Noi's Vacation

Noi is home! She spent two weeks in Europe on vacation with her friend Ouy. They called it the capital city tour. 16-ish days of traveling with all but two nights spent on the train traveling to the next city. Well, the plan was for 16 days. It turned into 16 plus 5 more in the airport...(keep reading). Noi tells me she took around 10,000 pictures (and I thought I took a lot of pictures!). 

The interesting part about Noi's vacation was that pesky volcano in Iceland that erupted for the first time since 1821 just days before she was supposed to fly home. She was supposed to fly home on a Sunday and was stranded in Oslo, Norway until Thursday. My frustration with regard to air travel delays would have been exhausted long before Thursday!! Noi was very happy to be home and it was during those five days that we were especially wishing we were closer to family.

The boys were very lucky to get to spend some quality time with family. Auntie Cara spent a whole entire week with the boys, Grandma Julie came for a few days, and Grandma Barbie came for a few days as well. Ben and I filled in the rest of the days.

Here is a quick recap of what we did while Noi was away.

We made big messes...

We helped Momma with laundry...

We learned how to crawl up on the furniture...and we think it is the coolest thing EVER! 

[Side note: They are so predictable. A few seconds of silence followed by an "I know I'm getting into trouble" chuckle and it's a guarantee that one of those boys is on the couch! Ben and I said that our children would for sure listen better than the dog does. Well, we're not there yet. But there's still time, right?]

Auntie Cara told us while she was here that she's moving back to Minnesota to be closer to us. How cool is that!??

M/P

As you can see we continue to wear or PJ's most days. Mom says she wishes she could wear her PJ's all day long. And yes, they are snowflake PJ's (it still snows most Aprils up here, so it's not as ridiculous as it looks).

P/M

We played outside and enjoyed this wonderful weather we've been enjoying in April. (Dad and Prior).

We are even learning to RUN! (In opposite directions of each other, of course).

P

M

Thank-you again to everyone for taking such good care of us!

And welcome home Noi - we are excited to have you back!

Love, smiles, and drooly kisses,

M&P

The New Stadium

Baseball the way it should be:  outdoors!

The beloved new Twins stadium officially opened and it could not possibly be more amazing. Of course I am a bit biased because MMC did all of the mechanical work in the stadium.

The weather was perfect. High 60's and sunny. Grandma Julie drove all the way up just for the afternoon so we could enjoy a day away. Thank you again Grandma Julie!

We posed with the Twins (M&P) before we left them with Grandma for the day.

I did it!

I know this blog isn't meant to be about me, but I couldn't resist.

Last April was spent mentally preparing myself for re-entering the workforce. Something that I will never forget. It is difficult after your first child for so many reasons. I was the same person I was before I had the boys, yet now I was different. Anway, it was definitely a growing experience for me personally.

This April represents another growing experience. This April has been spent mentally preparing myself for something else.

Leaving my two tiny babies (who desperately need me and can't possibly surivive without me)... 

overnight... 

for the very first time.

This past weekend I spent some much needed time with my "scrapbooking" friends. Scrapbooking is in quotation marks because I didn't actually scrapbook. The old Kristin scrapbooked. The new Kristin takes entirely too many pictures to scrapbook. I had a heart-to-heart conversation with myself and concluded that the thought of scrapbooking 3,000-ish pictures was entirely too overwhelming. (Note: 3,000 is not an exaggeration.) As if spending my first night away from the boys wasn't stressful enough...imagine the thought of trying to scrapbook that many pictures. And when you have kids as cute as mine, how could I possibly narrow the number of pictures down to something more manageable?

So instead of scrapbooking, I made the boys some new hats. Cute? I think so. Practical? Maybe not so much since winter is finally over. Oh well.

(M)

(M)

(P)

I even spent the night at the hotel with the girls. It was a trial run. We stayed in Eden Prairie so I was able to go home to help with the dinner/bath/bedtime ritual on Saturday night and was home on Sunday morning before the boys were even awake. It was still really hard, but I survived.

After that practice night, it was time for the real deal. This time I actually packed a bag and boarded an airplane. Yes - an airplane. Talk about some serious anxiety. That will do it. I spent Sunday and Monday night in Denver at a conference. 

And guess what?! I survived that, too. And so did the boys...Dad and Grandma Julie took such good care of them while I was gone!

Next up? 

My trip to Vegas next weekend!

All while I changed Prior's diaper...

Have I mentioned recently how much trouble Mason is going to be already is????

I would assume his arm was sore after this impressive feat. I counted 15 wipes.

(And I'm pretty quick at changing diapers.)

Thankfully we have that wipes tree outback right next to the diaper tree...

Since it's been a while...

...I thought I'd get the boys laughing on video. You can see their mouthful of teeth (they each currently have 6).

I'm not very sure what is so funny - but their laughter certainly is contagious.

(p.s. - despite the crazies, I am not cutting their hair anytime soon!)

 

Laughing at Mom - 14 Months (4/2010) from K Schultes on Vimeo.

More Easter Pictures

We started the weekend with a stop in cousin Miya's house to help her celebrate her 2nd birthday. 

The Easter Bunny came early and brought us some really cool toys!

After Miya's party we headed back to the farm. We got to stay up way past our bedtime. Even better was when Grandma Barbie made us our favorite for breakfast - banana pancakes! Yummers!

Dad's cousin, Curry, also has twins that are only 2 months older than we are. How cool is that? Here we are posing with our cousins. [Prior - Mason - Cade - Aubrey]

Great-Grandpa Rupiper wanted to hold me (Mason) but I got a little scared.

After that we headed outside for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.

Me (Mason) with my Auntie Angie

(the hunt)

(yep - time for our nap)

14 Months

The boys are 14 months old today! This post is lacking a theme - I'm a little lost for ideas. I just asked Ben and he's busy doing our taxes so clearly isn't in a creative mode either. Anyway, we were able to sneak a few pictures quick this weekend outside of Great Grandma Schultes' house in Carroll, IA. I got a new lens for my camera and have been playing around with the manual settings, which has been really fun. What do you think?!

The relatives really appreciated the bibs this weekend...

Guess what?! More than one person said that the boys are looking like me these days. 

And I was super excited to dress the boys in these ties...

What does a COW say?

Grandpa Denny, his boys, and his cows

Dad and Prior

Grandpa Denny trying to get Mason's attention - he would not take his eyes off the cows!

The boys are quickly learning what all of the different animals "say." (The cow was actually their first.) 

At this point it comes out as "mmmm", but we're working on it.

This weekend we got to meet a few of Grandpa Denny's cows (even two sets of twin calves!) 

The boys were completely and udderly (sorry, I couldn't help myself) mesmerized by the cows. We thought they would be scared at the loud noises the cows made but they didn't get scared at all. They would not take their eyes off of the cows - it was pretty neat to see.

On the way back home on Sunday the boys also learned what a state patrol officer says after he turns on his lights and stops a certain someone for speeding...I guess we should have borrowed uncle Jake's fuzz buster.

(ps - more posts coming about our Easter weekend in Iowa...it was a fun one!)