Home Sweet Home...

It's great to be back in Sunny southern California! We drove through the night hoping (again) that the girls would sleep...really who were we fooling??? They only slept for about an hour the whole trip! I knew it was a lost cause when it was 2 am and they were still up. So from now on we will do road trips during the day.

Thankfully, no one got car sick, but we were prepared for anything! We had two changes of clothes for each girl and a bunch of groceries bags handy to catch vomit! We learned are lesson!

Tomorrow is the first day of school for Tyler and I am sooo ready. Of course this means that now I have to start getting up early in the morning but it will be worth it. I'm sooo tired of trying to think of fun things for him to do! My brain is officially fried.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day!

PS: McKenzie has not bitten Maire for three whole days!!!! Yeah!!!

Wonderful Utah....

Utah is one of my favorite places to visit! The air smells clean, the mountains are magical and the changing weather keeps me on my toes. We are up here for Swiss Days. There is a huge festival that goes on for two days with many things creative, handmade items to buy but the best part is the pancake breakfast. For a small fee, you are given two of the biggest pancakes I've ever seen, (they actually fall over the edges of your plate) smothered with butter and syrup ,two fried eggs, and two pieces of grilled ham. Not to mention all the other food that is available at your finger tips, warm gooey brownies, fried bread topped with honey or jam, all kinds of homemade cookies, Carmel apples that crunch with every bite...my list could go on and on!

The celebration of Swiss days also includes a parade put on by the locals. It is mostly older people marching up and down the main street but the kids love it because of the handful after handfuls of candy that is thrown at them.

I was proud of myself for not spending very much money. Just some new bows and church shoes for the girls.

I have to give a special shout out to my wonderful husband who took the girls the rest of the afternoon so I could hang out with my mom, sister and mother - in -law. It was a wonderful day and I' m sad that we must leave tomorrow. I will miss Utah....maybe one day I'll be able to talk Aaron into "living" up here.....or at least getting a second home up here....though who knows when that could happen!

The summer is offically over and I am a little sad to see it go, though I am ready for the cool crisp air that comes with fall, the best season of all!

Utah or Barf...

What a trip we had getting up here. We decided to drive during the night hoping the girls would sleep all the way up. Uh...How wrong we were. First of all , we didn't get on the road until 1o pm and by the time we had made it to Victorville, Maire got car sick and vomited all over herself and Tyler, who in turn almost hurled as well. Also we had a full car with me, husband, kids and both of my parents who we stuffed in the way back (sorry mom and dad).

By the time we pulled over and got Maire cleaned up we had a feeling that maybe we should just turn around. But we love punishment so we decided to push on. Thing calmed down around 1 am when the girls FINALLY fell asleep. Though they would wake up every twenty-minutes and cry. I think the bad shocks on the car was waking them up. Driving in that car was like being on the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. (we got new tires today! )

Around 7:30 we were twenty mins. away from Provo when Maire vomited again....this time it was worse. So after pulling over and cleaning her up , we again went on our merry way. We also bought some air freshener since the car stunk!

Around 8:00 we dropped my now very tired parents off at my aunts house and before heading up the canyon to my in-laws house, we decided to hunt down some food. We were all starving. Needless to say that took us a while to do, not much was open. While hunting for food, McKenzie suddenly vomited all over herself. By now we knew the routine well : pull over, undress child, wipe child down, wipe car seat , take dirty clothing and blankets and stuff into the trunk.

By the time we found food, we decided to not give anything to the girls. We were not taking any chances. But we weren't so lucky, for just as we were about to enter the canyon, McKenzie vomited again. I turned around in my seat to help catch some of the vomit with a tee- shirt and to my horror she projected vomit so far that some landed in my MOUTH.! For an instant I thought for sure I was going to lose it! I started to scream, Aaron screamed at me to catch the vomit and then had to slam on his brakes which in turn made me lose my balance, slam into the passenger door and break our handle off!!

Let me just say I think from now on we will be flying to Utah!!!

Get a Job or go insane?

Today was such a terrible day that I actually started thinking about going back to work ! I just don't know if I'm going to make it with out losing my mind! I wanted to just sit down and cry at least three times today. The girls just don't get along at ALL! They fight and cry about everything! After a crazy morning I finally separated them. McKenzie in the playroom and Maire watching a movie. It gave me a half hour of peace. That was until McKenzie escaped!

There was one bright spot in our day. Aaron and i got to take the girls to the Yo Gabbagabba set! So much fun! The girls just loved seeing the characters in "real life". Tyler thought is was pretty cool to. Thanks to my brother in-law who is one of the creators of the show for giving us the grand tour.

So my fellow readers....um all one of you :) I will be away for the weekend and will not be posting. We are taking a family trip....the last of the summer as school finally starts on Tuesday. (I couldn't be more excited) Here's hoping that I survive this trip! Have a great Labor Day weekend.

Kristen

Why must I force my kids into having fun?

Summer is almost over and I decided to head out to the Spectrum in Irvine to give the kids one last chance to play in the water fountains there. Of course it took me twenty minutes just to convince them that we were going somewhere fun. Tyler was upset that he couldn't spend ALL day playing his video games and the girls just wanted to go in the pool.

However, I was determined that we were going to get out the house since we did not yesterday. After basically tackling the girls to the ground to dress them and begging my son to be happy, we finally were on our way. As I drove I started to have a sick feeling in my stomach that maybe I should have just stayed home. I mean, why go through all this trouble if they want to stay home? Problem is, when we do stay home, they fight the whole time and destroy the house!!!

In the end it ended up being a great afternoon. The girls had a blast eating pizza, playing in the water and chasing the birds. Tyler took a while to warm up to the idea of having "fun", (crazy kid) but once he changed his attitude for the better, I saw that old familiar smile that just melts my heart.

Just a side note: I am on full biting alert! McKenzie bit Maire three times yesterday and already once today. Poor Maire has bite marks all over her body and McKenzie is spending her day's in the time out chair! Lets just hope she doesn't get kicked out of preschool. Oh......please....don't get kicked out of school!!!

Motherhood is all about surviving the storm. I know one day soon these crazy days will be a distant memory....

Down time!

So I figure the best time for me to write is in the late afternoon when the girls go down for a nap....though it's been fifteen minutes and I can still hear them talking to each other! I hope they go to sleep. I need a least an hour of "mommy time" to get through the rest of the day.

This morning Tyler asked for cinnamon rolls and since i didn't have any of the store bought ones I decided to make them by hand. I got creative. Instead of the white flour I used whole wheat flour. Plus when I went to go make the glaze I realized I was all out of powder sugar. As I scrimmaged through my cupboards looking for something I could use for a glaze I had the "bright" idea to melt butter and chocolate and drizzle it over the rolls. I have to say that they turned out pretty good and the best part was that the house smelled GREAT! I wish I had the energy to bake every day! It's not that i don't like cooking, I just HATE cleaning up the mess!

For the few of you who know that I'm writing a book, I 'd like to inform you that I am only days away from being finished with the final edit! I'm so excited. This book has taken me two years to write since I've rewritten it twice! A writer is never pleased with her work!! The book is going to be discussing my journey with Infertility and how difficult that was. However, it is not written in Memoir form. It is written as a novel. Here is just an excerpt from the first page:

The day was July 2oth, 2007. I awoke from yet another night of consistent tossing and turning. Sleep seemed to be an unattainable goal for me these days. I was now thirty-seven weeks pregnant with twin girls and very uncomfortable. Actually uncomfortable was an understatement. I was miserable. I had never before faced such physical adversity. The moment my eyes popped open, I sensed the something was wrong.....

Stay tuned for more....

Who knew?

Who knew that life with twins was going to be so wonderful and painful at the same time? Now that my twin girls have turned two, I am really starting to lose my mind! The fighting and the screaming at the top of their lungs is in full swing. But just when I feel like I'm going to strangle them, i get those perfect smiles. Nothing warms my heart than seeing them grin from ear to ear. Today so far has been a good day. I only had to clean up poop from the floor once and the only food thrown on the ground was a cup of dry cereal! It's the wet messes that are the worst.

We actually made it out to target today to shop for my eldest sons school supplies! Thank heavens for another school year! The girls did really well. I just stuffed them with popcorn and Slurpee's. Even though at the last dr. appt, they were concerned about McKenzie weight, I didn't feel even on ounce of guilt giving the junk food. Listen I have things I've got to do and if they are not eating something while I shop- then it's not going to happen. Last time we went shopping without food, Marie grabbed a bottle of red wine and mashed it on the ground! so McKenzie has a little belly. I'll just make sure you starts running with me when she older.

I hope that those who read this blog find it funny and inspiring. My life is one big crazy mess but I do love it. Stay tuned for more updates!

Kristen