Our first of many playdates to come with Elise

Today the babies had their first official play date with Elise. Our friends from church Matt and Cassie had their 3rd baby (1st girl) Elise 3 weeks ago today. Cassie had a couple of us over for a play date. It is amazing the difference between Elise and Will and Elle. Elise still looks like a little newborn. We are excited for many years of memories to come.

A visit from a Special Friend.

I am a little behind on this post, but my good friend Jill Syth came down to visit us from Spokane last weekend. We had so much fun. She was only here for 2 1/2 days, but we packed them full of fun. Starting with a picnic in the park! We enjoyed a beautiful day at Ann Morrison park. Jill was introduced to what is like to be in a family of 6... CHAOS! But as I like to say it is the good chaos (in fact the best). It was so great to have an extra set of hands to make lunches, feed babies, bounce babies, play with the girls...etc. Jill brought some goodies for the girls and I think she spent half of her time here on the floor playing memory over and over again with Hannah and Ava. She also brought some chalk and thank goodness we had decent weather so they could go out and draw on the driveway. Thanks for coming Miss Jill.... WE MISS YOU ALREADY!!

A lesson learned... the hard way

Yes, Moose loves binkis... not to chew on, but to suck on. Aaron and I feel that we should invent and market a doggie binki.

Last year I begged to get a dog. I did research on breeds and watched craigslist for an older Cocker Spaniel to come available. Well in Mid January we made the drive out to Caldwell to "look" at a dog and came home with a VERY lovable "Moosey". He was almost 3 years old, already potty trained and good with kids...sounds like a great deal...right?? Well after having him for over a year we have lived through and learned to deal with his MANY neurotic tendencies. Don't get me wrong, we love him but that is after a $150 underground fence, a few $40 bottles of Natures Miracle (the only way to get dog urine out of carpets), $120 for neutering and shots, a couple sets of blinds that we have yet to replace, not to mention food, kennel, dog bed, the list could go on and on. But he is now part of our family and we would do almost anything for him (well almost). Another of Moosey's neurotic tendencies is his love (or lack there of) of motorcycles and bicycles that combined with the fact that when he gets out the front door he does not come back in unless you spend an hour throwing the tennis ball for him... not a good combination. On monday after he escaped out the front door (I left him out refusing to chase after him) he came shoulder to tire with a motorcycle. As our neighbor stated Moose ran right into his back tire... Um yeah, not the sharpest tool in the shed... Well we decided that we would watch Moose for a few days to determine whether or not we should take him to the vet and spend more of our hard earned $ on a dog (yes, he is a dog). Thankfully he seems to be healing quite well. For any of you who know Moose you know that he would not let some cracked ribs or separated shoulder hold him back from being right under foot at all times.

Elle rolled over!!!

I could not believe my eyes!!! I laid her and Will on their bellies for some tummy time, walked into the kitchen for 2 seconds and when I came back out into the living room, there she was on her back! That little stinker. So of course I had to see it for myself. I turned her back on her belly (3 more times) and each time she immediately turned to her back. She is only 3 months old! I see a VERY busy future! I am not ready for either of them to be even remotely mobile... Please God... let them be late movers!!

Week in Review

This is how Will and Elle pacify themselves... she sucks on his head and he sucks on her hand, or vice versa.
Hannah finished two Dick and Jane books... she is a reading machine.
Elle (on the right) with her new best friend Mylee. Oh many years of memories to come.

Yay, the day finally came to get new bikes!!

Well we had an eventful week as usual! William got his first cold (poor little guy). It is always so sad to have a goopy nosed little baby. They are so helpless and they really HATE the what we like to call the the brain sucker... AKA the infamous blue bulb syringe. Thankfully by Monday morning he had pretty much defeated the battle and yes, we survived. I feel lucky to have made it almost a full 3 months before our first round of sickness. While both Ava and I also battled the cold we are happy to report that Aaron, Hannah and Elle all avoided the plague.

Hannah has been a reading machine! She has finished her first two Dick and Jane books. They are both about 150 pages long. The second book she finished in two hours. She came down in the morning, ate her breakfast and did not get up from the table until she finished her whole book. Now I can not get her nose out of a book. I am not sure what her teacher will do with her next year when she heads to Kindergarten. We will have to continue to make trips to the library and challenge her at home.

Elle met her new best friend. Our friends Kevin and Kara had their first baby, a little girl, Mylee on March 18 so they are two months and a week apart. We are so excited for the girls to grow up together. We love to spend time with Kevin and Kara especially if it involves a tent and some dirt and foil dinners.

Last but not least, the girls both got new bikes yesterday!! They had saved a total of $35 together and we found two bikes on craigslist for $50 total. With a little bargaining from dad we talked the down to $40 (so mom and dad pitched in $5) and they were off to pick up their new bikes. Unfortunately one is much bigger than we thought so they will have to share the middle sized one for a while.

Time Flies!!

It is amazing now that the Twins are 2 1/2 months old to look back at the pictures of them in the hospital. While they were in the NICU time went by so slowly. It felt like we would never bring them home to meet their sisters. When we did get home Elle was on an Apnea monitor and Caffine, but we are proud to report that by about 6 weeks old we had her off of both. Thankfully we never had any breathing episodes or she would probably be on both still. We called her "battery pack" because we had to carry her bag with her monitor that was hooked to her every where we went. We do not miss that thing! With the exception of a couple times, the only time the alarm would go off would be in the middle of the night! It was louder than a fire alarm! It was like the boy who cried wolf at first when it would go off we would jump out of bed so fast and check her, but by about the 20th time I would just look over, know she was okay and turn it off. It is amazing how fast time flies!!

Special Visitors

Lisa and Jared... The happy couple!!
Hello Paker!

This weekend was full of visits from special people!! First of all Grammy and cousin Parker flew down on Easter Sunday to catch the last few minutes of the festivities. It was so much fun to be able to spend the week getting to know Parker. He just turned 1 in February. On Friday Auntie Jen (Parker's mom) came down to join the rest of us. On Saturday Jen threw a wonderful bridal shower for Auntie Lisa. It was so great to get to know some of Jared's family more. We are getting pretty excited as we count down to the last 3 months before the wedding.

Also a visit from the Letsche family


We also got a visit from some of our dear friends from Seattle. We were so excited to visit with the Letsche family. Jackson and Hannah are only 10 days apart. We met Eric and Julie through a child birth class that later morphed into the best Playgroup ever! We had only seen Andrew once since he was born so it was quite a treat to see him all grown up. Eric and Julie are expecting baby boy #3 in July and we wish them the best.

Ava's Burnouts

Last August both of the girls learned to ride their bikes without training wheels! It has been so much fun for Aaron to take the girls on real bike rides! Well as we were teased with a few nice days before Spring actually arrived the first thing the girls would do is grab their bikes. I wondered if it would take them a while to build their confidence back up, well it was like no time had passed. Ava had been doing so many burnouts on her bike (riding fast and then slamming on the brakes so she would skid) that she burned a hole clean through the tire and the tube!! So her bike is out of commission for the time being due to a flat tire. They have been sharing Hannah's bike but if you look closely at the tire there are about three spots whre it is thread bare. It is only a matter of one or two more burnouts before that tire is shot as well. Needless to say Hannah is saving her money for a new bike (hers is too small) and Ava for a new bike tire and a basket for her bike.

Hannah lost her first tooth!!

In February Hannah got her first visit from the tooth fairy!! Unfortunately the tooth was lost (literally) before the tooth fairy had a chance to retrieve it. We left a note for the tooth fairy letting her know that we had lost the tooth and lucky for Hannah she still found a dollar and a note from the tooth fairy telling her that if she found the tooth to put it under her pillow and the she would be back. Well we never did find the tooth. I guess the tooth fairy will have to wait for the next one!

April Fools!!

Well as this April Fool's day draws to an end I reflect on the many, many, many jokes I heard today. At the age of 5 1/2 and 4 I felt the girls were old enough to understand what April Fool's was all about, so this morning I first told them a joke and added an April Fool's on the end. Well I guess you could say that they got it... sort of! I heard everything from "there is an elephant sitting on your head" to a "there are no cars left in the world." The best part of April Fools day is that they understood that what they were telling us were jokes, but they did not get it when we would tell them a joke. They would say "tell us another April Fools" it did not matter what we would say... they would believe us and would inevitably have a sad face and a sigh depending on what we told them, even though they just told us to tell them a joke! Needless to say, Aaron and I had a little fun with this assuming that they would eventually catch on... they never did. Now I am sure that April Fool's will live on in our house for many weeks to come and of course we are looking forward to the many, many SILLY jokes to come!

Long time no Blog!

Well I started this blog back in 2006 and currently have one entry... My goal is to become a better blogger this year and keep friends and family updated on the Carroll Family!

As most of you know we became "a party of 6" on January 11, 2008. We welcomed Will and Elle to our family that day. We are loving being a family of 6, life is a little chaotic, but who doesn't love a little chaos now and then. The babies (now 2.5 months old) are doing great, sleeping well and have started interacting with their sisters a little more over the last week. Hannah and Ava have proven to be a tremendous help to us. They love to get diapers, pick out clothes and give the babies their binkins as needed.

The Twins are growing quickly they came home after a 7 day stay in the NICU weighing in... Will at 5lbs 13oz and Elle at 4lbs 6oz. At their two month check up they were 10lbs 6oz and 8lbs 7oz. They started smiling at about 8 weeks and are now beginning to smile on cue and they have also began cooing. It is amazing how fast they grow.