A Great Buy!

I discovered a wonderful product, well actually Todd did. He always seems to find such nifty things. Ok here it is, are you excited? It's Vicks Wearable Thermometers! They work from birth and up. There are 6 stickers total and you place one in baby's underarm. After 2-3 minutes you can check baby's temperature and then you can check the temperature all night. We have had these for a while but have not had a reason to use them yet. Tonight I decided to try it out. I placed one in Kiera's underarm after 3 minutes I checked her temperature with the wearable thermometer and with the thermometer that we normally use, and. . . they matched up!

If you already know about these:

1.Why didn't you share with me??????

2. Don't you just love them!?

I don't know about other kids out there, but Dylan HATES having his temperature taken. It is always atleast a 10 minute battle with him to get an accurate reading. Yes, I did say 10 minutes, that is because he fights the thermometer so much he won't keep his arm down or let me measure in his ear.

I don't remember where we bought these but as soon as I find them again I will buy as much as possible.

Vacation

The four of us went on a vacation with Todd's parents through Eureka Springs, Branson, St. Louis and Hot Springs. Yes, we realize that we are crazy.

We drove 1850 miles in a rented van with six people including a pair of one year olds who did really well considering they missed naps and were up late some nights. They were bored out of their minds all those hours in the van and needed out of the car every couple of hours. So you can imagine any estimated amount of time on the road was doubled if not tripled. Again we do realize that we are crazy for doing this. We stopped at restaurants, gas stations, rest areas and whatever else we could find to get them out of the car and walk them around.

In Branson we went to the 'Butterfly Palace'. A couple of butterflies landed on Kiera's arm and she kept flapping her arms trying to get rid of them, but they wouldn't leave. They both loved pointing at the butterflies and watching them fly all over the place.

In the car

Eureka Springs

Cabin in Eureka Springs

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Dylan and Kiera enjoyed the cabin's front porch

Inspiration Point
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. Madelyn and Kiera at the Passion Play

Dylan and Todd at the Passion Play

Bella Vista, Arkansas

The twins with Maddy's grandparents, Bud and MaryAnn

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They were looking around the paper towels to see each other. They were laughing and having a blast. We've never had so much fun at a Captain D's before!
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St. Louis, Missouri

Beautiful foliage next to the St. Louis Arch and the Mississippi River

The St. Louis Arch

The small pod where five adults and two babies rode to the top of the Arch

Dylan LOVED looking out the windows of the Arch

At the St. Louis Zoo

Why is there a goat above our heads?

Somewhere between a Hawk and Koala

Kiera's just a little Hippo snack

Is this exhibit really necessary? And who had a passion to write that book?

They enjoy sitting big in small chairs!
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Hot Springs, Arkansas

Yes, Pink Monkey was required for our trip!

The view from our hotel in Hot Springs

Owen's Pumpkin Farm

We went to Owen's Farm Pumpkin Patch to get some pictures of Dylan and Kiera with all the pumpkins. The sun was not in a great spot for the pictures but the kids had a lot of fun on the hay ride (esp. Dylan) and feeding (and getting licked by) the goats.

Uh-Oh! Pink Monkey

The babies have said many, many words, but as often as they've said the words in the right context, they've also said them incorrectly. For instance, they'll say "Mama" or "Daddy" and look us in the eyes and make us melt. Then two seconds later they say "Mama" or "Daddy" and look at a frog, dirt or anything else but us. We didn't count any of these as real words until a few weeks ago (yeah, we're slow updating the blog, sorry). Dylan started using a word correctly. And what is this first word? "Mama"? No. "Daddy"? No. "Love"? No. Dylan says "uh-oh" when something drops. Sometimes he says it when he drops something and he'll say it if someone else drops something. Occassionally, he even says "uh-oh", then reaches for his sippy cup or something else to drop.


They're both saying "baby", "bye-bye", "thank you" and "Daddy" sometimes, but don't consistently use it correctly.

The four of us were in U.S. Toy in Plano and walked down the stuffed animal aisle. Kiera went crazy over a pink monkey in the store and I'm sure you can guess that we bought it for her. She didn't let go of it for the next 24 hours! She doesn't have to have it all times and she's never cried for not having it, but if she sees it, her eyes light up and she races to get it. When we go into the room and she's still asleep, she's usually clutching the monkey. In the morning when we get her out of the crib, she'll either stand up holding the monkey; or she'll stand up, realize she doesn't have it, look around to find the monkey, grab it and stand back up again. When she does grab her monkey (wherever she is), she clutches it tight to her and often kisses the monkey. Okay, she really gnawls on its face, but we call it kisses.

Here's a picture of Kiera happily clutching Pink Monkey. We'll get a better picture of the monkey posted soon so you can see what it looks like. But most of all, we love seeing Kiera's smile when she has it.

Kiera and Pink Monkey

We tried to see if Dylan would go for a stuffed toy, but he didn't want one. We he thought he did because he got excited over a stuffed dog. We gave it to him and he threw it on the floor. We didn't buy it.


Coming soon:
- Adventures at Owens Farm and Pumpkin Patch
- Family Vacation through Five States with 8 People

First Birthday!

Dylan and Kiera turned 1 on September 25th and we had a small celebration with Maddy's parents that night. Then on Saturday, the 27th, they had their real first birthday party. It was in Celebration Park in Allen and it was great. It's a huge park with numerous soccer and baseball fields. We reserved a pavilion near the slides, swings and spray park.

The Splash Park

Maddy and nephew Preston on the front see-saw. Andy, Todd and Kiera on the far see-saw.

Kiera's Smash Cake

Dylan's Smash Cake

Everyone has to cry on the first birthday!

We discovered that Dylan loves icing and Kiera loves cake, not a big fan of icing like her brother.

Drew, Kiera, Dylan & Carson

Drew was born six weeks before the twins and Carson was born six weeks after the twins. What fun and trouble are these kids going to get into? No one knows!

Fun Pictures

Fun times at a birthday party in Wylie Bounce House

First time swinging at Heritage Park

How cute are these little munchkins?!

First Year Portraits

Today we had pictures taken with Kiddie Kandids (inside Babies-R-Us in Plano). Unfortunately Dylan wasn't feeling well, but the little guy did a great job of sitting for the pictures and was able to provide some smiles for us. Kiera really enjoyed the photo session.