November 18, 2014

So, we're heading to Seattle this weekend. Driving 14 hours each way, staying in a hotel for 4 nights with 4 kids under 4. No one can ever accuse us of being boring. Crazy, yes. Boring, no. The next several days will be spent getting maintenance done on the van, cleaning it, cleaning the house so it will be clean when we get home on thanksgiving and packing an insane amount of stuff for the 6 of us. Should be fun!

November 12, 2014

The cold has come. Bring on the fuzzy pants and cream of wheat!


And winter guard. That has come, too. It's looking like it's going to be a great season!

November 7, 2014

Another Sub Day

It was another subbing day. I quite enjoy taking Clint's classes, especially on days when it's mostly marching band kids. Which is every day. It'd be nice if we could do this a few days a month. Getting out is so nice and doing it in a way that makes money instead if spending it is even better!  Craig stayed home to take Sophie to preschool and swap kids & cars about 10:15 when there's a prep and lunch break. I came home, fed the babies, started laundry, dishes, baby stuff, made lunch, picked up Sophie from preschool and got everyone settled at home before heading back to finish the day. Came home, discussed the baby shower, fed babies, got them settled for naps, read with Sophie, made an important phone call, and took. a. nap. It wasn't long and did require encouraging Sophie to play a reading game but it happened. It's now 6:15 and we're all snuggled in my bed. The laundry isn't done, dishes aren't done, my bathroom didn't get cleaned today and dinner is in the fridge. No guilt at all. Best of all: babies will want to eat soon which means I may get another hour lounge feeding in bed. Bring on the HGTV!

Tomorrow is a much-anticipated UCGC directors meeting and clinic. I'm excited about the clinic and our season. It's already going well! :-D

November 4, 2014

Just a few notes.

-Halloween week was fun. The big girls enjoyed dressing up- An Intergalactic Ice Queen (Ambassador Troi from Star Trek TNG) and Dorothy- and the babies tolerated it. They were my flying monkeys and I was the wicked witch. Totally fitting. Sophie. Got to wear her costume to ballet class and had a ball doing that. I was in St. George for the state marching band competition on Halloween so they went to errands and had a fun evening with the cousins.

- The last competition of the season was a great one. Wasn't our best performance but the band got 1st in musical performance and 2nd in music general effect. I'm quite proud to be working with this group. Up next: winter guard 2015.

- Babies are 5 months! Still not sleeping through the night but they are cute, scooting, rolling, eating apple sauce & squash and all ours. :) Their baby cousin, Emma, still out-weighs them by at least a pound.

October 25, 2014

Oh, my gosh. I feel like I'm going to cry. Know all those delightful things "well-meaning" people tell new parents about how they're never going to sleep again? Guess what. With twins, I'm beginning to believe it's true. I'm a sleep-deprived, short-tempered, mean, demanding basket case. We're pushing 5 months of horrible sleep. When I have people ask what I need and respond simply with "a nap" I AM NOT KIDDING!! Craig does a lot of the getting out of bed at night but being awake and feeding is still killer. I am so ready to put them in their cribs tonight and leave them there all night. It won't happen, but I'm enjoying day dreaming about the long sleep.

I'm pretty nervous about going to band today. I'm not a nice person after several particularly rough nights in a row. AAAAAAAAAH!!


October 23, 2014

Thursday again :-)

It has been a week and its only Thursday. Fun how that works!

Tuesday was a fast & furious competition at Davis HS. SFHS placed 3rd again! Many people would be disappointed in a 3rd place finish but our division is huge (9-11 groups, depending on the competition) and SF hasnt placed or won any awards in at least 4 years. Clint is doing a great job with the band program. We have another comp Saturday at Pleasant Grove and then we'll be in St. George for state championships next Thursday-Saturday. It has been the best season yet and has gone really fast and slow all at the same time.

Who in the world thought producing 68 oz of milk each day would be easy? Probably only people who've never tried. Breastfeeding and producing milk for one is rough- for two? Extremely difficult and currently impossible.

Evie has discovered and fallen in love with her feet! Its pretty adorable to see her grab on and rock back and forth with them. We still dont have night sleepers. I'm still in a perpetual state of exhaustion. I really feel like i haven't had a night of decent sleep in a year. Obviously the worst of it has been in the last 5 months but wow. Sophie really spoiled us sleeping long stretches so early! I'm likely going on the band trip without children next week so maybe I can get some sleep then. (I don't think many people would consider a field trip with a bunch of teenagers a place to get some rest!) Craig left for 4 days and 3 nights, I'll be gone for less than 2 days. I'm not feeling badly about it at all! :-)

After breakfast, Sophie announced she wanted to read and wanted to know when she would learn. After lunch, she pointed out the words "go" and "dog" in a book. I guess sight words are going to be reintroduced before her 4th birthday. If she keeps going like this, I'm going to be extremely disappointed if we can't find a school that will take her next year. (She'll be 4 until December).

Olivia has become aware of letters and is loving pointing out "O" for Olivia everywhere. She's quite the little sponge who likes to ask "why" and do things all by herself. I really need to be better about encouraging the potty training since she doesn't have accidents when we're home and she doesn't have pants on. She's good about using her "practice potty" away from home, too. Maybe lazy mommy should get back on that before Olivia decides she doesn't want to use the potty.

In my act-of-defiance for the week, I decided to skip housework and sit down and rest. Too bad I waited so long! It's 2:03 and I need to get all of the girls up and to band in the next 55 minutes. I suppose I should pump for a few more minutes then get everyone going.

October 18, 2014

Friiiday!

I'm sure someday I'll get on here through my computer and add pictures but that day likely won't come until I have a fully functional charger. For now, it's still quick posts while I'm sitting in bed feeding or pumping.

The good news: as far as I remember, the babies only woke up once between 11:00 pm and 7:00 am. The bad news: they may have been up more but only got fed and their diapers changed once. Really, though, I'd love for this to stick so we can start "sleep training" soon. Nearly 5 months in a row of extremely interrupted sleep is grinding. Especially since each awake period is twice as long with the twins.

Craig took yesterday, Friday, off with the intention of working on his class, spending time with the girls and seeing the Brent & Jen Petersons. Even though the day didn't go quite as planned, it did go!
We started at the pumpkin patch in Springville in the AM, home for lunch and then MUCH needed naps. Just not for the adults. I wish. After everyone woke up and was less grumpy, we headed to thanksgiving point to see "the girl cousins" and the farm. There were lots of Halloween type activities going on that the kids loved. We adults stood in line for the pony rides while the older kids went and did all of the other activities. Sophie & Olivia loved the animals, particularly riding the horses. I'm sure we'll be hearing about that for a long time!

Up next:
Ripping carpet out of our closet (thanks, nasty cats), Craig submitting the last assignments for his class, taking the "boy cousins" to the pumpkin patch in Springville, taking inventory of food storage and planning our meals accordingly. What can I say, it's a glamorous life ;-)

October 16, 2014

4 Week Quick Update

I haven't posted here since September 24th. I HAVE been taking and backing up pictures so that does count towards my daily journaling. A few quick higights about the last few weeks:

- I turned 27. Wow.
- SFHS band placed third at BYU- heck yes!
- Babies are rolling!
- Life desicions made
- Subbed for a "week" at the high school for Clint while Becca had baby #2. You may think you know how hard band directors work but until you do it on your own for awhile, you have no idea. 3 days of classes, two full rehearsals, a performance and pep band at the football game and I need sseveral days to recover. Thank goodness it's fall break now and I should get that rest.
- Craig went to San Francisco for a conference, leaving me with all 4 girls, life & work for 4 days. That was fun.
- babies are rolling, grabbing toes, batting at toys and being cute.
- Babies are also not sleeping well at night. I hope that changes soon. We're tired.
- Andrew turned 12!
- Started working on winter guard. I'm super excited.
- Olivia is still pretty much self potty training. She's awesome.
- Sophie is doing very well in preschool. Ms Ann, the assistant teacher, didn't know Sophie was 3. (She's in the pre k class). She's more than keeping up. I really should be doing more with her at home to encourage the learning. We're still looking at schools for starting kindergarten a few months before she's 5 but there are very few that might take her simply because of her age.
- Heading to play with the cousins and have a picnic lunch. Go, Thursday!

September 24, 2014

The last several days...

The last several days have been busy ones...that seems to be a recurring theme around these parts. Color guard costume malfunctions requiring late-night fabric purchases and alterations, remaking other assorted costume bits such as leg warmers and headbands. Sophie also got another uti which required extra doctor visits, a referral to primary children's for some tests (happened yesterday), the region 8 marching band review on Saturday, Ogden temple red education Sunday, teaching music class & guard Monday. I feel like the days are blending together and rushing by. It doesn't seem to matter how early I get up or how late I go to bed there are always things that don't get done in a day. I don't feel like I'm being unrealistic in my expectations. I don't even plan on a shower, hair fixed beyond a ponytail or makeup. I haven't been able to take a few minutes to add pictures to these posts because that would require getting my laptop out and using both hands, which is just ludicrous. Ask the babies what they think about that ;-)

I am enjoying life despite the perpetual state of tired and little piles of things I just can't seem to keep ahead of. Such is life! :-D

September 19, 2014

We got about 5 hours out of the babies tonight but that's something! It's 4:55 right now amd Craig is bottle feeding them while I pump, upload pictures to our online back-up site and text my mom. There are certainly perks to the two hour time difference! There's also quite the impressive lightning show going on at the moment. Hopefully we won't get soaked tonight or tomorrow during either band performance.

Oooh, band. Nightmares have abounded and a couple came true. The beautiful new flags clash with the uniforms, several leg warmers need fixing or completely redone and oh my word. Best part: the work looks good. Up next week: add more weapon work to the stupidly lengthened drum break which was previously short and is now 64 counts. Woo >:-(

We got out and to ballet class in many (5, to be exact) pieces yesterday! Olivia's self-potty training is going amazingly well, the babies seem to be getting themselves on a nap schedule and the van got cleaned & organized. The bad part: it seems like anytime I clean the car it then becomes necessary to clean the garage, which results in the need to do 3 extra loads of laundry and a load of dishes. I find that extremely annoying. It really screws with my daily list and we just can't have that!

Well, I'm going to try to get some more sleep before starting the day in earnest. It's going to be a busy one with sewing, normal daily stuff, preschool, music class, a doctor appointment for Sophie's frequent infections, and the homecoming performance. Hopefully good things will be reported tomorrow! :-)

September 18, 2014

The twins slept for darn near close to seven hours last night! Too bad my body didn't agree with that and was kind enough to wake me up at the normal feeding time, anyway. But it's progress!

Yesterday was another busy one. I'm kind of wondering if I will have any days in the near future that are not busy. Anyway, we had preschool, all of our normal daily stuff, and long band rehearsal. Our first show is tomorrow night at the homecoming halftime. I have to it meant I am a little nervous just because the one song that we fed and given time to do is not the cleanest. I know to have the band and colorguard ready for our first competition on Saturday it will be good for them to perform this particular song publicly. And it will be fine, especially compared to years past. But that doesn't really change how nervous I am.

I just realized it is already time for us to go to ballet class this morning. Maybe I'll have some time later to come back and write some more. Tootles!

September 17, 2014

Wednesday again!

Wednesday is here again. My, goodness how fast weeks are going! 6 full weeks of Fall marching band left, I'll be 27 in 11 days, babies will be 4 months in just a couple weeks and just wow. The daily run...wow. Same things every day but I am still having a hard time doing anything but barely keeping up. I had all these grand plans to get my sewing room reorganized, our bedroom reorganized (it's started!) and lots of fun crafts and activities for the big girls but they're just not happening.

Biggest struggle right now: breastfeeding. I never had enough for Sophie and Olivia to EBF, but I've been doing pretty good with the twins. They've had supplementation from the beginning for weight gain and such. Up until this week, they were only getting 2oz of formula each day but now it's closer to 3 or 4. I'm frustrated. I feed and pump and drink water and all that but I can't seem to get my supply to increase. The fenugreek didn't work, neither has oatmeal in large quantities. I know formula isn't going to kill them or make them dumb (I would hardly call my older girls dumb) but I really wanted to be able to do it this time. I have it in my head that as soon as the babies start eating solids in the next 6 weeks they'll want less milk and I'll be able to catch up. If only it'd work so nicely ;-)





September 16, 2014

Whatever! :-)

Yesterday was just as busy as I thought it was going to be. And ignore my note from yesterday about Siri, I think I actually do need to go back and fix things during naptime today. I'm not feeling the greatest this morning so we have postponed the older kids music class until Friday. I need a day off. Not that having four kids under four at home is actually a "day off. " Happy Tuesday!

September 15, 2014

Early Monday

It's going to be another busy day here! Monday's tend to be crazy. Starting with preschool at 9:15, then music class for the Littles from 10 to 1030 this afternoon from three. This is an addition to all of our normal every day things.

It is come to my attention that Siri does not do the greatest job of interpreting my dictation on here. Trust me, I know the difference between "new " and "knew ". Someday when I have extra time on my hands and I'm wondering what in the world I should do I'll go back and fix those things. Just not today.

Yesterday was titis third birthday and we celebrated with him at his house. He had the cutest little Thomas the train party complete with aunt errands delicious homemade pizza. Big girls had such a good time in conked out pretty quickly after we got home. That's my idea of a good party! We decided yesterday that we needed to find a new home. Miss Tia and Jack now have Mattoon at their house and I was a little surprised at the reaction of the girls. They weren't nearly as upset knowing that Tia and Jack going to take care of her.

And that's all the time I have morning. I'm off to get Sophie ready for preschool, fed breakfast, dressed and get things ready for music class! Tootles.

September 14, 2014

Saturday Highlights

A quick post listing some Saturday events:

- Saturday band & guard from 8-noon. I'm feeling pretty okay about the shows & competitions starting next Friday. We still have a LOT of things we can improve on but overall, it's not looking too bad. I got sunburned, that does look bad.

- Craig took the girls to the park to play while I was out at work. They also went to Cosco and generally had a pretty good time together. Crazy tacos for lunch I would buy some cleaning and out times.

- Sophie really wanted to go to IKEA for some reason, so we told her she took a nap she could go. We have needed a new table to fit more people for a while, so we figured we would just look for that. Naturally, we ended up coming home with a new one. Happy birthday to me!

- Someday I will learn that Walmart on a Saturday night it's a lousy idea. Just not last night.

- The baby slept for almost 6 hours straight! Happy happy day!

September 13, 2014

Saaaaaaturday! ...and random thoughts

In case anyone cares, clogged milk ducts at 4:00 am hurt and feeding or pumping don't always get them out. A hot bath, while relaxing, also only does so much... especially if you start falling asleep in the tub.

We got to celebrate "Aunt Bocky" having a birthday at Granny Pams last night. We had told Sophie & Olivia Thursday we'd be going on Friday and Sophie remembered! First thing out of her mouth yesterday morning, "is it aunt Becky's birthday?!" Navajo tacos, cheese cake, gifts, visiting & silly games rounded out the evening.

A little calico kitten adopted Olivia yesterday. It's tiny and the girls love her. Our other cats... Not so much. Still trying to see if it has a home but it's so little and seemed undernourished so we're guessing it doesn't. I have been cursed with one giant soft spot for animals. I do not like to see them suffer at all. Both of our older kitties are rescues, too.

In happier news, I love Smugmug. (It's our online photo storage and backup site of choice.) I've recently discovered I'm able to directly upload pictures from my phone to albums on the site, which is totally awesome since my laptop is- very sadly- on its way out and I prefer to skip the "middle man" (iPhoto) if I can to avoid losing our pictures and videos. And I can do it sitting in my bed while pumping, which I still seem to be doing a LOT.

Off to our Saturday marching band rehearsal. Im sure it's going to be an extremely productive one!

September 11, 2014

Laughing Twinners!

The twins started laughing last night! After an unexpectedly busy day, that was the best possible way to end it. I'll post/share the videos as soon as I can. And for the record, Evie laughed first. Alli smiled first. ;-)

September 9, 2014

Another Monday

The babies did it again! Between five and 5 1/2 hours of sleep! But for some reason, I am extra tired this morning. I don't particularly care for waking up in the morning and being in tears because I want to nap so badly. I doubt that will happen today. Maybe I can at least get to sleep a little earlier.

last night, I had a follow-up visit for some medication I'm on for postpartum depression. I'll talk about that another time. So he decided she wanted to go with me and so she got dressed after dinner and was my doctor visit buddy. I have two doctors that I like to see and they are both women. Sophie has decided that being a doctor sounds pretty darn good! One time when we were in the car going somewhere we asked her what kind of doctor she wanted to be. We talked about all the different kinds of doctors that there are. Podiatrist who help people like daddy with bad feet, dentist to help people with their teeth, optomologists who help people with their eyes, OBs who help mommies have babies, pediatricians who help babies, and so on. She decided working with mommies and babies sounded extra good! Anyway, we went to my doctor appointment and she took her toy stethoscope with her. Haley, who is the doctor that I see, was just tickled to see that she had brought her stethoscope, new what it was for, and how to use it. She talk to Sophie about all the different things in the office and then had her use her real stethoscope to listen to my heart and lungs. She got quite a kick out of that. On our way home, Sophie & I stopped to share a little cup of ice cream. Sophie enjoys getting to go on solo mommy or daddy dates- this certainly wasn't the most exciting day ever but she seem to thoroughly enjoy having my undivided attention and a little cup of chocolate ice cream. When we got home I asked Olivia if she would like to go on a mommy date tomorrow night and Sophie got a little upset. "Are you going to take her to get ice cream too!?" Yes, Sophie. Sorry ;)

Earlier in the day yesterday was pretty crazy. Starting with getting Sophie to preschool with everyone else in the car. Is a little trickier to get everything going in the morning since I burned some fingers pretty good Sunday night finishing up our canning project. After dropping Sophie off a couple minutes late, we rushed home to get ready for music class. That proved to be fairly difficult since Olivia had a total and complete meltdown complete with crying fit for over two hours. I'm surprised I still have ANY students after that exhibition.

Everyone is up now. I suppose I'll come back and talk about our exciting band rehearsal in the small upstairs gym later :)

September 7, 2014

September Saturday & Sunday

It's only 1:00 but it has already proved to be an eventful Sunday. It would seem that hair loss: twin edition, has begun. When I got up this morning, I was certainly not planning on spending an hour and a half just trying to get my hair brushed through. The hair loss has contributed to mass amounts of (painful!) snarls and tangles. Even Sophie and Olivia's extra strength hair detangler could only do so much. Luckily, that's done and we were able to get everybody dressed fixed fed and to church on time. Olivia had a total and complete meltdown in the whole minute it takes to drive to church because her seat was not buckled in the order that she needed it buckled. Olivia and I spent probably the first 20 minutes of sacrament meeting outside under a tree where she had her very own temper tantrum show. She had a surprisingly large audience. Mostly grandmas and parents of younger kids who seem to understand and just kept on going.

By the time Olivia was calm down, the babies decided they were hungry. Sacrament meeting was too close to being over for me to want to start feeding the babies, so I ended up just coming home intending to feed them and go back with Craig. I am extremely happy I made that choice now as Evelyn had a total and complete explosive diaper just a few minutes after I walked in the door. If I had been at church, we would have had a car seat full of poop and a messy, unhappy, hungry child and no way to effectively clean it up. Just a few minutes after I got Evelyn all cleaned up, I was getting ready to nurse and pump. I was fine but just a little hungry one minute in the next my blood sugar had dropped like crazy. I was shaking, my heart was racing, I was dizzy and I felt like I was going to pass out. I have had problems with hypoglycemia in the past, but I haven't had an episode like this in a long time. I downed two granola bars, a big glass of milk, and a cheese stick before sitting down to feed Evelyn and munch on some peanuts. I still feel a little off now, even about 40 minutes later but I don't feel like I'm going to pass out anymore. I guess I need to be more aware of making sure I have snacks between my main meals and checking on the balance of protein and carbs again.

Let's talk a little bit about yesterday. We did get up and get going in the morning which was very nice. I always have much better days when we get going earlier in the day. We decided to head over to the Mapleton farmers market to check out the produce that they had. We got a 25 pound box of fresh peaches, a big cup of fresh raspberries, a BYU hair clip for Sophie, and some hot peppers for Craig for $19. I had made applesauce on Friday evening and I had been hoping to find some inexpensive fresh, local apples at the farmers market, too. There weren't any of the little Mapleton farmers market so we decided to go down to Spanish Fork. That was quite the impressive market. While we were there we ended up getting some giant delicious onions which were made into soup for dinner, fresh pineapple salsa, some fresh local honey, and a giant box of apples. When we got home, Craig made lunch while Sophie and I got going on the applesauce. We were able to make several jars of delicious homemade sauce. I really enjoy canning and making our own things. Sometimes it is less expensive to just buy things at the store, but it's important to me to know how to do these things and to teach our girls how to do them, too.

I don't know what's going on with my back, but it was pretty ouchie yesterday. After I got Olivia laying down to rest and The applesauce going on the stove, I hopped in the tub. I would've liked to of gotten more canning done yesterday but I just couldn't handle being on my feet that much. Craig used the onions he had bought at the farmers market to make some delicious French onion soup for dinner. We decided that we would take the girls swimming at the rec center after they ate dinner. It was a nice change as I got in the pool with them or Craig set out with the babies this time. Sometimes I wonder if Sophie is part fish! You seriously put her life jacket on she ran and jumped in the pool and just swam happily around until we left an hour later. I'm hoping we can take them swimming more often.

It's about 1:20 now and Evelyn is done eating. I think I will go start working on lunch. Uncle Jeffy is supposed to come over and join us today.

September 6, 2014

Sleep!

It's 5:42 Saturday morning and Alli just woke up for the first time since 11:30. Evie is still asleep. Time for a mini dance party!!

Hopefully when she's done I'll be able to get a morning nap before the big girls get up. We're planning on hitting a few farmers markets for more can-able fruit. Aunt Joyce may have created a bit of a monster!

September 5, 2014

Life isn't supposed to be all sunshine and giggling babies but dang, some days! I've been going nonstop for the last 14 1/2 hours. My house is pretty darn clean, many loads of laundry & dishes done, tomato sauce made and canned, apple sauce made & canned. Naan & chicken tikka masala made from scratch so we could have a tasty "fancy" Friday night dinner right when Craig walked in. All 4 children were dressed, had clean faces & behinds, fixed hair and ready for the day before time to leave for preschool. Sophie even had matching shoes AND her library book to return. We had scripture & prayer time. Olivia WANTED to do the laundry. We read books, played with the babies, fed them 12 times, had homemade pesto pizzas together. Sophie and I spent some quiet time together while Olivia napped. The kitchen was cleaned & dishes done AGAIN while Craig took the big girls for ice cream. Floors were swept again, babies fed again, toilet cleaned again (...potty training). And guess what? No one gives a damn. Not a single person.

Shoes were left all over by the front door. Diapers thrown (yes, thrown) in random places, toys dropped in the middle of the room, snack items left where ever, dirty clothes that need stain spray and soaking left mess side down on the carpet and the list goes on. I take care of all of this crap every day yet somehow I'm still the bad guy. How dare I complain? Why do I think someone else should share the responsibility? What do you mean I'm being irrational when I expect people to see the mess they've created and actually do something about it?! And gosh darn it, when is MY weekend?

Obviously not now. I have two unhappy babies and apparently I'm the only one who can fix that, too.

August 29, 2014

Some Friday Randoms

Sophie Funnies of the day:

Me- Sophie, what are you doing over there?
S- Paying bills!

S- Mommy, should we do tummy time on the bed?
Me- You mean take a nap?


Olivia's Friday:
-She still cried (sobbed...) when we dropped Sophie off at preschool. She wants to go and be a big girl so badly! We had our own school time at home.
-She successfully used the toilet twice!
-My potty reward chocolates are inferior to grandpa's "pocket chocate"

Allison's Friday:
- She slept 6 hours in a row! Too bad Evie didn't.
-She is really starting to coo. It's adorable.
-She loves to play "sit up" (I hold her hands and pull her to sitting)

Evie's Friday:
- this girl LOVES to eat! She's already had 2 more feedings today than Alli.
- She has also thoroughly enjoyed her naps. I guess all that eating wears you out!
- She's also smiling and enjoys playing. She doesn't coo quite as much as Alli. No problem there :-)

My Randoms:
- It's reaaaally easy to overspend if you're a. Tired, b. Not paying attention c. Not paying attention. Oops.
- I reaaaaaally like paying as many bills as possible before the beginning of the month. Today was bill pay day. Woo.
- I know it's time to go grocery shopping because we have used EVERY SINGLE plastic grocery bag in the entire house. Seriously. Gone. I'll need to shop tonight so I can empty all the trash cans tomorrow.
- I'm really looking forward to being back on a regular menu, having a set routine and doing more cooking at home.

August 26, 2014

Sunday & Monday

Just a quick reminder, this blog has turned into a thought journal. May not be the most exciting thing for other people to read, but it is helping me be better about recording things.

Sunday we were able to get out the door and get parents church in Pleasant Grove early. We were even the first ones there! Even though we are about 10 minutes early, their chapel was already pretty full and we weren't able to save many seats. Bryan and My we're not too far behind us. The blessing was lovely and sacrament was very nice. Susan flew in Saturday evening and was also able to be there. After church, we owe it back to errands house, including the whole Robinson clan. I had muffins and juice and fruit and Raible to visit for a while. We put the median and little kids down for a nap after taking several pictures. As usual, trying to put pictures together with so many small children was somewhat like herding cats. I haven't seen them yet, but I'm sure there are some pretty darn funny pictures!

It really was a very nice day. It was nice having some other people around you are interested in holding babies so I could do something wild like, go to the bathroom without listening to a baby cry. The babies have hit another growth spurt and ate and ate and ate and ate all day. Craig tells me a full asleep while feeding one of the babies. I don't know who I was feeding or when I fell asleep but I just know I felt better when I woke up! because we have so many birthdays in August, that evening we celebrated dad's and Mys birthday. Of course in true Nasson style, we had amazing delicious grilled salmon, bugs and rice, Erins green beans and bacon, steamed broccoli, some delicious bread, fruit, and yummy lemonade. For dessert, Erin and mom made dad a German chocolate cake complete with coconut, and a big cheesecake with raspberry sauce. Both were delicious of course!


During the day, Craig was able to sit down and work on some family history things with dad and aunt Susan. There's been some mystery surrounding my grandpas mom and her story. She was adopted as a baby and has two names. It would seem they were able to clear up some of that as well as learn about and record some other things about dad's family. I hope that next time they are visiting, which will be in October, we can do some more and maybe even find a few more names to take to the temple.

We've had an off a lot of thunderstorms the last several days. It was pretty exciting driving home Sunday night seeing all of the lightning hearing the thunder. We got home we had several storms that were right over us. Lots of windows rattling thunder in the sky lighting lightning.

Mom, dad, and Andrew, left Monday. We decided we should go back to Pleasant Grove to say goodbye to them on Monday. Mondays are usually busy day and yesterday was really no different. So we went up to say goodbye and spend a few more minutes with the family. We left errands at about 1230 and headed to Sophie's preschool open house in Springville. We found out the daughter of a couple of my friends is going to be in her class. Sophie will be starting preschool tomorrow Wednesday with two friends. She is extremely excited to be going to school! After the open house, we hurried home to try to let the gross rest a little before we had to go to colorguard. We were home  for a grand total of 55 minutes before we needed to leave. In that time the girls were able to get a snack and lay down and rest while they watch Daniel Tiger and I was able to get the rest of the card T-shirts iron ons finished. Rehearsal went fairly well. We need to be holding the students more responsible but they are getting better every day. Sophie and Olivia were so exhausted that Olivia crashed on the blanket in the middle of rehearsal!

I had a follow-up doctor appointment in Provo late last night and so we went straight from colorguard there. Craig was thrilled, as that meant he got to have "taco truck "for dinner. The taco truck is actually a freestanding little walk up restaurant that sells amazing Mexican food.

It's now 822 Tuesday morning, the big girls are up, babies have been eating while I've been recording this, Craig is walking to his car at the high school, and we have a little friend coming over to play in about 45 minutes. Tootles!
It's Friday again. I have been so busy... Feeding babies! We've hit another growth spurt and we spent a massive chunk of the day sitting in bed feeding/eating. By some miracle, I was still able to get a number of things done, including some Sophie school time and reading books. Mom, dad & Andrew came over for dinner and a visit. We walked to the pharmacy together for dessert (mmm... Ice cream!) and mom found some adorable baby bracelets for all the new babies. Emma will wear hers on her blessing day.

Sophie has been quite sick the last couple days. I suspected she might have a UTI but seriously underestimated the severity until Wednesday afternoon she went from being happy and active to extremely hot, super tired and in a lot of pain. Tia came over to stay with her while I went to teach and Craig was on his way home. By the time I got home, her fever had hit 102. something and she didn't want to sit up or walk. We took her to the kids InstaCare in Springville. After some struggles to get a sample, the doc told us she had "a raging bladder infection."  Poor gi spent all day Thursday in my bed. Still not wanting to sit up or walk to the bathroom or eat much.

Wednesday morning we had the twins 2 month well check, too. They're still little! Allison is 9 pounds even and Evelyn is 9 pounds 1 ounce. 22 and 22.5 inches. They've just barely outgrown their newborn clothes and are moving into 0-3. With this growth spurt, it'll be interesting to see how long they wear 0-3s.

Tuesday was a "do all the things" day. I like those. Schedule was kept and that's always a good thing. We also took Jack & Tia to Sophie's preschool to see if it's a place he'd like to go. It is and Sophie is so excited to have Jack going to preschool with her!

Sunday was the babies blessing day. I need to pull out the computer to write about that and add pictures.

Today, which is now Saturday as I finish this, has been good but busy. Craig went golfing with dad, grant & Bryan at East Bay. Andrew spent the night with us last night and he slept in until close to 11:00. We met up with the golfers around 1:00 for birthday lunch at Tucanos. One major perk to nursing twins: the ability to eat places like that with very little guilt! The day was spent painting the house, having the girls take naps, getting things ready to be away from home all day Sunday. Even though we were just planning to go to Pleasant Grove, it did take quite a lot of planning and packing. The bees knees diapers clothes wipes heating supplies and the big girls needed clothes diapers wipes and feeding supplies. I needed my pump and change clothes and Craig would also need a change of clothes and things. Getting 4 kids 3.5 & under cleaned, fed, dressed, hair fixed and out the door by 8:10 to be to church 45 minutes away is no small feat!

August 15, 2014

Friday thoughts... And a whine

Never order from Algy Team unless you don't need your items for 6 months. I order plain t shirts from them the end of July and paid for 3-6 day shipping. I got an email several days later saying they'd ship " on or around" August 8th. I got a shipping confirmation today, August 15th and an estimated delivery of August 22. A month after ordering. NEVER  ordering from them again.

Homemade naan is delicious. Thought I might need to share that again, just in case I didn't make that clear before.

It's awesome getting everything on your list and then some done. Empty dishwasher, empty washer & dryer, clean rooms... WHY IS THE KITCHEN STILL DIRTY?! I just don't get it. Grumble.

Olivia took herself to the toilet again. If this girl potty trains herself, she will be the favorite child indefinitely.

Sophie still needs naps. For the safety of her little behind and for my sanity. The grumpy "I'm not tired!" afternoons continue. Someday we'll move her to another room.

Happy Birthday, Craig!!

Happy 19th birthday, Craig!

Thursday was a surprisingly busy day starting with Craig having to be to work around 8 o'clock. Today also happened to be the last morning of summer band. All of this made for a fairly early and somewhat busy morning. Craig got the big girls up and in the car, I got the twins ready and we all took off. Most exciting little tidbit of our morning? Olivia deciding that going potty on the big girl potty is a pretty good idea. Let's hope it keeps up! Guard has been pretty good this summer. I have a team of eight with six being returning members. The two new girls are learning quickly and doing a great job. We had been camp last week and that was fairly successful as well. If things keep going the way they are, I think we're going to have a particularly great season. I might even say the best since starting to teach in Utah County.

After guard was over, I loaded up all four girls and we headed straight home. Sophie really really really wanted to make a birthday cake and cupcakes-don't forget the cupcakes!-for Craig for his birthday. We needed to work fast making the cupcakes and getting the girls bathed and me showered so that we could get to Craig by 12 o'clock for his birthday lunch. I am going to brag a little and say I'm pretty darn impressed with how much I got done in that hour and a half. 26 inch cakes, 12 cupcakes, all of the decorating things I would need to frost it once we got to his work packed, diaper bag packed, two girls bathed, showered, two babies dressed and ready for their lunch date, a load of dishes started, talked to a guard mom about some guard business, emptied the garbage and got a load of laundry going. We even got to kneaders, where we were having lunch, on time. Lunch was delightful with Craigs parents. Then we went to Ancestry and Sophie and Olivia were able to share the cupcakes with Craig's coworkers they had helped make.

When we got home, I had Sophie rest in my room and they said Olivia upstairs for her nap. Because Craig has some people coming to work on the house in the afternoon, those notes were way too short. Luckily after the workers left, both girls laid down and took another rest before aunt Becky & Uncle Adam came to play. They offered to play with the girls so I could take Craig out for his birthday. It was awesome being able to go out to eat and spend some quiet time together. Craig chose going to Ohana Grill- a Hawaiian restaurant in Springville- for dinner. He ordered a loco moco, chicken katsu, poke and otai for us to share. He was a happy boy. :-)

To top off the night, when we got home we were informed Olivia had taken herself to the potty again all by herself. I think potty training part deux has commenced in the Nasterson household!

Wednesday

Not a terribly exciting day to read about but one of those where you still feel pretty accomplished by bed time. Everything on "the list" was accomplished, Sophie was able to name and identify all of the letters, several numbers and happily did 3 workbook pages, laundry got done, dishes were done (...over and over), garbage cans emptied, diapers restocked, a show watched while snuggling the girls and nobody got hurt, sick or in huge trouble for destroying their room during nap time!

The evening was even more fun, though. Ancestry does a couple parties a year and for the summer party, they rented 7 Peaks for the evening. Yummy catered dinner, a movie on a giant inflatable screen complete with popcorn and candy, and, of course, lots of water fun! Olivia was most content when she was able to just wander around & do her own thing in the kiddie pool area. Sophie, on the other hand, loved the big slides. She wanted to ride on all of the tube runs, which she went on about 6 times between Craig and I. We also went on the mat slide a couple times and she loved that! The wave pool, lazy river, bigger kid play area with slides, and waterfall pool were also favorites. It was so much fun getting to take her on her own on these little adventures without any of the other girls. Little miss Olivia couldn't have been happier when we put her in her pjs and on the camping chair with a blanket. Maybe next year she'll be more interested in the pool. If not, that's cool, too :-)

Tuesday Adventures: homemade butter & naan

We love naan, homemade jam & butter. Last Fall, Aunt Joyce taught us to make and can tomatoes, juice and jams/jellies so since then, we've been making our own items from scratch. Craig did a batch of peach and a batch of strawberry this week since berries are at their least expensive right now. A few months ago, I came across a homeschool post about making butter. I thought it'd be fun to do with Sophie & Olivia as a science activity. We discovered two things: the vitamix wasn't the greatest tool for the job as it unnecessarily complicated the process (kitchenaid with the wisk attacemt was perfect)  and it's cheaper to make rather than buy ready-made butter. So while at the grocery store today, I grabbed a quart of great value heavy cream. Right before sitting down to feed the twins, I dumped 3/4 of the cream in my kitchenaid bowl, covered the whole thing with a towel- very important if you don't want buttermilk all over your kitchen, turned it on to medium and walked away. When the babies were done eating, I strained the buttermilk and stuffed the butter in a pint jar and that's it. My mom says you can save time oroney but rarely both. I think we come fairly close to both here as the active time I'm involved is minimal. Craig's only real concern was how to measure the butter. Problem solved! We bought a silicon mold from ikea some time ago for freezing baby food portions in 1T squares. Next time, I'll just slightly warm the fresh butter and portion it like the baby food.

My final kitchen adventure of the evening involved an insanely easy dough recipe, cast iron skillet and a stack of homemade naan. This one was more time consuming with letting the yeast feed, dough rise etc. but the active time wasn't bad. It was kind of messy rolling it out until I wised up and rembered we have a small, hand crank pasta roller. Once I was able to get the thickness consistent, it was fast, tidier and fun. Our pesto pizzas tasted great on them!

Pictures later when I get my laptop out :-)

August 11, 2014

Mondays...

Today is not a good day. I've had inconsolable babies, a 3 year old who is being naughty just to be naughty and then turning around and being as sweet as can be and a 2 year old who is doing her best impression of a tornado in a trailer park. Not happy, Bob. (How many more movie references can I throw out there?) I thought things had started so well. In about15 minutes I was able to get several of my "daily" list items done. The big girls had a hot breakfast, we started our school time with Sophie and then I sat down to feed a baby and read to everyone. I blame Amelia Bedelia. This has to be her fault somehow.

It's now 11:30 and I'm still in my night attire, unbrushed hair & teeth, rocking one baby while listening to another cry and all I can think of is how jealous I am of Craig. He gets to leave every morning and do what he loves, spend time with adults, eat his (warm) lunch in one sitting without interruptions or little people sticking their fingers in it, and then comes home to a clean house, clean clothes, dinner and satisfaction from what he's accomplished at work. I didn't like being an at-home mom after Sophie was born and I'm not liking it now. Less stressful not working? I think not.

Is it really so wrong that I wanted to do some sewing today? REALLY?!

I guess I'll just investigate the thud and crying that is coming from the basement.

Band Camp & Grandpa Peterson's Funeral

It's been a week! A rather long one. Band camp started at 7:00 last Monday morning and ran through 6:00 Thursday night. It was long, hot, mosquito-y, wet and extremely productive. The band has 2 1/3 of the songs on the field and the guard knows almost all of their choreography. A lot of my time was spent sitting under the canopy feedibg the twins who were with me or adjusting the mosquito netting that was over the pack n play. A couple days there were band moms there who were more than happy to hold and take care of the babies between feedings so I could work. The big girls got to go to Tia's and much preferred their play time and rest time there to being at band.

Monday was a somewhat difficult day. Craig's grandpa Paul Robert (Bob) Peterson died last Thursday morning and his funeral was Monday morning. Grandpa was a ball turret gunner in B24s in WWII. He's shared some incredible stories about his time in the Air Force. The service was lovely. Lots of happy memories were shared, the great grand kids (37 as of the twins birth) who were old enough sang "Families Can Be Together Forever", Craig's dad sang a nice song called "Goin Home" (to the tune of Kyrie), Joyce spoke about her dad, his integrity, leading & teaching by example, the plan of salvation and how many people he touched in his 91 years.

We talked to Sophie & Olivia about great grandpa since they knew and visited them. We chose to talk about it as a happy time and were honest/open. Olivia is still so young she didn't seem to understand much but Sophie grasped much more. She had lots of good questions that made us both have to stop and really think. In the end, we let her decide if she wanted to go to the funeral. She wanted to go with us so we used the hand & glove analogy (body-spirit) and she seemed to "get" it.  At the cemetery, grandpa was honored with a presentation by the American Legion Honor Guard. Flags lined the path, flag folding and presentation to grandma Peterson, 3 shots fired and taps played by two buglers. One of the adult children had requested that the family be able to fill the site by hand rather than with the dump truck. It seemed therapeutic for several of the people involved. I'm so thankful that death isn't permanent and doesn't have to be a final goodbye. The separation is sad but knowing we get to see the people we care about again is one of those comforting things that helps life be easier to live.

August 2, 2014

A New List

In the last couple weeks, I've been trying to get into a routine that fits my personality and gets the "daily musts" done. I have a list of 9 things (empty trash in bathrooms & diaper can, collect & run a load of laundry, school time, read a book with girls, exercise for at least 5 minutes, baby activity time,   wash the baby dishes, run & empty the dishwasher, spend some quiet time reading scriptures or the ensign) but during my early morning baby feedibg, I read an article in the ensign about the importance of journaling. So, another item is now added to my list!


I love having my list and get a lot of satisfaction out of accomplishing the things on my list every day. I'm able to get almost everything done by the time the big girls are done with breakfast, too, which then gives me the sense of freedom my anxiety-girl self needs to enjoy the day. That 10th item that was added this morning as a result of my private reading time- journaling- sort of stressed me out a bit. With the time demands with caring for twin newborns, 2 & 3 year old big girls, I kind of felt trapped. I rarely even pull out my laptop anymore unless I'm doing a specific project or paying bills. I do, however, seem to spend a good chunk of time on my phone keeping in contact with friends who've moved or work long hours, reading articles, sending emails for work etc. while I'm feeding the babies. A comment by elder Uchtdorf regarding the good in technology gave me an "ah ha!" moment and a clear idea of a way for me to be able to keep my own version of a journal without having to change my habits: use one feeding time a day to type a few lines- using my accessible phone!- in my "journal." I'm glad I got going on my list and read that this morning, early as it was, and got that little prompting/nudge and a way to follow through without having to "run faster."

May 25, 2014

The End is in Sight!

We're just a week away from the absolute pregnancy finish line and I have felt the need to write down what I remember from this pregnancy.

October (weeks 6-9):

  • We're most assuredly expecting! I knew pretty early that I was pregnant- before the tests were accurate. I felt a little sicker, more tired and generally more blah. 
  • Because Miss Olivia was a spontaneous preterm baby, we had been told to get in as soon as possible after finding out we were expecting again because I would likely need to start progesterone shots to keep the preterm labor things away. I tried! 


November (weeks 10-14):

  • Found out at our first appointment we're having twins! Craig spotted two little heads as soon as Dr. Cloward put the ultrasound sensor on my stomach. I told him he was nuts, but nope! He cried, I laughed. I think that was an appropriate set of responses :) 
  • Visited grandma & grandpa Nasson in Tacoma
  • Monochorionic-diamnionic twins established. (Identical twins from one egg, sharing a placenta). By the way, identical twins-which come from the same egg- have to be the same sex. We've been asked a couple times... just think about it. 
  • Our insurance will not cover progesterone shots for twins because it's "not proven" with twins, just singletons. Thanks a lot! 
  • US technician suspected girls...

December (weeks 15-18):

  • Started seeing the perinatologists at UVRMC every other week for US growth scans
  • Learned all about the differences between the various varieties of twins, risks such as TTTS and so much more
  • Found out we're having identical girls!
  • Picked a different insurance plan...
January (weeks 16-19):
  • Continued seeing the peri's and Dr. Cloward frequently. Lots of US visits!
  • Gender confirmed again
  • Heart spots/calcifications (echogentic foci) spotted on the babies hearts. This is a "soft marker" for down syndrome. Naturally, I went a little nuts inside. Everything else looking good on the scans, including size and fluid levels. 
February (weeks 20-23):
  • Heart foci still there but babies both growing well and looking good! We were strongly encouraged to the the quad screening for birth defects as twins carry a higher risk and we had the soft marker. Our results came back negative and very low. Helped me calm down a tiny bit. 
  • No signs of Twin-to-Twin Transfusion Syndrome (TTTS)! With mono-di twins, there is a risk of one twin getting a greater share of the nutrients, oxygen and blood supply. Essentially, this turns one twin into a "donor" and one into a "recipient." There are not a lot of options available for treating TTTS and the options available don't have the greatest chance of both twins surviving. 

March (weeks 24-28):
  • We hit our high deductible early this month! Glad we changed our plan ;) 
  • More importantly, we hit the "threshold of viability" this month! Goal 1: check! 
  • Preterm Labor (PTL) issues started. Contractions, pelvic pressure... Very similar to Olivia. 
  • Discussed cutting hours at work, staying down more and hiring someone to do some cleaning in the house. 

April (weeks 29-32):
  • Hit goal #2- 29 weeks! Twins who make it to 29 weeks gestation have a 70%+ chance of survival!
  • After some debating, adjusted activity levels at home and work and the recommendation of Dr. Cloward, I finished teaching for the year the Friday before spring break. I love my job but the PTL and threat of super early babies made the choice for me. 
  • Hit goal #3- 32 weeks! Risk of long-term issues even smaller and survival rate is extremely good.
  • "Regular" visits to Labor & Delivery started. UTIs turing into kidney infections requiring antibiotic shots, extreme gastroenteritis requiring IV rehydration, many rounds of terbutaline to try to stop the contractions, Fetal Fibronectin tests (fFn- I'm not going into details here but they are MOST unpleasant swabs of the cervix to check the likelihood of delivering within 14 days of the test) and a couple rounds of steroid injections to help the babies lungs develop since the contractions didn't stop. Dilation started, though. 
  • We've passed the "safe" point for TTTS!! At this point, if the babies started showing signs of TTTS or IUGR (inter-uterine growth restriction), they would be very closely monitored and then born if things got scary. 
  • We started getting twice-weekly Non-Stress Tests (NSTs) at Maternal-Fetal Medicine and are only in for a growth scan once a month and a fluid and general quick scan once a month. Things are starting to get real in here! 

May (weeks 33-37):
  • Spent a LOT of time at the hospital in Labor and Delivery. 5 or 6 times as of the 25th when I'm typing this. 
  • As soon as we hit 34 weeks, all attempts to stop labor have ceased. No more terbutaline, no fFn tests... we're just allowed to let things do their thing now. 
  • For the last two weeks, I've been dilated to a 4+ and 80% effaced. 
  • Sleep in long stretches has become scarce. Between needing to go potty several times a night, contractions and general discomfort (and the occasional excruciating shooting pain), no one is really surprised by the lack of sleep. 
  • Because of the progress that had been made, mom decided to come for a week. We REALLY thought the babies would come during her short trip. Nope. We did get a LOT of projects done and are pretty darn ready for the babies to come now but, of course, this means she won't have been here for ANY of our 4 babies births. There was still some question about her actually being able to BE in the room when they were born. Twins are born in the L&D OR because of risk of complications and need for an emergency C-Section. Officially, only husbands are allowed in but sometimes a second person can be there, too. 
  • I've been admitted once already (May 17th-May 18th) because of regular, active and strong contractions- between 1 and 2 minutes apart. They stopped in the middle of the night so we were sent home the next morning since I was only 35 weeks. I do wonder if now at 36 + we'd go ahead and help things along a bit if my Dr. was on-call.
  • I've been concerned about the size/weight of the babies since the beginning. They've been on their own growth curve and been consistent but small babies are scary. Until this week, our babies were, at their biggest, 4 pounds, 1 ounce and 3 pounds, 11 ounces. This week (35 weeks), they were measuring 5 pounds, 3 ounces and 5 pounds 7 ounces. Baby A was head down still and engaged (-1, where she's been for a while) and baby B had decided to turn herself transverse.
  • We had a regular OB visit the same day and Dr. Cloward was awesome, as usual, but was then very clear that even if A was head down, some of the partners in the practice might not be okay with a vaginal birth and a c-section would be possible.  I understand not wanting to ask someone to do something they're not comfortable or experienced with (turning a second twin) so I'm just keeping my fingers crossed she's on call or we make it to our induction on the 2nd. 
  • I had an NST a few days later where the nurse saw baby B had turned head down again. Thank goodness! 
  • We have an induction date set! June 2nd. I will be 37 weeks and 2 days, unless, of course, the babies decide to come sooner on their own. :)