Having fun with Bubbles

Some people!!!

So, today at swim lessons I was talking to a mom who had a daughter about the same age as Lucy and Ava. She seemed nice enough, but she was one of people that just keep talking and talking and talking, never letting the other person get a word in. Anyway, towards the end of the one sided conversation she said to me, "wow, are they twins?" I said, "Yes, they are." You will never guess her response... With a roll of her eyes she said, "I'm sorry!" Gosh, why in the world would someone say that? I am not sorry that I have two beautiful healthy, happy well behaved children. Children are a precious gift, whether you had to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars to get them here, of if you were blessed with having a child naturally. Every child is a gift.... I will never be sorry I had children, no matter how hard and challenging they can. I was so shocked by this woman's response that I just didn't answer, I just didn't know what to say to her......

The twins language is really exploding these days. I feel like they are saying a new word everyday. They have understood what I have been saying for a while now, but just talking back with one word if anything at all. The other day as we were counting blocks Ava chimed in on 2,3,4, and 7,8,9,10! I was soooo impressed, and after that we counted to 10 20 times! LOL Last night I decided to teach them how old they were going to be. I say, "Lucy, Ava, how old are you going be?" They shout back TWO as they put their hand in the air trying to hold up two fingers. LOL I have also noticed lately that the twins feed off of each other more and more. They like to imitate each other, when one baby is happy the other is happy, when one is crying, the other thinks she needs to cry. Too funny....

It is so hot today, and the air quality is terrible! My thermometer is reading 102 in the shade... There is so much smoke in the air, it looks like an overcast day. Everything seems a bit orange since the sun can't filter through all the smoke. I sure hope that the fires go out soon... This has been a terrible fire season, probably the worst in a long time. I worked a really bad fire season back in 2000... that was hard staying at work for 28 days at a time, working 36 hour shifts on the fire line. I have empathy for the firefighters and their families...

We have been staying indoors to try and stay out of the smoke. The only exception is Madeline's daily swim lessons. The gym has been a life saver these days for my sanity, and the kids get a little break from me. :) Friday I am taking all the kids to the sitter so I can get some shopping done; groceries, gifts for upcoming parties, a few returns, and other things like that. In fact, maybe I will get all that stuff done tomorrow while hubby is home and spend my baby free hours relaxing with a cup of coffe. Yum! :)

Happy Birthday Maddie!

Today, at 7:14 am, Madeline turned 6 years old! She has been crying all week long because she wanted to stay 5, but this morning she was happy that it was her birthday after all. We had 5 of Madeline's best friends over today for a little party. We were supposed to go the Folsom Aquatic center, but with the bad air quality we decided to go to the movies instead and see Wall-e. Afterwards we came home for a treasure hunt, dinner, cake and ice cream. There sure was a lot of screaming going on with 6 little girls in the house!

She's still 5... at least for one more night

I really can't believe that Madeline is turning 6 tomorrow. Out of all of her birthdays, this one has hit me the hardest. Six just seems so old to me... it doesn't seem like my little girl could really be turning six already. In all honesty, for me, Madeline being 5 was the absolute best year. She has learned and blossomed so much in this year. She never ceases to me amaze me with her knowledge and creativity. Madeline can now read, write books, count to over 200, add, subtract, tell time, and carry on a conversation very well. She is so fun to be around and it has been a joy experiencing life through her eyes. I do feel bad sometimes that we don't get to do as much with her as we would like. The twins are just at a very hard age to travel with and keep entertained. Unfortunately that effects Madeline too b/c we can't go do all the fun things that we want to do with her. I keep reminding myself that it wont be like this forever.. the twins really will grow up. Before I know it, I will be sad that they are turning 5!

My Dear sweet Madeline,

It has been a wonderful 6 years with you my dear. You have been a blessing since the day you were born. I use to sing that song to you by The Carpenters called Close to you. "On the day that you were born the angels got together, and decided to create a dream come true! So they sprinkled moon dust in your hair and golden star light in your eyes of blue." I wonder if you listened to that song if it would bring back any memories for you... You have made my dreams come true... I am blessed to my your mama.

I just can't believe how much you have grown in six short years Madeline. From a tiny crying and colicky baby to a wonderful, independent and beautiful daughter. You are a great big sister and you have the biggest heart I have ever seen in a child your age. You seem wise beyond your years, if that is even possible at such a young age. You are so compassionate and full of life. I love to watch you play your games, read your books, or watch you eat an ice cream cone. Whatever you do in life, you do with such enthusiasm. I know you are not looking forward to turning six, but six is still very young. We have so many more memories in our future together, and I as you get older, I cherish each one of those memories more and more. I know I will enjoy six just as much as five, and I know you will too. I love you sweet sugar bear!!

Mama

The Groom
The flower girl, my niece, and me and Maddie

I just LOVE my husband!! The bride and the bridesmaids
Jeffrey and Chelsea!!

It seems like I only post once or twice a month these days. I just don't have time to do much anymore! Madeline is now out of school for the summer, and the twins are at a very busy and demanding stage. At the end of the night I try to clean up the house, but then I am ready for some much needed rest... Ahhh There really is nothing new going on, just living a normal day to day life while taking care of three children.

We have been lucky since Chris has not been on any of the big fires here in CA and the rest of the west. I really don't know what I would do it he went out of town for two weeks! I don't have any family members that I could just drop the kids off with so I could have a break, and babysitters cost a fortune these days!

Over the weekend, Chris, Madeline, and I went to Yreka to see my brother get married! Chris and I were actually in the wedding, what an honor! It seems to weird to me that my brother is married. I just can't seem to get my mind around it. Anyway, his wife's name is Chelsea, and they really do make a sweet couple. She is one of the sweetest people I have come to know in a long time, and I really like her family and friends too. I can't wait for their family to grow and see what God has in store for them.

We had fun today dressing up and taking some pictures. I would like to enlarge this picture and give it to Chris for Father's Day from the girls. ( don't worry, he wont know about it b/c he never checks my blog!) I used my new lens and the picture seems a little red to me... I wonder if it is no good??

Madeline's last day of Kindergarten was on Friday, June 6th. We had a wonderful day celebrating the year. We started at school and then all 60 kindergartner's walked down to the park. At the park we played lots of games and had pizza for lunch. Around 11:00, we all walked back to school to sing some goodbye songs in a circle with all the kids. This was a really cute, but sad time. The kids sang such wonderful songs, including one for the parents... I want to stop, and thank you parents. How sweet it was to be helped by you!. Towards the end of the songs, Madeline was in the middle of the circle showing off her dance moves! LOL Then it was time to say goodbye and Madeline was so sad. She cried and cried and cried some more. After we got home I had found the sweetest letter ever. I will write it here, only with the spelling corrected.

I love Mrs. Koontz. She is my kindest teacher. She is special. She is loving. I think you are wonderful. I think you are thoughtful with you have done with us. Mrs. Koontz you were nice in class. You take care of us. You take care of me. Thank you for the things you have done for us. Thank you for teaching us a lot of words and all the things we need to know in Kindergarten. Mrs. Koontz, you are the best teacher ever. Love Madeline a lot.

Our roof is finally DONE!! :)

Before

After
The process...

Could it possibly be that twins are actually easy to take care of? I just came to the realization that when Maddie is at school, the twins are really good. When Maddie comes home there is a bunch of arguing, crying, and overall chaos. So I have to ask myself, is it Maddie? Or is it just the plain simple fact that there are now three children fighting for mommy's attention and toys?

Anyway, Madeline's last day of school is tomorrow. She went to a friends house today to have a little celebration and a play date. I can't tell you how nice it is to have peace and quiet in the house when the twins are napping. Usually I have at least one child all day long from 7:00 am, until 7:30 at night. I totally forgot how nice it was when you only have one child and you actually get a break while they are napping! (Why did I always think one child was so hard? LOL) I know it wont always be this hard and busy. In fact, things are turning around here in the Siler house. The girls are really starting to play together more and they are also a lot more fun to be around.

I thought this picture of Ava was really cute. She has really been in to making towers with blocks these last few weeks. At lunch today she was trying to make a tower of her watermelon cubes! Very cute! :)

I had to post this picture of Chris and I. We almost Never get a picture together!

Today we went to our friend's sons 3rd birthday party. After the party was over, all the kids were given construction hats as a party favor gift. I brought them home and the kids *loved* them. Ava and Maddie wore their hats all afternoon. Lucy got mad at her hat after she ran into the kitchen cabinet when the hat was covering her eyes.. She refused to wear it after that.

Anyway, we had a fun day today... it was very relaxing!

Maddie and her cousin Kaitlyn

Eating ice cream... LOL

Happy Memorial Day!! (one day late) Thank you to all the men and women who have served for our country. Thank you to everyone who has sacrificed their life and happiness for us. It means more than words can say.... Thank you!

This Memorial Day we had a BBQ with a few family members and friends. We really had a great time and we are so thankful for all the wonderful people in our lives. I didn't get a chance to use my camera as much as I had hoped, but here are a few cute pics of the girls. :)

Hi Chris!!

Chris wanted to take a picture of me from above. LOL
Our roof with no shingles, pray for NO rain!
The cross braces that Chris put on the chimney so I could sleep. :) What a good hubby.

As I have mentioned in a few previous posts we are getting a new roof put on right now. One of the issues on our home that Chris wanted to fix before putting a new roof on was the chimney. Anytime we had a significant wind storm, the wind would blow the chimney metal top and the wind would send a huge crashing sound down into the house, our master bedroom in particular. The noise would keep me up for hours at night. Anyway, crazy Chris decided that he would fix it today, so I thought I would take some pictures of him. The reason I say "crazy" is because the chimney is 11 feet off of the second story of our house. He was literally about 38 feet up in the air!!!! Only firemen would do crazy things like that!

I am going under...

The day started out at 4:45 when the sun was still down and Ava was crying in her bed. I let her cry for a while, but the cries kept getting worse and worse and worse. I went in to go check on her and I stepped into something warm, wet and mushy..... ewwwww. Needless to say, I got Ava up and took her downstairs for a little cleaning up and new clothes. I decided that I was going to take Ava to see the Dr. today because of her sudden general fussiness and lack of sleeping. The Dr. told us that she has a pretty bad ear infection, go figure. After we got home Lucy decided to throw up all over the place and make a mess up her second outfit for the day. Yes, Ava has an ear infection and Lucy has had the flu for the past 3 days.


We started our roof project today and I was rather skeptical about how the kids would nap. Surprisingly, Lucy slept her usual 2 1/2 hours without a fuss and Ava slept for about 1 hour. I was actually surprised that either of them slept at all with all the noise going on. After nap, Lucy got sick a few more times.. Poor thing. I sure hope she can keep some food down soon. This is the 4th day she has not eaten anything... Ava was a grump all day and Maddie started throwing up just tonight. She had been complaining most of the day that her tummy hurt, but I honestly just thought she wanted the same kind of attention that the babies were getting so i kind of put it off. I guess she wasn't just messing with me. Oh, and to top it off Ava stepped on a nail outside that came off of our roof. It did puncture the skin, so now I have to watch for infection.

Ava continues to sleep terrible. I am lucky to get her down by 8:00 most evenings and she is gets up by 5:30, sometimes earlier. ( She usually sleeps from 6:45pm to 7:30 am). Her naps are almost non existent... I got about 45 minutes out of her today (May 20th). She usually will sleep for at least 2 hours. Maddie woke up in the middle of the night with throw up all over her sheets... I don't know how much more of this I can take! I am SO overwhelmed... I pray that Ava starts sleeping better, Maddie gets better and Lucy stops puking all over the place. I have never done anything more challenging in my life than raising three kids, especially two that are the same age.

We are at a new phase of development with my little Miss Ava. She has officially decided that climbing out of her crib is fun. She is not the best napper in the whole wide world, but at least she will stay in her port-a-crib for about 1 1/2 hours until she starts to cry to get up. Yesterday I heard some banging around in her room and I knew she was not napping. Then I hear her crying, but the crying is getting louder and louder and louder?!?! What? I hurry upstairs to find Ava running down the hallway.. Geesh! This morning right around 5:50 I got out of the shower and I heard the monitor making a funny noise. I go out to investigate and my little climber has once again climbed out of her crib, her bedroom door was open, and she was half way down the stairs! Today I am going to BabiesRus to find a solution to this problem. I can't have her waking up the other kids and causing chaos everyday at 6:00 am!

This is so cute! Madeline is such a great big sister :) I only had my camera phone handy when this was going on, so the quality may not be the best, but you can get the idea.

One of the girls new favorite thing to do is to pretend to change each others diapers. They each take a turn laying down on the diaper changing pad while the other one changes the diaper. Then the switch. LOL They are both so fascinated when I change one of their diapers too. I will say, "let's go change your diaper Lucy" and everyone comes running like there will be an ice cream cone waiting or something. Then of course they have to say bye bye to the dirty diaper as I throw it away. These kids sure are funny! To bad they won't really change diapers.

Laryngitis must love me because this is the 3rd time I have had it since April 7th. I never realized how frequently I got laryngitis before I started keeping track. The day I had my hip surgery I also had laryngitis. The Dr. was concerned and they were not sure if the were going to do the surgery or not. I told them it was not big deal, that I got laryngitis a lot. The Dr. asked how much and I said "oh, about 8-10 times a year." He looked at me rather puzzled and said, "have you ever looked into that? If not, you should." I left it that and I started to wonder if maybe I didn't get it as much as I thought, so I decided to keep track. Well, I think I may have underestimated because 3 times in 6 weeks is going to far exceed 8-10 times a year! Anyway, I am so sick of loosing my voice... This is just no fun..

I had to go to the mall today to return some shoes that were a bit to small. I put the twins in their side by side double stroller, which will always cause them to get a lot of attention anytime we go out in public. Almost every outing creates some kind of conversation that goes a little like this...

Nice person: Are they twins?

Me: Yes, they are.
Nice person: But they are not identical?

Me: No, they are fraternal.
Nice person: Oh, they are so cute. This one has brown eyes and a little darker hair and this one has blue eyes and a bit lighter hair.
Me: Yes they do look a little different.
Nice person: They must be a handful. You sure are busy.
Me: Yes, I am very busy, more than you can imagine.
Nice person: Good for you, you are very lucky.
Me: Thank you, have a good day.

But today was different, this lady caught me off guard. We went through the normal round of questions and then she said, "oh, this one is so chunky! (She is referring to Lucy) I just love her chunky cheeks and thighs!"
Me: Oh, you think she is chunky? Well, I guess maybe she is a little.
Her: Oh, it is cute, she will grow out it.... I hope so anyway.
Me: OK, thanks... have a good day.

So, is Lucy really that chunky? She doesn't really look chunky to me, but I have been getting so many of these kind of lately. She looks like a normal healthy kid to me? Oh well, even if she is chunky, she is my cute little chunk!

We are in the process of finding a contractor to re-roof our house and as most of you know, a big remodel or big project can become quite stressful. We have a 17 year old heavy wood shake roof that is a 9/12 pitch and around 60 squares. The first big company contractors that came out wanted to charge us a ridiculous amount of money. Chris and I both thought that there had to be a cheaper alternative. So, the research began. We talked to so many people trying to figure out how we were going to go about this. We ended up going to a supply store in Sacramento that put together a price list for just materials. The materials were expensive, but what really got me was the additional charges like putting the tile on the roof, gas charges, truck charges, permit fees, a structural engineers report, gutters, special flashing for out chimneys etc. After we got the final price for materials, I was shocked to learn that these roof companies were charging more than double the cost of materials for labor!! They obviously think we are rich, and maybe they think we are stupid. We have now had over 10 contractors come to the house to give us bids. We are smarter now, we tell the contractors that we are not willing to pay over X amount per square, and if they are going to come back with that amount please do not waste their time or ours. Of course this as put us at a different level with the contractors, their customer service is not the same as it was before we were educated. Tomorrow we are meeting with a company that both Chris and I feel really good about.... lets just hope their price comes in right.

I am officially crutch free!!! I can't begin to tell you how good this feels. Kids, house, husband and responsibility doesn't go well with crutches. I am just so glad to be off of them and at walking like a normal person, well liming anyway. My Dr. told me that I can start riding my bike again for 5 minutes a day. Yes, 5 minutes! He said it would be about 6 months before I am back to normal activities. His best advice to me was to do mostly non weight bearing exercise (swimming). I have no clue how to swim, but I guess I will now need to learn!

I forgot to post a while back that when Chris was on baby duty he created a trailer for Maddie's Barbie jeep. The twins always want to ride in the Jeep, but of course there is only room for one baby at a time. Chris couldn't handle the whining in between taking turns, so he made this wonderful contraption. :) (Good job honey!)

How much cuter than these girls get! I love how they all love to play dress-up. And this time they even cooperated and let me take a picture. What you can't hear going on is all of the girls are saying cheese over and over and over and over... you get the point. LOL. In fact, every time the girls see the camera come out they start saying cheese! Too cute. :)

I know I have not been posting much lately. It just seems I can't get even a few moments to get anything done, and when I do it is usually not on the computer. School is almost over and I am really trying to keep up with that and get good grades. I am contemplating taking a chemistry class over the summer. It is 4 days a week for eight weeks... I haven't made a final decision on that one yet.

Madeline seems to have new activities in her schedule daily. I don't know what I am going to do when she has homework for school every night next year?!?! We just signed her up for soccer and since I have so much spare time I volunteered to be the assistant coach. I guess no one ever taught me to say NO when I was younger.

So, my recovery from hip surgery is much slower than I anticipated. I still can't walk well and I am getting tired of going everywhere on crutches. I just want to be healthy and normal again. It is hard to pick Maddie up from school or go to the grocery store with two toddlers that think it is fun to run away in opposite directions. I am so thankful that the moms at Maddie's school are so helpful and carry my kids or chase after them when they run away. I am also thankful that Chris can get a few grocery items for me while he is on duty and even bring the groceries to our house if I need him to. :) Hey, that could be a new business, firefighter grocery delivery!

Anyway, Lucy has been sick with some fever illness... She seems to be getting better, but Ava suddenly got it tonight. She was throwing up all over herself and Chris when we were getting her ready for bed. Poor thing. I know she couldn't have been feeling good, not only because she threw up and had a fever, but because she fell asleep on the floor while I was getting her redressed just minutes after she threw up. I feel so bad for her and I hope she feels better soon... especially since Chris just started a 60 hour shift tonight at the fire station.

OK, enough for tonight. I will try to post some pics of the new playhouse we just got for the girls. The absolutely love it!

Oh my gosh, I have the sweetest daughter ever! Last night when Chris and I finally got home around 9:00, there was a single white flower sitting in a cup with a little note on it from Maddie. Gosh, how did I get so lucky to have three wonderful and beautiful daughters?

Picture coming soon..

Today the girls and I went to Karen's bakery in Folsom to celebrate Kim's pregnancy of her twin boys. Kim is so sweet and so cute and is due in July. It was great to see our group together again. (We missed you Amanda!) I took a few photos, but we forgot to get our group photo.. Darn! I don't know how Kim is going to get much bigger. :) Just look at that belly!!!