Our Little Strippers

This is what I walked in to see after their nap yesterday (and actually most days lately). They LOVE to strip whenever they are in their cribs. Sometimes I get in there before the diapers come off too, sometimes I don't. Casey was ticked off that his shirt was stuck.

Jumping bean Mitchell.


Maggie with some crazy bed head.

This how I found Casey sleeping when I went in to check on them before I went to bed a few nights ago. He must have given up on taking his pants off and fallen asleep.

Often times Mitchell will have his head arched way back when he's sleeping (much more than this). It really doesn't look comfy but I guess it must be for him.

Maggie's new BFF is her baby, puppy got bumped down to second spot. Baby does everything Maggie does...has snacks, milk, has a specific a chair at mealtime (and has to sit in a certain spot on the chair) and helps clean up. And if the boys come near baby, the drama show starts. Thanks Jody and Missy - she obviously loves her!

And finally, a rare moment around here these days - everyone in the little house at the same time with no fighting!

Our nanny Amber was back on Monday and things went much better. The kids had a good day and I think she got a better idea of how they really are. Sure, there are going to be some rough days in the house of a 2 year old and even more rough days with three 2 year olds, but I think she will be able to handle them just fine. I'll be back at work bright and early Monday morning.

Behind Closed Doors

I get asked quite often if we have the kids all in the same room or separated. These videos are one reason why I don't want to separate them. There is no picture, just their closed bedroom door - I did it so I could record their voices. Mitchell is the one with the crazy giggle, Casey and a much quieter Maggie are the other voices (and the ones knocking and saying come in).





I have so many videos of them talking, giggling, bouncing on their beds, knocking on the walls and saying "Come in...". Often times when we're in the kitchen in the morning Daniel and I will laugh at what they're saying and the strange noises that are coming from their bedroom. They have so much fun together in there behind closed doors and I think whoever was separated and on their own would be lonely. We do have 1 extra room on the main floor which is now the play room that's intended for Maggie once she is old enough and decides she wants her own room. They are generally pretty good about sleeping through somebody crying either during a nap or at night. I think they are just so used to it, it's been that way since day 1 in NICU.

Mitchell needs the most sleep of the bunch and if he doesn't get it he can be, well, darn cranky! So the only time their bedroom setup doesn't work so well is in the mornings when he wakes up sooner than he is ready to, usually from Casey yelling or screaching. It doesn't happen all of the time but when it does, I prepare myself for a rough morning. Usually after his afternoon nap he'll be back to normal though.

We went to our twin buddies' (Ruby and Leah) 2nd birthday party this weekend. The kids had a great time although Maggie and Mitchell were getting pretty territorial and ramy with the little tikes cars. Sometimes I don't realize how rough our kids can play sometimes until we get around other kids who aren't the same way. Sorry to anyone's kids who might have gotten their toes run over, crashed into with the cars or possibly helped down the slide. Thanks for the great party Tara and Jason!

The kids patiently waiting for their very yummy cupcakes.

Birthday girl Leah and Ruby (from behind).

Casey, Leah and I'm not sure if it's Abbey or Aida (sorry Desta), one of our other twin buddies.


My sister in law's good friend and her husband just had their twin boys a few days ago in Calgary. Logan and Liam were born at 23 and a half weeks and are fighting for their lives. I just can't imagine how hard it must be. Since this has happened I've been remembering how truly lucky we are to have gotten to almost 33 weeks with our babies and to have had no health problems. We'll be praying for these 2 little boys.

Better Luck Monday

Our nanny Amber spent her first morning with us today and let's just say I'm hoping she comes again on Monday. Oh man! I guess I should have had a talk with Casey, Maggie and especially Mitchell ahead of time telling them that if they were going to pitch fits, pull hair and and clobber each other, to maybe try and hold off at least until Amber's 2nd day. But no, we got that all out of the way within the first few hours. But by later in the morning they had calmed down and were behaving better. They warmed up to Amber and snuggled up on the couch reading books before nap time. Maggie even asked for her to clean up her lunch and put on her shoes instead of me. She'll come back again Monday (hopefully) and then start regularly on the 4th.

I know it's hard to believe that these sweet looking, loving kids could be little buggers at times, but it does occasionally happen. This was just before bedtime the other night when they were kissing and hugging each other. I love it when they do this!



What was making our boys so giggly and happy?




Nothing fancy, just a spray bottle and some water. Maggie wasn't as into as the boys. She would ask for a spray but then turn and run. The boys on the other hand - the more water they got in their faces the better. They were so funny!

Our Yard Is Finally Done!

Well it's almost done, there is still one side of the fence that couldn't be finished because of construction with the house next to us. We decided to put grass in all over the yard and not do any other landscaping for a while in order to give the kids as much space to run as possible. This has been a brutal summer for getting anything done outside with all of the rain but hopefully with we'll have a nice fall and they can enjoy the yard before it gets too cold. We've been outside a few times and they have had a blast out there! Our walkout basement is going to be great because we just walk out the basement door onto the cement pad and then onto the grass.


As you can see the Little Tikes cars are a big hit.


Mitchell found some extra boards and was clever enough to try and fill in some of the gaps in the fence. He is definitely our Mr. Fix It.

Thanks so much to our family and friends that gave us a hand with things.

We had family pictures taken yesterday. Things were much different last year because they were crawling then but really didn't move around too much. This year it was the exact opposite - they were everywhere! But I guess how can you blame them, there was so much to explore. We had the same photographer as last year and she was great working with the kids. Auntie Gail came along again too and that was a huge help. The one shot we got of all 5 of us was thanks to her bribing the kids with crab apples. Thanks Gail!

These were a few pictures that the photographer sent to us after the session (I can't figure out to make them any bigger).




It will be a few weeks before we get the rest of the pictures back.

Our Bags Are Packed

My friend Leah got the kids a great birthday gift, a suitcase for each of them. They were so excited and have been pushing and pulling these things all over the house. They will be nice in the future for travelling and sleep overs but for now they are perfect for stuffing things in, standing on and mowing each other over.




They cooperated and all gave Leah a group hug.



Another day when Leah came over I had been having some with the boys' hair and had it in ponytails. She had a fun idea to tie their balloons onto their ponytail. Maggie thought it was a great idea and had a blast running all over the house. Mitchell was a good sport but not really too sure about it, but Casey not interested.



I went into work last week for a few hours to get a refresher on my CPR and AED training (I am an exercise therapist in a cardiac rehab program). It's been over 2 years since I last worked and I realized after my few hours there that I definitely have some brushing up to do. But it was nice to be back and I think it will be good for me to get our of the house and have some adult time. I also think it will be good for the kids to be with someone else too. I will be working Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 6:30am - 1:00pm ('ish) so knowing that I am not gone everyday all day has made the thought of going back easier. October 4th seemed so far away but now it's only 2 weeks away! My list of things to do before I go back has only 1 thing crossed off - oh well.

Getting Back to Normal

I have to say that I am really glad August is over. It was a crazy month! The bed bug situation basically wiped away the whole month and went on longer than we had hoped for. But now after 4 treatments, hours and hours of extra laundry, living out of garbage bags and our laundry room, and spending over $1500 we are very hopeful that they're finally gone. We've been sleeping in our bedroom again (after being downstairs for a month and a half) and after a few nights with no signs of bugs I think I am confident enough to start moving our clothes and everything else back in. I was holding off because if we brought it all back in and found bugs again, we would have to do everything all over again.

Since we've had this problem I've found it interesting that bed bugs have been in the news a lot lately. Apparently there is an increase in Canada and the US because the bugs are becoming resistant to some of the chemicals that are used to treat them. I think that is all the more reason to be aware of what to look for when you are travelling. It is a costly inconvenience (with both time and money) to have to deal with.

Another thing we dealt with in August was our second vehicle crapping out on us. The transmission in Daniel's Jimmy went one day while I had 2 hours of precious out of the house time. We did some research into vehicles and we decided to get a truck. We want something for our second vehicle that could fit 3 car seats so our options were another van, a larger SUV or a truck. We already have a van and thought it would be nice to have a truck for those times that we need to move something or pick something up. So we are just finalizing a few things but should have one in the next few days.

Another tough part of the summer was Daniel working so much, which is to be expected with his job, but this year seemed harder. It could have been the fact that the kids have been going through a stage of fighting, whining, crying more than usual so that made it tougher to have him not home as much.

A good thing that we celebrated in August was my parents' 40th anniversary. It was pretty low key but nice to get together with everyone. We had the party on the 28th which was also Daniel's birthday, but their actual anniversary was on September 5th - the same day as the kids birthday.


Grandma, Great Grandma and Casey

G & G with all eight of their grandchildren. And that's it...they're not getting anymore!

Our kids have a major shoe fetish, especially Mitchell! They must have thought they were in heaven with all of the shoes in the entrance because we always keep ours in the closet. Maggie had on Grandpa's shoes and Mitchell was walking really quite well in someones heels.



On a totally different note, this is what can happen if Daniel and the kids are left with some free time and a basket of unfolded laundry.