OCS

Brian and his buddy Mike left for Officer Candidate School today. They are headed to Brian's parent's house for a couple of days (and to a Red Sox vs. Yankees game!) before reporting to OCS on Sunday. I have Brian's mailing address at OCS so if anyone would like it just let me know!

Leaves

Brian has been working very hard on our back yard. We have a huge fenced in yard with a lot of trees, which means a lot of leaves! It has taken about a month and over 70 bags, but he's finally done! The twins love their big back yard! Here is a photo of the last 41 bags of leaves!

15 months

The twins had their 15 month well baby check-up and it was the most traumatic experience I think we've ever had with them. The first problem was that their appointment was running late (so it ended up cutting into afternoon nap time), the next issue was that someone thought an appointment with fussy twins would be a great time to teach a new guy how to measure, weigh, check temperatures, etc during a well baby check-up. This resulted in everything being repeated 2 or 3 times (on each kid!) until the new guy got the hang of it. It was very frustrating and needless to say the twins were screaming hysterically. We finally got to the exam room only to find out the Doctor is running late due to an emergency. Luckily Parker had calmed down long enough for the exam, however next up for him was a follow up chest xray from his pneumonia. This just sent him over the edge again. After the Xray, Parker calmed down long enough to go to immunizations. After the shots he screamed the whole way home. Rylee did not stop screaming from the time we got to the clinic until we put her in the car for the ride home, but once she was in the car she was happy as could be!

15 month stats...
Parker is 25 pounds and in the 75th percentile for height
Rylee is 22.5 pounds and in the 99th percentile for height

Golf

The twins each got a set of plastic golf clubs from the Easter Bunny this year. This morning after our stroll around the neighborhood in the wagon the twins decided they needed to practice their swings (and of course Daddy agreed and happily joined in!).

Cloth Diapers

As most of you know we use cloth diapers. We LOVE them. We love the fact that they are inexpensive, good for the environment, and great for the twins' little bums. Cloth diapering today is nothing like using the cloth diapers and pins of the past. There are All-In-Ones (AIO) that go on just like a disposable with velcro or snaps, there are pocket diapers that are similar to AIOs, but you can insert added layers of absorbency, and there are prefolds with convenient velcro or snap diaper covers. All of these options come in tons of cute colors and prints. Washing them is super easy too! After trying out all kinds and brands of cloth diapers I have found what works best for us and I've learned to sew my own! I found patterns and online diaper sewing stores to buy all of the materials. Below is a picture of Parker showing off one of his new diapers. The ones I have made are AIOs and are awesome! They are trim fitting and more absorbent than any I have purchased (including disposables).

New Playhouse

I went to Walmart today to buy the twins an outdoor playhouse. They had one on display in the garden center so I asked if they had any more. The woman told me I needed to go to the toy department and ask them to get one from the back of the store. I did that and the toy department people looked at me like I had 3 heads! They went in the back and came back out and told me they have never had any of those playhouses in stock, but for some reason they had a display version. The manager then came out and told me I could have the display for half-price! The twins were so excited that we had to set the playhouse up in the rain and they played in the rain until bath time. Here is a picture of their new house!

Happy Easter!