Fun with twins

This morning as I'm hustling to get 6 kids out the door to school, I have this play out...

Andrew is standing on the steps, fully dressed in snowpants, coat, etc. Connor tells me he doesn't know where his snow pants are.
"You need to find them, Connor" I say. He starts looking around only because he knows he needs to do something. I resume getting myself ready to go.
Realizing he isn't making any headway and my irritation is increasing, I ask him, "What did you do with them after yesterday?"
"I think I hung them up," he says.
"Well, then they gotta be around here somewhere!" frustration rising in my voice.
Anxiousness is brewing for him now, knowing I'm feeling rushed to get going. He renews his efforts of looking around even though he knows it is futile.
It is time to go and I've boiled over. "CONNOR, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH THEM YESTERDAY AFTER YOU WERE DONE PLAYING?!!?"
"I hung them up, Dad"
"THEN WHERE ARE THEY?"
"Andrew took them"
My mouth drops. Andrew has been watching this whole interaction, his brother nervously hunting around and not ratting him out... just standing there probably hoping beyond hope that a pair of snowpants will drop from the sky.
"Andrew, are those Connor's snowpants?"
"Yes"
"Where are yours"
"I left them at school"

Yes, my friends, they look out for each other to a fault.

That was the beginning of the day. Now, they are both sick, throwing up. Connor at least had dinner, which was a pasta sauce with some carrots and brocolli. I made him try one piece of brocolli. He tried shoveling his carrots off to the side but I caught him and made him eat a carrot, too.
2 hours later he's got his head in a bucket. He pukes up all of dinner and, just as he finishes a big one, he lifts his head up, barely above the bucket, and says to me, "It's because of the vegetables, dad"

He is persistent, that's for sure.

Lots of ups and downs

Well, it certainly has been a little bit since I last updated this and oh so much has happened. Our summer was fun, but very full, and we had a few heartaches along the way.

We moved into our new home, really my old home, but now our new home. The process was somewhat anxiety-laden since we sold our house and had a pretty quick turnaround on that, plus we had lots of family visiting during that time. We really like it here, though, and have started settling in. Having more space is definitely nice when kids come over to play. And, now that it is winter, I finally get to put my car in the garage.

Unfortunately, one of our cats, Cody, got really sick. He finally got to a point where it was obvious he wasn't comfortable and we decided to take him in and put him down. We suspected kidney failure; even though he was young, he had all the signs. That was a hard thing, especially after losing Rosa not long ago. Cody did have a bit of a thing for Rosa, though, and would typically curl up with her, so maybe he wanted to spend more time with her.

On the positive side, Amanda completed her second half-marathon and I completed my first marathon. Given the hectic summer we had, we were both proud of ourselves and I was very happy with my time... I did just about a 10 minute mile for the race.

Amanda and I also did our annual Seldovia trip. The berries were out in full force this year and we loaded up on Salmon and Blueberries. We'll make our Seldovia jam and enjoy that this winter.

Now, in mid-October, it is winter here. So, we're hunkering down and looking forward to some cozy fires. More on that to come.