Life without milk...

Aiden has been drinking soymilk for a few weeks now and he is loving it! He drinks just as much as his big brothers do so we are going through about 4 gallons a week. We still keep all the dairy out of the house because Aiden's allergy is so severe and the boys don't understand that they can't share their food with Aiden. Since last May we have been doing all our cooking without dairy so I am always on the look out for new recipes. Monday night at my twins club meeting a mom (also with a child allergic to milk) gave me a ton of new recipes to try out. Yesterday when we were snowed in I decided to give one of them a try at breakfast.


This is called puff baby. It is eggs, flour, dairy free margarine, and soymilk. You sprinkle the finished product with powdered sugar (which the boys thought was snow...which was funny since we had about 12 inches of snow outside). Anyway as you can see by the picture it was a huge hit and I will be making it for them again.

Running buddy

Last Friday we had a 40 degree day here and after temps being in the teens it almost felt like spring. So while Michael and Logan were at school, I decided to pack Aiden up and take him for a quick run. Aiden has not gone for many runs with me since I usually go before all the kids wake up. When Michael and Logan were babies I took them with me all the time. Aiden was not very happy about all the layers I dressed him in to keep him warm but loved every minute of the run once we got going.

Preschool Madness!

Brian and I love the church we attend and they are well known for their preschool program. I have known people who have tried to get their kids in the program in past years and they have ended up being number 45 on the waiting list. This time last year I was not ready to send my babies off to a Mom's Day Out yet. I wanted them to be home with me. Well, as soon as the terrible twos hit I was calling all over town trying to get them in somewhere:) They ended up at a church near our home that has a good program but I really wanted them to attend our church's program. So last week was registration....this is where the madness begins. I had heard from other moms whose children were already in the program that parents arrive at the church the night before to start waiting in line for registration which opens at 8am. One mom in the boys music class said she arrived at 3am last year and was second in line due to a dad arriving at midnight. I spoke to the lady in charge of the program the morning before registration and she said it would be incredibly difficult to get twins into the same class. She thought they could end up going on different days. She still needed to go over her list of open spots (once you are in all your children are guaranteed a spot in the years to come) but it looked like she only had 2 spots open for the same class which meant that we would have to be the first family in line. Once Brian heard this he packed up the minivan for an overnight in the parking lot of the church. I won't tell you what crazy hour he arrived but let's just say he had time to watch 2 movies on the IPOD, do some work, and listen to several talk radio shows. I arrived at 4:30am to relieve him and send him home for some sleep before he had to head into work but after sitting there all night he really wanted to be the one to finish the process. People were courteous to wait in their cars til about 5:30am when the line started outside. Luckily it was 27 degrees out that night so not as cold as it has been this winter. The church doors opened at 6am and we were allowed to wait inside for the remainder of the time. At 8am we turned in our paperwork and crossed our fingers that the overnight in the parking lot would pay off. At 9:45am the preschool coordinator called to tell me that Michael and Logan had both gotten into the Wednesday/Friday class! Brian and I were ecstatic! This is where they will attend school for the next two years and Aiden will join them when he turns two. Isn't is amazing the things you will do for your children? A HUGE THANK YOU to Brian for being willing to be the first dad in line! I love you sweetie!

Sick boys and a sippy cup

All three boys (plus Mommy and Daddy) have gone from having the stomach flu to a very nasty cold! This latest cold has hit Michael and Logan especially hard and they have ended up on nebulizer treatments to help with their breathing. Even with the treatments they are still up all hours of the night coughing. Luckily they actually like taking the treatments and pretend to give them to each other. They say to each other...."Let's go play medicine!" So far Aiden has been toughing it out without taking any medicine. He does not seem to be quite as sick as Michael and Logan. Over the past couple weeks we have been trying a lot of new foods with Aiden and he has now moved on to sippy cups! He is doing great with soy milk and is starting to eat some of the same meals as Michael and Logan. His new favorite food is waffles made with soy milk. Each week we try something new with him and so far he has loved everything we have given him.

Thank you Santa!

Michael and Logan are in love with their new train table. They have played with it non stop since Christmas morning!

Logan
Michael

Presents from Santa

Brian and I had a lot of fun telling Michael and Logan all about Christmas this year and it was neat to see how much they understood. These are some of my favorite Christmas quotes from Michael and Logan....

"SANTA!!!! I want Thomas the Train!" (Michael - shouting to Santa at the mall)

"Mommy...where are all the snowmen?" (Logan - while looking outside at the snow)

"Oh no! Where is the snow?" (Logan - after the first snow melted)

"Santa ate my cookies!" (Michael)

"Santa brings you presents and Thomas." (Michael)

"Michael...let's feed the snowmen cookies." (Logan)

"I love you Christmas tree!" (Michael)

We had a great Christmas and had a lot of fun celebrating with our families. Here are some pictures of the boys opening their presents from Santa on Christmas morning.

Aiden's First Birthday!

Yesterday we celebrated Aiden's 1st birthday. I still can't believe my baby is already one! He can now say Mama, Dada, and Baba and is getting very close to walking. He woke up from his nap to find a house full of balloons, presents, cake, friends and family. The beautiful train cake was from our favorite bakery so that all our guests could enjoy a real piece of cake. Aiden got to have some dairy free cupcakes that were made by mommy. As you can see from the pictures below he loved every bite and ate a whole cupcake all by himself. He got lots of nice presents which he is now sharing with his big brothers. Michael and Logan were especially excited about the balloons and are still playing with them today. It ended up being a great party and a wonderful way to celebrate Aiden's big day!





Aiden with Grandma and Hazel with Grandpa.






Michael confiscated Aiden's new toy camera and pretended to be the party photographer. He walked around saying "CHEESE" to everyone.

One year ago today....

Brian and I were on our way to the hospital to have baby Aiden. We had to be there by 7am to get checked in. Once I was in my room I had an IV placed and took a pill to induce labor. At 8am Brian and I started walking the halls. Little did we know we would be walking for four hours before my doctor decided to start me on pitocin. Once the pitocin was started and I had my epidural in place we watched the movie Red Dawn (Brian's choice not mine!) and tried to take a nap. I couldn't sleep because I was so excited to meet our new little boy. By 5pm the contractions had really kicked in and by 6pm I was ready to have baby Aiden. At 6:24pm he arrived and changed our lives forever. We are so grateful to have him and are excited to celebrate his first Birthday today!

Waaay back When-esday!

I keep forgetting that this is not Aiden's first Christmas! I thought it would be cute to post a couple of the boys first Christmas photos. Aiden was just 5 days old and Michael and Logan were 9 months old when these photos were taken. I can't believe my baby will be one this Saturday!

Here comes Santa Claus!

As part of an annual tradition Sunday night we met with Brian's extended family to celebrate Christmas. The ladies meet at 3pm for tea and the men join us for dinner at 5pm. Dinner is always followed by a visit from Santa. Michael and Logan were excited to sit on Santa's lap and receive a present from him. Aiden was not too happy about it but survived long enough to get a picture taken. It was a nice evening and was great to see everyone!


Michael
Logan
Aiden

Baby Dedication Ceremony

Saturday night Michael, Logan, and Aiden participated in the baby dedication ceremony at our church. To my surprise all three boys did very well. They were not scared to be in front of a crowd and only escaped for a minute to run around the stage. It was a nice ceremony and I was happy to be able to have all three boys participate in it together.

Twin moms on the go

Last night my twins club hosted it's annual Holiday party. It was a fun party with a great group of ladies and a crazy gift exchange. Here I am with my good friend Kristy who has twins around the same age as Michael and Logan. We usually get together with all of our kids for playdates...however this was a huge difference from our normal kid outings...

drinking wine vs coffee
opening presents vs changing diapers
sitting in comfy chairs vs chasing all the kids
having adult conversations vs breaking up fights

All in all it was a fabulous evening and I think we should do it more often:)

Date night

Brian and I attended his annual work party this past weekend. This was the start of all of our Holiday festivities. It will be a busy month for us but I love this time of year. It is a great time to get together with family and friends!

Family Photos

Here are some of my favorite pictures from a family photo shoot we had a while back. There were so many good ones it was hard to narrow it down to these. The boys had so much fun playing at the park they didn't even notice that they were getting their picture taken. It was a beautiful day and Brian and I are extremely happy with all the great pictures we were able to get.

Michael

Logan