Rainy Day Puddles!

Even Dad's have good ideas!  Yesterday, through all the rain...Callie and I started making a ballerina art project.  In the middle of painting, dad suggested we all go outside and play in the rain and jump in the puddles!

Great idea Dad :)  I think their smiles say it all :)

 The boys would run over into the grass and then come running back into the puddles!

Then Callie thought it would be fun to go on a walk around the loop!  This was the boy's FIRST official "Walk" - where they walked with us!  It was crazy having to chase them both around!  Strollers for twins are a necessity!

They loved the freedom of being able to walk around!  Have I mentioned how much I love our neighborhood!?  In the 30 minutes it took to walk around our loop (if you know where we live, you know it is not very big at all...a 1-2 minute walk tops)...not one car came by!

The kids love finding more puddles and walking through them!  Such a fun evening :)

Twin boys...How many Diapers in ONE Year!? The answers below...

So forever ago, when I was pregnant with the boys, my BESTEST FRIEND in the entire world, came down to Austin and photographed a mini maternity session for me!  We thought it would be fun to incorporate all of the diapers that I had been stock piling!

Isn't this the truth!

I used a mixture of Pampers and Huggies, because I worked with the coupons I had available.  And I wasn't sure which my boys (okay I didn't know gender at the time) would like better.

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the amount I "HAD"...

So, after this photo shoot, and after counting all of the diapers that we "had" before the boys arrived, I thought it would be fun to keep track of just how many diapers we would go through in ONE YEAR.  So every time we opened a pack of diapers, we wrote down the amount in that bag or box.  

This beautiful pile you see in these pictures went VERY quickly.  I remember the first day we went through one entire 36 count package of diapers!  EXCUSE ME...WHAT!?

Then Collin decided that he would have reactions to "off brand" diapers...and we personally don't like Huggies, so we were stuck with using (and still using) Pampers.

I stopped counting on their first birthday - I know we are continuing to use HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS of diapers, but here is it folks!

1 Year's worth of Diapers with TWIN BOYS:

5,960 Diapers

Estimating that one diaper costs $.27 per diaper

In one year that cost $1,609.20 on diapers.  

HOLY CRAP!  That may not seem like a lot, but add in the monthly box of wipes that was being delivered to our house (thank you Amazon.com for that), food, snacks, equipment, etc...

Alyssa, this picture pretty much sums it all up :)

MOM Parade in Byron, MN

As some of you may know, I love my MOM's Group!  This is a group of crazy women who all share a commonality...we all have a TON of kids!  Not just a lot of kids, but multiples :)  Josh and I pulled into Byron a little late (I was at the Winery earlier), but followed our float to its destination :)

Here are a couple group shots of all the MOM's that were there!

Here's Pam & I all ready to ROCK this parade with our sweet new shirts!  "Some call it Chaos, we call it Family!"  It has our MOM logo on the back :)

Trying to take a family picture - yup, this seems about right!

Meanwhile, Pam's family takes an incredible picture!

Advertising our group!

Check out those numbers!  CRAZY!!!  That is 68 SETS of Twins, 9 SETS of Triplets, 1 SET of Quads totally 244 Children to only 79 MOM's in our group (this is ONLY Active Members from this year)...HOLY CATS!

Look - one finally turned out :)

We were a ways back in the parade, so I took two of the girls to the start of the parade to watch and get candy!  Jackpot spot!  Kids start throwing HAND FULLS at the front - until parents realize what is happening and they stop it. I've discovered the best two spots are at the front of the parade route because they "over throw" due to excitement, and at the end, because everyone dumps out their leftovers!

Josh, Jake, Pam & the Littles hanging out in the shade :)

Our turn!  Callie started out really good throwing candy in the parade to little kids.  Knowing my new theory on candy in parades, I taught Callie to throw one piece at a time...we only had so much to throw :)

Throwing lefty!

<3  Love my family!

The boys were a huge hit!  Collin was laughing, yelling (his silly yell) and talking during the entire parade route while Carter was smiling, giggling and bothering Collin!  They even had their picture taken and I gave permission to post in the Byron Newspaper :)  Keep your fingers crossed!

Balloons - Collin LOVES Balloons!

At the end, we ended up at MOM Amanda Richardson's house - this is not nearly showing the amount of kids that were playing....it was INSANE!

MOMS - you have been there for me and for all the others :)  I absolutely LOVE and ADORE you all!  Thank you for arranging such a fun evening....can't wait to do another :)

Four Daughters Winery

Today, my three OLDER sisters and our mom all went to Four Sisters Winery in Spring Valley (like 25 min. from my house).  I have been wanting to go here and a few of us have made several plans to go, but it hasn't worked out.  Today it worked out for the girls in my family!

The inside is absolutely GORGEOUS and very well kept!

We each had a wine tasting of white wines!

Here is my 5 :)  And the beautiful glass!

YUMMY - what I ate...it was SO delicious!

Heather drinking wine :)  It was awesome to see - she's not much of a wine drinker...but after 5 tries, we found one she kind of liked!  Either that, Heather, or your body is saying, "FINE, I'll like you already!"  Which would be cool!

My tasting vs. Heather's tasting!  Don't worry - we finished hers!

Our glasses :)  Four Daughters and our mother!

My delicious apple crisp dessert!

We were given a tour, mainly because we are so incredibly awesome, but also because...well, we're so incredibly awesome!  It was neat to go back into their "Magic Room" (where all the magic happens) and learn about the process they go through to create their delicious wines!

The lady who gave us a tour, her name is Vicki, and she is actually the owner/Mother to four daughters!  Her and her husband built this place as a Legacy to their daughters!  Now don't you feel like an amazing parent...what one Earth am I going to leave my kids!?  We were all giving mom a hard time, but don't worry - there's still time for you to build one!  Haha - kidding!

This was their crusher & de-stemmer machine!  It's not like the movie "A Walk in the Clouds" when Keano Reeves has the hot romantic scene when they're crushing grapes with their feet!  No - they have a machine that does that...

Guess what those stainless steel barrels are full of...oh yes....wine!

And these...more wine!

A panoramic of their custom wines :)

Heidi being a dork...

The vineyard!

Grapes are growing - ready for Harvest in September!

Here I am in my happy place!

Heidi is also enjoying her happy place!

I decided to get creative with the two bottles I bought...why wouldn't they need their picture taken in their home :)

Well, their first home, technically I'd be their adoptive mother who is going to drink them :)

Corn - yes, we're dorks...

:)  It is a fun picture though :)

More grapes - These are beautiful!

Here we are in the vineyard :)

Four Daughters Winery - their food is amazing, I highly recommend it! Four Daughters Vineyard

In southern MN you can find corn and vineyards :)

Birth order in front of Four Daughters!

Their welcoming sign :)

Of course I needed Heidi to drive her car over to use her car as a resting place for my camera!  We needed a self timer picture :)  (all our group shots are self timer - I'm that good)

"Four Daughters!"

Mom

Heather

Heidi

Colleen

And yours truly

(here's the other one where I'm on the opposite side to keep it consistent, but it was further away, so I posted both.  Hey - my blog, my rules!

Thank you ladies for a fun day.  Thanks mom for picking up the entire tab...that was a surprise when I went to pay!