Samuel and Amelia - 3 months old

That's right, the twins are 3 months old already!

Where did the time go? I swear, each baby I have somehow makes time go even faster than before. I swear I was just finding out I was pregnant, getting the news it was twins, revealing their genders, and counting down to their birth. Didn't I just meet them face to face for the first time and introduce them to their brothers and bring them home?

Mommy's pretty girl

My favorite duo

I am in the ever constant battle with myself that always happens in this stage (well, probably in most stages if I think about it) - that fight to keep myself from looking forward to easier, funner, different times down the road and to just embrace these moments. The smiles, the coos, the cuddles, the baby smell. Such good stuff! And the last time I will ever experience them from my own children.

Love those handsome smiles!

We have a thumb sucker - our first!

All smiles while sister picks on him

The sleeplessness is hard, but for twins I know I have it lucky. Amelia is often sleeping through the night and if not, she usually only gets up once. None of my boys were doing that this early! And Samuel generally gets up only twice. They are down by 7 every night and up around 6:30 in the mornings. There really isn't much to complain about there! Well, minus not having slept through the night myself for months (don't have the exact count since I wasn't sleeping during the night for a lot of my pregnancy either). But it's amazing as mothers how we learn to adapt and function under less than ideal conditions.

Headbands are fun :)

Littlest brothers bonding

The real challenge isn't any different then it was when I had one infant - the simple act of getting stuff done. Keeping up on the housework, getting meals made, getting myself ready. The day to day stuff is enough to overwhelm when there is always someone to hold, change, feed. Especially times two! And when you add in my 3 older boys I truly feel like there is always something to be done and never enough of me to go around. But there is such joy in getting to watch my children form bonds with each other and learn to pitch in to get things done as a family. The love definitely outweighs the work!

Thankful for my Moby Wrap!

My crew

Samuel is currently receiving physical therapy in our home once a week for what they originally thought was torticollis but for what the therapist now thinks is just a preference on his part to keep his head in one direction which has caused his head to be pretty severely misshapen. But he makes amazingly huge progress every week and they are pretty sure it will correct itself over time.

Rockin' his tortle like the cutie he is :)

I am excited to see what the next few months will bring. We are really looking forward to hearing them laugh and are sure the boys will be competing for the honors of getting the biggest laughs from them.

Tackle Box turned Treasure Chest

 As Jordan's 6th birthday approached, I knew I wanted to get him a treasure chest of sorts. He is my little collector and I knew this would speak to his heart in a big way. Plus, it would give me a way to limit what he could hoard keep inside the house. Win/win!!

I had just planned to get a wooden box I had seen at the craft store and paint it up but my husband had a brilliant DIY/upcycle/conversion idea that I so wish I could take credit for. He remembered that he had a spare tackle box hanging around in the shed and thought that after some sprucing up it would make a great treasure box. Just think about those trays that lift out and all the little cubby space. It's a treasure finders dream!

Here are the outdated, sat-in-the-shed-too-long-so-it's-covered-in-stuff, before pictures of the tackle box:

Hubby worked his color magic and painted this up to be a much brighter, cheerier version of it's old self. I love the look of the blue and red together, don't you?

On the bottom of the inside of the treasure chest I wanted to have a treasure map so I found THIS IMAGE, printed it out, and mod podged it to the bottom of the box. I think it's a special little touch.

This was a super easy, fun project that cost us nothing since we had all of the components on hand. I can tell you that our 6 year old LOVED this gift!We filled it with pirate candy we found at the Dollar Store and then we made a little treasure hunt for him to find it. After following the clues, he discovered it up in a tree in our yard. Do you think he likes it?

Featured on The Happy Housewife's 2013 edition of 100 Days of Homemade Christmas:

Looking for another tackle box transformation idea? Check out my mom's tackle box jewelry organizer (click the picture to see the entire post):

Friday Flair - Birthday Edition

Welcome! This week's edition of Friday Flair is extra special because it falls on my son's 6th birthday. Let's all say a loud, "Happy Birthday" to Jordan, shall we?

I tried to find some free printable lunchbox notes with a birthday theme but didn't have any luck. If you know of any, feel free to share a link with me. Since I couldn't go that route, I just decided to make a quick little note myself.

I saw a cute sandwich idea a few weeks back that involved sprinkles so I knew this would be the perfect occasion to try that. So I punched out the top slice of bread with a 6 and filled in the hole with sprinkles. Super cute, right? For fun I put the punched out 6 in a mini-muffin liner and put a blue M&M in the center to match the blue on the sandwich. The bigger muffin liner has a little Birthday trail mix of M&M's, white chocolate chips and broken up graham crackers. Some veggies and cheese and olive skewers rounded out the meal.

Happy Birthday my big 6 year old!

Friday Flair - Week 3

I probably should have titled this week's post Friday {Un}Flair since it really is just a typical lunch. In fact, I woke up this morning having totally forgot that it was Friday. So regular old lunch it is. BUT I did get to join the boys for the Moms R Marvelous breakfast at their school this morning so I am counting that as the flair for the day. Hey, it's my blog, I can do what I want! Right? Right!

Yogurt, cheese crackers/pretzels, carrots, celery, apple wedge, peanut butter and honey tortilla roll up

On our way to breakfast at the school. My handsome big boys :)

Until next Friday!

Missed some posts? Here are the last two Friday Flair posts:
Week 1
Week 2

Friday Flair - Week 2

This week's Friday Flair makes me laugh a little bit. It looks more like something that should be appearing in 2 months, don't you think? I happened to have a very large turkey taking up space that I wanted freed up in my extra freezer so last night I cooked up a turkey dinner with all the fixings that much resembled a November holiday we all love. The boys gobbled it up (get it, gobbled? Ha! I crack myself up) and were begging for pieces of it in their lunch so I put together these little mini-Thanksgiving looking lunches for this Friday Flair.

 I once again used THESE free printable lunchbox notes from Skip to My Lou, mostly because I had the leftovers from last week still on hand and it was the easy thing to do! Once again, used a little tape and a toothpick to make them into mini-signs and called it good.

I almost feel guilty classifying a lunch that took almost no effort as a Friday Flair post. But then I realized how stupid that was! Why do we moms always do that to ourselves? Pile on the guilt for the little, often meaningless things. So silly! Besides, that is the whole point of these posts. To prove that it doesn't take a lot of extra effort and time to do something special. It's all about the little things. I am going to keep saying that until it sinks in and the guilt no longer creeps in. IT'S.ALL.ABOUT.THE.LITTLE.THINGS!! Phew, that feels better.

 Let's break it down:

Nathan's Lunch: Crock pot bread with pesto, turkey, candy corn treat, cucumbers, stuffing

Jordan's Lunch: Mashed potatoes, corn, crock pot bread, turkey, candy corn treat

Here's a link to the crock pot bread by The Quiet that I tried out this week that tasted just like rolls (but so much easier!): http://inquietmemory.blogspot.ca/2012/01/crock-pot-bread.html

Until next week! If you missed last week's post, you can check it out HERE.

Friday Flair - Week 1

This year I have decided to forgo my lunchbox roundup posts for something that fits a little better into this new chaotic season of my life. Since having the twins and now having two kiddos in school, I find it pretty impossible to try to put together thoughtful, creative lunches everyday. Heck, it's hard to get past the basic survival stuff most days. But there is still somewhere in me a drive to make school lunch a special thing for my boys as a reminder that I am thinking of them, so I have come up with something that reconciles my desire with my reality. I am going to start something called Friday Flair which will basically be a commitment to let my self off the hook the rest of the week and let Friday be a day for special lunches. I am not talking anything over the top, just lunch box notes and/or special treats and/or theme lunches to give Nathan and Jordan something to look forward to each week. I think of flair as something that dresses up something plain and just gives it that little something to make you take notice. That's what I am going for here!

Since I am not alone in this busy mommy gig, I want to try to share some of my ideas each week to make it that much easier for you. So I will link to any free lunch box notes I am printing and I will share recipes and lunch themes as I use them. Sound good? Hoping you all will share some of your creative ideas with me as well. Nothing beats a give and take relationship!

I have been pinning free printable lunchbox notes all summer so it was hard to chose which ones to use first. I settled on these fun, bright sayings from Skip to My Lou. The best part about these are that one page has multiple notes on it so once I print them, I have extras on hand that I can use for future Fridays or to throw in during the week with no extra hassle. Score! Here are the two I chose this week for my dinosaur loving 7 year old and my banana crazy 5 year old. I simply taped a toothpick to the back so that I could stick it into their food and wrote their names to make them personalized:

Let's take a look at these lunches, shall we? They are only slightly different from each other to adjust for personal taste (if only all of my kids liked and disliked the same things!):

Jordan - Apple slice sandwiches with peanut butter and syrup (I was out of honey), zucchini bread, olive and cheese skewers, carrots, celery and cucumber

Nathan - Apple slice sandwiches with peanut butter and syrup, zucchini bread, cheese skewers, carrots, starfish crackers

Nothing too fancy, right? Just a tad more effort than spreading some peanut butter and jelly between two pieces of bread. But maybe you are in an even more chaotic season than me and all you have time for is that pb&j everyday....that's okay too. It's just lunch. You decide where you want to add your flair to the ordinary in your life! I would love to hear how you are taking something simple and making it just a little special for your loved ones so feel free to share those non-lunch related ideas as well.

See you next week!

Jordan's in Kindergarten!

I can't believe my second born is officially a kindergartner now. He has been talking about this day since Nathan started school 2 years ago and it felt like it would never come. To say he was excited is a huge understatement. He was waiting by the door dressed with his backpack on WAY before it was time to go. I hope that a fraction of that excitement will stay with him throughout the year.

Here are some pictures from his first day. Congratulations my new Kindergartner!

First Day of Kindergarten printable from Oh So Printable

My big 2nd grader and Kindergartner

Go Vikings!

Homemade Lunchable for his lunch