Way Back Wednesday, Nine Years Ago Today

Nine years ago, my life changed for the better.  I married my soul mate, my best friend, the love of my life, and my List.  I'll confess, I once made a list of all the things I was looking for in my future spouse.  Miracle of miracles, I met him!  And he was - and still is - good looking to boot!  (I didn't put "handsome" on my list - I was afraid of asking for too much!)  Thank goodness, he asked for my hand and we were wed on a beautiful June afternoon.  The rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun shone for our big day.  Much like the weather here in MN today, but warmer!

Because our wedding took place in 2002, before the age of everyone having a digital camera ( and only George Jetson had one in his phone!) we have few digitalized photos. Here's one of my favorites: we were leaving the church, heading toward our waiting Lincoln Towncar. Guests were tossing rose petals at us as we walked (if I could find the CD, there is actually a photo of me picking a petal out the top of my dress immediately after this one!)  Our best man and matron of honor (because my little sis married 6 months before I did, she was a "MATRON!") drove us to Dow Gardens where I'd always wanted my wedding photos to be taken.

(20 minutes later) Okay, I dug up the CD made by a friend and found a couple more.  They're awfully blurry, but I assume he wasn't using his flash to respect our hired photographer.  Let's see if I can upload a couple:

exchanging our vows

rose petal goes down the top...

I discover it down there

and fish it out!

Hubs' cousin L, holding a rose petal bag, who just graduated last week.  Look how little she was!

My dear friend K, who stood in my wedding and marries in two weeks.  Can't wait to see her!

Pink gerbera daisies...one of my favorites.

The Kiss

My parents and siblings - they look Good!

What a great day!  I just love looking at the old photos, especially these never-before-seen-online-rose-petal-down-the-top-ones!  But enough reminiscing - tonight we're celebrating by actually hiring a babysitter and going out on a date!  So I'd better go finish my chores so I can go out.  Thank you friends and family, for standing by us all these 9 wonderful years.  And thank you, Handsome Hubs, for loving me through thick and thin. :)

Junction Valley Railroad

Choo!  Choo!  We spent Memorial Day with Hubs' family visiting Junction Valley Railroad, the largest quarter-sized model train in the world!  Hubs and his siblings have fond memories of spending days riding the rails there as kids, so he's been itching to take the boys there since they've developed a love for trains this year. 

All smiles - priceless!

Meeting the conductor

Tunnel is coming!  (They are STILL talking about this tunnel!)

JVRR only runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day, so if you have a chance to visit this summer, be sure to go!  We have plans to ride the rails again in July - hope to see you there!

WHAA!  WHAAAAAAAA!

More Birthday Fun (or don't P in the Ool)!

With the boys' and hubs' birthday just 9 days apart, we can stretch the birthday celebrations for over a week!  If I haven't read your Facebook posts or replied to your texts or voicemails, it's because we've been partying and prepping for more partying this weekend.  (Sorry!) 

Last weekend we celebrated with our Michigan families and tonight we celebrated with our Minnesota friends.  It was the first time we had so many people in our new house and it was fun to introduce our friends to each other - we had multiples' families, church friends, old friends, new friends and new neighbors (they fall into the new friends category, too!) gathered to celebrate God's many blessings.  Here are just a few of the hundreds or so pictures snapped tonight.  These were taken the second half of our party by Aunt L - beginning with cake eating, on our Nikon, whose software was FINALLY uploaded to the dino-desktop tonight. Please be patient and I'll work on some more this week.  A very gracious friend will have a boatload of good ones from the beginning!

I love you, bro!  (My favorite shot:)

Clean mud, eh?  I'm sure I can make a mess of it.

Cake! Cake, Bug cake!  More candies?  Pweeze?

Fireman N helps with the hose

I missed you so much!  Welcome!  M greets our friends at the door.

A perfect evening for picnicing in our backyard.  What beautiful weather and wonderful friends.

BUG CAKE

I love cake!

Daddy and M share a hug

TP + Ivory Soap + H20 + a whole bunch of two year old twins = Clean Mud

The making of the mud

First water balloon fight!  Okay, it wasn't much of a fight, but it was funny!

More clean mud making - I had to teach them how to squish it together.

N tiptoes through the shark pool sprinkler

How many two year olds fit into a shark pool?  About 9!

Four tired but very happy people say good-bye, friends!  Come again!

Oh, yeah....and somebody peed in the pool!  I'll leave you guessing if you haven't already heard! :)

Choo! Choo! Now we're TWO!

"Choo-Choo is coming!  WHAAAAHHH!  WHAAAAAH!"
That was how Hubs and I woke up at 5:30 this morning.  Think the boys were excited for their Thomas the Train themed birthday party?  The "WHAAAHHH!" sound is my sons imitating the noise the REAL trains make as they blast the horn going through our new town.  They already know trains don't say "chugga-chugga" or "choo-choo" - they know they are LOUD and startling!

Our two families gathered at a nearby park and shared a picnic together this afternoon.  Despite threatening weather, the rain held off until the chicken, salads, baked beans, and three delicious cakes were eaten and all the presents were opened.

What cracks me up about toddlers is that really, they just need ONE toy for a holiday or birthday.  They simply aren't interested in the clothes (that I'm THRILLED they're receiving)!  Or they just need some dirt and sticks, like they found at the park! 

Thank you to our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins who braved the storm clouds to celebrate our sons' lives.  We love you and are grateful that you can be a part of their special day!  Enjoy a few of the lovely photos taken by our amateur photographer auntie:

M is all smiles, welcoming our guests.

3 fantastic cakes!

"I'll help you, brother."

Thanks for the presents!

Make a wish!

Best Friends Forever

Yummy!

Up, up and away!

For You!

Our son, Goldilocks

Happy Birthday, boys!  You are the answer to our prayers.  We love you and are proud to be your parents.  So please sleep in tomorrow.

Happy Second Birthday!

We celebrated two years in style tonight with the best deal in town: Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America!  You can register your kids' birthdays on their website and receive a FREE unlimited ride wristband valid on the birthday!  Thank you to the MVMOMs who told me about this deal - it was a stellar idea!

The boys love being BIG and they tell us every day now that they are, but if you ask me, they're still convincing themselves - I know they're still missing the pacifiers a bit.  Today, though, they showed us they really ARE big by riding lots of rides at the amusement park.  Can you tell they enjoyed it?

M LOVED the "Big Rig" ride - he's not smiling here because it's NOT MOVING!

My favorite shot of the night; N and Daddy on the last ride, Blue's Clues.

They were a little nervous on the first ride, though - the carousel.

Choo-choo!  Our little conductors on the train ride.

It's SO HARD to wait for our favorite, the Big Rig ride.

We broke for dinner at Ruby Tuesday's, where the boys gifted US with a peaceful meal and very good behavior (for two freshly minted two-year-olds, they were great!) and were rewarded with their OWN birthday sundaes afterward, a real treat!

"Ice cream is cold!" M says.

N and his big birthday ice cream.

What a fantastic family night to treasure forever!  The boys are getting to be so much fun and (knock on wood) a bit easier to go out with.  (I know, I know, don't burst my bubble, okay?  They were so good tonight!)  We have more celebrations planned in the coming days and will keep you posted on the smiles.  In the meantime, enjoy being two with our little guys.

Let's roll!

Keep on truckin', baby!

No More Keebie-Eebies!

They threw away their keebie/eebies (pacifiers) last night!  In exchange, the boys got "big boy" bedding - star sheets and pillows and a spaceship comforter.  They were very excited about climbing in bed and playing with their new stuff...for awhile.

The complaining went on for about an hour and a half - an hour of chattering is not unusual if we put them to bed close to seven o'clock - with M complaining the loudest and longest.  About 8:45, we noticed it was quiet upstairs - Hallelujah!  Hubs and I were able to enjoy the rest of the evening in peace, reveling in our parenting awesomeness.

Then it was 1:00 am and M, the keebie lover, was out of his mind with frustration and loneliness, crying and reaching toward the bathroom where the keebie was resting in peace.  I made a mental note to be sure to empty the trash before they got out of bed in the morning.  Although he refused to be comforted by mommy, lovie, teddy or his new spaceship bedding, he did wind up falling asleep before two am.  So much for the awesomeness. 

We heard him again around 3:30, but let him be since we weren't any help the first time.  He must have gotten the hint. 

This morning, we were all exhausted and let the boys sleep in until 9:00.  Here they are waking up for the first time with their big boy bedding:

I will always love you, Keebie!  But I love my pillow, too.

Eebie?  He's missing?  Oh. Look at my spaceships!

N took it in stride and slept through his brother's hollering.  He didn't seem to care at all that his eebie was gone, although he DID run straight to the bathroom looking for it!  All he found was a clean can liner.  "Eat?  Eat?" were his next words. 

I was worried a bit about naptime but M fell asleep in minutes!  Guess he was up too late last night to worry about keebie for naps.  We'll see how it goes tonight.

Uncle A Week

We have had SUCH a busy week!  I'm sorry to have left you hanging, faithful readers!  I won't bore you with the details because we have so many fantastic highlights!  Uncle A is in town with us for a whole week and they boys are in love with him.  "Uncle A sleeping?" is the first think M says every morning!  And yes, Uncle A is always up last - I think he's enjoying his "vacation." 

We spent Wednesday morning at the MN Zoo with Uncle A and Grandpa A, where we snapped some cute photos in the chicken coop and the play area:

Daddy had Thursday off, so we explored River Bend Nature Center nearby. We told the boys we were going on a hike, and M was so excited he said, "Hike! Hike! Hike!" all the way there!  What's even funnier is that we were trying to buy sandwiches to take on our picnic and we had to stop a few times to finally find a place that was open (thank heaven's for Jimmy John's!) and each time we stopped the van, M would ask, "Eat-eat?  Eat-eat-time? Hike! Hike?"  Poor kid was so confused!  But we made it and it was worth the effort! 

Uncle, Daddy and two little indians

Rollin' on the River...

Here are some more MN Zoo pics...not sure why Blogger won't let me move them around today, but I'd rather you see them out of order than not at all!  Today Daddy had to go to work again, so Uncle A went with us to ECFE.  We promised him a good time at the end-of-the year school picnic and vehicle fair after class - we know he only went to see the fire engines - but it got rained out!  So we punted and had an impromptu party at McDonald's playplace with our two-year-old twin friends from school!  Unfortunately, we don't have any pics of the dozen two year olds and parents, but I promise you it was quite a sight!  And uncle A was quite a sport, climbing up into the two-story play structure with the fellas.  He said it was fun, but then someone (not my kid) was really stinky, which just may be what ended the playtime.

We have just one more day with Uncle A, but it's supposed to rain again tomorrow - boo!  We'll still hope that it will be nice enough to go out for a little bit because we think the farmer's market starts tomorrow! 

Peep! Peep!  I'm about to hatch!