What a week!

We had been waiting for this week to come for several months.  Friday, February 24th at 8:00 am, we were anticipating an email to see where Doug would be doing his 1-year internship this summer.  We tried to keep our minds occupied this week while we awaited the news.

Monday we went to Boondocks to visit my brother Matt and to see if Ethan and Sydney would take a liking to the Kidee Cove.  They were NOT fans until Matt told us we could crawl inside with them.  It was tiring but they fell in love after one time going through the mazes to the side.  I told my brother they need to build an adult slide that is that fast!  It was amazing.  They took a liking to the arcade games, but Ethan was mostly excited that some red tickets kept coming out!  Magic!

Tuesday while I was doing laundry, Ethan and Sydney spotted Doug's belts in my closet and I explained what they were and put one on Ethan.  This has started a new excitement in our house and they both want one of daddy's belts wrapped around their waist twice.

Wednesday, we went over to my sister Tiffany's house to watch her kids so Tiff could take her Personal Training test.  She passed and I snapped a few photos of the kids giving her a 'thumbs up'.  She has put in a lot of hours studying, so we were so thrilled for her.

We gave the kids red warm-up pants for Valentine's Day and they are not affectionately called their "dancing pants".  They are so cute running around in them.  It's the part of having twins I don't get to see much--dressing them alike is ridiculously fun.

Another new thing this week--they love to feed each other bites at meal times.  It creates such a mess that most of the time I ask them to just feed their own mouth.  They miss a LOT. On Thursday Sydney was done eating and started playing and then Ethan offered her a bite.  She climbed up on the table to accept.  Really?

Friday came and we were so glad to see an email in Doug's email inbox after a rough night's sleep.  He was 'matched' with his 1st ranked position at Primary Children's working for abused and neglected children.  We were thrilled.  I gave him a kiss and said congratulations and then we both shed a few tears of relief and JOY.  This has been a long road to this point and graduation is in our NEAR future.  Woo hoo!

We celebrated by taking the kids to a gymnastics meet at the University of Utah. They are really fun and the kids love it too.  We wanted to share our celebration with them.

Doug taught Sydney to make a U using her fingers.  She is concentrating hard and did it right!

And they won...again.  Go Utes!

Strong baby

We have had a hard time waking up early to do P90X.  We have gotten desperate to get the kids involved in our workout so we can actually finish.  Ethan and Sydney have learned to LOVE pull ups.  Now I wish I could learn to love them.

We had Quentin over to play while we played games with his mom and dad--Blake and Tiffany.  It was so much fun we've done it again since.

Ethan has noticed that Sydney's dresses allow for some extra fun while dancing and so he begged Sunday to put on one of them and dance with her.  Then he remained in it the rest of the day.  He is such a dancer this kid.

On our way out the door Monday morning to my sister, Tiffany's house, Ethan and Sydney saw big snow flakes for the first time and were beside themselves with joy.  I kept saying, "come on guys...we need to get in the car" and then found myself watching them discover the world.  I decided it would be okay to be a little late.

We've been spending Wednesday nights with my sister and her kids.  Doug teaches an evening class at BYU that night and Tiff's husband is home late most nights from work.  I make dinner while she studies for her Personal Training test.  It's been a lot of fun.  Ethan has gotten to bathe with his cousins a few times and is giddy the entire time he's around them, especially Isaac.

While I watched the kids, Cameron asked if he could play doctor with me.  I had a sudden serious case of pain in my leg.  He was a very attentive doctor.  He asked me, "What have you figured out? Maybe your parents have some ideas?"  Such a cute kid.  I love spending time with them lately.

Also, the last several mornings, Doug and I have woken up to hear, "Brace off!  Brace off!" from our little E-man.  He gets louder and louder until we go in.  Doug and I lay in bed and start laughing.  That little boy packs so much personality in a little body.  He recently had a check-up for this clubbed foot treatment and we were told he has corrected so well that he will be able to stop wearing the brace in just 6 more months!  We were told initially it would be 12 months from now.  We are beyond thrilled with that news.  Doug took him to the appt while I was on my business trip to Newark, so he had Sydney with him and the doctor wanted an x-ray of his foot.  With Sydney fussing while being held by an assistant (evidentially screaming pretty loud), Doug ended up leaving Ethan to get his x-ray by himself to help Syd.  I'm told he sat so still and did just what they asked him to do.  So sweet.

Valentines

I got lucky.  I married quite the romantic.  Doug is so romantic, in fact, that he and St. Valentine are friends.  I laughed and told Doug, "it's so funny that you don't say 'Valentine's day' but instead say 'Valentines' when referring to anything about the day.  This year our budget was a little tight, so I told him that he had a zero dollar budget and if he wanted to do something, he needed to get creative.  (nice, aren't I?)

He came up with some paper flowers and coupons in the flower arrangement.  It was great.

He also took me on a snow showing expedition but we forgot our snow shoes.  Minor problem.  We decided to go for a winter hike to Donut Falls because so many people go there and the trail is packed nicely.

It started snowing on us and it was so beautiful.  We haven't seen much snow this year, so it was nice to enjoy it--briefly.  We got to the falls but had a hard time seeing it--we could only catch a glimpse of the splash of the fall hitting the pool of water below.  We had hiked and seen holes where water was running below our feet.  That was a little unnerving.

Can you find my Valentine in this photo?

Doug wanted me to watch him climb up near the waterfall and slide down.  He said, "look how fast I climb up!"  It think I saw a little boy in him and he spiderman-ed it up this hill.  So glad he's my Valentine.

We had a great time together for the afternoon and then celebrated with the kids by giving them some red warm-up pants we found on the way home (yes, at the grocery store for $3--score!).  We turned on music and danced.  Those pants are now permanently known as 'dancing pants'.  

First Business Trip as a Mom

I used to go on these trips every month until I was 28 weeks pregnant.  My boss told me in December that I couldn't go anymore and I was laughing saying, "I am not that far along" but little did I know I would be a mom the next month!  

After working with a client in Connecticut for the last year, my company would be presenting at an event in Newark that this client, Jayne, would be attending.  I asked if I could go to meet her and I was a little surprised when they said yes.  I haven't traveled with the team for over 2 years and was a little rusty.  When Doug drove me to the airport and I told Ethan I would be going on an airplane, he burst into tears and didn't stop.  I gave them each several kisses and boarded the plane.  I didn't think I would miss my little family so much and so quickly!

Jayne stood up and gave a testimonial of working with my company (and myself) purchasing real estate investment properties in Boise and Lehigh Acres, Florida as well as some land in Arkansas, and Tennessee.  We've spent hours on the phone talking to each other that it was such a treat to meet her in person.

There was a dog show going on at an expo center next to our hotel and it seemed there were more dogs there than humans at times.  I had to snap a photo for my mom who watches such dog shows.

We drove 5 miles away to Carlos' Bake Shop where (I am told) they film "Cake Boss" that is on TLC.  Jayne as well as Ron and Bill (co-owners in the company) bought sweets to take home to their families who adore this show.  I felt a little out of place having never seen it before and that I also don't eat refined sugar, but it was still fun.  I just wish we could've skipped the 90 minute wait in the street before we could even get INSIDE!  It was absolutely freezing.  I would run inside the Verizon store while the others stayed in line so I could get warmed up.  That humid cold weather is a killer.

I practically ran down the escalator at the airport when I arrived back home.  I was so excited to be reunited with my family!

Play time

Grandma Marchant gave Ethan and Sydney these baby dolls for their birthday.  I wish I could say that they are gentle and sweet with them, but Ethan will throw them up so they hit the ceiling over and over...

I tried to teach Sydney how to rock her babies.  She seemed to enjoy it, for a few seconds at least.

The hardest adjustment we've had to make being back from Hawaii is not being able to play outdoors.  My friend had the great idea of going to an indoor play ground at the mall and we've been a few more times.  They love it!  They especially love the music playing throughout the department stores as we walk to and from the car.  They got their groove on dancing and didn't want to leave.  They even found a mirror to check out their sweet moves!

Last night we introduced Ethan and Sydney to one of our favorite things: University of Utah athletics.  More specifically: Utah Gymnastics.  Not only are they ranked #1 this year so far, but their was a meet against Georgia (currently ranked fourth, but always a tough team to beat).  We called Doug's sister, Tonya, to see if they wanted to join us since we've gone together in the past and they were already going and had a few free tickets for us to use!  It was excellent.  

First, Ethan discovered that he has pretty cool pockets to keep his hands warm in his coat.  He kept them in there for a long time.

When we got inside, they were in heaven.
- music
- dancing
- swinging
- jumping
- running
- cheering (almost 15,000 people in attendance!)
- lots of attention from cousins
- they got to stay out past bedtime

They were pretty mesmerized at first then they just wanted to dance in between the chairs.  The last half hour, they just wanted to "cuddle" and go to sleep!  We left at 9 pm and didn't get home to put them in their beds until 10:15!  They were especially grumpy this morning, but it was SO worth it.  I keep reminding Ethan how much fun we had and all he says is "AGAIN!"

Pinterest

Yes, Pinterest. 

It is amazing.  I joined that site about a week ago and although I see the addicting lure, I mostly have used it to find recipes and fun things to do with Ethan and Sydney.  I whipped out this glamourous breakfast in about 90 seconds this morning.  Awesomeness, thanks to Pinterest.

I think my kids will have fun little projects to do for years to come because of this gem of a website.

Little toilet

Thanks to some cousins willing to share, we now have 2 potty chairs and Ethan and Sydney are pretty excited about sitting on it, but that's about it.  Sydney has surprised us once (and we think she shocked herself as well) when she used it successfully, but has since sat and said, "stuck" while pushing.  :-)

I thought we'd only need one chair, but it's been convenient to say "Sydney's doing it" to get Ethan to take a turn.

We are hopeful they will start having more success, but are not pushing them in that direction.  We're just watching for more signs that they're ready.