"a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down"

I feel like one of the advantages to having these twins a little later in our life is that now we have our older kids to experience it with and enjoy the fun. It's important to remember to have some fun every once in a while. If you don't then I'm pretty sure it's more a case of "when" you'll crack rather than "if" you'll crack. One way I like to unwind is to mess with Jackie and the kids. An oldie but goodie that I like to do with Jackie, is wait until she puts a baby on the couch and surround them with pillows to keep them from falling off while she runs to grab their diaper. I wait until she's gone and I carefully move the baby onto the ground then wait and see how fast all the color drains from her face when she comes back in the room. Now that every mom reading this hates me, you should know that I've quit doing that one because Jackie threatened me physically, and I don't want be the boy who cried wolf , just in case they do fall off something for real.

I do think the kids get the worst of of the pranks. Case in point, when we were in the NICU with the babies they had these huge syringes that they would feed them with. When I saw those syringes naturally I had the same thought that any dad would have, "That thing would scare the crap out of my kids!" so I borrowed one of the humongous syringes from the hospital, filled it with apple juice, threw a huge needle on it and told the kids a story. I told them that Grandma Shoell had called and told us that all the local pools had tested positive for kryptospiritum (sp) and that if they wanted to be around the babies they would need a Gamu-globulin (sp) shot. How they reacted at the sight of needle said a lot about how each of our kids handle pressure. Lindsay immediately broke into tears; Kade looked frantic and started crying; Kalli impressed me the most, she kept quiet, made herself look smaller, and located the nearest exit. Me and Jackie couldn't keep a straight face for long, and eventually the kids were able to laugh about it. I like to think that by the time they are grown, our kids will have built more character than any of their friends.

Kalli's really getting into the role.

 

Kade still needs to work on his acting a bit.

 

Brynn & Owen

It's been two months since Jackie had the twins, I would have posted sooner but honestly who has time anymore.  It's funny when we first told people that we were going to have twins, quite a few people made the comment " I always wanted to have twins". At the time I could understand that, twins just seem like they would be fun. Now that we have them here my perspective has changed. Now when I hear people say " I always wanted to have twins" all I hear in my head is them saying "I love the sound of crying babies and I hate to sleep". 

Luckily things are much better, than the first week, which I honestly don't remember much. All I do remember is that I was sure not to put my head on my pillow, because that would upset the babies and then they would start crying again. Now we only have to get up about once a night and we've got a pretty good system of changing the diaper, feeding, burping, wrapping, and passing out.

Me and Jackie were talking the other day about how glad we are that we had the twins last now that we have a little experience.  We're glad because now we are a lot less uptight.  With our first few kids you would jump up at any little noise and try to sooth them, or want to hold them all night long, but we're kind of over that. Don't get me wrong I still love them and I love holding them, but it's amazing all the things you can get done when your not holding a baby (like napping, and eating brownie batter).

Here is one of the pictures we took of Owen & Brynn. If you ever want to test your patience I would suggest having a photo shoot for one month old twins. After 8 hours, 3 arguments, 5 disagreements, 17 bowel movements, 31 peeing incidents, a fifth of vodka (to steady my nerves),12 costume changes, 8 backdrops, and 765 pictures taken we ended up with about 6 usable pictures. I'll try to post the other 5 pictures after I can pass them through photoshop.



Owen & Brynn

All Hallows Eve

 Well, Halloween came and went like a bowl of candy left by the front door with the note "please take one." Unfortunately Halloween has become so commercialized that many forget the true meaning of Halloween, which is; To dress up in humiliating outfits, Remind yourself that your thankful you don't have to wear a wig everyday, and check your kids candy for poison and razor blades.

We had a great Halloween. All the homemade costumes lasted long enough to get our candy.  The only illnesses were a couple of sugar induced coma's (Kalli & Kade). And Jackie doesn't need to worry about me trying to dress her in any ridiculous costume until February 14th. Here are a few pictures and awards from our Halloween.

Awards:
Kade- "least likely to bend his legs all night award" for his cumbersome robot
Kalli - "Holiday confusion award" for reminding us of the 4th of July on Oct. 31st
Lindsay - "Out of Character award" for being the most talkative mime ever
Jackie- "You'll poke you're eye out award" for her Blonde Ambition Tour Madonna
Matt - "Who are you award" for his half of the once popular Milli Vanilli

Kade and Kalli
Homemade doesn't always mean less expensive.

Lindsay made her own mime costume. I couldn't be prouder.

At grandma Loveridges Party

The Loveridge Gang

Jackie - Yowza (caution kids wear your eye protection)

Edward Cullen, eat your heart out.

Secondary costume - Mimes for the Halloween Half Marathon

The rest of the 80's singer themed Shoell Party
Back Row: Slash, Vanilli, MC Hammer, Milli, Girl from Revenge of the Nerds
Front Row: Blondie, Blonde Ambition Madonna, Gloria Gaynor, Cyndi Lauper, Boy from Revenge of the Nerds 

Happy Anniversary "Lucky 13"

I feel bad that the only thing I've said about our anniversary was a negative. We also had a lot of fun that weekend. Rather than bore everyone to death with a "play by play" I'm just going to post the pictures that Jackie told me were appropriate to post.

Baja Cantina - Try the Flautas

Our horse ride fell threw, so we opted for the mountain coaster

I only have a picture of the ride up.

Jackie made me put my phone away before we went down.

(she's smarter than me)

From the chairlift

On our way to the Alpine slide. I promise Jackie was having fun.

For the record I wasted her. Mass x Gravity = Speed

One of the 67 dressing rooms we visited. She didn't buy these.

Our room. I fit better in the tub than I did in the bed.

FYI, more pillows doesn't mean more comfortable.

House of the Lord (Draper)

Large and Spacious Building

Back home

To Bee or not to Bee

Jackie had a near death experience the other day that we are all a little shook up about. While at the pool with the kids she was assaulted and then stung by a bee! Not any ordinary wasp, or mild mannered yellow jacket, no this was a blood thirsty honey bee. The policeman who took her statement said that it was probably an isolated incident and that it probably wasn't targeting her specifically. Kalli Loveridge, an eye witness to the event (and survivor of 11 wasp stings at one time) had this to say, "Hey Dad guess what, Mom got stung by a bee". This was Jackie's first (and hopefully last) time being stung by a bee. She was quoted as saying "I felt something on my back, so I tried to brush it off, and it stung me". Thankfully the bee died after it stung her so that it can't go on to attack other innocent victims.



Artist rendering of attacker

(I love you honey)

It's a bird, It's a plane, It's Jackie and Tiff

This Wednesday Jackie and Tiff took off for Arizona to go visit with the Gray's. That night Kalli was helping me make dinner when she asked me if mom and Tiff were flying in the plane at that moment. I told her that they probably were. She was quiet for a little while then she got this little goofy smile on her face. I asked her what was funny, and she said " That would be funny to see them flying in the plane with there hair blowing all over and everybody screaming". Apparently Kalli thought that planes fly with all the windows open and that it's just shear pandemonium for the entire flight. I can't blame her for thinking that, she's never been on a plane before. She's right though, that would be funny to see.

Caramel apples

I was feeling a little nostalgic the other day, and thought it would be fun to make caramel apples with the kids. Jackie was a little weary of the idea and suggested we just cut up the apples and dip them in the caramel. Seeing this as the easy way out I pressed the issue and finally got my way. I learned many things that night. I had forgotten just how good caramel and apples go together. I also learned some things that don't go well with caramel, such as 2 year old boys, facial hair and digital camera's. After a while of Kade trying to wrestle the apple into submission, and kalli pathetically trying to bite the apple without the use of her two front teeth, I gave into Jackie's good idea and cut up the apple. I still think the caramel apples were a good idea.


notice how the caramel on the lens gives a nice "glamour shot" haze

Kade before he got really messy

Lindsay was the only one who managed to eat it without making a mess.

Touching Moments

Lindsay said the sweetest thing to me the other day, and I just had to write it down before I forgot. It was half time of her soccer game and she came over to us to get a drink. Then she sat on my lap and put her head on my chest and said " Dad, you make everything so shady." then she got up and went to finish her soccer game, leaving me there with a lump in my throat. It' s touching that my daughter finds me as useful as an awning.

Teeth

We’ve had all sorts of exciting dentistry going on lately. I’ll have to try and add a video we have of Kalli getting her first tooth pulled. The dentist said her new one may not come in for about a year, but regardless it was time for this tooth to come out. Her two front teeth were different colors (neither of those colors being white) I guess that’s what happens when you feel your way around using your two front teeth. I used to do the trick where you say okay let’s pull it on three and then you really do it on one, but they’ve gotten wise to that little bit of trickery. So now I just engage in a little harmless conversation and yank it out while they are answering one of my questions. Kalli was pretty excited to get a dollar from the tooth fairy. The tooth fairy really is an amazing person. I don’t think it’s her fairy wings or magic tooth wand that make her special, I think it’s the fact that she can slide a dollar in between a sleeping child’s head and a plastic sheet without waking the child that makes her amazing. In related news, me and Jackie went to the dentist for a cleaning/checkup (or as I like to call it the “I can sure taste a lot of blood in my mouth” visit). I don’t know what those hygienist think teeth are made of but I’m pretty sure that teeth will break if enough pressure is applied. She was pulling so hard with that little metal hook of hers that when she was done I could floss with a tube sock. Normally I don’t brag about my trips to the dentist but for the first time in my life I didn’t have a cavity. We were so happy we went out and celebrated with some toffee.