What's in your glass?

We had a glass of cold mug root beer for dinner. Taylor rarely drinks anything but warm water. She's recently started drinking cold water intermittently. In between the 45th and 46th time of telling her to eat her dinner she decided to make a joke.

Taylor: Daddy, what's in these glasses?
Daddy: Root Beer
Taylor: Root Beer? Your glass has coke'n it! Mommy's glass has coke'n it. My glass has coke'n it. ----pause..smile......But I don't like "coconut".

A three year old that can make a play on words to make a joke=trouble

The End of Days-(Bottle Days)

Last night marked the last scoop of stinky formula! We are officially out. It was pretty exciting knowing we would not have to buy that stuff anymore. I hope the boys adjust to no night time bottle though.
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Little Orphan Taylor

Daddy: Go brush your teeth please.
Taylor: You better be nice Daddy or I'll take you to the D.I.
Daddy: You are going to take me to the DI?
Taylor: Yeah-I'll just put you in the truck.
Daddy: Are you just going to take me?
Taylor: No, I'm going to take Mommy to the DI too.
Mommy: What about the boys?
Taylor: I would just take care of them.
Mommy: What would you do with them?
Taylor: I would just play with them, then feed them and put them in their beds.
Daddy: Who's going to drive you to the D.I. To drop us off?
Taylor: Oh, I'll just call Gramma Chugg.
Mommy: Would you ever take Gramma Chugg to the D.I.?
Taylor: Oh NO!
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Boys Head Bump Documented

I snapped this picture of the boys doing their head bump that Carin wrote about yesterday.
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Taylor Talk

This morning Taylor spilled her milk at breakfast and somehow it ended up getting dumped down the wall. So as I was cleaning it up she said, "That's funny mommy it's like a waterfall, except it's a 'milkfall'...hahahah"

Another Favorite Little Boy Moment

Bennett and John do this funniest thing and they have done it ever since they have started socializing with each other..(don't ask me exactly when that started cause I don't remember). They did it again today. When they are in their high chairs eating this is what happens. They'll be eating merrily along and then one of them will stop and look at the other. Soon he'll stop eating and look back, then they slowly lean their heads together until their heads touch and just laugh and laugh. Then they'll do it over and over until one of them starts eating again. It is hilarious! Most of the time they do it when in their chairs but the other day they were both standing in the doorway to the kitchen holding on to the door frame and they looked at each other and gave 'head kisses' and laughed and laughed. What funny boys!

Taylor's First Family Portrait

This is Taylor's very first family portrait...she drew it all by herself without coaching from Mommy or Daddy. For some reason she calls Kirk's hair 'spooky' hair...I think she means spikey...funny. I personally like that we are all doing the splits...I don't think I have ever been able to do the splits in my life so it's nice to see what I would look like in that position.
Good work Taylor! You are an artist!

LARGE post...warning only read on if you have a good 15 minutes to devote to this post!

So I am finally getting around to posting pictures from Bennett & John's birthdays and Halloween...couple weeks late isn't too bad! So we had a fun day on their birthday and just enjoyed the fall day. We did get to play in the leaves for a bit, the boys weren't too crazy about that. But they did enjoy opening their presents that night.

Here is John reading a new story he got from Great Grandma & Grandpa Funk with Daddy. Doesn't he look all grown up now?

And Bennett waiting for another present to be set in his lap.

Grandma & Grandpa Welling got the boys a fancy new duelly (sp?) ride. It is fancy nice and they love strollin' in it. I must admit they enjoyed the box a lot as well.

Grandma & Grandpa Chugg got the boys a car track and some cool cars. Notice Bennett is already exhibiting signs that he has inherited the 'Chugg tongue' from his Daddy.

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon on their birthday cakes (WAY longer than expected)...in my mind they looked nothing like they do in these pictures...I'm sure it's just bad photography...right? The boys clearly didn't care what they looked like...they just loved chowin' down.

Which brings us to Halloween. We dressed Bennett and John up like the Mario Brothers: Mario & Luigi. I even crocheted some hats for them because it is not the season to buy baseball hats apparently. It was quite the ordeal trying to get them to keep their hats on for a picture...this is the best one we got. I was sweating by the time we got done taking pictures trying to keep their hats on them.

Little Mario.

Here's a good one without the hats.

Taylor wanted to be a poodle like last year which I thought was fantastic. Here she is "Little Fifi" in front of her playhouse that we decorated for Halloween.

Black Market Shower head

So when we remodelled our house, we did everything except the showers which were still in pretty good shape. In the master bath you find this beauty. My guess is that it is the original American Standard shower head from 1967. Why after 40 years has no one replaced this old worn out shower head? Simple. We don't dare. They do not make anything half as good today. This baby will drain the entire 40 gallon water heater in 5 minutes. In the process of giving you a very powerful back massage, it will gently rip your epidermis off until the water turns warm and then cold very quickly letting you know you've wasted enough energy and enjoyed yourself enough for one day. I assume people who build custom homes pay big bucks for this type of shower. Carin has resisted me when I've talked of replacing it. If you're interested, the Master Bath shower is now available for reservation. When calling, ask for the Cosmo Kramer special.

Holy 7 Layer Salad Batman!

This is Carin's creation. She loves 7 layer Salad and this one turned out to be a masterpiece! We are going to Grandpa Chugg's Birthday dinner tonight and have to share it. She said she could eat the whole thing by herself.

Happy Anniversary!

Tonight (November 1) marks our first date ever. Carin and I got to go to a fun party at Andy and Ashley Wright's house and even got to ride the motorcycle! Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the kids! Time's have gone by pretty fast! Six years dating, five years of marriage and three kids, 2 Degrees, 11 cars, two motorcycles and 3 dwellings later I love you more than ever Carin.

The Gym

So....drum roll please....I have gone to the gym 3 times this week!!! YAY!!! I know I know....this is HUGE!! And let me tell you...I survived! That first time going boy...WOW....I can only express my feelings through Brian Regan...so here you go.

Fall Pictures of the Kids

Daddy's going to mainly do a picture post tonight because it's been a little while. I will leave the boys' first birthday celebration post to Mommy as she was the mastermind, conductor and party planner. These are mostly pictures of the kids doing fun stuff outside and enjoying the good fall weather that we've had. We've been soaking up all of it we can! The boys are starting to stand up and are very fast crawlers by now. The doctor has assigned them to the 3rd percentile in weight. They are healthy eaters and have no problems. As we all know, short and little are the most desirable physical qualities anyway. (For jockeys or gymnasts)
Little Bennett's first roll in the leaves. I think the kids are just enjoying being outside.

Carin's been trying to teach the boys to feed themselves-which they do very well for the most part with their hands but this was a breakthrough.

Taylor's getting prettier by the day. I love her in-between length hair that's always in her face and the curly hair that she loves her daddy to run his fingers through. She made my heart jump tonight when she came up to me and asked if I would teach her some stories about Jesus. Needless to say, we didn't make it to bed before bedtime.

Johnny's also enjoyed being outside in the yard. It's practically impossible to take them out there by yourself because they run/crawl in three different directions. Somehow Carin did it while I was at work though and captured these fun pics.

Our little/big family at Black Island Farms in Syracuse. I think this is probably as good as it gets. We can always count on Taylor for the consistent smile.

Taylor at Black Island Farms in their sand box made of corn kernels. Pretty fun!

Our little munchkins with attitudes. Bennett's in back. Johnny's up front pulling faces for the camera.

At Black Island farms, the kids all got to pick a pumpkin. Each tried their own method to eat it as soon as it was off the vine. The consensus was that pumpkins aren't good eatin'.

Please Join the Halloween Celebration

Carin and I have wanted to do something that would make a difference outside our little bubble world in which we live so comfortably. When we moved into our house four years ago, we started a fun tradition of making homemade donuts for Halloween and having that be our treat for trick-or-treaters. We even pulled it off 8 days after the twins were born with the help of family and friends. I know....I know...it goes against everything you try to teach your kids about not accepting homemade treats or anything unwrapped. The fact was we know most everyone that comes to our house and they know how hard it is to try and get a razor blade into a hot spudnut.... We were sick of the boys and girls that looked like they had just shaved their beards or had a boob job coming to collect their "welfare candy". We also thought it would be fun for the parents to look forward to on Halloween besides kids hopped up on pure cane sugar. It has been a success but we are going to add something new this year.

We have invited the North View Fire Department to come up to the house and "fill the boot" for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. I have a dear friend that I have known since childhood that suffers from the disease and we want to help in some way eradicate this nasty disease. Since we are not scientists, this is it. Plus I know the firefighters quite well...you see they visited my home quite frequently last year...a dangerous drop in blood pressure from Grandpa, a Carbon Monoxide scare from a bad water heater and me falling 10 feet off a ladder and landing on my back in the car port all within about 3 months of each other. We got acquainted quite well. Hopefully they will be able to bring up the fire truck for all the kids to see. I know there was nothing cooler than a fireman when I was a kid. We invite you to come and enjoy the evening with us with a donut and hot chocolate. We will have additional plates of donuts for sale and all the money will go to the boot.

If you are coming we ask you to RSVP so that we know how many donuts to make. Last year we did around 200 and they were gone by 7:30. Email me at chuggfamily@msn.com if you can come and for directions.

The most originally costumed family will get a full plate of donuts to take home!

PS. If you don't know us personally and you are reading this...first of all that's creepy and second of all please just send your check made payable to MDA. Thanks!

Fun Fall Days!

We got the old wagon out and pulled the kids around the yard...John was the only casualty, he fell out once.

John likes to try to take his clothes off and this is what we found after nap the other day. He thinks he's so sneaky!

They are starting to look like little boys instead of babies! I can't believe it! Look at Bennett on the left...he really looks like a big kid!

Update Time or What!

Here is an update on all the kiddos...cause it's been a while. We'll start with Miss Taylor. She started dance last week and silly Mommy forgot to take a picture at her first dance class. We'll get one next time. But she looks so dang cute in her little (and I mean little) leotard and leggings. In her class she is the youngest and by far the smallest (a whole head smaller!). But her teacher said that she is the best little listener and that she just does a great job. She is in a class with 4 and 5 year olds, and she loves it. This pic is when we went to the zoo last month. Taylor loved the gorillas the best...this is her best impression of a gorilla face.

In other news, we have entered the zone of major tantrum central! Whoever said "terrible twos" was DEAD WRONG! 3 is kicking my trash. For some reason sweet little Taylor can turn into a hysterical screamer at the drop of a hat. Don't get me wrong she can still be sweet little Taylor that obeys well most of the time, but when she's in one of her stink moods....WATCH OUT! This happened at Walmart the other day and I almost had to leave our cart and head to the car because she just wouldn't calm down. If any of you have any advice as to how survive this phase I would LOVE to hear it!

We went to Bear Lake last month with Kirk's family and had a great time. We did make it to the beach on the way home and the kids loved it. This is John crawling around in the sand. It was so funny because he was just crawling all over the place leaving this little slug like trail behind him...I wish you could see it better in the picture. He would stop every so often to chomp on a seashell...needless to say I stayed busy trying to keep them from choking to death.

John is getting ready for the world of walking. He took 2 steps by himself the other night...watch out world here he comes!

Bennett is just a funny kid. The other night at dinner he was talking "babamamababa" and blowing bubbles with his spit (one of his new favorite things to do), anyway he would say a couple things, stop, look up at the ceiling and laugh and laugh like he had just told the funniest joke. He did this probably 5 or 6 times. It was hilarious...he's going to be a little jokester I guess. We have also learned that Bennett doesn't like socks...he takes them off the first chance he gets and then snuggles them...Bennett is also the one that loves shoes...a bit of a foot fettish perhaps?

Another week of memories!

This week was fun. The most eventful part was rushing Bennett up to the emergency room on Saturday night. He apparently has croup. It came on so quickly that it worried us and so we just played it safe and had him checked out. They gave him some steroids to help open his airways. I told him he will now end up bigger than his brother. I think they might have curse of the small genes. Bennett was weighed last night and in his jammies he weighed 17 lb 6 oz. We were expecting around 20. They have been eating like little pigs lately. They consistently eat more than Taylor does and I think often come close to the daddy portion.

Donations for food will be accepted. cash will also not be turned away. We are going to have to move to the country and buy a cow and some chickens when these boys really start eating. I just can't figure out where they get their love for eating.

Carin and I have begun to realize a resemblance between Mater the Cars Character and John. He has thus temporarily earned the honorary nickname Mater.

John and Bennett have been learning to brush their own teeth this week. John is just interested in showing the camera how his can also function as a sword.

Bennett's reaction after being told he had eaten all the food in the house and that there was no more.

Taylor loves to get up and go out to get the newspapers. She scampers out and dances her way back. It's one of those things i will always reference in my memory of fun things Taylor did when she was 3. Who needs a dog?

Fun times in the bathtub. I think we should have painted the walls with a special swimming pool paint. The boys love to splash.

John was introduced to balloons and has since become their biggest fan. This is what he does when you ask where the balloons are and there happens to be two in the room.

Our little princess. She loves to dress up and turn on the radio and dance. This was apparently country music. She may just grow up and be a rodeo princess...or....follow in her mommy's footsteps and go the dairy princess route!

Taylor's New Favorite Thing

Taylor and I took a ride on my "little motorcycle" last Wednesday. We rode up to some developments that just have curb and gutter and I let Taylor tell me where to drive. She sits on the gas tank and holds onto the handlebars and just loves it. Her Favorite part of the night was all the excavators and tractors parked up there. We must have seen them all twice. She dons her little construction helmet and will go anywhere with you.

It was also fun for me because it was a reality check for me that Taylor is getting old enough to actually start doing really fun things with. It's that time dads dream about being able to do fun stuff with their kids. So it was a good memory for me as well.

About a half a block away from home we ran out of gas. We had all the fun we could I guess.

Kirk's HEAD

In case you weren't aware, Kirk has started a new blog. He decided he needed an outlet to vent his pent up thoughts on the latest happenings in the world and the political process (I'm not the best person for the job because I am, shall we say, 'less connected' with the outer world). So he started a blog. In the process he has remembered how much he enjoys writing and I think he expresses himself extremely well. So if you ever want Kirk's opinion on what is going on in the world the blog is www.glorious-revolution.blogspot.com.

""Falls" a-comin'"

So to begin tonight, I will have to ask you to forgive me for the number of photos I posted here under this one post. It may take you a while to go through them all. Oh who am I kidding? You are blog-hopping. What else is on your to-do list? Second of all for my gratuitous use of parenthesis in the title. You see it is getting a bit "fallish" round these parts and there have also been a great number, yea, innumerable bonks, crashes, spills and doinks in our house. We currently identify the boys by bruises on either left or right side of the forehead. I can't tell you which side because in the course of this memory card, they have both healed nicely on both sides.


Here is our two-toofed hillbilly group sitting on the porch at dusk. At least they are in upscale Adirondacks huh?!

Bedtime after bottle is such an awesome time of the day. First of all, Carin and I get to have some "kid free" time and do whatever we want. Carin usually works on projects, crafts or journals for the kids. By the way, I defy anyone who reads this blog to tell me they have seen a hotter mother of twins. I took this picture and immediately thought-holy crap Kirk-you married a model. I think she is absolutely stunning. To look this good at the end of a Sunday with twins and a three year old is like jumping out of an airplane, falling 10,000 feet, landing on your head, popping your helmet off and having "Pantene hair." It just doesn't happen. Except to ME!

The boys were officially introduced to bubbles tonight. I am not sure what they thought of them.

Bennett look less enthused.

The other day, the boys got up from their nap and were playing around while Carin was sewing. Things got quiet and then a door shut. Carin thought the boys must have pushed Taylor's door open and awaken her from her nap. Upon further investigation, the boys have sneakily gone into their own room and John crawled up on top of the Huggies box and was perched there while Bennett watched. Exhibit A for bonks on the head.

So we are getting in all the summer activities possible before it gets too cold. We went to the Hogle Zoo last week and enjoyed the excitement the kids showed. John is enthralled by the ginormous elephant eating a bail of hay strung high above his head. So much so that he doesn't care that the same fly that spent the previous night exploring said elephants back side now perched itself upon his head.

Taylor tended Grandma Welling's kitty while she was at the temple on Saturday. Grandma Welling has adopted kitty after kitty's mommy broke into her house had a litter of kitties and then split. Now kitty is the only one left surviving and she has been bottle feed kitty formula since she was the size of a large mouse. Grandma is pretty protective of her little treasure. We all know she secretly loves kitty and wants to keep her forever.

The dinosaur park in Ogden. The boys enjoyed their lunch and watching Taylor on the slides. Ever since the trip they have both began growling at everything. It's pretty sweet.

Our little bone excavator at the Dinosaur park.

John's first taste of mommy's baked pasketti. They loved it!

Bennett finishes off his Italian feast with a brownie. These boys eat like starving Aborigines.

One of our favorites is mommy's German pancakes. This one broke a record for height above the pan. Taylor will eat them until the whole pan is gone. Yes, this is the same little girl who has weighed 25 pounds for a year. If it doesn't get dipped in syrup or ranch she is not interested.

Mommy and Taylor by the giraffes at the zoo.

Bennett's expression of the elephant that so much pleased his brother is priceless and needs no caption.