My Chatterboxes

(Mommy, Carter and some ham)

The boys have been chatting non-stop these days!  They are on a big tornado kick right now.  They must have learned tornado safety at school, so that is all we have been hearing about.  Then I told them about the time we were at a gas station waiting out a nearby tornado on a drive to Iowa, so they have been talking about that as well- repeating the story so serious as they remember every moment!  Tonight we spent about 20 minutes looking at pictures of tornadoes on Google images.  They could have looked for hours!

I guess this is a change from them talking about "big bad snowstorms".  I won't even get started on their "lightening" talk.

I think we may spend two much time playing with train tracks and bridges.  Now when we are in the car and they see a bridge, they are always like how can we get up there - then they get super excited if we go on them.

Here is a weird twin moment.  On Friday Carter and I were driving to Altoona and he said to me, sometimes bad things happen in the world.  No idea where this one came from, but I'm guessing school.  The next day we were driving on the same road and I had both boys and at almost the exact same spot, Dylan says, sometimes bad things happen in the world.  HOW WEIRD IS THAT!!! Especially since neither had said that to me prior.  I've heard them say it more since, but different boys saying the same thing at the same place on the road.

Dylan told me he wanted to go to my work, then afterwards I would have to wash his coat so it won't smell spicy - OK mom!

They seem to add - that's a good idea after a lot of things these days (I don't always agree)

I was trying to convince Dylan to eat some chili - he said, OK mom you go ahead and have a bowl for you.  They always tell me they will like things like this when they are big!

I've also decided Dylan does not FORGET ANYTHING these days!
On Friday the two of us were in the car together and I gave him half a piece of candy.  Then on Sunday, it was the two of us again in my car and he asked for candy, I told him I didn't have any.  He said- you do have candy, you have a piece from when we went to the Big Steer.  Then one day we were going to buy three bottles of vitamins and didn't because they ended up being on sale.  We ran out of vitamins last week and I told him we were out and he said, no mom we bought three!  How did he remember that, it had been about two months!

We have also had a lot of talk about ghosts, monsters and scary things!  I don't know where they get this stuff, but Carter is totally spooked!  That kid gets scared so easy, he basically won't go to the basement without us.  He is OK if Dylan is there.  The funny thing is, Dylan doesn't seem to get to scared.  But I sure  do feel bad when Carter is scared, sometimes I think he has a hard time falling asleep sometimes from it.

 

I bought some new lotion for my stomach, so Dylan thought he needed to put some on my belly.

They are really into Bob the Builder right now, which we find to be a nice vacation from Mickey and Thomas and the fight Mickey vs. Thomas.

wordless wednesday

this and that...

We are excited to have Keith back around here! Last Sunday he went to France for negotiation school and got back home on Saturday!  I told him he could just spend a week negotiating with Dylan for a week and he would probably be a tougher negotiator.  We had our moments, but the boys weren't too rough on me for the week.  Mom came and stayed for two nights so it was nice to have extra help with dinner and mornings.  Thursday we met Sarah and Oliver at Jordan Creek for dinner and to play at the inside playground.  Friday I brought the boys to Baxter and we went to dinner with my parents and spent a majority of Saturday playing with Cade and Alec.  

Since Keith got back on Saturday afternoon, we decided to surprise him at the airport.  I think the boys had fun at the airport.  One more week and we will be back there to go to Disney!

Carter ate half my steak at dinner and he had to eat it just like that - not cut up.  

Dylan has been a hoot today!  This morning I was just waking up and Keith was going to take the boys to see my dad at work and they usually love going there.  Keith said, Dylan do you want to go to Papa's work - Dylan said, no I got to clean this house up a bit and flies out of our bedroom closet with his little green vacuum.  I about fell out of bed laughing.  Then later this afternoon the two were taking a nap, so I was back at basement organization.  When he woke up, Keith told him I was downstairs cleaning - so next thing - I look up to Dylan fired up and ready to help me in the basement with his little green vacuum.  That kid cracks me up!  Tonight I told him thank you for helping me clean and he was like the basement is still really messy, we have a lot of work to do.  Of course, I think he messes up about half the things I pick up!

Last night I had a girls night, so I told the boys that and since they were hanging out with Keith, I told them they could have a boys night while I was gone.  Keith took them to State Center for a 30th birthday party, so this morning I was asking Dylan if he had fun.  He said, yeah there were girls there and kept telling me that.  And at first I thought are we already into this???  Then I figured it out- it was "boys night" and there were girls there:)  Too funny!  

Last night I had a fun little girls night out for a surprise 30th celebration for my friend Autumn.  It's been so long since I have been out for a girls night I forgot how much fun they are - even if I was sober!  We went to dinner at a really good tapas place called Trostel's Dish, it was great!  Afterwards we went to a comedy show at the Funny Bone, then the girls thought it would be fun to pick up 40's at Kum and Go. I don't think any of us have bought those since college! I haven't talked to them today to confirm if that was a good idea or not:)  But possibly a new birthday celebration tradition.  

The big black stool

Keith and I kinda hate this stool!  We bought it for our closet, but the boys have somewhat taken it over as their "BIG BLACK STOOL" and that is what they call it.  They fight over, they beat up the walls with it, but the INSIST on using it ALL THE TIME!  Tonight I was downstairs and next thing I know Dylan was walking into the room with this thing. Good thing he didn't fall!  We have a smaller one that is easier to move around, but they are always like no mom, I need the big black stool.  

And this is what he needed it in the basement for tonight!  

I love this

One weekend we took the boys to the indoor playground and i did a bit of shopping while Keith stayed with them.  I looked down from upstairs to see this...

Can you see them?

Here is a close up:) 

Phone Dump

I don't have anything too exciting to blog about, so I decided to do a phone dump.  Plus I have been bad about getting the camera out these days and usually am quicker to snap a shot with my phone.  Of course they aren't the best!  

These two are all about doing things on their own these days - even if it means me patiently watching them poor a jug of milk into their cups:)  They have to learn sometime!

This pretty much never gets old!

My friend and I have been trading calendar pictures.  Somehow I ended up with this cat calendar.  She hates cats - and thought this cat looked ready for the microwave!  This cat in the bowl is a little odd.  Which reminds me, I haven't looked at March yet.  We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Our power was out one morning last week.  Good thing I had Dylan to manage the lighting situation while I put my makeup on.  He's been wearing this shirt a lot lately. It's his favorite because it's yellow, his favorite color!

Little clean-up in the basement after they dumped an entire bucket of change out.  Notice Carter is wearing one of his favorite pairs of socks - the green ones!  I have no idea how these still fit, they are 6 - 12 months.

Dylan insisted on making his own cinnamon sugar toast.  No butter and a bit of extra cinnamon. 

A little teamwork on the popcorn.  Carter is waring his other favorite pair of socks - yellow with sharks on the sides.

I bought them those capsules that expand with water from the dollar spot.  Kept them busy for a bit.  

Tonight Carter's fingers were stained green from some candy.  Dylan wanted to help clean him up - and I guess Carter thought that was OK.

Bath time.  Dylan thought he looked like a rouser with this on his head:)

So happy to say I finally found a white sheer panel to work in our bedroom.  Third one I bought!  The first I liked but was grommets at the top and they were too big to slide on the bar, the second came in the wrong size and I finally found these on overstock.com and couldn't be happier!  Now I need to get all these hemmed and iron them.  

Haircuts!!!  One day when we were at the mall these two got their hair cut!  I have to say we have been lucky in this department - these two are pretty good about haircuts.  Dylan had her do his wild and spiky, but their hair is will only stay up for about 5 minutes!  But they are funny when it is spiked up, they think they are a little bit extra cool for the day.  

22 weeks

I'm over half way now!  And getting big too!  I feel like this week I am really starting to get quite bigger.  A couple malts and candy bars may have contributed.  Guessing those pounds won't come off fast! 

No baby updates to report as we have done....NOTHING!!!  We should probably start thinking about getting the crib together and preparing a bit here in the next month or two.  

Dylan still thinks we should name the baby Dylan.  Tonight they were telling me how it's dark in there for the baby.   

Sometimes Carter likes to give the baby a kiss!

Flashback!  I was 21 weeks here with the boys, I guess I didn't take a 22 week picture.  I think I'm bigger this round.

open gym

The gym where we have been doing our jitter bug class had an open gym this weekend.  The boys had a BLAST!!!!  So much fun that leaving didn't go over so well!  But since we did it with them I got to take lots of pictures.  

No fear for my boys!!!  I may have some rough teen years ahead of me.  They LOVED this thing, I bet they each jumped at least 5 times.  

Here is a bit of this and that…..

Keith and I went up to Minnesota for a quick trip-up Saturday morning, left around 7:30 on Sunday.  I enjoyed some serious shopping (though I came home about empty handed), some time on Russell Ave and an AMAZING lunch at Big Bowl.  Oh my, how I miss that place, it is so darn good!  Plus I was really excited for some pot stickers and I did a foursquare check-in and they had a special for free ones.  SCORE!  I was hoping to buy the chair I have been looking at for months now and I didn’t really like it when I saw it in person, it was much smaller than I thought it would be.  As always, it feels odd to see the old house and not be able to go in. I guess it feels less and less like our home.  I wish we could have seen more people while there, but it was a quick trip. 

The boys stayed with mom and had lots of fun doing projects, playing with Cade and eating at Chips.  Even though we were only gone a day, I think Dylan must have missed me a bit, he stayed pretty close to my lap all day SundayJ  Which I don’t mind a bit! 

This is my 9^th week already at the new job!  Hard to believe it’s been that long.  Still adjusting to some corporate changes – now I understand more of Keith’s life with SAP systems and waiting for things to happen.  I also have a lot of logins and passwords.  TWELVE!!!  Keith told me he has like 30, so maybe a dozen isn’t too bad.  Seriously though, between all those and the rest it’s amazing I remember half of them.  They have a spice sale every few months, so I totally loaded up last week.  I don’t think we will be needing any spices for a LONG time!  Hit me up if you are running low or what to try some new ones. 

The boys talk A LOT these days!!!  Non-stop at times, then they get mad trying to talk over each other.  Carter is always like I CAN’T TALK!!!  Our car ride to Baxter this weekend started with a long discussion about planets, to when Dylan broke his arm, to monsters – now we have been dealing with ghosts too- to about every song we know – half sung together, the other half they have to sing all by their self.  Lately Carter keeps saying his favorite color is white.  Totally random, but he is sticking to it.  For a few days Dylan's favorite color was yellow, then he added black and since has added green and about 4 other colors.  I told one of them I thought their favorite color was blue and they said, last summer that was my favorite.   So they sure do keep things interesting! 

Three weeks from now we will be at Disney World!  We are getting pretty excited. Except, what the heck am I going to wear? 

Loving the nice warm days we are having here and there.  Yesterday was 50, I told Keith I just can’t go back.  Plus the days are getting longer, so it’s nice to have a bit more sunlight.

I ate lunch at MaidRite today – these are only in Iowa and quite tasty.  Any of you who do foursquare – I’m the mayor at the Ankeny one. Not sure how I feel about that.  Anyway, between the cheese balls (another Iowa specialty) and a malt, I’ve been stuffed all DAY!

I guess I have rambled long enough nowJ 

SNOW DAY

I'm really starting to enjoy our unseasonably warm weather we have been having!  However, we did have one super snowy day early this Feb.  I guess Polk City got 9 inches.  It was the perfect snow for playing in. It wasn’t too cold outside and perfect for making snowmen and other fun things.  Keith’s parents were up for the weekend and his family all came over too, so we had lots of fun playing in the snow.  There were many creative snowmen in the neighborhood by the end of the day.  The boys shoveled in the morning and built this mini snowman.  Then later they took it up a notch and built a bigger one.  However I told Keith he better plan on using that bottom ball as the head b/c that’s how big our neighbor’s snowman was.  I took on building a fort, I think the boys liked it, but didn’t spend countless hours in it!