February Shenanigans

I guess the month of February is making up for all the beautiful weather we had in January! It has been a rough couple of weeks with heavy rain and even a hailstorm.

Wyatt had left a pair of his shoes outside and when he woke up in the morning they were sitting in a puddle of rain water. So he decided to go outside and "save" his shoes.

The kids had a Valentine's Party at school. It was super cute. They got to decorate a cookie with frosting and sprinkles.

As you can see - Teagan goes for straight frosting! Who needs a cookie?! And by the way - she has my Dad's gorgeous blue eyes. She looks more and more like me - and like I did as a little girl - every day.

Wyatt is still just such a funny little kid. He also has the most amazing blue eyes with these long 'ol eyelashes. Why do boys get the eyelashes?!

These are the Valentines bags they each decorated. They got lots of fun stuff and some candy...that Mommylet them have over the course of the day. Then suddenly it disappeared...?! But actually it was OK because these guys are not that big into candy. If it is out of sight - it is out of mind. Teagan is more of a sweets eater than Wyatt. He doesn't care too much for desert/cake/chocolate. He will have a bite or two then be done. I wonder if that will change as he gets older?

This was another picnic for the Care Bears. This time the ingredients were: water and ice. Wyatt is tall enough so now he can have free access to the water/ice feature on the refrigerator. So he filled up the big bowl with water, then the small bowls with ice. And walah! you have a picnic.

This was a shot of them after they decided it was time to pack up and go to the beach! We were out at Folsom Lake last weekend on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. It was pretty warm - like 70 degrees - and we went to the lake to have a picnic. After our picnic we walked down to the lake. Travis was like: "Don't let them take off their shoes - because then they will go in..." To which I replied: "They are going to go in with or without shoes. They are 3 1/2 years old and they love water!" The kids immediately went straight into the water and got themselves completely wet.

So ever since that day they keep asking to go back to the beach!

January Fun

I would say the theme for January was creativity. There was a nice respite in weather - it turned into a mini spring for a couple of weeks in January so the kids were outside terrorizing the backyard. On this particular day they decided to create Birthday Cakes with sprinkles Wyatt had gotten out of the cupboard in their rain boots and my gardening bucket. It was fun for Mommy to try and get Wyatt's rain boots clean after this cooking endeavor.

The other theme for the past few weeks has been picnics. I have recently gotten a part time job and so I am quite busy during the days trying to get stuff done in our office...which leaves a lot of free time on the hands of 3 1/2 year old twins. Not a good combo let me tell you. I spend 10 minutes in the office on the phone and come out to find a full on picnic in their soccer goal with my dishes. Every single fig newton out of the container - on a plate for a particular Care Bear. You see it is all about the Care Bears in our house right now. So everyone has their assigned Care Bear: Teagan is Cheer, Wyatt is Funshine, Mommy is Share, and Daddy is Oopsie. Oh - and Delux the dog is TenderFoot.

And this is also a result of Mommy needing to get something done quickly - like getting dressed. I get them set up with poster paints on the kitchen table - then head off to get dressed - and this is what I come back to. Since this was right after MC weekend where the girls showed Teagan (and Wyatt) make up - I think that is where this is coming from. Teagan is particularly interested in make up these days. She watches me put it on - then grabs something out of my make up tray and tries to put it on herself.

Needless to say I need to get more help watching these kids so I can work...or else it is 10 minutes for me to do something and 20 minutes of clean-up!!

Almost 6 Months Later

This is a picture of the kids this morning at school... And this was them almost 6 months ago when they started school the first week of September.

Off To A Good Start!

Well, so far, 2011 is off to a better start than last year. Which isn't saying much - but it could be a lot worse - so again I keep trying to find the positive!

We started off the year celebrating with a group of longtime friends in Sonoma for the weekend. Eleven adults and 9 kids. Wow - that is a busy house! This year marked the 10 year anniversary of this gathering - and we were all amazed by how quickly time goes by and so much changes...yet stays the same.

The beginning of this year saw a two week period of extreme cold here at home. The low would be 35 and the high would only be 42. That is cold for us, it is not normally that cold. And there was a constant layer of fog that settled into the valley. Creating a very cold and wet outside world that made us want to stay inside! Our heater was running constantly throughout the day and night trying to keep the house and its occupants warm enough.

And sure enough we all caught colds (except Travis) and have been sick for a couple of weeks now. Teagan seems to have gotten over it - she has the ability to get over colds without it turning into something else. But Wyatt - oh Wyatt - he does not have the same ability. Wyatt got tubes put in last September then got an ear infection at the end of November and just got another ear infection in the middle of this month. So that is 2 ear infections within 60 days and the kid has tubes! Geesh! I want to go back in to see his ENT Dr. because I am worried about his hearing at this point. Oh and I have a nasty sinus infection that I am not able to shake even being on anti-biotics for the last 10 days. But there is a warming trend in the forecast so I am hopefull that it will help us all feel better.

We got all the Christmas decorations down and stored away for next year. Wow - that is a lot of work for three weeks! It was also a fun challenge for me to find a place to put all their new toys in their rooms...like a giant puzzle: this can go here - oh and that can go there....

We are busy with school, work, and birthday parties. This weekend we had back to back birthday parties, I think that is the way we will be spending a lot of weekends in the coming years. The kids are LOVING school and are learning so much. They are starting to learn the alphabet - they can generally pick out letters - they are learning numbers and can count up to about 12 or 13 before they lose it. It is so cute to hear one thru ten...then eleven, twelve, sixthteen, thirteen, eleven, twelve, fourthteen. You see whenever they get off count they throw in a "th" in the number almost as if they know they are off and they are trying to just make their version of the number make it work! LOL

And the best news of the year so far: The Goodrich Family has an iPad. Yeah!! The kids love it, Daddy has become obsessed with "Angry Birds" and Mommy loves to Google every health ailment anyone in the house has. It is pretty cool to see our kids growing up with this amazing technology. Our kids can figure out an app probably just as fast as Mommy can. Pretty impressive how quickly this new generation takes to technology.

Travis is desperately trying to gear up for his British Columbia bike race in July this year by starting to ride. This is a picture of him braving the 40 degree temperatures to go ride 40 miles that morning! Doesn't it look like such fun?!

Holidays and Disneyland Trip

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October and November

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Catch up!

Oops = looks like I have a little catching up to do!! November.....? What November....?!

I have posted a collage of photos to wrap up the last couple of weeks.

As you can see: we were the Scooby Doo gang for Halloween. The kids LOVE Scooby Doo. It is the all time favorite in our household. They decided Wyatt would be Freddy (his favorite) Teagan would be Velma (her favorite) and that Mommy should be Daphne and Daddy would be Shaggy. I am scared for next year!

There are some cute pics of the kids at preschool dressed in their costumes. I also went in costume and cracked everyone up with my orange Daphne hair! They have a new BFF at preschool - his name is Carson - and both kids just think he is the best!

We also attended the Granite Bay Moms Club annual Halloween Parade but the kids didn't want to wear their "new" costumes yet - so they wore their "old" costumes from last year: the cheerleader and football player.

We also experience some amazing sunsets from our house - which I included.

The kids and I headed up to my parents Ranch one weekend to celebrate their birthdays. It is nice that my parents birthdays are just a couple of days apart. We got to do cake and blow out candles - simple joys!

Oh and this is big: you will see photos of each kids room! Operation Separation = Complete! The middle of November I separated the kids. They have their own rooms now and have been sleeping apart for a month now. Pretty cool...big kid stuff!

We went down to G.G's house in San Carlos for Thanksgiving this year. It was a nice visit - and thankfully for me - she takes care of all the cooking!

Finally we went to a friends birthday party. The kids had soooo much fun! They also are enthralled with the pinata idea. The both loved wacking the pinata. And when it got wacked open both kids had a mad dash for suckers - that is their favorite. They don't really like candy - they just like suckers. So here they are with the last of their suckers!