New Carpet Conspiracy

Yesterday it was Chloe and the nail polish, today it was Hadley and the dog.

As we were loading everyone up in the car to leave for church, we noticed one little soul missing. Ryan went to track down the wayward one and found her exiting Braden's room, pulling the door shut behind her. Elated to return her to the fold, we threw her in the car and rushed out the door.

It wasn't until our return that we found what mischivious act our errant Hadley had carried out. As it turns out, being the kind-hearted soul that she is, she had taken pity on the kenneled dog and released her. Her nursery teachers would be proud of the compassion she showed in opening the cage and the responsibility she showed in shutting Braden's door. If it were not for the behavior of the sinful dog, she may have even found herself advanced to the high rank of Sunbeam. Unfortunately, Chanel was not happy even with her larger enclosure and had attempted to dig her way out.

You would think someone has begun a consipiracy for new carpet in this house. I promise I was not behind any of it!

No Gum Allowed

When I was growing up my mom had a rule about gum. It was simple, no gum allowed in the house. I don't know what event spurred the creation of the rule, though I do not doubt there was one. We are a bit more liberal with gum in our house, though we do have a rule: you can chew it, but when you spit, the gob of gum must go in the toilet or a tissue which then goes directly in the trash. It's a bit longer than my mom's rule, but it seems to have worked as we have had no gum incidents in our home.

Today was cleaning day. Cleaning day is a family affair with everyone busy with their assigned undertaking. The babies are good at scrubbing the insides of toilets, a task I am happy to pawn off, but otherwise not much help. Today while we were diligently scrubbing and sweeping, Chloe found Emmry's nail polish that was left out in the bathroom. It is a wonderful shade of bubble gum pink and looks divine on Emmry's fingers and toes. It does not look so divine painted all over a two-year-old or spilled on cream Berber carpet.

No, we have no rule banning gum in our house. What we do have is a ban on nail polish.

Aren't They Adorable!

Being in public with twins is a very unique experience. People are always stopping me to tell me how adorable they are, ask questions, or share with me a twin experience from their life. While at first enjoyable, I've now learned to block out the whispers and giggles and become as immune as possible to the attention.


So I gave very little thought to the women who were pointing and giggling at the babies at Christmas time as I searched through an entire display of every kind of character underwear the commercial industry has imagined up for a size 5 of anything. I really didn't care if I got princesses or Mickey Mouse, I just needed a size 5. It wasn't until I turned to Emmry to vent my frustration that I became aware of what the finger pointing was actually about. Perhaps yes, it was because they are twins and oh, aren't they adorable. But I think it had more to do with the fact that they were sitting on the floor, naked from the waist down with an opened pair of underwear beside them. Hadley had one leg in, and Chloe was trying to determine which pair was pink enough. One more leg in and a couple inches higher, I would have found myself the owner of a brand new pair of incorrect sized underwear.

If this weren't bad enough, I barely got the underwear packaged up and returned to the display when I found myself in the boy's underwear section with the same problem.

Oh yes, I agree, I think they're adorable. I just think they're much more adorable in their beds asleep!

Our New Addition

It seems we finally ran out of excuses. Yesterday we adopted a one-year-old dog named Chanel. The kids adore her and she has brought both harmony and disharmony to our home. She is a female Shih Poo, which is a shihtzu poodle mix. She came house trained with beds, blankets, toys, food, treats, and pages of instructions from a rescue home. Hundreds of applicants for Chanel were turned away, but for some reason we were not. I remarked to Ryan how the girls' snotty noses, unkempt hair, and mismatched clothes (they now like to dress themselves), must have really impressed the woman running the facility. But truly, she said it was the way the kids interacted with the dog. She could tell that they would really love her... and they do.

Happy New Year!

When Braden became old enough to understand New Year's Eve, we began moving the clocks forward, holding our own early New Year's Eve celebration, and going to bed by 10:00. Once he learned a ball dropped in Times Square, it became a bit trickier. We contemplated taping the previous year's celebration and adding that to our treachery, but were thwarted by the addition of the year on top of the ball. We have therefore resorted to playing games until 10:00, when everyone must brush teeth, don their pjs, and gather for a movie. Everyone's asleep by 10:30.

If you come to visit over New Year's, you can join in our celebration. Only you will find we added one more frivolity this year... a polar bear jump into the pool. You may think it doesn't get cold here, but it does. And that pool was cold! There are no exemption for visitors, only non-swimmers.

Happy New Year!

Ho, Ho... Snow!

We must have been feeling winter withdrawals after our move from Ohio to Arizona when we decided to take an impromptu trip to Utah for Christmas. We pulled the kids from their beds at 3:30 a.m. and loaded them in the car for what they believed would be a ski trip to the mountains. If you are familiar with our family, you may be wondering how our little chickadees did on the eleven hour drive and what we were daring enough to feed them on the way. To spare you the messy details, I will just say that the Hoover Dam and chocolate doughnuts do not go together. Thankfully, we stopped in St. George to visit friends and were able to give their new washer and dryer a run for its money.

With family parties and dinners, sleepovers and sledding, and a visit from Santa, there are many favorite moments from our Utah Christmas. But the highlight had to be the day we spent skiing and snowboarding at Snowbird. Since it had been over ten years since Ryan and I had skied, we decided to let the experts teach Braden and Emme while we fumbled on the slopes on our own. With a little pressure from Braden, Ryan decided to give snowboarding a go, while we girls would not succumb and were pleased to be on good old fashioned skis. By the end of the day I had not one fall to account for (which means I'm either an awesome skier or took far too few risks), while Ryan's arms would be sore for the next two days from pushing himself back up to his feet. Luckily, or unluckily, it was dumping inches of snow by the hour which provided plenty of powder for cushion. Meeting up with the kids on Chickadee at the end of the day brought back memories of skiing with my family from my childhood. Riding the lifts with the kids and making our way slowly down the slopes was definitely the highlight of the day!

Christmas was spent with family for the first time in five years, which made for tricky packing, but much more fun! Super Smash Brothers, Calico Critters, a whoopee cushion, Lava Lamp, model rocket, and the timeless Easy Bake Oven were among the spoils of the day.

Of coarse there always has to be something unexpected that happens to make a trip even more memorable. For us it was the flu that Chloe passed to Hadley, who then passed it to Grammy, who suffered from the symptoms all Christmas night. Grammy's washer and dryer also got a run for their money that week. We have heard of no other casualties within the extended family, though we're assuming some are too nice to come forward.

After a week of cold weather and constant snowfall, it was with a bit of sorrow we packed up and headed south. Somewhere before Cedar City the snow had melted from the car and the roads, and the only reminder we had of our visit were our memories...oh, and our salt laden car. Usually a car covered in salt feels dirty and unkempt, but for us it was a trophy of our first ski trip home to Utah. We soon found though, that it would be impossible to get too attached to Utah. Upon returning to Scottsdale we were awakened to a new love... December in the 70s!

There's No Place Like Home

We've moved... again. We're very good at it now, so it is with a bit of sorrow we throw away the boxes for good and settle into our home here in Scottsdale. While we don't miss the skunks and silver fish spiders of Ohio, North Scottsdale has its own wild life with which to contend. We've seen a bobcat, rattlesnake, scorpions, and the beloved garbage-dumping havalenas. Our first night in our home we woke to the cries of coyotes. If the saguaro cacti were not enough, these creatures are enough to convince us that we truly live in the desert.

There have been two things Braden was excited for upon our move. The first was a dog. He is our animal loving child (definitely not a trait acquired from his mom). He is still waiting for the dog. The second was the pool. Unfortunately we moved in the winter, though that was not what hindered him. His casted arm prolonged the plunge until December 3rd. The swim lasted only a minute, as even in Arizona it is not swimming weather in December.

The babies have acclimated about as well to the new house as Braden to the pool. Where the girls have always been wonderful sleepers, we now find them crawling out of bed seeking a better sleeping location. They'll initially climb in with each other or Emmry, but eventually insist on a nightly stroll into mom and dad's room. It only took a couple times pulling both two-year-olds into bed to realize that that was not a good solution. Our nightly visitors now have sleeping quarters on their parents' floor.

Ryan and I have acclimated quite well. The only thing we are missing here are our friends and family. If you find yourselves missing the sun, desiring a polar bear swim, or yearning to know what a havalena is, we would love to see more of you here!