My boys.

The twins are 7 months old in these pictures and Brad was 23 months.

Who knew a box could be so fun?

My husband says I'm a hoarder of some things. If you've seen my house, you know that it's not cluttered that often so how can I be a hoarder right? Well, I do like to keep one type of thing... containers. It's true. I love to organize and I have a hard time throwing away things that I swear I'll have a use for it some day. Mostly formula cans, baby food jars, and cardboard boxes. My upstairs closet is packed with them. Anyways... one day I finally decided I had too many boxes so I got them out along with some duck tape and started to build a fort with Brad. It was a blast and Brad was entertained for hours. See- my hoarding was put to good use. :)

February

Time goes by too fast! I wish I had more time to document all the fun moments in life because I forget them too quickly. But before I move ahead too fast, let me catch up on this blog. February was not a fun month for us around here. Sick, sick, sick kids. And I mean for like the whole month sick. Passing it back and forth; and as soon as I thought they were over that sickness, a new one spread. Luckily, I was only sick for a week or two. So, not much happened in February. Brad moved out of his crib and into a big boy bed. He hated it at first and slept everywhere BUT his bed. Seriously. We would wake up and find him in the middle of the hallway, under his old crib, etc. We bought him a boxed bed frame with a railing so he'd be up off the floor and that helped him feel more secure I think. He loves it now.


I took a photography class. It was my one night a week get-away. I learned a lot but still need to practice a ton before I'm any good. I love taking pictures. Especially when I finally capture those precious facial expressions my kids make.

Here is a February (6 months) picture of the twins at the park. Sadly that is pretty much the only picture I have of them from that month.

And I absolutely love this picture of Brad. He loves to play with the dishwasher. And I love that he has the tv remote in his pocket.

A typical day with 3 under 2

This might be a boring post... I wrote this for my personal journal but thought I'd share it here as well. When people find out I have twins, I often get the comment "I've always wanted twins". So for those of you who wish that, here is a glimpse of what your day would be like.

Brad: 22 1/2 months; Twins: 6 ½ months

7:00am: At the latest, everyone is up. Babies wake up and we feed them a bottle. Brad wakes up around this time as well and comes to say good morning and hang out with us. Diapers are changed. My teeth are brushed. I start a load of laundry. And we all go downstairs.

8:00am: Dad leaves for work. I fix breakfast for Brad and I while the twins play on the floor. We eat and I check my email or blogs etc. since they're all the happiest right now.

8:30am: We all play together. I try to spend this time focusing on the twins and giving them attention.

9:00-9:30am: Twins go down for a nap. This takes a while to get one down and then work on the other; depending on whether Brad comes up and distracts them while I’m trying to get them to sleep. Today, Jared slept for 2 whole hours!!! I was shocked. Evan only lasted an hour.

10:00am: Brad and mom play. Outside, in the play room, coloring, baking etc… I throw the laundry in the dryer. If I don’t sneak a shower in early, early in the morning, I try to do it while the twins are sleeping and while Brad empties all my drawers in our bathroom and tries on every pair of shoes I own. If I did get to shower earlier, this is my time to finally blow dry my hair or get dressed.

11:00am: Feed twins. We just started solids so that is taking an extra 30 minutes on top of feeding them bottles so this process normally lasts 45 minutes or so.

12:00pm: Fix lunch for Brad and I. Babies are put in the bumbo or bouncer. We play for a little bit more before naptime.

12:30-1pm: While babies play by themselves, I attempt to put Brad down for a nap. Lately this has been an over-an-hour project. I usually read him a story to calm him down but if he isn’t in a deep sleep before I leave, I have to wrestle him to stay in bed; resulting in a lot of time used up.

1:30pm: Put babies down for nap #2. I finally have a moment of silence to myself which is normally spent washing baby bottles because I run out about this time of day and need them for the next feeding. Today, I only had a full 7 minutes of quiet before one of the twins woke up from their nap.

3:00pm: At least one baby is up around 2-2:30pm so we’ve been playing since then and now it’s time to eat again. I attempt to put laundry away.

3:30pm: Brad wakes up from his nap. If he’s grumpy, I spent 20 minutes just getting him to relax, or go back to sleep, or else he whines the rest of the day. I fix Brad a snack and we play. Sometimes we go to the park or just go on a walk around the neighborhood. Most of the time, we hang out at home because it’s a lot of work to get all of us out the door.

5:00pm: I start working on dinner while juggling fussing babies who sometimes take a nap around 5:30 but most of the time don’t nap at all this last round. Brad is pretty good with entertaining himself or “helping” me in the kitchen. If things are too hectic, he gets to watch some TV.

6:00pm: Dad finally comes home. We eat and I clean up while dad plays with the kids.

7:00pm: Babies are fed for the last time. Diapers changed. PJ’s on if the outfit they’re currently wearing isn’t warm enough. We play with them for a bit and put them to bed.

8:00pm: Brad gets PJ’s on and we read him a story and attempt to put him to bed again. This normally takes an hour- at least-.

9:00pm: This is the earliest that we get some quiet time. There are days when I go to bed right now. If I still have energy left, I do dishes and clean up so that I’m in a good mood when I come downstairs the next morning and see the house.

10:30pm: We read and go to sleep because our nights still are interrupted by babies, or Brad, waking us up a few times. The end.

Baths for the kids are squeezed in there sometime on a good day, don't worry. :) Our life is hectic... good thing they're cute...

January

It snowed in Vegas!! It only lasted maybe an hour total but at least Brad was able to go play in it.


Evan & Jared are now 5 months old! They are so fun to watch. The love to sit and look at each other, smile, and laugh at Brad. I can't wait until they sit up on their own so they can be entertained by Brad a little more :) They have been sick the past two weeks and I'm ready for that to get over quick! It gets hard when both are sick and are screaming at the same time.

Left: Jared Right: Evan

This is Jared... he's my chunker :)

December

Here is a catch up from December and Christmas!
Brad did really well sitting on Santa's lap this year- I think he lasted a full 30 seconds! Enough to take a picture at least!

Evan & Jared's first Christmas. (4 months old)

Brad had fun opening his gifts but wasn't as excited as I thought he'd be. I'm sure it'll all change by next year! His favorite gift was probably the mooing wands from the $1 section of walmart :)

Christmas 2010

My awesome sister and mom recreated these paintings for me. I had seen them in a store (like a year ago) and thought they would go perfect in Brad's room but wasn't about to pay $200 a peice for them. It was a total surprise to me when I opened them. They are perfect! I can't imagine how long it took for them to do it.

Brad and Mack's gift from the grandparents kept them entertained all Christmas day! Brad LOVES trucks

Ryan and I gave Brad and Mack these 4-wheelers for Christmas. It's fun watching them figure out how to ride them. Mack is a pro now but Brad doesn't watch where he's going and crashes a lot :) He loves it though.

My sister Sarah made the twins matching church outfits (and their cousin) for Christmas. They turned out really cute! (L to R: Jared, Wyatt, Evan)

Ryan's parents came down for New Years weekend to visit. This is Jared making faces with grandpa.

We went to Opportunity Village while they were there and walked around. I love this picture of Brad... he's wondering who the heck is that big white monster is standing next to him.

November +...

November was pretty busy for us. We started the month off with blessing the twins. Most of Ryan's family were able to come down for it and visit.


We also braved it and took the 3 kids in a long car drive to spend Thanksgiving with Ryan's family. It was much better than I had expected it to be. We didn't have to stop that much and the kids were only fussy the last 30 minutes there and back. Dinner was wonderful and of course so was the company.



Ryan started his new job the week after Thanksgiving and really likes it. He gets to come home at a normal time and won't have the rediculous busy season! I love it too!

The twins have grown so much. I keep looking back at pictures just a month ago and they've changed a ton. Still not sleeping very well but they're progressing some. I doubt I will get my Christmas wish of them sleeping through the night.


Brad is warming up to the twins a little better by trying to help feed them and give them binkys. However, one day Ryan came home from work and the first thing I did when he walked in the door was hand him a baby and boy did that make Brad upset. He threw himself on the floor and started crying because the baby got dad's attention first. Poor guy. Other than that, he is talking a lot more (others can't understand though) and picks up on things so quick. It's fun to see him do "grown up" things. He's not my little baby anymore. Good thing I have two more!



I wish my eyes had a built in camera because I don't get to capture all the good smiles and precious moments on camera.

Hope you all have a good Christmas!