My Montage 1/20/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

This is a montage of the twins first two years of life. Enjoy!

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A weekend of celebrations!

Wow can you believe that my twins are two? Cause I sure can't! Where did my two little preemie's go? Well it's true they have turned two and what a wonderful age it is. They are in to EVERYTHING, and they are on top of everything. The energy they have is enormous but their personalities are shining through. I am so incredibly blessed to be their mom.

This last weekend was so much fun! On Saturday we celebrated the twins 2nd birthday with family and friends. They were spoiled rotten with toys and the playroom is filled to capacity. I don't think there is a single toy that they haven't played with already. They still weren't a big fan of the cake and that may be my fault since they haven't had any cake since they turned one. Even though we practiced blowing out the candles neither of them were willing to do it so their awesome cousin Kaylin did the honors. They had a blast and so did I!












Sunday was another blessed day. Our little E was baptized. It was after the 10am mass and we decided to try and go to church with all the kids. Thank goodness we had help because it was pure chaos. Between Jake trying to escape and Alyssa dancing in the pew and waving to the people behind us (4 rows behind us) and Ethan deciding he was hungry it was nuts. At the end you could see they were winding down and Jacob almost fell asleep on the floor. After mass we had the baptism and it went farely quick, however I wasn't the one chasing Jake or Aly around so I'm sure it went very slow for grandpa and Makenzie :-) We then went out to Casa Ramos for lunch and it was delish! It was so nice to sit and talk and all the kids were very well behaved. It was a good day.






In the next couple weeks Ethan turns 1, wow. He is doing so much and just started cruising along furniture. He's also doing well with the sippy cup and that's such a wonderful thing! We can NOT wait to be off bottles completely!




















Ethan at 11 months!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Valentines day!

Goodbye 2009...

10 years ago today I was waiting for Nate to get off work... I was 4 months pregnant and had gone down to So California with some friends and Nathan and I were driving back home before midnight. It was crazy, I think it took us like 5 hours. He drove so fast and we finally made it to my Aunts house to celebrate NYE with them and my mom.

I can't go back through the last 10 years so lets just go back a year ago. One year ago today I was sitting at home celebrating with friends and I was 7 months pregnant with Ethan. Can I just say how happy I am that I'm not pregnant this year?!?! That's the best gift in and of itself!

Jonathan was 8 years old... He's basically the same awesome kid. Yes he has a bigger vocab and I'm not talking about the words that he's learned at school but the words he's created himself. He's learned multiplication and division! Not only division but also LONG division! He's grown at least two sizes and now wears shoes that are bigger then mine. He's still into his computer and loves soccer. He makes me laugh every day and still my little Jon.

Jacob and Alyssa were almost a year old and hardly walking. They were fully standing and cruising along everything!

Last year

This year

They have both grown in so many ways. Jacob is the sweetest most sensitive boy I have. He's a lover. He feels everything and takes it all with him. He has to have his way or makes us all suffer. He has grown so much just in the last couple months with his vocab! He says a ton of words and is starting to put together two words. He's that kid that repeats the same word over and over and over and over again. It can get a bit tiresome when we hear airplane for the 10th time and by then the airplane is long gone. He LOVES music! He loves to sing and dance and can now sing twinkle twinkle little star. It is by far his favorite song and we sing it at least 10 times a day. He loves to push anything or pull anything around. He loves his new vacuum he got for Christmas. He also loves to draw. He can draw a circle and can be very serious when drawing. He tends to draw small and really pay attention to what he's doing. Overall he's just an amazing little boy. He's into and on top of EVERYTHING. But his smile and laugh melts my heart.

Alyssa is my little doll. The girl is just so much fun to watch and play with. She loves to sit with daddy and can do that for a very long time. She's just happy hanging out. Aly is the toughest kid I have, seriously. She can take a tumble and just keep on going, she hardly cries and is always the last one that gets fussy. She can run MILES around Jake and does so daily. She's fast and very active. She LOVES to jump and her trampoline is by far her favorite thing. She loves to tumble and flip up in the air. She has absolutely no fear of slides, well anything for that matter. She is my daredevil and little miss grace all at the same time. She's also very smart! She has a ton of words as well and also uses two words but she doesn't talk as much. If you just hung out here for a day you would have no idea that she even spoke. She's quiet. But she can speak and often repeats a LOT of what I say. Her words are also clear as day. She was the first to say no and does so often. She is such an easy kid though, she just goes with the flow and is really level headed. She reminds me SOOO much of Nathan!! Yet she's the spitting image of me as a kid. She gives the best hugs and kisses around.

Ethan was just a kick in my tummy last year, so to say he has grown the most is an understatement. He's well over 23lbs at 10 months old and is the BEST baby ever! He has this face that is to die for and the best cuddles ever. He is crawling all over the place, sitting everywhere and stuffing every little thing he can find into his mouth. He's wonderful and a true blessing to complete this family. Did I mention he's HUGE?? He's HUGE! He's not only heavy but he's also TALL! He can hold his own but I'm not sure that he has any anger in him what-so-ever. He cracks me up with his parrot like screams (happy) and his little hands that are always moving. He is such a joy.

Birth
now...

On the home front not much has changed. Our house is always a mess but it's warm and cozy. Our dogs are sat on often and fed a LOT! Thank goodness they like puffs and cereal!

It's been a wonderful year and I'm sure next year will be even better!

A family tradition and the longest 36 hours of my life.

This is going to be a long one so go grab a cup of coffee or hot cocoa and sit down and relax while you read up on us.

I want to rewind a couple weeks and go back to Thanksgiving. It was a wonderful day! I am so blessed to be spending yet another Thanksgiving with the Teters. I'm not sure when this started but for as long as I can remember, every year we went to Aunt Linda and Uncle Danny's. What a wonderful gift I'm giving my kids. This is a tradition I will NOT break, yes there may be a Thanksgiving here or there spent with Nate's family but a piece of me will be missing. My mom loved Thanksgiving and LOVED spending this day with family, especially Aunt Linda. They talked for hours and I can only imagine how tough this is for to go through without her. A new generation is here to help out and a younger one to drive us crazy and keep us from playing games :-) But one of these years it WILL happen!! And Meg's going to be on MY team for Pictionary. I baked the entire morning and LOVED it! I am thoroughly enjoying not being pregnant this year! For the past 2 years I've been way pregnant and my back wouldn't allow me to stand and cook for hours on end. I made some of my moms favorite dishes. The little ones spent the day playing. It turned out to be a beautiful day outside so they rode everything that had wheels up and down a hill. ALL of the kids had fun and I think all of us "adults" did too :-) Thank you mom for starting this wonderful tradition that I will hold dear forever.

Jake and cousin Roan playing with the firetruck!

Meg, me and Aunt Linda -- Nathan skateboarding down the hill -- Aly and Jake

We have to rewind only a couple days for the rest of this blog! This last Sunday we knew there was a storm coming in, we knew we'd get snow, what we didn't know was how much and how long we would be without power.

I noticed it for the first time around 2am that the power had gone out and at 7am when the kids woke up I looked outside and it was WHITE!! It was gorgeous, I mean picture perfect gorgeous. We had at least a foot and it was still snowing. The power was out and I'm not sure that it really bothered me that much until that afternoon. We also didn't have phones since our landline was down and our cell phones were really spotty. We took the kids out in the snow first thing on Monday morning but they really didn't much care for it :-) The dogs LOVED it!! Jon also loved it and had a lot of fun playing in it for hours.

Nate started a fire.... a fire that we had no idea would have to get us through the coldest night on record. We did have hot water and that was a saving grace! We did have a lot of broken branches and I figured the power might be out for a while so I had Nate grab the camping stove so we could have soup for lunch. It worked out really well, we just put it on the balcony upstairs. We took the kids out again after nap on Monday and they had a better time, but the snow was still up to ALy's knees and they couldn't even walk in it! But Jon had so much, that we stayed out and played with him.

It was finally kicking in that we might go a night without heat, without power. So we started preparing. I had to go through clothes and pick out bedtime clothes. It was supposed to get down in the 20's and that was going to make for a really really long night. I knew I was going to put the kids to bed in their room at first and go from there. They spent the hardest part of the afternoon finger painting and then eating dinner. I swear my house looks like a bomb went off! It's amazing what twin toddlers can do when they are stuck inside without tv! They had a lot of fun though! Dinner was easy and by flashlight :-) Then we put them to bed and I got started on dinner. We had fried potatoes and scrambled eggs, one of my favorite things to make while camping. It was good and Nate, Jon and I ate it while listening to music and playing games by the fireplace. We had candles going but the lanterns worked the best. We played a LOT of board games and at the end of the night we made smores!

We did end up going to bed early. I spent the night downstairs (FREEZING) so I could be near the kids incase they got too cold. They did really well considering, and I went in at least every 2 hours and made sure they were covered with blankets and their little hands and cheeks weren't cold. They woke up at about 6:30 and I took them upstairs. It was 54 degrees in the house. However Nathan (the awesome husband/father that he is) had kept the fire going all night so the upstairs was nice and warm.

I think it was at that point that we called PG&E again and they told us they wouldn't know anything or have it fixed till 6:30pm. I was about to LOSE it! I had no idea how we would go through another day or night without power... But we then called again a couple hours later and they said around 2pm. SO that made me feel better. We decided that we would put the kids down for a nap and then head out for the mall. Well a couple hours into the twins nap the power came on!!!! I almost cried I was so happy!!! Going 36 hours without central heat and a stove, not to mention the fridge and freezers, seemed like a very long time!

We still have a lot of snow but it's frozen over and HARD!! It's still pretty though.

The funniest thing! Tim's tennis ball was frozen to the chair!!!

Some other great news is that Ethan has now learned to get into the sitting position on his own and as of 3 days ago is now officially on the move! He's crawling EVERYWHERE!! He's so much like ALy in the way he learns and meets these different milestones. I'm so proud of him and he is so much fun to watch!

Family fun!

Talk about a busy couple weeks! This is going to seem like a crazy blog but I don't want to forget anything and make sure I get in a few pictures, because I know how much you love the pictures!

On fb someone got the idea to write one thing a day that you're thankful for. So I've been doing that. All I can say is that I'm truly blessed. We have so very much to be thankful for and it's nice to be able to think about that this time of year.

Nate took a couple days off last week and we were able to get out and about. We went to the SF Zoo and it was sooo much fun! The kids did so good and the twins were able to run around (on leashes) and wear themselves out! Even the rides there and back were wonderful. I am so excited for the years to come as they get older and things get a bit easier. But here are some fun pictures.

Nate did have to work Monday and Wed so I took that opportunity to do some crafts with the kids. They love to color and do it often but we decided to try finger paints! So here are some pictures. Jake was a having a bad day but finally tried it and Aly had fun. Jon also joined us which was awesome!

And last weekend I had my family over for dinner. We had a Chinese food night and it was SOO SOO GOOD!! It was also a lot of fun, I love living close enough to family that we're able to get together like this. The kids had a great time and this was a mostly indoor event and it still went well :-) Here are some pictures...


Jake and Aly at the table, Meg with Ethan and Aly, Jake and cousin Roan eating yummy food! How did I not get a picture of Kaylin?!?!

On Friday I had Jon's Parent Teacher Conference. I know I've said it but it's worth saying again. I LOVE his teacher! So apparently when he was sick he missed a couple of the tests that helped show me how he was doing, so she sent us home with us to do over the vacation (Jon was REALLY happy about that hahaha!) But we did go over his report card and it was good. He's for sure a b student but I'm very happy with that! We then moved on to his personality... yes he's got QUITE the personality! I laughed so hard while I was there, she was telling me about having to take away his pencil sharpener, he kept tapping on it.. quietly but still very annoying. And moving his desk so he didn't have anything to distract him, yes that's Jon. I in all seriousness asked if he was really bad or a disruption and she laughed and said NEVER, she LOVED him! But he's the Jokester. Not the loud clown of the class but definitely the jokester. She actually gave me homework :-) She sent me home with a book they read in class called Findle and it's about a boy with a strict English teacher. Jon's teacher said that the whole time they read the book she thought--oh lord Jon is getting ideas :-) The kid even makes up his own words, just like Jon! Too funny! So yea I have the jokester. Can I just say right here, right now, that I'm so thankful to have a funny kid!! He cracks me up all the time and is such a cool kid! Even if he does drive us crazy most of the time, get in trouble for not speaking ENGLISH, and teaches the little ones bad things.

Today is Monday and Thursday is Thanksgiving, YaY!! I can't wait! I can't wait to COOK! This is the first Thanksgiving in TWO years that I'm not pregnant, thank god! Nate had to work today but will be home till next Monday. Tomorrow we're doing all of our shopping and hopefully getting Jakes hair cut. Wed, I'm going to start getting ready for Thursday and Jake has his therapy (which is going really well). Thursday we will be at LaLa's eating yummy food and enjoying the company of family. I grew up going to Aunt Linda's and loved playing games and hanging out with my cousins. I'm so very thankful that we live so close and our kids will grow up playing together on Thanksgiving at Aunt Lindas. Friday I will be with all the crazies, and Barb to go SHOPPING!! I'm SOOO excited!! It is seriously one of my very very favorite days of the year!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

sick, sick, sick, sick

We have been bit by the sick bug... And we were bit HARD!! It all started 9 days ago--It was a Monday and the Sunday before we had gone to Reno, so I actually just thought the kids were a little off from the busy day. Well apparently not. Jake ran a moderate fever that day and was fussy but I couldn't tell anything was really wrong. Ethan on the other hand started refusing his bottles at about 4pm that afternoon. By 8am the next day I knew something was wrong... Oh and that night Nathan also started feeling bad. So Monday night I got maybe 2 hours of sleep and that was not consecutively! Ethan was up almost the whole night and finally at 5am I got the bright idea to stick him in the jumparoo, yep it worked he crashed out till 7am! I ended up calling the doc because I could not get Ethan to eat! I kept Jon home from school because she mentioned the flu shots were in. So off we went to the doctor at 11am or so. Nathan SLEPT in the car (poor guy!!) I took in Jake and Ethan and Jon waited int he car with Aly. She couldn't find anything wrong with either of them but we all got our flu shots and went on our way. Sounds like a quick trip huh, HA we got home at 1p. I was finally able to get Ethan to eat a little and seemed to be doing better that evening.
If only it had ended there... Thur Jake wakes up and has this HORRIBLE sound coming out of him.. It sounds like a seal and once you've heard it you know what it is. Jon had it a couple years back and it sucks. It's croup. If you dno't know what croup is it's kind of like bronchitis in kids but it usually only happens in kids under 3 because their lungs are so small. And they get blocked easily and have a lot of trouble breathing. Well Jake had it but Nate was at work so there wasn't much I could do. Poor guy seemed to feel well but just sounded awful. I had Nate stay home on Friday so we could take him in, by this time Nate and I both have the sore throat and are congested. So Friday I take Jake in and they give him a steroid to help open his lungs. It seems to help. Saturday was soccer day and Halloween!!! I knew it was too cold for the kids to be out for the soccer game and as the day progressed I realized that Ethan too had Croup... UGH!! So Nate took Jon over to Megs to celebrate Halloween and do some trick or treating. Jon was a skeleton :-)



I stayed home with the kids so I could keep them on schedule and keep them indoors. Ethan ended up getting worse as the night went on so he slept with me. I couldn't risk him not being able to breath in the night. Not to mention keeping up Jake and Aly when both of them weren't feeling well. So Nate slept on the couch and Ethan slept on my chest. Again another night of very little sleep for me. Sunday was another tough day with Ethan and his croup, Jake on the end of his croup and Nate and I feeling like crap. So Monday morning rolls around and Jon is complaining of a sore throat... RIIIIGGGHHTTTT!! I of course think he just wants to stay home from school and tell him he'll be fine and make his lunch. I walk down the stairs just in time to see him throw up all over my kitchen floor...ugh! So poor Jon was sick too. He stayed home but didn't seem to have any symptoms and didn't throw up again. I had Nate work from home on Tuesday in case I needed Jon to go to the doctor--oh yeah at 8pm Monday night I found Jon sound asleep on the recliner, with a 103 degree fever... Jon turned out to be fine on Tuesday but still with a sore throat so I kept him home. During breakfast Aly started--yep she now had croup. Poor baby!!!
So as of today which is Wednesday... Jake--still has a nasty wet cough but is in great spirits and had the best bed-head hair this morning!!


Aly is still in the middle of her croup and is okay as long as she doesn't get upset. Poor thing can't catch her breath when she starts to cry, But this should be the last day of it!
Jon went to school today with some throat suppressants, he does still have a little sore throat but has gone 36 hours without a fever and seemed perfectly fine this morning.
Nate is 2 days ahead of me with this head cold thing we have and he seems to be feeling a lot better, I feel horrible at night but am okay so far today. I can't breath very well, but hey at least the headache and earache are gone :-) I do have a tickle in my throat that is DRIVING ME BATTY!!
Ethan is doing good, he also has the really wet nasty cough but is taking his bottles like a pro, solids is a whole other story!

So that's us... I'm hoping that this weekend we can actually get out of the house and into the fresh air. I'm so tired of being trapped in the house and actually considered running away from home earlier this week.

Pumpkins and crazy toddlers!

It's happening, that special time of year. When I want to bake, lay with Nate on the couch in front of the fire watching his stupid sports. It's not quite there yet, but I can feel it coming!

So this last week was a lot of fun! On Friday we spent the day at the Pumpkin Patch. I think the twins and I had the most fun. They were able to run! And I mean RUN everywhere. They are finally learning they're names and the word "no". I guess I should clarify that they know these words but are finally acting like they can HEAR them. They first played at the playground, and then we went and played on the bales of hay. I swear Aly is going to give me a heart attack, that girl has no fear. I had to catch her as she rolled off the bales. We then spent some time looking at the pond. Yes that took literally 20 minutes. But I got some good pictures of Jon :-) We then went to the petting zoo but considering there was only 2 adults to 4 kids, I wasn't brave enough to send Nate in with the twin-ado's... So they fed them from the outside and Jon went in. It was fun to see them with the animals though. We then just let them run around and play with the pumpkins. They had a great time and were very tired on the way home.














Saturday started with Jon's soccer game... They lost, again. But Jon ROCKS!!! He is so much fun to watch!! Then Nathan and I had DATE NIGHT!! It's been a long time since we had a date night just the two of us. I missed having him to myself and had a great time just being with him. I know I sound all gushy and stuff but I just LOVE him! I have so much fun with him and it amazes me that after almost 10 years of marriage we still have so much to talk about. So it was his turn to pick a Restaurant and so we went to a Japanese/Sushi Buffet. I can not remember the name or I would post a link but it was okay. Nate liked it. They had a lot of sushi and some Japanese foods but I stuck to the green bean tempura... I did try some sushi, ick. We then did all of our grocery shopping, fun stuff for date night huh :-) It was nice being able to go through the aisles as fast or slow as we wanted and only having one cart, that was nice too.



Sunday we spent the day in Reno at my in-laws. Some of Nate's Aunts and Uncles were visiting and we were happy to make the trip up to visit. It was wonderful seeing them and all-in-all the kids were great! It's always a bit hard going to a place that doesn't normally have kids in it and my two can baby-proof a house for you, really fast! But they did good and we didn't have any major meltdowns. That was huge since they all went off of no naps the entire day. I spent the drive home squished between the twins in the backseat. They were very fussy and drove me crazy throwing things and getting mad. It will be awhile before we take another car trip. But it was a lot of fun seeing family and can't wait to see them again. I didn't get any pictures :-(



My random thoughts of the day:



~I can't handle Family Guy late at night, the whining just makes me want to throw something at the tv.

~ I no longer have to check the expiration dates on milk..

~ Now that Jon is making his own lunch we go through a lot of peanut butter... I hate this, I like to have my super crunchy peanut butter to myself, not with jam mixed in.. ick.

~ I don't like sushi--I just don't. Don't tell me that there is this one kind I will like, cause I don't. Get over it, I just don't like sushi-period.

~ I thought that the "why" "where" questions ended at 6 years old... Apparently they don't, my 9 year old is FULL of them...