Right Now

Reading: Blogs when I have a chance, but unfortunately even that's been pretty slim lately. I would love to make more time to actually read books again (and catch up on my blog reading).

Watching: I was so sad that This is Us wasn't on this week! I'm on pins and needles for the next episode as soon as the first one ends. It kills me to wait a full week, and then it wasn't even on this week! Also, I have recently reintroduced Daniel Tiger. I've turned it on a few times over the past year and a half and they've never really gotten into it, but now they ask for it almost every morning! Do-Do-Do-Dora the Explorer is also starting to become a hit in our house.

Listening: I finally can play the entire Frozen soundtrack and not just the Let It Go song on repeat! I've pretty much got every song memorized :)

Drinking: Water. I'm trying to get in 100 oz per day, but I've only been getting about 64 oz. This used to be so easy for me! I don't know why I struggle to drink my water these days.

Eating: My favorite meal by far is a salad. I made some salsa chicken in the crockpot this week that I've been putting in my salads, which also include spinach, red pepper, grape tomatoes, cucumber, feta cheese (my favorite!), and Italian dressing. I usually add a little brown rice or quinoa too, but forgot that part! I could eat these salads every lunch and dinner. If only salads weren't so time consuming to make...

Wearing: Jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweatshirt from my softball coaching days.

Loving: Story time at the library! I started taking the kids again last week and it has been amazing. They have been amazing! Both of them are actually sitting and participating in what's going on in the class, instead of being the only two that run around the room and get into ev.er.y.thing. We've been twice now, and my heart bursts with pride watching them pay attention and engage in the activities. Also, my kids are SMART! Makes me feel proud that they know their shapes and colors and can shout out the answers to questions being asked.

Anticipating: The big semi annual consignment sale coming up in just a few weeks! I can't wait to see what bargains I can find and how much I make from selling all the clothes and toys the kids have grown out of.

Hoping: That warmer (and dryer) weather isn't too far away. I'm ready for 65 degree weather and blue sky. It actually snowed some last weekend. Not enough to stick around for long, but enough for the kids to want to go play outside while the giant flakes were coming down. And it's supposed to snow again this weekend too... I'm tired of feeling cold all the time. I'll be happy if we can just hit 50 degree weather consistently! lol

Just enough snow to make tiny snow balls to eat!

Following: I just read an article on Facebook last night about the new Beauty and the Beast movie coming out, about how it has the "first ever exclusively gay moment." I've been sucked into reading the comments that followed on that post.

Wondering: Will Ayden ever nap again??? He has gone this entire week without taking a nap. Rylee is also struggling to nap this week. PLEASE don't let this be the end of our napping era.

Trying: To exercise more. We had a break in rain the last few days and we were able to walk to story time at the library and to Community Playgroup this week. I'd love to be able to get out and walk on a more regular basis, but the forecast is calling for rain all of next week (with the exception of snow on Sunday!).

Worrying: About money, of course. We got ANOTHER almost $200 doctor bill this week. And Tony needs to have some dental work done that will cost us another $1301. Insane.

Planning: A trip to the southern Oregon coast next month! Tony will be running an open house at the Brookings office and the kids and I will be going with him. Yay! While he works, we'll be playing.

Contemplating: Doing a garage sale this spring. We've gotten rid of a lot of stuff over the past few years, down sizing our "crap" a little more with each move, but we've I've still got a lot more I can get rid of.

Third Birthday

Over two months after the fact, I'm finally sitting down to start this birthday post. I would have been motivated to do it sooner, but I totally messed up on getting them in for their 3 year well check. I had known it was coming up, even knowing the date it fell on, but I didn't pay close enough attention to the calendar. I didn't realize it was their appointment day, until the morning of! And I made this discovery with only 15 minutes until their appointment time. The clinic is 30 minutes away. Oops! I immediately called in to let them know we wouldn't be able to make it, and apologized several times. The gal on the phone was not very nice about it, but got us rescheduled. That appointment is finally coming up next week. About a week later, I got a nice (not really) form letter in the mail, telling me how I need to call in advance if we need to cancel an appointment and how we will be dropped from their clinic if it happens again. Oh, and also telling me I needed to call to reschedule, which had already been done! As if I didn't feel bad enough about missing the appointment in the first place.

We had Rylee and Ayden's birthday party the week before their actual birthday. With their birthday falling on December 23rd, that's pretty much the way it probably always will be. This is the first time I'd planned an actual theme to their party. It was so much fun! We were a little lot nervous about how many people would be coming. Between all our family, and adding in all their little friends from Playgroup, we were expecting a very full house! The snow and ice storms we had around then did end up keeping quite a few from being able to come. It ended up working out perfectly. Our house was full, but not over crowded.

My three year olds!

It was a Dinosaur-Princess party! I had found Ayden's birthday shirt on Zulily and thought it was absolutely perfect. One of my friends was able to make a shirt for Rylee to match. I found bead necklaces at the Dollar Store and princess/prince crowns on Amazon to give out to all the kids as they arrived. They each got a few temporary dinosaur tattoos as well, which was a huge hit. I got a Dinosaur cake from Costco. I served BBQ meatballs, chips and a seven layer dip, pasta salad, and had a fruit platter. We had princess and dinosaur plates and colorful napkins. I had found balloons on Amazon with dinosaurs and princesses, so we blew those up the night before the party. When the kids opened their birthday gifts, I had little goody bags for the rest of the kids. I really tried my best not to just fill them with junk. Each bag had two mini candy canes, a glow bracelet, extra dinosaur tattoos for them to take home, princess fruit snacks, and three little dinosaur figures (about the size of little army men).

I didn't take pictures of everything set up (although I wish I had thought to take them), so I don't have a lot to share. I did get a great group picture of all the kids together, but don't feel comfortable sharing it here on my blog without asking for permission from each of the parents. Although, I'm not sure it would be a lot different from posting it on Facebook. So, not a lot of birthday party pics to share, but here's a few...

Sis helped me by being our "tattoo artist" for the party.

Getting ready to sing  Happy Birthday and blow out candles. They each got three candles to blow out.

With their cousin Adilyn.

They had sooooo much fun at their party! They still sing the happy birthday song regularly and Ayden tries to convince me it's his birthday at least once a week. lol

The night before their actual birthday, we (mostly Tony) blew up a ton of balloons and put them in the hallway so that would be the first thing they saw when walking out of their rooms in the morning. They LOVED it and thought the balloons were pretty much the coolest thing ever. Fun fact - we STILL have some (too many) of those balloons left. They just won't die! I have helped many of them meet their demise almost on a daily basis since the beginning of January.

We made them special birthday pancakes with whipped cream and strawberries. They love pancakes and they love strawberries, but for some weird reason, out kids aren't fans of whipped cream. Who would have ever thought??? We stuck 3 candles in each of their pancakes and sang them Happy birthday. They requested that we sing it several times! It was their special day, so of course we obliged them!

After breakfast, we made the trek to Salem to take them to a bounce house. They. Had. A. Blast!!! I cannot even begin to describe how much fun they had, and it was amazing for us to watch them enjoy it so much. It was nearly impossible to capture it in pictures, but I tried. They didn't slow down enough for pictures! It was Go, Go, Go!

See that smile?

Tony wanted to take them somewhere for lunch that would sing a fun birthday song for them and give them a treat, so we took them to Red Robin. His parents met us there, but before even having a chance to order, Grandpa got a call from a neighbor letting him know his cows had gotten out. He left to go round up the cows, but Grandma was able to stay and have lunch with us.

Rylee was super social at the restaurant, particularly on our trips to the bathroom. We were sitting on the opposite side of the restaurant to the bathrooms, and Rylee said hi to every table we passed on the way there and back, stopping to admire a baby at one table. She struck up an entire conversation with a lady in the bathroom. Rylee started by asking the lady her name, and vice versa. Then the lady asked how old she was and found out that it was Rylee's birthday. It was pretty much the cutest thing ever and the lady was completely charmed by my daughter (so was I). Toward the end of lunch, Tony took Ayden to the bathroom and then Grandma went too, so it was just Rylee and I left at the table. But then she decided she had to go "big poopy." My favorite part (not really) was that she then proceeded to announce loudly, all the way too the bathroom, over and over, that she had to go Big Poopy!

Ayden was pretty cranky through lunch and was ready to go before anyone was done eating. Fortunately, he didn't have any major meltdowns, but lunch was definitely not his favorite part of their birthday celebration. Neither one of them really cared about having the staff sing a birthday song for them. Although I'm sure if they sang the traditional happy birthday song, they would have loved it. They each got an ice cream sundae, but it took awhile to convince them to actually eat it because.... whipped cream. I have the strangest kids. What kid doesn't like whipped cream? Once we helped them eat the top layer and it got down to the actual ice cream, they enjoyed their birthday sundaes.

Grandma helped Ayden eat his last few bites of melted ice cream.

After lunch, we took them to the Salem Carousel, where Grandpa was able to meet back up with us. Ayden and Rylee could spend all day going round and round on the carousel! The rest of us had to take turns though, because being old sucks and spinning around in circles made all of us adults quite dizzy! lol.

The giraffe was highly sought out by many kids! It was a race to get to it first and we had to try several times before Ayden got his chance to ride on the giraffe. 

Rylee with her Grandpa

Not always the easiest to get a good family pic!

Ayden and Rylee were very excited that they got to see Santa Claus at the carousel! (Remember, their birthday was December 23rd, despite how late I am writing this post. face palm) Both of them were super into Santa this past Christmas. Ayden couldn't stop petting the fir on Santa's coat and Rylee pet Santa's beard! bahaha! It was so funny and cute, but also a little weird. I had to tell her to stop because she couldn't keep her hands off of him! lol. After petting his beard, she reached up to play with his glasses!

Rylee petting his beard. Ayden petting his coat.

The carousel has a really nice park next to it, which was the only reason we were able to get Ayden and Rylee to leave without a meltdown. They could have stayed all night, going around in circles! We were blessed with a sunny day for their birthday, and we had to take advantage of it and let them play. We don't get to go to the park very often in the winter, so this was a real treat!

Once we got back home, they got to open their birthday presents from us. Nothing too exciting. They each got three new books. They are pretty cool books though, and the kids have thoroughly enjoyed them!

Reading one of their new Shine the Light books. We call them their "flashlight" books.

We had so much fun celebrating this 3rd birthday. I was super proud of myself for how their birthday party turned out and that everyone seemed to have a great time. Ayden and Rylee enjoyed being in the spotlight and pretty much thought it was the best thing ever, which made the whole thing worthwhile. Their actual birthday was filled with a ton of fun and we couldn't have asked for the day to be any more perfect.

They may drive me crazy and make me lose my mind sometimes, but they are the most amazing little miracles. Tony and I often talk about how lucky we are that we get to be their parents. It's still sometimes hard to believe we even ARE parents. And they are THREE! How did that happen so quickly?

Microblog Monday: Hiking

I love hiking and exploring new places. It's something I've always enjoyed but have rarely done. Tony and I both would like to be more active with our kids. This last weekend we decided to take them on a little hike. It wasn't a major hike and was actually right in the middle of downtown Eugene at Skinners Butte, a little hill with an easy hike to the top, approximately 1 mile and 262 feet up.

I think it was perfect for our first hiking adventure as a family. The kids did amazing! Rylee asked us to hold her a few times, but she actually asks us to do that all the time at home too. We just told her what a good little hiker she was and she kept going, without us packing her. Ayden was running going up the trail at one point, and he tripped and fell. He had a good cry about that. It was pretty cold, so I'm sure it stung his hands. That and he doesn't like when his hands are dirty, which is funny since he likes to eat applesauce with his fingers instead of a spoon. Go figure! Once he got over that, he was off and running again. They had so much fun, that once we got back down the hill, they immediately wanted to walk back up again! We didn't do it again, but told them we for sure would another day.

Family selfie at the summit.

Checking out the view from the top.

They were such amazing little hikers!

One of the main reasons we chose this spot for our first hike is because there is a really nice playground there as well. The kids had a blast playing at the park after our hike.

It was such a great day!


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Microblog Monday: Pampered

Last Thursday was Rylee and Ayden's first overnight with the grandparents. MIL picked the kids up around 4:00 and then I had the other set of twins that I do daycare for until 5:00. Then we had the whole night to ourselves! It was weird, but glorious at the same time. We did nothing. Haha!

Friday began a weekend of pampering for myself. I got my hair trimmed and colored for the first time in over 3 months! I was REALLY turning grey, so it was nice to finally get that covered up.

On Saturday, I finally used my spa gift certificate that Tony gave me TWO Christmases ago! My feet have never been the same since pregnancy. I swear that gaining that extra 26 lbs in fluid during my last week of pregnancy ruined my feet forever! My heels get so dry that they actually tear holes in my socks regularly. No foot care that I do seems to really help. It was sooooo nice to finally get in and have a big time pedicure done and get my feet scrubbed! I wish I had the money to do that more often. It was the best Christmas gift ever, even though it took me so long to actually use it!

Sunday, Tony took the kids to visit his grandpa (who is not doing well) and to go see my sister and her family. I was able to stay home by myself and work on getting stuff together for the upcoming consignment sale in March. It was so nice to be able to work uninterrupted!

It was so nice to be able to do things for myself over the weekend. It was perfect.


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Pregnancy Memory

I just finished reading Julia's weekly pregnancy post at My Life in Transition about her upcoming ultrasound and hopefully finding out the sex of their surprise baby #4. I smiled all while reading her post because, 1) I love her family, 2) it made me think of how my own pregnancy was, and 3) the post just made me feel all warm and fuzzy. When I read her words about how excited she is to find out the sex (in just 2 days!), I was completely taken back to the moment we found out the sex of our twins.

"I love finding out at the ultrasound so, so much."  Julia Goolia

I had ultrasounds with MFM (maternal fetal medicine) every four weeks. At our 16 week ultrasound, the technician was pretty sure that Baby B was a boy, and *guessed* Baby A was a girl but couldn't say for sure at that point. We went into the appointment not knowing if we would be able to find out at that point, knowing it still might be too early. We didn't let ourselves settle into the idea of knowing what we were having either way. We didn't even tell anybody we had a pretty good guess. We just weren't going to go there, because really, at that point we still barely believed we were even having babies! I didn't even say anything when I wrote the blog post about our 16 week anatomy scan! We wanted to know for SURE first.

I can remember very clearly what it was like laying on the table for the ultrasound. At 20 weeks pregnant, I was huge and it was uncomfortable. The appointments lasted forever, because it took almost a full hour for each baby. The technician was super nice and knew we were excited to find out the sex, so she looked for that right after checking the chambers of the heart first. Baby A wasn't very cooperative in showing her profile or getting in the right position for measurements, but she at least cooperated enough to see that she was a GIRL! I remember Tony crying when he heard those words. It was such a sweet moment. Baby B was confirmed to still be a boy.

I asked the tech if she was SURE, and she answered that the only way to know with 100% certainty is to give birth (lol), but she was pretty sure she was right. 

Tony didn't stay for the entire appointment since he had to get to work. I remember falling asleep several times throughout the rest of the appointment. Remember, I said they took forever? It was always so warm in the room, and I was so sleep deprived throughout my whole pregnancy. I always seemed to fall asleep easily during the day, but could never sleep at night.

Life's been crazy and pretty stressful lately, but it was so nice to take this trip down memory lane. I can now go to bed feeling all the warm and fuzzies. 

Disneyland Recap

 If you're friends with me on Facebook, you've seen most of these pictures already. Sorry for the repeat, but there's just too much cuteness not to share here too!

Last Tuesday, Ayden and Rylee got to experience their first airplane ride on the way to Disneyland.

Very excited to board that plane!

He really wanted to help with the luggage.

The first night we were there, we went to Downtown Disney for dinner and window shopping. Their mind was blown and they were in toddler heaven with all the stuffed animals!

He was soooo excited and couldn't decide which was his favorite! (He was looking at more stuffed animals)

Day 1: California Adventure

Getting ready to start the day with their cousins!

Doc McStuffins was the very first character we got to see!

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was going to the Disney Junior Live show. It was so much fun watching how excited Ayden and Rylee (and all the other little kids) got. Seeing them clapping and jumping up and down dancing actually brought tears to my eyes. It was amazing to experience the joy that this brought them!

Waiting for the show to start.

Mickey Mouse!

Our first family picture of the trip.

Day 2: Disneyland

This trip was made possible for us because Tony's parents are amazing. They took us, along with Tony's brother and family, to Disneyland with them to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.

Grandma Faffy and Grandpa C with their grandkids.

Ayden was able to go on a lot of the big kid rides because he (just barely) made the 40" height requirement. Poor Rylee fell a couple inches short of that. Fortunately, she's still young enough that she didn't know what she was missing out on. While most everyone in our group went on one ride, someone always stayed back and took Rylee on something else. She definitely still had fun, just missed out going on a few of the bigger rides. No matter what ride we went on, big or small, both Ayden and Rylee ALWAYS asked to do it again!

Waiting to go on the Star Wars ride.

Tony and Ayden on Splash Mountain. Tony was terrified of Ayden falling out because they weren't buckled in on that ride!

Getting to meet Minnie Mouse in person was a MUST for Rylee, otherwise she may very well have disowned us and moved out of the house. She was sooooo excited to see Minnie Mouse!

Day 3: California Adventure

We lucked out right at the beginning of the day, being in the right place at the right time to meet Donald, Daisy, and Pluto. Rylee repeatedly said she wanted to "pet Pluto" the day before, so she was super excited that she got her chance! She even got to pull on his whiskers, and Ayden and Rylee both got to honk his nose. lol

While we all had a super fabulous time, it did not come without meltdowns. Is it even possible to take a toddler to Disneyland without a meltdown? Ha! Actually, Rylee did pretty good for the most part, but Ayden had a hard time when it came time to get off a ride. He wanted to go again, not get off! He didn't understand that we had to take turns with other people. If  he was on a ride or meeting a character, he was perfectly fine and having fun. But any other time, he was usually whining or crying about something or other. Combine being on the go and lack of sleep with all the excitement of Disneyland, and it made for a cranky toddler.

He had been completely bent over with his arms dangling down, but I missed getting that perfect shot of this meltdown. It was actually pretty funny.

My absolute favorite part of the entire trip was meeting Anna and Elsa! We almost didn't do it, but I'm so glad we did because Ayden and Rylee's reactions made it so worth waiting in line for! Rylee was so nervous and excited that she could hardly contain herself. She was completely star-struck and didn't want me to put her down. Tony caught the very start of our visit with Anna and Elsa on video, which I'm sharing below. Ayden was beyond adorable, encouraging Rylee to go forward and meet the princesses. And then he was a little shy and bashful himself! I can hardly handle how cute they were!

Anna told Rylee they were twins, wearing the same dress!

Rylee asked Elsa where her gloves were. Esla said she didn't need them anymore!

We had such a great time. Tony and I feel beyond lucky that we got to experience taking our own kids to Disneyland. To witness the magic of it all through them is pretty much the best thing ever. I'm so incredibly grateful to my in-laws for making this trip possible, because there's no way we could have afforded it otherwise. At least not right now.

When we got home and I was unpacking, I found a little surprise in Tony's suitcase. Apparently one of the kids (I suspect Ayden) loaded the front pockets with dinosaurs and trucks! We had no idea these had made the trip with us! Hahaha!

Microblog Monday: Disneyland!

We spent a fabulous 3.5 days at Disneyland last week! My in-laws took us and Tony's brother and family there to celebrate their 40th anniversary. We had so much fun! Ayden and Rylee got to experience their first bus ride, airplane ride, roller coaster, and met lots of their favorite Disney characters.

We got to take my oldest niece to Disneyland with us five years ago (thanks to Tony's parents then, too) and it was pretty dang amazing, but nothing can compare to being able to experience it with our own kids. It's something we never thought would be a reality for us. Dreams really do come true...

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