Colorado Medley

Instead of posting multiple videos from the last week I decided just to compile them into one medley of the kids jumping, singing, & playing.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Beautiful Days, Challenging Moments

If you had asked me two weeks ago how I felt about having two boys in the "terrible two's", I would have told you that I actually really like the age of 2. In fact the last 7 months have been some of my best times with the kids as far as "having it together". I don't know what occurred on that plane ride up to CO but both of my children have become extremely difficult to manage and I've been on my knees praying for guidance and feeling at a complete loss.

I know the pictures show joyous and beautiful moments, and there have been many wonderful moment up here. What they don't show is a mother who is feeling completely overwhelmed at the moment by her kids behavior "behind the scenes" of these photos. I'm used to manging the boys all by myself during long days of navigating our busy and complicated schedule but suddenly, even with the help of my family, I feel completely outnumbered. I wish Kenny were here and I miss him a lot, walking this new phase without him has been especially challenging. In fact, I'm not sure my family is going to invite us back anytime soon. Anyone have any advice on dealing with whining? I'm talking about extreme fall out on the floor, repeat the same request 500 times, nails on chalk board whining at the top of your lungs in Walmart, yes I was THAT Mom today.

To end on a positive note, when the boys and I were saying our bedtime prayers (in which I prayed in front of my kids for patience, consistency, and wisdom), Andrew started to spontaneously thank God for things. The boys like to pray and usually will repeat things they've heard me say before ("Thank you for Granny, Pa, Gammaw, Peepaw, etc"). But tonight Andrew starting thanking God for things totally on his own and it was precious. "Thank you Colorado, Thank you Ranch, Thank you Texas, Thank you Razor Rides, Thank you Gator Rides, Thank you Lunch, Thank you Eating, Thank you Tigers". Pretty sweet to see the things that Andrew recognizes as blessings at the precocious age of 2.5. Maybe, just Maybe, some things about God are beginning to stick in that wild head of his.

Every day begins with a walk. We've been doing about 3-5 miles throughout a day and it feels wonderful!

We try and encourage the boys to walk a little first before getting in the stroller

"Sticky Bear"

The public playgrounds up here are awesome!

Dinner during a downpour

Silly Monkey

On Sunday morning we attended church service at the beautiful and cozy Beaver Creek Chapel.

Adam snares me with those blue eyes

Inside the Chapel

Precious Ben in his Blue Jeans

Adam was ecstatic to try out the bungee trampoline. He kept telling them "Higher Higher" until he would suddenly get scared and they'd lower him back down but not for long before he was yelling "Higher Higher" again. Too funny.

My Baby was flying like an acrobat

Andrew of course, wanted nothing to do with this activity!

Grandparents and Grandbabies

Parenting Twins includes a lot of juggling!

I LOVE these photos of my mom, sister, me & all our baby boys

Playing in the Rain. It's been so long since it rained back home, I was surprised that the boys knew what it was!

Adam kept saying "I be careful"

And just like the rain,
I know that this Difficult Phase Too Shall Pass

"But you are a shield around me, O LORD;

you bestow glory on me and lift up my head.
To the LORD I cry aloud,

and he answers me from his holy hill. Selah
I lie down and sleep; I wake again,

because the LORD sustains me."

Psalm 3:3-5

Independence Day Celebrations

The 4th of July celebrations up here begin on the 3rd with a Festival which this year featured Foghat and a major fireworks show, one touted as the biggest in the Rocky Mountains. We took the boys to the kids section of the festival which was a lot of fun. They got fireworks painted on their faces, they got balloon swords, they won candy and trinkets playing some carnival games, and Adam had a blast in a bounce house. I couldn't get Andrew to put down his lolly pop down to join Adam.

We then left the festival and walked over to a pizza place to grab a bite to eat and Andrew astonished us all by devouring an entire slice of pepperoni pizza cute into bites. Andrew has such major food sensory issues that he's never even eaten one bite of pizza before. I was SO proud of him! After the pizza we walked back over to watch the fireworks and caught the tail end of the Foghat concert.

The fireworks were incredible, covering the sky above the lake and choreographed to music. I thought the boys, particularly Andrew, would be horrified by the loud booms but they loved it all. Andrew said "That's COOL Mama!" about 20 times. The fireworks didn't even start until almost 10pm Mountain time, which is 11pm at home but the boys were troopers.

The next day, on the actual 4th, we went over to watch the parade, which the boys loved. They kept talking about the horses and drums and the train. After the parade we ate more pizza (so much for the strict diet I'd been on ;-) and then my dad and the boys and I walked about 2 miles to outdoor Ford amphitheater where the Dallas Philharmonic was playing a free patriotic concert. There was this insanely anal lady demanding everyone to stay off the boulders (for liability purposes) that cover the lawn and make for perfect seats, especially when there are way to many people there.

So after we got tired of standing and the boys were bored we headed over to the Betty Ford Gardens and visited the children's garden before visiting their awesome playground which ironically includes boulders shaped like birds for the kids to play on, go figure. After a very full two days, we were glad to go home and do nothing the rest of the day to rest.

I would have to say Colorado is THE place to be for the 4th of July. They offer so many fun and free family things to do during this time and you just can't beat the weather and scenery.

Checking out a deer we spotted across the road

Adam was very serious about the carnival games and candy eating, he's such a natural born competitor

I've never seen him bounce quite as big before

Sword Fight

Firecracker Faces

Three Cheers for Pa! For someone who doesn't like crowds or public places, he was such a trooper going to all the events with me and helping with the kids.

Waiting for a table at the pizza joint

This is an action shot of Adam knocking Andrew down, moments after that sweet photo above

But fortunately Andrew is quick to forgive

Granny gets in on the sword fight

This is Andrew after his amazing pizza marathon

It was pretty chilly during the fireworks show

Posing with Cousin Ben on July 4th

Andrew watching the Parade on Pa's shoulders

Adam watches from Uncle Shawn's shoulders

The flowers up here are AMAZING

It's so hard to get a good shot of both of them

So sweet

"My Twin, My Friend"

Playing in a puddle

Sometimes I think we're in Switzerland

Adam doing some forbidden boulder sitting

It was a packed place!

Checking out the cool tractor pin wheel in the Children's Garden

Testing out the Frigid Water

The Playground at Last!

So tiny tots playing on this boulder is perfectly okay, but adults sitting on the other one is highly dangerous. Can you tell I was annoyed?

Moms are allowed to enjoy the playground too!

Back home and everyone is exhausted!

July 4th, 2009 What a day !!!

God Bless America!

I've taken tons of pictures over the last few days but here is a sample of a few of my favorites until I get a chance to post more. This has been the best July 4th I've ever had (if only Kenny would have been able to be here too!) I'm so thankful for so many things and being able to celebrate with my kids and watch them take in the excitement has been priceless.

Cousins

SO Sweet!

One Blessed Mama

I hope you had a wonderful Independence Day!

An Adam Funny

Tonight as we were walking to the best fireworks display I've ever seen in my life, we were cutting across a parking lot and my Dad, the kids in the stroller, and I went one direction and my mom went around some cars a different direction.

Immediately Adam starting to wail like he was watching his dog get run over and shouted "Granny's getting away!" Granny is getting AWAAAAAAAY!"

I about fell to the ground I was laughing so hard, I've never heard him use that phrase before in any context and he was so earnest and sad. But then Granny jumped out from behind some cars with a peek a boo and all was right in the world again.

The rest of the night, anytime my mom got more than a few feet ahead, Dad & I would say "Oh No, Granny's getting away!!!!

Escaping the Heat

Adam , Andrew & I are so happy to be in Colorado but we are missing Daddy wo had to stay behind to work. It was a long day of traveling, thank goodness we were with Granny & Pa so we had extra hands to help. The toughest parts were getting our circus through security, sitting on the runway for an hour in the heat waiting for our plane to get cleared for take off, messing with the rental car company who didn't understand why us and all our stuff wouldn't fit in a midsize, getting stuck in construction stand still on the wrong highway going away from our destination, keeping two littles twin two year old boys happy during a full day of traveling. The airport we normally fly into is only 30 minutes from the house and it's small and convenient but since we had to fly to Denver, rent a car and drive three hours that really complicated things.

But we finally made it in ONE piece and when we stopped to pick up some milk and a cool wall of air hit me in the face I knew it was all worth it!

But before we left Texas we had some fun activities.

First up was a play date with our triplet friends. We had a blast visiting them and and their new baby brother.

I was smitten with baby London!

Twins, Triplets, & a Baby Brother

Adam & Andrew were so excited to hold Baby London

Then we got to attend the much anticipated 3rd Birthday Party for cousin Luke. Adam & Andrew are finally understanding parties and they carried the invitation around for days asking to go to Luke's Birthday Party so once the day finally arrived they were so excited and especially loved the birthday cake, I think they had three pieces!

Baby Kate & Pa

The two newest cousins, Kate & Ben, so sweet!

Pinata Time!

My sister & I and our three precious boys

Colorado Bound!!

All packed and ready to go

How do you cope with an hour long delay on the runway? M&M's of course!

From the looks of this photo, you'd think the flight was a piece of cake but the photo doesn't show two boys acting like typical two year olds, kicking the seats in front of them, pestering each other, repeatedly throwing the headphones on the ground. Fortunately everyone around us was very kind and accepted our apologies for the seat kicking, aghhhhhh!

Andrew slept in a "Big Boy Bed" for the first time ever. Yes I'm pretty spoiled that my 2.5 year olds still happily sleep in their cribs at home! But since there is a toddler bed here I thought we'd take a trial run. He did great until about 5:30am when he woke up and couldn't figure out where he was and had a panic attack and woke up his brother. The rest of the morning was spent in bed with me, fighting over who got to lay their head where.

Nothing sweeter than a sleeping child!

This morning we tested out the BOB in the steep terrain. We took a trip to the park and it worked great!

Later today we stopped by SuperWalmart to stock up on groceries and the boys were so excited when I picked them up some cowboy hats to wear to the local rodeo. Adam was so proud of it and kept saying, "Wanna go ride horsey!"

These boys crack me up!

Tonight Adam decided that he needed to try out the "Big Boy Bed" but he had a little trouble staying put at first so finally he fell asleep after Granny sat down by him until he was out.

SO SWEET!

I hope he makes it past 5:30am!

That's all for now, we are having a blast and looking forward to watching fireworks soon. Hope you have a wonderful week celebrating Independence Day!!

I Survived!!

I did it, I survived my 4 weeks of intense boot camp. Honestly I didn't even mention it on the blog until I had lasted a full week because I wasn't sure I'd be able to do it, I'm probably the most unathletic, unflexible person ever that absolutely hated to work out or run. But by the grace of God, I made it and I haven't felt this good in a long time. I'm sleeping well, I have more energy, my back isn't hurting nearly as often. Despite cutting out some serious calories from my diet, I didn't drop a ton of weight like I hoped but I definitely feel better. The kids & I are going out of town for the next two weeks so I'm going to be missing the first half of the July session but I'm already registered to pick it back up when I return. I hope I don't lose all the endurance and strength that I had gained between now and then. I'm planning to do lots of walking in the mountains so hopefully I can maintain it.

The boys were nervous to pose with Jerrod but they did tell him "Gig'em Aggies" and talked the rest of the day about how he throws the football.

The next Michael Phelps?

A visit to the John Deere tractor store

I LOVE this photo!!!

As a reward for completing Bootcamp I decided to finally give in to my longing for a BOB Revolution Duallie jogging stroller to keep me motivated and to make those mountain walks even more fun.

"The Beast" is what the boys call it

Everyone tells me I won't regret this purchase, so far they are right!

Celebrating Gammaw & Peepaw

This past weekend we kids and some close family friends had a surprise party for Gammaw & Peepaw to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary and Peepaw's 60th birthday. It was exciting to see that we pulled off the surprise and it was so fun to see their faces as they noticed all the special guests that were there for them. What a fun time! Congrats Gammaw & Peepaw!

Earlier this week I decided to be an adventurous Mama and let the boys do some painting. Since it was water based paint, the only rule was that the paint had to stay outside and clothes had to come off. My naked painters were happy to oblige!

I think it's so sweet how even though I gave them each their own side with a fresh piece of paper, they insisted on painting together.

Adam and Andrew both painted on Adam ;-)

Andrew managed to stay much cleaner

Adam & Andrew love to paint and I love to see those precious smiles on their faces. Another benefit is that painting standing up at an easel is very good occupation therapy for Andrew's fine motor skills.

Andrew Swimming Take Two

I took this about 10 days ago at Andrew's ISR refresher course. He's an old pro at floating! I haven't gotten any videos of them swimming to the side yet which they are doing pretty well. We've missed our lessons this week due to Roseola Virus, poor babies!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Have you ever seen a Monster?

Monsters have been spotted this week in a lake at my parent's house. They are called Alligator Gar. They have a mouth full of huge teeth and head just like an alligator but their bodies are fish with slimy scales and fins. The biggest one measured in at 7 feet 2 inches. My friend James in this photo is 6 feet 7 inches so that gives the photo some perspective. I saw this thing with my own eyes so I'm not making this stuff up, these are some nasty critters!

I found them hanging out togther having a little jam session in their pajamas one morning.

In other news, my babies have had a nasty case of Roseola virus that has kept them in and out of a feverish state off and on since last Friday. Poor babies finished off several bottles of Motrin this week and have been fighting over who gets to lay directly on top of me in my bed while watching tv in the mornings until the motrin would kick in. It was sad and frustrating, they were literally kicking and clawing at each other and they couldn't stand for the other one to even be touching me. "My Mama, No MINE" they would scream. Poor babies! Fortunately this seems to be behind us, I'm not used to seeing them so pitiful:


At Boot Camp we asked Jerrod to wear some Aggie Gear so we could get the kids pictures taken with him in their football jerseys but since all the kids have been sick I just got one with a very handsome mohawked Greyson. We are supposed to try again one day this coming week. We've completed 3 full weeks of physical torture, I'm so proud of us!

Lounging before a swimming lesson, they only went one day this week and I was surprised that they were actually sad to miss them. They kept saying "Go Susan House, swimming pool!"

Silly Face into what was Granny's Clean Window

Here's to hoping the upcoming week will be a healthy joyful week while getting back into the swing of our busy schedule.

And a very Happy Father's Day to all the special Daddies out there!! We love you!!