Look Who Is Walking!

One of my babies is now a walker! I cannot believe that Dallin is finally walking. It really started last week and every day he just gets better and more confident at getting around in this way. Cameron isn't very close to walking, but it will be interesting to see when he starts to toddle around too. My babies are growing so quickly and are cuter and cuter every day. It seems like they are always doing something new and adorable. What fun times these are!

A Dim Moment

So today Darin the kiddos and I needed to go into town to run some errands and to go to the store. After getting in the car, I had to run back inside to get something. The babies and Darin were waiting for me in the driveway in the car so I tried to be quick. I didn't want to take the time to shut the garage door from the outside key pad so I came up with the brilliant idea of just pushing the button to shut the door from the house and jumping over the sensors on the way to the car. Well I had on my bejeweled flip-flops and as I ran and leaped my feet were moving slower than my upper body was going. Instead of being able to correct that, my feet weren't able to get enough traction. I screamed in holy terror and fell face first onto the pavement. I was so embarrassed and shocked that I just laid there with my face on the scorching cement. Darin jumped out of the car and ran over to me. He tried to pull me up but I could only roll onto my back and just lay there to collect myself. I just knew every neighbor in the area saw my attempt at garage track and field. As I assessed my injuries I noticed that my clothes weren't ripped and the only casualty was my knee. It was skinned really bad and was extremely sore. Darin finally got me up and assisted me in limping to the car. I don't know what I was thinking. I am not 10 years old anymore. We went to the store and finished the errands that we needed to do. My knee is still sore and is getting quite the bruise on it. I am happy to report that my battered body didn't land within the range of the sensors and that the garage door was successfully closed. Oh dear.

Creperie

I found the coolest item the other day--for only $4. It totally brought me back to high school French class. It is a vintage creperie. It is simply a round surface connected to a heating element. What it does is it heats up the ?ceramic? surface and when it gets hot you dip the top of it into crepe batter that has been poured into a pie plate or into the provided dish. Then the batter that clings to the creperie will cook and make you the perfect crepe. No twirling of a pan, no dripping it on your stove. Awesome. Darin, the babies and I thoroughly enjoyed a crepe brunch. We topped the crepes with the most delicious Gruyere cheese and others we topped with sour cream and rhubarb jam. Amazing. What a great buy!

Hutch Revamp

Well on my birthday Darin and I got myself a few presents. One of them was a hutch off of craigslist. I have been wanting a hutch for a while so when I saw one that fit the bill I snatched it up. I negotiated it down from $50 to $40 then she offered to deliver it to our house for an extra $5. I wonder if I could have gotten it for less. I am still working on my bargaining skills.

It didn't look horrible when we first bought it, but it wasn't exactly what I wanted so we sanded, painted, adjusted, papered, accessorized and ta da! I love it. It looks so great with my Jadite collection.

The one thing that I still don't know about is the natural wood doors and drawers. I thought about paining them a green color. I bought it with the intention of stripping off those areas to give it a more vintage look. I was surprised to find the wood colored the way that it was. The two tone colors are quite interesting. I am still thinking that over, but it is nice to finally have a place to display dishes.

The Pregnant Rollerskate

I remember once when I was younger a friend of mine teasingly referred to their neighbor's car as a "pregnant rollerskate." The car that they were referring to was a car that looked like a Geo Metro but was made by a different manufacturer. Truthfully, it was kind of a strange looking car.

Well, this week we bought our own "pregnant rollerskate." It is a little Ford Focus Wagon that we bought for Darin to drive to work in. We were also attracted to this little car because it gets good gas mileage and yet we can fit the babies car seats in the middle and a lot of their gear in the back.

We got a really good deal on this car. It is difficult to find a car within our budget that has good gas mileage and is still roomy enough for twins and the other two people who happen to be living with them. :)

Since we have had the car I have caught myself pondering "What were we thinking?" In some ways it is kind of a cute little car. In other ways it is kind of strange looking. It is almost a Steve Erkel vehicle. Darin has tried to reassure me by saying things like, "In a couple of years we can sell this car and get something that is nicer."

Sigh. Oh well. For now I have resigned myself to owning a "pregnant rollerskate," and so in a bittersweet way we are proud to announce the newest auto member of the family, Kate.

Welcome to the Jungle!

Our little family have definitely been travelers for the first half of this year. We have been all over the country and have finally begun to settle back down and get into a routine at home.

All spring long I was planning and anticipating having a yard and a garden.

When we were gone we had some people drive by our home to make sure it hadn't been burned to the ground while we were away. They all said the same thing, "Everything looks okay except you probably need to get the lawn cut." We did our best effort to call a company that would cut the grass for just a month until we could come back and do it ourselves. Everyone we called wouldn't do it for just a month and wanted us to sign a year contract with them (weird huh!). Well the days and weeks slipped by and since we couldn't really do anything about it we just kind of brushed it off.

We arrived home and took one look at the front yard. It really wasn't bad at all.



That is when we received the shocker.




The back yard was horrible. The grass had gone to seed and there were weeds back there that were taller than Darin. Not to mention there were four bushes that had completely died from a frost earlier in the year. It took Darin a couple of hours and a lot of restarting the lawn mower to get it back in shape. Our allergies were out of control that whole time. Thankfully things are getting into more of a groove. After having to rip out dead bushes and enrich the soil we have planted a small vegetable and herb garden in the back and a nice flower garden in the front. I am now anxiously waiting for the flowers to fill out so that I can post pictures of how good it is looking now. Thank goodness that jungle has been put out of its misery.

P.S. The front lawn didn't look so bad because our neighbor graciously mowed it for us. Apparently, before he mowed it, the front lawn was beginning to look like the back lawn did.

Teeth!

Cameron finally started getting his teeth and they are coming in quickly. His first tooth came in at the end of April, but I neglected to document the event in my blog. Now his first top tooth is coming in. Three teeth in a little over a month. Yay for my big boy!