The Twinkies Turn Two

I really can't believe the twins are two. It is so crazy! But I also still haven't wrapped my head around the fact that we have a THIRD child already and he's been here six months so maybe I'm slow.  We didn't do much for their first birthday besides cake because I knew they didn't have a clue what was going on. This year they still don't really have a clue but I know a lot more what they like and what makes them happy so I wanted to give them a day full of their favorite things. The thing with having three kids under the age of two is that we have to say no a lot. No, we can't go out and do that because it would be too hard with all of them. No, I can't pick you up I'm already holding someone else. No, we don't have any money. No no no. So for their birthday I just wanted one day where we could say yes and not be the people who are totally overwhelmed by their situation. Plus we had Jeremy's family here to help so that makes saying yes a little more possible. 

We started out by giving them balloons as soon as they woke up. They were so happy and kept hugging the balloons. In fact we had to end up hiding the balloons so we could get them to eat and get dressed and stuff. 

After we got them out of bed they opened some presents. 

I wanted to spread out the presents throughout the day since they get so fixated on one thing. 

After presents we went on to activity #1. Jeremy and I took them to the pool. It was nice to be able to leave Landon for a bit and focus on them. The pool is indoor and heated but the boys got pretty cold anyway and we didn't stay too long. They sure do love swimming though. I can't wait for the summer and our pool pass!

After the pool we went and picked up Krispy Kreme donuts because the boys love donuts. Usually if they see the box they run straight for their high chairs but we kept it hidden this time. When we arrived home the boys had their next present waiting for them. 

This kitchen was a serious labor of love for Jeremy. He spent 2.5 hours working on it but it was worth it because they love it. Although it still doesn't keep them out of the real cabinets. 

After presents we fed them lunch and then put them down for a nap. I'm still hardcore about naps and not even a birthday will sway me from that schedule. 

Once they woke up we hurried and headed down south to a place called Monkey Bizness where they have bounce houses and slides and stuff. Unfortunately being New Years Day it was pretty crowded. It was a good thing we had extra hands to help. Hayden loved going down the big slide. Hunter not so much due to a traumatic slide experience. I will try to add the videos if I can. 

There was one funny incident when the boys were playing on this little climber/slide thing and there was another little boy on it as well. We turned around and sure enough we saw Hayden hitting the kid so Jeremy ran over to stop him and tell him no. The kids mom was right there and she said to Jeremy oh it's okay it was actually this other little boy (meaning Hunter) who started it. Um. Yeah. He's ours as well. So then she felt kind of dumb cause she was blaming the whole thing on Hunter not realizing he belonged to us. When we tell her they are twins she goes on and on about how she is in awe of moms of twins because her kids are really close at 22 months apart and it is so hard and she doesn't know how we do it. I just smiled and nodded all the while thinking please don't notice my third child over there so I don't have to explain that they are all just 18 months apart. 

And finally to end the day we went home and ate pizza and had donuts for dessert. It was fun to have a day where we were able to just let loose and have fun. I guess that is what it's like when you  aren't always outnumbered by babies. We sure are lucky to have these little boys though. They are so funny and wild and we wouldn't want it any other way. Sure they are a handful and completely out of control but they are also so cute together sometimes and having twins really is a lot of fun. 

Christmas 2014

The boys aren't quite old enough to really appreciate holidays yet but we still wanted to try and establish some Christmas traditions for our family. We started out on Christmas Eve making sticky buns which is a tradition that comes from my Grandma. I thought they were a little too sticky/mushy but overall for our first try I think we did alright. I should say second try because we had to throw out the dough from round one because it didn't rise. Apparently using expired yeast is a no go. We only needed about 20 texts, two face time calls and a detailed word document explaining evey step of the recipe. 

On Christmas morning we brought the boys down and gave them their stockings which had mini cereal boxes and popcorn inside. Once they saw the cereal they were pretty much good for the rest of the day. 

After stockings we tried to get them to go in the front room to open presents but they were pretty distracted. You see Jeremy got me a new blow dryer and as soon as they saw that they both needed blow dryers and really weren't interested in playing with anything other than old broken blow dryers. At this point I was really glad we hadn't spent much money on them or I would have been very disappointed. 

Landon was his normal cheery self and played happily with anything we put in front of him. 

I missed my family but overall loved being able to spend Christmas in our own home doing whatever we wanted. 

Christmas Party

Our ward had a Christmas breakfast which is great for us because it's a lot easier to get out during the day than at night. The twins were scared of Santa again and I was really hoping for a great terrified Santa photo but they had our whole family get in the picture so the boys were relatively calm. 

This past Saturday we were going out to do some errands and decided we should stop somewhere first to let the boys get some energy out so we went to Chick-fil-a. Randomly enough they were having a kids activity day and Santa Cow was posing for pictures. I was 100% pleased with the results. 

Happy Holidays to me I guess. 

Halloween

I love Halloween with kids! Nothing makes me happier than coming up with a good family theme costume. I hope my kids never have an opinion on what they'd like to be for Halloween because I already have the next few years planned out. 

The day before Halloween was our ward party. Unfortunately it started at 6 and we put the boys down at 7 so they were pretty much terrors shortly after arriving and we left before the actual trunk or treating even began. But I sure did love showing off our Thing 1, Thing 2 and Cat IN a Hat. 

It was not very difficult for the twins to harness their inner Thing 1 and Thing 2. As soon as we arrived they quickly began destroying all of the decorations that had been arranged. 

And who knew red hair and blue hair chalk made super green hair? I just kept putting more and more in and it just kept getting more green. Weird. 

They did a catwalk type thing for the kids and by the time we made it through Hunter was really enjoying himself. 

For Halloween we ended up going over to some shops to do some trick or treating because it started early and then we just took the boys around to a few neighbors right before bedtime. Jeremy and I were quite pleased with the amount of candy we ended up with. Overall it was a lot of work but quite fun to get our whole crew out and about. 

Is anyone listening?

I love how my blog goes from oh here are these funny stories from my life, oh we are having twins, had twins, annnnnd then nothing. And then over a year later here I am. We've been a little busy and a lot overwhelmed. But I still love reading other people's blogs so I thought I'd try writing some more if anyone is still out there silently stalking this blog. 

Oh and we had ANOTHER kid. 

That's our Landon boy. We think he's pretty much the best baby in the world 

minus that he is a horrendous sleeper.  It's hard to fault the guy though since that is basically the only time the child gets attention.

These two:

They are something else. So. Much. Energy. All the time. They do not believe in listening, being controlled in any way, or eating anything that might come from the food pyramid or hexagon or whatever it is these days. We think they are pretty awesome though. Twins are a lot of fun. 

We've learned a few things since having Landon.

1) We know nothing about raising children. . . Still 

2) We have amnesia. So many parents of multiples told us the first year is a blur and we never knew what that meant until having Landon and we truly cannot remember so many things we went through. 

Hopefully if I can blog once in awhile it can help me remember some of the craziness that goes on around here. 

They do exist!

I was sitting home enjoying my Saturday, watching a little HGTV and what pops up on the screen? The Belly Cast!!! On display in a real persons home.  Just hanging on the wall. So for those who thought I made it up. It does indeed exist. 

Spit up, power, and cardigans

These boys of ours are spitty! Don't worry we've already been 'those parents' that call the pediatrician freaking out about spit up. Twice. I left the boys for a few hours to go get my mom haircut on and Hayden welcomed me back by sharing his meal with me. See first pic.

The Midwest has recently gone through some major snow storms and we were snowed in twice. With the second storm we lost power for about 6 hours during the day. Luckily we were rescued and went to Mel and Ashwin's for the day. Unluckily we went home that night and lost power again around 9. It got down to be a cool 60 something in our house before it kicked back on around 2. We brought the boys mattress out to the living room and all slept there so we could make sure they stayed warm. See second pic.

Cardigan bros. See pic three.

Hunter loves to sleep with his hands straight up in the air. It is pretty funny to watch his little arms go up and down wile he is sleeping. See pic four.