Poehlman Family

My Montage 1/20/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

2010-02-02T17:51:00.001-08:00

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

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

A weekend of celebrations!

2010-01-28T15:23:00.000-08:00

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!

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Goodbye 2009...

2009-12-31T14:39:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-12-10T12:23:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-23T15:29:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-10-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

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...

Vegas baby!

2009-10-14T13:05:00.001-07:00

As I sit here I have mounds, and I honestly mean MOUNDS of clothes ALL over my living room. Getting everything tagged and ready for the Mothers of Multiples Clothing and Equipment sale on Saturday. I have to drop everything off on Friday and I'll be LUCKY if I have half of it done. Yes I procrastinated (don't roll your eyes, nobody's shocked!) but I really wanted to wait till I got home from Vegas.

Oh yes, Vegas :-) Let me just say that I have the best husband on earth. He didn't "let" me go (I'm pretty sick of hearing that btw) but he did encourage it. I had so much to do in order to go on this trip. I had to organize all the clothes for all the kids for all the days I was gone... Each set of clothes had an orange post-it so Nate knew who wore what. I also had to list all of the meals for all the kids. There were orange post-its all over the pantry, marking the days and Ethans food. There were also orange post-its all over the fridge, telling Nate what was inside the fridge for him to feed. I then had a piece of paper for each day that had specific instructions on routine... nap time for the twins, nap times for Ethan and Jon's homework info. Also when to change out the sippy cups, Ethans bottles and when to have Jon take a shower.

Now you may think that I was a bit OCD for doing all of this but it wasn't me... I of course did it all but it was Nate who wanted it. Every time I went to tell him something he asked if I wrote it down :-) So I did! My sweet husband who is so incredibly smart but lacks in the common sense department...

I did manage to remember to pack myself (at the last minute) and it was really weird packing for just me. I actually had room for shoes and lotions... yay! So Sunday afternoon I got on the plane to go to Las Vegas to meet up with some of my very favorite people. As some of you may know I have Nystagmus, it's what makes my eyes wiggle. Well there is actually a bi-yearly conference for those with Nystagmus and many years ago I met Laura and along the way, Drew, Heather, Joe, and Scott. Some of us couldn't make it to the conference this year so we decided to make a trip to Vegas. Some of our favorite people weren't able to make it, and they were missed but the 6 of us were able to make the time and met up on Sunday. Sunday evening to be exact through Thursday/Friday. Now I'm not going to go through it step by step, mostly because I just don't have the time. But it was so very much fun!!!!! Laura was her typical beautiful self! Always with a smile and tended to be lost without a plan. Drew was his normal Drew, cracking us all up! I swear there was nothing that he didn't have a comment about, but that's what we love about him! He was so very much fun to hang out with! Scott, my married buddy :-) was so much fun to dance with for HOURS! You are one of the nicest people I know, seriously sweet! Can't wait to meet your wife!! Oh and I honestly think you have a future in uhm photography, lol. Heather was so much fun to go shopping with! I adore her and finally got to really hang out and talk this trip. I can NOT wait to get to know her better and am so proud to call her my friend. You have the best smile, and taste in purses!! And then there was Joe.. or was it Dr. Joe? I hadn't gotten to know him before and really enjoyed it this time around! He reminded me so much of Nathan and that was nice. He also was very laid back and my sober buddy :-) I loved that I got you to dance, and look forward to hanging out again!

Like I said, it was wonderful. I desperately needed a break and thoroughly enjoyed my time. It was the little things that made me happy, dancing till the pub closed (2 nights in a row), taking LONG showers... Eating and not having to stick my fingers in it, unless I wanted too! Wearing my hair down and not worrying about it being pulled. All of these things and many more made the trip glorious and a true vacation. It only could have been better if Nathan had come.

Laura and I, Scott, Drew and Joe, Heather and I.

Like I said in the previous post, it's a very busy month. Yesterday the twins had their weight check. They both only gained like half a pound so we're having to give them a can of pedia-sure once a day. Trying to fatten them up is NOT easy!

All the kids are doing wonderful. Looking forward to Halloween and the upcoming holidays!

We had a pretty big storm hit us yesterday and we lost power for about 2 hours. It felt like 10 hours! The kids ran around in the dark and Jon did his homework by candlelight--well until we pulled out the flashlights and camping lanterns (battery powered). It was fun. We did have a very large branch fall on the fence but it was the metal part of the fence so Nate was able to cut it and it's only bent a little bit. It sure was windy though and our yard is a MESS!!

Have a great week!

A busy month that hasn't even started!

2009-09-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

Since when is the month of October so stinken busy? I remember waiting all of October for Halloween... Now I have so much to do before the 31st that I haven't even bought the kids costumes yet. So not like me.

Lets rewind a little bit...

The kids have been great! I can't begin to tell you how well they are doing. The twins turned 20 months on the 21st and are just exploding with words and personality. Jake has made such an improvement and it's so much fun to listen to him talk! His therapy is going wonderful and each week we see such an improvement. Aly is awesome and still so very little. She has absolutely no fear and will jump off and get on top of just about anything. This includes the kitchen table when nobody is looking. She also has 2 more teeth! She now has 4 teeth in front and 4 molars!

Teeth count :

Jake -- 12

Aly -- 8

Ethan - 0

Ethan is also doing very well. He's such a love. He has the best laugh, a lot like Jakes. He's also really ticklish, just like all the other boys :-) He's spending a lot of time on his tummy these days and is able to scoot around if he can find something to push off of. He's also eating some baby food. So far carrots is the fav (YUCK).

As for Jon, he's doing great as well. He had a soccer game this last Saturday and Grandpa P even cam to watch. But it didn't go well. It was super super hot!! But they were destroyed, very sad. On a good note, Jon is GREAT! He is so strong this year and showing a lot of promise. Normally there are a ton of really good players on his team and he would just stay back, but he's one of those strong players and that's awesome to see. I'm so very proud of him. He's doing good with school too. We just got his progress report and have a couple areas to work on but not much and nothing too serious. It's the same as it is every year, Jon needs to ssslllloooowww down! He rushes through everything.

So I was talking to my wonderful cousin Meg, we got on the topic of Poison Control (I have their magnet up on my fridge) and she laughed. Well I had to call PC last week because of Jake. I kind of knew that he'd be okay but felt I needed to call, just to ease my mind. I'm sure you're wondering why I had to call.... That's a good question. I don't know how it happened but somehow he managed to get a tube of diaper rash cream into his during nap time. So when I went to get him after nap I smelled it. Now normally you'd expect to see it... nope didn't see much of it but boy did it smell!! So I looked for it and realized Jake had white on his face.. not much just a little bit below his nose. Then I smell his breath.. oh yeah there was the smell. I then find the tube and it's dang near empty! How in the world did he do that? So he gets all excited that I found this tube and I hand it back to him and sure enough he puts it straight to his mouth and SUCKS it up! GROSSS!!!! So yes I decided after ingesting a tube of diaper rash cream that a call to PC must be done. Of course he's fine and apparently this is common.

So as for the future.. things are getting busy! I really wish it would cool down and feel like fall.

I leave for Las Vegas on Sunday... I can not wait! I'm trying to get everything ready, Nate will be home alone with the kids till Thursday afternoon. He's such a trooper! I can't wait to sleep in and do whatever I want for 3 whole days. I'm already worried that I'll be homesick but love the people that I'm going with and know that will help. A break.. wow.

I then come home to a whirlwind of busy-ness. The twins C&E sale is in 3 weeks and I've just barely started! I have so much to tag!!! I can't WAIT to get rid of this baby stuff!!! It makes me super excited :-) We also have 2 big twin outings and of course Halloween ending a very busy month. The twins also have a weight check in there somewhere and will have to update then. I honestly don't think Aly has gained an ounce. But we'll see.

So not much else to report, here are a couple pictures I can share of the last few weeks. Love to all.

Jake and Aly in the tub...

Can you tell who's who?

Aly wearing daddy's shoe and Ethan crashed out under his little play gym.

Deaths in 3's...

2009-09-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

I'm one of those that thinks death comes in 3's. I'm not exactly sure why but I was so sad to hear of Patrick Swayze's death. I knew he was sick and saw his thing with Barbara Walters last year but it still was a shock to me.
Then on Sunday I read a status post on facebook from an old High School friend, it read "RIP Robby"... I'm not sure how I knew but I did. I got this feeling in the pit of my stomach and just waited patiently to hear, Robby who? It was answered by another hs friend that posted... Yep it was him. It amazes me how something that was so HUGE to me 14-15 years ago can just come flooding back after being totally buried for years!! I've spent the last 24 hours thinking about him and remembering the times we had. We were friends first, he was friends with a close friend of mine and he was there when my heart was demolished by my first love. I don't remember a lot, but I think I remember the important things. He was a part of so many firsts for me, some that may not have been the best ideas at the time but they are all part of my childhood that make me the woman I am today. We went our separate ways, and I was very much to blame for everything that happened between us. As I sit and type this I can't help but think of my kids, who they are going to be friends with, what my mom was thinking during all this.
My random thoughts on Robby.
He had beautiful eyes, but his hugs were the best.
He taught me how to drive, in his moms mini-van.
He tackled me all the time! In many random places... Parking lots usually.
We wrote letters to each other during school... I may even still have some in a box somewhere.
He bought me a cat that we named Tyler--the devils cat :-)
We laughed... a lot. to the point of tears, many times.
He used to come over in the morning and make me breakfast.
He drove everyone, everywhere...
He introduced me to GOOD music!!! I think this is one of the very best things that came out of our friendship. I'll never forget getting lost trying to get to someones house, and we just drove around and around listening to Weezer, on tape.
The many many clambakes... ;-)

I am so sorry that you were taken way too soon from your family. I heard you were just married. My heart goes out to your family and (in no doubt) your beautiful wife. RIP Robby, I will forever remember you as you were one of those that helped make me a better person. I can only imagine how many lives you touched.
Robby and I after our first double date... I always wondered why my mom kept all these pictures... I guess now I know.

As for the 3rd death.. I'd like to think it was my pump, wishful thinking I'm sure.

Labor day and a hard goodbye.

2009-09-10T10:15:00.000-07:00

Labor Day weekend. Friday Nate went to work and I decided to let the kids play with markers and color. Here are a couple pictures. Jake did awesome and really seemed to enjoy it. Aly on the other hand preferred to eat and SUCK on the marker rather then draw with it. Thus the pretty markings on her face.

That afternoon I guess I had left a marker in their playroom and I found them drawing on themselves. Here are the beautiful markings :-)

Saturday we went shopping... really not very exciting. Sunday however was a BLAST! I had my Aunt Linda, cousin Joey, and the Jacoby family--Cousins Megan, Ron, and Kaylin (3y) and Roan (16.5 months). The weather was beautiful, and the kids were all great!! Nate bbq'd some wonderful food and we just sat around eating and playing outside.
The kids love the trampoline and Aly is always the first one on! The girl can go forever!

She also has some great balance, it's pretty funny cause the boys (Roan and Jake) joined her and Kaylin and could not keep standing. They had such a hard time, the girls were just way too busy for them.

The bigger boys played catch and frisbee and it was a lot of fun to watch. We had the all too familiar ball stuck in the tree and got another ball stuck (trying to get the other down) and a pogo stick broken because Nate kept tossing it in the tree to get out the two balls. Finally Ron saved the day by climbing the tree and getting the original ball.

I also have to add some pictures of Aly with her tomato. Roan, Jake and Aly all had them but boy did she like hers!

Ethan just hung out in his little excersaucer and was so very sweet. He also took a nice long nap during the day so that was very helpful! It's so nice being able to hangout and not have to hold a baby the whole time.

Nate and I have discussed numerous times moving out of state and days like Sunday remind me why I want to stay here. I am so very blessed to have the family that I do. We may not be big in numbers but we sure are big in love and support, oh and a bunch of really precious BABIES!!!!

The second half of this blog is not easy to write and if there are any men reading this it might be hard to read :-)
My breast pump died. Let me rewind a little bit. I decided when I found out I was pregnant with the twins that I would exclusively pump. So having Nate as a husband I went out and did ALL of my research. I wanted the 300$ pump... but having Nate as that husband of mine, I chose the 150$ one... I pumped for the twins until they were 5.5 months old and I had to stop because I was pregnant with Ethan and my milk just dried up. So I of course knew I would pump with Ethan and have done so for 6.5 months. It died the other day and Nate went out and bought a manual pump which just does not even come close to working as well as my Medela Swing pump. I am so very torn by this whole thing. It's no secret that I've seriously gotten abusive with my pump and have a very strong LOVE/HATE relationship with it. But when it died, I cried. I get teary just thinking about it. At 6 months I did cut down a pumping session so I was only pumping 3x a day and that helped me so much! I think I'm just mad because I didn't get to choose when to stop, my pump chose for me. Which may have also been a blessing because every time I wanted to quit I had a huge wave of guilt rush over me. Now I know that I shouldn't have any guilt, hell all Jon got after 5 weeks was formula. And so did the twins, I can't explain it. So every time I pump I see less and less milk... It won't be long before I stop all together. I do have a LOT of milk in the freezer and am hoping that can last another month but at some point it will end. My sweet husband even offered to run out and buy me another 150$ pump but I of course hugged him tight and said I'd be okay. I can't believe that this is so tough for me. I hate this pump... well maybe not as much as I thought I did.
Let me also add that I'm so incredibly proud of myself for going this long... For the first 3 months I pumped every 3 hours around the clock!! That's 4 hours of pumping a day... I then went to pumping 4-5 times a day until 6 months. Pumping has been such a huge part of days... finding the time, the place, making bottles, freezing milk, timing the pump for when we had plans or I had to be out for more then 3-4 hours. Things got very tricky. I also had a horrible Lactation Consultant at Marshal Hospital that looked very poorly on pumping. She gave me such a hard time when I had the twins and when I had Ethan and saw her again she didn't even offer me the pumping stuff. Pumping is JUST as good as breastfeeding and NOBODY can convince me otherwise! But it was all worth it and I did it!! I could not have gotten this far without the wonderful support of Nathan. Every morning he gets up with the kids and changes diapers because I'm pumping.
So long, my yellow pump...

Tales of Jon

2009-09-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

Jon is just funny. I have no idea what he's going to be when he grows up (if he ever grows up) but it has to be something good.
His imagination is so unique and very cool. I wish he liked writing because he would make a great storyteller! I'm not sure if I've already done this but these are the names he's come up with for us.
Nathan: pops, Mr. Oaks
Me: Marge
Aly: miss tufsy (when she was an infant), Little pickle
Jake: Jakie the snaky, Jakester
twins: bears, this is what he's always called the babies. He'll often say "where are the bears"...
He also has names for the animals but I can't think of what they are right now.
A funny that happened a couple days ago.
Let me set the scene a bit... Most of my days are now FULL of playing with either two crazy, teething toddlers or trying to keep Ethan happy. So when Jon got home from school the other day, I was exhausted! I was also on my last nerve and really needed some computer time. I had helped Jon finish his homework and he asked if he could watch tv (which happens to be right next to my computer) I said yes I didn't care... So I'm sitting at the computer eating apple slices (the first thing I'd eaten all day long) and Jon starts saying mom. There was about 5 second pause in between each "mom".... Well and technically he didn't start off saying "mom"... He calls me Marge sometimes and he started with that, "Marge, Marge, Marge, Marge, Marge" Then moved on to "Mo" , don't forget about the 5 second pause in between. "mo, mo, mo, mo, mo, mo" Then it went into "mom" "mom, mom, mom, mom, mom, mommmm, mommmm, mommmm, mooooooom, moooooom.." I finally turn around and say "WHAT??!!" Yes it was a bit of a scream and he responds with a bit of a scare because this whole time he's watching tv and so I startle HIM! He then says "never mind", what? So I tell him he better tell me what he wanted to tell me or else he was going to be in trouble and he says "hi"... Yes that's what he wanted to tell me, "HI"... I thought to myself, only Jon. But THEN!! I was watching tv with Nate this weekend and a commercial came on for Family Guy ( I do not watch this show, however the boys do) and it's that little baby Stewie doing the same damn thing to his mom, her ignoring him and then him saying "hi" when she finally answers him. OMG, I'm living that life. So I'm sitting next to Nate laughing hysterically, not sure if it's because Jon copied this off of the show (which he swears he didn't, but we'll never know) or because I ignored him for so long that he had the chance to do it. Either way I got a great laugh out of it and had a heck of a time explaining it to Nate.
Jon's doing really well in school. I love that he's happy and that we both just love his teacher. I also love that Jon can be himself with her and the class. I remember 2nd grade and he never did open up. His teacher said that he was shy around her and that he was very secretive... yeah he was scare of her, heck so was I! I saw her on Back to school night, and I had just walked out of his new class and walked right by her. I think she wanted to say something to me but I just did a quick smile and kept walking... I honestly have nothing nice to say about her, nothing.
So while we're on the topic of Jon I want to just share a story that most of you may have heard but I just love it and want to make sure it gets into my blog somehow :-)
It was towards the end of 1st grade and it started on a Sunday night. Jon was told to take a shower and then he had to go to bed. So he came in to give me a kiss after his shower and his hair was spiked (odd for Jon) and I said, what are you doing with your hair, and he said that he liked it that way... uh okay. The next morning was Nate's morning, so I had made him a bowl of cereal and set it on the table and put his clothes next to it. Nate did the rest while I hopped in the shower, by the time I got out they were already on their way to the bus. Fast forward to that afternoon when I went to pick Jon up from the bus. He stepped off the bus and I immediately saw it. There was a patch of hair missing. It was very straight and looked like it had been cut, it was about an inch long of bangs missing. This is how the conversation went:
Me: What happened to your hair?
Jon: huh?
Me: what happened to your hair?? (as I'm running my fingers through it)
Jon: oh it got caught in the water faucet at school and the yard duty cut it off.
Me: how did it get stuck in the water faucet? Where in the faucet? Why did she have to cut it off when it's only like an inch long anyways???
Jon: It got stuck in the drain part while I was drinking. ( he then shows me how it happened)
Me: So the yard duty had scissors in her pocket and just cut it off?
Jon: yeah
Me: Do you have a note or anything saying what happened?
Jon: nope
Me: why not? Did they try to get it out? I still don't understand how it got stuck?!
Jon: Mom it just got stuck and she cut it out.
At this point I'm totally dumbfounded... So I call Nate and run it by him. He's asking all the same questions as I'm asking and I still don't quite get it. Why would they not have told me, why would they have cut it, how in the world would it have gotten stuck.
So I then sit down at the table and start writing out a note to his teacher to ask what happened. Jon comes in and says.
Jon: what are you doing?
Me: writing a note to Mrs Kraft to find out what happened and why I didn't get notified.
Jon: Mom, I have something to tell you. (serious as can be!)
Me: what?
Jon: well it didn't happen at school.
And then the light bulb goes off! And I say
Me: it happened last night huh?
Jon: yep
So it turned out Jon had only spiked his hair to hide the fact that he cut it! I couldn't help but laugh, poor Jon thought he was in trouble. Which he ended up being grounded for a couple days for lying, not for cutting his hair. It amazed me that he could so easily tell this story and he was so good at it. I knew at that point that I was in some serious trouble. I have caught him in some big stories, but this was the last time that I really fell for it. I'm now much more aware of his abilities!
As I sat and typed that the only thing I could think of was how much Jon has grown up and how I'm so thankful that I have him to help ease the blow of all the troubles the twins will bring. Good Lord I can only imagine the trouble those two can get into.

Restaurant Reviews, a wonderful visit and E.

2009-08-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

A few weekends back Nathan's parents came to visit with a couple of Nate's Aunts. His Aunt Tina and Aunt Laurie, it was a wonderful visit!!! I am so glad that they were able to come to us, it gave us more time to visit. They brought wonderful gifts that all the kids loved! Thank you so much for your visit and we can't wait to meet up again soon!

A couple months ago Nate and I started having "date nights". Well we've been switching off who picks the restaurant and what we do. So I've decided to kind of do a restaurant review blog each time we go out.

I think the first pick was Nate's. It was a Mexican Restaurant named Eva's, in downtown Roseville. We read the reviews and it sounded good. The best part of all of our endeavors on date night is that we're able to go basically anywhere we want because we're not dragging along 4 kids, 3 of which need a highchair. So it was this little place that looked just like the authentic Mexican restaurants back in San Jose that I miss so much. However it was dead! There was one other couple when we walked in but by the time we were leaving there was maybe 4 other couples. It didn't start out good, the chips were really stale... I don't know about you but when you go to an Italian rest. you expect great bread sticks, with Mexican you expect great chips... Not a good start. It did get better though, they had this "sauce" that was in a little squeeze container and was DELICIOUS!!! One of the reviews on Yelp said that they could just squeeze it into their mouths, I actually totally agreed, super yum! Nate loved it too! So we did get another batch of chips and they were better but still just okay. I order the fajitas, which is no surprise for anyone that knows me. They were VERY good! The best I've ever had a restaurant. They were very much like my mom's, I was extremely impressed. I honestly can't remember what Nate had but it was no where near as good as mine. The other thing was the beans, they were obviously made there and SUPER good! They prices were good and we would definitely recommend it. Eva's Mexican Restaurant

The next place we went to was my pick and it waa place my cleaning lady had told me about. It was a steakhouse in Elk Grove. Yes it was a bit of a drive but well worth it! There was a wait but we spent that time at the bar. Apparently they are known for their very large Margarita's but I don't drink tequila so I asked what was good. I got this cactus drink thing and boy was it strong! So like the Mexican restaurant what they give you for "free" in the beginning is a big thing in my book. Well they first gave us a bag of peanuts, shells and all. You were told to throw the shells on the ground--oh yeah! It was a lot of fun and totally felt rebellious doing it. But then they gave us these HOT rolls, right out of the oven with this cinnamon butter... Oh. My. Gosh. the best!!!! I think I ate a whole basket at the bar! We then got seated and ordered the blooming onion thing, it was good and the batter on them was so much better then the Outback one! I ordered the NY steak for dinner and it was okay. I can't say it was the best but it was good. I expect a steakhouse to have GREAT steaks, so it just being okay didn't float my boat. We didn't get dessert but it sure was a fun experience. Texas Roadhouse

So last but not least :-) This last weekend we went out again. It was Nate's pick but we ended up going out to eat later then we had planned. The place we were originally going to go to, was referred to me by our photographer. However when we got there at a little after 8pm on Saturday, they were closed. Apparently they didn't have enough business and closed early, how sad. It was in a great area with a couple new restaurants around them so we were surprised to hear that. Anyways I had gotten the directions of the other place Nate had mentioned so we went there. Nate wanted authentic Italian, a mom and pops type place. The Taste of Tuscany was just that but also a pizza shop and I don't think that was what Nate wanted. When we walked in there was a group of people in the middle of the place and it turned out they were the family of the owners and just sitting around hanging out. I thought that was cool. Nothing free here so we ordered :-) I got a house salad and bread sticks and Nate got a pasta dish with sausage and tomatoes. It was all very good!! The waitress was AWESOME and very very nice! The bread sticks were to die for!! The best I've had. So good that the next morning Jon saw them had a bite and FLIPPED out! "where did you go" he yelled over and over again.. haha. They were very yummy and super cheesy. I would definitely go back! Oh they were out of Diet Pepsi so I do have to ding them for that... oh well :-) Taste of Tuscany

So there you have it.. I'll bet you can't wait for our next date night, I know I can't! I just can't thank our sitter Summer enough. She has been such a blessing to us, and really allowed us these precious nights. I know my kids are in very loving capable hands.

Ethan is now 6 months old!! Here are a couple of pictures I took of him this last week.

A little bit of peace...

2009-08-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure I would be able to blog today but I was just reading another blog about a precious little girl named Sadie http://www.sadiehuish.blogspot.com/ . As I sit here wiping my tears I think of mom. Reading a blog from a mom that has lost a little girl to brain cancer, made me realize why my mom had to go. Heaven had to greet these precious angels and who better to be there but my mom. That's her true calling. Her smile and her laugh with the best hugs around to welcome these beautiful babies. She must be busy and so incredibly happy.
My Aunt Linda was over the other day and was holding Ethan and said how much mom would have just LOVED him! We know that she would have loved all the kids (and of course does from afar) but there something a bit special about Ethan. I totally agreed! I'm not sure exactly what it is, but he would have just stolen her heart. He makes me think of her more then any of the others and so many times I look at him and think, god she would just kiss and hug the stuffing out of you! Maybe it's the red hair, who knows :-)

Mom's been on my mind a lot lately, never a bad thing but it can make for an emotional week! I just miss her terribly, not sure that will ever go away. I kind of hope it doesn't go away, it helps keep her close. I'm going through all this eye stuff with Ethan and I so desperately wish she was here to tell me how I was, and that he'll be okay and that I will too. If I can be half the mom she was then I know I'll be fine, but it just kills me to think that she's not here. So many years later and I still think I'm in denial about her being gone. But I've come so far. I can remember when she first passed and how hard it was just to breath. I screamed and cried and yelled at her for leaving. I cried myself to sleep every night for months. The pain that I felt was so deep and so real. It truly felt like I had a huge ball in my stomach trying to get out. I don't know how I functioned, I know the only reason I did was Jon. I would have had no other reason to get out of bed every morning if it hadn't been for him. I know that the loss of a mother is NOTHING like the loss of a child and my heart goes out to all those moms that have lost a child. My heart just aches for her, but I know she's greeting those kids and babies with open arms, a huge smile and a laugh I can still hear when I close my eyes. That gives my heart just a little more peace.

A 4th grader and a new tooth....

2009-08-12T18:01:00.000-07:00

This is how Jake eats his puffs :-)

Yesterday Jake had his hearing test, he passed with flying colors! My friend Barb watched all the other kids and it was so very strange to only have one kid with us. The rides in the car were so quiet and pushing a single stroller is just odd. I think Jake enjoyed his alone time.. he kept running up and down the hall at the doctors waving his arms and just smiling away. Barb said Aly was extremely cuddly and enjoyed her alone time as well. It's so strange, I don't think they've been away from each other for 3 hours before.

Jon on his first day of 4th grade.

Jonathan started school today. 4th grade. wow. He has the same teacher and all the same kids except for a couple more. It's even the same room! I happen to love that it happened this way and absolutely adore his teacher. I don't look forward to building a mission this year but that's why I have creative family I guess.

Nate taking Jon to the bus stop.

Ethan has his 2nd eye appointment with the pediatric Opthamologist on Friday. Not expecting much, it's just a check-up. I'm hoping he'll be in a good mood at least. We'll have the twins with us and that of course will make it an adventure!

The kids are loving playing outside and enjoying all the toys. Aly has mastered the slide! She can climb up it and slide down all by herself. Jake loves the sandbox but even more the sprinkler. The kid can not go outside without getting soaking wet. They both have a ton of new words and are so much fun to be around. Aly started signing ball ( I had to look up the sign) and now says "ba ba baaaa" at the top of her lungs when ever she sees Jon's soccer ball. It's awfully cute! Jake said no the other night, which was adorable... but am pretty confident it will lose it's luster. Aly has a new word that I could really do without.. spider. yep, spider. We do the Itsy bitsy spider song all the time and the only word she's pulled from it is "spider". She'll put her hands up to make the signs for the song and say spiiii eeeerrrr. They also LOVE the "wheels on the bus" song and all the movements that go with it.

Ethan is growing and growing and is just the loviest boy. He has the best smile! He's rolling like crazy and starting to enjoy the tummy time a bit more, which is nice. He's enjoying the jumper thingy.

Our lab Tim with his very favorite toy.

Ethan at 5.5 months

Jon's loving soccer. I haven't been to a practice yet since I've been the one watching all the other kids. Oh well. Nathan really wants me to go, but yet when I tell him all that needs to be done with the kids while I'm gone, he gracefully offers to take Jon. Once it cools down a bit we'll take the little ones too but for now it's just way too hot to chase two crazy toddlers from one end of the soccer field to the other, because we all know they won't run in the same direction.

So little miss Aly has another tooth! She has her two top teeth (which came in first) and her two bottom teeth and I've been waiting for the little ones that go on the sides of those, I think they're called incisors... and nothing. However I was checking Jake for new teeth.. He has 6 on top and just got his 6th tooth on the bottom, and Aly wanted me to check hers. So I reached in and sure enough on the top right a molar is coming in. what?! That explains her mood lately but geesh I guess I can't just guess where she's going to get a tooth I have to go searching.

Have a great week everyone!

Aly in her first pair of flip flops!

--> Aly with Makenzie who put together her outfit!

More cheese and soccer!

2009-08-05T16:05:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! Things start getting crazy busy.
Yesterday the twins had their 18 month check-up. I had planned on having my cousin Meg watch Ethan and Jon while Nate and I took the twins, but I overslept and didn't have the time. So we took all of them to the doctors. It was a zoo!
Both of them are looking great and we didn't have any referrals this time, yippee!! Aly was weighed first and weighs 20lbs 1oz. Jacob is 22lbs 7oz and he's an inch taller. They both were at the 50% level at 12 months and have dropped. Jake is now in the 25th % and Aly is just barely in the 7th %. So needless to say we have to work on putting some weight on them. High calorie meals are on the menu.
Why is it when I need to lose weight they need to gain it?! Luckily I'm not a fan of cheese and that's what I'm hoping to beef them up with!
They did great and each got 4 shots and Jake had his finger poked. I'm glad it's over. We normally wouldn't go back for another 6 months but we have to go back in 2 months for a weight check.
Boy were they fussy last night! But our life saver was our new sitter named Summer. I could have just about kissed her! She called to offer babysitting this week since her son is at camp and I took her up on it. I warned her the kids were miserable but I had my yearly "girl" exam with my gyn, and really didn't want to drag all the monkey's with me! So she stayed here with them and Nate and I went. It was so nice not to have to bring anything in with me, and just sit.
I know I'm going to ramble a little, so feel free to just scroll down but I ADORE my obgyn!!! He is by far, hands down, the best doctor I have ever had. Not only did he get me through a twin pregnancy... with no bed-rest, no pre-term labor, and to my scheduled 37.5 week c-section. But he also has gotten me through so many struggles- not being able to get pregnant to getting pregnant 4 months after the twins were born, to issues with my incision and to letting me out of the hospital early after my last c-section so I could go home and be with my kids. He just understands me and made me feel so normal when I saw him yesterday. I just adore him and can not put in words how much I respect him and trust him. He also deals with Nate so well! He's the doctor that told us that Nate had super-sperm... yep, thanks for that (roll-eyes)... I also want to say that his nurse, who has been his nurse ever since I've seen him and the only nurse that I've ever had greet me, is AWESOME! She knows my kids names and even what grade Jon is in. I just love them.
So back on track to the crazy life. Today a Vision Specialist/Therapist was here to work with Ethan and she was one of those people that I have so much to learn from. She has a wealth of knowledge and would love to have someone like that as a mentor if I ever went into that field... She gave me a couple of techniques to use to help him adjust and work on his perception of things. Ethan is doing so very well.
Friday I finally am getting my teeth cleaned after having all my icky dental work done. Jon also has a dentist appointment a couple hours after me. Next week Jake has his hearing test on Tuesday and Ethan has his eye appointment on Thursday... Oh did I forget about Jon :-) He starts school next Wednesday!!! My 4th grader.
Jon has also started SOCCER!!! He has practice's every Tuesday and Thursday and his first game is Sept 12th. I'll send out the schedule for the other games when we get them.
No pictures this time... I promise to have a couple more soon!

Ethan is rolling!

2009-07-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

I wasn't sure I was going to blog this week but ended up going through some pictures and thought I would share. Last Friday we dropped Jon off at the train station with Grandma and Grandpa P. so they all could take the train back to Reno. According to Jon it was a lot of fun and his favorite part was the pizza for lunch. I'm sure it was beautiful! He seemed to have a great visit. Yesterday my mom's best friend Jonnie came for a visit. It was nice having an extra set of hands. I can't believe how long this week feels. Nate was gone all day Sunday picking up Jon and then he worked Mon, Wed and today. I'm looking forward to him being home tomorrow! The kids are doing great! I think Jake is working on his bottom molars coming in and Ethan is rolling over! We found him asleep on his side this morning and it's just too cute! Jon is not looking forward to school starting in 2 weeks but I am! We also got his scores back for the Star Testing and he did great in Math and okay in English and pretty good in reading. He's reading at a 5th grade level, which isn't bad since he's going into 4th grade. OMG 4th grade?? Where did the time go??? How in the world do I have a 4th grader. So we're getting some yummy food out of Nate's garden finally. The tomatoes are awesome!! He grew 3 different kinds but I couldn't tell you which! He also has corn this year which is new. The first couple he picked weren't quite ready but they had a great flavor! We're also getting jalapenos and Serrano peppers, I'm sure he'll make some sort of hot sauce again this year. Jon and I are both waiting for the watermelons, we're hoping one will be done this weekend! A couple other things that are growing are, pumpkins (for Halloween), Cantaloupe, Zucchini (which has been GREAT! And Jon won't stop eating it raw), tomatillo's, and a bunch of herbs, cilantro being my favorite. He didn't plant onions this year, which I am not happy about! We also have blackberries growing wild on our property and the kids LOVE them! I swear Aly is going to turn into a blackberry! Thank goodness she hasn't figured out where they are or else we'd have a heck of a time keeping her out of those bushes! So the other day Nate brought in our first round of tomatoes... He brought them in on a plate and walked past the twins who were eating dinner in their highchairs. They went CRAZY wanting those things on the plate... I figured they must have thought they were apples (they LOVE apples!) so I decided to give them each a tomato :-) Aly seemed to enjoy it but Jake didn't much like it and preferred to stick his fingers in it and pull out the inside. It was a lot of fun to watch! I also have a video of the twins taken last month when they were playing in the tub. It's awfully cute! Jake was attempting to float... It's taken with my camera so please excuse the bad quality.

18 month old twins and 9 years of marriage.

2009-07-22T13:09:00.000-07:00

Nathan and I, in the very beginning.

July 22nd, 2000 Nathan and I were married. Nothing even close to big, hardly any plans were made. I had thought about wearing a beautiful white dress... nope. Jon was less then 2 months old and shopping for a dress was not fun. As I was out with my mom her best friend Jonnie and her daughter Sarah I made the executive decision that we were all wearing jeans. So instead of trying on wedding dresses and tux's, I bought jeans. As I look back I would have not changed anything!! I love the fact that we all wore jeans.. well except for Mason, I wasn't strong enough to say no to khaki's... I guess that, I would have changed. It was my wedding, I think I should have been able to choose what he wore... oh well. I should have Nate wear jeans to his wedding this next year :-) okay TOTALLY kidding, but I have to laugh!!
9 years later and amazingly strong. Those first couple years were SO incredibly hard... We just barely made it. But we did. We learned so much, how to argue, how to be friends, how to be parents, how to be the only one that matters to the other. Nathan is my very best friend, I couldn't imagine not being married to that person. He knows me in and out and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he loves me. He loves all of me. He's seen me at my absolute worst, when no one should ever see me. I can also say the same for him. I love him with all of me, even on those days when he drives me crazy and all I want to do is throw things at him, I can still say "I love you".
I love our time now.. Our date nights, our long nights--fussy/sick babies or even a flood :-)... I can't wait till we can travel... I can't imagine traveling with anyone else. I can't imagine my life without him.
We are such a team. My weakness's are his strengths and vice versa. Our kids are amazing because of our work. Our dedication and our love for our family is what makes our world turn.
I know so many people that have married after us and been divorced... It's so sad and I have no answer to "how do you make it work"... Marriage is hard.
So next year is the big TEN!! We're going to have a massively large blow-out party. We'll have a huge invitation list and hope that everyone can celebrate our love with us.
We have a babysitter Saturday night and will probably do dinner. Not sure what else. It doesn't seem to matter what else we do, it's so nice just to hang out with my best friend. Just driving around like teenagers again.
Nathan and I taken a couple months ago...

Yesterday the twins turned 18 months. SERIOUSLY 18 months???
Jacob-- better known to all of us as Jake, or Jakey.
What a funny kid he is! Routine is definitely his best friend. He's my cuddler, my sensitive boy. He loves his back scratched and head rubbed. He's so stinken ticklish and has the best laugh ever! Jake always has something in his hands, always. He gets possessive about things and will NOT let them go unless something better is up for grabs. For instance, he's gone to bed the last 2 nights with a cup and spoon... why? Because that's what he wants. Neither Nate or I have dared take it away from him... He loves food, but every day is different. I think his favorite is meat... Or those cheese puff things from Gerber. He also loves raisins. His vocab... Uh (pause) ohhhh, dada, hi, hi don (jon), ma (more), beh (bye), ap (apple). He knows the signs for eat and more and uses them often :-) He loves to push things, pull things and take things apart. He loves to put things in boxes or cups. He's also a great helper! He helps put his toys away, and Aly's too, even if she's in the middle of playing :-) He loves his sister, but still doesn't "play" with her. He wants to do what she's doing. He is such a cool kid. He can sit with one toy for a very long time and just play.

Alyssa -- also known as Aly, little pickle, Al mals.
Sweet Aly is just a flippen doll! She's tough as nails! The girl can take a huge tumble and walk away with a smile. She has absolutely NO FEAR... She'll take on any slide, any toy, any set of stairs. She also LOVES water. The girl can not stay away from it! She's been known to just stand in the sprinkler. She's so little but so extremely flexible. She's escaped her crib a couple times, by lifting her leg (over her head) to get out. She LOVES to be thrown around, and flipped. She loves to climb on everything... I came into the living room the other day and she was on my computer next to my desk trying to climb up... She also loves to stand on the coffee table... She is a RUNNER! The girl can run MILES around Jake. Aly is way too smart :-) She has a huge vocab... gabba gabba is her newest word (thanks Yo Gabba Gabba!) She also says dada, momma, apple, up, eat, jakey, jon, bite, night night (with no t at the end), eek eek (kitty)... She also LOVES to read. I can't sit in the playroom without her bringing me books to read. She points out the mice, nose's, ears, eyes, mouths, apples, birds, trees, and dogs in all the books. She's a big screamer... She has this really high pitched scream when she gets excited, it's too cute. She loves to eat as well and is pretty easy. She'll eat almost anything. Her favorite has to be mandarin oranges. She could eat her weight in those! She loves her brother.. When he cries she'll walk over and pat him on the head and say "it's okay Jakey"... She pats Ethan on the tummy and does the same. They both are really into giving Ethan his bottle and it's cute till they try to stick it in his nose or his eyes... She still has her paci and it still has no name. She can't sleep without it.
My how time flies... I love this age, I'll miss it when it's gone.

Aly and Jake sleeping in the same exact position-- taken about 3 days ago... Can we say twins??!!

Ethan, Ethan, Ethan....

2009-07-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

Boy oh boy is Ethan a big boy!!! Ethan is also a very healthy baby which is what matters most. He had his 4 month well baby visit last Friday. At 4.5 months he weights in at 17.10lbs, and he's 26in. Just to compare a bit, Aly is exactly 19lbs at 17.5 months old.

Ethan cracks me up! He has the best smile and is in that stage where EVERYTHING goes in his mouth! He's drinking a ton but we haven't started solid foods yet. I'm kind of scared to :-) Just this morning I was out of clothes for Ethan (I know a big shock considering how many clothes we have) so I grabbed a onesie of Jake's and it fits... Yep Ethan is in size 12 month clothes. He had a big first on Monday, he rolled over from his belly to his back! He's really working on rolling from his back to his front but his pesky arm gets in the way. He's also reaching for things and loves to play with his feet.

A thought popped in my head a couple days ago that I would need to have the baptism ASAP in order for Ethan to wear the same outfit... Yeah well that didn't really work and I should have known better. So we'll wait till September. Uncle Mason is going to be the God-Father and this time around Barbara is going to be the God-Mother. She already has a very special bond with Little E and I know she'll enjoy her role!

As for all the other children-- Jake and Aly started swim lessons last Saturday! Boy was that a lot of work! And I can say that it wasn't just because I had twins. It's a parent participation class so Barb came with so she could help out. She made it very clear that I would get whichever was fussier :-) duh! It's an indoor pool and heated, it felt like a sauna but the kids loved it. They both had no issues with getting into the water and I think Aly enjoyed it but Jake wanted to walk around the pool and play with the stuff on the outside of the pool. They both did GREAT though! Aly was extremely relaxed and preferred just floating around. Jake did have to stay busy but it helped that there were a lot of other kids around. We're looking forward to next week.

We did get some great news last week... Mason and Marcela are engaged! The ring is beautiful and Nathan was asked to be the Best Man, what an honor!

We're also getting our Disneyland plans in order. I'm SOOOO excited! November can not come soon enough.

4th of July and upcoming events!!

2009-07-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

My mom loved fireworks, loved the 4th of July. When I was growing up we always went and saw fireworks. We would go see the ones in Morgan Hill till those closed down and then started going to the ones in Gilroy. We always got there early and ate dinner and just goofed around. I've discovered that this is another time of year that I really miss her. We have no set plans for 4th and since she died we have nothing that we really enjoy doing.

Of course last year the twins were really little and the year before that I was pregnant and sick and this year Ethan is still little and their bedtime is 7p. However someone told me about the Rancho Cordova 4th of July festival. It starts at like 10am and runs till about 4pm. I thought that would be perfect! We ended up getting a late start and decided to head out after first nap, around noon. We got there around 1pm and it was warming up but there was a nice breeze. Our van was packed! We couldn't figure out if we were going to take 2 double strollers, 1 double and 1 single, or 1 double and the new wagon. Well we got there and decided that we would try the wagon. The twins have their own little seats in it and buckles. They seemed to enjoy it!!

The Festival was very nice, it was held at Hagon Park right next to the American River so there were a TON of people that were camped out and bbq'ing. They had some cute vendors and some cute kids things. Jon raced some go-carts and won! Nate was so proud!!

We then took a nice walk by the river. It was a great time! We came home to bbq. We had tri-tip marinating in the "mojo" and we added some baked potatoes and asparagus to that and had a great dinner. Fireworks were at about 10pm. Jon and Nate sat up on the roof where they could get a pretty good view and I hung out on the ladder. I will not get up on the roof!

It was nice but boy do I look forward to when we have something that we do every year.

As I've said before both Jacob and Ethan are in Early Intervention. It's called Pride and Joy here and it's basically a state run program that helps infants/children with delays. We took Jake last week to get a full assessment on him and he is at 17-18 months with his fine and gross motor skills. Which is perfect considering that's exactly how old he is. Which tells me that Aly is WAY ahead!!! However Jake is only talking at a 9month level. So he's at least 50% behind and that means he qualifies for their services. I do think that he's a bit farther ahead then that but I knew he was behind. I figure the more help he can get now the better. We don't know what his plan will be, I'm hoping to go and fill out all the paperwork and his 6 month goal sheet next week.

The twins start swimming lesson's Saturday!! I'm SOOO excited! It's a parent participation class so my bf Barbara is coming to help, while Nate stays home with Ethan and Jon. As much as my kids LOVE water I'm hoping this will be a lot of fun! We had wanted Jon to take classes, even though Jon really doesn't want to, but the times are really bad. Plus with soccer starting next month we just can't really plan anything yet.

Ethan has his 4 month check up on Friday and I can't wait to see how much he weighs! He's already in 9 month size clothes... He's such a big boy!

Speaking of clothes, I'm going CRAZY!!!!!!!!! Like I said Ethan who is only 4.5 months old is moving his way into 9 month size clothes, I've hardly gotten out all the 6 month clothes!! Not to mention the 9 month clothes I have are winter clothes since they are mostly Jakes. Then theirs Jakes.. He's in TWO sizes! He wears 18 months for shirts, pj's and one piece outfits. However for shorts he's in 12 months. He waist is 12 months so his pants have to either be a LONG 12 month or 18 month with an adjustable waist. And lets not forget about Aly. This girl was in a size 12 month, I swear! But not anymore. We've had to down-size! I had to go back out to the shed and pull out a bin of 9 month clothes because her 12 month clothes are just hanging on her. None of the pants fit. I know this is because of all the running around they are doing but geesh can't they at least stick to ONE size??

I would love to just throw everything away and start over :-) Oh yeah Nate would LOOOVEE that! haha. I used to love going through their clothes but these days it's just a bit much. I did run across some of Aly's preemie clothes and boy are those adorable! I can't believe she was that tiny.

Have a great week!

Camaro and spaghetti

2009-07-01T09:21:00.000-07:00

I'll start with the Camaro. Nate and I bought the Camaro back in 2001. I thought my mom was going to have a stroke when we came home with that car! Jon was a year old and I'm sure she thought we would be coming home with some sort of family car. Well the Camaro was our family car for almost 3 years.

Some of my best memories are driving up and down the coast with the top down at night. What a beautiful ride.

Now don't get me wrong, on many occasions I have sworn that car was going to be sold! Usually when Nate brings home the speeding tickets.. yes there have been many. But could we ever really part with this car, probably not. Nate talks about giving it to Jon someday.. we'll see :-)

So anyways I haven't taken a ride in the Camaro in awhile and last Saturday night I got my chance. Nathan and I had a date night! We hired a babysitter who actually is a nanny for a couple families that have multiples. Her name is Summer and she is wonderful! She came over and watched all 4 of the kids. She fed them dinner, put them to bed and even played a couple games of battleship with Jon. It was so nice to be able to get out and not feel bad for putting someone out. Nate and I went to eat and then did some shopping. It was so nice to be able to jump out of the car and run in and run right back out. I do think we even ran at one point! It's amazing how fast you can do things without kids in tow. Nathan got a new watch--which was his late Father's Day present, and it looks very nice!

So back to the Camaro... It was finally cool enough to put the top down after dinner and we just drove around for awhile. We ended up going through Cameron Park and they had Fireworks going off!! It was SOOO cool!

I had forgotten the unspeakable pact that Camaro drivers have with each other. The "nod" or the "wave" they give each other. It cracks me up! It's like if you drive a Camaro you're in the "cool club"... We did have to drive around a Camaro that was going too slow and I said "ooh bad Camaro driver" Nate just looked at me and said "No, it's not an SS, they can't help it"... haha As if I knew that the SS was so much better.

It was a great night! And we've promised each other that we will do this at LEAST once a month! We're thinking that we may even add another night a month when we just do something with Jon.

Friday was Nate's Birthday and he scheduled himself a dentist appointment, strange boy! So after his dentist appointment he came home and decided to wash and wax the Camaro for our date Saturday. Here are a couple pics of that! Jake felt it was his job to mop the grass and the driveway. Aly just wanted to be where ever daddy was or water was.

I kid you not Jake carried this mop around for at least 1.5 hours.

Jake and his mop...
Must help daddy!!

Spaghetti night is always fun at the Poehlmans but this night was exceptionally messy. They seemed to enjoy it!

Ethan watching all the fun!

Father's Day

2009-06-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

Father's Day was always something that I didn't understand growing up. My father was never a "dad" and surely not worth celebrating. When I was younger I used to get irritated at my friends that couldn't play on Father's Day... I was never around a man that was a good father. I loved both of my grandpa's but neither was a prize winning dad. I truly never knew what a good dad was until I had Jon, and Nathan became a dad. Wow... I know I'm biased but Nathan is THE BEST dad I have ever known.
I watch him with Ethan and see how easily it comes to him... well that's now, that surely wasn't the case 9 years ago :-) Boy was he nervous with Jon! I have a picture (some may know of this picture) and it's one of my very favorites. It's a picture that my mom took of Nathan right before he went into the delivery room when I was having my c-section with Jon. I guess he looked like a wreck and my mom told him to give a pose and he did a muscle man pose, in his smocks! The funny thing is that just minutes before that he and my mom were yelling at me to push Jon out! I was pushing and pushing and had been for at least an hour (was in labor for 24) and I finally looked at Nate as he held my hand and I told him I was going to die. He looked at my mom with a really serious face and said "is she really going to die?" my mom of course said no Nathan she is not going to die and then turned to me and said Brigette you're not going to die, now PUSH!
After a c-section the dad runs off with the nurse and baby/babies... I LOVE those pictures! He had no idea how he was going to hold both the twins at once, and he did so right away! He said that he had to be sitting though :-)

I am so proud of the father Nathan has become. Yes Nathan is a 10 year old in a 30 year old body most of the time, but it can be a great asset. He keeps us all laughing and running around. He's that guy that runs into garbage cans and knocks things down just to make us laugh, and it does.
Nate was a great dad for Jon's first 7 years but I really don't think that he realized what a little girl could do to shake that up. Alyssa left the hospital weighing 4.11lbs. And that little doll just melted into Nathan. She was the easier baby so for the first 2 weeks or so he mostly took care of her. She slept with him. Their bond is beyond what I ever thought a father/daughter bond was. Aly adores Nate and her smile shows it every time she sees him. When she needs someone to comfort her, Nathan is sometimes the only one that she'll go to. She has to have her shots first because she has to have daddy hold her, while I hold Jake. Nathan told me once he had a daughter his love for his kids changed. "There's something extra special about a girl".

Let me also add that of course Nathan isn't perfect and I do see the flaws... When I'm able to get out of the house for a couple hours I have to make sure I put all of the food the kids will eat out on the counter, or else they eat frozen pancakes all day long. I also have to change their clothes or they stay in their jammies all day long. I also have to pack up their shoes or else they are barefoot everywhere they go.
So Father's Day Nate wanted to shoot off his rocket. He got it for his birthday last year and built it probably 6 months ago and decided that Sunday was the big day. We didn't want the twins to go so him and Jon went. Here are the pictures.

It looks like they had a great time! They rocket made it safely home and I can't wait till the next time so we can all go.
As most know, Nathan is all about the food!!! So Saturday night we bbq'd lobster tails, shrimp ka-bob's and flounder. It was great! I also made him his favorite snacks on Father's Day, shrimp dip and cheese and salsa dip. Taco's are for dinner tonite which is also his favorite so he's a happy very full man!
I love you Nate!

Jacob's First Haircut!!!

2009-06-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

After all of the nagging I finally decided that it was time to cut Jake's hair. I found a place that looked really kid friendly and made an appointment for today. It went really well!

Jake chose to sit in the firetruck and LOVED pulling the bell. I think he was a bit awe struck at first but she immediately handed him this fake cell-phone that he literally just sat and held. He would get this serious face and then just go back to acting like he was driving! It was way too cute!!!

Jake's before picture

Little Aly was having a great time being destructive and trying to throw their toys in the garbage and then just throwing magazines on the floor. Good grief! The place we went too was really cool! It had a ton of stuff for the kids to do and for the kids that are too old to sit in the chairs they had regular chairs and tv with video games hooked up. If Nate wasn't so cheap, he'd get his hair cut there!! For Jake's first hair cut we got a nice little certificate and of course some of his hair for the baby book.

All in all Jake did GREAT!!! He fussed a little with the clippers but not even normal Jake fussing level...

When we took Jake out of the firetruck (after a little fit) he then went walking around and Aly was SOOO funny! She just kept following him around pointing at his head and saying hi Jakey! It was adorable!!

They got stickers and Jon got a lollipop, they all walked away happy. Well except Jake who didn't want to leave :-)

Jake trying to eat the hair gel :-)

Last week

2009-06-10T13:11:00.000-07:00

I am so glad that last week is over! I've been meaning to write this post for a couple days but my mind just wants to forget.

Dentist-Let me start by saying that I am a HUGE baby when it comes to pain. I had braces as a kid but up until a couple weeks ago never had a cavity. I guess it was my time. I have one really bad tooth, not sure if it will need a root canal but geez why is it that you go to the dentist with no pain and leave hurting. Is it REALLY necessary? Okay it is but still, OUCH! I was suffering all last week with pain from a temp crown they had put in. They redid it Friday (the cement work was sloppy) and am having pain again today.. UGH!

Thursday June 4th... It started early! We had to get Ethan to his eye doctor by 8:30am. It's a 40 minute drive and getting 4 kids ready for that is quite a task. We then forgot the double stroller so had to go back 10 minutes into the trip. We would have made it but then got lost, thanks mapquest. I tried to call but got the machine since they weren't opening till 9a (they were squeezing us in). We ended up only being about 10 minutes late, but I hate being late so I felt really bad!

We got right in and they immediately saw the Nystagmus (the moving of the eye). I love his doctor, I saw her a couple years ago. They then dialated his eyes and checked his optic nerve. Everything looked great... except it had no pigmentation. Ocular Albinism is the diagnosis. Same thing that I have. I was in the room with just E since Nate was with all the little ones but I was devastated. I knew it could happen but it was such a slap in the face. There is nothing worse then "mothers guilt", and boy do I have it. None of my other kids have it, thank god! We don't know what this means for E yet. It will take some time for us to see just how bad or good his vision is.

Ethan was great during the appointment and so were the twins and Jon for that matter! I ended up having to go straight home since my tooth was KILLING me!

Turns out I had some cement pressing into my gum and the only thing that helped was cold stuff. So I sent Nate to the store that afternoon to get me some ice-cream and the kids some juice. Well he left and not 5 minutes later I hear a HUGE gush of water. I actually thought it was the washing machine until Jon came running in and said he hit the hose thing. Sure enough, he ran his bike right into the water fixture and knocked off one of the spouts and it looked like a huge waterfall, going right into Nate's beautiful garden!! Did I mention I was taking vicoden and lots of it?! I found the main water thing and turned it off. There was still a nice stream of water coming out so I had Jon get a bucket to make sure no more water went into Nate's plants. I wish I could have taken a picture of Nate's face when he drove up and saw us standing out there. It took Nate 2 trips to the local plumbing place and 2 hours worth of work to fix it. Of course this had to be during the Lakers game--oops! He did fix it and at about 8pm my tooth stopped hurting. It was a LONG day!!

Saturday we met Nate's parents in Auburn (about an hour drive) for a late lunch. We met at a park and it was a lot of fun! The kids LOVE to explore, well at least Aly does. Jake tends to stick to one thing, this time it was Jon's scooter. The weather was beautiful! We then went to Chevy's to eat, it was GOOD! I miss having a Chevy's nearby! Ethan had a hard time but it was nice being able to take turns holding him.

Jon and I before Lion King

Sunday Jonathan and I went and saw Lion King with my best friend Barb and her 2 kids. It was AWESOME! The creativity that goes into it is amazing!

We then went to Jon's favorite restaurant for lunch, Islands. It was a LOT of fun!

Michael and Barb at lunch :-)

That was my week... phew! This week has not been so bad :-)

So we got our pictures back from the photographer! It was so much fun to do these and LOVE how they came out!! Take a look for yourself!!

http://www.poehlman.photoherald.com/ The password is brigette. It won't be viewable forever so get your sneak peek now!

Jonathan is 9 years old

2009-06-01T14:31:00.000-07:00

Jon at 1 day old (with my mom) and then at 4 months old.

WOW!!
I'm going to go back in time 9 years....

Talk about surprises! Jon was a huge one! I had no idea I was pregnant, so I went to the doctor and sure enough I was pregnant. I told my mom it was gas and went home :-) I had to figure out what I wanted before I told anyone. Fast forward 7 months or so and Nathan and I were living with my mom. I was extremely over-due and so I had an appointment to be induced on Tuesday May 30th. Of course Jon had to make his entrance on his own time so my water broke at 5am Sunday May 28th. I immediately went to the hospital and was put on pitocin and induced for close to 12 hours.... I was FINALLY given an epidural around 7pm that night and sometime around 4am I got the go ahead to start pushing. I did for almost 2 hours (after the epidural had worn off) and was told that Jon's head was kind of stuck. So c-section it was! He was born a little bit before 6am on Memorial Day May 29th and was 7lbs 15oz. He was perfect and absolutely adorable!

Jon is a cool kid. A very quirky thing about Jon is the names he gives things and people. He has done this since he was VERY young and as I look back I think he did this from the very beginning. He's always had his own vocab. My best friend (also a pre-school teacher) informs me that this is "not" normal kid behavior :-) Yeah I could have guessed Jon wasn't normal! So if you hear Jon calling for Mr. Oaks or Marge--that's Nate and I. Aly is Little pickle and Ethan is double E. He calls the babies -- bears. He doesn't do it to be funny or to get attention, this is just his way. I absolutely adore him. Yes he drives me crazy and yes I can get VERY upset with him, but he is my Jon and will always hold a special place in my heart as the big brother and the only child for 7 years.

So for his birthday he wanted a sparks scooter--it's a scooter that when you stop it gives off a couple little sparks. He also wanted a Star Wars computer game. He loved his gifts and it was a lot of fun torturing him. We gave him his gifts first thing in the morning (a pair of shorts and a new tube for his bike)... after we got the twins down for their first nap we gave him the good stuff. He was thrilled! He's been riding his bike and scooter all weekend.

I'm also going to post some pictures of a frog that Jon was playing with and also the twins got to hold their first frog. I HATE frogs.. but am realizing that I'm getting much better.

We're all loving the summer weather and the kids love hanging out outside. We're looking forward to a very busy week ahead. Nathan has a dentist appointment tomorrow-- I really hope it goes better then mine last week, I'm still in pain--ouch! Ethan's eye exam was moved to Thursday so we'll be there really early! I'm so thankful we were able to get him in earlier and I'm anxious to hear whats wrong. And then Sunday Jon and I are going to see the play Lion King with my best friend and her kids. That should be a lot of fun!!
Jake and his walker... It took him at least 30 minutes to get that far!

I couldn't forget sweet Aly!

Sorry no new pics of E this week! I'll make sure I get a couple good ones for next week!

Reno fun!

2009-05-19T09:42:00.000-07:00

I absolutely LOVE my husband. I think that one of the reasons that Nate and I have lasted so long is because he is my best friend. We have so much fun just the two of us and I really enjoy the time we share together. With so many little ones it's very hard to find time for just the two of us but this last weekend, thanks to our wonderful family and friends we were able to spend a WHOLE day together and 2 nights with OUT babies!!

Friday started with my (other) best friend, Barbara coming over.. She stayed at our house and watched Ethan and Jon. She was so nice to offer and because she stayed at our house I didn't have to worry about boarding the dogs.

Nate and I then drove to Reno with the twins, grandma and grandpa P were watching them. Poor Jake had a heck of a time with his ears going over the pass but the ride home was MUCH MUCH worse! This is definitely something I'll be talking to the Audiologist about next month. We made it in record time (very little traffic) and the twins immediately took off running and roaming at G & G's house! I'm not even sure they noticed that we left!!

We stayed at the El Dorado because I like being close to other hotels. We were starved by the time we got our room and I finished pumping so we went to the Seafood buffet in the hotel. It was good. Nate really liked it! I've had better but I'm also not as into seafood as Nathan is! It was so nice to just sit and take our time eating. I think we were there for well over and hour and it was WONDERFUL!! Nate then had to run back to the room so he didn't miss his 2 hour Prison Break :-) While I checked out the tables and did some gambling.

Saturday we spent the morning relaxing and then headed over the mall to do some shopping. It was so nice to walk around and just window shop. Well of course I had to buy a couple goodies for the kids.

Dinner Saturday night was AWESOME!! We went to La Strada an Italian restaurant in our hotel and it definitely lived up to it's hype! Nate got the lobster spaghetti-- chef's special. And I got the Swordfish Mediterranean style... YUM!!!

Nate's dinner...

We then decided that we had to play some games... Of course Circus Circus was right next door so we headed over to battle. Yes battle... Air Hockey was the game and the first one went to Nate. The 2nd game was all mine -- well at first, I then lost. I still can't believe I lost! Oh well it was fun. We also did some racing and bowling.

Sunday we picked up the kids from G&G's and had some good breakfast, packed up and headed out.

When we got home Jon and Barb's kids were all playing out in the sprinklers since it was SUPER hot!! It was nice to be home but I could really use a longer break next time :-)

I couldn't have had such a great relaxing time if it wasn't for Nate's parents and Barb. Knowing my kids were in such great hands made it so easy for me to have fun and not worry.

Yesterday was going to be a normal stay home day but my cousin Meg called and they were headed to the pool... She invited us and we took them up on it! It was SOOO much fun! Aly was my little fish, she had so much fun swimming around! Jake fussed--typical Jake! But he had fun towards the end.

Aly asleep in the pool!

I still have bags to unpack and so much laundry to do and things to catch up on but it was oh so worth it!

Jake at work, Mother's Day, and so much more!

2009-05-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love the month of May. Our honeysuckle in front of the house is in full bloom and just smells wonderful! I can smell it all through the house and can not get enough of it!!

Nathan works from home on Tuesdays and Fridays... So last Friday we let the kids loose in Jon's room which also happens to be the office. Here are a couple pics. Jake was so mad when Nate pulled him away from the keyboard! Aly only sat there for a minute and then was off to climb the stairs!

This last weekend went by really fast, yet again! It was my best friends (Barb) birthday so I spent Saturday with her. We went to the mall without kids and it was great! It was so nice to walk in and out of stores and just be able to browse! We also went out to lunch at the new McCormick and Schmick's in Roseville. It was very good! I had their fish and chips and it was YUM! I haven't had really good fish and chips in AGES!! I remember when I was little my grandma (mom's mom) used to take me to a place in Mountain View that was really good. I can't wait to go with Nate and the family.

Sunday was of course Mothers Day -- I hope all the moms reading this had a GREAT day!! As I look back on the day, it was great for me. It also brings some tears to my eyes. Nathan has this wonderful habit of treating me like royalty on my birthday and Mother's day... I of course do the same for him on his birthday and Father's Day. So I chose to take a drive and go on a hunt for fresh strawberries. Nate had read an article in the Sac Bee about Strawberry stands in the Florin area of Sac so that's where we went. It took about an hour to get down that way and found one right away. We only got a couple baskets cause I wanted to check out another. As we were driving I remembered that my mom used to LOVE LOVE taking drives. I really miss that! If she could do anything on Mother's Day (besides be in Vegas :-) ) it would have been taking a drive. I felt her with me all day. Some of my best memories are when we were in the car. I can easily count on one hand how many times we had to pull over to wipe away the tears from laughing so hard. It's funny how things turn around on you though... Now I have Jon who is the funniest kid around! The things he comes up with are just hilarious! He's made me laugh so hard I cried numerous times! Back to Mother's Day... We also went to the mall and let the kids run run run! It was pretty empty so we let them loose! It was really funny though... Aly was ALL over the place... She didn't stop moving once, she just walked walked walked. I ended up just walking behind her because she kind of went back and forth and there was no "following" her. Jake on the other hand was SLOW haha! He felt he had to push the cart the whole time and then would stop and play with the wheel and then go back to pushing. I think Aly walked up and down 3 times before Jake caught up to her. It was a lot of fun and very funny to watch. Jon did great go back and forth between them and I think he really enjoyed chasing Aly around. We then came home and had some yummy steak fajitas... all in all it was a great day.
Here are a couple pics of Aly and Jake on Mother's Day...

Our new thing this week is CLIMBING!! Must they climb on EVERYTHING?!?! It's driving me nuts! It doesn't help that they see the other climb and then they want to do it first so not only do I have to worry about the one climbing but also the one trying to take them down so they can climb... The lovely life of twins.

Stay tuned for next weeks blog--We're going away for the weekend and I'm SUPER excited!! It's my Mother's Day gift from Nate and we can't wait! There's a strong possibility that we'll spend the entire time in the room sleeping. I'm not happy about the fact that I still have to pump every 4 hours but oh well...

Here are a couple pictures of Ethan at 2.5 months...

2 month check-up

2009-05-06T14:39:00.000-07:00

Jake and Aly 13 months ago... Same age as Ethan

Little E had his 2 month check up yesterday and he is doing great! He's such a big boy! He weighs 13lbs 13oz and is 23 in tall. To compare Jacob was 10lbs 15oz and 21.5in tall. Miss Aly was a pound lighter and an inch shorter then Jake! Who knew that our last would be our largest?! He's in the 90th percentile for weight and 75th for height!

Of course we can never make it out of an appointment with follow up tests and this time we got two! Nate and I have both noticed that Ethan has a heck of time tracking things with his eyes and he doesn't seem to focus. Of course with my Nystagmus this has me worried but I really doubt I have the genetic form of N... However it's always better to be safe then sorry! So he's seeing a great Pediatric Opthamoligist, I've actually seen her myself.

The other referral was for Mr Jake. He doesn't have very many words in his vocab (especially compared to Miss Smarty Pants) so we're going to an Audiologist to have his hearing checked. I really don't think he has anything wrong since he seems to be able to hear us and the dogs that he barks back at... but again it's better to be safe then sorry. However with Jake if his hearing comes back normal then we'll have to get him evaluated for speech.

At least it's not Aly this time! The girl deserves a break :-)

Nathan is driving me bonkers about what to get me for Mothers Day! I honestly have everything I could possibly ask for and my life is so full of love and smiles. He drove me crazy for my Birthday and because I didn't want anything he feels he Really has to get me something for Mothers Day. I'm sure I'll think of something. I honestly would just love to spend some alone time with him. I miss just hanging out with him, he is truly my best friend and sometimes we just need our alone time. But on the other hand it's so hard for me to let go of my little ones. Sometimes I close my eyes and fast forward 20 years and we're off traveling the world...

We finally got a crib for Ethan so that will keep my next couple days busy making room in the nursery for it.

Oh we went to Jon's Open House for school yesterday and that was AWESOME! What a wonderful kid he is! He's always amazed me with his imagination (not always in the best of ways) but I love seeing his mind at work! I also adore his teacher, she definitely brings out the best in him. All I can hope is that she follows him to 4th grade... really is that too much to ask?! All of his projects were out and a lot of his writing. I stood and talked with a couple other moms and his teacher for quite sometime and it was so uplifting to hear how great the whole class was. They have another field trip on Thursday, Farm Day at the fair.

It's also time to register Jon for Soccer!!! YIPPEEE!!! I LOVE soccer!!! I'm a little disappointed because a lot of Jon's teammates are now playing Select but being that Jon was one of the youngest on his team (always has been) he's just not there yet. Maybe next year but even then I'm not sure it's his thing. Oh well. I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun chasing the twins around while Jon practices!! haha.

Yesterday ended with Nate making us tacos... You HAVE to have tacos on Cinco de Mayo!

Today's my grandma's birthday-- Happy birthday Nana, we miss you!

The start of May...

2009-05-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

Aly and Ethan in the swing on the same day!! Aly in Ethan's bouncer, Aly hated it when she was a baby, now I can't keep her out of it!

May is a crazy busy month in the Poehlman house! It always has been, even before the 3 babies came along :-) It revs me up for the summer and I LOVE it!

I've been in a spring cleaning frenzy the past week and Nathan is a very happy man. I've been throwing a ton of stuff away! I even went through Jon's clothes and ended up having to throw a lot of things away... Poor kids been wearing them so long they have HOLES, haha! The rest will be donated. Boy does Jon need to put on some weight! The kid is killing me! I have 4 pairs of shorts for him and NONE of them will fit this summer, so I have to go shopping for SMALLER sizes... There's something wrong with that picture. Pants are worse, he's in a size 8 length but even the adjustable waist on the 8's are too small, so he's always wearing "high waters". I've also discovered that I need to start buying him high quality shoes. He DESTROYS his shoes but he continues to wear them forever and ever... He finds one pair and wears those till their dead, or disappear at night somehow :-)

We had a great day yesterday at our cousin's 1st and 3rd birthday party!! Kaylin turned 3 last week and she is just the cutest, smartest little girl! I can NOT get enough of her! Her brother Roan turns 1 on Mothers Day and he is such a big boy! He weighs more then Aly and pretty darn close to Jake if not more. He's also such a BLONDIE!! I LOVE IT!! He thoroughly enjoyed his cake, it was adorable. I did end up having to send my twins home to hang with dad because it was just way too busy for them. It was supposed to be an outdoor party but it rained.. Luckily we see them often so they understood. It was nice to just be with Ethan and hang out, even if he was fussy!

Ethan has started the 6am wake-up call. I have to tell you I kind of miss the twins. Then BOTH Nate and I had to get up and help, well since it's only one it's ALL me. Nate tries for about 10 minutes and then goes back to bed, punk! I've started bringing Ethan to bed so I can pump and hold him at the same time and I make sure the tv is on a little louder so Nate can't go back to sleep too easily :-) I really shouldn't complain though, Ethan is sleeping from 10p to 6am without interruption!! He's such a good baby! He does have a temper though, he can go from happy to RED faced mad in a matter of a second. He really looks like he's going to explode, Nate laughs and backs up away from him!

He has his 2 month check up (quite a bit late) tomorrow so I'm sure I'll post again later this week. Jon also has his Open House tomorrow at school. He can't wait! He keeps making sure that we're going to bring Ethan (who's his favorite at the moment) so he can show him off to his teacher and friends. We keep telling Jon that Ethan looks just like he did when he was a baby so that might be why. I am looking forward to it though, I love seeing all the art work and friends.

Jake and Aly are doing great. They've been trapped inside the past couple days so I'm sure they'll be happy when we see the sun again! Their new favorite thing is graham crackers. I can't give them to them when their walking around because Jake steals Aly's. She then knocks him down (he's not too steady on his feet) and they break so she can get a bit more. It turns into a screaming match so now they only get them in their highchairs or in the car.

Here are some pictures of the twins destroying the nursery while I was trying to re-organize some things, HA!

I love my twinados!

A great weekend!

2009-04-27T11:44:00.000-07:00

Flowers from Laura and her mom for my birthday!

Wow last week sure went by fast! Jon had STAR testing and that kept us home and on schedule. We found out that our favorite 1st grade teacher was given her pink slip along with quite a few others at Jon's school. I'm so very sad that she may not teach there! She is the only reason we survived 1st grade and that Jon is reading at a 5th grade level now! I feel sorry for her but I'm just devastated by the fact that she might not be there to help another 1st grader go through what Jon did, or to help parents like us learn to teach our children how to read.

I do have to give the other side of this though, there is a teacher that has been given the pink slip that I really feel was ready to be done with teaching. I will not be sorry to see her go and feel that she'll probably be so much happier now.

I had such a great weekend! Saturday Barbara and I took Jon and the twins to the Roseville Galleria (mall) and spent quite a bit of time playing in the little play area. We then got popcorn and some lunch and took a nice long walk around the mall. The twins did really well and seemed to have a lot of fun. No time for pictures as our hands were really full :-) Jake and Aly are some funny kids! Jake had a blast climbing to the top of the slide where he would stand and just look up... Jon took him down the slide once and Jake of course was NOT happy. He then had to climb back up to just stand there and look at the ceiling. Aly on the other hand would climb all the way to the top and slide head first on her tummy! She did not want any help and didn't wait for us at all! She is my little daredevil! Jake loved the little rain machine--and I could have sworn he was going to take some guys cell phone out of his hands! Jon did great helping the twins learn new ways of going under the toys or over them. He's such a good big brother, I do think he favors Aly though :-) It was a great time but we were exhausted by the end of the day!

Sunday my best friend in the entire world took me out! Barb and I left at 10 with NO KIDS!! It was beyond wonderful! We did a lot of shopping and just walking around, we also had a great lunch at Chevy's. It was so nice not to have to order for the kids or to keep the twins entertained or to clean up the crazy mess after! We came home around 5p and I felt like I could take on all the kids again. Nathan did GREAT, of course! He's such a good dad! He did put together the watertable and let them play on it before I got to see it, but whatever :-) i'm only a tad bitter! I'll have to post the pictures he took later--oh wait he didn't take any! haha. I'm glad they were good for him though!

After Barb leaves we then feed the twins dinner... Well I bought some bowls and made them some yummy spaghetti and gave them spoons!

Their first real attempt at eating with spoons went great! Of course it was nice and messy.

Love to all!

Twins are 15 months old!!

2009-04-21T15:16:00.000-07:00

Today the twins are 15 months old! They are keeping us super busy as usual.

Jacob has really taken to walking, he still looks like a little monster but oh so cute! He has been really fussy the past couple weeks and I had thought it was teeth but it has seemed to pass and no new teeth are to be seen, maybe a growth spurt? Anyways now that he's in a better mood hopefully I can get him talking a little bit more. Poor kid can't get a word in with Aly yapping away :-) We're working on "all done" at the moment and I if I sing it he can do it... He sure does love music! It's so funny we'll be in a store or a restaurant and Jake will just start rocking side to side... he hears the music! He's also so calm and mellow most of the time. He'd rather just sit outside and look around maybe playing with a piece of grass. He's such a sweet boy!

Alyssa is of course totally opposite! The girl can not sit still! She's basically running these days, and always towards trouble! She has no fear what-so-ever.. well maybe of some people but not of anything physical. She absolutely LOVES the big trampoline! We put in the big plastic balls and she jumps around and around with them forever. (Jake thinks it's some sort of torture device). She also has quite the vocab. We caught her saying yo-gabba-gabba yesterday, which happens to be her favorite show. She say's "Jakey" and "Ethan" all the time now, usually while hitting them in the head with both hands... She's been saying hi for quite sometime and waving hello as well but she just started saying bye and waving when someone leaves. She loves to say "done" and put her little hands up... She can also sign the word "more" and she signs the word "drink" but her sign of drink is sticking her finger up her nose (I'm not joking at all!) so we try to avoid that!

Both of them are doing great with Ethan. They still try to take everything he has and run away with it! At night when their going down I'll bring E over to their cribs to say goodnight and they'll pat him on the back.. sweet huh! Well if only it ended there... Aly then pats his head, a little harder then she should and then eventually pulls his hair. Jake is really sweet he'll pat him on the back and then go in for a kiss..well Jakes kisses turn into a bite usually and yes poor Ethan has already been bit, on the nose once too... oh Jake!

Jon is of course the great big brother and has a new chore of putting the twins in their car-seats when we're out and about! Talk about helping out, this is huge! He has STAR testing this week so no homework which makes him super happy. He has another big project due, he has to build a model of Earth, that should be fun. Thank goodness I have creative people as friends and family because I'd be in a lot of trouble, I'd probably just send him in with a globe.. hmm I wonder if that would work :-) He wanted to pick Neptune (because it was cold and blue) but that was already taken. He's such a good kid.

Ethan is doing great! He's getting so big! Not much new to report :-) He does turn 2 months in 2 days. He has his check-up next week and hopefully I'll have a couple more pictures of him by then and will definitely post about it.

I turned 30 on Sunday... It was a good day. I'm not really a fan of my birthday but Nate and the kids always make it special. I do get treated like royalty and that's really nice. Nate bbq'd a wonderful dinner as well!

I'm so blessed!

Easter

2009-04-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a great day! It's been a long time since I've had so much fun. I of course could never have had that much fun without all of the friends and family that joined us in such a beautiful day!

It started early... Ethan slept for 7 hours that night--woohoo! I was up by 6am to start getting everyone ready for the 10am mass. We made it out the door by 9:08am, I was so proud of myself, and I didn't forget anything. Grandpa and Grandma P. (Nates parents) met us at Church and were a HUGE HUGE help during mass. The twins actually did pretty good, I can't complain. It's amazing how loud they can sound in a church. I can honestly say I maybe heard 5 minutes of what was said, I was so busy with one twin or the other. Ethan was great and slept through all of it. Jon of course was good and such a big help as well.

We then came home and I had to get to work! It was nice to have Nate's parents there to help, not sure I could have gotten everything done before hand if they weren't.

Family/friends started showing up around 1pm and the party had started :-)

Alyssa and cousin Roan (who's 3 months younger)

We had some great appetizers! We then gave the kids their baskets. We decided this year that they each would have one basket and we would all fill them. I think we need bigger baskets for next year! But the kids seemed to love them. It was hard to get the little ones to even acknowledge the baskets but oh well.

Michael and Makenzie

Daddy with Jake and Aly

Next came the egg toss. I think this is our 4th or 5th year of doing the egg toss. It became a tradition when Nathan mentioned that they always did one when he was growing up. We love games so it became a yearly event. We had 6 teams this year and I teamed up with Nate--mistake?--maybe! We were the 2nd team out, Nate said my throw was bad but it broke when he caught it--you can decide :-) Nate's parents won the big toss! It was a pretty clean egg toss this year.

We then decided that it was time for the Easter Bunny to get here and hide the eggs. So all 8 of the kids and Grandpa and Grandma P went into the playroom. It was a ZOO in there! The rest of us went on a mission to hide eggs. We had a lot of eggs to hide, close to 200 I think. Now mind you we had kids of all ages... Michael 13, Makenzie 10, Jonathan 8, Kaylin almost 3, Jacob and Alyssa 14 months, Roan 11 months and Ethan 7 weeks (he of course didn't find any eggs :-) ) We then released the kids and it took maybe an hour to find all the eggs. It was so much fun. Jake had no interest in finding any eggs.. he was much to busy whining at everything (poor guy is getting molars). Aly had fun hunting for eggs and even put them in her basket. She did start off by trying to eat them and even had a green tongue from the dye of the eggs! She was a lot of fun to walk around with. The big kids did great and I think Jon won for the most eggs collected. But Michael and Makenzie were having a lot of fun hiding their own eggs for Kaylin to find, too cute! Kaylin even found some that the big kids missed!

Aly and an egg she found... Kaylin finding eggs... Kaylin, Michael and Jon.

Jake hanging out... Me and Aly.... Jon in search!

After that was over, Ron (my cousin Meg's husband) started up a whiffle ball game. We've never played and boy was it fun! We didn't really have teams and after Ron hit the whiffle ball over the fence (1st hit) we then had to use a big plastic purple ball. I even got a couple hits and scored twice I think. I laughed so hard and had so much fun, I think we all did! I did trip Jon when he was rounding 2nd, he wasn't pleased but it got a good laugh :-)

Joey sliding into 3rd.... The boys lost the ball...

Those that weren't playing held babies, or jumped on the trampoline or cooked, or just sat around chatting and eating ymmy food.

The fans...

Dinner time was upon us soon after! Nate bbq'd some GREAT shish-ka-bobs and we had a big ham and lots of yummy salads and rolls. We of course also had some great desserts. My cousin Megan made my mom's Carrot cake which was so so good! Mom would have been pleased.

All the kids made it through the day and we put them to bed not long after dinner.

I can't get over how everything just fell into place yesterday making it wonderful. I'm sure my mom helped with that. She would have turned 60 yesterday and we joked that it sure would have been fun to tease her about it! Although she would have gotten me back since I turn 30 next week. I still say on a regular basis that Ethan was her little present to us, and he does still have some of her red hair.

Ethan and his precious smile.

I'm sitting here eating some of LaLa's yummy German Potato Salad and enjoying having the windows open. Did I mention the dogs ate WAY too many eggs and they really don't smell that great today?!?! Jon goes back to school tomorrow and I'm looking forward to having things go back to normal around here. Well as normal as things get with all of these great kids.

Ethan is 6 weeks!

2009-04-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

Aly and Jake love to look out the window!

Ethan turned 6 weeks old on Monday! He's such a great baby. We all still have our own opinions about who he looks like but I think he looks like Jon. He has a great smile which we are now just getting to see more of. He has a dimple just like Jon. We all know he's going to be a tough little guy cause his brother and sister truly beat up on him.

So we have our new mini-van and we LOVE it, well I love it. Isn't that all that matters :-) However trying to figure out the arrangement for the carseats has been like working a puzzle. We're able to put all 3 of the carseats in the middle row, which I would LOVE since I could easily reach back and deal with kids. However we put Ethan in the middle and the twins just attack poor Ethan. One goes after the blanket, the other goes after the pacifier, then the bottle and then they pull at his clothes, his feet, and they then put their books/toys on him. 2 minutes and Ethan is a crying mess and the twins find it funny. So now Ethan has the middle row to himself (well unless Jon is with us) and the twins have the backseat. It's a little harder because I can't get to the twins as easily but Ethan needs me more.

We had a great moment the other night. Nathan and I were putting the twins to bed and I had put Ethan in Jakes crib while we got the twins dressed after their bath. I picked E up and Nate and I were saying goodnight to Jake and Jake leans over to Ethan and starts to pat his back. It was so sweet!

Aly is also saying Ethan, although I'm the only one that's heard her say it! For the life of me I can't get her to say it in front of Nate. She also sings along with Dora Backpack backpack--to Aly it's more like ba-ba ba-ba. It's too cute!

The Mothers of Multiple sale was this last weekend and boy were we busy! I did a lot of shopping and also worked the sale Saturday morning. I got some great deals and tons of new clothes! I also sold a bunch of clothes and equipment.. that felt good!

We're looking forward to Easter and spending the time with family. We still don't know if At&t will be striking but we heard rumors it might start Friday. I really hope not but I'll keep everyone posted.

Jon is out of school this week for Spring Break and of course it's been raining so he's been on his computer a lot and also helping me out. I really wish it was nicer out so I could send him outside.

Happy Easter everyone!!

Last week of March...

2009-03-31T13:59:00.000-07:00

Another week has past and I have so much to tell.

Nathan spent last Friday skiing with his dad, then spent the night there in Reno. Which left me with all of the munchkins! It went really well and they were prefect little angels for me Friday night. We even did baths which normally is Nate's job but we had played outside after lunch so they were filthy! They went to bed at a decent time which left just Ethan, Jon and I to hang out. Jon had a big report due on Monday so we spent a lot of time on that. Saturday morning Nate had to be home by 10am so we could go to the Mothers of Multiple (MoM) Spring Social. I knew I had to get all the kids dressed, fed and ready to go before Nate even got home so I went to check on the twins and Jake had taken off his pj bottoms and was playing the poop from his diaper!!! Jon came running in (after hearing me say gross gross gross, probably a million times!) and he almost hurled. It was EVERYWHERE!! So thanks to Jon I was able to throw Jake back in the tub while he entertained Aly.

I amazingly had everything ready when Nate got here and we had a great time at the Spring Social! It was at a park and the twins had a great time running around in the grass. Jon had a good time as well racing his scooter all over!

Sunday was another great day! Nathan's parents drove over from Reno and Nathan's brother Mason and his girlfriend Marcela flew up from So Cal. We basically just hung out, played outside a little and ate some yummy food. It was a nice family Sunday. Mason and Marcela were still here on Monday so we all went to the park to play and then out to lunch. It was great having an extra set of hands to help hold or chase a kid :-) Jake was his normal charming self but little miss Aly took to Uncle Mason. Not a really big surprise considering how much she likes guys. We loved having them here and look forward to visiting them down in Southern Ca soon!

So Nate and I have been in the market for a mini-van for quite awhile and after searching and searching we finally bought a brand new Honda Odyssey. Yes we still have the Suburban and yes we still have the Camero... But having both those paid off, we really needed something that didn't guzzle gas! And of course fit all of us, which is not an easy find these days! I'm extremely happy and LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!! Nate's still not ready to admit it's a mini-van but he's happy that I'm happy :-) And when you have 3 kids 13 months apart, how can you NOT have a mini-van?!?!

Aly had another gymnastics class this morning, she is so much fun to watch! She is just loving it! She's still the only one in this class but the coach just adores her and Aly adores Miss Britlynn. Aly does everything that coach puts her on and already knows how to tuck her head and do a front roll. I think I heard "She's a natural" almost a million times from everyone. It's fun to watch, that's for sure! Jake stayed home with daddy, once he starts to walk better we may try it again, but for now it's just an Aly and Jon thing. Hopefully I'll be able to get pictures, but it's a busy class!

Like I said it was a busy week! I may have to start posting twice a week just to keep up!

Oh Aly now has 3 teeth and a 4th coming through! And Jacob is walking a lot more!

Jon did great on his big report yesterday and is looking forward to seeing that Monster v. Alien movie this weekend with dad.

Things are always crazy around the Poehlman house! Enjoy the pictures!!

~Park & Gymnastics~

2009-03-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

We are loving the warm weather! So last Friday Nate and I decided to check out a new park in El Dorado Hills. It had a separate "toddler" park that was enclosed and had the foamy ground. It also had the double swings which we hadn't yet had a chance to put the twins in. It went great!! As you can tell the twins loved the swing! We put them in separate later but they preferred to be with each other. The park also had a sandbox and Jake loved it! Aly couldn't figure out why it was so hard to walk in the sand, so she kept getting frustrated and had to be removed :-) She loved the slides and all the other kids there. Ethan slept through the whole thing so he must have enjoyed it as well! We're looking forward to taking Jon this weekend, the other side of the park is for bigger kids and even has a rock-climbing wall type thing.

Our other great adventure happened today. I enrolled the twins in a gymnastics tumbling class. The first class is free, thank goodness since one of the monkey's didn't like it! The hardest part about the class is the fact that it's at 10:30am, which happens to be nap-time... Jake did not handle that very well. He managed to have some fun, but as soon as the coach put him in the ball pit it was all over, he had a major melt-down! Thank goodness there weren't any other kids this week so the coach could help with Aly while I dealt with Jake.

Now Aly on the other hand had a BLAST!! Aly found her calling... She did everything the coach told her too, including jump! Aly's always been very balanced and sure-footed but I had no idea just how good she was. She was able to walk on the balance beam -- putting one foot in front of the other while the coach held her hand! She loved the trampolines and loved rolling down the mats. There were little feet on the ground to follow (a path type thing) and she followed them all around without any guidance... heck I didn't even know what they were for! She's so close to doing a somersault on her own, I'm sure she'll have that down in a week! I had planned on putting her in dance class at 2 or so but that is definitely on the back burner for now.

Jon is also going back to gymnastics--he did it for a couple months last year but it interfered with soccer and that had to go. Hopefully we won't have the same problem this year. He loves it too! He says that he likes everything about it, but the rope is hard. Yet he's the only one that can climb to the top without any assistance, including the wood thing for under their feet. It helps that at 8.5 years old he still only weighs 48lbs or so.

We have an exciting couple weeks ahead! Uncle Mason (Nathan's brother) and Marcela (Mason's girlfriend) are coming up to visit this weekend, along with grandma and grandpa. It will be nice to have extra hands around :-) I'm hoping Nate goes skiing with his dad on Friday but that's still up in the air. We also have our twins group Spring Social on Saturday, that should be a lot of fun, even the Easter Bunny will be there!! Jon also has a report due on Monday so we have to find time for that as well. Like I said a very busy and fun weekend ahead.

2009-03-19T15:05:00.000-07:00

Jake thinks it's fun to take off Aly's diaper!

Playing in the tub!

<-- Ethan on St. Patricks Day!

Alyssa in her new spring outfit!

Another week goes by and again so dsmuch has changed! Ethan is 3 weeks and 3 days and is getting big! He had his 3 week check-up today and weighed in at 8lbs 11oz. It was strange going into the doctors office by myself, normally I have Nate there to help! Ethan did catch the cold that we all had a couple weeks ago. Poor guy has a miserable cough and is so congested! The doctor did an oxygen check just to make sure that he was breathing okay, and he was. However we have to really keep an eye on him, it's still RSV season and it's really bad around here. She said that if he stays the same or gets better by Monday then we should be out of the woods.

Alyssa got her 2nd tooth this week!! She now has her 2 top teeth, and is so cute! Jake hasn't gotten any new teeth lately but I keep feeling for a molar--it's just a matter of time.

The twins will be 14 months on the 21st and I just don't know where the time went! I'm loving the spring weather and so are they! Jake is such an observer, and Aly is the doer! She is into everything while he would prefer to just take his time looking around at everything.

We got rid of the bath seats this week! They seem to love being able to move around the tub, and daddy's having a lot of fun trying to keep them sitting :-) We didn't do much for St. Patricks Day but I did dress them in green!

Hope everyone has a great week!

The beginnig....

2009-03-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

So I finally decided that I really need to keep up with a blog! The twins are growing so fast and I can never keep up with all that they do. I always manage to forget to tell someone something and I get in trouble :-) So I'm hoping that I can just put everything here to keep anyone and everyone who cares updated on the lives of the Poehlmans.
As for today... Ethan is now 2 weeks and a day old. He was circumcised yesterday morning and poor thing is still in some pain. I just cried right along with him during all the diaper changes yesterday, as I did with Jacob and even Jonathan. So glad that this is the last time! Ethan did get weighed yesterday and had gained a whole 1lb 2oz, putting him at a whopping 7lbs 14oz. I still can't believe he was so small!
The twins are 13.5 months old and I don't know where the time went!
Lets start with Jacob... His biggest issue today is the fact that he has a cold. His poor little nose hasn't stopped running and he has an icky wet cough. But besides that you would never know he was sick. He's all over the place! He's taking 5-6 steps at a time but would still rather crawl. However if you hold his hand to help him walk he thinks its hysterical and can hardly walk because he's so busy laughing. He still seems so much bigger then little Aly! No more teeth to report, so far we have 4 on top and 3 on the bottom. I think his hair is the funniest thing these days. It's really thin and straight and it's always sticking out in some way after a nap or bedtime--I love it! I swear he looks like a little Einstein :-) He's such a happy sweet boy, and he gives the best hugs and open mouth kisses!
Miss Alyssa is just a little doll. I swear she feels hollow when I pick her up! She still is the closed-up one but once her personality comes out--wow is she entertaining! I can not get enough of her precious smile! Speaking of smile she finally got her first tooth last week. I can't believe it took so long and it was her right top middle. However unlike Jake, you had no idea she was teething, still the sweetest thing. She is walking ALL over the place and all the time. She doesn't talk much either but she sure does scream and yell alot. She's also just started singing--too cute!!
Jonathan is now in 3rd grade and sure has a lot of homework! He's doing great in school this year. Multiplication is not a fun thing to learn but he's doing really well! He's also reading at a strong 4th grade level. He just did an Animal Report on Bald Eagles--that was actually a lot of fun and very interesting. As of today Jon is at school--however he called home cause he doesn't feel good. I told him to lie down for a bit and try again. I haven't heard back and he should be home off the bus anytime, so I'm assuming it went well.
As for Nathan and I, we're doing great. Tired, exhausted, blessed, did I mention tired? Ethan is a great sleeper--however I think it's normal for ONE infant :-) we were just used to 2 not sleeping so getting 3 hours of sleep is wonderful! We spent this last weekend looking at mini-vans and will hopefully be getting one in the next week or so. The suburban is just too big and we all know the camero is just too small!
Well Jon's home from school, so I'm off to help with homework!