Grandpa Jim & Grandma Jane Come to Visit

I unearthed more of Jack's old toys and this music table was an instant hit. The babies are starting to pull themselves up to standing too!

Nathan having fun swinging at the park near our house.

Matthew loved being in the swing!

Grandpa Jim & Grandma Jane brought Jack a fishing pole (actually it's MY grandpa's old rod) and he had SO much fun fishing at the park near our house. He's actually pretty good!

Here's one of the fish! I think he caught at least nine over the few days he was able to go fishing with Grandpa. Although he was surprisingly concerned about the fish once he'd caught them!


Jack "helping" Grandpa wash his car. Actually he did a really good job (well, as good as a 4yr old can do!) soaping up and hosing off the car. And he only sprayed Grandpa with the hose once. :-)

Pics from the week

Nathan: "Help me Mom...I got here and now I can't get figure out how to get my legs to go the same direction!"

Jack, ever the great helper, picked up bottles and started to feed the babies all my himself one night when they were too impatient to wait for me!

Matthew being silly.


Jack wanted a tent so this was the next best thing until Daddy gets home and we can buy a real one.

I think Nathan is going to be a thumb-and-blankie kid like his big brother.

Jack (before his quiet time): "But Mom, I'm not tired!"

Pictures for Jay

Here are some pictures mainly for Jay's benefit. This is the best way for him to see pictures because their e-mail is too slow to receive photos. So here are some of the things I've wanted him to see or have told him about. Sorry that they're probably really boring for the rest of you!!

Jack decided to "help" me by unpacking groceries and lining them up all the way around the kitchen counter top....this picture doesn't do it justice, I needed a panoramic lens!

The babies will routinely crawl right over each other in order to get something they want and oddly the one on the bottom usually isn't complaining. In this instance, Nate is the one being mowed over and he actually had a smile on his face!

So when we moved into this house six months ago the back yard was a mess of mostly weeds, dirt, and a bit of grass. Jay put down some grass seed literally days before deploying and I have been trying to get it to grow. I put straw down in several areas and that is basically where the grass grew in. This section right off the deck was literally all dirt so it's doing pretty well! I wanted Jay to see because I was so excited!! No more mud pies for Jack, though, and he is none too happy about that.

Jack playing in his sandbox at the other end of the yard. Notice more straw here....the grass did not fill in very well on this end unfortunately. I think this is where all the water runs when it rains so that doesn't help. But the large tree makes for a great shady spot - just perfect for the sandbox.

Another shot of what was a huge area of dirt. (If you're wondering what that huge piece of paper taped to the slider is, well it's a picture Jack drew to scare away the squirrels because they eat all of the bird seed out of our feeder. They have figured out how to open the top of the feeder and I have witnessed them actually sitting INSIDE the feeder feasting on bird seed. Hence the drawing to scare them away.)

And finally the latest baby confinement device to hit the family room! The twins quickly outgrew the "play pen" so I had to find a way to confine them in here because I simply cannot baby proof the entire upstairs of this house (it's a split-level so our living areas and the master bedroom are all on the upper level while the playroom and kids' rooms are all on the lower level). It seems to work pretty well and the babies enjoy more room to explore so they're not complaining as much. Plus it has a door so it's super easy to get in & out. It is hardware mounted to the wall so I had to pre-drill holes and everything to install it - I'm pretty proud of myself! We'll see how long it stays up....