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Christmas in Austin 2011

2012-01-25T20:18:00.004-06:00

After spending Christmas in Dallas, we headed back to Austin to celebrate Christmas with Amy's side of the family.

Here is our Christmas tree. The kids loved decorating it. They were very sad when we took it down a few weeks ago.
We started Christmas day with some breakfast. Here is Ella and Caroline starting their day.Per tradition, Grammie and Poppa bought everyone pajamas. The girl cousins got matching pajamas and the boys got matching pajamas.
The box Ella is holding is for a scavenger hunt. Last year, the Baker kids went on a scavenger hunt and were rewarded with a trip to Disneyland. They LOVED the hunt (and the trip to Disney). I think a scavenger hunt has become a tradition.This year, our kids were old enough to participate and they were ecstatic to be involved. Just look how happy Caroline is to be running around with her cousins.
They found another clue!After several clues, they found this box containing three boxes--one for Amy and I, one for Michael and Amy, and one for the Baker kids.Our box and Michael and Amy's box contained Kindle Fires. We love ours! The Baker kids got an iPod touch. They immediately installed some games. I thought it was hilarious when Will asked his dad for his Apple password so Will wouldn't need to bother Michael whenever he wanted to purchase games. :)

Here we are opening presents. Caroline and Caden enjoyed cleaning up the wrapping paper just as much as they did opening the presents. You can see Caroline throwing some away in the back of this picture.
Here is Caroline opening an Aqua Doodle. The twins have had a lot of fun drawing with the Aqua Doodle. Amy and I love it since it is a craft they can do themselves where the only mess is a little bit of spilled water.
The twins hanging out in a blue lazy boy chair.
The picture above reminded me of this picture from five years ago. Weren't Ella and Will cute? (And they still are.)
Well, back to 2011.

The Baker 5 bought the twins a really cool (and extremely large) roller coaster. Here is Michael showing Caden how to ride down for the first time.
You can see Caden did not like the coaster at all!
Now it was Caroline's turn. Caroline never shows the same excitement as Caden but she definitely liked riding down the coaster.
Even Ella enjoyed the coaster.
The twins have ridden the roller coaster more times than I can count and they are able to completely do it themselves. We made the rule that whoever rides down the coaster must also push the cart back up. That little rule has prevented many fights already.

One day, Ella, the twins, and I went outside to play. Ella is great with the twins. She is awesome at playing with them on their level. Here are some pics of the three of them going crazy in the backyard. They raced around, played in the leaves, ran in circles, and enjoyed being silly. It was a lot of fun to watch.
Cal has gotten into karate. (I think he took one class.) Here is Cal showing off his moves to Poppa. I think Poppa looks very impressed.
One thing the Baker kids really wanted to do was spend the night at our house. They got their chance on New Years Eve. That night, Caden and Caroline went into Amy and my room to watch an episode of Curious of George before bed. The Baker kids decided to climb in our bed and join them and of course, I took a picture.
We had a lot of fun with all the kids that night. Everyone was very pleasant and slept well. Amy and I enjoyed talking with the Baker kids. They are very funny.

We had a great Christmas. For several weeks follow Christmas, the twins kept saying we needed to "celebrate Jesus' birthday" and "when is Jesus' birthday?" They can't wait until Christmas 2012.

Christmas Card 2011

2012-01-18T22:52:00.008-06:00

I think it is about time I start getting some Christmas pictures on the blog!

Here is our Christmas card from this year. Amy found a good deal on printing photo cards so I tried my hand at designing a card. Here is what I came up with.
This is the backside.
I also created a Christmas card for Amy's parents.

Christmas in Dallas 2011

2012-01-18T22:17:00.005-06:00

This year, the rotation put Christmas in Dallas. We did all sorts of fun stuff while in Dallas.

Grandma had the twins help her out a lot in the kitchen. Caden and Caroline love helping in the kitchen.
Caroline was very proud of the fruit skewers they made.And of course, there were some presents. We opened them up with Grandma, Aunt Angela, and Uncle Allen on Christmas Eve.
This is a steering wheel for the swing set. They were very excited.
This is Caden opening up a shirt with a guitar on it. Amazingly, he was very excited to receive this gift. He actually attempted to take his shirt off so he could put the guitar on. :)
If he was that excited to see a guitar on his shirt, imagine how excited he was to get this guitar. We had borrowed a miniture acoustic guitar and Caden loved it. We made sure he'd get one for Christmas before we returned the other guitar.Caden thanking Grandma for his guitar.Caden played the guitar while we opened the rest of the presents.You can really see him strumming and singing in this picture.
One of my big gifts is the quilt we are sitting on. My mom made it for me out of my old Appalachia Service Project (ASP) t-shirts. I went on an ASP mission trip for a week every summer for ten years. Maybe I'll get to take Caden and Caroline some day.
Here is Caden wearing his new guitar shirt.
On Christmas Day, we headed over to Grandpa and Mimi's house. Here is a picture of Grandpa showing off his new player piano to Caden. Caden thought it was very cool.
And of course, there were more presents.
Grandma had one more thing she wanted to make with the twins. She wanted to make Christmas tree cookies where the trees were made out of rice crispy treats made with Cheerios instead of rice crispies. Caden was very helpful pouring the ingredients into the bowl.
Caroline did not want to wear the apron my mom made for her but Caden was happy to do so. :) Don't worry Grandma, Caroline has enjoyed the apron at home.After forming the trees, it was time to decorate. This was by far Caroline's favorite part.
Caden preferred to undecorate the trees and feed the pieces to everyone around him.
The finished products looked pretty good.
We had a lot of fun in Dallas over Christmas but it was time to head back to Austin and celebrate Christmas with the Bakers.

Bounce House

2011-12-13T14:25:00.000-06:00

There is a bounce house close to our home that the kids love. It is amazing how big they are getting. When we first went, the kids could barely get around. Now, they are able to do just about everything by themselves.
Caroline and I went down a slide together.Caroline found a ball to play with.
After some hard playing, the twins (and Daddy) needed a water and snack break.
Caden was ready to continue playing.
Fearless Caden decided to be silly/crazy.
Caden thought it was hilarious to topple over when sliding down.Our crazy kid made it down safely in a way that scared Mommy.
This is the biggest, steepest slide at the bounce house.
Despite the look on her face, Caroline loves this slide.I wasn't able to catch an action shot of Caden.
All four of us are looking forward to our next trip to the bounce house.

Round Rock Donuts

2011-12-11T09:35:00.001-06:00

The four of us decided to go to Round Rock Donuts. I have had the donuts numerous times but I had never been to the store.
The twins liked looking at the donuts and putting their finger prints all over the glass.
Yummy, warm donut holes!

Race for the Cure

2011-12-08T18:26:00.001-06:00

We participated in the Komen Race for the Cure again this year. We put on our walking shoes and headed downtown for a leisurely 5K (plus another 5K walk to and from our parking spot).

The weather was perfect and the kids were great. They were content to sit in their stroller the entire time. There was a lot of stuff for them to see.
Amy and her mom walking.
We walked by the capital building during the race.
The capital was a nice place for a photo op.
We finished!
After the race, we headed to one of our favorite places, Phil's Ice House, for lunch (and, of course, Amy's Ice Cream). The kids had a lot of fun playing on the playground at Phil's. I liked these pictures of the twins finding the cow pictures with the face cutouts.
We all had a lot of fun.

Making Sugar Cookies

2011-12-05T17:07:00.001-06:00

The kids have become great helpers in the kitchen. They love being involved with whatever we are making. They like seeing every part of the process from the gathering and combining of ingredients to the cooking and the final product.

Amy decided to make some sugar cookies with the twins. Here is the assembled dough.
Amy's little helpers stood on chairs so they could watch Amy roll out the dough.Caroline wanted to try rolling out the dough.Now that the dough was flat, it was time to cut some cookies. Caroline did the first cookie.
There was plenty of cookie for both to cut cookies at the same time.
The kids did a great job cutting cookies and Amy transferred them to a baking pan.
Caden watched the cookies bake for several minutes.
Here are the fresh cookies.
Caroline thought it was awesome that she got to eat the cookies she made.
And she thought they were delicious!Caden enjoys getting cookies but he doesn't care to eat them. He holds it for a few minutes, licks it once or twice, and then wants to put it in my mouth so I can eat it. Yum...dirty, wet, plain sugar cookies. Ah, the joys of parenthood.

Gender Party for Cousin

2011-12-03T16:49:00.002-06:00

The twins are looking forward to another cousin! My sister is pregnant with her first baby. During her last visit, she planned to surprise us with the sex of the baby. Angela brought cake balls where the outside was yellow or green but the cake inside would either be blue for a boy or pink for a girl.
Caroline was very happy to be given a dessert and she bit right in to find the cake inside was...BLUE!!! The twins are getting a boy cousin!Caden took one tiny little bite of cake ball and that was it. However, he did enjoy posing for pictures. In this picture, Caden was pretending to bite both his cake ball and Angela's cake ball.
After the sex was revealed, Aunt Angela brought out some blue balloons and some homemade party hats.Again, Caden is just pretending to eat. :)
But Caroline was actually eating the cake. She loved the cake and is excited to be a big cousin.
We are all looking forward to another little baby in the family.

Flowers for Mommy

2011-12-01T18:53:00.000-06:00

On our trip to Sweet Berry Farms, Caden did something really sweet while we were walking around the flowers.

Caden was walking with me when he found a flower he liked and started saying, "for mommy" over and over. I helped him pick the one he liked best.
Caden then ran towards Amy holding the flower out.Caden was very excited to give mommy a flower.
Caden, mommy, and one pretty flower.
Amy asked Caden to hold the flower for her and he was happy to do so.
How sweet is Caden! I love that he knew Amy would like a flower.

Sweet Berry Farm

2011-11-27T12:17:00.002-06:00

A little before Halloween, our small group went on a trip to Sweet Berry Farms to see the pumpkin patch and other stuff. We thought the kids would enjoy it and hoped to snap a few cute pictures.
At first, we checked out the animals. Here, the kids are watching the goats.
There was a really cool train. We didn't ride it this year but might next year.
Caden loved watching the train go around.
Probably the coolest thing was the flower garden. There was a massive area full of colorful flowers.A butterfly hovered around Caroline and I for awhile. it even landed on a few near by flowers so we could get a better view. Caroline LOVED seeing the butterfly.Caroline spent much of the time looking for more butterflies.
Caden also enjoyed the flowers. (I have another story to post about that later.)
The twins thought the pumpkins were cool as well. There were a ton of pumpkins in all sorts of varieties.
Caden loved trying to pick up the pumpkins. Sometimes, he bit off more than he could chew, but he was able to find several pumpkins he could lift.
There were all sorts of cute photo spots. Caden wanted to pose with a pumpkin while Caroline wanted to hold a flower she picked.After watching Caden, Caroline decided to pick up some pumpkins.
Hay, Caden!
Both kids liked this little tractor. We had to wait in line to ride it. They would have played on it longer had there not been a line waiting for them to finish.
The last thing we did before leaving was check out a fire truck. Caden thought it was very cool.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

2011-11-25T19:44:00.011-06:00

A couple months ago, the annual NI picnic took place in Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio. We decided to pack up the family and head south for our first trip to an amusement park with the kids. We actually went down the night before and stayed with some friends. That allowed us to get to the park bright and early without being rushed.

This was our twins first trip to an amusement park. Amy and I were very excited. Since NI rented out the entire park, the lines would be very minimal. (Not that Amy and I would be able to go on any of the rides we'd like.)
Caden was ready to go play while Caroline was still getting sunblock applied.
The twins first ride ever was the tea cups. Caroline rode with me.
And Caden rode with Amy. Caden definitely enjoyed it more than Caroline (which is not surprising since he has no fear).
We then went to drive some cars. Sadly, the kids were not allowed to drive but they still had fun. Here is Caroline with Amy. Caroline could barely see over the edge in her pink car.
The twins were allowed to drive on this ride. Well, at least they thought they were because everyone had a steering wheel.
A family photo.
I took the kids on a ride that spun around and went into the air about 15-20 feet. When we climbed into the large strawberry, I told the kids to hold onto the pole in the middle for safety.
Cautious Caroline obeyed and never let go. She clung to that pole with a two hand death grip...especially when we were in the air.
Caden, on the other hand, did not care about holding onto the pole for long. He needed both hands free to completely enjoy the ride. As we were spinning in the air, Caden was putting his face right up to the edge so he could get a better view. He kept telling me how high we were.
After some fun playing in the park, we went to get a picnic lunch. I think Caden was trying to look at Scoobie Doo walking around.
The last thing we wanted to do before leaving was ride the train. The twins had waved at the train numerous times that day and were very excited to get to ride it. Here are our train pictures.
We made a quick stop in the gift shop to buy a souvenir magnet. The kids thought the stuffed animals were really cool, especially this giant Bugs Bunny.
One last photo before we left the park.
Our kids were exhausted by the time we got in the car and were ready for a nap. These pictures were taken before we pulled out of our parking spot. Both kids were sleeping before we exited the parking lot.
We had a ton of fun and hope the NI company picnic is at Six Flags next year as well.

Traffic Light

2011-11-18T22:07:00.002-06:00

The other day, I was driving the car with the entire family. I stopped at a red light and then started to turn right. Caden started saying, "red, stop! red, stop!" over and over. He was very concerned. Amy explained to him how it is sometimes okay to turn right on red. How funny is that.

Caden's Miniature Guitar

2011-11-15T22:21:00.001-06:00

I told a friend how much Caden loves guitars. She suggested we give him a real, miniature one to see if he likes it. She even had one to loan us.

When I gave the miniature guitar to Caden, he freaked out. Caden LOVED it!!!Caroline liked the guitar as well and Caden was willing to share a little...a very little. Both kids knew the guitar was for Caden.Caden actually slept with the guitar the first few days we had it. He was unwilling to go to bed without it. In bed, Caden would strum the guitar as he fell asleep. On the first night, after he fell asleep, I moved the guitar outside his crib but it was within view. Caden woke up that night screaming, "GUITAR!!!" We put it back in his crib and we went right back to sleep.

Caden still wants to take it to bed almost every night, though we rarely let him do so. On some nights, he runs to bed with his guitar and is willing to go to bed a little early if he can take it. We typically oblige and take the guitar out after he falls asleep. (He is now okay with that.)

Caden is great at strumming the guitar and has made up numerous songs as he plays the guitar. Here are a few of our favorite Caden songs:

He will sing, "If You're Happy and You Know It" including the clapping, stomping etc. He even smiles and points at his cheeks.
He sings about the family. The most common songs are, "Mommy, mommy, mommy", "Mommy, Daddy, Caroline, Caden" (repeat), and "Caroline, no, Caroline no".
He has a couple things he plays where he has a jam session and then yells, "Everybody now!"
He sings, "holy, holy, holy, God". We think he is singing one of Amy and my favorite songs called Revelation Song. He hears it a lot in the car.

For some reason, Caden now refers to the guitar as "Daddy's guitar." I'm not sure how that came to be but Caden regularly decides something of his is mine and he is borrowing it. It often happens with clothes. He'll decide a shirt he is wearing is my shirt because it looks like something I'd wear. He will tell Caroline and Amy over and over he is wearing my shirt.

Well, I digress. Here is one more picture of our little rock star.

We have some videos of him playing the guitar and singing songs but they are still on the camera. I plan to share them eventually.

Amy and I are already talking about how old he needs to be before he can take lessons. At the moment, Caden definitely has the love. I guess we'll just have to wait and see if the love stays and if there is any talent.

Show You the Cupcakes

2011-11-03T18:44:00.003-05:00

I forgot to post a little story that went with Amy making the cupcakes...

Amy made cupcakes and had them on the counter. Caroline saw them, ran over to Caden who was on the other side of the kitchen, and said:

"Caden"
"Over there"
"Cupcakes"
"Show You"

How cute is that!

Second Birthday Cupcakes

2011-11-02T19:54:00.002-05:00

Amy wanted to make cupcakes for our family birthday party. She saw a rainbow cupcake recipe she wanted to try. After making the cake batter, Amy divided it into four bowls and dyed each a different color.
She then spooned each into cupcake holders one color at a time.And baked like normal. Here is what they looked like right out of the oven.
Amy then made a homemade butter cream frosting and decorated it with sprinkles.
Of course, two of the cupcakes got two candles. Caden (yes, Caden) was very interested in the new cupcakes. He managed to get close enough to touch one with his hand. He then linked the small amount of frosting he scraped off.
Here are the birthday kids! You can see that Caden is wearing his guitar.
Caroline loved us singing to her.
So did Caden. He clapped and said, "yeaaaa" after we finished singing "Happy Birthday."
Of course, Caroline loved the cupcake...while Caden only licked his it once. :)Here is an interior shot of one of the rainbow cupcakes. Doesn't it look awesome? I think Amy should have made these for the kids party at the water park.
That is all I have for the twins second birthday. I can't believe two years have already passed us by. Soon, we'll be sending them off to college...and Amy and I will go on a large vacation (assuming we can afford it). :)

Halloween 2011

2011-10-31T20:24:00.008-05:00

Happy Halloween!!! This year, the twins were dressed as Cookies and Milk. We envisioned Caroline being the cookies because she loves her sweets and Caden as milk because he really loves his milk. It turns out, both kids wanted to be the milk. :)

We went to a Halloween party with our small group where all the kids dressed up. Here are some pics of our kids in their costumes.

Here is our little milk carton, Caroline. I love how she pokes her head out the front of this costume.
Caden as a cookie.
We even managed to get a couple pictures of them together.
Caden was ready to take off the cookie costume and try on the milk costume.
Now it is Caden's turn to be the milk.
And Caroline was the cookie.

Birthday Tire Swing

2011-10-31T19:37:00.000-05:00

For the twins first birthday, I built the twins a swing set. This year, I didn't do any where near as much. Instead, Amy and I bought them a tire swing. I designed the swing set to accommodate a tire swing underneath the tower and was looking forward to eventually getting one.

Amy and I got a good deal on a tire swing from a Toys 'R' Us that was moving. The rope was too long and it was designed to be hung like a traditional swing from two points but I thought I could make it work. I shorted the rope and bought some stuff from Home Depot so I could hang the swing from one point in a way where it could spin. I also needed to reinforce the floor boards to hold the tire swing.

Here is the new tire swing before either kid ever saw it.
Caroline was immediately interested in the tire swing. She was so cute holding on tightly. After getting on, she right away started saying, "Caden, sit there" referring to the seat opposite of her.
Caden was happy to get onto the swing with Caroline.
They both wanted me to sit on their with them but I told them I was too big and the tire swing is just for kids.
I pushed the twins all around spinning them quite a bit. They loved it and held on very tight.
After I got them off the swing, they were both a little dizzy. Caden actually fell over several times trying to walk. He found this hilarious.

Now, when I take the kids out to play on the swing set, they first want to swing on the normal swing. After awhile, they want to climb on the tower and go down the slide. And after doing that a few times, they always want to play on the tire swing.

Second Birthday Presents

2011-10-30T13:38:00.017-05:00

We are way behind on the blog. I have a number of blog entries planned before I get caught up.

The twins turned two about a month ago. They got all sorts of great presents and one obnoxious present (thanks Grandpa). We opened presents from family one night and then from their friends after their birthday party.

Here are a few pictures of the present opening festivities.

Unlikely last year, both kids definitely understand opening and getting presents now. They had a lot of fun. Caden did something that reminded us of his cousin Will. Anytime a present contained clothes, Caden would toss them over his head and immediately continue looking for something good. :)
My mom and sister got the kids a great train table. Right before we started opening presents, we took the kids to our room and then brought the table out (which I had assembled and hid).
Caroline was very excited when she first saw the table. I didn't get a good picture of Caden's reaction but he was even more excited.
The twins played with the table immediately.
Caroline playing with an interactive Thomas the Train book.
Caden patiently waiting for Poppa to open his new car transporter.
Grammie and Poppa gave Caden a guitar. He had been wanting a guitar for awhile and was ecstatic to finally get one.
This guitar is cool because it has a keyboard and has a motion sensor to detect when it is being strummed.
We should have opened this a little later because it was hard to get Caden to open any more presents after he got this guitar.
Grammie and Poppa also gave the twins a couple of big wheels/tricycles. They are not quite tall enough to turn the pedals but I'm sure they'll be able to do so soon. Despite that, the kids can move around using their legs.
Here is the obnoxious present from Grandpa. Mimi told him it was annoying but he insisted. What makes this toy annoying is it has a motion sensor and anytime it seems something move, it giggles loudly. Caroline loves it! Thankfully, Amy found out it has an off switch hidden under the pajamas. Un-thankfully, Caroline saw Amy find the switch and knows how to turn it back on. :)
Caden and Caroline didn't even know Curious George came in book form. They love watching George on TV.
The twins also got a cool easel. One side has a dry erase board and the other side has a chalk board. Caroline is our little artist and immediately made like 20-30 pages of art. She would draw on a page, then lift it up and get under so she could draw on another page.
Caroline drew on so many pages so quickly that we decided to take away the book of paper. :) Now, we keep a few pages up there at all times and replenish as necessary.
The kids got all sorts of great stuff for their birthday. All the great stuff should keep them entertained for a long time.

Two Year Checkup

2011-10-16T15:01:00.000-05:00

The twins had their two year checkup and everything is going well.

The kids were really good this appointment. They were friendly and happy (right up until the vaccines came). While we were talking to the doctor, Caden opened the door and took off running with Caroline right behind. Both kids were only wearing diapers for their jailbreak. Before I could catch them, they both made their way to the waiting room with the toys.

When the doctor was leaving, Caden gave her a big hug and a kiss. The doctor turned her head so Caden kissed her cheek and not the mouth she was going for. We thought it was very sweet.

Both kids went up in percentiles across the board. Before the appointment, we were a little worried that Caden hadn't been gaining enough weight since he feels so much lighter than Caroline. Turns out, he is light but still within his growth curve.

Here are the twins measurements from this appointment.

Caroline

two year:
weight: 27 lbs 4 ounces and 60th percentile
height: 36 inches and greater than 95th percentile
head circumference: 50 cm and 95th percentile

eighteen month:
weight: 23 lbs 12 ounces and 48th percentile
height: 33 1/4 inches and 94th percentile
head circumference: 47.9 cm and 80th percentile

fifteen month:
weight: 20 lbs 3 ounces and 20th percentile
height: 31 3/4 inches and 90th percentile
head circumference: 46.5 cm and 70th percentile

twelve month:
weight: 20 lbs 1 ounces and 30th percentile
height: 30 inches and 76th percentile
head circumference: 46.4 cm and 75th percentile

nine month:
weight: 18 lbs 7 ounces and 50th percentile
height: 28 inches and 70th percentile
head circumference: 45 cm and 65th percentile

six month:
weight: 15 lbs 15 ounces and 50th percentile
height: 27 inches and 90th percentile
head circumference: 43 cm and 52nd percentile

four month:
weight: 13 lbs 6 ounces and 45th percentile
height: 25 inches and 75th percentile
head circumference: 41.3 cm and 50th percentile

two month:
weight: 11 lbs 12 ounces and 75th percentile
height: 23 inches and 75th percentile
head circumference: 39.4 cm and 53rd percentile

one month:
weight: 9 lbs 1 ounces and 50th percentile
height: 20.5 inches and 30th percentile
head circumference: 36.5 cm and 25th percentile

two week:
weight: 7 lbs 10 ounces and 25th percentile
height: 20 inches and 50th percentile
head circumference: 35.4 cm and 25th percentile

birth:
weight: 7 lbs
height: 19.375 inches
head circumference: 34 cm and 25th percentile

Caden

two year:
weight: 23 lbs 13 ounces and 5 to 10th percentile
height: 34.5 inches and 60th percentile
head circumference: 49.5 cm and 75th percentile

eighteen month:
weight: 21 lbs 4 ounces and 5th percentile
height: 32 inches and 50th percentile
head circumference: 47.5 cm and 40th percentile

fifteen month:
weight: 19 lbs 1 ounces and less than 5th percentile
height: 31 inches and 55th percentile
head circumference: 46.5 cm and 28th percentile

twelve month:
weight: 18 lbs 5 ounces and 5th percentile
height: 29 inches and 25th percentile
head circumference: 46 cm and 30th percentile

nine month:
weight: 17 lbs 8 ounces and 10th percentile
height: 27 inches and 10th percentile
head circumference: 44.5 cm and 25th percentile

six month:
weight: 14 lbs 15 ounces and 8th percentile
height: 25 1/4 inches and 10th percentile
head circumference: 43cm and 25th percentile

four month:
weight: 12 lbs 11 ounces and 10th percentile
height: 24 inches and 25th percentile
head circumference: 41cm and 20th percentile

two month:
weight: 10 lbs 4 ounces and 25th percentile
height: 22 1/4 inches and 25th percentile
head circumference: 38.2 cm and 12th percentile

one month:
weight: 7 lbs 13 ounces and 5th percentile
height: 20 inches and 5th percentile
head circumference: 35.8 cm and 6th percentile

two week:
weight: 6 lbs 4 ounces and 5th percentile
height: 19 inches and 6th percentile
head circumference: 33.9 cm and 5th percentile

birth:
weight: 5 lbs 10 ounces
height: 18.125 inches
head circumference: 32.3cm and 5th percentile

Conversation with Caroline After Party

2011-10-11T20:36:00.002-05:00

Here is a conversation I had with Caroline when I was putting her to bed the night after her birthday party.

Jason: "Did you have fun today?"
Caroline: "Yes"
Jason: "What was your favorite thing you did today? Was it sliding down the water slide?"
Caroline: [Nothing]
Jason: "Was it opening presents?"
Caroline: [Nothing]
Jason: "Was it eating your birthday cookie?"
Caroline: "Yes. Cookie."
Jason: [Laugh]

Second Birthday Party

2011-10-10T19:18:00.013-05:00

Our kids recently turned two. We had their birthday party at a really cool splash park near our house.
The party favors were buckets and beach balls that the kids could start playing with at the party.
Caroline likes the small fountains the best. When you step on them, they will actually shoot water further than the larger fountains. Nearby adults need to be careful.
Caden exploring with Grammie wondering when the water was going to come back.Here are some of their friends exploring the splash park.
Grandma and Caroline having some fun.
Once again, Caroline likes the small fountains the best.
Caroline hanging out with Grammie.
One of the cool features of this splash park is the water slide. The kids went down this numerous times.
Caden likes going down close to the edge.Even some adults enjoyed going down the water slide.After all the playing, it was time for some lunch. Amy used buckets to hold the food and shovels to serve it.
Caroline was very interested at the food while Mimi was making sure she didn't fall or stick her hands directly into a bucket of food.Mmmmmmmmmm, Chick-Fil-A chicken nuggets. Even the adults enjoy these.
We had two types of sweets for people to choose from. We had these cool fish cookies from Target.
And Amy made some gluten free cupcakes.It was a a little windy so we attempted to use a towel to keep the wind from blowing out the candles. It didn't work but the kids didn't mind.After everyone finished singing happy birthday, Caden cheered and clapped. This reaction was way better than at their first birthday party where Caden cried.
For some reason, Caroline did not immediately dig into her cookie. Instead, she wanted to share my cookie. She ended up eating three quarters of my cookie!
Later, Caroline told Grammie that, "Daddy ate Caroline's cookie." Grammie made it right by giving her another cookie. Our sneaky little girl had one and three quarter cookies! We didn't figure that out until later. :)Their friends enjoyed the sweets as well...though I think Caroline was the only one to get more than one.
After a hard day of playing, some of us needed a nap.
After we were done with the water part, Caden and Caroline enjoyed exploring the surrounding area. They gathered a lot of rocks and checked out a bunch of stuff.
I think Caden was singing songs with Grandma here.
The party was over, so it was time for some hugs. Caden loves hugging people. Caroline was content watching the hugs.
The last thing Caroline did at her party was get a ride on the cooler from Grandpa. I'm sure Caden was jealous.
We had a lot of fun at the twins second birthday party. I can't believe two years have already passed us by. Caden and Caroline are so sweet and so fun that they made the time just fly by.

Sleeping with Caroline

2011-10-07T18:49:00.001-05:00

Caroline has recently started taking a lot, and I do mean A LOT, of stuffed animals to bed with her. As we take her to bed for the night or just for a nap, she first fills her arms when as many as she can carry and then walks around instructing Jason or I on what we need to pick up and bring too. Here is a picture of her bed after a nap last Sunday afternoon. I walked in to find her lining up her animals and dolls. There are 7! Plus three blankets and a pillow. I am surprised she still has enough room to sleep!
It would be nice if we could leave all of the animals and baby's in the bed for the day. Unfortunately, she also insists that they stay in the living room on the couch for the majority of her waking hours. Oh well! Caroline is our excellent sleeper. She has slept about 12 hours a night without fail for more than a year, so, whatever she wants in her bed, we're happy to provide!

Here's our happy girl after a long nap!

Drag Racing

2011-10-06T21:29:00.000-05:00

Our kids love riding their cars down the small incline on our driveway. They know how to scoot to the top, turn around, and then roll down the driveway at a surprisingly fast speed. They know how to steer the cars and use their feet as brakes before hitting grass, the curb, or the garage. I keep saying I need to get this on video.
We were outside doing our normal soap box racing. At one point, Caroline was at the starting point ready to go down but she decided to wait for Caden. Caden eventually made it to the top and turned his car around.

Soon after Caden turned around, Caroline looked at him and said, "let's do this!" They both immediately took off down the hill as fast as they could.

Seriously! Those were her exact words. I have no idea where she got that. Has anyone been letting her watch The Fast and the Furious?

Seattle -- Visiting the Zoo

2011-09-19T22:21:00.013-05:00

One thing we did in Seattle was visit the zoo.
Our kids enjoyed looking for animals. In some of the exhibits, there were no animals to be found so Amy told the kids the animals were sleeping. So, any time the kids couldn't see the animal we we were looking for, they would say, "night-night, animal." And yes, they said, "animal" most of the time instead of anything more specific.

Here are a few of the animals that weren't sleeping...except the lion. I think it was sleeping. Thankfully, it was doing so in plain site.
Whenever we left an animal exhibit, Caden would say, "bye-bye, animal." And yes, it was still "animal."

Outside the giraffe cage, the kids found an interactive sign where you could learn more about some animals. The twins were very excited to look at the picture and then look at the picture underneath.
Caden and mommy were looking at a sleeping lion in this picture.
Here is Caden and Mommy looking at, well, I'm gonna say, an animal.
Even though our kids love animals, by far their favorite part of this zoo was the Zoo Mazium play area. This is where we met the Baker five so our kids loved running into them. Wwe left home earlier than the Baker's so we did most of our zoo exploring without them.

The entrance had some smaller doors for the kids to go through.
Caden wanted to make sure the doors closed completely.
Inside, was a really cool play area. There was a mountain and tree the kids could plan on. Here is our little rock climber.
He made it to the summit and found a slide.
Caden slid down the slide and immediately went over to a nearby woman, gave her legs a giant hug, and then reached up for her to pick him up. He then noticed, he didn't recognize her. I think he thought she was Aunt Amy. Caden then smiled and walked over to me as I called him.

Caroline also enjoyed the slide. You can see she found a stuffed animal to play with.
Big Cal smiling for the camera.
There was a series of caves underneath the mountain that the kids could explore. A few times, Will hid around a cave corner and jumped out to scare the twins as they came around. Our kids found that hilarious! Will cracks them up.
The last thing did at the zoo was got to a petting zoo. There were not any animals available when we showed up but they did have this cool tractor for our kids to drive.We had a fun day at the zoo. It was well worth the Groupon.

...And this concludes our vacation to Seattle.

Seattle -- Our Vancouver Vacation Within a Vacation

2011-09-18T13:03:00.001-05:00

Since we were in Seattle for almost two weeks, we wanted to go on a mini vacation somewhere. Vancouver was at the top of our list. We decided to rent a car and make the two and a half hour drive to Canada for a short stay.

The first thing we decided to do in Vancouver was visit Granville Island. Granville Island has a farmers market and some unique stores. We arrived around lunch time, so getting some food was our top priority.
The kids mostly ate stuff we brought with us. Here is Caden enjoying an apple and gold fish. Amy and I bought a few things to eat at some of the many shops.We ate outside where there were a lot of birds looking for food. The birds were fairly aggressive and would hang out under your chair and table. Here is a picture of Caden chasing some pigeons.
Later in the day, a crazy bird actually buzzed Caroline's head and hit her! It caught Caroline off guard but she didn't get too upset. Amy was definitely the most upset and wanted to track that bird down.

Here is a view from the dock next to where we ate lunch.
One of the cool stores on Granville Island was a kids market. It was basically a collection of a whole bunch of unique toy stores. For example, one store only sold classic wood toys.
Outside the toy market was a fake boat the kids like steering.It was obvious our kids were getting tired and we needed to leave so they could take a nap. I told them the last thing we would do would be buy some gelato (which I called ice cream). Amy found a bench to sit on and I went to buy some gelato for the family to share. That is when I made a completely thoughtless mistake...

I ordered a small cup of chocolate gelato. The server then asked what other flavor I would like. I was not expecting to pick out a second flavor so, without thinking twice, I ordered a scoop of Butterfinger gelato.

When I proudly returned with my cup of chocolate and Butterfinger gelato, Amy said, "doesn't Butterfinger contain peanuts?" She was absolutely correct. We have been avoiding peanuts with the kids since they have a cousin that was allergic, and Caroline has shown a few signs of being allergic when eating things made in peanut oil. We just couldn't let them have any of the Butterfinger gelato!

But the kids knew I had some ice cream for us all to share. They even saw the four little spoons sticking out of the cup. They did not understand why I was being such a mean dad not allowing them to dig in. Their exhaustion made matters even worse and we soon had two screaming kids.

The tiny little cup of gelato cost $7 bucks so we were not going to go wait in a long line to buy another cup. Instead, Amy and I scarfed down the scoop of Butterfinger as fast as we could without enjoying it at all. Once that flavor was completely gone, we let our kids dig in. Caroline finally calmed down when we let her use a spoon to get her own ice cream. Caden didn't recover until we were on the way to the car.

I had ruined what was suppose to be a nice family moment of sharing gelato in Vancouver by buying a flavor containing peanuts. Oh well. I'm sure I'll ruin tons of moments during our lifetime. :) Thankfully, the rest of the trip went way better than this.

Here is Caroline eating some traumatic chocolate gelato.
Ten minutes after the gelato fiasco, this was the view of the backseat in our car.
We drove to the hotel to check in. I stayed in the car with the sleeping twins while Amy checked us in. She then stayed in the car while I took a load of stuff up to our room.
Here is our room. We were on the tenth floor and had a decent view.The kids were very interested in the hotel room...especially the window. Amy thought the grandmothers would die if they saw us letting the kids climb on the window like this. The twins were very excited about the view where they could see buildings, buses, cars, people, and even a fountain.
The kids burned a lot of energy running around the hotel room and there was a lot of squealing. Hopefully, no neighbor was trying to sleep at that time. The kids even climbed in and out of their pack n play while we were playing. It was obvious the pack n plays would not contain the kids if they didn't want to be contained.

After letting the kids play in the hotel room for a little while, we left to walk around the city. There was a McDonald's next door, so we ordered the kids some fries and chicken nuggets. The twins ate that in their stroller and Amy and I walked around looking for our dinner. Here are the two food trucks we ate at that night.
The first sold rotisserie chicken sandwiches. In Austin, Amy had actually read about this place online and wanted to try it out. We were shocked to walk by it right after leaving McDonald's and we shared a delicious sandwich.

The second place was right in front of our hotel. We had an okay Philly cheese steak and some awesome poutine fries. Poutine fries are everywhere in Canada. They are basically fries with cheese curds covered in brown gravy. We loved the fries and agreed they were easily the best thing we ate in Vancouver.

We walked around exploring until it was time for the kids to go to sleep. We then returned to the hotel, where the kids went to bed much more easily than either of us expected.

After the kids were sleeping, Amy allowed me walk around down town for a couple hours checking stuff out. I took some pictures and even bought some more gelato. The gelato was much more enjoyable this time.
That night, we all had a surprisingly good night sleep. With the dark curtains, we actually slept in a little. If we had known how well the kids were going to do in the hotel, we would have stayed a second night.

In the morning, we wanted to take the kids to the most Canadian place in the world--Tim Horton's. Tim Horton's are like the Starbucks of Canada except the prices are really good (probably, a quarter the price). They serve coffee, donuts, and breakfast food. No matter where you are in Canada, I think there is always a Tim Horton's in site.

Here are the twins enjoying some Tim Horton donut holes. There was an initial disagreement over who got to hold the box so I went and got a second box so they could each have one.
After eating breakfast, we headed over to Stanley Park. Stanley Park is kinda like Vancouver's version of Central Park.
The first thing we saw was some totem poles.
Despite the picture, Amy was not impressed. She was ready to move on immediately. :)From the park, there are several nice views of the Lions Gate Bridge.
We spent a lot of time walking around the park. The kids enjoyed exploring.
I love the giant smile on Caden's face here as he ran towards me.
Here is our rental car. It served us well.
The kids had fun in the rental car. Here is Caden playing Cal's guitar. Cal wasn't so sure about loaning it to us for the trip, but his mommy convinced him it would be okay. We were happy to have it. Caroline was sitting in what she calls "Angie's seat." She calls the middle seat this because when Aunt Angie visits us in Austin, she often rides around in the seat between the twins car seats.
After leaving the park, we went back to downtown Vancouver to find some food. Amy ate at a taco truck that was suppose to make the best tacos in Vancouver. They might have been the best in Canada, but they would not have made the top ten in Austin. :) I ate at a Persian place that was different than anything I'd had before. It was probably a little two different for me, but it was fun to try.

One final view of Vancouver before we headed back to the Seattle.
We safely returned to the states. The border crossings did not cause any problems for us at all.
We all had a lot of fun on our family mini-cation to Vancouver.

Seattle -- Hanging at the Baker House

2011-09-14T19:37:00.000-05:00

We spent a lot of time hanging out at the Baker house. Our kids loved playing with their cousins and with all their cousin's cool toys.

These first two pictures pictures are of Caden on the night we arrived. This is around midnight Austin time and Caden was still going strong despite only sleeping about 30 minutes since 2:00pm our time.
Caden LOVED this guitar! He carried it around with him any chance he got. He knew how to put it on, turn the guitar to twist the strap so it didn't hag so low, and then strum. You can see the strumming of his left hand in this shot.
He also loved the crazy purple glasses. Sadly, there was a little disagreement between the twins on who should have the glasses and they broke as Caroline tried to, uh, remove them from Caden's face.

Despite losing the classes, Caden still enjoyed the guitar the entire time we were in Seattle. He could make sounds with the strings (though the batteries were intentionally removed by the Bakers). Every once in awhile, he sang while playing. He wrote a nice song that went, "MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!!! MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!!!" that was accompanied with fierce plucking of the strings.
Ella taught the twins how to jump over this toy.
Caden loved exploring all the toys. Here he is carrying a box of some sort of blocks. You can see a little bit of the mess behind him. We might have left a mess behind when we left Seattle. We had every intention of cleaning up after our kids, but, well, my bad. Sorry Michael and Amy.
Our little guy sure likes musical toys. Here, he is playing some drums.
With all this playing, Caden did sleep pretty well. Sometimes, he slept in a pack 'n play...
And sometimes he slept in bed with mommy...
But his blankie, paci, and Curious George were always with him. Also, Caden did climb out of the pack 'n play a few times this trip. Thankfully, he did not bring that habit home to his crib.

One of our kids favorite activities was riding wheeled vehicles outside down a little hill. They wanted very little help when doing this and were surprisingly good an maneuvering.
This next picture happened AFTER we were done riding bikes one day. We survived riding crazy vehicles down a giant hill at breakneck speeds with little to no adult supervision without any injuries but Caden managed to fall over in the flat garage while walking inside!
Thankfully, we've seen bumps just like this before so we weren't worried. Ella said that she thinks she accidentally tripped him (which is very sweet of her to admit) but I know she didn't. Caden just fell. With him being top heavy, his forehead took the brunt of the fall. Caden calmed down pretty quickly, we gave him some medicine for the pain, and continued playing like normal. The bump completely disappeared in a couple days.

The Baker's house was on a great lot that backed up to a wooded area full of trails. One day, we went hiking back there. Here is Caroline with her walking stick. She saw the cousins with them and decided she needed one as well. She also has a wild blackberry in her other hand. There were all sorts of berries growing just off the trails.
Caroline enjoyed eating the blackberries. She also enjoyed picking and eating some blueberries from the Baker's backyard.

Caden was exploring and looking at some wild blackberries.
The twins were leading the pack at this point...or maybe they were way behind...I don't remember.
Cousin Ella posing on a large rock. She is growing up so fast.
Cal was having a lot of fun, though he didn't love getting his picture taken. He and I raced most of the way home. He frequently notified me that he was winning. :)
Ella's 8th bday occurred while we were in Seattle. We celebrated by letting her choose an entire meal. She chose homemade mac 'n' cheese, cinnamon apples, pickles, and fruit pizza. That was all we were allowed to have (though Michael and I snuck in some sausage). Ella was super excited and declared it the best meal ever anywhere.

Here is Ella posing with the fruit pizza she decorated.
We then did some video chatting with the grandparents before opening presents. Everyone was very happy to talk to Grammie and Poppa. Caden even open mouth kissed the screen several times.
Then it was time to open presents. Cal kept saying this was the best birthday party ever! What a sweet guy.
Caroline helped open presents. She wanted to make extra sure we didn't miss anything from this bag. Here is Will playing with one of Ella's new games. Basically, you put a card on your head but don't know what it is. You then ask "yes" or "no" questions and try to figure it out. This was a fun game but it can be tricky to play without multiple adults. For example, I had a card with a picture of a ketchup bottle. I asked if you eat it and they said, "part of it." After getting a number of cryptic answers, I found out they were considering the ketchup AND the bottle when answering questions. :)

Our little snuggler curling up with Ella.
Another fun thing we did was make smores in a fire in the backyard. One absolutely brilliant Baker addition was putting some peanut butter on the smore. We also made some with nutella.
Caroline loved her smore. She ate the entire thing and would have had another had we let her.
Instead of eating a smore, Caden preferred running around and playing on the slide.
Making smores and running around outside was easily one of our kids favorite things we did on this trip. In general, our kids enjoyed playing with their cousins at the Baker more than any of the parks or other activities we did on this trip. Now that we are back in Austin, they are sure missed!

Seattle -- Around Town

2011-09-12T19:51:00.000-05:00

During our last trip to Seattle, the twins were at an age where they would be happy no matter where we went. They could easily sleep in the car or stroller allowing us to do all sorts of cool Seattle stuff. This year, the kids were much more opinionated on what we did so we chose more kid friendly activities. We went to a ton of parks, the zoo, and spent a lot of time at the Baker house. We still had a lot of fun but it was a very different trip.

The twins loved hanging out with their cousins, aunt, and uncle. Ella was especially good and helpful with the kids. The entire time we were in Seattle, Ella was by our twins sides. She played with them sooo much. You will see a lot of pictures of Ella with her cousins. Will was the silly one that would make the twins laugh. He taught them funny words like "ouch-ie-wah-wah." Cal was more of a loner but our kids did enjoy a lot of side by side playing with Cal.

The first park we visited was their neighborhood park. It had a pair of giant slides which lead to Will naming the park the "Mamma Mia Park" (after something the Mario Bros say). You can see Caden, the cousins, and I at the top. Caroline was home taking a nap.
Caden got halfway down the slide and then got a little stuck. His shoes and legs slowed him down. He would have made it down eventually but I went down the slide head first to expedite the process.
One thing I really wanted to do this trip was go to Pike Place Market with the intent of eating. Last year, we walked around but had lunch planned afterwards. This year, anytime something looked good, we got it.
Caroline was in a foul mood when we first arrived. We decided to let her pick out a piece of fruit from one of the vendors. She selected a large apple. While this apple was expensive at $1.50, it might have been the best dollar fifty I've ever spent. Caroline ate the entire thing (all the way down to the core) over the next couple hours. She was happy the entire time she had that apple.
One place I wanted to try made some good mac 'n cheese. Another place made something called a piroshky which is kinda like a Russian kolache.
Both Amy and I thought the savory piroshkies were awesome while the sweet ones were just okay. Next time, we'll get several of the savory ones.
We walked around for a couple hours eating random stuff. We got a bag of sweet nuts to take home that ended up being addicting. Also, on the way out, Caden had a peach sample and loved it. He would never eat them at home but decided he loved them in Seattle. We stopped and bought several peaches to take home.

One day, we went to a park that had a small lake and beach. The kids enjoyed playing in the sand.
The lake park had a gigantic wood playscape.Michael told us about a place called Mod Pizza. They are a small chain in Seattle where all pizzas, no matter the toppings, cost the same--about $7. They are also made fresh and delivered to you in less than five minutes.
Of course, mine was covered in meat.
I used Yelp to find a small bakery/donut shop close to the Baker house.
Most of the donuts were okay. However, they did have maple covered cinnamon rolls that were delicious! As you can see, they were covered in a ton of maple frosting. I wish I had found these earlier in the trip. I would have gone more than just my last two days in Seattle.
One night, the Bakers told Amy and I to go out on a date. Seattle was a little too far away so we decided to go to Famous Dave's BBQ. We had recently seen Famous Dave on a Food Network competition and we thought it would be fun to try it out.
One thing I liked it they have five different kinds of BBQ sauce at the table. I tried all of them other than the mustard based one (which I would not call BBQ sauce). None were awesome, but they were all decent. For the most part, I combined a few to make my own sauce.When you see the next picture, you might think I went a little overboard ordering...but I think I ordered perfectly. I had a half slab of ribs, sausage, brisket, fries, corn, mac 'n cheese, and cornbread. It is no Texas BBQ (even though they call it "Texas brisket" and have a Texas sauce) but it is better than I was expecting in Seattle.
The next night, Amy and I watched all the kids while Michael and Amy went to a work dinner. We decided to take the kids to Dairy Queen on our night alone with them.

We told the kids about their special treat during dinner. I asked them what they would get and each of them knew exactly what they wanted. During this dinner conversation, Caroline chimed in with, "own ice cream. Caroline, own ice cream. Caroline, own ice cream." Normally, when we get ice cream, she shares it with someone whether it be Caden, Mommy, Daddy, or a grandparent. (Typically, there is a fight over which adult gets to share with Caden and who has to "share" with Caroline.) I thought it was hilarious she was paying enough attention at dinner and knew she didn't want to share with anyone. I asked her if she wanted a cup or a cone and she said, "cone. Caroline, own ice cream cone."

When we walked into DQ, all five kids were very excited and very loud. I'm sure we annoyed all the customers and staff inside the fine establishment. Amy joked saying people must have wondered why we had five kids. It was obvious we couldn't handle it so I didn't we stop after two or three kids.

Here are our the loud cousins enjoying their ice cream.
Here is Caroline with her own ice cream cone.
Caden got his own as well.
Here is another park close to the Baker's house. Caden loves hanging and climbing on things.
Ella was hanging out with us while Michael was at work and Amy took her boys to speech class. Ella was very helpful. The kids loved following her around.
Here are a couple pictures from yet another park. Big Cal wanted to go down every single slide (about a dozen) at this park.
Caden loved being pushed by Ella...though it might not appear so in this picture. :)
Last year, we ate at a cool pizza place called The Rock. It was pretty good pizza with a lot of random flavors. This year, we found out they had a buffet during the week at lunch. So, on one of our last days in Seattle, we went to the rock for a ton of fancy pizza. I was too busy stuffing my face with pizza making the buffet worth while (for the entire table) to remember to take any pictures.
When driving around the suburbs of Seattle, I noticed a lot of restaurants with the word "Pho" in their name. I think maybe half of all restaurants served pho. I knew what pho was but had never had it before. Michael was not interested so the rest of us went while he was at work.
Amy got a Banh Mi sandwich that looked really good.
I got pho. Pho is basically a soup with meat and noodles served with bean sprouts, basil, and a few other things on the side (which I added to the soup). They had a ton of pho choices. I ordered a normal sounding one with steak, brisket, and meatballs. However, I actually got brisket and tripe (cow stomach).I thought the pho was pretty good, but I am not dieing to get it again. The tripe was a little too weird for me but I ate it. Amy was mad at me later when I told her what tripe was. She was upset that I let her and Caroline taste my soup.

Here is Caroline enjoying some fried rice. I thought the fried rice was awesome. All the kids shared one order.
Caroline and her Aunt Amy after our dinner at House of Pho.Here is one of the last parks we went to. This one was one of the closest and might have been my favorite. The kids favorite part of this park was running up and down a hill.
After all that running, the cousins needed a snack and drink
The Baker Boys.
Our twins enjoying some apple sauce.
We had a lot of fun doing stuff in Seattle (and the suburbs of Seattle).

Seattle -- The Flight

2011-09-11T16:38:00.007-05:00

We recently got back from a trip to Seattle. We went to visit Amy's brother and his family. We were there for almost two weeks. This is our second trip to Seattle with the kids.

We had a nice surprise when when our plane arrived at the gate...it was a Disney plane! The kids were very excited to see it.
Another nice surprise was there were just a few empty seats on the plane and we got one of them. This allowed the four of us to sit in the same row of three. We were expecting to sit in different rows with no seats for the kids. This would be our last flight where the kids fly free and sit on our laps.

Caden enjoyed looking for "trains" at the airport carrying luggage.
Despite our extra cool plane, row to ourselves, and trains passing by outside, we were not on the plane for more than five minutes when Caden started saying, "all done." We told him, "not yet, but don't worry, we'll be at the Baker house in only six more hours."

With the help of Curious George DVDs and a couple borrowed toys the kids could draw with, we survived the flight.The flight there was by no means horrible but it was not super enjoyable either. Neither kid slept at all during the flight despite us landing around 10:00pm our time. Actually, that is not completely true. Both kids fell asleep immediately after landing but were woken up when everyone on the plane stood up. A three minute nap doesn't really cut it.

Eventually, we made it to the Baker home and got the kids to go to sleep. It was a long day but we had a ton of fun the rest of the trip.

The return flight went quite a bit better than the first flight. We left a little before lunch which was easier on the kids. Both kids slept for close to an hour right after take off. Not only did this kill time, they were in a better mood the rest of the flight.

Overall, our kids did really well on the plane. Amy and I had been dreading this part of the trip.

Homemade Play Dough

2011-09-07T20:12:00.005-05:00

I was reading a few mommy blogs recently and got the idea to make homeade playdoh. My mom made it for me all the time and I loved it, so, I decided to give it a try. It's a super easy recipe and it only took a few minutes to make the dough. The hardest part was kneading in the colors. Here is the concoction in the pan, it cooked for about 3 - 4 minutes before it literally balled up into a playdoh ball. So easy!

You can see my brightly colored green dough ball in the upper corner of the picture. The color is so bright, I love it. This is my red dough ball below. I added a TON of red die to the mixture, and I still ended up with only a dusty rose color instead of red. In the future, I think I'll leave the Red mixture to the people at Mattel, or Fisher Price, or wherever Playdoh is made!
Note to self. Take off wedding ring BEFORE mixing playdoh next time.
Green! So bright and pretty!
Caroline enjoying making shapes with Playdoh. She plays with the dough almost every day and enjoys making circles and stars. Not sure why she doesn't have a shirt on in this picture or why I didn't stop and put a shirt on her before Jason started snapping pictures.....ahhhhh, life with twins!

Kiddos playing with the dough. This was their first playdoh experience. We put a sheet and some waxed paper down on the floor and let them have fun playing with it. Since then, we've moved the playdoh to a play table that they have in the corner of our kitchen.
They have gotten hours of play out of the homeade playdoh, it was well worth the effort!!

First Names

2011-09-06T22:36:00.002-05:00

Our kids do something I find funny when they are looking for Amy or I. They will walk around calling, "Mommy...Mommy...Mommy! Amy...Amy...Amy! Mommy...Mommy...Mommy!" Or "Daddy...Daddy...Daddy! Jason...Jason...Jason! Daddy...Daddy...Daddy"

I think it is funny they know our names and use them when they want us specifically. Using our names is even more common when there are other mommies or daddies around like when we were with the cousins.

A Few Pics of Caroline

2011-09-04T07:57:00.000-05:00

Just a couple quick pictures of Caroline.

PB&J Sandwiches

2011-08-31T20:33:00.002-05:00

I served Caden and Caroline their first PB&J sandwiches a few weeks ago. Well, actually, the PB is sunflower seed butter. We have yet to have peanuts and will put it off for a little while. Cal, one of the cousins, had a peanut allergy (that he thankfully outgrew after a couple years).

Here is Caroline enjoying her sandwich which was shaped like a flower thanks to a cute sandwich cutter from her aunt Angie.
Here is a picture of Caden and his mostly untouched sandwich.
Delicious! Wish mom had thought to serve me Sunbutter a long time ago!

"Back Hug"

2011-08-29T21:08:00.002-05:00

Recently, when I came home from work and bent down to give the kids hugs, Caroline did something funny. Instead of giving me a normal hug, Caroline backed into me and said, "back hug, back hug." I don't know where she came up with that but it made Amy and I laugh.

Every once in a while, Caroline still gives me back hugs.

Spaghetti

2011-08-27T17:05:00.001-05:00

Amy has made spaghetti for the kids several times in the past and they were never interested. But when the cousins were here, both kids tried and liked spaghetti. Since then, Amy has served it a few times. The last time, Caden got it all over. We didn't mind at all since we are just happy if Caden eats anything.

Climbing: Part 3 of 3 -- JW Tumbles

2011-08-16T18:15:00.000-05:00

Another place with lots of fun climbing spots is JW Tumbles. We went there the last two Saturdays with families from our small group. Caden was actually the more enthusiastic climber at JW Tumbles so this post is mostly about him.

Caden warmed up but going right up this metal ladder to the top of their playscape. It is probably about five feet in the air and Caden does it with ease.
Later, Caden was trying his skills on the obstacle course. I was surprised he was able to get on top of this. He really had to work hard for this one.
My favorite part about Caden climbing this obstacle wall was Caroline cheering him on from the sideline. As Caden climbed, Caroline squealing, "yay, Caden!!!" over and over. Then, when he came down, she ran over and hugged and kissed Caden! How sweet is that?

Caden's most impressive climbing feat was the 8+ foot ladder attached to the wall. If I reached up and stretched, I could barely touch the the bell you can see hanging at the top of each ladder.
Caden showed no fear and made it all the way to the top. He enthusiastically rang the bell and then tried to climb even higher. Before he pulled himself over the top bar, I was able to grab his leg and safely pull him down.

Here was Caden's victory celebration as I floated him down from the top of the ladder.

Climbing: Part 2 of 3 -- Play Kitchen

2011-08-15T19:42:00.002-05:00

The Baker Five gave us their old play kitchen. One day, Amy brought it out of the playroom and into our living room. The twins loved it in there and play with it daily.

One way they play with it is by climbing on it. It seems like there is always at least one twin climbing on this thing.

Here is Caroline standing in the sink. The second she got up here, she started yelling, "Picture! Picture! Picture!" Of course, I obliged.
After posing for her first picture, she started going up further by climbing onto the microwave.
She found a nice picture spot.Caden loves climbing on the kitchen as well. Here, Caden is standing in the sink looking over to the grill side.Caden made it all the way to the top! You can see how proud he was to summit Mt Play Kitchen. Both twins have actually stood straight up on the part Caden is sitting on here. Can you believe, he can get up here in under ten seconds?
There favorite kitchen climbing activity would have to be climbing through the window. They will take turns going through over, and over, and over...
As you can see, they don't just look through the window. They go all the way through.Oh, in case you are wondering, I do not know why Caroline happened to be naked in this sequence.

Climbing: Part 1 of 3 -- The Swingset

2011-08-13T16:24:00.024-05:00

The twins each have a lot of traits where we wonder the origin. Sometimes Amy or I try to take credit for a trait. Other times, we blame a trait on the other. One trait shared by our twins where there is no question of origin is their love of climbing. I was definitely a climber as a youngin', and even now, I sometimes, er often, think, "hey, I bet I could climb that."

The kids are getting better and better at climbing. We try keep a close eye on them, which is easier said than done. It has become a common occurrence for us to search for a kid only to find them on top of something. We often find them on the diaper changing table, the kitchen table, desk, indoor playscape, entertainment system, bed, etc, etc, etc. Both kids can scale these items in a mere matter of seconds.

A couple weeks ago, the kids found something outside made for climbing--the swingset! We have used the swingset many times over the last year for swinging. But now, the kids know they can climb the six foot ladder, play on the top, and go down the slide all by themselves. Their first time to do this was in front of a very worried Grandma and Aunt Angie.

Here is my little man heading on up the ladder
Caroline was literally right on his heels.
Now, it is Caroline's turn to go first.Grandma was close by to make sure Caden didn't fall.
Caden pulling himself up to the top.
You may have noticed our kids did not have pants on in these pictures. My bad. The next time we went out to climb, both kids were fully dressed.

Notice two fully dressed and proud kids.
Caroline even wanted to sport her Minnie Ears.
One thing both kids liked doing was grabbing onto the handle bars, standing close to the edge, and hanging out as far as their arms would let them. I didn't get a picture of them doing that because I was busy being ready to catch them in case they fell.
While Caden was doing this, he scared me by declaring, "fall!!!" Typically, when Caden says this, he intentionally falls off whatever he happens to be on. This normally entails him falling off the couch head first. He always finds it hilarious. This time, I explained how it would not be funny to fall from this height and that he would get hurt. I hope he understood. :)
Caroline preparing to go down the slide while Caden patiently waited for his turn.
Now, it's Caden's turn.
I look forward to years of watching the kids play on this swingset. I wonder how long it will be before one of them is on the roof top or walking down the swing crossbar as if it were a balance beam? And in case you are wondering, I think I could do it. :)

Photo Shoot with Cousins at Mayfield Park

2011-08-08T20:58:00.001-05:00

When the Baker Five where in town, we had plans to head down to Mayfield Park to take some family pictures. We had matching outfits ready and a professional photographer all lined up. Sadly, at the last minute, the photographer had to cancel because of back problems. Despite loosing our pro, we decided to wake up early and head to Mayfield Park with the intent of taking our own pictures.

Mayfield Park is a great place for taking pictures and we've been there several times before. One cool thing about this park is they have quite a few peacocks running around. The kids were very interested in the peacocks. For some reason, after this trip to Mayfield Park, whenever we say peacock or play with the Little People peacock, the twins say, "no, no, no, peacock!" I'm not sure where that came from.

We managed to get a number of good pictures. By far, the stars of the day were the girls--Ella and Caroline. They did a much better job posing and smiling for the camera than any of the boys.

We first took some pictures on the porch. The lighting was pretty bad on the porch, so we didn't get much.
Here is big Will giving a big hug to his favorite cousin.We then headed over to another spot to take pictures. I'm not sure why Ella is carrying Caroline in this picture, but Caroline didn't mind in the least. Caroline will do any Ella wants her to do.This is my favorite one of all five kids. We got them to stand like this by telling them we were going to have a race.
Go, go, go!!! I love that Caroline is making eye contact with the camera with a giant smile on her face.
Caroline loved being our little model.
Caden, on the other hand, was way more into exploring than modeling.
The girls cousins.
Aren't they sweet?
I think this is a great picture of Ella.
This is my favorite picture of Will. This was just before he decided he was done posing for pictures.I like that the twins are in the background of this one.
The girl cousins checking the place out together.
They found something fun--a pond with koi fish.
For some reason, Caroline kept tasting the water. She would dip her hand in the water and then stick her finger in her mouth (as shown below). We thought there was a good chance we'd come home with a case of Montezuma's revenge. Thankfully, no one brought anything home.
Cal and Caden checking the ponds out together.
Will didn't know I was taking this picture. Like I said before, he was done. :)
Cal was still up for some pictures.
Poppa and his favorite granddaughters. This was towards the end of our photo shoot and Caroline and Ella were still going strong.
One last little bit of exploring before we left.I was happy with the pictures we ended up getting. We had some great little models. Amy and I need to make it a point to go take pictures like this more often.

Brownie Mixer

2011-08-06T15:19:00.002-05:00

Caden enjoying making his first batch of brownies! He doesn't really care for sweets, so, I doubt he'll try any of them.
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Rolling Pin

2011-08-05T14:56:00.002-05:00

Caroline enjoyed using the rolling pin to roll out her homemade playdoh. She said "heavy" everytime she picked it up.
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Hold You

2011-08-03T21:29:00.004-05:00

One of Caden's new phrases is "Hold You, Hold You". Often, when I pick him up, I say, "can mommy hold you? Or, do you want mommy to hold you?" He's decided now that when he wants me to pick him up, he should say "hold you, hold you mommy." It's so sweet! I love it!

Here is a picture of our sweet and snuggly little guy.

Caden's Blankie

2011-08-02T21:39:00.004-05:00

Caden has a baby blankie that he loves. It is very soft, light blue, and has his name embroidered on the edge. This is a horrible picture of it but you get the idea.
One thing that calms Caden down is rubbing one of the seams between his fingers. After 22 months of this rubbing, Caden wore a tiny hole in the seam. Soon, the hole was large enough to stick his finger into...which he of course did. Just a couple days later, the hole was the size of a golf ball.

We knew the hole would continue growing so we asked Grammie to sew it shut. She quickly patched the hole and gave Caden his refurbished blankie. Within seconds of receiving his blankie, Caden said, "Uh oh... uh oh... broken... fix... fix... broken... fix... fix."

While saying "fix" over and over, he tried to hand me the blanket and show me what needed to be fixed. Both Caden and Caroline believe I can fix anything. Thankfully, I have yet to disappoint them with my fixing ability...although most of the time "fixing" means taping a book back together or replacing the batteries in a toy. :)

I told him his blankie was not broken but was instead better than before. I don't think he believed me. Either way, everyone got a good laugh out of Caden.

Deer In Headlights

2011-07-30T07:52:00.001-05:00

This picture makes me laugh.

Ella's Birthday Party

2011-07-27T14:23:00.010-05:00

We went to Dallas over the 4th of July weekend to celebrate an early birthday with our niece Ella. She had a swim party with lots of her friends from Dallas. The twins thought the party was great!

The birthday girl, Ella! She had her first b-day party in this same pool. I can't believe what a young lady she has grown into!
Cousin Cal swimming in the pool.
Cousin Will swimming in the pool.
Greer, Ella's cousin, showing off her swimming skills! Our favorite line from Greer was...."why do you call Caroline princess? My daddy calls me princess. I am my daddy's princess." So sweet!
Beach ball cookies.
Caroline indulging in a cookie. Yummy! She LOVED it!
Caden peering through the window to the pool. Let me out! After 4 days outside in the pool, we chose to let the twins play inside for this party. Not to worry, there were PLENTY of toys inside for Caden, Caroline and Jaxson (Ella's youngest cousin).
Popsicles by the poolside.
More friends and pool party fun......
Thanks for inviting us to celebrate with you Ella! Can't wait to celebrate with you again in Seattle on your actual birthday!!

Bounce House with Cousins

2011-07-24T12:30:00.002-05:00

Another thing we did with the cousins was visit a bounce house. The kids had a ton of fun and used up a lot of energy. We didn't take many pictures during this trip but I like this one. You can see how Caroline looks up to her big cousin Ella.
Within a few minutes of leaving the bounce house, we had this in our back seat. Our little man was tired and needed a quick nap.

Splash Park with Cousins

2011-07-22T18:45:00.003-05:00

Amy's brother and his family were in town a few weeks ago. While they were here, we all headed to a splash park. We all had a lot of fun.

All five kids liked flying through the water. These first two are Caroline flying.
Caden had a lot of fun with his buckets.
Ella and Cal going down the water slide. You can see Caden and Will in the background.
Caroline and I sliding down.
Caroline trying to taste the water.
We had a lot of fun at the splash park.

Red Head Appreciation Day!

2011-07-20T19:44:00.001-05:00

Marble Slab introduced a New Red Velvet ice cream last week and held "Red Head Appreciation" day to celebrate. Caden and Caroline treated mommy and daddy two free ice cream! Caden probably consumed less than a tablespoon of ice cream. Caroline would have eaten all four scoops if we had let her.

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Swimming with Grandpa

2011-07-18T20:19:00.001-05:00

We went to Dallas during the long Fourth of July weekend. While we were there, the twins did some swimming with Grandpa and Daddy.

Grandpa helped Caroline swim all over the pool. She did a great job kicking for him.
Caroline loved flying out of the water with Grandpa.
I did the same with Caden.
And then with both kids.
Here is a picture of Caden working on his swimming technique. I was encouraging him to kick.
I love the smile on his face here. This large, open mouth smile was on his face almost the entire time we were in the pool. I'm sure Caden drank a lot of pool water.

Fire Truck

2011-07-16T16:00:00.001-05:00

Last month, the family picked me up at work and we headed to lunch at one of our favorite places--Torchy's Tacos. Torchy's is next to a fire station which happened to have a fire engine parked out front. The kids thought it was cool and we walked inside to eat.

After lunch, the engine was still outside so I walked the kids over to get a closer look. Within seconds of walking up, a fireman came running outside to say hi. (Amy will need to make some cookies for them sometime.)
He offered to let the kids inside the fire truck and we took him up on the offer. I thought it was cool when he opened the door because several steps automatically came down to help you get in. The twins didn't care about that part. :)

Here is our little girl driving the fire truck. She was very proud and would have stayed in there all day if we let her.
Caroline didn't want to get out to give Caden a turn so we let both of them drive at the same time. There was plenty of space and they played nicely together.
While sitting in the truck, Caden did something I thought was funny. Every time a truck drove by, Caden would point and say, "truck, truck, truck." For some reason, he was more excited about the mail trucks, delivery trucks, and pickup trucks. I kept telling him he was in a far cooler truck but that didn't change anything. All trucks are equally cool to Caden.

No Sir!

2011-07-13T14:17:00.005-05:00

Caroline has a new favorite phrase......"No Sir!" I guess it's true, kids do listen and mimic everything we say! She's heard me say "No Sir" to Caden more than once and now she's taken it upon herself to correct Caden when he's doing something she doesn't think he should with a boisterous "No sir, Caden, no sir!" She even has my tone of voice down perfectly. Perhaps I should come up with a new saying sometime soon!

Helping Mommy Make an Apple Pie

2011-07-11T21:04:00.003-05:00

We couldn't make it to Dallas on Father's Day to celebrate with Grandpa so we decided to celebrate a few weeks later during the Fourth of July weekend. One of his gifts was going to be one of Amy's delicious apple pies. Amy makes by far the best apple pie I've ever had.

When Amy started making the pie, the twins decided they really wanted to help. Amy pulled a couple kitchen chairs over to the island so Caden and Caroline could help out. This is the first time they have ever helped make something in the kitchen. Everyone had a lot of fun.

Here is Mommy and her two helpers peeling/cutting an apple.
The twins were very interested in the slicer, peeler, cutter.
Here is Caroline giving it a try.
Caden wanted in on the action.
Caden didn't think he could wait for the apple pie to be finished. He decided to to try (aka: lick) an apple as Caroline turned it.Delicious!

Of course, if Caden does something, Caroline needs to also do it.
As you can see, Caroline managed to get a little bite.
It was so good, she went in for some more.
Here is a picture of the final product. It was delicious!Amy had a lot of fun baking with the twins. I'm sure this will be the first of many more kitchen helpers.

BBQ Sauce at Freebirds

2011-07-03T22:03:00.000-05:00

I love BBQ sauce and am probably a BBQ sauce snob. I like trying all the sauces at the grocery store and any restaurant that serves them. When I use BBQ sauce, I use a lot of it. If you've ever been to Freebirds with me, you know that I completely SOAK my burritos with BBQ sauce. Well, the apple didn't fall far from the tree...

A few weeks ago, we went to Freebirds for lunch. Caden decided the only thing he wanted for lunch was the Freebirds BBQ sauce. We gave him a cup of their sauce and he ate the entire thing with a spoon!
Just so you know, we did give and encourage him to eat other food. The BBQ sauce was the only thing he'd touch that day. :)

Right there!!!

2011-07-01T22:02:00.004-05:00

Tonight, I watched the kids while Amy helped with a wedding at our church. Like usual, they did tons of funny things. Caroline did one worth sharing.

Caden, Caroline, and I were in the living room when Caroline started saying, "diaper, diaper, diaper." I was busy doing something and had recently changed their diapers so I did not immediately acknowledge her.

A couple seconds later she said, "poo poo...poo poo." And a few seconds after that, Caroline started saying, "diaper, diaper, right there, right there...poo poo, right there, right there." When I finally acknowledged Caroline, she was bringing me a diaper pointing at it saying "right there" over and over. I assumed it was a clean diaper she wanted put on, but it turned out to be her dirty diaper than she took off!

Thankfully, everything stayed in the diaper and Caroline did not point to close to anything. I guess this is more proof that we need to start thinking about potty training.

PS: I wish I had a sound bite of Caroline her saying "right there." It would make the story so much better. She says it all the time. It kinda sounds like "right dare".

Baby Locks? What Baby Locks?

2011-07-01T17:07:00.002-05:00

This picture is from a couple months ago but I thought it was funny. We have a child safety lock on the cabinet that contains our dvd player, DVR, etc. As you can see, it doesn't do much good. Both kids take it off like it is nothing and plays inside.
The funny part is what Caroline does when they are done playing inside. She closes the door, puts the lock back on, and says, "Daddy." She knows that I am diligent about keeping the lock on the door.

Potty Time for Caroline

2011-06-29T21:56:00.001-05:00

Caroline went pee pee on the potty today! Yay! Our sweet girl woke up this morning saying "diaper off, diaper off". She wanted to take her diaper off and go potty. I begrudgingly agreed to her request. I was hesistant because in the past, she asked to take her diaper off so she could sit on the potty and read books for hours on end. Not this time! Caroline quickly took care of her business and hopped up so we could flush.

For the past several days, she has started to inform me when she is going potty and requests a diaper change. She even climbs up on the diaper changing table to let me know she's serious. Hmmmm.....I need to start reading some potty training books! I think our little girl is getting ready!

Grammie's Retirement Party

2011-06-29T20:33:00.009-05:00

We celebrated my mom's (aka Grammie to the twins) retirement last week! Her co-workers were so sweet to throw her a retirement bash. My brother and his family were in from Seattle to join in the festivities. Here are a few pictures from the event.

Caden & Caroline are excited that Grammie will be retiring. We've already started to book up her summer with Toddler Swim Lessons and trips to JW Tumbles!

Yummy cake and decorations......

Caroline getting tickled by Poppa. She currently LOVES to be tickled!

Cal doing his best to hide from the camera. Picture taking is not Cal's favorite thing.
Me & Amy

Caden admiring Grammie's retirement corsage.
Mom getting a plaque from her boss.
Grammie knows her grandkids well. She brought a bag full of goodies to entertain the troops while she mingled with guests.
Caden and Daddy
Caden playing with the train Grammie brought to the event. He said "choo choo" at least 500 times! ;)

Chuck E Cheese

2011-06-22T12:45:00.007-05:00

The Case Family made our first trip to Chuck E Cheese last week. Jason had work events several night last week, so, we decided to meet up near his office so we could spend time together as a family before he had to head off to a work dinner.

As expected, the kids absolutely loved it. Caden and Caroline enjoyed "riding" in the cars and various other vehicles they have. I put coins in a few of the rides and quickly learned that neither child enjoyed the movement of the cars. Both would prefer to just sit in a stationary vehicle. Both kids said "all done" as soon as I put the coin in. I am sure that will change one day soon, but, for now, they are content just sitting. Here are a few pictures of C & C in their cars.....

The biggest highlight of the evening was the slide and playscape. Our kids LOVE to climb....I mean LOVE it. Clearly, they got their climbing tendencies from their father, and not me! Here are a few pictures of Caroline at the top of the playscape. Caden was up there too, but he never came to the windows for a good picture. They enjoyed climbing around and going down the big swirly slide!

Just based on the fact that they have Air Conditioning, we'll probably be back! Next time, we'll skip the food and just go for the games, rides and slides!

A Couple Kid Stories from Church

2011-06-19T18:02:00.004-05:00

I have a couple quick kid stories from church today.

Before heading into church, I leaned over to Caroline and said give me a kiss. Caroline loves kissing so she puckered up and leaned in. When she was about an inch away from planting one on my lips, Caroline sneezed in my face! I was covered in Caroline spray. Caroline thought it was hilarious and cracked up. She then tried to fake sneeze on me several more times. Thanks sweet heart!

After church, Amy and I went to pick the kids up from their class. When I walked up to the door, Caden saw me and squealed, "Daddy" and soon after squealed, "Mommy!". Then, Caden took the most direct route to the door he could think of. It entailed climbing on top of a chair and then on top of and over a table. We always need to keep an eye on Caden (and Caroline for that matter). It is amazing how fast they do stuff like that. They are very fast and adventurous climbers.

Mall Cars & Quick Tire Change

2011-06-15T20:27:00.005-05:00

We've recently discovered that Caden and Caroline really enjoy "riding" in the cars at the mall. I use the term "riding" because they enjoy sitting in them without us spending a dime! Yay! Here are a few pictures of them driving their cars.

Caden and Caroline really enjoy spending time outside. They like to push their shopping carts up the incline in our driveway and then run down. Unfortunately, the tire on Caden's cart keeps rolling off. Here is a picture of him trying to change his first tire. Don't worry, Mommy to the rescue! I glued it on yesterday and it hasn't rolled off since!
Oh, and yes, Caden's cart is the pink cart. Not sure why, because Caroline loves the color pink, but for some reason, she prefers her shopping cart to be red. Caden doesn't seem to care what color his is. I'm sure they'll switch them one day!

March Pics

2011-06-10T17:38:00.004-05:00

Here are some pics from March.

We went to a lot of parks in March.
The weather was nice in March and I took the kids to the park almost every night. And almost every time we went to the park in our neighborhood, the twins wanted to play with the mail boxes. Caden and Caroline entertained all the people who came to check their mail.
Us after coming home from the park.
Sweet kids.
I love their smiles in this one.

Sprinkler Ball

2011-06-08T18:46:00.013-05:00

We've visited a few sprinkler parks recently and the general consensus is that Caroline enjoys them, but Caden just does not. I assumed it was because he just didn't enjoy getting wet....boy was I wrong! I bought a sprinkler ball for the kids to help Caden get more accustomed to having water in his face. We put the ball in the front yard and Caroline got suited up in her swimsuit. I decided not to even bother putting Caden's on. It's a fight to get it on and I thought he would mostly stay dry anyway.

Here are a few pictures of our adventure. Caden was SOAKED!
He had no fear and put his face and entire body in the water.
Caroline was the more timid of the two, although, she eventually ended up soaked as well!
All in all, the sprinkler ball was a ton of fun! We'll be bringing it out all summer long!
Here is a close up of Caroline's swim suit....she is in the 95th percentile in height and about the 40th in weight. She has a hard time keeping her swimsuit up once it gets wet!

Now that we know that Caden enjoys the water, we'll try out the sprinkler parks again!

February Pics

2011-06-06T20:01:00.004-05:00

Here are some pics from February.

January Pics

2011-06-06T20:01:00.003-05:00

I try to post pictures of the twins from each month but it it has been awhile. I'm going to try to get caught up. Here are some random pics from January.

December Pics

2011-06-04T15:07:00.001-05:00

I recently posted January pics but I forgot to post some from December. Well, better late than never. It is amazing how much the twins have changed since December.

Happy National Donut Day!

2011-06-03T13:09:00.004-05:00

Caden and Caroline celebrated by visiting Krispy Kreme for a free donut! More donut ended up on the floor than in their mouths, but we still had lots of fun.

My First Cheesecake

2011-06-01T19:50:00.006-05:00

I got a springform pan as a wedding gift that has gone completely unused....until now. Our friends, the Markums had a sweet baby boy and we signed up to take them dinner. I can't take someone dinner and not bring dessert along, so, I decided to try a chocolate cheesecake recipe that I'd seen on the Food Network a few weeks ago. Here is the making of the cheesecake....

Pressing in the cookie crust. I actually had to go to Randalls to find the cookies for the crust. Melted chocolate. Mmmmm.
The cream cheese goodness portion of the cheesecake getting whipped...

Assembling the cheesecake in the springform pan. Now the baking. Caden and Caroline must have smelled the chocolate! They watched the cheesecake bake for quite a while. Too bad they never got to taste it!The finished product.The springform pan worked!Mmmmm! I think my first cheesecake was a success!

Caden Peed in the Toilet!!!

2011-05-31T20:39:00.002-05:00

On Sunday, May 29th, Caden peed on the toilet for the first time! I'm pretty sure it was a fluke but it's big news for us either way.
Amy bought a baby toilet a month or two ago and it sits in our bathroom. Both kids like playing and sitting on the toilet. Recently, Caroline has really been telling us she needs to use the toilet because she needs to poo. We always rush her to the toilet to find she must have notified us just a little too late. We tell her how proud we are that she is telling us and then let her and Caden play on the toilet.

On Sunday, after a near poo-miss with Caroline, Caden said he needed to pee. Amy took off his pants, put him on the toilet and told him what to do. The next thing I know, Amy and cheering and telling me to bring the camera! Sure enough, Caden made his first number one on the toilet. We thought for sure Caroline would be the first to do this but our little guy beat her too it!

Our little man taking care of business!Caroline cheering Caden on.Both kids were very interested what was now in the toilet.
The money shot.
Bye-bye! Of course, Caden got to flush the toilet.
We are so proud of you, Caden! Now, lets turn this into a regular thing!

Funny Conversation With the Twins

2011-05-29T20:10:00.004-05:00

Amy: Caroline, can I change your diaper?
Caroline: No.
Amy: Can daddy change your diaper?
Caroline: No.
Amy: Caroline, can Caden change your diaper?
Caroline: Yes.
Caden: (Laughs and violently shakes his head no)

This made the entire family crack up. Caden, I can't blame you on that one.

Cups!

2011-05-25T21:45:00.006-05:00

Caden and Caroline absolutely love to drink out of cups that they think belong to an adult. At home, we keep the cups up high in a cabinet so they can't reach them. That's not the case at Grammie's house. After thorough investigation of all of my mom's kitchen cabinets, Caden has discovered that there are a few grown-up cups within his reach. Every time we visit my parents house, Caden finds the cabinet with the big water bottles in it. He talks Grammie into filling up two water bottles and then he and Caroline carry them around all evening. Here are a few pictures that I snapped on my iPhone of them guzzling their waters!

Helping Daddy in the Yard

2011-05-18T20:38:00.011-05:00

Jason trimmed the front bushes this weekend. Originally, we planned on keeping Caden & Caroline inside the house to keep them out of Daddy's way. However, after much insistance from the kids, we went outside to be "watchers". We sat in our lawn chairs for about 2 minutes before Caroline decided that she needed to "help". So, while Jason picked up the trimmings from the bushes, the kids "helped" him out.

Here are our two helpers throwing their yard trimmings into the bag.Apparently, Caroline thought that the bushes weren't trimmed evenly. She decided to take leaves directly from the bush to put into the bag.

Hard to believe that it was just last July 4th that we posted a blog about Caroline screaming when she touched the grass. Look how grown up they are now!

The Royal Wedding

2011-05-15T21:31:00.006-05:00

This week, we have a special guest blogger...Aunt Angela! She was very excited about the royal wedding and was in Austin for the occasion.

The Cases, along with the rest of the world, were VERY excited about the Royal Wedding last month! By “The Cases” I mean: myself (Aunt Angela), Grandma and Caroline. And by “excited” I mean: obsessed. Some people thought it was strange to care so much about a stranger’s wedding, to which I respond: not a stranger… a princess!

My Mom and I drove down from Dallas the night before the wedding, which gave me plenty of time to create fancy hats for the babies to wear. You can probably tell by the fine paper craftsmanship, but I spent about 2 hours creating Caden’s top hat.

We decided to DVR the wedding rather than wake up at 4:00am; it was just as exciting at 7:30 when Caden woke up. He was even sleepy enough to wear his hat for about two seconds! Once he was fully awake, the hat didn’t stand a chance. Caden, Grandma and I sat on the sofa together and watched the processional before Caroline woke up.

When Caroline woke up, she was very excited to wear her new fancy hat. Here is her photo shoot with her new toy.

Caroline decided her baby could wear Caden’s hat, as it was clear he wouldn’t care.

Caroline and I enjoyed watching the ceremony together while she drank her milk. She was really excited to watch a few minutes of TV, which the twins don’t usually get to do. Our favorite part was Kate’s processional. We both agreed that Princess Kate must have been inspired by my BFF Kate’s wedding dress!

After our Royal Wedding watching party, we went to the Round Rock Library for baby story time. It is a great Library, and we love it there! After story time, we decided to keep up our British theme going and walked to Friar Tuck’s Pantry for scones and tea. We shared two kinds of delicious scones: blackberry and caramelized onion. Here we are at Friar Tuck’s.

It was a very eventful day, and that was all before 10:30! I know that Caroline and Caden won’t remember the Royal Wedding, but I sure will remember our special Friday together.

We Love Coloring and Stickers

2011-05-14T13:45:00.002-05:00

Over the last couple months, our kids have really started to like coloring and playing with stickers. We now have crayons and stickers all over the house, tables with colorful marks on them, and a driveway covered with a bunch of chalk drawings. We even have one wall where both Caden and Caroline made more colorful. :)

Here is Caden doing his thing with the brown crayon.
Caroline trying to get the sticker just right. Also, can you believe how neatly Caroline wrote her name? How about the fish and the rainbow drawings?
Caroline posing for the camera with a sticker in one hand and a crayon in another.

Sprinkler Fun!

2011-05-11T20:03:00.000-05:00

With the heat in the upper 90's already, I'm trying to find a few ways to keep the kids cool! Earlier this week, the kids were playing outside and I noticed how hot they were getting. I decided to pull out the sprinkler for a little fun.....here are a few pictures of the fun!

The kids both loved drinking the water. I think they had more water intake this day than they do in a normal day!

Fun!! Caroline enjoyed the water!

Caden getting right down in the sprinkler head. Water is refreshing!

We've already been to the pool this year and we're looking forward to the splash park! I see lots of water fun in our future!

Playing in Our Baby Pool

2011-05-09T21:09:00.000-05:00

We have a small, inflatable baby pool. Amy decided to fill it up so the kids could play in our backyard.

Here is Caroline on her way to the pool.
They had a lot of fun in the pool and when crazy with the splashing.
While playing in the pool, poor Caden's swim trunks fell down. He just doesn't have the buttocks to keep pants up sometimes. :)
Caden was not happy about his swim trunks falling down but didn't know what to do. Caroline tried to help him pull them back up.
After a little help from mommy, Caden was ready to go again.
We had fun playing in the pool. Soon, we need to take them to the real pool.

Train Park with Small Group

2011-05-07T08:44:00.001-05:00

About a month ago, our small group decided to go ride the Cedar Park train. We rode the train before with the twins but most of the group had never been there. It was a big hit with everyone.

Caden and Caroline seemed to know what was going on. While waiting for the train to come back, they spent much of their time waiting at the ticket line.
Caden loved the ride.
Caroline was not as sure about the ride but she did enjoy waving at the people (and dogs) we passed.
Now for a few pics taken after the ride was over.
I'm sure we will be riding this train many times over the coming years.

Blanket?

2011-05-04T22:28:00.004-05:00

It's almost 10:30 (yes, Michael & Amy, I am still awake), and I just turned on the baby video monitors. Right when I turned them on, Caden started coughing and woke up. He sat up, looked around and loudly said "Blanket?" He quickly found it and laid right back down. He loves his blanket!

Way Back This Morning -- Caroline Getting a Timeout at School

2011-05-04T20:41:00.006-05:00

I started my Way Back Whens-day blog and instead, wanted to share a story from today, which is a Wednesday, so, I think it still counts.

I was talking with Caroline's pre-school teachers this morning. I asked if she had been hitting Caden lately. She has become aggressive with him at home and I wanted to see if it was transferring to school or possibly to other kids. They confirmed that she does hit/push Caden and ALWAYS wants whatever toy that he is playing with, but, she never hits or pushes other kids. They mentioned that when she does hit, they put her in a time-out. Something that we are starting to do at home too.

When I picked Caroline up today, her teachers told me that she got put in time-out today for pushing Caden. The funny party is that they put her in the corner of the room, and the teacher says that she has so many friends in the class, that when Caroline went to sit in the corner, several of her friends went to sit with her and hug and comfort her! Her teacher had to break up the "time-out-social-hour" so Caroline would understand that she was being punished.

Here is a picture of our little bully. She looks so sweet, hard to believe that she packs such a punch!
Oh, and don't worry, she still loves her brother so much! When she's not hitting or pushing him, she is having fun playing with him or taking care of him by giving him whatever she thinks he needs. He's always the first person that she asks about in the morning when she wakes up and both kids light up when they see each other!