Thursday, January 31, 2008

Cuties..


I keep telling my sister that her babies are soooo good! And they are.. sweet, content, and so mellow! I love it.. I'd be so screwed if they were anything like my own twins were at this age.. thank god they aren't.. I would never want to relive their infancy again (sorry girls.. but you were tough!)

Jerry Rigged..

The chain on our downstairs toilet broke the other day. This is the toilet that we use all the time.. it's been quite a pain in the arse for my boys to have to go upstairs (considering they're scared of going up there alone, and I don't have time or patience to go up with them) So, today, I took some garbage bag ties, and jerry rigged the broken chain.

When my oldest son got off the bus today, I knew he'd be asking his brother to go upstairs with him, and stand guard against all that is evil up there, and I told him that I jerry rigged the toilet downstairs and he could use that one. "Who's Jerry?" was his completely serious reply.

While this was a pretty funny reply, he understood what I meant when I explained the expression to him. He's a bright bright boy. My younger son, who is equally as bright for his age, had a much harder time understanding the idea of an expression. I gave him examples of different expressions, like how when someone says they're on cloud nine means they're happy. Or when you say someone is knawing at your soul, that means they're annoying you.. But he could not get past the fact that someone named Jerry unknowingly came into our house and fixed our toilet. He wanted to know if Jerry went into other peoples houses and fixed their toilets too, and did he fix other things, like your sink. Why yes, I believe you can jerry rig anything.. oy vey! That boy is too much! He finally let it go when I just said there was no Jerry coming to our house without us knowing, and that I had fixed the toilet, and PLEASE can we just drop it??

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Safe At Last..



It's not brain surgery, but man, when I thought of this today, I felt like I had saved 2 lives.. My twin nephews. My girls are relentlessly trying to love them, and smoosh them, and basically do whatever they can to them. It's exhausting telling them no, and trying to keep the boys out of their reach. Here is how I fixed that.. Notice the car seats in the pack n play??

Friday, January 25, 2008

Choppin Wood..

"If you chop wood today, don't do it on the deck"

This is what my husband said to me recently before he left for work one morning.. Yea, I'm going to be chopping wood! I had several issues with this request.. First of all, it was a on a day when I had my sister's kids, so 6 kids under 4.. I'm lucky if I get time for lunch, never mind wrangling an axe. Second, does he think that I am that blond, and would actually chop wood on our deck?? And finally, does he really believe that I have the upper body strength required for swinging an axe successfully?? Here's an example of what happens when I try to chop wood, because I did today while the little one was in school, and my girls were napping.. yea, I don't think I'll be trying that again any time soon!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

21..

My nephew turned 21 today. He came by the house this afternoon to tell me all the drinks he had just after midnight last night. My heart just swells with pride! He knows about all the good, important things in life.. like the legal limit for Long Island Ice Tea's, and what an Irish car bomb is.. although, I suspect he's know about these things for quite some time. I'm not so worried about him being stupid when he's out.. I know he will be. We all were. I just hope that he'll get tired of it soon, like we all do.. and realize that being 21 is fun when you're 21.. but life moves pretty fast.. and if you don't sober up and try to live it, then before you know it, you'll be all dried up, without any teeth, weighing 300 + pounds... (that's a reference to his father..clever, I know..)
Anyway, Happy Birthday.. and btw, did I mention how old this makes me feel?? frick.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Bird Watchers Take Notice..

The last two days there have been cars parking by our house to catch a glimpse of a rare, small flock of birds. Pine Grosbeaks are what they are called, and they are loving the berries on a tree in front of our house. It's pretty funny to see a mini van full of people with binoculars getting their rocks off for some birds.. One lady that I met yesterday was very sweet, and I told her she could park in our driveway, I was afraid she was going to fall into the street with her binoculars on! Here's a picture she took of the bird in our tree.. Honestly, it doesn't look that special to me, but I've been doing some googling, and there are some really die hard bird lovers out there, who are psyched to get a shot of this bird!

Friday, January 18, 2008

Twin Magazine..

I emailed the editor of Twin Magazine last night. I told them how my identical twin sister and I both have identical twins, and I wanted to find out if they knew of other people who that had happened to. Surprisingly, she emailed me back this morning and wants me to send her our story, and some pictures. She's interested in possibly putting it in their magazine.. pretty funny! I have no idea where to start "our story" but what the hell.. I'll make sure and link the magazine if we ever end up in it!

I never thought this would work..

But it totally did!
My 4 year old was having a meltdown in the car today, flipping out about something. And do you know what snapped him out of it? When I told him that if he didn't stop behaving like that, that his imaginary friend Rena couldn't sleep over tonight.. (he's been planning this for a few days) It shut him right up! Yes, apparently at 4, I control his imagination as well! Who knew??

Thursday, January 17, 2008

6 Kids 4 and Under..

The only thing missing from this picture (besides my 7 year old son) is me.. hanging myself in the background.. haha.. seriously, it couldn't be going better! Even though I knew I could do this, I still feel kind of like a kid learning to ride a bike.. a part of me wants to shout "I'm doing it, I'm doing it!!"

Crafts at the Nut House..



Yes, it is possible for the 2 older kids to have some fun while the younger ones are napping.. Today we made rain sticks.. which my niece loved! More rice fell on the floor than actually into the stick, but I didn't care.. it kept them both nicely entertained for quite sometime.. until my son got quite annoyed with the constant shaking of my nieces rain stick, that he pretty much freaked out.. But such is life in our nut house..

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

We Survived the First Day..

My niece and nephews were with us today, and I'm happy to report that I didn't once want to run from my house screaming. It actually went very well. With the exception of my own girls, everyone behaved beautifully. My poor girls have got their most painful teeth coming, and 18 months is always a tricky, tiring age.. They are polar opposites too, one is the mother hen and just wants to touch the babies, and feed the babies and generally smother them with her love. While the other one just wants to be the center of my world, and not move herself from my lap all day.. which naturally is difficult when you have 2 three month old babies that require more than just a mere propped bottle. But alas, I did it. And I must say, there is a certain pride that I feel knowing that everyone ended their day happy, no one was seriously hurt (my mother hen did toss a light children's book at one of the boys head when I refused to let her take his binky out of his mouth for the umpteenth time.. he only cried for a second!) And I'll be ready to do it again tomorrow.. and I imagine by the end of my first week, my Friday nights are going to be something I look forward to more than ever! Anyhoo, here's a pic of the newest additions to my daily chaos!

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Giving our kids to God.. or something like that..


Here we are.. today we had the girls baptized at my husbands parents church. They hated every second of it, including having to wear these dresses.. Of course they were most devastated when the priest had to pour water on their heads, and then rub oil into it. It was fun, and all the church goers got a kick out of our big screaming babies..

Friday, January 11, 2008


My 4 year old is on a mission as of late.. to fix all of his broken matchbox cars. And there are apparently a lot of them. I was curious what he wanted the Elmer's glue for.. turns out that the hoods were all broken, as they just popped right up. Well, he's been gluing them shut, and setting them out to dry, far from the reach of his little sisters.. I couldn't help but ask him if he thought it might be fun to have hoods that actually open, you know, so that he could look at the engine.. but nope. He just wants them fixed. Ok.. he's going to be pissed when he realizes that Elmer's glue probably isn't going to hold his little metal hoods shut.. I'm going to have to hide the superglue, as this boy can be quite persistent!

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Banana Poop Sauce..

This is my 4 year olds new catch phrase.. and what is more charming than hearing him say that, is when he says it to his new talking parrot toy, and hearing the toy repeat it twice in a high pitch bird voice.. It's too cute for words. Really.

Monday, January 07, 2008

And the award for the lamest mom goes to...

ME!!!!!
Or at least that's what my son's school nurse, and my husband are probably thinking after not being able to find me this afternoon when my son needed to be picked up at school because he was sick.
And where or where do you think I was?? Well, napping of course! With the babies.. Nothing gets you out of that nap funk like seeing your answering machine blinking away with messages from the school.. your husband.. the school again.. your husband.. Oh, and of course there's a bunch on my cell phone (none of which I can retrieve because I don't know how to get those messages.) grr.. not only am I lame, but I'm an idiot too!
Anyway, it all worked out, turns out he hadn't been in the nurses office too long, and I managed to swing over, pick him up and still get to my youngest sons pre school in time to be the last parent in the pick up line.. so, maybe I'm not totally lame, but it was pretty close today!

Friday, January 04, 2008

Making my skin crawl..

Has anyone else seen that Kia commercial, using the song "Maniac" from the movie Flashdance? I gotta say, when I first saw it, I thought, this could be funny.. but then nothing funny ever happened. And it left me feeling awkwardly uncomfortable.. especially when the guy practically dry humps the front bumper of the car.. I'm also confused as to who they are trying to sell their cars to, the affordable Kia.. to younger people?? People who may not understand the Flashdance reference (although, really, who hasn't this movie?? young or old, right? it's a classic..)
I'm just sayin.. it was a weird visual experience, and makes me scramble for the remote every time it comes on..

What happened to Ween?

I've been hearing the most annoying song on the radio lately.. at first I thought it was David Bowie, and instantly thought, man, he's getting old. Then later (much later) I found out it was Ween.. the funky fun loving weird Ween of my mid twenties.. and then I thought, man, am I getting old!
The lyrics (in case you haven't been burdened yourself by hearing it) are bizarre, to say the least.. "we had the best time at your party.. the wife and I thank you very much" (over and over) and "the meat carved was drawn from succulent juices served on platters on the purest gold" And the worst part.. I never change the channel.. I don't know if I'm secretly loving it, or if it's like a train wreck and I just can't believe what it is I'm witnessing..

Wednesday, January 02, 2008

"A" is for...


Underdog of course! These are my youngest newest Webkinz.. Santa discovered they actually sell clothes for these stuffed animals, and made the mistake of buying each the boys an outfit.. Actually, that wasn't the mistake, the mistake was when I said "gee, I could totally make those clothes" Yes, and this is what I spent my New Years day doing.. Notice the scarf on the reindeer (yes, that's a reindeer, not a moose) and his pants? Am I just wasting my talent or what?? jeez.. and the cape on his Underdog?? My 4 year old insists that the name "Underdog" starts with the number A! So there you go! My oldest son only has a scarf from me, I have yet to stitch any apparel for him yet, although I suspect that request is coming soon!
My daughters got dozens of hats for Christmas this year.. yet this is what one of them prefers to wear.. It's most upsetting to my 4 year old, the owner of the underwear, but like I tell him, we made concessions for him when he was an infant, and we're doing the same for his sisters.. suck it up little boy, suck it up!