Party Time!!!

I absolutely cannot believe that our boys are turning 3!!! We have officially begun the 12 days of Birthday (not really, but seems like it)! Since it's always more fun to spread out the presents and the cake, we thought we would start out with a birthday party with our family on the Link side. The boys have been requesting Lightning McQueen and Mater cakes for the past 3 months, so that's the theme we went with. This was the first year we decided to do 2 cakes since they both requested different cakes. My family is not huge fans of cake, so we went with ice cream cakes instead. They were definitely a hit! I was a little disappointed with the ability to decorate the cakes as I love to do this, but it was much more relaxing and the boys were thrilled! The word I would use to describe my little birthday boys would be giddy. From the start of decorations going up, to watching the cakes being decorated, to seeing the presents arrive, they were jumping around and giggling! They were SOOO excited to be the center of attention.
I had heard from other twins and done reading on celebrating birthdays with twins and it all pointed me to the importance of celebrating their individuality. This is why we had 2 cakes and then also sang to each of them separately. I'm so glad we did, because the look on each face as they were the center of attention was priceless! Just an idea for all of you parents of twins....
The boys received lots of great presents from Grandpa & Grandma and cousins/aunts/uncles! They have definitely been kept busy today playing with all of it. We are looking forward to a Skype date today with Opa & Oma to open the gifts they sent. Overall day 1 of celebrating was a success!!!






Caleb's face while he is being sang to...
Joel's response to being sang to...
Blowing out their candles


Joel was so excited here...
Joel wearing his Mater costume (I still need to get one of Caleb in his Mater one)

After our party, our church had their annual Christmas program. Caleb & Joel were in it for the first time and I wasn't sure they would come through for us. Turned out they did fine. All we wanted was for them to stand up there (they had sat down the entire practice) and blend in. They certainly fulfilled our expectations and made us proud with their nose-picking abilities as well...makes for some great pictures later on in life! Kiera did fabulous as well and sang and did the actions so well. We are so proud of her and her active participation! She is definitely growing up on us and as you may notice in the pictures we cut 6 inches of her hair! She looks so much older! It was a great evening and the kids had fun!

Call your local Fire Department...

No fire is too big or small for this local fire department!!!

Caleb
Joel


Kiera was all dressed up one day in a princess outfit and the boys came in with tutu's on. Ryan was not too happy about this, so I picked up some fireman hats at the dollar store and had them be firemen instead. They were very happy with their long rope hoses and ran all over the house putting out fires. Crisis avoided....

Labor Day Camping

I wanted to thank everyone for your willingness to continue to follow us after we changed the security measures on this blog. We changed the privacy mainly after I added the Feejit bar to the side. I started seeing some strange people viewing our blog, and decided to tighten things up quite a bit. So thanks for hanging in there with us and still showing interest in our crazy and at times ordinary lives!

Since we had Labor Day weekend free...one of the few all summer...we decided to attempt camping as a family. Because we've never done this with 3 kids, we decided to start small-in our backyard. It definitely was a huge success! The kids had so much fun, the weather was perfect, and we really enjoyed time together as a family! Maybe next summer we will actually leave the backyard--it's definitely WAY easier to attempt at home then somewhere else!!!


Helping set up the tent the day before
Thanks VanderVeens for a wonderful wedding gift--the tent that is still in great shape even after many uses!!!
Loading up the tent with all their treasures (C & J were so excited to use their new sleeping bags their cousins handed down--they are Lightning McQueen!)My eager campers!

Getting all organized!
Learning how to open & close the tent
Roasting hotdogs and eating pudgy pies. Mmmmm!
Our style of smores...just plain marshmallows. Ryan and I made hot apple pies after the kids went to bed.
Splitting wood to add to the fire
Good example of the teamwork they often showA very excited camper. She and I slept out there an extra night just the 2 of us.

The campers all ready for bed...they did mess around for quite awhile, but slept until 7:30 the next morning! We were quite pleased about that!

WA 2011

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We had an amazing 3 weeks in WA. We really enjoyed being spoiled by family and awesome weather!! It never rained a drop the entire time we were there.

I flew out with the kids early on July 22. I was a little nervous about flying with the kids by myself, but they did awesome! They were so excited and didn't even play with half the stuff I bought. I even managed to read an entire magazine on the flight!! On our flight home we had a red-eye and they surprised me with how well they did. Caleb went right to sleep and I gave Joel some Benedryl and he and Kiera slept too! It was such a blessing to have the kids do so well!

Much of our time in WA was spent just sitting around either at my parents or my sisters house. Those who know us best know we love to sit around and chat while drinking diet coke! We made sure to enjoy this daily! The kids were able to play outside a ton and I rarely saw Kiera as she LOVED being with her girl cousins. We took a trip to Jungle Playland again, enjoyed playing in the sand at the beach and having a picnic, and digging in Opa's bark pile at home. A highlight was getting to ride Amtrak up to Bellingham. It was a 30 min. trip and the kids just LOVED it. It was so beautiful riding along the water and lots of fun to see my train loving boys so wide-eyed!

We were also able to celebrate some birthdays while out there. Rylee had turned one just before we came, so we were able to give her our gift. Rhyson turned one while we were there, so we had a fun b-day party with him eating cupcakes! My mom also turned 60, so we HAD to go to Red Robin to celebrate! Sioux Falls really needs to get one!

We enjoyed family reunions on both sides of the family. My dad's side had a fun afternoon barbecue complete with water gun fights and ice cream! My mom's side got together for the first time in 11 years! We celebrated my grandparents 61st wedding anniversary! It was so fun to spend a weekend with all of them reminiscing and eating GREAT food!

Overall, we had a blast and made lots of fun memories. Enjoy the pictures!!!

Fort Casey

One of the last days we were in WA we headed out to Fort Casey on Whidbey Island. This is one of our favorite places to visit and the weather couldn't have been more perfect! We packed a picnic and then spent the rest of the time walking through the darkened fort with glow sticks and flashlights. We ended with our traditional hike down the beach to throw rocks and build driftwood houses. The kids had a blast and we really enjoyed our time with extended family!

Lunchables and Subway...mmmm!
Helping Opa fly a kite
Heading down to check out the fort
Walking through the rooms
Beautiful WA state ferry...I love this place!
Some of the kids in front of one of the canons
Hiking down to the beach
The kids found a driftwood fort already made!

Joel
Caleb
The big boys building their house


The finished product
Cousin Cody showing the boys a snake he found--typical boys
Some tuckered out little boys on the ride home!