Fall is Here!!

Luke petting the deer

Checking out the Bear

Love those ballons!

Liam petting the deer

We love animals

We have quickly gone from highs in the 80's to highs in the 60's and a little frost in the mornings! Fall has definitely arrived. We are trying to enjoy the last few weeks outdoors before the weather begins to get cold and then VERY cold. We recently visited a local gift shop that had some animals to pet, free food, and one of the boys favorites...ballons!

I am getting ready to begin 26 weeks so the pregnancy is progressing quickly. We are beginning to get a few things ready for Baby #3 including the room and a few other odds and ends. Thankfully, there really is not a lot to purchase since we have most of the main things in duplicate.

John has a big weekend as he is running the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday for the second time. We are hoping for good weather, it appears like it may be ideal right now. Last year was a little less than ideal with pouring down rain for more than half the race. RUN DADDY RUN!!!

Apple Orchard

The boys rode the cow train and Liam hated it! He came around the corner screaming and Luke apparently started crying when he turned around and saw his brother upset (according to the guy driving the train).

Climbing the hay

Driving the truck

Mini Maze for kids

Luke riding the pony

Liam loved the pony

Hey Mom, there is something on my hands!

Feeding the goat

Last weekend we took the boys out to an apple and pumpkin orchard. They have some beautiful orchards each fall in Minnesota with animal petting areas, pony rides, a corn maze, wagon rides, and best of all...a bakery! We discussed picking apples and raspberries, but after seeing how much effort that would take to keep the boys within sight, carry the bucket of apples, pull the wagon, etc...we decided that buying the apples would be a lot easier. The boys loved the animals and even got to take their first pony rides. Liam took it quite seriously and held on to the saddle very tightly. Luke was a little tentative at first, but quickly warmed up to the idea. They were were quite exhausted after the trip and took about a three hour nap! Mission accomplished.

"Twins Day" at the Twins Game

September 2008 at the Twins Game...wow, we have really grown!
September 2009 at the Twins Game

Over the weekend, we took the boys to see their third baseball game on "Twins Day" at the stadium. The Twins baseball team was honoring twins, triplets, and higher order multiples with discounted admission and food. It was a very cute idea and fun to see all the twins. They had several sets of multiples that did various things during the game, made announcements over the speakers, etc... The boys did pretty good, though it was much easier to take them to the game when they were around 8 months old than it is now. They slept pretty much the entire time at the first game we took them to. We declined in the number of innings we could survive this time around. At our first game, we made a full 7 innings, this time we barely survived 5 innings. They enjoyed the food (Luke loved the popcorn and Liam the ice cream), noises, and clapping, but they needed a little more space to run around and explore. We only managed to get one picture the entire time we were there. Let's just say that it is great having two adults because we can each take a baby during the game, but the problem is that then you have no hands to do anything else like carry drinks and food back to the seats. I am not sure how or when Baby #3 will see his first baseball game. Perhaps we will need to bring some additional helpers with us!

Paci-free, Daddy's birthday, and the State Fair

Free Cereal after our "work" on the farm
Planting in the Garden

Sampling the dirt from the garden

Riding the tractors

Ready to Go! Working on the Farm

Luke going Down the Slide with Daddy

Luke in the Bumper Boats. I did not get many pictures of Liam in the boats because the first thing he did was stand up and I freaked out because I thought he would likely jump out any second (even though there were adults wading in the water).

Check out this big Cow, Daddy!

Liam was very interested in the cow, though he did not touch it...just watched very closely.

More cows...

We had a very nice Labor Day weekend and enjoyed some extra time with Daddy. John's birthday was on the Friday, Sept. 4th and we celebrated with our first trip to the MN State Fair. The fair is a big thing around here and everyone talks about it each year. We spent around 5 hours at the fair and sampled some of the "highly acclaimed" food. The weather was beautiful and the boys really enjoyed the animals. Liam was particularly interested in the cows. Luke mostly enjoyed climbing the bars outside the animal pens. On Daddy's birthday, we also gave up our pacifiers (for the most part). We are still using them at naps and bedtimes, but they don't leave our cribs which was a big step for us. Luke, particularly, had a difficult time with this one, but he is adapting now and doing much better. The rest of the Labor Day weekend we spent enjoying the nice weather and celebrating John's birthday with a peaceful dinner out for John and I. We enjoyed a picnic with some friends on Saturday and John ran a 10K race on Labor Day. It was a great way to finish out a beautiful summer. I am including several pictures from our trip to the State Fair. Enjoy!

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

Our Best picture! (after candy bribery)
Liam REALLY wants the camera

Luke wants the sign, but we already tried to get them to hold the signs. Liam just wants down.

Interesting....

I am 21 weeks and we had the big ultrasound today. There is no question that IT'S A BOY!!! We are so relieved that it appears the baby is growing normally. He is around 1 lb. 2 oz. and measuring right on schedule for a January 2010 delivery. We are so excited, thankful, and can't wait to introduce the boys to their baby brother. Now, on to the name for Baby #3....it is too bad that all we had picked out thus far was girl names! Thank you all for your kind thoughts and prayers. We "attempted" to get a picture with the boys announcing our big news. Believe me, the pictures don't even begin to tell you what an ordeal this was. It is a good thing the pictures can't talk.

Fun with Friends

Snack time in the wagon
Group picture (left to right: Jack and Charlie, Sean and Shannon, Elliot and Olivia, Kenzie and Halle, and lastly Luke and Liam in front). For anyone having twins, here are examples of the many ways to transport them as well as boy/boy, boy/girl, and girl/girl twins!

Luke and Olivia

Liam

We enjoyed some play group fun with most of the people in our twins group this week. We started out playing indoors and then moved outside to the playground and had a snack. Due to vacations and other activities over the summer, we have not seen our entire group as much as we did over the winter. We have still gotten together occasionally, but the group has been a little smaller at times. We are all amazed at how far we have come considering that at our first playdates we had kids who could not even sit up yet! Playing is more fun now that we are mobile and a little more self sufficient; however, it is also a lot busier because we can get into everything. Watching 10 toddlers at a park is no easy task, which is why I didn't have time to get any pictures outside until we were seated having snacks. Enjoy!

Luke's First "Mini" Haircut

Here we go!
Cookies while you cut?

And suckers while you watch

Good job, Luke!

Playing while we wait...

Mommy had to make sure they did not cut off all the curls yet

The first snip

Pre-haircut: that is what we had to tame

Pre-Haircut with Daddy

Luke with his hand in the candy bowl!

Since Daddy does not think we should pull back Luke's hair with a little bow, we decided Luke needed a mini haircut. I say "mini" because I was not in favor of cutting off the curls, but we did need to shape it up a little and tame some of the curls. Luke did very well and sat in the chair all by himself without making even a peep. As long as he has his pacifier, most anything is o.k. His hair looks about the same, just maybe not quite so wild. I am not sure we actually got any post haircut pictures because we were pretty much ready to go when we were done!