As a pediatrician and father of 26 month old triplet boys (who all
share the same room) the most important advice I can give is "routine,
routine, routine". You are correct in that you are already behind the
proverbial 8-ball, but all is not lost.

The first step is to get on the same page with your wife/partner. If
there is any variance between the two of you, then as others have said,
just get in bed with them and enjoy the time together. If you want a
cleaner sleep time there are some things you can do.

1) outline what the pattern will be
(video--dinner--bath--books--bed) and don't stray from that
pattern.
2) get the timing approximate (dinner will start 6:15 to 6:45) with the
goal being the same (in bed between 7:15 and 7:30)
3) once in bed, no getting out, no lights on ("you don't have to sleep,
but you have to be in your bed")
4) recognize that there needs to be some wiggle room in what you do,
but YOU are the parent and THEY are the child

As with any change in a child's ritual/routine, there will be
opposition (as long as it is not from the other parent) a slow steady
drift to what YOU want is the most effective.

wrote:
Okay,

I'm writing this because I've spent the past hour and a half lying down
with one of my twin boys trying to get them to sleep so pardon any
*exasperation* you may detect. Here's the question, I feel that my
wife and I were never on the same page crying it out, etc. But
here's where we are now. We'd like to be able to put the kids to sleep
without having to lay down with them. We've made all the mistakes,
laying down with them until they fall asleep, letting them get up to
get a drink of water, use the bathroom, etc etc. So how do we start
establishing a routine. Just tell them, "okay, starting tonight
there's going to be a routine, bath, teeth, pj's, stories, and then you
lay down to sleep?" They share one bed, maybe we'll change that. But
unfortunately they share a room and we anticipate them getting into
trouble if we shut the door and leave them in there. Any tips on
getting them to sleep? The biggest problem is that I cannot fall
asleep when they do or nothing would get done around the house. So
after they fall asleep, I have to drag my grumpy self out of bed and
then get stuff done, this is *very* difficult.

Sam