Happy Birthday Daddy

Happy 34th Bday to my best friend, partner in crime, Daddy to my kids, love of my life and husband. Hard to believe that when I met you, you had just turned 26 and I 22. Seems like a different lifetime ago! How lucky I am to have you in my life and that we had that fateful meeting at the shoe store all those years ago.

Can't wait to celebrate YOU!

I love u.

ME

2nd Birthday Party

We had the twins 2nd birthday party last Sunday at Grasslawn park in Redmond. We got lucky enough to be able to reserve the new pavilion they have there which is a really neat space. The weather was not great but luckily the clouds parted about 1/2 hour before the party and we didn't get rained on. We have not had the best weather this summer so it was not all to surprising that everyone had to show up to the 'beach' themed party in jackets.
Such is life in Seattle :-).
We ate a lot and played with all of our friends.
It was a wonderful way to celebrate them turning TWO.

All good things come in TWO's!!!

The twinnies are officially two. It feels like the past two years have gone by in a total of 5 minutes and then other times it feels like they were born a decade ago. So much has happened, they have changed so much and brought so much life changing joy into our lives over the past two years. Two years ago our days consisted of feeding, changing, feeding, changing and (sometimes) sleeping...but not very often. I remember thinking that I wasn't sure how we were going to survive through those first few weeks. We had quite the shock taking care of two newborns right out of the gate! But we got through it and if I do say so myself we did a pretty good job. But now the real fun has begun. They are at such a fun age. Now our days are full of visits to the park, play dates with friends, lunch outings, trips to the store and just about anything else you can do with two toddlers (which is actually a lot). Chloe and Carter are officially my little sidekicks and I have to say they are pretty cool to hangout with day in and day out. I feel pretty lucky that I get to hang out with my two favorite little people everyday and be able to explore & see the world through their little eyes.

Happy Birthday my two little peas in a pod. We are so very proud of you and the awesome people you are. Mommy & Daddy LOVE you so much.

Their official bday was on Saturday the 21st. We took them to a little park by our house that has baby animals (sheep, goats, horses) which they are very into right now. We let them explore and run...they had a blast. We went out for a special bday lunch to Chinese food (their fav). It was a fairly low key day celebrating our little ones but it was fun. We had their Bday party on Sunday at Grasslawn.


Carter is definitely a boy. He loves cars, trucks and anything remote control. My Mom & Jer got Carter this car and he is in love with it!
Chloe is a little Mama. She LOVES all her babies. She could have 100 baby dolls and she would make time for them all. She got 3 new babies for her bday and she loves them all but also still loves her old dolls. She carries as many as she can around the house at a time. She sleeps with no less than 3 or 4 babies at a time in her crib. She has full on conversations with her babies, asking them things like "whats wrong baby?", "baby come on...lets go", "baby sleepy lets go ni-nigh" & the list continues. Often times in order to get her to eat we have her feed her baby along with her because everything baby "eats" Chlo will eat. It is funny. I have really never seen a little girl in love with dolls more. We discovered her love for dolls around her 1st bday and she still is obsessed. It's so cute.

The 4 of us at the park on their bday morning

Our big kids looking at the baby goat

This kitty lives at the park I think and they LOVE it. It was really quite tolerant of all their poking and petting. I hope they never ask us for a cat because we would probably get them one (even though I don't ever want a cat!).

2 days until TWO!!!!!!!!!

Twinnies got an early bday present last night. They were thrilled to say the least. They turn TWO on Saturday and I can hardly believe it.

Carter got a hair cut yesterday. We made it a family affair. I think you could tell by the length of his hair that we were avoiding getting it cut as the previous 2 times we took him were traumatic. He did better than last time but still didn't like it to much. It ended up a little shorter than we wanted again but that just means we can wait longer again to put him through another hair cut.

Cheers

Fruititarian kids

These kids LOVE fruit. In fact Carters favorite foods right now are apples (only given whole & he will eat the entire thing core and all) and bbq chicken drumsticks. The other night he ate 5 for dinner. He looks like a little caveman eating them. It's hilarious. They are so finicky about what they will eat right now. Meal times are actually a bit frustrating for me because it's always a guessing game on what they will or will not eat. Sometimes I wonder how they still grow because they are so funny about eating. I know it will all change with time like everything else. I know Carter will not always turn down sweets and that Chloe will at some point NOT want fruit leather for breakfast everymorning.

:: little chefs ::

The twinners 'helped' us cook dinner tonight and let me tell you they took it very seriously. They pretty much ran the show.
With the exception of a little too much salt in the salsa I would say they had a very successful first attempt.

Trip to McCall

We went with Jerame's cousins to McCall Idaho for the week last week. It was a blast. The weather was gorgeous and was never below 80 during the day. Heaven! We spent lots of time on the lake boating, playing in the pool and at the beach. We were having so much fun that we tried to extend our trip to stay through this weekend but the hotel was all booked up. Bummer. We went last year as well and the trip was so much more enjoyable this year with the twinnies being a little bit older and able to do more. In total there were 17 of us with 9 kiddies in tow.
We are already looking forward to next year!

Two very tired little ones on the way there. We had an early am flight. They did so good though, all things considered, on the flight. I am not sure we are ready for a flight to Hawaii with them but we are getting there :-)

Jerame's cousin's wife Amy & I

Brook & Chlo

Best attempt at a family photo

Bethany & Carter enjoying some beach time

Cousin Brett & Jer

Julie & Amy

Cousin Jason & his daughter Brynn

We kept the twinnies up so late every night & they were such little troopers. I think I took these at about 11 at night & we were still at dinner.

Blake & Carter

Chloe enjoying chocolate ice cream at about 10:30 pm :-)