Sliding

This twins had a blast sliding down this tube slide. Hayley was doing this sitting up by herself around 8 months. Just goes to show how strong of a core she had at a very young age.

Big Weekend

We had the twins birthday bash on Saturday. It was pretty cool, we had a big turnout. I'm working on a photo montage now but I didn't have time to finish it. As soon as it's finished I'll get it posted. Thanks to everyone that attended, it was nice to see everyone and the kids all had a blast.

Funny Pick

Elliott tries taking a drink from the bath tub fountain.

The Birthday Bash

Ok the real bash isn't until Saturday but we had a little party today. I took the day off from work and Jens mom came down to surprise the boys. We took them to the park and they had a blast sliding down the big slide and swinging on the swing set. We got home and let them open a few presents and get messy eating cake.

Happy 1st Birthday Braxtyn and Elliott

The boys are going to be one year old tomorrow. Last year at time we were going through this. Anyway, it's been a roller coaster ride but it's been totally worth it. The twins are so much fun no days and they are on the verge of walking. It's going to be an exciting second year that's for sure.

10 Years with Hotmail

I just got an email from the Hotmail team letting me know that I started using the service 10 years ago. 10 years ago I was working nights plucking turkeys at the Jennie-O. Good times. I also owned an Ford Explorer back then and I tried to create an email address "explorer@hotmail.com", well somewhere along the line I wasn't paying attention and I ended up with setrum@hotmail.com. Today I recieve close to 100 emails, mostly just junk mail so I don't really use it that much. I think the developers over at Microsoft have done a good job with it. I use Skydrive, which is a virtual hard drive in the cloud. It's integrated nicely in the Windows Live suite.

Hayley Asks for a Sister

I admit that I spoil Hayley pretty bad. She's got to the point where she won't even ask mom for toys and treats, she just waits for me to get home. The other day I about fell out of my chair when Hayley asked for a baby sister. Then I caught myself actually thinking about it... and if we could guarantee a girl I would probably consider it. Well then I snapped back to reality and realized that Hayley almost got me thinking we should have more kids. Man, I just can't imagine what would happen, I'm sure we'd get triplets or something. Whew, I think I needed that wake up call. I think I need to schedule an appointment when the doctor before anymore crazy baby thoughts come to mind.

Living Repainted

Last week I mentioned to Jen that we should paint our living room. Well she didn't hesitate to call in the cavalry. Jen's brother Matt, his girl friend Jen, Jen's mom, sister, Jean, some of Jean's friends, and Jody stopped by to help out. We painted the ceiling, hallway, moulding, and walls. We started out around noon and finished at about 10pm. Matt wired in new outlets for the cable and electricity.

It's going to be so nice since the twins loved pulling on the TV cords.

Anyway here are some before and after. The camera must have had some humidity built up on the before pictures. But you get the just of it. Nice deep dark red.

No more cords. This is going to be so nice!! Thanks Matt.

F-150 Tidbit

During this cold winter the heater on our F-150 hasn't been working the best. We thought it was kind of strange since it worked awesome in years past, I thought about changing out the thermostat a few times but I just figured it was the super cold weather causing it. (the temp gauge seemed to indicate the temp was OK) Well on our way home two weekends ago the check engine light kicked on. I waited until the next weekend to finally bring the truck to O'Reilly's auto parts store to use their computer and check the fault. They let you use their diagnostic computer for free which saved me about $50. The error code came back with something "not enough antifreeze for closed loop operation". I was taken aback by that since I had enough antifreeze in the truck. I took it in and asked the guy about it and he said it's probably a stuck open thermostat. He said the truck is basically running in warm up mode all the time and that I was probably getting bad gas mileage. Man did he hit that on the head, the truck has been getting terrible gas mileage. For the most part I never monitored it until gas started hitting $4 a gallon. We drove up to Little Falls and I put in a new thermostat. On the way home the heater worked great and the trucked seemed to get about double the gas mileage. I'm anxious to fill up the truck again to see what mileage we'll actually get.

So I'd just like to give a thanks to O'Reilly's for offering the free use of their computer. It was pretty handy to find the problem and just buy the parts all in one shot. I recommend it to you do it yourselfers if you ever want to run diagnostics on your car.

Snow Fort Revisited

I wasn't to happy with Hayley's snow fort and she kind of rushed me a bit when she got bored the first time so on Saturday we spent some time trying to make it a little bigger. Most of the yard had been snowed in again so I had plenty of snow but it was not sticky at all so it wasn't going to work well building up the snow fort. I built it up a little and made the opening wider but Hayley still wasn't that interested in it. Oh well, I'll have to wait until the twins get older, maybe they will appreciate a good snow fort. Anyway here are some pics of the modified snow fort.

I finally gave up and let her climb on the dumb fort. I thought it was going to cave in but it held up rather well.

The opening is a little larger and she can almost stand, in this pic she's ducking down for the camera.

On Sunday we had some visitors. My brother and his wife stopped over for a visit before they headed out to Florida. (I'm so jealous) I was amazed that the twins took so well to them. Lately the twins are so weary of anyone but mom and dad. Kathy also was able to tell them apart pretty well from the time she saw them. I was impressed.

Helmets

While I was in VA the twins had their final appointment for their heads. They had an appointment a month earlier and Jen got the choice then to have them wear the helmets another month or call it good. The doctor said another month would probably be good so she went with it. Well going another month knocked another .02 off (whatever that means), all I know is their heads are a lot more round then when they started. It'll be so nice to not have to give them a bath every day and clean the helmets. It kind of would be nice to see a before and after picture. We never thought of it before.

Snow Fort

My flight back from VA got in today around 10ish this morning and decided to take the rest of the day off to play with the kids since I haven't seen them for so long. I spent the early afternoon just chasing the boys around the house and after Hayley got home from preschool I took her outside to build a snow man. The snow was still not sticky enough so I ended up trying to build her a snow fort. After a couple cave-ins I finally got it. Hayley really wasn't that interested in the fort. She kept asking if she could climb on it. I guess she is just into different things then when I was a kid. I used to love building snow forts. I'd have the back yard shoveled and the sidewalk would stay snowed in.

As for Hayley's fort here are some pics.

After this picture I dug it out more. The inside is about twice the size now.

First Class

I've been so spoiled this year. I've got to fly in first class just about every flight I've taken to VA. I love first class especially on these Embraer airplanes. They are smaller so they seat 2 by 2 in coach so and 1 by 2 in first class. There are no isle seats which is cool. Anyway, I'm flying back home early as the power is being turned off to do electrical work on the ship for two weeks so there was really no need to stay here. I'm excited to see the family again. Not so excited to see six inches of snow though. Boooo. Hopefully it's sticky snow so Hayley and I can make a snow man. The snow this year has sucked for it so far.

Kids Playing Peek a Boo

I guess they were playing for a long time but Jen got the camera and they stopped. Darn kids.

Sick Again

Ever since I got to VA I've been dealing with vertigo. I don't know for sure but I think it was motion sickness from the ship sitting in water. It's been tolerable for the most part but super annoying. Today I woke up planning on going to the doctor at some point but I was interrupted by the stomach flu or food poisoning. I never really got stomach flu until I had kids and since Hayley was born I think I've had it like six times. (The worst was Christmas Eve 2006, I got most of the relatives sick that year) I pretty much spent the day balled up on the recliner waiting for the next episode of throwing up. Fortunately I only threw up once. Last time I was sick Jen bought me some medicine that suppresses throwing up and man I was shocked at how well it works. So I'm trying to recover from my super aching back and a headache now.

I was planning on helping Jen take the twins to their helmet appointment too. Jen was a trooper and she handled it without me. She took Hayley to a daycare center ahead of time and came back for the twins. They are under the point at which helmets are recommended but the doctor suggest one more month. At least the end is in site I guess.

Happy Birthday Jen

Sorry I'm in VA and not there to enjoy it with you. What a crappy hubby I am. I'll try and make it up to you along with the 50+ makes I still owe you.

Christmas Shopping with Hayley

So I took the afternoon off to shop for Jens present. Hayley and I hit the mall. I figured it would take just a few minutes to find some stuff. Well we hit our first store and Hayley noticed Santa so we waited in line for about 40 minutes so she could sit on his lap. They suckered me into buying some pics too. It was kind of funny cuz Santa asked Hayley what she wanted for Christmas and she turned to Santa and asked him if he liked her shoes. That was really funny.

Eventually we made our way around the mall and I loaded up on a bunch of presents for Jen figuring if I buy a ton of stuff she'll like something that I got her and she can return the rest. I was going to get her a automatic car starter but it would've been over $400 dollars after installation so I punted on that idea. I saw some necklaces at Target that I thought were nice so I brought Hayley there and I let her pick out one from her and the boys. When we got home she told Jen "Mom we got you a necklace!!!" I told her that she was supposed to keep that a secret. Well when she was with Jen later she said "shhhh it's a secret, but we got you a necklace". Funny stuff. Oh well I guess.

Congrats JEEEEEAAAAAANNNNNN!!!!!!

Jean graduated!!! Wooohooo. Nice work Jean. You worked hard going to school while working full-time. For those of you who don't know Jean, well she is the reason Jen and I hooked up. My roomate at the time, Scott, and Jean were kind of dating and they made a date to go to a bar. Well Scott didn't want to go by himself and Jean didn't want to show up by herself so they brought Jen and I. Scott and I got to the bar early and had a few beers waiting for Jean. When they show'd up we hit the dance floor. I didn't notice Jean brought anyone at the time, instead I just kind of jammed around the dance floor. There was a DJ there from KCLD 104.7 in St Cloud. They had a best pickup line contest and I had just read a email chain that day full of "best pickup lines" so I entered the contest with one of the lines I read in that email and won the contest. Good times.

After the bar closed down we were all walking out together. I still hadn't been introduced to Jen yet. We were almost to the door and Jean asked me and Scott if we would take her and Jen for a ride on our crotch rockets. We agreed and we ended up riding around St Cloud and the surrounding areas until sunrise. Jen got my number that night and at the time I wasn't really interested in a girl friend but Jen kept calling and calling to do stuff so eventually I fell for her. I basically stayed that year at Jean and Jens apartment. Scott and Jean broke up a few months later. :( and the rest is history.

Anyway, I didn't really mean to hijack Jeans congrats blog post. Jean graduated from St Cloud Tech back in the 90's with an accounting degree. She got a job in the cities and decided to go for a bachelors degree in accounting. So Jean congrats again. Hopefully your investment in yourself pays off. Now that you're out of school maybe we can turn you away from the dark side of what is the Democratic party. :P j/k

Sledding

One thing I was looking forward to with moving back to MN was being able to take Hayley sledding. It was a perfect day for it. Lot's of fresh snow and it wasn't too cold. We started out on a small hill and Hayley had a blast. Then I asked if she wanted to move to the bigger hill and she said yeah so we trecked over to the other side of the park where the hill was about twice as high. It was quite a workout walking through all the snow and up the other side. So I wasn't to happy when Hayley was scared to go down. So I talked her into riding down with me. Everything was going great until we hit a snow mound and snow flew in Hayley's face. She didn't like sledding much after that. But I got her to go back to the smaller hill for a couple more runs. She got bored and wanted to play at the park instead. Good times.

Here's some more video's and pics from the day.

Box Seats for the Wild

I just got done watching the Wild from our companies box seats. Sitting in box seats is an awesome way to watch a game. I basically sat at a bar and watched the game. We had appetizers and free beers. On top of it all the Wild shut out the Blues 4-0.