Last week Jeff left for a 5 day trip to Brazil with his work. A few years ago his company was bought out by a huge company based in Brazil and last week Jeff got to go visit the main headquarters. The trip was for a competition they qualified for. Unfortunately they didn't win the competition, but they had an awesome time spending the companies money and being pampered. Considering they are only 'mill scum', they were treated like any other person would be on a business trip. Although this was a great opportunity for Jeff and his crew it was sad for the babies and I. We missed our daddy and wished him home quickly. I seemed the babies knew their daddy would be gone for a while. They cried more than usual when he left and they slept very restless the first few night. I made sure to keep our schedule very busy to help time pass quickly. I am very thankful Jeff doesn't travel with work on a regular basis. Here are a few pics for his trip.
I guess their never to young to put to work. Today we made our own birthday and welcome home cards. I personally think they are better than anything you can find in the stores. I am always late at getting cards for special occasions so now I guess I don't have an excuse since I have two personal card makers. I'm sure each of you will receive your very own personal L&C card at some point.
Hard work can be messy
Here are few examples of their work:
We also made some special card for Jeff as we will welcome him home from Brazil in the morning. It has been a long week without him. We all three will be happy to have him home safe.
We spent our afternoon playing in the continuous summer heat. We are hoping our days in the hot sun are coming to an end, so until then we will have fun playing with the water table and in our little pool.
My precious Luke going down the slide
The bag for the balls melted in the hot sun over the summer which left our back yard covered in little plastic balls. We made a game to pick up the balls and throw them into the pool. Not only did this make cleaning up the balls fun it also turned the pool into a water ball pit, which the loved!!!
Bubbles
Catch the bubble Carter
They love playing with the bubbles. We have just about every bubble device out there. I was determined to find one that worked well. Well come to find out they all work well, you just can't put the cheap bubbles in them. Now that we have good bubbles, we can almost cover our entire backyard with bubbles. I can't wait until the next big rain, our backyard may become one big soap sud mess.
Had Popsicles
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and practiced drinking from a cup
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We sure did have a great time playing and boy were they exhausted. I love that they love being outside, but I am really looking forward to some cooler weather. I'm tired of sweating!!!
Luke's collection of things has gotten a bit out of control. He usually has a new favorite item each few days, but here lately he is adding to his collection instead of switching to a new one. He is over the dogie slipper, though he still wears it from time to time. He now has a bear from valentines day, a TY dog, a lamb that he calls a 'cat', and of course Elmo and his 3 'amoies' (which are his and Carter's taggies). When he wakes he tries to collect all the items in his arms to carry around with him. I've told him his supply has gotten to large and he really should think about getting rid of a few things, but he still refuses. Each evening and nap are a challenge to find all the items all over the house so he can rest peacefully (and he knows if one is missing). I'm not sure how he sleeps with so much junk in his bed, but he does.
Also each morning when I go in their room I say 'Good Morning' and they both usually repeat to me and give me a nice morning slobbery kiss. Of course the morning I decided to record neigher of them would say good morning. Go figure!!
Carter on the other hand has not has such a good morning. He has decided to spend this morning in time out. Poor little guy, he is really having a hard time with sharing and being nice to others. We have made some progress and hope to continue. He is such a sweet, smart little boy, just very strong willed. I had to take a picture of his sad red face. You can always tell when he's upset by the red splotches around his eyes. He's down for a nap now, so hopefully a little sleep will do him well.
We have a bit of confusion in our house about who is who. Now they know who Mommy, Daddy, Elmo and Dora are no problem. The confusion only is when it comes to who is Luke and who is Carter. For the longest they were both Luke to both of them. If Carter looked in the mirror he would say Luke and if you pointed to his brother he would also say Luke. The same with Luke. So we would go through all our names, point to each other and get them to say the correct names (still not really saying Carter to well). Then we'd ask who's that (pointing at Carter) and they both would say 'Luke'. Anyway, I think you get the picture here. Well I guess all our hard work paid off because now they are both Carter. Ugh!! Thank goodness they aren't identical, then we would all be confused. Well regardless if they know their own names at least they know Mommy, Daddy, Elmo and Dora.
I'm not sure 'helpers' is the right word, but Luke and Carter are always interested in being a part of whatever it is Jeff and I are doing. We try to teach and encourage them to help us. I'm not sure if it is just my children or that they are only 2, but help isn't what they are doing most of the time. I call it getting in the way and creating more of a mess. I guess that is just part of the learning curve when you are a toddler. Whatever it may be, we always enjoy showing them new things and watching them reenact our actions.
Luke cleaning up after Daddy
A quick update on our new addition. We haven't been able to work on it much lately so instead of enjoying our last summer holiday weekend we spent ours working on our new room. I am very excited with the progress we made in 3 days with only one small (huge) setback. Jeff rented a saw to cut the concrete and little did we know one small cut would create such a huge mess. Our entire house was covered in what seemed like a foot of cement dust. They tried to build a barrier to keep the dust from the rest of the house, but unfortunately that didn't work to well. So, instead of spending my Saturday painting, I spent it dusting (not sure which one is worse). We felt we had most of the dust cleaned when we went to bed only to wake up to a new layer of dust covering our entire house. I guess we stirred it up more than cleaned it. We are now on a good track to hopefully finishing the room soon. I will post more pics as we get more exciting things done besides cement dust.
We are a family of love and trust. I am thankful for my two precious babies and my wonderful husband. Having twins has been a challenge for me, but I love everyday of it. I hope you enjoy reading our blog and please visit often to see what is happening in the wild world of the Manning Munchkins.
