Things have been busy busy around here!

Over the weekend, we headed to NC to see my parents. In preparation, Fischer went to see "Missy Yolana" to get another haircut. We actually call her "Miss Yolanda" but Fischer now puts his own spin on it. It's very cute to hear him say it - and funny that he knows her by name since he gets so many haircuts!

Scott took Fischer to his haircut so they could have some guy time, while Addison and I stayed home and packed for our trip. If she wasn't "helping" (by taking out everything I put in the suitcase), she was "supervising" from under the covers of our bed. One of her new favorite things to do is to get under the covers of a bed and say "night night!" She also calls it "getting cozy." She doesn't look happy in this picture but she was so excited to be laying in Mommy and Daddy's bed!

Friday morning, we left early so we could stop at the Asheboro Zoo on the way. We pass it every time we go to my parents, but have never stopped. We figured stopping before the summer heat would be a good idea. It's a very spread out zoo, so we walked a lot, but it was fun! The kids definitely liked the giraffes and elephants the most! Here are a few pictures...

Once we got to my parents house, I didn't take a single picture. That is very unlike me! But, while we were there, Addison and Fischer got to experience several firsts...They had their first popcorn snack (which they LOVED!). They took their first trip to Build-A-Bear. I thought for sure Addison would pick the cat and Fischer would pick the dog. I was wrong. They both picked the same exact bunny! Maybe they were missing Buddy! 

Lastly, and I think their favorite, was getting to feed the deer. My parents always have a lot of deer in their yard, and in order to keep them fed and away from their plants, they put deer corn out to feed them. Starting early last week, Addison and Fischer both said "deer? bucket? corn? when we would talk about our upcoming trip to Gma and Gpa Suttle's house. I couldn't believe they remembered seeing my parents carry out buckets of deer corn. So, my mom bought them each a little bucket and they got to carry it out. Usually, my parents just do it in the afternoon, but because Addison and Fischer loved it so much, the deer got a few extra meals over the weekend. I wish I would've taken a picture! Next time!

Sunday, we headed home in the yucky rain. Yesterday was cold and rainy too, so we were inside all day. I was a little nervous about how the day would go since we've gotten to play outside so much lately. Addison and Fischer were great though - they have really started playing well together lately, so it made the rainy day much easier. Luckily, today, they got to run around outside again!

And in some exciting news... Addison actually left a bow in her hair for more than 2 seconds the other day! It's a work in progress!

We broke out some of Addison and Fischer's new summer clothes yesterday - they were looking adorable in their plaid shorts!

Perhaps Fischer will be a fireman one day... he does love water and hoses!

And Addison loves the phone....

And I love it when they play together so nicely!!

I'm not going to do monthly "birthday" posts for Addison and Fischer anymore, now that they are 2. But I still can't forget about it when it's the 22nd of each month. I can't believe they've been 2 for a whole month now - and we've all survived. :)

Our house is looking great - they've made some great progress on the siding and inside. They finished with the drywall and cleaned up the floors. Today they put primer on all of the walls! So now, we must pick our interior paint colors. The paint decision, by far, is making me the most nervous! We are hoping to have our colors picked out sometime next week so stay tuned for that.  Also, as of now, the projected finish date is sometime in early June. We know that is subject to change, but it's exciting that it's getting so close.

Here is a picture from inside today...

Addison and Fischer have been busy playing outside. Today, they wore shorts, t-shirts, and sunscreen - it's starting to feel like summer already! Their poor legs are already so scraped up from all of their falls, and I know there are more to come!

They are sleeping better at night, but now taking shorter naps. I guess I can't have it all! :) They also now have pillows in their cribs, which they seem to enjoy. It makes them look like such big kids. It's just another step closer to big kid beds.

Fischer has started saying "hocus pocus" all the time. I have no idea where he learned this, but I can only assume it's from Mickey since that's the only show they'll watch. It's pretty funny though. And Addison talks ALL day. She is starting to say long phrases and sentences - sometimes 7 or 8 words. Fischer has done this on occasion also, but she just talks all the time, so she does it more. Typical girl, I suppose.  I took some pictures of them today so I will try and post them tomorrow.

We went to see the house today. We are loving the siding, and can't wait to see the deck, which should be done soon! What you see in the picture is where the screened porch will be, and the deck will be to the right of it, where you see the two smaller windows.

Yay for progress!!

Some random tidbits on this Friday:

It is hot outside, and it worries me that this summer is going to be SO hot.  We've been playing outside a lot today, and Addison and Fischer love getting dirty. They even like talking about dirt. We took a trip to the Dollar Tree today (where everything really was just one dollar!) and got them new buckets and shovels, since Bo chewed up their old shovels.

We've had Buddy almost two weeks now. He came home in a little wire cage and didn't have much room to move around. We felt bad, so Scott built him his very own "penthouse" that has 3 levels! So far, Buddy seems to prefer the middle level.

Last night, we were on a walk after dinner. We were pulling the kids in the wagon and heard one of them say "Well, well, well...." And then that was it. It was so funny! They are starting to say some seriously funny things.

Addison's molar hasn't broken through yet, but I expect it to soon. She still isn't sleeping great at night, which is exhausting for all of us.

Scott went to the house and said they are about 1/3 done with the siding. We are going to go over there tomorrow, so I will post so new pictures after that!

Oh, here are Addison and Fischer on St. Patrick's Day. I didn't buy them anything special this year. I can hardly believe it's their THIRD St. Patrick's Day. It's impossible to get them both to look at the camera.

And lastly, I finished another book! I read The Secret Life of Bees and really liked it. I really want to see the movie now!  I've already started my next book, on Scott's recommendation. We'll see how I like it!

Incase you were wondering what color we chose for our house....

Yep - we'll have a red house!!! I was a little nervous about it at first, but the idea quickly grew on me. And I really like how it looks so far. It's perfect for a house that's in the woods. At least I think so!

Here are some pictures of the inside now that the drywall is complete. The first is the living room and the second is the kitchen.

In other news, Fischer got the first of his 2 year molars today. We went to our weekly gym class this morning and he just wasn't in a good mood. At one point, he opened his mouth when he was crying/screaming and I saw the little point of white sticking out of his gum. Poor little man. :( I don't think Addison's first of the 4 molars is far behind given her recent behavior...she's been messing with her ears, crying a lot at night, drooling, etc.... I will definitely be checking her mouth tomorrow to see if anything happened overnight!

It was nice to have a break from this teething thing, and I didn't miss it. At all.

I have finished books 6 and 7 for the year! I'm on a roll! :) I had actually already finished one of them when I posted about my last book, but figured I'd wait and write about these together.

I read Belly Laughs and Baby Laughs by Jenny McCarthy.

I really like her writing style, and like that she was very truthful in these books. She writes about her experiences during pregnancy and with a newborn, and doesn't hold much (if anything) back. I wish I would've read these when I was going through those times because it may have put me at ease about a few things. I still really enjoyed reading them now though.

They were very quick reads (obviously) and I'm looking forward to getting 2 more books by her in the mail! I ordered Life Laughs and Louder than Words on Amazon.com for $2 each. Can't beat that!

It was a busy weekend and I'm trying to get caught up on things today!

Saturday we ventured over to the house to see what was going on. Much to our surprise, people were there working. We didn't stay long because we were clearly in their way. They were working on dry wall while walking around on stilts. I could've watched them all day - it's crazy that they can walk around in those things!

We saw our siding in the garage so we're hoping that goes on this week!

The rest of the day was spent hanging out at home while I finished getting ready for a baby shower I co-hosted on Sunday.

Saturday night, we all relaxed after a long day of playing while watching a movie.

Once again, a lot has happened with the new house! The biggest change is that we now have windows! They are casement-style windows, which are the ones that you crank open. The smaller windows will be opened by pushing the bottom out. We are happy with how they look, and it means the house is another step closer to being finished!

Here is the view of Fischer's room and the playroom with windows...

And more windows...

They also installed the fireplace and did some work on the chimney today...

In addition to the windows, the insulation and HVAC work are complete and the doors are ready to be hung. Tomorrow, they will dry wall the house, and then they will begin the exterior siding, hopefully next week. I can't wait to see what that looks like!

We've also decided what store we are going to use for our rather large appliance purchase! We will be buying a refrigerator, dishwasher, oven/stove, beverage center, washing machine and dryer. We gave our builder the go ahead to place the order, so that's another thing done.

Soon, we will get serious about our interior paint color choices. Hopefully it won't be too stressful...

I finished book #5 for the year. I am way ahead of my one-a-month goal right now! I've been spending part of nap times relaxing and reading, which has been very nice.

The book I just finished is Twin, by Allen Shawn.  I saw a review a month or so ago, and it caught my interest since it is written by a twin, about his twin sister. His twin sister is Autistic and was removed from their home at 8 years old, and they've been apart ever since (they are now in their 60s). I was just very curious to read a story like this from a twin's perspective.

The book was good, but not quite what I expected. I'm not sure I would've gotten much from it if I didn't have twins myself. I'm glad I read it though, as there was some interesting facts about twins . One fact, which is interesting and gross all at the same time, stated that there is a culture (it didn't specify which one) where boy/girl twins are thought to be the perfect mates for each other and usually end up getting married and having children. This is just crazy to me! There were several other interesting facts in the book, and I do feel like I learned some things!

Reading things about twins  makes me even more excited to see what type of relationship Addison and Fischer will have as they get older. I hope that they will be extremely close, but only time will tell!

Good news!! Addison and Fischer still loved their play set today! :) They played on it so well that I even got to sit in a chair and watch them play!! I'm normally busy keeping them away from things they shouldn't play with, but now they have something new to focus on. It was nice to sit and relax, even if it was just for a few minutes.

This morning started off with a laugh... Addison and Fischer were eating their cereal. Fischer looked at me and said "Mmmm... dee-lee-sheesh." I have no idea where he got this from since Scott and I don't ever use the word "delicious." It was really cute though. And later today, he said it again. I asked him "what do you think is delicious?" and he said "yo-yo's," which is still his word for Cheerios. So funny. It's so fun to actually have little real conversations with them.

I know I mentioned the other day that Addison has been saying "now" a lot. I realized today that she isn't saying it to be demanding, but she is just saying it at the end of everything. It's so funny how her mind works, and she usually jumps from subject to subject very quickly. She has started ending everything she says with "now" which makes things pretty entertaining. An example: "Oh Mommy! I play now. Oh. Bo run now. Oh. Watch She-She now." She says "oh" a lot while she's talking. It's so funny. She had fun sitting on my lap while watching Fischer (still She-She) slide today.

We tried another new food tonight now that the kids can eat more fish. We had crab cakes. Addison devoured hers. She ate it so fast and wanted more. Fischer wouldn't even touch his, even after I dipped it in ketchup. At least he ate all of his veggies and rice!

That's all for tonight! Hope you had a good Monday.

I've been wanting to buy Addison and Fischer a slide for the backyard. So, I've been watching Craigslist for the past couple of months, hoping to find a good deal. I found a couple of good deals, sent emails, but never got any responses. Sometimes it's very frustrating trying to be thrifty.

Last week, I saw this Little Tikes 8 in 1 playgound and thought it would be perfect. The fact that it has 2 slides is really what caught my interest. When I read the reviews, I saw that several parents of twins commented on how great it was for 2 kids. Maybe this would help alleviate some of the arguments about who would go down the slide next??

After several emails back and forth, we finally struck a deal! Scott went to pick the playground up today. It was rainy and damp, so we didn't stay outside long, but the kids loved it!!!

They really liked the tunnel...

And they weren't scared of slides at all!

And they were both so excited!

And they were too busy playing, so this is the only shot I got of them together.

I hope they still love it tomorrow.... you never know!

Oh my gosh. Having two two year olds is no joke. Did they really become more of a challenge in the past couple of weeks since turning 2?? Everyday seems to bring new challenges, but they are also saying and doing more each day, which makes it fun!

Here are some things they are doing at 2:

They both wear size 5 Pampers during the day and size 6 Huggies Overnites at night.
They go to bed around 7:30 pm and wake up between 7 and 7:30 am every morning.
They take one nap a day, after lunch, which usually lasts about 2 hours.
Addison is drinking soy milk.
Fischer is drinking 2% milk.
They are both wearing 24 month and 2T clothes most of the time - Fischer still has some 18 month pants that fit.
Addison is wearing a size 6 shoe.
Fischer is wearing a size 6 shoe but is about to need to move up to a 7.
Addison eats almost everything but is very consistent about not eating broccoli and cauliflower.
Fischer is the pickier of the two when it comes to food, but he also eats most things. He is currently obsessed with grapes, raisins, fries and oatmeal.
They both know some of the colors and can do some counting if they are in the mood.
They get juice every once in awhile but mainly drink milk and water.

There are so many more things I could list, but I'll stop there for now.

Here are some other random tidbits:

Both Addison and Fischer talk all the time now. I don't think they stop talking from the moment they wake up until they go to sleep. I can't always understand what they are saying (which really annoys them), but their speech is getting better and better each day. They are starting to say more 3 word phrases, and it's so weird to hear them talk in complete sentences!

Fischer's newest phrase is "I do it." He wants to do EVERYTHING himself.  He also says "_____ coming soon?" a lot. For instance, if he knows they are having oatmeal for breakfast, he'll say "Oatmeal coming soon?" until it's actually in front of him.  He is very active, but still loves to sit on the couch with us and read books. He'd be happy to listen to us read all day long. He even knows the names of the books by looking at their covers (even if it has been put away for several weeks).  He is surprising us with how many letters and numbers he knows, and even pointed to and said "pie-apple" this morning when we asked what started with a P.

He's a clumsy little guy and loves to say "oh my" or "oh dear" when he falls. He also likes us to acknowledge things that he says and will repeat them over and over until we respond.  He loves to play rough with Addison, which almost always results in someone crying, but I love hearing them laugh together before it gets to that point.

Addison is quite a demanding little thing and we are really trying to work on manners (with Fischer too). She has started saying "now" at the end of her requests, which doesn't make us happy... she'll say "Milk now" or "Mickey Mouse now." We are always reminding them to say please, and they do well with it. However, now, we are having to explain that saying please doesn't always get you what you want, and they aren't liking that. Sometimes she refers to herself as Addison and sometimes she says I. She likes to say things like "Addison's water too?" if Fischer got his water, or "Addison's clothes too?" She also likes to tap my arm and say "Go Mommy!" if she wants me to do something - it's actually funny because I think she thinks she's being encouraging!

In additon to being demanding, she is also very motherly. She likes to take care of all of us. She is always taking Fischer his sippy cup or a toy, or worried about if he is getting food, etc. A couple of weeks ago, she wouldn't eat any more of her food until I took a bite of mine (even though my plate was already empty). She kept trying to give me her food and said "Mommy eat? Mommy eat?" I finally had to give myself a little more food so that she'd eat her dinner too! She is also worried when other kids cry, or animals in books look sad.

I need to start writing more of the funny stuff they say down. They make me laugh a lot, and their imaginations are becoming more and more apparent each day. Just yesterday, they put mulch in their buckets outside and told me they were making soup! I just love that they are now coming up with these things on their own.

I am having a hard time finding the time these days to blog, but I am really going to try to do more. I don't want to forget anything that's going on with them now!

And now, I'd like to introduce the newest member of our family, Buddy! Scott and Addison picked him out today. His name is Buddy because Addison was trying to say "bunny" and it came out "Buddy" so it sort of stuck. So far, Addison wants to hold him all the time, while Fischer likes to "tickle" him, then walk away and play with something else.

Another big change has happened with our house. The roof is complete! The shingles look great and we can't wait to see how they look once the siding is on. We chose the color "Weathered Wood" in order to help the roof blend in with trees around the house. Here are a couple shots of the house with the shingles.

Inside, Addison and Fischer's shower was installed. In addition, the HVAC units are being installed, and the duct work is being completed. They are also finishing the electrical work so that they can start dry walling next week! They are even going to install windows tomorrow or Monday!

I can't believe how quickly things are moving - it's all very exciting!!

Two years ago today, we finally got to bring our 8 day old babies home! I can't believe it's already been 2 years since that day - it's still so clear in my mind! They were so tiny and we were scared, but very excited to get our own routine started. This was taken right before loading the kids into their stroller and heading out to the car!

In other news, I have finished 2 more books this year. That brings my total to 4! The first was a total boy book that Scott had. I was in the mood to start a book and it was the only choice at the time!  It was good, it just took me longer to read than my normal chick-lit choices do.

I also finally read the new Nicholas Sparks book. I really liked it, although I think it was darker than some of his previous books!  Thanks to Scott's mom for letting me borrow it!

I am already into my next book with several more lined up!

I took this video on Addison and Fischer's birthday - February 22. They got to have a little cake after dinner, and we sang "Happy Birthday" to them again.

Addison was a big sugared up and wanted to share her singing skills with us. Please notice that Fischer says "poop" many times in the background. Oh, what wonderful memories! :)