Happy February

I love this month for many reasons:

1) My hubby was born on the 12th and I love celebrating his birthday.
2) My dad's birthday is the 9th and we get all the family together for dinner.  I love being with my family.
3) Valentine's Day is a great excuse to tell people how much you love them.
4) The weather is amazing in Arizona.
5) The colors pink and red seem to be everywhere and they are two of my favorites.
6) There are hearts everywhere and hearts make me oh so happy.  See below.
7) I can tell Spring is right around the corner and this excites me.

Reese traced her hands and I helped her cut out the tracings.  She glued them together and made a heart shape for me.

Oatmeal and CTC

Every day the girls ask for the same thing for breakfast.  Ryan wants oatmeal and Reese wants Cinnamon Toast Crunch, or CTC as we like to call it.  I'm okay with Ryan's choice but I cringe when Reese asks for CTC every morning (and sometimes for dinner).  It all started when I discovered that this cereal was one of Cory's favorites.  I bought a box at the store and he ate it every day for breakfast that week.  He also shared some with Reese and that's all it took.  She was not going back to plain ol' Cheerios.  Well, don't you worry, I'm putting a stop to our child eating this sugary cereal.  I just stopped buying it.  She keeps asking for it and I tell her we're out of it.  This is when she proceeds to tell me that I need to go to the store.

Here are the new breakfast choices for the week:

• Oatmeal (always on the menu)
• French Toast made with whole wheat bread & organic maple syrup
• Pancakes with ground flax mixed in
• Fruit and yogurt
• Cheerios--honey nut or plain

That's their choices and if Reese doesn't like it then she can wait for lunch, but that girl is not getting her CTC any time soon.

Honey & lemonade

Ryan's been a bit under the weather for the past few days.  It seemed like nothing major, just a runny nose and a dry cough.  It started late last week and progressed a bit over the weekend.  She never complains but this time she was asking to go to the doctor.  If she was asking I was sure that something was wrong.  She never complains.  Cory advised against it.  Told me to let it run its course for a few days.  Should have listened to my wise husband but I didn't.

I took Ryan and Reese to see Dr. M (Reese insisted on going).  The sick entrance was packed and kids were coughing all over each other.  Gross.  If we weren't sick now then it was going to come from being close to one of the other sickos in the waiting room.  Dr. M checked out both girls and they got a clean bill of health.  Just a little cold that's been going around.  She told us to eat a tablespoon of honey and drink lemonade.  Ryan was happy about this.  Two of her favorite things.  I was thinking, "Really?  I just paid $60 to find out that my kid needs to eat honey."  Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that she didn't need to go on antibiotics but I think I'll listen to my husband next time he tells me to wait it out for another day or two.

A spoonful of honey with a glass of lemonade to wash it down

Mind the gap

I was going through photos and was laughing at Reese's sweet smile and her enormous gap between her front teeth.  She really goes to town with her thumb sucking and it shows with that gap.  

It's one of my favorite features on her.  I think it's so quirky and unique, just like Reese.

Our 5 year old neighbor came over the other day and asked me when Reese lost a tooth.  I had to explain that she hasn't lost a tooth.  It just looks like it because of the space between her front teeth.  Her bite is off too (hello, braces!) and makes it seem that much bigger.  

Check out the gap tooth smile in these photos.  It's in full force!

 Oh my!

Getting braver

Ryder is getting more confident in his walking abilities.  I wouldn't say he's walking yet but he's definitely made some big strides this weekend.  This is what's happened in the past 2 days:

• Taking 5-6 steps on his own
• Letting go of the furniture or wall and stepping on his own to his next destination.  ie: letting go of the ottoman and taking a few steps before plopping down to crawl
• Standing up from sitting position without pulling up on anything.

I think that last one takes a lot of muscle control and coordination.  He's been crawling for so long now and I'm going to be sad when it's gone but there's nothing cuter than a baby that's beginning to walk.  

Tiger mother

I dowloaded this book on my Ipad late Friday night and finished it in a few hours yesterday.

I found it fascinating and somewhat horrifying all at the same time.  It's not the way I would ever raise our kids but I was mesmerized by it.  I think it was such a great read for me because her parenting style is SO different from mine and she is a great storyteller.  The book is so honest and I found it to be endearing and funny at times.  Her daughters are turning out to be brilliant, talented, gracious, and well adjusted girls so maybe there's something to be said for her style of Chinese parenting.  As I said, this parenting style will never happen in our world but it's nice to see the other side of the coin and helped open my eyes to maybe making some more structured choices for our family.

Independence

There are so many things I love about having twins, but one of my favorite things is how well they play together.  I think it's so awesome to have a built in playmate.  I never had a sister so I sometimes find myself feeling giddy thinking about the great moments they will share together.

As much as I love the playtime together, I really treasure how independent they are and the contentment each one has with her own company.  I captured them playing with their different toys today.  They love pretending and I overheard Ryan saying, "I now pronounce you monkey and wife".  They have little conversations all on their own and I love spying on them to see what they're making up.

 Thanks to Lori for giving an awesome gift to Ryder.  All 3 kids are loving it right now, but today Ryan was all about building her wedding scene for monkey and wife.

Peas in a pod

Look at these two.  They like to sleep in together.  I love the bed head and sleepy eyes.  Ryder sure does love his daddy and it's understandable because he's such a lovable dude.  They have been 2 peas in a pod since the beginnning.  It's the sweetest thing to watch them together.

 I almost titled this post "The Pointer" because Ryder is pointing at everything these days.  He's usually pointing at something and saying a word like 'dog' or 'dada', but sometimes he's just pointing to point.

The little things

Sometimes it's just the little things that make you so happy.  Today we didn't have school because parent/teacher conferences were going on all day.  The kids got to have a lazy morning at home and then we played outside for awhile.  I love the lazy days.  The weather is so gorgeous right now and we love being outside.  They rode bikes and we got out the wagon and Ryder was a big fan.  He was strapped in and he loved eating his graham cracker and milk in the wagon. 

 Ryan's drink of choice is the strawberry milk.  Reese prefers the vanilla milk.

 My little scruffy boy loved his crackers and soy milk.  

He's so happy as long as he can play with his big sisters.  He thinks they hung the moon.

 Jessica and William came over for a visit.  It's so awesome that they live close by.  We love Jessica so much and she is an amazing aunt to our children and a wonderful friend to me.  I am so grateful that she and my brother ended up together.  William is the sweetest, most mellow baby.  He started crawling this week.  No army crawl for this boy.  He's up on all fours and cruisin'.  Reese was so proud of William and she couldn't resist giving him a big hug.  She's such a lover and is already asking for baby #4 to join our family.  She wants a baby girl named Elizabeth.  It's so hilarious when she tells Cory this and you can see him breaking out in a sweat just thinking about 4 kids.

I need an intervention.....

for these 2 items.

 Caramel Light Frappucino and Popcornopolis Zebra popcorn.  Help me now.  They were sampling the popcorn at Costco and I was an idiot that bought 3 bags of it.  It's delish but I can't buy it again. I ate all 3 bags by myself in less than a week.  The Starbucks addiction is a whole other story.  I crave one every day but only get it every 2-3 days.  My wallet can't handle more than that.  It's such a great pick me up in the morning or afternoon.  I need to give it up but this is one hard habit to break.  The best part of this week was getting my coffee and eating the popcorn with it for a double whammy of deliciousness.  I am SO the picture of health right now.  Anyone want to join me at the gym to burn off 5,000 calories??

A really fun project

When I picked up the girls up from karate class at school today we saw a kid with a big roll of paper and we all gathered around to see what he had rolled inside.  It was a tracing of his body that he had colored it at school that day.  Reese took one look at that project and told me that's what we were doing when we got home.  We had a lot of fun with it.  She laid down on our roll of Ikea easel paper and I traced her head to toe.  That's when the fun started.  She colored the entire body, drew a face on it, and of course, signed her name a few times.  She couldn't resist coloring the spaces in between the legs and arms and I told her it looks like a cape.  We put it on the back patio door and couldn't wait to show daddy when he got home.  I think we're going to trace Ryan tomorrow if she'll sit still.

PS<> I know I'm posting a lot of art pictures lately and this may seem mundane, but this is our life right now.  It's artwork (Reese), dolls & dressing up (Ryan), and trucks (Ryder boy).

On the mend

My forehead scar is healing quite nicely.  Not as Frankenstein-ish as I thought it was going to be.  I slather it with tons of sunscreen during the day and vitamin E at night hoping it will continue to fade.  The Dr. sold me some amazing concealer that I not only use on the scar to cover the pinkish color, but on my under eye bags.  It's so helpful for those days when I've had a 3 kid night in our bed and I'm looking a bit haggard.  Always have something to be grateful for ;)