Birthday Interviews

I got the idea of the birthday interview from my wonderfully talented, creative, and all around awesome mom and friend, Kathryn. I thought it was such a cute idea that I'm stealing it!

Spencer's Interview

How old are you today?
4.

What will be the best thing about being 4?
Having my birthday party.

What was the best thing about your party?
Playing bowling with Bridger.

What was the most important thing you learned when you were three?
When you eat candy you brush your teeth, and I went to church.

Why do you brush your teeth?
Because when you eat something and the bacteria gets on your teeth and that's why you brush your teeth so they can't bite your teeth.

Who is your best friend?
Well, Carter's my brother, sooo Bridger's my cousin.....

What is your favorite toy?
Monkey stick from Kung Fu Panda.

What is your favorite thing to do?
Play Entendo Wii.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
A tennis player.

What is your favorite thing to eat?
Cookies and cereal.

What makes you happy?
Watching a show.

What's your favorite show?
Sonic.

What is something that you're really good at?
Tennis. I like tennis and bowling. Bowling is really easy.

Carter's Interview

How old are you today?
49 (he says this when anyone asks him how old he is).

What do you think will be the best thing about being 4?
When we get 4.
What are you going to do when you're 4?
Get dressed when it's dark outside.

Who is your best friend?
Spencer.

What is your favorite toy?
Cars.

What is your favorite thing to do?
What are those up there Mom?
Carter, what is your favorite thing to do?
Mom, what are those up there?
Vases.
What are vases for?
Decoration. Now what is your favorite thing to do?
When I go outside and go trick-or-treating.

What do you want to be when you grow up?
49 .
But what do you want to do when you grow up?
I throw up in the potty.
No, not throw up, what do you want to be when you grow up, when you get big?
I want to be Carter.

What is your favorite thing to eat?
Soup.

What makes you happy?
I don't know.

What is your favorite show?
Kung Fu Panda.

Tell me something that you're really good at?
When I talk a little bit.

Birthday Boys

There are few things more special in life then witnessing the excitement and pure joy of two little boys on the day of their birthday party. They could barely contain themselves waiting for their guests to arrive. I loved the excitement over the little things, "Mom, you got us balloons!?!?" "Those presents are for us?" "Is that my Spiderman cake I ordered from the grocery store? I love it!!" They had a great party surrounded by all of their family.


I took the boys to Wal-Mart earlier this week and let them look through the cake book and each pick out which cake they wanted. When I went to pick them up on the morning of the party I had a lot of comments about the two cakes I had in my basket. I just smiled and said that's because I have twins, how lucky am I? One person suggested that I should just buy one big cake next year and let them share - she obviously doesn't know the rule of 2 at our house. We've always had two of everything - 2 cribs, 2 highchairs, 2 bouncers, 2 bikes under the tree - you get the idea. The rule of 2 is especially enforced on their birthday - 2 giant Spiderman balloons, 2 pinatas, 2 cakes, and 2 of every present - 2 kites, 2 puzzle books, 2 Diego outfits - well, you get the idea.
I love it, and wouldn't trade it for anything.

The rule of 2 exception: games that they can share.

I wish I'd had a video of Matt trying to light the candles on the cakes. He was using matches and he'd light the last candle and then go to blow out the match and blow out all of the candles. He did it twice, so funny!

There were clear lines drawn as to which cake people wanted - The kids had strong opinions on Spiderman vs. Kung Fu Panda, while the adults had strong opinions on white cake vs. chocolate cake.

The pinatas almost didn't happen. Before the party I stuck them in the corner so they would be out of the way. Luckily they were spotted before the end of the party because I totally forgot about them. I'm glad we remembered them because the kids had a blast with them.

It was a great party and everyone had a lot of fun, especially the boys.

Birthday Bowling

Since Monday was President's Day and Matt had the day off, we decided it would be a good day to let the boys choose a birthday activity for just the four of us. One mention of the word bowling and they were both super excited. We went to Fat Catz and bowled, ate pizza, and played arcade games. The boys were in heaven, they had a blast!!

I love this pizza stained happy face!

Spencer did great. He would stay like this until his ball was all the way down the lane, and then he would get so excited when he knocked some down.

Carter was taking the game a little more seriously and was disappointed if he didn't get a 'stripe'.

I tried to take a picture of the score board because Carter was winning all of us. Turns out Matt and I are a little rusty.

Carter liked using this contraption (I have no idea what they are called) because it made his ball go fast!

After we bowled we played some arcade games with the boys. They loved every second.

We had so much fun on our little family outing. Love my boys!!

Happy Birthday/Mother's Day

Today is the boys' birthday. They are FOUR years old! There is a lot of things to celebrate on this day, and one of those is that four years ago today I became a mother. Because of that today feels more like Mother's Day for me then some random day in May. I have been reflecting a lot about my opportunity to be a mother lately, and the profound ways that it has changed my life. I can still perfectly remember the moment, after all of the chaos of my labor, after most people has left the hospital, after the boys had been in the nursery for what seemed like forever, when they finally wheeled two bassinets into my room and the nurse laid a tiny bundle in each of my arms. I finally had the change to really look at them, to feel their warmth, to smell them, to touch them. i kept looking from one to the other trying to remember what they looked like and how I felt at that moment, because it was in that moment that everything changed for me. I was a mother. I am a mother. I feel so blessed to have these two precious souls in my life that call me Mom. A lot of times people will say to me, "I don't know how you do it with twins." I usually smile and say that I don't always do it well, but I am trying. I have been at this job for 4 years, and I've made a lot of mistakes, and I still have a lot to learn, but I am tyring to be the best mom that I can be. I am truly blessed. So Happy Birthday Spencer and Carter - I love you!! And Happy Mother's Day to me!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day gets lost in the shuffle at our house because of the boys' birthday. Sadly I usually have no energy left to put much effort into it. But that's where Matt comes in. Even though it's no longer a romantic dinner with just the two of us, it's even better. I loved being woken up by the sound of two sweet voices excitedly saying Happy Valentine's Day Mommy, come downstairs we made you breakfast! I loved being greeted by flowers on the table, chocolate covered strawberries (my all time fav food), and a breakfast that had the stamp of soon to be 4 year olds all over it. Matt even took care of the boys Valentines - he truly is amazing!

My handsome guys!

Matt and I laugh every time we look at this picture. The camera angle makes Matt look ginormous! Still cute though.

Cabela's

Who knew that a trip to Cabela's could be so much fun? My cousin Jen went a few weeks ago and ever since has been dying to take the boys. So one rainy day, with nothing to do, we decided to go and treat it like we would a trip to the zoo.
This is while we were impatiently waiting for Jen in the car. The boys were getting bored so I broke out my phone camera.


The fish tanks were fun. Spencer ran straight into one of them not thinking about the glass. He had a nice little goose egg, but that didn't stop his delight.


Not quite like the zoo, the animals are a little less lively.

There were places for photo ops.



I'm not sure how the saleswoman that was just out of camera view felt about us doing this, but we didn't care. Spencer thought it was hilarious!


I had to laugh at the shooting range right in the store. I knew it would be a big hit with the boys, but I didn't know my mom would enjoy it as much as she did. Easy there!

They even had one of these like they do at the zoo:

Turns out we weren't the only Coon's there.

I'm not sure if we were the only tourists in the store or not, but I didn't see too many other flashing cameras. Oh well, the boys loved it. In fact just tonight Spencer asked if we could go back to Cabela's - too funny!