Do we really need the stroller?

As a mother of twins, a stroller is the one thing I never leave home without!  Yet every time my husband I venture out together he always says, and I quote, "do we really need the stroller."  This gets me every time since he's experienced the craziness that ensues when we've tried walking with them or using a wagon.  There has only been a handful of times they've actually stayed seated in their wagon; and if we are holding their hands, they unavoidably don't want to go in the same direction we are going.  I've stopped reacting to his question about the stroller (well most of the time) and honestly - I keep hearing it less and less.. Maybe he's getting the point!  This video is really sweet as is just one of the cute examples why we never leave the stroller at home - well, I, never leave the stroller at home!     

How about you? 

Vintage Videos

There is something so enjoyable about watching old videos of fun times past. Here are a couple memorable videos taken in the summer of 2007.

Day at Alburgh Dunes, VT July 2007
Chop Chop Timber Video

August 2007
Craig against girls - Family Stick Wrestling

Ever stick wrestled? Who won?!

An Interview with Mommy.

It started when I began an interview with Nini, just so that I could get her cute little toothless voice on camera. How many times will I be able to hear her and see her at this age? Then I interviewed Cici and then Cici had this great inspired idea to interview her mommy. She can be relentless, so while basking in the 50 degree Montreal Sun and with Nini and Craig in the background riding bikes- here is an interview with mommy (me)! PS, next time I'll sit up straight! The girl's interviews will be posted on my private blog soon. If you are a friend who hasn't been invited for some crazy reason, give me your email in this comment section and I'll add you!

Have you interviewed your kids lately?
Have they interviewed you?

Educational Show: Are we there yet?

If you are looking for a television show for your children to watch, you've got to check out this show called Are we there yet? Each show allows you to follow two siblings on there journey to Russia, Egypt, Sweden, Peru, and many other locations. They start the show by drawing pictures in their travel journal about the country they are visiting. They are then approached by a tour guide or someone versed in the area or special activity native to the region. The children are shown participating in activities from dance, sight seeing, pottery sculpting, other cultural art, and preparing food indicative of the region they are visiting. At the end of the show the children, again sit and draw what they've done that day in their travel journal. The ending scene is always fun with them participating in one more fun activity and finally them waving goodbye in the language of the country they've visited.

We look forward to watching this each week and the girls do not mind watching the repeats. Check out the video clip above - it will give you a taste of this fun show. Look for it on your city's channel listings.

Caledonia: A Cici and Mommy Concert.

Cici and I have come to just love a certain song we heard a couple weeks ago. So much so that we've listened to it together at least a hundred times and even picked up the guitar and Cici's sweet voice and recorded it together. Cici after seeing her recorded was shy to put this on the internet, so don't mind me, but give your sweet comments to Cici! Especially you, mom, Sassy, and Aunt Jennifer! Thanks Nini for lending us your support too! It ends a bit abruptly because of technical difficulties - but you get the idea!

Ever heard of Caledonia?

Happy Heart Contest

Enter to win these items!

I have pulled out all my hair and lost all patience trying to figure out a way to upload the video I had made of our vacation. It is about four and half minutes long;blogger and youtube did not like having to upload it and kept crashing or putting warning messages up that the file was not compatible. Anyway, very long and tedious story - short - our vacation photos are all in the video below.

How to enter:

I know readers of my blog must be tired of my vacation "talk"! I put together a little gift basket of things I collected along our journey - blueberry soap, maple lollipops, lotion made in Maine, bookmarks from Avonlea Village, and a wooden embroidered hanger from the Adirondacks!

You can enter once in the comment section by leaving your name and making sure if I don't have your link, to leave me your email; and, you can enter a 2nd time if you name the only photo in the video that is not from our vacation! Hmmm? Check-it out, enter, or enter twice if you want to guess which photo I might be thinking about.

What do you think about the video?
Anything you really like in the basket?

P.S. I am redoing my blog layout - please don't be offended if your link is not on my sidebar! Now, I just hope I can find them all again!

Day 3: Avonlea Village and Prince Edward Island.

Lover's Lane.

I have fallen in love with Prince Edward Island! I can see now why Lucy Maud Montgomery loved this area and was inspired to write Anne of Green Gables. It was beautiful! We stayed only one full day and I am ready to plan another trip next year for a week. Our day began with a trip to Avonlea Village, but to be honest, I wasn't expecting much entertainment for the adults; however, we all came away wanting to go back!


Coming in as a family is cheaper than paying individually and your entrance fee is a two day pass. The village is quaint, clean, and even with two or three packed buses of children on a field trip - it did not feel crowded. The streets were full of Maud's character's, including Anne herself. Nini got to met Diane and Anne right off and Cici got over her shyness quickly!

This school is the actual school where Lucy Maud Montgomery taught. Cici found her haven quickly when she discovered these crayons she could use to do what she loves to best -art!

We all got in the spirit of Anne by braiding our hair. Mine lasted a couple of hours before it was time to just put it up with a clip.

They had pony rides available to children under 65lbs. The girls were excited to ride the ponies, but were a little afraid to try. This photo was taken during our second attempt to ride, thy finally got the guts to get on and had a great time.

These photos are of Ms. Stacey and Anne's first teacher at Avonlea. Diane took the girls down to the fishing shanty for some really enjoyable entertainment.

The performers were wonderful! Music on Prince Edward Island they explained has influences from Scotland, Ireland, and french-Canadian. Mike Pendergast was wonderful leading the performances and playing the accordion, guitar, and keyboard. He definitely made the accordion look cool and easy -I am even thinking of getting out the accordion my mom gave me year ago. I'm not sure how she acquired it, just that I own it now and have never played it. Leon Gallant was wonderful on the fiddle, harmonica, and guitar - he was really fun to watch!

The song that is in this video Pendergast played in the afternoon performance, it's called Chevaliers de la table Ronde, and it introduced us to the french-Canadian influence on the Island. I added the link to the song for anyone who can read french. Basically it's about drinking and women - the men yelling "Oui" for to drinking and women and the women yelling "No"! Craig and the other men in the room were asked to come up on stage. That would be me with the loud "no, no, no"! The end of the song says Sur ma tombe, je veux qu'on inscrive«Ici gît le roi des buveurs»Ici gît, oui, oui, oui etc. and can be roughly translated as "on my grave, I want someone to inscribe 'Here lies the king of drinkers'" Such a fun time!

Nini was quite smitten with the actor who played Gilbert and really wanted a photo with him - only if I went with her! That smile says "I'm shy!"

Around 3:00 p.m they headed for some fun games with the children, they did this egg relay and then Nini got 2nd place in the ring toss! We were really sad to leave and really want to go back. I personally loved the music and all it's country influences - the girls just want to go back and see Anne!

After Avonlea Village was headed next door to the home that inspired her green gables. It was a lot more crowded and I only got a few photos before the heavens opened and the rain came. We took this opportunity to go eat and see if we could wait out the rain.

Prince Edward Beaches and Cliffs

Around 5:30 the same night the rain had stopped and we headed out to the Prince Edward Island National Park. This photo was taken within the park at the dunelands. The red sand and setting sun made the experience very special for us. There is a wood dock that leads across the grassy area out to the beach area.

I got some great photos of the girls on the beach playing. It's always the best when they don't pose for the camera and I was lucky to get both of these photos with the element of surprise.

Cici in the sand.

Nini with her Gilbert hat, in the water -of course!

The sun rays coming through the clouds were just beautiful. I felt fortunate to be able to capture this moment! The beach and dunes were wonderful!

Red foxes we didn't realize are a staple in the park. It was fun to pull off and get a close view of this little guy.

This is my "daring" photo of the day as I am standing a few feet away from one of these cliffs below!
The park had several places that you could easily pull off, park, and explore walks like the ones below or other beaches.

Throughout Northern Maine to PEI are these beautiful flower called Lupins. We found them in pink and a couple shades of purple.
This was taken around 9:30 p.m. It was a very long, fun, and full day. We were sad to leave Prince Edward Island and really hope to get back and see more of it next year.


Most spontaneous moment: Craig's singing debut.

Worst Moment: None
Best food: Anne's Raspberry Cordial and Pizza Delight
Best View: Sunset
Best planned moment: All day
Most memorable conversation: Talking about how much we enjoyed the music at Avolea Village

Cici's gymnastics Clip

Cici is the exact opposite of Nini, while she isn't shy when singing in groups in front of people; she is very unsure of herself when asked to do physical things in front of people. Miss cutie keeps looking over at the person to her side, when she does know the routine. She did an amazing job when it was her turn to perform in front of her class by herself!

Nini's Gymnastics Clip.

This is Nini in the practice part of her gymnastics routine. She had to get up in front of all the other parents and do this routine on her own. I was happy to see that she was not scared and did without a getting shy!

A changing smile.

Weekend at Acorn Cottage 4/2008

It's hard for me to believe that five years ago when we adopted our two beautiful girls I was adopting what might be my only children. I in no way am unappreciative of our wonderful experience and of their great blessing in our lives. But, maybe I really don't need to explain myself here, since we are all women and most understand the desire to have large happy families. Lately, I have strongly felt a need to come to terms with my infertility. I have felt that I should begin to understand that my family may never grow larger, and that I need to appreciate each moment and be more grateful for our situation - despite my desire to have more children. But, after all, it is my desire - not necessarily what is meant to be.

Kemerovo orphanage 2003

The feelings have been so strong that I have literally been called to stop and take note of every moment and say, they won't be young forever. I just always assumed that our family would be large, with lots of children, personalities, and many years of the same stages. But again, it was my assumption, not what may be meant to be. A couple of weeks ago, we heard news of a couple close to us. They had been working for over a year with the Quebec province children's services to be foster parent ready. They chose the foster to adopt program and were preparing to receive a little girl four years of age. She had purchased toys, set-up the room, bought books, and both had prepared themselves for this little girl. It was supposed to be an open and shut foster to adopt case, but two days before she was to be placed, the children's services changed their mind and this little girl is no longer going to be placed with them.

Nini's first lost tooth.

Friends and family have been writing letters children services on their behalf, which helped, but they will have to wait again for another, younger child to be placed with them. I just ached for this woman, and here I am growling because I want more children. Yesterday, Nini lost her first tooth! I keep thinking, her smile will never be the same. Her cute little brown spot on her front tooth from where she fell, will soon be gone, as each of her baby teeth fall out. Her smile is changing, as will Cici's, and day by day I know I must savor every moment and be ever, always grateful.

The video is Nini and her tooth - the lighting is a bit dark and for some reason came out looking red - but she sure is a cutie pie!

What do you think?
Has the tooth fairy started at your house?
How do you feel about infertility, are you or someone you know facing this in their lives?

Easter 2008

I have had a lot of trouble getting the video of the girl's egg hunt downloaded into blogger, this along with Craig coming down with the flu - made this a very late post. The Easter bunny wasn't very sneaky this year! Fortunately, the girls are still young and gull able enough to get out of the mistakes I made. Lesson number one, do not use ribbon from your craft room - somehow they made the distinction that it was indeed mine.

However, they discerned that it was the Easter bunny who sneaked down to my craft room and used my ribbon! The girls got to see the Easter bunny at school last week. They sent home this photo along with the girls posing separately -one of the many things I love about their new school!

Lesson number two, do not leave remnants of wrapping around. Luckily for me, they chalked it up to that "sneaky" little Easter bunny using our stuff! Next time, I'll need to be a lot more sneaky and a little less - putting it together at midnight!

The Easter basket I found at Value Village for $8.00. It seems a little steep - but I would never have been able to find this bassinet basket for that price anywhere else. Those cute little bunnies I found last year for only $2.50 each at our local grocery store after season! Now if I could only find groceries that cheap!I figured they could use it for their babies, and luckily it was a big hit! I did buy the girls cute little Easter dresses, however, our exodus from church early because everyone but Cici was ill - called off any Easter bonnet photos for now!

Easter 2008, although ripe with fever, persistent never ending sore throats, and ear infections, goes onward ever onward! Photos are sparse but we kept it full of fun things. Although I should say me, as the culprit with the high fever is Craig. So it's me keeping the girls busy and making Easter dinner that will mostly go into leftovers! It's times like these that you just have to embrace the situation and have fun with what you are dealt!

A friend from church desperately wanted to help us by delivering some ear drops for the Nini for her ear infection. I felt that I shouldn't turn her down and so after we got home we put together a little Easter basket for her family and decorated Easter eggs. The Easter bunny cookies were a lot of fun and very very easy! We added a box of dots and some frosted cookies. I told the girls that since they wanted to help us, we should give something back. So Nini gave her Easter basket to hand them their goodies in. What a sweetie!

They both were very very helpful and more than willing to lend a hand when I needed - or when I didn't. Here is Nini helping me baste the ham! She and Cici wanted to jump in and help. They also helped me set the table, and pour the drinks.

I strongly felt that we needed some sort of photo with everyone this Easter, we couldn't let it go by with documenting us around the dinner table. Right before dinner, Craig's fever was at 102, yikes. But he ate with us and even had dessert! The dessert above wasn't supposed to be with ice cream, but I unfortunately put the whipped topping too close to the stove and ended up with whipped soup - yuck. I put a slice of pound cake on the plate, and top it with two or three small scoops of vanilla ice cream. I put a dab of chocolate fudge in the center and topped it with a bunny sugar cookie. The rest is strawberries and strawberry syrup or chocolate syrup around the plate and ice cream. Next time, I think it would be really good with lemon cake!

Craig was supposed to handle the Easter egg hunt, but we had to put it off for a couple of hours while he tried to sleep off his fever. We had thought of putting the eggs out last night, but were afraid that the squirrels would eat them - that would be tragic! After dinner, I took the girls downstairs to watch a movie. We told the girls that Craig needed another nap and would be down in a few minutes. After about 10 minutes, the doorbell rang, the dogs started barking and I told the girls to come up and see who it was. They could see some eggs outside the window -the Easter bunny had come! I took video of the egg hunt which was very hilarious, with the girls shimmying down the ice hills outside to get their eggs. You can click here - I just couldn't get it to work by downloading it into blogger.

I hope everyone had a great Easter and is healthy and strong. I had a chance to play the piano for several people this weekend. During the stake's Easter Cantata and our own ward Easter Sacrement. It was a good weekend despite it all. Today I am cleaning our home top to bottom to try to rid us of any unwanted germs. I am determined to have a happy healthy family by April 1st! And that's no April Fools! Take care my friends and how was your Easter weekend?

And the winner is...

Thank you to everyone who gave us their word on Motherhood. This was a really fun post and I enjoyed every one's participation! I have a few things to get done today and will posting this weeks competition before I leave for our ward Christmas party at 5:30!

If you don't want to watch the video: WindyCindy is the winner of this competition! I'm not sure if your name is Windy or Cindy, but either way please email me! My email is on my profile page! I'll need your address today, I'm sending your hats by mail on Saturday from the US! Also - Cyrstal, I need your address too my friend! Please email me!

Questions Answered:

Yes! Please feel free to print this tree for your not for profit purposes! It's always fun creating something, but not fun when something is used without permission -so thanks for asking! Plus, you all helped with filling this in! I have some great ideas for this - watch for it!

Since this post here, we've accumulated about two feet of snow! It's crazy!

Craig is Back!
We had daddy gone since Monday! After Tuesday, I thought for sure I wasn't going to make it, but even with the girls home sick and with our drive to NY on Thursday - they were pretty good. Still, I'm glad Craig is back!

This photo was taken with our night shot setting on our camera! I captured Nini jumping in the air off the snow hill in our front yard. She's a mini little snow boarder - she's hilarious. Does anyone have a little snowboarder in their family? What would you suggest for my dare devil little girl here?

If you notice the hill, it's about a foot below where the branches start on the tree - let's just say, it's another five feet down to the bottom of the tree! We have our own little sledding hill in our back yard!

A tall, tall keepsake of memories.

While putting up our Christmas tree this year, I had a little Epiphany. I realized that our tree with all it's ornaments was a tall keepsake of memories. We've always stuck to ornaments that mean something to us personally and rarely put what we would label as a generic ornament up on the tree. I know that I may be the last to realize this, but at least I've finally come to your side of thinking. For instance:

We have rarely all been together as a family, but the one year were together in late 90's, my mom purchased this pickle. It came in a cute jar and tole of an old German tradition of hiding the pickle in your tree and the person who finds it is honored with good luck. Even when we didn't have the girls, we would have my mother-in-law hide the pickle and Craig and I would try to find it - or the opposite.

This ornament we purchased in Alexandria, VA. We lived here for five years and fell in love with everything about it and have lots of very fond memories here. This ornament helps us remember them.

This ornament was given to Craig by has 3rd grade teacher! How fun is that, to still have this ornament.

We just love to purchase ornaments from any traveling we've done. This ornament is one of a set of six, Craig and I picked up on a 10 day trip through Austria. We took a train from Vienna to Bratislava, Slovakia and picked these ornaments up there. It was so much fun! What are your ornament memories?

We've also started to collect ornaments with our travels with the girls, or of ornaments representing where we've lived. We decided to have these ornaments displayed as a tradition, so that we can talk about them and help them remember the trip or any memories from the experience.

On tradition that we've totally failed on is that of a real tree - rather than going fake. We were so sticker shocked at the price of a real Christmas tree in California- that we opted to buy one and am sad to say haven't gone back. It's so easy - yet, as a gal from the NW, where we only ever had live trees - I feel very embarrassed admitting our fake tree tradition. Last year we decided to purchase a small real tree so that we wouldn't feel so bad. We usually do this closer to Christmas. So without further ado here is some video of our evening decorating - this first is Cici talking about some ornaments that Craig's dad and mom made and the 2nd is putting the star on the tree, it's dark, but you get the picture:

I found a great link today to the Friend Magazine clipart - check it out here

I hope everyone is having a great weekend and look forward to hearing all about the Utah snow storm - who played in the snow this weekend? We have a storm due tomorrow, which has already cancelled some extra-curricular events - we'll see though!

The last of the fall leaves and orange rolls.

Our trees are now devoid of leaves :( It's funny how much they hide our neighbors around us and make it seem a little less like we live in a huge city. I think the first snow here will be really great - it's just the snow after that, after that, after that; that I'm not looking forward too! Check these cute lady's out!

Mind you, they are hurling themselves into our neighbors leaves - the ones we gave cupcakes too earlier this summer in hopes of making better acquatance. I'm not sure this is helping, but the leaf pile is kind of on our property. Yesterday, the same neighbors came over with some of her girls old toys and invited us to come over to their house. It was quite the surprise! I guess the cupcakes, and going that extra step helped.

For a quick thank you gift to them, we had purchased three containers of "Pillsbury Orange Rolls" in the states (since they don't sell them in Canada). I made two of the containers and saved out 8 of the rolls (we had the rest for breakfast). I had just made a trip to the grocery store where I picked up a wood box filled with clementines. I saved back the wood box, placed the clementies around the sides of the box, and with saran wrap covering the center-bottom - I placed the 8 rolls in the center. I added the third box if they wanted to try them at another date and finished the gift off with ribbon. The rolls are so, so, so, - ok one more - so good! Have you tried them?

Are all your leaves gone?
Any snow where you live?