Aunt Michele and Uncle Dave are MARRIED!!!

Friday was such a beautiful day. Aunt Michele and Uncle Dave got married and had the most wonderful wedding and the reception was just over the top!. The Pastor did such a great job with the wedding. She talked about Seamus (we miss you!) and how he led Michele over to the party where she met Dave. Then she talked about the "break" and how they found their way back to each other. It was just perfect.

The reception was such fun and everything were beautifully. Michele's parents had Irish dancers come and perform for the happy couple and Bud gave a beautiful speech -- not a dry eye in the house! It was a glorious day and the best wedding ever! Congratulations to Dave and Michele. Chris had fun with the camera and additional photos can be found on the Ben and Maddie photo link to the right. Please join us in wishing Mr and Mrs Patterson and happy and wonderful life together!!!

The Easter Bunny 2009

We took the kids back to see the Easter Bunny this year. I prepped them a bit better by talking about the Easter Bunny -- and explaining that he is the biggest bunny you will ever see, but he is soft and cuddly, just like Teddy! Ben was really excited and kept saying "Ea-sah Bunny!" on the ride over. Maddie, well she was ignoring me hoping it would go away. We took them right before dinner and Maddie was happy until she saw EB and realized that she would be expected to actually approach that freakishly large rabbit. She was pretty brave and we made it quick. No wriggling this time and Ben actually did not smile, but also would not get off EB's lap. It is so much fun to see them change from one year to the next. Hopefully they will mature enough to get the concept of Santa by December!

Teddy

We are so excited to announce that we have a dog for the weekend. A friend from high school has three dogs and the littlest of them, Teddy, we getting piked on by the bigger dogs. He tried and tried to work with them and he was still struggling. We know all about that with our challenges with Porterhouse. We have really really missed having a dog, especially now that we have a yard and seemed like a good fit. We have him for the weekend to make sure Teddy is not just switching bully dogs for bully kids.

So Teddy came to our house yesterday to start the trial. It was a little hard for Teddy at first. He still looks for his old Daddy, but he seems to be enjoying the run of the house and the petting of the kids. The kids were over the moon at having a dog in the house. We are working with them to understand that Teddy is not a stuffed animal and we need to be quiet and calm with him. We also used this as an excuse for removing the pacis. I told them that Teddy wants to eat their pacis and we can not have them outside of the crib and so far so good. Maddie had a little meltdown this morning, but seems to have gotten over it. (Yeah Teddy!!!)

I attached pics and there are more on the link to the right. More to come!

Blog Updates

We are experiencing technical difficulties with updating the blog as the laptop is at Dell for service. One week turns into two and next it will be three. More to come once the laptop comes back!

The past two days

As not everyone is on Facebook, I thought I would post Chris' note about two days of interesting events. Fortunately for all of you, there are no photographs...

The past 2 days have been somewhat exciting here at the Yeingst household. Let me recap so you all can enjoy it.

Tuesday, we put the twins down for their nap at 1 pm. Some time after that Maddie had a dirty diaper. Those with children are saying, “So what?” Sometime after that she decided to REMOVE HER DIAPER and play with the contents; covering herself and her crib. She is quite the artist. This went on for some time as Vanessa & I can figure. The twins are very good sleepers so we did not discover her artistic adventure until 3 pm. The horror of the discovery will scare me for years. But wait there’s more.

As many of you know, I work 3rd shift and like many of us I sleep during the day. Well, Wednesday, I was awoken around 4 pm to the sound of Vanessa screaming for me. I immediately come running downstairs to what was wrong. Vanessa doesn’t panic, so I knew it was something major.

Apparently, she was trying to be a good little wife and make a fire in the fireplace for when I woke up. We have been using the fireplace a lot over the past few weeks, including yesterday. When Vanessa went to sleep last night, she closed the fireplace but left the chimney open to vent the rest of the smoke.

Sometime over the course of the evening or day, a squirrel decided to climb into the chimney and down to the fireplace. And there he hides, until Vanessa opened the doors to the fireplace. Leaping out and scrambling around the family room, looking for a way out. This is where Vanessa and the kids began screaming and I enter the picture. The squirrel had hidden under an ottoman and I was able to coral him out the slider to the patio and outside. There is no moral to this story, except beware squirrel attacks. I just thought some of you would get a chuckle from these events. Imagine yourself going through this; the squirrel attack, I wouldn’t wish the diaper on anyone. OOOHHHH! The smell!!!!!

P.S. I expect to hear at least one reference to Cousin Eddie.

Paityn gets a puppy!

Cousin Paityn got a new puppy last weekend.... a pug named Nemo! He is so sweet and the kids were just nuts about him. Maddie thought he needed her blankie and had suck fun.

A Visit with Jake and Caleb

For the past 10 years, I have not spoken with a friend from college, Liz. (no drama, just fell out of touch) She contacted me a few months ago and we finally got together with the kids. Her son Jake is a little older than Ben and Maddie and her son Caleb is 3 months old. The kids all had a good dinner and played together so nicely. Ben even offered him toys! It was a nice visit and so good to see Liz after all these years. Here are some pics of Jake and Caleb.. I tried to get Ben and Jake to sit on the sofa together, but they just would not cooperate and Ben refused to keep his pants on!