Zoo

Today I took the kids to the zoo, and we had so much fun! Marley spent last night and today with my mom for some special Nana time, so I "just" had 4 kids at the zoo. Scott is in Colorado snowboarding for the weekend for his brother's bachelor party, so we decided that we needed to go do something fun instead of just sitting around the house. It was Ryan and Jenna's first time, and they loved it. Their favorite animals were the orangutans, and Macey and Heidi were crazy about the stingrays. The weather was so nice, it was the perfect day to go to the zoo.















Here are some cute pictures from the last couple of days.

Garden and Sickies

Scott is almost finished with the garden! He will finish painting it this weekend and then we will plant everything. We are also going to paint the chicken coop. We let Macey and Heidi pick what colors we are going to paint everything, and Macey picked turquoise and white for the garden and Heidi picked purple for the coop. We are going to have a colorful backyard! Here are a couple pictures of the construction process.



I am making good progress on my projects as well, but I don't want to post any pictures until everything is done. :) But I absolutely love how everything is turning out! I start my laser course at school tonight, and I am so excited! We do laser hair removal and lots of different laser treatments for the skin, including vein removal and wrinkle reduction. Can't wait!

The kids have all been passing around hand foot and mouth. These poor kids have been miserable! High fevers, no sleep, blisters, yuck. Ryan and Jenna got the sickest. When Jenna had it, she screamed for 3 days straight. She wouldn't sleep or eat, we were all exhausted. When Ryan had it, all he wanted to do was sleep. He would just fall asleep wherever he was when he felt the need for a nap. It was actually pretty sad. Marley got by with a few blisters, she didn't get a fever. Macey and Heidi both had high fevers and only a couple blisters. The only thing that would cheer the little ones up was Elmo. Let me tell you, Cinderelmo is even more annoying at 2:30 in the morning!



Jake must not have been feeling very well either. :)

Sick Jenna, surrounded by Elmo, watching Elmo, trying to eat something.






Nana brought everyone ice cream cones to cheer them up and soothe their sore mouths. These were the twins' first ice cream cones!

Can they be any cuter? I don't think so!

When I took Heidi to school today, she walked up to her teacher and said, "Ms. Jennie, you are looking so so cute today!"

Macey came running in the door from school today yelling, "I have to get my homework done! I have to get my homework done! I'm having a Girl's Night Out with my friends tonight!"

I am a lucky Mommy.

Busy Bees

Wow, things are busy at our house! I guess that is what happens when you have 5 kids. And then throw in work, school, activities, and redecorating, and it just gets insane! I am having so much fun redecorating. It is coming along slow, since it is pretty much impossible to paint and stuff with 3 toddlers around, and they don't all nap at the same time. Since I have school until 10 at night, that really only leaves me with the weekends to do it. But I can't wait to get it done. I have so many fun things to do, I can't wait to see the finished product. Here are a couple of pictures of the family room repainting project.


The starting color was a mossy green, and I decided that I really needed to brighten the house up. So now we have one accent wall of a cool, bright green, and the rest of the room will be that pale yellow that is on the left wall. The green wall will be covered in family pictures. That green looks awesome with the plant shelf items I got. I am most excited about the kitchen. It is going to look so completely different, I can't wait to get it done and post before and after pictures. There are several things that I have been wanting to do in there for a long time, that I am now finally going to do. Molding, hardware, countertops, a backsplash, I can't wait!

Scott has been super busy with work. He is just a natural at his job. It was so scary when he was leaving the fire department because he loved it so much and he was so good at it. But he is the type of guy who is good at everything he does. He is the most selfless man, I love him so much. For him to leave a job that he loved so much in order to be home with his family more and provide a better financial future for us is just amazing.

The kiddos are also doing great. Macey joined the Science Club at school, and she comes home every week with some really cool and fun experiments for us to try at home. She is being tested for the gifted program at school, she is so bored in all of her classes because she is so advanced. The other day my dad asked her how school was, and she said, "Well, it's good. But it's kind-of a waste of my life right now because I already know everything." HAHAHA! Her teacher has her do extra research projects and tutoring to challenge her and keep her from being too bored. Heidi is loving her class, and is definitely the princess, so her teacher's say. I cannot believe that she is going to be in Kindergarten next year. I am really having a hard time with that, she was my baby for so long. Of course, she can't wait and asks me everyday when she is going to be going to Macey's school. Ryan, Jenna, and Marley are the same cute little stinkers as always. I love that they are more verbal now, and that they can follow directions! Ryan and Jenna are just so in love with each other; they definitely have that twin bond. It is really neat to watch. Marley is a feisty little thing! She has already perfected the "dirty look", but then the next minute she is loving on you. Definitely a 2-year-old.





"The Look"

Spaghetti Face Jenna

Spaghetti Face Ryan

Ryan climbed on the table and got hold of Heidi's Outback Steakhouse leftovers.

Little Mama

Sometimes I feel like I live in a Nudist Colony. The kids always seem to be naked!

Treasures

Yesterday I got a much needed day off thanks to my fabulous, beautiful, sweet, amazing mom. She stayed with the kids so that I could go shopping and do some fun things by myself. I came home rejuvenated, and loaded up with some really fun treasures for my redecorating projects. Here are a couple of things that I got (I put them on top of my cabinets so that the kids wouldn't destroy them while I got the painting done, so please don't pay attention to the dust.).






I got a lot more little things, and I will post pictures of all of it once I get the painting done and everything in its place. I have some really super gorgeous paint colors picked out, and I can't wait to get started!
Ryan has started a new thing where he will tackle one of his sisters to the ground and give them kisses and raspberries. It is pretty funny to watch.

What did you say? There's two?!?!

Two years ago yesterday we had our first ultrasound and found out that we were having twins. I cannot believe that it has been that long! That is a day that I will always remember every little detail about. Of course, Scott was working at the fire department, so I called him and said, "Are you sitting down?" He right away said, "Why? Is it twins?" So many emotions went through me in those first few seconds after I found out: fear, shock, excitement, nervousness, you name it, I felt it. Of course you have the fear that you will lose one or both babies, and then you wonder how much weight you are going to gain (admit it, that was one of the first things you thought, too), and you wonder how long your body will be able to carry two babies. But now we have our sweet little pink and blue cupcakes, and they were worth everything that we went through to get them here.
Here was our first ultrasound (Ryan was baby A and Jenna was baby B).

Knock knock?

Marley was sitting at the table eating her lunch, and she said, "Momma! Knock knock?" I was thinking, there is no way she is trying to tell me a knock knock joke, she just turned two! But I said, "Who's there?" And she said, "Daddy!" "Daddy who?" And with a huge smile on her face, "Daddy rocks!" I was dying, it was so stinkin' cute!