Mommy Confession

After five straight days Keith finally managed to get these yellow undies off of Carter!

I bought a pack of big boy underwear for them and had intended on using them for stocking stuffers.  The moment they saw them they thought they were pretty cool and wanted to wear them.  Since we were at Grandma's house, we just put them over their diapers.  Since then Carter has not only wanted his underwear on at all times besides bath, he wants the yellow pair.  We tried to sneak them away several times.  Tried to convince him of a nice blue pair or a really cool red pair, but he demanded yellow.  Hopefully he forgets about them tomorrow morning or else I need to go buy several pairs of yellow underwear.  And if you ask him what color they are, without question he will get really excited and say "yellow, yellow undies".  He's so proud of them!

Another one of those things we should have done a long time ago!

 Since the day we moved in, we wanted to get rid of those brass doors. Right away when we bought the house I asked a guy at Home Depot if they had any type of paint for fireplaces and he said they didn't. So I just gave up on it for sometime. Then my brother told me to buy spray paint for BBQ grills. I guess I should have asked for a second opinion at Home Depot! We had planned to paint this all summer, but then I started hunting on Craig's list for some newer doors and did come accross some good options, never the right size. So finally we gave up on that option and painted them. Seven dollars later, our fireplace now has a good 15 year facelift! Which leaves us kicking ourselves for not doing it four years ago.
Now if any of you have some birch logs or know where I could get some that would be great!  They will add a lot of dimension to that black hole!  I'm trying to talk Keith into cutting a branch down from the tree in the front yard. No luck so far. 

Tear....

Bruiser came over tonight to spend some quality time with Stella.  I think they were talking about the move, I don't think long distance is going to work for them. Sad:(

A few forgetten phrases

Does anyone else remember the excitement of the house phone ringing?  At our house the moment it rang, it was a scream, "I got it" and it was a race for the phone.  And of course a fight over who was on and who was missing calls, don't forget listening in on conversations.  Mute was a pretty sweet feature.  We were big time when we got call waiting.   And don't even get me started on prank calls, that was basically one of my prime forms of childhood entertainment.  

Another would be, that's "long distance".  Anyone else get in trouble for a few too many long distant calls.  We knew a trick way to dial long distance, but charge it on another phone number.  Guess that was a little naughty. 

So funny because we have a "land line" as it is called these days and we answer about 1/10 times it rings.  It is always a telemarketer, usually Weedman or Charity Pick-up.

I think the phrase "Zach Morris" phone is here to stay!

Curtain Drama

Keith and I have been up late every night tackling house projects, prepping to get our house on the market.  It was about midnight on Tuesday and we were both working on these blinds in our room and I felt as though we have come full circle as we moved into our house November 18 of 2006 and at that time we spent many late nights working on projects.  (of course that was much easier pre-babies).  

Here is a project we are kicking ourselves we didn't do sooner!  Sorry, not the best pictures, but much better!  But this project reminded much like most house projects, which basically falls under "it will work on the third attempt"!

So now I am going to ramble on about how much I dislike window treatment projects, which is probably why it took 4 years for this one! So for this round, we got the blinds at home depot, these are great because they will cut them to size for you (thank you Tahlia for telling me about them) and they are price very reasonable.  We went to Home Depot with our boys who really don't like staying in the carts anymore.  There was ONE guy who cuts the blinds, the one guy who said it would just be a few minutes after he helps some people.  About 25 minutes later we gave up and went home.  BIG WASTE OF TIME!  Keith went back the next day without us and got them.  

Now for the curtains, that part went well and I actually didn't have to make a second trip, but the curtain rod!  I had to buy FOUR to get the right one.  

Curtain Rod #1 

This was brushed nickel, which would match most finishings in our room, but when I opened the curtains, I found all the rings were a bronze color. 

Curtain Rod #2

I liked this one, it was black with cool finials.  But once we got the blinds up, we learned that hardware that holds the rod needed to be a little over 3 inches off the wall to accommodate for the blinds, this ended up being about 1 1/2 inches.

***Trip to Pottery Barn to attempt to buy hardware from them, though they price them separately, they will not sell them without the rod.  Since we will not be the owners of this curtain rod for long, a Pottery Barn rod was not an option.

Curtain Rod #3 & #4

Back to Target for about the 5th time this week.  I bought both of these at the same time, knowing one probably wouldn't work.  

I opened my favorite first, which was black with cool finials.  But, somebody had purchased this, boxed it up and returned it without the hardware!!  Are you kidding me???  But I wasn't surprised because this was the second time this happened to me.

So luckily #4 was a keeper. 

So I have two other curtain horror stories...

Our kitchen curtains, after bringing home about 15 options, I finally picked one.  We pulled out one panel to base the height of the rod, then I spent like an hour ironing it, then we went to hang them and it turned out it was a misfit!  The color was slightly different than the other panel and it was 83" instead of 84".  And we had no plans to re-hang the rod.  So I had to return the panel to Bed Bath and Beyond, get a new, iron it AGAIN and now they bunch a little on the floor.  

Our living room curtains had a misfit panel as well, which we got at Pottery Barn, so you would think they would have it right!  So once again, I had to return an ironed panel, get a new one and iron it again.  Did I mention I hate ironing almost as much as Keith hates hanging curtain rods.  

So a few lessons to takeaway from this...

1.  If you plan to sell your house in the next year or two, start your projects now and enjoy the updates!

2.  When buying curtain panels, make sure they are the same color and length, despite what the package says 

Wordless Wednesday....a little late, today totally feels like Friday!

I think Dylan might have a girlfriend

On Saturday we saw Mark, Autumn, Kinley, Nicole and Ryan. Dylan and Kinley hit it off!  He was getting his diaper changed and she crawled over and gave him a big kiss!  She is pretty darn cute with her big brown eyes.

It's not easy getting a pic of three kids

Friends

This weekend I was able to get together with a few of my high school friends and meet baby Miles. It seems I did not get a picture of him.  I did get this funny one of Dane and Bri.  He was quite impressed with her shiny pink boots, but Bri was thinking they were more for girls.  I got this sweet action shot, it was pretty funny.  Poor Dane got picked on a little bit.  We brought some trains and at one point Dane had two of the same trains, one in each hand and at the same time Dylan and Carter each took a train out of his hands.

It was fun seeing everyone and I'm excited we will be seeing a lot more of everyone soon. 

These two crack me up!

Tonight we went to Home Depot to attempt to get some new blinds, but after about waiting for 20 minutes, we decided we could not wait any longer with the boys.  When we got home they went and laid down next to their beds and started to fake snore.  This is their new thing to do. It caught me off guard the first time, then Keith told me he taught them that one.  Regardless, it is pretty entertaining. 

Busy, Busy!

This weekend we went back to Iowa, it was my last trip back until Christmas.   It was a busy weekend, we moved some stuff back, started to explore daycares and places to live and saw some friends.  We also spent a lot of time in my old bedroom trying to make room for all our stuff, which basically means me throwing away all kinds of cool stuff I have managed to hang on to for many, many years!  Keith says I really need to throw away all my tennis shoes from high school.  Probably not!  I did get rid of about 5 pairs of Dr. Martins, that was a heavy bag!  Lots of work to be done there still!  

So this week is a short week, so that will be nice, but we have a zillion things to do!  The relocation company requires you to do several things prior to listing your home.  So here is how this week looks:

Monday - Realtor #1

Tuesday - home inspection

Wednesday - Termite inspection, Realtor #2

Thursday - To Sibley for Thanksgiving

We are also working on getting a POD lined up so we can clear out several boxes we have collected in the basement.  These people have been a bit of a pain!  We decided we are going to have Service Master come and clean carpets, windows and do a deep clean.  With so many things to do in such little time, we think this will be worth every dime.  Unfortunately I was almost done with placing the order when my iphone dropped them (not sure why I ever call any sort of customer service on my iphone, it ALWAYS drops). So I will have to start that process over again tomorrow, hoping to get them out this week or next. 

So excited to finally get the realtor to our house.  We have been attempting to put our countless hours of HGTV to use in prep of selling our house, but it will be great to get some guidance so we focus all our efforts towards what is important for our area. 

Here are a few more pics from last weekend at the Children's Museum

missing pics

Minnesota Children's Museum

This weekend my Jennifer, Cory and Cade came for one last MN visit.  We decided to go to the children's museum since we bought a family pass thinking we would go several times this winter, so we wanted to get one more trip in.  The boys had a blast!

Dylan was totally digging this machine, you turn the wheel and the rock falls into the bucket. 

Silly boys

Keith's mom made this robe for him when he was little.  Dylan had fun wearing it!  The boys keep finding food downstairs, so they have been eating a lot of saltine crackers.

These two are a couple of goofballs lately!  I mentioned before that they are really big into getting their ice packs out of the freezer now for the slightest injuries!  Tonight we were reading this old baby signs book we had and it was a picture for the sign "hurt", and I was doing it and saying "owie", Dylan disappears and returns with the ice pack for the book. 

Since they push and bite each other so often, we also work on "sorry" a lot.  But somehow that has now turned into going up to the one being apologized to, touching their head, a quick sorry and they run off.  And generally they return with the ice pack for the injury they have just given their brother.

Carter is getting quite vocal with his "No's".  I can't help but laugh at it, I will ask him if he wants something and I get a NO, really quick and really loud. 

Today I thought they were being really good in the kitchen eating breakfast while I was trying to get ready fast.  I kept hearing lots of laughing.  But too much laughing or silence generally leads to trouble! I suspected correct when I went into the kitchen to find they had been putting their fingers in their cereal bowls and flinging milk all over.  There were sprinkles of milk all over the floor, chairs, their hair, even the curtains.   

Our BIG announcement!

I think we have the biggest news to share since we announced we were having twins!

About six years ago, Keith and I graduated from ISU, got married, packed our few belongings and hit the road to start our lives in New Jersey. And after a little bit of life and experience under our belts, it’s time for us to bring our family back to Iowa! YES…..WE’RE MOVING BACK TO IOWA!!

Everything is happening really fast and it hasn’t really set in yet! Last Monday Keith accepted a position with Syngenta in Slater, IA as a Purchasing Manager. He will be purchasing capital equipment for the Midwest facilities. Keith has been with Lockheed for over 5 years now and was ready for a change and is really excited about the new opportunity.

{Good thing we have a lot of strong boys to move boxes here}

So here is how the next couple months look.  Luckily Keith won’t begin his job until December 6^th.  So he will stay here until that weekend, then move to my parent’s house.  I will keep working at JT Mega until the end of the year and stay here with the boys and focus on selling our house.  (With the help from a couple great grandmas)  Keith will come back up on the weekends.

Fortunately, Syngenta offered a GREAT relocation package and they will be taking care of realtor fees, which is huge for us!!! This takes a lot of pressure off of us, so now we should be able to price competitively and as long as we can get a bona fide offer, the relocation company will buy our house.  Now we just need to find somebody who wants to move to Minnesota in December!  We are hoping to get a realtor out to our house ASAP, learn what improvements we need to make and hopefully have an open house soon.  In the meantime, we have been cleaning closets and trying to pack up anything we don’t need to make all of our cupboards and closets appear much larger. 

{we have a pretty good moving team, they have moved these hangers all over our house}

So where will we live?  That is the great debate and I change my mind every day!  As of right now, we will either live in Baxter, my hometown, or Ankeny.  Keith doesn’t seem to have a strong opinion either way.  There is something special about living in a small town, but there are a lot of great conveniences about living in a bigger community.  I would certainly take recommendations on any other community or friendly opinions on big town versus small town living.  We plan to live at my parent’s house for a few months and will get a feel for living in a small town again.  And really, it’s the daily commute, which equates to time away from the boys, that bugs me the most.

{Did I mention they label boxes too}

And what will I do?  Like I mentioned, I plan to stay at JT Mega for the rest of the year and see out some of my projects, but just officially started my job hunt.  So if any of you know of any great openings in marketing, advertising or food I would love to hear about it!  I’m hoping to find something downtown Des Moines, but we’ll see what happens!  

What to think of all this?  I’m having mixed emotions with the entire move.  Certainly, I have always wanted to get back to Iowa and wanted the boys to grow up there.  However, we’ve been living here for about five years, so right now I am having a really hard time letting go and leaving things behind.  Here are a few of many things I’m really sad to leave…

Our first home!  As much as I dream of a new home, this house is our baby and we poured a lot of blood, sweat and tears into our home and this is what our boys know as home and where we experienced so many “firsts” with them.

Our neighbors!  Can’t even begin to say how amazing living next to Beth/Mitch and Wade/Kellie has been, we were so lucky to land next to them and they have certainly been like family to us.  Stella is going to miss her boyfriend Bruiser too. 

My work! It’s going to be really difficult to let go of the Di Lusso brand, as it is something I really committed myself to and it is one of those things you never stop thinking about even after you leave work. Most of all, I’m going to miss my co-workers so much!  These are the people I see and talk the most and many have become great friends and I’m having a hard time even thinking about not talking to them and seeing them every day.  I will also miss the Hormel group I work with, they have been great to me and we’ve had a lot of fun together over the years! 

Cradle Club.  I’m really nervous about taking the boys out of their daycare.  They spend more time there than they do with us, so I hate taking them away from that steady environment and I know a lot of the teachers will miss them too! 

Amazing Location.  We live within 10 minutes of about 5 Targets, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Ikea, The Mall of America and about 20 other great stores.  I often sneak out for a little retail therapy after the boys go to bed. 

So a lot to adjust to, but certainly really excited to be closer to our friends and family!  Just a little crazy right now packing up our lives at the busiest time of the year with so many unknowns right now as to where I will work, where the boys will go to daycare and where we will live and how quickly we will be able to sell our house!  Good thing my mom and dad our letting us live with them while we figure everything out!!!

A few mommy moments.....some good, some bad

I enjoy the age the boys are at for the most part, but sometimes they sure can be difficult right now.  I about or sorta did lose it in the parking lot at daycare yesterday.  The boys were in good moods, then the second we stepped outside, Dylan just started throwing the biggest fit.  Finally got Carter buckled in and then it probably took me 20 minutes to get Dylan in his seat, honestly didn't think I was going to be able to go home.  He wouldn't stop crying and would arch his back so hard that I couldn't even come close to getting the car seat straps around him.  Still not sure what he was upset about. 

Keith had a banquet for his golf league, so I was solo with the boys.  It was an up and down kind of night.  They were good eaters, so that was nice.  I gave them pasta with red sauce and hamburger.  I looked down at both bowls and noticed Dylan ate all his meat, Carter ate most of his pasta.  So I just switched their bowls, everyone was happy! 

Later that night we started the process of baths.  Had Dylan stripped down and he was going potty, so I went back after Carter. Only to find him sitting in the laundry basket with his blanket watching TV.  It was pretty funny.  Got him to come back to the bathroom, just on time as Dylan had picked up the bowl portion of the potty, full of potty, getting ready to dump it somewhere.  Whoo, caught that one! 

A picture of them trying to escape a very fun gym we were at.