the meldrums

Another super belated update...

2011-12-17T22:08:00.001-07:00

It is SO late that we are going to lightly skim over the entire summer so that when I post adorable Christmas pictures that I know are sure to come...I will be caught up.

After coming home from Missouri it was a whirlwind of adventures. We went to Bridal Veil Falls and let the kids play in the super cold water...of course I didn't take my camera. Typical. We also had a trip to the Children's Discovery Museum, the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point, and Hee Haw Farms (where we got hopelessly lost in the corn maze...horrible). We also had Nick and Eric's birthdays in September, and Liam's birthday in November, with Halloween wedged in the middle. Like I said...whirlwind. Oh yeah...we also saw Cookie Monster. Nom nom nom.

Museum:

Petting Zoo:

Hee Haw:

Nick and Eric's 4th birthday:

Halloween:

Liam's 3rd Birthday!:

Cookie Monster (It should be added that Eric was too afraid of Cookie Monster to go near him, and as soon as Nick saw Eric's fear, he too became scared, but Liam was more than happy to pose, so that's why I only have a pic of Liam):

That's Eric's drawing of a cat...I thought it was pretty fantastic.

That's my Nick...just bein' cute.

Ok well...I'm out!

I know...this is super late. Trip to Missouri!

2011-10-28T15:33:00.000-06:00

Back in July we shoved the kids in the car around 3 am and hit the road for MO! We jam packed our trip with excursions to Science City, Crown Center, the Zoo, and even a little family reunion. It was ridiculously hot the entire stay which made us have to stay indoors a little more then planned but we survived! It was awesome to see everybody and the kids still talk about it.

So first...we drove there:

We played at Grandma's house a lot and spent some time at the Jamesport park:

On the Fourth we did some fireworks in the evening, but in the day we went to Crown Center and ate at the Crayola Cafe and visited the candy store there, we also took a hideous family photo when we were eating...and you don't have to see it, be grateful:

We went to Science City and ate at Fritz's afterward. Nicholas had a MAJOR meltdown...but it was still fun:

Ryan had to fly back to Utah to job hunt, which he was successful at, and he now is doing great at Vivint! Woohoo! We went to the Chillicothe Fair where Liam put on his serial killer face and I looked like a blob of red jello. The kids loved all the animals though and afterwards we got ice cream and went to the park:

We went to the Zoo even though it was like 1000 degrees outside and it was awesome! We got a discount due to the heat (which probably should make you reconsider, but...not us) and took every form of transportation available to us. We got to see some chimps very up close and some very sleepy lions, but the biggest hit with the kids was the polar bear.

rawr.

My mom really wanted to see them in Amish hats, (that would be hats that are actually Amish, like LDS Scripture Markers, they have been baptized) so once that was taken care of we took around 3 zillion pictures of them and the cuteness:

Totally cute right?
Anywho it was great, we had a blast!

Ouch!

2011-05-31T21:38:00.000-06:00

I have no pictures for this, but even if I did they wouldn't be something great to look at. Since we just moved in to our new apartment on Monday, my father-in-law offered to watch the boys ALL morning for us so we could get a little more settled in. Our living room seriously looked like something from that Hoarders show. So ridiculous. Anywho, the kids are with grandpa and playin' outside when Nick trips and totally biffs it.

He whacked his two front teeth pretty good and his surrounding gums started bleeding. His awesome grandpa cleaned him up and fed him ice cream (grandparents have a way cooler job). Later in the afternoon when we had them all back, Nick kept crying while trying to chew his lunch. We looked at his gums and they were still bleeding a little and totally purple and nasty looking.

We haven't taken any of the kids to the dentist yet. (Parenting fail?) So we found one just down the street a little and took him in. They took some x-rays (having never seen mouth x-rays from a 3 year old I was blown away by seeing two sets of teeth in one mouth SO WEIRD) and then counted his teeth (he HATED that) and then the dentist told me his teeth were fine. OH but by the way those other 2 front teeth on the bottom that have always slanted in...those are totally effing his face up and have to come out.

Yeah no joke I have to have my 3 year olds teeth pulled out! WHAT!? Oh and he may not have any new teeth there for another 2-3 years! That and unpacking have been my day...and I'm flippin' tired.

The Good, the Bad and the Easter...

2011-04-26T15:20:00.000-06:00

Our Easter was a series of ups and downs. The ups being bow ties, candy, and an easter egg hunt and the main down being that we are basically being evicted! Woohoo!

On Saturday we dyed eggs and it was a blast, followed up with lots of deviled eggs.

Thank you Gramma Annette for the Easter Baskets!

They made some beautiful artwork with crayolas sick joke on parents "mess free painting!" Also, I would like to point out Liam's chocolate beard. I should also thank the Dollar Tree for providing 98% of the Easter loot. Before church I got the kids all looking dapper and took some pics. After church a lady asked me if I made these bow ties and when I told her that I could have but just chose not to, she said, "Good for you! That's the way to do things." Lol, I don't think it's the thrifty way to do things but I figure it was an investment so I can figure out how to make my own now (crazy easy).

It is a horrible plan to let your kids eat handfuls of jelly beans and chocolate eggs and then expect them to sit still in sacrament. It was one of those weeks spent mostly in the hall. Why do churches have those lamps with lion/door knocker type decorations on them? Nobody with little kids picked those out. The rings are just irresistible to the preschool set. They just clank it up and down and up and down....erg.

Anywho, we survived and I made some jello salad, a fruit salad, and cinnamon rolls. The ones that are in the tube from pillsbury, I'm not THAT susie homemakerish. When the kids woke up we headed over to Ryan's parents and ate delicious dinner and had some drama, followed by an egg hunt! The kids are getting a lot better at it so it was fun to hide the eggs in not so obvious of places. After that we let them do a spoon race.

After all this excitement we started losing the kids to meltdowns from all the sugar and sleepiness kicking in. So we went home to find a note on our door telling us that our landlord rented out our apartment and we had thirty days to get the heck out. Yeah not even June 1st. May 24 we have to be out. Happy EASTER BLAHRG! Our landlord chooses to indirectly handle things like this all the time but I'd have to say this wins! Our contract was up the end of March, but he never said a word so we just paid for April and figured he would call, or you know...walk downstairs and tell us what his plans for us were. Nope. Note on the door while we are gone. Anyway, Ryan immediately started looking, and by the time I had gotten the kids in bed, he was on the phone with a landlord. We should know by Saturday if we actually snag this place or not, but hopefully we do and then we don't have to keep looking. 30 days goes by pretty quick! I have already started the cleaning and packing process. I'm bummed about leaving the ward, but I'm ready for a dishwasher!

My Conference Weekend (Shut UP I know it's Wednesday....night.)

2011-04-06T21:15:00.000-06:00

So...(yay puns...that you will get in a minute) I have been sewing, and sewing like crazy. To be honest I didn't get a whole lot of conference in mostly because my children were being extremely emotional and so I turned on Fantasia instead so that I could get some sanity back. It's not like I could hear anything over their screaming anyways.

On Saturday afternoon I spent around 18 dollars and some crafty supplies. Then I sewed pretty much all day sunday and more on monday to complete....THESE!:

Aren't they so cute? All 3 of them LOVE them, as I knew they would. They have recently gotten a fascination with all things Super Hero. Liam gets sick of the cape pretty quick but Eric lasts a little longer (but must always be BATMAN, who he seems to think is an enemy to Superman and will chase Nick saying, "I'm gonna get you Superman!") but Nick is really the one who has gotten very attached to the whole cape thing. He has to be Superman, and he has been wearing it all day long every day since Monday. He runs around the house yelling, "I'm FLYING! I'm Hooperman!" (So he still struggles with the letter "S"...whatever)

The other sewing I was doing was for some kids Eagle project (hemming 3 blankets) usually after lots of sewing I get a little burnt out on it, however I'm kind of itching to keep sewing now. I'm thinking of sewing together all my quilt squares I've got on the top shelf in my pantry.

I would also like to announce that I'm basically over my 2 month long cold(s)! WOOHOO! It's amazing how many more things I get done when I'm not a mucus covered coughing zombie.

In other news the weather has finally started to get her act together. (I'll forgive the STUPID STUPID snow that snowed on Sunday) It has started to be warm and my kids have started to play in the yard again! Halle-freakin-lujah! About a week ago I set the kids up with a picnic outside and then some popsicles and they were pretty stoked about it. Until it was time to come inside and then everyone cried their face off (as usual...soooo much drama all. the. time.)

These pics below are actually from Saturday (when it was 75 degrees outside...you know... the day before it snowed like crazy.) I like the top one cuz it kind of looks like some preschool boy band album cover. "Lets all stare in different directions and ponder our lives and how our music reflects that."

Then this one just shows how full of it they are. :)

Anyways, that's that for now!

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling...

2011-03-21T17:02:00.000-06:00

Ok...pretty sure we aren't Irish, however we had a smashing good St. Patrick's Day! Of course I had to get the kids some cute St. Patty's shirts! Of course, nobody wanted to pose nice for the camera! Except Liam who decided to ham it up for once. I have a video of him on a ride at Chuck E. Cheese where he hardly even smiles. Come on kid you're at CHUCK E. CHEESE! Anyways...we will start with the food!

For breakfast Eric requested green french toast. As soon as Liam saw it he said, "EW! Yucky..." I had to force him to eat one bite and then he got over it. The same thing happened at lunch. I was done with green food for the day but Eric just HAD to have something green, so I dyed their fry sauce green to dip their chicken nuggets in. Liam also thought this was disgusting and so chose not to dip. That night I made rainbow cupcakes...very messy and time consuming, but super cute.

Here are the adorable children.

Nick kept either posing like some male model or sticking out his tongue.

Eric kept laughing so much that all the pictures came out weird of him, these were the best ones.

Liam was making all sorts of faces and dancing around and wanting to constantly be in front of the camera.

Yeah...he's pretty cute...even when he's doing some sort of squatting dance.

3 out of 3

2011-03-12T07:32:00.000-07:00

This coming Tuesday will mark 2 weeks of Liam potty training (or if you are a parent's guide to raising kids, "Toilet Learning"). The reason I started him at it is because he kept trying to use the potty on his own. It is AMAZING how much easier it is when they really want to use the potty. He wants to be in the Nick and Eric club sooo bad. Lately they have been including him a bit more, and that makes me happy. In my crazy Mom dreams they all loooove each other soooo much and want to all do everything together all the time and stick up for one another. That's totally how they will be once in Jr. High-Highschool right?

The other really fantastic thing that is happening with Liam's potty training is that Nick and Eric are super excited to help. As in, "Who wants to help Liam put his pee in the big potty and help him wash his hands?" and all I hear is, "I DO! I DO!" We have a stool in the bathroom, with 2 books stacked on it (Sorry parenting guide and my Beatles coffee table book...) and Liam still can't reach the faucet. Liam also has an uncool habit of either sticking his hands in the toilet or running the roll of TP under the faucet, OR dunking the roll in the toilet, the best of both worlds.

Yesterday Nick started his Speech Class (fiiiiiiiiiiiinally) and he did so well! She got him to actually say the letter "F" which is pretty amazing, since he never has before. She thinks he is gonna pick things up pretty fast, even if he does get distracted by EVERYTHING. Is ADD hereditary? I'm thinking we might have a mini-Ryan here.

Eric has been full of just random funny things lately. So has Nick really...I'm thinking I need to put a piece of paper on the fridge and just write down the silly stuff they say, so that I can remember these things. One of my favorites:

So I'm cleaning the kitchen counters the other day (miracles do happen) and
Eric says: MOM! Look at me!
Me: I'm lookin'!
Eric: I'm Handy Manny!
Me: You are?

He then proceeds to turn his head where I see a pen behind his ear. He grabs it down and pretends to go down a checklist on a piece of paper saying, "See, I write things here and here and here and then I put it on my ear and I am Handy Manny."

A couple days ago I got brave and decided to let all the kids wield scissors. All 3 actually did pretty well. I had them cut up some green construction paper and then I got out some glue and they glued them onto a four leaf clover. After they dried I cut them out and they turned out pretty cute and are now decorating my kitchen! Yay for kid crafting!

The only other news is that we are taking a family vacay in July! Watch out Missouri, we are gonna tear you up!

Busy, busy, dreadfully busy...

2011-02-28T16:21:00.000-07:00

So I haven't updated in way to long as BOTH of my mother's have told me. If I get this done today it will be one of my many accomplishments of the day. Seriously, today I am supermom.

I have....

Made a very important phone call. (This IS an accomplishment...I don't call and take care of anything...like ever.) Unfortunately it was ineffective. (I called my last pediatrician and asked them to fax over the immunization records for the kids to our pediatrician here. They said they would. They never did. I called at 8:30 and left the doctor's at 10:15 and they STILL had not sent them...really lame.)

I have given Liam a bath.

I have taken Liam to the Doctor. (He has an ear infection...which would explain this last week of sleeping troubles.)

I have taken all 3 kids by myself to the Library. (Try telling 3 kids who are 3 and under that you can't run and scream in a new place full of books and movies and a secret "little tunnel!")

I also signed them up for a class there. Every Thursday at 10 we get to go hear a story! I have to think of a way to grow a 3rd arm by Wednesday night!

Following the Library I then took all 3 to Wal-Mart where I picked up Liam's prescription and then did some grocery shopping. The Lindon Walmart doesn't have carts that hold all 3 at once and so Nick and Eric walked. Surprisingly it went very well. Except as I checked out I let them run around in the arcade thing and when it was time to go all 3 cried as if I had just told them that their Grandma had died.

Still on my to-do list is doing the dishes and making a batch of cookies to give to my neighbor for watching the twins this morning so I didn't have to take all 3 go to the doctor's. Oh yeah...and I'm going to attempt potty training LIAM. Woohoo! (or dun dun dun, depending how you look at it.)

Other things of note:

Eric told me our snack cups were "identical." Which is true. Identical will now fall under the word "Eco-location" in his list of amazing vocabulary words that he has used correctly in a sentence.

Nick loves his primary teacher. He has started asking me to tell him about her before he falls asleep at night. He cried last week when we didn't attend church due to everyone having colds.

Liam is talking more than ever and as a bonus I'm starting to actually understand most of what he is saying. Today I learned that he is 28 lbs, which is in the 45th percentile (I thought he would be bigger, even the nurse was surprised...I wish I could be surprised like that when I step on a scale.) He was 36.5 inches tall, 77th percentile...I don't feel like me and Ryan are very tall...but apparently we make giant children. He also has a massive head which is in the 84th percentile. His head is the same size as Nick and Eric's. I so wish that they still put snaps around the necks of 2t clothes so I didn't have to stretch out the neck just to get it over his head.

All 3 kids are OBSESSED with Bubble Guppies. We watch it in HD at 9 and the same episode on the non-HD channel at noon most days.

We have recently taken the kids to get haircuts and pictures (too cute) and last Saturday they got the opportunity to leave the house and play at not one, but TWO mall's play places. Sunday night we had Ryan's family over for dinner and the poor kids are missing their Uncle David just terribly today. Eric asked me at breakfast, "When will Uncle Dabid be back?"

The only other thing happening is that we all stare mournfully out the window waiting for Spring to come so we can play outside again. Seriously, Winter is neverending and the worst season EVER. Especially with littles in the house. boo.

When Eric Grows Up

2011-01-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight I was moving the laundry and when I came out of the laundry room Eric said, "Mom, I wanna buy a phone."

"Oh really..."

"I'm gonna growed up and buy a grown up phone!"

"Will you call me every day?"

"Yeah! On my GROWN UP PHONE, NOT a TOY phone."

"What else will you do when you are grown up?"

"I'm going to get married. At the church, and go to the church."

"Wow! Where are you going to work?"

Here Nick chimed in with, "At the LIBEWWY!" Eric chimed in with, "No, Nichowes is going to work at the bachine."

"Eric, where are YOU going to work?"

"At the store!"

"Which one?"

"The gwocery store and the dowwar store? I'm gonna work at the grown up store."

"What do you buy at the grown up store?"

"Food and lunch."

"What's the name of the store?"

"Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaalmart, and I buy gwoceries there. I buy beef in the fweezer and I will push Liam in the cart. I will go to the udder freezer and buy waffles! It has two fweezers."

"You know that when you are a grown up, Liam will be a grown up too, right?"

Nick: "I be grown up too Mommy! Me too!"

Eric: "No IIIIIIIII'LLLL be a grown up. And Nichowes too. I will buy a phone and call you!"

~Christmas 2010~

2010-12-28T15:59:00.001-07:00

Christmas Eve

Nick was very not into sitting still for a picture.

Eric's weird smile...weirdo.

Bein' silly!

Holy crap I can't find Liam anywhere!

Christmas

PJs!!!

Our little tree :)

This was all Eric was interested in. He didn't even want to open any other presents for a good 10-15 minutes.

Socks! So exciting!

The track from Grandpa Lance nearly beat out the joys of the basketball hoop.

It's a pillow! It's a pet! It's a pillow pet!

No. He was not excited...

The boys love everything they received! In fact Nicholas informed us that the basketball hoop was, "A real good present!" Then he proceeded to hug it and say, "I LOVE IT!" Nicholas was our quote monkey for the holiday and gave us another gem which really sums it all up, "Christmas is all about family!"

I hope everyone had a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Liam is 2!

2010-11-12T15:14:00.001-07:00

1 month

6 months

12 months

18 months

AND:

Two Whole Years Old!!

Halloween! Halloween! Trick-or-Treat! Ghosts and Goblins Can't Be Beat!

2010-11-01T21:39:00.000-06:00

In Pleasant Grove it decided to rain cats and dogs for like 3 hours which really put a damper (that was worded in that punny way just for my mother...you're welcome mom!) on things. We took the kids to Orem where it quit raining sooner and went around the block in Grandma Annette's neighborhood. This year Nick really was on top of the whole concept of Trick or Treating. He would run up to the door before anybody else, knock and start saying, "twick oh tweat" over and over and over and over...if nobody answered soon enough he would try to open (sometimes successfully open) their door. Patience is not his strong suit. Eric has a hard time with the "tr" sound so he says, "Fwick or Fweat!!" it's pretty cute, maybe even cuter than when he says, "Fire Fwuck!" I was a domino, Nick and Eric were very fetching pirates and Liam was a robot (because the twins robot costume last year was just too cute to only use once! Hopefully next year Liam will also want to be a pirate!)

Gettin' ready!!! oh yeah, I totally found that candy bucket at Savers...go me.

Liam has started to really like the whole picture taking process and did not want to be left out.

They are complete! They wore their eye patches the entire night and I'm pretty sure their swords scared people into giving them extra candy.

I have to give myself props for finding/creating all the pieces of their costumes. I sewed the vests and the boot things, got the pirate gear at the dollar store, the sweats were 4 dollars at kmart, the bandanas were about a dollar at walmart, and the shirts were purchased at Savers for about 2 dollars. I think it looks way better than any ready made pirate costume...so yay.

Liam 3000! I highly recommend putting lights on your kids costumes, it comes in handy.

Fwick or fweat!

This picture was after making the rounds and Liam was pretty much done with Halloween. I'm also thinking the moisture in the air attacked my hair. It was NOT that poofy before trick-or-treating. Once we got back to our house everyone in our neighborhood was pretty much done with Halloween as well. We had no trick-or-treaters, and so we have tons of candy at our house. Nick and Eric were still in the mood so Ryan put Liam to bed and stayed home while I took the twins around to a few more houses. It was a lot colder by then so I modified their costumes a bit. Since we live on the mountain the house on one side of the street were level and the houses on the other had like 50 stairs (not kidding). Of course the first house that Nick dragged me too had the stairs. After that we went back to the level side of the street. I would have to say the best costumes besides MY families costumes was this family that were all Star Wars characters. Mom was Princess Leia, Dad was Obi-Wan, baby was Yoda and their other kid was Darth Vader. I'm not even a big Star Wars fan but still it was pretty cute/EPIC. Almost as epic as Nick with TWO suckers.

That was our Halloween, overall a success! The only other news is that the kids have all been sick with colds. As usual I think they will be fine and Ryan thinks they are knocking on deaths door. They have all been very happy, just runny noses and a cough, occasionally a light fever. Unfortunately today, Nick started crying when they were down for nap (very uncharacteristic of him) and he felt warm. He kept saying his ear hurt. Took him to the doctor who looked into the ear that Nick was NOT complaining about and said, "Oh wow! That looks painful!" He tells me then that Nick totally has an ear infection at it's a pretty bad one. Then he looks in the one that Nick keeps saying hurts and says, "Oh, I can definitely see why he is complaining about this." Which makes me think if the first one was really bad, the second one most have been really terrible. So who knows how long he has had these ear infections and how much they have been bothering him. It's times like this you wish you were psychic. Anywho, he's on antibiotics now and as usual he is a trooper through it all. I hope everybody else had a Happy Halloween!

Scott's Wedding!

2010-10-27T15:48:00.000-06:00

Congrats guys!

Playing Catch Up (as usual)

2010-10-23T00:09:00.000-06:00

It seems like a really long time ago, but really not all THAT long ago we took the kids to the Natural History Museum in SLC. The kids were all fussy pants that day so we only ended up being there about an hour. They saw dinosaur bones and really gross bugs and then we watched the Dino Show. The Dino Show is where some poor guy has to dress up as a dinosaur and walk around making grunty, growly sounds. Nick threw a tantrum in the middle and had to be removed from the situation, and that just added to all the emotions of our kids that day. In the end they couldn't even take a picture with the dinosaur because he was too terrifying to get close to. Then we left and Nick and Eric had major meltdowns all the way back to where the car was parked....like a mile away. Oh well...

Ryan's brother, Scott, is getting married at 3 pm...today...and we went to Lilly's Bridal shower a couple weeks ago. One of the games was making a wedding dress out of toilet paper. Here is the dress we made, we didn't win...but we should have :)

Last Saturday we took the kids to the pumpkin patch and they had a blast. We kind of lost Eric...which was a little horrifying...but...we found him! yay!

Sunday night I got brave and let the kids paint their pumpkins!

As you can see Liam was a hot mess when they were finished. He's a pretty cute hot mess though :) All those kids are pretty cool.

The only other news is that we got a pet! Don't get too excited...it's a snail. Ha ha ha, Eric named him Slimey. Tomorrow is the wedding and I'm sure I will take lots of pictures.

Nick and Eric are 3!

2010-09-15T20:39:00.001-06:00

It's very strange to think they have gone from this:

To this:

And yes, Eric is wearing Ryan's own personal Darkwing Duck fannypack in this picture :)

Their birthday was officially on Monday, but since I wanted their Father to be present for their party I put it on Sunday afternoon. It was a smashing success, woohoo!

First there was the cake:

Ally decorated this one all by herself, which is pretty impressive.

Then there was the decorating:

When Nicholas woke up from his nap he ran into the kitchen screaming, "It' my party! My party! It's my BIRTHDAY PARTY!" Pretty intense!

Then came the time to blow out the candles!

Then it was time for presents! It was a little out of control how much they got spoiled this year...They got a movie, 4 books, golf clubs, a Buzz Lightyear and a Woody, a fancy pants musical Winnie the Pooh book, and a ridiculous amount of tools. They put Handy Manny to shame!

They had a blast, and they are still talking about it. This is what the aftermath was:

Ha!

Oops I did...or I guess didn't do it again...

2010-09-10T14:51:00.001-06:00

That would be posting. So this is what we are going to cover in this post:

1. Swimming
2. Utah County Fair (LAME...the kids liked it though...enough sheep to choke a camel!)
3.Haircuts (again)
4. Petting Zoo (where you don't get to pet anything really, but still very fun!)
5. Potty Training

The pool that is close to our house is the one in Lindon. To anyone with tiny children, I would highly recommend it! Perfectly sized waterslides and a lazy river...it's awesome!

All I can say for the Utah County Fair, is that the one in Jerome, Idaho could kick it's butt. Since my kids have no clue what they are missing out on, they thought it was crazy fun. They saw cows, sheep (seriously like 9,000 sheep) chickens, rabbits and even some guinea pigs. Nicholas successfully used a public restroom! Woohoo! We had some snocones and the kids got to ride in the Strawberries and on a carousel...twice!

As you may have noticed their hair was starting to get on the shaggy side.

Off to Cookie Cutters we went!

As usual, they look fantastic!

About 2 days later we went to the petting zoo at Thanksgiving Point, which was tons of fun! They got to feed goats and llamas and ride on horses and go for a wagon ride. On the way home we got lunch at Burger King and Liam was just too tired to make it the rest of the way back to our house!

Last but NOT LEAST!

Nicholas is potty trained!

I'm waiting on Eric for a couple more weeks, he understands the process, he just doesn't pay any attention to when he needs to go, which is not very much fun for me! I'm tossing in a picture of Eric trying to do what Dad does in the bathroom...cuz it's cute. Then there is Nick, showing off his super cool Sesame Street underpants, yay!

On a side note, everytime I go to the bathroom Nick informs me that I get a blue M&M!

I have now caught up! Be prepared to see pictures from Nick and Eric' 3rd birthday! (Which I'm kind of stressed out about! Too many things I need to do in not enough time!)

Recap of the Summer so far!

2010-07-31T15:17:00.001-06:00

We got haircuts...which was really one of our first adventures of the summer. Eric's hair has grown out a lot since this picture.

We have played in our backyard! We have discovered the joy of popsicles! We have played in the pool!

We have gone to the Strawberry Days parade and the carnival! We have actually gone to 3 parades!

We have celebrated the 4th in style!

We went to the zoo!

We went to Thayne and Sarah's Wedding!

I turned 25 and we went to Paul McCartney!

It was amazing! Anywho, that pretty much wraps things up! I really don't want winter to come and I feel as though summer has gone racing by :( Hopefully we can squeeze some more fun things in and creeping ever closer is Nick and Eric's 3rd birthday! This year they know what's up and they are very excited!

Sad Face

2010-06-22T23:39:00.000-06:00

This post requires your imagination, due to the fact that a freak accident has caused all the pictures I have taken since January 22nd to be lost. All I wish to say about this is, thank goodness for blogging lots of pictures! At least the few I blogged are not lost.

I bought a kiddie pool and put our slide into it. It was really good to get the kids outside in their swimsuits and play in the water. It was very sad that I had to put a bag over Nick's cast and it would always fill up with water and I would have to take him out early and he would scream and cry at the door watching Eric and Liam in the pool.

Next, remember Nick's arm in a red cast? Well we got rid of that thing on the 8th. I think that I am the most pleased about it's absence.

So now...imagine my 3 adorable children with shaggy hair. Now imagine Cookie Cutters. Liam's hair was like past his nose and ridiculous. As usual it pains me to cut the hair and he ended up with a shag haircut. Which at first was a little funny looking, but now that it's been a couple weeks looks very cute. Nick just got a trim. After some long deliberation I decided on a mohawk for Eric! I figure...why not now? I didn't do anything to crazy. Think Puck on Glee. I think he looks cute, Ryan is not a fan.

Ryan's brother, Thayne, is getting married to Sarah. Annette and I went to her Bachelorette party and it was tons of fun. I had an awesome video of her pinning the "firehose" on the sexy topless fireman, where she walks off sideways...but...yeah...it's gone forever :(

My friend Whitney came for a visit. We ate delicious food more than once, had a poker night, went shopping and saw a movie. I barely new what to do with myself!

It's been pretty sunny and beautiful here and on one such sunny day the boys went outside and watered the plants. They had tons of fun with their watering cans.

Eric was sick all last week. Nasty, poopy, barfy sick. We have overcome it though! Also...by some miracle Nick and Liam seem to have dodged this sickness. Knock on wood.

Pleasant Grove Strawberry Days was also all last week. On Saturday we went to the parade and got entertained by a fake shoot out. Nothing says good family fun like a cowboy being shot dead in the street 6 feet in front of you! We got a lot of coupons and saltwater taffy. Afterwards we went to a gas station for some drinks and while waiting in the car Liam went from wide awake to fast asleep. It was like 5 minutes. No binky. That car seat has magic powers. Imagine Nick and Eric in Ally's sunglasses. I had a lot of cute pics of that. Booo.

Lastly, we went to the Carnival on Saturday evening. They actually had a lot of kiddie rides, which cost a lot of money. Nick rode the caterpillar ride, Eric rode the Jeep driving ride and all 3 kids rode this little train ride. It's the first time we've ever taken them to something like that, and they had a blast. I had videos of them waving from the train...but...*weeping* *wailing*

We had a "nice" Father's Day, which included eating lunch at IHOP. I had big plans for Ryan, but then he got mad at me in the morning and I was grouchy and chose to not do them. He also insisted on no gifts, and yet after all this said that he really liked Father's Day...go figure.

So there you have it.

:( Sigh.

Now for something that is on an upbeat note...me and Ryan get to go to Paul McCartney on my birthday! This almost replaces those pictures! (sorta.)

Ally's 6th Grade Graduation

2010-05-24T22:31:00.001-06:00

So last Friday Allyson graduated and it was a good excuse to get some fancy clothes for Nick and Eric. The shirts I found were in the boys section and were massively huge on them, but they still looked pretty amazing. However I didn't get one for Liam and the only thing close was this onesie that doesn't even really fit anymore...but it was better than *GASP* not matching!!!!! The graduation itself went pretty well. Liam ripped out on of my earrings...Nicholas I think sat still for about 3 seconds and Eric continually said, "That's Ally!" Even if it wasn't Ally. All 3 of them were tired and pretty soon Nicholas spotted the playground and had a full on nuclear meltdown. So I left!

Saturday evening the kids were playing in Grandma's backyard and were very cute...as usual.

Also, a few weeks ago we got this toy from DI that is a tape player with 2 microphones. I finally put batteries in it on Saturday. Nick and Eric loved it so much that they broke it by Sunday. That's how it goes though. Eric has asked repeatedly for the, "Wadio." Nick is doing very well with his cast. Occasionally it gets pulled on or banged into something and he cries about it, and it is super annoying to put on shirts or should I say JACKETS (why oh why Utah are you SNOWING again...I'm so sick of jackets!?) Liam said Hello yesterday but has since refused to say it and only grunts. Ryan heard it too though so I KNOW he said it.

Here are some videos to wrap things up!

Injuries, Milestones and Cuteness

2010-05-15T23:04:00.000-06:00

Blurb of cuteness #1:

Awhile ago the kids got to play in these cars at Gramma Annette's house and do all sorts of other silly things. I never blogged about it, but...decided to now.

Potty Training:

I gave potty training a real go, TWICE. I'm not doing it ever again! Ok...so maybe I'll do it in a few weeks...months!

Injuries:

One day I cooked fish sticks for lunch. Then Nick decided to open the still warm oven and then slam the door shut. The only real bad thing about this was Liam decided to put his hand in the oven in the 1.5 seconds it was open. At first he seemed fine, other than bawling his face off. His hand looked totally fine. However he continued crying for about another 3 hours. He screamed all through the first hour of nap time and then I noticed the blisters. Awful awful awful. Then we took him to the doctor, who popped them and made me hold him down while he cried and screamed, because doctors are sadistic like that. Liam wore a sock on his hand that was duct taped to his shirt sleeve for about a week and a half, sooo much fun for him! The day after the burn incident Eric decide to have some weird rash show up on his back. Ryan was really concerned, and took him to the doctor, who looked through dermatology books, came up with nothing and said, "Well maybe it will just go away tomorrow." Stuff like that makes me wanna kick doctor's in the shins. However it did start fading away the next day and he seems to be no worse for wear.

But would this be the end of our health issues? No of course not, with 3 boys, things tend to come in threes. Nick has a habit of climbing out of bed. Sometimes he doesn't, but sometimes he does, and he has a low crib so we haven't been to concerned. So last tuesday he was in a mischievous mood and climbed out like 10 times in 5 minutes and was frustrating everyone. Then one of these times he climbs out and starts crying a lot, saying that his arm hurts. I kiss him better, put him in bed, he acts fine and soon goes to sleep. He wakes up 3 hours later complaining about his arm. So we go get x-rays and sure enough, 2 broken bones in 4 places. He was a trooper and only cried when they took his temperature in his ear. Yesterday he got a cast put on it and he picked red, and everything seems to be going well and he went to bed tonight just fine with no Ibuprofen.

Oh yeah...we also have a slide now. They love it. Hoorah yard sales!

Mother's Day/Cuteness blurb #2:

In the afternoon after the kids woke up from their nap, we were goofing around a little bit before heading over to Ryan's parents for a BBQ.

It was a good day. I ate cheesecake...Yay!

Milestones:

On the 10th Liam turned 18 months! Woohoo!

He doesn't talk much, but makes tons of noise. He likes to bang on the tv and open the kitchen drawers. He points to his nose on command now and likes to put on his squeaky shoes. When you put him in non-squeaky shoes...he's kinda sad. Like his brothers, he LOVES Little Einsteins. If you are watching it, and change the channel, he cries. A lot. Since moving here he has become nearly inseparable from me, especially if people come over to the house. His new molars FINALLY came in, and everyone is the better for it. His favorite food is probably Chocolate Chip Pancakes and when he has drank his milk, he will gladly finish off Nick and Eric's.

P.S. He's super duper cute.

Cuteness Blurb #3:

I got a haircut today. Maybe when I feel less gross looking I'll post a picture. So...that probably won't happen for a long time. ha!

Not funny...well not for now.

2010-04-23T14:15:00.000-06:00

I just spent an HOUR trying to figure out how to unlock Nick and Eric's door. Nick decided that yesterday would be the perfect day to learn how to escape from bed, oh and he also thought that while that was an accomplishment why not tackle more? No, he's not potty trained, are you kidding? No no no...their door has a lock on the INSIDE (really stupid, but since they couldn't get out of bed, who cared til now?) and he now knows how to lock it, but not unlock it...well, on command anyway. Yes it had a little hole on the other side of the doorknob...and I couldn't get it to unlock. So it's nap time, Liam is asleep in his room, Nicholas is laying on the floor by Eric's bed and they are giggling their heads off, and I can't get into their room so I'm in the hallway outside quietly trying to get Nick to follow instructions which was a dead end. Eventually I had to unscrew the doorknob from the door which I thought would solve everything. Apparently I don't know how doorknobs or locks work though and all it did was leave me confused with greasy fingers and tons more frustration. After poking at it and turning things and banging on it all while my 2 year olds laughed hysterically I eventually shoved a screwdriver down in there somewhere and managed to get it unlocked. I realized that I had no idea how to switch which side was the lock side and instead opted for a piece of duct tape over the entire doorknob on the inside. Anywho...all I can say was...that sucked. It sucked really bad.

The End.

The Big Kahuna of Posts---EASTER

2010-04-11T21:19:00.000-06:00

I don't know whose bright idea it was to put Easter on Conference, but it totally screwed me up and I kept telling myself that Easter was not on the day that it was. Saturday night I dashed to Target to discover that it was a stupid place to go the night before Easter. However, I find Target has exceptional children's clothing (i kind of find that I think all childrens clothing anywhere to be exceptional...tee hee) and got some very cute Easter clothes and some really crappy candy. How do they not even have jelly beans...or anything remotely egg shaped. Oh and just as I asked my mom on the phone...WHY would somebody want to EAT a chocolate cross!?! Sure, draw one, hang one up, think about one, read about one...but eat it? If He got shot would people be eating chocolate guns? I'm sorry but the whole concept of eating a cross just weirds me the heck out. Done with ranting.

So let's backpedal....on Saturday (after Annette and Ally assured me that Easter was that Sunday) we decided to dye some eggs!

They found it to be very enjoyable even if none of them are fond of boiled eggs. Case in point...LIAM:

He's all, "Sure I'll try it...Are you kidding me? This belongs on the floor! Gross!"

Sunday we opened the blinds to see snow everywhere...Happy Easter! We got the kids all dressed up and then made salad and pineapple upside down cake while listening to Conference.

Then after the kids woke up from nap we headed on over to Ryan's parents for dinner and the indoor Egg Hunt. Nick had a bit of an accident during nap and so we had to take him out of the Easter clothes which was kinda sad, but he was still cute (duh).

So yeah, it was a good weekend and good food. Yay! I hope everybody else had a great Easter too!

Spring Break: A Side Note Post Easter

2010-04-11T20:54:00.000-06:00

Ally stayed out our house for 3 days of her Spring Break and instead of doing important things we made hats with Knifty Knitters. I made 3 hats for the 3 boys and they are super adorable. They are hat models. Seriously...they need and agent.

We've moved! Like 2 weeks ago...

2010-04-11T20:47:00.000-06:00

Ignore random clutter/dishes. Don't judge me! I'm busy! :) I'm sorry for slacking on posting, but I was sharing Ryan's computer until Friday night and I like to use MINE. Anywho, we are more than pleased with our new place, it is light years beyond what we were expecting to get and what we moved out of.

Saint Patrick's Day in a Nutshell

2010-03-17T23:21:00.000-06:00

We're only happy in the sun!

2010-03-16T21:47:00.001-06:00

Now that March is upon us the sun has decided to make a comeback! Woooohoo! I detest winter. Always have, always will. On one such sunny day, I dragged Ryan out of his computer chair and off to a park. I swear his hind parts are super glued to that thing (grr). We were only there about 30 minutes and then we went out to brunch at Dee's. Yum.

Oh yeah...scroll down there are bunches of other posts to see :)

Tax Returns...easy come...easy go...

2010-03-16T21:35:00.001-06:00

Finally I got this beauty:

It's just about the coolest thing on the planet. I half expected Tim Gunn to walk in occasionally and say something like, "I like where you're going with this. I'm a little nervous about these feathers and the latex, but you have to be bold. The judges will either hate it or love it. Make it work!!!"

I am not bold, and have only made pajama pants for the twins, but you have to keep in mind that I haven't sewn a thing in like 6 years, or heck followed a pattern for maybe 7 or 8.

I'm pretty pleased. I screwed up once (probably because I chose to sew them around midnight) but it was easily fixed. Plus Nick and Eric would look good in about anything anyway.

Oh and around this time Valentine's Day happened. Ryan and I got a date night in and went to see The Blindside (very good btw). Ally had a sleepover here and the next day we made sugar cookies. They were the best sugar cookies I have ever made. So amazing. I think everyone was shocked at how good they turned out.

First come love, then comes marriage then comes this post

2010-03-16T21:28:00.000-06:00

We quickly deduced after those Super Bowl pics that we had scraggly headed twins and headed to Cookie Cutters! We went to the one in Draper vs. Lehi and it was a lot better. I can't put my finger on what was so great about it...but I do know the lady who cut their hair this time gave them the best one they've ever had. She cut their hair from the top down and for some reason my brain wasn't thinking to take a picture of them with short hair on top and long in the back a.k.a a MULLET. I think only toddlers can rock a mullet. At least they are the only ones who should be allowed to.

It's been a long time, but now I'm...blogging again

2010-03-16T21:18:00.001-06:00

Instead of a huge post I'm gonna do a bunch of little ones. So up first is... One day Nick and Eric were growing out of their pajamas. They are very cute pajamas and they grew out of them very quickly. *sad face* To recognize how cute they are in them we took pictures of them being silly in the pjs the next morning after the last hoorah of sleeping in them. We'll start with Eric's silliness:

Nick's:

Both of them goofing around together:

They have a lot of energy in the morning...which is to bad. I usually feel like I just got hit by a truck in the morning.

There's men above, there's men below, there's men down in the galley...

2010-02-09T21:00:00.002-07:00

Look at all the manliness.

Thank you for SOMETHING Super Bowl Sunday.

It has happened...

2010-02-04T15:51:00.003-07:00

We just went to get the kids up from their nap and weirdly enough Eric was not in his bed. So I look from here....to here...
and saw this :

So many things about this situation bother me.

#1 Now that he knows he can get out of there, he will probably do it over and over again.
#2 How weird is it that instead of opening the door and coming to get us, he just climbed into Nick's bed?
#3 How in the crap did he do that!? His crib is the tallest!

Maybe it's getting close to the horribleness of a toddler bed. How do you have 3 kids in a room that are supposed to be sleeping but 2 of them just want to play with toys together? I just can't see how that will work. Meh...oh well.

I'd have to say...

2010-02-02T21:56:00.002-07:00

Now that our Renters Insurance that we nearly canceled is actually helping us out...getting robbed isn't so bad at all.

We got a lovely check in the mail yesterday to cover our losses. There are some things at we decided to go cheaper on, and some things we decided not to replace, meaning we have some extra dough! So we went splurging a little bit this morning and instead of replacing golf clubs Ryan finally got that PS3 he's always wanted. I got an iPod touch (it's so cool!) but only an 8G (because I don't need ALL my music at all times.) We are soon to be ordering a new stroller online as well as a crib! I'm very excited for our nearly 16 month old son to get out of the bottom of a playpen. Also...I'm pretty sure I'm finally gonna pick out that sewing machine that Ryan "got" me for my birthday. You know..back in JULY.

Of course it's frustrating to know that we had things stolen, but it's pretty awesome to start over.

The Blues Brothers

2010-01-25T19:55:00.002-07:00

Okay.

I have the coolest kids the world has ever known. Yes. I know you think YOUR kids are cool. But I just won't believe any kids are cooler than these kids.

Dreams of Twilight...

2010-01-19T21:39:00.004-07:00

Not really.

Kind of.

Anyways, I have been having really weird dreams lately. For a few weeks I kept having the, "Surprise! Your 9 months pregnant with triplets!" dream. Very terrifying. Ryan was always upset with me in them, leaving me to wake up and go, "HEY! It's not like I got myself pregnant!" Then the other night I had one where I lost Liam in a parking lot, but he was found and nearly adopted by a family that I know from Chillicothe, (The Singers). Once I saw them and him we straightened everything out. So now for last night....

It was one of those dreams where it feels extraordinarily long and you wake up thinking you dreamed the same dream all night long. A saga dream. So a lot of really odd, nonsensical things happened, but at one point Robert Pattinson was there. One of the funny things about this is that I am NOT a Twilight fan. Nor do I ever intend on being one, (sorry guys). I have never read the books or seen the movies and not planning on doing either any time soon. Also, I don't find Edward attractive...nope. Anywho, I was in Missouri at my old house. For some reason R. P. was outside of it and gets injured in some way. His friend points at the house and urges him to the front door and R.P. goes, begrudgingly. So then he ends up in my old room expecting crazy clamoring fan and he gets, "Sorry dude I'm just not that into you. Although if you are really with Kristen Stewart you should drop that mess. She is really really really lame. Seriously." He says, "You have no idea how happy I am to hear that. It's nice to catch a break."

Then I magically know how to sew up stitches and send him on his merry way and continue on with my mission which was to find my cell phone because I had to catch up with my caravan of wagons that were all heading...some place. I hope it was great...because traveling by wagon isn't so hot.

That picture of him is giving me a Nick Nolte Mugshot vibe.
Totally.

Christmas Bells are...were...ringing

2009-12-28T22:14:00.010-07:00

NOTE: I'm very sorry about how the pictures don't match up with the words. Blogger sucks.

Here comes the Christmas post! Now that the craziness has died down, I am going to type this up (even though I'm super exhausted) simply because if I keep putting it off you will not see our Christmas until perhaps March...or even next Christmas. I'm a procrastinator.

Anywho...Ryan had EVERY DAY OFF except Christmas Eve, which was a bummer. Mostly for him. It made it so I got a chance to make Cinnamon Rolls! I made those on Wednesday morning and they turned out really great! Ryan chalks all of it up to the icing he made...to hear him talk you could put that icing on a piece of cardboard and it would be, "SO AMAZING! YOU CAN'T DENY HOW GOOD THAT FROSTING IS!" I like to think the rest of the cinnamon rolls were tasty too.

On Christmas Eve I tried to get me and all the kids looking fabulous, followed by my apartment. The apartment didn't really get finished before nap time, but it was pretty good. While the kids were down, Ryan got home (yay!) so I got them up a little early and we packed everything up and headed to Orem. We always go to Ryan's Uncle Tim's and eat food and wait for Santa Claus to knock on the door. This year was pretty exciting in that department now that Nick and Eric know exactly who Santa is.

Nicholas looked like he was going to explode with happiness when he sat on his lap and Eric just looked...dazed? At least he didn't cry like last year. Liam did not cry, just wriggled around trying to escape so he could finally try out the stairs or the dog food, or whatever else is a no no.

We exchanged our gifts with Thayne, Sarah and Piper, Sarah made all the boys very cute hats, which they were pretty excited about. As you can see, there were attempts at family pictures, and this is the best of what I got. We went to Ryan's parents after that and prepared for Christmas. We were all very tired, but made it through. We spent the night and at about 5:30 in the morning Christmas attacked! Yes...we were very very tired.

Allyson got a scooter! The kids liked pushing buttons on it, more than about anything else. They got all sorts of stuff, but especially enjoyed the dogs that "poop" out candy. Shortly after presents my camera decided to use up all the battery power and refused to turn on the rest of the day. So I don't have a lot of pics. They wore cute Christmas clothes though, so the next morning I put them back in them for a minute for pictures.

They were pretty uncooperative but I got some really cute pictures anyway.

On Saturday we were just gonna hang out around the house, but Ryan's parents called and said they were coming up to go to the Gateway in SLC and invited us along. I nearly always leap at the chance of getting me and the kids OUT of the house, so of course we went. It was COLD.
But I got to go to Barnes and Noble (where if alone I could probably spend a couple hours in). After the mall we went to Dee's, and it was really, really good.

Of course after all that we had to have something go wrong.
1. The Honda ran out of gas in the parking lot (again).
2. Ryan's mom lost her phone somewhere and it cannot be found.
3. The book I bought at B&N appears to be hiding with her phone. I was reading it in the van. Nobody can remember bringing it in the house and we can't find it in the van at all. All I can figure is that we have a book thief. Yeah...someone who goes to the trouble to get into somebodies van and only take a book. An 8 dollar book.

Anyways, the holiday were good, the kids had a grand time, and hopefully next year me and Ryan can actually get something for one another :)

Merry Christmas! I hope everybody else had a great one!
Here is our Christmas morning :)

Christmas is ever looming...

2009-12-21T09:24:00.004-07:00

No...really it's not looming, I'm pretty excited for this year and have everything I wanted to get done...done!

Yesterday I made truffles! They are delicious and Ryan has eaten most of them. Especially the coconut ones. Anywho, I took pictures and I decided to take one of our non-exciting Christmas tree as well since they were both on the kitchen table.

Then I also had to take some pictures of my fabulous children as usual. Nick and Eric have figured out their zippers and were rockin' the, "We're a couple of cooooool and crazy guys!" look. They just need some chest hair and gold medallions and they'd be gettin' all the ladies.
Say Cheese!
not so much...
there we go!

ok...too much.

Ho Ho Hats and Stockings!

2009-12-14T21:12:00.005-07:00

When I got out all my Christmas stuff, or as Eric would say, "Mihmuhh" stuff, I got out the Santa hats that I gave Nick and Eric last year. Now they are really really into them and wear them periodically throughout the day calling them "Ho ho hats!" So what's a better picture moment then your kids in Santa hats under the awesome stockings you have recently given a face lift to (and hopefully are done fixing up AGAIN every year.) Liam is NOT into wearing a hat on his head and apparently no longer smiles, however, he's still adorable and will be pictured anyway.

Then to top it off, Nick and Eric decided to play Ring around the Rosy without my help and while it was a little...dangerous? perhaps, it was pretty cute, so I'm putting up a really dark fuzzy video of it :) Also, long ago, when I was pregnant with the twins (like maybe...4 months along?) I purchased yarn and set out to make blankets for them. Like all other projects that I start out, I got about 5 or 6 rows in and then shoved it in a bag, and put it in a closet, never again to be touched. However, (triumphant music cue) when I got down the stockings from the closet I saw the bag of blanketness and have been diligently working on the one that should be Eric's!*please ignore the clothes beneath it in the picture...I chose crocheting over laundry this afternoon* I have doubled it in size since last I did anything to it, very exciting!
I highly doubt it will be done by Christmas, but I've been enjoying it and, hopefully I can just keep plugging away at it, FINISH and then start one Nick's again as well. Ideally making it to the moment that I can then decide what colors would like for Liam's!
so...
Merry Mihmuhh!

Holiday Fun!

2009-12-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

Been a bit busy over the past few days. There was Thanksgiving...where I apparently forgot I have a camera and took only 3 pictures, which are all of the same thing. Then there was black friday at the mall and sitting on Santa's lap. Not me...the kids. Anyways, all my pictures of the kids with santa came out really bright and horrible. I had to mess with them a ton to get them to look even this awful. It was the only way you could even glimpse their faces, and it makes me sad...but there is always next Christmas I suppose.

Then on Monday Ryan turned 23 and I made a ghettofabulous cake. We already had a cake mix and frosting in the cupboard and he said he didn't care...so he ended up with a pink cake! It tasted great, even if it was a little girly. Then yesterday we (by we I mean Annette, Ally, the kids and I) went to Festival of the Trees!

Ally had a dance performance and after that we walked around looking at crafts, sweets and amazing trees.

Today is Ryan's day off, so hopefully I can drag out my Christmas stuff today. I really want our Christmas tree up by tonight!

happy happy birthday ryan dear....

2009-11-30T20:56:00.001-07:00

That's right! The hubby is one year older and hopefully wiser ;)

I love ya babe! That's why I'm putting up this picture of you!

ta da!

2009-11-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

we got our pictures back the other day, but they are being difficult to scan and crop to go on this stupid blog...so this is all i'm posting for now...

I think they turned out pretty good considering none of them wanted to sit and smile at the same time!

Busy Weekend!

2009-11-16T15:28:00.009-07:00

On Saturday we went to JcPenneys and got pictures taken of the boys. That was an event in and of itself but I think we got some really good pictures of them despite some tears and wiggles and the strong desire of Liam's to have his hand or really...about anything he picks up in his mouth. After that we walked around the mall a bit, saw Santa, but decided not to get in line and wait to see him and then headed to Liams haircut appointment. That's right! His first haircut and stupidly I forgot to save his hair...my brain was in too many different places. Of course I took pictures though!

Before:

During:

After:
He's a cutey! Every morning I forget and when I get him out of bed I'm like, who is this child!?

On sunday evening we celebrated his first birthday! Do you know how you get a funky looking cake? Well you ask your husband if you can buy a yummy carrot cake from Costco and he says, why don't you just make a cake, and then about 5 minutes before you make a cake he says, you know why don't we just buy one? Then it's too late to get one made special at that point and you have to get one with carrots all over the top. But hey, it tastes good and Liam didn't care.

The only problem with his birthday is that there isn't much he needs. Due to Nick and Eric we have tons of clothes, books and toys and of course since the gifts are new and exciting he merely gets to glance at them and then Nick and Eric snatch it away and play with it. Sharing isn't one of their strong suits...lucky for us, Liam doesn't seem to mind.

ha ha ha ha ha

2009-11-13T23:35:00.002-07:00

I just happened across this and laughed hysterically about it. So it's either really really funny...or it's just me being up to late and everything is funny. Pretty sure I've heard these things all about a million times. The only one left out would be when some random person you don't even know says, "Ooooo twins! You know my great aunt's ex-husband was a twin!" Or something like that. Seriously...what are you supposed to say to that? "Umm...that's amazing, wow." The colored ones are the ones I've heard the most.

The Top 15 Stupid Things People Say to Parents of Twins

15. "I could never do it." (Oh really. What would you do? Are you suggesting I put them on the curb with signs around their necks that say, "Free to a good home. My mom can't do it"?)

14. "Do they have different personalities?" (No. They are the same human being divided into two parts.)

13. Said by a stranger, "They're identical, right?" Mom answers, "No. They're fraternal." Stranger response, "They are NOT!" (OK. You're right. I have no idea what I'm talking about. These are not my children. I thought it would be fun to borrow them from a mom down at Baby Gap. It's been more than an hour. I guess I should return them.)

12. "Are they 'paternal' twins?" (Yes. They have a father. There was only one virgin birth.)

11. "Just wait till they're older. It only gets harder." (Thank you. I woke up this morning hoping I'd receive a word of discouragement while pushing a cart of preschoolers down the cereal aisle.) SIDE NOTE from me...one time in Albertsons a lady said, "OH, I have twin boys...you just wait until they start kicking one another!"

10. "When one cries, does he wake the other?" (No. Twins cannot hear each other's cries because they all communicate with their special telepathic language only.)

9. From a perfect stranger: "Were they in the same sac?" (Hello. Nice to meet you, too. Will you be sharing your gynecological history with me as well?)

8. "Are they developmentally behind?" (Well, let's see. They're 3 years old and thus far, all their graduate school applications have been denied. We'll get back with you on that.)

7. "How do you do it?" (Haven't you seen the Nike commercials?)

6. Said by a dentist: "I was shocked that they didn't have the same bite patterns." (They are two different human beings, not clones.)

5. "You must be so busy." (Are you volunteering to clean my house?)

4. Said to a mom of fraternal twins who are different sizes, have different eye color and different face structure: "How do you tell them apart?" (I just look at them.)

3. "What do you do when they both cry at the same time?" (Sometimes I cry. Sometimes I go to Starbucks.)

2. Said to a mom of boy/girl twins: "Are they identical?" (Uh. Not exactly.)

1. Only one comment could be voted No. 1. The choice was clear. Drum roll, please. After a stranger had been informed that the toddler boys were twins, she asked a simple question: "Are they brothers?" (Enough said.)

We've come a long way baby!

2009-11-10T22:36:00.005-07:00

From a belly to a bilibed to a big 1 year old today! yeah!

He's pretty much amazing! Waving, saying first words, went from 3 to 7 teeth in a matter of days and walking nearly as well as his 2 year old bros. Part of me is like...oh it's been so long and another part is like, holy moly it's nearly Christmas AGAIN, we just did this! Anyways, Happy Birthday Liam!

The job that you put off...

2009-11-05T18:13:00.002-07:00

Yes, I finally cleaned out the fridge today. As usual it was pretty gross. There always seems to be at least ONE thing in the back that you totally forgot was there and sometimes it's so bad you have to guess..."Now...what is this?" It wasn't THAT bad today, thankfully. It had to be done because a jar of pickles had been turned on it's side and leaked pickle juice EVERYWHERE. Therefore making our everything in our fridge and freezer have a smell and slight taste of pickles. Appetizing, right?

So anyways now that it's all clean I discovered that we have absolutely no food. It look packed when I opened it and now it has:

2 Loaves of bread
A variety of cheeses
3 eggs
a quart or so of milk
Butter
A door packed with condiments
2 onions
and a jar of applesauce

So I guess dinner will be Cheesy onion apple french toast?
mmm.

I'll be sure to post the recipe.

Halloween!

2009-11-02T12:24:00.005-07:00

Those of you who might have seen an angry facebook post might already know...that right when I was getting ready to throw the kids in the car and head to Mamas house (where the costumes were at, and the NICER neighborhood for trick-or-treating was) but I couldn't find the keys anywhere. Ryan had been the last one with them and his phone had died. After a good hour or so of turning my whole house upside down looking for them, I finally got Ryan's work to send him a message using the "It's a Family EMERGENCY!" excuse. About 10 minutes later he called me all freaked out and told me that they were in a grocery bag...on the floor...somewhere around his desk...sigh. Anywho, after all that stressing out we did get to Orem and ate dinner and put on our costumes! Also, the kids had little cute pumpkins...but I kind of forgot about them. So there are no pictures...but you can imagine them with pumpkins if you like.

Fall Time!

2009-10-28T22:16:00.008-06:00

A few days ago Nicholas got some kind of tummy bug and it was pretty gross. On the upside this made the normally crazy destructo child who is too busy to cuddle, cuddly as heck and we spent a lot of time sitting on the couch watching tv, nice and cozy in our blankies. Well you know...when I wasn't being puked on anyway...Despite all the sickies, he still looked pretty cute, so I took his picture.The next couple days he was still a little off, but he has fully recovered! Yay! So on Saturday we went to a pumpkin patch and it was tons of fun.

Also, not too long ago Liam took some first real walking steps and it looked like this :

A couple days ago I decided that he was much better at it and he deserved another video to show off his mad skillz:

Last night Ryan informed me that he had made an appointment for the kids check ups today at 9:45 am...you know don't panic maren...you only have to go all alone on short notice to a place you've never been...anywho...It went surprisingly well, even if it was exhausting. Here are the stats:

Nicholas
Height: 37 and a quarter inches (I think he is taller...but whatever) 97th percentile
Weight: 28lbs - 50th percentile

Eric
Height: 37 and a quarter inches (that's why i think they are wrong about nick...he just has to be taller than eric, i just know it) 97th percentile
Weight: 30lbs - 75th percentile

Liam
Height: 30 inches - 65th Percentile
Weight- 23 lbs! 75th Percentile
and his head is practically the same size as the twins! 97th percentile

After that I felt like Lucifer and held their arms down while they got poked like 10 times (it was absolutely terrible) and now they are caught up on immunizations. The only other news is that Nick is delayed in speech and we have to take him to a hearing specialist. I think his hearing is just fine but the doctor wanted to be sure. If the hearing checks out, we just have to read him tons of books (which we do) and sing lots of songs (which we do) and just keep working with him on it. He said that taking him to a speech therapy class at this age would be pointless.

So there you have it! Night everybody!

Liam turns 11 months and the Twins Smiling on Command...

2009-10-20T21:06:00.004-06:00

Yup, he's gettin' bigger and better all the time! He walks...very short distances, and says "Uh oh" and probably other things that we don't understand yet. He loves Sesame Street and wants to eat everything, unless it's a vegetable. However tonight I successfully got him to eat peas and carrots. Like he really ate them, I'm thinking it's the first time he hasn't spit them out all over the place. He wants to do everything Nick and Eric do, and therefore we haven't had to teach him to drink from a sippy cup or push cars around on the floor or talk on pretend phones. He's done all of that much earlier than them, just so he can fit in. Eric thinks he's great and Nick wants him to just go away. Occasionally though, Nick will laugh at Liam...and I'm hoping that he's laughing with him...not at him.

On a sidenote, Eric and Nick are starting to smile when you say, "Smile, I'm taking your picture!" Sometimes it turns out great, but most of them you get crazy crazy smiles, like some of these.

Ok so in this next one Nick doesn't look crazy...I just had to show everyone that he isn't really a devil child.

wow.

P.S.
I am now caught up on posting...leaving you all in anticipation of the fantastic Halloween pictures. All I'm going to say is...I am SO EXCITED. Costumes are turning out GREAT!

The Zooooooooo

2009-10-20T20:59:00.003-06:00

Not long after their bday we went to the zoo. Kind of our last Hurrah of the summer. It went pretty great! Except for that (something ALWAYS happens) I couldn't find the sunscreen ANYWHERE and ended up asking to borrow some from a random family in the parking lot. Of course, last weekend I found it in the van. It had been with us all along.

Twins turn 2!!!!!!!

2009-10-20T20:50:00.006-06:00

First things first when I got them out of bed that morning I had to take the, "I'm 2 now!" pictures...and they are pretty cute 2 year olds I must say.

Then there was an entire cake saga...I made one, then left it at our apartment and didn't realize this until we were 30 minutes away at Ryan's parent's house. We bought one at the store (store bought cakes make me cry...) and decorated it ourselves...but the extreme heat took it's toll on the icing which had started out really nice looking...but turned into a nice...collection of...lakes? hmm

We did spaghetti for the birthday dinner...I don't know if it's their favorite...but they definitely always eat it.

We played outside and they could not sit still for pictures.

If that doesn't say "Happy Birthday!!" I don't know what does.

They were gifted many fantastic gifts which they are still enjoying. Then Liam polished off some cake himself...and he looked pretty awesome after he was done.

Liam turns 10 months!

2009-10-20T20:48:00.001-06:00

I'm Baaack....now AQUARIUM

2009-10-20T20:42:00.005-06:00

better late than never....QUITE awhile ago we went on a trip to the Aquarium. Since I have a lot to post pictures wise...I'm gonna leave it at that...oh and they are all mixed up because I am tired and didn't bother to fight with blogger and it's stupid pictureness problems.

2 years

2009-09-13T07:12:00.006-06:00

Haircuts :)

2009-09-11T21:18:00.004-06:00

Like September 11th....NEVER FORGET...that lovely hair...

That's right. All of Nick's curls are in Cookie Cutter's dumpster. Sad. But he is still pretty adorable!

I still have a lot to catch up on. I have a trip to the Aquarium to post. Liam turned 10 months yesterday and Nick and Eric will be a whole 2 years old this Sunday!

i miss his hair lots.

bye.

Things haven't slowed down...

2009-09-09T17:23:00.003-06:00

Since the trip to Idaho. Liam turned 9 months 5 days after our anniversary. Then Allyson turned 11 and invited all the boys to her party at Build-A-Bear! They each made a cute bear, all 3 different colors and I bought them all matching underwear. It was tons of fun, especially for Nick and Eric...although it was pretty tiring chasing them around the store. After we left the mall we went to the park for cake and ice cream. Which of course they also loved and they played at the park. Liam had his first experiance in swings and LOVED it. Nick and Eric of course had endless energy but it was near the end of the day and the fussy attitude was starting to take over. Then after all this fun we were hit by *cue DUN DUN DUN* the sickness. I'm still unsure as to what it was or how we all came to have it. Just one morning I was changing Liam and suddenly all his bottle came spewing out of his mouth like a geyser. After his bath Nick started puking all over the place. Then Eric awakes from his nap crying, so I go in the room to discover his breakfast spilling from his crib onto the floor into a toy bus. Then it had to get better right? pfffft no. I also discovered that Liam cut TWO teeth (his first!) and had a whole fun day of cleaning vomit and poop. Ryan comes home and says he doesn't feel well. After I eat dinner suddenly I don't feel great either. About a day later Nick and Eric recovered, whereas Liam, Ryan and I were stricken about a week and a half. It was horrid, horrid, horrid! Of course after we finished with that, we had to have something ELSE happen. We went down to Orem to see family and return home to a flood in our kitchen coming from under the washer. We go into the bathroom to see another flood from the base of the toilet and the bathtub and toilet are full of crap. To make it worse it was the people's yuckyness from upstairs filling everything up. Eventually it all got fixed though by the emergency plumber and everything is working! Soon to come...HAIRCUTS.

Long Over Due Vacation Update:

2009-09-06T09:01:00.008-06:00

Yes...it's finally happened. I put it off for a bit because half my pictures were from a disposable

camera and I wanted to have the pics for the post...since they ARE the post. So here is the basic rundown of events:

1. My parents met me at the Outlet Mall and then we drove from there to Twin Falls/Jerome, ID. Our kids are great travelers and so other than Liam not having much fun due to some hunger and sickofcarseatitis, it was a smooth trip.
2. We got there and I settled into my Air Conditioned cabin. Yes...I know how camping should be done :) It was cramped but it worked out great.
3. The next day we met up with the Sibs and their kids and we all went swimming! Yay! After that we all went to eat Mexican food! Yay!
4. The kids got to play a lot on the playground too, because as luck would have it the toys there

were Little Tikes, and therefore PERFECT for there age and ability with slides and climbing and interests.
5. The next day we got together again for lunch. Which for me was not fun because Nick and Eric decided it was fun to put their arm up the tail pipe of the truck and there was black nastiness everywhere. I hear lunch was lovely for everyone else though.
6. Then we went swimming again!
7. Then the next day we packed up and went back to Utah!
8. The 5th of August was our 3rd Anniversary! woooo! So my parents watched the kiddos and we went to Fuddruckers and Harry Potter 6...which as will most HP movies was great and disappointing all at once. However Fuddruckers was

fantastic.
9.
My mom and I got a girls afternoon out of all this and got pedicures and did some shopping. We found great jeans for only $8!
10. We ate at Cafe Rio...yum. The next day my parents took off south to visit a friend and then head home. Vacation over.

More updates to come!

I know what I should be doing...

2009-09-02T10:55:00.003-06:00

I should be scanning in pictures from the mini vacation and updating you on things like the twins 2nd birthday and what not....but instead I've been completely sidetracked by something that makes me want to say...

What has happened to the world!?
A pole dancing doll! WHAT!?

Whatever happened to you know...normal ol' Polly Pockets? That had non-removable clothing and no stripping accessories?

2009-08-01T07:49:00.002-06:00

The reason I won't be posting over the next few days is NOT because I'm slacking...like usual. It will be because the kids and I will be in Idaho! My parents are driving from Missouri, through Utah, I'm meeting them and driving behind them the rest of the way to Idaho to see my brother Brandon and sister Karalie and all their kids. I leave tomorrow morning and return on Tuesday...I'm excited, tho bummed that Ryan will not be coming. Anywho...I hope to return with many pictures and a TAN, whoop whoop! Since this post seems blah without any pictures...here a video that's a couple weeks old of Liam in the johnny jump up or whatever it's called.

Long time no nothin'

2009-07-21T20:55:00.009-06:00

Seriously a ton has been going on! The reason the blog has gone in the toilet lately is that I need another gate. So the children can go watch little einsteins, yet I can hear them in there so when they do things (like a few weeks ago when they knocked over the whole fish tank...yep. no more fish) I can hear it. When they are sleeping I'm still pretty busy taking care of the wreckage they leave in their path and folding laundry (i thought dishes were lame, i've decided that they are gross, but doable and that folding laundry and putting it away is the bane of my existence.) So yeah, I have a trazillion pictures so without further adieu:

Independence Day!
We went over to Ryan's Uncle Tim's and it was pretty awesome. Lots of just sitting around talking and eating tons of good food. Nick and Eric stayed up WAAAAY past bedtime, and became very sleepy looking and out of it by the time fireworks happened. However, before they got exhausted they played in Aunt Carols fountain and got soaking wet, cried a lot (A LOT) over a big dog that wasn't scary and they pretty much just roamed around doing whatever they pleased. Ryan and I agree that it is nice that they are reaching this age of more independence (and what a day to explore it right?) where as long as there are many eyes about to see their comings and goings we don't really have to chase them around like crazy, wishing we had cages...er...play yards i mean. Anywho, in Utah fireworks really don't get too exciting but the neighbors had some really good illegal ones, and some of ours were pretty cool too.

Then suddenly the 10th was upon us and somebody turned 8 months old. Who could it be?
Oh Liam! It's you! Of course now you are well on your way to 9 months and quite an accomplished one at that. You say "Da da" especially if we are talking about dad, or you see dad in real life, or even a picture of Dad. We are too quickly reaching that age of "Mom is only good for food, or when I want to cuddle, but Dad is for playing, dad is sooo much more awesome than you." It's ok though, you're still so dang cute that anything you do is amazing. Like this, your new trick.
Huh?
Ohhhhhh you must mean this!
Ya know, pulling up to the couch by myself. Easy peasy.
Don't you DARE grow up. I'm warning you. Oh and...I got a haircut just the other day, those are my bangs. yeah. My hair is thin...like really thin, for once in my life. It's odd, but nice! Anywho back to business.

Somewhere in here I should mention that a while ago Ryan got promoted. With the promotion came money. Much appreciated money. Of course he isn't home ever, but that's the way it goes. Unlike SMART people, instead of saving every penny of this good stuff...we have chosen to be a little frivolous and buy some rewards. Don't worry, we pay rent like 2-3 months in advance, we're good. Anywho, so Ryan had this itchin' feeling for a new movie. Transformers. But you wouldn't want to watch such a movie on our crappy little 19" tv would you? So we got a new one.It's pretty exciting! We can watch things in HD now, and let me tell you...golf is much improved by it. Yes, have pity on me...I have to actually watch golf.

Then July 13th came. Not only did Nick and Eric become 22 months...but I turned 24. I'm truly not very excited about it...but I was pretty excited for the celebrating and gifts that followed. I think I want to be 24 forever. Next year I'm not telling anybody how old I am...people will start to forget and it will all be a mystery. oooooooo. Anyways, Ryan took me on a date! Carrabba's of course and a movie. Then he bought a Wii (I should mention this was NOT for me. Although it was my fault for mentioning that "someday" we should get a wii.) Also, we found a kitten wandering around looking sad, lonely and starved and RYAN, not me, RYAN gave him to me for my birthday...however Nick and Eric were not very nice to the cat. We named him Deron Williams, or..D.Will, and I tried to make the best of it. But after having to hide him from the maintenance man and realizing that no amoung of punishment or pleading would stop the twins from yanking on his tail or poking his eyes, I sucked up my tears and turned him over to the Animal Shelter. If nobody adopts him I will go back and get him, because I loved him and he was seriously a very good cat. He never bit ANY of them and cuddled with Liam every night and the 2 of them bonded nicely. I'm very torn on this subject and bawled my eyes out about it the night after I dropped him off. I called today and they said that they do a "temperment test" where they play kinda rough with him to see if he gets bitey scratchy and if he doesn't then they put him up for adoption...however if he fails they kill him. Of course that isn't exactly how they put it...but basically yeah. If anybody in Utah wants an adorable kitty go to the shelter in Lindon and adopt him PLEASE. (i'm totally serious) They don't have a set number of days they keep an animal, it's based on how full the shelter is. I'm going to be checking on this...hopefully he's adopted!

Now back to birthday stuff...My real present for my birthday is a sewing machine...I haven't gotten it yet, because I want to go look at them myself. I can FINALLY make us a new bedspread and get rid of the teepee that Ryan thinks is the BEST BLANKET EVER. This is a pic of the blanket...with babies on it...so you get the idea...and plus...awwwwwww look how little they were!!!!The inlaws threw me a birthday dinner and got me Dr. Pepper, Pringles and a giftcard to Wal-Mart. All very good things...and let's not forget that my mother in law made me CHEESECAKE!!! My favorite!!!!

The only other news is that August is coming! With good things all her own. I'm going to be going to Idaho for a few days with my parents and seeing the sibs and my nieces and nephews. It will be tons of fun, and I think the longest I have been away from Ryan since we were dating. Kinda of nuts. Then after that is our 3rd anniversary!

Love you all and hope that everything is well for you!

what the heck!

2009-06-27T09:32:00.001-06:00

I have decided that my kids are just crazy.

Just moments ago Nicholas removed his clothing, his diaper, threw his diaper in the kitchen and peed on the bookcase.

This is hilarious...and a little annoying.

better late than never...

2009-06-26T21:59:00.003-06:00

Liam turned 7 months...I did manage to get the pictures taken on the 11th. I just haven't gotten around to posting them. I feel since moving that I never just...sit. It is a little frustrating! I feel sooooo much more busy now. On top of the busy-ness, the other night Eric ran a crazy high fever (nearly 105 degrees) and Ryan took him to the hospital. Eric and Ryan returned home around 3 am with a diagnosis of pneumonia. Seriously, not a symptom in the world until that fever. The day after that Eric slept past 1 in the afternoon...which is psycho for him. So that is what's been happening. As for being 7 months...he is crawling! He plays pat-a-cake! He's pretty rad. It's late, so I'm done.

Ok!

2009-06-09T16:28:00.005-06:00

So many changes! We have now lived in our new apartment in Midvale for a week and a half...or so. Liam will be 7 months tomorrow! Nicholas is cutting the last incisor. Eric is obsessed with our new pets! yes...we have pets!

As for moving...I hate it, but I love the stuff you come across that was just shoved in a box, or a closet and now you see it again and it makes you laugh. For example, my friend Jessica is in the process of packing things up and came across a poem I wrote her a few years ago called "Jessica the Chi Chi Scratcher." She's mailing it to me because she said if she tried to read it over the phone, she would laugh to hard to be understandable. For another example...I came across THIS:Yep..the Voodoo Doll. Sadly I decided that I really had no use for such a thing and it did not move to Midvale with us, but I took a picture for memories sake.

All the children seem to have moved without any scarring. You'd think they'd lived here all along. Which is a good thing, I wouldn't want them to be upset about things. So here are pictures of them! Nicholas showing me where his nose is, Liam in a tam, and Eric showing his baby brother some loves.
He truly does love him. They make each other laugh all the time. Sometimes Eric makes Liam cry...but for the most part, it's all happy things. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Eric the first time he gave Liam this hug, so when I ordered him to hug him again, it turned out as this nice face hug instead...but you get the idea. Nick loves him too...he's just not as much into all that hugging stuff.

Fish! I dug out Brutus' old fishtank and told Ryan we were going to get a fish for Nick and Eric each. I enjoy them quite a bit and Eric is obsessed with them. He hugs the fishtank and even shares his shoes with them.

I attempted to create some panoramic pics of our kitchen and living room. Not everything is exactly how it's going to be yet, but you get the idea.

Anywho, it's good to have our own place, despite a few things (like how we have some cockroaches, and then how we read about them and learned that one crumb will feed 20 of them...gross). In moving, I got to open my new mixer! I made cookies and they were delicious!

yes. i know.

2009-06-07T21:22:00.002-06:00

That we moved a week ago and I haven't posted a bit. So...this isn't the "we moved" post. Don't get excited...i just had to mention that Nicholas has decided to just ya know...finish cutting all the teeth in his mouth at once pretty much...and he is a moody son of a gun.

Perhaps tomorrow...if I'm not still busy with finding place to put the remainder of our crap...I will take some pics of the new place and share our moving experience :) As for nicholas...would it just be horrible if I gave him like...a bunch of benadryl and let him sleep through teething for the next couple days? hmmm?

oh...and he has huge feet...we finally got them all sized for shoes, since i always just guess.

Nick-7.5...ya...i'm serious
Eric-6
Liam-2.5...awww cute little baby feet!!!!!

Twins 1st Haircut!!! tears....happy tears...i think

2009-05-23T17:25:00.010-06:00

Yes it's true! These are the "before" pics. We took them to a place called Cookie Cutters in Lehi...it's the coolest place, and it worked PERFECTLY...so if you're terrified of cutting a toddlers hair(or if your toddler is terrified of hair cuts), it's the way to go, for sure. Truly amazing. Eric easily had the most exciting hair cut..he looks like a little boy...sad...yay!? I have mixed emotions! Anywho...pictures!

Nick's Cut:
Nick's "Afters:"
Eric's Cut:

Eric's "Afters:"

Crazy! Really adorable though. I just had them trim Nick's...couldn't chop off those pretty curls. He can cut them off when I have a curly haired girl...maybe. Eric just looks so much like a little boy now, they are growing and growing! aaaa!