Santa

I know many of you are thinking "aww, poor Jack." But what you don't know is that he started crying when he saw that he was going to be put in Santa's lap. Then his mean mom said, "We've gotta get the 'crying baby in Santa's lap' picture! So she forced him into the arms of a stranger. He was so distraught he couldn't even scream, he just buried his face in his hands and quietly cried. So yes, poor poor Jack. And I still can't help but love the picture.

Twins first haircut

This happened a while ago, but I still thought it was worth posting. After a few too many questions (usually from old people) about if my twins were a boy and a girl, I decided it was time to cut off Brandons baby curls. Jackson's hair was a disaster because his helmet made it grow in weird. They were both way over due. Since I didn't know how I could cut both their hair without any help and have it look decent, I used the clippers and buzzed it off. I put them both in their high chairs and clipped away. It took less than 10 minutes to do both and they actually enjoyed watching each other get their hair cut!

I have to admit I teared up a little when Brandon's little locks fell to the floor.

Ah, the bittersweet first haircut.

Randomness

This is how I get Hailey to behave during piano lessons :)

The twins' first duet.

Adam and the kids planted some seeds that Ian got from my dad's flowers last summer. I hope they sprout!

Halloween/Thanksgiving

Halloween was pretty mellow this year. Since it was on Sunday we only participated in the Trunk or Treat at the church the day before. That was plenty for us. Ian wasn't even able to do the school costume parade because he got sick at school that day and had to come home early. So sad.

Brandon the monkey.

Jackson the monkey.
Hailey the ladybug, Ian as Darth Vader, and two little monkeys.
Elmo

I gutted and carved all of these myself. Yeah, be impressed ;) The middle one is Hailey's "baby monster."

On Halloween we made caramel apples and drank apple cider. The kids loved handing out candy to trick or treaters. I think they liked that more than going out themselves! I actually enjoyed it a lot too. It was nice and relaxing and the twins got to bed on time. Over all a nice Halloween.

For Thanksgiving this year Adam's parents and nephew, Nick, came for the holiday. It was great to see them and Ian had a blast playing with his cousin. My sister Marianne also flew in, the kids were so happy to see their "other mom." Jill's family came too and I got to be the hostess for the first time. Jill still made the turkey though, she's just so good at it :)

YUM

Dinner was delicious, especially the turkey and rolls which Jill made. She better never go out of town for Thanksgiving!

The kiddie table. Although my nephew Chad (right) is not so much a kid anymore! He is taller than me!

The grown-ups minus Doug who is taking the picture.

It was wonderful to have everyone for Thanksgiving. Adam and I got to get some Black Friday shopping done too since his mom was willing to babysit :)

Happy #4 Hailey!

My little girl is 4 years old! Hailey had a wonderful birthday the week of Thanksgiving. On Monday (her actual birthday) she got a donut with sprinkles for breakfast. She got to wear a special birthday hat at school. And when she got off the bus after school she did a little birthday dance. "Birthday birthday birrrrthday!" What a cutie! She also got a Play-Doh cake maker and played with it for an hour before bed.

On Wednesday night we had a family party. Hailey had her first helium balloons (I know, deprived huh?) and my sister Jill and her family and Adam's parents and nephew came over. Hailey loved being the center of attention, doesn't she look soooo happy?
Hailey got some pretty jewelry and dolls for her birthday. She sure loved celebrating for 3 days.

So here are some things you might want to know about Hailey: Her favorite colors are purple and yellow. She loves cereal. Her favorite thing to do is color with markers and crayons. She loves to play Play-Doh and with her play kitchen. She is finally starting to talk in sentences, and it is getting a lot easier to understand her. She loves Cinderella and Snow White. She has recently discovered Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and is pretty addicted. She loves to play computer games (Dora, Mickey, Elmo).

Happy Birthday Hailey!

Trouble!

Nothing like a one year old mocking you to realize you look kind of silly when you're getting after him for being naughty.

Something's missing!

Moments after the big event:

"Can I put it under my pillow? I need some cash!"

A baby story

I wrote this a few months after the twins were born but never published it because I felt like it was too depressing. I decided to publish it today because I think it might be interesting and it definitely is the opposite of the "candy coated" version. So, read if you would like:

Well, I have debated a long time about writing about the twins being born, partly because I am still upset by the whole thing, and partly because I'm not sure it would be very good reading. So I am finally getting around to it, and if you don't care to hear about it, don't read it!

I had a pretty rough pregnancy. It started out like the other two, lots of nausea and vomiting, I lost a bunch of weight and didn't gain it back till well into the second trimester. I had to hire a housekeeper because I could barely get off the couch most of the time, and a sweet friend brought dinner once a week (what a life saver!). I was due March 22nd but we knew the babies would come quite a bit early. During my seventh month I started to be very anxious for it all to be over and I hoped to have them any day. I knew that having babies early was not a good thing but I just didn't care anymore. The last week of my pregnancy beginning around the 10th of February I started to go downhill very quickly. I was calling Adam every day asking him to come home and take care of the kids so I could rest. I was getting migraines (which are nearly impossible to make go away when you're pregnant) and dizzy spells. I had been going in for fetal monitoring for the last couple weeks and had an appointment on the 19th, Adam had to go with me because I was getting to the point where I could hardly walk without help and I hadn't been able to hold anything down since around noon. My blood pressure was high so they re-checked it a few times throughout the appointment with no improvement. Then all of a sudden everyone was worried. They made me do a bunch of blood work and gave me a kit to take home to collect my urine for 24 hours (let me tell you how excited I was about that one). They said they would put a rush on the blood work and let me know as soon as they heard. So we went home to wait for the results.

When we got home I called my mom asking her to come sooner than planned because things were really not going well, and I asked my sister Jill to take the kids for the night because I was just too sick to deal with them. About an hour after we got home the doctor's office called and pretty much said "your blood work came back really bad, you need to come to the hospital right away, you're probably having the babies tonight." What?? So we packed up the kids and took them to a friend's to wait for my brother-in-law to pick them up (he actually got there at the same time as us) and ran off to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital they didn't really tell us what was going on. They put us in a room to wait and we sat there for a while wondering what was going to happen. A nurse walked by and asked us what we were waiting for and we said we didn't really know, so she said I at least needed to get changed. Once I got into the hospital gown everything happened suddenly. They were sticking things in me and getting me ready for surgery and finally someone told me that I had preeclampsia and needed to get the babies out right away. They gave me magnesium which is the worst stuff in the whole world. It is supposed to prevent seizures and stuff. It made me feel really hot, like burning and tingling and weird and sick and yuck. It felt like there was a heating pad on my pillow on the highest setting and there was no way to remove it. It kind of made me think of what it would feel like to become a vampire (hahaha Twilight). I was still throwing up when they took me into the operating room but once I had my spinal block I couldn't throw up anymore but still felt like I needed to. It was the weirdest feeling ever. The C-section was ok, I kind of freaked out because of the magnesium so they kept giving me "happy drugs" (according to Adam). Adam kept trying to hold my hand but it felt so hot I just kept hitting his hand away. What I remember the most was being so annoyed at those babies crying. And thinking that I shouldn't be annoyed because it is good they are crying, that means they are alive, but I still felt like "somebody get those babies to shut up!"

After the babies were kind of cleaned up a little they were ready to take them to the NICU and Adam got to hold each one for about a minute and he brought them over to show me. I only got to see them for about 2 seconds and then that was it. I didn't see them in person again for a day and a half. After I was all stitched up I was so messed up from the preeclampsia and the magnesium that the only thing I could do was lay there. I had no voice, my mind was foggy and blurry and dizzy, and I was still nauseated. I felt so angry about the whole thing because the only thing that got me through the whole pregnancy was the knowledge that once I had the babies I would feel better. SO not the case. For the first 2 days Adam went and visited the babies (who were doing extremely well) and would bring back videos and pictures for me to see. In the evening of the second day I finally got into a wheelchair and went down to the NICU to see them. They were each in their own incubator and we could only stick our hands in to touch them, but after about 5 minutes all I wanted was to go back to my bed. It was the weirdest feeling in the world to have just had 2 babies and care more about being in bed by myself than getting to know them.

About the third day in the hospital I finally kind of woke up. They made me walk more and take a shower (which I was fuming about, I wasn't a very good patient!). I complained the whole time. I finally got to hold one of the babies (I think it was Jackson) but after a few minutes I felt like I was going to drop him so I just went back to my room. As the magnesium finally really cleared my system I felt more and more like seeing the babies, and I could walk half way to the NICU before I needed the wheelchair again. The babies moved into a hospital bassinet (that's what I call it) together but Brandon was having episodes of his heart rate dropping so the alarm would go off almost constantly, very annoying. Jackson looked like a little alien, he had a big round noggin and a tiny little pointy face and little buggy eyes....haha. Brandon looked like Patrick Stewart (you know, Captain Picard from Star Trek), he seriously did!! They both were eating pretty well though, it was just hard to keep them awake for the feedings. This whole time they were called "Baby A" and "Baby B" we had such a hard time naming them! The nurses kept teasing me about how my babies were sad that they didn't have names. I know they were teasing but it made me feel bad, I was an emotional wreck as it was and my poor babies didn't have names! We pretty much were set on Brandon, but poor little Baby B was such a quandary. On the 5th day I was there, just before I was discharged we finally decided on Brandon and Jackson. I think we got it right but boy, I hate naming babies!

The twins stayed in the hospital for 12 days total. My doctor told me that if I over-did it trying to visit them he would throw me back in. I had really bad anemia and was still really messed up from the preeclampsia so I was pretty much useless. So I wasn't allowed to visit more than once a day, and one day I didn't go at all. I felt guilty the whole time for not going more, but they wouldn't let them come home until they felt I was doing better and I wasn't going to get better unless I rested most of the time. It was the longest week of my life. The whole situation just seemed so wrong. The babies were doing well though and the nurses really liked them. One nurse told me that Brandon was going to be my star pupil and Jackson was going to be a little hellion.....I thought it was funny, and is still true. We would always laugh so much with Jackson, he would make the funniest faces and he was awake a lot more. Brandon was just such a little sweetheart and would sleep most of the time. He would just lay there when Jackson was screaming his head off, he still does.

On the day the twins were released I was taking a nap and when I came down the stairs after waking up my mom and Adam seemed excited to tell me something. I had thought when the news came I would be so happy but when I heard that I could finally bring my babies home I just felt so overwhelmed and I felt like crying. I was starting to think that they would be in that hospital forever! It was all so weird, I had gotten used to being able to sleep all night even though I had newborns, now the real work was about to begin.

I pretty much planned on not getting any sleep at all the first night, and boy I sure didn't! We kept on the hospital schedule of feeding them every 3 hours a half hour apart. It was very difficult. At least those first couple days they still slept any time they weren't eating. After a week or so the screaming started. I am telling you, I have never heard a baby scream so loud and for so long! Jackson was so impatient, he wanted his bottle RIGHT NOW and he wanted his diaper changed RIGHT NOW. Originally Brandon was first for feedings but I quickly switched them or I would listen to Jackson scream for Brandon's entire feeding. Jackson became the center of attention very quickly, but I always made a little time each day to snuggle Brandon and enjoy the fact that he was such an easy, cute, cuddly, sweet little baby.
My mom ended up staying with us for 5 weeks! It was probably the longest 5 weeks of her life. I know we could not have survived without her and we are forever indebted to her for all she has done and still does for us. (love you mom!) She said she would stay until I was better, and that's how long it took!

The first 3 months of the twins' lives are a complete blur. I have never been so sleep deprived in my life. And I really hope I never will be again. I got about an hour of sleep at a time in between feedings at night and sometimes got naps during the day. I usually averaged a whopping 3 to 4 hours of sleep a day! It was completely out of control. Around the 4 month mark I got both babies sleeping (I wrote about that in an earlier post) and my life has been quite pleasant ever since! Having two little smiling babies who sleep and eat really well is complete bliss! (Their sister on the other hand......well, you know) I guess Heavenly Father has faith in me to raise these little spirits, but for a while there I really was starting to think He made a mistake. Now that we are past the worst of it (pregnancy and the first few months after birth) I finally believe that I can do it and life is pretty good! People ask me how I do it and I usually just say "one minute at a time, and I really don't always do it very well, but we survive." It is very difficult to have 4 children under the age of 5, but I wouldn't trade them for the world!

Back to School

Ian and Hailey had their first day of school yesterday. Yippee! Ian is in 1st grade and Hailey is back in her special preschool class. It is weird to have Ian gone all day, it seems like forever! They are both enjoying it for the most part, except for the "scary bus" and the 10 minute lunch time. I don't know who thinks 10 minutes is long enough for a 6 year old to eat his whole lunch, but whatever. I am enjoying some time alone with the twins (for the first time ever!) and trying to get into a good routine. It's amazing how quiet the house is with only 2 at home.....haha.

Jackson is 18 Months Old!

Sweet sweet baby Jack. This boy is just so darn cute I can't even stand it! He's the kind of baby that makes you smile without doing anything. And what a personality! He loves to laugh, he loves to be silly, he dances all the time, and he copies everything. He is increasing his vocabulary, I call him Brandon's little interpreter. Luckily they get hungry and tired at the same time because Jackson actually communicates while Brandon mostly whines if he needs something. Jackson says hi, bye bye, cheese, mama, more, uh oh, all done, and a few other words. He also signs eat, drink, more, mama, and all done. He loves to sing songs that have motions and loves watching movies that have a lot of songs like the Wiggles and Wee Sing movies. He loves his blanky and his thumb (just like big sister). He thinks his big brother is hilarious. He is a little mama's boy. That's just fine with me!! He sure doesn't miss a thing. When the gate is left open he is always the first one through it. And when I bring their bottles in the living room in the morning he runs right to the pillows and puts them out for him and Brandon to lay on to drink their milk. That makes me smile every single day.

Brandon is 18 Months Old!

What can I say about Brandon? He is his sister's brother. Haha! Drama drama drama. The other day he was mad that I needed to hold both of them so he went and cried in the corner, I just about died laughing (I know, I'm mean). He is usually either really happy and wild or moody and whiney. He's got a little squinty smile like his mama and is tall like his dad. He loves to play "food" and chase the other kids around with a spoon or fork and say "ahh!" He likes to be a copy cat and it is so cute when he and Jackson give each other a high five. Brandon tries to say a couple words. Banana sounds like "ba-ba-ba" and he says "byebye." When Adam comes down in the morning Brandon gets Adam's shoes and brings them to him, this is the excitement of the morning for him. He loves his daddy. If Adam comes into the room and doesn't pick him up right away he screams until he gets his daddy hug. He has recently discovered spinning in circles, hilarious! He is a big time climber, worse than Hailey was, so hopefully he doesn't kill himself. He is such a little sweetheart.

(I had some more videos, but they wouldn't load. Sorry!)

The boys have been going to nursery for over a month now (we broke the rules since I'm the Primary Secretary now) so I am glad they will finally be "legal." Brandon seems to really like playing in nursery. Jackson has to be held by someone the whole time or he cries, hopefully he will get more comfortable soon. They are really starting to be more aware of each other. I feel like they have been kind of behind in that respect. People always told me it was around 10 months that they "discover each other." Mine have pretty much ignored each other until recently. They are SO darn cute and funny when they play together though! I am loving every minute of it and never want this phase to end (well, if I could have it without the teething and whining).

Summer Chaos

As we near the start of the new school year I have to say Hooray!!! Believe me, I love my children. Every one of their round little faces. But surely, after a long hot summer of staying indoors together, you must understand that the thought of those 'darling' little children spending a few hours AWAY from ME is the only thing that keeps me going some days. Hailey, especially, has been such a joy lately. This week alone she has splashed in the toilet more than once (isn't she a little old to be doing that?), knocked the TV onto the floor, lathered her poor baby brother in bubble bath and sent him spinning in the bathtub, and thrown a few very public tantrums. I'm going to be gray before I'm 30!
I've just got to last 10 more days....

Cute Vacation Pics

Our visit with my parents was a little dampened by the flu, but we did get out a little. The kids love going to all the parks in Pleasanton, there's always at least a few they haven't been to yet. We loved the colder weather there. It was a nice break from the scalding heat in Las Vegas.

Jackson riding the horsey.

Jackson and Brandon riding the horsey.
This is a long loved baby toy my mom made herself in college. Awww.

Who could resist this face?

Another cherished toy, building blocks! We used to make houses for our Cabbage Patch action figure dolls. Oh memories!

My one child that looks like me.

Jackson was afraid of my dad most of the time we were there. He seems to have a problem with men that aren't his daddy. Anyway, he finally warmed up to him and decided "Grandpa can be fun!"

Hailey wore these skates whenever she got a chance, she must take after her mom!

Hailey, the model.

I think Jackson really enjoyed the swings.
The long slide at "the long slide park."

Ah, the great outdoors.

Ian at the Farmer's Market.

Adam's mom gave Ian "real baseball stuff." He practiced a lot with my mom at the park by her house. He's getting pretty good! It looks like I'll have to sign him up for baseball this season!

Ian Turns 6!

My baby boy is 6 years old! Crazy huh?

Ian's birthday party was a blast! He wanted a Star Wars theme, of course, so we did "Jedi Training." The kids made light sabers out of foam swords and duct tape, they were a huge hit. Then we practiced our light saber skills and used the force so we could destroy the Death Star. Oh the joy that lit up my boy's face :)

Here are all the partiers with their light sabers (minus Hailey)

Ian got pretty creative with his.
My dainty niece Ashlin.
"What do I do with this?"

"Ah Ha!"

"Pin the light saber on the Jedi"

The Death Star. When Ian said he wanted a piñata for his birthday, this was my first thought. Thankfully my artistic sister Jill helped me paint it, I was really happy with how it turned out!

The twinners

Ian's cake had a dark side and a light side, with corresponding characters. I thought this was a cute idea that I found online, and we really liked how it turned out."Oh yeah! This is delicious!"

We got Ian a scooter for his birthday. It was a long debate between this and a bike, but we loved that we can fold this up and take it to the park with us, and he can ride it on the patio in the backyard. He was really excited to have his "very first scooter!"

And who could resist the joyous smile a video game brings? I bet you can guess what he's been doing since he opened this one up.

Happy Birthday Ian! We love you!