Our New Home

Last Fall we realized we had outgrown our current house. All 5 of us have been sleeping in only 2 bedrooms upstairs. Teagan and Ethan have been sharing a room and Cal's crib found a permanent place in our bedroom. In other words, the past year has been sleepless. When one baby is crying, or Ethan has a bad dream, or especially when someone is sick (which has been the case all winter) then everyone wakes up. So, as much as we love this house and have put a lot of work into making it perfect, we decided to make a move. It made more sense financially to move than to sink more money into our house by adding more bedrooms. So, that began our search for our new home.

On December 15, 2008 we bought our new home. It was a 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom house. It is only 5 blocks away from our current house. We won't have to move away from the things we love about our neighborhood.

Here are the BEFORE pictures...

The day after closing, on December 16th, we tore the top off the house...

Here is the progress over the past 5 months...
Everyone should be sleeping well in our new 4 bedroom house.

Our deadline has been May 1, 2009. We hope to move into our new house next month! Here is what the outside looks like as of April 4th...

In the meantime, we've been working our asses off getting our current house ready for the market. The FOR SALE sign will be in the yard on April 15th. We are fairly hopeful as home sales in our area have been steady and prices are back on the rise. Wish us luck and spread the word. :)

Walking Gifts

We have walkers! It official. They don't crawl anymore. They walk. We have 2 walking 13 month olds. And it's true what they say- twins walk in opposite directions. We've enjoyed a few nice days this week with no snow on the ground and the temp in the 50's. Ethan rides his bike and Cal and Teagan walk around the block. Although, I've realized the smartest thing to do when taking these guys on a walk is to put one twin in the stroller and let one walk. Then let them switch.

A couple months ago we bought Cal and Teagan presents to give to them when they started walking. Today they got to open their gifts.

They loved walking around the house with their "animal backpacks" on. They walked around the house for an hour with the harnesses on and they loved it. Now that they're comfortable wearing the packs we'll head outside tomorrow. We'll see if we make it to the corner.

Let's get walkin'!

Paradise Island

You know, I thought we were out of our minds to take 3 kids, two of which would be forced to sit on our laps, on a 4 hour plane ride to another country. Plus, according to airline regulations, 2 lap babies can't be seated in the same row. Does that sound like torture or what?! We would have been split up. That's when we called in reinforcement. Auntie Shalene came to Cozumel with us! She was a lifesaver. We had a 1:1 ratio of adult to child on the flight and that made a huge difference.

Still, for weeks before we left I was second guessing our decision to go to Mexico and expecting the worst on the plane- crying, screaming, pacing the isle of the plane, and fearing nasty looks and comments by other travelers.

It turns out, if you expect the worst the outcome can only be as expected or possibly better. There was plenty of pacing, calming bored, tired and unhappy babies, and entertaining a tired Ethan with ear pain on the plane. Overall, it was slightly better than the worst we expected. We survived the day of travel and it was worth it!

We had perfect weather, 80 and sunny every day. We played at the beach, swam in the pools, snorkeled and swam in the ocean, ate the best food every day, and tipped back a few shots of tequila. Oh, and we enjoyed a little Wii during our down time, or drunk time. Bob managed to bowl upside down after he fell off the chair and somehow I twisted my ankel getting a strike. There are plenty more stories...for another time.

Teagan and Cal were walking all over the place. Teagan did laps around the pool. Cal was a fish! The boy loves the water.

Ethan loved swimming every day, playing soccer on the beach and feeding the ocean wildlife. And every morning at 7am asked us, "Do you want to play Wii Mini-Golf?"

Nick and I got to relax as Bob, DR and Shalene took over a lot of the childcare duties. And the kids had a great time with thier "Gamma & Bompa" who they hadn't seen since Christmas. We all had a wonderful vacation on paradise island.

Here are a few of the best of the 200 pictures I took:

30

happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear meee, I am now 30.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes and the lovely singing. I've had a great birthday weekend already with friends and family and we're headed to Mexico on Friday for more celebrating.

Watch out Cozumel- Hurricane Walton is coming...

On Your Mark, Get Set...

GO!

On Sunday night we spent the evening with my parents for dinner and the Oscars. After dinner we posted up in the basement in front of the TV and got ready for the red carpet. The kids were playing and having a great time with grandma, grandpa and auntie Shalene. Teagan was showing off her free-standing, which she's been doing for a few weeks now, but hasn't taken more then one step.

Until then, Cal hadn't even tried free-standing and didn't seem interested in walking at all. Everyone assumed Teagan would walk first. He sure proved us wrong. Suddenly he let go of the chair and off he went! I was counting each step, ready to be super excited about his first step or two. Well, he took 8 steps! It was so fun! We were all there cheering him on as he walked all over the basement for the rest of the night. We would all clap each time and then he start clapping too. It seems he thinks he should be clapping while walking. Check out the cute video I took of him walking the next morning.




Also, last week Cal and Teagan had their 1-year check-up. Here are their stats:

Calin weighs 23lbs 1oz (52%), is 31" long (82%), and has a large noggin 19" around (92%).

Our little peanut Teagan weighs 19lbs 3oz (17%), is 28.75" long (35%) and also has a large brain in her 18.5" around head (92%).

Got Milk?

Reaching the 12 month mark is wonderful in many ways, but the best thing about having 1 year olds is MILK! Yes, 100% whole milk all the time- no more formula! We've been excited about this for about 9 months (when they started drinking formula).

Do you know the expense of baby formula? For all of you who are unaware of the ridiculously inflated price of baby formula, let me enlighten you.

At about 3 months of age the twins switched to baby formula: Organic Similac for Teagan and Nestle Good Start for Calin. Their bodies reacted differently to different types of formula and after a month of trial and error these were the two brands that were best for them.

OK, here are the shocking stats:

An average large can costs $32, which was the cheapest at Costco. This can would make 220 ounces of formula when mixed with water. The twins would drink a total of 72 ounces per day on average.
So, one can lasted us (both babies) about 3 days.

Equaling $10.67 per day for baby formula.

Therefore,
$74.67 per week,
$320 per month,
$3,840 for one year of formula for twins.

At least I managed to breastfeed for 3 months, saving us almost $1,000.
So, we spent about $2,900 on formula ALONE, not to mention everything else (maybe I'll break down the cost of diapers for the next blog).

Now Cal and Teagan drink Whole Milk and we love it! It's cheap(er) and readily available. We've gained a ton of freedom, especially financially, with these two drinking whole milk. Instead of $10/day we're only spending $1.50/day! We no longer have to fuss with mixing the powder and water every three hours and remember to pack bottles and powder for outings. Instead, we can just bring the milk along in a thermos, or pick up some milk at the drive-thru if necessary- no worries, no hassle!

Milk- it's the greatest.

Two 1 Year Olds!

Happy 1st Birthday

Teagan & Calin!!!

It's hard to believe 1 year has gone by. We feel like they were born just yesterday...at the same time, it also feels like forever ago. We survived the first year with twins and a 4 year old. And on Saturday we had a birthday bash to celebrate!

Friends and family were there...



2 yummy cakes...


Play time and showing off their skills with the walkers...



Very nice presents and cards. Thank you!!


And for the adults-
Shots all around, twice over of course...


It was a much needed celebration! Thank you to all of you who helped us through the first year. We couldn't have done it without you.

This afternoon as they were officially turning 1 year old (at 3:10 and 3:11pm) I captured this adorable video of Cal and Teagan wrestling over a blanket and snuggling together. Maybe they knew it was their special day together. Happy Birthday Cal & Teagan.

Children's Museum

Last week my dad and I took the kids to the Children's Museum. This was Cal and Teagan's first time there and I was so excited to watch them play. We absolutely love the children's museum and we've been taking Ethan there since he was a baby. They have many different galleries for kids of all ages and each room has a different theme and is designed for a specific age group.

When we arrived my dad surprised us with a wonderful early birthday present for Cal and Teagan- a one year membership to the museum!!! Thanks dad! Nick and I took the kids again today! It's great to know we have somewhere to go for free when the weather is crappy and we need to get out of the house.

As expected, T & C loved the "Habitot" room for babies and toddlers to have a safe place to play and explore. Ethan is at such a fun age for most of the activities in the galleries, and he was bouncing around from room to room, but we spent most of our time in the World Works and Earth World galleries. We all had a blast!

Lisa and Kieran met us there too...
Ethan wanted to show Nick all the fun stuff at the museum so this was our second time there in one week. :)