Ha ha ha. Very funny.

Apparently there is a niche market for greeting cards geared towards parents of twins and/or many many children.  Of course my friends and family have not missed an opportunity to share the humor - here are the best cards I've received so far.  Keep them coming! 

Whitney's Wedding!

It's hard to believe that our little Whitney is all growns up and married, but it's true!  We just returned from 5 days in Arizona filled with wedding activities.  It was a great trip and we got to catch up with Nana & Papa, Auntie Chanel, Uncle Grant, Hayes, and Greyson in addition to the bride and groom.  Not to mention all of our relatives from Canada who made the trip down for the big day.

Hank and Gus played a special role at the wedding as ring bearers along with their cousins and did a wonderful job.  I admit I did a terrible job at taking pics over the weekend but luckily Matt and our couldn't-live-without-her babysitter Emily managed to snag a few.  I'll be sure to send out the professional shots once they are ready.

Rehearsal dinner with an amazing sunset back drop.

Emily with Hank & Gus at the rehearsal dinner

The Mailloux Girls

Uncle Grant giving Hayes and Hank a pre-ceremony pep talk

Waiting for their cue...

The big moment (for the boys anyway...) - Gus and Greyson were hanging on for dear life! 

They almost ran right through the ceremony and into the reception! 

The ceremony 

Good Riddance to September!

Wow did September fly by!  This year, the usual back-to-school chaos was compounded by my super sized nesting instincts kicking in, an unexpected hurricane rescue operation, our first round of family wide illness brought on by the kids, and, on a positive note,  a lovely mini babymoon to Charleston.  Allow me to explain!

Week 1:  Back to school for Hank!
Hank has settled right back into his school routine this year at Washington Episcopal as a pre-K student.  Everyone from his nursery class is there plus a few new friends and he seems to be enjoying being back.

Hank's First Day of School, PreK

Week 2:  Back to school for Gus + Nest Fest
Gus is back at his playgroup Little Graces this year but has graduated to the big kids program where he spends 30-45 mins a day in a classroom like setting without a caregiver.  He's had a bit of trouble adjusting to being on his own but overall has done very well.  4 weeks into it now he's doing fine and really having fun.

Gus' First Day of School, Year 2 Little Graces

This week coincided with two major home-related projects that I like to refer to as Nest Fest.  I have experienced nesting with both of my previous pregnancies but the craziest it ever got was the overwhelming need to wash and iron every sheet set in my house.  This time we were on a whole new scale.  Project #1 involved sorting through everything that has been sitting in the home we purchased in Chevy Chase last year (oh yeah, remember that?  Yes, we still have that house.  We've been working on architectural plans for it for a year plus...construction should begin shortly after the babies arrive).  Anyway, there was a fair amount of furniture and artwork that conveyed with the house and whole lot of junk that needed to be donated/thrown out.  Of course, did I deal with this when physically able and it would have been easy/convenient?  Non! So it needed to be done before I am completely useless.  I hired an organizer to help me with the sorting and ridding of stuff.  It took her team of about 6 people 3 days to clean out the house and put the good stuff in storage.

Then on the Project #2 - the great reshuffle of our current home! In order to stay in this house with 4 kids 4 and under we needed to make some adjustments.  On the ground floor: Bye bye rarely used dining room (gone to storage). Hello new family room and play room for the kids.  On the second floor:  our office/den would need to converted into the nursery, two cribs and all.  On the 3rd floor:  The guest room would have to double duty as an office as well.  This project took 2.5 days and was very disruptive to the household but was a must have.  I'm still working on making the nursery functional but hope to have that done in a week or two.

Week 3:  Time to get caught up on all that work I didn't do last week!  At least that's what I thought.  A bit of background - I had excused myself from attending Whitney's bachelorette in Cabo, Mexico due to my condition, which was taking place this weekend.  I assumed that everyone down there (including my mom and Chanel) had had a grand old time in the sun and was back home safely in the States when I started hearing reports of Hurricane Odile having hit the resort town directly.  I texted them all to confirm that they were home only to learn from Chanel that Whitney and Mom had not gotten out on Sunday (Chanel had) and had spent that evening huddled in the bathroom of their rental home along with 3 other party attendees riding out the storm.  The house was heavily damaged and they needed to find a new place to stay (which they luckily did) but they were stuck there for the foreseeable future with no way out (airport destroyed), no power and a limited supply of food and water.  Chanel, Dad and I kicked into rescue mode and spent 3 days doing everything we could think of to help them get out.  Private planes, helicopters, calls to the State Department for updates - we weren't getting anywhere. We lost contact with them for 24 hours and were starting to get really worried when we learned that they were among the lucky ones to get out on an early evacuation flight to Mexico City.  They came back to the States the following day and spent the next week recovering at home.  Not the best way to celebrate the end of one's single days or to rest up before the big wedding...

It was relief to know that they were back home safe and it all came together just in the nick of time for Matt and I to go on a worry-free babymoon to Charleston.  We spent Thursday - Sunday there touring the historic city, eating nice meals and frankly doing a lot of catching up on sleep.  It was so nice to just be able to sit and read and drowse off in bed for 3 days. It's amazing what having young kids will do to your expectations of a luxury!

Week 4:  Okay - let's catch up on that work now! Or, let's all get really sick instead.  Gus came down with a mild fever while we were out of town and that was just the beginning.  Hank had a high fever Monday night and spent 3 days home from school.  I had mild symptoms midweek (while Matt was out of town for 3 days) and then it hit me hard Friday.  Nothing worse than being sick when you are pregnant and can't take anything. I'm slowly recovering, enough to take care of the kids so Matt can now recover from his turn with the disease.

So that was September - I was happy to see it go.  Things are settling back to normal now and I am enjoying the luxurious reality of having my twin power level of childcare kick in (our new nanny started mid-September) before actually having the twins.  And it wasn't all bad - here are some pics of our more fun September moments:

Gussy Wonder

Auntie Alice visited us in Bryce and we got to see the Oak Ridge Boys at an outdoor concert

Taking a boat for a cruise

Matt and I on the carriage tour of Charleston - yeesh we look old! 

Gus' first time in the bow of the canoe! 

Hank taking up the stern 

Brothers on a hike 

We leave for Arizona on Thursday for Whitney and Ryan's wedding extravaganza and it's last big trip before I really try to put my feet up and "relax" before the storm.  We are almost all ready for the babies to arrive - the last thing we need to do is trade in our SUV for a minivan...I mean: A Swagger Wagon.

Happy Birthday Matt!

A quick post to wish my wonderful husband a happy happy birthday!  You are the best Dad and partner a family could hope for and we all love you very much (and you are pretty good at your job too - check out this article: Matt in WBJ!)  Looking forward to our next adventure together...Mwah!

Where you do nothing and do it all day...

Cape Cod seems like a distant memory now - it's hard to believe that only two weeks ago we were living seaside in one of the world's most picturesque summer getaways.  Doing nothing and doing it all day...

The view from our patio...c'mon! 

This year we really blew it out and rented a house for an entire month in Dennis.  The house was beautiful, located a 2 minute walk to the beach with views of the ocean from almost every room. And to really spoil us, we had a pool in the back!  The kids logged some major pool time and Hank surprised us all by swimming like a fish, sans floaties, from day 1!  I guess those swim lessons paid off.  He discovered goggles early on and fell in love with putting his head underwater and seeing what he could see.  Gus went from hanging out on the stairs and playing with his trucks to swimming in the deep end with Daddy.

Hank showing Benson how to swim with goggles.

Pool time with Daddy...

Lobstah prep Kelly style.  It's a dirty job but somebody has to do it. 

Handsome boys! 

Happy boys at the beach

Sunset beach walk

Gus turned two!  Look at him eyeing that cupcake...

Besides sitting by the pool, we had plenty of days to explore the beach and check out local towns and activities.  Being on the Cape for an extended period really allowed us to get to know it in a way that we've been unable to do in the past.  Matt and I checked out local restaurants and shops, Hank went to an awesome camp for a couple of weeks that he really enjoyed (well, truth be told, he was quite reluctant for the first 12 days of camp but then loved it on days 13 & 14 - only to learn it was over). The kids checked out a county fair, a local puppet show, the CC Museum of Natural History, and the CC Potato Chip factory.

Hilarious craft project from camp - the art teacher told me Hank refused to smile for the photo to go inside his frame. 

We were also able to host a whole slew of friends over the course of the month which gave us some much needed time to catch up with folks we don't get to see too often.  From Boston we had a nice visit from Andrew and Karen Lackner.  From New York we had Jenn & John Lancefield with their two little boys Benson and Henry and my oldest friend Ali with her brand spanking new fiance Hugh (engaged the day before!!!).  Fran and Elliott Slocombe came up from Toronto with their little girl Georgia.  Last but not least, Dode and Barbara Gladders visited from New Hampshire.

Jenn, Benson, Hugh, Matt, Gus, Me, Hank, Ali, Henry and John

It was kind of weird to be away from home for so long but it did force us to try to relax and enjoy the summer instead of spending it in a panic over preparing for the babies.  The pregnancy has been going very smoothly so far but you never know with twins so we were lucky to get away while we could.  School starts next week and with that comes nesting with a vengeance!

For all of our Cape Code photos, visit our Shutterfly site here: La Famille Shutterfly

IT'S A.....AND A....

Drumroll puhlease!

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, get your dollhouses and tutus ready because this family is about to add two little ladies to the mix!!

Baby B and Baby A as they are affectionately known at the OBGYN. 

That's right - not one, but two girly girls are joining the crew in December!  Matt and I had a doctor's appointment this morning that confirmed we have a whole lot of woman going on in the womb. We are excited and a little bit scared at the thought of suddenly having so much girl power in the house.  I have, of course, not so secretly been hoping for a girl since my first pregnancy so I guess this is a case of "be careful what you wish for"...

At the very least, the promise of their arrival will help me get through the next 4 months of fart jokes, penis talk and spitting contests, the top three favorite activities of Hank and Gus (and Matt) right about now. Finally someone to talk dresses, ballet and Barbies with!

Twins!!!!

Oh boy - where do I begin?  As most of your know by now we are expecting again, and surprise, it's TWINS! We found out the news back in May and frankly it floored us (well, me mainly. Matt has taken it all in stride of course).  It took me about a month to pull myself together and move into the acceptance stage of this insanity which is where I happily reside now.  Acceptance seasoned with a healthy dose of fear/panic.  I am having brief glimpses of true excitement though, like when we had our 12 week sonogram and saw these two little sweeties sticking their tongues out at us.  It's going to be crazy around here for a couple of years but we'll survive as long as we can keep our sense of humor in tact. We are counting down the days until we can find out the genders in mid-August.

Twinsies

Anyhoo, I haven't much been in the mood/had the time to write of late.  But life has gone on. The boys have been busy busy with camps since school let out.  We were in Arizona for almost a week visiting Nana and Papa and celebrating Whitney's bridal shower. Matt and I have gone on two weekend trips to Boston and NC without the kids.  It's been a fun filled couple of months!

We leave tomorrow for our longest trip to Cape Cod to date (one whole month!) and we could not be more excited.  It's been a hectic week getting ready to leave but we are looking forward to some serious unwinding on our trip.  Stay tuned for some posts from there! 

Gus at camp

Hank at his school picnic - he LOVED this bounce house obstacle course and was right in there with all the big kids! 

Hank's end of year class party.  Surrounded by the ladies! 

Boys being boys in Bryce. 

Gus playing it cool at camp. 

Hank the camper after a long day...

Some serious poses at the farmer's market one weekend.  "Yeah, we're in our PJ's. So what?"

Getting spoonfuls of ice cream from Daddy. 

Me and Matt at our friend's wedding this past weekend in North Carolina.