Buckling Up...

....and getting ready for our next set of visitors!!  Myke's sister and two of her three kids will be arriving here this Wednesday.  We'll have six kids in the house under the age of 7!  Going to be a lot of fun though - we're really looking forward to it, especially since it has been about 2 1/2 years since the kids have spent more than a couple hours at a time with their cousins!!  (and at that time it was just Chloë, as I was pregnant with the boys their last visit).

Was This Really My Life???

What happened to my babies???  They are suddenly not babies and are little BOYS.  I'm cleaning out the photos on my laptop.  Where do I find the time to do that????, you ask?!  ...I DON'T really have the time...but here it is Saturday afternoon, 3 kids are napping, Myke is napping and Chloë is having rest time.  My laptop has informed me that I'm almost out of disk space so I'm trying to free up some space.  I have thousands of photos on iPhoto and a bunch of them are duplicates, blurry, not worth keeping, etc...so clean out time so I can have space for new photos.  In typical me-fashion, I get distracted from doing the task at hand and start doing a blog entry...because looking at all these old photos are churning up all these old (well, two years old) memories and making me reflect on the past.  All started because, as I scan through all the photos on here I'm realizing that I don't even feel like I remember large chunks of time from when the boys were babies!  Thank goodness I do have photos to try to evoke some of the memories...but a lot of the photos I just stare at and think, "I can't even remember having TWO babies crawling, or feeding TWO babies...man, that must have been tough!"  However, I don't remember it being tough at all really.  It just was what it was.  I think the hardest part about it was that it was just so busy and non-stop that I never really had the time to sit and absorb it all.  Myke and I talk about that a lot lately, since we've had Ella.  I feel like I really am enjoying every moment of her...really trying to take it all in.  I love to just cuddle her and squeeze her squishy soft rolls.  I love to smell her baby-fresh smell and just stare at her stunning blue eyes.  I'm SO in love.  I don't remember that with the boys.  I know I loved (and still do) them but it must have been so non-stop that I never had time to let it all sink in.  It was feed one baby, put him down, feed the next baby, put him down, burp first baby, burp second baby, change clothes after first baby spits up on me, etc...  Not as much one-on-one time.  I guess that's just how it is with twins.  There is a lot of going-through-the-motions to get everything done and taken care of.  Sometimes I wonder if I gave them enough love and snuggles.  Sometimes I wonder if I'm giving them enough love and snuggles now.  I was never one to say HOW much more difficult twins were than a singleton because, in all honesty, I felt that Chloë as a baby was HARDER than the twins when I compare the two experiences.  Some of it is first-time parenting.  Some of it is temperament.  I don't feel like the twins were necessarily HARD.  I didn't celebrate "surviving the first year" as I hear a lot of twin parents do...I didn't find it all that hard.  I'm not in any way saying that Myke and I are super-parents (we are, of course, but that's not the reason it was easy..ha ha :))...I just honestly think the boys were easier than Chloë.  Chloë was held so much at the beginning (not blaming any particular grandparent, but some of them...no names mentioned.. had a hard time putting down the adorable little baby Chloë) that she didn't nap out of someone's arms until she was nearly 4 months old.  She was also never content in any one spot for more than 10 minutes.  So she required a lot.  She was worn in a wrap a lot.  She was "high-maintainence" in my opinion (and still is!).  Also, we were first time parents so we were probably rushing to "fix things" every time she so much as whimpered.  With the boys it just couldn't be that way.  We learned from our first child.  We started putting them down awake from the start so they could learn to sooth themselves.  They were much more content babies.  They would sit for long periods of time in their swings or bouncy seats and just watch the world go by.  That's all I really remember about their baby-hood.  Thank goodness for pictures!

I don't remember having 2 rear-facing car seats!  Must have been

a challenge to bring them out of the car!  Good arm workout!

Shopping with twins..where did I put the merchandise or groceries?!

Meal time x two

I love my boys!!

First Halloween- my little bees :)

Watching the Sea World light up tree - Christmas 2011

And that wraps up my little Saturday afternoon blabbing.  Thank you.

Quite evening at the Hines' abode.  Our guests have left the building, thus concluding the first sets of visitors of Summer 2013.  I say "sets" because the visitors who left today were my mom, my Aunt Traci and Aunt Helen (two of my mom's four sisters).  My mom has been here since mid-May and came with my dad (who left late-May to head back to VA) but my aunts just came for a long weekend visit.  The past month has been a lot of fun with a lot going on.  It was so nice to have all the extra hands and for the kids to get so much time with their grandparents and then get a chance to know their great-aunts.  It meant a lot to us that Helen & Traci came out to meet Ella and to spend time with us.  A big thank-you to them for all the help, for doing quite a few loads of our non-stop laundry, for taking Kyla on walks, for keeping the kitchen clean and for filling up our recycling!   And an extra-special thank-you to Aunt Traci for babysitting the boys & Ella this morning (Myke was at work and Chloë at school) so mom, Helen & I could go out for pedicures and I could get some grocery shopping done!

Traci reading to the boys today 

We had a lot of fun over the long weekend.  We went to the beach on Friday (Traci is visiting from Colorado and Helen from Las Vegas so seeing the ocean was a must), swam in the pool on multiple occasions, went to Chloë's soccer game, went out to dinner (got a babysitter!), and just hung out.  On Father's Day my mom and the aunties babysat the kids so Myke and I could go out for coffee and lunch on our own.  That was AWESOME.  We actually got to TALK.  And relax.  Ahhhhh :)

Typical Summer evening at the Hines' household-

Happy Hour by the garage watching all the kids burn off energy.

Isn't she cute?!

4 months old

Moonlight Beach, Encinitas

Traci, Owen, Helen, Eli, Mom

Traci & Owen

Eli & Gramma

Out to dinner with the group 

Rockin' the skinny jeans and Vans

Traci and her Corona-Ita

In the pool

Gramma & Eli

Summer = BBQ's and eating outside!

Chloë & Gramma gardening

Sweet Baby Ella

Myke and I on a date!

We'll miss you, Gramma!  It has been a fun month!

Chloë Takes Hollywood!

 Since I have a sore throat and am supposed to be going to sleep right now and not be on my laptop, I'll keep this brief, but we had quite the exciting day last Friday.  I got a text on Thursday from a friend who lives in the L.A. area (and produces commercials) that he was currently shooting a LUVS diaper commercial and that they needed a 3 or 4 year old blonde girl for the following day's shoot.   Would I be interested in him submitting Chloë's photo?  Sure, why not?  I was out running errands with my mom but I texted him a few pics that I had on my phone and he sent them in for approval to whomever makes the casting decisions.  Long story short, they thought she's be a good fit, we said yes to the opportunity, and we headed up to L.A. the next afternoon for her 4pm call time.

 For those of you who know Chloë, you can probably understand that we weren't sure she would cooperate for a commercial...or have any real concept of what was actually going on with the filming and doing 40 takes of the same scene.  I voiced those concerns to James (the producer) and he said that's the issue with most kids that age and not to worry...they always have a back-up kid in case it doesn't work out.  

We headed up Friday afternoon, hit no traffic at all, which was a shock.  We arrived at the "base camp" across the street from the mechanic garage where the commercial was to be shot.  They gave Chloë her own trailer space- a little room with a couch, sink, mirror, etc. to hang out in while we waited.  I guess it was her "dressing room".  One of the pics I had sent to the producer was of Chloë in her soccer uniform.  They liked that look and asked for us to bring that along.  So she got to wear that for the commercial and was on cloud 9 (she LOVES her soccer jersey).  I think this was our saving grace--because if wardrobe even ATTEMPTED to make Chloë wear a girly outfit then my bet was that it would have been World War III.  Soccer uniform was perfect!

Anyways, long story short, she did a great job and had a lot of fun doing it.  We have no idea if her scene will make it past the cutting room floor, if it will be aired, and if so, if it will be on the internet only or on TV...but no matter what, we all had a fun time and a cool experience.
(But no, we do not plan to sign her up with an agent and make this a regular thing...the only reason it was able to happen this time was due to the fact that my mom is in town and could stay in San Diego and watch the boys while we drove up there).

Anyways, more later...but here are some pics from Friday:

.

Walking to her trailer..

She had a trailer!  

Post-shoot with her TV Mom and TV baby brother and the director

The scene was at a mechanic's

Chloë goofing off post-shoot

Chloë and her TV Mom

They really hit it off!

Checking out the director's board

Running wild on the set

James (producer and friend) with Chloë

Standing in her trailer doorway

wild child