Thanksgiving & Zoolights

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my dad's house, then my husband's aunt's house, and then Zoolights, which is a holiday event the Phoenix Zoo puts on every year.

My little bird mad because he has to eat.

Sister and Brother

Grandma Mary and Liam

My brother is working.

Flying

Grandpa and Liam

Kadence looks bigger in this picture but she's actually a lot smaller than Liam.

OMG my sister is actually holding a baby, I had to get proof.

Sleepy Twins

Zoolights

The Fam at Zoolights. 

The Kieffer-Konzal's at Zoolights. Tyler is a ham.

Round and Round 

James' First time on a carousel

Fast like a cheetah

Savings on Fuel

A great way to save money on gas is to shop places that have customer VIP cards where you earn points for cents off your gas. Also, if you are on WIC and you get formula I always swipe my VIP card to get points from that purchase because formula is very expensive and one check usually comes out to around $100 and I have 4 of them! So I earn points for gas and today I got 30 cents off and spent the least amount on a tank I gas that I have in who knows how long! I'm writing this post because I used to get my formula and WIC stuff from Walmart and it just occurred to me that I could have been earning points on a card for a long time and I should have taken advantage of that earlier.

Giraffe Encounters

Basically, this is just feeding a giraffe a piece of lettuce, but the kids love it. I went to the zoo with a group of friends and their kids and discovered that no matter how prepared I am, having 2 babies to take care of is still stressful. I also discovered that I hate my double jogging stroller because the front wheel doesn't swivel and it is almost impossible to push it with one hand. So tomorrow I am putting that stroller on craigslist and ordering a double jogger with a swivel wheel.

Micah and Noah (the kids were to short for me to get good pics of them)

Giraffe looking over at me

They survived

Billed Crochet Hat

I love this crochet hat that I found on Pinterest. This pattern fits my son and he is almost 4 years old. The pattern doesn't have a gauge and honestly, I never make a swatch when there is a gauge anyway (even though I probably should).

The pattern can be found here:
http://www.vallieskids.blogspot.com/2009/06/meagan-wants-you.html?m=1

I think these hats are great for little boys and go one step cuter than just a plain beanie. 

Twins' First Halloween with the Family!

The Twins had their very first Halloween today! I have to say, they might have enjoyed it a little, but mostly they were a little fussy. Noah and his friend Tyler had a blast together. They were so cute running around to the houses and they were so good at remembering to say "Trick or Treat" and "Thank You". This is the first Halloween that Noah actually participated in and had fun. Last year we made it to three houses and it was time to go home, he was not polite and he was very crabby. This was a very memorable Halloween and I'm glad that I had my wonderful kids and husband to share it with.

Halloween Princess

Liam was a Marine for Halloween :)

Tyler turning into The Hulk

Getting some candy (Tyler and Noah)

Bucket full of candy!

Activity Saucer

I bought this yesterday at Sam's Club for $50. It is the Baby Einstein brand called "Baby Neptune Activity Saucer". The twins are practically swimming in it and can't even touch the bottom but they love all the little toys and are grabbing for them and can even turn themselves around to play with something different...very slowly. I never had one of these with Noah and now I don't know why! I love this one in particular because there is A LOT of toys around it and I have seen some that are a little scarce on the toys.

Pumpkin Patch

On Sunday we went to a "Pumpkin Patch" called MacDonald's Ranch. It wasn't a real pumpkin patch, unfortunately. There were a lot of cute activities to do like horse rides...not pony rides...but full size horses. Train rides, petting zoo, hay ride etc. We had to take a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch but when we came to the pumpkin area it was pre picked pumpkins on hay bales. I was a little disappointed because I was really expecting a pumpkin patch, which I have been to once in California by Loma Linda. My friend's Tysha, Liz and Michelle came with and brought their kids too! Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the day.

Everett Family

Noah, Micah & Tyler

Being Silly Boys

Little Jockey

Baby James

Tyler, Tysha & James

Liz and Micah

Tuesday's Tallies

7 SQUARES

I thought I was going to make squares with the teal and brown which looked really nice together, however, Christmas is in about a month so I figured it would be more appropriate to make a Christmas blanket. I found these squares on

www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/free-smoothfoxs-christmas-cheer-heart

So far I have 7 done and I'm going to make a 20 square blanket. BTW, this is my very first crochet blanket!

Trunk or Treat

Tonight my friend Liz came over with her son Micah and we went to my husband's uncles church for a "Trunk-or-Treat". They had cute little games that the kids could play and get some candy or a prize and the boys did great and actually participated! I'm so glad that Noah is excited about Halloween because every previous experience has been a nightmare. Micah has pretty good aim, he got a ring on a bottle and got a ping pong ball in a mason jar. After the games inside the church the boys filled their buckets FULL of candy. It took all of maybe 10 minutes to go to each car. Liz called it "power trick-or-treating". It was fun and I might want to decorate my trunk next year!

Eating donuts without our hands...I don't think so.

Noah attempting to eat the donut, I'm happy he tried. 

Walter and the Angry Bird

Fishing for candy

He caught a whistle and Micah is eyeing it...

Got the ping pong ball in the jar.

Fun trunk or treating

Amigurami....

Free Pattern from Ferret Lady on Ravelry.com

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/alexander-the-baby-elephant

This is my almost done elephant that I tried to make. The Amigurami stuff looks so cute but it is soooo tedious so I give props to any of you that makes these things on a regular basis. I love making all the different parts, but putting them all together is not that easy. The ears on my elephant aren't symmetrical, the legs kind of look like they are different sizes and I know for a fact that the trunk of my elephant is too big. I followed the pattern, but I think I need more practice with these projects....or maybe I should just stay away from them. Yes, my elephant is missing his eyes too, but I only have buttons so I need to go buy some animals eyes to finish it. 

Sleep Schedules

How in the world do you get twins to sleep at the same time during the day?? Liam and Kadence go to sleep around the same time each night and Kadence normally sleeps through the night and Liam wakes up at 2am or 3am to get changed and sometimes he is hungry. They both wake up around the same time in the morning.

During the day I would like to have them nap at the same time and it seems IMPOSSIBLE! You can't tel 4 month old babies that it is time to lay down and take a nap. Today my husband started working his temporary job until he is a Marine Corps Recruiter (which will hopefully be sometime next month) and I was at home by myself with the twins and Noah was at preschool. I swear, one baby would fall asleep and a few minutes later the other one would wake up. Only once for about 45 minutes in the morning did they actually sleep at the same time.

I can't decide which scenario is better:
A) Both babies awake, possibly crying and hungry at the same time (although I have my Podee Bottle if that happens) but when they are both asleep I get some "me time" or cleaning time.

B)Babies alternate being awake and asleep. Positive, I don't have to get overwhelmed with two babies needing something at the same time. Negative, I NEVER get any time to myself and if I do want to do anything I will have a baby in my arms.

Option A sounds better to me. I think it is more stressful to never get a break than it is to have two babies screaming at once. I need to do some research on synchronizing sleep schedules with multiples.

Tuesday's Tallies

I am new to crocheting and new to blogging. I absolutely love "blog hops" I think they might be my new obsession. I happen to be a "hobby-hopper", which means that I like to change hobbies more than I should. Crocheting is my new hobby and now I'm already feeling the urge to learn how to knit. HOWEVER, there's so many different projects to crochet that I am forcing myself to stick with this. Instead of switching hobbies, I am just going to put more variation into my crochet projects instead of just making hats, which happen to be adorable and I have twin babies to crochet for but I live in Arizona and it is not even close to being cold enough for hats yet. So this week I am trying an Amigurami animal that I will post my finished results on tomorrow. And I was going through some of the blogs that have been posted on the blog hop and I came across a blog that is doing a project from another blog "Gingerbread Girl"

 http://gingerbreadgirl-carole.blogspot.com/

 This blog is doing something called "Tuesday's Tallies" and she is making a Granny Square a day to create a blanket. I think this is a great idea and now I have to participate. So I am linking up with her blog to start my Granny Square a day. I am pretty far behind because the first post I found on her one a day project is from September but maybe I'll catch up by making 2-3 per day. So far my Tuesday's Tallies are 0! Ha Ha, but I'll have 2-3 done before I go to sleep tonight, so technically I'm prorating myself to 3.

Possibly starting with these colors.

Blog Hop

Sunday Best

All my kiddos dressed nicely before they went to Tshirts and onesies.