Wow! I hit the 10,000 Mark!

I just realized that I passed up the 10,000 visits mark! Thanks everyone for checking in on us. I'll try to get better about updating my blog again. :-)

The Saga Continues

Since it has been some time from my last post about the van, most of you probably think that after the new transmission it has been smooth sailing. You would think...

Let me backtrack a little. We were thinking that we would be able to pick the van up the next Friday after Memorial Day but the part had not arrived yet and they were now expecting it on Monday. Okay. The next week suddenly got real busy for us and we weren't able to get the van until the next weekend. They weren't going to be open when we arrived to pick up the van so we wired the money to them so that there would be no problem--and there wasn't.

Dominic and I left Saturday and dropped the kids off at my mom's house so that she could watch them for the night. They were so excited and I don't think they even realized that we left. We were planning on driving to Seneca Rocks and camping next to the river. Every time we drive by it, we always say that we would like to camp there some time.

We arrived in time to have dinner at the little country restaurant and then headed to find our campsite. As we were driving around I looked ahead on the little dirt road and told Dominic to stop because there was a big snake in the middle of the road. He stopped and I told the people in the tent next to it about the snake. The man walked over to it and said "Copperhead". What! And we were going to be camping here. For those who don't know, I'm very very afraid of snakes. I have awful dreams about them and spiders. Anyway, we went on our way and ended up camping not too far from the dreadful snake. I was absolutely looking around constantly for him and any of his friends. When Dominic and I got home, he searched for Copperhead on the internet and that's exactly what it was.

We ended up having a wonderful time at the campsite. It was beautiful with an awesome view of Seneca Rocks and we were right next to the river. It was a nice kids free evening.

Here are some pictures from our campsite.




You can see the river right behind Dominic.


Isn't it great how good Dominic is to pose for all of these pictures.


The next morning, we packed up the tent and headed to Elkins to pick up the van and have breakfast with Dad before he headed to church. I was so glad that we were actually able to visit with him while we were there. For Memorial Day weekend, we were planning to watch him and his band play music that Friday night but we didn't quite make it.

So back to the van. When we picked it up, I told Dominic that it acted kind of funny when I first started it. He drove it around and said it seemed fine to him. We left Elkins and the van seemed fine to me then too. We stopped a few times before making our way back to mom's house to pick up the kids. Once we were there, we visited for a little while, then loaded the kids up in the van to leave and IT WOULDN'T START! By this point, we just felt defeated. After everything we had gone through to get this van fixed and home and it didn't even get us home.

After Dominic tried a few things, we then unloaded the kids, loaded them in Gloria's car (That we had for two weeks. Thanks Gloria!), and headed home leaving the van at mom's house. Dominic had Monday off of work and we had decided to not even think about that darn van for another day or so. At least, thank goodness, it broke down at mom's house and not somewhere else.

So Monday, we got a call at about 11 a.m. It was mom's boyfriend, Ernie. He had that day off and had gone over to mom's house to take a look to see if it was something he could fix. He asked us if we wanted the good news or the bad news first. Well, Dominic said we might as well go for the bad news. Ernie said that the van needed a new fuel pump. Then he said that the good news was that he already fixed it and it was ready to be picked up. What a relief!! It was so awesome to get a call to tell you that it was all fixed and we didn't have to worry about anything. Awesome. He even offered to drive it down to us after mom got off of work so that we didn't have to get the kids out again for the long drive. How nice. But we couldn't let them do that. We loaded the kids up yet again and picked up the van. It's been home for some time now and is still running!

The day that Ernie fixed our van, Monday, was also mine and Dominic's 13th wedding anniversary. We knew the 13 had something to do with our bad luck. When we asked Ernie how much we owed him for fixing the van, he said, "Happy Anniversary."

Thank you to everyone that helped us out during that time. The advice, the help, the offers to help, the calls, everything. We sure do have some great friends and family. A huge thanks to Denny and Gloria for helping us out with the transmission and letting us use their car for two weeks.

From the Mouth of a Two Year Old

A word that Nathan says all the time now is "Nope". It's so cute when he says it too because he kind of drags it out. A few weeks ago he had a bad fever. We were in the van one day when his fever was a little better. I checked his forehead and said, "Nathan do you still have a fever?" He said, "Nope. Gookie fever." He was done with it and was trying to pass it on to Brookie.

He is always quick to let me know that he is a big boy now. If I ask him if he is mommy's baby, he says "No. Me big. Emma baby." Emma is what Brooke named one of her baby dolls. He also tells me, "Mommy, me big. Gookie mall (small)." For everything that Lenny does that he wants to do, he tells me that he is big. The other day we were at a playground. Lenny and Brooke were going down the big slide and loving it. Nathan would just stand at the top, then walk back down, and later go back to the top. I told him to go down the slide. He said, "No momma, me mall". It was so cute!

Fun With Sidewalk Chalk

Not too long ago Dominic bought the kids some of that new 3D sidewalk chalk. It is pretty cool. Anyway, this evening after Brooke and Nathan were in bed, I looked out the window and saw Dominic and Lenny playing with the chalk. I don't know who was having more fun. Dominic did do a great job so I had to take a picture of it.



Here is a picture of the kids having a snack outside yesterday. Brooke was making a funny face because I was telling them to smile.


Daisy is always close by. She's their big protector. Or wait, maybe she's just waiting for food to drop or to be handed to her by them. That's exactly what it is.



From the Mouth of a Two Year Old

A few months ago I took the kids to a friend's house for a playdate. Lenny was playing downstairs with his friends and the younger kids were upstairs with the moms. The name of one of the boys who lives there is Michael. He is almost a year younger than Brooke and Nathan. For some reason he kept pulling Brooke's hair while we were there. She usually doesn't cry very often when we are at someone else's house. But every so often she would start crying. Then we realized that Michael was pulling her hair. He pulled out a lot a few times. Poor Brookie. She's usually the one that does that to her brothers. After we left, she kept mentioning that Michael pulled her hair. The next day we were getting ready to go out and I needed to go to Michaels (the craft store). When I told the kids where we were going, Brooke started to pretend cry and said, "Mommy, oww!" and she was pulling her hair. She thought we were going back to Michael's house and he was going to pull her hair. Still to this day, if I say that we are going to Michaels, that is what she says.

Memorial Day Weekend

Every year for Memorial Day weekend we always go to the family cemeteries around Mingo, WV and try to make it to my Dad's cemetery in Eglon, WV to put flowers on the graves. We have done this since I was born and I've never known anything different for Memorial Day.

Dominic had to work so it was just me, mom, and the kids. We left Friday after Lenny was finished with preschool and planned to be in Elkins by 5 p.m. My van had other plans for us! Yep, that's right, it decided that it only wanted to go as far as the very top of Allegheny mountain. Seriously, we were only about 50 feet from the sign that tells you the elevation. And do you know what else that means, there is NO PHONE SERVICE within 20 minutes in each direction. Or anything else for that matter.

Luckily we came across some very friendly people who promised to call my sister when they got somewhere where they could get phone service. We sent Dad's phone number and Kristi's phone number with one person and Kristi's phone number with another person. It was a scary few hours not knowing what in the world we were going to do and not knowing if those people really made the calls and if they got in touch with anyone. And we had three kids in the car. Two little ones who had just recently been potty trained. Thank goodness I brought a little potty, lots of drinks, and lots of snacks. Kristi and Dad's phone numbers were the only numbers of family members that we had. Next time I will travel with Randy and Jason's number too.

To make a long story short, my AWESOME sister was on her way from Morgantown to Elkins when she got the call. She made a few calls and got in touch with her best friend's brother's son's mom's mom and dad who live in Elkins. Yeah, figure that one out. That's my sister for ya. She has got our back. The dad came to our rescue and took us all to Elkins. I was worried because there aren't too many cars that you can fit three car seats in the back seat of. I ended up riding on the floor of the backseat. I got a little car sick but I was so happy to be going to Elkins. Kristi then got in touch with a tow company that towed the car.

Well, you know nothing is open on Memorial Day weekend. Dominic came to pick us up on Sunday to take us home. Ernie came to pick mom up on Monday and took her to the cemeteries since we didn't get a chance to go because we were figuring out what to do about the car and a trip home.

Just a quick word about the man that came to our rescue. He was so very very nice and helpful. He was calm and had an answer for everything. I'm a freak when something like that happens. I worry about every little thing especially with the kids with us. He was even so kind as to call the next day to check on us. He then called Tuesday to make sure that someone was able to look at our car for us. You seriously do find the nicest most sincere people in WV. That's why that is where my heart will always belong!

So my car was not even looked at until Tuesday. Turns out we need a new transmission. We are hoping to drive back this Tuesday to pick it up. That weekend trip got very expensive.

Thank goodness my sister has a van and we were also able to use Dad's car so that we could go to our Uncle Randy and Aunt Bonnie's house for dinner Saturday. We were making sure that we wouldn't miss that annual event. We always have a great time!

Here are some pictures from the weekend.

Sitting on top of Allegheny Mountain waiting for a rescue.


Saturday morning Anthony-Glen was making Lenny and Nathan crack up. They were giggling for a long time. It was very cute. I don't know what he was doing that was so funny but they loved it.


We all had a good time at the park. Here is my adorable nephew.


Nathan being silly and wearing that Cars hat that goes everywhere with him.


My sweet Bo Benny.


Brooke could not wait to see Aleah.


My cousin Jason has the cutest little girl, Autumn. We all couldn't wait to see her. She has already won some pageants. Here she is with Mom.

And with Brooke.


Isn't she cute?

Kiania found a frog. The kids were having a blast watching it jump around.


You know Lenny had to hold it. Frogs are his favorite after all.


Brooke and Nathan.


All weekend, Brooke and Nathan kept crawling into Kristi's dog's crate. They loved it. I managed to get a picture of Brooke in there.


We still had a great time even though it started out kind of rough. We had a nice trip back with Dominic too. And I'm so glad that at least mom was able to go to the cemeteries. We'll try it again next year.


From the Mouth of a Five Year Old

One morning Brooke and Nathan were giving hugs and everyone had to get in on it. Lenny smiled and said, "This is the house of loveness--because we all love each other".

Family Photo Session

A few weeks ago we had our family pictures taken at Chatham Manor in Fredericksburg. My friend Karen is a wonderful photographer so we hired her to do the job. She was awesome! I chose the location and she arrived early to find the best places for pictures. All we did was show up and walk around with the kids. Here are some of my favorites. There are still lots more that I really love.

I'll keep the text short this time since there are so many pictures.























Okay, I can't have a post without some kind of story about the kids. Here are a few.

The Klepic Kids Love to Play Together

For the past month or so, the kids have played what they call "Beach House". They all pile on the love seat and pretend like it is their van. Then they load up the van with all kinds of things they would need to take to the beach and they go to their beach house. It's really very cute. Sometimes they take the van and go camping. Brooke loves to play it the most and is always saying to Lenny, "Nenny. Beesh House."

From the Mouth of a Five Year Old

One night as I was preparing for a party, Lenny said to me "Mommy, are you doing what the Tupperware Lady told you to do?" I said, "I'm a Tupperware lady now." He said, "But I don't want you to be a Tupperware lady. I want you to be my mommy." Then he said, "Maybe you can be a Tupperware lady when you grow up."

From the Mouth of Two Two Year Olds

The other day Brooke and Nathan were playing when Nathan tripped over something. This is what I heard. Nathan "Oww!", Brooke (not even turning to look at him) "Kay?" Then Nathan said, "Yes, Kay." They both went back to playing. I love to hear them have conversations with each other even if they are short ones.

My Little Baseball Player

Okay, I realize that I am really slacking in getting my blog updated. I tell ya, that Facebook sure is addicting. The only problem with it that I have found is that I'm way too long winded for it. That's where the blog comes in handy. I realize that I haven't posted Easter pictures yet but I will do that soon, I promise.

Saturday was the opening ceremony for baseball and also team pictures. I, being the first time sports mom, was not prepared and Dominic had to work so I didn't have his help. I didn't have drinks or snacks for the kids. Good thing there were lots of prepared moms there and also a concession stand. There were LOTS of people and I immediately knew that it was a great idea that I had when I packed the stroller for Brooke and Nathan. If I didn't have the stroller, I probably would have lost one of them. Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration. Not too much of one though since another mom did lose her 2 year old for about 10 minutes. She found her playing on the bleachers. It was a scary few minutes. I was very happy that mine were in a stroller even though they were unhappy about it. That's the sad thing for them since they are twins. I always feel bad but I try not to use the stroller all the time.

It was so hot on Saturday and since the kids aren't used to being out in the sun yet, it made them all so tired. While Lenny was off getting his picture taken, I got them all some bottled water at the concession stand. As soon as Lenny was finished, we bolted. We were already there for a long time and it was still another 30 minutes before the game was supposed to start and they were running late. My kids never would have made it. Lenny was dragging and barely had enough energy to talk to his teacher and some of his friends that we ran into on the way out.

Here's my little baseball player!




Brooke and Nathan were still enjoying their drink after we got home. Look how red Brookie's cheeks are.


Before Lenny's first game this week, I'm going to stock a small cooler with plenty of drinks and snacks. I won't be unprepared again.

Just want to throw something in here that has nothing to do with baseball. Brooke and Nathan are completely potty trained except for nighttime. Yippee!!! I'm kind of missing all of the extra storage boxes I was getting from purchasing the big box of diapers. We have stuff stored in Huggies boxes all over the place. I wouldn't go back though. I was tired of putting diapers on two of them.

They have been doing great for the past almost three weeks. I've even been taking them out of the house without diapers on. Except for the day we had our photo session. I was not taking the chance of them having an accident that day. But they did great.

I just had to post this picture of my girly. The little sweetie has such a tiny little waste that she has a problem keeping her pants up now that she doesn't have a bulky diaper. It doesn't help that she put her pants on backwards that day.



Check out this wild couple that stopped by our house the weekend before last. I got a call from my mom saying that she was about to walk in to McDonalds. The way she said it, I had a feeling she was in Stafford. I was right. She and Ernie rode his Harley down to see us. Yes, that really is my mother! They have fun riding the bike around. The kids were so excited about seeing them and the bike.



From the Mouth of a Five, Two and Two Year Old

When Lenny's friend's mom asked him if he wanted to come over to play one day, Lenny said, "Yes!" and then he said, "Can Brooke and Nathan come too?" He is always looking out for them. It was very sweet.

When Brooke is on the swing, the entire time she is yelling "Higher! Higher!" But from Brooke, it sounds like "High-ya! High-ya!" She has a little accent. :-)

She also calls peanuts "Pie-uh". I have no idea how she came up with that.

Brooke gets in to stuff all the time that she isn't supposed to. She will wait until I turn my back and then get back into it. If I stand there and stare at her so that she can't get into it again, she tells me to "Go!" while pointing her finger the other direction. Just so that she can get into it again.

Nathan's favorite movies are Madagascar 1 and 2 and Cars. He would watch those everyday if I let him. In the first Madagascar movie Alex the lion is jumping on Melman the Giraffe's house saying "Melman, Melman, Melman". When Nathan first starting watching the movie, he remembered that part but couldn't say it. Instead, he would stick his tongue in and out and make the noise you do with your tongue. I have no idea how to explain it but it sounds like "M-thm, M-thm" That is what he calls the movie. It is the funniest thing ever. He still calls it that and we laugh everytime.

Anytime I ask Nathan what he wants for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, he says "Bimp!" I mentioned in an earlier post that Bimp is Shrimp. Then I tell him that we don't have any shrimp. He then says, "Gaggy!" Because he knows that Daddy will get it for him. Spoiled!

I can't tell you how many times in a day I hear from Brooke and Nathan the words "Me" followed by something else. "Me flush!" "Me Brush!" "Me comb!" "Me Shoes." and so on. They are little independent kids that want to do everything themselves.

Our Feathered Friends...And Some Furry Ones Too

I've gotten really bad about updating my blog lately. I was reminded of it by Dominic this evening. I've finally joined Facebook and it has quickly taken over my time. I also have another new hobby--Tupperware. I've taken the plunge and have become a Tupperware consultant. I'm really excited about it and am looking forward to my first party. I love it and thought, why not get a discount for myself and make some extra money at the same time. So if you are ever in need of some Tupperware, make sure you give me a call.

This past week the kids and I made some bird feeders for our feathered friends. I did this last year with Lenny and decided to do it again. Lenny went out in our backyard to collect some pine cones for us. The kids then covered them with peanut butter and rolled them in bird food. They had a lot of fun doing it.


We hung the bird feeders outside and waited for our friends. It didn't take too long for them to find it. I was so excited to see several types of birds out there too. We had some chicadees, a tufted titmouse, some junkos, and a male and female cardinal. It was so much fun watching them.

One of our other friends came to visit and brought lots of his friends. All winter long, we've had one squirrel that walks on top of our fence and comes right over to our family room window. He gets close enough to put his feet on the window to look in. I always tell Lenny when his friend is there to visit. It really seems like he is there to see the kids. The squirrel peaks in the window, the kids come running, and the squirrel stays there and stares at them. It is really very cute.

So now that squirrel friend has brought his entire family to our backyard. I saw four of them out there at one time. They keep stealing our bird feeders. It's not very nice of them but at least we have fun watching them. It drives poor Daisy crazy though. She still thinks that she is going to catch a squirrel one day. She might now that we have so many of them back there.

I've talked many times in my blog about Brooke and her cow and how she has to hold the cow ear up to her nose. Well I think that Nathan thought that he should come up with something silly to do too. He's been doing this for a long time, Dominic and I just laugh every time he does it. He takes the end of his blanket and pokes it in his eye. Below is a picture of him doing it but it's not a great one. Usually he holds it to where there is about six inches of the blanket sticking out before it touches his eye. It's so funny.

I posted a picture of Brooke sleeping last time and now here's Nathan. All of the kids had a play date today at 1. Problem is, Brooke and Nathan are usually taking a nap at that time. I wanted them to go so we skipped the naps for today. A little after we got home, I found Nathan on the couch asleep. He didn't get to stay there for too long though because shortly after I found him, Brooke found him. Enough said. Poor guy!


Brooke loves to help me fold laundry. She is really good at it too. She can also fold her baby blankets real good too. My mom and even my grandma has always told me that I could fold a blanket perfectly from the time I was two years old and also make my bed. I guess Brooke is following in my footsteps.


From the Mouth of a Five Year Old

Okay, he didn't really say much but it was his actions. Today while we were at the play date, the bigger kids played in the playroom in the basement while the smaller kids played upstairs with the mommies. When it was time to leave, I went downstairs to get Lenny. He came upstairs and when he saw Brooke and Nathan he got real excited. He walked over to them and said, "Nathan" and gave him the biggest hug. He then did the same thing to Brooke. It was very cute. He acted like he hadn't seen them for a week. I was also very proud of Lenny because when I told him it was time to leave, he finished playing and came with me. That does not usually happen. I was very excited.

From the Mouth of a Two Year Old

Nathan is usually a pretty laid back kind of kid. That is until he doesn't get his way. Then he will throw a fit for 20-30 minutes. I'm not exaggerating one bit. That kid does not forget about it. It's just awful too. Well, I've started ignoring it completely. He throws himself on the floor in front of me, falls back on the floor, anything he can do to get attention. Starting this last week, he throws his fit for about five minutes and then he says "Mom". When I look at him, he gives me a huge cute smile. I say, "Are you done now?" Then he says "Yes". And that's the end of it. How ridiculous is that?