Big Kid Bedrooms

The time has finally come to give the twins their own rooms. After weeks of planning, they are nearly complete. Mia picked out flowers and butterflies for her room. Wes picked out a fireman theme. Althought they LOVE their new rooms, they still insist on sleeping together. They take turns sleeping in each others rooms. Here are a couple of pics:

Renovation

So the Colorado Tepen's have started out the new year doing some remodeling around the house. First we tackled our cheesey fireplace surround and put in some fabulous stacked slate. Overall a pretty inexpensive project, but boy did it make a huge difference in our living room.

Then we started in on the kids jack & jill bath. New countertops, sinks, lighting, tub, tub surround......again, major difference. And the kids got cool monkey accessories to go with the updates.

New School

So this week was Wes & Mia's first week at their new school. We decided to move them to this new school because they were pretty much at the top of where they could go at the old school and they were starting to misbehave. The new school is right in our neighborhood and is an offical "school". They are in a private pre-k program and are required to wear uniforms. At first I wasn't quite sure how they would react to uniforms, but after this first week I can see that they really like it. They both said how cool it was that other kids were wearing the same shirt as them. The great thing for Chris & I is how tired they have been this last week. Our kids are pretty good sleepers to begin with, but this new school is really tiring them out. We put them to bed and usually there is a little bit of talking between them, sometimes we have to go in there a couple of times to get them to settle down......not this past week. In fact a couple of nights Wes crawled into bed before Chris was finished reading bedtime stories......that NEVER happens. Anyways, so far so good. Below is a picture of them in their uniforms, and the photo with Santa was from a lunch their new school hosted complete with a visit from Santa.

I do have some sad news to share. Many of you may know that my father has been really sick over the past year. He was placed in a nursing home about a year ago and has had many close calls since then. Yesterday morning he lost his battle. I hope you are somewhere that you feel better now dad - you will be missed. So, if you can when you read this, please take a moment to put some prayers out there for my dad.

Happy 4th Wes & Mia

Well, Wes & Mia are officially 4 today. We had a fun party yesterday to celebrate with friends. They got tons of cool new toys and cuddley jammies that they can't wait to wear tonight. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us. Here are a few pics from the party.....

Dude Wheres my Car

Been a while since that last blog. The hard part is that I cant remember what has happened since we last checked in. I know there has been a lot of yelling, kids not listening, timeouts, go to your rooms and wine, beer and ice cream. People say we are so lucky to have had twins. At times I would agree, but when the kids are being bad, not so much. People with just one kid or when they have them with a couple years or more apart have it much easier in my opinion. The kids used to play and get along great. Now they like to get into trouble together or fight. They know what buttons to push for each other, when they create a mess it is twice as big, twice as much kids screaming, twice as many he/she hit me. Trying times sometimes, but that is why we have the wine, beer and ice cream included in the list. I think after the kids bedtime, it always tastes so much better after a bad day.

Mia and Wes had their second sleepover a couple of weeks ago. Our friends the Nuetzels brought their two girls over for some cookie making, movies, playtime and overall good times. They all got along great and had a great time. They played upstairs in the loft and then worked their way to the basement for some pool and foosball. I'm sure Tim and Reynee enjoyed a whole evening without kids and being able to sleep in in the morning. The best part of the whole sleepover thing is that we get to drop our kids over there for a night next time....cant wait.

My parents came over for a visit for a couple of weeks. Always good to have them spend some quality time. My dad assumed him usual position on the corner of the kitchen bar. I think we will have to have that chair replaced sometime soon since it is getting worn out from all his sitting and reading a book on it. My dad was able to waterproof the ballasters on our deck and the adirondack chairs. I dont think the deck was done since he did it last. I put that on Di's honeydo list at the beginning of spring, but she never bothered to do it. She was more interested in shoe shopping. Next time I will have to entice her with a shoe shopping trip if she does it.

The basement is 100% finished finally. Yeah. So I decided to finish the drywall in the garages and have been working here and there on them. I almost have the first coat of mud on all the joints and seams. I'm hoping to be able to finish up all the mudding over turkey weekend and be ready to paint.

Speaking of turkeys, the kids birthday is coming up next weekend. Having a big 4th bday party on saturday. I volunteered to smoke something on my fabulous smoker, but di said we didnt have to smoke everytime we have people over. She dont know.

Halloween wasnt too long ago. Wes was Elmo and Mia was a purple fairy with wings and all. They had a great time collecting candy and we promptly let them keep a small bag a piece and di took the rest into work.

Funny story....I had a recall on my truck so we were all headed to pick it up from the dealer. On the way there, Mia asked when we were getting on the ship. We were both like, what are you talking about? She said ship....arent we going to the dealership?

We went to MO on vacation to visit my college roommate Skip and his wife Beth. They bought some more acres and are building a house. It has a great view over Shoal Creek. The house was supposed to be finished so we could stay there, but the Contractor wasnt able to get it done on time. Last I checked, it still isnt finished. The 5 month schedule has turned into 10....hopefully they will soon be able to celebrate with a double wide sacrifice and roast some wieners and marshmallows in the flames.

Our annual Octepenfest was a grand success. We had around 50 adults and kids there. I smoked a couple of briskets and a couple of pork butts. Had a couple of 5 gallon kegs filled with beer from the local brewery just up the road. All the food turned out fabulous and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. We didnt have any food left. So if you ever want to come on out and have some good BBQ with us, it is always the first weekend in October. Consider yourself invited.

This is for my brother Brian..... DUDE !!!!! Inside joke, but him and his kids will get it.

That is all for now....Tepen's out....

Trick or treatin' Tepens...look out Tallgrass !!!

Elephants and Cats can play baseball

First snow of the season

Mia and Wes really like our new babysitter

How could the Cardinals not win the WS when you have a pink princess rooting for you...

End of Summer Fun

Holly cow, the kids are soooo in to the water slide this year. It took them a while to warm up to it. Last year they had a pretty good time on it, so we thought this year would be even better. However, the first couple of times we set it up, neither one of them really wanted anything to do with it. So we didn't set it up until recently again and they were like crazy people on it. I don't know what flipped the switch for them, but I'm glad it happened. The last time the slide was out, it produced about an hour of nothing but laughing.

Over Labor Day weekend we went to this cool little amusment park called The North Pole. It is a Christmas themed park geared for little kids with lots of rides their size and complete with a Santa Clause. We all had a great time riding the rides. It was the first Santa that Wes didn't run away from too. I think we will definietly go back next year.

I'm a Big Kid Now

So we finally got the kids out on their new, well new to us, bikes that we scored at a community garage sale a few weeks ago. We decided for the first outting to head down to our mailbox and back....about a block and a half from the house. The kids were soooo excited. They did pretty well for their first time. Mia really had it figured out by the time we were on the way back. Wes was having a few issues as he is not as coordinated as Mia, but seemed to be doing alright. Here is a photo of them after the big ride.....

So yesterday we decided to have another go at riding down to the mailbox and back. Mia raced to get on her shoes and grab her helmet.....the anticipation of adventure was clearly in her eyes. Wes on the other hand ran out of the room saying NO! After much prodding, he confessed he was scared of his big bike, so we put him on his tri-cycle and he was happy as a clam again. Maybe next time Wes :)