new family picture

We had some photos taken today, this was one of our favorites!

Ethan and Amber officially turned 2.5 yrs old today and Jackson will be 1 in less than a week!

Halloween visit from Grandma Foreman

We went to the Zoo Boo at our local zoo, dressed in our costumes!

We went trick or treating in our neighborhood, Brian wore his sumo suit this year, he got lots of attention :) My mom dressed as a nun got some fun remarks when she was holding Jack. I was a scarecrow this year and took most of the pictures, so I'm not in these.

Donald and Daisy Duck did very well trick or treating!

Kisses for Grandma

They built a lot of towers together

I attempted to get the three little ones all in one picture with Grandma Foreman


Nothing makes Amber happier than hanging out in some sort of basket or box with her blankie, stuffed animals, and her juice cup. It's even more special if the basket is up on the couch!

Ethan and Auntie Katie

Jackson stole Ambers juice cup and started to chug away!

The twins have recently started asking us if they can be naked, so we let them run around with just their diapers before they get their pj's on at night

We bought a Thomas the Train set for the twins as an early Christmas gift and Brian really enjoys it. Tonight he was playing with the twins and after they lost interest, he kept rearranging the tracks to improve the design. Jack really gets in the way and steals the trains and destroys the tracks. We hear a lot of "No! Jack!!" these days so it's easier to play this when there is another adult to hold him or occupy him with something else.

Grandma and Jack were sorting through some recipes here; she made us lots of yummy food and what we didn't eat, we froze. Sadly most of the frozen food is already gone too. Amber sneaked into the kitchen and was able to remove an entire mini loaf from my pan and start chomping away when I was changing Jack's diaper (I forgot to close the baby gate). Grandma's banana bread was a huge hit!

Jack and me

Happy Jack

Amber and Ethan, they actually WANTED their picture taken and were willing to smile (and hold hands)!

All three of them enjoy building with tupperware. Amber was wearing one of Ethan's pjs that day, sometimes she wants to be girly, sometimes she wants to wear Ethan's.

Jack was waiting knock down another tower.

Auntie Katie and Grandma playing with the kids

Jack showing off his standing skills, he's very close to walking, but really likes standing for now :)

Katie gave Ethan rides up and down the hallway, it was quite a work out with Ethan being 32 pounds!

Ethan told me "Skateboard, Mommy, look at me skateboard!"

That's all the pictures for now, we had such a nice visit with Grandma and Auntie Katie and can't wait they can come back! We love visitors!

some recent pictures

Aunt Sarah's wedding: the ladies got ready at our house in the morning then we headed to the small, beautiful backyard ceremony. The weather was perfect and it was a great day. Congratulations, Sarah and Derek!


Here are pictures from the Corn Maize, the kids had a lot of fun, but before long their legs got tired and Brian carried them the rest of the way. They also had a hay bale climbing area and a petting zoo, it was a fun afternoon.

The Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta was going on here in town a couple of weekends ago, a hot air balloon went right over our house and we got to say hello to the people inside! This picture was taken after it started drifting further away, the kids loved seeing it so close.

Little Jack, 10 months old

many mini updates, pictures will come later

I don't have a lot to say about any one thing, just lots of little things this time.....

• Jack is crawling, bear crawling, pulling up to stand and letting go and balancing occasionally...this is all in the last couple of weeks. He comes and visits me wherever I am in the house, and also can get to whatever toy he wants, especially Amber and Ethan's toys. Amber and Ethan are frequently ripping toys back out of his hands because they are theirs, "No Jack, that's mine!" is what I am hearing throughout the day :) I'm trying to have them give him different toy in exchange, and that's working....for now.
• Hannah's Volleyball season is over, I meant to blog about this a lot more, but I just haven't been blogging much at all, so....anyway. The season went well, they won most of their games and won the tournament this week. I will get some pictures from the other parents that weren't chasing down 2yr old twins across the gymnasium and holding another baby at the same time. I managed to get a couple on my new phone, but they aren't that good. The team they played today had not lost a game at all in the past two years! It was so awesome that we won! Go Hope Huskies!! Those poor girls on the other team were crying after the game.
• I got a blackberry!!! Whooohooo! I really like it, I can check email on my phone, which is critical to sanity when you are home all day with these three. I'm not getting on my home computer much these days (it is in our bedroom), so I have to do it when the three little ones are napping. See next bullet point.
• Nap time got crazy! Toddler beds were going okay for a little while, but then Amber and Ethan turned into circus twins, seriously. I'd no sooner close the door after scolding them, and here them call out to each other "Again?, Again?" They'd jump out of their beds and crawl into their closet, climb up onto their dresser (which is safely bolted to the wall), etc...the final straw was when Ethan started to crawl under Amber's bed and kick the bottom of her mattress and she'd be laughing hysterically, flying up into the air! Stunts like that would go on for over an hour some days before they'd give up and stay in their beds. This was the week that I was nearly in tears every day because I thought my beloved nap time had come to an end. But they still NEEDED a nap, they were cranky and overtired and AWFUL the days they didn't sleep. One day they even woke Jack during the craziness! After some brainstorming with my mom, I tried separating them. I really didn't think it'd work, they've never slept in different rooms. There was some crying and whining those first few days, but within 15 minutes they were both asleep. Ethan in his toddler bed, Amber in my bed. She is still difficult and likes to sneak out of the bed and get onto the computer, I catch her feverishly "typing" away on the keyboard or messing with Brian's clock radio, or unraveling toilet paper in the master bathroom, but it is SOOO much better than the circus that was playing out each day before they were separated. I have some downtime again and am very thrilled about it! I am not able to get on the computer to do email, blogging, shopping since she's now napping in my room, so the new phone came at just the right time!
• Earlier wake times....just a few months ago the twins were sleeping in until 8-8:30am, now they are up by 7am and going to bed at 8pm, but that's totally okay since they are still napping. Jack is up earlier than both of them usually around 6-6:30am and also goes to bed at 8pm, and also naps once/day around the same time as the twins, but usually only one hour, not 1.5-2hours like A and E. He still doesn't require much sleep.
• Halloween is coming! I am very excited about the kids dressing up this year, they really understand what is going on and LOVE CANDY, so they'll like trick-or-treating. They will be Donald and Daisy Duck and Jack is going to be a dinosaur.
• Grandma Foreman and Auntie Katie are coming to town! They are coming for Halloween weekend and all of us are excited-we talk about it all of the time.
• Two year old twin cuteness: They fight a lot, but the absolute best part is when one gets a timeout for hurting the other one, and afterwards apologizes and gives a hug/kiss. Ethan is adorable when he say's "I sorry, AM-MER." Sometimes she lets him hug her, other times she doesn't want any part of it. When she is apologizing, she says, "Sorry, Bubba, I didn't mean to hurt you!"
• Ethan often intentionally sits on Amber's blankie or takes it and runs off down the hallway, and it makes her crazy! She will run after him (then I better run to, because she might bite him to get it back!), scream, or whine till I rescue the blankie/stuffed animal/toy...
• I'm thinking of potty training after Christmas....it's a big step and mentally, I'm just not ready to tackle that with both of them yet. We are going to WI for Christmas and I will start when we get back. I can't imagine adding more to our sometimes stressful days, but I'm going to have to face it at some point. They will just turn 2.5 by then, and Jack will be turning one and will likely be walking.
• We still have a pretty full schedule: Tuesday mornings we have MOPS, Thursday mornings we do our neighborhood playgroup, and I had been trying to get to the gym on Monday mornings, especially since they have a toddler aerobics session that morning, but they can go along any day since there is onsite child care. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are not technically scheduled, but we often get together with other friends on those days. This next Monday we are set to go with the Mom's club to visit the zoo!
• Also, Grandma Menicucci recently started coming over on Friday mornings to spend a few hours with the kids while I get to leave the house alone. It is pure bliss. This last Friday I was able to pick up and drop off more of Brian's dry cleaning, get my flu shot at Walgreens, and make a stop to the craft store for Hannah, and it was so nice to be able to do that so quickly, not getting three little ones in and out of car seats!
• Hannah is going to have a booth at the Holly Days Craft Fair, she is making duct tape flowers which she attaches to pens, they are so cool and she can make them in any combination of colors. This is the 15th annual craft fair sponsored by the MOPS group that I'm in, and my friend and I are helping run the craft fair this year. It has been like a part-time job these last few months! So far we have over 60 crafters! Stop by and support Hannah and the other crafters on Saturday, November 7th, 9am-3pm at Grace Church in Albuquerque!
• My sister-in-law, Sarah, got married this week! Hannah and I both got to stand up in the wedding and we had so much fun. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Derek Riewe!! (pronounced reee-weee) I'm not sure, is that any better than Menicucci?
• That's all, it's already after midnight and I should really go to bed :) I promise I'll get pictures up for the next post.

we're still here....and I've finally posted some pictures!

Sorry, I've been really bad at keeping up this blog. I'm not sure why exactly, maybe it has something to do with all the kids? We've been really busy, Hannah's back at school and playing volleyball, the twins are all settled into their toddler beds (but their naps are shorter), Jack is sitting up, scooting around and rolling all over the place, but not yet crawling. He is doing better with sleeping and gets up once now between 5-6am and nurses and goes back to bed for a little while. And he's eating almost everything, even adult food, it's amazing and I didn't think it would really happen this soon. He's only just started eating purees in July. It's actually really fun to have the whole family eating the same thing, we all had pancakes over the weekend, and recently had lasagna and he LOVES it. In fact, he's not willing to sit by and watch you eat anything in front of him- he starts yelling and grunting loudly, so if you're eating, you HAVE to share with him, or hide.

Today, we went with some members of the AMOTC (Albuquerque Mothers of Twins Club) to a senior center just to visit and spend time with them. The people there just LOVED seeing the twins (and our singletons). I was surprised by the number of ladies there that shared with me they had twins themselves. They had lots of good stories! We even did a craft with them, we made bird feeders out of sliced squash with peanut butter spread on both sides, with seeds stuck on. Amber did a great job with the craft, two very nice older ladies helped her. Ethan was more interested in the bowling pins and balls in their activity room and ignored the craft completely. That was fine by me, if he was happier to do that, so was I. I haven't been as diligent with taking pictures, with all three of them, I'm excited to just get out the door and get on the road on time these days!

Last weekend, Hannah had her big slumber party over here, 10 girls were invited, some couldn't make it since they were gone for Labor Day weekend, but you wouldn't have been able to tell by the noise, it was as loud as you can imagine. Whew, I'm glad it's over :)

Here are some pictures and some of them are out of order, I have a hard time getting the pictures where I want them to be in these posts.

Hanging out in the living room with cake and icecream. All the girls in the living room eating cake and ice cream.

Hannah playing in their first game, she's #18, middle front in the green. They creamed the other team!

Amber and Ethan playing in their "tents," they like to climb in and camp out sometimes, Amber always has her blankie with her.



Here, they are INSIDE Jack's crib (Jack was with me picking out Amber and Ethan's clothes, in our basket of clean laundry that I never put away:) I thought they were just playing with some toys on the floor, but I could here Amber from the other room saying, "now we need some music!" and I went to check and they had climbed right in and were jumping all over the place!
The next picture is when Amber was feeling like giving Jack a hug.

We had a playdate with our friend from MOPS who also lives in our neighborhood. The kids must have been hungry because there was only crust and very few grapes left after lunch! The next one was taken after lunch when I told them it was time for nap and they went to hide behind the curtain, with their sippy cups.

More birthday party pictures, this is the morning after when they all went outside and were dancing, one girl brought her laptop so there was always a steady supply of music! I didn't think they'd have the energy for that, but I guess they did. The picture is kind of checkered because I was taking it through a window. They didn't want me taking pictures, so I had to be sneaky and get some from inside the house.

This is when they were outside the night before and she was opening gifts...she is SO ENAMORED with Twilight, it's hilarious. She's read all of the books over 5 times, I'm not exaggerating.

They roasted some marshmallows in the chiminea, and had a good time outside until about 10:30pm. It was lights out at 11:30pm and then there was a lot of talking/giggling. I'm pretty confident that everyone was asleep just after midnight.

I hosted a Wheels Morning here with the Mom's club and we had a really nice time. Lots of kids brought their favorite wheelie toys and rode around while the moms hung out and chatted under she shade. Jack had a good time too! Amber wouldn't smile for the camera, she only wanted to eat her chip.

Here are some random close-ups that Hannah took of Jack the other day. His eyelashes are sooo long.

Hannah was so excited when she got her new charm bracelet/watch for her birthday from Grandma and Nonno Menicucci and Uncle Jeremy. She LOVES it.