oldies..but not too old

Funny enough, I turned my computer on with my older pictures (the netbook I was dumping the photos on before hubby finally got the other 'puter to notice the camera as well) and I saw these from the summer. It was end of summer when my twin friends came for a visit over their birthday. They were with us during the day, so I had the kids...and we went to the zoo of course!

One sister actually photographs animals in Africa, so maybe this was a disappointment, but it was entertaining for the kids! Look at Theron:

we had just been to the gorillas, and we were walking further on the path and he started walking like them. It was hysterical. People were trying to get by him, and he just wanted to walk along like this, and since I was in hysterics, I couldn't get him to stop.

And cutie brothers, what a funny shot. love these kids!

Now I need to get some more recent stuff. But I guess when you're blogging from your kitchen counter waiting for the roasted chicken to make it from 149degrees, to 165, this is what you squeeze in.

watch out!

wow. almost a year. watch out. I may be on the verge of a change in this habit. It helps that I can now put photos on the computer that I would like to blog from. (it only took a year to get it done!) What a crazy year the two's are with twins....we're almost at three though...almost, which gets us closer to four...which I can only hope gets me to more sanity....maybe?

Here's the hilarious photo of Caed at Christmas. We got Theron a ukulele for christmas since he loves guitars. Caed was rockin' in out! (love the unzippered pj's like he's Steven Tyler or something...ha!)

My encouragement

This was my encouragement when I ran the marathon. I was so thankful for the support I just wanted to blog it a little more. Along with the sweet faces of my hubby, mommy, auntie and wonderful sisters, and even friends! Grateful I had the chance to run my first marathon. Hoping to add more in the future!!

I love my blog

I do love it here! I can't believe I don't get here to post pictures....i guess such is life as your kids grow.. just some random pictures...

yes...that's me finishing the race. I hate how I look, but I love that Caed is running in behind me!

our good friends, who we spend as much time as possible with!

One week

In one week I'll be running my first marathon. The biggest reason for no blog post updates in so long. Earlier this week I was scared. yesterday I was confident. If I talk about it I get nervous. I can do this. I've been training for months. I don't want to box myself in with a time requirement, but I do have a time I'd like to complete it in. I won't tell if I make it or not.

I never did think I'd actually run a marathon although I'd secretly been jealous of those who had.

Here are the guys who have been making the biggest sacrifice by far for me to make this a reality. I run for them and I am running for my health and how and who that affects as a result.

prepping for christmas

I love to do gingerbread houses with Caed! I remember loving that day in my class when we got to make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and decorate it up with all sorts of candy!! Fun, fun! I do the icing for these projects but Caed pretty much dictates the candy placement. He even cut the gummy circles and put it above the door himself.

Caed thought of this little outfit all on his own. He came and told us he was dressed up like Santa. what a funny kid! we decided to tell Caed that Santa wasn't real. It was after a lot of thought and Caed's constant questioning. And actually he told us himself. One day after I had thought I was going to tell him, I asked casually after he had been talking about Santa "Caed, is Santa real, or pretend?" He answered with a stong "pretend" and that was that. (well we did discuss it more, but I thought he was ready for the reality of a pretend Santa at least!) He still loves the fairy tale of a santa, and all the stories and songs. We haven't ruined it for him completely! And he totally goes along with all his friends at school when they talk about him, so I think we're good. We've talked about it some more, and we talk about who St. Nicholas was, and even though he might not have it sorted correctly, he's got the gist. Anyway- he looks more like the Swedish Tomten then santa....but he totally cut and taped that outfit himself. (a white beard had made a brief appearance, but I haven't seen it since) we love this time of year!

Keeping busy

if you don't keep the Monkey's busy, they get into trouble...so we're keeping busy. Of course we do have some down time, but we try to keep the yelling and hitting to a minimum by taking them out and about. (that's not saying they don't yell and hit while we're out, but at least they are distracted!) These are some of our photos from Thanksgiving and the Myrtle Beach childrens museum.

pumpkin picking

I took the kids to a pumpkin farm a couple of weekends ago. Hubby had to do some home repairs involving a ladder at high heights, and I don't like that- so I took the kids out...I forgot how much I love this one pumpkin farm. It's popular, but not as most, and you don't pay to walk in, you just pay for what you do. And you can look at and pet animals for free. I wouldn't have needed to pay for anything if I thought my kids could walk to the pumpkin patch instead of the hay ride. But we had fun.

Theron was a little worried by the animals, but I kept pushing, I don't want them to miss out on these experiences. And well he kept the book away from the goats, because they did want it. I had to keep them in the stroller most of the time, it's the only way to keep 2 18mo. old's in my possession! Poor Aldan would have loved to touch the animals. I am a little weary of touching them though since a couple of a years ago Jon got ringworm from a Pumpkin farm. (not this one)

Of course I love the baby animals, and I couldn't stay watching them long enough...I kept things moving- I was really on guard about the kids- and I didn't want to loose my patience.

This photo was at the end....asked a stranger with an SLR camera to take our photo...

I come up with a well laid plan on things like this...keep the kids in stroller. Everything in a backpack. The only thing I wasn't sure how I was going to do it was the hayride to the pumpkins, all three kids, and carting a pumpkin. Aldan got on the hayride and wanted to sit across from me. I didn't make it an issue. As long as he sat. I didn't want meltdowns. Theron did give me some trouble with sitting, which was annoying- but you can't prevent everything!

Caed was just happy looking around. Of course I prepped him that I didn't want any trouble from him, if we were going to do it ever again. Ha. I ended up bringing reusable bag to carry a pumpkin we would pick. I thought that might give me the most flexibility and it would keep the pumpkin to a smaller size.

Ha, evidence of Theron not wanting to sit!

I let them run pretty much as they wanted (could) once we got off the hayride at the pumpkins. They loved it.

I attempted a shot with all of them. Of course I only tried a little, didn't want to make a big deal of it, I wanted happy kids more. I was by myself after all. We did have a great time, and they did really well. I left hoping they'd fall asleep in the car- we were 45min. away from home- and of course, they stayed awake! Geesh! I love our monkeys more then words- what a blessing they are to Jon and I.

Happy 18 months!

I'm a bit late here...but not too badly. Our monkeys are 18 mo. old. My how strangely time passes...the days are long, but the years are short.

I couldn't get them both to look at me, but Aldan was all silly, so this is fun enough. Theron can't let things out of his little mitts all that easily and he was holding a special toy of Caed's, so there was no changing his view. Aldan is holding one of his love-ys. He's got two, which are actually left over's from Caed that he never got attached to.

Don't let that little smile of Aldan's confuse you that he's the sweet one. Both have a streak in them, but they usually come out at different times. We are truely blessed.



And here's a little love sharing....it's cute to realize they don't really know how to kiss one another when asked to. When an adult kisses them, they just have to lean in- so they just lean into each other. But they will pretty much do this at any time. What cuties. (and what a mop of hair that Aldan has!!)

I'd have their exact stats, except I can't find the small piece of paper the woman at the doctor's office so nicely wrote everything out for me on, since I am a bit scattered when I go to the appointments....I do remember that aldan is an inch taller then Theron, and because of that, Theron is only 90-95% and aldan is off the chart! Ha, that little overachiever!

Happy Birthday!!

(Heather with her daughter)

Happy Birthday to my older sister Heather! Hope you had a great one! Love to you, amazing mom, wife, sister and friend! (hope we get lots more time to get to know each other better!)