So back to my sister. She wants us to come a day earlier. The day after Easter. Did I mention I have a million and one things on my daily to do list, not to mention the fact that Friday we had a birthday party to go to for my husbands neice. Saturday, Gavin had hockey practice in the morning. Of which, Dave was working Saturday, so I had to throw the twins in the van to take to the rink with us. At least they weren’t wearing their pajamas. When, in all of this, was I going to make earlier preperations to drive out to Indiana? Oh, and did I mention, I also had to pick up our other 2 neices and bring them along. This meant I had to play musical carseats in my minivan in order to make seating accomodations for 2 adults, 2 toddlers, 1 first grader and 2 teenagers.

I don’t know how I did it. But I did. My mother came over early to help, and Dave was off work to help so that we could be on the road by Monday afternoon, early evening. It think its being a mom of twins that gives me this ability. So often I’ll get asked. “How do you do it?” You just do.

So I’m happy we’re here. Happy that we got here yesterday instead of just a few hours ago. My neices are all having fun. My boys are enjoying themselves. And tomorrow is sisters night out. We’ll be here till Saturday. It’s going to go by so fast.

Apple iPhone – $299
Apple iPod Touch – $150
Pocket Solitaire Game – $15
Spending quality time with the family over the holidays – Priceless!

One thing I do miss, that I can never have back, is my babies. Today, while packing up for the sale, I picked up a tiny tiny pair of little baby booties. One of them could literally just fit over my thumb. I actually began to well up inside. My babies are gone. Those little tiny beings that use to curl up in a little ball on my chest are now running through the house and talking and trying to escape every saftey obstacle I put in their way.

I knew the twins would be my last. And I swear I’ve tried to cherrish every single moment. I try hard to not miss a thing. I’ve relished every milestone. And even though I know there’s so much more of them yet to come. I still miss their infancy. And oh.. oh.. oh.. that smell!!!!

They’re on-the-constant-go toddlers now. Forever investigating every little thing. They’re imitating real life things now. One of their favorite things is to help me clean. They won’t let me craddle them anymore. But they will sit on a lap for a story couple pages from a book.

I can’t help remembering how tiny and helpless they were just 19 months ago. And as I sold their baby stuff in the sale today, every article that exchanged hands, I relived the memories that went with it.

One week old in a cast of my pregnant belly.

January

Solid foods officially become a part of Blake & Brady’s daily routine, time to move up into the high chairs.

February

Gavin turned 5.  Two days after this picture we had a huge party with friends and family at his favorite place, Pump It Up.

Blake & Brady are 6 months old.  In an attempt to save some money, I took their 6 month photo myself.  They were very cooperative and had fun sitting in the basket.

March

I think this was the last time the boys all laid still long enough for me to get a decent shot of the 3 of them.  After this, their newfound mobility would not allow them to sit still for more than a few second.

Both Blake and Brady cut all four top teeth at once. That’s 8 teeth! Ugh, we were all miserable that week.

April

Blake and Brady are officially hooked on Baby Einstein videos.

May

Blake and Brady are introduced to Jungle Java for the first time and they have an absolute ball! 

Gavin graduates from preschool and we have a fun picnic at the park with his class & teachers.

June

Gavin goes to work with Dave.

Dave drives Niklas Kronwall in Detroits Stanley Cup Parade.

We attend a Stanley Cup party at Dave’s work.

July

Blake and Brady turn one year old.

August

My dad visits from Texas. The last time he was in Michigan was for my wedding in Sept 2003. It was so wonderful having him here.

We take our 2nd road trip to my sister, Renee’s in Indiana. This is as we were pulling out of the drive way to head back home.

September

Gavin starts kindergarten.

Gavin joins the mini-mites hockey team.  This was his first day.  Three weeks later, he was skating like he was born to skate.

The Stanley Cup comes to our house for a visit.

October

We all enjoy a family day at the park.

Blake and Brady are introduced to Great Wolf Lodge for the first time.

Gavin is the Incredible Hulk for Halloween, his most favorite holiday ever.

November

My great aunt passed away and Gavin & I go to Northern Michigan for her funeral.  This was taken at the Mackinaw Bridge before heading home.

I reach that 40th 29th milestone birthday.

December

We attend Dave’s company Christmas party downtown. Gavin had fun skating on the home ice of the Detroit Red Wings.

Our Christmas family photo.

Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season. Happy New Year!

My sister is coming in town on Christmas day. Am I ready? Hardly. I have to rewash the sheets in the spare bedroom because the boys like to go in there and jump on the bed. Suppose I could just wash the pillow cases since that’s all that is exposed to the endless amounts of drool that pour from my childrens mouths. I’ve never known toddlers that drool so much. And at almost 17 months. When is it going to end?

November, as I mentioned, was a crazy month. My great aunt passed away and we went out of town for her funeral.  The stomach flu also made a visit to our house in November.  First Gavin, then the twins, then Dave. Luckily for me, I did not come down with it. I was washing my hands so much while cleaning up buckets of vomit and diarreah.  I was determined to NOT get it.  Just goes to show you how frequent hand washing is a huge defense against these kinds of things.  I’m now an even bigger fan of hand washing.

Well, for now, I’ll leave you with this. Every year we make a gingerbread house. This years was quite a turn out. Gavin is very proud. Now if I can only keep the twins from pulling the candy off.

Was an uneventful weekend. Saturday Gavin got to go to a pool party with his grandma. That left Dave, the twins and I. Most of the day was pretty lazy. Not that I can really have a lazy day with twin toddlers running around. Sunday was a bit more productive. Finally got a second crib up in the babies room.  Not that either crib is being used, but they’re there. Eventually I’ll muster up the courage to transistion the twins from co-bedding with me on a mattress on the floor. Oh I’m sure that will be a good blogging week. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, check out this cute video of my neice I just posted on my YouTube channel.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpEetBccVzc]

On another note. I was going through some old boxes and came across an old cell phone I used to have.  It comes from the early days of consumer cell phones.  My husband thought it was one of Gavin’s play phones. He was shocked to discover that this thing actually worked. And I thought I was cool when I had it, as cell phones weren’t nearly as popular back then as they are now.  I remember purposely calling people so that I could be seen using it. LOL  I wish I remember what the ringer sounded like. I remember when it would ring, I’d look around to see if anyone noticed. Like “yep, that’s me, that’s my cell phone, I’m cool, I’m important.”  The darn thing about took up my whole purse.

I can’t believe it’s been a year already. I actually survived. I’m still breathing, though barely, and more importantly, Blake and Brady are still breathing. I’m still amazed some days that I have two babies, who are now officially toddlers. They’ve been walking since about 11 months. They both weighed about 22lbs at their one yr well-baby visit. We’re still breastfeeding. Though night weaning is well at hand and is going rather well, however they still wake a couple times at night for comfort even though “Mom’s Diner” is no longer a 24 hour establishment.

Just when things seemed normal again, then it was time for my dad to visit. Last time he was here was for my wedding back in September of 2003. He lives in the Houston area and drove up last Friday. It was so nice having him here for four days. I don’t get to see much of him and with every visit it seems I get closer and closer. I really missed him after he left.

Going to Indiana later this week. Mom took the train out there to my sisters and she needs a ride home. So I get to spend a few days with my sister again. Looking forward to “getting out of dodge.”

In other news. Today, my first born turns twenty. It was twenty years ago today that he made me a mommie for the first time. As quickly as it went, it still somehow seems like a lifetime ago. It was a different era in time for me back then. I’m so proud of him though. Very very proud. So Happy 20th Birthday Ray!!! I love you very very much!

The weeks leading up to Christmas, I kept arguing with my sister about her being here for Christmas Day. She’s in Indiana. She moved away 4 years ago and I hate being apart from her. She kept insisting that they couldn’t afford it this year. That she needed to work. Christmas Eve I talked to her and told her to please come, that she needed to be here for Christmas, needed to be ‘home’ for Christmas. We cried. She wasn’t coming until the day after Christmas.

Dave and I took Gavin and our sick little guys to Dave’s moms for a fantastic Christmas dinner and gathering. Then we went to my moms for more Christmas fun, including what will be the first annual ornament exchange. We went home with the ugliest ornament ever. I tell you that one’s going back in the exchange next year. As soon as I got to my moms, my older son told me to follow him to his room so that he could show me what he got for Christmas. His bedroom door was shut. He opens the door, and standing there is my sister. I screamed. I hugged. I cried. She surprised me. Everyone knew she was coming, it was all a secret behind my back. It was great though that she was here. I swear she’s my soul mate.

Dave and I did manage to get out for New Years Eve. Thanks to my mom and my aunt Susan. We didn’t get out the door til after 10pm, but it was nice to get out nonetheless.

Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2008 is a year fulll of love, family, faith and happiness for everyone. Below is our Christmas Holiday Card picture. The hands you see are my moms and aunts holding up the babies while I took the picture. My mom helped to hand make the elf hats out of felt. I’ll have to post more from this photo shoot later. Oh, and we also “elfed ourselves.”