Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Twinsies: 5 months

It's almost been half a year with these two, BONKERS! They say the first 6 months with twins is the hardest so honestly I've been keeping my eye on the prize of 6 months. I already can tell that now at 5 months it's been a lot easier too!

*I'm proud of myself for writing all this and taking the pictures ON their month birthdays, just takes me forever to get the pictures actually up!

-Giggling and smiling a ton. I think that's partly what makes them getting older easier is that they respond to your efforts of love so much more and it's so gratifying to see them smile and laugh and it seems as if they like YOU!
Bryson

-In the beginning stages of grabbing things. I can their little hands and fingers trying to figure it out. Sometimes they get ahold of toys and put them in their mouth for a little bit before they let go
Quinn

-Signs of holding their own bottles! It's already amazing! I'd say Quinn holds his bottle 15% of the time, tries to hold it an additional 30% of the time. Bryson holds his 5% of the time and tries to hold it another 20% (I wrote this 2 weeks ago and now they hold it 40% of the time and Bryson does it more!

-Quinn has rolled over from tummy to back about a dozen times which is so fun to see!

You can really see their individual looks in this photo.
 always catching each other's hands

-Bryson is SUPER excellent at escaping the swaddle and nearly every time I go in there his hands are out, hopefully it will be an easier adjustment out of the swaddle for these boys. Quinn is right there behind him on escaping but a tiny bit less.

-Quinn is the more vocal one I'd say. In the morning it seems as if he just won't stop!

-Quinn also likes to arch his back tons to almost turn over but ends up just inching more backward towards his head. Often after naps when I go in there his head is touching the top of the pack n play

-Bryson really loves to cuddle. Quinn does too but it seems as if every time you pick up Bryson he just wants to lay on you and get loves, it's so endearing.

As always, Max wanted to get in the pictures, this was my favorite picture!

-Bryson likes to just lay on his tummy with his head rested to the side after a couple minutes of a tummy time. He'll seriously just hang out there for a long while and relax.

-They are so wiggly! Arms and legs constantly flapping. Bottle feeding them is harder too now, I can never prop their bottles anymore with blankets because their hands and feet always knock it off


-I can tell they're beginning to catch on to if I cry you come get me because as soon as they see me coming near them they stop crying, too cute.

-I mentioned this before but they really do love to just stare at me. Maybe Casey too but I've not heard. They'll just sit there so contently and stare and stare and stare simultaneously like I have some bewitching power on them. Definitely a self esteem booster

-They are definitely transitioning into much better sleepers. 3-4 naps a day. 1-2 are 1.5 hours long and 2-4 are 45 minutes, I'll take what I can get! Their pack n plays are right next to each other in our room. At night they still wake up twice to eat, I'd really really love to start forcing them to sleep through the night though… (wrote this 2 weeks ago, this week we began night time sleep training and it's going grrrrreat! The third night I didn't hear a thing!)

Max took my phone and began taking pictures like momma

-In size 3 diapers. I've put away a lot of the 3-6 months clothes and they are in tons of stuff ranging from 6-18 months clothes.

-I nurse them about 8 times a day and 4-6 times a day they'll drink a 4 oz bottle of formula. I'm eager to start them on solids, they just seem like they could eat so much more! They do still spit up a ton.

Most favorite dad award.

Comments and questions I get a lot

They are so big! Yes indeed they really are. Compared to where they started, them being "early" and just compared to the overall size of our friends' babies they are big chunky boys!

Do they wake each other up? Occasionally but not always. Around the 45 minute time at naps they probably often do but I've also seen each of them just continue sleeping through the other's crying. They lost never wake up to each other at night either, I don't want to lay in bed continuing trying to sleep with a crying baby in my room so I almost immediately get up to feed them, the second baby more often than not wakes up themselves to eat within 10-30 minutes of the first baby waking. If not, I just wake the 2nd baby. When we put them down for naps they never seem to bother each other crying and sleeping if it's within the first 15 minutes

Do they make each other cry? No, they have no sympathy for one another when it comes to crying it seems. but I do believe when they are borderline sad and the other starts wailing they are very likely to quickly join in.

How do you do it? Lots of prayer, lots of tears. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. You would too if/when you don't have the option. A really really helpful husband!

Friday, March 27, 2015

Life part 2

a. St Patrick's Day. One of awesome cousins, (hi, Clara!) told me of some of the fun things she does for St. Patricks day with her kids and I mustered out the energy at 10 pm to do a little something for Max! He woke up to little green foot prints leading down the stairs that turned out milk green! He was then obsessed with milk the rest of the day and ever since. I think he loved it so much because he associated colored milk with flavored milk, ha.
b. The boys always way up like this now, out of their swaddles! We're starting to transition them slowly out of swaddles.
 Busy playing with toys. His focus and attention span when truly playing with toys is getting better!
 a. Bottles, feeding, life
b. Look I could totally do triplets, NOTTTTT! Ha, my neighbors little girl was over for a few minutes under my care and I was so happy I did not have triplets.
 Mom's night out to the movie! Our little car.
 All the ladies, minus one who came a teeny later, ready to see our movie, Cinderella. It was so nice to get out with this great group of women, all whom needed some time away from being momma. And to discuss a fun/cute movie afterwards with these women was fun too! I seriously BANKED when it came to Nebraska friends.
 Look at these cute boys, Bryson's little face!
 And now two cute faces with Quinn's little tongue.
 a. Got the exersaucer out and the babies LOVE it!!! I'm so happy I have this. We took a bunch of the toys off though since getting it out because it just seemed like too many things to overwhelm the babies.
b. The exersaucer and this toy hanging thing are by far their/my favorite toys for entertainment.
 a. We had a ward silent auction for the YM/YW last week and this lollipop tree was there. I kid you not that the entire night was a game of lollipop roulette with Max, after about an hour or so he finally snatched one off and tore off the wrapper faster than we could stop him, that silly boy.
b. Max was sooooo red faced one day after chasing around our friend's remote control car for a good hour and a half, if you could nay seeee the redness in person.
 Signs of bottle holding!!!!!
 a. Salmon tacos for dinner! Trying to get a little memory of Tia Rosa's in our home, didn't do to bad!
b. Cute babies! BQ. Don't you love Quinn's onesie? (Thanks, Amber!)
 a. Went grocery shopping, came back to this sight, a man holding two babies outside and Max insisting to wear an 18 month shirt that is wayyyyyy to small. He ran up yelling Momma!!!!!!!
 New outside toys! We're finally  beginning to get a tiny tiny bit of warmer weather on various days!
 a. Favorite toy aaaaaagain.
b. I turned around and saw Max carrying these big old scriptures into church and my heart wanted to burst! Oh my cuteness!
 Putting Dada night night
 Max learned how to open the child lock under the kitchen sink, sigh, at least he's putting his mischievousness to good use and cleaning the mirrors, right?
 More time outside, hallelujah! These new toys have kept Max from running off so much so it's actually enjoyable to be outside with him! I put the babies in bouncers right outside the door and usually sit between them feeding them their bottles, burping, and talking to while Max plays.
 a. The extent of my Easter decorations pretty much.
b. I tried doing a fun activity with Max one morning instead of working out to spend some quality time with him. Nope. Not making that effort again for awhile/ he licked the gluestick,used the gluestick as chopstick, and promptly ripped off all the paper .2 seconds after this picture was taken and left a huge mess on the ground for me to clean up…I still love you, Max.


 GLORIOUS sight!!!!!!! It's not always constant but it sure helps when they do it! Frees up my time a bit more!

 a. Max woke at 8:07. Found him like this at 8:16. Hashtag priorities
b. Super Baby! Any guess on which baby????????????? q
 Again documenting their swaddle escapeness/cuteness...
 And then Maxson wanted to wiggle his way in between them for the picture, so stinking cute.

Also, SO glad so many of you read that mom article I posted yesterday! If you haven't yet, go read it and DO tell me your favorite line!

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Life

Before I start into photos, if you're a momma of little ones you MUST read this article. Oh my goodness I' needed this article so bad today. My babies have turned into criers it seems like. It feels as if at least one of not more people are crying at all times in my house and I am  numb. This motherhood stuff is harder than I could have ever imagined. So please, read the article, it will make you happy. Ha, My favorite line: The baby years are short, kind of like five minutes…underwater.  I am definitely deep deep deep under water right now and it does not feel good sometimes/a lot of the time.

A crepe place just opened right around the corner from our house and I am so so so excited! Quinny and I went the very first day it was open, delish!
Pi day! Our friends always have a wonderful Pi party each year and we finally got to attend! Pies were galore and children flocked everywhere. I do love any reason to get together so very much.
I brought the (fake from a box no bake dessert) oreo pie there in the front that ws completely gone by the end of the night (thank you small children) there was an apple pie in that back corner that was my favorite of the night! Also my friend has a streamer-banner that includes every number of Pi, it's unreal how long that thing is and hilarious at the same time too that she has it! It was made of course in college.
The phrase "Don't mind the mess, the children are making memories" id not true in our house, I would hang up the phrase "Don't mind the mess, Max makes them faster than I can pick them up"
Weird picture BUT to me dirty feet=signs up summer!!!!!!!!
MAXXXXXx. Always dumps out his beverage onto his plate at mealtimes, weirdie. Also my cute big-little boy ready for church. His bow tie is 1 of 4 that my 4 older brothers all wore on my blessing day!
Favoritest toy EVER! And the twins agree.
Look at my cute little Hawaiin babies! Man I want to gobble them up! QB. QUinn's outfit is from our most recent trip to Hawaii and Bryson's is from our first baby moon trip!
Lollipops and babies
 A family date to the new crepe place. All approved, especially Maxson when he realized nutella is akin to chocolate. We were the circus of the quiet, hipster coffee shop with a baby strapped to both of us and then crazy Maxson running around chasing his remote control car everywhere.
 The staging area for baths (right outside the door of the bathroom) Q
 The bath show. Max switches back and forth between loving baths with babies and telling us they can't come in to play with him.
 Tummy time on the ground = bobbing heads. Tummy time on the couch with a TV on = still as a statue laser beam eyes. Definitely stopped that as soon as it started.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Spring Break 2015

Did you know we went to Wyoming for spring break? Well we did. It was great. Everything turned out great. I'd say of the 21ish hours spent in the car driving back and forth the kids got A-'s. Not completely perfect but just about perfect that I really shouldn't complain about anything.

While in Wyoming we got to spread out into THREE ROOMS. THREE ROOMS my friends, it was AMAZING! Oh how I long for a 3 bedroom place, ha. It was just nice for Casey and I to be in a room with just us, just a little more space, ya know. Max was actually an awful sleeper, waking up in the middle of the night, insisting we lay in his bed with him to help him fall asleep, not wanting to take naps, learning how to take off the baby lock on the door handle, ha, but we survived!

It's so great to be around family. Man I got so so so lucky with the in-laws I married into, you can pick your nose but you can't pick your in-laws is the phrase I've heard. Really, those people are all so great. Listen to this, their exercise room (that they religiously use every morning for hours a day combined) is littered in scriptures, scripture memorizing cards, and ensigns. What an awesome group, right? The house is filled with torn out pages of the New Era taped to walls to encourage and inspire you to be better, do better, think better, and grow yourself towards Christ. Seriously such great people (parents and kids included). I feel oh so very fortunate to have married into such a wonderful family!

The weather was ok. It was good spring weather for Wyoming (for church on Sunday everyone was walking in with no coats in 43 degree weather acting like it was almost spring!). Mostly our trip consisted of playing on the tramp and being with the family. Not a bad combo.


When did this little boy of mine grow up? Jeesh. Kills me

 On our way to Green River, we had to drive 2-3 miles on COMPLETELY empty until we could get to a gas station at 3:30 am. If you see, the car says 0 miles until empty. So nerve racking!!!! We filled up 19.85 gallons of our 20 gallon tank.
 We got to take Max to the rec center to swim! He is one stinking funny boy and so much fun. He just has so much spunk and life and tenacity to go and be and experience! So much happy yelling! Every time he got to the top of the slide he'd yell "Hi, momma!"
 No fear.



 Beginning  the first glimpses of bottle holding! FREEDOM!
 Our little trip to Cafe Rio, it was so crazy yummy! Oh man oh man, that place makes some good food. We all we super happy stuffed walking out, it was a gluttonous feast. Also, I freaking love Max's little smile in this picture, I finally caught one of his true smiles we often see in a picture!
 Love that Uncle Derek of ours
 Full hands, always.
 They sat and watched at first and then insisted to be held during lunch.
 Grammie made salt dough hand prints of the boys. The babies' ones are SOOOO cute and small! She's keeping them for us now but when we move to Wyoming we'll keep them in our garden or something as little stones!
 Love this quote I saw on nie nie dialouge
 Grammie is such a great help, always eager and waiting to hold and help a baby!
 Double duty daddy. Once we got home Max was much better playing with his duplos blocks after loving playing with the ones on Wyoming, happy for everyone!
FHE
Uncle Derek and grammie's fishy cookies

Karlee is BUSY!!!! We were able to finally get one family shot with her home!

Tramping outside



The end of spring break. Only 1 more to go while in Dental School!