The Zoo

Last week, we took a break from our spring cleaning to go to the zoo. The kids did really well and they enjoyed seeing all the animals. Here are all five of them checking out the polar bears. And, yes, this time we were actually able to see the zebras. For some reason we ALWAYS look for zebras and believe it or not, the time before last, we went to the zoo and they didn't have any! We had to settle for a pic of KJ standing beside a zebra statue! :-)

Anyhow, after we got back from the zoo, the kids talked about it for days. In fact, I checked on the boys the other night and this is how I found them...and Barney and Teddy. (As of late the boys have HAD to have Barney and Teddy to sleep with.) I showed Husby and he said that they looked liked the bats we saw at the zoo. I cracked up laughing because the boys did ask lots of questions about the bats being upside down.

Now, it wasn't just the boys who "got something" from our trip to the zoo. During quiet time one day I found KJ in her room with the box of animals and her dolls. I looked further to discover that she had decided that it was time for her Barbies to make a trip to the zoo. She took her baby doll playpen and turned it over so that the panda bears could have a cage!

It is amazing to see how they took what they saw at the zoo and applied it to their little worlds!

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My Very First Blog Award!!!

The Lemonade Award

My friend at ILuvBNaMom gave me the Lemonade Award for having a blog with Attitude and/or Gratitude. This is my very first blog award! Thanks so much!

Now, there are some rules for receiving the Lemonade Award:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

Now I get to choose 10 blogs to award! I hope they like lemonade as much as I do! I am nominating the following 10 blogs:

Helene at I'm Living Proof God Has a Sense of Humor
Heather at It's Twinsanity
Diana at Enjoying Di's Journey
Lisa at Multiple Multiples
Tony at Well Watered Woman
Lady T at The Business Coach for Moms
Carisa at 1+1+1=1
Angela at The Creative Homemaker
Laurie at Tip Junkie
Kelly at her family blog

Stop by to check these blogs out - I think they're great! Thanks again for the award!!!

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Relapsed...

Okay, I am sad to say that we have relapsed! As I mentioned before, we didn't have enough guards to keep TJ away from all his fingers...whichever one was not in the guard became fair game for sucking! He now sucks his pointer finger! So, our plan was to just try again with him later. JI was a success...or so we thought. One night last week, I caught him with his thumb in his mouth just before bed. I was SO disgusted!!!! I guess seeing his twin still sucking his fingers enticed him into relapsing! Talk about peer pressure!!! I guess the good thing is that I have only seen JI sucking his thumb just twice since then and it has ONLY been during bedtime. I guess when we try again with the guards for TJ, it will be for both TJ and JI!

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Sleep-Walkers

Last night the funniest thing happened. Husby and I were in our room. We heard one of the boys get up. It was DC. He walked into our room and I could tell he was still half-sleep. Curious to see what he was going to do, I just watched him. Well, he walked over to the night stand and began to pull his pj pants down. I realized what he was about to do and I quickly told him to go to the bathroom. I think I scared him because he took off running into the bathroom. Husby went to check on him and even in the bathroom he still didn't seem to know what was going on. He kept trying to lift up the toilet seat, which was already up...

So, we felt fortunate that we "caught" him in time. Well, about 30 minutes later, we heard someone else up, but it didn't sound like they were going to the bathroom. Husby got up and sure enough, JJ had gotten up and was walking into the playroom. Husby caught him and then JJ headed to the bathroom.

Now, how does that almost happen to both boys on the same night?!?!?! My dad said that it must be hereditary. Yes, I used to sleep-walk when I was a kid. Infact, I once went to the bathroom in the closet on the Christmas ornaments!!! So, yeah, I guess they did get it honest! :-) Now, I am wondering if this has happened to the boys before and we just don't know about it? I guess if they had "missed the bathroom" before, we would have smelled the urine by now, right?!?!?!? Uggghhhh!!! :-)

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Skype: LOVE IT!!!

So, my dad told me about Skype last year and I didn't pay much attention to him. He mentioned it again earlier this week and I finally decided to check it out. Boy, am I glad I did! My family lives pretty far away and the grandparents don't get to see the kids that often. With Skype we were able to have a video call with them. My grandmother was able to see and talk to her great-grandkids. It was so cool! And, the best part is that it is FREE!!!! All you have to do is go to the site, download the software, create your account and be sure to have a webcam. I think there are some features that you have to pay for, but the Skype to Skype video calls are free. That is all we need, so that makes it really nice!!! Now, all we have to do is decide on the time that we are going to "skype" each other and login. SOOOO COOL!!!!! Now, I have got to get my mom and my in-laws on Skype!!!

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Discovery Museum

Yesterday we took the kids to one of the discovery-type museums here. We went with some friends of ours who have a daughter about the same age as KJ and a 1 year old girl. Let me just say, it was SOOOO COOL!!!! Husby even mentioned that he wished that he could have gone to something like it when he was 5 years old! All of the exhibits were hands-on and encouraged imagination. The exhibits included a bubble room, a toy inventors shop, a rain forest theater, a river room, a grocery store, a room based on China, etc. My favorite exhibits were the dinosaurs (b/c the kids were able to make connections b/c we just finished up learning about dinos not too long ago) and the room based on the body. This room was really cool b/c it was based on The Magic Schoolbus characters and you got to see how the basic parts of the body function! Now, that was just inside of the museum. On the outside there is a huge playground with towers, slides, a sandpit to dig fossils, a life-sized game board for chess or checkers, a music-making ensemble and much more. DC's favorite part was the train set and the dinosaur slide. KJ's favorite part was "the outside part." JJ's favorite part was "the whole part!" Needless to say, we will be back! Check out some of the pics:

Below is a pic of JJ using his brush to check out a dinosaur fossil.

Below is a pic of DC using water and a paint brush to do a bit of Chinese character writing!


Below is a pic of one of the babies (I don't know which one) going down the kiddie dino slide.

It was so much fun and educational! I can't wait until the babies are a bit older to really enjoy everything. We made the mistake of letting them get out of their stroller early on to check out the toddler room. They did NOT want to get back into their stroller and everyone in the place knew it! But we did let them get back out once we got outside. Now, that was a job itself...trying to keep up with two little ones who have a knack for running off in opposite directions! But, overall, it was an awesome day!

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Kitchen Helpers

My kids always want to help out, especially in the kitchen. But, having alot of little ones trying to help in the kitchen is not always a help...know what I mean?!?!?! So, not wanting to stifle their willingness and their desire to help out, I decided that it was much easier to have just one kid help at a time. But, the hard part, was remembering who helped with what meal what day and whose turn it was next. So, I decided to make a chart. Now, I know what you are thinking...I went way overboard, but I have had so much fun playing around with Photoshop! Check out what I came up with:
Each of my big three get to help me out with one meal each day and it rotates daily. They are denoted by the different color squares: pink, blue, and orange. Their responsibilities include whatever I need them to do in order to get the meal on the table and ready to each...including helping with the dishwasher. (One helpful rule is that if it is not your turn to help you should not be in the kitchen!) So far it has worked really well. The kids get to help...one at a time. Keeping up with one set of helping hands is much easier than three...or five for that matter. I guess at some point I will have to add green and red squares so that the babies can get in on the helping! :-) I think I still have at least a year or so for that! :-)

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Thumb Guard Update

Well, here is the update with the thumb/finger sucking. JI did great! After a little less than 30 days, I haven't seen him sucking his thumb at all. TJ, on the other hand, is a whole different story. I mentioned in a previous post that once we put the one thumb guardon him, he started sucking the other thumb. So, we put two thumb guards on. Then, he started sucking one of his ring fingers. So, we put DC's old finger guard on him...along with the thumb guard. Yes, we put two guards on one hand. Take a look at the picture! Then, he started sucking his pointer finger. At that point, we considered it a lost cause. If only they made a hand guard. You know, that keeps you from sucking any of your fingers. I guess I could buy another finger guard and put three guards on one hand and get the same effect. But, they are not cheap and besides, he would probably start on the other hand, which would mean that I would need three guards for each hand...which would mean that I would have to buy three more finger guard sets. (I already have two thumb and one finger guard.) I just don't think that will be happening. So, in the meantime we have taken the guards off and I suppose we will try again later on this year and hope that his finger-sucking obsession will be limited to ONE finger so that he will not just suck whatever finger is available! :-) Did I mention that we used the guards on the older set of twins (when they were about the same age) and it worked PERFECTLY! To this day, neither DC or JJ have sucked their thumbs/fingers since. If only the guards were that successful with the babies!!!

Disclaimer: The bands come in all different colors. On days when we planned to stay home, I used the more "non-boy" colors. I reserved the blues and greens for days that we were going out in public. Needless to say, I took this pic on a day that we stayed home...hence the PINK band! :-)

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My Blog Signature

Well, as you can see below, I have created a blog signature. I have seen this numerous times on other blogs and thought it was pretty cool. I finally took the time to figure out how to do it.

First, I used a site called My Live Signature. It walks you through the steps of creating your own signature. You can choose from one of their fonts or you can use your own handwriting. (I decided to go with one of their fonts...it probably looks better than my own handwriting!) :-)

Once I have decided on the font, I was able to choose the size, color, and slope. Then I selected "Want to use this signature?" and got the html code.

Finally, I went to my blog dashboard --> Settings --> Format --> scroll down to Post Template. I pasted the html code into the box and clicked save...and that is it!

Now, whenever I start a new post, the signature appears. I just make sure to add my text above it so that the signature is at the bottom.

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The Circus

Last week we took the kids to their very first circus. It was a small-scale circus, but we still got to see lots of great attractions. They had tigers jumping through flames, acrobats swinging in the air, elephants following command, motorcycles driving in a large, round, metal cage, large black bears dancing, a man balancing on stacks of chairs, a magician with corny little tricks, poodles jumping through hoops, etc., etc. It was pretty cool. In fact, during one of the performance DC said, "This is cooler than the bathtub!" I don't know where that comment came from, but the lady in front of us thought it was pretty funny.

I asked the kids what their favorite part was. KJ and DC said that their favorite parts were when the girl danced with all the hula hoops. JJ said that his part was the whole thing. Although I didn't ask the babies, I would venture to say that TJ's favorite part was the tigers. Though the tigers did not roar at all, TJ roared at them...numerous times. He would take a deep breath, lean forward and roar with all his might. It was pretty funny. Fortunately the guy in front of him didn't mind TJ roaring in his ear.

Now, the circus just isn't complete without cotton candy. Yes, KJ convinced Husby to get them cotton candy. They were actually pretty cute with their blue teeth! They were even able to convince him to get a light sword as well!!! Shocked over the price ($10 each), Husby quickly decided that they would get just one and share it.

All in all, it was a great time and much to our surprise, the babies did really well sitting with us in the bleachers even though it was well past their bedtime. The kids can't wait for the circus to come to town again...neither can I!

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Blueberry Bushes

My kids LOVE blueberries! So, over the winter I decided that I was going to attempt to plant some in the yard. My mom informed me that it was time to do the planting. So, I went to the local nursery and boy was I in for an education! Now, I did know that there are LOTS of different varieties of blueberries. (I discovered this when we went blueberry picking last year and the lady let us sample like eight different kids of blueberries to choose to pick.) Did you know, however, that you have to cross-pollinate blueberry bushes? You can not just plant one type of blueberry bush. You have to plant at least two different kinds near each other! (Now, you know that the frugal side of me was wondering if this was some sort of ploy to get me to buy two bushes rather than one! Hahaha!!!) So, I decided on Blueray and Berkeley. They were two of the types that I remember picking. I also decided on "4-year" blueberries rather than "2-year" blueberries, which means that we should get blueberries sooner; a few blueberries this year and an abundance next year. The 4-years were a bit more expensive, but the sooner I can grow my own, the better! (The big three would eat these all day long if I would let them!) Let's just hope the blueberries don't turn out like the lettuce, cabbage, and kale!!! The man at the nursery assured me that slugs should not be a problem!!! A girl can only hope! :-)

...I will keep you posted!

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Poor JJ

Let me start by saying, "Poor JJ!!!!" Yesterday he and DC were playing in the backyard, while KJ and I were busy dusting the blinds. I heard screaming and DC came running to the door saying that JJ was "really stuck in the tree." So, in my socks, I sprint outside to "rescue" him. Amidst his tears, he tells me that one of the tree limbs "jumped up" and hit him between his legs. Yes, a broken tree limb sticking out from the tree had stabbed him there, yes, there!!!! So, I take a look and after a few more tears he seemed fine...or so I thought.

Once husby got home, JJ informed him of his misfortune, but I assured Husby that I took a look and that he seemed to be fine. Well, bath time rolled around and boy was I wrong! He was swollen and bruised! I felt SOOOOO bad for him. But, he had been acting fine and nothing looked wrong when I took a look. Anyhow, after getting him all washed up, we had him sit with some ice. This is where it gets funny...you have got to know by now that we don't have kid drama without comedy!!! :-)

Husby tries to take JJ's mind off of the coldness of the ice by telling him to sing his favorite song. In a soft, quivering voice, JJ begins, "Fear God..." He was so incredibly cute! Husby, KJ, and DC start singing with him. Then, JJ tells Husby that he is singing it wrong. Husby asks how it goes. JJ clears his throat and in the highest pitch voice he could manage, JJ belts out the lyrics, "FEAR GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS FOR THIS IS THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN!" We all cracked up and he grinned! Needless to say, it took his mind off of the ice. Poor JJ!!!!

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Blogging: Why and When

I have had alot of people ask me questions about blogging. Most often I hear, "Why do you take the time to blog?" and "How in the world do you have time to blog?" Well, I decided to answer both those questions right here!

First, why do I blog? I blog for different reasons, but the main reason is because I scrapbook? So, what is the connection with blogging and scrapbooking? I am a few years behind in my scrapbooking and I find that when I try to journal about events that took place years ago, I can't really think of anything to say. So, I decided to use my blog to write about the things that I hope to scrapbook one day. So, whenever I get around to scrapbooking a particular event or picture, I can just go back to my blog, make a few minor changes (like adding in the kid's real names), copy, paste, print and add it to my scrapbook pages. It just keeps me from having to remember the details of events that took place years prior! :-)

As for the second question, I tend to blog in the evenings after the kids go to bed. I tend to make at least two or three blog entries in one sitting, but I schedule them to start/post on different days. That way, it appears that I am blogging regularly, when in actuality, I only get around to doing it maybe once a week or so.

So, now, my secrets are out! :-) But, I am wondering do YOU blog and if so, why and when do YOU do it?

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God Rocks!

We have discovered God Rocks and the kids LOVE it and so do I! It is an animated, Bible-based kid's cartoon. It comes on on Saturday mornings on TBN and Daystar. The show features lots of great songs based on Bible verses. The main characters are rocks. It is amazing how much my kids have picked up just watching this show. I hear the kids singing the songs and making comments based on what they have seen. For example, the other day I overheard the boys while they were playing outside. They were "fighting" each other with some broken-off tree limbs. JJ yelled out to DC, "You can't defeat me. I have on the armor of God!" Man, all I could do was smile!!! I love hearing the kids talk like that! I love overhearing them singing songs to God. KJ has even begun to take out her guitar and sing "worship songs to Jesus" that she made up all on her own! (Yes, those were her words, "worship songs to Jesus"!) Now don't get me wrong, not all of the conversations that come out of the watching God Rocks are religious in nature. For example, today I heard DC say, "Hey, Chip is playing a guitar!" KJ responded, "Well, it could be a ukulele!" What does this girl know about a ukulele? (I guess I can thank the VeggieTales for that!) Either way, I love the impact that God Rocks is having on my kids!

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The Best Birthday Gift Ever!!!

I have the best husband ever and he gave me the best birthday gift ever! When he got home from work on Friday, he announced that the kids were going to have a camp out and that while he and the kids camped, I was going to spend the weekend in a hotel in town. Yes, he got me a hotel for the weekend while he stayed home and took care of the kids! It was awesome!!!! I got to do what I wanted, whenever I wanted!!! I didn't have to think about packing a diaper bag to bring with me to the store. I didn't have to try to get to bed on time so that I would have the energy to take care of the kids the next day. I got to sleep in. It was great! So, what did I do? Well, I went to some stores that I enjoy going to, but rarely go to because I couldn't imagine taking all five kids with me. I watched TV. I slept. I scrapbooked. I just enjoyed having "me" time. It was so wonderful. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my family, but it is always nice to have a little break every once in awhile. Would you believe that husby even managed to take all five kids to church all by himself. He said that despite forgetting the diaper bag, trying to do KJ's hair, and having one runaway baby, he managed to get them into their classes at church with relatively no problems. What a great husband! What a great gift!!!

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Camping Out...In

While I was at the hotel for my birthday vacation, husby decided to let the kids have a camp out....inside. He set up the tent in the den and let the kids sleep in it for both nights that I was away. He even slept in the tent with them. They had so much fun! They got to use some little battery-operated lanterns that I found at the Dollar Store a few months back. (Yes, I did come home to take a few pics...and then, of course, I went back to the hotel, while husby roughed it on the floor in sleeping bags!)

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Sleeping Beauties

The other night we went to have dinner at our friend's house. We all had a great time! On our way home the kids serenaded us to the sounds of one of the Veggie Tales CD. Even the babies were trying to sing and clap their hands. While the kids where belting out their tunes, we were busy talking the each other. It is funny how parents have a way of tuning out the kids! :-) Anyhow, we were so busy talking to each other that we hadn't really realized that all five kids had fallen asleep. We pulled into the garage and turned around to see all five angelic looking faces. I think I love my kids even more when they are asleep! :-) So, enjoying the silence...well not really...Veggie Tales continued playing in the background...we just sat there staring at the kids for a moment. I commented that I didn't even want to stir them. So, my husband asked if there was anywhere that I needed to go. So, we backed out of the garage. Realizing that we didn't HAVE to keep listening to Veggie Tales, we did turn it off! :-) We drove to pick up some milk and to fill up the gas tank...all while the kids slept! I am sure we would have made more stops...if I could have come up with something more we needed! I was just enjoying my sleeping beauties...well, honestly, I was enjoying the silence! :-)

Am I the only one who has ever done this?

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Thumb Guards

Just thought I would share with you what I am doing for my finger-suckers. All of the twins are/were finger suckers. Now, let me just preface this by saying that I taught all the boys to suck their fingers. I know it sounds crazy, but when they were babies, I couldn't handle getting out of the bed every time they cried...just to put a pacifier in their mouth. (This is what I did with my daughter, but she was in a cradle at my bedside. I could get the paci in her mouth without setting a foot on the ground! But, the babies were in a crib and I had to get up to get to it.) Anyhow, yes, I taught them to do it. So, after tying just about everything, I found the thumb guard and the finger guard.

Let me just say that these things worked flawlessly for my boys. After one month of using the guards, they were DONE sucking their fingers!!! (DC sucked his ring and middle fingers on his left hand. JJ sucked his right thumb.) So, after the success with the guards, I had NO hesitation in teaching the babies to suck their thumbs. We are now using the thumb guards for both of them. JI sucks his left thumb. TJ sucks his right thumb. So, we put the guards on the babies a few weeks ago. JI is doing absolutely GREAT! TJ, on the other hand, isn't doing as well. After putting the guard on his right thumb, he started sucking his left thumb. So, we ended up having to get another guard for his other thumb. Well, thinking that would solve the problem, I was excited...until I saw that he had started sucking his pointer finger. So, I am not sure how successful we are going to be with getting TJ to stop sucking his fingers. I guess having to buy braces for one out of five kids won't be too bad! :-)

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New Beds...or not...

Over the weekend, we were very ambitious! For some strange reason we decided to move the babies from their cribs into toddler beds. You see, when the boys were about 18 or 19 months we HAD to move them from their cribs to toddler beds because we needed the cribs for the babies. So, it was sort of a thing that we HAD to do. Well, since the boys did it at that age, we figured that we could do the same with the babies since they are about that same age. Well, here is what happened:

A few months back I found bunk beds at a thrift store. It was a steal, so I got them, knowing we would eventually need them for the boys when we moved them out of the toddler beds. Well, we woke up Saturday morning and I had the bright idea to make the transition. For some reason hubby went along with it. So, I found some discounted twin mattresses and sent hubby to buy them. We warned the kids that this would be the first and last time for them to jump on the mattresses. (I am kind of paranoid about the kids being on the top bunk....so, for now, the boys both sleep together on the bottom bunk.) Anyhow, hubby got to work putting together, taking apart, and arranging all the beds and cribs. The plan was to take apart the cribs and move the toddler beds out of the boys room and into the babies room. So, that is exactly what we did...yes, we took the cribs apart. Now, the boys LOVE their bunk beds and I think the babies liked their toddler beds...as long as they didn't have to sleep in them...

That night was very interesting...to say the least. We put the gate up at the babies door so that they couldn't come out of their room, but they stood at the gate most of the night crying. I felt like a captive in my own home. I was tip-toeing everywhere...so they wouldn't hear me. It was horrible. I got NO sleep that night and I don't think the babies did either. When they did FINALLY fall asleep, they just zonked where they were...not in their beds! Check out the pic! We had such a rough night that the next day after church, hubby put the cribs back together. Yes, the babies now have two cribs AND two toddler beds in their room...but, at least we all got a better nights sleep. Maybe we will try moving them into the toddler beds again in a few months...or years! :-) I don't think I could take another night like that anytime in the near future! :-)

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