Swimming

The first two weeks of April, my friend Kim got access to her neighbors heated pool- so we did swim lessons for her kids and mine. I was happy and surprised to see how quickly my kids caught on. Kate is quite the little fish. She loves to jump off the side and swim to me and has no problems going under the water and blowing bubbles. Clark had a rough start. He was really afraid at first, but after our 2 weeks he was swimming almost as good as his sister. Then on April 19th, the City of Mesa had their April Pools Day at Shepherd Jr. High and I decided to take Kate and Clark with my sisters Nancy and Bridgett. Nancy helped with the kids while Bridgett acted as photographer. (Thanks Bridge for all the great pictures!) So now that I have the pictures I can brag about how my kids are great swimmers! Take a look......

Clark swimming to Mom

Kate swimming with Mom

Going back and forth between

Mom and Nancy

Kate the fish!

Our First Playdate

Sad, I know. My kids are 18months and just having their first play date. Tells you a bit about their mom- super busy and not as social as she should be! So thanks Kami for inviting us! They had lots of fun playing in the sand, but their favorite part was all the cool snacks! Kate was having a bad day, so she didnt enjoy it as much as her brother. I think the funniest thing happened when we got home. They were so tired that I gave them a little lunch and put them straight to bed. When they woke up, I changed their diapers and found quite the surprise. Clarks diaper was full of sand! Not only was it full of sand, but because he had it on for so long, the sand was stuck to him! I had to put him in the tub to rinse it off. I really wanted to take a picture- but I didnt think it was appropriate! Boys!

Mom and Kate watching Clark

Clark hanging out with the boys

Clark and Douglas sharing crackers.

27th Birthday

Yep, yesterday I turned 27. Doesn't seem possible, I stopped counting at like 23. It was a great day. I dropped the kids off at my moms in the morning, then met Ryan home about noon. ( He's such a good husband, he took a half day just for me!) We didnt really have a plan for our day together, but it worked out really well. I ended up picking out all of my birthday presents with Ryan, and he just paid for them! It was a win win situation. I didn't end up with stuff I didnt like, Ryan didnt have to take the time to go shopping, and we had a lot of fun doing it together. We went to Costco and got a beautiful bouquet of flowers. ( By the way , I will never buy flowers anywhere but Costco- so much cheaper and just as beautiful!) Then we went to the mall - got some new perfume and some earings. We went out to dinner and rented a movie- and that's about it. The best part is that I didnt have to pick up the kids until today! Now that is my kind of birthday! I just feel bad for Ryan because he has Mother's Day in 2 weeks and our anniversary 2 weeks after that!!

The Zoo

Two weeks ago, my awesome sister in law, Jenny, took the kids and I to the Zoo. I don't know if the kids got much out of it, but Jenny and I got a good work out pushing them around the zoo! Since it was my first time back to the zoo since 4th grade, I wasn't very familiar with it, and we kinda went backwards! We shouldv'e gone to the petting zoo and all the other kids stuff first, instead of last when Kate and Clark were tired and hungry. At least we know for next time! So here's some pics...

Clark and Kate with Mom (obviously not too excited about having to stand still)

Kate with Aunt Jenny and Mom

Kate did not want to pet the goats at the petting zoo, but Clark

was all about grabbing the goats tail! ( not to mention that the

goat pooped right after Clark grabbed his tail, Yikes!!)

Hugs

Recently Kate and Clark have started giving eachother hugs. It's really cute to watch , and they'll occasionally give eachother kisses too. I've been trying to catch it on camera, and this is as good as I got. It really is rare for Clark to give Kate a hug, he's usually pushing her down so he can sit on top of her!

18 Months

Today is officially Kate and Clarks 18 month mark. I know everyone says this- but it really does go by fast. So what did they do to celebrate this event? Gave up the bottle!! We had already cut them down to only one before bed, but I decided I'm done cleaning all those bottle parts, and said , "18 months is enough!" So tonight they went to bed without a bottle. Clark was pretty upset about it, but Kate soon figured out that it's the same thing in a sippy cup and wasted no time drinking her milk. I know that 18 months is kinda a long time to keep a kid on a bottle, but when you have twins and all you want is a good nights rest- you'll do just about anything to try to keep them asleep as long as possible.
For Christmas my Mom got Kate and Clark a wall hanging that you can keep their height measurements on, and today was the first day we made their marks. Clark is 2ft 8 1/2 in. and Kate is 2ft 6in.

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day. I'm still cleaning up from the floors- which I have yet to take pictures and post. I have to clean them first, and until I get rid of all the dirt, it's kinda pointless. So it'll be a few days before I post pictures. The kids had a great time staying with Nana and Paco while Ryan finished the floors. We also went to the zoo with Aunt Jenny. I forgot my camera over the weekend, so I'll have to get the pictures from my Mom and Jenny before I can put those up too.

Cute Kids

My life has been pretty hectic lately - so it's a good thing my kids are so dang cute, cuz they keep me going. A few weeks ago Ryan was presented an opportunity to remodel our kitchen floors, pretty much for free. Okland has a concrete division, and Ryan is friends with the guy who runs it. So they decided to rip out our nasty linoleum and do polished concrete floors. So we have gone through 2 grinding sessions, where they grind down the concrete to expose the rock. What does that mean, you ask? DUST!! My house is covered. FYI - I won't be cleaning until it's all done. Now they are going to pour another 1/2" top coat and then grind and polish that. That should be done this weekend.

So that is why I need my kids to keep me going! They have been alot of fun lately. They just love to play and are getting really good at playing with each other. Clark's favorite thing is to sit or lay on top of Kate so she can't move, or steal her toy or push her over. Do boys come programmed or what!? Kate is into sound effects and loves to push cars around. She also loves to play with blocks or her farm with all the animals. She knows the sounds for cow, pig and dog. She finally started saying "mama" , whereas Clark just calls me "Paco"(what all the grand kids call my dad), or in his words "caco".