Question of the Week

Are you involved in your local Mother's (Parent's) of Multiples Club?

In a word....Yes!

As of right now I wish I could be a lot more active in our MoM's club! But it's very difficult when you have an 8 yr old with school and extracurricular activities, a 3.5 yr old who just started t-ball this spring and will be starting preschool this fall, and twin 14 month olds who's attention span is about as long as their pinky finger! Add to that equation that I live an hour away from it, as well as from the majority of the activities, and that it's difficult to wrangler 4 kids by myself when my husband works weekends.....well we do miss out on a lot of fun opportunities!

But I do try to attend the meeting each month, I've had such fun making new friends and learning how to cope with twins! I feel like I may have even dished out some advice a time or two, since I have two older kids as well!

In the long run, I'm hoping to get more involved as my babies get older! I'll still have to work around the older kids schedules, and David's work schedule, but as the twins get older it'll get easier to manuever 4 kids by myself!

What a weekend!

Well we had a busy busy weekend here at the Bell household! Saturday we woke up to a rainy/dreary day, so we headed to Home Depot for a few odds and ends! We swung by a mattress store afterwards and picked out a new boxspring for us, since ours is broken, and a new nicer mattress for Sean. He's been using a bunk bed mattress but it really isn't that comfy. I can't wait for him to try out his new mattress, after David goes to pick it up this week!

We ate supper at Cracker Barrel, which is always so yummy! Then we got to play with the kids before throwing them all into bed!

Sunday was a fantastic service at church. This is the second week we've put the twins and Kaelyn into the nursery. I feel bad doing it, but Kaelyn went to children's church partway through and said she had lots of fun! It also allowed David and I to actually focus on the sermon instead of having to wrangle twin toddler's. I think we'll do this more often!

After church and chinese food for lunch, we bought some flowers and came home to plant them. The babies enjoyed playing in their sand/water table, and making a general mess! The big kids helped us clean up the yard a bit, plant my flowers and we cleaned out the big sand box for them. We had a small forest of elm trees growing in it! After about 3 hrs outside everyone was exhausted, we had some steak and fries for supper, and then baths for all the dirty children, and then bedtime! David and I actually watched Avatar, and it's an awesome movie!!

I love busy, fun filled, family weekends!

My Montage 4/21/10 at OneTrueMedia.com

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Twins 1st Birthday Cake at OneTrueMedia.com

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Leashes....YAY or NAY??

So I stumbled on this question today on the "Multiples and More" blog. Leashes. Seems like a pretty simple thing, they're made mostly for dogs, and maybe the occasional strange cat, pig or ferret, but not for kids...or are they?!

Having two older children, I did buy a leash for my oldest when he was about 18 months old. We were flying for the first time with him, and I thought it would be nice to be able to "leash" him in the airport so he wouldn't get away! Needless to say, we didn't need it! 2 parents + 1 child = plenty of eyes to watch him!

Then baby #2 comes along! Now they have cute little backpack leashes for kids! We bought a little puppy backpack, thinking what a great way to give her some freedom when we are shopping or something! And yet, once again, 2 parents + 1 older brother + 1 toddler = plenty of eyes to watch her!

AND then the twins come along! They have just recently started walking everywhere, and while they are fairly content in their stroller when we are moving along shopping, they are much less content sitting in their stroller for the 90 min long baseball game their big brother plays twice a week! Added to my grocery list one week was a second leash! See, the simple one we had for Sean has disappeared over the years, and we only had one puppy dog one for kaelyn. Until I realized how LARGE and bulky those backpack leashes are! I have plenty of other necessities in my diaper bag, 2 big bulky leashes are not acceptable! So we bought a couple simple nylon strap leashes and stuffed them in my already overloaded diaper bag, to be brought out at the next ball game. At this point, the equation looks more like 2 tired stressed out parents(and sometimes it's just 1 tired stressed out parent when my husband works) + 1 child playing baseball + 1 child running around playing + 2 toddlers = far less eyes than are necessary!

And the leashes worked GREAT! I was able to let them roam around in about a 6 foot area around me, still keeping a small eye on them, but still able to watch my oldest son hit his first homerun, watch my older daughter to be sure she doesn't play in the creek....or worse run into the parking lot traffic, and not have to worry about the babies disappearing on me! I even had another parent say she used one with her second child, she can't imagine NOT using one when you have more than one toddler at a time!

So, all in all, I'm in favor of leashes being used appropriately. This is to say if I ever saw someone tie their child in one, or leave them attached to a building post or bicycle rack like I've seen people do with dogs, I would be calling the authorities ASAP. But as far as using them at baseball games....they get a big old from me!

What a great day!

Well it's been a couple of weeks since my last update, so I guess I'd better start with that!

We FINALLY managed to have the twins birthday party, only about 3 weeks late! But better late than never! They were so good, no fussiness or grouchies at all! Pictures will have to be added later, since we have a new laptop and I don't have any pictures on here yet! lol!

We had a pretty good turn out: Grandmother and Granddaddy, Uncle Al and Aunt Linda, Uncle Barry and Aunt Cathy, Cousins Karen, Kim, Carleton, Carson and Preston, Friends Micheal, Karen and Henry Jacques, Jennifer, Austin, Landon and Kyleigh Adams, Mrs. Bailey and then later that evening we had Philip and Karen Teague and their three kids, Philip, Jackie and Mark over for supper! It was a great weekend!!

Since then, both Sean and Kaelyn have started baseball! It's Kaelyn's first year and she was very excited to play!! Between the two of them we are gone 3 nights a week for ball! It makes for some busy evenings, but they kids are having a blast!

We are busy saving up money for our upcoming CANADA trip!! Yep, we're going again! :D I think it's about 83 days or so until we leave! The kids are getting very excited! Especially Sean. He's going to be going to church camp, and this will be the first time he's gone to sleep away camp! He's going with Brandon, so they are sure to have a blast!

Today we went to the zoo and met a fellow twin mommy from a msg board I used to go to quite often! She lives just an hour away, right near the zoo, so we met up with our entourages! She has b/g twins as well. They were born at 29 wks so even though they are about 3 months older than our babies, they are soooo itty bitty and sweet!! It was lots of fun! I hope to get together with her again soon!

Not much else to tell right now! Poor Liam is still cutting some molars, his top ones came in a few weeks ago but his bottom ones are struggling to push through! Rylee got all 4 of hers a few weeks ago so she's done until her eye teeth try to come in! I hope this is nearing the end of the horrible teething phase!!

Well I suppose it could be worse...

I could forget to post for a year, instead of a month at a time!! HA!

Let's see, starting back on our trip to Canada....the kids did FANTASTIC on the plane ride!! We even had several people pass us by and say they didn't even realize we had twin babies on the plane! They had a couple fussy periods but nothing that a little snuggling, a bottle, and a nap didn't take care of!

It was SO much fun getting to see my entire family again! My brother was visiting from Alberta, my sisters from Regina and Moose Jaw, and we all crammed into mom and dad's house! It was a tight squeeze, but very cozy! The kids had a blast playing in the snow, they were outside the day after we got there!





I think they would have lived outside if we had let them!! Just a couple days later, we headed down to Fort Qu'Appelle to the dormitory for the BIG family christmas!! Such fun, meeting all the new little cousins, and reconnecting with all the big cousins and aunts and uncles!


Kaelyn's very first skiidoo ride!!

Sean about to sled down the snow pile, and going for a skiidoo ride! First time we didn't have to beg him to ride it, and he said he had lots of fun!!

This was the twins first time out in the cold and snow, riding in a sled! They were really impressed! Sean and Kaelyn got to help build a snowman, they were very excited about that!

In between it all, the "big boys" managed to build an IGLOO!! They fit 13 adults inside that thing! I'm sure it got toasty warm with all that body heat! And here's a picture of all the grandkids on my side of the family! 17 kids under the age of 9! Fantastic!

This is just a beautiful picture David took, the trees are standing at the edge of the land and the lake goes out from there, those are fishing shacks you see partway across!

And who can forget the absolutely LOVELY socks that cousin Sean won in the chinese gift exchange! He had to model them immediately for us! LOL!!

Pretty soon it was back to papa's farm for a few more days!


Sean and Kaelyn riding down the back stairs of papa's deck! It worked great! Then Kaelyn was riding in the back of papa's quad while the pulled Sean around on the sled!

And just a random pic of papa's snow/frost covered trees! Beautiful!

Unfortunately, the trip was all too short as it always is! We headed to a hotel in Regina a day early, a big snow storm was coming and we didn't want to get snowed in and miss our flight! Lucky for us, after sitting around the airport for several hours the next morning, our flight was cancelled anyways, ALL the flights were cancelled! So, back to the hotel for another night we went!

This is what happens when you have tired grouchy twins! LOL! He stole her paci, so she stole his socks, and then he pulled her arm out of her sleeve! But thankfully Auntie Lindsay came with some reinforcements for the big kids, and David and I were able to concentrate on the babies a bit more!

So, a day late and almost a dollar short, we finally headed home! It was a very early flight, so everyone was exhausted by the time we got home around 8:30! But it was a worthwhile trip for sure!!

So not long after that, it was Sean's birthday again!! 8 years old!! He had his first sleepover with a friend from school, we went bowling in the afternoon, and then out for pizza for supper! The boys had lots of fun I think!!

And just 4 short days later, the twins turned 1 yr old!! Time sure has flown by! Unfortunately, the week before their birthday party, everyone ended up with the stomach virus! So it had to be postponed, and we'll be hosting it this weekend!! YAY! I am very excited!

To illustrate how they've grown, here's a few more pics tonight:


Liam and Rylee, sharing a bouncer, just a few days old!!

And Rylee and Liam, guess they won't be sharing a bouncer anymore! Boy have they grown! Their 1 yr stats are:
Rylee ~ 22 lbs 7.5 oz, and 30 in long.
Liam ~ 19 lbs 15.5 oz, and 30 in long.

My babies are all grown up.... *sigh*

Until next time then! :)