A baby shower!

In March we went up to North Western PA to a big family baby shower for my BIL and SIL! We had sooo much fun! My SIL and her brothers significant others are all pregnant too, so they had a big party at once for all of them!! The boys had a good time too. Even though it rained, they played in the puddles, ran around and were soo good! We are so excited for our new niece, and for Sally's family! How much fun!! (of course the photo of Andrew and Sally wouldn't upload...sorry Andrew!)

The three couples sat at the one end of the room. (you have to have a big space for this family! There are so many of them!) :)

This is the blanket that my MIL made for Andrew and Sally. Gorgeous, isn't it?!?! She's made blankets for our three boys too, and they are so soft and cozy and wonderful!!

Caed took this picture.

The party was held at the Mennonite church, and all those quilts were made by church members! Awesome!

I think Caed took this picture too. 

The three sisters! 

Cherry Blossoms 2012

This year we went down and we were still a little early for the blossoms, but there were some gorgeous trees anyway. I love these beautiful white (and pink) flowers that bloom all over the city in early spring. It makes everything look so gorgeous. Really they are a sight when at peak, and we don't have to plan a trip around their blooming! (which was early this year! not a single bloom still around for the Cherry Blossom Race on April 1st!)

Ha! Looks like Aldan is picking my nose. Silly kid.

My Favorite Photographer

I have known Jan Michelle for a long time. I'd say at least 8 years. (have i blogged about her before?....) When I first met her she worked on the Hill, and then she decided to leave and pursue her passion, photography. Wow, was it cool to watch her talent and ability change and improve over the years. She's taken our kids birth announcement photos and our holiday pictures the past 2 years. I look forward to these intentional times of recording our family. This year we had the help of my sis and her BF since having three kids and getting them all to look the same direction was going to be a feat with no help...it was so worth it! She took their photo this year too- and I LOVE this one because Tom is a volunteer firefighter! check out her work: (and blog) here.

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.