Twisted Pretzels

What has the world came to. I was sitting home while the kids were napping and Diane was out shopping for a new purse or something. Tiger Woods was making another amazing comeback in a golf tournament. Seems just like any other day here at the Tepen's. Then all of the sudden sirens start blaring, the dogs are up pacing around acting all nervous. I was like what the heck is going on. I walk out onto the back deck and look around, nothing too special, the typical afternoon thunderstorms we get. More sirens going off now, I'm thinking, uh-oh better wake the kids and head to the basement. It wasnt even raining yet. As I was walking towards the stairs, I glance towards the front door and have to take a second glance because I couldnt believe I saw what I thought I saw. I walk out onto the front porch for a better look. The neighbors are all out looking up at the sky. Lo and behold a funnel cloud. It wasnt anything too special at first, just a small little dropdown. I was thinking, all this noise for this little thing? Well, it didnt take very long to grow. It was not very far away from the house. I felt some relief that it was a few miles away, but still an amazing sight watching it grow from basically nothing to a full fledge tornado. Now it wasnt one of those big midwest cat 5 ones, but pretty good for Colorado.

Wes and Mia preparing for our big storm:

Progress of the funnel cloud as it passed us by

A funny thing happened on the way to work this morning.

Ok. It didnt happen on the way to work, it was at bandcamp. No really, this morning when we were getting the kids ready for daycare, in their bedroom, it happened, and I'm not lying this time.

Mia likes to put the dirty clothes in the hamper when we are putting them in their clothes for the day. She opened the sliding closet door and put her sleeper into the hamper. She then closed the door. A minute later, she sees Wes' sleeper on the floor and decides that needed to be put away too. So, both Wes and Mia walk over together to put it into the hamper. She then closes the door, with Wes still inside the closet. He starts screaming because he is now in the dark closet, alone and doesnt know how to get out. After a few seconds, Mia opens the closet door back up and tells him "out, out, out". Wes just looks at her and then she tells him "get out, get out". Be the stubborn son, he ignores her, so she just closes the door on him again. Pretty funny, might have had to be there. This time though, he just opens it back up and walks back into the room. At least he is a quick learner.

Wes also learned a new bad habit at daycare this week. He will take a swig of milk from his sippy cup and hold it in his mouth. Then after a few seconds he will spit it out and it will run down the front of him and onto him and anything under him. fun fun fun.

A Few Pics to throw darts at (print them out first David)

Potty Mouth

So. It was just a matter of time before it would happen with all the four letter words that fly around this house with complete abanodon. Diane was doing something in the other room and said "SH!T". Next thing you know, Mia comes into the room repeating the bad word. Now that it is part of her vocabulary, there is no stopping it. Now, we are getting a sh!t sh!t here and a sh!t sh!t there, here a sh!t, there a sh!t, everywhere a sh!t sh!t. I've said since the beginning to Diane, "you do realize that our kids are going to have the biggest potty mouths this side of the Mississippi". This is just the beginning of it I'm sure.

So what else is new around the Colorado Tepens house....Allie is still kickin' it, just more tired than she used to be. I'm still working on the basement as time permits. Started putting in the tub this weekend, but things did not go very well. Spent a most of a day on it, but as of right now, I'm right where I started. Decided to wire the bar and smoke detectors today along with an additional floor outlet in the living room. Have a few other projects around the house to get done this spring besides the basement.

What have the kiddos been up to lately. They both are walking and learning new words, yes even the bad ones as noted above. Mia is a climber. She likes to climb up on the coffee table and walk around. First time she did it, she didnt know how to get down and started screaming. Showed her how to get down, and now she likes to go up there to get some alone time away from Wes. He hasnt figured out how to get up there yet. He just stands at the edge and screams. She will also climb up onto the rocking chair. She uses her toy car to climb up onto the couch. She did a dive off the top of it this evening, hopefully she learned that it hurts to do that.

Wes is still a brute. He is learning words too, but doesnt pick them up as quick as Mia does. His favorite thing to do is turn his bottle upside down and bang it on the table. Unfortunately all the milk comes out making a huge mess. His second favorite thing to do is hit his sister.

They both are learning their body parts, they know eyes, ears, mouth, tooth. When you say nose Mia will sometimes stick her finger up the ole nostril knuckle deep and then stick it in her mouth. I think she saw Diane doing that one time.

Diane thinks the other kids at their daycare think Mia and Wes are tasty. They have both been bitten at daycare by other kids. Gives new meaning to the other white meat. Reason I say that is because there is only one other white kid in their class. Hopefully they wont get bit anymore or else we will have to start rubbing them down every morning with tobasco sauce.

It is pretty hilareous to watch the kids dance. They both do a little squat up and down to the beat of the music. Wes also has a little sumo move in his repetoir. He puts his hand on his legs, squats down and stomps around like a sumo wrestler trying to knock his opponent out of the circle.

Last time I was home, my parents had a calendar on their counter in the kitchen. I noticed that there was a big ole advertisement from a funeral home on it. I asked them if it was common for funeral homes to mail calendars to retired people and recruit business like this. Does the best calendar get your business? I didnt flip through the calendar, but I cant help myself now from wondering, what pictures were inside? Was there a nice 6 foot deep hole in one scene, possibly a best of headstones page, nice John Deere backhoe in another or a hearse on another page. Lets see, it would have to have twelve scenes. Up to four, will have to think on it a little more. Sidenote, think anyone has ever pimped my ride to a hearse?

Happy Spring Everyone.

Feel free to visit. Been living in this house for 3 years now and not a single person on my side of the family beside my mom and dad has been out to visit.

Nothing Much New Here

So I have been after Chris to update the blog for a little while now, and surprise surprise, he has not done it. I have also reminded him that this was his idea and that he agreed when he came up with the idea of a blog that it would be his sole responsibility to keep it updated in a timely fashion. And yet, here I am, typing this while two 15 month olds trash my already trashed office - oh yeah, and they're screaming while they are trashing it. I'm sure many of you out there have experienced this very same thing.....both the screaming kids and the stubborn husband -ha ha. Anyways, enough about that. We are all well here. Kiddos are mastering the act of running without falling down too much. They are both getting lots more teeth too. Chris is making good progress on the basement. And I am maintaining my status as ring leader of the whole bunch and I'm doing it without the need for medication - which I think is impressive considering I'm dealing with two very active 15 month olds.....oh yeah, and as fore mentioned, a very stubborn husband. The kiddos are working themselves into a screaming frenzy now, so I'll just attach some pictures for your enjoyment and sign off. Hopefully the next blog I can get Chris to participate......

My What Big Teeth You Have

Mia got her first big ole chomper tooth over the weekend. It has almost completely come in. We have been calling it the surprise tooth because we didnt even know it was there. I was brushing her teeth on saturday night and saw a flash of something. I just thought she was chewing on a sock or a piece of paper she picked up off the floor and went to get it out of her mouth. To my surprise, it was a molar. Diane said earlier in the day that most kids dont start getting their molars until around 18 months. So now she is up to 7 teeth total. I figured with the big teeth coming in they would be extremely fussy. We didnt even notice any difference in her behavior. Now when she gives her angry face, it really means something.

One of Mias favorite things to do is crawl or walk around with something on her head playing peekaboo. It doesnt matter if anyone is playing with her. They dont even have to be in the same room. I think she is hiding from Wes so he doesnt tackle her, but Diane insists that is peekaboo. We have a little rocking chair in the living room she really likes to sit in. She climbs up into it and sits there with a big ole grin on her face like she is queen. It is funny watching her try and rock it. She has been trying to talk a lot more and shows a lot of interest in learning new things. She tries to say dog (gaaww), nose (naa), poopy (puppy). If we ask her where her nose is, she will point next to it and say naa. If she happens to be on your lap, she will point to your nose and say naa. She is walking like a champ now and is incredibly cute with the little tiny steps she takes. Last time she was weighed, she was up to 18 pounds. At this rate, she will be 18 months old before her carseat can be turned around.

Wes is turning into a true terror. He thinks he is a football player and really enjoys tackling Mia. He will tackle her and then hold her head down and laughing about it while on top of her. He has 6 teeth completely in and two more coming out right now. No big ole compers like Mia though. Walking is old news for him now, his next challenge it trying to run. He isnt very good at it, but keeps on trying. Doesnt seem interested in learning words like Mia does. He seems to lag behind her in that area. He weighs about 23 pounds. His favorite thing to do it put things into other things and making noise. He will take one of his toys and put into a toy pot and carry it around and then bang it on the table. If it makes noise, he is all about it. The days in the jumperoo are done for him. He outgrew it, such a shame for him to lose his favorite thing to do. If you havent seen him in the jumperoo, you havent seen a kid having fun.

I've been spending most weekends working on the basement. I will spend about 5 or 6 hours each day over the weekend down there. So far I have all the walls up except for 1. The one I havent finished yet just happens to be one I tore down earlier. It was alongside the stairs and wanted to open up the entry. I have to replace the portion from the floor to just above the stairs so you can see most of the basement coming down the stairs. Talked Diane into taking the kids over to some friends one day a couple weekends ago so I could shut off the water to the house and move the main shutoff to the house, pressure regulator, expansion tank on the water heater and sprinkler system shutoff. It worked out perfectly, I was just about to turn the water back on when she walked in the door. I am so glad I wasnt given my Dad's or brother David's plumbing skills. They spent over a day replacing a water heater at my sisters house once. Something that should have taken 4 hours on a real bad day. Moving 12 foot wall panels was a lot of fun to do by yourself. I was pretty lucky and only lost control of two of them while moving them and only had one of the two hit me in the head. Diane asked if the wall was ok afterwards. I've done a little bit of electric and some other minor plumbing so far. Spent a small fortune on cabinets for the bar, vanity and faucets for everything. It seems I am back into spending $200 everytime I go to the hardware store and I havent even bought the tub, countertops or tile yet. Wont be too much longer until I will be hanging drywall....at least I hope. My boss said something a week ago about having to start working lots of overtime, so you just never know.

Wes and Mia playing (wes has things in his cup)

Just a couple of posers

Wes in Diane's friend Suzanne's, christmas outfit

Mia in Diane's friend Suzanne's, christmas outfit

For Jameson

While we normally update the blog with info about the kids, this blog is in loving memory of our dog Jameson. Jameson took ill on Thursday and after watching him for 2 days and waiting for him to get over whatever had him down, Chris took him to see the vet Saturday afternoon because he was getting worse. After some blood work and an examination it was determined that his pancreas was not working properly. We suspect that on one of his many sock benders, that one of those baby socks got stuck in his intestines somewhere. The doctors suspected that the infection had gone systemic and that he would need days of IV therapy and surgery.....needless to say the cost for these treatments was through the roof, and we had to make the tough decision to put him to sleep last night. He was very sick and obviously in a lot of pain. Jameson buddy, I hope you feel better now and that you can eat all of the socks you want. You will be missed.