Randy starts his new job tomorrow!

Randy starts at Walsh Automotive tomorrow. He is very excited and I am too for him. This is what he wants to do in life and I think this will be a wonderful experience for him.

I like the fact that it is family owned and operated. Mrs. Walsh called him today to tell him what he will be doing tomorrow. They liked the fact that he is going to be pursuing a career in automotive technology and that he has worked with my dad who has been a mechanic for over 40 years! Dad is so proud of him too, not just because he's doing this type of work, but because he's doing so good in school and dad says he just "has it" when it comes to mechanics.

So - can I say again how proud I am of him? LOL

Twin slave?

Okay, this was really cute today, but it got me thinking.......I was putting the boys to bed and Joshua had said he wanted milk. I gave him some and put them to bed and shut the light off and went back to cleaning the kitchen...in walks Joshua a few minutes later saying he wanted milk. I told him he had milk in his cup, but he insisted - so being the persistent little booger he is, I opened up the cup to show him he did have milk - LOL I was shocked to see juice LOL then he calmly said Justin wants milk! LOL They are having a hard time speaking certain sounds and Joshua and Justin both sound almost the same. He looked at me and LAUGHED! LOL

However, it got me thinking that Justin has been bossing around his brother. Mind you they are only 2 1/2! I walked behind him to see what he was going to do and he went back into the bedroom, gave Justin the cup, and COVERED HIM UP! It was the cutest thing, but I wonder how long this bossing around thing is going to last before Joshua wises up! LOL

We also had a long day today. Miranda's girl scout troop is filling 6,000 bags of candy for Operation Santa Claus.....Dylan's boy scout troop and the fire department (Dan) hands out the candy on December 6th as the fire trucks go down the streets and the boys go door to door handing out candy.....we are going to be filling bags for quite a few more days! LOL At last count we had 1,100 bags filled today! Not too bad, but still a long way to go....

Good day! Dare I say we are potty trained!!!!!!! And piano lessons started!

I think we have done it! Woo Hoo! The boys have been dry for over a week now! I can't believe it. I never thought I would see this day! LOL We introduced the potty chairs when they turned 2, just like I did with all my other kids, but they just did not want anything to do with it! Then I had just had it about two weeks ago. I had picked up my last poopy diaper laying in the floor! They knew what they were doing and I was ready to get mad and stern with them and they did it!!!!!!!!!!!!! We started the rewards chart and it seemed to take off right away. I went cold turkey - no more diapers during the day. Even though they begged and cried for them! LOL We made a big deal about it and dare I say it? We've done it!!!! I was doing this with only 6 pairs of underwear.....I told them I would buy them more underwear when they didn't mess in them! It worked! So today we went out and bought 6 more pairs!

By the way - why do we say "pair" of underwear? There's only one!? Weird....anyway I'm so happy that I can hardly hold it in. Now we just have to figure out better clothes than jeans to wear in the house. They have a hard time getting them up and down. They have tons of jeans, and hardly any sweat pants or easier up and down clothes.....LOL For right now they have been in pj's for 3 days straight.....Hey, they don't go out of the house in them - it's easier on me and they are comfortable play wear! LOL

Today we also had Miranda's first piano lessons! We have wanted her to learn how to play piano for some time now. My biological mother was a concert pianist who won International awards. I however, did not get this gene...my parents paid for me to have lessons for years and I can't play anything....Maybe it helped me type faster? LOL Several people have told me that Miranda has "it", I guess they mean rhythm...We have tried to "afford" to send her to piano lessons and there was always something in our way.

Out of the blue the other day we were at the library and we met some of our old friends we knew a couple of years ago from our homeschooling group. We got to talking and catching up on things and I asked if her girls were still playing piano. I was inquiring about where they go for lessons as we live very close to them now. Come to find out her son who has been taking lessons for years teaches piano! For $5 a lesson! He's young and this is what he wants to do so it helps him towards his teaching skills. I can't say how thankful we are that this door opened up for us! Not to mention that we get to renew friendships with friends we haven't seen in a long time!

Miranda was on cloud nine today. After her piano lesson, us girls, all five of us, had a tea party with REAL CHINA and real hot tea! LOL We felt very special today. Now Mom is going to want to do this every week too! LOL I get 1/2 hour of "adult" conversation and she gets to learn! Friends are a wonderful thing in life!

Our day in the woods....

It has been so nice lately that we decided to take the kids to the woods today after school. We went to Bull Frog lake and had a picnic. Since the time change, it got dark on us fast and boy is it dark out there! LOL

The kids had a wonderful time playing outside and just running up and down the hill. It sure tired them out. We came home and the kids played a little more with daddy and Randy, Miranda and I had a tea party and then I gave the boys a bath - boy were they tired!

We had a wonderful day today as a family and hope for many more days like this, although Jerry Taft (weather guy) said it's all going away tomorrow! Boo Hoo! You've gotta love Chicago weather!

Potty training twins.....

Did I tell ya how much grey hair I have on my head now? We bought the potty chairs 9 months ago. The boys were just a little over 2 years. I read in a book to "introduce" the potty chair as a welcome addition to the family. Well we did this and every time they would sit on the potty they would tinkle. It got progressively better as time went on and they were actually telling me they had to go, but nothing came! LOL We let them run around with no underwear or diapers on during the day - but do you know how hard it is to run a household and try and keep an eye on them EVERY SECOND? It's not easy and I was so very tired of cleaning up messes - especially the #2 kind!!!! Remember the grey hair thing? LOL

I then introduced some psychology to the mix...."diapers are for babies" and that kind of stuff. We rented videos from the library that they LOVED! Now they run around the house and say "Potty Power" - LOL Well, I'm not sure what is working, but now I'm getting strict with them and we are no longer wearing diapers during they day. We have a potty chart where they get stickers (tried this in the beginning too, but didn't work as well as it is now) and a special one for #2! Dare I say I think we are almost there?

We have been dry for a week now, except for nap time and nights, but I think we're getting somewhere. The boys got new fishes to celebrate!

Exhausted!

Justin woke up this morning coughing and took a drink of his milk which had soured and must have made him sick to his stomach and turned into him throwing up on my bed! What a nice thing to wake up too. He cried for quite a while and we finally got him calmed down and as soon as my head hit the pillow again - in walks Joshua...So both are in bed with us now. Not to mention, my little "friend" (why do we call it that anyway - it is definitely NOT my friend - LOL) came right before bed last night and I didn't sleep very well with cramps. Sometimes I wonder if I could handle hot flashes and be gone with cramping, I'm already moody, so menopause could be a welcome thing! LOL

The day went okay, Justin started feeling better by around 11 a.m. and was up playing with Joshua again. You should have seen Joshua walking around like he didn't know what to do with himself since Justin was sleeping in. He would walk over to Justin and rub his forehead (he saw us doing it) and say "feel better yet?" It was so cute! By around 4 p.m. he was running around and we didn't give them a nap since they slept most of the morning - HUGE MISTAKE!!!!

They were outside playing with dad in the leaves and mom ran and voted. I came home, all was well. We sat down to eat dinner and you'd think we pressed the CRY button! They both were not happy with anything...They didn't want to be held, they didn't want to eat, they just cried and cried.......at one point while cooking dinner, getting back packs ready for tomorrow, I felt like sitting down and crying with them. Of course, the rest of the family was oblivious to what was going on.....We finally got them calmed down around 10:30 p.m. and they went to sleep...we started at 9:30 p.m.! I am sooo very thankful Dan was off tonight!

We let the older kids stay up late to watch the elections since these are historical times in our country. We discussed a few things, prayed and put them to bed. Now I'm off to bed - I'll do dishes in the morning!

Oh, we are so proud of Randy. A couple of months ago, one of his teachers at school recommended him to be an election judge. He went to the schooling and he was an election judge. He did have to get up at around 4 a.m., but he made us proud and he should also be proud to be a part of history in our country. Even if it is a small part, he'll remember this day forever. Now, I'm off to bed - just hoping and praying the boys stay sleeping!

Parent Teacher Conferences

We had Dylan and Miranda's PT conferences today. Miranda got all B's. Dylan did wonderful with 4 A's, 2 B's and 2 C's that were only points away from being B's! They are both on the Honor Roll!! I am so very proud of them. You can not imagine how proud I am when I see them struggle through things and then to get the final results and see how well they are doing. It makes a mom's heart beat with pride!

Dylan is still struggling with reading but he's come a long way! The teachers at his school are fantastic and I can't begin to tell you what an answer to prayer that is! Dan and I were so scared putting them into school when I was so sick when I was PG with the twins, that I prepared myself for the worst and I got the best! God truly knew we needed to move here! He paved the way completely....

Halloween 2008

So another year is come and gone for Halloween! Dan and Dylan's favorite "non" holiday - LOL They built more torture chambers again this year by adding the hanging gallows and a stockade. They are still in the process of building the fort in the backyard too. Never a dull moment around here for building projects with the boys.

The kids dressed up and we went trick or treating. It was a beautiful day! Usually here in the Windy City we are layering the kids so they don't get cold. This year we were taking clothes off so they didn't get hot! LOL

It was so fun to see the twins "getting into it" for ringing the doorbells and knocking! LOL But if they didn't answer right away, they were off running to the next house.

Randy had to work today so we missed him being there. We did have a TON of kids come by as our house was the scary house on the block! LOL I'm going to try and upload a video that you can see a little bit of the house......

All in all we had a wonderful day, gave out 50 lbs of candy and ran out at the end of the night - we started giving away some of ours! LOL Only for about two kids though.........