Random Thoughts

*I LOVE fall! I love that it's finally cooling off and we can go outside and to the park as often as we like. We have been taking full advantage of the awesome weather! Can't wait until next week when we have a yard!! And a real neighborhood! And a playground across the street!

*I also love fall food! I've been making all my favorite soups this week, Tortilla Soup a few days ago, Zuppa Toscana today! I'm eating it right now, so delicious! And tomorrow I'm going to take the pumpkin we got last week at the pumpkin patch and make homemade puree out of it to bake with. I'm thinking that I will make these, my mouth is watering just thinking of them!

*Just saw a preview for Harry Potter for the first time! I almost forgot that it's coming out next month! Can't wait to see it!!

*Totally fell behind on my packing the past few days, I am going to have to work hard to catch up!

*Jack and Cullen are starting to really like movies. So far they've seen The Jungle Book, Peter Pan, Robin Hood and a Thomas the Train video. They love the animal videos especially, I think we've watched Robin Hood every day for a week, sometimes multiple times in one day! They ask me to put it on (just by pointing at the TV shouting "Please!") all the time and then jump on the couch together to watch it. They only last 10-15 minutes quietly on the couch before going to play, but then come running back to watch their favorite parts, the songs. They like to clap to the songs and make animal sounds when they see an animal they recognize. And anytime anybody splashes in or falls into the water, they laugh hysterically. Apparently, that's one of the funniest things in the world to a toddler!

*Brandon's old laptop is still hanging in there and I'll get to use it until it does finally die. I'm hoping that since I won't be using it for 12+ hours a day or running big programs, it might last longer than it would have if Brandon kept it. For the time being, I'm really enjoying having an extra computer to use. Before, I could only use the desktop which is in our bedroom where the boys aren't allowed to go because they empty our drawers, pull Brandon's school books apart, and push buttons on the computer and printer while I'm using it. So I could only get online during their naptime. Not that I don't have a HUGE list of to-do's for that same small window of time! So, having a laptop out in the living area that I can use while the boys play is wonderful!

*We can't wait for Gary and Sari to get here on Friday night! It will be so fun to have family in town! We wish more friends and family would come visit us- hint, hint!

Ok, I better go pack for a couple hours now that the boys are in bed and Brandon's still at class.

Yikes!

I feel like we are hemorrhaging money lately! And as a reformed spender and now a big-time saver, I hate it!

On Wednesday, we bought our plane tickets home for Christmas. It cost us $1500 but we know it's well worth it to see our families. Still hard to pay for though. And I cringe when I think that the cost is going to double after this trip once the boys turn 2 and can no longer fly on our laps for free!

And Brandon's laptop has been dying a long, slow death over the past few months. It's going on 5 years old and it overheats and randomly shuts down often. But it's gotten much worse recently, shutting down on him while he's in class and working from home. Brandon was afraid that it would just shut down for good one day and he'd lose whatever he'd been working on (he backs up his work every day but he can't afford to lose even a few hours of work right now, especially with finals coming up). So, on Thursday night, we took a rare family trip to the mall and bought Brandon a new laptop. He was pretty pumped to get a brand new Macbook (I think he's been anxiously awaiting this day for a while now) but neither of us were very pumped about shelling out that much money in one night. Those things are expensive!! We sure hope this one lasts 5 years too!

And, because when it rains it pours, on Friday Brandon went out to the car and saw that it had a flat tire. No biggie, right? We didn't think so. Brandon took it across the street to the auto shop hoping to just have the tire repaired rather than having to purchase a new one. But no, both front tires were shot and needed to be replaced. And, of course, they found a ton of other things wrong with the car, all relating to the tires and wheels and which caused it to go flat in the first place. $600 later and we have our car back with two new tires. We've put about $1500 into our car in the past few months, that's like 30% of what it's worth! But we can't afford a new car, and we don't really need one either. Our Camry is 12 years old but only has 110,000 miles on it so it should last us a lot longer if we take good care of it. And since we don't plan on outgrowing it anytime soon, we're praying that it does last!

This weekend we also have to pay a HUGE deposit for the new place. And probably won't be getting a penny of our current deposit back thanks to our kids and cats who have stained the carpet beyond recognition.

Sometimes I think, "Heaven help us, how are we going to pay for anything?" Four people living on a part-time salary in one of the most expensive cost-of-living areas in the country. Add on travel out West a few times a year and miscellaneous expenses (like cars breaking down) and it's so easy for me to become anxious about it all. Thankfully, though, we do have God helping us. He provides for our every need. We're just called to be responsible and faithful with the money he does give us and trust Him with it. It's a good lesson to learn, certainly not a fun one, but good. I just keep praying for God to help us be wise with our money, as frugal as we can be, and always more trusting of Him.

Pumpkin Patch & Amish Country

Last Saturday we drove up to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania for the day. We did this last year too and we always enjoy it so much. It feels so. good. to get out of the city/suburbs for a day. Actually, I think Lancaster County is just a big sprawling suburb now, but there are still parts of it that are quaint farmlands, rolling hills, and beautiful scenery.

And, not to mention, it's home to the Amish!! I just LOVE the Amish and spent the entire day trying to convince Brandon that we should convert. He told me that I have a romanticized version of the Amish and that I love my modern conveniences too much to actually give them up. Well, I admit, he's probably right, but I still love the idea of modern-day Amish people. Just a simple life on the farm, no bothersome technology, and close-knit families. Sounds wonderful to me!

Anyways, it was a gorgeous sunny day and there were so many of them outside in their yards. We tried our best to not be too stalkerish so we didn't slow down and snap pictures of them (although, deep down, I really wanted to!) but I still got a few discreet ones :-)

An Amish man plowing his fields the old-fashioned way. Can you believe they still do that? I think it's incredible and really admire them for it!

An Amish carriage driving towards us. These carriages are everywhere, they drive in the right lane. It is very strange, though, to see them driving on highways and parked alongside cars in strip malls.

We stopped in a cute small town that was having a classic car show. The boys spotted an old fire engine and spent about a half hour admiring it.

Look Mom, there it is!

One of the famous covered bridges, a.k.a. "kissing bridges."

Amish horse and buggy.

This is perhaps the most ironic and hilarious place in Lancaster County. It's an amusement park (kind of like Enchanted Village/Wild Waves) right in the middle of town and it's called Dutch Wonderland. Unbelievable, right? Well here's photographic proof that such a place exists.

We made it to the pumpkin patch late in the afternoon and spent a few hours there. They had all kinds of activities for kids and the boys had a blast playing there.

The farm had this long pipe slide which the boys wanted to do over and over and over. It was a little big for them though, so we slid down with them on our laps. They would jump up as soon as we got to the bottom and race back up the hill as fast as they could. We had to be quick to follow or else they'd go rolling down the big slide by themselves.

"Driving" an old tractor.Cullen especially loved this and threw several fits when we had to leave because other kids were waiting.

The farm had a big petting zoo and the boys loved seeing all the animals up close.

Racing through the corn maze on Daddy's shoulders

Jack looking so grown up!

So serious.

So silly.

The cutest little pygmy goats. I wanted to take one home with us. *Sigh* But we live in an apartment. Maybe someday we will live on a farm, or at least a pseudo-farm ;-)

This chicken somehow escaped- but he soon ran right back into his pen. I think it may have had something to do with the little boy that was chasing him.

In the pumpkin patch searching for a pumpkin, or an "apple" as Cullen called them.

Trying to pick up a giant "apple"

My only regret was that we got to the pumpkin patch so late (we took the last "hayride" of the day over) and had to hurry to pick out the pumpkin so we never got any cute family photos. Darn! Hopefully next year, though.

Randoms

*I am so glad to be moving out of this place before it falls apart! The other day I was scrubbing the bathtub (it seems to attract mold like nothing I've ever seen) and one of the tiles just caved in! I could have put my entire hand in there - but didn't because that would be disgusting! The maintenance guys came to fix it this morning and were in there for over 3 hours! Well, I had had 2 cups of coffee and needed to use the bathroom so I decided to just use the one in the boys' room that never gets used. But the last time it was actually used last month it overflowed and caused a huge mess. So I had the brilliant idea to 'test-flush' it just to be sure it was fixed. Good idea right? Nope. Water started gushing out of the tank. Literally gushing. I screamed for the maintenance man to come, he lifted up the tank's lid and said he'd stopped it, then went back to work on the other bathroom. I went to work cleaning up the mess but within 30 seconds it was gushing out again. Something was wrong with the pipes and the tank was filling after each flush but not stopping once it was full. I screamed again and the maintenance man came running in again, this time he fiddled with something on the floor and shut off the toilet's water supply for good. But by then there was a good 3-4 inches of water on the floor. He ran downstairs to get a wet/dry vac and sucked up all the water for me. Of course, the boys were crowding around and trying to splash in the water the whole time... because what else would they possibly be doing during all that excitement? Well a couple of hours and a load of laundry later, the bathroom was clean and dry. But what a crazy morning!

*Aside from the bathroom, my entire house is a shambles. Between purging our clothes/furniture/junk before the move, organizing and packing, and those twin tornadoes that live here there's no room to even walk across the floor right now. But we're moving 2 weeks from today so I better get it together!

*The boys are saying so many more new words: apple, juice, out, church, book, bus/truck, shoes, feet, uh-oh, and poo-poo ;-) They don't say all of these words by themselves, though, some of them they only repeat when we've already said it. And I even got Jack to 'count' to 5 the other day! I would say the numbers and he repeated most of them after me! He had a lot of trouble with four and never really got it out, but loved the others. His favorites were two (dooooo) and five. By the time he gets to five he's so excited that it's barely discernible!

*We are so excited that Brandon's parents are coming out to help us move and spend some time with us at the end of the month! We can't wait to see you guys again! You won't believe how fun the boys are now! I know I say that all the time, but they actually do get more fun and cute every single day!

*Jack's been giving me the sweetest unsolicited kisses lately. Sometimes I'll be holding him but be busy with something else and he'll just swing his face in front of mine, flash a sweet smile, and plant a kiss on me! Oh be still my heart!

*I have lots of pictures to upload from the past week. We went to a pumpkin patch in Pennsylvania on Saturday and had so much fun! I'll try to get them up soon!

Wrestling

Today, I was sorting through some clothes for the boys on their bedroom floor. They came in and "asked" to be put into Cullen's crib together so I obliged- I figured it would keep them from flinging the clothes all over the room. What followed was a half hour of wrestling and hysterical laughter that made my whole week! They were having such a good time that they didn't even notice that I left the room to go grab the camera and barely noticed once I started recording them.

I'll warn you though, this video may send this blog into cuteness overload! Having twins is the BEST!!!




P.S. I know they're wearing the exact same pajamas and diapers so I'll help you out. Cullen's the one pulling Jack down :-)

Mattress... or Trampoline?

Great News!

Jack & Cullen have made so much progress in their speech over the past 3-4 weeks that they no longer qualify for speech therapy! When we arrived at their appointment yesterday I told the therapists they had been doing much better at speaking or at least trying to speak and wasn't sure they still needed therapy and I was so happy when they confirmed it! The 3 therapists spent an hour interacting with the boys and assessing their cognitive abilities, gross/fine motor skills, emotional/social skills, and receptive and expressive language. At the end they told me they were right where they should be for their age!

Their speech, or "expressive language" as they called it, was still a tad behind the age-appropriate level but not delayed enough to qualify for therapy. Jack now has about 20 words or "word approximations" (they count signing as a word approximation) and Cullen has about 15. This is a huge increase from the 4-5 words they had last month! They said the boys were talking at an 18-19 month level but that in order to qualify they would have to be at or below a 16 month level. They recommended that we continue to encourage them to speak at home but said that it seemed to have finally 'clicked' in their minds and it was obvious they were trying to speak and making lots of progress in it.

In all the other areas they were right on track with their age level and socially/emotionally and in receptive language (understanding) they were even at a 24 month level! I got a kick out of the fact that they can actually assess a toddler's social skills- does anybody else think that's funny?

Anyways, I'm very glad that the boys have begun to communicate more. I've noticed a huge decrease lately in whining and in their frustration level (and mine!) and an increase in obedience and contentment. They still have temper tantrums a few times a day just like any other almost-2-year-old (mostly stemming from disputes over toys and not wanting to share with their brother) but they don't get so frustrated over every little thing anymore.

And they're learning and repeating more words every day. Their new favorite word is "buh" for bus and they shout it out every time they see one (or see any truck, big van, tractor, etc). Over the past couple days, I must have heard that word at least a hundred times! But I don't mind one bit ;-)

The Weekend

This weekend was very busy for us! The biggest news is that we found a new place to live! It's a 3 bedroom townhouse in Alexandria and the best part is that it even has a small, fenced yard in the back! We're moving in on November 1st. I'm dreading the move but looking forward to being all settled into our new home. It will be so nice in the spring and summer to have a yard for the boys to play in! And it's part of a townhouse community so we'll still have access to a pool in the summer. And there's a park and playground right across the street! As you can tell, with two active toddlers, outdoor areas were our main criteria!

On Saturday morning, I also shopped a few kids' consignment sales - my favorite! My biggest score was a toddler bed for only $10!!! I also got a few new toys for the boys (including a lifelike tool set that was an instant hit) and some cheap fall clothes. And I had a Starbucks gift card from Swagbucks so I treated myself to my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season! The only thing better than a Pumpkin Spice latte is a free Pumpkin Spice Latte! I love this time of year!

And, on Saturday afternoon, we took a family trip to the zoo. We were busy all day and didn't get there until around 4 pm and were worried that we wouldn't see many animals, but we saw more than ever! The boys loved it! Last time we went it was miserably hot, very few animals were out, and the boys were hot and cranky. But this time was a blast for all of us! Here are some pictures:

The boys especially loved the lion and spent a long time watching him pacing up and down. They even made roaring sounds :-)

Watching the lion with Daddy

This tiger was pawing at the door for a while - waiting for dinner I presume?