brother don't shake hands...

...brothers gotta hug!

Mommy's sweethearts:

{Jack & Logan}

park play

Can you see my three men?
{click to enlarge}

The boys were somewhat cranky this afternoon (colds? teething? we're not sure) so we took off for some park play. That cheered them right up.
Until we had to go.
Logan cried THE ENTIRE DRIVE HOME
because we had forgotten his bubba at home.
That is a rookie mistake!
What were we thinking?

dilemma

It's 2:30pm, we have done our taxes during nap time, Daddy has taken Logan grocery shopping with him, and I have Jack, but have yet to take a shower.
What's a mother to do?
Find some apple juice, make a cereal/goldfish trail mix, plug in Baby Einstein "First Signs", plop Jack on the couch and scrub up in the shower quick as a wink!

He barely even noticed I was gone!

trash talk

I was getting ready to take out the trash this evening and when I turned around Jack was headed out to the living room with the garbage.

He knew to take it out the front door. It's amazing how much they watch what we do and mimic us. We can't wait until the boys can actually take the trash out!

february around the corner...

With February around the corner, I thought I would recap January. My new years resolutions {found here} didn't hold up as I had hoped they would. Well, actually only one is suffering. And I guess two out of three ain't bad!
I am not stressing about money and I am delighting in my children daily. As for the weight loss, I have jumped off that train into a nice, big bowl of Tillamook Brown Cow Ice Cream! I am not giving up, though. I have focused on the other two goals and we have been eating-in every day except Fridays when we get take-home pizza. I would say we are working our way up to a healthy diet. Slowly.
It's amazing how much work it is to keep this house running, the kids going and the job chugging along. I just couldn't take the pressure this month of one more thing on my to-do list. Maybe it will be better next month now that we are all adjusted to the new schedule. Or maybe it won't. I just have to take it a day at a time.
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The most important new years resolution I made was to delight in my children, and that I have been doing. Along with enjoying the boys now, I have been looking back at their {scrumptious} beginnings, and thought I would share what last February looked like for them.

{Jack-in-the-tub}
They loved bath time in their big boy seats, and I enjoyed ONE bath time, where I could bathe them together as opposed to TWO bath times, with the other baby screaming in the other room!

{Jack-on-the-floor}
Crawling was a new adventure and I could leave anything I wanted on the table or counters.

{Logan}
He had mastered sitting up and would always pull his pants up like that!

{My Bogans}

{Sweet Bogey boy}

{Logan}
I just want to squeeze that chubby lil' hand and kiss it all over!

{Logan & Jack}

My beautiful {identical!!!} twin babies...
Just eight months old, barely crawling...
And adorable to boot!
~
Oh, how I long for yesterday!

in love with my kids

The boys and I stayed home sick today. We are all snotty & coughing. Yuck! And although I wish we were healthy, I have to say that I really enjoyed the time with them. We played together, watched some videos, read some books and snuggled up together. During the week I rarely feel like I get to really enjoy the boys. I'm always getting ready for the next day, doing laundry or any crossing something else off my to-do list. So today was some much needed respite.
After naps I changed Logan's diaper and then was telling Jack it was his turn, but he wouldn't come. So Logan said, "Mum on, Jack" {translation: come on, Jack} and pushed him across the room towards me. It was so funny!
Enjoying a day with the boys made me realize how blessed I am. They are sweet, smart & funny, and I was more than happy to take care of their snuggly selves today.

time with logan

This afternoon Josh took Jack with him to run errands, so I had Logan all to myself. He is such a character. And quite different without his sidekick. It was really fun to spend time alone with him and see what he prefers to do. We watched a Baby Einstein video (of course!), stacked our tall cups (he did it all by himself!) and put the shapes in the shape lid (he likes to do the circles & squares best... the triangles & stars are pretty tricky.) He is more rambunctious with Jack gone. He was throwing his truck and just laughing out loud at himself. I was surprised at his patience when he was stacking the cups & doing the shapes. He would try for a long time before signing "help" and handing it to me. We played chase for a long time. And unlike Jack, he wants me to catch him. He loves being tickled. He also played this new game. He "fed" me his plastic fish and said "yuck!". So I played along and said, "Eww! Gross!" and acted really silly. He was cracking up. Rolling laughter. It just melted my heart.

beautiful jack

I love when his hair starts getting longer. It's so shiny & makes him look oh-so-handsome.

-

Here he is telling me he wants to brush his teeth. They are in love with brushing. We had their year and a half appt. and the dentist asked if they'd been brushing and I had to tell him no... {Bad Mommy!} That week I got my mom on board to help me and we started working on it. Now they ask to do it all day long. I try to get it done once in the morning and we always do it after bath time before bed.

sunday

{Logan}
He is his fathers son.
Josh always lays on the floor.
And so does his dad.

Good ol' Baby Einstein.
They love it!

At about 11:00 this morning, Logan was so sleepy.
He was snuggling his bub, and being so sweet.

We managed to keep him awake to nap time.
Whew!

I love his face in this one.

And here's one of Jack.

They are teething so much!
Check out that drool!

Logan signing "camera".
Their signing/talking is exploding and it's so much fun to experience. Logan calls me "mom" and Jack calls me "mine". I want them to call me "mommy", but have had no luck. I'm not the only one... when I ask them to say "Roxanne", they say "baby" instead! Hehe!

my journey...

Lately I have been thinking about my journey to motherhood. Well, really to where I am today. I feel like we were waiting for these little boys forever. I have been waiting to have a baby since I myself was a baby practically! Really, though, Josh and I chose to wait nearly five years to try for a baby. When we did try, we got pregnant right away. Then we spent 37 weeks waiting for the babies to arrive. And on their birthday we spent five hours waiting for their birth to take place -from the time the doctor scheduled the OR to the time we went in for my cesarean.

It was worth all the waiting to lay my eyes on my beautiful boys. Josh & I have a solid foundation under us (a blessing for sure with all the stress we have faced parenting two at once!), and we are older & {hopefully} a little wiser!

{Nanny & Jack}
Once they arrived, their schedule became my schedule. Their needs became my needs. Their demands became my duties. For the first year and a half this is how my life was.

Rockaway Beach, Oregon :: 6 weeks
{Jack, Mommy & Logan}
At the end of last summer when the boys were about 15 months they started sleeping consistently through the night, and my whole life changed. They were no longer drinking bottles, we were no longer washing bottles, they were no longer spitting up, and we were no longer going on little-to-no sleep. All of a sudden I had a chance to have my own life!

{Daddy & the boys}
This trend has continued... In the last two weeks I have: Organized my filing, which hadn't been done in over a year; scrapbooked; caught up my personal journal; and read a book for enjoyment. I feel like the boys schedule is a normal restraint in my life now. I feel like it's natural to wake up at 7am with them, to feed two babies every morning and to tote two toddlers with me everywhere I go. It's like I finally have a handle on this. Well, actually, it's not even that. It's more that I feel like everything has clicked. There are still days where this is hard, or even seems impossible, but that too is normal.

{Jack & Logan}
Two days ago I was looking at a friend from high school's blog. She recently had her second baby (in October, same as my sister) and Ooh-Eee, did she ever give me baby fever! Then I started looking back at pictures of the bubs when they were tiny & oh-so-precious {what a mistake!} and now the fever is in full force!

{Jack & Logan}
Looking back at the pictures also made me see just how identical they actually looked when they were little. To me, they always look so distinct, but when I look back at pictures from another time period I can see the similarities more clearly.
-
Josh and I talk very honestly about when or if we are going to have another baby. We aren't sure on the timing just yet. We do know we want the boys to be more independent before we bring another baby on board. And we have talked about adopting, although it is so expensive we are not sure how we would travel that route. I really think if I get pregnant I will have another little boy. Our fear is that I would have twins again. We love the boys, but two more would bring our grand total to FOUR kids, and only TWO adults. Talk about outnumbered! I don't realistically think we would have twins again, although I dreamed a few months ago that I had triplet girls. Yikes!

shelly

I am - a mother.
I want - to be a stay at home mother.
I have- 81 journals. {from age 8 to present}
I wish - we could adopt a baby girl from China.
I dislike - when my socks get wet in the bathroom from the bath mat.
I fear - losing my loved ones.
I hear - the television.
I search - the house high & low for lost socks.
I wonder - if I get pregnant again, will it be one baby or more?
I always - pray for the boys each night.
I usually - listen to JoDee Messina on the way to work.
I dance - very joyfully with the boys.
I sing - loud & happily.
I never - spank the boys.
I rarely - refill the Brita water filter for Josh. {sorry, honey!}
I cry - when I reminisce about the boys' infancy and how fast they are growing.
I am not always - as organized as I may seem.
I lose - my patience when the boys throw their food/bowls/sippy cups on the floor at meal time!
I'm confused - when I try to understand the tides.
I need - to catch up the boys' scrapbooks. I am only on their second week of existence on the planet!
I should - work out. And lose weight.
I dream - every single night. Last night I dreamed I was on a beautiful dock, somewhere exotic, and a little girl from my classroom was there with me. We played hide & seek. Then we were invited to the movies, and the theater was like the Omnimax at OMSI. Strange.
I love- my sons and my husband. They are my joy.

my argument for josh

I stole this awesome post from Abigail Pogrebin's blog. {She's that awesome twin book author} I am posting this to help all the women out there who want more children, but whose husbands are not yet on board with that idea.

Great news for parents of multiples! You probably didn't need a research study to tell you that the more children in your life, the happier you are, but now you have the data to back up your own experience. Despite the double (or triple) feedings, sleepless nights, groggy mornings, incremental costs and chaos, the greater the number, the greater the joy. UK researcher Dr. Luis Angeles published these results in The Journal of Happiness Studies: "Children have a significant and positive effect on life satisfaction, an effect that only increases with the number of kids."

So let's raise a glass to the multitudes -- that old saying, "The more, the merrier," has never been so true!

Ha Ha Ha!

I am reformed

So I watched Oprah on Monday and it was about cell phones. More specifically it was about cell phone use while driving. Did you know that talking on the phone while you drive (hands free or not) makes you four times more likely to crash? And did you know that texting while driving makes you eight times more likely to crash?
She had people on the show who had killed people. She had people on the show who had lost loved ones, even a child on a school bus, to cell phone use while driving.
At the end of the show I promised myself that for the sake of my children I would no longer text or talk on the phone in the car ANY MORE.
Join me, won't you???

our weekend

Friday night, as you saw, we just hung out at home. Saturday we went to the new library on the east side of town to check out the kids section. It was really crowded, but the boys had fun. Then on Sunday, as you saw, we went to my mom's house to hang out with my sister, nephew & parents. And today, our bonus day off, we went on a wonderful walk along the waterfront. I haven't been outside, listening to the birds chirp in far too long. After our walk I felt invigorated.
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After our lovely walk we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some pork chops. We put the boys in the cool "racecar cart" that Fred Meyer has, so they were side by side in front of us. We got a lot of looks, as we always do, and lots of people whispering, "twins", as they walked by. Personally, I love the attention. Sure, I may complain about it occasionally, but it's only the super negative or super nosy who get under my skin.
-
One such woman chose to look at our little angels this afternoon and say, "Double trouble!" To which Josh and I replied in unison, "Nooo. Twice as nice." This is our pat answer. When the boys were really tiny {and oh-so-precious} people would say this to me, and I would feel outraged! So I came up with this quick response so people would know that (although they make me crazy sometimes!) I view these boys as blessings.
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Well, we must have made this woman feel small or stupid because she moved her cart from the line next to us to a line out of our sight. I think lots of people don't realize how negative "double trouble" sounds. And they surely don't realize how many times we hear it. I can go into a store and come out having heard that five or more times. I really don't want that idea drilled into my boys heads. I'm sure you can understand.
-

This morning Logan got a hold of all the binkies in the living room. He put one in his mouth and ran around the house with the other two pushed into his cheeks.

How silly is that?

Then he finally decided he could spare a binky and gave one to Jack.

This amazing photograph was taken by my aspiring photographer son, Jack. He got a hold of my camera while I was writing a birthday card out for my grandpa. I heard this clicking sound, and sure enough, Jack had the camera and was taking pictures of the flashlight lantern he took out of the coat closet. I have to say, this picture is pretty artistic.

Tonight after bath time the boys were glowing, so I had to take some pictures. Here is my little Logan, looking so fresh & clean!

Their favorite thing lately is to play with the thermometer while I change them. They press the on/off button over and over.

And here's my sweetheart Jack, signing please, asking for the thermometer. They are just such sweet bubs. I am loving watching their development. They are learning one or two words every day. They are signing all the time. Their coolest new trick is when I say, "Roll your sleeves up", they actually roll their sleeves up! I am convinced we have the smartest twins on the planet! Hehe!
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I am excited we had today off for two reasons. One- more time at home with the boys, and Two- a shortened work week! Double prizes!
-
By the end of last week, I would say Josh and I had figured out the whole "both of us home in the evening" thing. The first week we were in each others way, bumping rumps in the kitchen trying to make dinner and care for the boys, and fighting over the "real" computer (Josh has a laptop, but we both tend to prefer the desktop computer). Then last week we took turns making dinners & bathing the kids. And this next week I look forward to more of the same.
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The mornings are still a lot of work for me, but Josh pitches in as much as he can. The main issue is that I need to get up earlier. I hit snooze as many as 5 times last week! Ridiculous, I know. So I need to have better self control. The mornings when I get up earlier, I have more time with the boys and lower blood pressure when I get to work. I HATE running late, so it's something I will continue to work on.
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It sucks, too, because I am dieting, but feeling stressed is making me want to eat more, not less. And then I want to get some work out time in my schedule, but logistically, it's tough. I won't give up, though. And soon (in about two months-- I'm being optimistic!) the weather will get better and I can take the boys (and maybe even my husband!) on nice, long walks on the waterfront. I was really happy to take advantage of the gorgeous weather we had today. I hope I can do that more often in the weeks to come.
-
Well, that about does it for what's up with the Cunningham's. I am off to bed so I can wake up and NOT hit the snooze button tomorrow!

fathers, mothers, sisters & brothers...

Today the boys and I headed to my mom's house after naps to visit with my parents, my sister and baby Ferris. After Roxanne fed Ferris, Jack wanted to give the whole "bottle thing" a try again.

He was so silly.

Logan wanted to try it, too.

After he tried it he said, "Yuck!"

Then Jack helped Nanny load the dishwasher, by unloading it.

He ended up with a wooden spoon that he proceeded to bang on every surface available.

Roxanne was laughing at him, which he loved!

Then, of course, Logan wanted one, too!

All hail the wooden spoon!

My dad taught Logan how to do a fist bump.
Totally adorable.

And we discovered that Jack can reach Nanny's counter tops.
Uh oh!