Early Halloween & Old Fashion Sunday!

on saturday, the kids got to go trick or treating at a local campground. i have gotten the twins a couple of costumes. they wore the poodle costumes this time, but they are really too small. i'm glad i got two. they will wear the chicken costumes for the "real" halloween. my mom and doug's mom both came and the kids really liked that. they had alot of fun, but i didn't get too many pictures. they each got a goody bag for dressing up, then they had a pinata, but only latoya did it. the other three played on the playground. then they had bobbing for apples. only jordan did that. then, they went trick or treating. i was a little concerned about the twins and people dressed up, but they did fine. kaylee is into a phase where she ALWAYS wants to be held. she knows i won't carry her everywhere, so she kept going to doug's mom and saying "pick me up?" she says it so pathetically. so, she ended up being carried just about the whole time. the kids got lots of candy and we were able to see a few friends from when we used to camp there.

On Saturday, we went to a nearby school for their kid's day america. we have never been, but we had nothing else going on, and everything was free, so we decided to check it out. basically it is a health and wellness day. they had dentists there checking the kids teeth, eye exams were being given, massages, the chiropractors were there doing tests. here are toya's and jordan's test results for their back and feet. we learned from these, that both of the kids were flat footed. i guess we will be making a trip to the dr.s to get them checked out. the first two are toya's, and the last two are jordan's. we didn't have the girls done because they never would have sat still for it.

toya's back (hers is on the right, but supposed to look like the picture on the left)
toya's feet (hers are on the left, but they are supposed to look like the ones on the right)

jordan's back (his is on the right, but supposed to look like the left)

jordan's feet (his are on the left, but supposed to look like the right)

they had face painting and free popcorn. we headed outback of the school and they were serving hot dogs, hamburgers, sausages, and sodas (i thought the soda was especially funny for a health fair). they also had tables set up so the kids could decorate their own cookies and eat them. they loved that. they had a firetruck and an ambulance set up for the kids to go inside and take a tour. they especially loved the firetruck, i think because daddy is a firefighter. they took turns sitting in the seat and "driving" and then trying on the helmet. toya had to hold the helmet for the girls because it was so heavy, it kept pulling their head backwards. we then went to the ambulance. while the twins were in there, another set of twins came in. these were boys and were about 2-3 yrs. older than the girls. it was still kinda neat. they also had a really nice playground, so when we were done with the ambulance, i took them over to play. they played for about 30 min. and then went to play in the bounce house. we didn't stay long overall, but the kids had alot of fun. it was a little streesful on me since i took them by myself, but we managed just fine! here is a slideshow of our day:

now, here are some new pics of the kids. these dresses are the ones that my mom bought for the girls when they were in n.c. visiting my sister and her hubby and baby grayson. it was finally a little cooler so they got to wear them. they looked soo cute! when we went back to grammy's, they got the sunglasses and they looked like they came straight out of the 60's! :) here are the pics:

Kelsey (L) & Kaylee (R)

Kaylee (L) & Kelsey (R)

after the morning service, we clean part of the church. while we are cleaning, the girls have figured out how to get the microphone to work and will sing in the microphone. it is really funny. usually i forget the camera, but i happened to have it and did a video (the reason they do not complete the song is because they are too distracted by the cups....lol). here is the video (it's only a couple of minutes long):

Fun at the toy library!

well, today we had a playdate at the toy library. i think we are going to start planning playdate about twice a month. the kids had alot of fun and they all played well together. we had 10 kids and 5 adults. this is something cheap ($2 per child), and definitely fun. the parents get a chance to talk to other adults too. i hope to have a even bigger turnout next time. i think this will be a place for most of our playdates. here is a slideshow from today:

after playing from 2-4, we went to walk around the mall. sara and her two kids couldn't stay, but the rest of us did. we walked once around and then headed to applebee's for supper. i called ahead to tell them that we had 18 people coming. we got there right at 5 and were seated fairly quickly. all of the kids were well behaved. we had aunt joan and her daughters plus her grandbaby come and join us, plus my hubby and brianna's hubby both met us there. so, we had 9 children, and 9 adults. the kids were EXCELLENT! all of the kids ate free, so just the adults had to pay. for the whole day, i paid $30, that included the library, plus all 6 of us eating and tip. how much cheaper can it get! here is a couple of pictures of our table:



here is a picture of ben as he was not at the toy library (isn't he cute):

The Airshow :(

we'll start with friday. on friday i brought the girls to the same OT and speech specialists that jordan goes to. i had decided to atleast get them tested that way if they need something we can catch it now and not when they are in kindegarten. i do not have the test results yet, but both of the specialists seem to think that they will need very minimal intervention, but they could use some. like i said we haven't gottne the official scores yet, so that could change. the speech therapist was very impressed with the girls and said that they showed a little articulation errors, but their sentences that they make would not be expected till they were 4!!! i knew they talked alot and really good :). anyway, i may find out on monday about their tests, but we will see.



on to the airshow. so, this is supposed to be the last airshow in maine since the base is closing. although it is free to the public, they do sell tickets for seats. we bought some seeing as i did not feel like carrying around seats for all of us. the tickets cost $8 each, but you get to sit really close. anyway, we knew it was supposed to rain, but the weather said it was supposed to "sprinkle" the whole day. we figured we could deal with "sprinkles". well, we got there at about 9:30 am., and the show was to start at 10. we found our VERY wet seats. thankfully there were ladies there that were wiping the seats. here are some pics while we were waiting for the show to start:

the blue angels closeup

waiting for the planes
grammy and kaylee
kelsey and jordan

toya and grammy

"aunt" sue and kaylee

at around 10:30, we saw the first plane. it flew in and dropped some simulation bombs. it was pretty cool! here are a couple of pics:

this truck uses jet engines on the back and fly's down the track! it is super cool, but the weather stopped it from doing what it usually does (races a airplane)

after this, they made an announcement about the clouds being too low to put anything up for a while, so we decided to go and walk around. we found a simulator that aunt sue took toya and jordan on (this is when it really started to rain):

we decided since we were already soaked, that we might as well just look at some of the things they had set up. we then saw a HUGE plane (see how small the people look standing under it). grammy took toya and jordan in there:






we then decided that we had had enough of the rain. it was now almost noon time and there hadn't really been any more planes going up. we went back to get our blankets and my cousin (sue) asked if we could get a refund since it was pouring. we had to wait so my mom headed back with the kids to the van. we got our money back and then the "hurricane" hit. it was rediculous! it really wasn' a hurricane, but when you are walking and the wind is soo strong and it is pouring, it really feels like a hurricane. sue and i were laughing as we walked back to the van, what else can you do? we met up with my mom and the kids playing in a caboose type thing and headed to the van. anyway, by the time we got back to the van, we were completely soaked. even our underclothing was soaked, that's how bad it was. our socks and shoes were soaked. the girls were shivering. i thought i was smart cause i brought the girls an extra change of clothes, but smart me left them in their cloth diaper bags that were in the carriage, so you know what happened to them :). we stripped the girls down, turned on the heat and wrapped them in their blankies. we were all soaked but toasty in no time. we had a one hour ride home like that, but we stopped at a drive through and got lunch and everyone was happy for the entire ride home. although it was not a great trip, it was a very interesting one, and we still laughed quit a bit! :)

so, that is all for now, have a great week and i hope you enjoy the pics!

p.s. the umbrellas you see did absolutely nothing! during the "hurricane", they were turning inside out! haha. gotta laugh!

A Rainy Monday!

well, today was a very dreary monday! it rained all night last night, and most of the day today, so the kids were stuck inside! they did fine and played quietly most of the day. while the twins were taking their nap, i took jordan to go get a speech evaluation. he has gotten alot better, but i still see issues. we took him about a year ago to have one done (a different place), but we were told that he was not bad enough to qualify! i was very upset to learn that his speech pronounciation is at the level of a 3 1/2 yr. old and he is 5 1/2. so, he qualifies for speech at the same place that he will be having his OT. he will have speech on mondays and then OT on thursdays! i am not impressed with the other place at all. i was told that had he gotten the help a year ago, that he would be fine now, but that it likely had gotten worse because of going untreated for a year. so anyway, he will get help now. while i was there, i scheduled the girls to have speech and OT evaluations on Friday. i figure i want to catch them early if there are issues so i don't have to go through this again!

after we got back from that, we went to applebee's to have supper. while we were there, we saw the girls other main NICU nurse sarah. she was there with her hubby and two of her three kids! it was so nice to see her. she hasn't seen the twins in quit a while. i felt bad because i really wanted to talk more to her, but i felt kinda rushed since there were people waiting for tables. i'm not sure if she reads this or not, but if you do, sarah, and you have a email address, could you post a comment and leave your email address (or have elaine pass it along). i would love to get caught up with you. :)

well, that is it for now. we went to a birthday party for justin and lucas (we'll just call them cousins). the kids had fun. i didn't take too many pictures as i felt a little awkward. most of the people i had never met and the ones i did, i have only met a couple of times. i hope you all have a great week! here are a few pictures from the party:

playing a game (kinda like musical chairs, but it was musical webs)

getting the candy from the pinatathe birthday boys opening their presents ~ lucas (L) & justin (R)

This Past Week (long with lots of pics)!

well, sorry it has been sooo long. i know i promised that i was going to update on monday or tuesday, but i obviously didn't get there. it's not that my week was more stressful or that i had more to do, i just didn't get to it. anyway, on to the post and pics! on friday i had the priviledge of watching my friends little boy, connor. he is a little younger than the girls, and is soo handsome. this is the first time i have watched him, and he was very good! he wouldn't talk to me, but followed me around as i was cleaning and then when i would talk to him, he would run in the other room. when i got the vacuum out, they all piled up on the loveseat. here is a pic of them (obviously connor is in the middle)!


saturday we started out with a trip to the new england aquarium in boston, ma. we took the downeaster and had to be in portland (an hour away) by 6 am. the train ride down was great! we were almost by ourselves the whole way(2 1/2 hrs.). we went to the aquarium, ate lunch at the cafe they had there (prices were kinda reasonable), and half way through, the early morning hours caught up with the girls, and they ended up falling asleep in the carriage for about an hour or so:
.

we then decided to go see a imax 3-d movie. when you go in, they give you the "special" glasses. i thought the movie was great! the kids didn't keep their glasses on as they were all scared of the movie. seems the fish are a little too real and close with them on. i got a picture of jordan before the movie started:


after the movie, we decided to go to market square. there are a ton of shops and lots of people. we walked around for a little while and saw a man we thought was a statue, but was actually real (he was completely painted gold). we also ran into a man making balloon things. the kids each got something and then we decided to head back to the amtrak station. here is a slideshow of the day:

here are a couple of videos. the first is of kaylee saying "chugga, chugga, choo choo", i do assure you that is what she is saying :)






this next one os of kelsey:






this is where our trip went from great to horrible. we all know that no trip with 4 kids can go smoothly the whole way. anyway, we got to the station about 1 1/2 hours before our train was scheduled to leave. we decided to get mcdonalds and eat while we waited. after we got our food and were about to sit down, my sister noticed that there was a train scheduled to leave in about 5 min. i went to the ticket window and asked if we could change our tickets. he said he didn't have time to do it, but to run to the train and they would possibly let us on, so we did. mind you, the clock said we still had 3 minutes to get there. we ran and were "greeted" my one of the men working the train. i told him what i was told and he replied "you MADE me hold my train for that?" i informed him that i didn't make him do anything. he then said "well, i see you had enough time to stop at mcdonald's though"! i just replied with "we weren't planning on taking this train till a few minutes ago". he let us on, but that is not where the fun ended. the train was pretty much full, so we had to split up. the girls had to sit in their carriage and doug sat in front of them and i sat across the aisle. toya, auntie jess, grammy, and jordan sat farther back on the train. before the train even left, jordan had to go potty, he was trying to close the door, when a old, drunk guy came up and said "this is a bathroom, it is not a place to play". my sister informed him that he just couldn't shut the door. this is not the last run in with this mentally unstable person either. as the train is moving along, i keep hearing this same man talking very loudly. he is saying things like "i had 4 daughters and they knew to be quiet in public", "if i had them for neighbors, i would commit suicide", "i thought only men could have kids", and a bunch of other things. who might you think he was talking about? yup, that's right, my hubby and the twins. mind you, the twins never cried, screeched, or were loud the whole hour they were sitting in their stroller. they played, laughed, sang, and ate their supper. my hubby luckily did not hear what was being said. by this time, i had had enough and got up to move the carriage to another car, not for him, but because this man was so mentally unstable that i honestly thought he was going to hurt the girls. i was crying and shaking, i was so scared and upset. a couple of ladies got up with us and one came in and said that my kids were perfect, they were doing nothing wrong, and they were some of the best behaved kids she's ever seen on the train. she also said that after we left, a bunch of people stood up and told the man to shut up and that he was behaving worse than the girls were. the other lady that got up went to get the workers and they opened up a empty train car just for us and we beleive they kicked the man off. i know they made him move (cause he got up and went with them), but he was also going to the same station we were going to and when we got there, he was no where to be seen. so, that ended that day. needless to say, we were all ready for bed when we got home at around 9 pm. :) on sunday, doug had his firemen's muster. he went to it, but the rest of us went to church, so i do not have pics. this was also the day that we said goodbye to auntie jess. she says this is the last time she is going back to college, but she said that last year as well :). on monday we had the parade. toya and jordan got to ride on top of the fire truck that daddy was driving. here is a slideshow of the parade:

the rest of the week was just the usual school days. thursday jordan went to his forst OT appointment. he loves it and i think he will get caught up in no time. today we have a birthday party for justin and lucas, so i will have pics of that later.

last but not least, i have been tagged by my fellow twin mom angie. i noticed that so far everyone that has been tagged has said they don't think that they are interesting, yet, everyone's that i have read have been very interesting :). so, here are 8 not so interesting facts about me! :)

1. ever since i had the twins, i have been obsessed with multiples! i absolutely must go talk to everyone that has twins, or multiples and find out there life history. how early, how big, how long in the nicu?

2. once (before i was married and had kids), i had a friend change my tires, and on my way to work the next day, i was surprised to see a tire roll by me as i was going down the road. yes, it was mine! the tire had come completley off, including the rim. it rolled across the street and into some trees! i guess they would call that a good reason for coming to work late :)

3. i actually love taking ALL my kids EVERYWHERE i go. i don't actually feel as though i need a getaway yet. i do have days when i am pushed to my limits, but honestly, if i got away, i do think i would miss them and wish they were with me the whole time i was gone.

4. i used to have 11 earrings in one ear. i had little cubic zarconia earrings ranging from biggest to smallest going all the way up my ear. i only had 2 in the other ear. i removed all but two when i had latoya and she started pulling on them. the holes are still visible, but i don't think i could put earrings in there again.

5. on a whim, i decided to have a tubal after the twins. i have regretted it ever since and have secretly wished i could have more, crazier than that, i have wished i could have identical twin boys to even out the score. i am now content with what i have :).

6. my first job was at kmart where i worked with my mom and my sister, sarah. i met a ton of friends, one of which i am still friends with today, missy, (although not as close). we had the kmart group and hung out all the time. we had alot of good times.

7. i am not like this with everything, but in regards to the kids toys, everything must be in the same exact spot i keep it. hubby cannot help pick up, because he never puts things where they belong. no, it wouldn't hurt if the trucks were in the toybox, but they belong on the shelf :).

8. when i was 19, i was pulled over three times in one night!!! the first time was because they thought i was a car they had a apb out on for running from the police. i was in the wring place at the wrong time. they completely surrounded my car (remember that missy). the second time was because one of my headlights was out (they didn't tell me that the first time they pulled me over), and the third time was two minutes down the road from the second time. it was for my headlight again. nothing says maybe you should just go home like being pulled over 3 times in one night!

speaking of getting pulled over, last night after i dropped my mom off at her house, i got pulled over. it was about 9:30 pm and my kids were past ready for bed. i turned down by my house and saw the blue lights! i asked the kids if he was pulling me over and they said yes. he was very nice, he asked for license, registration, and insurance. i got them out and he informed me that my insurance card had expired. he said not to worry about it because he wasn't giving me a ticket anyway. he then asked if i knew why i was pulled over and i said i could probably guess. he said i had run a stop sign (same thing i would have guessed). he said hi to the kids and told me to try to remember to stop next time and we were on our way. anyway, that concludes my week! sorry it's so long! i hope you enjoy.

as far as tagging people. i will tag: my mom, saran and john, jess, joleene , aunt joan, cassie, ellen, and mary. ok, now you are it and have to post 8 interesting things about yourselves on your blog! have fun!