Too Quiet is Never a Good Thing

Yes...we all love some peace and quiet but when there are two toddlers roaming around and it get's quiet...then you know something's up.


We even had all three animals in there munching on Che-Choes with them.

Speaking of Che-Choes, it's Jackson's newest word. :o) Aiden is still on the wussat? obsession.

And here are the two bumble bee's the day after Christmas on our way to the dog park. Yes, shorts and short sleeve shirts the day after Christmas. Insanity. No white Christmas for us this year.

I'm going to the doctor today to find out if I in fact broke my rib or if I'm just a big ole sissy.

Merry Christmas!

It was about 4 am Christmas morning...but that won't stop our fun!!

"Hey, Mom! Too cool!!"

Ride 'em Cowboy!

No Girls Allowed
(except Mom)

Christmas '08 was AMAZING!

Jackson and Aiden had so much fun and Santa spoiled them rotten!

They got the new outdoor playhouse (that is still set up inside for them to play in), a bunch of tub toys, tons of clothes, a fold out love seat, Elmo Live (AWESOME toy, btw), Ride and Spin Pony, a tickle me cookie monster, Pizza Elmo, a tractor, a school bus, race cars and a race track, a choo choo train, a remote controlled airplane, more cookie monster stuff, more elmo stuff, a view finder projection thingie, movies, shoes, hats, bowling ball/pin set, a laptop, their own phones, ect. ect. They made out like little fat rats!

They were still too young to understand who Santa was or what the real reason for the season was (as most of us adults have a problem understanding, too) but they did know what a present was and how to open it! This year was the first time they were more interested in the actual toy than in the packaging. They would rip off the paper and then shove the toy in my face and say, "out". Hahaha. I'm a little disappointed that I'm going to have to wait an entire year to see their faces on Christmas morning again.

We had great food and wonderful family all day long. It was a terrific time and I can't wait to do it again.

Trespassing or not?

I've got the two sick kiddos upstairs in bed for their nap and I'm flat out exhausted so I lay down and try to get me a nap in. As I'm drifting off to sleep I'm awakened by the doorbell/Peanut. Peanut is a very protective dog and she always growls and barks when someone shows up unexpected. I know that I'm not expecting anyone (as we are all sick as dogs) so I figure it's a solicitor and I just close my eyes and try to go back to sleep. Not even a few minutes later it sounds like there are people talking in my backyard. Again, I feel like crap so I try to ignore it. Peanut suddenly starts barking frantically like something is really wrong. I roll over and see a man standing in the middle of my backyard! And he's talking to some other guy.

I know that we are not expecting anyone to come over to look at anything on our house so why are two men in my backyard?!?!

I'm furious at this point. I opened the backdoor and said, "Can I help you?!?" and his response was, "I'm looking at the siding." and he points to the bottom of the house.

"GREAT!" was my reply as I slammed the door.

Am I missing something?!?!?

I thought we BOUGHT this house back on Halloween. I didn't think this was a rent house or a lease to own kind of thing. WHY ARE PEOPLE GOING INTO MY BACKYARD WITHOUT ANY PERMISSION?!?!?!?!

WHY IS THIS OK?

WHY IS IT LIKE PULLING TEETH TO GET SOMEONE OUT HERE WHEN WE NEED THEM YET WE'VE GOT GUY CRAWLING ALL OVER THE PLACE WHEN THEY AREN'T INVITED?

I want a gun for Christmas. And shooting lessons. I'm SICK of KB Homes and the idiots that run the place.

So here's a warning to everyone....if you ring someone's doorbell and they don't answer, I'd highly advise you to NOT just invite yourself into their backyard. Especially if you happen to be in San Marcos, Tx.

Gone Baby, Gone

There is so much to update so I apologize in advance if I seem to jump around a bit.

We've ALL been sick these past few days. Jason and I shared a stomach bug and Jackson and Aiden seem to have a cold. We are all exhausted from being sick and running around doing all the holiday fun things but we've been having a good time.

We took Jackson and Aiden to Cowboy Harley Davidson last weekend so that they could get a photo with Santa. I apologize for not having a photo to share...I haven't had the time to scan the photo. Anyway, Jackson and Aiden were TERRIFIED of Santa. I think we missed the "perfect age" when they would sit with anyone. They didn't want to have ANYTHING to do with Santa at ALL. Heehee The funny thing is, Opa was the one who was dressed up as Santa. So the boys actually knew WHO he was...but they just couldn't get past his white beard. "Santa" would say, "Jackson and Aiden....it's ok!!!" and you could see that they recognized his voice.....but they weren't willing to get any closer to Santa to see if they really knew him. hahaha.

The camera has officially bit the dust. For a while it was working about 50% of the time...so at least the odds weren't that bad, ya know? Well, it went from operating about 50% of the time to 0% of the time very, very fast. There's no hope for it anymore. She's gone baby, gone and we are so sad. I'll have to figure something out in the meantime....like getting a disposable one and getting the pictures put on a cd so that I can upload them at home? We'll see. Just know I'm trying my hardest to get up some new pictures.

Ohhhh....let me tell you about Mr. Houdini!!! (2 stories about him, actually)
The morning started like usual...nothing too odd. I took J&A downstairs after they had their milk and let them run around and play while I got breakfast ready for them. Before I put them in their highchair for breakfast, I went to change their diaper and that's when I noticed that Jackson's diaper was missing.
Missing.
Yet he was completely clothed. He had his onesie on, all three snaps were snapped and he even had his PANTS on!!

J&A have been obsessed with nudity lately. They do not like staying in their diaper when they are in their cribs at all anymore. It's beyond just a curiosity...no...this borders on obsession. OCDish, I'm telling ya! Finally Ihad enough and told Jason that we were going to be buying them PJ's that either snap or are all one piece. So far it's worked. I'm going to install a camera in there if Jackson is somehow able to remove his diaper with feetie PJ's on. He DESERVES to sleep in the nude then!!!

Another Jackson story...my poor baby boy!!! We were shopping (gasp!!) at Khols the other day and Jackson and Aiden were each in their own little shoppy cart thingie. We had them both parked near one another while we were waiting in line when out of nowhere Jackson reaches out and grabs the handle to Aiden's cart and pulls it near him. The way the carts are....poor Jackson ended up smashing Aiden's cart handle right into his nose AND upper lip! Jason and I both saw it happen in slow motion and there was just nothing we could do fast enough. I swooped him up as soon as I could but it was too late. He was already screaming and in so much pain. It took a while before I saw the blood and then there was just so much of it!! Jason was freaking out and there I was holding Jackson who was screaming his head off and his little mouth was pouring blood out down my shirt and arm. :o( Oh, it was just terrible but my little man was such a trooper. He busted his upper lip pretty bad and his nose bled a little. Of course, he was completely fine the next morning...smiling happy as ever.

Aiden is in the "What's that?" stage. All day long.
"Wus-sat"
"wussat?"
All.
Day.
Long.
It's pretty awesome, actually. I love that he's curious. I'm thrilled that he wants to know names for things.

OH! Time Outs!!!
We do time out's here now. HAHAHA! We have a few time out spots in our house, just down stairs so far...and they actually seem to work! We do it just like Nanny 911.
1. They get a warning.
2. We put them in time out and tell them why they are in time out. Then we tell them they need to "SIT THERE AND STAY FOR ONE MINUTE" and then we walk off.

Most times they just sit there and whine a little, feeling sorry for themselves. Then at the end of the minute,
3. We go back to them and remind them why they were in time out and why we don't do whatever it was they were doing.
4. Then we tell them we love them and have them give us a hug.

There hasn't been a time out yet where they weren't in a better mood at the end of the time out thanks to the hug. YAY!

That's another GREAT thing about this 18 month old age. HUGS!!!!!!!!!! I get hugs and kisses ALL DAY LONG!!!!!!!! And I was secretly worried about that, too! I was worried that little boys wouldn't want to hug and kiss. And while Jackson still doesn't like you to kiss him on the lips (nor does he like to kiss with his lips)...when you ask him to give you a kiss, he turns his cheek and leans toward you! HAHAHA! Little stinker! Aiden (most of the times) will give me a big ole wet kiss on the lips. Heehee. Lady Killer. They really are little lovey dovey things when they want to be and I CAN'T GET ENOUGH!!!!!

I'm sure I could write for hours but I've already spent more time on here than I had planned. I'll write more and update you more later. Love you all!

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Aiden and Jackson had been scouting out the cookies that were on the kitchen table and tonight they finally acted on it.

We found Jackson running around the kitchen stuffing something into his face. I bent down to see what it was he was stuffing his face with and................lo and behold it was a cookie!!

I want to share with you one of my new favorite photos of Aiden.

Can't you just picture him in another 15 years? He's going to be breaking all kinds of hearts!

Oh! Another kinda funny story....

I took J&A to Hobby Lobby today to get more things for the holidays and some canvases so I can paint pictures for their room. We spent about 45 minutes looking around so by the time we were at the check-out, Jackson was about fed-up with me. He ironically was wearing his old school onesie that said "Mr. Happy" on it. Some college "kid" in front of us in line turns around and says to me, "He doesn't seem too happy today."

HAHA

You're telling me, kid!!!

(if you missed it...check out the previous post with all of the Thanksgiving photos.)

Thanksgiving

was a BLAST!!

The boys started off the festivities after a nice nap and woke to find that Oma, Opa and Aunt Kaity were already here, waiting to play.

It seemed that everyone got their turn to spend with Jackson and Aiden. Jason and I enjoyed hearing everyone talking about how much they thought the boys have changed since last year and in which ways.

It was SO laid back and EVERYONE pitched in so much that Jason and I didn't need to do much at ALL! It was an amazing little break amidst all the chaotic moving. Jason cooked the turkey (which was Cajun flavored)and I made the green bean casserole. The night before I made 2 pumpkin pies and a fruit salad. That's IT. Everyone else brought the rest!

Oma brought her delicious stuffing (which Aunt Kaity helped with), some yams and a mouth watering cherry pie. Aunt Backy brought the famous mac n cheese and the BEST mashed taters we've had in a long time. She also brought rolls and a cucumber/vinegar salad that her and Jason looooooooooooove. The first time Jason met my Aunt Backy was for Thanksgiving and they bonded over the fact that they loved the same stinky salad. Well guess what? Now they have the boys hooked on it!! Hahahaha! Jackson and Aiden ate it as leftovers for DAYS. Breakfast, lunch AND dinner! heehee And Paw Paw (who is still trying to decide on a name for the boys to call him!!!!) brought 2 pies.

Great, GREAT times. WONDERFUL family. And I can honestly say that it felt like a BREAK to Jason and I to have everyone here! A BREAK! Thanks, everyone. We hope you too had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

We are looking forward to Christmas when Nana and Grandpa will be here, too!!!!

Fingers Crossed

For those of you following along...the Master Plan was to be completely moved and have the old place cleaned up by December 1st. It's December 3rd and we are still there. I can say without ANY guilty conscience however; it's not for lack of trying. Jason and I have given so much time and energy to moving out of that old place. And our poor children!! Each time we have to go back to the old place and the kids have to go with us, they get locked up in a pack n play for hours while we take care of what needs to be taken care of. There just is no way to let them run around the house with all the miscellaneous things laying around. They HATE it. The poor guys are getting to the point where they scream when we go to get in the car. It's terrible. I knew moving out of that place was going to be tough...but I honestly had no idea. None.

I'd been feeling really guilty about the condition of the house but I think I need to keep reminding myself (and have those of you out there continue to remind me...) that when I moved into that place 3 years ago....it was FILTHY! Disgustingly dirty. It was a nasty bachelor pad that had at LEAST 7 bachelors traded turns living there. At the point when I so stupidly decided to move in, there had already been massive amounts of damage done to that house due to all of my husband and his friends' partying. With all that being said...there is only so much I can do. I've done my very best at turning that filthy party shack into something that more resembles a home. Pardon my french, but I've busted my ass at that. When Jason and I were trying to get started with the adoption process, we countless hours trying to get that house in shape. Now it's time to move out and it's a 15 year old house. It's been rented by Pat and various other bachelors for the past 9 years. It simply is not fair under ANY circumstance to expect just Jason and I to get that house back in the original condition it was in 9 years ago when Pat moved in. Sorry. I've been beating myself up over this and I've got to say that I'm done. I have quite simply done everything in my power to clean up that place and if it's not good enough, there just isn't anything more I can do.

Jason took the van to work today and he's going to try to pack everything that's left in the back of the van during lunch and bring it to San Marcos. Let's keep your fingers crossed that today will be the very last day that we have to go back to Yora Drive.

This move has caused so much stress. It's not the actual buying or building of the house that's the tough part, it's parting ways at the old place. It's trying to keep your family happy while doing all the back breaking work while trying to balance friendships at the same time.

I just want to thank our family for their love and support they've shown us, especially in the past couple months. Thank you to EVERYONE who offered to watch J&A for us. It means a lot. A big thank you to Opa for helping us those two very long days with moving. We couldn't have done it without you. Thanks to Nana and Grandpa Mark who are always willing to help out in any way needed. Thank you Oma and PawPaw for saying, "I'd LOVE to! When?" when asked if you'd help watch the kids for a few hours. Dale and Cheryl for always offering their help with the move or with the boys. And most importantly, thank you to EVERYONE else (Grandpa Lou) for allowing us to vent to you. It's so important that we are able to talk through our frustrations and also get other peoples perspective on things. It's reassuring to know that we can tell you guys anything and you won't be so quick to judge. You let us talk and that's so important to us. Thank you. One thing is for sure, we have TONS of family that love and support us and we are extremely blessed for that. Thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.

(I'll post a blog about Thanksgiving in a few days. I've just got to get done with this other house first.)

More Milk

After showing Jackson the sign for "milk" about 5-10 times, he learned how to do it on his own! Now he can say, "more milk" and he's so proud! You can see it in his eyes. As soon as he asks for more milk and I give him praise for asking properly (not screaming or yelling) his eyes were lit up and he started clapping for himself!! It's too cute.

Aiden has been doing very well with his manners. He's said "Thank You" about 3 times today without Jason or I needing to prompt him to say it! I think it helps that Jason and I are always trying to use our manners with one another in front of the kids. They see that we do it, that's it's just what's normal...and they follow what we do.

Mr. Jackson seems more social since we moved to San Marcos. Isn't that strange? He's waving and "talking" to strangers more and more these days. Today he was even flirting with a woman who was sitting near us while Aiden sat across from the table, completely unaware. It's amazing how much they change over the months.

The one thing that STILL hasn't changed is the weight difference. Jackson is clearly wearing 18 month old pants and you have to struggle to get him into 12 month old pants. It looks goofy on him. Aiden, on the other hand can hardly wear 12 month pants due to his little waist but they almost always look like capri's/high water's. Aiden NEEDS the length of 18 month old pants but the waist of 9-12 month old pants. Jackson has ALWAYS been bigger than Aiden. The closest they've ever been in weight was on June 9, 2007, the day they were born. Jackson was 5 lbs 1 oz and Aiden was 4 lbs 12 oz. That's really, really close for fraternal twins. Jackson seemed to just thrive outside of the womb, gaining weight and learning how to feed from a bottle right away while Aiden took some time...therefore Aiden was slow to gain weight. The weight difference became more pronounced as Aiden started eating less and less due to his acid reflux. Once they started eating table food, Aiden has seemed to keep up with Jackson's gain but he can't seem to catch up yet. Where at one people wouldn't believe that they were twins, the difference was so big...you can still tell that Jackson is bigger, but it seems more slight at this age.

PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESS IF YOU WOULD LIKE A CHRISTMAS CARD!!!! :o)

I'd better get going. Thank you all for tuning in.

Broken Camera

So I don't really have many picture to share.

We are absolutely in love with San Marcos. Everyone we've come across has been really helpful and nice. Jackson and Aiden have seemed to make a pretty easy transition. They are of course loving all of the extra space they now have.

The neighborhood is even better than we could have imagined. There's a great mix of ages and races.

The neighbors to the right are two college guys at Texas State. One of them introduced himself to me. His name is Tyler. I told him I was Teela and you know what he said? "It's nice to meet you, Ma'am."

"Excuse me?! 'Ma'am'??? I'm only 26!" *sigh* So now I refer to them as kids. Heehee. It's the little things that make me feel better. teehee Anyway, they seem very nice.

We think someone should be moving into the house on the left in just a few short days. They are nearly finished on the house so the sod should be going in shortly. We think it's an older couple that will be moving in. It's a much smaller house (like just over 1000 sq feet).

But then...across the street we have kids galore!! Almost all of our across the street neighbors have children. I don't think we've seen many kids near Jackson and Aiden's age except for...

The back door neighbors. Our yards back up to each other.

Anyway, again...it's a smaller house so our theory is...the Grandma lives there and takes care of her granddaughter/son during the days. We've seen the "Grandma" and I think I saw the daughter once. We have yet to see the little kid but we've hear her/him and we see toys out there all the time. Not to mention, the pack n play is kind of a dead give-away. We are assuming that the little one is close in age to the boys. We've never said hi to the Grandma out back yet though. She's normally had her back turned to us or something else was going on. ALSO (and the plot thickens) she's exotic!! She speaks another language and it's not espanol. Maybe she's Greek or French? Oh the possibilities!! :o) We can't wait to get to know them better.

We've still got so much stuff that needs to get done at the old place before Thanksgiving and the end of the month. SO MUCH. Hopefully we'll put a good dent in it this weekend. Wish us luck cause we are going to need it.

What else is new?

Jackson is now learning how to sign. My mom started teaching Jackson how to say "more" in sign language. I have to admit, he picked it up rather fast. Now he will sign "more" to us when he wants more food. Today I also caught him saying, "Hi Kitty." They are such little sponges at this age.

We've noticed that Aiden is the talker. He's the one who is saying new words all the time. He also loves to point to things and ask, "wus dat?" even though the w is normally silent. haha

They are both always wanting to learn new things.

They've also become more of little helpers than before. Now they seemingly want to do what you ask them to do. They like to bring things to you when you ask them to which is nice.

OH! BLOWING KISSES! (which is what they are both doing in one of those pictures above) They both learned rather quickly how to blow kisses! YAY! I love my baby boys kisses. Now they blow kisses to strangers from time to time.

They still have that wild streak. That stubbornness toddlers are so good at. We've had to start doing time out's every now and then. Most times they are really good children. Happy. Loving. But sometimes something gets in them and they can flat out be mean. When they get really frustrated they like to pull each others hair, yank on their clothes, and hit them on the head. Part of me knows that this is mostly the age but the other park of me knows that I need to stop that behavior now so that I don't have two little spoiled brats in a few years, ya know what I mean? I guess most of parenting is spent trying to find that happy medium. I do not want to be a militant overbearing parent but I also don't want to be a push over that allows my children to call the shots.

And I thought most of the worries would be over after pregnancy! HA! That's when the real tough work starts!!

Well, I know I could talk on for days but I need to get some things done before the kiddos get up from their nap. I'll post more updates later on. Love you ALL!

It's Official!

We are homeowners!

Friday was CRAZY. Not only was it Halloween, but it was also the day we did our final walk through and signed on the house.

I woke up at 4 am and started the day with a BIG pot of coffee. We got the boys up and dressed, gave them their Dink of Milk and then we went out for breakfast together, which is really rare. We normally never eat out for breakfast. The boys loved it. They ate lots of pancakes, biscuits, sausage, chicken, and hash browns. They still don't like eggs much. I don't get it? I thought all kids liked eggs? Even I liked eggs as a child.

Then they went to Oma and Opa's so that Jason and I could go to our final walk through. We were shocked that they got 99% of the "issues" we found corrected already. There were just a few very minor things we saw and there was a touch up painter who followed us around to correct all the mistakes. When we were done there, we left to go to the title company to sign on the house. Once we got there, it took about 2 hours for them to actually GET all the paperwork but once it was there, it took us less than an hour to sign it and go through it all. Simple!

Then we went back to the old house to pick up the dogs and went to Oma and Opa's to pick up the boys. We got to OUR house, Jason dashed off to grab us some dinner, we ate, got the boys dressed up in their costumes and took them trick-or-treating. They weren't in the best mood to go trick-or-treating, that's for sure. Man! Jason and I ended up having to carry them around ourselves for most of the night so needless to say, it was a very short trick-or-treating experience. But it was really neat to get to meet some of our neighbors...and take candy from them. LOL. We got pretty good candy, too. None of that generic stuff.

It was SUCH a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG day.

After we got the boys undressed, into their PJ's and into bed we decided to start painting the boys room (it was about 9:00 p.m. by then). We ran out of paint before we ran out of energy, shockingly enough.

When we were done with that, we decided it was time to blow up the ole' blow up mattress. We took out the mattress and pump and I asked Jason, "where's the plug?"
"What plug?"
"For the mattress pump." I said.
"There IS no pump. It said it came with batteries."
"I don't see any batteries either."
We searched our empty room high and low for these batteries that were included until I re-read the box and it said, "Batteries NOT included."

Grrrrrrrrr. At this point, I just wanna lay down and pass out and Jason, being the amazing husband that he is says that he will drive up to a gas station to buy some extremely overpriced batteries. At this point, it's probably 10:30 pm or so.

While Jason was driving all over San Marcos trying to find some batteries I thought it would be the perfect time to take a long hot shower. I turn on the tub in the master bath and it's COLD. I decide to let it warm up while I do something else and when I came back...it was still freezing cold.

Come to find out, we don't think it was ever plugged in? We called Our Man Fernando who said he'd get someone RIGHT on it, which he did. As soon as we got home from the store, the sales guy's car was blocking our driveway so we parked down the street. The sales guy went in and checked out the hot water heater and that's how him and Jason came to the conclusion that it was never plugged in.

It's a HUGE water heater. It's 55 gallons. I'm assuming that's why Jason and the sales guy didn't just plug it in themselves...I still don't know for sure...but we were told that they'd call out an electrician. Wait...I think the words that were used were "emergency electrician." Ok. We'll sit around and wait. Meanwhile, Jason got three phone calls from random people apologizing for this.

We waited. And waited. Until we simply couldn't wait anymore and we had to take the boys to eat dinner. And since we still have no hot water, we called Our Man Fernando back and said something like, "We need to bathe not just ourselves but our kids too and we can not wait around here anymore today (it was about 5 pm...we called him initially at 10 am). It seems someone has dropped the ball yet again.

Let's see....so far we've got and added $1000 because they made an error and never notified us that our floor plan would be flipped. Then just recently we got an added 10x10 patio out back because they didn't call us like they told us they would. What now? A garage door opener?

Anyway.

Today we had Nana, Grandpa Mark, Aunt Cheryl, Uncle Dale and Aunt Laurie over to see the house. It was soooo nice getting to see everyone and having them come over to check the place out. Everyone is so proud of us and it makes us all the more proud.

Now we are back at the old house because this is the only place with hot water and two cribs. We will be going back to OUR house tonight to sleep but we needed to freshen up so we thought we'd sop to watch the UT game. We are about to turn off the TV though because the way the Longhorns are playing is making us sick.

I'm going to end this blog now because it's already much longer than intended. Goodnight everyone! I hope you all had a safe and fun Halloween!

Not much time..but here are some pictures

Aiden and Jackson sitting on the low wall in the new house.



Aiden and Daddy playing around.



Double Trouble is an understatement!!



Jackson in rare form!

We will be MIA

because IT'S ON! Like Donkey Kong!!

Fernando (in charge of the construction) gives us HIS WORD that we will be done with both walk-throughs and everything fixed BY FRIDAY. It's Tuesday and we haven't yet had our first walk though so I'll believe it when I see it.

But tomorrow we have a walk-through at 10 am which should be interesting. Since they are worse procrastinators than we are and pushed this all off until the very last minute, we weren't able to coincide the walk-through with my mom's work schedule so we will just take a few toys and let them play in their room. We'll see how that goes. Keep your fingers crossed for us. They will be missing a nap.....yikes.

The GOOD thing is that we've been going up to see the house about twice a week so we know where most of the little mistakes are. I feel like we have a little bit of a head start.

But we probably won't be online much at all for the next few days but we will make sure to take lots of pictures and post them when we get some time. We love you all and here are some pictures to get you through the next week or so.


Aiden's imitation of John McCain.

Jackson enjoying some of the cooler weather in the front yard of the old house.

Yet ANOTHER Video!!!

Isn't that just the best? He's just so proud of himself.

We have been taking full advantage of the weather and spending lots of time outside each day.


This is Jackson's infamous pouty-face.


And here's Jackson's pumpkin. We'll show you Aiden's pumpkin tomorrow!

Video!!

This is of Aiden saying "sues" over and over again. You can tell by the end of the video, he's already saying shoes better.

I also ask them if they are going to say hi and wave and if you listen carefully, Jackson says, "yeah." It's hard to catch Jackson talking. He's a man of few words.

Then Aiden steals the spotlight by waving his cute little wave.



Hope you enjoy!

We've been really busy around here. I promise I'll reply to the emails soon. Love you all VERY much.

New Shoes!

THIS is what we've been waiting for...

Here are just a few examples of awesomeness at our house lately.

A few days ago Jackson and Aiden were playing on the floor with Jason and I was cleaning up in the kitchen. I came around the kitchen and Jackson looked up at me, smiled and said, "Mama!" and ran to me to give me a hug. It was one of THE BEST feelings in the world.

Then just yesterday when Jason came home, both boys heard the lock turn and had HUGE smiles on their face as they took off running to get their Daddy's attention. Jason was so proud and said, "Remember? THIS is the age I couldn't wait to get to. THIS is what hurt me most about not having kids." I fell in love even MORE.

Aiden and Jackson are starting to show more affection to each other. It's still not a very common occourance but I try to catch them doing nice things for each other and to each other and then I will make sure to praise them. For example, just yesterday Aiden walked up to Jackson who was getting his diaper changed and he patted him very nicely on the head. Normally Aiden would have smacked him with a wooden spoon or something....so I made sure to clap for Aiden and tell him what a good boy he was being. haha It's the little things.

Today! haha I was asking Jackson to "give Mommy a kiss" and he would stick his tongue out. Here he is blowing kisses. hahahahaha



I asked him to give Aiden a kiss and Jackson leaned over and licked Aiden's face. Aiden looked up at me with a HUGE grin. LOL! I love this stuff!!!

We've also been working on sharing more. They are still far from being what I'd call a great sharers but you can tell that they are at least able to understand what it means to share. That as long as a parent is involved, they will get their turn eventually.


It's still easier if you give them both their own straw. :o)

And Jackson's so smart he thinks that if he sucks on BOTH straws that maybe he'll get MORE.


These kids are simply awesome. Being their Mommy is pretty easy cause it's so much fun! We should have the Halloween pictures back in just a few days so keep your eyes peeled. We will send out an email with the password so you can view them on Penny's website. Mommy's little Monkey's!

Sunday Mornings

Before I start this blog, I have to say that my dad STILL hasn't picked out a name he wants Jackson and Aiden to call him so for the time being, I'm going to call him Paw-Paw (it sounds kinda Native American-ish, right?)

Paw-Paw comes over to visit his boys about 3 times a month, always on Sundays. He normally bring them over a little "knick-knack" to play with. One Sunday it was matchbox cars. Another Sunday it was a few balloons. Grandpa Mark will be impressed to know that this Sunday Paw-Paw brought them over a little fishing game. They are going to be ready for fly-fishing in NO time.

In the last picture you can see how Aiden and Jackson both fight for Paw-Paw's attention.

More About Our Home

Still waiting on the sod but our front door and garage door are finally painted! I was getting worried that there was yet another misunderstanding and they were planning to leave it white. Nope. We mentioned it on one phone call and the net visit, it was done.

Look! It's carpet AND tile!

Aiden coming to visit me in his and Jackson's room.

Jackson and Aiden are already trying to figure out how to escape by opening doors! They are just so smart!

From the stairs, looking into the living room and kitchen.


Jackson beat Aiden on the race DOWN the stairs.

We spent the day in San Marcos and then finally picked out the colors for the master bath. We also got the fans for the living room, master bedroom and the boys' room. We had a very long yet a very nice day. The boys are in bed and Jason and I are watching the 'Horns beat the living snot out of Missouri. GO HORNS! Jackson and Aiden were wearing their Longhorn outfits for probably the last time. The weather should be changing soon...so out with the old Longhorn stuff and in with the new! ;o)

I'll be posting new pictures of the boys very soon. Love you all.

Home Sweet Home

We were told that our house is pretty much DONE. All we have to do now is about a billion different walk-throughs and then we get to sign our life and future away to Countrywide on Halloween and THEN the keys (and house) will be OURS.

It's extremely scary. More so than having kids, if you ask me. At least with kids, you can kick 'em out after 18 years. We've got 30 years to care for this house. Yikes.

I'm sorry about the lack of pictures. SOMEONE (I won't name names) has seemingly LOST the camera. :o( I'm shocked I haven't lost Jackson or Aiden yet.

We also took the monkey's to Penny's last night to get their pictures done in their costumes. I'll be sure to post the link as soon as Penny's posts them online.

We hope everyone has a spectacular weekend!

Errr...

that didn't work well.

It's Not FAIR!

What happened to precious nap time? Where did it go?

Sweet lil Aiden still takes one nap a day but Jackson. Ohhhhhh Jackson. He has just stopped taking naps ALTOGETHER and it's enough to drive a twin Mama crazy!

So I'm trying something different today.

Rather than just letting him stay in his room with Aiden I'm letting him lay on the bed next to me right now. I gave him a book, which he's flipping through and I'm getting some Mama Time. He listens pretty well when I tell him to lay down....so we'll see how this goes. Now maybe Aiden won't be startled awake by Jackson doing head dives out of his crib.

Who knows. He might just let me snuggle with him and take a nap.

Keep your fingers crossed!

My, Times are Changing!

This is how we go from the house to the car now. Gone are the days of having to lug them around in their little infant carriers. They love to walk everywhere and I love it!! Everyone said, "I don't know what you are going to do when they are both walking...." Well, I do! I'm going to enjoy some independence! Walk on, little ones. Walk on.

















JLH and JLH JR are ready to serve! They had a blast playing bartender.






My lil Aiden, Saggy Britches Boy! LOL He's 16 months old now and those are 12 month old pants and he's just SWIMMING in them. Awww. He won't be this little forever.

Jackson LOVES dirt as you can see. A crazy love obsession that only little boys have.

And last but not least...lil ole Aiden throwing a BIG FIT becase he does not want to leave. First he had to throw a hit at the playground and then again when we put him in the car. Gotta love it!