Twins twins!

Everyone,

A great big congrats and shout out to my sil and her family who just had her twin girls yesterday. Everyone is doing very well! Check out her blog for more info.

I am just so excited that our boys have twin cousins their own age and that Splats and I will have the same stuff pretty much going on at the same time like school and friends and super busy nights right now. It's going to be so much fun!

Safire

More Pictures

Everyone,

I have a moment to myself (Pirate is asleep, Professor is awake and happy in his bouncer, Butterfly is in bed.) so I thought I'd upload a few more pictures of things we've done this week. For more in depth talk about them, check out my friends' Laura and Lis's blogs.

We also went to a goodbye party for one of my friends in my mom's group who is moving out of state. We are so sad to see her and her kids go but one of us had to be the first to go, right? We will miss them a lot.

We've been out pretty much every day this week (beyond the beach and berry picking we've been to the Amish market and all around our town here). Professor has finally decided pacifiers are good and he's smiling up a storm now. They are so cute together in this picture.

Anyway, I probably won't be posting much in the next few days as we have a few things to go and see while Flower is still with us. But once she's back home (sniff sniff) and I have long days by myself and 3 kids I will attempt to catch up on blogging. I still owe a birth story and the boys' 2 month old stats and pictures. Busy busy busy.

Safire

Butterfly's 3 Year Old Update

Everyone,

I think I am sleep deprived because I'm not sure if I updated you on Butterfly's 3 year old stats. Probably not since they came almost a month later. When she turned 2, we were in Disneyland and I didn't get home until a month later. The peditrician's office wouldn't schedule something within the calander year because insurance doesn't always pay for it. So we went around June 3rd.

Butterfly is a big girl. She is as big as a 5 year old. Seriously. She is 45 lbs and 47 inches. (I can't find my little book they wrote it down in so we're going by my seriously lacking sleepless brain here.) She wears size 4-5 clothes, no more in the toddler sizes! She also wears a size 10 toddler shoe. I think this fall I will probably have to buy her regular kid shoes because she is so big. She is going to be so tall!

She has a memory like a steel trap and cries if she remembers something that we didn't do. She is also throwing tantrums if something happens that isn't in her time line. Like today, Flower went up to Butterfly's room to get the ponies. Butterfly played down here for a few minutes, and then went to go up to get something. On the way up, she met Flower coming down with the ponies. Apparently that was not in order and she broke down and cried. Arg...it's so frustrating sometimes.

I love that she loves to play so much. I love that she is a great eater and I never worry if she's getting enough. I love that she only wants Pirate to sit next to her in the van. I love that she is so active and so loving.

Here is her 3 year old slide show. It's pretty long so I understand if only my parents watch it. :) Enjoy Mom and Dad!

Safire

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Pictures Equals A Thousand Words

Everyone,

Too many things have been happening lately to blog about right now. Here's just a picture update of fun things we've been doing with Flower. (I'm not typing a big thing out because I am always feeding a baby and I hate typing one handed...)
Safire

Swimming with the Tots

Everyone,

My ward (okay, me...I organized it) had a tot pool takeover at our bishop's kiddie pool. We had so much fun! It was a scorcher day (over 90 degrees with the heat index putting us over 100 that day) but the water was deliciously cool and the kids ran and splashed and jumped and threw things and dug water and played with bath toys, etc. It was a great time.

Butterfly was so happy that bff Vinny was there. And Andrew and Rachel too. I spent most of the time at the pool nursing poor hot little boys who didn't enjoy the water on their feet. (Those blankets in the picture are just purely for shade purposes.) But I was able to have a few hands free moments. I also dumped Flower off of the big foam alligator they have anchored in their pool. It was a fun time!



PS- Thanks to my friend Laura who took these pictures with her camera that is exactly like mine. :)

One Rough Night

Everyone,

I have had probably the roughest night yet. I think I got about 2 hours total. Not 2 hours together. As I got into bed (late...need to go to bed earlier!), I fed both boys and Professor dropped off like magic. Juice wrapped him up and I proceeded to feed Pirate between his huge smiles. It was cute the first 15 times or so. But as 1am approached, it was time to stop. So I just flipped off the light, laid down and fell promptly asleep with him nursing/smiling away.

About 45 minutes later, Professor woke up screaming because he is alone! Again! Where is my mommy?!?! I put Pirate down in his bassinet, picked up Professor and fed him back to sleep. Just as I was starting to drift off, Pirate (who I must say was unceremoniously dumped in his bed...I was shaky and dazed by the jolting awake) was unhappy at being alone and started to fuss. I don't say cry because he rarely does this. He just fusses. I listened to the fuss as I rocked Professor into a deep sleep, gently laid him down, tucked him in, and soothed him back to sleep.

So I pick up Pirate and nurse him back down for about 10 minutes. In that time, I listened to Professor ramp himself back up to screaming. I put Pirate down a little nicer this time, and he stayed asleep. (With his arms over his head...so cute!) I poked Juice and got him to change Professor's diaper. I immediately went to sleep while he changed, and woke up about 2 minutes later when I was handed a very unhappy little boy. Some snuggle time, some nursing, and some rocking later and he was asleep. As soon as he was asleep, I glanced at the clock. 3:13 am. Great. Now I can sleep.

I did not put Professor down but held him in the crook of my arm while I dozed. He woke up around 4am, had a dream feed (love that phrase) and dropped off deep enough for me to put him in his bed. By now, Pirate was up again to eat so I quickly fed him and plopped him back into his bed where he stretched his arms up and went right to sleep.

Ahhh...both boys asleep! And only 5am! I fell asleep with my glasses on sitting propped up in bed. I know this because I woke up about an hour later when Juice's alarm went off at 6:15am. I took off my glasses, moved all of my propping pillows and sank into oblivion.

Juice said good bye around 6:45am, I think I nodded at him. I can't be sure. At 7:05am, Professor woke screaming again. I'm alone!! Where is my Mommy?!?! A diaper change, a feeding and we both crashed on the bed. Pirate woke up around 8am as happy as a lark and ready to eat. And smile, and eat, and smile. He woke me up with his happiness and I played/talked/nursed him for about 45 minutes. By 9am, I figured I should get up and eat before Butterfly woke up. As soon as my feet touched the floor, Professor woke up screaming. Where are you GOING? You're LEAVING me?! I took both boys downstairs and put them on the floor to play while I ate.

Butterfly woke up about 2 minutes later (just after my first bite of food...can kids sense these things?!) and I set down my cereal to go get her. A change out of pjs, a change of sheets (they were very wet) and a change to the kitchen. I fed her some cereal and had another bite of my now soggy stuff. Professor started to cry. So he cried for a bit so I could eat something.

Another change and feeding later (for both babies), and I am finally in a position to get showered. Yay for Flower to play with Butterfly and keep an eye on the boys so I can take my own sweet time. But just as I was getting in, I hear Professor sobbing so I rushed through it and quickly (meaning, didn't get all the way dry before I threw clothes on) and back downstairs to a hysterical Professor and Pirate just starting to cry (meaning he's gone beyond his fussing).

I feed both boys and they both drop off to sleep within about 20 minutes. By this time, it's lunch time for Butterfly. She cries through lunch because she picked sandwiches and not mac and cheese but she really did want mac and cheese! I gave her sandwiches. And put her down for a nap. Then I took both awake boys upstairs and put us all down for naps.

Well, tried to. They cried/fussed/nursed for about 2 hours. Back and forth. Back and forth. By the time Juice got home, I was feeling like a zombie and he made pizza while I tried to settle the boys. I think they finally got quiet around 7:30pm, and then it was time to put Butterfly to bed. The Butterfly who only wants her mommy right now. So by 8:30pm, I was finally getting myself something to eat and thinking about going to bed. Instead, I stayed up and watched a movie with Flower, loving the fact that I didn't have a baby attached to me and Butterfly was quiet.

It can't always be like this. And I suppose it won't always be like this. Most of our nights are very peaceful. The boys get up one after the other, and go back to sleep nicely. So I'm not sure why we had such a rough night but we did. I knew the sleepless nights were coming. And honestly, I just worry that they will impact my milk supply. I don't mind staying up so much for them. They will only be this little once.

I think once is enough.

Safire

Blessing Pictures

Everyone,

Here are the much requested photos of the boys in their blessing outfits. I played with them a little in iphoto and they turned out pretty good. I love the way Professor's outfit glows in his picture, and how sharp Pirate's outfit is. And you have to have one together!

I also included a picture of Butterfly and her bff Vinny on the blessing day. Those two sure do love to play together. When Butterfly saw Vinny at the party she said, "Well hi Vinny!" and gave him a huge hug. So cute!

Safire

What a Week

Everyone,

It's been a whirlwind week for us. My parents have been visiting all week and left to go home this afternoon. This has also been a week-of-serious-car-buying. Yes, you read right. We are buying a car. Bought. Van. We bought a van on Tuesday. Okay so it wasn't a week of car buying. Only two days of it. It felt like a week though. My dad and I furiously rushed around the local car places in hour and a half increments throughout the days. That was as long as the boys could go between feedings. I felt bad for my mom and Flower the last day because both boys were inconsolable towards the end. They did very good and allowed us to find a great car. Van. I mean van.

Butterfly wants to name the van Sally or Lightning McQueen. "Or we could call it Chick because it's green! And Chick is green!" Our van is green. I'm leaning towards calling the van Fern but Butterfly won't let me. Anyway, for all you car people, the van is a 2004 Kia Sedona with 14,000 miles on it. The miles were right. The size was a bit small but we can fit all the kids and us in it plus one. It does have a dvd player in it. The price was excellent. We were able to buy it out right. I love not having a car payment!

I also love having doors that slide so I don't have to worry about hitting other cars with them. I love being able to unlock the doors from a key chain. (A funny story about that. Our friend Julien came to visit about a month ago and said he needed to check if he locked the doors of his rental car. He walked outside, took about 5 steps, and walked back inside. Juice asked him if he could see from there if it was locked or if he had a cool key chain thing. Julien said, "Juice, everyone but you has a cool key chain thing." It was so true. And now we have one! Sweet!) I love that I can fit my strollers in the back (although I do have to take the wheels off). And I love that now we can actually go somewhere with everyone, including Flower. Yay for space!

So, all day Monday and Tuesday I spent driving cars. Wednesday we drove to the mall and got the kids' pictures taken. (Super cute, email me for the password if you want to see.) And then we spent 3 hours trying to get home. There was a huge storm (go here for a video of it). It downed trees all over the area. And of course, we were trying to get home through the back roads. Which had more downed trees and downed power lines. We had to stop twice to feed the babies. (Once in front of our bishop's house where a tree had smashed a car and their roof! No one got hurt thank goodness.) I had been in touch with Juice and we still had power but a lot of people didn't in the area. It was nice to finally get home.

On Friday, our good friends who moved away to St. Louis, came to visit. We had a great time with them! And it just confirmed to me that boys will never grow up because Juice and Juilen spent the morning shooting each other with foam guns and missiles. Never mind that the kids wanted to play too! I really miss them and it was fun to have a morning to connect again.

I feel like we have been moving all day, every day. Add on to that taking care of the twins and Butterfly (could not have been done without Flower!), I am exhausted. But this is just the beginning of summer for me. And I love it!

Safire

PS- All local gals, we are invited to swim at the bishop's kiddie pool on Tuesday at 10am! Hope to see you there.

Blessing

Everyone,

It's been a very busy couple of days. I have a lot of good posts coming up (birth story! Butterfly's 3 year old stats! 6 week doctor visit for me!). But let's start with the blessing.

Since there were so many of us pregnant in my ward, the boys and our good friends' baby Brooklyn were blessed on Sunday. We had a lot of family come from Virginia and the grandparents from Utah came too. Also, we have Flower (our niece) who has come to stay with us for a month and help out with Butterfly. She is 14 and a huge help!

Anyway, the blessing. Our friends were able to join us too and it was great to see everyone. The blessings went really well. They weren't very different, which is interesting. I thought they might be. Pirate's blessing commented on his patience and Professor's blessing commented on his loudness. Because he is loud. But he didn't cry through the blessing and I was sure he would. A nice meeting.

We all went home (except for Butterfly...she had to go to her class! And then to the party! Okay? Okay.) and had some sandwiches and salads in the park behind our house. It was really nice and everyone was having a great time.

Everyone was winding down and I was sitting by my parents. We thought maybe we should start gathering the food up because it looked a little cloudy and they were calling for showers in the afternoon. My dad said he felt a drop so the 3 of us stood up to go start moving food inside. And that's when the heavens opened. It poured. People ran for the food, ran for the babies, and ran for cover. We got everything inside without being too wet and everyone kind of stood around on our deck and under trees for about 20 minutes. And then we kind of migrated inside.

It was great to have everyone in my house, but it was hot and kind of in disarray. I had not anticipated people being inside that much so the food and everything was craziness. But that's okay. The boys had a great time being held by everyone, and I think it was a good time.

The only thing that I'm sad about (a little) is that in all the commotion, I wasn't able to get pictures of the boys in their blessing outfits. Maybe one of the grandpas got it. Still, I think tomorrow we will put them back in their outfits and get a picture done.

Safire