Valentine's Day

We had a great Valentine's weekend. I was the luckiest kind of girl...I got to spend the whole weekend with my FOUR favorite men. I know what your thinking.....but your wrong! :)

Friday night we got a set of sitters for the babies (two sisters) and signed Gage up for the health club's "Parent's Night Out" for a couple of hours. Tim and I had a really nice and relaxing restaurant at one of our favorite local restaurants.

Saturday, my friend Kimmy came to visit with her two boys (no pictures, sorry!) and spent the day chatting while her two boys played here. Gage and Tim already had plans to go ice fishing with another family, so unfortunately our boys didn't get to play together. But you would have never known her boys were even here. They played so well!

We headed into St. Paul today for the "Midwest Kidfest" at the Rivercentre. It was basically a large expo...which wasn't necessarily what I was expecting. Tupperware, bounce houses, pony rides, face painting, stamping and scrapbooking, photographers, etc. etc. etc. It was fun and it was nice to get out of here and all three of our boys were GREAT. Gage had so much fun, as you will see in the pictures below. I used the front carrier for probably one of the last times, as the weight limit is 25 lbs. and the boys are definitely pushing it. I can feel it in my back, and most likely will feel it more tomorrow. But I did have a great kettlebell workout yesterday, too...

We hit a snowstorm on our way home and came across a couple of accidents, one of which looked pretty nasty. Landon screamed for most of our trip home, but the other two slept. Screaming kids make car rides stressful, but in the end it is all worth it to get out of here and spend the day together as a family.

I hope everyone else had a nice weekend as well. We love to take full advantage of the weekends when everyone is healthy and happy; never know how long that is going to last....
Have a great week! (Although I'll be back again tomorrow....)

Scrap Camp

Disclaimer: If you do not scrapbook, or if you do not understand the fascination with making scrapbooks and spending hours upon hours sitting on your rear-end creating scrapbooks, you just may want to skip this post altogether. If you do continue with your reading, yet still do not understand the fascination with making scrapbooks, it is requested that no snide comments or references towards scrapbookers being weird or odd be made in the comment section. I thank you for your understanding.

Our Annual Trip:
My friend Karen and I head out every year in early January for our annual "scrap weekend" away. I think this past January was our 3rd year...with the hopes of many more to come.


We pack up our vehicle with all of our scrapbooking supplies (ridiculous amount), an overnight bag, and a bunch of groceries, liquor (yes, we drink at these things!), snack food, bottled water, and our own pillows.

Heading out the driveway...
for our "Christmas" lunch at Texas Roadhouse.

They have the BEST buttered buns this side of Texas!

We celebrate our Christmas together, exchanging gifts....

Then we arrive at our destination (one HUGE house with an attached scrapping room) and unload our things in our room and spread out at our scrapping table.
And then the "work" begins!

Karen

Marie


Gina

Marie makes me puppy chow every year...

And this year we were (blessed? cursed?) with a karoake machine that someone brought us to use.

Yeah. Get a couple of glasses of wine in me and I think I'm Joan Jett.

By far my favorite pages of the weekend. These pictures were the ones taken by my friend Marilyn and I really loved the pages I put together. These pages sum up the reason that I love to scrapbook. It's my art...and I love the quiet time and the friendship that these weekends bring me.
Can't wait until my next one in April....

7 Months Old

 

Landon and Bronson

 

Mr B.

Landon

Come on, Moms...Cut yourself a BREAK!

I'm doing this post at a very good time for myself.  I threw myself a pity party this past month and you won't believe it....nobody attended!  HA!
But seriously, I've really been struggling these past months with adjusting to my life with twins, and especially during these long and cold winter months, and most recently in dealing with two sick babies.

I invited a new mom over to my house a couple of weeks ago.  She and I had met at the gym when we were both early in our pregnancies, and then we hung out with a mutual group of friends on and off for a few months up until the births of our boys.  She admitted to me when we spoke several months ago that she has really been struggling in her new role as a mom, and she had "a bunch of questions for me" and needed some advice. 

I do not consider myself a professional mother.  I mean seriously, there are a million parenting books out there, but really and truly, each one of us mothers and fathers know that being a parent is a learning experience.  You just learn and adapt as  you go.  You make mistakes.  Some of us are better in our nurturing ways, and some of us struggle with learning "the ropes".  Some of us struggle with disciplining our children, some of us are more lax.  But all in all, we adjust.  We figure it out.  And we all deserve a pat on the back.

When my friend came over, she made several references to me "having it all together".  She also said I was "amazing", and that she couldn't "understand how I do it".  I realized right then and there that she truly admired me, and was considering me some sort of Super Mom!   Although this felt good, I needed her to know and to understand that I am NOT the Betty Crocker/Becky Home-Eccy/June Cleaver that she was making me out to be.

I pulled out the chicken salad I had purchased at the deli for our lunch, and opened up a bag of chips, and set out a package of cookies I happened to have left over from the previous weekend. (Note:  nothing homemade!)  I told her that I cry.  A lot.  I told her that I struggle with emotional break-downs.  A lot.  I told her that just like her, I was human. 
I struggle.  Parenting multiples doesn't "come easy to me". I just do it.  I don't have a choice!  Am I a good mother?  Of course!  But just like 99% of the mothers I know and am friends with....so are they!

SHE is a good mother.  She needs to cut herself a break.  I explained to her that she cannot just assume that every other mother is out there skipping through the piles of laundry and dirty diapers and unwashed dishes  like they have their whole world in the palm of their hands.  Being a mom is hard. It's the hardest job I have ever had.  And especially being the mom of multiples.  I feel that so many of us moms put so much pressure on ourselves to have the cleanest houses, the most organized lives, the happiest, most well-adjusted children.  And when one of these areas fall a little behind our own standards we have set for ourselves, we feel as if we failed.

We ALL need to cut ourselves a break.  We are all good moms, whether we stay home with our kids full-time, work part or full-time, or don't work and hire a nanny, we all do the best we can do as our children are well-fed, well-dressed, warm, cozy, clean, and most importantly, loved.  

When it is all said and done and the long day is over, everyone is happy, loved and cared for...
and you have to realize, moms, that it's a job well done.

Congratulations.  :)

Name Game

Why did you pick the names you did for your kids?  Are they family names?  Did you know years ago what you would name your children? Do you know the story behind your own name?

To answer some of my own questions....
First I will share with you what I know about I got my own name.  My mother went to a movie when she was pregnant with me titled "The Other Side of the Mountain".  Some of you may remember this movie, or be familiar with it, however I have never seen it.  I have only been told that it was based on a true story of a woman named Jill who was paralyzed in a downhill skiing accident.  She was able to overcome the obstacle of her paralysis and continue skiing.  Very inspiring, especially to an emotional, pregnant woman! 

My middle name is Denise, and I was named after my mom's brother Dennis, or Denny as he was called, who died at age 17 in 1970 from a short battle with leukemia.  My mom was 16 when he passed away and was very close to her brother.  She wanted to name me Denise, and call me Denni, but another family member on my dad's side had a daughter named Denise and my mom didn't want two Denise's in the family.  So she settled on using it for a middle name.  Had I had a daughter, there was a possibility I would have used Denise as the middle name.

As for my kids, well, Tim and I just liked different.  My goal all along was to find and use a name that was not located on the current "Top 100 Baby Names" list.  With Gage and Bronson I succeeded; Landon, however made #25 on Baby Center's Top 100 for 2009.  But I am still okay with it, as I really like the name.  I have places that I have heard the names before, however I did not know one person named Gage before we used it, and the only Bronson I know is about 28 years old and from my hometown.  The only Landon I had heard of before was the son of the girl who used to cut my hair when I lived in Eagan, MN.  Now I know several Landon's.

And because I am finally able to say that my three sons will be my only three children, I think I can share with you the girls' names I had picked out when pregnant.  They are different, too, and they are still very dear to my heart so no negative comments about them, please!  Although very content with the fact I will never have a daughter (really and truly content) there will always be a special place in my heart for the "What If" moments, and therefore the names I would have used.

Had Gage been a girl, "she" would have been named Glenna Kate.  Had the twins been girls they would have been Sailor Kate and Reagen Denise.  Different, I know!  But man, I was excited about those names! 

But I wouldn't trade my Gage, Bronson, or Landon for the world, of course!

Your turn!

Picture Upload question

I feel as if I am starting to sound like a freaking broken record.  My babies are still sick, and although I've had help here this weekend and yet today through Wednesday morning (my sister) I am still struggling with getting on the computer for more than a few minutes at a time. 

THEREFORE...
I will still do my posts as this is a personal quest I feel like I need to keep up, I'm just having some difficulty uploading pictures.

For my blogging friends out there:  when I used to upload pictures, I could upload 5 at a time.  Now, when I click on the upload picture button (the photograph) I get the option to "upload image" (this is a different look than it used to be) and it only lets me upload one at a time!

Am I doing something wrong?  Am I missing something?  If they made changes, I would have assumed they would have made them easier, rather than more difficult.

I'm a sleep-deprived airhead these days, so any help I could get from those of you who have recently posted pictures on your blog would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Katie!

 Oops-missed a day.  I'll just do two posts today to make up for it.

My sister flew in from the East Coast yesterday and we celebrated her (30th??) birthday.  All of the family was here and her nephews (and sister and parents, too!) were very excited to see her and be able to celebrate this special day with her.