Miscellaneous Happenings

It has become too daunting for me to do a big post about everything that has been going on for the past few months but I wanted to give you a little highlight. First off, Cade celebrated birthday #4 on February 16. We had a little party with some of his friends and I made a race track cake. I took pictures of it all but I can't find them. Let's just say it was cute and fun and Cade enjoyed being spoiled. I really loved helping Cade feel special on his big day...I think he loved it too!

The baby girls got RSV in February and Callie was hospitalized for 4 days - Kimber & I chilled at the hospital with her. Not my favorite idea of fun but we were very blessed to have so much help and support. Thankfully, they both recovered quickly and it was not 4 days after we got home that they both started rolling over - at about 3 1/2 months old!

Both Cole & Cade did T-Ball this year - it was so fun for them! We loved going out to their games and supporting them, although we did feel like we stuck out like a sore thumb because we actually have more than 3 kids:)

In April we celebrated Madlyn's 8th birthday - so fun! We had a cake decorating party with just a few friends and it was fun. On April 16, Madlyn made the choice to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was such a special day and we were so grateful to have lots of family here to celebrate with her. We had Jeff's parents, my parents, Sean, Lyssa & kids, and Tamara & her kids. What an amazing weekend! We are so proud of Madlyn for her decision to be baptized and for her sweet testimony.

Madlyn got to share baptism dates with her good friend Ruth!

Just a little udpate about each of the kids:

Besides getting baptized, Madlyn is growing up so quickly and is really getting so mature. Overnight, she has lost much of her interest in little-girl things and wants to be a grown-up. She loves to participate in conversations with Jeff and me and loves to help me with everything - from cooking, to cleaning, to taking care of the babies. She is such a sweetheart! Funny story about Mads: a couple of weeks ago, she was making some cookies and was asking me for guidance. I told her to put the cube of butter in the microwave for 30 seconds to soften it. A couple of minutes later, she sheepishly showed me that she had forgotten to put the butter in a bowl and that it had melted all over the microwave. I assured her it was not a big deal, we got it cleaned up, and she put another cube of butter in the microwave to melt (this time it was in a bowl)! When it was softened, she asked me to get it out since she can't reach very well. As I pulled the bowl out, somehow it slipped out of my hand and dropped. Butter splashed up and out, all over the microwave, wall, refrigerator, and stove top. Madlyn knows how much I do not like messes and so she just looked at me, wondering what my response would be. I looked at her and said, "Well...we are sure on a roll today, aren't we?" Madlyn busted up laughing and thought that was the funniest thing ever. I think she was relieved that I wasn't too upset about it:) After all that, we tried it again (we were a little worried at this point because we were running out of butter) and everything turned out all right that time. Third time's the charm, I guess!

Cole turned 6 on July 15. Wowza - he is such a big boy. Cole is such a fun boy and is growing up too fast! He has recently become fascinated with watching "The Wilderness Family", filmed circa 1975, haha. His dad introduced it to him a few weeks back and it was love at first sight. Cole asks me almost every day if we can move to the wilderness. We were looking at a piece of land the other day and I asked him if it was enough wilderness for him and he thoughtfully said, "I think I need something a little more wilderness-y. The wilderness has more trees and wild animals." We watched a magic show last week at the library and Cole decided to borrow some magic books from the library and has graced us with a few tricks already! I am actually really impressed with his sleight-of-hand, it is not always obvious to me how he makes the tricks work. Cole still likes dinosaurs, although his enthusiasm has waned slightly in the last little bit. I'm enjoying the reprieve from the dinosaur roars and matter-of-fact "you know this is not a T-Rex because it has 3 toes, not 2" and "a giant squid would be a perfect meal for a pteilosaur". Cole still tells us that he loves us about 20 times per day:)

Aaah, Cade is such a cutie! He is so extremely excited to go to Pre-K this fall and asks me often how many days until he gets to go. He is very interested in growing up and how old and how big everyone is. The other day he asked me if I was his size when he was a baby! Cade is such a sweetheart and so undemanding - the other night everyone but him was struggling to get in bed and go to sleep for the night but we thought we finally had it all under control when Cade quietly slipped out of his room and through his tears said, "Mom...my covers are not cozy." Cade is the best big brother to Callie & Kimber and loves to play with them and help feed them. I often hear him singing to them - his usual song of choice is "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". Cade is still a little pistol and occasionally gives his Sunbeam teacher a run for her money! He loves his cousin Tiki and they are so cute together - I love that we get to see them often! Cade is such a smarty-pants and is such a big helper around the house and almost always does his chores without complaint!

Lane is such a character and life is never boring with him around! He loves playing with his big brother and dotes on Madlyn (he usually ends up sleeping with her most nights) and is mostly loving to his younger sisters. He has recently started picking them up and carrying them places and occasionally he will sit on them or stand on them. Yes, I have to keep my eyes open with him around! Lane is sooo funny! Jeff & I have started saying y'all when we talk to our kids and for some reason they don't like it but Lane is the most adverse to it. "Mom! I not y'all. I Lane!" If Lane gets hurt and I ask him what happened, most often he answers with, "Hade hit me." or "Hade hurt." Sometimes he says, "I hurt mine self." I can't help but chuckle every time! Oh, Hade is how he says Cade in case that was confusing. He definitely knows how to milk it. Lane LOVES my hair and is constantly playing with it. He climbs on my back if I'm on the floor, or sits next to me on the couch. Most of the time he pulls the ponytail out of my hair. Or he pulls it and flips it around. Whatever he does, it is never gentle. One more endearing thing Lane does is that he always says 'right' after he says something. For instance, "Hade hurt me, right Mom?" Or "I am trying to watch you, right?" Except he says it 'yight', not 'right'.


Callie is 8 months today - I can hardly believe it! She is currently working on her 6th tooth and is getting more and more mobile every day. She scoots all around and is getting closer to doing an actual crawl. My tiny little girl is getting bigger every day and is now bigger than her younger sister. She is definitely all about the food! She can pound an 8-oz. bottle in no time and loves to eat her baby food and snack on Cheerios. Callie has such a sweet temperament and hardly ever cries (mostly when Kimber tries to climb on top of her or claw her face or eat her hand). She gets into these giggly moods and it is so much fun to make her laugh! She is pretty ticklish and likes raspberries on her stomach and likes to play peek-a-boo.


Kimber is also 8 months today! She is working on her 2nd tooth and is crawling all over the place and even stands up next to things. She really thinks that she is pretty cool with all of her neat tricks! Kimber is such a sweet baby and is very happy. Unless she's mad. With her it is either all or nothing. Most of the time she is happy though and it is so fun. Both of the girls' cribs are in our room and Kimber is usually the first one up in the morning (of the two of them) and will pull herself up to standing in her crib, look over the edge, and start squawking and squealing at us until we look her way. Then her face will break out into the biggest smile and she will get so excited! Kimber loves her sister and is very interested in her. Hence, the climbing on top of her, the eating of her hands, etc.


Both girls are so fun and so sweet and together, it really is double the fun! I love when I go to get them out of their cribs or their car seats and they both just light up and get so excited to see me. How could a mom not be happy with that kind of welcome?Well, that's a little update into what we've been up to. We are healthy and happy and loving life!

Good Times...

February 2011 - With 4 young ones at home while the older 2 are at school, our schedule is pretty flexible and revolves around the two babies' needs. We have lots of time to cuddle together and chill out on the LoveSac. Cade & Lane sure love their baby sisters!

I caught the girls holding hands and it just melts my heart every time I see it!

I still can't believe that I am actually the mother of twins:) I feel so lucky!

I tell you what - the amount of laundry with 6 kids is immensely larger than the amount with 4. I feel like I am doing laundry all. the. time. (as if I didn't already). It doesn't help that 2 of those children are infants and we are using a plethora of blankets, bibs, and burp cloths daily. But still.

We are adjusting well to the 6 kids though and Callie & Kimber are such good babies - it is starting to get fun! They are both smiling and laughing at this point, although Kimber is much more enthusiastic. Kimber smiles with her whole entire body - her legs start kicking and her arms start moving and you can tell she just can't keep it in! Jeff & I always joke that Kimber is always up for a party! Callie is much more reluctant to grace us with her smiles, but when she does bestow one, it is about the sweetest thing ever. You can't help but try to make Callie smile. She is very sweet and pleasant and hardly ever cries, while Kimber is a little bit more on and off. She is either very happy or very MAD. She reminds us of Maddie a little bit this way. It is so fun to watch their different personalities emerge and develop - and they are very different from each other!

Twin Blessings

We debated about whether to wait for Madlyn's baptism weekend to bless the babies since we would have more family here or if we should do it earlier. Just a few days before, we decided to have their blessing on Sunday, January 30. We were really glad that we did because just a couple of days after that, I took the girls into their 2-month checkup and the pediatrician heard a heart murmur with Callie. We scheduled an echo for that afternoon at the hospital and I took her in. It was heartbreaking to lie next to her while they did the scan. It wasn't invasive at all - just like an ultrasound - but I was very emotional and scared about it all. We did not get the results until early the next week so it was a little bit of a tense weekend for us and I was so glad that we had chosen to have them blessed that weekend.

the handsome daddy with the beautiful girls (Callie, Kimber)

Mom and the girls (Kimber, Callie)

Kimber had a cold that day and she was not very happy at all, you can see it in the pictures - poor girl.

Callie, Kimber

I surprised myself by loving these long flowing dresses - the girls looked so beautiful! (Callie, Kimber)

Jeff gave the girls very special blessings. It was so cool to hear how very different their blessings were. It was a testimony to me that Heavenly Father knows each of us individually and is mindful of our specific personalities, needs, desires, etc. I am so grateful for the priesthood that Jeff holds and for his worthiness to use it to bless our family.

Sylvia M. brought this yummy and cute cake (she also was kind enough to jot down notes from the blessings for us). Sean, Lyssa, & family came down from Frisco for the day and we were so appreciative of their support. We know that all of our other family members who weren't here were with us in spirit and we missed them.

We got the results of Callie's echo later that week- she has two valves that hadn't closed completely and a hole in her muscle fibers between two chambers. Each problem was expected to be able to resolve itself on its own. We followed up with a cardiologist who verified that this would most likely be the case but that if they didn't, they are so miniscule that we do not have to do anything to correct them. We will follow up again at one year but it is anticipated that she can live a very normal and healthy life - we are so grateful!

We absolutely love Callie & Kimber and are so happy that they are in our family - they bring so much joy to our home and are loved and adored by all!

Christmas

We decided to head to AZ for Christmas this past year and since we couldn't really take all of our Christmas loot with us, we celebrated Christmas a few days early at home. We surprised the kids one night by telling them that we were going to AZ for Christmas (they were so excited) and that Santa had just dropped their presents off early. Jeff built a fire in the fireplace while the kids all waited in the boys' room. Here they all are waiting to go into the Christmas tree- I can't believe there are SIX of them!!

I spent most of the evening trying to get the babies down for the night while Jeff helped the kids open & put together presents so we didn't get too many pictures after that.

These are the girls' Christmas outfits - I couldn't find any infant dresses in their size so they got these instead. I think I liked them better:) Callie, Kimber

We spent much of the week in Mesa with all of Jeff's family and because of road closures, we didn't even think that we would be able to make it up the mountain to see my family at all. Thankfully, it worked out for us to leave on Friday afternoon and we barely made it through some rough spots. Here are some of the kids enjoying the snow on one of our pit stops. Right as we loaded back into the car to get back on the road, Jeff paused and said another prayer for our safety (we always say one at the beginning of our travels). About 1/2 mile up the road, we came upon an accident involving two vehicles that had just barely happened. I'm pretty sure that if we hadn't paused for the few seconds of the prayer we would have been involved as well. We definitely felt the hand of the Lord protecting our family.

We had a great break and it was so fun to get to see so much of our families - although we missed those we didn't get to see. I'm so glad that Jeff is such a fun dad and always tries to create memories for our family and encourages me to do fun things!

Home Again...

I knew that bringing two babies home to our already bustling home could incite chaos so I thought I was prepared. After a more complicated delivery than planned and an extra 3 days in the hospital though, I was more than a little bit scared about real life with twins and four other young children. As we drove home from the hospital, my body hurt, I was exhausted, and I was faced with my first night home with two infants. In those first few days home, I had an almost-constant prayer running through my mind, "Dear Father in Heaven. Please help us to experience the joy amid the chaos." I honestly did not know if we would be able to survive.

Thankfully, my mother and father-in-law were here to help keep things comfortable & constant for us while I parked myself on the couch and spent approximately 95% of my life feeding, changing, and holding babies. I even ate my meals on the couch while feeding the girls. I hated that my mother-in-law had so much work to do preparing our meals, doing the laundry, cleaning up after everyone, and keeping us all happy but I am so extremely grateful that she was here to do it. She did so much and was a lifesaver for me during those first few days home.

On Saturday & Sunday, we got to have Jeff's sister and her family come hang out and see the girls. It is always fun to show off new babies and this was just doubly fun! It was a trick for everyone to try to figure out which baby was who and my older kids liked to tell them all the secret: Kimber has more hair and is bigger than Callie! We love having Lyssa, Sean, & kiddos close and were so happy to have them with us and for their love & support.

All of the kids LOVE their baby sisters and Cade is no exception! He was really cute and kept telling me how glad he was that I was home with the babies.

Lane was pretty happy to have his mom home as well! You may notice that I'm not looking extremely lovely here but I can't tell you how many times in the first few weeks that people (my doctor, the pediatrician, friends, family) would say, "You look so much better than the last time I saw you. You look like you're getting more color." I guess I looked pretty rough for a while:)

Kimber, Callie (getting cozy)

My in-laws left on Monday & Tuesday and Jeff was back to work so I was left to my own devices for a couple of days before more company came. But I was not alone. Members of my ward's Relief Society volunteered to come help me for a couple of hours every day, so I had someone to fold some laundry, load the dishwasher, or hold one of the babies. I definitely would not have thought of having someone do this for me, but was so appreciative of the thoughtfulness of my sisters in the Gospel. I really loved the support and the company. Also, our dear friend Sylvia made some yummy food for us and took the 4 older children to Chuck E. Cheese's for a couple of hours so that Jeff & I could have some 'down' time with each other and the babies. So lovely.

Thursday night brought more company, our friends from AZ Michael & Christina Fox. We first met Michael & Christina in Flagstaff about 6 years ago and our lives have been tied together since then. Michael & Jeff worked together, they lived 4 houses down from us in Queen Creek, and they helped us drive the moving truck out here when we moved 2 years ago. It was so fun to have them here and they were so helpful in holding babies and playing with the older kids. We were sad to see them leave on Monday but anxious to welcome our next visitor - my mom!

My mom had never been here to visit us so it was extra exciting to have her here. I just wished I could have felt better and that she didn't have to work so hard while she was here but again, I was so grateful to have her. My mother got to experience with me some of the hardest days of my life, as nursing became so extremely painful that I couldn't hardly bring myself to do it. There were multiple times that Jeff and my mom would each be holding a screaming, hungry baby while I cried and tried to work up the courage to take them and let them eat. We're all a little closer after those experiences:)

We loved having my mom here for a little over a week and spent lots of time cuddling babies, doing laundry, visiting, and watching Christmas movies on Hallmark. It was bittersweet for me when she left because I was of course, sad to see her go, but excited to try to get myself and my little brood into our own schedule and routine.

I can't complete a post about those first few weeks without expressing gratitude for the many many people who served our family. My mother-in-law and her days of babysitting, for cleaning & doing laundry, for preparing Thanksgiving dinner (and many other meals) for my family, and for being patient with a stubborn, independent, hormonal daughter-in-law. My father-in-law for coming and supporting us, for playing with the kids, for being a buddy to Jeff, and for running errands. For Sean & Lyssa, for being here and helping, for loving us and being so supportive. For Sylvia, for her hours of food prep and taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese (brave woman!). For Michael & Christina, for coming and being with us, for holding babies, helping us take time to do fun things, for putting together our bouncy seat. For my mom, for coming, for cooking, cleaning, laundry, for playing with the kids, for being my sounding board(remember I was stubborn, independent and hormonal)! For my ward family & other friends, for the many many meals, for the hours of service watching kids and helping me around the house, for the calls & emails, for the thoughts and prayers. For all of our family and friends - your calls, emails, comments on Facebook, prayers, well wishes, gifts, etc. It was such a humbling experience to be on the receiving end of so much service and Jeff & I are so extremely grateful for all those who helped. We were very overwhelmed with the outpouring of love and service that we received.