First things first.

I have a new bright idea. All in the hope that this silly blog can recover from its lack of awesomeness. First of all, the post the other day about fresh & easy and stuff, I started it as a draft back in January, but just posted it a few days ago. But it posts it as the date I started it, and I don't know how to fix that. So, sorry for that confusion.

Also, I did promise weekly posts, or something like that. But then Erik left for Texas for a month, and that good intention died a quick and painless death. He gets home tomorrow night and I can't tell you how nice it well be for us to be a complete family again.

Here's the bright idea:

shorter, more frequent posts!

It's genius!

I don't know why, but when I blog I usually try to tell you as many things as possible and show as many pictures as possible before I run out of steam. So dumb.

So, I'll finally get this blog whipped into shape and make it more fun to read and definitely more fun for me to write.

But, since I realize that you care more about pictures of my cute boys than you do about my thoughts about fabric lines...

Here goes...

this is what a typical morning looks like for us. In the family room/playroom we have a lot of items that aren't really toys, but the boys love playing with them, so they stay in the playroom. My swim cap is one of them. They all think it's so funny and I love it. And, as you can see, both babies are walking (more like running) machines. That's Dane with the cap on.

This is the classic morning scene. Babies stripped of clothes because they've smeared banana on themselves and puked down their shirts. The vacuum (barely visible in the bottom right corner) out to vacuum up the many stray Cheerios, Reid still sitting at the table (that's him in the top right corner) because he takes like an hour and a half to eat (seriously), and on the floor by Reid's chair is Patches, the zhu zhu pet that Uncle Brian and Aunt Stamatia sent the boys. At any given moment, one of them is playing with him.

On a different day, Reid was playing with the swim cap. I had music on (because dancing is Reid's joy in life) and Reid came out to dance looking like this. I love how his pajama pants are just barely hanging on.
Here's a quilt I finished (with some serious help from my mom) lately. This is honestly the one and only craft ANYTHING that I have accomplished since the babies joined our family. I'm happy that it's completed and already sent off to its adorable owner.
Oh, and the boys love playing in their chipmunk Halloween costumes.
Here is our recent front landscaping. When Erik's parents were here for Christmas, Erik and his dad built the retaining wall and planted that gorgeous palm and all of the other plants. They've filled out quite a bit in the last month (since we had like 2 weeks of straight rain) and I love how things look. In a month or so, we're going to plan some bougainvillea at the edge of the wall, on either side of the little bay window. The guy at the nursery told us to wait until March when the frost is over, and I'm so excited for some more color and viney loveliness growing up the house.
Here are a bunch of pictures of the boys playing. They seriously play ALL...DAY...LONG. It's so fun to see them having fun together and growing together as friends.
Check out Alec's face in this one. Click on it to make it bigger so you can get the full effect.
Reid loves playing this card game with Erik. Dana gave this to Erik for Christmas, and Reid just giggles the whole time as we play.
This is silly, but one morning when I was at the kitchen window washing dishes, I looked out and saw this pretty sunrise reflected off the van and I just loved it. The silhouette of the palm tree and the colors of the sunset just look so California to me.
Here's another favorite non-toy toy.Reid is "helping" Erik install a sprinkler system.
Our cuties enjoying a bath. The babies used to HATE baths. They would scream the whole time and we would just go as fast as possible, and then as soon as we pulled them out they would stop screaming. As soon as they turned one they all of a sudden loved baths. It was honestly the day of their birthday. They had pizza and cupcakes and were super messy, so we plopped them all into the tub expecting to have to go bananas fast like usual, but for some reason, that day, the babies were giggling and playing and splashing and having a great time. Now, it's impossible to give just one of our boys a bath because the other two won't stand for it. They love baths together.
And there's our picture roundup. Okay, so this post was really long, but for the most part I'm going to try more frequent, shorter posts. We'll see how that goes. Remember when I tried the confessions thing like my (pretend) friend Sarah Champion? Yeah, that didn't last very long.

please bear with me. (whining and stories about baby puke ahead)

Hello again, to anyone and everyone who still reads this thing.

Right, so now that this is a private blog, that means that it isn't going to show up on your reader anymore, which means that you're going to have to remember to click into your bookmarks and show up here.

How about we make some kind of an association in your head, so that it will be easier to remember to check the blog?

Maybe every time you vacuum the floor you could check the blog.

No, that's too much.

I don't blog that often.

How about every time you wash your sheets?

No.

Still too often.

I know.

How about every time you clean your baseboards you remember to check the blog?

Perfect.

Now that we have that settled, I have a few aggravating things I need to get off of my chest.

Aggravating thing number one:

Did you know that I dyed my hair bright red and cut bangs? What? You didn't know that? Yeah, that's probably because I didn't tell you, but it's true. I did it.

I've always wanted to try red hair, and my "granola vs. J.Lo" complex got the better of me and so I did something crazy with my hair.

It looks a little something like this.

For real.

Okay, maybe not quite that Kool-aid red, but it's pretty red. I realize that you're not going to believe me until I post a picture of my and my darn hair, but that may not happen. Depending on the day I either love it or hate it. And, I think I'm going to go dark brown here any day now, so...

Next item of aggravation:

These babies puke all day long. Seriously. All day long. And no, it's not just spit-up. It's puke. It's a real problem. And now they crawl and cruise anywhere they want to go, so the puke is taking over the house. Our carpet it in really bad shape. Like, it makes me depressed.

When we moved into our house the carpet was brand new. I'm not a huge fan (or even a little fan) of wall to wall carpeting (more on that later), but at least it was new. Now, a mere 8 months later, and it's disgusting. We steam clean it, and then a few days later it looks like a landmine again. Plus, many times a day I get the lovely surprise of finding puke bombs by stepping my bare foot into goopy pukey carpet. So gross.

But, in our kitchen we have tile and in the hallway we have laminate. That's better, right? Easier to keep clean?

Well, it's easier to keep clean, but I don't know if it's better because in the kitchen and hallways the babies puke and then slip and slide around in it. Or, I get to discover a puke splat as I walk down the hallway and slide and crash from slipping on puke.

*the climax of your pity for me:

True story. Yesterday the babies were crawling down the hallway making a fast sprint to the hall bathroom because they saw that the door was open (Reid and I are deep in the depths of potty training). The babies love the forbidden delights in the bathroom. They love to whack on the scale until the lights blink and then laugh and laugh. And the other day they figured out how to pull up to a stand by pulling on the toilet, cruise over to the side and pull the flush lever. Then the toilet flushes and they laugh and laugh. So anyways, they were on a fast break to the bathroom and so I dashed down the hallway to intercept them. Along the side of the hallway was a metal hanging garment rack thing, just sitting there, because we moved all the bedrooms around (more on that someday) and it was just kind of sitting there. The bottom of the rack has a wire mesh shelf with an edge that's kind of sharp. As I was dashing down the hall, I slipped on a big pile of puke (it's magically imperceptible on the tile/laminate...I don't understand it) and slid right into the rack thing while trying to slow myself down with my hands braking against the wall. The rack sliced a monster gash into my lower shin that streamed blood for a solid half hour despite my best pressure and elevation applications. It was pretty bad. Not bad enough for stitches, but I considered it.

Where does all this whining lead to?

Probably nowhere.

But it does make me daydream about flooring. All I want in this world is glossy whitewashed hardwood floors. Because I LOVE them. I love how they look. So clean and uncluttered.

And, as an extra bonus, I think baby puke would be easier to detect. And that would make my life 100% easier. You have no idea.

Have you heard of Sixx Design or the book Downtown Chic? Well, there's this couple with SEVEN children, living in New York, that finds old run-down properties, buys them, moves the family in and renovates them while living there. Then they sell the property for millions of dollars. Seriously. I love their style, I love that they have a big family and that they still are out there living their dream with kids right alongside them, and I love this house they renovated. This is one of my favorites. My dream house, if you will.

Oh, and notice the white floors.

Pretty awesome, right? Now I just need to convince Erik into the lifestyle of living in shambles while we renovate things into something awesome. That'll be a tough one.

But in the meantime, here are some more pictures of beautiful white floors to get me by. I don't think it will really happen. Not in this house, at least. We've got three more years here at the most, and possibly as little as a year. So, you know, I won't really be here long enough to justify making it my dream house. I can survive splatted landmine carpet. I guess.
Didn't you love it? All the white?

That's my design preference in a nutshell. White, white, and more white. With blasts of color spattered about. That's what my house looks like in my head, as I try to comfort myself when I step in a carpet puddle or bathe the babies again after they've been slip and sliding in their puke.

If you're laughing at that, I just hope you never have to do it. Because after nearly 10 months of daily doubletime puke, I'm not laughing anymore.

picture mania.

What's up everybody! Since you're reading this, that means that you've followed us over to private blogland. Thank you for that.

As a warning, this post has probably close to a billion pictures, so I recommend getting up and going to the bathroom, washing your hands, grabbing a cold beverage and a snack, and then coming back to the computer.

The babies do not like being on the other side of a baby gate. Dane especially. Dane is our sensitive baby. He's adorable like that, he takes it very personally when he gets put in his crib or when the baby gate goes up. But sometimes the babies make funny faces, and that makes all this crazy twinness work worth it. To see their faces smooshed in the mesh of a baby gate or pack n play.

This is Alec's smooshed little face.
Big news around here. We laid sod in the backyard and it's pretty dope. First we spread around some compost soil that Erik brought in big truckloads and dumped in wheelbarrow piles around the yard. Then I would use a rake to spread around the piles. I have a lot of experience in spreading dirt. Ask my mom and dad.
The huz being all handy and hardworking and stuff.
There he is again, still at it, and now laying the sod. Our friend and home teacher Nick came by to help. It was a HUGE help. The weather was perfect and in about 2 or 3 hours all of the sod was laid.
Here's Reid the next morning, remembering that there's grass and wanting to play in it. He still had his pajamas on so we gave him a sweatshirt and let him at it. We love this grass so much. Pretty soon we'll have some friends to roam the grass, but I'll mention that later...
The babies like to chat with each other. Here they pulled themselves up next to each other and I heard both of them giggling and giggling at each other. Alec is on the left and Dane is on the right.
The gang all ready for a Sunday afternoon walk around the neighborhood.
On labor day we went to the beach for a few hours. I love being so close to the beach. There are some A+ beaches within an hour drive from our house, but there's also a B- beach that's only 15 minutes from our house. So we pick that one.
Best idea ever. I put the babies in sleepers to try and minimize the sand that seems to get everywhere. It worked pretty darn well. Plus, it reduced the surface area that needed sunscreen. Double awesome. Here's Dane checking out some dried seaweed-ish stuff.
All the boys.
Alec being cute.
Isn't their hair coming in so nicely? I love it.
Dane's cute mug.
Reid loves the beach. He's super psyched every time we go, and the whole time he has sand all over him and never seems to notice. When I give him a snack, he has sand all over his face and probably eats as much sand as he does snack, but he loves it.
Here are the babies modeling their new booster chairs. We copied our awesome friends the Crandells and just skipped the whole high chair stage and went straight to this booster business. It worked great with Reid, and our babies love it, too. Here's Dane.
And Alec.
And another one of Dane. Look at how crazy huge his eyes are! Even as a tiny baby he's always had such bright eyes.
Bathtime. After a lot of trial and error, I've discovered that the boys like the sink the best. Especially Alec. Alec hated baths in the tub, but will now endure a bath in the sink without screaming. Sometimes he even smiles a little bit.
The boys are always playing together. One morning I found them all congregated by the window.
Then by the piano.
Last Friday we had a little birthday party for me. It was a success and a failure mixed in one. A success because our awesome friends the McCunes came over and partied with us. We had ice cream sundaes and here's Reid going to town on his ice cream. Sometimes utensils just slow him down, so he takes matters into his own hands. Literally. The party was a failure because I invited like 6 families and only one ended up coming. That sucks. It sucks being the new kid all the time and not really having close friends. Then, by the time you're in one place long enough to make close friends, you move again. Sucks. I want to be like, "I'm Emily, I throw fun parties! Hello?!" Oh, and I bought enough ice cream for an army, plus all kinds of sundae toppings. Which are now in my pantry. And I've decided to go on a sugar diet. As in a diet from sugar. Not a diet made of sugar. More on that later.
The boys enjoying the grass. Check out Alec's face in this one.
And Dane's face in this one.
This year we learned from last year's cake fiasco and just went with my favorite. A classic. Rainbow party chip. Erik employed his creativity to make this beautiful cake. That's me in some cheesy pajamas in the back.
The candles are sparkler candles, and Reid wasn't quite sure how he felt about the sparks.
Yeah, he was a little bit concerned. But the cake was awesome, and the birthday was probably my favorite ever. Erik was like superhero husband awesome. More about that later.
These pictures are just cute. I gave the babies those baby toast things and Dane wasn't quite sure what to do with it.
Here's the Reidman being adorable.
Alec loved the little toasts and is modeling why I'm never buying that crap again. I forgot how messy they are. There was toast mush and crumbs everywhere. Seriously. Everywhere.

Now, the moment you've all been waiting for...

The winner of the cookies!

Reid helped me pick a winner...
and that person is...
Casey! Suh-weet! Casey and I are friends from all the way back into elementary school, and I'm so glad that weird things like facebook and blogs have brought us back into each other's life. So, homegirl, email me your address so I can send you some sugar-induced comas.
The next issue of the blog will be a full report on Monday's successful birthday-ing. The theme of which is: Erik is the best.

It'll be a good one.