owen and jack

the proud parents with their babies

i'm seeing double!!

okay, here are the pictures of my twin cousins Jack and Owen that i said i'd post once i find some my way (i borrowed them from their blog :-) ). aren't they cute...and sooo teeny, tiny?

WARNING: this post may contain too much information for some readers-read at own risk!

after almost 2 weeks, it's now official...ms. emma is weaned. when i was getting up 2x a night to breastfeed and feeding her 4x during the day, i longed for the day when she could eat on her own and drink from a cup and have nothing to do with my breasts. i thought i would be elated, jumping for joy at my newfound freedom. but instead, when the day did finally come, i found myself a little sad (please see picture to get a more accurate description of how i felt...i guess "little" may be a slight understatement). i suppose it was actually more of a bittersweet moment. i felt happy to finally be done with the whole thing, but at the same time i was crestfallen that it ended sooner than i anticipated. no more morning feedings cuddled in my bed, or rocking her in the rocking chair while she feeds before bedtime (sniff, sniff)...ugh. and the sad part is that she didn't even notice the transition. oh well...it was bound to happen...she is growing up already. i guess it's time to have another baby so i can relive all those wonderful emotions (*wink, wink*).

some assistance please

does anyone know of any good, trustworthy, dependable private forum hosts that's free of charge? there are a lot out there, but most of the private ones require a fee/membership, etc. please use comments area to post suggestions (though i may not publish your comment on our blog i will still be able to read your input). thanks!

stupid human tricks??

some family bonding time with straws! (sorry video quality is not better)

spring concert

here are some pictures from tyler's spring concert/open house last night. he got to play the xylophone for one of the songs. some of the other pictures are of his classroom after the show.

on a side note, we had thunderstorms off and on all day though it looked like it cleared by the time we were getting ready to leave for tyler's show. we all decided to walk over to the school since it had stopped raining for a while (and parking would be horrendous). of course, when we left the rain started back up again. i left earlier than aaron & tyler so i could put emma to bed, and i ended up sprinting the whole way home so emma wouldn't get too wet...i ran so hard i thought i was going to throw up, blech. my clothes were totally drenched. aaron & tyler looked like they just got out of the shower when they got home. crazy!

ack! i was almost done w/ my post and the the dumb computer died on me...grrr.

anyway, lately i've been really frustrated at all the spiderman related advertisements. i've been especially annoyed at the spiderman toy and kids' clothing ads. why? the movie is rated PG-13, and yet the majority of the ads are marketed towards kids under the age of 13. all the spiderman movies (and the hulk, and superman) were all marketed that way. kind of messed up in my opinion. not that we won't allow tyler to see it, but he's a bit older. but what about parents of younger kids? would you let your 5 year old see it? or your 4 year old? i know there are many parents here in the u.s. that allow their young children to watch TV. kids 6 and under spend an avg. of 2 hrs./day using screen media, and the avg. american watches about 4 hours of TV/day (go here for more alarming facts). especially w/ cable, there are more channel options for kids to choose from, which keeps them hooked on the TV. ugh, i think i'm just really frustrated at how the media chooses to take advantage of kids who they know are VERY impressionable! makes it tough on us parents. *sigh*.

i found the TV Turnoff Network. what do you know, TV Turnoff week is this week! tyler is already not watching TV during the week so i don't think it would be fair to "deprive" him of TV over the weekend. today, our TV substitute activity was playing twister and LIFE after dinner and homework. it felt great to interact w/each other and we didn't miss the TV at all. i'm so glad we don't have cable (makes things easier)!

shrubless

this past sunday we finally pulled out the shrubs in our front yard. the first photo is the "before photo"f rom when we hired roofers to re-do our roof (2005). they tore off all the shingles (including the original slate) and just let them fall around the house. that's what pretty much killed our shrubs (we didn't really care for them anyway) and after 2 years we have finally gotten rid of them! the next step is to find some nice plants to put in the empty space.

225 years old!

beautiful weather, breakfast made in the morning, sushi for dinner and having aaron home for the evening with the rest of the family made for a perfect birthday!

congratulations nick and heather vinje on the birth of their twin boys, jack and owen. they were born this morning at 8:30 a.m. jack weighed in at 6 lbs 1 oz. while owen weighed in at 4 lbs. 11 oz. i'll post a picture if one is sent to me. yay...new cousins! time for some embroidery projects :).

watching abc primetime right now...though a little sensationalized, in my opinion, still *very* sad news about the virginia tech shooting.