she pooped in the potty 5 times we'd go to the store and get princess panties. Today she did...only one poop accident since that day. So after we go the twins down for their afternoon nap we headed to the mall. Namy stayed home with the twins. Sam fell asleep on the way there so I swung into Jiffy Lube to get the oil changed before our trip home. The Jiffy Lube I went to was out of tahoe size filters so they sent me to the one across from the mall and I got $10 off for doing that, love to get a discount. I woke her up when we got to Target and she picked out 2 packages of panties, one had 3 pairs of just Cinderella and the other had one Belle, one Aurora and one Cinderella. She loves Cinderella, we have watched it about 7 times since we've been here. We had to go to the bathroom after we bought them so she could put Cinderella on. So cute. She is my little princess who now uses the potty!

The girlie girl

She found Namys lipstick...

Our morning was a little scary. I was doing the dishes while Cj and Syd were crawling around. Namy has been telling Papa for the last week to get the gate up by the stairs because these little girls are crawling everywhere. Well while I was washing the dishes I heard a clunk then a cry so I ran over to the stairs to see poor little Cj rolling down the last two stairs. It was very sad but she really didnt get hurt that much, she had alittle red spot on her cheek but other then that she was back to normal and wanted down in about 2 minutes. Now the gate is up!
The weather looked nice enough this morning to try one of the water splash in town. So we got everybody in the car and went. bB the time we got to Bellingham it was cold and completely overcast but we went to the park anyways. Sam had fun she could care less that it was only 60*. We had a little picnic (Arbys made the food) and stayed for about an hour. The water wasnt on, thankfully, I wasnt thinking since it is after labor day and the kids here are back to school they probably shut the water down until next season so it was a good thing it was to cold. Once we got back to Everson, the sun was shinning and it was warm...go figure! Tonight I got to go out for some adult time without the kids! I went over to Eric and Erin Mcrorys for dinner and Sam and Anne Shipp were there also. I went to high school w Eric and Sam, Sam was also a house mate of mine back in 92. It sure was good to see them and catch up. It was especially nice to be away for the kids for a night. Everything must have gone well here at the ranch because everyone is sound asleep now!

Boulevard Park

Tonight we met Auntie Sarah, cousin Wyatt, cousin Dawson and Midge at the Boulevard park. What busy park. They have a new coffee shop there that has the best view in Bellingham! We got there a little bit earlier then they did so Sam played on the "pirate" ship. She had so much fun she forgot to go to the bathroom and had a little accident that ended up being a nice brown streak down the slide! Thankfully I had a brand new thing of wipes in my bag, that slide was cleaner then the day they put it in! After that we went to the bathroom 3 times! She'll get this potty thing down in no time!

Here we all are playing a rousing game of soccer ball...even though Sam has it in her hands the twins sure loved to watch!

Sam found the perfect size tree to climb.

Mommy and her twins

Wyatt, Courtney, me, Sydney trying to get Dawson and Samantha

Mommy and all her girls! What a beautiful sunset!!