Red Robin

Why are they both trying to eat their balloons?

On our visit to SC for Thanksgiving, we decided to head out with everyone to Red Robin. Back in our Gap days (circa 1999-2002), I remember eating at the one they used to have at the Mall of Louisiana, but it closed. I really wish that they had one in BR because it was probably the most kid friendly restaurant.

Jen and I were expecting a public meltdown/disaster since both Parker and Jack were not cooperating too nicely at home just before we left. We fed them, packed up everyone and headed out. Of course like clockwork, both little ones needed diaper changes as soon as we pulled into the parking lot. When we got into the restaurant, MawMaw and PawPaw had 3 high chairs set up and Owen was already coloring/scribbling on some paper. He couldn't have been happier. We entertained the boys long enough for our food to come and then fed them enough Cheerios and Puffs to last a lifetime (seriously, they could eat an entire box of Cheerios if we let them). Both the waitress and the manager offered Park and Jack anything they wanted...ice cream, mandarin oranges, veggies, bourbon (kidding, making sure you are paying attention). The staff couldn't have been nicer and more accommodating to them. They brought all 3 boys their own balloons and plastic cups to play with. They were quiet, entertained, and it was quite an enjoyable meal for all. My burger was just about fantastic and they will bring you as many fries as you want. That is enough reason to visit right there. Oh, and the milkshakes - phenomenal.

Jen and I don't venture out to many restaurants with the whole clan by ourselves, but Red Robin might provide enough of a distraction that would make it worth the hassle. When we have help though...we are up for anything!! Connisonville + MawMaw and PawPaw (and Aunt Kell and Nana) @ Red Robin = WIN.

Our Thanksgiving Blessings

During Thanksgiving, we need to express how thankful we are for all of our blessings. Connisonville is blessed in so many ways that it is hard to write them all down, so here are just a few:

Our Family and Friends. We have been blessed with wonderful people that surround us in our lives and have shown us how important our family and friends truly are.

Our health. Having twins caused us to do a lot of research on the "interwebs" and found a plethora of things that could go wrong with multiple pregnancies. We were very blessed this year with two very healthy full term baby boys and a very healthy momma. We continue to be a healthy, happy family and are very thankful for that.

My job. I am very thankful for my position with the State of Louisiana that allows us the financial ability for Jen to stay home and be our homemaker for Connisonville. I am also thankful that I have a job that doesn't require travel, is close enough that I can come home for lunch, and provides good health benefits (a recent pharmacy visit cost me $3.13 - awesome!!).

Our Momma. I don't have enough room to write down everything that Jen does for this family. Plain and simple, she is our everything and her boys can't thank her enough for all that she does for us. We love you momma.

We hope that this Thanksgiving has given everyone time to reflect on their blessings. We hope for continued good fortune and to be blessed with another year even better than the last.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Why I'm glad we don't have an IKEA in Louisiana.

Mom, put down the credit card...

IKEA. Another glorious reason to visit MawMaw and PawPaw in SC. It's about 40 minutes away on the north side of Charlotte, but well worth the drive. When you don't have one close, you forget the awesomeness in that big blue building.

It actually wasn't that bad, considering that Jen is a homemaker that doesn't get out much to shop anymore, it could have proven disasterous for our bank account. We both walked around that monstrosity of a building saying "when the boys get older we should get _____" Needless to say, I fear the next visit to SC. Jen "got some really good deals" on some bedding and whatnot for Owen (at least that is what she tells me). Note that Owen is still in his crib and will probably stay there until he is 12 as long as he is not trying to climb out. But when he is in a big boy bed...he is covered (literally)!!

IKEA has some quality stuff that looks nice and its relatively cheap. This is key becuase we have 3 boys so I'm pretty sure they will eventually destroy our entire house and we will have to replace all of our stuff and start from scratch. Thanks in advance boys for helping satisfy your mom's shopping habit.

He's a man/She's a lady

Kids say the darndest things. This wasn't some episode with Bill Cosby, this happened in my driveway.

Owen and I were playing in the front yard while Parker and Jack were down for their morning nap. We spotted a woman walking her dog early on a quiet Sunday morning. Owen is learning about men and women (everyone on TV, people on the news, commercials, Sesame Street, etc) and points out whether "he's a man" or "she's a lady." Now I'm guessing you know what happened next...he misidentified the woman walking the dog. On my quiet street. At 9am. The awesome thing was that she didn't look anything like a man, but I can't blame the kid, its easy ro get confused in today's society. It is one thing he is learning that I guess we still need to work on!

I tried everything to distract him pointing out the dog, dragging his noisy car on the concrete, trying to be polite with loud "HELLOS!" I think I did a good job, I'm not really sure if she heard him any of the 15 times he said it (Owen tends to repeat phrases he is proud of), but it was quite embarrassing at the moment. I'm sure this won't be the last time he (or any of my boys) gets me into an interesting situation. I figure it gives me funny things to blog about...

And I will get even with him when he gets to high school.

Acting like adults.

I think we look fairly well rested considering the circumstances...

MawMaw and PawPaw were in town all of last week and it was pretty fantastic. Jen and I were able to get out of the house and watch the Saints on Monday night with some old friends that we never seem to see anymore (which is really all of our friends that we never seem to see anymore).

Jen's cousin Kevin and his fiance Amanda were finally getting married. I only saiy finally cause I think they have been together about as long as Jen and I, but everything is really a time warp before children so I can't say for sure. Once again, grandparents to the rescue and they took over kid duty while Jen and I got some quality adult time in New Orleans for the wedding festivities.

On Friday, Jen was able to go the the Bridal Luncheon (at Restraunt August) and we all went to Commander's Palace for the Rehearsal Dinner. It was phenominal. The food, the atmosphere, the fact that we were childless and knew that everyone was ok, it was all great.

We woke up on Saturday at about 8:15 and I thought it was great sleeping in...until I realized that the clock was never set back the previous weekend and it was really 7:15 (so much for sleeping in). We got a nice CC's coffee date, went to Verizon to look at new phones (got an HTC Eris - pretty sweet), and over to Lakeside to do some shopping on an old Dillards card. We met up with Jeff and his cousin at Superior Grill on St. Charles to watch the LSU/Bama game and really enjoyed some much needed relaxation time. Although, we spend the large majority of the day talking about our boys, looking at picture of them, and wondering what they were doing at all times. Thank goodness for the updates from Maw Maw and we knew they were doing well the whole time. She even started using Wins and Losses

The wedding was great (other than the LSU game that I had to continue to monitor on my phone at the church) and it was nice to hang out with the Dietz cousins at another family function while the Mixed Nuts had another great performance at a Dietz wedding. It made me remember our wedding, and how much fun it was, but specifically, that Connisonville pretty much spawned from that day. It has been a crazy ride, and I never would have never believed it if you told me that we would have 3 beautiful boys within 3 years, though I can't imagine it any different now.

We also got to see Jeff and Melanie's new baby Austin. He is so little compared to our guys and it made me remember that they were that size just 8 months ago. Boy does time fly. Also, I was reminded how easy it was for just one baby. We thought is was out of control sometimes, but little did we know how insane it could really be...

I was a great weekend for Jen and I to be able to spend some time like adults instead of watching Sesame Street all the time. We missed our little guys so much but we know that MawMaw and PawPaw really enjoyed the quality time with them.

Thanks again so much MM/PP and we can't wait to make the trek to SC to visit for Thanskgiving!

Creepy Crawlers

They look innocent, then they start moving.

Trick or Treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.

Jack is crawling...everywhere. Parker is starting to crawl, but is currently much slower than Jack. By my estimation, it will be about a week or so before both little guys are everywhere in our house.

Since Owen was in the crawling stage oh so many months ago, our house has been babyproofed. All electrical outlets were covered, drawers and cabinets locked, and knicknacks (those function-less items that look great on a coffee table or bookshelf, but serve no real purpose) were removed. Our house went from Restoration Hardware to Babies 'R Us in less than a week. There was no reason to try to keep the house looking like a magazine when we spent every other minute prying something out of Owen's hand as he was trying to eat it. Foolishly, I thought that we were pretty set in that department when P and J got to that stage. How soon did I forget, that we can no longer *picnic* on the floor, leave the bathroom door open, or leave a room for longer than 5 seconds.

*Picnics on the floor are the Connisonville way to keep all children happy while the adults get to eat. We try to eat together with everyone in their respective chairs, but that is not always the best decision as one or many children are OVER their seat in quick fashion. Somedays we don't have the energy to fight the battle so we end up eating/playing in the living room to make everyone happy.*

Now that they are into crawling, both P and J are on a personal mission. They fixate on one item - a toy, a random cheerio on the floor, Jen's flip-flops, etc. and go full force until they get it. I have forgotten how semi-annoying this can be when you are not prepared/tired and have to constantly be on the lookout for an approaching baby, focusing especially on what they are trying to put into their mouths. Here are some of the things that I forgot about this stage that I have been quickly reminded of:

• potentially pulling toys off of the coffee table and on to their heads
• almost stepping on/tripping over babies in the house
• instability while seated in the bathtub and trying to grab toys out of their reach
• grabbing Dad's eyes, nose, sunglasses, hat, phone, and pens, while they are being held
• trying to pull themselves up on Dad, Mom, their cribs, furniture, etc.

It is just humorous that with every new stage the little ones are getting into, I think it is going to be "easier" and it turns out that it isn't necessarily easier...just different.

Whoops!

I just read an excellent post over at HDYDI about making sure you get enough one one one time with your kids/spouse/self. It is pretty important to us and we definitely try to spread the love around. (Note to self: Too much one on one time is why we have 3 kids in the first place.) The specific time with each one of our twins isn't particularly feasible at times so that is probably the rarest occurrance. Fortunately, they are too young for it to really matter right now, so we need to work on getting each one of them by themselves as they grow older. We got some one on one time with Jack this weekend and unfortunately it didn't go as well as I would have hoped.

On Sunday, with MawMaw and PawPaw in town, we made a Sam's run. Jack was up early and didn't have the best nap due to the time change, so we left PawPaw in charge of Owen and Parker (who was still sleeping) and took off. Now you must remember that leaving with only one baby never happens in our house. Occasionally we will take Owen somewhere individually or the twins without Owen, but rarely one baby and not the other. This fact, combined with the normal commotion that it takes to get all of us from one point to another, gives me a slight excuse for the mishap. Here is the play by play.

We pulled into the parking lot and Jen hopped out of the car and said she was going to grab a cart. I thought that was funny, since that is never the first thing she would. I just shrugged it off and let it go as one of those "I'm not sure what she's doing...I think she might be crazy...I don't understand my wife sometimes" moments. MawMaw and I got out of the car a bit slower as we were chatting about her Blackberry while she was trying to pull something up and I continued toward the Sam's entrance. I realized she wasn't walking with me and looked back in her direction. She was waiting back at the car and I must have had a confused look on my face as to why she wasn't joining me.

MawMaw - "What about the baby?"
Me - (snapping my fingers and pointing back at the car) "Oh yeah, Jack's still in the car"

I forgot my own kid. T.E.R.R.I.B.L.E.

Turns out, I am the crazy one who left Jack in the car and had no intention of bringing him into Sam's with us. I formally retract all "my wife is crazy" statements and humbly offer my apologies - sorry Darling. At least I have an excuse (not that it would stop CPS from taking my kids from me). I blame it on easy going Jack being so cool and quiet in the way back of the Acadia. I blame the fact it wasn't a complete circus to get everyone out of the car and into strollers. I blame the fact that I forgot how easy it can be with just one child. Ok, Ok, I blame myself. I am not used to having one child anymore and the constant management of 3 makes it seem so easy when only one is around. I just lost all concept of baby-ness and I can't be trusted anymore.

Sorry Jack, I will never forget you again.