Ethan is rolling!

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.

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....

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!!

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

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

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!!!

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 :-)