Sad, But True

With the impending arrival of our twins, and the undeniable fact that we already have a 3 year-old, we broke down and have became proud (well, not really so proud) owners of a MINIVAN!

For years I've been in denial. Many have said, "You'll do it, everyone does at some point. There's just no getting around it." But I thought I would be different. I would buck the trend of parents before me. "I shall resist," was the phrase I lived by. But alas, I caved. "We got a good deal," Carrie says, trying to comfort me, "It'll be so nice to have the extra space," she says in a soothing voice. But I say to myself, "A Chevy Yukon has a lot of space," or things under my breath like, "A Suburban would be roomy, right?"

But the whole, "It gets better gas mileage" argument wins every time. So here it is, a 2001 Honda Odyssey. They say it's the best van around, so we've got our fingers crossed that it lasts us awhile. I've asked Carrie if I can wear a ski mask when I drive to hide my identity. She calls that "childish" for some reason...

So maybe in a few months after our boys get here I will have come to grips with the fact that we're in the Minivan stage of life. Or maybe not...

Birthday Bash

It's still another two days until Ellie's birthday, but we had another Big Birthday Bash on Saturday to celebrate the momentous occasion. We had a bunch of Ellie's friends over, ate some pizza from Dora The Explorer plates, drank juice from Dora cups, and even wiped our mouths with Dora napkins. We pulled out all the stops...

For about 2 hours before the friends came Ellie couldn't stop saying, "I'm so excited for my friends to come! They're going to come to my house!" So obviously she was looking forward to the day.


We ate cupcakes covered in strawberry fluff icing and decorated by Ellie herself. Of course they were displayed on our now famous cupcake stand. What a wise (insert sarcasm here)investment that was.

Ellie blew out "trick" candles that kept lighting after you blow them out. She had some at her other birthday party and just had to have them again.

She got so many wonderful gifts, new toys to grace our floors and hallways. They were
definitely all much appreciated. The only
problem is deciding which toy to play with. There's just so many.

Looking a bit dazed after a bunch of presents...










Enjoying the aforementioned cupcakes with strawberry icing...




























Wouldn't blow out her candles without her new "Ballet Barbie" in tow.















"Can I get a little help from my friends..." Mariana giving some assistance in opening one of her presents.

And this is the present in the picture above. A brand new princess outfit...complete with wand, earrings, purse, bracelet, crown, and you can't see them but she's got rockin' some snazzy high heels.
This present was from Mariana and her Mom, I think that's why she was so eager to help...

Biker Beauty

So Ellie got this bike from Grandma and Grandpa Studer for Christmas last year and ever since we get on it periodically and take a ride. More like Daddy pushes or pulls, and Ellie just rides. She loves it for sure, but has never really gotten the hang of the whole pedaling thing. But today after we got home she says, "Daddy, I really need to ride my bike!" And so we did.

To my amazement, she starts pedaling. She was pedaling like she'd been riding a bike for years. Granted, I still had to push her along a bit, but she sure has the pedaling rotation down. Now we just have to work on the whole "steering" thing. Apparently that's important...

Fire Station, Birthday Party, And More

Ellie the Firefighter to the rescue! While I was hunting for the weekend, Carrie and Ellie spent some quality time with Grammie and Papa (Carrie's Mom & Dad). Papa's a long time firefighter, and it was Ellie's first big trip to the fire station. She had a good time "driving" all of the fire trucks and playing with the hoses, but was never quite brave enough to sound the sirens.

Though Grammie didn't send us any photos of it, I'm told the trip included trips down the fire pole by both Papa and Grammie (wonder why she didn't want those pictures on the world wide web? Weird.)

Ellie's birthday is coming up this next week, and another highlight of the weekend was a little early birthday party. Great Grandma and Grandpa Eiesland were all smiles for the "Yippee Ellie's 3!" party! They had some cupcakes with pink frosting of course. Thanks to all for the wonderful presents, and of course the massive amounts of diapers you gifted us with for the babies!! We'll definitely put them to use!

Some new ponies from Grandma Studer!

The Marx Brothers also stopped by to wish Ellie a happy birthday!

Buck Slayers

We went home last weekend so I could go deer hunting and spend some time in the great outdoors with my big brother, nephew, dad, and some family friends. I could only hunt for a day and a half, but it was great to get out there again and spend some quality time with the guys.

Anyway, the whole "Buck Slayers" headline is a bit misleading. In two days of hunting my dad and I had each shot does, and I couldn't even find mine (ran away and the trail went cold). So no real slaying of bucks, but we sure killed the hotdogs we ate for lunch!

My big brother at about 5:00 a.m., awake and ready to hit the woods!!

My dad the morning after he shot his doe. Notice the massive gash on his nose from the scope "biting" him when he shot! We had some good laughs over that one!

Beautiful Babies

Never before have we seen such beautiful little boys. Look closely and you'll see some arms and hands sticking up beside their faces! The ultrasound this past Tuesday was pretty quick with just a few measurements and the like. Everything still looks perfect according to the experts with the ultrasound wand.
Carrie's 24 weeks at this ultrasound. They're telling us that each boy is measuring at 1lb 8oz...which is a bit ahead of schedule for 24 week twins we're told. So that's great news! Their hearts are sounding strong, and everything looks great. Carrie's doctor has recommended that she reduce her work schedule starting now. It's just a precaution and not due to any complications. She just wants Carrie to be getting enough rest now, so she can make it through the rest of the pregnancy. So she's going down to 6 hours per day, rather than 9 that she had been working. So she'll be able to come home and take naps with the rest of the family in the afternoons! So she's pretty excited about that.

Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

Ellie and her best friend Mariana got decked out in their costumes again and took to the night in search of sweets on Halloween. Ellie wasn't much for actually saying, "Trick or Treat," and really didn't go up to a door without her Daddy in hand (which I kind of like), but she kept coming back to the van and saying, "Mommy, I got MORE CANDY!" So it was a good time.

We had a fun little event at our church that night too called Trunk or Treat. A bunch of cars and vans lined up with their trunks or back ends decorated in different themes. Good outreach to the community, and a good time had by all.