Wild Weather

I am a weather nut! No seriously, I love weather. I love weather so much that I minored in Meteorology in college. I would have majored in it if I didn't need to have almost as many semesters of math as a math major... after taking Calculus twice, I decided, I needed a different major! Anyway, I digress!! LOL

On Friday there was a cold front heading our way and with it was a huge line of thunderstorms. I was looking forward to them as I just love to watch the lightening and see all the tall cloud formations.

Finally around 5pm the sky started to get dark and the rain began. It got pretty wild out there and was raining in wind blown sheets!

I went to check the back yard and my view was obscured! Seems a large branch fell from our only large tree....

Thankfully no one was hurt and nothing was damaged but our poor tree!

Update on Colin

I heard from Colin again last night and he is doing great!

He seemed really happy and tired too! He's been enjoying going to KidVenture everyday and making new projects and hanging out with his friends. He stays there until noon and then goes for lunch before finding some exhibit or museum to look at until it is time for the afteroon airshow.

He told me he had won a contest for a drawing he had made and was all excited about his accomplishments.

The others seem to be doing ok... Braden still asks each day "when is Colin coming home." So sweet that he misses his brother so much.

Blow-up and Blow-outs

Have you ever had a day where you suffer a whole days worth of frustrations in about 10 minutes time??

That pretty much sums up today.

It was a normal summer morning of trying to keep the kids focused on getting ready to go to camp. All was going according to schedule for the most part and we were nearly ready to go.

I went outside to get the bikes out of the shed and find my new outfitted bike as well. Only the evening before I had had Bill install my new iBert on the front of my bike so now my bike was a totally tricked out, baby carrying machine!! With the iBert up front and the standard bike seat in back, I would finally be ready to ride the kids to camp with the twins. Bill checked my bike over and blew up the tires. It was in the garage all ready for this morning.

Well, with some struggle, and help from Braden & Haley I got Payton & Sydney in their bike helmets and on my bike. The kids took to their bikes and we were finally ready to ride!

After posing for a quick picture to document this momentous occasion, we were off to camp! At least for a few feet until I felt a distinctive thump, thump. Seems that I blew-out the 20+ year old tires on my bike!!

"Ok kids! Back to the house!". I needed to get the girls in the stroller quickly if we were going to get to camp on time.

I quickly pulled out the double stroller and got the girls out of the bike seats. As I was putting them in, I smelled something... You all know the smell I'm talking about. Yup.. someone had poop!

I did a quick assessment and discovered that Payton was the offending baby. I yanked her out and ran inside quickly leaving 3 kids at the top of the drive way anxiously waiting to get going!

As I ran to the bedroom to grab a diaper I noticed thing were a bit sticky on my arm. Yup, just when you need to really get going, a huge blow-out! Payton had pooped everywhere including my arm! Yuck!

So after getting her changed and back in the stroller, we started off walking... and made it there just a bit late. So much for my plans and the wonderful new bike seat!!

1 week!!

I've made it one week!! Colin has officially been gone a whole week. And yes, it has gone pretty fast- most of the time.

Last night was another night that the phone did not ring... no call from Oshkosh, no update on what wonders the day had revealed to Colin's curious eyes. I know he is having a wonderful time and I had told my Mom & Dad that if he doesn't feel the need to call everyday, that is ok. I want him to enjoy and not feel pressured to check in but it does sting a bit to go to bed at night and not have heard that sweet voice. I still find myself checking his bed every night when I make my before bed rounds to cover and kiss each sleeping angel. I am always saddened to find no little curled up dreamer in his top bunk.

It still seems funny to walk to camp and only be watching 2 kids pedal their bikes ahead of me. I keep trying to count to 5 when we are out and keep coming up short. The van is quieter without him and not in a good way. He and Braden are always wrapped up in some kind of game or story in the way back, and now, Braden is sitting up front with Haley so as not to be alone. Even the girls are missing him because he is the one that helps me to carry them in and out of the van and also being that they are rear-facing, he entertains them as we drive. Sydney in particular loves Colin and I think she has been looking for him.

Braden tells me at least once a day that he wishes Colin was here. It is hard to see him feel sad and alone without his big brother. I know Braden really relies on his brother to be there for him. They happily go to camp and school holding hands most of the time. I think that for Braden, Colin is a safety net of comfort and security. The first night Colin was gone, Braden even slept in his brother's bed.

I guess I never realized how much stability having Colin adds to the family. He really has a great calming presence on the house - despite his occasional out bursts! He is so engaging and creative that the other two have been a bit lost without Colin to tell them what to do and play.

I was encouraged to see Braden and Haley get completely involved in a pretending game yesterday in the back yard. They were pretending to be Padmae and Anakin (of Star Wars fame) as they cared for twins Luke and Leaha. There was something so sweet about listening to them as they carried their imaginary twins to the ship or went out to buy them diapers and baby food! These two don't get a chance to play together that much and it was so nice that they have used this time without Colin to bond and reconnect.

I think Haley is the only one that isn't outwardly missing Colin.. when asked if she misses him she just says "no" will all the girly attitude of a 4 year old who is going on 24. Hey, I guess 5 out of 6 isn't bad! :)

So here's to hoping that he calls in tonight and makes his Mommy's night.

My New Toy

I've joined the present... I am a modern human.. I am the proud owner of my own personal netbook!! (Notice the accent on the word personal... not much around here is personal to anyone!)

I have been wanting to get a laptop for quite a while but have had a hard time justifying the purchase when there are so many other things here that could be bought with that money. I have total laptop envy of Bill and the IBM that he faithfully totes from work to home each day. Being the wonderful man that he is, he has been offering to buy me one for this or that holiday and I have gone along with it for a while and then change my mind and told him to not be so extravagant. "Let's use that money to buy clothes for the kids", etc.

Well, I took a small job a few weeks back helping a family to organize some old paperwork, files, and tax returns. I decided that I would save the money I made, and use it on a netbook. It wasn't enough but with some $$ from selling some baby items on craigslist, I figured eventually I would come up with the money. Then, something wonderful happened.. Woot had a Woot-off. Woot is one of these one deal a day websites but when they have a woot-off, they put up multiple deals until each one is gone. They offered an Asus Eee PC refurb for only $159 with a flat $5 shipping. I couldn't pass up the deal and I had already saved that much $. A win-win for me. So now I am writing this post from my new net book... or maptop (that's a mini-laptop in Bradenese).

So a whole new world of computer bliss has been opened up to me.. I love the idea of connecting on the go and being able to search the vast Internet at a moments notice. I also anticipate being able to blog more frequently, which should make my 'readers' happy! ;)

Day Six...

Well, Oshkosh - more exactly - EAA AirVenture - kicked off yesterday with some really neat fly ins. An aircraft called the WhiteKnightTwo arrived. It is the launch vehicle for the first civilian space flight system. Colin called to tell us all about what he saw, I had a hard time understanding what this "double airplane" he saw was and thought we was just talking about an old fashioned bi-plane. It seems the WK2 is a pretty impressive aircraft and it will be on display for the whole festival.

Colin was also excited to tell us about the fire bombing demo he saw done by a plane called Elvis.

The helicopter's tank holds 2,650 gallons of water or retardant and, according to a U.S. Forest Service study, is the most economical firefighting platform on a price-per-gallon basis. I think Colin just liked to see the big 'splash'!

Colin also got to attend KidVenture and play around in a green DC-3 that is one display just for the kids. He said he has made some friends and is looking forward to going and seeing them and the Dc-3 again today.

He said he was taking a whole lot of pictures and is really enjoying his time. I was so happy to hear his voice after 2 days of not hearing it... he sounded so big and absolutely ecstatic about his adventure. He couldn't wait to see what today would hold for him and what fun things he would see and learn about. You could really hear the excitement in his voice.

Oh the home front, we are holding up ok. It sure isn't the same without him. Braden seems to really miss his brother and bunk-mate a whole ton. I do too!

Sunday Mornings with "Mr. Stu"

There is nothing I like to do better than praise God with my kids on Sunday morning!

So on Sunday morning we attend worship services at the First Presbyterian Church of Manasquan. During the 'school' year this means Sunday School for the kids and Marriage & Family Class for me (where we study scripture, or learn how to be a better parent, or spouse, the topics vary through out the year) at 9:30am. At 11am we begin our regular Sunday worship service with our children. During the summer, Sunday school is not in session so we just attend the 11am service as a family. It is a contemporary service with a great praise band called Soul Force. The service has gotten to be more contemporary over the years and now we fondly call it "Rock N Roll" church. LOL. It is an energizing service of music, scripture, sermon, and prayer. The kids are dismissed after about 20minutes to attend their kids time called RADhouse.

Anyway, the leader of the praise band is named Stu... well, Mr. Stu to the kids. Braden has taken a real liking to "Mr. Stu" and considers himself to be Mr. Stu's biggest fan. On our way out of church a few weeks ago, he shook Mr. Stu's hand and told him, that he was "the best!" And then asked me, on the way to the car, to put Mr. Stu's music on his iPod. (He was a bit disappointed to learn that Mr. Stu doesn't have a cd!) This week it was "Dress as your favorite Rock Star" day at camp. Braden told me that if he couldn't dress like Mr. Stu, he wasn't going to dress up at all! I thought that was so cute so when Sunday rolled around again and it was time to attend worship, I knew Braden would be happy to go. Well, don't you know, that after service, Braden took a piece of paper and asked Mr. Stu for his autograph!! He was beaming all the way home holding that little piece of paper... so so sweet!!

Update from Colin...

He's in Oshkosh!! I got a call not long ago that they have arrived.

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So after an overnight stop in Brookville, PA, three hours of traffic in Chicago, an overnight stop in Milwaukee, WI, and about 1000 miles - Colin and Co. have made it to their destination and are at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, WI!

Colin sounded happy and excited about finally being at the end destination. I can't wait to hear from him tonight with another update. :)

Colin leaves for Oshkosh....

My big boy is gone!!

After months of planning and thinking about this wonderful opportunity, Colin has left on an adventure with his grandparents to EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI. http://www.airventure.org

He will be gone for 2 weeks - I know he will have a great time, but how am I going to manage with out him??? This is the longest he has ever been away from us. Things are not going to be the same around here without him. Colin is my little BUG! I know he is 9 now but he still is my little guy and quite a Momma's boy! He is such a cute and inquisitive kid. So full of wonder at everything. He loves nature and bugs. He is also very artistic and loves to create things and find out how things work. I am going to be pretty lonely without my pal.

Anyway, I guess I need to give some background here. "Oshkosh" is an aviation festival that takes place every year in WI. It is the heart of the general aviation world for a week and it truly amazing. I am more than a bit jealous that Colin is going.. without me!! ;) People from all over the USA and world flock to Oshkosh, WI for a week long airplane fly-in. It has daily airshow and tons of exhibits and things to do. Here is a little movie http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1412255721?bctid=1381694270 That might explain it better than I can.

They will camp there for the whole festival. Grammie & Poppie will be volunteering with the EAA to help run the festival. There are so many wonderful opportunities there for Colin to experience from air shows to airplane displays to museums. I can't wait to hear all about it each day when he calls to check in. But for now, Colin and Grammie & Poppie are in off on a fabulous adventure in airplane land....

The Bread... Part 2

It appears that he can be taught!

Lol, I always knew he could...

No seriously, Bill is a wonderful husband and a fantastic father. He is my other half in all ways... he really does more than his share of work around here and I couldn't do any of it without him.

Honey, Love you Buckets!!

Cosmic Cooking

As I was preparing the marinade that my soon to be pulled pork would cook in all night, a marvelous and mysterious sight appeared.....

The orange juice that I added swirled with the teriyaki and other ingredients already in my crock pot. I can only guess that someone was trying to tell me that my meal would be out of this world!

Any one want my COSMIC PULLED PORK RECIPE? It's guaranteed to be out of this world!!LOL

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY PAYTON & SYDNEY!!

I can't believe that today has come! Can it really be a whole year since I delivered my two precious daughters?

What a wonderful year it has been.... what an incredible blessing to have twin daughters! Having the girls has been so much fun, and a lot of work too. Of course it is the best kind of work! I remember those early days of round the clock feedings and being up every hour to nurse someone. Even not remembering which baby woke up when because I was so tired. A few times I accidentally putting one baby down on top of the other sleeping baby because I didn't remember which one I was nursing! LOL.

It has been an incredible first year watching with wonder as they grow. Those early bleary eyed days of watching for that faint first smile or a small coo of happiness. How quickly they blossom from these tiny needy swaddled caterpillars to wiggly giggly crawling beings in your home. It' now almost like having two little doggies on the floor.

Some of my best time with the babies have been while nursing them. The first time they were brought to me in the hospital I had them both latched on and nursing. It was glorious! Early nursing twins was a bit of a challenge mostly because it was an around the clock venture. I still have the little memo note pads that have long list of P & S with feeding times and L or R. I had to write it down or I would totally forget who ate when.

I am not a schedule type person so I did most of the early feedings one at a time allowing each girl to follow her own biological clock. Finally toward 2-3 months I nursed them together more frequently and now tandem nursing is all I do. It was during one of these nursing sessions that they noticed each other for the first time. It was an amazing moment! They were just 3 months old and Sydney unlatch after suddenly seeing Payton for the first time. She kind of cooed at her. Payton didn't respond. The very next time I nursed them together again, she did it again and Payton unlatched and cooed back as the two locked eyes for the very first time. It was beautiful and amazing all at once. These two little beings had shared a womb, shared a bassinet, and had been sharing a crib for 3 months holding hands most of the time yet they hadn't even consciously known the other one was there. This simple first acknowledgement was so precious to behold that it brought tears to my eyes.

I am proud to say that I have breastfed these babies for an entire year and they have not had one drop of formula! I was so worried in the beginning. I wondered if I could possibly make enough milk for them both but that proved to not be a problem. Not only did I make enough, I made too much!! I was even able to pump enough so that each time they had infant cereal, it was mixed with my milk too. At one point I had over 1 gallon of milk in my freezer for them. I was so worried that I would get called away for an emergency and not have enough for them so I pumped and froze milk frequently. We still enjoy our quiet milk time together.

My girls are growing into active and happy little souls. Payton is definitely the dominate twin. She is bigger and robust. Her personality can be summed up nicely with the word gregarious. There is always a huge beaming smile on her face. She is content and silly too. She tends to be a bit rough with her sister and thinks nothing of pulling Sydney's hair or biting her. Poor Miss Sydney. Payton likes to be the center of attention and will shout out "Hi Ya" to everyone we pass in the stores just trying to get some attention - as though being twins wasn't enough to stop every shopping old lady!

Sydney is shy and a bit reserved. We call her our drama queen. Everything that happens to Sydney is a big deal and she usually erupts in tears. Just putting her in the car seat can be a personal offense to Syd. She is very sweet and silly too and loves to laugh and play peak-a-boo. She looks at things with an intensity and really likes to study her surroundings. A smile from Sydney in public is a real treasure as she only gives them out sparingly. At home they come easily but are often a bit shy and coy.

It has been so neat to see these two little personalities develop as they grown up side by side in the same atmosphere. It is an neat and special joy that mother's of multiples get to witness and treasure. As a mom to many, I often wonder if the situations of a child's early days have made that child who they are or if it is more a product of their personal identity. With twins, you get that unique ability to watch as two totally different little people blossom out of the very same set of situations. It has been really marvelous to watch.

I guess with time being short and things to do, I will end this entry with a slide show of the last year... I hope you enjoy it!

The bread....

As I have outlined below, I have many children... all of varying ages but all wanting one thing right around 12 o'clock - LUNCH. Now at my house there are very few choices in things that I do for the kids. I allow them to dress by themselves and choose what ever they want to wear. They can also choose to be good little children (and have a fun day) or naughty little children (and suffer the consequences). When it comes to meals however, I set out a few choices for breakfast - cereal, breakfast bar, or whatever the hot meal of the day will be, pancakes, etc - and lunch - peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese or cold cuts if we have any. Dinner, however, is a no choice meal. "You get what you get and you don't get upset!!" as my children can chorus for you in unison!

Anyway, yesterday I started the mission of feeding the group their lunch and came upon this:

What on earth was I going to do with that pathetic collection of bread?? My children will eat the heals (Yup, I have convinced them that the "un-cut" pieces of bread are extra special - pure genius, I know!) Yes this was my last loaf of bread but who would leave slices like that in the bag and not tell me we were out of bread??? Hmmm let's think here, it wasn't the kids.... Ahh must have been the 'big kid' himself. Nice! Ok, so I salvaged what I could and made the babies a pb&j and the other kids had their sandwiches on hamburger buns, thank goodness I had some.



Oh, the big guy, yup, Bill got a 'nice' text from me about this situation and has vowed never to eat bread again!! Ok, maybe never is a bit extreme but he promised to not leave me with usable bread again.



And the irony of this whole story... the thing that really got me going was that I was at the grocery store the very moment that he was making his sandwich and using the last of that bread.. yup, thank for the call to tell me to get more!! ;P

Beginning again...

Ok ok, so it has been a long time since I have posted here... there are many reasons. Most are pretty lame but some are legit. I did forget my Blogger password for a while... then remembered it suddenly. I guess that's Mommy Brain for you!! I also had a total computer failure and lost all my emails and contacts but hey, I needed to purge my address book anyway. (As an aside, if you haven't gotten any emails from me, that might be why! LOL). I guess my life with 5 kids has been pretty busy for these last few months... ok, almost a year now!

I guess I should update.... here are my kids...

Colin who is now 9 (posing the "inchie")














Braden who turned 7 on June 13th














Haley who is 4 1/2 (in her dance costume from June's recital)



















and our babies... Payton & Sydney who will be 1 on the 13 of this month.














Our school year ended on June 22nd and for the first week or so we were just free wheeling and enjoying a nice relaxed summer pace. What a nice treat to have no where to go!! No kids to get ready?? No hurry up and get your shoes on (repeat ten times!!)?? No "Mom, where's my back pack?"? Ahhhh, summer!! I do so love it now that the weather has warmed up and the sun has begun to shine again. :)

But it didn't last long and as of this Monday the 'big' kids have half day summer camp at the elementary school that is just down the street from us. So we are off to walk and ride bikes/scooters every morning to camp by 8:45am. Yup, its back to the rat race. This being the 4th day of camp I think I finally have the routine down and can manage to get all of us dress, fed, and outside for our departure time. It might not be a well oiled machine yet, but we are working on it. It is a 5-10 minute walk down to school and I have been enjoying the exercise of walking both ways twice a day. The girls seem to like the sights too but are pretty tired and ready for morning nap right away when we get home. Of course I then get my tea and computer time in silence... ahhhh!!!