Summer Tile

I finally got around to making a summer tile last night. I like the way it turned out overall. I am in need of the right color of blue vinyl to do my 4th of July tile. So stay tuned for that one. I will have to get it done this week as I am running out of time.

Our Kids Will Never!

Famous last words. I remember when Mike and I were dating and engaged and even married for a while with no kids. We had a spoken list of rules to entitled "Our Kids Will Never." Well I finally broke down and broken one of these sacred rules (#13 -or s0 -our kids will never have one of those leashes) and bought the twins backpack leashes over the weekend. They aren't quite walking still, but we are getting closer and the thought of trying to chase 2 of them around the store, or the zoo, or wherever we go was getting a little overwhelming. And besides, leashes have come a long way in the last 11 years. How adorable are these lion backpacks? Functional and stylish, I say. And when I let them crawl around Papa's house in them over the weekend, they didn't seem to mind them much (bonus). Mike is still opposed and says he'll never put them on them or hold onto them when we are out......Never say Never!

Demolition Derby's

It just so happened that it was also the weekend for the demolition derby in Price. Mike and I debated on going then decided against it. However, Papa Kevin took Caleb and he had such a good time. He got home late so we didn't get to ask him about it, but he talked our ears off today. I got brave and handed him my camera on his way out to snap a few pics. He did a good job with it and the camera came back in one piece (I'm sure Papa helped with that a little). After we drove back today, he went right to his room to create his own derby.

Here's a few pics he took last night.

And here's the audience he set up in his room to watch the derby.

And the cars lining up.

And the crashes created.

Here's the final wreckage. Well at least for 10 minutes before he makes a new one :).

I'm so glad he went and had so much fun.

Way to Go Taylor!

My nephew, Taylor, made the All-Star team this year for his baseball league. He was pretty excited about it. We got to go to Price this weekend and watch his tournament. They lost but still played hard. This is him playing catcher. Way to go Taylor!

Scrapbooking and Snowies

It was another scrapbooking night with the girls last night. Papa was nice enough to come steal the boys for the night and we scrapped, went to Chili's for som grub, then came back to scrap some more until 11pm. But the real star of the night was when we got out the snowcone maker and Mike and I went to work making us some snowies.

Cheers girls! See you at the next scrapbook night.

Thanksgiving Point Dino's

Today we got to spend some time with some cousins of ours. We met them at the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. Caleb (of course) has been dying to go back there for a while and they were up for it so off we went. I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked thanks to the camera battery going dead and to Zaric throwing a hissy-fit right in the middle of it. It was one of those "just let him scream it out fits" where there was nothing I could do to make it right. But we finally got over it and moved on to explore the rest of the museum. Caleb took Lightening the dino along for the fun.

Afterwards we grabbed some lunch at the cafe there in the museum and chatted a bit. It was a fun morning outing for us. Thanks Missy and Hailee, let's play again soon!

Zebra Pool/Cookie Day

While we were grocery shopping over the weekend, this little pool ended up in the cart. The weather finally got nice enough yesterday to blow it up. We were just checking it out in the front yard when Caleb went for the swimsuit. We weren't sure what the babes would think so we let them explore and go at their own pace. Before we knew it though, they were jumping in, clothing and all.


We moved it to the backyard today on the deck and refilled it. When the sun warmed up the water a little they were all back out there having some fun. Here's a couple of pictures of Caleb enjoying the water.

And here's the babies fully clothed last night checking it all out. The pug was in for a minute too.

And me helping Zaden on the slide. They both really like being helped down the slide and into the water.

And Zaric having fun both yesterday and today.

Caleb and I also thought it would be a nice day to make some sugar cookies. So we got out many different cutters: flowers, stars, dinosaurs, animals and went for it. I did most of it (of course) Caleb mostly helped by telling me which ones to use and sneaking raw cookie dough. When it came time for frosting, I decided to do the lazy man's way and did a quick drizzle frosting and multi colored sprinkles. Caleb helped with the sprinkles.

All in all a nice summer day.

Sick Day

This morning Caleb came downstairs with his stuffed turkey and told me that some of his animals were sick and had fevers. I asked him if they needed to see a Dr. and he told me no that he just needed to take good care of them and try to take care of it at home. So he made them a bed on the couch and we put in a movie for them. I hope it's not the swine flu ;).

Of course part of taking care of them means that Caleb must stay with them during the movie. And a little pug-love doesn't hurt either.

Get better soon turkey, triceratops and brontosaurus.

A Big Father's Day Weekend

This has been a very busy weekend for the Ouren household. It started off on Friday when my physical therapy got cancelled so we were free that afternoon. We were able to meet Dad at the mall for a couple errands and then went and had a nice family dinner at Hoppers. After that it was off to the bowling alley for Allison's bday party. Mike and Caleb bowled 2 games and the hat was a hit! I watched boys and visited.

When the boys got too fussy around bed time we headed out. We had separate cars so Mike and Caleb went to rent some movies and I took the babies home and got them ready for bed. Mike came home with 7 movies for us to watch in the next week (yeah it's been too long since we rented any), plus Caleb picked out an Elmo video. We got Caleb in bed and we stayed up to watch the first one. We watched "Slumdog Millionaire." And I have to say it was really good. Much better than I was expecting.

We started off Saturday morning early with running a bunch of grocery shopping errands. We had put off shopping for quite a while so we needed tons of stuff. We started out at Walmart for some items. The boys got tired after about an hour of being there and fell asleep. I love the pic of Zaden. I bought some batting and when I sat it in the cart with him he took advantage and just laid his little head down on it and was out for the count.

After Walmart, we came home to unload and put away the groceries from there and let the babies sleep some more (which of course they did not). Then it was off to Costco for a few more grocery items and then to Harmons, where they were having a great sale on cereal plus I had some coupons on top of that, so we stocked up.

We came home and did a few chores then took a little family power nap. Then it was off to a picnic with the Salt Lake Mother's of Twins group. It was pouring rain, so not many families ventured out. Maybe only 10 or so. But I got to meet a few people and get my name out there to volunteer to help in the future. We also bought some raffle tickets. We spent $15 on tickets and ended up winning a $25 gift card to Chili's and a $20 gift card to Pizza Hut. So the way I see it, we went in with $15 and came out with $45. We trippled our money and now we have some gift cards to use on those nights when neither one of us feels like cooking.

After we got home from that Grandma Nette and Papa Kevin came to our house. They had driven up to spend the night and get away for their anniversary. So after a nice dinner, they stopped by here to play with the boys for a while before heading to their hotel. After they left we put in movie #2 "Marley and Me" Also very good. It made me cry twice. We had anticipated that Caleb would fall asleep during it given the hour but he fooled us and watched the whole thing. Not getting to bed until 11 pm.

This morning we got up early and went to breakfast with grandma and papa. Then they came back over for a while and watched "Marley and Me" again with Caleb upon his request and grandma cried. I made Mike some brownies with famous Grandma Gert frosting. He already bought his own present a couple weeks ago when he bought himself a new cell phone. But he did sneak in this nap with Zaric while I was baking brownies and the others were watching the movie. Much deserved and needed on Father's' Day.

Happy Father's Day Mike. We love you and think you are the greatest "DAH", "Dad", "Daggy", "Daddy" ever. And Happy Father's Day to any other dad's that may happen to read this blog.

Happy Birthday Allison!

Happy Birthday Allison ! Who knew that us being roommates that fateful year in college would lead to such a long lasting friendship? Seems like yesterday we were packing our stuff up those winding stairs to Hogle Hall 3rd floor. And here we are.
Thanks for sharing so much of your life with us and letting us share ours with you. I don't know what I would do without our nearly every day talks. They really mean the world to me. You are the best! I hope this Bday is the best one yet!
Since I knew you took the day off for your Bday I thought I would chance posting these pics before your party. Knowing your love of frogs, we couldn't resist when we saw this hat on Etsy.com . I hope you don't mind that the boys already had to try it out and now want to order some of their own. So if you happen to see these before your party, the surprise is ruined, but Happy Birthday! We hope you love it as much as we do.

Progress

Mike and I have been working hard with the boys this last week or so with the walking thing and we are finally making some progress. Last night we got them both to stand for a few seconds at a time now un-assisted. And over the last week they have officially taken their "first steps". Today while Mike was at work I let Zaric go and got a great run of standing (30 seconds or so). He even bent his legs to a crouching position and was able to get himself back up a couple of times. I thought it was a fluke and he wouldn't do it later for Dad, but boy was I wrong. He loved showing off this new talent for Dad over and over. He thought about taking a few steps a couple of times from this position, but chickened out.

I snapped these tonight while Dad was outside doing yard work. They are all of Zaric. I could get Zaden to stand but not for long enough for me to let go of him and back up enough that I could take a picture. My goal for tomorrow is Zaden standing pics. Stay tuned for that :)

Hooray for progress! Next stop: Full-Walking!

SK8TR

He is all boy this summer. Trucks, dinosaurs, baseball, bikes, skateboards, skooters, worms and dirt!

Kindergarten Orientation

Today was Kindergarten orientation for Caleb. We got to go and get the scoop on some school details and sign up for testing times the first week of school. They had the current Kindergarten kids come sing songs for us and then each one took one of the "new" kids back to the classroom with them. While they were gone, the parents got more info and then the kids came back and had already learned a song to sing to us. Here's a pic Caleb (with the hat) singing the song.
He was pretty excited and did great given the newness of it all. I think it's Mom that's going to have more issues letting go on that first day of school. I never thought I would be "that Mom"

but I can feel the anxiety attacks coming already.

End of Season

Tball is officially over for the season. Caleb loves his new trophy and is looking forward to next year already. He's also telling us he wants to go back to playing soccer ball this fall. So stay tuned for that.

First Camping Trip of the Season

We finally kicked off our summer camping season this weekend. It was hard deciding whether or not to go given the weather and the weekend forecast but we decided to go for it anyway. We had a ton of mishaps along the way and things in our trailer aren't working correctly we found out after we got there. We tried to make the best of it though and spent a lot of time inside the trailer playing cards and coloring and making up songs and stories to pass the time while it rained, thundered, and even hailed on us. We had fun outside in between storms and got to see some new places that we had never been before. I wish the weather would have cooperated for us to explore more but we have already decided to make a day trip back up there soon to do so.

We ended up at Granite Flat Campground near Tibble Fork Reservoir. It was a beautiful place and we will have to keep it in mind for next summer as well. Hopefully with a little more planning ahead and cooperating weather. We still got to roast marshmallows, sit around the fire, climb some logs, play in the dirt a little and even feed some ducks some animal crackers at the reservoir. So not a complete loss.

There were too many photo's I wanted to share so I did another slide show. Please let me know if you want to see any of them closer up. Enjoy!

Popsicle Fix

Our latest summer love....Popsicles.