Trick or Treat!

Luke the lion, Patrick the giraffe, and Joseph the frog

.

Joe gets his first goodie. He stood there for a minute or so trying to figure out just how the system worked. “So, I say, ‘trick or treat’ and you give me candy? Hmmm…” We also had Joe working the other end of the candy bowl. When kids would come to our door, he would dutifully put one piece of candy into their bags or buckets. He often hesitated dropping the candy until he had inspected their goodies for something he might want to snatch.

Mommy poses with her prince in disguise. This cute frog got lots of kisses today!

We have Halloween early here in our neighborhood. Trick-or-treating is done on the Sunday afternoon before Halloween. The cities post a start time and end time, so it’s nice to know when you should be home and when you can expect your last trick-or-treaters. Scott thinks it takes all the fun out of it, which is a true if you are a teenager. For little ones, it just takes out some of the danger of the activity.

The neighbor kids pose for a picture – Brianna the rock star, Joe, Allie the witch, Luke, Nick (aka Captain Jack Sparrow), Shayna the 50’s girl and Patrick

Joe prepares for the next big kid holiday even before the costume comes off.

.

You know you are in Packer country when…

.

Yes, that’s a TV on that stroller. As bad as the Packers are this year, you would think no one would go to that much trouble to watch them, but you would be wrong. Cheese heads are a little pathetic that way.

Graham Crackers

One of the babies’ favorite foods is the classic graham cracker

Patrick wanted to show you his mouthful:

Luke thought that was pretty gross.

.

We often go to the zoo, so I’ll spare you the details of the excursion. We did get some cute pictures, though. It was a chilly 35 degrees this morning when we left, so the kiddos are all bundled up in their winter hats and their “early winter” jackets. They’d probably be okay for KC, but we will need some serious layers for winters up here!

Posing in front of his favorite display - the fish.

Ah, the joy of the jungle gym. Joe is making monkey sounds on the monkey bar.

.

I heard some cute baby giggling in the hallway today and since there are usually no toys in that hallway, I had to investigate. The twins were playing a game together. Patrick was putting a shoe in a laundry basket and tipping it over toward Luke. Luke would then grab the shoe and both boys would laugh. Luke put the shoe back in the basked and tipped it to Patrick. Again, peals of laughter. Once they saw me, it was all over, but it was cute while it lasted.

Why Scott hates yard work

Scott was cleaning out the gutters while the twins were napping and I was taking a shower on Saturday. When I poked my head out to see how he was doing, this is what I saw:

Notice the ladder on the ground. In his defense, it was a VERY windy day, and the ladder was a little flimsy. The sarcastic and annoyed smile on his face may have something to do with my making him wait until I found the camera before I came to his rescue.

Joe sings

I forgot to post this little ditty of Joe singing happy birthday to the babies. Scott and I got such a kick out of it. I hope you enjoy it! Try clicking on the play button once or twice until the video plays. The voice isn't exactly on cue, but we'll work on it!

We all went to the mall yesterday to pick up a VERY belated birthday gift for Scott. We had a wonderful time and even ran into TWO people when knew. It’s nice to start feeling like you belong in a town finally. Scott met us for lunch, too. Today, we all took a nice long walk. It was sunny for the first time in two weeks. When we got home, the neighbors were out of school for teachers’ conferences and were out raking and playing in the leaves. Joe had so much fun sliding down the slide into the big pile. The twins even enjoyed laying the leaves.

This morning, after their breakfast, the twins were babbling. I asked them to say “mama” and they did: “mamamamama” Then, I wondered if they would switch to “dada” and they did! “dadadadadada” So does that count as first words? I don’t think they recognized what either word meant, but it sure sounded sweet to this mamamama.

Joe will still occasionally count like The Count on Sesame Street – “One, ah ah ah ah, Two, ah ah ah ah….” He was counting his cups like that in the bathtub last night and both babies chimed in with the “Ah ah ah ah”s. It was so cute! If Scott would have been there, we would have tried to get it on video, but since he was working late, I was too busy trying to keep them from drowning. We’ll try next time.

Happy Birthday!

One year already. I can't believe it. Last year at this time, I was a drugged up mess and our two little wrinkly babies were getting poked and proded in the NICU. It wasn't a great night except that it was the birthday of two beautiful little men!

.

We aren't that technically savvy, but here are a few video links (we hope!) so you can see Patrick and Luke today. Don't get your hopes up, they're short and nothing significant happens in them.

.

Patrick

.

Luke

.

If this works out, we will be sending out more videos when we can.

.

To celebrate getting through this year, we bought ourselves a triplet stroller. It arrived today and is already loaded in the trunk of the car for our first outing. Maybe we'll go to the mall! Maybe the library! The possibilities are endless! One triplet stroller: $250. The cost of my freedom: priceless!

Party Time

We had a little party for the twins first birthday (which is tomorrow) There were 15 kids there! Our basement was a mad house. The twins started the day pretty darn grouchy, but recovered well and were able to enjoy being held and cooed over. They also enjoyed one of their favorite meals – Sloppy Joes. When cake time came, both of the boys just looked at their pieces and couldn’t figure out what to do. Then Patrick flung off some of his frosting onto the floor just as Luke was realizing that it was something yummy to eat. They both polished off their pieces in record time, once the eating began!

.

Patrick: "Wanna hug?"

Luke: "All done! Is there any more?"

Patrick: "Hey, Luke, try licking the plate, like this."

Some partiers - Allie, Megan, Brianna, Christian and Ryan

The cake. No, of course I didn't make it.

Patrick is checking out a new toy. Opening presents was mayhem!

Patrick takes a second to give kisses to his new giraffe

Luke and neighbor Shayna.

The whole day before, Joe was asking about the cake. He had seen it in the fridge and knew he didn’t want to miss out. We’d ask what he wanted for lunch, a quesadilla or peanut butter sandwich. “Cake!” was the only answer we’d get. Later in the day, he came up to me and said, “I’m so hungry, Mommy. I know, I want some cake!” Oh, okay. We’ll see what we can do about that.

Luke's Big Day

Yesterday was Luke’s big day – the feast of St. Luke the evangelist. We celebrated by doing something we have never done before. All four of us went to the grocery store! Since everyone was so good, we stopped at McDonalds for burgers and apple juice.

I caught Joseph standing on top of two turned over Tupperware bowls. He was singing some of his favorite songs, and when he finished, he applauded himself: “Yay! Yay!” Then to his imaginary adoring fans: “Thank you, Thank you!”

We have to remind Joe to concentrate on going potty when he sits on his little chair. This morning, he was sitting and told me to, “Watch this, mommy. The water is coming!” A few seconds later, he started to go.

Only a few days until the twins’ birthday. Their party is on Saturday. It will be kind of small with just a few friends and neighbors. So, we will have a new camera by then, and we can resume the picture postings we know you all miss. Thanks for being patient.

Noises

Patrick Waved! Scott went to pick the kids up from babysitting at our Mass, and when Patrick saw him, he raised his hand and smiled.

Joe loves music so much now that he doesn’t want any other sound to interrupt his listening enjoyment. When Scott starts to sing along, Joe will announce, “No singing, Daddy. I like this song.”

We have a laundry chute that we love. Joe loves to toss down toys or other objects, but we really discourage it. Someday it may be a glass of milk or something that can get stuck! So the other day, he tossed a few magnetic letters down. I said, “Oh, no! You better go get those letters, Joseph. That was naughty of you.” He ran downstairs and hollered up, “The letters are okay, mommy!”

Patrick and Luke are so vocal now. They are learning to make all kinds of new sounds. Sometimes, I’m not sure who is making the noises – the twins or Joe. I wonder if all of their voices will sound alike.

Since we couldn’t post any new pictures, I thought I’d show off some oldies but goodies. These are from around Easter, two years ago. Joe was about 10 months old. I just can’t get enough of that cute little face!

No pictures

We’re so sorry that we haven’t posted in a while. Our camera broke a week ago and it’s not as much fun to post without fun pictures. We’ll work on getting another one soon.

Our two bits of news: Mommy got a new job! I’m working Sunday mornings and a few evenings helping out with the little kids’ Religious Ed classes at our church. It’s been a lot of fun so far. Everyone is so nice. The only part I don’t like is that I have to take care of the any kid that gets sick during class. Let’s all pray for no vomit. Scott has been fantastic taking care of the very difficult dinner/bath/bedtime routine alone, and so far, I have always come home to a sparkling clean house.

Scott and I are teaching Confirmation classes Sunday nights. We had been looking for something to get involved in at our parish (this was before I got the job), but it seemed impossible with the boys. We teach these classes in our home after the kids go to bed. We had our first class a few days ago, and so far, so good. All of the students are high school juniors. We are finding it challenging to be creative and interesting.

In other exciting news, Uncle Jeff has left Iraq! We don’t expect him back for a few weeks, yet. We’ll keep you posted when he arrives back at home. Shannon said Kolbe is getting SO excited to see his daddy. We’ll all be glad that he’s home safe and sound.

Famous Twins

I thought you all might enjoy a list of some famous twins:

Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
Sts. Benedict and Scholastica
Kirby Puckett

Gunnar & Matthew Nelson
Romulus and Remus

Nick Nolte and Gary Busey
Sts. Cosmos and Damian

Luke and Leia
Barbara & Jenna Bush
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito

.

For more well known twins and twin parents, click on the title of the blog

St. Mommy

We have a picture book of saints in Joe's room (it's actually Uncle Dave's, but we can't figure out how it ended up at our house...) that he wanted to read the other night. Scott looked for St. Joseph, but when he couldn't find it, he read about St. Patrick. Joe wanted to hear about St. Luke next. When that story was over, Scott asked again which saint he wanted to read about. Joe answered, "St. Mommy!" "St. Daddy!"