Happy Halloween!

Spidermason!



Sweet little honeybees!




Mason on the hayride

Matt's very cool Barack-o-lantern

Mason's monster pumpkin (carved by mommy)

My scary haunted house pumpkin

We had a really fun and busy Halloween. Mason had his preschool party this morning, complete with a hayride and a little pumpkin patch set up at the school. He got to wear his Spiderman costume to school, so he was very excited. This afternoon we took all the boys trick-or-treating Downtown at all the little shops. There were tons of kids down there, and the twins seemed to be fascinated by all of the brightly colored costumes! Mason got lots of candy and had a really good time. After dinner, Matt took Mason trick-or-treating in my parent's neighborhood while I stayed home and manned the door at our house. It was a long day, but a fun one.

It was a bittersweet day for our friends, Kyle and Jessica. Today would have been their sweet baby Zach's first birthday, so this was not a real easy day for them. Everybody just say a prayer for them that they will find comfort in the memories that will surround them today.

It's been an exhausting weekend. Matt and I went down to Macon yesterday to move his grandmother's stuff out of her apartment. It took quite a while, and we're all tired and sore. Especially Matt and his dad who had to move all the big, heavy furniture. They didn't finish until 11:30 last night! Packing the stuff up took most of the day, then pieces had to be dropped off at different houses, so it made for a full day's work. We took some of her bedroom furniture and an entertainment center for the playroom, so I've spent today trying to reorganize our house. And poor Matt has to move more furniture tonight when he gets home! We have to rearrange the playroom to accomodate the entertainment center and bookcase.

Allright, so that was Monday's entry that I didn't get posted! We got the furniture rearranged, and it looks awesome! The playroom looks ten times bigger. So I'm excited about it. My next project is the master bedroom. We got Jean's dresser and nightstand, so now we need new bedding. I ordered some last night off of e-bay and it's really pretty. It's stripes of blue, green, cream and brown, but they're really beachy coloers. I think it will look nice, but it does mean that we'll have to paint. Once again, Matt will be thrilled!
Today is Jean's memorial service. Matt is there with his parents, but I had to stay home with the babies. There was no one available to help my mom today, and these three little monkeys are a bit much for one person to handle, so I had to stay behind. I hate not being there, but I think everyone understands.

We are sad to say that we lost Matt's grandmother today. Jean passed away at her home some time last night. She was a wonderful lady who did a lot for our family. She was supportive, kind, and incredibly generous. She had great faith and was a shining star in her community. She will be missed by so many people, and we thank all of you for your prayers.

We finally have the twins in the same room! Will's been out in the playroom since he came home. At first it was because we couldn't fit all his equipment in the nursery, but then we kept him out there because they wake up at different times and we didn't want them waking each other. However, since our playroom is an addition, it's the last room on our heating and air circuit, so it's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. We kept it cool this summer with a window AC unit, but now that the weather's turned cold, it's too cold for him to sleep out there. I guess we could use a space heater, but I'm scared of those things. The only other option was to buy a bigger house, and that didn't exactly fit into the budget! So the boys are now roomies. So far they've done pretty well. They don't wake each other up too much. Though Hays decided to wake up from his afternoon nap crazy early and babbled and squealed so much that he woke Will up too. But I figure they'll get used to it. Will's pulse ox monitor went off last night when his heart rate dropped a little, and it liked to scared poor Hays to death, but when it went off later, he didn't even stir.

It's been a hectic week. I haven't had a nurse at all this week, so I've barely had time to breathe, but we've been allright. Today I got some downtime when a couple of my girlfriends came over with their kids for a long-overdue "three martini playdate." (with the recession and all, it's been downgraded to a "two beer playdate," but it's still lots of fun!) Tomorrow I have a nurse, so maybe I'll get the floors swept and the laundry caught up!

Toga, toga, toga!


Little baby thugs!


Mommy and her sweet boys


Hays and Will at the fall festival


Mason with his new marshmallow gun at the festival

The lovely Paige


We had such a fun weekend! We took the boys to the fall festival on Saturday and they were all great. The weather was perfect and the twins were content to ride in their stroller the whole time and check out the action. That afternoon I went over to my parents to help Paige get ready for homecoming. I did her makeup, and she looked lovely if I do say so myself! Saturday night, we left the kids with Matt's dad (the twins were already asleep!) so we could go to a toga party! We had a great time getting out with actual grownups, and we got to see several of our friends from the NICU. And let me tell you, a bunch of adults in togas makes for a funny party! I was pleased with the way ours turned out, though mine was harder to make than I thought it would be!



Sunday we had to recover from the party- we weren't bad off, just tired. But that afternoon we decorated the front porch for Halloween. I can't wait to get some pictures of the boys in front of the hay bales.

Mason appears to be going through a little kleptomania phase. We thought we had the whole stealing thing under crontrol after the Power Ranger incident a while back, but it's reared its ugly head over the past week. We had not one, but two incidents of petty theft. First he swiped some little toy out of his classroom at school, then lied and told me his teacher gave it to him. When I told him I was going to ask the teacher about it, he said "Um, no, don't." Dead giveaway. Then as we were leaving Publix a couple of nights ago, I heard an odd rattling sound coming from his pocket. I asked him what was in his pocket, to which he replied "nothing." Nothing turned out to be a box of tic-tacs. So I marched him right back in to the store and up to the customer service desk to return them and aplogize. We had another talk about why taking things that don't belong to you is wrong, then I told him if he ever did it again, I was taking his superhero toys away for an entire week. We'll see if it works!
Tonight I have been hard at work making togas for me and Matt. We're going to a toga party tomorrow night and I can't wait. Though I must say, making a toga is much harder than you would think! Mine still doesn't drape quite as gracefully as I would like, but it will have to do.

It's been several days since I've posted, but it's honestly been pretty boring around here, until yesterday that is. we were getting ready for Mason's dentist appointment yesterday and while he was going to the bathroom he told me, "Mommy, my pee-pee hurts when I go tee-tee." All I could think was oh no, urinary tract infection! So we got a pediatrician appointment after the dentist. His dental appointment was great- no cavities, and the opediatrician confirmed a mild UTI. We think the culprit was a bottle of Transformers bubble bath I bought him the other day. Bubble bath has been known to cause UTI's in kids. It's more common in girls, but it can happen to boys too. Mason also got the flu mist vaccine while we were there. He didn't think much of that, but it beats a shot. While we were at CVS getting Mason's prescription filled, the pharmacist asked him, "Mason, what's wrong with you today." So he announced in a loud voice, "My pee-pee hurts!" Of course, everyone in a ten-mile radius heard and laughed! I wanted to melt into the floor, but what can you do?
The fun started for me at CVS. I'm trying to change health insurance companies because I found a better plan with a different company. But the new company needed a recent blood pressure reading, so I decided to check mine while we were there. It was sky high! I had my nurse check it again when I got home with the home machine I used while I was pregnant- still through the roof. So my mom sent me off to the doctor before I stroked out or something. The doctor checked me out and put me on a low dose of blood pressure medication. It wasn't really surprising since I have a strong family history of high blood pressure on my dad's side of the family. But today I have suffered every side effect that's common with this medication. I woke up with a headache so bad I couldn't even get out of bed. I was sick as a dog to my stomach and so tired I could barely lift a spoon to feed the twins. I'm feeling better now, but it was rough this morning. But I guess it beats a stroke!

Our septic tank issue has been resolved. The people we bought the house from told us it had been pumped out about six years earlier, but that apparently was not the case. The guy who came to fix it said it had not been pumped in at least 20 years. I'll spare you the disgusting details and let it suffice to say that it was gross. Really freakin' gross. But hey, it's fixed and will hopefully stay fixed. I can think of many other ways I would have liked to spend $600, but I guess that's a small price to pay to keep sewage from backing up in the house!
But Mason had a big time watching the guy dig up part of the yard with a backhoe. He was underfoot the entire time. When the guy was leaving he said "That little fella shore is a mess ain't he?" All I could do was agree. Even the babies seemed entertained by the backhoe, when Will first saw it, he just started laughing like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen!
And I have a very cute Mason and the babies story, two stories actually. This morning Mason wanted to feed Hays his bottle, so I went in the kitchen to fix a bottle for Will. While I'm in there I heard, "Okay Hays, let's see if you need to burp." I ran in the den to see Mason sitting Hays up in his lap, patting his back. I came in just in time to hear Hays let out a huge man burp, so all I could say was, "Wow, way to go Mason!" Then later this afternoon I was feeding the babies while they were sitting in their bouncy seats. Mason was doing some taekwondo drill that involves lots of running in place while pretending like he's running through the jungle. Will and Hays were watching him intently, and everytime Mason would start running, Will would start kicking his legs furiously like he was running too! It was hilarious. Those babies sure do love their big brother. Their eyes light up and they grin like fools every time he talks to them!

We have some sort of septic tank issue. What could possibly be more fun? Today I noticed a random puddle in the yard and wondered, "What the heck is that doing there?" Upon furthur inspection I discovered that it was definitely from the septic tank. We have no idea what the problem actually is, we just know we have one. So the guy is coming out tomorrow, and I'm praying that it will be something that's easy (and cheap) to fix.
On the up side, My mom, Mason and I finished painting the deck and it looks great. I also got all of my pansies and mums in their lovely fall colors planted. Now if I can just keep them alive! I have a notorious black thumb, so if they survive, I'll be lucky.
One more exciting development is that Will finally decided that he likes baby food! Even though Hays has been eating like crazy for quite a while now, Will just wasn't in to it. If you tried to feed him baby food, he'd clamp his lips shut and turn his head away. But the other night he just started eating it like he'd been doing it all along! And they LOVE the baby food I've been making for them. I have quite a stash of colorful, frozen cubes in the freezer. Yesterday I made sweet potatoes, pears, butternut squash and avocado, and this morning I made turkey. Pureeing meat is, admittedly, kind of gross- it makes a grayish paste. But tonight I mixed turkey with avocado and mango and they ate every bite!
Finally, I want to thank the lovely and talented Jessica Kirk for fancying up the blog. She is responsible for its lovely new format and I am very grateful to her!

We've been busy little bees today. we scraped and painted our front deck. Well, Matt scraped and I painted. But we got it almost completely finished. We'll have to wait until morning to see whether or not the floor will need a second coat. But so far, it looks great. Mason had a great time helping. He loves to help us psint, and since we were outside we could let him do more than we can inside. By the end of the day, we were all covered in paint!
It was a nice weekend. Yesterday we went to Matt's boss's daughter's wedding. It was outside at an old farmhouse and it could not have been a prettier day for it. The wedding was lovely, and we had a great time hanging out with Matt's co-workers. It was so nice to get out and hang out with grownups for a while!
This week we go to three days a week of nursing care. I'll have a nurse Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, so tomorrow I'm on my own. Wish me luck!

Tonight I embarked on a new project- making my own baby food! Yesterday on Good Morning America they said you could save $300 a year by making your own baby food, so I got curious as to how difficult it would actually be. After finding some recipes on the internet, I decided it didn't look too labor intensive and it was worth a shot. Plus, the only investment I had to make was a few ice cube trays and ziploc bags, so if it turned out to be a total pain in the butt and I never did it again, I'd only be out a couple of dollars. It was actually really easy, and I now have frozen cubes of applesauce, blueberries, mangos, carrots and peas in the freezer. Next up is sweet potatoes, chicken, turkey, bananas, pears and guava (which is Hays' favorite). I told my sister that I felt like Laura Ingalls, though she probably didn't have a blender! But the true test will be whether or not Hays eats it. I'll be crushed if he prefers the stuff in jars!
Of course, he may not eat much of anything, because I think his bottom tooth is finally coming in! I can see the top of it, and he's drooling like a faucet. He's also in a fair amount of pain, poor baby. I've been using these homeopathic teething tablets that seem to help, but he was so pitiful tonight that I had to dose him with tylenol. Hopefully the tooth will come through in the next day or two and stop hurting him. Then I guess it will be Will's turn!