I have this friend from college...

and she's a food genius. seriously. I remember her ALWAYS making pies and they were delish. So glad i lived below her and made friends with her whole apartment.

now she's kind of famous. I remember watching her on The Today Show and thinking - holy crap! this girl si going to be famous one day. I seriously think she needs to be on The Next Food Network Star!


anyways - on her blog (which has awesome recipes by the way!) she is giving away $5000 worth of KitchenAid appliances and lets face it, kitchenaid is awesome! I had to jump on this giveaway. You never know!

Here is the link to her page with the giveaway and a new recipe she made which looks freaking good.

http://www.laurenslatest.com/salted-caramel-apple-crumble-kitchenaid-challenge-video-with-giveaway/

nothing cuter

seriously dont think there is anything cuter then little babies/kiddos in overalls. 

ok... maybe sibling love!

(wish colton was in this picture too but he was asleep)

walking

we've got a walker

hot hot hot

where is fall? seriously... yesterday it hit 99 degrees and today it was high of 98. So ridiculous. its mid september! yesterday we stayed inside and stayed cool. I started to gate up just the kitchen so the boys have more room to run around. Colton has been starting to walk more!

also - d is very into halloween. she loves this chalkboard wall decal and wants to write on it all the time.. i was pretty impressed she did all the writing herself - she did have a little help on the w.

today we went on a walk and realized how hot it was going to get so after their afternoon (short) nap we set up the small pool outside and let the boys splash around. and we as in me and D - can i just say how tricky it is to do this with twins and a 4 year old .... yeah nearly impossible when there is water involved!

we're all ready for cooler weather! i had planned to make different soup twice this week but now i have to change that plan because of the heat. 

i want fall!

pull out the clippers

so tonight after the boys bath i was getting really sick of Kemp's hair all around his ears and neck. I tried to do a little trim the the scissors but it wasnt working out so well. I told tom - just get the clippers out. i dont care if we mess up. Luckily they didn't do as bad as i thought (as in behave). they each got a little piece of chocolate chip cookie for doing so well! and mommy got a WHOLE lot of hair in her shirt... it was gross.

we did Mr. K first... and when his gorgeous hair fell i got so nervous (i mean i want this kids thin straight shiny blond hair!) and then i saw what he looked like after and i wanted to cry.... in a good way.. he looks SO old!! where is my baby!?!

here is the result!

(and im so mad i didnt do before and after but it was seriously spur of the moment!)

here is Mr. C

and then D wanted in on the pics. She was SO upset with us about cutting their hair. i think she mightve thought we were getting rid of ALL of their hair or it would hurt them. it was kind of sad but now she loves it. As long as we dont give her a haircut!

so here is an updated pic of our kids as of today! (d was in the middle of eating homemade pizza for dinner... so she was a bit messy!)

then they all wanted to jump on the couch! i love this pic of the boys looking at each other as they laugh.

Beginning of the School Year

Little update on our family of 5.

D has been saying she wants to be 3 different things for halloween for the past few weeks. She's really getting into the spirit.. as in i thik she thinks halloween is like next week. we were at walmart and we had to walk down the halloween aisle about 5 times and she had to look at everything. 

maybe we will buy some purple and orange lights to go around our huge window.

she painted these yesterday and today

this is a pumpkin

she said this is her and a ghost and the sun and "thats isnt anything!" referring to the yellow blog.

the artist hard at work.

The last time we went grocery shopping she wanted to make cupcakes So bad since we had them at kaylees shower. so i was writing my list and insisted it go on it so i made her write it. She still has troubles with her C making it like a U. and her S's are a bit tricky as well.

And dont you love when they run out of room so they start writing all over the place?

So with D we are doing abcmouse.com and its working pretty well. she's always asking to do her preschool. She sees her cousin ayla going to preschool and cousin adam going into kindergarten she wants to do school so bad. wish we could afford to take her to preschool so she could get the hang of being away from home and meet new friends. Next year its kindergarten though and im already freaking out!

Tom started the new school year and yesterday was his first full day of all kids and he came home EXHAUSTED haha. i guess thats what happens when you have the whole summer off! hoepfully he gets back into it. He has a new room and some new classes he's teaching so that will be good. We're excited for some football games (and the snack bar... D is excited for the popcorn and tootsie pops. her go to treats) and visiting daddy at lunch. maybe we'll give a few weeks before we do that!

the boys are just growing growing...

currently they both are cutting their 5th (and different) tooth. I remember D getting diarrhea once or twice and having a rash when she was cutting a tooth but goodness. i go through about 6 poopy diapers before noon. at LEAST. then by the time the day is done ive changed at least 10. Its crazy.

Kemp can now stand for long periods of time before he gives up and sits down and crawls. He also loves to get up onto his knees. he even likes to do the "proposal or football kneel" with one leg bent. 

Colton is now taking steps and will stand forever and then take at the most 6 steps and lunges forward or plops on his bum. he knows crawling can get him around faster but i know he could be walking! 

(although part of me is ok with them not walking. we were at aunt taunjas house and they were the only ones not walking and it was nice i didnt have to chase them everywhere! haha)

other then that we're trying to get outside as often as we can. (we miss our green lush grass... not this yellow crunchy stuff that hurts to step on. poor boys cant crawl through it.)

D also lined up her chalk because we were decorating for a "pretend surprise party" for herself. haha. I do love having this covered deck. 

Can i just say im so excited for fall? the past 2 days its been so breezy and getting cooler. I even bought a fall smelling candle and today its overcast with sprinkling of rain.

makes me so excited.

also -leaves are already changing!