Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins

Super cute Halloween material! I've had a great time shopping and digging through the baskets of discontinued prints, you can't beat the price on some of this stuff. So far it's been brights, and pastel baby prints, they are cute and all but I've been drawn into the oranges and fall pallet lately. I found this one sitting right on top. It was a sure sign that fall is right around the corner. We all know how much I love all things Halloween. I'm a flutter with the the earthy smells October brings. I love the indecisiveness I have when it comes to picking out the perfect pumpkin. The rustling of dry corn stalks, and all the glory that nature displays makes my heart smile. Along with that are the ghosts, ghouls and goblins in store front displays that fill me with delight. Seeing a black cat actually makes ME smile. I love all times of year, but this time is truly my favorite. I'm ready to plant some mums, wear a sweater and drink hot coffee again (pumpkin spiced of course). I wanted to share this cute WuBB with all of you, it made me smile and I hope it does the same for you!

Mommy, I'm all gooey...

When it gets eerily quiet you know something is wrong. I entered the kitchen to find Reagan lubing her sisters heads with Daddy's hair gel. This slimy, gooey substance is water resistant. So I cleaned each little head with warm water it seemed to get worse. Aubrey had it in her nose and her ears. Look closely at the pictures you will notice a glob of goo handing from her nose. I wasn't happy but at the same time I kept letting out a chuckle. Aubrey kept saying 'mama are you angry or happy?' Guess I was sending some mixed signals. I cleaned them up and sent them to their corners!! Let the cleaning begin.

So even after washing they were still a little sticky, and ironically Aubrey's hair sprouted a significant statement.

Best Mac & Cheese Ever!!

It's a staple in our house. Growing up I was always a fan of out of the box shells and a packet of an orange cheese like substance that you squeezed out of a foil pouch. Viola dinner is served.

Todd introduced me to the deliciousness of home-made macaroni and cheese. What a difference!

A while back I mentioned that Todd and I had received new pots and pans. A stainless steel collection. My favorite pan is called a saucier. It makes the best cheese sauce. Here is a picture of my creamy, smooth, and hearty Mac & Cheese. Yum. It certainly is not a fat-free meal, more of a comfort food. Sticks to your ribs, and keeps tiny tummies full, well full for a little while. It's amazing how quick kids burn off a plate of pasta.

Reward Center

This is our new 'Reward Center'. I found this pocket system at a Teach and Learn shop in Hooksett. Loved the place!! It was great, I got so many great ideas for the girls, but for now we need to stick to a couple basic skills.

How it works?

As you can see Aubrey has stars with numbers (1-20), Reagan has hearts (1-20), and eventually Edie will have flowers (1-20). Each time they go potty they get a number. They get a smiley face card for using good manners and having good listening. Then finally they get a cupcake card for picking up toys, taking a nap and getting dressed.

These are things we've been struggling with on a daily basis, Now they can see their results, and interact by putting the little cards in each pocket. It's helping us recognize numbers too!
We've been in big girl undies for most of the time, just a diaper at night.

THE REWARD...

a sparkly pencil. They love it. Each night Daddy comes home, looks at the board and comments on the girls day, then he hands out the reward and the girls get to draw with their reward. Then it's set aside in their own special pencil box.

So far so good...

Good Morning Campers

Just after sunrise, and sunset.
The weather was absolutely perfect. The water was warm and we lingered Friday, All day Saturday, and Sunday morning. The girls and I came home to let Todd fish Sunday morning. I know he had been itching to go and it was such a beautiful day. We came home to wash all the linens and towels we had used and we'll go back and pick him up around nap time. I think he was excited to fish solo not having to worry about his babies on the dock or his wife launching the barbie fishing pole into the drink as she attempted to cast with a toddler in her lap. I found the humor in it, he did not.


We had a blast! The girls had a fantastic time as did Todd and I. It was very relaxing and calming, a great escape from the day to day. They girls are at such a great age where we can do things like this for the weekend, and we are always ten minutes from home. We figured out we just need to run the clock out, let them get utterly exhausted, hey isn't that summers are all about.


Swimming with toddlers is a challenge, We used some arm swimmies on the girls and set a rope system so they could keep their feet on the bottom and not go too deep. Of course we sat right at the rope and had our hands on someone at all times, so it was impossible to take any pictures. I turned in early on Sat night. I was up with the girls at 6am, made some coffee and heard this thundering whirl of a helicopter. It's something we have been hearing on a regular basis.



Those of you who live in Goffstown, New Boston, Weare, and Deering may be framiliar with the big orange signs along the side of the road. They say THIRO USA structure, then some numbers. It starts in Goffstown by the Villa with #1 and goes all the way into Hillsborough up to structure #200. I found this info online and thought is was interesting.
PROFILE OF THIRO

Founded in Victoriaville in 1952, Thiro is a general contractor
specializing in the construction and maintenance of electrical transmission
and distribution lines as well as power houses and substations. Thiro's name
comes from its founders, Messrs. Thibault and Roux. The Company serves
primarily the Québec market as well as the northeastern United States.
In Québec, revenues are drawn from Hydro-Québec and engineering firms. In
the US market, the clientele is more diversified and includes several public
utilities companies. Thiro expanded its operations into the United States and,
in 1987, founded a subsidiary-Thiro USA Inc.-in New Hampshire. Thiro employees
and equipment were then assigned to it. Thiro USA specializes mainly in the
construction and maintenance of electrical transmission and distribution
lines. It operates in the New England states: Connecticut, Maine,
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont as well as in New York
and New Jersey. The territory targeted by JJL Déboisement Inc. (a division of
Thiro Ltd.) is principally the Outaouais region, the Hautes-Laurentides and
Abitibi.
The Company actually has 350 employees: 100 at Thiro, 75 at JJL
Déboisement Inc. and 175 at Thiro USA.
According to André Laramée, President and CEO, "The decision to buy
Thiro, a highly efficient company, is due among other things to the fact that
Thiro has developed recognized expertise in a primary economic sector that is-
moreover-about to begin a growth cycle. Beyond that, these two key elements
fit perfectly with CVTech Group's investment policies and criteria."

For more information go to
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/August2005/09/c8328.html

or type THIRO USA into any search engine. Pretty interesting.

Therefore the helicopters we have noticed at the lake and over our house for the last two weeks are bringing in new utility poles. It was interesting watching them fly over the lake last weekend. It was even more interesting to see it hover right over our little cove and drop these enormous utility poles with precision. I snapped a couple of pictures. The girls were waving and saying 'Hi Grammy B!!'

The Bottom Line

Here is a potty training update for all of you that have been asking what it's like to potty train twins. I'll start by saying ugh, not only have I been gradually potty training them, but there are two of them and I have an inquisitive toddler that has to be where they are.
Let's see Edie is 15 months old. I've been working on it for about 18 months. I introduced it to the twins during the last few months of my pregnancy with Edie. They took on to it really well, then drifted away from it for a bit while Edie was having tummy/bummy problems.
Recently, with the healthy digestion of the littlest tummy, the twins have been so good about going and they have been in big girl pants right up to bedtime. Even in their swimsuits they are pretty good about getting in to the bathroom before an accident happens.
I will admit, I did use a food reward, I used gummy bears. It worked like a charm! They were willingly going on there own all throughout the day. Hooray! Here is a little glimpse, twins come two at a time, so do their potty habits. It has been parallel since day one, I know if one has to go the other usually does too; so there is the first good thing.
The second and third good thing, I'll only have 1 child in diapers. Which is how it is all day. So I'm not burning through a pack of diapers a day! This is great, we've even gone on a few adventures in big girls pants. We usually go out to the lake house in big girl pants, and come home in big girl pants. We even went to Target (used the public rest room there) and back.

Cheeky

It's the begining of August, we've had a stretch of exceptionally nice weather, and every time the sun shines I don't mind seeing these cheeks. She is just so dang cute, coming or going!

High Maintenance

I tell ya, this kids is high maintenance! No, just kidding we were playing last night and she just put her head down and closed her eyes. It wasn't her usual bed time. Usually she'll grab taggy and her pipe and say na-na, or want to be held. Todd was on the computer and I looked over and she was asleep on the floor. I put her to bed and she slept all night.

Baby Jaguar

Those of you with little ones may be familiar with the show Go Diego Go if not check them out at www.nickjr.com . He is an animal rescuer, works with his cartoon sister Alicia, and they go on an animal adventure to save an animal in trouble. My animal loving girls are crazy over Diego and Dora. We went onto Nick Jr. and found games, coloring pages, masks and crowns. You simply print them and the kids have a project. The girls and I made baby jaguar masks. Do you know who is who? They are both squinty so you can't see their eye color...

Aubrey is in the dress, and the closeup is of Ray.

They were running around saying growl, growl and acting out one of the episodes. We also have it as a book too, which we read...

almost every night.

'I'm Dre and this is my friend Chad'

'I'm Dre and this is my purple cast, I'm Dre and this is my friend Chad.' This is wash Reagan said to me in the kitchen.

Reagan was pretending to be Dre and Aubrey was Chad (he got a boo-boo leg too by the way). The girls were putting the sleeves to their camping chairs on their legs and pretending to be the two of you.

They were picking that leg up and trying to hop and hold onto furniture to get around.

The Princess Diaries

With all of our summer adventures we have found the girls fall asleep if we tell them a story, a princess story.
At the Lake House this weekend Daddy told them a beautiful story about turning into a princess. The girls listened with a quiet intensity that was so cute. Daddy went on to tell them, they too, could turn into a princess if they got some sleep.
Reagan woke on Saturday morning, her eyes still filled with sleep, she turned to me, and in her raspy, whispering, munchkin morning voice she said,
'mommy, did I turn into a princess?' I sat up and looked at her, had her move her head left, then right. I asked her to stand up and twirl around.
'Yes, yes I think you did! How are you princess Reagan?'
'I have to go tell Daddy!!' She ran into the other room and asked him the same question. For the rest of the day it was Princess Aubrey and Reagan. When we came home, I had a surprise waiting for them. The princess stories always start with...

Up in the tallest tower of the tallest castle...

The twin princesses had new princess tents on their beds. A special place to sleep and dream of all things pink and purple. They were anxious to climb the tower and see their new beds. Throughout the day on Sunday they wanted to climb up the tower stairs and be a princess for a little while. I was so adorable to see how Reagan would look herself over looking for her gown, sparkly shoes and long gloves. We have our tutu's from Uncle Moo so it was important for the princesses to dress like one.





The jester was here too! Edie was having fun dancing with the twin princesses. She can really keep up with them!

Faster.....Slower!!!

The girls love Grampy's new motor. Auntie Amy took the girls and I for a ride in the boat. We found that Reagan Loves to go fast and Aubrey like to go slow. They took turns with the throttle and Reagan would tell Aubrey to go faster and Aubrey would tell Ray to slow down, yet another difference.

My Growing Garden

Flowers come in many beautiful shapes, sizes and colors. As do these stunning little girls. My garden grows in more ways than one. These are some tall girls and some tall Foxgloves. The girls measure about in at about, Reagan 33 and a quarter inches tall. Aubrey is 33 inches tall, and Edie is 26 inches tall. The Foxgloves are about 3 feet tall. Notice the girls body language is mirrored again. I love catching pictures like this.

Rockin' Out

Todd has taught the twins how to fork their fingers and make this lovely face when they hear certain 'mommy & daddy' music. I keep the radio on most of the day and there are some songs we sing or have a dance party to. At this particular moment Aubrey was comfortably seated on Edies new car and found a song she liked and decided she needed to rock out for a minute!

Helpers

The twins helping me after dinner. Edie needed a solo bath after her watermelon escapades. The girls helped me pick up from dinner, such god little helpers today!!

kiss, kiss

Pack-Packs

The girls received their rewards for good behavior while Daddy was away. They each (yes, Edie included got pack- packs (backpacks). Not just any pack-packs, but an orange Diego Rescue Pack, and a Purple Dora Backpack. I originally gave Reagan the purple one and Aubrey the orange one...without a blink they looked at each other and switched. It was so stinkin' funny. Then Aubrey looks at me and says, 'is that OK mama?' Of course I said. They wore and played and napped, and went to bed with their new treasures. I caught Reagan on more than occasion hugging her pack-pack, and saying, 'Mama, I love my reward for good behave-ya!'


The little pack Edie is wearing came with 4 card games, memory, go fish, old maid and crazy 8's. We tried the memory game and they loved it! We had a great weekend!! and...We were in big girls undies for most of it, AND Aubrey even took a nap in big girl undies!

WATERMELON!!

Edie could eat a whole watermelon if I let her. She loves it. I've been limiting her starches, and grains lately she was haveing some problems again. But with the amount of fruit and veggies she has been consuming she's doing alot better. Her redundant colon is something we'll have to be careful about. She wants to eat what the twins are having, although convient, it's not for her.

Recently I've taught her some sign language. This one means more, she used it tonight after she got out of the tub, of course it was more watermelon she wanted.

So,...I finally got to the girls closet...

Lucky 13, thirteen totes came out of the twins closet. JUST THE CLOSET!! I then dragged each one downstairs and sorted through each tote, organizing all the clothing by size, instead of storing them with no rhyme or reason. Each tote is marked and ready to be sent to the basement.

Is it because I've been spending so much time at home lately, or the fact that there is so much 'stuff' crammed into every nook and cranny of this house that has triggered this urgency and follow through of gutting every room from top to bottom. I'm not sure but it feels good to organize!

Play Doh

Of course pink and purple Play Doh. We came home from our pizza party at Dre's house to find our neighbors coming down our drive, they had stopped by to see if the girls wanted to play. By now the girls were at near meltdown, so we talked in the drive and let the girls run around. Emily had brought her two little dogs. The girls were not to sure of them so Kim and Steve held onto them while we talked. Emily, was delighted to see the twins and Edie. The girls were delighted to see Emily. Therefore I had to bust out the Play Doh to unwind everyone. It's a great little trick, as long as Aubrey doesn't touch Reagan's and Reagan doesn't try to mix her pink into Aubrey's purple. Everything seem to be clouded with the drama of individuality lately.

Sharing Snacks

Two peas in a pod. Sofia and Edie seen here sharing a snack. Actually Sofia was eating quietly when Edie decided she wanted in on that and helped herself to the treats. Thank you for sharing Sofia!

Future Softball Star

Todd bought the girls a t-ball set. Aubrey was shown you place the ball on the t and swing. Here she is showing her fantastic form. The more she did it the farther the ball would go. She was so excited, and we were all impressed as she continued to hit ball after ball.

In Your Corner...

This was the phrase repeated over and over again when all the little ones were in the jumping tent. Each one had to stay in their corner as to avoid someone being bonked by all the flailing limbs. Auntie Kerry, Becca, Uncle Brian and I all took out turns too! As you could imagine we were just a exhausted by the end of the night a the little ones.

The kids had a blast in here. It was a good chance for them to burn off some their nonstop energy. Here are the twins hysterically laughing as I ran around the outside of the tent chasing them.