Sorry, sometimes I ramble!

It's been one of those days. Actually it was picturesque to start with. The boys slept in and Jared and I sat on the couch this morning and felt like we didn't have children at all for a minute. It was relaxing. We watched a thunderstorm pass by and talked about what in the HECK we used to do before kids??? Jared went and picked up breakfast and more importantly coffee. We all watched "Over the Hedge" and laughed, played with megablocks, played outside on their tricycles. Lovely!

ENTER: Nap time. It is DAY THREE without a nap. DAY THREE!!! This does not sit well with me. It becomes a bit exhausting. It put me in a bit of a funk. Well, that coupled with the fact that I just read "Sarah's Key" AND Jared rented the Changeling all in one weekend. NOT RECOMMENDED, both are powerful and good but a bit heavy. On top of that, Jared church softball games are on Saturday nights and therefore bedtime, bath and dinner were all mine. Jared knew that I had had it and suggested that I go out and do something with the boys. He had also mentioned yesterday that the Shark sweeper that I wanted was on sale AND we had a coupon. A light bulb appeared over my head.....RETAIL THERAPY! It works almost every time. Right or wrong, it.is.the.truth. :) I hemmed and hawed about whether it was worth the effort of getting the boys ready, getting me ready, etc. but Jared said GO FOR IT! He knows me well. I packed up the hooligans (their new names until they start to nap again) and headed to Bed, Bath and BEYOND!!

We arrived and I couldn't find the right model, asked for help and was told "NO, I am helping someone else!" Swallowing my annoyance, because it seems he could have said something like "Hold on and I will be right with you", I found someone else and she was able to help me. Armed with my new cleaning tool I grabbed my plink's (love these) and got in the check out line which was SO LONG. The boys wanted "the balls, PEEEEEEEEES" so I gave in, handed them the dryer balls and decided I actually wanted to purchase them. Already, I am feeling less stressed, ahhhhh. I chat with the check out guy who tried to sell me "all things green". He was on quite a tangent but he meant well and it was a pleasant enough conversation. At this point my "funk" was losing steam.

Those who are not yet married with children may find it sad that cleaning products brought me such joy but you will get it someday. Trust me anything that makes day to day life simpler is a good find! I failed to mention that my plinks now come in lavendar which matches the smell of my Method spray. I mean, come on! (Ok I may have a slight problem.) :)

Now it was off to see the trains which coincidentally is also where I can snag more coffee. I met a nice couple with their ADORABLE son, again we had a nice conversation and it was time to head home. I pried the boys away from the trains and then "made" dinner (popped a whole grain pizza in the oven and steam some veggies), gave baths and put the boys to bed.

On the way home from the store I had called Jared and thanked him for knowing what I needed. After hanging up I was looking for some music and you will not BELIEVE what I heard. PRINCE (formerly known as) was on the oldies station!! Are you kidding me?? I was in shock and kept checking the tuner to be sure I was right. Wow, why am I afraid that I am going to blink and all of a sudden Miley Cyrus or Taylor Swift will be on the "oldies" station singing about their latest heartbreak? YIKES! I quickly changed that station not ready to deal with THAT particular reality and heard Whitney Houston's version of "I will always love you". Blast.from.the.past. You cannot tell me you didn't love that song when "Bodyguard" came out. :) I feel sorry for my dear sons who had to endure Mommy singing the most powerful part of the song "AND IIIIII eeeeIIIIeeeeeIIII will always love YOU OOOO OOOO OOO OOOO" but let's face it only Whitney (pre-craziness) can hit those notes well. So I am ready for a new day and I am even more ready for Girl's Night on Thursday! YAY!

Parenthood has it's ups and downs but neither Jared or I would trade it. Nope, no way!

Simply Saturday

****Posting this early in case you want to join in on Sat. or Sun. If you choose to join in you click at the bottom of the post where it say "you are next" "Click HERE"****

The simple things in my life that came to mind this week are :

Sons who aren't afraid to plant a great big kiss on one another (yet).



Eli's curls.



Alex's smile that starts with his eyes.



Flowers in bloom.




A good long nap (hopefully) after a long week.



What are some of the simple pleasures in your life?

Feel free to join in. This week I included several examples but most weeks (as seen here) I stick to one or two.

Eli and his attitude.

This particular morning Eli woke up with:

a severe case of bed head AND

an ATTITUDE!

Every once in a while the boys wake up seperately and this was one of those days. I love it because I get a chance to just soak up a little bit of Eli or Alex all by themselves. It truly is a special treat. Even when they look at me like this :)

Awww I just re-read this post about my Eli Henry. Brings back so many memories! I love ya, baby boy!

Organizing all the LITTLE toys that become a big problem

The boys little toys have gotten a bit out of hand and I was tired of chucking them all into the same bin. Jared and I keep the boys room organized but we needed an updated version of organization due to all their "loves" (hot wheels, trains, little people, blocks, etc.). Jared came up with using these little clear bins and for $9 we now have a closet that I LOVE and that is much more manageable. The boys even like cleaning up (if Mommy cheers for them OFTEN) and I love that I can pull out only one or two small bins at a time as opposed to larger bins and lots of mess.

We have had these red bins and were using them for all of the miscellaneous toys that were quickly growing out of control. Now one of them is miscellaneous and the other has their MegaBlocks in it. Much better! (On a side note: If anyone knows of a good chalk for these particular bins, let me know b/c nothing has worked well so far.)

I kind of have a "thing" for these containers. Recently when my sister watched the boys she said she desperately wanted to find my label maker and change the "OTC Meds" label to "OCD Meds". She's a funny one!

Weekend Recap

Where to begin. We had a fun weekend and 4th. We spent the 4th with the Phelans and my sister Missy's family. Good food, good friends, who can complain? Not me. Part of the visit was spent with our first child, Luca (as in Luca Brasi from "The Godfather". He is the great dane pictured with Jared. The Phelans took him off our hands when we found out we were having twins because can you imagine newborn twins and that beast of a dog??? Nope, I surely can't. The boys LOVED their "glasses" (goggles) and had a blast swimming in the pool. THANK YOU PHELANS!!!!

In case you are thinking Jared must be short, he is 6'2".

When I say we are quirky, I mean it, people!

Celia and Eli definitely win the "fish" award. Neither of them wanted to get out of the pool, fortunately Celia didn't throw a huge fit like Eli though ;)

On Sunday Night some friends got together to say Bon Voyage to our friends Amos and Mariah. I am in denial about them leaving us but they are, in fact, and we had a nice time. They have been at our church for 11 years and I still remember their first Sunday. Weird?! We love them and have watched all of their kids grow up from infants. Ok, must move on in order to stay in the non-emotional denial zone that I am currently in. Anyways, these are the pics from that get together but Mariah did a much better slide show here.

All the girls!

The husbands!

Me and the girl version of my husband :) It's a native american thing!

An award for me??

I'd like to take a moment and thank the academy.......Actually I'd like to thank Helen of "Feeding a Family of Five for Fifty". She is from Scotland and I think one of my favorite parts of the award was when she told me about it in my comments. She said "wee blog award for you lass". How much do you love that? I love that "accent". :) I think one of my favorite post was this one and I feel a bit badly about that because it was such a horrible day for her but I can relate to having a horrible day and then your kids getting sick so that the "horrible day" becomes the easier part of the day. Can't we all? She's great so go and check her out.

The body of this great award reads:
"This award is bestowed to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to five bloggers who must choose five more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So in the spirit of "passing it on".

To my friend Mariah who is leaving us and moving away (jerk) J/K. I love her blog because she takes beautiful pictures and even better isn't afraid to be unabashedly honest. My sisters and I are VERY sarcastic and yet Mariah surpasses all of us in that department and I've got to love anyone who is capable of good sarcasm. This is still probably my favorite post. Go and meet her.

To my friend Stephanie who kicks butt in the Mom department and has 5 kids. She is a great friend and blogger. Go check out her brood. She and Steve have beautiful children. I think that's why they had so many :) Love ya! This post cracks me up and I would love to be a fly on the wall when she has conversations like these.

To Alicia at "It aint easy being cheesy" because she just flat out makes me laugh but at the same time writes touching posts like this that make me cry. And as Dolly says in "Steel Magnolias" "laughter through tears is my favorite emotion".

Wooh this is taking long.........

Next up, Liz at "Double Duty Mom". She and I are always dealing with the same twin things at the same time because our twins are so close in age. I steal ideas from her and I cracked up at this post, recently. It made me realize that we had A LOT in common.

Lastly, John Deere Mom, I have declared my love for her before on my blog because she helped me do a design overhaul on this bad boy and I am still in awe that she took the time. I love her blog because of it's design, of course, but I LOVE the pictures. Most are unaware that at one point in my life I swore I'd marry a farmer. (To all my friends STOP LAUGHING). While I did much better with my non-farming husband Jared, I LOVE to look at her pictures, like these, of all her land and beauty. They are gorgeous.

So ladies the goal is to pass this onto five others but do what you can b/c this took a while :)

Whew, so that is that and I still have to blog about our awesome weekend. I was up with Alex all night who has decided to get a cold AFTER his brother was done keeping me up all night with bodily functions. Thanks, Kid! Once I am rested I will catch up on the blog. By the way, make sure you click on these links because I want to know that all my hard work paid off! Thanks!

Simply Saturday

This week as far as simple pleasures go, I love this sky we have going on today and Alex and Eli's artwork. Ok it is mine but it is about as good as a 2 year olds.

Oops, almost forgot yesterday 2 years ago we celebrated Eli's independence from the NICU. I always like to honor that day along with our country's independence.

Feeling thankful for our independence today. My friend Mariah posted pictures of some of the boys (MEN) from our church that were in the youth group and are serving our country. I too thank them and all of the other men and women men alongside them.

Happy 4th of July!