Tess

The babies are so hard to do a little profile on!!! Tess is strong and sweet, always, well almost always, has a smile for everyone but

the camera....

Every week she has a new facial expression...

And she definitley has a flair for the dramatic...

And always appears to have something on her mind.

People often tell me she will be a handful for me...because Tess is a big name, and she has to have the personality to carry it...and we thought she got it because in one of our name books it meant "4th child"...She is spunky and beautiful, and we love having her.

Yesterday...

I had such a fun day!!! On impulse we ran to Old Navy to get Luke an Anniversary Dinner outfit, and of course, St. Paddy's Day shirts for the kids. We had Jamba Juice, and did a drive by to Trader Joe's so I could get home to clean for the Momo mommies coming over. My photos came out backwards so I'll address them the way they are. Luke and I had a great dinner. Good food, yummy cocktails for me, beer for him, dessert, and no kids!!!! We had a babysitter for the first time since the babes were born, and it went GREAT!! Alexa took this photo when we got home.

We've decided Husband needs to work on a 'picture face'. I have one...I always look the same in photos because I make the same 'picture face'. All those years of modeling. HAH!! Anyway aren't we cute? His shirt matches his eyes....

And here are the mommies and momos....

From left: Me holding Matthew, Grace's older son and Lily, Lucy, who contacted me through monoamniotic.org, and it turns out we're practically neighbors, her sons are 2 weeks and 3 days old and still in the NICU, she is holding Tess, Grace holding her survivng momo Timmy, Aimee, hiding behind her mom Tina holding her twins Katie and Kristi.

We had so much fun, it was like seeing old friends. I look forward to doing it again regularly and watching our miracle babies grow up. Thanks for coming ladies!!!

Today's the Day!!

12 years ago I married Luke, aka Husband. We have had many great times some very hard times, and always make it through stronger than ever. He is such a very special person.

I had plans to post a loving tribute to our marriage, and our story, but the Momo mommies are coming today!!!! And I have to get ready for them...and Husband and I are going on a DATE tonight!!! Our first since well before the twins were born....so exciting.

I will definitley add more on both topics later....

Today we were in Target and as usual there were tons of people with their babies all over the store. Travis looked up and said.."lots of people have babies, but they aren't as lucky as us because we have TWO babies!!!" If he only knew.

We were inspired by a stretch of warm sunny weather, and a clearance price, to buy a new BBQ. Because we were being cheap, Husband had to put it together.



It took a couple of hours with assistance.

Monkey assistance that is....


But it is gorgeous and shiny!!! We have taken to watching "Wheel of Fortune" before the kids go to bed, and the kids are very inspired by Vanna White. Travis thinks she is 'magic' because she can make the letters appear from nowhere. here is their best Vanna impression.

And here they became Ninjas.

It drove poor Husband to drink. My teasing probably didn't help. But we had big ol' steaks for dinner! And today it rained.

Monkeys

Four year old boys are sooo much fun!! Unpredictable, sweet, charming, hateful, wonderful...all in the span of 5 minutes. And can they ever run fast!!

Travis is my monkey. He keeps me running. Mind and body. Of the three oldest kids he articulates his needs,and feelings the best and by far the most. I couldn't decide which photos to post so picasa did it again...I love the collages!! These show him in his splendor...
-with Daddy looking sooo handsome!
-holding Tess...so proud.
-articulating his feelings, so furiously.
-looking sweet in great morning light.
-just being cute.
-holding the babies in his santa hat...he lived in it throughout the season.
-the girls are getting harder for him to hold!!
-snuggling
-getting ready for Christmas!!

And something 4 year old boy will do, that a 10 year-old boy probably won't do is scooter down the street screaming "I LOVE YOU MOM!!!"

He is so....Travis.

Good times with Lex...

Alexa was eight in January, and all girl. After being the only girl in the middle of 2 boys, she was ecstatic to find out the she was to have two, count 'em TWO baby sisters and has never looked back. She is the mommys helper, baby nurse and play mate, and just soo happy. If only we would allow her to have them share her room, that would be the icing on the cake! Someday...we are working on keeping her room clean enough to walk INTO, much less get two cribs and all the YOU KNOW WHAT that goes with a baby or two. Aside from the fact that I have never met a bigger slob, Alexa is always creating, so she needs her space to spread out and do her thing, whether drawing, designing fashion, writing songs or poems, dancing.....We'll see. I think she may change her mind when the twins start moving around. On their own that is.

Alexa and I have had some fun in the last couple of weeks. We started out with the Hannah Montana movie. How cute it was, and Miley Cyrus amazes me that she is only 15 and has the confidence to perform and write these songs in front of thousands of people...I am in awe. I was a liitle shocked at the maybe 10 year old girls screaming at the hunky Jonas brother...I mean, even I thought he was cute, but they were SOOOO young!!! I must've been a late bloomer...

And then Alexa thought it'd be fun to have a few friends over for a tea party this weekend, so we invited three of her friends, and had a delightful time....here she is with the table, yes it's in her bedroom, and Lily.

I'd love to include her friends in some photos, they were so sweet, but well with privacy issues......

We have had the most beautiful weather this last week, so we have been scootering like crazy, and trying to spend as much time outside as we can before it rains again...that is NOT my car by the way...

Thank you Debra!!

I am still sooooo slow at creating my posts...but I wanted to make sure to thank Debra for my award...you are a great person...Thanks!!! I will post more about it later!!

An award!!

I did it...here it is!

I got my first award!! Debra a fellow mom of 5 with a set of twins gave me this award. We love our BIG families!!

Her blogs are always the first I read, she does amazing things with coupons...things that make my head spin!! She really inspired me to start blogging. Thank you Debra!!!

Journaling has never come easy for me...I just never have anything I feel the need to keep record of...and the things I REALLY feel compelled to get off my chest and onto paper, tend to need to be disposed of quickly. I am a list maker, but not a chronicler.

This last year has been a rough one. We had our experience with our monoamniotic twins, then my dad died November 16, and my grandmother the 21st. This has made me want something to give my kids to tell them, and remind them of their childhood. I hope I can keep it up....it's been fun so far. But today I had to do a flurry of cleaning so I could sit down and reward myself with a sparkling water( oh diet coke I miss you!!!) and a moment on the computer. I just have to remember I have carrots on for Tess and Lily!!

The babies and I spent the morning hunting thrift shops for a tea set for Alexa. She has invited a few friends over for a tea party tomorrow, and I wanted her to have a proper set...no luck. She is eight, so I didn't want to get her a toy one...and I have my grandmothers china she can use.

Argh!! My water just boiled away!! I hope I can salvage the carrots!

And another thing...

Thank you for the comments!! It is super fun to receive them...and it was just really nice. I couldn't figure out how to respond to them individually, but I will one day...Thanks again!!

This is Jack...

Jack is 10...he is great. He hates to have his photo taken, but when the twins were born he was THE ONLY one of the kids that would let us take a photo of them at family day at the NICU, and it is a great one.

The other thing I do is tell him he has to let me take a picture of him if he wants to hold the half naked babies, and it works!! Sort of manipulative, but so worth it. Here he is with Tess.

And with Lily. They LOVE him. He is great with them, he speaks their language, and he NEVER leaves them to cry...Which means he's an absolute softy for them. They are so lucky to have him.

Last night I had sort of a rough evening...meaning I was GRUMPY and Luke was out...so at dinner I was apologizing to the kids and Jack said,"It's okay Mom. We know that when you're trying to take care of the babies and get dinner together and everything it can make you feel tense." TENSE!! So sweet and thoughtful that boy. And growing up so fast. I am lucky to have him.

Playing around with Picasa...I will make formal intros later....

I stewed and stewed about a name for my blog, and finally asked Husband and the two older kids to think of something witty to describe me or our family. Well, the other two weren't so helpful, but Alexa came up with this..... so how could I resist??? I had to use it, and so this is how I came up with the link to my blog. I promise I am not quite that full of myself! But it did make me feel AWSOME!!!!