homework

This is where my boys hang most of the time. They love their bouncy chairs! Anders almost always has his tongue out.

After school, my first grader always has homework...and I give a lil homework to my pre-schooler since she loves doing things her big bro does (and that way she stays out of her big bro's way as he does his).

One day my preschooler said:
"The babies never have homework!"

To which my first grader immediately responded:
"Yes they do. They have to not cry!"

All four do a very good job with their homework.

hangin' wit da babes

Anna Clara had some fun with the boys today.

prepping the scene


This babe is allll over me.....


....but I'm not so sure I want her to be....


Help!!??

just chillin'

summer moments

View from my parents' home in Hilton Head, SC

All day, every day, I am "grabbing moments" -- whether it's relishing a moment with my babies who are growing so freaking fast or grabbing a moment to get something done while all four children are happy and occupied (how few and far between those moments are!!).

Everything every mother of twins told me about having twins was, and is, true. My world has changed completely. C O M P L E T E L Y. I am in constant amazement at how constantly busy I am with the addition of two little baby boys. It is CONSTANT.

But I am loving it. Oh so much.

But there are moments.....when the love of it ain't there so much....

Anyway, I am finally grabbing a moment to update my blog with moments from my summer:

There were some other babies born on the Kappelman Farm this summer.
Check out the wee beak inside the hole in the house Soren painted!

But these are the babes that kept me verrrrrry busy this summer.....

Niels and Anders at 3 1/2 months old

Busy feeding....

This was the first time I fed them solids at 2 months old, but I gave up pretty quickly
since neither I nor they were ready to deal with spoon feedings.

....and feeding......

I started feeding them solids regularly at 3 months old. These boys eat one heckuva lot,
lemme tell you!
(Check out the difference in bib-to-baby size in those two photos!
Just ONE MONTH difference!)

....and feeding......

I'm seriously not kidding. I'm still nursing too, but, frankly, nursing all day,
every day does not appeal to me in the least. Hence lots of supplementing with
formula and solid foods.

They also, thankfully, do lots of sleeping.

2 months old in the bassinet. So itty bitty. One month later they couldn't fit in it together.

Anders: 2 months

Anders, 2 months

The best Big Pa ever. Seriously.

I would always put them in the same crib about two feet apart and I would inevitably find them snuggled up together in the morning. So. Dang. Cute.

I mean come ON. Waaaayyyy too cute for words.

I feel like the luckiest momma in the entire world every single day because BOTH, yes both, babies started sleeping 10 to 12 hours a night at 3 months old. EVERY night. How freaking lucky am I?? VERY lucky.

There was, however, a few months when they were NOT sleeping through the night and, thankfully, oh so thankfully, I was staying at my parents' house during the worst of those sleep-deprived months.

In amongst my horrid sleep-deprivation, we did many, many fun things. Like.......

rode the wave runner


tubing with Big Pa


wave running and tubing


swimming (the first year they both swam without any floaties!)


visiting "buddy," our dolphin friend we would see on our boat trips on the intercoastal waterway


went fishin' with Nana



worked on our "puzzle of the summer" -- one of the coolest puzzles ever


This was my personal sanity-saver, Tasha, who made it so that I had the freedom do so many of these things and spend some time with the adults in my family. She took such great care of my boys.


My parents had a 4th of July Bash that was an absolute blast with a Dixieland Band and good times had by all.... Unfortunately, I was in the midst of my intense sleep deprivation and baby feedings, so I don't remember much of it -- but my nephew took this picture and it helped me remember some of it.

He also took this picture. It is so beautiful there.....

My big boy had his 6th birthday during our month away. He asked to have a "Cardinal Cake", so that is just what he got! I made a nest cake and bought a cardinal (that even makes chirping noises like a Cardinal when you squeeze it!) to put on top -- easy for this busy, tired momma and, more importantly, he loved it.



I sent this picture to Jim while I was away and he said I looked tired. Yes. Yes I was. Very, very tired.

Here are some other pics of my lil man who could not possibly be a better helper and big brother. He is everything good about little boys and big brothers.




I think this is the last picture of him with all of his teeth (in his favorite, and most adorable, hat that Nana gave him).


I love this picture. It's our first watermelon from our garden! SO yummy.


One tooth gone...


...both front teeth gone for his first day of school.


He makes his bed every morning with a different way of placing his stuffed animals. I love going to his room and seeing how they are arranged.

Jim has been working looooooong hours this summer so our garden was overgrown with weeds and he had to mow it over. However, we have had LOTS of tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers, cabbage, squash and potatoes; and some cantaloupe (SO sweet!!), watermelon, blackberries, onions, carrots, zucchini and eggplant. Frankly, it was a very good summer to not have an over-abundance of goodies. Key word: "OVER-abundance". We certainly had an "abundance", but apparently not in Farmer Jim's eyes as he was very sad about his garden this year. I have to admit that seeing his hard work from this past spring overgrown with weeds as tall as I am was a very sad sight to see. But...we had plenty for pickin' and canning.....

Picking tomatoes with Big Pa and JoiVie directing.


I canned quite a few jars of tomatoes and even made and canned salsa since we had so many peppers this year.

So that's it. I finally updated my blog with a few moments from my summer (there were SO MANY more that I simply did not capture). I can finally check it off of my very, very, very, verrrrrrry looooong to-do list. My hands are very full these days.

And so is my heart -- so constantly full of love and devotion for these guys.....

Just one dang cute picture of daddy and his boys at 3 months old.

you've got your hands full

It is my hope that anyone who reads this blog NEVER says those words to a mother. EVER. Chances are, if you think she looks like she "has her hands full" then she has already heard that said to her ten times that day (at least) already, so she certainly doesn't need to hear it again.

I hear it every single time I go anywhere with my boys -- and of course every single time I am anywhere with all 4 children. Every single time, without fail, it is said to me over and over again.

Little do people know that not only do I have my "hands full" but my head is so constantly full of all that I need to get done that I hardly think about my hands.

One of the things I have wanted to get done is update my blog with my summer activities with these guys:

Niels and Anders, 17 weeks old

Oh how they've grown since the last posting of them in these outfits, huh?

I was going to upload my latest blog entry last night with all of our summer activities, but then everything on the site went kerflooey and I got frustrated, so I shut it down.

I've had a rough week, to say the least.

Mostly because of this:

Yep, that's right. Pink Eye. And this was taken today when it was actually looking pretty good -- compared to the last SEVEN DAYS. Yes, seven days of itchy, sore, goopy, watery, irritated eyes. Really fun stuff. I've never had it before, I have no idea where I got it (none of my kids got it THANK HEAVENS. But wierdly enough, Jim got it while he was in Ireland for 6 days -- and I got it 4 days after he left.... Weird, huh?) and I have no idea when the hell it is going to go away. I am stinkin' mad about it at this point. I am so sick of itching my eyes, washing my hands, itching them again, washing again, putting goopy ointment in them to supposedly make them better (which it hasn't) and not being able to see. Everything has been blurry for the past SEVEN DAYS. Seven days is a long time to have itchy, irritated, goopy, sore eyes -- especially when you "have your hands full."

Oh and don't forget what time of year it is.

Beginning of school:

First day of 1st Grade (he had just lost his two front teeth!)

First day of preschool -- and she was SO EXCITED she did her signature arm flap when she's happy about something. She is FINALLY potty trained. Or so I thought. She had her first accident -- #2 yesterday and #1 today -- in three weeks. I hope it was just first-day-of-school jitters..... I hope......



With beginning of school comes homework, lots of driving to and from preschool every day, making lunches every night, and, worst of all, the morning frenzy. I don't need no morning exercise routine. I got myself my own lil marathon every morning. I break a sweat every single morning. No matter how much I get done the night before, or how early I wake up, it's still a morning frenzy. It hasn't helped that I can barely see. The Pink Eye definitely adds a rather large point of difficulty to my days.

(I also went to Anna Clara's Preschool Open House this week -- with sunglasses on. Indoors. Obnoxious movie star that I am, right? I just couldn't bear to show off my horridly bloodshot eyes. And...as I was putting the boys in the stroller before meeting her teachers and other parents -- for the first time -- both of my lil babes spit up their breakfast on my shoulder. I looked -- and smelled -- oh so lovely that day. I felt absolutely spectacular.)

Oh, and don't forget that it's also harvest time:

That means...LOTS of work for me. Cutting, canning, freezing, cooking, prepping, yada yada yada.

Yup, I have my hands full.

Today was not an especially good day. Not really at all. Hence the reason I am writing in this online journal o' mine because it helps me feel better after a long, yucky day. Nothing major happened, just lots of small, irritating stuff. Like the fact that my eyes are still irritated and itchy and goopy and ugly. After SEVEN DAYS (and counting!!) of non-stop irritation, itchiness and goopiness (not to mention that I look like I've aged 10 years -- and I feel like it too since everything I read is blurry).

Then tonight, after finally getting one whiny girl, two crying babies and one crying boy (who suddenly had become VERY upset that he had to go to school alllll day, every day) fed, bathed and ready for bed (While Mr. Incredible was still at work. Leaving at 4:30am this morning. And didn't get home until 10:30pm tonight. That man defines "work ethic".), I brought the babes up to their cribs only to find that I hadn't put the sheets on yet.

That's because I had completely forgotten about this:

One heapin' pile o' laundry to fold after a very long, very bad day.

But....in amongst the morning and evening frenzied activities, and in amongst all the things that keep "my hands full", there are moments like this:

 
The boys eating pureed butternut squash...from our garden of course!

And this:

As I was feeding the boys and getting dinner ready and washing dishes and setting the table, they were "chalking the world's largest hopscotch."

So...now you know why I haven't updated my blog in way too long. Yes, I do have my hands full. And my head is oh so full as well. All day, every day. But I do so love the breathtaking moments that make me want to take the time to pick up my camera and capture it.  Hopefully one of these days I will be able to upload those moments from this past summer -- because it was filled with so many.


ps: after spending four times as long as it should have to create this blog entry, I uploaded it and it went all kerflooey again with half of it missing -- so I had to redo half of it. Oh what fun that was. I can not figure out why it is all spacey and unlining up 'n stuff. So very very frustrating!! Like I have time for this????!!!! Perfect ending to an imperfect day.

Just one more lil moment to share..... 
Soren made this after school today with flowers from our front yard. He strung the flowers in a pattern (he's learning about patterns at school) on a green reed. I think it is so pretty, I just had to share.