??? The Mystery Photo ???

What is Josh doing? Any guesses?

My Baby Brother's a Missionary!

Okay, not to steal the thunder from Andrew, but I have to mention that my sister's hair looks so cute! I haven't seen it since she cut it, and I LOVE IT! I hope she keeps it that way for a while. Also as you scroll down to the last picture you'll see her son Carter, and wow, he is so big. I'm always so amazed at how much everyone else's kids change.

Now to the real reason for this post.

It finally happened, my baby brother is headed on his mission. He got his call back in May and is headed to the Columbia, South Carolina mission. I wish he was going foreign, but don't most people hope to go somewhere exotic? Then again, I've never been to Columbia and I'm sure there are parts of Columbia that will be as foreign as anywhere outside of the US. I'm also jealous of my brother Jeff and his wife Andrea, who will be only hours away!

What a sharp looking guy! I like the suit, like the tie, like it all. You'll have to remind the girls in South Carolina to back off, your servin' the Lord.

Good luck baby brother! We'll send you cookies, pictures from the kids and keep you in our prayers. We hope these next two years are some of the best of your life. We love you and can't wait to see you when you get home.

Josh's Birthday

On June 30, our little Joshua turned 3 years old. In the last couple of months he's been to several birthday parties, so when his turn came, he was so excited. He loved the streamers we had up downstairs, and the balloons, and everyone who ever asked him what he wanted for his birthday all got the same answer, a water gun. If you asked him what he was going to do with it, he also gave the same answer, spray BROOKE! Because he was so insistent on the water gun, we did finally gave in. Brooke gave him two water guns for his birthday. One for him to use and one for her to defend herself. To my utter amazement, there have been no fights, no crying and no arguing about them.

Josh was also set on having a monster truck cake, and this is what we came up with. The basis for the idea came out of a book we have for cut-up cakes, and then we added a few things. Needless to say, Josh thought it was the coolest thing ever, and when it was all said and done, I was pretty impressed with my craftiness.

The War is ON!

This morning we woke to find that we had been attacked in the middle of the night. Apparently bandits dressed up as some of the youth in our ward came to our house and not so stealthfully (according to my mother-in-law who was trying to sleep in the living room) and saran wrapped the front door and Ruston's truck. When I got up this morning, this is what remained of their night time escapade.

So what's a girl to do . . . but fight back with juvenilles!

We went to the allegded bandits house and fought back with T.P. The kids had a blast and hopefully this "crime" doesn't make it all the way to the police since we did photograph ourselves in the act! I'm such a good role model for the kids!

The Post of Randomness

This summer we invested in a $30 pool from Target, and so far it has been worth every penny. Josh is in his swimsuit EVERY day. In the beginning they used the pool as a normal pool, sliding down the slide, playing the water and splashing each other. However, it has since become a barbie bath, yet another place to catch bugs, and a place the play with sand toys when there's no sand readily available.

This is NOT typical for Brooke, although she loved holding both boys at once. What is typical though is for her to be holding one, or laying next to one, or shoving, and I mean shoving her face into one! She really is an aspiring mother and for the most part it's cute. As a side note, both boys are now over 10lbs, which to me is funny because that's where my sister's son Carter started!

Lastly, amidst all of the craziness of life, we've still tried to find time for Ruston to go biking. He found a new place just south of the airport that has jumps and other crazy things. He's getting a lot better, and I have to admit I think he looks pretty cool in this picture.

The Hero of the Day

My mom is super woman. She spent the entire month of May with us to help with the transition, and I could not have done it without her. She took the boys whenever they were fussy . . . day and NIGHT! Now that she's gone I really appreciate all that she did while she was here. So this post is entirely to tell my mom, and let everyone else know how fabulous my mom is. We hope she comes back SOON and OFTEN!

The boys had a checkup today and the stats are in.
Luke: 8lbs 8oz, up a full pound from last week
Zach: 7lbs 15oz, up 12 oz from last week

Needless to say the boys are nursing well and I feel so blessed that they are growing and I am able to provide that for them. Any woman will tell you it's not always as easy as it sounds.

I can't help but love SUSHI!

The greatest thing about not being pregnant anymore, aside from being able to wear normal clothes, bend over, tie my own shoes, see my own shoes, and move in general, is that I can now eat sushi! I forgot how much I loved it. Since Becky and DJ were here and we ate our hearts out, I have been craving it! So today I satisfied my craving and ate a Marvelous and an Amazing (Becky and DJ will understand) and they were marvelous and amazing!

Week Number Two for the Boys

This week began with a most exciting visit from my old college roommate Becky (and DJ her husband). They came over for dinner on Friday night and then we went for Sushi Saturday night. And all I can say is I LOVE SUSHI, and more importantly, eating all I can! And in an answer to Becky's question as, the boys didn't seem to mind wasabi! All in all it was a great visit and I hope they move here so we can do all you can eat sushi on a regular basis.

Brooke is still enamored with her brothers, and will cuddle them, and hug them and love on them every free second she gets. It really is super cute to see her interact with them and then come up to you and say, "Mommy, I love my brothers don't I?"

And in the words of Katie Richey, "A post really isn't complete until you put in the latest picture of the brothers" or something to that extent, and I agree. Saturday we snuggled them up in the swing together and they fell asleep, it was super precious.

Josh and Zach in the crib together. Josh thinks it's great that he can climb in and out all by himself. I guess I'm okay with it as long as nobody is sleeping.

And finally, this is Brooke's latest trick. I don't know how she does it, but she catches flies with her bare hands and then puts them in this jar as her pets. In this picture although you can't see it there are three flies. Talk about a gross talent!

WE DID IT!

Friday morning at about 2am contractions started, and by 9:30 we had two beautiful boys. The delivery went great and both boys are healthy! Such a blessing. Baby B is Zack and Baby A is Luke.

Zack (6 lbs 8 oz) is on the left and Luke (7lbs 2 oz) is on the right. Both were 20in.

Josh is trying to get used to the big brother thing, we hope he makes the adjustment well.

Brooke on the other hand is doing fabulous in the big sister department. She loves her brothers and has now decided that when she grows up she wants to be a mom, even though that will mean that she has to change the poopy diapers. I have no doubt that she is going to be my second set of hands throughout the next year. I am excited for that, and I think she is too!

The Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon

My mom flew in from Denver on Saturday to be with us when the twins are born, and since we don't have babies yet, we immediately headed up to the tulip festival in Mt. Vernon. It's about an hour north of Seattle and everyone who lives here says it's something you have to do at least once. We were kind of late in the season and there was only this field and one other left. The others had already been harvested for the bulbs, but the ones we saw were amazing. I felt like I was in the Netherlands, only no windmills, and our drive didn't require a passport. The pink ones here were my favorite.

Brooke and Josh

Go figure. There are fields and fields or tulips, but Brooke and Josh would rather pick dandelions. For the rest of the day we kept hearing about how Brooke just wanted to go back to the "dandelion field".

This is Josh's new trick. Don't ask me why he likes it so much, but almost every time I do a load of laundry (at least daily) he climbs on in. He's asked a couple of times for me to close the door, but we haven't ventured to try that . . . yet. However, Brooke has also been given strict instructions NOT to close the door while Josh is in there. Couldn't you imagine that! Ya, let's not.