Long time...

I'm not doing so hot with this whole blogging thing, but I do have an excuse! You see, it is terribly slow and laborious to type out posts with one hand. One hand is always holding Clare while she nurses or sits in my lap trying to "help" me type, leaving me with only one hand to try typing and cutting and pasting code for photos or videos. It doesn't work too well, so I end up thinking that I will just blog sometime when I can do it with both hands, but that never happens.

Right now the twins are napping in our bed with Daddy and Clare is ...was at my feet, ha! she just started fussing and I got the pleasure of changing a poopy diaper. Now I hear the twins coming downstairs. See what I mean...

I'll be back...

Happy Thanksgiving!

It has been a month since my last post, and the month has flown by! We have been super busy, although I'm pretty sure with three year old twins and a 7 month old, it would be pretty hard not to be. The kids spend a lot of time playing around the house and in the backyard on the swing set they got for their birthday in October. Grace has figured out how open the refrigerator, yay (not)! Clare is sitting, babbling, and cutting her first tooth. She is bigger than Jake and Grace were when they turned one, and she is only seven months old! Grace decided that she didn't like all the kids in her ballet class, always telling me, "There's too many kids in my class." So we won't be doing ballet anymore, at least not until she is older. Jacob is sweet as can be and very cuddly. He can almost always be found playing with his trains. So that's our update! Hopefully, you won't have to wait another month for the next one...

Jacob and the Bounce-n-Spin Zebra



Grace Singing and Dancing (watch the end!)



Clarie Beary



Mommy & Clare



Clare Again



My Girl


All 3 in one photo, it's a miracle!


Daddy, what are you doing?


Babbles


Miss Potato


Our Hookless, Plastic, Childsafe Ornaments


Making Cranberry Salad


Auntie Pam and Miss Clare


Gracie Goo


The Big 'Ole Bird

Happy Halloween from all of us!

We took the kids trick or treating at the local village center. They seemed to enjoy it although we didn't make it through the whole thing because Grace's Snow White shoes were giving her blisters. When George started carrying her, Jake wanted to be held too, so we ended up heading back to the car. Then we spent the evening at our street's Halloween block party, got the kids to bed at around 9:30, and crashed ourselves.

Our Little Thomas and Snow White


Resting her weary feet

Mom's Group Halloween Party

Wednesday at our church's mom's group, we had a Halloween party for all the kids. They decorated foam pumpkins, went trick or treating at the offices for the various church ministries, ate lunch, played, and decorated cookies. I think they had a good time!

Jake, aka Thomas the Tank Engine


Grace, aka Snow White

Pumpkin Carving

We decided to carve pumpkins last night, with one little problem... We didn't have any pumpkins. After going to two stores in search of the elusive pumpkins, we finally found some at the third store. Daddy, being ever so ambitious, decided that we were going to carve some really difficult designs. Here we are:

Cleaning out the pumpkins






Keeping occupied


Smiling


Can you tell who they are?


And our most recent past time. I try to think of them as stickers. At least then I don't feel like we are wasting them :)

Banana, Nap with Daddy, and Letters

We tried food for the first time with Clare a few days ago. She's been reaching for things on our plates for awhile now, so I decided to let her have a teeny bit of banana. She gagged and spit out whatever I tried to give her, so I think her interest in our food is more from a desire to play and explore rather than eat. We'll try again in a few weeks and see if she does better then.

Gotta love the hair!


Playing with the food


Napping with Daddy


Letters that I made for her room

A Day Out With Thomas

For G&J's birthday, we got tickets to go ride Thomas the Tank Engine in Rusk, TX. We decided to make an overnight trip out of our journey and actually camped in a tent with the kids. It was lots of fun, and we definitely plan to do it again!

At the East Texas Oil Museum


Our Campsite


Roasting Marshmallows


Eating Marshmallows


Our Little Trooper


Walking from our campsite to the station


Here we come, Thomas!


All of Us + Thomas


Daddy, Grace, & Sir Topham Hatt (Jake was having a Tantrum off to the side)


Riding the Train


Mommy and Clare


The Girls


The Boys


Playing Together (...sort of)


Sleeping

Photo of Clare, Courtesy of Grace

I think it is one of her best yet :)

A Conversation with Grace

At dinner last night...

Grace: I a girl, Jake a boy, Daddy a boy, Mommy a girl.

Me: What's Baby Clare?

Grace: Baby Clare a baby!

Me: That's right. She is a baby. She's a baby girl.

Grace: No, me girl. Baby Clare baby.

Me: Baby Clare is a baby and a girl, she's a baby girl. Just like Emma is a girl dog.

Grace: Emma not girl. Emma a dog.

Me: Emma is a girl dog.

Grace: No, Emma a puppy.

Me: Emma is a girl puppy, just like Mommy is a girl, and you are a girl, and Baby Clare is a girl.

Grace: Baby Clare not girl, she baby.

...This continues in a circular fashion. Grace is quite insistent that Emma and Clare are not girls. It was the cutest conversation though!

G&J are 3!

How did that happen?!? These three years have just flown by. We had a great time celebrating Grace and Jake's third birthday. Daddy took the day off work and went to our first Friday class at church with us. After the class, we picked up Chick-fil-a and met up with some friends at a nearby park. That evening we went to Johnny Rocket's so the twins could get sung to by a crowd. Then we came home and had cupcakes and sang happy birthday again. The twins got a swing set for their birthday and have absolutely loved it! They go in and out playing all day long.

Birthday Cupcakes


Swinging


Sliding


We had their party yesterday at out house. We grilled hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken, ate cake, played with a Cars piñata, and opened presents. All our friends and family helped make it a very special day! Thanks to all who visited us in celebration of Grace and Jake's third birthday!

Cars Cake


Princess Cake


Cars Piñata


Presents

Weekend Warrior

This weekend I finally decided that I'd had enough of the ugly brick on our fireplace, so I decided to paint it. I went to Home Depot with all the three kids to get paint and a ladder. That was interesting to say the least! I will say painting brick is much more time consuming than painting a wall because it is so porous. It took an entire gallon of paint just to get the first coat on. Two coats, a new mirror, and some candlesticks later...

Our New Fireplace

This is the ugly brick from before.

I think it's a major improvement!