Dynamic Duo of Gus and Rals

Is it REALLY Almost Christmas?

2011-12-21T18:55:00.043-05:00

Again, slacking on the blogging about the life and times with Gus & Rals, so sorry!!! I hope some of you are still out there...I've been busy, the boys have been in school, basically, big boy and big girl life has caught up with us all. My business has taken off to put it mildly, which is so awesome and I am beyond words on how lucky and blessed I feel about that. If you have not seen my new fancier website, I ask you to check it out sometime www.hamiltoncreekphotography.com. I am also on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hamiltoncreekphotography. Any who, yes, the holidays are upon us and I feel like I have been living, breathing and snapping photos of families in their Christmas best since October, well, that is probably because I have been. And, LOVING every second of it.

The boys started school and are doing awesomely well. Their first real report cards demonstrated what we all know, they are socially amazing, gifted, and Augustus was called the school's "knight in shining armor" for all his chivalry, and Raleigh is known for being so polite and quite the story teller. They are delighted to have them in their school and we are looking forward to their pre-K start in the fall of next year, and I honestly cannot believe half of their school year is actually over already. The boys are still imaginative little men with a love for the magical, mystical, all things a little spooky, but not too spooky, and superheros are still awesome to them, including the superheroes around town like firefighters, some police, and they know what the army and soldiers are a now, too and they think they are pretty awesome as well. While Mommy is still not keen on guns and gun playing, they still tend to be the sweetest boys who really are not too into it either. I take the balance of these boys any day. They love to cook and clean still and are not afraid to pick pink first and play with baby dolls, even if it is just to strip them down first and foremost.

We have had a few holidays since my last post in September. Firstly, Halloween was a big one for this family of course. The boys still manage to dress up on a regular basis, and this year enjoyed three costumes each. For their multiples party Augustus was too sick to come, but he would have made the cutest Captain Jack...pictures prove that, and Raleigh was the most swashbuckling of pirates in his home-made Captain Hook outfit. Next year we may re-purpose it as a Prince costume ;) Then they were police and fire men for their school party. Finally, on the big day they were "storm troopers" or really Boba Fett and Jango Fett from Star Wars. They did not know what Star Wars was when they picked these, but they loved the outfits and the sword "thingy" - which we did not buy, but they still loved the outfits. Now, they have seen a few scenes of Star Wars and Augustus is asking for the movie when he gets to talk to Santa...we'll see about that buddy, we'll see. They do have a really cool Star Wars ship coming, so hopefully that will suffice. Here are a few pictures of the boys during the Halloween extravaganza that was October. They enjoyed trick-or-treating, but little Kaine, the boys cousin, may have had them all beat this year for cutest, most excited kid on the block.

Raleigh above, smells like CHOCOLATE - his fave!!!!

Thanksgiving was a tough one this year. The day after Thanksgiving would have been my Dad's 68th birthday. My mom has moved out of our house and was in her new place in November so she has gotten her new space and hopefully will continue to have more good days than bad. We tried to keep her and all of us busy that day and even ventured down to the tree lighting in Hyde Park and had a "muff-cake" or cupcake for those of you who don't speak Augustus & Raleigh, in honor of Grandpa Pickles. The boys had a ball, and I got there early in an attempt at taking the boys' Christmas photos, and while I got some magical shots of the boys being themselves, I just did not get that one shot, so we had a few more attempts this year. Always fun for me to try new locations and try to capture the boys, so I am not complaining! The saddest part of the day was when we waited for what seemed like for forever for Santa to show up and then when he did it was in a drive-by in a truck, no not a decked out Christmas truck, just a truck with the jolly guy riding shot gun waiving to the littles

Next up is Christmas, and I will have more about that after the fact, but I can say 3 is more exciting for the boys than 2, but they are also so excited that they are also more out of sorts with their excitement than last year. We finally settled down a bit with sleeping better and not all crazy behavior we had when we first started the season, but the old Elf on the Shelf, Hugh Caillou is not quite as effective as last year for our little family...sniff, sniff. One of my friend with an older son put it best though, enjoy the crazy, in 10 years they won't have time to be cute and magical about Christmas. So right, Jennifer, so right!

Favorite Things Right Now:

Augustus was at the park and a little girl who spoke no English kept talking to him and he just kept playing and talking to her in English like it was no biggie, and then yells to me from across the park "Mommy, this girl is speaking Magic words to me!!!" He was so excited and I almost melted from the cuteness on that one!

Raleigh starts EVERY sentence with "You know Mommy..." and that usually starts with "you know, you know, you know, you know Mommy blah, blah, blah" because he is so excited to tell me something.

They have moved from fighting each other for things and fighting for our attention to working together to fight us! It is funny, they have become more buddies now and it is great, although it is really more for the evil mastermind to see how much we can get away with together instead of fighting each other. It is just another milestone, and I take the good with the bad knowing that each day they are moving forward toward more and more independence.

They are still the best lovey, snugly, happy boys. We are truly blessed. The eat well for the most part, they sleep amazingly well, and nothing slows them down. They love life and everyone that meets them adores them too. We are blessed, and yes, I have to remind myself of that when we are having those moments, and yes, sometimes those moments turn into days or weeks, but they are just so amazing. I try to remember to tell them that all the time and am trying to loosen up on my hovering of making sure they are being behaved all the time. I think we are at a good balance for now.

They have some great friends and get so happy to see friends they don't see as often now that they are in school two days a week. Raleigh has a new love affair with a little friend E who is about a year younger and he just talks about her all the time. If we see her at a play date it is E, E, E, E the entire time. She is just as infatuated with Rals, so it is great. He also love his neighbor friend, H, but is more of a buddy than a love, love, love friendship. Augustus pretty much loves everyone and tends to play with the big boys, although his chivalrous side at school leads me to believe he still has a soft spot for his girlfriends, too. They still have completely different friends at school despite being in the same classroom. It is amazing their self-reliance and ability to be so sure of themselves. I love it! Not all twins or siblings are like that and these boys are just so self-assured.

There are no secrets at this age with these guys! NONE!!! So let that be fair warning when we see a certain set of Grandies in a few months...ha! They also have more awareness of different stores we drive by now as well, so let's say, you are the grandma, and you decide to take them to Dunkin Donuts, say, one time, well, then from that point on, you love Dunkin Donuts. Every DD you drive by, they will tell everyone who will listen how Nonnie LOVES Dunkin Donuts, and that she takes them there all the time, and yeah, Mom, don't you want to go there now too? If you let them watch something Mommy doesn't approve of, I'll hear about it! If you ever say "dude, that guy cut me off" the next time you are driving with someone, they will point out every person who cuts you off, or merely changes lanes in front of you!!! They will say things in the same tone as you, and man, it is hilarious to have all your idiosyncrasies come back at you double time!

Wishing you and yours a Merry, Merry Christmas!!!! Here are some shots of the boys as we get ready for the big day!

For the real behind the scenes out takes from trying to photograph your own kids...

How cool is this train IN THE TREE - $30 from Home Depot, highly recommend it!

Boys outside the Magic Kingdom on a special trip with Daddy! Looking VERY IDENTICAL HERE! sorry for the grainy picture, but have to resize for web publishing!

The Polar Express ride again this year was FABULOUS!!!! The boys are already pumped for next year's trip.

Where Have We Been?

2011-09-13T18:36:00.001-04:00

This song is in one of the boys’ favorite books, and the start of it is quite fitting after our summer!

HOME AMONG THE GUMTREES

Words and Music by By B. Brown/W. Johnson

I've been around the world
A couple of times or maybe more
I've seen the sights, I've had delights
On every foreign shore
But when my mates all ask me
The place that I adore
I tell them right away
Give me a home among the gumtrees
With lots of plum trees
A sheep or two, a k-kangaroo
A clothesline out the back
Veranda out the front
And an old rocking chair
You can see me in the kitchen
Cooking up a roast
Or Vegemite on toast
Just you and me, a cup of tea
And later on, we'll settle down
And go out on the porch
And watch the possums play

We have had a whirlwind of a summer. I cannot believe how much we’ve done and how much the boys have changed. I still am slacking at blogging, but am trying to get back into it. Starting a business will slow down everything else. The boys are amazing, and I really do want them to be able to read this someday and think, Mom, you were crazy to write all that down, but we love it nonetheless!

We made it to Australia and back in one piece. The flight was so much better from TX to Brisbane than our last time around. Click here for a flashback – HERE. The boys were so good, it was shocking really. The worst part of the travel was coming home. It was the first time ever that the boys would wake up and get out of their beds and come to our room. Yikes, scared the living you know what out of me the first time I heard Gus say “Mommy, I never sleep” at 3am. It took about 3 days for them to get back into a rhythm, and me, well, it took almost a full week to get back in tune with my body clock in the USA. The boys eventually were fine, but definitely need a nightlight since traveling. Raleigh was soooooooo in the “why” stage when we were there. It was insane. He would ask why at least 5,000 times in one day. Nanny, Poppy and Auntie Peta can all attest to this! I would laugh as we headed to a train station, endured the 20 questions as to why a number of things were the way they were, and then the ENTIRE time we were on the train Rals would ask “why this” or “why that.” Seriously, I have no freaking idea why the guy is getting off on this stop or wearing a jacket or has curly hair, no – freaking – idea! Thankfully it has finally stopped. However, seriously within a week of returning to the US, Augustus had his “why” phase. The boys got to meet just about everyone in the Aussie family. We had a ball traveling and the boys thankfully still ask about the family every now and again. They often ask, “where does Nanny Nelle live again?” They got to go to the Gold Coast, Perth, Tasmania and Sydney this time around. I think the boys would move to Tassie if they could. They adored the time with their little boy cousins to say the least. They also loved the room to move and explore and all the “sheepS.” I was just thankful we were visiting in winter and not during the active snake season, but I digress. The only downer of the trip, besides having to say goodbye to our Aussie family, was the weather in Sydney. We had a few hours of clear skies, but almost the entire time it rained. Our beautiful penthouse hotel ended up flooding through the windows and a crack in the wall, so that was a downer, too. Of course, pictures were taken, lots and lots of pictures. About 5000 or so, and I am still working my way through them...but here are a few of my faves in a little slide show.

In other big news, the boys started preschool and are thriving there. They only go twice a week for the mornings, and will likely stay that way while they are in a good nap routine. I hate to mess with a good thing there. They love school and today they told me that it was Raleigh’s turn to wave the American flag, and Augustus just broke out singing “Yellow Submarine” at lunch. I had tears I was so proud. They have learned many lessons already and the first week’s lesson was on grace and courtesy, and they display it all the time now by asking how are day was, and are even better at using their pleases and thank you’s than before. Augustus was having a slip back into some pronunciation issues this past week, but we think it was likely due to a little runny nose and maybe some clogged ears. Although, we have read that when kids go through a physical growth spurt sometimes the mental spurt lags a bit before it catches up. Who knows, this week it is a bit better again. Our biggest concern is that he become self-conscious with his language and fall behind. He tends to get silly when he recognizes we don’t understand what he means right off the bat. We love him and all his little language quirks that make him Gus, but man, isn’t it hard to watch your kid be self-conscious?

Here are a few pictures of the boys. They are getting so big. Truly big boys now. Hopefully I will catch up soon with all the little things that are so special about them. In the meantime, a short list of things I love about these boys.

They are still full of energy and love to read. They love everything from my little pony, Barbie, Tangled, The Karate Kid, Buzz & Woody, pirates, and everything in between. They are starting to understand gender a little more, but I hope they still are so sweet and accepting of for a long time. Raleigh is fascinated by space. Augustus loves Batman, but he is tending to Spiderman and Captain America, too. He wants to be a super hero for sure! He loves to save the day! Raleigh tends toward Superman…not so much Spidey any more, but he will still wear his Spidey suit every now and again. Dress up is still in full swing, although, usually not first thing in the morning any more…which is a good thing because Mama needs her coffee before dressing up a like a pirate They found the TV show “Little Einstein's” and all else pales in comparison. I have to laugh because the character Annie is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO my Best Friend Kristy!

They are amazing bike riders and fearless at it, too. They light up when we see a Starbucks…yes, Mommy is proud of that one, too. They adore getting to go to Home Depot with Daddy. They are awesome helpers and fight over vacuuming up after breakfast, lunch and dinner. They talk about Grandpa Pickles all the time. We just had the kick-off to football here and when we brought out all the Packer shirts they remembered Grandpa Pickles and it makes me so sad, but so happy that he leave behind great football fans who appreciate his team, too. They still squeal when they find a feather that “Grandpa Pickles is thinking of them.” They love their best friends. Right now it is Hannah, or me if you ask Raleigh. Augustus is basically anyone he is with at the time, particularly my mom friends who are let's just say, well endowed. They say things like "I'm going to be a love bug for Happy Halloween" (Raleigh)

They know their alphabet and can count to 20 on most days. Strangely, as their little heads fill up with with more and more information daily, they started singing the abc’s like this “ABCDQRS…” Weird. I remember when I was little that I though MENO was a letter, not L, M, N, O, so it’s all good

You Never Know What Will Come Out of Their Mouths Next

2011-06-29T15:38:00.000-04:00

So, here's the scoop. The boys are funny. Yup, really funny. Sometimes without even trying, but in most cases, they are trying. Raleigh will likely be voted "Class Clown" some day, and Gus will likely be the one to streak across Wimbledon or something...but I digress. They still think penis jokes are funny. They have moved on to poopy being even funnier, but I am holding strong that they cannot talk about it unless they need to go to the bathroom; which in turn results in them running to the toilet saying they have to poop just about any time they say "poopy" to be funny. I wish I had a recorder with me at all times for the really funny things they come up with, but alas, the camera is about as good as it gets, coupled with sporadic blogging these days. Here is a run down of the best things to come out of the cutest two three year olds lately.

Raleigh at bedtime, rubs Nonnie's cheeks and asks "why your cheeks old?" and then, not quite ready to give up a last cuddle and fall asleep, says "why your lips move when you talk" as he grabs her lips. Master of distraction, that one, watch out, he's crafty!

Gus just makes the silliest faces all the time. He knows he should not be doing something and just cannot help himself, and does whatever he shouldn't be doing with the funniest smirk on his face it is so hard not to crack up.

Raleigh while working on our art project for the Fourth of July, starts markering up and down his arms, declaring, "I have tattoos just like Mr. Isaac." Our friendly neighbor friend who has lots of tats up and down his arms. Not one to fully squash artistic freedom, I let it go on for a while, I mean, it is washable marker after all!

Raleigh to Nonnie "Your bum is big." Nonnie, "no it is not." Raleigh, "Yeah it is, I just saw it." Nice.

My favorite thing Gus is saying right now, isn't really a funny one, but so sweet nonetheless - is he calls Willow, our cat, Willows. Our other cat is Checkers and I just think he thinks all cats should be pluralized.

In other non-funny talk, Gus still says "me" instead of "I" for all instances of the word. We have been reading lots of Aussie books recently preparing for our trip, and the book Koala Lou has a line, "Koala Lou, I do love you." And when Matthew tried to correct Gus to say "I do love you" instead of "me do love you" he started crying big crocodile tears saying he couldn't do it. Ah, buddy, it is okay, no worries! We don't correct it much, but it must have been something he realized he isn't saying right, and he was so sad. Heartbreaking stuff I tell you, for them and us! In other heartbreaking news, we were at an indoor jump area recently with a lot of twin friends, but Raleigh suddenly made friends with an older little girl who wanted Raleigh to chase her and find her all over this massive play space. Well, she decided she had enough and told him to leave her alone. I honestly don't know who had their heart broken more, Raleigh or me. He was in tears and wanted to be hugged and to leave, and I just ached watching him hurt. Unfortunately, it won't be his last heartbreak, but it is so hard to understand it at three, right?

Other things we have been up to:

Father's Day. That was rough, but after a rough week preparing for the worst feeling and dealing with the sadness of missing my own Dad, I think I was able to concentrate on Matthew's day as a Dad and the boys had a great time with him. We went out to brunch at Cheesecake Factory, and Raleigh impressed us again with his freakish memory when he looked at our waiter from the last trip as he walked by and said, "There's my friend Tim." Yes, he remembered that was our waiter from last time and he remembered his name. We do NOT go there that often, so that was crazy! The boys made some coffee mugs for Matthew inspired by spider webs, and had a great day overall. We also had an impromptu photo shoot when my morning client cancelled. I was happy to get some shots of my boys, so it all worked out nicely!

We had a trip to visit Grandpa Pickle's head stone with my brother and his family this week. It was sad, but I know my Dad was looking down so happy that all his grandsons were together. Raleigh found a feather at the headstone, and we have been telling them every time they find a feather it is from Grandpa Pickles and he is watching them and thinking of them.

The boys are now in really big boy beds. We opted for full sized beds that can be put up as bunk beds eventually. They are doing great in them and are so happy to have more room to stretch out! Seriously, they were almost squished into the toddler beds. Now, I still need to find the perfect comforters, but for now, they are happy to have new sheets and space to move. The rest will come!

We've been packing for our trip to see the Grandies in Oz soon. The boys are so excited for the big plane ride and seeing the Grandies and Auntie Peta. They can hardly stand it. I think the Grandies may be more excited though! I am super excited because it means lots of time with Matthew, too! We are headed to winter weather, so that will be a welcome break as well. See you all real soon :)

We have been laying low from play dates and such to hopefully keep the germies away before our trip. Fingers crossed. We have been around our buddy Little C, but so far so good on the plan to stay healthy! It has been a great time to just hang with the boys and do some new things around the house while staying relatively cool. I don't know what we are going to do without our trusty treasure chest of dress up clothes during our vacation. A few outfits will be tucked away last minute so they have something as a surprise! Their creativity astounds me daily, and I know Nanny & Poppy will be blown away, too. This morning we were playing with magnets and I only have one little magnetic board so I grabbed a few larger pans that the magnets would stick to, and then the magnets were cookies, and they needed hot pads so they were not burned, and they were finding things to be the oven and had the most fun taking things in and out of the oven, cooling them down, etc. After that we did some play doh inside with edible peanut butter play doh, and had even more fun. They used their train cookie cutters and only ate about half of the dough! We broke out the sprinkles and that was when it got really messy, but still so much fun. I was really happy I waited until today to mop the floors! Then we walked over to see a local high school band practicing their drum line in our neighborhood. Afterward, we played some more outside, including play doh, and more body art in the form of whiskers - both cat type and pirate type stubble! At lunch time they even sat right next to each other and were so happy together. It was refreshing, even though they don't fight that much and share really well for three year olds, it is always so nice to see them be lovey to each other. Ah! So much fun in so little time. Seriously, these boys do more before noon than some kids all week, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

Memorial Day and Memorial Day

2011-05-30T16:17:00.002-04:00

This memorial day is pressing me to be a bit reflective. After almost two months of just not being able to blog, I am going to give it a go. I feel it is a necessary thing for the boys, to write down the little things they have been doing since turning three that I don't want to forget. These past two months have been hard. Really hard. My father, aka Grandpa Pickles to the boys, passed away suddenly on April 8th. It was sudden, although his health has been an issue for many years, and we are truly thankful for the extra time we have had with him since he retired. My heart is hurt and missing a large piece now, but I am thankful that he passed so peacefully, and did not have to endure a long painful death. We are incredibly lucky to have had a special vacation with the whole family in Orlando, with my Dad, and my brother's family, too, just weeks before his passing. It was like he was waiting for that vacation and time with all of us before he finally just let his heart go. He was scheduled for a heart procedure this May, and we all knew he really did not want to endure it, and again, I think he just made his peace with it was his time to go, and let go.

Our lives were so impacted by my dad. He was hilarious, many times without even trying. I think of him calling someone a "gork" instead of a dork or a geek. Him yelling out the window to another driver, who was probably in his 80s, in the middle of Chicago rush hour traffic with all their windows down, to get the f*** off the road, yes, he said the real swear word often, but he was just so lovable saying it…Thinking of him makes me smile. I miss just going over to see him with the boys on days when we don't have plans, I think the most. He was so happy to feed the boys and me, and really anyone who needed a meal. Almost nothing made him happier. I cannot eat a bagel, chili or spaghetti without a little sadness now. We are trying to retell the tales of Grandpa Pickles to the boys every day. For almost two months that was nearly impossible. Now, it is our way of helping them remember the man who was so important and special to them. He was the one who visited Raleigh with Matthew, in the CVICU at All Children's Hospital; while my mom took care of Gus and me at the hospital 30 minutes away where I gave birth to the boys. It was Grandpa who had the lap to hold both boys while I took a much needed shower quickly, or just needed 15 minutes to myself on those crazy early days. It was he who always came over when the boys were sick just to help hold one or give a big hug and cuddle when the boys needed it most. He was the one with the towel ready to get the boys after a much needed bath at Nonnie &Pickle's house after an especially messy dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. He would sing to the boys the funniest ditties, and read anything and everything he could to them. He was not able to chase them much, but man, he had the best lap for the boys. I am sad the boys won't be able to learn about baseball, football, hockey, Nascar and politics from him. We hope Grandpa Pickle's brothers will get the chance to fill in though.

Lucky for my mom and I, Uncle Jerry and Auntie Mary were here when Pickle's passed away. I cannot imagine going through that without them. My mom and I drove the boys up to Green Bay for one of my dad's three memorial services. It was a bittersweet trip, one I had driven with my dad often. We had lots of family trips from Wisconsin to Florida and everywhere in between. My dad was also the one who picked me up from college when I decided to move to Florida during my junior year and drove a car that overheated more often than not, safely all the way down. The boys had a ball in Wisconsin with more family than they knew they had, and Illinois with Auntie Kristy, too. They have a new appreciation for dogs after spending time with Jerry & Mary's dog Sophie. The squeals of laughter helped break-up the sadness. The boys got to see snow! It was on the day of my dad's service and we all knew it was my dad's gift to the boys. They LOVED it! Snowball fights and eating as much snow as we would let them! Sadness creeps up on us all most days, but honestly, the boys have left little time to dwell on what we've lost. We laugh when Gus talks with his mouth full just like Grandpa, or when Raleigh wants a pickle. They occasionally reminisce on Grandpa, like when they tell us this is "grandpa's cheese" when eating a specific hard cheddar cheese. Telling two three year olds their special Grandpa passed away was rough. We did not know how to do it for a while, but Matthew had a family member who suggested telling the boys that Grandpa Pickles is now the brightest star in the sky watching over them, and it seems to have worked. They understand he is gone, and that we are sad. Shortly after telling the boys, Nonnie was over helping the boys in the bath, and Raleigh looked at her all seriously and asked her if she missed him. Wow, the insight these boys have is sort of frightening. I am not sure if most three year oldsNonnie, Gus, Rals, and me) totally broke down crying in sync. We had not had that kind of break-down since he passed. It was therapeutic in a way and very sad to see the boys so broken up. Now, there are more good moments of reflection than tears, but this blogging is a bit of the therapy I needed, too.

The day-to-day routine hasn't stopped, and neither have the boys. We've still been busy, and they continue to amaze us always. They are totally into fantasy play right now. Most mornings we cannot wake-up without being asked to help them put on pirate costumes, or Batman, Spiderman, or today, it was construction workers. Dad bought them some cowboy hats that basically only came off when were in public, coupled with their fire boots, of course!!! They are playing together more and although they are fiercely competitive (finishes eating first, walk up the stairs first, etc.), we are working on the concept of also looking out for each other in a brotherly way. They start school in a matter of months, and we want them to help provide some comfort for this new transition. They are happiest when they are leading. They want to walk first, or get to a ride first, or just show you the way somewhere. Matt and I are very proud of their instinctive leadership ability. Of course they are still the lovable little men they have always been. They are the first to give hugs to anyone willing and able. They see people at the park and immediately call them their friends. They think the world revolves around them and I still see that as a great thing. They are loved immensely by most who meet them, so how could they not think they are the center of the Universe? We have had a few times where they have said things that make me want to crawl under a mommy-sized rock. Today, Gus let us know that the man at the restaurant had a big bum, the other day, Raleigh was quick to point out a Southern-sized hair due on a well put together woman…look at that BIG hair Mommy. Yes, sweetie, I see that. Thankfully, they did not repeat it when she stopped to ask if the boys were twins a few minutes later. We've been asked that question more often lately, too. I think it is the hair. Gus' hair is growing out for now. They are still different, which is important to me, but he does not want to cut it, and I think having some choice is good too. At their three year check up, Gus was only 1/2 inch taller, but almost three pounds heavier. Gus weighed in at an even 33 pounds, and Raleigh was just over thirty (30.6 to be exact). Gus was 40 inches, Rals was 39.5. Amazingly, their cousin, Kaine, is already 37.5 inches and 35 lbs, and he is only 2. Hello Miami linebacker in the making!!! Speaking of cousins, my brother and his family are moving back to the area, which will be so nice for the boys to have more family in the immediate area. They adore Alexander in particular, and will love to have a cousin in Kaine who will likely keep them ALL in line! Hopefully having this initial post out will help me keep blogging. I want to remember all the little things that make me smile, turn my head around in disbelieve, and keep me going as a stay-at-home mom. I already don't remember all the little quirky things we've seen over the past two months. In other news, I have been inspired to do what I love now, and have kicked off my own photography business. If you have been a follower of this blog, you know how many pictures I have taken of the boys, and now with a SLR camera and time to devote to learning the craft, I have opened Hamilton Creek Photography. My web site is live, but I am still playing with it, so for now, I am on Facebook mostly. I have had a shoot almost weekly thus far and love every second of it. Matthew and I had a trip to Puerto Rico planned the weekend of my dad's death, so we rescheduled it and just got back last week. It was amazing, and a great way to celebrate 10 years of marriage despite the sadness of our loss. Next up is a trip to Australia for the whole family. We'll get that trip in before the boys start school in August. Big changes and lots of excitement abound.

What We’ve Been Up To

2011-03-22T21:55:00.001-04:00

We are in between computers right now, so trying to update the blog has been challenging. Thank goodness for Facebook and a family that is mostly online to check the occasional picture updates. That and two very active almost-three year olds, make it really hard. Luckily, we had the boys three year photos taken and the photographer, the talented Kerri Gagne, who has been taking the boys’ pictures since they were seven months old has blogged about their pictures. You know, the photographer who has photographed moments like these -

Pictures with all the Grandies Blogged

First Birthday Party Pictures

First Photo Shoot

She just blogged about the boys’ 3rd Birthday photo shoot at the beach.

Kerri Gagne Blog about GnR

It was kind of a crazy thing to do after we were basically housebound for over two weeks of sickness. The boys have had a ridiculously bad cough that kept them from two birthday parties among other activities, and vomiting up phlegm, and just being miserable for weeks. The photos were rescheduled among other things, but taking two boys to the beach for photos after being stuck inside was a bit nuts! Nonetheless, Kerri was able to capture their personalities and showcase their amazing blue eyes. I adore the picture of the boys in the lifeguard stand both clutching their sides in laughter. Gus was definitely more into getting pictures that day, so his smiles are a bit brighter, but both of them are just so darn amazing. We are truly blessed to have them in our lives and so thankful for all the moments we have shared so far. We have a few great adventures planned for this year, and cannot wait to see how they change and blossom. in the next three years.

The boys had an amazing birthday party early this year, this past weekend. We have had two years in a row of having so many kids to the park for a party, and this year we tried to keep it more low key by having it at our house. This meant a smaller party with less friends, which sucked in a way to have people we could not invite, but it was also great to really enjoy the party with the people we spend a lot of time with, too. The boys had a ball. We did too. Here is a video I put together of the event. Put your music on, it adds to my tear-age

They are growing up so fast. Every day they say more, communicate more like little people rather than toddlers, and it is mind blowing, really mind blowing. One of the things I say every now and again when I am having my not-the-best mommy moment, is “am I talking to a wall?” Well, today, after saying something to the boys in that nature, Gus turned to the lifeguard stand, clearly a wall and yells “Hey, I’m talking to you.” And then looks to me and says “Mommy, I’m talking to the wall, am I talking to the wall?” Then starts chanting or singing, “I funny man, I funny man.” Ugh, yup, you sure are Gus. Boy! Kind of sucks to have super smart kids, doesn’t it?

The other exciting adventure I have been on more so than the boys, is playing with my new DSLR. Of course, if you know me, you know I love to take pictures. I have been using basic point and shoot cameras for years and I asked Matty for a real camera for our 10 year anniversary. Yes, 10 years! I love the camera and am learning so much and am having a great time really working on getting better at taking real pictures. So far, we’ve been to the beach a few times and I have had a ball taking pics at the boys’ party, and I look forward to doing more soon.

Multiples and More Blog - Two great posts!

2011-02-21T15:21:00.001-05:00

I have to link to two really good posts on the Multiples and More Blog from this week.

First, this blog post about the super-mom interaction from one Mother of Multiples (MoM) and another MoM at the gym. If you are a MoM and have ever had one of those days, this is a great read. It is hilarious and I know I have said one or two of these things more than once;)

My favorite lines were these.

MoM - Yeah, but as long as we make it through the day, right?

Super MoM - Oh, yes...and if you can make it without hitting up the Jack Daniels, you're especially lucky!

The second post is about twins and not calling them twins. I rarely call the boys "twins," instead I call them the boys, or by their names. I really cringe when people refer to them as twins, but I understand it, they are twins, it is pretty freaking cool and amazing, but they are so different, that I want people to know them as Augustus, and Raleigh, not augustusandraleigh, or "the twins." This is especially true as we foray into the world of preschool very soon! It is hard enough for adults to understand they are two, seperate human beings, let alone three year olds trying to comprehend this. Thanks to Kristen of Intrepid Murmurings for sharing your perspective.

Lastly, we entered the boys into the monthly Photo of the Month contest on the Multiples and More blog. It is not for fabulous prizes, but rather to show off their cuteness, and you know I am all about that! They did not get the boys in the poll right away, so I think the results are skewed;) However, we are now on the poll, so if you have time and want to vote, click

here.

Why I Love These Boys!

2011-02-17T15:51:00.001-05:00

I know, if you read this enough, you are probably sick of me telling you how much I love these kids, but seriously, they are awesome. I love this age! Not every second of every day, but they are amazing!!!

Just today, I heard them tell each other they loved each other, both of them asked each other for kisses at random times of the day, they constantly tell us they love us…and no, not only when they want to wrap us around their fingers even more! Here are a few of my favorite loving moments shots of the boys, including Valentine’s Day photos, which was ridiculously special this year with how the boys can understand the holiday and the sentiments, and also communicate with us.

Spidey and Batman kissing…yes, it is February

And no, not every picture is great, sometimes they are over my incessant picture taking…case in point, here, neither of them would look at me! I still love their little smirks and looks, though!

Unfortunately, right after Valentine’s Day, Augustus started with a bad cough that was just impacting his sleep too much, so I took him to the doctor only to find out he has an ear infection. Only his second one in almost three years, so I cannot complain. I know I had an ear surgery by that point and was on amoxicillin more times than my parents could count. Last night was rough for sleep again, but hopefully he will make the turn quickly. We have a birthday party on Saturday that we would love to go to. The shirts in the picture of the boys with the amazing roses Matthew sent me are hand made by the boys. They should be a heart, but I put their hands the wrong way. They look more heart like if you use the palm s for the top of the heart and connect their fingers downward for the point of the heart, but heck, this way we can see their handprints better. We made them at a play date for our moms’ group and had a great play date with all the kids just getting along brilliantly. If this is what 3 is going to be like, bring it on!!!

In case you missed this video, it is one of my fave’s ever!!! Just click on the hyperlink below.

Riding Bikes

In other updates, we have been to the zoo with our besties, and other friends who shall remain nameless, but are so crushing on tour “older” boys. We hit up our neighborhood school’s local ho down for their fundraiser, and the boys had a blast. They were most fond of the fishing game and not the bounce house which surprised us. I just finished ordering the boys birthday invitations yesterday. This will be our first real hard copy invites as the last few years we had big parties and used evites, but I am so happy with the invitations…I cannot wait to get them and send them out. If anyone needs a code for Tiny Prints I have two – TPFriend will give you 10% off any order, and WELCOME for 15% off orders of $49 (free shipping right now for orders over $45, too).

Gus looking for a “needle” in the hay stack with his pants on the grounds

This one is for Mr. Jim and Ms. Kim…look out, Gus has his eye on Miss J. He literally held her hand for 15 minutes straight! all over Busch Gardens!

The biggest news may be that we decided upon a preschool for the boys and they were just formally accepted. They are only going to start part-time, to ease us all in, and heck, they are only just going to be three. They had a trial day, or really an evaluation by the school on the boys, and let’s just say they passed with flying colors. The director wanted the boys to start immediately, even though their program does not start until 3 years of age. We are holding off until fall though to give them some time to enjoy being free to do all the fun stuff we are doing all the time, and prepare us parents little more. It is a Montessori school, so if anyone has any experiences with them, feel free to leave me a comment!

Here is a shot of the boys before they went to school. They were excited to say the least! When we got back that is all they talked about and are so sad that they have to wait. The funny thing is that their uniform colors will be green and red too! We know it will be Raleigh in Red and Gus in green, just like always!

Funny things out of their mouths lately include -

Today, while holding his stethoscope, Gus asked where his heart was, and I pointed to his chest. He said “under here” while lifting his shirt and I said, “yes, underneath your skin.” He then looked at me confused and proceeded to put his fingers…all of them into my mouth. When I asked what he was doing, he said matter of factly, “getting to your heart.”

Raleigh saw my new pink bra hanging on the door and said “I love your pink boobies.” Hopefully soon he will figure out that a bra is not really boobies…a few weeks earlier they were in a department store, and in the little girls section when they spotted the training bras they both started yelling “little boobies!”

Gus now says “maybe no” anytime he does not want to do something. “Gus, do you want to go potty?” or “Time to get out of the shower.” Is met with the sweetest, “Maybe no.”

Developmentally, they are both singing their ABC’s finally! Memorization is not their strongest suit right now, so that is huge for them. It is adorable to hear them sing it together, they usually pause and let one sing some of it, then pause again and let the other one sing for a while. They are both singing more songs in general too. Raleigh keeps asking “what is it” when he sees something he does not understand. We are trying to work on more descriptors, because “it” can be hard to determine. They are still obsessed with their penises, not touching, or any more than most 2 year olds touch them I suppose, but talking about them…I hope they stop before school. I don’t want a write up about how they told some kid how their penis is really big. Oy!

I Have an Idea and Other Musings

2011-01-30T14:54:00.001-05:00

The boys kill me with what they say most days, and my favorite thing out of their mouths lately has to be when they say “I have an idea.” (Actually it is usually “me have an idea,” or “here’s an idea,” since they still only use the pronoun ‘I’ sparingly). They will say it in the correct context, too. You never know what the idea will be. It can be, an idea to have a “muff” cake, or build a fort, you name it. It is adorable!!!! Today they were playing outside, yes, we are thoroughly enjoying the seventies again, and Gus was on his “motorcycle” or big wheel, and Raleigh was sitting on the porch watching him. Rals asked if this was a parade, and then yelled “beads!!!” Love it. They are so Tampa! Gasparilla veterans since they were nine months old will do that, I suppose. Speaking of Gasparilla, here are a few shots of the big Children’s Gasparilla Extravaganza from last weekend. We did the preschooler’s stroll for the first time. It fell during nap time, but we survived. They were extremely tired afterward, but still, we had a ball with our Mothers of Multiples friends who helped walk with us.

The boys giving their friends E & S a kiss during the parade, needless to say, the crowd loved them!!!

We had gotten into the spirit the night before by reading a new Mem Fox book sent to us courtesy of the boys’ great-Aunt Julianne, and great-Uncle Tony. Boris the Pirate is a bit scary, but it certainly set the mood for us!

Here is a look back at the two previous Gasparillas. Of course, you can click on the tag “Gasparilla” and see much more from year’s past. Enjoy!!!

First Gasparilla 2009

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Second Gasparilla 2010

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The boys are still doing really well with their alphabet recognition. Raleigh has caught up to Augustus and although, he doesn’t want to play with the magnet letters like Gus, he will point out letters when we are reading books. And they are still really into reading. Their favorite book right now is The Polar Express. Not sure if they are just missing Christmas, or just love the story. If we read a a book right before bedtime, they wake up and immediately ask for the same book again. Their memories still freak us out. They seriously never forget. However, if you ask them what they did today, sometimes they just start making up these elaborate stories…hmm, reminds me of a certain Uncle the boys have named Tommy! If you ask them what they want to do today, Augustus will nine times out of 10 say he wants to go to Sea World. I guess we need to start planning a return trip soon. They have really enjoyed watching some football games with me this year. The Packers are really the only team I will watch, being from Green Bay and all, so we don’t get all their games televised, but of course, with them going to the SUPER BOWL this year, we’ve watched the play-off games together, and the love it. Yay! Since Matty rarely watches it with me, it is nice to have some company.

In other news, the boys Nonnie turned 60 this last week. It killed us with the planning, but we were able to keep her party a secret!!! I really don’t think she had a clue. We had a “Sweet 60” party complete with her favorite Hello Kitty decorations and all pink. Everyone wore pink to the party (well, two guys wore more maroon, but other than that, all pink). My mom had to do a change into pink half way through the party, but we got everyone into pink. The boys were so excited and never spilled the beans. They did go to bed at 7 with some tears, but they did fall asleep soundly despite the ruckus downstairs! They were kind enough to let us sleep in until 7:30 as well. After going to the Green Iguana after the party, I was grateful! Happy Birthday to my amazing Mom! 60 is just a number because you surely don’t act your age, and I mean that in the best possible way! Thank you for teaching me to stay young at heart and having so much fun with the boys all the time!!!! Love you!!!

This is the CAKE! Can you believe it???!!?? I did not get a great picture of it before we cut it…but believe me, it was amazing! Thanks Eli for taking care of the cake, I could never have picked a better cake!!!

Lastly, Eli also had personalized M&Ms made for the event, they say “Sweet 60th” on them and have champagne glasses. Cute. It was sad that so many of my mom’s best friends and family live so far away and could not make it to the party, but it was great to see her so loved by all her friends in Florida. She is truly a special woman!

Where Does the Time Go?

2011-01-12T20:32:00.001-05:00

Boys making their Grandies and Auntie special shirts! Peta was gracious enough to model it before leaving…and help me basically scrape off the puffy paint after we were done. Two words, rubber – gloves – for the next time I get creative with non-washable paint!!! We were excited to see Poppy in his special shirt tonight when we Skyped!

Wow, looking back on the past few months I have been lax on blogging. Time flies when you are having fun, I guess. We’ve certainly have been busy. Auntie Peta finally made it home after a long flight turned into an even longer flight when her initial flight from TIA was delayed and thus caused her to miss her flight in Guam back home. Ugh. She really got back luck on the way back, but finally got back to Oz, and her luggage made it a few days later…and she spent New Year’s Eve on the plane!

The boys have been busy, and sick, and trying to get back into the swing of things not having Auntie Peta around to play with 24/7. Instead of the mundane musings about the day-to-day stuff, I need to do a write up of our “favorite things” or at least some of the funny stuff coming out of these boys’ mouths lately. Time really is flying, the boys are growing up so quickly. In a few months they will be turning three, heading to preschool and I am sure making us laugh and cry with the new things they will come up, this dynamic duo they are.

Raleigh is continuing to be a real comedian. He really does enjoy a good poo joke, and still loves to talk about his penis, but poo poo is the newest funny maker for him, yes, him, I tend not to laugh about poo. However, yesterday when he informed me that his poopy looked like a pineapple, complete with the “pokeys” on time, I had to laugh. Gus is a poopy inspector as well, he impressed me when he said his dootie looked like a “U.” Sure enough, I had to check it out as well, and it looked like a GIANT U! Today, he said his looked like a manatee, so, yes, poop jokes are alive and well in the Hamilton household.

Augustus is really into his letters. Or “word building” in the spirit of Word World. He is able to recognize and point out many letters, A, R, U, X, M, B, O and C. They are not into repeating the A, B, C, D song, so I’ll take it. Better to know them rather than repeat a song, right? Raleigh is not really into it yet, so I am not pushing it. He does know the “R” for Raleigh and “X” for x marks the spot, like a pirate! Raleigh is like Daddy and about the numbers and has been able to count to 10 for almost a year now. Gus, well, he always starts with two, then one, then five, and has the 7, 8, 9 down. He is great to listen to when playing hide-and-go-seek! Which, by the way, they love to play, and always hide in the same place during each and every “game.” Usually under the blanket on the couch. Hilarious, and they just giggle each and every time they “find” each other!

Here is a shot of the boys after completing their alphabet train puzzle from “Auntie” Kristy! The LOVE it!!!

After a little over two months of really, really, really pushing limits at bedtime and nap time, we seemed to have gotten back into a routine that is less stressful on the parents, for now. I know, each phase is short lived and can be fleeting. We have started to lay off the time-outs and are focusing on consequences they understand and can articulate back to us. The most helpful of consequences is to take away one toy at a time after giving them choices to do the right thing, or make a “good choice” instead of a “bad choice.” It is great to hear them tell us what happens if they make a good choice, and vice versa. The time-outs are usually used now when we need an immediate break in action; i.e. they are getting on each others nerves and pestering the heck out of each others as brothers tend to do, or not listening in a more dangerous situation (i.e. running away and not listening to stop). Keeping your cool when they are testing you is hard stuff. How do you moms do it all the time? We have some great friends with the calmest moms ever, and I just look at them in awe! My goal this year is to enjoy every moment with these little guys and raise my voice less. Pretty soon they will be in school part-time, then full-time and not so willing to give me a kiss all the time and call me “princess” and tell me they love me or answer that they love me, too, or love me more…heart breaking stuff. I am trying not to sweat the small stuff, while still help instill the things they need to be the awesome little men that they are.

Bikes. We now have big boys bikes. They are only 12 inches high, but they are real big boy bikes with helmets and all. The boys love them, but are not too sturdy on them yet, so we are trying to keep them to the tricycles and big wheels for now. However, Raleigh is almost a pro at his three wheeled scooter that was handed down to them. Seriously, the kid’s got skills!

Yes, Gus’ helmet is on backwards. don’t ask.

In other funnies, today, words out of their mouth -

- “Mom, I am going to screw you” as Rals took a screwdriver to my leg. Thanks, bud, that is so inappropriate on so many levels

- “I’m gonna be easy, Mommy.” as Raleigh took a hammer to his bench. Meaning, I am going to take it easy, not pound the living crap out of this thing.

- “Get out of my kitchen.” Raleigh to me as we were playing chef and I tried to enjoy my chocolate cake and “muff” cakes the boys made me. Huh, do you think they know they cannot be in the kitchen when I am cooking? Bite me in the bum that tone did!

- So not out of the mouth, but a great impersonation of me as Gus put the pretend cell phone to his ear and held it in his shoulder, and put his finger to his mouth when Raleigh tried to talk. Just a silent shush and a great “mom” look.

- “What, what, what, what, what, you doing?” From Augustus’ mouth any time he clearly wants to know what you are doing. It is the funniest thing. And the only time his adorable little stutter comes out.

- Me – “that’s mommy juice” when the boys asked what was in my wine cup. Gus “No, that’s “Peta juice.” Ha, brilliant, yup, that’s right Gus, that is Peta (auntie) juice!

I know that I am missing a million other of the little things, but I hope the boys can read this stuff one day and laugh as much as I do on a daily basis. Yes, even when I feel like I am talking to two brick walls who would rather ignore me than look me in the eye and answer a question – the joys of almost three year olds, right? All in all, they are just awesome, crazy kids. The crazy I will take. I soooooooooooooo know where they get it from…

A glimpse into our future…

Merry Christmas

2010-12-26T11:09:00.002-05:00

It has been a whirlwind experience getting ready for Christmas and celebrating it this year. I cannot believe Matthew and I were still shopping on Christmas Eve day. Seriously? Matthew took the reigns on wrapping this year, for which I was thankful. I hate wrapping, but I love to watch people open their presents. This year was extra special having Auntie Peta with us, but not having Nannie and Poppy here to fully appreciate the excitement and knowing the boys will never be two again at Christmas was bittersweet. What a perfect age for the excitement of Christmas!

The beginning of the week was a quick trip back to Orlando to enjoy Sea World at night with Nonnie, and then the Magic Kingdom again, and then Sea World one more time before Peta leaves. It was a great little vacation with Nonnie, Papa Pickles and Auntie Peta. The boys were awesome travelers once again, especially when it was so cold and we spent some long hours out and about. We also celebrated a little Christmas with twin friends and that was extra special, too. How lucky are we to have found such wonderful MoMs and their wonderful children? I know how much happier I am with all of them in my life. Then, one last trip to Busch Gardens with Peta, too, and a last visit with Santa as well. The boys loved climbing all over Busch Gardens, but Raleigh got a little over whelmed in the Sesame Street tree house, but he survived and everyone still had lots of fun. Raleigh went on the roller coaster with Peta, but Gus decided he didn’t really want to go, so we had fun watching them roll around instead. Than, we went driving around looking at Christmas lights the night before Christmas Eve and although it took the boys a while to figure out what we meant by just looking at lights, they did finally get it. Whew, I thought I was going to have to jump out of the car if Raleigh asked “where we going?” one more time! The little monkey was adamant that it was fully appropriate to say “Happy Halloween” the entire time we were looking at Christmas lights as well. I guess he has quite the affinity for Halloween!!! Other little jewels from our sons’ mouths included a segment about how Raleigh’s penis was big, and of course, according to Gus, Santa himself was singing every Christmas song that we heard on the radio. How precious?

We were having a lovely time Christmas Eve opening presents and watching the boys play with all their awesome new toys (mostly diggers/tools/fire trucks/and musical instruments), but when we finally got the boys to sit down for dinner, Gus told us his tummy hurt and proceeded to puke all over the table. Joys of the holiday. My good friend Jennifer has always told me it is not a holiday until someone pukes. As a mother of three, she is so right!! Besides the throwing up, both boys were acting as happy as clams. Gus moved into real big boy territory though, because he was able to tell us his tummy hurt from that point on, and walk himself over the the toilet, step up on his step stool and vomit into the toilet himself. Wow, that is another sign they are growing up, right? Raleigh was fine and ate a full dinner, so we thought, maybe it was just too much excitement, but alas, no, we heard Rals throw up in bed around 2:30 am. That was his only vomit incident, but both boys are not eating and are pretty lethargic. Although, yesterday, it was nice enough to get outside, so we did get a few walks and rides in the neighborhood in and you would have never guessed they were sick.

Here is a little slide show of our holidays. For those of you reading this blob, thank you. I hope you enjoy a glimpse into what the boys are up to, and the crazy things they come up with all the time. We all hope you had a magical holiday season, and and even better New Year!

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Auntie Peta Arrives!

2010-12-11T11:01:00.001-05:00

Well, it has been a few weeks already, but we’ve been having so much fun, we really have not had time to blog. Auntie Peta got here just after Thanksgiving and we’ve had a great time with her, and Daddy even got a week off for us to explore a bit of Florida with her, too. Here are a few highlights in photos. The boys are enjoying jumping all over Peta…although I think she’s learned that they are a heck of a lot heavier than they were the last time she visited a year ago.

Click HERE for last Thanksgiving.

Here’s a quick view of our ride to the North Pole on the Polar Express – how fun, but how cold???!!!??? The boys also got to play on some bouncy houses, their newest obsession!

"Polar Express and Snow Fest"

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Here are a few photos of the boys’ first trip to the Magic Kingdom, thanks mostly in part to another free pass from Miss Stacy – you rock!!! The boys did great for being there all day…we even slipped over to Epcot for a few hours, and their favorite part of the day was the Spaceship Earth ride. Being a Space Camp alum, I LOVED that they were hooked on space, too!!!! The fireworks were not their fave, but we all loved the view of the castle in lights with fireworks overhead. We are still kids, after all!

Disney Magic Kingdom 1st Visit for Boys

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While Auntie Peta, Daddy and Gus were shopping, Raleigh and I stepped out for fresh air – hello claustrophobia! The dance competition in Downtown Disney was just beginning, and here was the result…enjoy the videos. Yes, Raleigh won, of course!

Raleigh shakes it.

Wait…they’re clapping for ME???!!!???!!!

Santa at Busch, complete with zebra pants and leopard trip coat…two trips, and neither resulted in much smiling. Still adorable

In other news, we have the boys in their first pair of 3T pants. The 2T jeans from last year are just too short, especially on Gus man. Thankfully, Nannie and Poppy sent some Uggs, so we can hide the short pants in the boots, but today, they are styling some great pants that actually go past their ankles. They are HUGE in the waist, even with an adjustable waist, but they’ll do. Gus has officially jumped a shoe size. He is now measuring an 8.5; whereas, in August, he was still in size 7. Raleigh, he is at a 7.5, but I know he is about to sprout up too! They are both tall enough to ride the roller coaster at Busch Gardens in the Elmo section, and they have done so a few times already with Auntie!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-11-27T15:27:00.001-05:00

Another amazing year of ups and downs, but we are always thankful for the people in our lives who help keep the ups way higher than the downs. The boys just continue to amaze us, and we feel truly thankful for them every day! For me personally, I am ever so thankful for my husband. He is the constant care giver for our family in more ways that just earning the moola! Raleigh had an awful fall on Wednesday, and as I called to let him know we were on our way to the ER, he was so quick to say he would meet us there. I cannot tell you how much I feel his support unconditionally. Additionally, it was great to have even more supporters when I was able to leave Gus with our neighbor and friend, Miss A, so I could go with only one two and a half year old! Truly thankful for her kindness!!! My mom of course was also there in a blink of an eye, her selflessness this year is beyond amazing. Seriously, this week alone she got my car washed, and scrubbed my awful cream colored sink that is my nemesis, and of course cooked a delicious turkey yet again this year. Of course, my dad is always there too, making us ridiculously amazing food on a almost daily basis. Some days I think I may starve without him! We are thankful that we got to spend another birthday on Thanksgiving with the big guy, especially after a hard year dealing with so many heart issues. We are thankful that Auntie Peta is joining us next week for the entire month. The boys even get to spend Christmas with her! What a treat. Sadly, the grandies are not joining her this year, but we are thankful that we get to see them soon in the new year. I am so thankful for the friends who have come into our lives just because we had twins! How lucky to have joined a spectacular group of women and moms that my kids can enjoy time with their kiddos, but I really benefit from their friendships most. I am thankful that my best friend in the whole world is still my best friend after 30 years and I even get to see her once and a while despite our different states of residence. Simple things I am thankful for, include, nap time, wine, great books, time to read, music, time to listen to my music loudly, mom’s night out, and not having to work (well outside of the home that is). I could go on and on and on and on!

We were even more blessed this year with a change in plans the day after Thanksgiving to meet our friend Miss Stacey yet again for free entry into Disney. We even got to see Stacey’s mom, whom I have not seen in probably 18 years. We hit Animal Kingdom, and although it was busy and we got rained on before the parade, we all still had fun. It was great to enjoy the park with Daddy and the boys. We got to spend a lot more time in the dinosaur area of the park, and I have to say, it is really cool. I still think Busch Gardens blows away all other zoos and animal parks in regards to animal proximity, but this has the coolness factor of Disney, so it was still great. The animal sightings on the Kilimanjaro Safari experience was spectacular! The weather was slightly cooler than our last trip, and it was overcast, so a ton of animals were just chilling in the savannah. Amazing.

Back to Raleigh’s fall. He fell up the stairs in our backyard. Miss A and I were on the porch, just opposite of where he fell, and heard him hit the cement and I was truly thankful he did not hit is head anywhere except his chin because I think he may have knocked himself out. Unfortunately, he hit his chin just right so he left himself with a pretty big gash. I knew as soon as I saw it he would need stiches. So off to the ER we headed where bravely endured the three stitches along his chin. Now he has matching scars to Poppy, me, and about 50% of the population who fell on their chins at about 2 years of age! It was more painful on me…I think. He did not cry to badly, and even slept like a champion that night and ever since. He really hates getting his Band-Aid changed, but even that is getting to be less stress on him. I cannot tell you how painful it was to help hold him down while they put in the stitches. It took two other nurses to hold him down, on top of him being completely swaddled in a bed sheet. Whew! He is strong little bugger. His pain tolerance is amazingly high; probably stemming from his time in the CVICU.

Here is a picture from the day after the fall. Looking good. It is just now getting to the point of being itchy, so we hope it is not too bad before he goes to get them removed on Wednesday this next week.

Here are a few pictures from Thanksgiving – love the shirts the boys did themselves for the occasion – and Disney. If you are reading this, just know how thankful I am, it makes me super happy! What makes me even happier is a comment or two every once and a while…Enjoy!

the next two picture are pretty indicative of how much the boys don’t want to take pictures right now! They may smile, but mostly don’t want to look at the camera! Oye, I thought I had them trained;-P

Here is a piece of sweetness. My favorite part of Thanksgiving happened during this picture taking. Matthew and I had just kissed and Gus looked at me, then looked at Matthew and said “Daddy loves you too, Mommy.” Then he reached over and planted one on Rals. Ah, at least we are doing well at “training” them to be sweethearts! What good men they will be some day!

Snakes, meanwhile, Daddy was standing a good 20 feet away, not these boys, they just went up and petted them!

Those were a few of my favorite shots, but here is a cute slideshow of us and the “manimals”

Where We Are & What we’ve Been Doing

2010-11-21T15:52:00.001-05:00

First, I have to say, my awesome, smart, great hubby fixed the picture disaster and now we have everything restored and now we are currently working on backing everything up!

The boys are continuing to amaze us every day. It is not all roses, mind you, but in the bigger picture, they are truly amazing little boys. How awesome is it that they have built in play mates and a brother to challenge them, play with, love on, and talk to whenever they want to? They are really into being like Daddy right now. Gus loves it when I put his Daddy’s hair fudge in his hair and every time, he looks in the mirror admiring himself and saying how much he looks just like Daddy. Augustus also is quite the mama’s boy right now, too. He just comes up to me and gives me big kisses and hugs so hard that he basically jumps on me any time he sees me after a brief detachment (i.e. after I go to the bathroom). He also say “I love my mommy” ALL the time. Life is good, right? The boys are getting more affectionate with each other, telling each other they love them and giving hugs and kisses in between the occasional hit, or toy swipe.

Raleigh continues to astound us with his recall ability, in particular with direction, but it applies to everything. Both boys were read new library books yesterday, and were able to retell Daddy and Nonnie what I had described to them. This book was all about tractors and was not so much a story, but pictures with descriptions of what the tractors could do. One tractor was hauling manure, so I described that, including what manure was, and why it was useful and both boys were able to retell about the manure tractor in their own ways. Wow, development again at its best! Daddy found a cool show for the boys on PBS that he set up to DVR daily. It is called Word World. If you have not seen it, the characters are letters that together make up the word and it still looks like what it is spelling out. Here is a link so you can see what I mean. http://www.wordworld.com/ I think this shot is from an episode Daddy and Rals were watching so sweetly together.

The boys watched a particular episode with fire trucks in it and seriously, one time and the boys remember every thing about it. They constantly spout off that “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” That leads in to their seriously wicked imaginations. They not only drag their mini-fire trucks around everywhere pretending to climb the ladder, save the day, and yell “fire rescue,” they also spot fires out when we are driving and talk about saving the day and how to spray fire hoses and use extinguishers. Wow! GnR are so excited for Christmas! They say “Merry Mis-mass” all the time when they see decorated Christmas trees, and yell out when they spot a “ho ho man,” aka, Santa Claus. We have already gotten to see Santa Claus at Sea World as you saw in the last post, but soon enough we are going to ride to the North Pole with Nonnie, Auntie Peta and Daddy, too. I cannot wait to see how excited they are that day. Of course we need to celebrate Thanksgiving first, but they are not really understanding the concept yet. Hopefully they will soon. Of course, Grandpa Pickle’s birthday is the same day, so we’ll be celebrating that the same day…so they probably won’t really fully understand until next year.

We visited a fire station yesterday as part of our multiples group. The boys had fun, and were happy to volunteer to go first for every thing the firefighters let the do. They were really good about waiting their turns, too. Yes, the first shot looks like I took a pee right before they snapped the picture, but good news, is that it was just from the fire hoses the kids got to play with!

Ever the busy social calendar, here the boys had fun at their friend Hannah’s birthday party – where they got in touch with their feminine side and rode her pink scooter!

They also helped Daddy try to fix the sod yet again.

Here is a picture of the boys at the big boy table for dinner celebrating Pickles birthday a little early while his mom came to visit. Yup, the boys got to meet their first great-grandparent, Gigi Miriam who visited from Green Bay.

We’ve enjoyed Busch Gardens some more, too.

Gus chatted with Nannie in the car.

The boys celebrated Veteran’s Day in great style.

We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving this week! I know we have a lot to be thankful for and I am working on remembering that when things are going completely nutso during those long days! We cannot wait to see Auntie Peta next week, too! Good luck on exams, Pete! The boys will see you next Monday morning!

Photo Disaster

2010-11-18T14:52:00.002-05:00

Well, we’ve been MIA in blogging mainly to do my BFF visiting with her eldest daughter and our travels around Orlando keeping us very busy, and then the sickies invaded the entire Hamilton household…even Nonnie managed to catch it. Yuck! The boys have been fine for about a week now, so we are hoping that first cold was the worst of it for Winter.

Back to the disaster. This week when I tried to put a cd together of my friend’s twinkies birthday party pictures, I noticed I could not get any pictures off of the server. Yes, it takes an entire server to store all my pictures. I thought nothing of it, went on with my busy week, but then I tried to do a little catching up last night and was still unable to get to the server. Low and behold, after Matthew tried without success, he called HP and they said, well, the server is just a computer without a monitor, and it sounds like the hard drive crashed. Huh? What? Excuse me? Of course we were devastated at the news, but Matthew has been able to take a few files off the server and put them on our computer, so I am hoping he can salvage most of them…although it is very time consuming and he was up past midnight last night trying to work on it. Fingers crossed he or some other professional can work their magic to restore the files. I will be looking into Mozy storage immediately, but if anyone else has any suggestions of where they store their data, I would love to hear it!!!

Disney was awesome. My BFF since I was two and I met up with another “old” friend who lived on our most awesome street as a kid. We were able to bum our way into Epcot and the Magic Kingdom for free. I was so sad to hear that the boys, Matty and my mom could not meet us on the Sunday of the trip because of their awful coughs, but we still had fun. It was ridiculously cold that weekend, so that was a little bit of a downer, especially with how ridiculously beautiful it has been, but we managed to stay warm. I know the boys would have loved, loved, all the princesses Annie got to see that day. Here are a couple of cute pics…stolen from FB. I am thankful I found time to upload a few pictures after our trip…really, really, really hoping I can get them all back from the server, sniff, sniff.

We’ve been at a lot of play dates this week to make up for lost time during our sickies. My favorite one was the super hero play date. My awesome friend Sara got an idea from another web site where you create a cape for the kids to decorate out of an old t-shirt. I think the parents t’s worked great since they had a bit of length, but even an old, dirty, stained one of theirs that still fits around their noggins would work as well. You just cut on one side of a seam if your shirt has one to help it not completely fray up, and then cut the sleeves off and around the neckline to maintain the cape, and voila, super hero cape extraordinaire!!! You can even use the sleeves to make a mask!

Yesterday we spent the most beautiful weather day at Sea World. It is crazy to me to be wearing a tank top, shorts and flip flops in the middle of November. The boys were really good for the most part…no real disasters of running off, talking back, or throwing any tantrums – it seems they save those for days we stick close to home – so it was even more enjoyable for all of us. The dolphin area of Sea World, not even the amazing Horizons show, just the feeding area and underwater viewing area, are just too amazing. Not to mention that their artic area now hosts a Polar Express experience; which is super cool since that is the boys favorite movie. It was the first one they watched, and couple that with trains, and the idea of Christmas, and they are sold. They got to talk to Santa. Both were eager to let him know they wanted a big digger and a fire truck. However, when we went to stand next to the big version of the actual Polar Express train, the boys were timid and scared – something I was not sure they boys possessed. I think the next time we visit, of course we’ll be going again and again, they will be more sure of it. This was the last thing we did before departing, so they were over-tired by that point in the day. Nonetheless, what an extraordinary experience for these boys. They have seen the Shamu show more times that I had ever before, and they are not even three yet. They love it and I cannot wait to see them grow to appreciate it more and more. The pictures of the dolphins are cool, the top ones are of a dolphin before feeding time. He/she was using a leaf to play catch right next to the viewing area. So playful and adorable!!!

One of my favorite shots ever!

Rals, super excited to touch the ice in the artic area where they visited Santa.

Raleigh whispers to Shamu Santa that he wants a digger…

Rals entranced at the Shamu show

In other news, we are so happy that our friends Heath & Jane welcomed another healthy, beautiful girl in Sydney. Happy birth day Siena! Well wishes to two of my friends who are not feeling their best, Miss A and Miss N. I hate to see you girls in pain – get well soon!!!

Happy Halloween!!!

2010-10-31T22:04:00.001-04:00

The big day has finally arrived. Now that is over, I am so happy. Whew, this whirlwind weekend has been nuts. We’ve been busy. Even busier than usual. It did not help planning a Halloween party for about 35 families this weekend. Then another birthday party today and squeezing in naps and trick-or-treating in, too. We had a great afternoon grilling out with our neighbors/friends and their little boys. Nonnie was here to help out and lead on the crew during the trick-or-treating. The dads held down the fort at the houses while we searched for booty. The boys were pirates for Halloween. We really have been playing it by ear for the final day, depending mostly on weather. It was hot, so Spidey and Batman were out – the masks were too much – and the “po po” and fireman were worn the night before at the block party, so pirates seemed best. Plus, our friends were all being pirates, so it worked out perfectly. Four little scallywags running the ‘hood searching for loot…precious!

The block party the night before was cool for the boys. They had a bouncy house to rock in (princess theme no less) and lots of older women to harass. We were exhausted, so we were ready to have an early night. Rals, on the other hand, did not feel that same vibe. He fell asleep around 9:30! Tonight, they were out just after 8pm. Tomorrow is a low key, chill out day for sure! Our birthday party for the princesses was great. The boys were actually pretty low key themselves, so they were easy to watch and I was able to try to relax myself. We got a really good compliment that the boys seemed much older because of their social skills and sharing abilities. Yup, they are social – no doubt about it! Friendly and always wanting attention from whoever throws it their way. Rals and Gus tonight had no problem knocking on doors and asking for candy At one point, I thought Raleigh was going to hug a lady as she opened the door. He started singing “candy, candy, candy” in a real sing-song voice and was hilarious to watch and listen to. He even started kissing his candy before he put it in his bucket. What a trip!

Here the boys are trying out their broomsticks. The found a hat left over from the party. I said I was a good witch while I tried it on, and Rals was quick to point out that I was a “sassy witch.” Hmm…not sure what to think of that!

Check out Rals’ expressions in the next two – SHEER JOY!!!

The night before pics!

Daddy actually smiling! Wow!! We were on a hay ride…aka, hay thrown in a trailer attached to an SUV. The boys had fun, the pre-teen girls on the ride were singing Taylor Swift, and it reminded me of my youth singing Debbie Gibson, then they started singing “California Girls” by Katy Perry, and Matt and I both looked at each other and thanked our lucky stars we had boys at that very moment!!!

this morning, Skyping with Nannie
& Poppy!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-30T17:23:00.001-04:00

Today we’ve hit the multiples club Halloween party and we are about to go to our own block party. Tomorrow it is a princesses 3rd birthday party and then of course, the piece de resistance, trick-or-treating! Here are a few cute pictures of our week. I was able to borrow a cool camera today, but I don’t have the SD card yet, so I am anxiously awaiting those on Monday night! So much fun, but so much work. Of course it was well worth it, particularly because we had great turnout for the Club today. Lots of fun and lots of cuteness!

no smiles here! hopefully on the other camera!

Seriously, how cute is Gus holding Miss A’s little hand??

Pumpkin Patch and First Time for Carving

2010-10-26T15:59:00.004-04:00

Well, this year we finally did it. We carved pumpkins. I struggled with this because in Florida, well, pumpkin carving feels a little wrong. Is it just me? It is still so darn hot, and setting out a pumpkin to basically rot just seems wrong. Well, it is, but the boys love them, so why not!?!?! We hit a little pumpkin patch down the street for just the right pumpkin and of course some more posing in front of hay bales and pumpkins. Then we headed to dinner with our friends and neighbors. Our fave Greek/belly dancing spot. Yummy!
We had fun, stopped for more libations on our walk home, the boys tried to milk and feed the plaster cow outside the liquor store, and then we headed to start the carving fun. Raleigh was all about helping scoop out the seeds, or “poop” them out as it sounds from his mouth…but I digress. Gus was not really interested. Our friend, Little C, not so much either, but it was funny to see him get scared as we lit the pumpkins. His Daddy made a scary one! And a Mickey one too that I am going to confess, blew our Daddy’s pumpkins away!

Gus, he went for the different colored pumpkins, and Rals was all about the bumpy ones! I love that they like the “different” ones!

Of course, Gus had to shake his maracas for us!

Look closely, you’ll see the leaves stuck to the cow’s mouth

Favorite Fall Crafts – Blog Roll Question of the Week

2010-10-17T16:34:00.002-04:00

We have done a lot of crafting lately. The question of the week on the Multiples and More blog is all about crafts, so I decided to take a few minutes to write about ours. Some are more fall-like than others, but all have been fun! Most of them have been with our moms of multiples group; and what could be more fun that crafting with your own multiples? Well, of course, crafting with lots of multiple friends and their mommies!

First, we did a Grandparent’s Day craft. We hosted it in a park where I knew we would have easy clean up and plenty of space to do our masterpieces. I got this idea from this web site http://www.activityvillage.co.uk. I just stumbled upon them looking for crafty ideas for grandparents, because, what grandparent doesn’t want something handmade by their grandkids? We used sponge paint brushes to paint the kids’ hands and then helped the kids make a circle to form a flower, and then later drew in the stem and attached a little poem for each grandparent. The web site had lots of poems to choose from. They have a few autumn art projects I think we’ll try this week, too!
The foam brushes can be picked up at your local hardware store for pennies and clean up for reuse. Much easier for getting on all the nooks and crannies of hands and feet.

For a quick and easy crafty/fun activity, why not take a moment to paint some masks or leaves, pumpkins, or ghosts on your kiddos faces? We had fun doing just that at an “entertaining” play date. Just note, that even if a face paint says it is washable, it does not mean it easily washes off…I finally had to use rubbing alcohol to remove the blue ring around the boys eyes. If anyone out there has a brand they love, or any other removal remedies, I would love to hear about them! We’ll be doing this again when one of the moms in our group hosts a “superhero” play date next month. Great way to have fun, be creative, and reuse some of those Halloween costumes and props before they outgrow them!

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More fun, again, not really crafty, but along the same lines, how about a Halloween cookie decorating party? That is what we did with about 20 little ones. We all just met up at one of our houses, brought our own premade uncooked dough, rolling pins, and some even brought our own tables, and then we helped the kids cut, bake, and decorate their very own cookies. Most of us have two year olds. For sanity purposes, I would recommend having the cookies already baked and cut out into Halloween shapes, and then just do the decorating with the littlies, but live and learn, or be like us and have something to laugh about in retrospect!

My own art project while still involving the twinkies was to half-fill a vase with acorns and a pumpkin scented candle, and voila, instant fall decor! Smells and looks good! Now, every time we go for a walk, the boys are continually collecting acorns. Maybe we’ll have enough for a second display before Thanksgiving! Of course, it would be helpful if I would remember to check their pockets for acorns before I wash their shorts…we have some really clean acorns in this jar!
We worked on one last art project last week, making cheetah masks, inspired by a craft from our monthly magazine, Wild Animal Baby. Here is a link to the mask template – although, our printer is broken, so I just drew ours freehand. http://www.nwf.org/Kids/Wild-Animal-Baby/Fun/Crafts-and-Activities/Mammals/Leopard-Mask.aspx

Here is what the final product should look like…ours is not yet finished. The boys really liked sponging on the paint, we just have not added the nose/mouth/whiskers…yet! Great tip is to use sponges with a clothespin attached, or rather, pinned to the sponge, so they don’t even have to dip their fingers near the paint. It should cut down on mess, although, I personally think that is half the fun, right?

Afterward, we tried some leaf printing and fall artwork for the fridge using fall-ish colors of red and brown. This one, well, it was messy, very messy! Looks great on our refrigerator.

Have fun, I hope to read about more ideas from other moms, too!

Dynamic Duo-isms

2010-10-17T12:59:00.002-04:00

The things these boys say. I know, I know, if you are reading this, you are probably sick of hearing about these things, but seriously, they are hilarious. Frustrating at times, but still hilarious. We’ve been MIA in blog world recently because the terrible twos are just tiresome on most days. Naps and bedtime are just a tad more difficult, although, all in all, I cannot complain. Sometimes I want to, but then they do something so sweet, or say the funniest thing and I have to remind myself that the testing phase will continue forever and it is not that bad…free will is a bitch, right? Or is it karma…food for thought today!

Hammer time!

Monster trucking at the beach!

Mommy’s hatching – This is probably the funniest, and maybe the most embarrassing thing ever said about me. Raleigh looks at my heel, mind you, I am in desperate need of a pedicure, and said, “mommy’s hatching.” I first thought he said “scratching” but no, he said “hatching” as in an egg hatching. Um, thanks, and ewww!
Muff cakes anyone? Never heard of a “muff cake?” Well, if you have, maybe you are thinking, does this belong in a blog post centered around kids? To let you know, a muff cake is a cup cake. I think it started out as a muffin and a cupcake, and now all cupcakes are “muff cakes” and muffins are just muffins. I cannot correct them when they say it because again, I am wrong, and just have a good old laugh every time they say it! Nothing like going to a kids birthday party and two little boys yelling with glee “MUFF CAKES!”

Donald’s House – the boys call McDonald’s “Donald’s House.” We have only been a few times, usually on special one-on-one occasions with the boys. I just think it is funny that they call it Donald’s House.
No, not yet, five minutes, or one minute, two minute, etc. They will ask for two more minutes of a toy, or one minute before we go, or two minutes before they have to switch toys with their brother. They know two is more than one minute, and five is a big request, so they save it for the good stuff. It has come in handy when we need them to take turns, we ask them to ask their brother or friend to switch or for a turn in two minutes. It generally cuts down on their fights, whew! It is hard to resist extra cuddles when they say, “no, not yet, Mommy, five minutes, cuddle me more mommy.” Awww!

Can we feed the ducks? So we are at Busch Gardens with friends. One of my friends is cool enough to have worked their pre-twinkies and still knows a lot of people at Busch. One of our favorite areas is the new Walkabout area with Australian animals. The boys are too young to feed the kangaroos and wallabies, but they can feed the ducks nearby. Well, our good friend Miss K did not know the person at the food stand, so we did not get duck food this particular day…until Raleigh walked up and batted his eyes and said “feed ducks, please.” Well, we all got cups for everyone and had fun feeding the ducks for free. Thanks, Raleigh! Here is the lady below, holding a little wallaby, named Stanley.

Starbucks, that’s mommy’s coffee place. They can spot a Starbucks about as quickly and well as they can spot a police car. For this, I am thankful! Don’t worry, in the shots below, they are drinking harmless chocolate milk – not coffee!

That’s a weed, and pull. Augustus is mini-Matthew ALL THE WAY! I love his OCD, as I know it will make him a great man. We were playing in the backyard, which is mostly paved, and he was mowing his mower – his fave – and saw a piece of grass sticking up through the pavers. He immediately yelled “that’s a weed” and proceeded to pull it. Such a good little-man!

New shoes! New shoes! The boys are obsessed with new shoes. Although, now they are not so new, but newer. The boys have been in size 7 for FOREVER! Seriously, almost a year now. We finally broke down and got some new size 7s and you would think Gus won the lottery. He immediately wakes up and wants his new shoes on. We have about 4 pairs that he considers new shoes. That is the easiest thing to make him happy without even trying!

They still bring their penis up at random times in conversation and this is quite amusing. Although, I have to try not to laugh. Raleigh has also taken to pulling his pants down outside for a fire hose pee every so often…we are trying to house train him again! However, it does come in handy when we are no where near a restroom out and about…does that officially make me a Redneck? For example, our multiple birth mom’s club was at a preserve walking the boardwalk with our littlies, and all of us just let our kids pee into the woods off the side of the boardwalk…much easier than running back to the restrooms a mile and a half away. I was pretty impressed with the little girls who could do as well as the boys;)

Augustus, enjoying his spaghetti thoroughly. this boys loves to eat and it shows whenever he does!

Making cheetah masks. Notice the clothespin holding the sponges to get the boys less dirty. Notice, I did not say, keep them clean, just less messy! More about this in a crafty blog post coming soon.

Daddy makes the best pancakes.

Fun food cutouts. We’ll try anything to help mealtime go well. Love the cookie cutter sandwiches, here we have a cow and a chicken with flowers. Also, we are getting on the bento bandwagon and trying to eat lots of food on sticks. Fun times. If you have not seen this web site, http://www.anotherlunch.com/ check it out! AWESOME!

More craftiness

Another air port run. Both boys were highly jealous of Nonnie’s princess hat! They really, really, wanted it!

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Hope you enjoyed the Smilebox I made yesterday from Sweetfield Farms.
Here is a look back at last year’s trip.

Sweetfield Farm Trip 2009

Oh, how they’ve grown!

Happy Fall

2010-10-16T17:25:00.002-04:00

Photo album made with Smilebox

Target Dollar Section = AWESOME!

2010-09-27T14:28:00.001-04:00

Raleigh and I hit the Target dollar section today, you know you love it, right? Well, I found these great plates with tight fitting lids for a dollar each. Our besties have the Sassy brand ones in the picture below and they are great for toting a sandwich or food out and about and still having a plate to serve the food on. For a dollar, I thought this was a great deal!

We also found these!

Fun, and seriously, a dollar???? Our Super-T only had one koala, but I am hoping to stumble across one more at another one. Although, Rals was keen on the lion and being able to yell “rawr!!!”

Below is the start of a work in progress. The chairs and side table are from Ikea. We got two red chairs and two black chairs, and two black side tables. One red chair is still a work in-progress because my thumb was about to fall off after assembling the other ones. The second table is not together because the screws were not in the box, bummer! Now, we’ll just have to go back…

Any who. The side tables are the perfect size for the boys now, and I think eventually we’ll move them to their bedrooms. We are using our once kitchen table as their activity table/coffee table in the playroom right now, and we love it. The four chairs will be perfect at the bigger table once they grow a bit more. For now, it will be their “dining room” table when they have friends over. The picnic table is just getting too tight for four littlies now! Back to the work in-progress, we have been waiting until the weather cools to paint some magnetic paint with chalkboard paint on one of the playroom walls. Well, even better idea (I hope) is to paint the top of the tables so they can play with magnets or chalk on the top. Fun, right? Hopefully, I’ll post the finished product soon. I am very excited!!!

Crafty idea, quick and easy!

The besties were over last Friday for our new usual day of babysitting fun. No steamroller action this time, but we did have some craft time. We made butterflies in a matter of minutes from coffee filters, and a pipe cleaner (got a pack of them from the Target Dollar section, too). Of course, they were embellished with style by the kiddies. Here are where we put ours. Of course, I gave Miss Natalie Gus’, so Connor’s is hanging in our room;) And don’t worry, these are hanging very high, although the picture does not show it, so no one is going to get hurt on the cords!!!

The Beach Boys

2010-09-20T14:52:00.001-04:00

Yup, these boys are definitely Florida boys, with a splash of Aussie charm. We spent the morning at the beach and they had a ball, and of course, so did I! Sunshine, cool breeze and super warm waters to dip my toes in, equals one happy mama! Well, actually two mamas since my mom was there to help out and play with the boys!

Just being back at this tiny beach we have taken the boys to numerous times makes me nostalgic! Here are a few of my old time favorite shots of them on this beach. Not the shots at other beaches, just this one. Wow, have the boys changed!!!

Here is their first trip at six months. Augustus is in blue and has the pumpkin bib on (oh my goodness, those cheeks!)!

The boys at the beach with Uncle Tommy one month later

Boys at their first Valentine’s Day, super, super cute!!! Gus at the “hearthrob” Rals as the “heart breaker” – again, they had chubs, sooooooo adorable!

Rals, not as impressed with the sand!

Gus, with long hair!

Today, the weather was ridiculously perfect. My favorite thing that happened was when Gus smelled a dead fish that Nonnie held up for them to inspect. Just like he does when he smells the flowers. Um, ya, not the best idea Gus, but okay, thanks for giving us a laugh!

Favorite Things

2010-09-14T22:21:00.001-04:00

Hilarious, that is what these boys are! My favorite sayings are:

“Two minutes” or “Five minutes.” That is the boys response when they are not ready to go, or want to watch some more tv, or stay and play with a particular toy and not ready to switch or share. They understand that five minutes is more than two, and more than one. They started with just the “two minutes” – which of course I find myself telling them ALL the time, so I have no wonder where they got it from!

They think they are ghosts. They will cover themselves with anything and yell “boo!” One of my favorite stories is from dinner one night with Nonnie & Papa Pickles, and he took his napkin – from his lap mind you – and put it over his face and said boo repeatedly, and when he did not get the response he was looking for, he tore it down and said “me a ghost.” Well, we all about peed our pants at that comment. Last night, Daddy got home and we were all in our bed getting our pj’s on, and the boys did not hear Matthew arrive, so he took a spare sheet out of our closet, put it over him and came out like a big ol’ ghost. Well, the boys gave the biggest, loudest belly laugh I have ever heard from them. It was priceless!

Augustus trying to sing “The Itsy-bitsy Spider.” He comes out with some strange, very low voice and pretty much gets the words, but throws in so many other noises, and words that are really not in the song. He gets to the part where the sun comes out and dries up the rain and then starts singing “sun, sun, Mr. golden sun” and all sorts of other little ditties.

I love to hear them fall asleep. It can be a bit aggravating when you know they are so tired and they are still up talking, but the talking they do at bedtime is priceless. It is the same when they wake up. I am so happy that I have twins, who are built in buddies, and overall, just happy chappies.

I love that they continue to be masters of direction. They know where we are, which direction we need to head when we are going to familiar haunts, and they can look at a map and tell you all about it. They love to inspect the maps of Busch Gardens and really understand maps. It is particularly amazing to me since I am directionally challenged.

Augustus is getting ridiculously tall; Raleigh seems to be keeping his own as well. Raleigh seriously has some “spider legs” as my mom calls them. They are both hovering abut 29/28 pounds and are just under 38 inches. I think Raleigh is losing his curls. It is getting harder to manage, just like Augustus’ started to before he really started to look like Einstein. hopefully he can hang on to them a bit longer…it is nice to have such differences in looks between the boys. I think they are treated more like individuals this way.

I know there is so much I am missing out on posting, I must get better at writing my ideas down between postings! Basically it comes down to how awesome these boys are and how much fun we are having at this point in their lives. I know soon they will be off to school and I will miss all the little things I am getting to enjoy right now…in the middle of the not listening spells, running amok and basic craziness of our days.

We’ve been super busy with our friends. We hosted a play date in the park making handprint crafts for Grandparents Day.

We’ve headed to Busch Gardens – shocker, I know!

Time for a bubble bath and relaxation.

We’ve been driving steam rollers – yes that is the boys actually on a real-live steam roller in our ‘hood, dancing, eating cookies, and walking with friends.

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We’ve headed back to Busch with more friends in order to give Daddy more time to study. We are ALL ready for some cooler weather…we are so done with the sweaty clothes, face, and overall nastiness.

This MoMa even got to enjoy almost a whole day to herself. Wow! Well, not really by myself, but with my good friend Miss Jennifer. We caught up at a local beach and enjoyed some drinks and laughs. Then, I got home in time to enjoy a dinner out with the boys and my parents; which of course, included ice cream!

Great view of the sky!

The boys pretending to be ET!

Busy, ADORABLE Boys!

2010-09-05T17:23:00.001-04:00

So, I know every mother thinks their kids are the cutest ever, and I am no exception. Just look at these faces, beautiful and FULL of personality. So blessed to have them both in our lives. Just wanted to share that, oh, and a picture review of what we have been up to.

Busy, busy, as usual. This week we will be even busier than usual, too. Happy Labor Day, that’s this weekend’s holiday, right? I don’t want to sound stupid, but all I really know is that we have a three day weekend with Daddy. However, he is busy studying for an exam for work, and has basically been going to bed at 9 and getting up at 4:30 in the morning to study while his mind is fresh. I have a few minutes while he is playing pillow pile with the boys – still one of their favorite games.

Yay for pancakes!

Boys pretend shaving with Nonnie!

Tea Party, no not the crazy people kind, just two boys and a cup of tea!

What a Trip!

2010-09-03T23:12:00.001-04:00

Well, the grandies finally made it back to Oz, and we have had a couple of days to get back into our old routine. The boys were so tired yesterday, they slept over three hours at naptime and went right back to bed and slept until 8 am today! Wow! They miss Nannie and Poppy and are talking about them in conversation daily – which is pretty cool. Oh and Auntie Peta, too, because we promised that she will be coming to visit them soon.

Today when we were playing with friends, Augustus was counting the seats on a plane (his new favorite thing to do is to hold up two fingers, say two, then hold up three fingers, say three, again, he almost never starts with one), and then went into a story about Nannie and Poppy being on the plane. I think the Grandies may be perpetually on all planes we see!

Tonight, in the car and Raleigh started talking about his friends C&E, and how they went on “a-cation” – otherwise, known as a vacation, and I asked him if he wanted to take a vacation, and he said he did, with Mommy & Daddy. I asked him where he wanted to go, fully expecting him to say Australia, but, no, he wanted to “a-cation” to Nonnie’s house. Safe to say, he missed Nonnie and Papa Pickles, too! This weekend is a long weekend, and although we have an awesome play date scheduled for tomorrow that I am sure you will come back to read about real soon, we hope that the boys have a ton of time with Nonnie and Grandpa Pickles too.

Over the course of the vacation, Augustus has had a complete language explosion! Seriously, I know I have written that before, and really, with one of our boys being a bit more verbal than the other, I think we, or maybe it is just me, stresses about Gus’ verbal abilities more than if he was a “singleton.” Lately, Gus has talked non-stop. I mean NON-STOP! At bedtime tonight, they were dead-silent for about 20 minutes, and then I hear Gus saying, “no, mines birthday, happy birthday.” Raleigh says “Mines birthday.” Back and forth they went until Augustus started listing all his family’s birthdates, Nannie, Papa, Mommy, Daddy, Connor, etc. Loved it! Thankfully, they can burst out like that and then be sound asleep two minutes later.

Speaking of sleeping situations, on the first night of our stay at a hotel, Matthew went in to the boys room in the morning, where they were sleeping in twin beds for the first time, and Matthew thought Nannie must have gotten Raleigh up already because he could not see him in his bed. So, he started talking to Augustus and asked him if he wanted to go up to see Nannie and Poppy, and he said yes, and then seemingly out of nowhere, comes a squeaky “me too.” Here Raleigh had gotten out of bed, climbed under it and gotten stuck. Well, to say he was less than thrilled about sleeping in the bed the rest of the trip, but se la vie. We now know that we are not going to be transitioning to the real big-boy beds soon. Maybe at three years old! And I have such great fire truck sheets that I am dying to use! But I digress.

Overall, the boys had an amazing time with the grandies. They were spoiled rotten, and just in heaven with all the attention. I was also in heaven with getting spoiled sleeping in and having extra hands all the time to make it so much easier to do the day-to-day things. We lived it up and through all our trips and tribulations the boys were amazing troopers, particularly when they were tired. It is hard to remember they are only two years old because they are so awesome. Even after going full forced on day three away from their home with an hour nap average for the two previous days, they were still all smiles and giggles on the way home from Mickey’s house where we made it all day without a nap or much rest. They did fall asleep about 6pm that night, but we were blown away with how great they did with heat, little sleep and lots and lots of adventures.

It was funny to see how they were with other people in their space, and see how they had a great time learning all sorts of new things from their lovely Aussie family. Augustus continued his fierce independent streak, most epitomized with his serious “direction” to let him do it, or get away, so he could do it himself. Seriously, one of my favorite pictures from our travels is of him directing Nannie away from him so he could jump in the pool by himself.

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In all his glory of anal retentiveness, just like his father, this stubborn, streak of independence and self-reliance is awesome to watch blossom. Seriously frustrating to deal with when you want to just get moving some days, but I love that the boys have no problem doing their own thing. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want a bunch of boys that don’t listen, but I love that they have free will and are not afraid to let you know what they want…hmm, wonder why?

I could go on and on about our time with the Grandies, and will continue to write about it in the future, but since the blog is so much for the family that is on the other side of the world, I will keep from going on and on. I am sure there will be other stories added, to make sure I remember them for the boys, but overall, just wanted to say the boys had a great trip and time with their Grandies. We hope to see you all again really soon!

Enjoy a few links back to the last few visits we’ve had. The boys growth is amazing – yup, used that word again, but it is the best I can come up with!

The Grandies Arrive!

2010-08-16T16:09:00.001-04:00

Well, the boys have been thoroughly loving their time with the Grandies from Oz. They flew in on Thursday and the boys were super excited to welcome them. Here are a few shots of the big night!

First, the boys practiced with their signs for the Grandies.

A twin mom who was welcoming her boys home was gracious enough to take our picture after we greeted them with the sign.

Check out these smiles looking at Nannie and Poppy!

The boys have been very helpful, as usual, with putting together a new outdoor table, and today they helped put together a new toy storage unit for the garage. They were dying to help Poppy and Daddy with the laundry revamp, but there was just too much to get into. We’ll post an update of the finished product soon. We are looking forward to exploring Orlando with the grandies, as well. For today, we are taking it easy, before we hit the beach tomorrow!!! Fun times for all.

`

GB C

how cute are these boys?

Seriously, These Kids are Kind of Crazy!

2010-08-10T20:41:00.001-04:00

I love them, to bits and pieced, but really, these boys are crazy. But so is their momma, so not a big surprise, right? Our breakfast conversation today centered around who has penises and who doesn’t. Including Elmo and Cookie monster; which I said they did have “them.” So both boys looked, or inspected, the monsters on their breakfast plates. I then had to explain that they had fur, so you definitely could not see their penises. Just like our kitty. Then the conversation turned to why the cats don’t wear underpants. I decided the best answer I could come up with was again, due to their fur. Seriously?! Where do they come up with this stuff? This is not even a few days after Raleigh started a conversation in the car with “I’m moving my penis, I’m moving my penis up and down.” Dude, really, do men start this early??? I guess so. To think, a few months ago I was concerned with his language skills and ability to put words into a sentence. Ha, now I am amazed at what comes out of his mouth, and just trying not to laugh most of the day.

Today we spent time in the mall play area. Not something we frequent, and man, it was more work than any of us mommies expected. At least it was air conditioned. At one point Augustus escaped out one of the two entrances. Why would you put two entrances into a play area????? Hello! Fine for those parents with one little one running wild, but what about those of us with two…or more? I had seen both boys running happily around, Gus with his friends, and Rals was sitting atop one of the large characters within the play area. Then I suddenly could not see Gus. I was there with several friends, and no one could see him. Within a minute I found him happily in a corner of the Build A Bear store right across from one of the play area entrances…or exits in this case. Whoa! We had a little discussion about leaving where mommy could not see him, and the fact that someone may take him away from us. I think it is time to introduce a little stranger danger to get some fear into this boy! He is fearless and just wants to assert his independence in so many ways it is driving me a bit bonkers! But, back to cuteness, the “older” girls that were playing at the mall were playing sleeping princesses, and Annabella, Gus’ older girlfriend, told her mommy she knew just who should be the prince to wake her up…Augustus of course! He was far too happy to oblige her with a kiss. The best part is Bell’s equal opportunity mindset, and her desire to be the prince too, and she had to kiss him to wake him up! Augustus was also quite pleased with that arrangement as well. Sorry, Charlie

Raleigh fell asleep in the car, ugh! They never do this anymore. This five minute cat nap was all he got today!

They were so excited about their day that they recapped it at the dinner table. Gus wanted Bell to come to his house. Oh, and of course, Ellie and Conner were invited as well. I love to see how their language is blossoming and their interaction between each other as brothers is growing as well as with their peers. So fun!

Our favorite sayings and things right now include Raleigh’s favorite saying of “that’s an idea” and he uses it properly. He also says “maybe yes, or maybe no” any time I say “maybe.” Obviously, that is how I explained the concept of maybe to him. It is really cute. I still love it when he answers a questions posed to him with a “yes.”

I cannot stress how helpful the boys want to be. If you praise them, they are all over anything you are doing. They love to cook! They love to clean; especially sort, fold and put away laundry. They follow directions when it comes to helping better than any two year olds I know. I know, a bit of a brag, but really, they are amazing little men!

Raleigh just over night started counting to nine. We have not really been working on numbers so this was quite the surprise to me. He was sitting at a number book, looking at one of the pictures with trains, which happened to have nine, and he just rambled out one, two, three, and so on until he got to nine. Okay, pride moment, but it could have been a fluke, so nothing to start scream at…until he did it again five minutes later! He continues to get there in order, and not just repeating it, actually counting to nine. Unfortunately, he then starts back at four and no matter how many times I point out that ten is next, he just says nine, contemplates for a second or two, and says “four.” Hmm. Gus can get to four still, and he still does not start at one. He is hilarious. He would much rather count in his head when you ask him how many X there are. he just spits out the total. As if counting is for babies or something.

The boys are done with high chairs. We do breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, etc. at the picnic table. We have one booster seat at home, but for now, the picnic table is just easier. One step at a time people, one step at a time. I am impressed that they will sit at a meal without any restraints. No walking around is a BIG rule in our house! Oh, and you have to wait until everyone is done eating before you get up to clean up. Happy Days! Today at the mall, they even sat at big chairs (no boosters) and ate their lunch without getting up or goofing around!

Below are a few pictures from the week. The boys went to a library program about didgeridoos and Australia. They were not totally impressed, but that was mostly because the guy leading the program was a bit of a tool. He wanted a room FULL of kids to be quiet, not ask questions, and basically not move. Our boys did awesomely, and sat for almost 45 minutes straight with some weird dude talking to them, so I was impressed! In fact, Augustus was kind of scared of the dude. However, the park afterward garnered a thumbs up from Raleigh!

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Pool fun with friends, and the camera that goes underwater!

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The boys eating and playing at a birthday party…mmm, they love themselves some cake! Me, not so excited to see red frosting…it results in bright orange poo the next day;P

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Kids Say the Darndest Things

2010-08-02T06:57:00.001-04:00

Okay, so it finally happened. I took the boys to the Post Office, to help me mail something. Yup, may not sound like fun to you, but the boys are kind of obsessed with all trucks, as you may know, and the even know the mail truck and are excited to go in the Post Office. When I turn right out of our development’s back entrance, they usually perk right up and say “mail.” Anyway, Augustus really did not want to hold my hand in line once inside, or stay with me; the wall of greeting cards was just calling his name, you know, and when I asked him to hold my hand or sit down, he said “it” the dreaded “no” word. Now, our kids say “no” often, preferably “no thank you” but, "no” nonetheless, but never “no” so blatantly to a request. Sure, they have totally disregarded our requests to stop, or wait, etc., but never a sure fire “no.” Humph. Another sign our babies are growing up!

In other funny things that come out of the boys mouths, we were driving back from the aquarium this weekend, and Raleigh was looking at the clouds trying to describe what he saw. First it was “manimals” then it was Mickey ears, then it was boobies. Yup, that’s right, boobies. Okay, Raleigh, thanks for sharing. I had to chuckle at that one. This kid constantly makes me laugh, but that was pretty priceless. This was after we had been at a play date earlier in the week where I had been wearing turquoise beads and Raleigh told me that I had chocolate on my boobs. Hmm…what??? Then he touched my beads and said “chocolate.” No, honey, these are beads. The “chocolate” was the brown veining within the beads. Still, it was funnier to hear I had chocolate on my boobs, not something unheard of, but unlikely that day;) This leads right into Raleigh’s newest favorite discussion as we are driving. He will just say “I’m touching my penis.” Yup, you read that right as well. Thanks for sharing, Rals. We are not trying to scar the kids into not talking about these things or touching certain parts of their anatomy, but really? Moving right along to his other favorite thing…when he does number two, he gets excited if you know what I mean. Not sure why, but all of a sudden, bam, and then he starts to move his “excitement” up and down and say “I’m moving my penis.” Wow, he really is a Hamilton! I know, this is probably too much information for most of you, but those of you with little boys can probably really appreciate this. Although, my best friend has some great stories about her little girl and her stories about boobies as well…so I should not be sexist;) I hope Nanny and Poppy are prepared for all this craziness! Below is a picture of the boys tearing off another day on our countdown chart. Today we are down to 9 sleeps!!!

Enjoy our week in pictures! I know you will.

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Favorite Things

2010-07-27T13:54:00.001-04:00

From gorgeous to goofball in two seconds flat!

Wow, the boys continue to amaze us. I am trying to remember all our favorite things they are doing right now, and I know I cannot remember them all!

Still love all the little sayings each boy has. Raleigh loves to say “Okay” all the time. Even if you are telling him to do something he really does not want to do, he will say “oooooooooo-kay.” Gus is continuing to put thoughts together into sentences; while Raleigh will parrot anything and everything and still come up with the funniest sayings all on his own, too.

Augustus still wants to play with someone all the time. He will grab his friends’ hands and guide them to where he wants them, especially his girlfriend Miss Bell. Oh, and Mommy and Daddy, too, of course. While saying “play me, please.”

Augustus is also also is really in tune with Matthew leaving for work. He gets very sad when Dad is in his tie, particularly when they are just waking up. He will say “Daddy buh-bye” in the saddest voice. The weekends are so cute when he knows Daddy will “stay home.” He just runs around yelling “stay home, stay home.”

OCD – totally hereditary blessing or curse, depending on the moment. Augustus will straighten out any towel that we put down at the beach or pool, and any toy that is put in the “wrong” place has to be put in it’s right place. So, for example, if you add an extra block under the driver seat of our Mega-block fire truck, he will insist that the blocks go in the back and move it so the “man” can go in the seat properly.

Hello Lady, Hello Man. Both boys will welcome anyone to a restaurant, park, etc. They are so friendly and always have been. I love that they are so excited to tell everyone what they are doing and in particular, what they are eating, like ice cream!

My current favorite non-boy related things include my new Keurig my K-cup reusable coffee filter.

I am a little slow in how to use it so it did blow up one morning when I forgot to put the cap on. Hello! The Keurig uses serious pressure to go through the cup so coffee grounds were everywhere! However, still a great product so I can custom blend my favorite coffee on cup at a time. Highland Grogg from Door County Coffee is my absolute favorite coffee of all time, so now I can enjoy one hot cup at a time! A mommy-saver if I ever saw one!

My awesome high school friend’s blog. Here is my favorite blog update that is seriously genius. http://ajscd.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/save-the-snacks/ So simple and makes me wonder how I did not think to do this with the boys’ snack cups earlier! Oh, and you moms who think you don’t have time to blog and are amazed at how I keep up…check her out, she really keeps up!!!

The Good Home Co. cleaning products. In particular their Beach Days fabric softener. It smells like pure heaven to me. Plus, their products are biodegradable, paraben, phosphate, sulfate, phthalate and cruelty-free, and 100% vegan, so even better!!! Another fave is their Lavender glass and surface cleaner. Also all the good stuff, and an amazing smell. The bathroom smells like a fresh field of lavender for days after each cleaning. I am telling you, if you are ever lucky enough to find their products at a discount store like Home Goods, Marshalls or TJ Maxx buy it all, you will not be sorry!

Here is our week in review via pictures! Enjoy!

Rals, roaring like a tiger as the tiger got to snack on some meatballs!