Happy New Year 2011

Merry Christmas 2010

Gingerbread Houses

These houses kicked my tail. I had to read and re-read the instructions and even then I didn't put the icing bag together right. After a bit of frustration and the boys saying a thousand times "when can we decorate them" I figured them out and away they went.

They had so much fun! They would eat some candy and then put some on the houses, eat some more, put some more on the houses. Both the boys are really enjoying Christmas this year and all the goodies that go along with it.

I enjoy seeing the excitement in their eyes as Christmas draws nearer. They can hardly wait to see what Santa has brought them. I can hardly wait to see their faces on Christmas morning!

Christmas Tour 2010

I love Christmas time and I love all the twinkling lights that go with it. Each year I look forward to the Christmas Tours online. I'm nosy and I like to have a peek into other peoples homes and lives so these tours are right up my ally.

 Here's mine, though it's late. You can see many, many more here. Also keep in mind I did not clean for you. So the toys and messed up tree skirt, is just keeping it real!

 Please ignore the fact that the lights are starting to fall. I tried to fix them before the picture, but couldn't reach them on my own. Jimmy will have to do it and I was impatient so I just took the picture. Also ignore the bag of potting soil behind the rocker. 

Entry table. I have some ideas for this area as I do not like the mirror or the lamps any longer. I'm wanting something a little more modern looking.

What you see as you enter through the front door.

 

Just to the left of the front door, through the french doors is what was supposed to be a dinning room. However, we have made it a family room instead and it gets much better use that way. It's were my computer is and where the dogs sleep. 

 

Looking straight ahead from the front door is the main living room.

Lastly is the mantel. I've never really quite figured out how to decorate this area it's always a work in progress.

That concluded the tour. All photos where taken with my Iphone 4. It does not take the best pictures but I was being lazy and didn't feel like getting the good camera out and getting it all set up. Now go look at all the awesome pictures on the other blogs!

I Went With Fall Colors Too!

I decided to change for Fall as well. I went from blond on over there on the sidebar, to red. So far me likey!

Halloween 2010

Picture taken with iphone 4

We trick or treated at Nana's house this year. The boys were doggies and I made their costumes. We all had fun. The boys ate themselves into a sugar stupor. I sneaked two or four pieces of candy from them as well. Four year olds are so much fun! Highly opinionated and sassy to boot, but FUN!

Awesomly Beautiful

One thing I love about our house is the view out our back door. I've seen deer, coyotes, wild turkeys, dogs, horses and cows as well as the farmer's plowing the fields for hay. I've taken pictures in pretty much every season and am always in awe of the beauty.

I thought I would share that beauty with you. Enjoy!

 

The April photo is the day after the fire I referred to here happen.

I've yet to catch a sunrise on film out the back, but I've seen a few and they are just as awesome.

I was however able to capture a sunset out the front door. Equally awesome.

Click any image to see in full size.

Meeting with the Teacher and a Flashback

Monday, Jimmy and I attended our first parent/teacher conference. I'm happy to report that my former preemies are doing great in school! They are right where they are supposed to be. The teacher said they are a blast to have in class. Kolton is a jokester, which we knew, and Karter though quiet at times can already skip and snap his fingers.

She reported that they like to play with different kids, but always keep tabs on each other. They sit at separate tables in class and are encouraged to be their own person.Pre-school as been so good for them.

I went to their fall party last Friday and got to see them interact with their peers. They seemed to be well liked and unafraid to join in with the class.

These little guys who started out so tiny are running and jumping and making jokes and sticking wood chips in their pockets at school and bringing them home.

I've not shared these videos before. I don't even believe that our family has seen them. This was July 17 2006 , the day they were born. The video's where taken by Jimmy approximately 2 1/2 hours after their birth. I'd yet to see them and wouldn't for about 10 more hours.

The first video is of Karter and the second of Kolton both video's were taken with a cell phone.

They went from that to this.

 Kolton

 Karter

Words cannot express how proud I am of them. For that matter I'm proud of Jimmy and I for making it through it all with our sanity and marriage still in tact. We make a pretty good team if I do say so myself!

Fall

Fall is my most favorite time of year. I was born in the fall. I love the crisp morning air, the sound of the trees dropping their leaves. I love the color of fall and tend to lean that way in decorating my home. I love the look of crisp whites and light blues, but I always come back to the richer, darker colors when decorating.

I loved this wreath from Pottery Barn, but not the price, so I made one myself.

Pottery Barn

Mine

I just got a grapevine wreath and a couple of leaves on stems at walmart. I cut the leaves off and hot glued them to the wreath. I like my version better, don't you?

I also dumped my dying ferns and put pumpkins in the planters. I love how they turned out. I need to get some pillows for the rockers and then it will be complete. I don't do much fall decorating in the house but I do like for my porch to look Fallish.

I'm just noticing the rug is off center and it kind of bugs me!

Finally Pictures

The kids had school pictures scheduled for today, so while they were dressed for that I finally got my camera out. They were not really into having their picture taken by me that much, but I managed to get some decent ones.

:(

Remember this post and how worried I was about the Masches. Well it seems my worries were warranted. Now look what's happening!

Go here to see.

Sad, but I saw it coming.

Today's Ramblings

School is going so much better. They have stopped crying everyday, but still say they don't want to go. However, when I pick them up they almost always say they had fun. Our schedule seem to be busier at home too. I now have to schedule appointments around their schooling which has provided difficult at times, but we are managing.

I would love to say I have ample time to lounge in those two hours they are gone, but they are mostly filled with laundry, vacuuming, grocery shopping(which I despise) and all other errands that are usually easier to do without two four year olds trailing behind.

The boys have brought home their first art projects from school. They were learning the color green and how stop lights work, so they colored a picture of a stop light. It's so cute and they were super excited to show us. However, now Karter has become a back seat driver, and it's kind of funny. He tells Daddy to slow down that the light is yellow and he has to stop on red.

I've not had my camera out in weeks and all the pictures I took on my iphone from July on disappeared when I updated my iphone, along with all my apps. So annoying, but thankfully I didn't lose my contacts. I'm hoping to get some great pictures of them when it gets a little cooler. I've yet to take their 4 year old pics so I'm a little behind hence why there are no photos.

I've neglected this blog for awhile now and for some strange reason I actually feel guilty about that. I like this blog it's chronicled our lives since the boys were born, but thankfully our lives are pretty boring at the time. Boring is good considering how unboring life was for 3 years or so.

So that's all my ramblings for today. Time to go fix lunch.

Art

Two weeks ago the boys decided they wanted to decorate the front of the fridge with artwork. They got a few markers out some safety scissors and tape. Not just any tape, but red electrical tape. And this is what the front of our fridge has looked like for the past two weeks.

First Day Of School

 Taken with my iphone

August 17 was the boys first day of Pre-K. They did ok. Both cried when we dropped them off and had to be held by the teachers and both cried when be picked them up. I had to send daddy to the car during drop off because he was getting very sad about his boys having to go to school. I somehow managed to not cry. I'd been preparing for this day for a year or more.

Kolton has cried every morning not wanting to go, starting about 10:00. They are in the afternoon class and have to be there by 1:00p.

The first days were very hectic and included a lot of hugging and holding, explaining that they had to go and that they would have fun if they would just try and no I would not be staying with them, and no I can't pick them up in an hour it has to be two hours. Because of all of that, this is the only picture we have taken of them. I hate that, but at least we have this one.

Today, Kolton cried on his way to school, but when we got there he took his backpack to his cubbie and sat down to do a puzzle. He didn't even get his kiss he begged for in the car. Karter kind of look at him like what the heck and gave me two kisses and went to hang his backpack up. When I picked them up. Karter actually told me he had fun. Which was a change because last week Kolton said he had fun when I picked them up and Karter always said he did not. Today the roles were reversed. Kolton said it's not fun and does not want to go back. Karter said it was fun.

Hopefully, very soon they will both enjoy it. It's not easy when your kids are actually begging you to "please don't make me go."

So, that and trying to stay cool with the 104 degree weather we are having, is what we have been doing.

What have you been doing?

Please Let This One Work

I've been watching Raising Sextuplets on the WE channel. Like Jon & Kate Plus 8, it stresses me the heck out. I know a thing or two about raising multiples. Now granted I don't have higher order multiples and I can only imagine the added stress it must be for there to be more than two, but I feel like I'm watching the demise of a marriage all over again. Except this time Bryan is the Kate in this relationship in some aspects. I'll be the first to say raising children is no easy feat. It's hard a lot of the time and it usually requires you to be unselfish and give up things such as sleep, and me time to do things that your kids want or need.

Their lack of team work drives me crazy at times. I'm not going to lie Jimmy and I don't always agree on what or how things need to be or get done, but one thing we always strive for is to be a team. I feel that's really, really important to everyone's welfare. While children do need to see some arguments and then the compromise that follows the stress that is in a divided household is felt by all. Even the kids, even when you don't think they know. They do believe me. I'm glad the Masches realize this and are going to a counselor, they need it, to work through some of those rough spots and hurt feelings that they are having. I would not for a moment hesitate to attend counseling if we needed it. To have an unbiased third party involved could work wonders. I'm no excerpt of course, these are just my opinions and based on my exsperiances as not only a parent but a parent to multiples.

I really hope they make it as a couple, they seem like nice people who adore their children. I just hope they can stayed married to each other!

Four Year Old Birthday Party Pics!

The theme for the birthday party was Toy Story. My sister Keelan, made the cake and it was delish. I don't have photo's of the boys blowing out their candles, but I do have video, which I hope to post at some point. Karter was really into the birthday song this year! The boys where so excited for their birthday this year. They kept asking when it was time for their party and who was coming to their party. Everyone seemed to have fun. I believe it was a success.

DYI Shutters and Window Boxes

On father's day, Jimmy built me these fabulous shutters and window boxes. Those two windows are the windows to the garage and looked so plain and bare in the backyard. They can be seen from almost every window in the house and I wanted something prettier to look at.

Sorry about the crocked picture.

I had actually seen this done by Thrifty Decor Chick about a year ago and I filed it away in my memory because I thought it was a fabulous idea. However, I didn't know where I would put them, that is until I noticed how plain these windows looked.

It was ridiculously cheap! We used fence slates just like Thrifty Decor Chick did and the total cost was about 12-15 dollars for the wood. I already had the black spray paint, and the flowers were a pack of 12 for 10 bucks at Lowes.

 Ignore the old push mower in the back ground. Karter insists it stays and that it is his. He actually pushes it around the yard "mowing."

Now every time I look out any of my back windows I see this.

There where some problems we encountered though. The boxes are super heavy and we had originally wanted to use some window box hangers, which you can see pictured in the above picture.
It was all good until, while outside sitting on the screened in porch, I heard a loud thump. The thump happened to be one of the window boxes crashing to the ground and spilling both the flowers and the dirt. So, we had to screw the boxes into the brick. I say we, but I mean Jimmy. After doing that, we've not had an issue with them falling down.

Happy 4th Birthday My Baby Boys

These will be the last pictures of my boys as three year olds. They are not real good pictures, but are the best I could get as they went out to play in the sweltering heat.

Today there will be a Toy Story birthday party, to celebrate their new age. In exactly a month there will be a new milestone. School. How did that happen so fast? I remember on many sleepless nights, while I was so tired, thinking that this stage would be over soon. At the time I was begging it to hurry up. I was dying from no sleep and worrying about having two preemie boys at home with me along with all the medical equipment and issues that accompanied that. Now I would like, just for a few hours, to snuggle those tiny little boys again.

Now days they are much too busy for cuddling, but every once in awhile one or the other will makes his way over to me, give me a kiss and say I love you momma.

I may have begged for the days to pass quicker when they were so tiny, but now would be a good time for it to slow down a bit. Four is a good age to stop time for awhile, don't you think?

Happy Birthday Kolton and Karter! You makes our days, happy and hectic and on the rare occasion down right awful, but your dad and I wouldn't change it at all.

Engineering

 Karter

This little boy is going to be a computer guy or some sort of engineer. He has always loved all things electronic. If it has cords and holes for things to plug in than that's even better! Jimmy has tons of electronic stuff around here. He even has a collection of "vintage" ,that's what he likes to call them, computers. Karter loves getting these out and pretending to hook them all together.

Daddy, I think is a bit proud of this and lets him drag all kinds of things out, much to my dislike. However, Jimmy claims how else will he learn. I mean what 3 year old has seen an Atari, much less played with one? Not to mention all the other "vintage" computers. He's talked Jimmy into plugging every single one of them in, they've all worked and he's played games on all of them. Tell me who else has had an old computer plugged into their 50 in TV? I imagine that's not a common occurrence, that is unless you live at our house!

He brought every single one of these into the living room himself and plugged them all in.

This is the Atari that the boys are allowed to play with. Jimmy has something called a "heavy sixer" hidden in a closet so that Karter cannot drag that out. 

Funny side story. When Karter found the Atari he asked what it was and Jimmy told him it was a computer game he has as a kid. Karter then began to call it "daddy's kid computer", which was then shorten to "kid computer" when he took it over. He tells everyone who will listen that this is his kid computer!

I am forever picking up random computer parts up off of the floor and digging them out of toy baskets. So tell me, do any of your children play with any "vintage" things in your house?

Dinosaurs

In May we also went to the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. The kids are kind of getting into dinosaurs, so we decided to take them to see some real dinosaur bones. The only part that held their attention was the dinosaurs, all the rest they could care less about. I would have enjoyed browsing around a little more and to actually read the plates with some of the exhibits, but this was also not too far from our house, so maybe Jimmy and I can go some other time with out the kiddos.

It was neat to see dinosaur bones among other things that had actually been found in Oklahoma. I mean when you think of Oklahoma I'm sure that dinosaurs don't even come to mind, but non the less they were here and I find that neat.

High Time

 I thought it was high time the blog had a new look. I've been neglecting it for awhile now. I just lost motivation to keep it updated. I wanted to but every time I sat down to do it, after the boys went to bed, I didn't want to.

I started 4 years ago with this post. Four years is a long time. Some of you have been reading since the beginning, some of you have left, and I supposed every now and again someone new comes upon it. I've never really had a large number of readers and that's ok because the blog is really just to record some crazy crap that goes on in our house every now and then. It also records the not so crazy stuff at times.

Our lives have changed so much since that first post on July 6, 2006. Some of it has been sad, but it all lead us to the crazy happiness we all feel now. That's all I can really ask for, that we are all happy and of course healthy.

And we are!

So, I can't promise a new update everyday, or every week for that matter, but I will continue to document moments of our crazy, wacky, happy lives.

Pops

In May we went to Pops, which is on the Historic Route 66, not too far from our house. It was a neat place that was filled with any and every kind of pop you could want. It also has a restaurant in it and the foods pretty good. The grounds are gorgeous and it's right next to a tree farm and just down the rode from the historic round barn where my sister got married.

The kids loved it especially the pop! We hope to go back sometime soon, preferably on a weekday as it was a weekend when we went last time and it was quite busy.