October 15th

H.CON.RES.222 - PASSED in The House of Representatives

Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day, October 15th has passed in Congress.

Had to Share

Too cute....the only difference between me and this woman is I do TRY to keep the house clean but I fail everyday b/c someone is always behind or in front of me making it worse.

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard. The door of his wife's car was open,as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall. In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing. In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door. He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of! clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened. He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door. As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls. As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went. He looked at her bewildered and asked, 'What happened here today?' She again smiled and answered, ''You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world did I do today?'' "Y es," was his incredulous reply. She answered, "Well, today I didn't do it."

Ok, so maybe I'm not the perfect role model...

As is the custom for 4 year olds, Logan likes watching Cartoons. Logan likes watching Cartoons with his Dad.

Unfortunately, most cartoons these days are horrible. So, We have the DVR set to tape the Simpsons, and every now and then Logan and I watch it together.

Well, tonight for supper, I went to get some Tea. All out. Looked for a Mountain Dew. All Out. So, I grabbed a beer. (Which is normally reserved for cooking out on the Grill.)

When I sat down at the table with a beer, Logan loudly proclaimed to us all: "Daddy's drinking what Homer drinks!"

I really don't want to know what he says about us at school.

Oh well. As Homer himself said: "Here's to alcohol, the cause of—and solution to—all life's problems"

We're getting closer to seeing Madelyn's face

Wow! Do you know what this means? We're LID 9/9. Referral's are coming out soon for LID's up to 8/9. One month's worth of LID's left until it's our turn.

I'm can't express how excited I am to soon be able to put a face to the name we've chosen for our daughter. We had our sons named before we saw them and I think their names fit them perfectly.

I'm now starting (well, not just "now" but have been all along) to worry about the trip to China. I'm really considering getting Logan a passport just in case we decide to take him. He really wants to go. Our only problem with taking him is the airplane ride. Can an almost 5 year old survive the plane ride? Or maybe the question is Can the young child's parents survive the plane ride with him?

My biggest worry is leaving behind Nate and Andrew. If we travel beginning of the year, these boys will probably be crawling by then and may be learning to walk. Asking someone to babysit for a few hours or even a day or two is not such a big deal. Asking someone to babysit TWO for TWO weeks is a big deal at this age. We don't even have our own home completely childproofed yet and those that do, there's obviously a reason behind why theirs is childproofed and who wants to take in two babies for two weeks at that stage when they already have young children in their own home. That's a long time to watch other kids with no break.

Do I stay behind and wait to see my daughter when she arrives in the States? Do I split the twins up to stay with different people? Do they stay together? Do they switch off places they stay for those two weeks? No, we will not take them with us unless someone else travels with us and then I'm not even all that certain I would take them. Our attention needs to be on Madelyn while we're there.

We've had several friends offer to help out while we're gone to China (some of those will be reading this) but I feel like everyone doesn't understand what this involves. There's two of them. Two that need bottles, food, changing, naps, etc. I'm used to it. I've been taking care of them 24 hours a day since March 3. My life evolves around them and Logan. I can't even leave them for the whole two hours the YMCA will allow me to leave them in the nursery b/c they can't even handle two babies at the same time. I haven't been able to sit through an entire church service in a long time b/c there are two babies that need attention at the same time and there's usually not enough staff. Tony and I don't even go out together w/o children anymore b/c even for a few hours, watching two babies is a lot to ask someone to do. Forget leaving them alone with teenagers. Some adults can't even handle two babies at the same time by themself. It's tough and I'm the mom even admitting to that.

I really don't want to split Nate and Andrew up which is what we originally thought we would do. Coming back from China and getting one baby on a schedule will be difficult enough. Trying to get three babies off three different schedules (if there's even any sort of schedule by then) and into a routine will not be fun. If the twins stay together, more and likely they'll be on the same schedule of eating, napping, etc. We do know Logan will probably not be wherever the twins stay. I also worry about that. Logan LOVES his brothers. Yes, there is sometimes jealousy but I think he'll have a difficult time being away from all of us for two weeks and also not being around his own things that he's familiar with.

I am worried about leaving my children behind for that long but at the same time I can't imagine not going to China to meet my daughter. I want to experience Madelyn's country. How do I decide what's more important? Staying or going? Should Tony travel alone and I stay behind with the boys? Should I not worry so much about leaving behind the boys and know they will be safe with whomever we decide to leave them with?

So many decisions to make, and the time to make them is narrowing down. That's the good news - Madelyn is coming home SOON!!!!

Twin Day

Last week Sears portrait studio had a multiples day (mostly twins). They ran a contest and sold sheets for BOGO. This one was one of my favorite shots. Nate and Andrew did the best they've ever done for portraits. They were both very happy until the end and then they both broke down in tears and very loud crying.  

Beautiful Children

This time I'm not bragging about my own beautiful children but instead of everyone else's beautiful children. See Harrah's slide show.

Look Alikes cont....

I have a small entrance into the master bedroom where I have on the walls all of our baby pictures. They are hung over the changing table. Today I couldn't help but stare at the photos and compare mine and Tony's photos to our kids.

The framed photo in this picture is Tony. (Sorry, I can't figure out how to turn this around in blogger. I have it turned the right way on my hard drive.)

Don't you just love Nate's hair in this photo? He's got a curly mohawk. And yes, that's Logan with chocolate on his face. We chased down the ice cream truck just before this picture.

The framed photo in this picture is Me.

Andrew always has drool on his face or spit-up or both. He wasn't happy about having his picture taken at that moment.

Is Madelyn going to feel out of place? Others will know she's different but I see her as my daughter already just like these three kids. I know we're going to face some challenges having a daughter from China. It's going to be worth it though. She'll make this family even more complete.

BTW, two days ago we were LID one year. I forgot what day it was until after midnight. I do good to remember what day of the week it is these days.

I'm getting tired of hearing "so have you heard anything about China yet?" Don't these people know we will be telling the entire world when we find out more on our daughter? It's not like we'll keep it a secret when our referral comes.

Too Many Strollers?

Tony thinks we have too many strollers. What do you think?

There's a story for each of these...(from left to right)

The first stroller was a travel system when we had Logan. It has a matching infant car seat which we are using with one of the twins. We are almost done with these carseats so this stroller will probably be sold soon.

The next seat (Nate is modeling this one in the photo) was given to me from a friend. I plan on returning it back to her since I bought the one beside it last night.

Number three - Love this one. I bought it from a Moms of Multiples consignment sale last night. It will also hold the infant carriers until we do away with them but also has seats for them to sit in. There are drink holders and a large basket underneath.

Next is the Snap-n-Go. I'm sad to see this one go. It's an awesome stroller but can only be used with infant carriers and since the twins have about outgrown these, time to say good-bye.

The side-by-side stroller is nice to use when taking the twins out when I know I have to feed them baby food. Much easier to feed them side-by-side. However, it does not fit through doorways easily. I'm still keeping it.

Triple stroller - need I say more? Madelyn, Nate and Andrew (Logan can walk)

And last is the umbrella single stroller. It was one of Logan's. I'm going to keep it too. It's great if I'm only going out with one kid at a time....(like that ever happens).

Another cutie

Can't forget Nate. Poor ole Nate has a plugged saliva duct in his mouth under his tongue. For the next month he has to suck on lemons or oranges to see if this will clear it up. If not, the docs will be talking to us about surgically taking care of it. This little chunker weighs in now over 20lbs at only six months old. Tony says he'll be a linebacker. He's still my cuddle bug. 

We better start saving for braces now.....

We've got a thumb sucker. Andrew looks like me as a baby and now he sucks his thumb like I did. I had my thumb in my mouth until I was in Kindergarten and from fourth grade until after my freshman year in high school I wore braces b/c of it. You have to admit though, this photo is adorable.  

A little late on BPOH - foyer

This week on BPOH the feature room was the master bedroom. Well, I didn't get that room ready but I did work on the foyer today. For 6 months now our plant shelf had been bare. This window in the picture faces the East so every morning when the sun comes up we are blinded by the sun as we walk through our living room. Last week I caught Logan sitting on the couch watching TV holding a pillow up to his face to keep the sun out of his eyes. I knew then it was time to get some window treatments up.

I'm a bit afraid of climbing ladders so I asked a friend to come over. She climb our ladder and stood on the plant shelf to hand the shears. I didn't have any tie backs so I took the ribbon off of a decorative bag used for a baby shower to pull the shears back with. Everything else placed up there was things we found around the house, yard sales or was given to me. It turned out so pretty. The picture doesn't look as good as it does in person. I've got to get some candles for the candle holders but otherwise I think it's perfect. I plan on getting something to hang over the door.

As for the BPOH parade of bedrooms, well, if I took photos today it would be like my photos from my dirty kitchen. Last night was a bad night trying to get some sleep the sheets are torn all up. Nate wouldn't sleep so he and I and Tony all tried to sleep in our bed. The most sleep I got was when I decided to lay down at the foot of the bed and curl up. Our bed stays torn apart b/c the twins like to take naps in there during the day.

Now I'm off to surf some of the bedrooms on Shannon's blog. 

Few videos

I'm still learning how to use the video on my digital camera. Here's a few funny ones taken recently.

Twins laughing in their stroller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-1gK-3EHDI

All of our boys playing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc6EFmnWyW0

Logan behind the wheel?

This is scary!