The White's

1 year later ...

2012-02-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

Let's go with the bullet point version:

-I graduated Nursing school!
-I've been completing Rosetta Stone lessons (espanol baby!) daily
-I am still applying ALL over for a nursing job *crossing fingers*
-James is extremely busy with work, thanking the karma!
-James is excited about potentially becoming a crop duster ... so hottt!!! :-D
-Madge and the Bean have been in Tae kwon do for 1 month
-They both received their black stripe and are working toward their yellow stripe (so proud)
-They answer "Yes Sir" or "Yes Mom" (ummm ... awesome!)
-They will walk in the annual Bok Kai parade representing Han Mi Tae kwon do at the end of this month (excitement)
-Lately, I have been feeling so overwhelming happy and blessed, but the weirdest thing is I keep breaking out into crying fits ... happy tears ... just weird and way too chick-ish! ;-)
-Excited for the future, starting a career in the field of nursing, and awaiting next September when my lil preemie McTwinsies start Kindergarten!
-Working on that positive karma energy: gratefulness, humility, loyalty, kindness, sympathy, generosity, humor, and of course LOVE baby!
-Goals: Squeeze and kiss neglected family members. We miss y'all so much. We love y'all.

Happy 2011

2011-01-22T19:20:00.000-08:00

Hello neglected and faithful followers of our happy little blog *cricket, cricket* ... that's ok, I like to look at this blog and just knowing its out here for friends and family to look at keeps me warm and fuzzy. So, (to myself ;0) 2011 has been an exciting year so far. To be selfish and talk about myself, I am 3 weeks deep in my accelerated BSN program. I LOVE it! It has been a great 3 weeks and I so look forward to the remaining 47. I have already decided that after I am a licensed RN I will #1 become fluent in espanol, and #2 get my Master's degree as a Nurse Practitioner. Giddy up, here's to the next decade of school.

Now let's talk about James. Look, I know you came here to hear about the kids so that's why I'm dragging it out. Haha! He is amazingly busy with construction jobs that keep him busy and get the bills paid. *knocking on wood so I don't jinx anything* We are so very grateful for the business, but if I may brag, J is the bomb dot com at building whatever you need. He deserves success in this because he works his tail off and is truly one of the last 'good ole boys' in the industry. ... and he's so darn cute to look at! ;)

Ok, ok, ok the girls. They started preschool last August (2010) and are continuing with that while I'm in the nursing program. I am so amazed at how they have matured and learned in the preschool environment. Their letter and number recognition is amazing and their social skills are incredible. Last Thursday when I was dropping them off a classmate of their's was crying because her mommy had left her. Madison and Carmen ran over to her and took turns hugging her and telling her they would play with her. It was the sweetest thing and warmed my heart, I thought about it all day in class and couldn't wait to see them again so I could kiss their sweet faces.

Most exciting news though: my dad is coming out to stay with us at the end of February until I graduate in December. He is going to tutor the girls with his jedi instructor abilities. We are so happy and excited and thankful that he is coming out here. What an amazing Zampa-zampa! My mom will be coming out for a week when he arrives, I can't wait to see her as well. ... I'm trying to get them to move out here but shhhhh, don't let them know that. :)

Also since we are mentioning fabulous people my in-laws belong in this lovefest. My father and mother-in-law have been so incredibly supportive of us with me going back to school. Last Friday my mother-in-law took the girls to the doctor (Carmen has had a bit of a cough) and watched them all day for us. There is no way we would be in our current situation without Oma and Opa.

So basically life is beautiful. We are so blessed, we are so grateful, and we are so excited for today, tomorrow, and the future. Next time I'll have a picture for you, my camera broke many moons ago and unfortunately it is not on the top of the 'to buy' list. So until then love ya, see ya soon I hope!!

Its a good life

2010-07-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

Happy summer 2010. We have had a quiet summer so far, just hangin around the house trying to stay cool.

The girls are energy-aholics and I am worn out daily. We bought a little blow up pool for some swimmin time but the girls kinda loathe it and it now serves as Chubs' water dish. :)

I will take 5 more classes in the Fall and hopefully find out sometime in September if I am accepted into a BSN program. *fingers crossed*

James has been so busy this summer, thanking our lucky stars. We are just staying low key and are feeling grateful for our family and friends. Big hugs to everyone. Much Love, J, Bri, Madgie + Carmie

Time is flying ...

2010-02-10T15:35:00.000-08:00

... probably because school has been keeping me so busy. In May 2010 I can apply to a Nursing school and either get on a waitlist for a community college or pay a ton of money and start the RN program in January 2011. ??? Still not sure which way I'm going with that.

The girls have been cute as ever, of course. Santa brought Barbie jeeps and we've barely got to use them because we haven't had any non-rainy days this winter. These pictures were taken on Christmas Day, which was a fabulous time with friends and family. We stayed in Cali this year and left for Baja on Dec. 28th.

We got to ring in 2010 in Mexico with the sun shining and mas cervezas. The girls were pretty funny about freaking out if their feet touched sand. haha! They so remind us of me getting out of the long jump pit annoyed if sand got on my hands. They are turning 3 in about a month, I know everyone says it but- man that went by quick. A few weeks after their 3rd birthday James is turning the HUGE 30 ... talk about an old man. ;-)

Other then that we are just living our lives and having a great time. We are thinking of getting the girls into Karate or dance ... what do ya'll think?

Almost September already?!

2009-08-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

How'd the time fly?

We got back from Montana around August 11th and after being gone for 18 days home is pretty good. It was amazing though. We camped in the Hungry Horse Reservoir again but instead of the Spotted Bear campground we stayed at last year, we tried a new camp site on the Twin Creek (and by "camping" I mean we towed our RVs in and had to rough it by cutting down our power and water usage). This site was absolutely perfect. We were about 100 meters from where the Twin Creek dumped into the North Fork of the Flathead River. There was a huge gravel bar and we were able to take the girls there and watch J and Opa fish. It was something out of a movie. They caught 2 HUGE trout, we saw a black bear crossing the river (about 400 meters away from us) and we saw a Bald Eagle flying over head through the canyon. I wish I'd had my video recorder. It was such a relaxing vacation and the girls were amazingly good.

We also stopped in to Utah to visit the Cline's and the Hill's for a few days before we headed to Montana. I wish my stupid camera would have turned out the pictures because we had 5 cousins with 4 of them within about a year and a half of each other. It was very cool to see them all together ... stealing each others' toys ... Madge learned "MINE" and I think it has replaced her favorite "What's that?" phrase. HAHA! It really was fun to see. That's all for now.

Kisses, kisses, muah, muah!

2009-06-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Love my girls! They are so much fun!
We're going on vacation to Montana in about a month. For now these little girls are running around crazy this summer having a blast.
..... at the request of Grandma C (which gives me such inner joy) ... Carmen is the top picture. Madison is underneath. And at the table Carmen is on the left and Madison is stuffing the spaghetti in her mouth. They are so gorgeous!

Summer time and the livin's easy

2009-05-19T16:59:00.000-07:00

Daddy and the girls hangin in the super fly kiddie pool. Best 15 bucks ever spent. We have already logged about 10 hours in it. Carmen loved it right away and Madge just needed to get warmed up to it. They get so mad when I drag their pruned up bodies out of there.

In the background you can see the new addition to the "compound". A 400 sq ft apartment on top and a Mexican inspired (minus the swine flu) oudoor kitchen below. Still trying to get a certain rad-tech to move into that apartment . . .

It's been awhile

2009-04-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone :) Sorry for the LONG lagtime b/t posts. My laptop almost died and almost lost the 2,088 photos I have of the girls. So after 4 weeks at the repair shop and $250 later, all pics are intact and I won't be going postal this week.

The girls have been little chatter boxes these last 3 months. Their favorite phrase is "What's that?" and they ask it about a million times a day. I'm usually pretty patient until we get up around the 900,000s ... then my answer is "Mama doesn't know!" ahh toddlers.

This picture is from Easter Sunday. Oma and Opa hid some eggs for the girls. They loved it. Grandma C sent their dresses. Aren't they so cute?!

We went to Baja in the beginning of March. A place we've been before- Bahia de Los Angeles. It was just as amazing as we remembered it. I was so excited when the girls' passports got stamped. Little travelers! They were, suprisingly, awesome on the vacation. They loved the beach and watching Daddy and Opa fish from the shore. They dug clams with us and ate pescada tacos. Vive Mexico! We can't wait to go back.

In a few months I will be starting night classes to get my pre-requisites out of the way for nursing school. Like Mother like Daughter. I should've been an RN years ago but here's to doing it the hard way (with toddler twins) yeee-haaaw! ;-)

Oklahoma where the VIRUS comes rushin down the plain ...

2009-01-04T17:53:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.
Christmas in the airports (on the way to Tulsa) was ... uh ... well it sucked. But that's okay. We figured, if we could get through that we could get through anything. We all had head colds, that hurt a little, but when we arrived in Tulsa J and I felt relieved that #1 we made it w/ twins and #2 we could relax and get over our head colds before we flew back home.
Mom and Dad's home got remodeled by their favorite contractor son-in-law and the girls got to see their cousins from Texas. I got to see my little brother and sisters and my pregnant best friend Katie. Mostly we stayed around the house because for some reason we couldn't shake the head colds. Carmen projectile vomited on James ... twice a few nights before we left, but we chalked it up to stuffy head and lots of booger-throat (yes, I believe that is the medical term).
Dec. 31st- our flight left Tulsa at 6:55am (4:55am California time) we were all pretty wasted (as in tired and sick ... not drunk, which in hindsight would have been fantastic!). We had a stop over in Pheonix and a 2 hour layover in Ontario. Then, once we finally got to the Sacramento airport our car battery was dead. OMG right?! Thankfully airport security gave us a jump rather quickly then we were on our way home. Only an hour drive to my wonderful, beautiful bed. With about 20 minutes left to home James says "I'm feeling kinda nauseous". ... "Oh S#%T" was my reply. He barely made it home and the furious Oklahoma virus Gods gave him a smackdown of a life time. Poor guy :( I could only take care of him until about 5pm because then Madison started on Oklahoma's revenge. I ended up falling asleep in the crib with the girls when I got woke up around 10:30pm. J said his Mom was coming over to take him to the hospital. I crawled out of bed to sit in the front room with him until she came. When I looked at him, with his eyes all sunk in and cheeks drawn in like a drug addict, I was scared. I have never seen him look so sick. :(
His Mom showed up and took him to the hospital. I went back in the crib with the girls and called his Mom at 3:45am to see if he was still alive. They were at Walgreens getting some medicine and then headed home. Poor, poor fella. He just needed an IV, anti-nausea medicine and pain medicine. He slept the entire New Year's Day away.
I .... decided to get sick the following night. Nothing as bad as my poor husband but no bueno either, I slept Saturday away.
Moral of this Holiday story- screw Oklahoma! and screw Southwest Airlines! and screw sick people who make other people sick! .... other then that it was great to see family and friends, love you guys ... unless you're sick ...

Santa came early for J and I ...

2008-12-18T18:28:00.000-08:00

Take a look at these little lifesavers that came in the mail from Santa today! He told us that these are for James, myself and other passengers in case the girls don't like flying. Now that's a Santa who definately checks his list twice. You know, each of those little booklets has 4 drink coupons ... carry the 2 ... SWEET! We are no longer stressed out about this Christmas Day flight anymore. THANK YOU SANTA!!! (See you on the 25th)

So I know Christmas is still 16 days away ...

2008-12-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

... but OMG look at how cute this is!!!! Grandma C got the girls "Little Mommy of twins playsets". The girls are pushing their twins all over the house. The sets also came with a double highchair and swing set-up. But the girls are more interested in pushing their babies down the hall. I should get them a little grocery cart so they can push the babies and pull the cart behind them like Ma does in the store.
I figure since we're gonna be on the airplane on Christmas Day, might as well let the little one's play with their presents early. Santa told me he would come early this year ... that happened to me when I was little too. Plus James and I are probably more excited then the girls about all the gifts from the Grandparents. :)
T-minus 16 days til Southwest Airlines meets our crabby girls. I feel sorry for (not only J and I) but any unfortunate soul on our flights that day. Do they make infant tranquilizers? Gulp!

Turkey-less T-day!!!

2008-11-28T08:25:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll! We stayed in CA this year and had T-day at our house. We had prime rib, ham and all the sides. No turkey, that's a first for me but it wasn't missed too much.
James got his white man over-bite on while playing Rockband.

Madge takes after me ... yeah, I've been known to lick the dessert plate clean. What can we say? We loves the chocolate!

Beanie was attached to Opa all day. She would scream bloody murder if he got up and didn't take her with him.

In a month we're flying to OK for Christmas. This will be the first plane ride for the McTwinsies ... gulp!!!

San Franstinko

2008-11-24T18:11:00.001-08:00

And this is how the crazy 4 of us met in the first place. I think this is Spring 2005.

Such a good day yesterday! Ashley, myself, Darci and Abbey hung out all day in San Fran. We did normal tourist stuff: sight-seeing at the Wharf, riding the trolley, eating clam chowder in a bread bowl, taking the ferry to Alcatraz ... oh paaalease! HAHAHA! If you bought any of that we must be way better actresses then we thought! HAHAHA! Like we could even stop gabbing like a sewing circle long enough to decide on anything to do. HAHAHA!

We polished off a few bottles of champagne and took that city by the hon chas!!!!! That's how we roll, Chico State baby! So we may have been a bit intoxicated early on a Sunday, but walking those millions of blocks and avoiding weirdos hiding behind a bush sobers ya right up. Oh my gosh ... flash back of Kenny the Clown. HAHAHA! Somehow a few of us ended up with another tattoo (we'll withhold names for now) and somehow we ended up driving around (after we sobered up mind you) for hours.

But I've got to tell you, this was one of the best days I've had in a while. Not that being thestayathomemom.com isn't a bucket of excitement everyday ... what with the bipolar-ish fits of glee and rage in a matter of minutes, and let's not overlook the excitement of "Ok, who pooped?!" Or another classic ... "Get your hands out of the toilet!!!!!!!" HAHAHAHA!

Next stop ... the Bahamas in the PJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just another week in the life of ...

2008-10-05T16:38:00.001-07:00

This is James crossing the finish line on his 2nd half marathon- Hooker Oak Trail Half (Chico, CA). Not sure of his time yet, but again he did amazing! This half marathon was A LOT more difficult then the Disneyland half. We're talking trails, major hills ... I still think 13.1 miles is enough of a challenge in itself! But like a trooper he finished strong and has impressed me yet again. Good job babe!
We also got to hang out in Chico for a bit and eat at Tres Hombres, their patron margaritas are da bomb. It was great to see Abbey, Rich and Ashley too. And the girls weren't too bad either. ;)

Abbey came and hung out with me and the girls at Boo Radley for a few days last week. On her second day here the girls were following her around like little ducklings. They love Auntie Abbey!

DISNEYLAND!

2008-09-01T09:46:00.001-07:00

Disneyland or Bust! ... well ... we kinda busted. I know the girls are young and wouldn't remember anything about this trip. But in my little mind I envisioned video footage of the girls on the Dumbo ride and pictures next to Mickey and Minnie. But reality and my little mind are WAY off! The girls were tired, hot and bored. We didn't stay at the park for very long at all (and ouch! on those ticket prices) but now we know. They've got to be at least 5, if not older, before we'll even think of venturing back to the happiest place on earth. ;)
But the real reason we went down to LA was for J's 1/2 marathon. He left the motorhome at 5am to walk about a mile to the start line near the Disneyland Hotel. The 13.1 mile run took him right past our RV park and we saw him run by us at about 6:45am. He did an awesome job and finished in 1:56!!!!! What a pro! And look at that metal. In all my years of track and field ... I'm jealous!
Ashley and Sophia ran too. Look at their pies! haha! Don't they all look so happy to be done.
Pa only got up at the crack of dawn, ran 13.1 miles ... but his little Divas are the one's tired and grouchy. Typical girls right?! All in all, great weekend. I think J's signing up for a Chico half ...

Before we know it ... pre-K :(

2008-08-10T11:08:00.000-07:00

We're coming up on 1 year, 5 months (or 17 months. BTW- why the heck do people stick to months for so long? Who does math that quick anyway?) and the babes are finally getting their land legs. Madge is more comfortable then Bean, but they are doing so good and I crack up everytime they "Frankenstein" across the room. Madgie is a total Ma's girl and Carmie screams bloody murder if Pa isn't holding her when he's home. They are obsessed with Chubs and the kitties. Oh, another side note: poor Chubs got bit by a rattlesnake the day after we got back from Montana. Her face was so swollen for a few days but she was back to normal in a week. She's completely fine now. What a brut! For now we are enjoying the Olympics. USA! USA! And counting down to J's 1/2 marathon at Disneyland. Anyway ... oh shoot ... not the pots and pans again, I gotta go!!!

Back from Montana

2008-07-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

Spotted Bear Campsite: Hungry Horse, Montana. No bears were spotted but we did see Bambi's Mom. She was a camp mooch.

Arco, Idaho: Big ole chair. Little FYI for ya, Arco was the 1st place to use Atomic energy. How do I know this you ask? They had "Atomic Day" while we were there. Fireworks, rodeo and a good old fashioned barn dance. Yee-haw!!!

July 15, 2008

2008-07-15T09:37:00.001-07:00

Chillin with Daddy on the swing. Looking forward to vacation.

Scuba!!!!!

2008-07-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we rescued a lil white kitty and brought her to live at Boo Radley. Her name is Scuba. She is a flea bag (hahaha! Aren't they all?!) and will live outside with Bunny (our other cat) and hopefully catch some of those pesky gofers that are tearing up the lawn. She HATES Chubs (our 2 year old Great Dane) but I know in time they'll be best buds. Likewise with Bunny. I wish she could come live inside but James says NO WAY! Oh well ... maybe the next kitty. ;)