Lots of Pictures

Here are some recent pictures of the boys.

I gave Tim a little mohawk the other day. As I was going to take a picture, Jack walked by and got Tim to smile!

My friend Danielle got an amazing picture of her daughter on the changing table. I gave it a try and Chris even flashed a half smile

My mom got Jack a sleeping bag that he didn't want anything to do with while she was here. Now he asks for it all the time. He calls it his "bed."

One of my favorite parts of this twin experience is watching the interaction between all the boys.It just fills my heart with joy to watch these guys together.

Can you guess who is who?



I had them in bed with me one morning. I went to change and when I came back they had snuggled into each other!



Jack with Tim ... Do you see how big the twins are getting!

Jack came over to play with Chris. I just started snapping because Jack usually runs away from the camera, so I didn't frame it well and missed that Jack is holding Chris's hand.

Jack talking to Tim

Out and About

So far this month, we have done something fun every weekend. This weekend our friends Jamie and Rob came up for the Army Ten Miler. I didn't get to run the race, but it was great to have them here. Dave's training fell apart once the twins came (for obvious reasons), but he ran it anyway and had a great time.

Rob, Jamie, Dave, and Peter after the race

They were so great with the twins! Besides helping feed and carry the twins everywhere, they did lots of baby holding. I loved it because I don't feel like the twins get held enough. Rob also did a lot of football with Jack.

A few weeks ago, we went to the Oktoberfest on Fort Belvoir. I danced the chicken dance with Jack, but he was mostly scared of the loud music. I realized while we were there that Oktoberfest was also one of Jack's first outtings.

Last year we went to Cox Farm for their Halloween/Fall Festival. It was beautiful and Jack loved it. This year it was super cold and windy plus we carried the twins instead of using the stroller. On top of that, Jack just wanted to wonder around free rather than us telling him where to go. It made for a much more difficult trip. It was still fun because Jack loved the activities, but we didn't stay very long. I came home and crashed for three hours.

This is Tim's face. It was difficult to take the picture because people kept jumping in Dave's way yelling "oh look how cute that is"

This is Chris as a goat

On My Own ...

Well this is it. Dave's mom was here, my mom has been going back and forth, and Dave took a total of 3 weeks off of work. All my family help has run out and I'm on my own for a while. I am very thankful to have a family that wanted to help me out so much. Dave has been really understanding and even let me hire a cleaning service. I'm a little embarrassed that I am not taking care of the house myself, but it is making a huge difference in my quality of life.
Things are starting to get a little more manageable. I don't know if it's because I'm starting to recover physically or if I'm just getting used to it all.
Here are some pictures of my mom with the kids.

It's always nice when my mom comes because Dave and I do something for ourselves. This visit we got tickets to the Colts v Redskins game. My mom watched all the kids and we went to the game with our friends Phil and Allison. We didn't get home until almost 2am. It was worth it though! We had a good time :)

Jack's 2 Year Pictures

We did Jack's 2 year pictures this weekend. He wants to run around/play and thus was not very cooperative, but we got some good ones anyway. I love the one of him on the 2 block, but mostly we did a lot of football pictures. This boy is all about football, so we wanted to capture that in these pictures.

And of course, we couldn't resist getting one of the twins


Chris on the left and Tim on the right



Coming home from the pictures ....

Gate Guard: So you're Charger's fans with Texas plates?

Dave: Yup. That's military for ya.

Happy Birthday Jack!

Here is my Jack! He loves fall already because of the crackling noise he gets when he steps on leaves. Look at what a little boy he has turned into!

Yesterday, Jack turned 2 years old. When he turned 1, it wasn't hard at all, but 2 was really hard for me. It's just been such a wonderful and special time for us. I didn't want to see it end. I think it's because the twins are here now and so we have moved into another phase of life. It's just sort of hit me on his birthday. It's going to be a wonderful phase too, but it's hard to leave the other behind. You know?
Jack is so much fun right now. We have little conversations at lunch everyday, go on walks where he runs around and laughs, he gets so excited about little things, but he still comes up and wants a hug everyday. My favorite thing is when he calls for me in the morning when he wakes up. "Mama!"
Jack's greatest loves are football, all kinds of sports balls actually, spaghetti, cookies, going to the park, cartoons (uhhhh), and his family :).

We had just a few families over for pizza, cake and presents. I made my first ever cake from scratch! I cut it into the shape of a football and made chocholate frosting so it would look like a football. I was really proud - and it even tasted good!

He was SO excited for the football cake. It made me so happy :)

Jack is funny to open presents with. He opens something and doesn't want to move on to the next gift. First thing he opened, he didn't want to let go of the card. Then he opened a truck and didn't want to stop playing with it. We knew to save the drum for the end. After he opened the drum, he didn't stop beating for over an hour.