Bugs and Such!

This summer we have had the worst luck with finding strange/dangerous things around our house.

A few months ago we came home to find a HUGE bee in our bathroom sink. Turns out once we took pictures and looked it up, it was the queen yellow jacket looking for a place to start a bee nest or whatever they do! I did not know that yellow jackets can make nests in your walls, but they can.

Then a few weeks ago I heard this terrible noise coming from the air conditioner. I just thought a stick or something was in it or hitting it, which I now know is bad and I should turn it off. But anyways, I couldn't get a hold of Andy and it turned off so I forgot about it. Until he got home and it was running again. He turned it off went and looked and there was a HUGE black snake wrapped around the fan of the air conditioner. It was obviously dead, but still like two feet long and that was missing the head section and end section. Andy was a little scared, but I think snakes are neat.

This last thing I do not like in fact I HATE and am still having chills! Tonight I was doing a little weeding around the mailbox and I always shake things and that I can't see, just in case there is something in them, but this time after I picked a big clump of weeds a BLACK WIDOW SPIDER came walking out!! I HATE spiders!!! Every time there is a black spider in the house I always make Andy kill it and then ask if it had red markings. Well Andy was in the backyard and he thought it was just me being me, until he cam out front and it was still sitting there and he saw it. We studied it and then he killed it and then I came in and looked it up and sure enough it was this exact looking spider! Please watch out when you are weeding! I am not going to weed at the mailbox ever again, so if you are coming to our house it will just look trashy. I am sure the guy building the 3,000 square foot house across the street really appreciates our beautiful yard.

Beach Trip #2--Topsail Island, NC

We just got back from our second beach trip and had a blast!

The trip went really well. It was just the Andy and I and the boys. This was really the first vacation just the four of us have been on where we weren't traveling to visit family. The boys did really good. They are finally getting use to the ocean. By day 9 (that is adding the last beach trip) they got into the water without force! They have been sitting on our laps in the beach chairs in the water, but they finally got up the nerve to get in the water standing up! Andy and I figured it would take a trip with just us to convince them that it was ok. The only thing that I did that probably scared them, but surprisingly not too bad, was Cale almost picked up a Jellyfish that had washed up on shore. I started screaming, of course, and he ran.

The boys also slept in bunkbeds, there were two and so they both had the bottom bunk, with no bed rails. Andy and I couldn't believe they didn't fall out. This seems like a semi big milestone--we don't have to purchase two sets of bed rails when they graduate from toddler beds!

We still have one more beach trip to go! We are going to Surfside Beach with my parents. The boys and I will be going down with my parents a few days before Andy. This should be a nice break for Andy. I am looking forward to someone else getting up with the boys in the morning, oh wait Andy already does that. Well I mean I am looking forward to not having to get up at 7:15 when Andy has to leaving for work. Boy do I miss baby jail!!

Feeding the Ducks!

The boys fed ducks for the first time last week. I have never taken them to the park to do. I guess I thought they wouldn't care or would try and eat the bread. Well, they liked feeding the ducks, fish, and turtles. I little too much, I thought they were going to fall right in a couple times! Cale would throw his in quickly and Carter slowly got rid of his so that it would last longer.

I know they are totally different people, even though for some reason most people think they look just alike, but it is so funny to me how they are raised at the same time and same way, but have totally different thought processes of how to do something. That sounds kind of stupid, but what I mean is they are constantly watching each other and yet they will still do things their own way even though one has figured out the best way to do something. It is so cute how the other one will just rely on the one that figured it out first and it is not always the same one (like many think). From the beginning we have tried very hard not to label them, like saying one is shy or one is louder, so that they would be different. I read not to do that in a twin book because then that will make the "shy" one think he is shy. I don't know if that is scientifically proven, but it sounded good. So it is always hard when people are like, "How are they different?" or "How do you tell them apart?" Sometimes I feel like saying, "How do you tell your kids apart?" We obviously think they look and act different, afterall they are OUR children. I guess people should ask, "How can we tell them apart?", because for me to go into every little detail of how they are different or try and explain that while today at this moment Carter is shy, tomorrow Cale may be shy. It is just one of those things that I should be use to as a twin mommy, especially a mommy to identical twins. Whereas, my firends with boy/girl twins have pretty much stopped getting bombarded with personal questions from strangers we still get them. Luckily it is not as much or as dumb of questions/comments, but we still get them. A couple of funny things lately, at church (I probably made this guy mad) this guy on the bus asked me what the age difference was between the boys. I just couldn't resist--so my response was, "47 minutes." He gave me a really strange look, then I thought oops I just insulted this guy. So I explained that I didn't want to give the same boring, "Their twins." response. Then the other month some brillant lady asked Andy if the boys were "medically identical". What?! I honestly don't know what people are thinking sometimes. I guess she was asking if we used fertility drugs? But even then that is definitely not any of her business. Oh well it just adds lots of humor to life!

New Cups!

I found these super cute cups yesterday at Jo-Ann's. They are little plastic mugs with handles like Mommy and Mawmaw, that's what Cale says. They also got matching bowls and all 4 items only cost $3.50. Yes, I know as Andy informed me that even though it wasn't much we didn't NEED them, but they were so cute. I have a slight shopping addiction--it's a disease with drugs and everything!

Also, please excuse our extremely messy house! Tomorrow the kids are going to camp and I am going to do a major cleaning job on the house. Our yard is even worse, if you can imagine! Our lawn mower did break and Andy obviously doesn't want to buy a new one, so last night he borrowed the neighbors--a self-propelled mower. Andy thought he hated these until he used it and now he wants one, but of course we will not buy one until the end of season and it is on sale and Lowes has some kind of no interest, money back , gift card, whatever deal. So pray that our mower can be rigged to last the rest of the season, because you know my shopping addiction leaves us with no money!

Cale, who loves to pose for me.

Carter, who surprisingly did drink on cue probably because this kid will do anything for orange juice.

My First Market

This coming Saturday, July 19th, I am going to be a vendor at the Designers Downtown Market. It will be the first one of these I have ever done. I am busy making a ton of stuff, which Andy thinks I am going overboard, but I would rather have way too much than not enough.

So, if you are going to be in the Raleigh area please stop by!

Here is the website http://www.designersdowntownmarket.com/.

July 4th!

This is a really late update on our 4th of July. We went to my parents house in Greensboro to go swimming. The boys finally agreed to put on there swim floats because Andy showed them my mom's pictures of them wearing the same floats as last year (just a different color). Carter saw it and said ok and then went and put it on and went out to the pool. Cale needed to watch Carter for all of 15 mins before he decided to put his on. Why didn't I think of doing that two weeks ago!! Oh well, live and learn.


We have had a very busy week this week with camp going on. We have all been there everyday from 9-1. I am absolutely exhausted!! Next week the boys will only be going Monday, Wednesday, Friday and I will not be going. Thank goodness! I need a break!


Here are the boys one afternoon after camp we met a friend at the park, so no nap. This was about 5:30 after I had been in the kitchen cooking supper I walked in the find Cale asleep on the couch! This NEVER happens with my kids, so you know he is tired. They were also watching their weekly favorite movie, Cinderella. Andy hates them watching this, but I think it's cute.

My Boys are Back!

Our prayers have been answered this week! After last week and really the previous three weeks, I thought there is no way I am having any more kids and people that have 3 year olds and then have more kids are crazy, but this week has been much much better. I still don't think I am ready for more kids, but I at least feel like I can handle the ones I got. The boys are finally back to their almost normal selves, I guess we will really see at the pool this weekend.

They have started taking naps again, yeah!!! I of course have gone back to sitting outside of their door, but I don't care! It takes all of 10 minutes before Carter is asleep and a little longer for Cale, but no more than 30 mins. I just sit there and do my giant Sudoku book, it is a peaceful time for me. The have been sleeping about 2 hours or longer! I am just so excited about this. Bedtime has been late, but not too bad. They are asleep about 9:30. Last night we only had to go in there twice and they were in bed at about 8:30. They also slept until 7:30 this morning! I had told Andy for the last month when they just kept getting worse that I knew it was lack of sleep. That even though they showed signs of dropping their nap, the late bedtime, that they were not really ready to go from 2-3 hour naps everyday to nothing. They are much happier, nicer and much more pleasant to live with and I am so grateful for the answered prayer. Even though it doesn't sound like much, when you have 2 cranky 3 year olds it is a major quality of life issue.