Fall Fun

I've been meaning to post for at least a week, but we've been so busy. Last weekend (as in a week from this past one) we took the boys to the Pumpkin Festival. It was awful. It was cold, rainy and muddy and all 3 boys were very grumpy. We did pick out 4 pumpkins (one for each of us), but 2 of them have since rotted and I'm not sure if the other 2 will make it. But I did at least get a couple of pictures of the boys in the pumpkin patch. They aren't great, but it may be as good as it gets this year.

Here is R having one of his many breakdowns at the Pumpkin Festival.

L is now also had his crib rail taken down and he too has a "new bed." The boys are going to sleep at night, but nap time has turned into a disaster. All they want to do is play and fight each other. After 3 days of attempting to get them to nap, they are now separated. R sleeps in his bed and L sleeps on my bed during naptime. It is not a perfect solution, but it works. They still need naps. This was clearly demonstrated the 3 days they didn't nap and then crashed on the couch before dinner. One day the crashed on me during Sesame Street and Greg came home to 2 crashed boys sleeping on Mama. If he had been home about 20 minutes earlier, he would have found all three of us sleeping.

New things:

Both boys talk all the time and they are making more and more sense every day. L talks in phrases and sentences and R isn't too far behind. L favorite thing to say is, "I'm so funny." He does not suffer from a lack of self-esteem.

A couple of weeks ago I went looking for L's car in the backyard before naptime. The boys often put things inside the seat of their bus, so I opened the lid to see if the car was in there. What I found was a giant dead bird. One of the boys, most likely L, had found it in the backyard and put it in their bus for safe keeping. It was not a pleasant surprise. Greg was out of town, so I had to deal with the dead animal, just like the time a few months ago when a squirrel fell out of a tree in the front yard.

My sisters-in-law are both due with their first babies in November and I had the chance and honor to make both of the Baby Shower cakes. My brother's wife is in LA and Greg's brother's wife is here. On Sunday, we had a Baby Shower for Jenny at my house. It was alot of fun and I got to practice decorating another cake. The picture is below. Sorry Jenny that I didn't get a picture of you, I didn't think about getting my camera during the shower. R and L are going to love their new baby cousins - R in particular loves babies.

Not a whole lot else is going on with us. We've just been busy with the every-day routine. Halloween stuff starts next week (like the boys costume parade at their school), so more pictures are sure to follow.

R and L "helping" Daddy put L's new bed together.

My little artists.

I leave you with 2 pictures of the boys' last year in a pumpkin patch. Notice how they could still wear shorts and they were happy in the sun - big difference from this year.

He's Free!

R has broken out of jail and is now free from his crib. He had climbed out of his bed several months ago, but that was because he was able to use his dresser to help him out. We've known that this was coming for a long time with both boys, but they haven't realized how close they have been to climbing out. Greg put the toddler rail on the next night and amazingly, R went to sleep with no problems. Nap time has become fun for him now, because he plays on his horse and turns the light on and off until he finally goes to sleep. Poor L is left watching his brother in the confines of his own bed. We are going to take L's crib rail off tomorrow. Hopefully this will end some of the sleeping issues we've had lately. When R wakes up now in the morning, he just comes into our bedroom instead of crying. We hope that L will do the same when he wakes up at 3 am (which happens almost every night).

Above is my big boy R, sleeping in his big boy bed. Below is my baby L, sleeping in his crib with his paci.

New things:

Both boys can now jump. L has been able to do so for quite a while, but R just recently started actually getting some air under his feet.

R and L love to hide behind furniture and peek around and say, "I see you Mama." L also likes to find things and say, "I see it!"

We have hit the terrible twos with both boys. Their most common word is "no." They say no to almost every question or request that is made to them (even when they mean yes). L at least will say, "no ma'am." half the time, but it is still no. I don't really know how to stop this. I think this is a common phase of toddler-hood, but it is very frustrating. They have also started throwing fits at inappropriate places. I took the boys out to dinner last night because Greg was out of town and R absolutely fell to pieces when we walked into Qdoba (which is a place they like). He laid down on the floor and threw a fit. He never would touch his dinner and never did calm down. I told him he was lucky we were in public. Today was L's turn at the Children's Museum. He didn't want to get out of the firetruck and totally lost it when I made him get out, he proceeded to lay on the floor and throw a fit. I would like to think that I have pretty well behaved kids, at least people tell me that almost every time I take them out with me, but this new stage sucks and I'm somewhat at a lost of what to do about it. I know that it will pass, but hopefully with no permanent damage done to any of us. They at least have the courtesy to take turns of which one of the them is going to throw a fit and it has not been both of them at the same time.

Here is L beginning his fit at the Children's Museum. This is before he laid down on the floor and screamed. Below is R taking his turn at the being "the good son."

Below is a video of the boys playing in "bro's new bed."

Above is a picture of L in is Robin costume, this time he is wearing the mask.

I am leaving you with a picture of a pumpkin bundt cake that I made last weekend. Kent and Tara gave me a cookbook for my birthday that is specifically about baking in high altitudes. It is wonderful and it really works. This cake turned out beautifully and it probably rose at least an inch and a half above the top of the pan. I've had so much fun trying out new recipes and being able to make things from scratch.

First Bike Ride and More

On Saturday, I took the boys out for their first spin in their new bike trailer. They love it. R cries every time I stop and completely falls to pieces when I make him get out. L fell asleep in it the first time. It really isn't too hard. Hills are tough, and I go very slowly up them, but fortunately my bike has 24 speeds, so it is doable. I took them out in it again today and went further than I did yesterday. Basically I'm making a large perimeter around our entire neighborhood. It is further than what I would walk, so it is a decent distance. My goal is to get them to the South Platte Park not too far away which has a great bike trail on it. I don't think that I'd have any problem getting there and riding the trail (especially since it is mostly flat), but I have to pace myself so I can also get the three of us home. But it is a fun new toy that they boys love and it gets us out of the house.

Greg wanted to try the trailer out, as well. I thought he was cute riding my bike with hot pink flowers painted on it. Hopefully he'll be able to get himself a bike by Christmas.

We drove up to the mountains on Saturday to see the changing fall trees. It was a nice drive and we stopped along the Boulder Creek to let the boys out. They had a great time throwing rocks into the water.

Notice below that Greg is literally having to hold onto L to keep him from diving into the water.

Doesn't my little R look like such a little boy, he's not a baby anymore :(

This was my attempt to get a picture of me with the boys, but L was not in the mood to stand still, he wanted to run around and throw more rocks into the water.

New things:

R is becoming more and more expressive. This morning he said to Greg, "Breakfast, go Daddy's car." When Greg said no we should stay at home and have a bagel, R said no, Daddy's car. So thanks to R, we went out to breakfast this morning.

L has started to use more sentences. He told me the other day, "You're so funny." And later that day he gave me a book and said, "Read this book."

When L wants something, we usually repeat what he has said, and then he says, "OK!" quite excitedly. It cracks us up every time. It is especially funny when I have no intention of giving him something but I repeat what he says to see if I understood him correctly, but he still says "OK."

The boys are going to be Batman and Robin for Halloween. I've been trying to get them to try on their costumes so it won't be such a big deal at the end of October. R has tried on the Robin costume a few times, but L says no, every time I ask him if he wants to try on the Batman costume. But he decided this weekend that he would wear the Robin costume because it has a belt, and R was fine with trying on Batman. L liked his ok - he's not happy in the picture because he didn't want me to take his picture, not because of the costume. R loves being Batman. His favorite part is the mask, which I figured would never be worn. I could wait to post these closer to Halloween, but I thought that R looked so cute, I couldn't wait.

The boys got to help Greg wash Mama's car today.

I leave you with two pictures of the boys being silly.

Great Family Weekend

We had a great weekend with the boys. On Saturday, we took them to a state park east of Castle Rock that has a paved trail. R and L had a great time running off the path and picking up every rock and pine cone that they could find. L in particular loved to throw any size rock or pebble

into any size puddle he could find. Greg and I of course ended up carrying them around for most of the trail. They've gotten really bad at asking to be held all of the time (especially L). They say, "hold Mama" or "hold Daddy" over and over again. L will even run in front of us and try to grab a hold of the front of our leg to make us pick him up in order to move on. After our "hike" we went to lunch where L ate an entire chicken quesadilla by himself. I think that he could sit at the table all day long and eat if we would let him. I have to declare him done half the time in order to move on with the day and to get him to stop eating. From lunch, we all went to a bicycle store and I got my birthday present, a new bike. The boys had a blast running around the store and riding the kids' bikes around. Thank you Greg for a wonderful birthday gift. My parents (thank you so much) have gotten me a bike trailer so the boys can ride around with me. I can't wait to get that in and try it out. Greg can't either, he thinks it will be a really funny picture.















This is homecoming week at the high school where I work. Last night was the chili cook-off and bonfire. The four of us went and the boys had a great time watching all of the crazy high school kids and the bonfire (especially when one kid threw a firecracker into the fire). The boys didn't eat chili, but they enjoyed the quesadilla and the guacamole that we had picked up for them to eat beforehand.















New things going on:



R has "pee-peed in the potty." I got them a little portable potty to start introducing them to potty training. I know that they aren't really ready yet, but you have to start somewhere. Right now, they are sitting on their potty while I run their bath water. And 2 nights ago, R went. I think I startled him when I started cheering him loudly. L loves to sit on the potty, but nothing is happening yet.


R is continuing improve on recognizing his letters and saying the ABCs. He really seems to know almost all of them. He does confuse some of them, such a V for Y, but he is doing really good. He can say his ABCs when he sings them with us or L, but when it is just him, he almost says "A, O, A,O" over and over again.


L loves to ride on Greg's shoulders. He surprised us the other day by saying to Greg "on my shoulders," meaning he wanted to get on Greg's shoulder (Greg has asked him in the past if he wanted "on my shoulders").


One of our most favorite things about R is how genuinely happy he is to see us. He loves to say "hi Mama" and "hi Daddy" over and over again. It is so heart warming to come home and have him so excited to see me. L tends to look up, and sometimes says hi, but he doesn't really care unless it benefits him.

I let the boys play in the sandbox today and L had the best time dumping half the sand on R's head. I had the hardest time getting enough of it out to even let them come in for a bath. The bathtub is was full of sand afterwards.

I leave you with a video of L singing the ABCs at dinner and R singing his favorite part of it, "XYZ, yeah!"

First Day of School! First Day of School

For those of you who know Finding Nemo, this is the opening line (after Nemo's Mama dies, but the boys don't watch that part). So, the boys went to Parents Day Out on Thursday for the first time. They did great going in, they love their backpacks (thank you Grandad and Nana for their birthday present) and their lunch boxes. They marched right into their classroom and started playing with the cars and only cried a little bit when I left. But at about 12:30 I got a call from their teacher telling me that they were sick. My boys never get sick, but they did their first day of school. Turns out that they had some sort of stomach bug and ended up with numerous dirty diapers. I left work and picked them up. They were excited to see me and didn't seem too out of sorts (except that L's little bottom was quite sore). I don't really know what happened, but they got over it within a couple of days. Today was round 2 of school and they made it all day. They even took a nap, which I wasn't sure about since they tend to only sleep in the confined areas of their crib or pack and play. But apparently R went straight to his cot and fell asleep. L ran for the door and cried no, but soon calmed down and fell asleep, as well. That is a huge relief. R and L need naps, it is required for their sanity and ours. They become miserable little souls when their routine is messed up to the point that they don't sleep. It must have been the super cute new blankets that Nana made for them for school! Their 2 teachers were sweet enough to offer to keep my camera and take pictures of them during the day.

So football season has started. I hate football. I really hate the combination of football and Greg, but it is unavoidable every year. I think that I must repress my memories of each season because I forget how awful it is until it starts all over again. I am currently listening to Greg scream his lungs out downstairs and hoping that his insane screaming doesn't wake the boys up. However, I know it is important to him, so the boys are dressed up in their Bronco shirts on football days and wear lots of orange and blue. I also took the 3rd annual Opening Day Football picture with Greg and his boys again today. I'm adding the last two years' photos as a reference to show how much the boys have grown. Note - Greg is going to hate that I bashed football and his behavior while he watches it in my own personal blog; however, this is my blog and he can get his own if he has a problem with it :)

I took this last picture tonight before the boys went to bed. It is cold here today (53 degrees, but it is supposed to be in the upper 70s tomorrow-crazy), so the boys are wearing their footy pjs. They also insisted on wearing their hats to bed.

Happy Baby Shower!

My brother and his wife were in town this past weekend to visit friends and to have a baby-shower. Kent and Tara were living here until June before they moved to LA. They will be there a year and then off to Singapore. Tara just found out she is having a baby boy, and she is now set for life in the clothes department. The boys had a great time at the shower. The restaurant was open only for the shower, so they had a wonderful time running all over the place. I made the cake, which you can see below. Tara likes overalls on little boys, so that is the cake. I just started decorating a few months ago so I could start doing the boys' birthday cakes, it is so much fun. This was definitely my biggest cake. It is a double layer 18X26 inch cake, and I think I used about 3 pounds of butter for the frosting.

We took the boys to a nearby nature center/trail this past weekend to let them run around. They found a good spot by the river to throw rocks and watch their Daddy skip rocks across the water. R immediately sat right down and tried to scoot his way into the water. His little butt was so covered in sand and water that I had to strip him before we got back in the car.

The boys start their first day of school tomorrow!!! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. I let them try on their backpacks today - they are so cute walking around with them as well as with their lunch boxes.

I leave you with a picture of R and his "Big Bird." He totally made this all by himself. He took his legos, put this together and came out of the playroom and told me it was big bird (it is what is on the table, not what he is holding). He is such a doll. He is often a whiny doll, but sweet all the same. He had a great time crawling in bed with Kent and Tara this weekend and laying down with them (he doesn't do that with us - he jumps on our bed and fights with his brother).